Falconer October Issue

Falconer

The Torrey Pines High School

Friday, October 28, 2016

Vol. 42, Issue 2, 24 pages

www.tphsfalconer.com

New social worker hired

by Maya Kota and Sumin Hwang

Luisa Triandis was hired as the first TPHS social worker as part of a districtwide effort to provide “another support system for students so that they have someone who is connected to people around the community,” according to Principal Rob Coppo.

Triandis was hired as a full-time social worker at SDUHSD, working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at TPHS, Tuesdays at Pacific Trails Middle School and Thursdays at Earl Warren Middle School. There are also two district social workers who work at the other schools in the district.

According to Triandis, she and the other district social workers will work to provide support that goes beyond counseling services, potentially connecting with and providing resources to students’ families.

“Counselors typically are there for certain areas of social and emotional support and the academic portion where they’re guiding students through high school and towards their secondary plans,” Coppo said. “But, often times when a student has a social or emotional issue, that’s related to social work. Our

counselors ended up having to do a lot of the social work which is incredibly time consuming and they may not always be trained in what all of the options are for students.”

The social workers will also provide aid for students with mental illnesses as well as transportation services to and from medical clinics. They will also head the READY program, a twoday seminar at La Costa Canyon High School alternative to the standard suspension for students caught with drugs or alcohol.

Before working for SDUHSD, Triandis worked as a social worker at elementary and middle schools throughout San Diego county and later as a professor at the University of Southern California satellite campus for social work, where she placed and supervised social workers at school of all levels in California.

According to Triandis, after discovering that SDUHSD was discussing hiring social workers, she “gathered a group of parents” and lobbied school board meetings, eventually convincing the board members to hire social workers for schools in the district.

“This actually goes back to what I was doing at USC because a big part of what I was doing with the USC project was to get more social workers in San Diego county,” Triandis said. “I think the district was just looking at the need to provide more support services for students because we have a lot of students that have problems with anxiety from school pressure and AP classes.”

There is a lack of social work services in San Diego, according to Triandis, and new developments, such as the construction of low-income housing near schools, have created the need for more school social workers.

“The closest areas with resources would probably be Vista or Mira Mesa,” Triandis said. “I think that later there might be a need for more help because in other states you have one social worker and one counselor for every 500 kids so there’s generally a lot more support.”

Students can schedule individual meetings with Triandis through their counselors if the counselors think the student could benefit from the help of a social worker.

Long-time physics teacher Harvie retires On Oct. 24, physics teacher Will Harvie retired after 33 years of teaching in SDUHSD, according to an email* sent

by Principal Rob Coppo to TPHS staff. A substitute teacher took over his classes beginning Oct. 25.

Coppo and the assistant principals addressed to Harvie’s physics classes on Oct. 25. In addressing the period one AP Physics C class, Coppo said that after having a “conversation with Mr. Harvie [on Oct. 24],” Harvie was “very

confident” about his decision to retire.

According to Coppo, Harvie had discussion with Coppo about retiring before the school year started. “[Retirement] comes up a lot when you’ve been in education for 30 years,” Coppo said. “Conversations like [the one we had] are personal and confidential so I really can’t comment on that at all and really I can’t speak for his thinking.”

Harvie had already maxed out his pension, meaning he would not have received any more money if he had continued teaching, according to Coppo.

Coppo said the decision came to as a “surprise” to him, though not unheard of.

“I’ve been doing this for about 20 years and I’ve seen it happen that sometimes [where teachers] feel like they could get through one more year … but [then they] just get to that point and just think ‘I can’t do it and it’s time to go.’”

Many TPHS students were equally surprised.

“Everyone was pretty taken back, Current AP Physics C student Jared Doan (11) said. “[The last time] I saw him [was Monday] in the hall. We greeted each other … people came into his classroom during break and lunch … just regular stuff.”

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After the news broke, students took to social media to express their outrage.

Doan created a Facebook group called “TP FOR MR HARVIE,” for to let students “know about what was happening” and to “help out [students] because we don’t know what teacher we’re getting or how things are going to change.” When the Falconer went to press, the group had 177 members.

“Anybody can join,” Doan said. “It’s just posts with explanations about why this is happening and also advice to what [students] should do.”

Cooper Lay (‘16) started a similar Facebook group called “William Harvie Supporters.”

AP Physics C students Esther Kim (12) and Kendall Mayo (12) also started a Change.org petition titled “Bring Harvie Back.” When the Falconer went to press, the petition had 339 supporters.

“I hope [the petition] gets people and administration to realize how much Harvie meant,” Kim said. “We don’t actually know if it can do anything but we can try to find out what happened because everything was sketchy, the way Coppo told us what happened and things that we were hearing.”

According to a teacher who preferred not to be identified, Harvie “embodied all that is good about the teaching profession.”

“He spent countless hours honing and perfecting a curriculum that was so unique, personal, and amazingly successful,” the teacher said. “I will be forever grateful to him for all the time he spent with me training me to become a passable teacher.”

Coppo expressed similar sentiments.

“We are going to do everything we can to celebrate Mr. Harvie because we do want to congratulate him,” Coppo said. “[He has had a] very long career and he has had an amazing impact on Torrey Pines and all the student he’s worked with.”

In addressing the classes, the administration offered to deliver any cards and letters written by students to Harvie.

According to Coppo, the administration has a lead on a “qualified” teacher to replace Harvie. He believes that the transition will “relatively quick” and “smooth.” *Coppo’s email to TPHS staff stated: “Falcons, I wanted to let you know that after 33 years in SDUHSD, Will Harvie has decided to retire. Will has served the students at Torrey Pines for many years, and it is hard to imagine the school without him.

His last day was today Monday, October 24th, and we will have a sub in his class starting tomorrow, October 25th. The announcement came as a surprise for all of us, but we are going to do everything we can to support the transition of his students to a new teacher, and celebrate his contributions to our school. I hope you join me in wishing Will a happy and much deserved retirement.

Rob”

Graffiti found in the boys’ restrooms

On Oct. 12, Principal Rob Coppo sent an email to all TPHS staff regarding “a graffiti incident in one of [the] boys bathrooms,” according to the email.

Staff members were asked to give Coppo the names of any students that left class to go to the bathroom between lunch and 1:45 p.m. that day, since the graffiti was offensive in nature.

“If kids see something, hear something, say something. We want to feel safe and be in a safe, productive environment,” Coppo said. “I know it’s tricky, but it’s helpful if students talk to somebody when they see something that makes them [feel] uncomfortable or they have questions about [it]. Talk to an adult so that we can know, follow up and keep everybody safe.”

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october 28, 2016

AP Physics C class has a revolving door Juniors were returned to AP Physics C classes after being removed by the TPHS administration.

Administration told the removed juniors that they needed to take a prerequisite Physics class. However, administrators did not remove seniors who had not taken prerequisite Physics classes.

Affected students, parents and all AP Physics teachers, including former AP Physics C teacher Will Harvie, declined to comment on the situation.

According to Associate Superintendent

Michael Grove, the decision was made because students in the district’s other high schools are all required to take a prerequisite Physics class and because taking a prerequisite was “strongly recommended” by College Board.

However, College Board’s website lists the only prerequisite as: “Students should have taken or be concurrently taking calculus.”

Although TPHS Principal Rob Coppo said that the decision was made to be more “consistent with the appropriate sequence of classes as spelled out by College Board,” other College Board prerequisite recommendations, like taking Algebra II and a regular chemistry class before AP Chemistry, are not required at TPHS.

According to Grove, after the juniors were removed, a group of their parents stormed into his office.

“They explained that their students had been registered in AP Physics C and that they had been removed,” Grove said. “This was a situation where … their schedules when they registered for classes should have been checked to make sure that they had the prerequisite.”

After the meeting, Grove decided to allow juniors who were originally enrolled in AP Physics C to return as a one year exception. Students interested in taking the class in upcoming years must take a prerequisite physics class.

Both Grove and Coppo said the district does not have a open enrollment policy.

Scheduling issues continue to be resolved More details have surfaced about the master schedule and last month’s scheduling issues, and most classes currently have permanent teachers.

Three new visual performing arts teachers, one new math teacher and one new science teacher were hired, and a section of Spanish was added after the school year had already begun. Six classes that had too many students enrolled in a period had to be balanced out after the school year began by switching students out of these classes on a voluntary basis or based on the flexibility of their schedules.

According to Assistant Principal Michael Santos, schedule changes are occurring less frequently because the deadline to add and drop classes has passed.

Contrary to what appeared in the September Falconer issue about the scheduling issues, the counseling staff said they made no assumptions about the number of seniors who wanted to take seven periods. Additionally, they did not return to work until Aug. 11. They are not responsible for the creation of the master schedule.

The September article that addressed the problems with the new schedule may have “transposed the administration staff with the counselors in terms of who is actually in charge of the master schedule,” according to Coppo.

“That could easily be my fault in terms of the understanding of it, but the counselors advise the way Mr. Santos does,” Coppo said. “Ultimately I make all the decisions on staffing; where they go, that buck stops with me.”

After course selections were inputted near the end of the 2015-16 school year, the counselors worked on the master schedule until summer break and resumed when they returned in August.

Coppo was in charge of designing the master schedule, while Santos was in charge of inputting the classes in Aeries and implementing the decisions. This was the first year both had these specific responsibilities on the master schedule.

According to Santos, he started working on the master schedule at the “end of the first semester into the third quarter,” building a schedule that fulfilled the students’ needs.

The creation of the master schedule is “a collaboration between a lot of people,” including the staff members from each department, the counselors, Coppo and the staff at the SDUHSD district office, according to Santos.

“The hardest part for this new schedule is that there is no previous year [to look at], so it’s really hard to foresee challenges,” Santos said.

The correct number of sections was based on how many students requested a course when they entered their selections into Aeries. Teachers were assigned

to periods and classes that were first mapped out on a large magnetic board in a room in the administration building.

Santos then inputted those courses into the Aeries database. According to Coppo, Aeries first made each student’s schedule in early May, but it constructed students’ schedules again multiple times after July 21, the day that the administration staff returned from summer break. The counselors were then given three to four days to fix errors in their 400-500 students’ schedules a week before school, while also registering new students.

Because students’ schedules were not finalized in time, counselors were not able to meet with students during Readiness Days to go over problems in their tentative schedules. The Aeries system made some errors, contributing to the delay in the process.

The hardest part for this new schedule is that there is no previous year [to look at], so it’s really hard to foresee challenges.

Michael Santos

��������� ��������� “There seemed to be some random glitches within Aeries that threw a couple things off and added to the chaos,” Coppo said. “However, this was not why the schedules weren’t ready [in time]. The Aeries glitches [were] discovered once we were done running the [students’] schedules.”

Other causes of students’ scheduling issues included the ongoing addition of sections to the master schedule in July and August in order to accomodate new students who registered at TPHS after

summer break, 206 of them, according to registrar Jorie Rankin.

There was also not enough staff with the credentials to teach classes that students had requested. This resulted in the need to cancel classes, especially new classes during the third period. The school’s budget and teachers’ unwillingness to teach during third period were not factors that contributed to the cancellation.

According to Coppo and the members of the counseling department, there was a district push to create a new bell schedule and offer opportunities for students to take more classes and make TPHS more competitive with Canyon Crest Academy.

While, the district office’s staff members do not have a part in making the master schedule, they do provide Santos and Coppo with the number of staff and classes they can have at TPHS. Torrie Norton, SDUHSD Associate Superintendent of Human Resources was involved in hiring new staff for TPHS this year. Coppo personally works with Norton to ask for classes that TPHS needs based on enrollment, and Norton provides Coppo with the number of classes the district can give based on the budget.

According to Norton, the district hires new staff during the summer and the beginning of the new school year, but this year they did not anticipate that “more staff was needed because of unpredictable increased enrollment and more students taking additional classes.”

Now that Coppo and Santos know how many students want to take seven periods, nextyear they will try to create the schedule so that the classes are more balanced and there is an equal number of classes in each period. This way, there will be more opportunities for students to take all the classes that they want.

According to Coppo, preliminary planning for next year’s master schedule will begin in the coming weeks, while the process of creating the master schedule will begin second semester.

PHOTO BY ANGELA LIU/FALCONER

PACKED SCHEDULE: The counselors, staff members from each department, administration and the SDUHSD district members collaborated to create the TPHS 2016-17 master schedule, beginning with mapping out classes on a magnetic board.

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“Endless Summer” Homecoming dance held on Oct. 8 The “Endless Summer” Homecoming dance, hosted by ASB, took place on Oct. 8 from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at TPHS. According to ASB Commissioner of Activities, Georgia Schugar (11), ASB decided to have the dance’s theme as “Endless Summer” since “we’re so close to the beach, and everyone seemed to really like...having a themed dance that you could dress up to.” Students who attended the dance, such as Kylie Preske (11), “liked the theme a lot,” and wore button-down shirts with tropical floral prints, leis, sunglasses, straw hats and sandals.

“I thought [the theme] was dull at first but it’s easy to follow and I like how it’s accessible to a lot of people,” Homecoming attendee Ava Hanna (11) said.

The theme was represented in the decorations around the main grass quad and pavilion, such as surfboards, string lights, umbrellas and lawn chairs, tiki torches and a Volkswagen Type 2 van for attendees to take photos in. There was also a photobooth, a head in the hole board and wooden benches in front of the gym with candles on the tables for people to sit on.

“The great thing about the homecoming dance is that it’s lowkey, it’s casual [and] there’s no stress to have a date or wear formal [clothes] or arrange transportation,” ASB advisor Matthew Livingston said. “It’s kind of [like] what high school dances used to be [like], [when] you’d just go to school with your friends and have fun.”

There was about an equal amount of people participating in each activity at the dance. There was an inflatable obstacle course in front of the gym for attendees to participate in, though it deflated about one hour after the dance started. The movie, “Endless Summer” was projected on a screen on the lawn for students to watch, and mini golf courses and bean-bag toss

Coach C Week honors Chodorow

Coach C Week will take place this year, encouraging students to donate to cancer charities through restaurant fundraisers, Oct. 31 through Nov. 5.

Coach C Week honors the late Scott Chodorow, former ASB adviser and cheerleading coach, making this the second annual Coach C Week started by TPHS alumni Jackie Weinrich (’15) and Duncan Eshom (’16).

Mia Montini (12), ASB Senior Class Vice President, and John Schreckengaust (11) ASB Commissioner of Philanthropy and Environment, made a team effort to “put together [a week] to honor who Coach was,” Montini said.

Five fundraisers have been set up throughout the week. Monday is at Jersey Mike’s, Tuesday is at Baked Bear, Wednesday is at Chipotle, Thursday is at Luna Grill and Friday is at Rubio’s. A portion of the proceeds from each will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Chodorow’s name at the end of the week.

Students will also attend a pep rally on Nov. 4. Chodorow loved rallies.

“It’s nice that the prep rally falls on the same week,” Montini said.

Coach C Week is, “a tradition where the school remembers him and does something good [in his honor],” athletic director Matt Livingston said.

games were set up under the pavilion.

There was also a dance floor covered with sand directly in front of the gym, with a DJ playing music. Even though some of the music was outdated, the attendees seemed to enjoy it, and they threw beach balls around in the air as they danced.

To go along with the theme, boardwalkinspired food was provided for attendees, which included sliders, hot dogs, French fries, frozen lemonade, root beer floats and taffy. However, although the food was good, there was no cheese for the sliders, according to Trent Greenman (12), which he wished the caterers could have provided.

According to Schugar, the budget for this year’s dance was between $25,000 to $30,000, and ASB sold about 700 tickets, which was 50 less than the amount sold last year. The reason for this could be “because the dance was so early in the month, [since the dance] usually is in the middle of October.”

There were a few things that attendees seemed to not like about the dance, which included the sand on the dance floor and the fact that there was no “take home” activity that has been at previous homecoming dances, such as henna tattoo and custom bracelet-making stations. Attendees also didn’t enjoy the mini golf course and thought that it was not that interesting.

“The golf course doesn’t seem very invested into or authentic,” Hanna said. “It would have been nice if they had put it on the actual field. I think everyone could get a good laugh out of it.”

ASB noticed what the attendees disliked and they also noted things that they could improve on for future dances.

“We had trouble with the power so next year we can work on that,” Schugar said. “We blew a fuse and the generators weren’t working [properly]. We can also work on the layout, it was a little weird.

The obstacle course was bigger than we realized, so it threw off the layout.”

However, despite there being fewer attendees and some flaws, for the most

PALs

host

Peer Assistant Listeners put on Safe Schools Week on Oct. 17-21 to raise awareness about school shootings and promote a physically and emotionally safe school environment, according to PALs adviser Don Collins.

PALs hung up posters with facts about school shootings and statements about supportive friendship and anti-bullying.

They also an American flag display with the names of over 200 schools that have had school shootings since December of 2012 and a Resolution of Respect poster for students to sign. “[The American flag poster is] a pretty powerful visual to see how much school shootings have affected America,” Collins said. “The Resolution of Respect banner is a statement about committing to respect people and making TPHS a physically and emotionally safe place to be. Everybody has a right to a safe, free public education.”

According to the National School Safety Center, the organization that hosts Safe Schools Week, the emphasis of the week is to “motivate key education and law enforcement policymakers, as well as students, parents and community residents, to vigorously advocate school safety.”

“It’s crucial at times like these when there’s so much polarization and bigotry being encouraged even at the national level,” Salman Sadakkadulla (12) said.

PALs President Gabby Pacula (12) was surprised by the high number of school shootings in the U.S. “There are a lot of shootings in the U.S. — more than people realize,” Pacula said.

“It’s important for everyone to be aware so that they can take action. We’re trying to get out the message to everyone that if you see something, you need to say something.”

part, the attendees seemed to enjoy the homecoming dance this year.

“I’m glad that they kept the essential elements that have worked like the dance floor, the photo booth, the big food section, and the sit around section,” Hanna said.

“And I’m also glad that they didn’t make those torches over there have fake fire, that’s real fire. They actually invested something into this. I’ve noticed that ASB

has been spending a lot more money on these things and making it more festive.”

Schugar believes people enjoyed the dance, as there was “something for everyone this year” and the attendees looked like they all were having fun.

Based on her impression of this year’s homecoming dance, Preske said she “would definitely come [to the homecoming dance] again next year.”

PHOTO BY ANTON SCHUH/FALCONER

TIKI TALK: Students gather under a hut at the homecoming dance.

There were decorations such as surfboards, umbrellas and lawn chairs in accordance with the “Endless Summer” theme. There was also an obstacle course, golf course and the movie “Endless Summer” was shown.

Safe

Schools

According to SPEAK UP, an organization and hotline “for students to safely and anonymously report weapon threats and threats of violence,” at least one other person has had prior knowledge of four out of five school shootings.

“The power of safe schools week is that it’s important to communicate to an adult that if you see something suspicious to let someone know before a tragedy happens,” Collins said.

Spirit Day, an annual LGBT+ awareness day, fell on Oct. 20 this year, which was also coincidentally during Safe Schools Week. Students wore purple to take a stand against anti-LGBT+ bullying. “[Spirit Day] is also a part of national Safe Schools Week because part of being safe is being free from being harassed,” Collins said. “You can see from the posters that there are many quotes about the importance of treating everyone with respect and kindness, because when people are excluded, they can feel very alone and

Week

desperate, and desperate people will do desperate things. We never want something like that to happen.”

Even though Spirit Day is not affiliated with Safe Schools Week, Collins said that weeks that raise awareness about certain issues are all connected.

“Red Ribbon Week is about drug and alcohol abuse and Yellow Ribbon Week is about mental illness and suicide prevention — statistics show that those things are all connected,” Collins said. “Safe schools week is about preventing violence and creating a safe environment, and people that are mentally unstable or affected by drugs and alcohol have a hard time at school and are more likely to drop out. While we have weeks to raise awareness around different ideas, the single idea is to be respectful and kind to people.”

For next year, Pacula hopes that PALs will include more assemblies in conjunction with Safe Schools Week, to get students more involved in and aware of the goals.

PHOTO BY KAHYUN KOH/FALCONER

PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO SAFETY: PALs created a display featuring the American flag and the names of high schools in the U.S. that have had school shootings since December of 2013. According to EveryTown Research, there have been at least 199 school shootings since 2013. The week also promoted anti-bullying and friendship.

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Broken pipe causes water geyser in front of media center A broken pipe caused a water geyser erupted after construction workers accidentally cut a pipe into the Prop AA funded construction zone at the front of the media center on Sept. 23, temporarily shutting down restrooms in the B building.

According to campus supervisor Logan Helm, the geyser lasted for 30 minutes before it could be shut off, but did not hinder construction.

Helm is unsure if the pipe how the pipe was cut, but believes it may have been “ran over.”

When Isabella Aguiar (12) arrived to school,“there was a huge spring of water that burst everywhere.” Arian Ahmadian (10) also saw the geyser while walking

to class. According to Aguiar and Ahmadian, the water geyser did not seem to bother the construction workers, who stood and watched the geyser.

“The construction got really muddy,” Aguiar said. ”They [construction workers] seemed kind of calm.”

Neither Aguiar or Ahmadian was unsure if the geyser was planned or unintentional.

[Construction workers were] just letting the water run and splash everywhere and I was like what are they doing?,” Ahmadian said. “How come they were not doing anything?”

Helm is certain the construction company contracted for the Prop AA renovations paid for the damage.

“It [the damage] was on them,” Helm said. “it was fixed within the day.”

PHOTO BY FARHAN HOSSAIN/FALCONER WATER WORKS: A broken pipe caused the creation of a water geyser on Sept. 23 in front of the media center as a result of Prop AA renovations.

october 28, 2016

Savannah Rennie (‘15) plays first game after receiving liver transplant

Rennie said the support she received from family and friends, especially from team mates, was very important during her recovery.

“Without them I don’t really know where I would be. They drove me every single day to get Savannah Rennie (‘15), TPHS alumna and back, to get better,” said Rennie. “I did it for my University of California, Berkeley volleyball friends and my family around me just to make player, made her first college start on Oct. 7, sure everyone knew I was okay. Having their five months after receiving a liver transplant support through it all pushed me every single to treat congenital hepatic fibrosis with portal day.” hypertension, a rare, life-threatening liver Rennie had goals to get back on the court disease.

Rennie not only made her college debut, but as soon as she did, but at the same time was not sure how things were also tallied her first kill, going to turn out given her an unreturnable, pointcondition. winning play.

“I kind of shocked “My emotions were It is an honor to represent myself actually a little all over the place. I was them and continue to play D1 bit with how soon I was nervous, but then I kind volleyball because it was taken on the court. So, I did of settled in,” Rennie said.

“You revert back to what away from me and just being able surprise myself and I’m you know you can do and to have it back is an awesome happy about it,” Rennie said. during that first kill that When she was sick, was a very emotional feeling. I’m very grateful every Rennie helped the team moment because the last single day to be able to play. by rewriting Cal coach time I ever got a kill was Rick Feller’s practice in a high school match.”

Savannah Rennie (‘15) plans, keeping score, At TPHS, Rennie was ������� and refereeing.

Although ranked as a top 20 recruit she has still not fully by PrepVolleyball.com and was named 2014 San Diego player of the recovered, she is “very grateful” that she is back year. Months after signing with Cal, Rennie was on the court.

“Every single day I get to wake up. Even diagnosed with the liver disease, which resulted in a move to Indianapolis to receive a new liver though it’s early, I get to wake up and put on and a separation from volleyball. Rennie finally blue and gold for Cal and play volleyball for received the new liver on May 17 and spent the them. It’s an honor it really is,” Rennie said. “It is an honor to represent them and continue to next months recovering.

“It was definitely a different kind of recovery, play D1 volleyball because it was taken away I’ve never had deal with something like this. from me and just being able to have it back is an It’s different from just a knee or an ankle,” said awesome feeling. I’m very grateful every single Rennie. “It was a learning process and definitely day to be able to play.”

Rennie and the California Golden Bears face wasn’t perfect at times with what needed to be done, but the recovery was smooth.”

Washington on Friday.

Curfew Laws SAN DIEGO

10 p.m. - 6 a.m.

DEL MAR

11 p.m. - 5 a.m.

RANCHO SANTA FE

10 p.m. - 6 a.m.

SOLANA BEACH

ENCINITAS

11 p.m. - 5 a.m.

10 p.m. - 6 a.m.

Minors can be cited for curfew violations under SDMC Sec. 58.0102, UNLESS: - Accompanied by the minor’s parent or guardian, or a responsible adult - On an errand at the direction of the minor’s parent or guardian, or a responsible adult, without any detour or stop - In a motor vehicle involved in interstate travel - In an employment activity, or going to or returning from an employment activity, without any detour or stop - Involved in an emergency - On the sidewalk abutting the minor’s residence *Information provided by the City of San Diego

- Attending or returning home from, without any detour or stop, an official school, religious, or other recreational activity supervised by adults and sponsored by the City of San Diego, a civic organization, or another similar entity that takes responsibility for the minor - Exercising or returning home from exercising, without any detour or stop, First Amendment rights protected by the U.S. Constitution - Travelling between activities listed above - Emancipated pursuant to law INFOGRAPHIC BY AMANDA CHEN/FALCONER

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2016 TPHS Homecoming Court

SENIORS Senior Court (pictured from left to right): Gabi Gonzales, Jacob Durazo, Skylar Beasley, Ethan Valdes, Emily Yates, Cole Chodorow, Soleil Montemurro, and Cooper Mittleman

FRESHMEN Sophomores JUNIORS Freshman Princess Sophia King, Freshman Prince Chuckie Livingston, Sophomore Princess Karly Bowman, Sophomore Prince Ben Jackel, Honorary nominee Jake Froman (12) and Junior Princess Sophia LeRose are pictured above, from left to right.

Halloween costume drive held by ASB

TPHS Battle

TPHS ASB is hosting a Halloween costume drive from Oct. 27-30 for kindergarten to 5th grade students at the Monarch School, a K-12 public school exclusively for homeless youth. ASB members set up a box in the morning at the top of the ramp that leads from the back parking lot to collect costumes.

“We believe that everyone should be able to celebrate Halloween,” ASB President Zac Scornovacco said. “Our goal is [to give them costumes] because a lot of them cannot afford to buy them so by giving them older new costumes can help them enjoy the holiday.”

According to ASB Commissioner of Philanthropy John Shreckengaust (11), the idea was originally brought to him math teacher Josh Mihalinec, whose daughter’s elementary school is also holding a costume drive for the Monarch school. Mihalinec’s daughter then came in to speak to ASB about the drive.

On Oct. 15, the TPHS Robotics Team placed first out of thirty teams at the Battle at the Border tournament hosted by Francis Parker High School, their last off-season competition before their main competition in March.

According to club president Nicole Martindale (12), the team was able to use their competition robot from last March as the prompt for the tasks will remain the same until the next cycle starting in January.

“The overall theme of the tournament was what they called first stronghold,” Martindale said.

“Our robot had to pick up a ball and shoot it into a castle while avoiding a series of different obstacles that the tournament provided.”

The team, with the assistance of their adviser Klint Kerkconnell, spent six weeks building their robot, after receiving funds from individuals and corporations, according to Kerkconnell.

From March to now, the team made small adjustments and improvements to their robot. According to Eamon Aalipour (10) one of the main features of the robot that resulted in their win was “pistons that could hook onto a bar attached to the castle,” which allowed the robot to scale the castle for 15 points.

The scores were determined by how well teams were able to overcome obstacles, like a low bar and uneven terrain, and if they were ultimately able to successfully shoot the ball into the castle. Although the entire team was present, Rohit Ahuja (10), Noah Hytken (11) and Jonathan Mi (10), and were drivers and “controlled and drove the robot over obstacles,” according to Martindale.

At the tournament, the team had to overcome a series of eight events in teams of three robots with two from other schools. After the preliminary rounds, 24 teams broke to the finals rounds based on their cumulative scores. Although TPHS was the 24th seed after the first rounds, they were chosen to be on a team with the first

We believe that everyone should be able to celebrate Halloween. Our goal is [to give them costumes] beause a lot of them cannot afford to buy them so by giving them older new costumes can help them enjoy the holiday Zac Scornovacco �������

“She’s really young and really cute so it was really sweet when she came and talked to us and our class and how important it was to her and why they’re doing it,” Scornovacco said.

Over the course of four days, ASB collected over 100 costumes.

“We collected more costumes than needed for the Monarch School so they can actually choose the costumes that they want now instead of them being given out,” Shreckengaust said. “I would consider it a huge success.”

Scornovacco believes that the event will carry on into future years as long as Mihalinec, his daughter and ASB are willing to help out.

Mihalinec declined to comment.

Homecoming Queen and King Skylar Beasley and Cole Chodorow PHOTOS BY ALDERIK VAN DER HEYDE/FALCONER

Robotics Team places first at at the Border tournament

and third seeded teams and eventually scored well enough in the final rounds to place first overall in the final placements.

“I think we waited a little too late to work on the robot,” Kerkconnell said. “If we had started working on improving the robot a long time ago we would’ve done better because we didn’t place that highly throughout the competition but luckily in the last event we did really well and that kind of boosted our score.”

According to Eamon Aalipour (10), the team experienced several challenges with their robot throughout the day, like a broken belt which operates the wheels of the robot, but was able to fix the problems before the matches, although the belt kept the team from competing in first round of finals.

“They really didn’t give up at all throughout the day,” Kerkconnell said.

“We had little things break on the robot all day long and they just kept fixing it before the next events. All the hard work paid off and it was really great.”

Once the new prompt comes out in January 2017, the team will work on their robot for six weeks until their next tournament in March. Until then, the team will work on improving their driving skills and building a t-shirt throwing robot, according to Kerkconnell.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EAMON AALIPOUR

ROBOTS RULE: The robot scales the castle and dunks the ball into the hoop (TOP). The pistons help the robot climb over obstacles (ABOVE).

By Anvitha Soordelu

ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

In November 2010, Proposition 19, which called for the legalization of recreational marijuana for ages 21 or older, was presented to California voters for the first time. But, it failed to pass because 53.5 percent of voters decided that the consequences of legalized recreational marijuana would outweigh any possible positive outcomes. The issue will be once revisited again on this year’s ballot in the form of Proposition 64 or the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), and should be passed.

Marijuana used to be a “forbidden” substance, but medical marijuana has been legal in California for 20 years under Proposition 215, which passed in 1996.

Proposition 64 would allow adults aged 21 and over to be possess, cultivate and distribute recreational marijuana, with some limitation: users can not have more than 28.5 grams in their possession at any time. Under the proposition, local governments would tax all marijuana transactions. The state of California would establish cultivation taxes of $9.25 for an ounce of flowers and $2.75 per ounce of leaves. A 15 percent tax on marijuana distribution would also be implemented, but the revenue would be put back into enforcement and research.

The California Highway Patrol would receive three million dollars annually until the fiscal year of 2022 to 2023 to fund the development

ART BY IRENE YU/FALCONER

PRO

Legalizing the possession and use of recreational marijuana will be revisited

by California voters with the Adult Use of Marijuana Act or Proposition 64. of a method to determine whether a driver is under the influence of marijuana and for enforcement. In addition, revenue would be given to programs for the purpose of reducing the effects of legalization on health and safety.

Tax revenue would also be used to fund research regarding the use of medical marijuana by allocating two million dollars per year to the University of California, San Diego Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. According to Scientific American, “cannabis has [great] potential in the treatment of major disorders,” including, but not limited to, Alzheimer’s, cancer, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder.

While legalization raises concerns about increasing underage access to marijuana, one of the purposes of the proposition is to prevent minors from illegally gaining access to it by increasing the transparency of sources and making it illegal to advertise marijuana products to minors. Tax revenue would also be allocated to prevention and addiction treatment programs for minors.

The other major concern about legalizing marijuana is the impact it would have on public health, and how legalization may cause people to perceive recreational usage as less harmful since it is not longer illegal.

Excessive consumption of alcohol, for example, can cause permanent health problems, but is still legal for those 21 or older. If people older than 21 have enough sense to be able to choose to drink, then they should be able to determine whether they want to use marijuana recreationally.

Legalization of recreational marijuana would not only save local governments a significant amount of enforcement money, but bring in millions of dollars in of tax revenue.

Any outstanding concerns about the negative implications of legalization are outweighed by the benefits.

In a question asked by the Los Angeles Times ...

If the election were held today, how would you vote on Proposition 64?

58%

34%

YES

NO

said

said

*8 percent of surveyed people did not answer

Recreational marijuana should not be legalized under Proposition 64 this November in California primarily because of the health consequences and economic ramifications.

Legalization would perpetuate the notion that marijuana is completely harmless — but this is not true.

Although marijuana has not caused any known deaths, it can have long-term health effects, including impaired brain development and lung problems, regardless of the way marijuana is used. Specifically, smoking marijuana on a regular basis may increase the risk for stroke.

Ingestion of the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, or more commonly known as THC, can lead to a chronic cough, phlegm production, acute bronchitis and even aspergillus in the lungs, according to NCBI. According to the Society for Neuroscience, THC consumption in adolescents increases the risk for psychosis, causes lower IQ by the altered signals and impacts communication in the brain.

When an adolescent attacks its body with THC, reaction time in the brain is delayed, according to NCBI. By reducing the amount of blood flow to the brain, THC causes over-cautiousness while driving, increasing car accident rates by 50 percent, according to the NCBI. There is still no existing method for detecting the blood alcohol of equivalent in one’s system, which would make any regulation under Proposition 64 difficult to enforce.

According to NCBI, Marijuana use affects the levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, affecting memory, learning, coordination, and movement control along with high cognitive functions. Smart Recovery, an international nonprofit organization specializing in abstinence from addictive behaviors,

CON

By Estelle Kraft STAFF WRITER

states that people with marijuana use disorders make up 17 percent of admissions to treatment programs.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, these programs cost the government over $14,000 annually.

Furthermore, many marijuana dispensary facilities in California have expressed concern about having to lower their prices in order to compete with large corporations.

Under the new proposition, existing dispensaries would lose low-income customers due to the new taxes that would be imposed.

Proponents of legalization often argue that it would improve public safety and reduce illicit use, particularly by minors. However in Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, there has been an increase in marijuana-related traffic accidents, teen drug-related suspensions and overall enforcement costs, according to Newsweek. According to the New York Times the Colorado State Police have also tracked the number of marijuana-influenced drivers, receiving citations making up 12.5 percent since January. Legalization of marijuana would not only raise the cost of treatment programs significantly, but would also cause significant health problems for the public.

A7 the falconer

opinion

october 28, 2016

STAFF ED: Bilingual education should be PASSED In California, the debate surrounding bilingual education has been heated. In the 1990s, California voters voted to pass Proposition 227, a law requiring English-only immersion education in California public schools, in what many said was an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing public benefits. A chance to repeal the law will be on the Nov. 8 ballot in the form of Proposition 58, which

would once again make bilingual education an option in public schools statewide.

Understanding curriculum in fast-paced classes is often difficult for fluent English speakers, but proponents of the new bill argue that it is exponentially more difficult for people who do not know the language to keep up with the materials mandated by federal and state standards. While programs like English

art by estelle kraft/falconer

Living

on

By Sammy Hallal STAFF WRITER

At a SolarCity event on Sept. 27, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, a private aerospace and space transport research company, announced his plan to get humans to Mars and eventually make humans a “multiplanetary species” by colonizing Mars. Musk has been very vocal about his future goal to colonize Mars and says that SpaceX is currently working on plans for their Mars transit vehicle, which it plans to release later this year.

Musk talks about traveling to Mars like it is nothing, even though Mars is a planet with an unpredictable atmosphere and harsh conditions that no human could survive unaided. So far, the only idea Musk has for making conditions on Mars livable is to constantly detonate nuclear bombs in order to increase the carbon content of the atmosphere, which is not a good idea considering that Mars already has naturally occurring high levels of ultraviolet radiation. By doing so, he thinks we could unfreeze the water and create a warmer atmosphere on the planet.

Musk is getting a little too excited about colonizing Mars, especially since SpaceX has

Mars

is

Language Learners classes are currently in place to accommodate students for whom English is not their first language, those students still receive all spoken instruction in English along with other language-acquisition pedagogical methods, including using illustrations and acting out words and concepts. If passed, Proposition 58 would no longer require Englishonly education for public school students.

Teachers would be allowed to use a variety of teaching methods, including bilingual education, in which students would learn from teachers who speak both English and the students’ native languages.

As our country is becoming increasingly multicultural, California public schools should promote more than one language in education settings. Ultimately all students, even those who are fluent in English, will benefit from being in an environment that exposes them to other languages and cultures that they might not otherwise be exposed to. And even if they are not immediately useful, the language skills acquired may be useful in their future endeavors. In addition, as a matter of compassion and cultural understanding, honoring and encouraging students to retain their home languages while they learn English is the right thing to do and will help establish a welcoming and inclusive environment in schools for all students.

Although the bill as it appears on the ballot is little more than an outline of the requirements, and how the bilingual instruction will be implemented into classrooms is not yet

impractical

never been able to successfully send a human into space, let alone Mars. The company is still recovering from the explosion of one of its Falcon 9 rockets in September. Musk has also proposed that the Mars transit vehicle use novel fuel, or methane, which has never been done before. Musk needs to slow down and get his company into shape before trying to recreate a sci-fi movie.

In addition to the small problem of humans dying the second they reach the planet, getting a human to Mars, let alone colonizing it, would be extremely expensive. “If we can get the cost of moving to Mars roughly equivalent to the median house price in the U.S., which is around $200,000, then the probability of establishing a self-sustaining civilization is pretty high,” Musk said. According to Musk’s plan, the estimated price per person of traveling to Mars today is over $10 billion. Even if the price could be lowered to $200,000, it would still be far too expensive for the majority of the world’s population. A CNN study showed that 71 percent of the global population makes below $10 a day, so most people in the world would never even be able to afford this.

It is also very unlikely that Musk’s plans will cost or take as much time as Musk predicts.

According to NASA, the International Space Station was initially projected to cost $10 billion over 10 years, but it ended up costing 10 times that and took almost 30 years to develop.

Today, it costs $350,000 dollars an hour just to keep it running, and it is already in space.

These numbers pale in comparison to what it would cost for humans to create a self-sufficient environment. Musk sees Mars as the only option for keeping the human race alive, but investing

in preserving the Earth is much more practical and affordable. Currently, climate change is one of the biggest threats to the continued existence of this planet. But, by taking steps to reduce fossil fuel emissions and control waste production, its effects can be mitigated or even prevented. Compared to the mass migration of humans to Mars, controlling climate change is a walk in the park if we are determined.

The Earth could be destroyed through sudden extinction in the form of an asteroid.

The likelihood of one striking Earth is extremely unlikely, and humans can wait another 100,000

Falconer

We, the Falconer staff, are dedicated to creating a monthly newspaper with the intent of encouraging independent thinking, expanding our knowledge of journalism, and providing the TPHS student body and community with a truthful, unbiased news source, in accordance with our First Amendment rights.

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and

expensive

art by afia khan/falcon artist

The Torrey Pines High School

3710 Del Mar Heights Road San Diego, CA 92130

clear, this is appropriate. The state should not create broad regulations because they would be difficult to enforce. Instead, each school should be allowed to develop its own way to implement the law and provide instruction in a variety of languages, if necessary. One school may have a greater need for bilingual education than another. Still, there is definitely a greater need for clarification about what the parameters of the proposition are.

Opponents of the bill have argued bilingual education should not be underwritten by taxpayers not only because not everyone needs it but also because it will be virtually impossible to offer instruction in every language spoken by students who attend school in California.

In the San Diego Unified School District alone, for example, students come to school speaking more than 60 languages and dialects. The claim that state education money should only pay for programs and services every student uses is problematic, at best. By that measure, special education programs would fall by the wayside, as would elective classes, including many in the arts and humanities. California needs to ensure a quality education to all students, and we need to meet students where they are when they arrive at school.

California has the largest population of immigrants in the country, so bilingual educations is especially vital here. State law guarantees a free education to all students, which includes access to instruction for students who are not native English speakers as they build a bridge to English fluency.

The Falconer is the student newspaper of Torrey Pines High School.

Its content, which is the responsibility of the Falconer staff, is not subject to administrative approval. Unsigned editorials represent the opinions of the staff, while opinion columns represent the writer’s perspective.

Advertisements do not necessarily represent the newspaper’s viewpoint.

The Falconer, an open forum, welcomes signed letters on pertinent issues from the TPHS community, which may be submitted to room 102, via email at falconer.ads@gmail.com or to Mia Smith’s mailbox in the administration building. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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years before worrying about that. Scientists are constantly monitoring our solar system, so even if this does happen it would not be a surprise. Scientists are more likely to develop technologies to deflect asteroids before they can reach Earth than to send people to Mars.

Elon Musk and his company are looking way too far ahead. If Musk really does want to make sure the human race lasts as long as possible, he should focus on making Earth, our home, a sustainable, healthy and safe environment before naively trying to send us 33.9 million miles away.

Amanda Chen Irene Yu Maya Kota Lily Nilipour Maya Kota Sumin Hwang Anvitha Soordelu Lily Nilipour Alderik van der Heyde Mia Smith

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Staff Writers: Ellie Ahles Sammy Hallal Farhan Hossain Kahyun Koh Estelle Kraft Angela Liu Michael Nirula Natalie Salgado

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A8 the falconer

opinion

october 28, 2016

Hillary Clinton should be the 45th president of the U.S. STAFF WRITER

The 2016 presidential election will go down in history as a time of chaos and unpredictability, a time when the U.S. electorate had a choice between two very different candidates, each with a very different vision for our country.

Both major party candidates have their flaws: their past actions and decisions have been subject to heavy scrutiny by the public. Yet despite both of their historically low popularity ratings and absence of charisma and relatability, the choice that must be made this Nov. 8 cannot be clearer: the American electorate must elect Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton as the 45th President of the U.S. Clinton is familiar with the inner workings of Washington and the immense power of the presidency.

She has served as a lawyer and child advocate, First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State. Through scandal and defeat, her time in the spotlight has not stopped her but has helped her develop resilience and patience.

Clinton is not an idealist: she

understands that progress is achieved in steps, and that reform cannot be enacted overnight. As First Lady, she advocated for the Health Security Act, legislation that would have provided universal health care to all Americans, and watched it receive criticism from both sides of the aisle, so she worked with Congress to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Today, the CHIP program provides health insurance to over 8 million children across the country.

Admittedly, Clinton is not perfect.

She has flipped on several issues throughout her campaign and has wavered on key issues like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. She seems unable to avoid suspicion and scandal, from her private email server to the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of foreign money. Clinton has a facade that appears strained and overrehearsed. She lacks the ability to connect to large audiences the way her husband Bill Clinton and President Obama can. Although she is leading nationally and even has made inroads in traditionally conservative states like Texas, many of those voting for her are not choosing her, but rather voting against Trump. Some of her supporters are not charmed or inspired to vote for her the way they did with Obama in 2008, who ran a campaign on hope and possibility or like Bernie Sanders who garnered support with promises to bring massive change and disruption to Washington, D.C. during the Democratic primary.

Voters, however, should look past Clinton’s shortcomings in her media presence and focus on her policy proposals, which would produce a presidency superior in all respects to an administration led by Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump’s “tell it like it is” persona taps into the fears of a shrinking middle class that feels ignored by bureaucrats, who believe his wealth and business record indicates that he has the skills necessary to revamp the American economy. Yet Trump’s image, behavior and even his billionaire status is shrouded in secrecy and lies. His career is built on inherited wealth, faulty business transactions, denial of payment to workers, fraud, hypocrisy, discrimination and tax evasion.

Furthermore, Trump is an attention-seeking xenophobic, racist and misogynist who lacks fundamental policy knowledge and experience. He will say or do anything in order to receive media coverage and attention and thrives on the divisiveness he causes.

Recently, after an audio tape from 2005 in which Trump bragged about using his fame to sexually assault women leaked with another tape in which he claimed to walk into the dressing rooms of his Miss Universe beauty pageant contestants to watch them change clothes, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced he would no longer campaign for Trump.

Sen. John McCain withdrew his support of Trump and even Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, called

Trump’s comments “indefensible.”

The backlash against Trump’s brash and offensive rhetoric is evidence that he lacks the proper conduct and temperament necessary to be Commander-In-Chief, which ironically is a characteristic he claims Clinton lacks. Never mind that he now denies what he admitted to on the tape.

Being president requires the ability to deal with constant stress and pressure coming from all corners of the world. Presidents need to be

able to bear the brunt of failure and consequences of failure without going on Twitter rants at 3 a.m. or emotionally falling apart on national television.

This election, and its consequences reach farther than political ideology. They extend to a simpler choice: either a nation led by bigotry and hatred, or one led by a smart and accomplished woman who will work tirelessly to make this nation a better one.

ART BY JENNY LI/FALCON ARTIST

By Farhan Hossain

PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE LILY NILIPOUR Sports and News Editor Lily Nilipour (12) reflects on her coming-of-age struggles and high school experiences through parallels with her teenage cat, Louis.

If you know me, it’s inevitable that you’ve seen my cat Louis. Whether or not you want to, you have probably seen countless pictures and videos of him crouching in boxes, chasing after twisted pipe cleaners, sleeping on shelves and hiding behind walls. His fluffy frame fills my Instagram profile, Facebook page and Snapchat story.

But, those screenshots from his daily life are in reality far from an accurate representation of what he does all day. Contrary to his seemingly active and playful lifestyle, for most of the time, Louis is nowhere to be found, hidden for hours before emerging from a doorway, yawning and blinking away sleep. Sometimes, when approached, he frantically dashes away across the tile or carpet. It is impossible to hold him in for more than three seconds before he squirms away. Even the process of taking this picture took thirty minutes; we had to chase him around the house as he scampered away from the camera and crouched under various pieces of furniture.

Yet, I guess that it’s unfair to condemn him when I do the same exact thing. On school days, I am hardly ever at home — and when I am, it is to eat dinner and to disappear to my room immediately after to work and sleep. And I rarely spend time with my own equivalents of Louis’ caretakers: my parents.

This month, Louis turned two years old, which would mean that he’s around 13 or 14 years old in cat years; he’s now a cat adolescent. Maybe he’s going through this

phase of rebellion and independence too, just like the rest of us. Perhaps in a year, when he turns 21, he will not only consume alcohol, but also recognize us as his caretakers and at least make an effort to give the pretense that he enjoys our company.

But, more likely than not, I am taking this analogy much too far, and Louis will remain a cat and continue to do cat things. He is a cat, after all, and I am not. What can I, a human, possibly learn from a cat that is applicable to me?

Louis used to wake me up in the morning by jumping on my bed in the early hours of 6:00 a.m. and knead his paws on my legs until I woke up. Once, during a lightning storm, he huddled in a tight ball near my head on the pillow and didn’t move until I had to get up for school.

He used to curl up behind my computer while I worked on AP World homework late into the night, warming up by my laptop’s fan as if it were a crackling hearth.

I suppose that, when I was younger, I too did similar things. I depended on my parents for comfort and support, in an obvious, explicit way. Almost everything I did or had to do was dictated by my parents — and for good reason, I was young and needed guidance.

But now, Louis has become more independent. All he needs from us is food and water. He will only accompany me on late nights when it’s past midnight and there is nowhere else for him to go. He prowls on my bed for a minute or two, then hops off and skitters away.

PHOTO BY LAUREN ZHANG/FALCONER

Though I require more than just food and water from my parents, it feels as if I am more distant from my family. It feels inevitable, unavoidable. I am almost 18 years old, almost finished with high school, almost off to live on my own. A year from now, I will be in college, a world away from the relatively sheltered home I live in now. I am supposed to be independent, able to take care of myself, and, in many ways, I want to be independent. I want to be able to make my own decisions, to govern where I go on weekdays and weekends, to spend time alone if I wish to.

Then, I think about Louis. We want him to cuddle with us on the couch, to meow at us for attention, to play with our toys we buy for him. We want him to let us hold him, pet him, pamper him.

My parents probably want that too. They probably think about when my brother and I were younger, when it seemed as though we

needed them constantly. Sometimes, they probably wish to return to those days. They want to feel loved, just as we want to feel loved

by Louis, and sometimes it just doesn’t feel like that. Especially when the only times I see my parents are at dinner for 20 minutes out of the day, or when the only times we see Louis are when we fill his food bowl every two days.

Yet, now, when those rare moments of sentimentality actually do occur, they are so much more meaningful. When Louis occasionally comes to wake me up in the morning, I stay still so that he won’t scamper away. When he stretches out on my desk, I make sure not to disturb him with any sudden movement.

And, perhaps those are the moments my parents need and cherish from me in this last year of my childhood: those moments of quiet solidarity and ordinary, yet so extraordinary, and content.

opinion

tphsfalconer.com

the falconer

A9

Physics 1 should not be prerequisite to Physics C

By Kahyun Koh STAFF WRITER

TPHS students must take College Preparation Physics or Physics 1 as a prerequisite for AP Physics C beginning the 2017-18 school year.

The decision brought forth criticism from parents and students, who argued that the physics requirement is unfair to students who have the capability and desire to enroll in AP Physics C. Instead of restricting the AP Physics C class to those with a physics background, the school should offer the class to all.

AP Physics C involves more complex mathematical applications, involving calculus-related concepts, whereas the prerequisite classes focus mainly on Algebraic topics. Students enrolled in advanced calculus courses are at a greater disadvantage because they must review unchallenging math concepts when taking regular physics or Physics 1 that they have already mastered. The misalignment of math and physics abilities is problematic because it restricts capable students from applying their advanced math background to enrich their knowledge of physics in AP Physics C. Contrarily, the school should reconsider the new physics policy for

those without calculus knowledge.

It is recommended, not required, that a student take calculus prior to taking AP Physics C, according to the CollegeBoard website.

Although AP Physics C requires a firm algebra foundation and a relative understanding of fundamental calculus concepts, a calculus background is not imperative to taking AP Physics C. While some may argue that the accessibility to AP Physics C to students who have not taken the prerequisite will lower the high expectations and performance level of the class — especially in the more difficult AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism course — the freedom to access all educational opportunities is priority. It is unjust to deny students the opportunity to challenge themselves in AP Physics C if they are determined to invest the time, effort and work needed. Open access for students with varying math and physics experience is beneficial toward not only enhancing the students’ physics skills, but also giving students an advantage in later calculus courses.

Most importantly, the limitation placed on the AP Physics C class undermines a broader educational policy that has been adopted by the SDUHSD: open access. In educational terms, open access broadens availability all educational opportunities traditionally offered at formal education systems. Open access to classes is crucial because it legitimizes equal education and freedom to all students who are united by the inspiration to further

ART BY RICHARD LI/FALCON ARTIST

their interest in a subject. It is ironic that their motivation is obstructed by a school, a place that is supposed to offer students the best education and resources possible.

Often, students decide to skip a course because it directly correlates to their interests, talents, or future careers. So why should not all determined students be given a head start to developing their careers or interests? Open access would better prepare students for college because they would have already been exposed to challenging learning

environments.

Not to mention, TPHS, a California distinguished school, is acknowledged to be a highperforming school that excels academically. There are few reasons why open access should not be granted to every course in a school with such capability, unless due to financial issues, such as if the school cannot afford to hire more AP Physics C teachers to teach students who have skipped CP Physics.

Additionally, the fact that there are no specified reasons for enforcing the

new regulation simply adds to the confusion of the change.

According to its website, TPHS’ mission statement is to “facilitate student growth so that they are selfdirected learners.” Thus, TPHS should enforce open access in classes and not limit AP Physics C to students with a physics background because all students should be offered the equal opportunity to challenge themselves. By granting accessibility to all of its courses, TPHS can offer the best education and resources to not just some, but to all of its Falcons.

New York Times justified in releasing Trump tax returns

By Ellie Ahles STAFF WRITER

Recently, the New York Times has faced scrutiny for their release of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s 1995 tax records.

The documents were found in the mailbox of a New York Times’ employee and the New York Times had nothing to do with the original and potentially illegal methods utilized during their acquisition.

However, due to the possibility of illegal methods used to acquire the records, the publication and the paper’s endorsement of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, some have questioned the New York Times, although wrongly so. Trump’s attorney went so far as to send a letter to the Times threatening “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action.”

Trump threatens to sue the New York Times because the publication of tax documents of any kind without permission of the owner is illegal under federal law, but the New York Times may not be guilty. This itself is up for debate.

However, this is not a matter of ethics but of the First Amendment for the New York Times and, actually gives the paper more credibility. The information that the New York Times released was already highly sought after by the public and therefore it adheres to journalistic principles, like the search for truth, and appeals

to freedom of the press and the idea that the people have “a right to know.”

Trump has chosen to take part in the presidential race, and he willingly placed himself in the center of this media storm that gives the public the right to know more about him, which gives the media the right to his information. Had Trump remained a businessman, it would have been more ethically questionable for the New York Times to publish his tax returns, although he had cultivated his celebrity even before running for president.

The harm limitation principle protects ordinary citizens from having their personal information released to the public. This principle is essentially the act of journalists choosing what information the public needs to know and what might hurt the subject of the story. This gives regular citizens an opportunity to have more control over what information about them goes public than public figures do.

By now Donald Trump has become a household name. People know him and even more than that people want to know details about him.

Joining the presidential race was the end of Trump’s days of privacy and secrets because, as the end of the race draws near, the public demands more information on those running to be the next leader of our country.

By publishing the document alone, without any accompanying text or otherwise potentially biased information, the New York Times protects the newspaper’s integrity by following the journalistic code of ethics. In doing so, the paper also avoids libel, which is what the journalistic code of ethics is intended to do.

Ethics are an integral part of journalism and are the foundation for providing information that is

accurate, thorough and as unbiased as possible.

In this instance, the key to protecting the New York Times’ reputation is the diligence with which the paper verified the document prior to its release and the absence of any commentary with the publication.

The newspaper simply revealed information relevant to a presidential election. The information came from the hand of Trump and if it reflects badly on him it is not due to the publication of the document, but on what the document says. The New

York Times’ distribution of information they received and authenticated is commendable.

While it is clear that the New York Times is ethically sound in this situation, where is the line in terms of the release of personal information?

People who choose a public life and especially those who seek to be public servants are held to higher standards and therefore must sacrifice certain privacy rights because they have an obligation to the people to provide certain information. Providing tax returns is

a tradition of presidential candidacy, that became de rigueur in the early 1970s, which Trump refused to follow.

People would not want to be subject to a bloodthirsty media culture, which is prevented by the ethical code of journalism. To extend the same privileges to public officials encourages proper behavior, especially because they are meant to be ideal Americans. Suing a newspaper over an ethically sound release of information would violate the First Amendment rights granted to Americans.

ART BY SIMON KIM/FALCON ARTIST

A10 the falconer

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october 28, 2016

How do you provide academic advice to students? What activities are offered to students? What type of career services do you have? How much writing and reading are expected? How much time do students typically spend on homework?

Do you have a writing center and how do I access it? How should I plan my class schedule so I’ll finish on time? What activities can I do at home and over the summer to get ready for college? What is your average financial aid package? Are there any special scholarships or awards that I should know about now, so I can work toward them? What is the average class size on your campus? Do you have any college planning sessions scheduled? What work-study opportunities are there on your campus? What forms do I use to apply for financial aid and where I can find them online? Do you have any information to help me start exploring careers?

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Do you have a writing center and how do I access it? How should I plan my class schedule so I’ll finish on time? What activities can I do at home and over the summer to get ready for college? What is your average financial aid package? Are there any special scholarships or awards that I should know about now, so I can work toward them? What is the average class size on you yourgraduate? campus? Do you have any Wondering what to do when college planning sessions scheduled? What work-study opportunities are there on certifi  disciplines I use to applycates for fiin nancial aid and where I can find your campus?With What degrees forms do and andDo guaranteed programs, the answer clear. Do you them online? you have anytransfer information to help me start exploringiscareers?

Choose MiraCosta College.What clubs do you have have a learning community or other freshman experience? on campus? What courses do I need to take to be ready for college? What type of tutoring programs do you have? How many students at the college get internships?

Cardiff / Oceanside / Online

Going Meme-stream Exemplified by Pepe the Frog’s notable presence in the 2016 presidential campaign and its recent categorization as a hate symbol, memes have become an integral part of popular culture.

by Amanda Chen and Irene Yu There is a very palpable aura of despair in the sad, bulging eyes and lips curved in a slight frown. It is a gaze instantly recognizable by millions and has been reproduced in a seemingly endless number of variations. No, it is not the Mona Lisa; he is a cartoon frog and his name is Pepe.

Pepe the Frog made his first official appearance as a character in artist Matt Furie’s comic book “Boy’s Club,” which was published in 2006. Initially, Pepe appeared in reaction images accompanied by the caption “feels good man,” a phrase originally used in “Boys Club;” in 2009, an edited, distraught-looking Pepe began circulating on 4chan, an imageboard website, as a reaction image with the caption “feels bad man,” according to Know Your Meme, an Internet meme database. In the years following, Pepe has become an Internet icon and can be found in many versions on most major social media platforms.

On Sept. 27, 2016, the Anti-Defamation League, an international organization that fights anti-Semitism and hate, declared Pepe the Frog a hate symbol, citing recent increases in white supremacist and bigoted versions of the meme, for instance, Pepe in a Ku Klux Klan hood or a Nazi uniform, particularly in association with the Alternative Right, a right-wing group characterized by their rejection of mainstream conservatism and frequent use of social media.

I think [people like memes because they‛re] mindless. In everyone‛s life, there‛s a lot going on. You can just browse memes and not really have to think. It‛s another way of expression.

Maxine Sy Chu (10) �������

Explanations of Pepe’s connection to white supremacy and the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has shared Pepe the Frog memes on his Twitter account, appear on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign website. It may seem unusual for someone running for the highest office in the land to use a cartoon frog to target his opponent. However, according to Heidi Huntington, author of “Subversive Memes: Internet Memes as a Form of Visual Rhetoric,” Internet users may create or share memes as a coping mechanism for certain events that elicit strong emotional responses from the general public, like the current presidential election cycle or the 9/11 attacks.

“I know that around 9/11, there was a series of online jokes, which were sort of like precursors of what we know as Internet memes now, in the form of cartoons that tried to deal and cope with what happened on 9/11,” Huntington said, “Usually memes aren’t thought of as in-depth arguments, but if you spend some time looking at them, [memes] actually pack a lot more into them than [people] might think.”

Recently, during the second presidential debate of 2016, Missouri citizen and undecided voter Ken Bone refocused the

debate by posing a question to both candidates about their energy policies. Within minutes of asking, Bone became an Internet sensation – but not just because his question reflected the public’s sentiment toward the manner in which the debate was proceeding; Bone’s memorable name and easily replicable outfit made him meme material. Soon enough, both his trademark red Izod sweater and “Sexy Ken Bone” Halloween costumes were sold out.

According to Huntington, successful memes have two main components: emotional resonance and easily imitable qualities.

“Depending on the content of the meme it can appeal to a lot of different people; you’re also able to take what you want from it,” Huntington said. “There’s kind of that universal accessibility in a way.”

Regular Reddit and Tumblr user Will Nute (12) agrees, and believes that memes should ideally be to the point and applicable in a wide variety of situations. “[People like memes] because they’re funny – they’re basically jokes that everyone can understand,” Nute said. “Social media makes spreading these really catchy one-liners easy.”

Although Internet memes have only been around for less than two decades, the word “meme” has been around since 1976. The term was first coined by English evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who defined it as an idea, behavior or style that is spread among people of a certain culture, such as a fashion trend or the happy birthday song. Today, according to Huntington, especially with the development of the Internet and the prominence of social media culture, the word “meme” is more commonly associated with visuals: slight variations of low resolution frog cartoons and statements of justice for a dead gorilla.

“Internet memes are very appropriative,” Huntington said.

“They’ll take bits and pieces from pop culture and remix them to make something new, and are considered to be part of participatory media culture, which really exists because of the Internet.”

While most memes are created by users from 4chan or Reddit, social media and discussion websites, they are spread throughout all other forms of social media, primarily Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram, according to Huntington. Reblogging photos, sharing posts and tagging friends have all become essential parts of participatory media culture. “[Internet memes are] a way to spread news and information; people can be so moved by memes and get so attached to them,” Maxine Sy Chu (10) said.

“They shape our culture.”

Sy Chu’s Instagram account (@tw*tthef***), which she runs with her friend, has about 248,000 followers, when the Falconer went to press, and is dedicated to sharing memes. A recent post shows a screen grab featuring the two Siamese cats from Disney’s “The Aristocats” excitedly looking at each other with the caption “When you meet someone who hates the same people you do,” and has over 58,000 likes and 1,200 comments.

“I think [people like memes because they’re] mindless,” Sy Chu said. “In everyone’s life, there’s a lot going on. You can just browse memes and not really have to think. It’s another way of expression.”

Just four years ago, any discussion of Internet memes would have to have been prefaced by an explanation of what they were. Today, not so much. And whether or not it personally “feels bad man” or “feels good man,” memes have become an integral part of our culture – and they are here to stay.

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october 28, 2016

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR VOTE Official Ballot CITY GENERAL ELECTION BALLOT

BY LILY NILIPOUR

3710 Del Mar Heights Rd.

On Nov. 8, Neela Aghajan (12) will step into a local office building, surrounded by people mostly older than her, who collectively exude an aura of experience. Some will appear bored and impatient, others fidgety and anticipatory. She will inch forward in line as the time goes by, increasingly restless as she gets closer to the booth where she will cast an official U.S. ballot for the first time in her life.

“I’m really nervous because — I know this sounds cliche — but my vote to a certain degree does matter,” Aghajan said. “Not just as a person, but [based on] who I am ethnically and religiously, and that difference makes me excited but also kind of apprehensive.”

By the same day, Marcus Gay (12) and Ines Ramirez (12) will both have already voted as well, but through absentee ballots instead, their packets will be filled out and bubbled in.

“This election in particular, as any election, determines what the next four or potentially eight years of my life could be like,” Ramirez said. “As a kid, you don’t realize what effects politics and the government have on your life, but they really do play a big role going into college and … the workforce. It’s something that’s going to really hit home once we actually start participating as adults citizens of the United States.”

Yet, as 18 year olds who will be voting in the next election, Aghajan, Gay and Ramirez are part of a small minority. In the 2012 presidential election, 38 percent of 18 to 24 year olds took to the ballots, the lowest voter turnout of all age groups, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2008, 44.3 percent of that same age group voted, and, in 2004, 41.9 percent — again, the overall lowest percentages.

“Voters in the 18 to 24 age bracket have among the lowest voter turnout rates of any demographic group,” Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at University of San Diego Casey Neela Aghajan (12) Dominguez said. “It is not a student phenomenon of recent years — that has been a pretty consistent pattern for several decades.”

In fact, the youngest voting demographic has consistently had the lowest rates of voter turnout ever since 18 year olds were given the vote in 1972. And, in the intermediate years between presidential elections for primaries, the rates are even lower: 17 percent in 2014, 21.3 percent in 2010 and 25.5 percent in 2006, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement.

Although Gay is looking forward to voting for the first time, he wishes that he could choose between two different presidential candidates.

“I wish there was one [candidate] that I was really actually happy to vote for,” Gay said. “[Students might not vote because] they don’t like anyone who’s running, which just makes them not really care.”

According to both Dominguez and government teacher Michael Montgomery, politicians do not have a strong incentive to focus on catering to students precisely because students are the least likely to vote.

But, in a March 2016 study by the Harvard Institute of Politics, only 15 percent of 18 to 29 year olds said that the U.S. was “headed in the right direction,” and 47 percent disagreed. 50 percent said that the politics of the present day will not be able to meet the challenges the country will face, in contrast to 16 percent who said the opposite. “[Some] political rhetoric I’ve heard from my students is, ‘Wow, I am so glad that I don’t have a chance to vote, or I’m not eligible to vote, because for this to be my first presidential election would be sad,’” Montgomery said. “I would imagine that some [students] have been alienated by the process in this particular election, and maybe even some adults.”

The underrepresentation of students and student-centered issues in the mainstream political conversation causes a “discrepancy” in not only voter turnout but also the quality and accuracy of votes, according to Aghajan. However, she thinks that political candidates are currently “urging more young people to vote,” which could serve as an incentive for encourage more students to take up their voting responsibilities.

But, according to Peter Cha (12), the TPHS deputy field organizer for Rep. Scott Peters, newly eligible voters are only taking to the ballots this year because of the amount of media coverage that this presidential election has received; people “don’t necessarily go out and vote” in the primaries as frequently.

Dist. 52

“Even though, for instance, representatives are hired every two years … a lot of these [voters] have no idea about what their congressmen do or anything like that,” Cha said. “These people will probably go in and vote only for their choice in president, but they have all these representatives, they have senators, they have propositions that have direct impacts … [that they] aren’t going down and actually filling out ballots for.”

Education plays a major role in motivating students to vote who otherwise may not have sufficient “life experience with which to understand politics,” Dominguez said.

“Students don’t vote because they have [to make] … hard choices when they are just establishing a political identity, with no lifelong habits and allegiances to fall back on,” Dominguez said. “Also, young people have to navigate the registration and voting process for the first time, which can be confusing. More civic education campaigns, information and encouragement work really well to help young people exercise their right to vote, because they help to make a complex set of decisions easier.”

For Ramirez, the discussions taking place in the classroom and in the media have changed her previous perspective on the role of government as a disassociated entity to a significant one in her life.

“Watching the whole presidential debates, tuning into the news …

I’ve been paying attention a lot more to what’s being discussed and what each party promotes,” Ramirez said. “Now that I understand how a lot of that works, especially having taken history classes in high school, I realize the importance of it and how much it’ll determine the future of the country.

Even if students are not yet 18 years old and cannot yet vote, there are other ways for them to get involved and gain “understanding of the importance” of political participation, according to Montgomery. Cha, Aghajan, Gay and many students at TPHS intern for or volunteer with local representatives, doing work from canvassing to writing field plans.

“We all live in our certain cocoons of protection like, ‘Oh, I’m a Democrat,’ or, ‘I’m a Republican,’” Aghajan, who worked with Sen. Marty Block over the summer, said. “But, it’s very interesting to hear both sides because you hear these policies that you associate with Democrats and policies that you associate with Republicans, but when you realize how those political ideas are affecting people’s lives, it helps you take more into consideration.”

Gay is an intern for Peters and does phone banking, handles inquiries and calls and works on a team that focuses on environmental issues.

“Anyone can really have a bigger influence in the government than how they feel, and it’s so much more than voting that you can do,” Gay said.

“Politicians like Scott, they have so much behind the scenes work that they have to do in that they have to cater to a lot of different interests, which can really make it difficult to pass legislation.”

As a high school deputy field organizer, Cha recruits students from TPHS and other schools in the area to volunteer for Peters and encourages students to vote if eligible. He also worked on field plans to cater to certain demographic groups and their “specific needs,” which can help politicians understand their voter base.

“If people come out and vote more, it’s going to have a much more profound impact because [politicians] are going to have to shift their policies in order to appease more people,” Cha said. “Although people don’t believe it right now, politicians have to in the end serve the people because the politicians are put into office by the people that elect them. If you have more people go out and vote, it’s going to have the reverse side effect of congressmen having to cater to the audiences that vote for them.”

As Election Day draws to a close, Aghajan will be at home, watching intently on a television or on her computer as ballots are counted and results are announced, as will Gay and Ramirez and millions of other Americans and hundreds of millions of people around the world. Whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton becomes the next president, Aghajan will know that no matter what the result, students like herself had an integral part in that decision, though it sometimes may not seem so. Students “do have the power” to influence politics — they just have not yet “been able to unlock that realization.”

It’s very interesting to hear both sides because you hear these policies that you associate with Democrats and ...

Republicans, but when you realize how those political ideas are affecting people’s lives, it helps you take more into consideration.

VOTE

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Experience: San Francisco District Attorney, California Attorney General Priorities: Education, civil rights, criminal justice reform, environment, economic opportunity Notable endorsements: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Jerry Brown

A guide to several local elections that wiill appear on the November ballot

-Founder of the Sorrento Valley Law Group -Adjunct professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law

Experience: Served on the House Armed Services Committee, House Homeland Security Committee, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force, House Armed Services Committee Priorities: Education, women, veterans, gun violence, environment, economy, national security Notable endorsements: Rep. Juan Vargas (CA-51), Rep. Scott Peters (CA-52), Rep. Susan Davis (CA-53)

-Member of the board since 1996; currently serves as vice president -Has previously held the roles of president, vice president and clerk

-Member of SDUHSD board since 2004 -Currently serves as board president

-La Costa Canyon High School parent -Active district volunteer and practicing attorney -Background in business

-Member of the Del Mar Mesa Planning Board and CCA Foundation President -Endorsement chair for Prop AA

* 52nd District in the House of Representatives Disclaimer: all districts are speciďŹ c to where TPHS is located

Experience: Hispanic outreach for the 2000 Bush campaign, Worked in White House, Dept. of Justice, and Senate; worked at a lobbying ďŹ rm Priorities: Jobs and innovation economy, national security/ independence, veterans/military, trade, energy security, education Notable endorsements: City councilman Chris Cate, National Association of Women Business Owners

Experience: First president of San Diego City Council, Port Commissioner, served as Rep. since 2013 Priorities: Jobs and innovation economy, national security, veterans/ military, trade, energy security/independence, education Notable endorsements: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Gov. Jerry Brown, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Human Rights Campaign

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1 in 2,586 For many, physics is that one subject that never completely makes sense.

But for Skylar Jung (11), it makes perfect sense, whose hard work in the subject took her all the way to the Physics World Cup. Also known as the International Young Physicists’ Tournament (IYPT), the World Cup has been a part of Jung’s life since her first year in high school. As a freshman, she participated in the Korean Young Physicists’ Tournament (KYPT) at her high school in Korea.

Taught by the seniors at her school, Jung qualified for her high school’s KYPT team her freshman year, but because her dad got a job in the U.S., her preparation for the tryouts for the national KYPT team was interrupted.

“The IYPT gives us problems that we would research … [and we would] record ourselves presenting [the solutions to the physics problems] and then they would select people [for the team] from those presentations,” Jung said. “[KYPT and the IYPT organization in the U.S.] had the same problems, but I got assigned a different one, so I had to start [my research] all over again.”

After turning in her video presentation to the U.S. IYPT organization and being selected to represent the country, Jung began preparing for the tournament by improving her presentation with the feedback the team organizers gave her and by contacting her teammates via phone and emails.

Despite losing at the 2016 tournament in Russia, Jung is eager to get a team from TPHS to go to the 2017 tournament, and is in the process of establishing a club for it.

While participating in an international physics competition is a team effort, Jung also enjoys working toward her individual scientific interests.

Inspired by a friend from her Korean high school, Jung has been experimenting on her own in the field of culinary science, hoping to “make a Facebook page or a website where [she] can post interesting videos or pictures of what [she does],” according to Jung. “[Culinary science] is how science is applied to cooking,” Jung said. “For example, if you put vinegar in while cooking meat, it goes through a caramelization process that makes it taste better and I research how that happens chemically.”

Chemistry’s close relation to the field of culinary science, combined with her fascination with both cooking and other sciences, is what drew Jung in initially to start experimenting.

She plans on continuing to experiment in the kitchen and wants to make her findings public once she has collected sufficient data.

Besides studying physics and chemistry, Jung plans on participating in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. “[A Rube Goldberg machine] is one of those

october 28, 2016

Skylar Jung (11) competed in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament, and strives to compete again in the 2017 competition in Singapore.

machines where you have an aim and you go through all of these steps to achieve that aim,” Jung said. “For example, the machine would cause a marble to hit some dominos and then the dominos would go on [to trigger the next reaction].”

The contest’s 2017 task is for teams to design a machine that at the end, will put a bandage on another object. Though Jung and her team have just started working, they have already figured out some of their background science.

“We have the design and some of the physics [completed], but we haven’t started making the actual machine,” Jung said.

According to Jung, machines are due in February 2017 and will be turned in as videos that the public can vote on until March. The contest is something Jung looks forward to, since “[she] can put … physics, chemistry and design together.”

The design aspect of the contest is especially appealing for Jung, as she also designs text message stickers similar to those used on Facebook in her spare time.

Jung has been involved with graphic design since her freshman year, as a “part of the school’s design team [that created] business cards, T-shirts and [other items],” according to Jung.

After moving to the U.S., Jung did not want to abandon the work she had

The IYPT gives us problems that we would research … [and we would] record ourselves presenting [the solutions to the physics problems] and then they would select people [for the team] from those presentations.

Skylar Jung �������

already begun in Korea, and came up with the idea of creating stickers and selling them to messenger apps.

“I’m planning on submitting [my designs] to KakaoTalk, Line and a couple of apps that accept student designs,” Jung said.

In her rare spare moments, Jung can be found volunteering for Compassion, a sponsorship organization through which people around the world can support children living in poverty-stricken areas.

“The sponsors write letters [to the children they are sponsoring], and those children have to receive [the letters] in English, so I translate the Korean or French [letters] to English [and vice versa],” Jung said.

While Korean is her first language, Jung learned both French and German as part of her school’s curriculum during the five years she lived in Slovakia because of her dad’s job, but only feels comfortable translating from Korean or French since she is not fluent in German.

Even though volunteering and graphic design consume a significant portion of her time, Jung continues to focus on culinary science and physics, and has her sights set on the 2017 IYPT in Singapore.

by Anvitha Soordelu

Skylar jung (11)

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PHOTO COURTESY OF RCA RECORDS

It’s been three years since Kings of Leon released their last album, so the release of “Walls,” their latest album, was very highly anticipated. Despite being widely considered a rock band similar to groups like U2 and The Killers, their sound is more of a mash-up of funk, jazz, blues and rock. True to their style, “Walls” features a blend of electronic guitar, keyboard and drums. While similar to many of their previous works, the album still manages to leave a unique and lasting impression on the listener.

The album opens with “Waste a Moment,” a upbeat summer party tune about enjoying every moment. The beat of the song runs parallel to Kings of Leon’s “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” Grammy-nominated songs from their 2008 album “Only by the Night.” This song is a crowd pleaser for those unfamiliar with the band’s music and, for longtime fans, is a new rendition on a familiar tune.

In the next song, “Reverend,” lead singer Caleb Pollowill’s gravelly voice sings impactful lyrics as the tempo the slows down. There is a greater focus on the music rather than the lyrics, much of which is a repeated chorus, a trend that continues in “Around the World” and “Eyes on You,” where many segments are devoted to guitar solos or a combination of guitar and piano.

Out of all the songs in the album, “Find Me” and “Over” are most stylistically typical of the band. With a guitar and keyboard combo lead into “Find Me,” the music maintains a balance between the harmony and the lyrics. “Over” uses lower keys and has a slow rhythmic beat, but unfortunately has little musical or lyrical variation.

The percussional prelude in “Muchacho” sets the song apart by giving it a more experimental sound.

The percussion and guitar gives a tropical feel to the song. The accompanying vocals feel much more conversational than many other songs in “Walls.”

The slow tempo of “Conversation Piece” creates an light, airy atmosphere like that of a lullaby. While the overall sound of the track is rather monotone, it is redeemed by the narrative it tells and the song’s balanced composition. Lyrics like “Won’t you come around my way/It’s a conversation piece” explore what is considered proper to talk about in public. I commend Kings of Leon for trying something new, but I definitely think they have the potential to have produce better music.

“Walls,” the last song of the album is unplugged and, unexpected; it emphasizes lyrics and showcases the band’s raw talent. “You tore out my heart and/you threw it away” highlights theme about breaking down emotional barriers. Although it is initially monotone, both vocally and musically, the song recovers about halfway through and reaches a climax.

As a whole, “Walls” is very befitting for a threetime Grammy Award winning band. The tracks are unique individually and show a conscious effort on the band’s part to step out of their comfort zone while simultaneously maintaining the musical undertones and the sound that of Kings of Leon is known for. The album is transitional from their regular style to a trial sound that is beautifully composed and acts as a look into a side of Kings of Leon that has never been seen before.

by Ellie Ahles

Lady Gaga is perhaps best known for her infectious pop hits and eccentric style. On Oct. 21, she released “Joanne,” which, perhaps unexpectedly, showcases a more instrumental approach to her music. She was assisted by electronic musician Mark Ronson, singersongwriter Father John Misty and Queens of the Stone Age lead singer and guitarist Josh Homme in creating this album.

From creating strictly pop music to producing an album with a more rock and country sound, Lady Gaga pays tribute to her deceased aunt Joanne. While the album explores her personal relationship struggles, there is little variation to both the issues and stories discussed in her songs.

“Joanne,” the third track in the album, tells the story of Lady Gaga and her aunt’s strong bond and connection. Through her heartfelt words, Lady Gaga’s love and admiration for Joanne is obvious.

Her impressive range and smooth voice are heard through the lyrics regarding her personal relationship troubles, which are paired with upbeat, countryinfluenced melodies, as if forcing herself to be positive about typically negative topics.

“Million Reasons” also explores Gaga’s personal feelings and displays a clear country influence.

Partnered with Ronson and country musician Hillary Lindsey, Gaga takes the listener on an emotional journey of a failing relationship that “gives [her] a million reasons to walk away.” Gaga illustrates that she just wants “one good reason to stay” so she can fight for something that she believes in.

Loyalty, another quality Lady Gaga believes in, is shown in her song, “Sinner’s Prayer.” With its mysterious and folky tone, the theme of loyalty is intertwined with the upbeat interjections of the guitar. The song’s melody strays from her typical style and catches the listener’s attention with its bouncy, retro beat and Lady Gaga’s low register.

In “Perfect Illusion,” the album’s single that was released on Sept. 9, Lady Gaga works with Tame Impala frontman and guitarist Kevin Parker to create rock melodies on the guitar and drums. Her lyrics explains a crush that turned out to just be an illusion, but generic lyrics fail to make the song meaningful.

Still continuing on the same theme, she highlights the importance of friendship and the way friends can benefit each other in “Hey Girl,” featuring Florence Welch of indie rock band Florence and the Machine.

The song, which is reminiscent of “You and I,” a track from her 2011 album “Born This Way,” incorporates uplifting folky tones to this lighthearted song, perfectly complemented by Lady Gaga’s voice. By “lifting each other,” some of Gaga’s most personal feelings are shown yet again.

Imperfection is another theme that Gaga regularly reflects on throughout her album, specifically in the first song “Diamond Heart.” Innocence and imperfections are introduced not as flaws but as strengths.

This album’s main strength overall is its catchy choruses, especially in the song “A-YO.” The countrypop song features an upbeat chorus and loose storyline making it hard to follow, but enjoyable to listen to.

As a new direction for Gaga, the album is diverse, having many more country influences than her previous albums, but lacks diversity in song topic choice.

by Estelle Kraft

PHOTO COURTESY OF STREAMLINE AND INTERSCOPE RECORDS

PHOTO COURTESY OF RCA RECORDS

Before hearing about “Revolution Radio,” I really thought that the pop rock band Green Day had disappeared into oblivion. The last album I thoroughly listened to by them was “21st Century Breakdown” in 2009, which is quite fitting since the two albums are similar in sound.

“Somewhere Now,” the opening song off of the new album, begins in a way reminiscent of “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” with the leading chords of the song strummed serenely on a guitar.

Within 50 seconds of the first song, however, “Revolution Radio” takes a nosedive into the characteristic banging and crashing that Green Day is known for. Repeated cymbals, harsh drum beats, hypnotic guitar riffs and crackling vocals all lend themselves to the continuation of Green Day’s signature sound. Song titles like “Bang Bang” and “Bouncing Off the Wall” accurately represent the overall atmosphere of the entire album — angry, exciting, revolutionary.

Yet, there is not much in the musical quality of the songs themselves that is particularly astonishing or ground-breaking — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There is no new-and-improved Green Day that emerges, no shift in genre or any sort of gutsy experimentation. “Revolution Radio” is just what would be expected from the band that released it: loud and heavy, with occasional interludes of melodious peace and, of course, scathing political commentary.

And that is what makes it good.

Just as “American Idiot” and “21st Century Breakdown” each gave voice to the disillusionment felt during the years they were released “Revolution Radio” effectively does the same for 2016. Lyrics such as “Bang, bang, give me fame/Shoot me up to entertain” in “Bang Bang” showcase lead singer Billie Joel Armstrong’s powerful synthesis of today’s culture of violence and political strife. “Give me rage like there’s tear gas in the crowd” from the title song “Revolution Radio,” and “Sing hello to the cops on patrol” from “Say Goodbye” are more specific allusions to a dire cultural and political dilemma present in the U.S. that are catchy and thought-provoking.

At the end is “Ordinary World,” a swirling acoustic track, seemingly out of place compared to the rest of the in-your-face songs in the album. Green Day didn’t end “American Idiot” or “21st Century Breakdown” in this way; in fact, discounting the band’s 2012 trilogy, only “Dookie” and “Warning” go out without a bang. “Ordinary World” seems to represent the acceptance of the imperfections of humankind as Armstrong asks, “Where can I find the city of shining light/In an ordinary world?/How can I leave a buried treasure behind/In an ordinary world?” — he searches for answers but knows that he will never be able to find all of them. And, with the words “Baby, I don’t have much/But what we have is more than enough/ Ordinary world,” he responds that he is okay.

That is what “Revolution Radio” successfully accomplishes, if not for innovation of sound itself.

Green Day, through a maturation of the mind and through their music, once again forces an emotional examination of human corruption, irrationality and motivation.

by Lily Nilipour

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infographic by anvitha soordelu/falconer

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PHOTO BY ALDERIK VAN DER HYDE/FALCONER

PHOTO BY ALLY JENSEN/FALCONER

october 28, 2016

To be honest, I’m not particularly fond of pizza, which is uncomfortable to say when it is such an omnipresent food. So when I was assigned to review Pizzanometry, I was not sure how to rate it because my experience was primarily limited to the much-too-saucy Costco pizzas.

From the start, the name Pizzanometry was captivating; I was curious to see how the restaurant’s exterior and interior design would define its unique name. The result was disappointing. Located in a little corner of a town plaza, Pizzanometry seemed dingy with its fading promotional posters and its weakly-blinking “open” sign. Fortunately, the interior, which exuded a simple yet sophisticated concept with its sleek high-backed booths, polished glass counters and cherry red walls, was easier on the eyes.

After asking around for recommendations on what to order, I settled on a House salad ($5.95), a Rustic Signature Pizza with extra artichokes and mushrooms ($7.99) and a custom pizza topped with bacon, ground beef, pineapples, olives, spinach, mushrooms and onions ($7.99). Although nothing about the pizza place seemed particularly distinguishing, I liked the efficiency and precision of the ordering system. The employees were affable and the transparent glass counters made it convenient for me to specify how much of each ingredient I wanted on both pizzas. Five short minutes later, my order was served, which was surprisingly fast because my pizzas were grilled over one small fireplace.

I started by testing my appetite with the House salad. The presentation was average at best; dry spinach leaves with tomatoes on a bed of white cheese were placed in a flimsy plastic box.

The ranch and Italian sauce overwhelmed the salad, and the moisture of the tomatoes was lost.

Because the price of the salad was fairly expensive when compared to those of the pizzas, I had high expectations, which fell to pieces after a few bites into the salad.

With the overpowering taste of ranch dressing remaining in my mouth, I was hesitant to try the Rustic Signature Pizza, but to my surprise, the pizza was satisfactory. The size and thickness of the slices were perfectly proportioned and the ingredients, from the cheese-coated tomatoes to the minty basil leaves, created a lively harmony of rich flavors. Although I craved some more chewiness in the bread to absorb the greasiness of the pizza, the mediocrity of the salad was forgivable by the end of the slice.

I saved the restaurant’s most famous pizza, the custom-made, for last. At first glance, the rainbow of toppings looked very appealing. All of the ingredients looked fresh except for the slightlybrowned spinach leaves. The hot tomato sauce, sprinkled with flavorful olives, was a heavenly shift from the white sauce on the Rustic pizza. Golden pineapple chunks added a nice tanginess to the heaviness of the Canadian bacon and ground beef. By the time I popped the last morsel into my mouth, I understood why the custom-made was most popular.

Overall, Pizzanometry is a family-friendly restaurant that promises good-quality pizza and friendly service at a decent cost. The restaurant kept to an average design that didn’t quite reflect its name, but I could still recognize Pizzanometry’s mathematical concept through the shape-covered paintings covering its walls, the square trays they provided and the perfectly circular pizzas they served. But most of all, I am glad that I have a place other than Costco or Domino’s to go to for pizza.

by Kahyun Koh

I have had a whopping amount of pizza in my lifetime from all kinds of places, so when I showed up at Del Mar Pizza I was not expecting anything new; however, I was pleasantly surprised.

Parking was a bit of a hassle, since the only available parking spots are on the street, but that was quickly forgotten as soon as I walked into the restaurant.

I have never been in a restaurant with such a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere.

Everything about this cute and cozy place made me feel relaxed and put me in a good mood. The restaurant has both indoor and patio seating, and since Del Mar Pizza is right on the beach, I would personally recommend sitting outside and enjoying the beach.

I was greeted by the attentive staff with big smiles when I walked in, as I ordered and as I left, all of which contributed to the welcoming mood of the restaurant.

When I sat down, the first thing I noticed was the wooden plaque on the wall that read, “Feel free to have a seat and enjoy the beach at no additional charge.” Little things like this created the friendly and joyful environment that the restaurant created for its customers.

Don’t be fooled by the name; Del Mar Pizza offers many more options other than just pizza.

Its vast menu includes a variety of salads, pastas, sandwiches and desserts. After much deliberation, I decided to order a slice of margherita pizza ($3.50), a slice of veggie pizza ($3.75) and the mini Italian sandwich ($5).

The margherita pizza was one of the best slices of pizza I had ever had. The light sauce and the cheese complimented each other flawlessly, with no single ingredient overpowering the other. The freshly sliced basil and tomato were absolutely amazing, and tasted great on the oven-baked dough. The bubbling, thinly rolled out dough was

fresh and chewy, finished with an amazing crispy crust. My one complaint would have to be that the slice was a little too oily, but other than that it was absolutely perfect.

Next, I had the veggie pizza slice. The first thing I noticed about this pizza was that it was not completely covered in vegetables the way many other pizza places serve their veggie pizzas.

Instead, vegetables were scattered around so that each bite presented a different savory taste. The fresh olives, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers were grilled to perfection and tasted better with each bite. Unlike the margherita pizza, the veggie pizza was not oily at all. The light sauce and delicately drizzled cheese allowed the veggies to be the most apparent out of all the other ingredients, but still was not too strong. Overall, the slice came together really well.

I honestly cannot describe the Italian sandwich as anything other than a gift from god. The filling sandwich was packed with a variety of meats and vegetables and has changed the way I look at sandwiches forever. The sandwich was on oily, yet crunchy Italian bread that worked well with each individual ingredient.

The salami, capicolla and thinly sliced mortadella, which are Italian meats, all brought a subtle spicy flavor to the sandwich that made each bite better than the last. The lettuce, tomatoes, onions and melted provolone cheese soaked in the homemade Italian dressing and made this sandwich an overall masterpiece.

With Del Mar Pizza’s wide variety of dishes, its welcoming atmosphere and its prime location, the restaurant is the perfect place for anyone. If you ever find yourself in Del Mar looking for a casual place to have lunch, I strongly recommend visiting Del Mar Pizza for one of the best meals you’ll have in your life.

by Sammy Hallal

tphsfalconer.com

entertainment

I’ve eaten pizza at least once a week for most of my life. Since I eat pizza so often, I’m always up for trying a new variety of it, so reviewing Pandora’s Pizza in Leucadia was the perfect opportunity.

Arriving in the late afternoon at 2:30 p.m. was my best bet at beating the Saturday lunch crowd.

There were two people in front of me, but most of the seats in the dining room and on the patio were taken, giving me the impression that it was the type of place that attracted hungry customers no matter what time of day.

As I waited, I looked over to the wall of the staircase next to the counter where there was a large mural of Pandora. She was a Greek legend known for opening a jar out of curiosity only to have accidentally set all of the evils in the world free, leaving only hope in the jar. But instead of hope, the painting of Pandora held a slice of pizza. To be honest, eating pizza has given me a sense of redemption from a bad day on several occasions.

Outside on the patio, there were wooden booths shaded by canopies and Greek-style pillars. I was immersed in a Mediterranean atmosphere, yet at the same time, my eyes met funky purple walls while I listened to contemporary electronic pop music playing in the background. It was nice to have experienced such a creative take on the typical set-up of a pizza place.

I decided to order three small, thin crust pizzas from the friendly cashier. The Greek theme wasn’t restrained to the walls of the restaurant, since most of the dishes on the menu were named after Greek myths. I ordered the Daphne pizza ($14) and the Hawaiian and Margherita pizzas ($12). I only waited 20 minutes for my order, which was pretty quick for a pizza place. Peeking into my to-go boxes, my mouth began to water at the sight of each pizza.

The margherita pizza was the first one I

tried. It consisted of garlic-infused olive oil, fresh mozzarella, roma tomatoes and basil. The six pizza slices were each outfitted with round tomato slices that formed a circle around the pizza, sprinkled with several stringy shreds of basil. It had the perfect amount of cheese, and the tomato and basil added a decent amount of flavor to each slice. The pizza had a light and fresh taste and was the best margherita pizza I had tasted in a long time.

Next, I decided to mix up my taste buds with the Daphne pizza. This pizza was composed of red sauce, mozzarella, fontina, jalapeños, sundried tomatoes and prosciutto. I anticipated that each bite would be full of various spicy flavors but was disappointed as jalapeños overwhelmed the dish.

I could barely make out the prosciutto among the flaming hot jalapeños, unable to finish more than a slice.

Last but not least, I concluded with the Hawaiian pizza, a staple in many pizza joints. It consisted of red sauce, mozzarella, ham, pineapple and pepperoni. The pizza tasted exactly like a Hawaiian pizza from any other pizza place.

The ratio of cheese to sauce to crust was perfect, and the ham and pepperoni were spread evenly among the pineapple bits, which added a juicy burst of flavor with each bite. However, the thin crust created a texture better than any other pizza place because it had an even crunch throughout and was not burnt in any corner.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Greek inspired atmosphere and the quick service. I wouldn’t recommend trying the Daphne pizza unless you’re an enthusiast for spicy foods, but I would definitely come back to Pandora’s Pizza for the Hawaiian and Margherita pizzas.

by Natalie Salgado

Pizza is almost always a safe dining option — it really is hard to go wrong with pizza. Miramar’s Pauly’s Pizza Joint renewed my appreciation for the popular American food.

The restaurant’s appearance was unimpressive to me. From the outside, the small pizza place resembled a hole in the wall, and interior was average. While the name Pauly’s Pizza Joint sounds like the restaurant would be customized, I was disappointed to see that was not the case.

I was satisfied with how I could conveniently choose from eight pre-made pizzas that they offered on their menu. After weighing my options, I decided to order a slice of chicken chipotle and a slice of margarita pizza. I ordered the meal deal, which consisted of two slices and a drink, and only cost me $6.50. The cheap prices alone were enough to warrant a second visit.

While waiting for the pizza to be re-heated, I was tempted to order another item off of the menu. After scanning over options for calzones, salads and sandwiches, I decided to add an order of cheesy garlic bread to my order ($8) and try the restaurant’s varying food choices.

After grabbing a cup of lemonade from the generic drink station, which, oddly enough, was behind the counter, I was given my two rather impressivelooking slices. The pizza was thin, a common quality of New York style pizza. The presentation, especially the zigzag of pesto sauce on the Margarita pizza, made the pizza all the more mouthwatering. I was pleased to see that despite being cooked in a brick oven, the crust was not burnt at all.

I began with the margarita pizza. While many pizza shops that I have been to simply top their margarita pizzas with just basil and tomato, Pauly’s complemented these ingredients with garlic, parmesan and a zigzagging pattern of pesto sauce.

The result was a delightfully flavorful pizza, which, between the bold pesto sauce and the delicious blend of parmesan and mozzarella cheese, contended for one of the best slices of pizza I’ve ever had.

The chicken chipotle pizza was one of the more creative pizzas offered on the menu. The chicken, bacon and chipotle sauce complimented each other well, and the lightness of the cheese prevented the pizza from feeling too fattening. The creamy chipotle sauce was well-proportioned.

As I was finishing up my first slice of pizza, the garlic bread arrived, and it was hot and crispy. The bread was smothered in garlic and cheese, making it a wonderful dish. It was so irresistible that I had a hard time returning to my pizza once I had finished off the garlic bread, but although I would’ve liked to have more garlic bread, the amount that they served on the platter was more than enough for me.

The staff provided top-notch customer service, constantly offering help with friendly smiles. They offered to cut my pizza into smaller slices even when I had not asked, which I thought was very helpful. The cashier was also friendly and made small talk, adding to the restaurant’s comfortable and friendly environment. Multiple customers came into the restaurant to order pizza, but they made them to-go orders, making me the only one sitting and eating in the restaurant.

The walls were decorated with pictures of famous “Pauls” like Paul McCartney, Paul Hewson (Bono), Paul Newman, which was the only aspect of the restaurant’s interior design that referred to its name.

While Miramar is a bit of a drive from my house, it was well worth the time. The low price, high quality and convenience of the pizza qualify Pauly’s Pizza joint as a top eatery.

by Michael Nirula

the falconer

PHOTO BY LAUREN ZHANG/FALCONER PHOTO BY LAUREN ZHANG/FALCONER

PHOTO BY TRAVIS FELTHAUS/FALCONER

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S P O RTS CORNER

Falcons make comeback against Lancers

Football (6-2) defeated Carlsbad High School (1-7) on Oct. 21 at home in the last regular home game of the season, coming back from a score deficit in the first half of the game.

Carlsbad began with possession of the ball, but was unable to gain much yardage within the first few plays, leading them to a quick turnover for the Falcons. With just under two minutes left in the quarter, middle linebacker Louis Bickett (11) covered the defensive end for the Falcons, helping them to stall Carlsbad before their punt to finish the first quarter.

The second quarter began with a quick turnover for the Falcons, but the Lancers quickly acquired the ball for first down.

Picking up seven yards and a second down, Carlsbad quarterback Isaiah Ramos (11) made a 43-yard touchdown pass to cornerback Tyler Hershey (12) with just under nine minutes left in the quarter, putting the Lancers ahead at 7-0.

Quickly recovering the ball at the oneyard line, Falcon wide receiver Andre Meiers (12) ran to the Carlsbad 48-yard line. The Falcons slowly made their way down the field, carefully and precisely executing plays to bring them close to the end zone. At five minutes remaining in the quarter, fullback Luke Duerr (12) took an open opportunity to run three yards through a throng of Lancers for a Falcon touchdown.

“Coach just came up to me, and he was like, ‘Luke, you need to score on this,’” Duerr said. “He was telling the [offensive] line, ‘Just block your hearts out,’ and that’s what they did. It was just an open hole, and I found the end zone.”

Directly after the Falcons’ touchdown, Carlsbad moved into Falcon territory, and with minutes left in the second quarter, a 47-yard pass from Ramos to wide receiver Trent Nyberg in the end zone brought the Lancers up to 14-7 for the end of the half.

Going into the second quarter the Falcons knew they needed to come together, “We went to the locker room at halftime, and everyone was just getting on each other about how we need to pump it up,” Duerr said. “Our enthusiasm was lacking, so we just needed to pick it up.”

Quick turnovers and a protective offensive line in the third quarter allowed

the Falcons to showcase productive plays, though were unable to score on any of them.

“We started out slow in the first half but in the end we knew we had to win and we knew what we had to do, and we just played with our heart,” O’Brien said. “We knew we had to score to keep the game going.”

Needing to score to tie the game, the Falcons started the fourth quarter with a bang. Less than two minutes into the quarter, O’Brien passed to Jason Heine (10) for a touchdown for the Falcons.

“I just read the [defensive] tackle, cut back, just took another cut back,” Heine said. “I got nailed in the end zone, but it ended up well.”

Gaining yardage and making consistent plays down the field, the Falcons inched the ball into the Carlsbad end zone with a one-yard touchdown by Duerr to bring the score to 21-14, clinching the game.

“We knew it was going to be a tough time,” Gladnick said. “Their record is not indicative of how good they are. In every game they’ve played, they’ve been one or two plays away from winning the game.”

According to O’Brien and Duerr, the team’s goals for the rest of the season are to get faster, continue scoring and work on the defensive line.

“We’ve got a very, very tough Mission Hills team next week,” Gladnick said. “We control our destiny. If we beat them, we’re one step closer to an Avocado League title.”

The Falcons play Mission Hills High School (6-2) today at Mission Hills at 7 p.m.

PHOTOS BY ANTON SCHUH/FALCONER

KNIGHTS IN SHINING ARMOR: Wide reciever Sully O’Brien (11) darts by a Carlsbad defender with the ball (TOP).

Defensive end Kevin Misak (54) lines up to block the Lancers’ next drive (MIDDLE).

O’Brien again scrambles across the field toward the Lancer end zone (ABOVE).

The St. Louis Cardinals faced the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 29 in a game they had to win for a shot at the remaining National League wild card spot.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Cardinals’ Yadier Molina hit a walk off double winning the game 4-3. However, Molina’s hit should never have won the game because it was a ground rule double, which, if appropriately called, would have stopped Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter at third base rather than allowing him to score.

Reds manager Bryan Price ran out to protest the missed call, but when he reached the officiating crew about 30 seconds after Carpenter passed home plate, he was told he was only allowed 10 seconds to appeal for a replay. The game was over.

After the game, almost everyone agreed that the hit was a ground rule double. The opposing manager, Mike Matheny, game commentators and even the officiating crew said the Cardinals should not have won on the play. With such a consensus, it is obvious that an officiating mistake was made. Yet, the 10-second time limit to review game-ending plays prevented the easy correction from being made.

This incident should be a jarring wake-up call to MLB. The baseball review rules, which have already been heavily criticized, need a makeover, beginning with the 10-second rule.

According to the rule, “A challenge to a play that ends the game must be invoked immediately upon the conclusion of the play.”

Requiring a team to appealing a game-ending call immediately—10 seconds in the umpire’s view—is too hard on the coaches. In the Reds’ case, it was nearly impossible for Price to make the decision within 10 seconds because the ball was out of his sight when it bounced out of play and the roar of the stadium delayed his decision as well. Despite distractions, Price was ready to review in a quick 30 seconds after the play ended, but the umpires had left the field.

Managers are accustomed to a 30-second in-game time limit to call a play review. The time limit was put in place to make the game run fluidly and prevent managers from taking longer than necessary make their decision.

However, it does not make sense to have a shorter time limit at the end of the game; if anything, managers should have more time to decide upon reviewing the plays that determine the outcome of a game. There is no rush to get back to playing ball after the review. Also, getting the game-deciding calls right is arguably more important than correctly calling the ordinary calls, and, as in the case of Price, the crowd, the noise, and the game-ending flurry of activity make deciding on appeal at the end harder than at other times. So, why put less emphasis on reviewing these game-deciding plays?

Video reviews have almost always improved the game. They refine the game by cleaning up officiating errors.

This is what baseball’s review rules should also do; they should clean up the game and make the game more fair.

And, although this rule was intended to do just that, it has done the opposite. It must be changed and must be changed soon before it taints the result of another MLB game.

tphsfalconer.com

Girls golf first place in NCC Tournament

Girls golf dominated at the annual North County Conference Tournament held at the Marine Memorial Golf Course in Camp Pendleton on Oct. 18 and the Twin Oaks golf course on Oct. 19. The Falcons won first place overall, finishing with 395 points on day one and 363 on day two.

TPHS played against Carlsbad High School, La Costa Canyon High School, Canyon Crest Academy, San Dieguito Academy and Sage Creek High in the Avocado West League. Three different leagues competed in the tournament.

“We knew the teams we were playing against weren’t as competitive as some others in San Diego,” Karina Camp (12) said. “We were trying to get a good score and compare them to some other teams … to see where we stood for CIFs.” According to head coach Don Hartley, the tournament is more for “bragging rights” than it is for actual competition. The main goal was to prepare the team for CIFs, where they will encounter much tougher competition than they did at NCC. “The overall team experience was wonderful,” Hartley said. “Younger players get the benefit of playing a 36-hole event prior to CIF. As an added benefit, the players get to know each other better at the breakfast and dinner each day.”

The team dominated on the green, winning every match they played in by a large margin.

“Our greatest strength is consistency throughout the lineup,” Hartley said. “Generally speaking, I am satisfied with the performance.”

Although the team members are overall happy with how they played, “there is always room for improvement,” according to Hartley.

“We did well in putting our best effort into every shot,” Jungmin Park (12) said. “However, our putting could have been better and we had minor mistakes on certain shots.”

With the championship just around the corner, the team is trying its best to be ready for it when the time comes. They were disappointed that they were not able to fully test their skills against a tougher matchup, but made the best of it, according to Hartley “With Rancho Bernardo conducting their own NCC event this year, we did not get to go head-tohead with our major opponent for the upcoming CIF championship,” said Hartley.

Given that the tournament took place over two days in two separate locations, the difficulty varied from course to course, and therefore impacted the team’s performance differently each day.

“The team is saying our putting was could have been better [on the first day]. The course from [the first day], in Camp Pendleton, was much harder,” said Camp.

The Falcons will play in the CIF championship tournament on Nov. 1 and 3.

sports

the falconer

A21

Cross country competes in Mt. Sac Invitational Girls cross country placed first out of 125 competitors and boys placed eighth out of 130 in the sub-sweepstakes division at the 70th annual Mt. SAC Invitational on Oct. 22.

Both Isabella Aguiar (11) and Vanessa Beeler (11) placed in the top ten, scoring fourth and ninth places respectively.

The event was held at the Mt. San Antonio College cross country track.

“We were pretty surprised but very content with the outcome,” girls captain Ines Ramirez (12) said. “[It] was a little bit beyond what we expected.”

Despite a majority of varsity runners being new to the team, the boys still placed in the top third and the girls won their division.

According to Ramirez, the Falcons decided to compete in the second highest of three divisions after having “a little bit of a rough season.”

“People think that [cross country is] really individual, but it’s more of a team sport than most people think,” Ramirez said. “That’s a lot of what we focus on, especially in training.”

According to boys and girls varsity coach Brent Thorne, practices focus on working together and developing teamwork with new members.

“We really focus on process here, and not so much on results,” Thorne said. “What we wanted to do was see everybody race really hard.”

Ramirez made sure that new runners would not feel isolated on the vast and difficult track.

“We have these bright yellow jerseys, and I would always try and find another yellow jersey and catch up to them,” Ramirez said. “It’s always

comforting because you might be struggling, but you know that your teammate is there.”

Although TPHS has relied on prominent runners to carry the team in the past, this time more varsity members pulled their weight and contributed to the team’s finish.

“Sometimes one or two runners in your field of seven varsity runners will have a bad race, and you need your fourth, fifth, or sixth runners to step up and improve,” Thorne said. “That’s what we saw.”

Varsity boys captain Michael McMahon (12) sees room for improvement.

“All of us need to work at getting faster and placing better,” McMahon said. “That way our team can do better.”

Thorne would not venture a guess about the teams’ Avocado League or CIF finishes, but is pleased with the team’s performance at Mt.SAC.

Girls volleyball falls to Ventura in Tournament of Champions final Girls volleyball finished second in the Tournament of Champions held at Santa Barbara High School on Oct. 2122, losing to Ventura High School 3-1 in the championship round.

The team beat Newport Harbor High School 3-0 in the first round, John H. Pitman High School 3-0 in the quarterfinals and Mira Costa High School 3-1 in the semifinals before falling to Ventura High School in the finals.

According to Alexis Fillipone (12), the Tournament of Champions had 16 of the top teams from Northern and Southern California this year.

Some of the schools that competed at the tournament included La Costa Canyon High School, Cathedral Catholic High School, Westview High School, Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic School, Presentation High School and Archbishop Murphy High School.

According to head coach Brennan Dean, some of the top teams were absent at the tournament, such as Notre Dame High School and Santa Margarita Catholic High School.

The team worked really well together in the tournament, and all the players are supportive and cooperative.

“I thought they did really good, we played really well, and just fell short at the end, [since] we were tired,” Dean said. “I think we have really good consistency with this group, we got a young team that is really supportive and contributes when they can but are also really engaged.”

Fillipone and Jaden Whitmarsh (11), both outside hitters, received the All-Tournament Team award and contributed to the team’s success at the tournament.

According to Dean, the team has been coming to the tournament for over 20 years and placed first last year.

“As a team I think we did really well,” Daniela Fornaciari (11) said.

“Our team this year is very harmonious and we love to play together.”

The Falcons beat Mira Costa in the semifinals, allowing them to advance to the finals.

“This [win against Mira Costa] was a big win for us and all players were contributing on and off of the court,” Fillipone said. “This game was fun to play in and Mira Costa is always a strong team from LA.” Although the team did not defeat

Ventura in the finals, Dean is proud of the team’s performance and that they reached the tournament’s championship round.

“The finish is obviously a highlight, and to be top two of that tournament is a huge gratification,” Dean said. “I think another highlight was seeing some of the things we’ve been working on in practice being implemented in the matches, executing some game plans that we were trying to do and just seeing us grow together as a team.”

The Falcons also felt that they performed well at the tournament, and that they could have won if they had gotten more rest.

“We missed our serving zones a couple of times at the end of the tournament,” Dean said. “I think that was [due to] a little bit of fatigue, and we might just need to do a better job of resting our kids and making sure that they’re all set on nutrition and everything like that.”

According to Fillipone, the team simply lost their momentum in the fourth game, but everyone “improved from the level of play” they were exposed to at the tournament.

The Falcons played LCC yesterday on Oct. 27, after the Falconer went to press.

Head football Coach Ron Gladnick won High School Coach of the Week from the San Diego Chargers on Oct. 21

3Rd

SEASON AS HEAD COACH AT TPHS

CAME TO TPHS AS DEFENSIVE LINE COACH IN PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA SCIPIONE

2008

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A22 the falconer

sports

DAY IN THE

LIFE

october 28, 2016

With abundant talent and a willingness to train like a beast, Kiki Spain (12) made the decision to dedicate herself to playing volleyball and created opportunities for a collegiate committment to Yale.

Being an athlete is not all about having talent, or about growing up playing a sport. Kiki Spain (12) started playing volleyball her freshman year, she has been on the varsity. As a junior, she committed to play at.

Yet, her greatest accomplishment to date does not come in the form of a plaque or a trophy, but in the pride of being the first female volleyball player at TPHS to be brought up to the varsity mid-season her first year of playing the sport.

Before playing volleyball, Spain primarily played basketball, which she played from third to ninth grade.

“I thought [playing volleyball] would be good for cross training,” Spain said. “Then, I ended up realizing that I liked volleyball a lot more than I liked basketball. It was a big step to take, but I switched to volleyball and ended up quitting basketball because it’s so hard to play two sports today.”

Talent, cross-over skills and athletic ability allowed Spain to become a dominant player on the JV team her freshman year, and later got her pulled up to varsity.

“As I played longer, I realized I could play at a high level,” Spain said. “Then freshman year, when I started really focusing on volleyball, I decided I would also like to play in college.”

While her identity as an athlete pushed Spain to always compete in at least one sport, one of the biggest struggles was the physicality involved in playing both basketball and volleyball “was hard on [her] body, and [she] couldn’t

handle [her] time and other expectations,” Spain said.

During the high school season, Spain practices [3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.] every weekday and prepares for tournaments with the TPHS team.

She also lifts two to three times a week and goes to the gym for cardio workouts.

“For me, personally, I find it is important to do lifting and strength training outside of volleyball because volleyball is not the most physically demanding sport,” Spain said. “You have to be really good about being strong so you don’t get injured, which is easy in a sport like volleyball because it’s repetitive on the same muscles.”

Spain spent most of her first two years of high school looking at colleges in California, but changed her mind late in her sophomore year as she set her sights on the east coast.

“It changed everything,” Spain said. “I spent a lot of time making lists of both academic and volleyball rankings to see what kind of school would be a good fit for me because I didn’t want to compromise my academics.”

Spain reached out to contacts she knew who went to schools she was interested in on the east coast so she could narrow her list. She also invited recruiters from potential colleges to tournaments and games to see what options she had.

“In my opinion, you should commit as late as you possibly can because so much about your personality changes, even from your junior year to your senior year, that it doesn’t really make sense [to commit early],” Spain said.

Although Spain’s commitment in her junior year would be considered late by the volleyball community, it gave her more possibilities for her collegiate career. Before Spain changed her mind, she considered playing at University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Santa Barbara.

“I picked Yale because a lot of schools say they have the balance between sports and academics, but I really wanted to feel like I could also be treated like a normal student,” Spain said. “At a place like Yale, everyone is so talented in something that I really am nothing special just because I’m an athlete.”

When Spain joins the Yale team, her weekly workout schedule will change to practice and lifting three times a week with her team and light practices on Fridays before weekend tournaments. “[When I’m at Yale] out of season is much more relaxed than if I had wanted to go to a PAC-12 school,” Spain said. “There, practice would still be [twice a day].”

Playing a college sport has always been a goal for Spain, but even after the extensive process of choosing a school, committing has given Spain new motivation, even though many others who commit may slack off. “[Volleyball] is about to be a legitimate job commitment for me, and it’s made [playing volleyball] more competitive for me because I can now see what is in my future,” Spain said.

“Everything I do is somewhat involved in volleyball,” Spain said. “I’ll volunteer in camps or for our nonprofit, but I don’t really do anything that’s not too much outside of volleyball or school during the school year.”

Spain has been back on the court since the beginning of October, after recovering from a torn meniscus, popped bursa, and torn patella tendon.

Her gave her three months to reflect on what volleyball means to her and her future goals.

“I’m a senior, and I feel like it’s my year to be a leader, which I’ve always been excited for,” Spain said.

Leading from the sidelines wasn’t what Spain had in mind, but her downtimes from the injury gave her a new appreciation for her time on the court.

Spain wants to medal at the Junior Olympics with her club volleyball team and win state with TPHS volleyball this year before moving on to play with and take part in the development of the Yale volleyball team program.

“Yale is a program that is on the come-up — it’s been progressively getting better. It wins the Ivy League consistently, but it usually is out of the NCAA tournament by the second round,” Spain said. “I want to get so much better at volleyball so that we become a better program, so I’m really excited about that.”

Spain goes on her official visit to Yale at the end of October and will spend much of her time there getting to know this year’s team and the girls who will be in her class and on the volleyball team with her. While Spain feels “super intimidated” by the more experienced players at Yale, she is excited to meet her future teammates and prove herself to the people who keep her motivated.

by Ellie Ahles

PHOTO BY TRAVIS FELTHAUS/FALCONER

tphsfalconer.com

sports

gabe gmyr varsity football oct. 21, 8:43:32

camera: nikon d7200 lens: nikon 200mm iso: 4000 exp: 1/320 seconds f/stop: f/4 by anton schuh

the falconer

A23

the GRUNION

Friday, October 28, 2016

We’re doing this for you, f***ers

Undecided voters forced to choose between email deleter and sexual predator

photo by travis felthaus/falconer

With the 2016 presidential election just around the corner, thousands of undecided voters are frantically attempting to choose a candidate worthy of their vote. Ronald Green (12), who is voting for his first time, is one of them.

“It’s just so hard to choose between the two – on one hand, you have a previous U.S. Senator and Secretary of State that deleted some of her emails, and on the other hand, you have a Hitler-esque billionaire that

brags about sexually assaulting women and calls Mexicans rapists,” Green said.

“How could anyone decide which one is worse?”

Abigail Stevens (12), who is also an undecided voter, made the mistake of relying on the presidential debates to inform her about the candidates’ policies.

“I thought [Hillary] Clinton seemed a lot more composed,” Stevens said. “But it was reassuring to hear [Donald] Trump say

that no one respects women more than he does, despite several sexual assault claims, including his own, and videos of his vulgar remarks about women’s looks, including his own daughter’s. But, I don’t know, It’s so hard to decide.”

After watching the presidential debates, Greg Hong (‘10), who majored in Broadcast Journalism at University of Southern California with an emphasis in presidential debate moderation, has decided to change his career path.

“Even though I devoted my entire college education to becoming a presidential debate moderator, there is nothing that could convince me to become one anymore,” Hong said. “If the candidates are this bad now, there’s no way in h*** that I could handle listening to adult millennials who think they can run the country in 10 years argue about which immigration hashtag is more dope.”

Despite a near consensus, with the notable exception of Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, that the presidential campaign has been catastrophic, many voters are still undecided about who to vote for. But, Lucy Goode (12) will vote for Republican Trump, primarily because of his “way of partly answering questions.”

“His way of answering questions is very good. He’s very good at it – very good,”

Goode said. “The way he answers them is just good, it’s the best, it’s extremely good.

He’ll definitely defeat ISIS. He’s good – the best.”

Other voters, like Mike Page (12), have completely given up on both Clinton and Trump, and have decided to vote for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

“I just think he’s a funny and relatable man,” Page said. “I mean, I don’t know where Aleppo is either.”

Green and Stevens have also considered voting for third-party candidates, but neither believes he or she knows enough about the candidates to make an informed decision.

“I’m just going to turn on the news on election day and vote for whoever’s name I hear first,” Stevens said. “My dad’s done it for years, and it totally works out.”

Hong, however, urges undecided voters to vote for Clinton “for their own good.”

“Would you rather have a president who has more than enough experience working in politics or a president who is the literal human embodiment of white male privilege?” Hong said. “Please, please, please just vote for Clinton, even if you don’t like her. Please.”

Voter registration closed on Oct. 24 in California, and polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.

by Irene Yu

Students convinced teacher’s retirement is plot by administration

Appallingly realistic Trump Halloween costume so scary it causes accident in student parking lot

According to an email sent on Oct. 24 from principal Rob Coppo, Health teacher Samuel Zhou will retire after teaching at TPHS for 40 years.

“He would never retire like this,” Ashley Lee (11) said. “Besides the fact that he’s pretty old and could have personal issues that influenced his early retirement, he would have told us something first.”

Upon hearing the news, Lee started a petition on Change.org with one of her friends to convince Zhou to return to TPHS. Nathan Daily (12), who has never had Zhou as a teacher, was one out of the 150 students who signed the petition. The petition was then posted into a Facebook group, “Students for Mr. Zhou.”

“It’s so unfair that he retired,” Daily said. “It seems as if he was forced to retire, especially because I heard that he left this cryptic note on the whiteboard.”

The “note,” which was a transcription of the new late-start schedule, was still on the whiteboard on Oct. 25.

“This is a clear indication that Mr. Zhou was forced to retire or even fired,” Tyler Code (11) said. “If anything, this is complete proof that something is going on behind the scenes — we need to avenge his retirement.”

Besides signing an online petition, students also commented on Facebook posts and argued with the substitute teacher to express their feelings about Zhou’s retirement.

“I hope we get to the bottom of this soon,” Daily said. “It’s not like I have anything else going on in my life.”

On Oct. 20 at approximately 10:21 p.m., Harris Brians (11) crashed his car after being scared

by Ashleighye Leighye (12), who was dressed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Brians suffered a concussion and a fractured leg, and is recovering at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. San Diego police were called to the scene of the accident.

“It was like this massive turmeric-orange blob with a yellow furball on top and these creepy little hands,” Brians said. “I don’t know what it was, but I just had to keep my eyes on it.”

Leighye, who described Brians’ injuries as “minor but extremely inconvenient,” has been planning her Halloween costume since July, but did not decide on dressing up as Trump until early October.

“Beyond the thousands of dollars spent on Halloween decorations and all of Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte stock, the holiday’s basic element is being scared,” Leighye said. “Seeing people still use iPhone 5s and those d*** clowns is scary, but neither of those will get me 500+ likes on Instagram.”

After scrolling through Instagram on Oct. 9, the

night of the second presidential debate, Leighye instantly realized what her true fear in life was: Hillary Clinton. Leighye decided to wear the costume to school as a protest Clinton’s “suspicious interest in policy plans and actual details.”

“I finally decided that the best thing to be for Halloween was the man himself, Donald Trump,” Leighye said. “Honestly, Donald is an idol to me.

He’s a billionaire, and he’s going to build a wall.

Plus, he’s got those full lips that both Kylie Jenner and I dream about.”

After receiving “the costume of a lifetime” on Oct. 20, Leighye was too excited to wait until Halloween to cruise the TPHS campus in it. After the final debate, Leighye donned the costume as a contrast to Clinton’s offensive pants suits, appropriate debate behavior and general knowledgability.

The whole experience has left Leighye in a new state of mind.

“You know being in Donald’s skin made me realize the kind of authority he has,” Leighye said.

“He’s just too inspiring for this world. We don’t deserve him.”

by Farhan Hossain and Estelle Kraft

Falconer Starter Pack

Newspaper attempts to be relatable to millenials by running story about memes Students celebrate Senior Ditch Day at home by themselves with their phones Students confuse announcement of teacher’s retirement with annual senior prank Senior gets fake ID so he can vote for Gary Johnson in presidential election This page is entirely fictional. by the Falconer staff