September 2018

Vol. 44, Issue 1, 24 pages

Friday, September 21, 2018

Security cameras, perimeter fencing and visitor ID checks are among the security measures being implemented or planned at TPHS as a part of districtwide changes being made in the wake of multiple mass shootings at schools across the country.

The security measures are being taken in response to a district-wide analysis conducted by an outside safety consultant of the security on each high school campus last spring, which concluded that all the high schools in the district could improve their campus security in a variety of ways.

One way TPHS administration is hoping to address potential security problems, such as making entering campuses more difficult, is by installing security cameras, which have already been added. “[The cameras] are primarily focused on entrances and exits because our main concern is who’s coming and going from campus,” Coppo said.

There are currently about 16 cameras operating on campus, from the side of the G building to key locations such as the entrance to the administration building.

The cameras are live at all time, and their feed can only be accessed by Coppo. According to Coppo, more cameras are likely to be added in the future.

TPHS is the first school in the district to begin using security cameras, and their effectivity will determine whether other high schools in the district will use them.

In addition to security cameras, new fencing, which limits visitors to two entrance points, will be added. The fencing will only allow visitors to enter from the front of the stairs near the attendance office or the ramp near the administration building.

The fencing, which will most likely be made out of a metal such as steel or iron, is planned to have the school logo and decorative elements designed to incorporate it into the current facade, according to Coppo.

In addition to limited access to the campus, TPHS will add a new Raptor system which can look up visitors’ names in a nation-wide database of registered sex offenders and, if cleared, will print out identification badges for the visitors.

“Anybody who comes on campus has to present either a state issued ID or driver’s license, which feeds into the system and automatically prints out a badge for them with

INFOGRAPHIC BY BEA DE OLIVEIRA

their picture,” Coppo said.

The system, which will be put in place as soon as TPHS staff members are trained to use it, will be able to identify visitors who should not be on campus, according to Coppo.

“Certain protocols have got to be put in place,” Coppo said. “So we’ve got to get through all those procedures and who’s going to handle the machine, so [the Raptor system] is not in yet, but it should be in the next few weeks.”

The fencing and Raptor system will be both introduced gradually over the next one or two years.

In addition, two new golf carts were purchased last year as part of the security changes. According to Coppo, campus supervisors are able to get to place quicker with the small vehicles.

“That’s why you see [the campus supervisors] around in the golf carts: it allows them to cover more ground a lot more easily,” Coppo said. “And it is pretty amazing. When I go over the radio, and I say, ‘Is there anybody near the quad,’ and within seconds of me saying that I see two carts all of a sudden come out of nowhere into the quad.”

However, Coppo’s main concern with new security measures is the potential impact on students and the TPHS environment.

“The last thing I want is to [change] Torrey Pines — it’s been this very open and inviting school since 1974. This is still a high school, but there are some logical things we could do to make sure that people are going in the right

areas,” Coppo said.

According to Assistant Principal Robert Shockney, safety is an important concern for the students. “[Administrators] want to be extra safe; we want to do everything we can to ensure our students are safe because if they don’t feel safe, they aren’t learning,” Shockney said.

Mackenzie Ferrell (11) mostly approves of the safety changes noticed by most students, but she said it was unfair to exclude the students from the decision-making process.

“I don’t think it’s fair to make these changes,” Ferrell said. “I do think they should be telling students what they’re planning on doing and [students] should be hearing what they have to say and have input.”

Carly Diehl (11) agrees students should have been consulted about safety on campus.

“If admin were to do anything else to improve, they should ask for more student input before making more changes,” Diehl said.

The third-party company who conducted the security analysis talked to people on campus to find flaws, according to Coppo. “[The analysts] might come here on the weekend to check some things out or after school, but usually they walk around the site,” Coppo said. “They’ll interview specific people in admin, usually our plant supervisor or head custodian, people at the D.O. [and] maintenance guys, just to see the ins and outs of the school.”

Although the security cameras have already been added, the fencing and Raptor system will be both introduced gradually over the next one or two years.

SDUHSD announced the selection of Dr. Robert Haley, former superintendent of Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District, as the new superintendent on Sept. 14, following the departure of former superintendent Eric Dill and relieving Larry Perondi of his duties as interim superintendent.

The position opened in mid-June after Dill left the district for a job in the Santa Clara Unified School District. Following his departure, the search for a new permanent superintendent was taken over by Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA), a San Diego law firm that oversees the selection and interviews of various candidates.

HYA was in charge of the nationwide search for suitable superintendent candidates.

“Applications [were] received and vetted, and preliminary interviews were conducted by HYA,” Beth Hergesheimer, the president of the SDUHSD board, said. “All of this was completed in time for the consultants from HYA to present our board several candidates for consideration as semi-finalists at our August 29 special meeting.”

Throughout September, semi-finalists met with the SDUHSD board and HYA for interviews. Those who were chosen as finalists underwent an intense background check as well as a second round of interviews. Through this process, the board identified Haley as its top candidate for the superintendent job.

HYA gathered information about its

candidates not only through surveys and interviews, but also through community outreach and direct input from district personnel as well.

“I provided, as all the principals did, input to the search firm about the characteristics that we would hope for in a superintendent or that we felt we needed as a district,” Principal Rob Coppo said. “I have the same input that the community would have, because, through forums, everyone was able to have a voice in the issue.”

The district sought candidates who were capable of advancing the district

in academic, financial and community relation fronts. Ideally, the candidate would also have administrative leadership, classroom, and school finance experience.

Haley checked all these boxes, having been a superintendent himself, as well as having experience in school business and funding, special education and curriculum development.

Also, his skill in school budgeting and special education aligned with some of the challenges SDUHSD is facing, making him a strong candidate to address the specific problems of the district.

“We want somebody who really understands our community,” Coppo said.

“We have some sincere concerns about wellness; our students are stressed out and they’re pushing themselves too hard, and we want to make sure a superintendent comes in and appreciates not only our students’ academic, athletic or creative achievements, but also understands that we need to support the whole student body and not just the academic aspect of school.”

The new superintendent was also expected to communicate effectively with school principals and other administrators.

Coppo said those interactions are essential to the success of schools.

“My interactions with [the superintendent] would be anything from the beginning of the year, such as setting the tone and vision for our district, as well as what the instructional focuses are going to be for the year and beyond,” Coppo said.

The superintendent is also present at schools in times of crisis to help with communication between the staff and families and to assist with any problems the school may have.

As interim superintendent while the district searched for a replacement, Perondi, who was selected from a pool of recently retired superintendents who were interested in an interim superintendent position, was responsible for taking care of SDUHSD students and schools. Since the superintendent position was vacated in June, Perondi has provided guidance for the district, which allowed the search for a new superintendent to continue with a leader in place until the permanent superintendent was identified and hired.

“We were impressed with all of the candidates [for the interim superintendent position], but Mr. Perondi’s leadership style seemed to resonate with us the most,” Hergesheimer said. “He has done a stellar job of providing leadership through the summer and as we prepared for and began

a new school year.”

Perdoni was brought on in part to alleviate the “workload of the current administrators,” according to Hergesheimer.

“We have had a lot of new leadership in recent years and felt it would be best to add someone to our staff,” Hergesheimer said.

With the search at its end, Coppo is confident that Haley will be successful in his role.

“Mr. Dill was particularly adept at communication … and would work very closely with me,” Coppo said. “He was great in that way, and I have no doubt the next superintendent will be similar in that capacity.”

Haley will begin work as soon as his contract is finalized.

PHOTO FROM THE DEL MAR TIMES

There are 39 million voters between 18 and 29 who could be at the ballot box creating change in the upcoming midterm elections, but only 10 percent are expected to vote. With the help of #CapGownVote we can change that. Encourage young people to register today: capgownvote.org

High School Graduation Checklist: Get your cap and gown Send out invitations

Register to vote!

Register to vote today at capgownvote.org

art by sam mathe/falcon artist

Currently, California does not require voters to provide a government-issued photo ID when coming to verify their identity at polling stations. Though voters complete registration before coming to the voting site, the lack of request for an ID at the site is still a threat to national security. A law making voter ID mandatory in California would make elections more secure and would be easy to implement, considering the public opinion and the current price to get a photo ID. First, having voter ID is a good idea because currently anyone can come to the voting site and pretend to be someone else, which is also known as voter fraud. This may lead to double voting and voting by those who have no right to do so (in case of undocumented citizens and legal residents, for whom it is illegal to participate in the national elections). For instance, in 2008, the community organizing group Acorn was discovered to be responsible for the collection of 400,000 fraudulent voter registrations, according to the New York Times. Had they not been discovered, a tilt in elections could have happened in the 16 states that do not require voter ID, among which are such populous states like New York, Illinois and California.

Claims of fraud were brought up

by President Donald Trump, following the 2016 presidential elections but were debunked by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, according to the USA Today.

Similar conclusions were reached in the Brennan Center’s (a nonpartisan law institute at New York University School of Law) report “The Truth About Voter Fraud,” authored by Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School. Though the evidence shows

voter fraud never took place, the very fact that fraudulent registrations may show up and a possibility of fraud exists should makes it a good idea to add additional security measures in order to prevent any chance of wrongdoing.

Additionally, support for the voter ID is high among the general public.

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll, 70 percent of likely voters in the U.S. supported the idea that voters should be required to provide photo identification before casting the ballot. This is important because it shows the desire of the people, which is the founding principle of democracy. As people wish to have voter IDs, it would make sense that the government follows the public opinion in order to make elections more secure.

However, there are some issues that make voter IDs not such a good idea. According to the report by Richard Sobel, a Senior Research Fellow at the Roper Center for public opinion research, “The High Cost of ‘Free’ Photo Voter Identification Cards,” which was published by Harvard Law, the national average price to get the voter ID is ranging between $75 and $175, with it possibly reaching to over $1000 if legal fees are taken into account. It also states that “voter IDs are expensive, often prohibitively so.” Although that may be the case, some states provide reduced fees for people with low income. For instance, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles of California, the fee for the state identification card is $30 (which is way less than the national average cited in the Harvard report), and there is a reduced fee of $8 for people who “meet income requirements from a government or public assistance program.” Furthermore, there is no fee for people aged 62 and over. That seems that the price of photo ID is not a factor that would bar people from participating in voting.

Overall, voter ID requirements would not be difficult to implement, considering the price of state photo IDs and how people are already using them every day. These requirements would be an easy way to make American elections more secure without affecting the access to voting.

80% said

19% said

YES NO

*1 percent of people did not know or had no answer

After losing the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump claimed that the election was plagued by widespread fraud and that there were between 3 to 5 million illegal votes.

Since then, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, who served on the Presidential Advisory Commision on Election Integrity before disbandment in January 2018, has debunked this.

Trump continues to express his desire to force U.S. voters to bring identification to polling stations to prevent fraud. However, it is apparent that California has no need for these laws.

Since 2000, the Washington Post found only 31 cases of voter impersonation, discluding errors caused by election workers. This clearly makes the push for reform in the voting process seem overdramatic.

Currently, 34 states require some sort of identification before one can vote, and seven which have stricter regulations stating that only government-issued photo ID can be used. California specifically has no voter ID requirement.

Instating these laws would be detrimental for voting rights and the democratic process. According to a study done by New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, over 21 million U.S. citizens do not have a form of government-issued photo ID. Strict ID regulations negatively affected voter turnout in the most recent presidential election. In Wisconsin, a state that has strict photo ID laws at voting sites, 17,000 voters were deterred from voting due to confusion about the state’s regulations on identification, according to a survey of non-voters conducted by political scientists at the University of Wisconsin. If these laws are passed, many would not be able to exercise their right to vote because they lack the money or other resources to get a governmentissued photo ID. This undermines the premise of democracy by limiting citizens’ right to decide who they want to represent and govern them.

Recently, researchers from the University of California, San Diego began studying primary and general elections between 2008 and 2012.

They found that having stricter ID regulations doubled the gap between whites and Latino and African American voter turnouts. This is likely due to the fact that the majority of people who lack government-issued ID are in minority populations. The Brennan Center study found only eight percent of potential white voters lack proper ID, compared to 25 percent of potential African American voters. This huge disparity further highlights the injustice that comes along with strengthening voter ID laws, as it forces people in minority communities to give up their right to vote.

It should be noted that these regulations also disproportionately affect low income households. The process of acquiring approved voter ID can be costly because it requires people to purchase birth certificates and other related documents in order to even apply for the proper ID, even if the ID itself is said to be free. In an article by Richard Sobel, who wrote a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court decision about voter ID, expenses can range anywhere from $75 to $175 when totaling the price of documents and travel costs. Mandatory ID is not cheap for taxpayers either.

For example, Forbes found that Pennsylvania, taxpayers spent around $4.3 million on free IDs. Many other states that have some form of voter ID requirements have also spent millions for the same reasons.

Voter ID laws are ultimately ineffective in supporting the voting process and pose unnecessarily as a threat. The democratic process may be irrevocably damaged if these laws are implemented, as they unjustly restrict minorities, among other groups, in exercising their right to vote, which itself is extremely un-American.

STAFF EDITORIAL

Portantino’s view of teenage sleep needs is not wrong. Signs of fatigue in the classroom are as glaring as neon-orange traffic cones: it is not uncommon to spot a handful of students dozing off shortly after first or second period has started.

Exhaustion is only one of many detrimental effects sleeplessness, exacerbated by a broken circadian rhythm, wreaks upon its student victims. According to U.S. National Library of Medicine, sleep loss greatly impairs students’ concentration levels throughout the day because their conscious is constantly toeing in between the lines of dreamland and reality. It is not a surprise, then, that a vast number of students are easily distracted, if not fast asleep, during class.

It is no wonder that teenagers are universally characterized as moody and gloomy, when sleep deprivation has been scientifically proven to cause irritability, relationship issues and depression, according to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Teenage stress, anxiety and exhaustion caused by sleep deprivation simply adds to the preexisting mental problems they are inevitably bound to, due to biological imbalances between two brain systems: underdeveloped frontal lobes and the more developed emotional areas of the adolescent brain (the amygdala, the limbic system), according to Dr. Frances Jean, an author and neurology chair at the University of Pennsylvania.

The bill, and the change it proposes. Are not without drawbacks,

like parents’ work schedules, for example.

The average time Americans head to work is as early as 7:308:14 a.m., according to data compiled by American Community Survey, part of the U.S. Census Bureau. Which means that most parents have no choice but to drop their children off at school early in order to make it to work. As a result, even if the bill were passed on time, and students granted an additional hour before school starts, students would glean a fraction of the bill’s projected benefits, assuming they do not drive. However, if the bill covers the entire state of California like it’s supposed to, it would only be logical for the bill to be followed up with another statewide incentive to help compensate for any major complications in school transportation caused by the bill. Most likely, corporations will find ways to modify employees’ worktimes so that parent workers can pick up or drop off their child at school when they need to.

In the worst-case scenario, in which none of those changes were made to parent worktimes, affected students have the opportunity to catch up on any incomplete school work within that extra hour at school. Regardless of where they are, an extra hour remains an extra hour, and the benefits are still there.

SB 328 — and all the benefits Portantino attaches to it — are worth whatever workplace costs it creates. Within the next three years, there may be a golden opportunity right under our noses that could mitigate teenage exhaustion and , in turn, pave way for greater academic excellence: change that is surely not only welcome to students, but also to their hardworking parents and educators.

art by amrita moturi/falcon artist

“Imagine how you would feel if 187 days a year, you had to get up at 3:30 a.m,” California State Senator Anthony Portantino said. According to him, waking up in the dead of the night is the biological equivalent of school’s harrowing effects on teenagers’ natural sleep cycles, which make it hard for them to fall asleep before 11 p.m.

That’s why Portantino and many other doctors, educators and politicians are in support of a new bill — Senate Bill 328 — pending the signature of Governor Jerry Brown, pushing high school start time back an hour to 8:30 a.m. except in rural areas. Passage of SB 328 promises fresh-eyed students who are not so stressed or tired not only during school hours but also throughout the entire day. The bill should be signed into law and implemented by 2021.

Miserable and depressed: those are the exact words Portantino uses to describe teenagers who suffer from sleep loss or irregular sleep patterns, which he says is largely the fault of current school start times.

Editors-in-Chief

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.

3710 Del Mar Heights Road San Diego, CA 92130 PHONE: (858) 755-0125 x2245 FAX: (858) 523-0794 E-MAIL: falconer.ads@gmail.com WEBSITE: www.tphsfalconer.com

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 represent endorsements. The Falconer, an open forum, welcomes signed letters or guest editorials 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.

Assistant Editor-in-Chief Public Relations News Editor Opinion Editor Feature Editors Entertainment Editors Sports Editors Copy Editor Photo Editor Adviser Staff Writers:

Farhan Hossain Angela Liu Kahyun Koh Christy Lam Bea de Oliveira Eve Gross-Sable Colette Chiang Esther Choi Dhathry Doppalapudi Alexei Serguienko Jeremy Chung Daniel Kim Yury Bukhradze David Vapnek Mia Smith Maggie Choy Vlada Demenko Katie Flint

Neha Pubbi Leo Silverman Maya Satchell Kevin Song Maggie Choy Photographers: Christy Lam Anna Jeong Alexei Serguienko Katheryn Yoo Artists: Sam Mathe Seyoung Lee Kristen Ching Amrita Moturi

It doesn’t take much to imagine my first step on the campus where I will attend college.

The excitement will set in and then soon, the nerves. However, beneath all of that, in a small part of my heart, will always be caution and fear. Because, believe it or not, for a 5’3’’ girl with a small physique, college is not safe.

And no, it’s not the people who live in the neighboring town, nor the professors, but the students themselves that pose a threat. One in five female college students are survivors of campus sexual assault, according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation Survey, and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has welcomed assault back to college campuses, right on time for the start of the school year with misguided and frankly, detrimental laws.

DeVos has been working since her appointment to reverse the Obama-era laws regarding sexual assault on college campuses.

Obtained documents in which, DeVos outlines her plans for conduct regarding school actions taken in response to claims of sexual assault, many of which have been extremely controversial because of claims that they protect perpetrators more than victims.

Among her many reforms, DeVos plans to redefine the term “sexual harassment” to mean “unwelcome conduct on the basis of

“Hi! Are you new to Torrey?”

“Yes, I just moved here!”

This conversation repeats itself over and over again every time someone realizes that I may be lost on my way to class or confused about where the counselors’ office is. From experience, I have learned that this conversation as a new student can be awkward and challenging, just as moving to a new place and having to assimilate into a new community can be. However, from this simple conversation, I have been able to form new connections and friendships with amazing people that I never would have met if I had not been lost on my way to class.

TPHS is my third new school since I started kindergarten in Berkeley, Calif. Every place that I have moved to has been unique, and I have continued to enrich my knowledge of the world, moving from one place to the next.

Berkeley, also known as Bezerkeley, still feels like my hometown; it is where I spent my formative years learning how to be respectful to adults, share my toys, play soccer and how to add, multiply and divide. However, once I moved to Southern California in sixth grade, I learned that not everyone has a hybrid car and that people actually buy produce that isn’t organic.

Moving to Laguna Beach was by far the biggest adjustment I have had to make, as I had never lived so close to a beach that had water above 55 degrees. It was helpful to live there during the beginning of middle school, at

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sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school’s education program or activity.” This definition greatly varies from the one imposed by the Obama Administration, which places a broader blanket on the term sexual assault.

Among her proposed changes, there are two that are extremely controversial. The first: universities are no longer responsible for sexual assaults that occur off campus, even if they involve students. And the second: students are now required to report sexual misconduct to specific school officials, whereas according to previous laws, even telling a residential assistant would result in some form of action against the

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location of sexual assault that can be reported to a university, will dramatically decrease the number who can and are willing to report assaults.

It seems that DeVos has decided to tilt the pendulum in favor of the accused. As rights are being stripped away from the victims of assault, they are allowing — no, basically supporting — more sexual assault.

S h e has even gone a s far as to

accused.

Already 90 percent of all campus sexual assault victims do not report the assault, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center; the new guidelines will make the numbers increase.

An assault does not only affect one’s physical state but her mental state as well. It is hard enough to tell a trusted friend or mentor that you have been put through such an awful experience, let alone a “specific individual,” as prescribed by DeVos. This, as well as the new rules about the

allow for victims and alleged assailants to cross-examine each other. This alone may deter sexual assault victims, such as Sage Carson, told USA Today that under Obama-era laws which restricted cross-examination between parties, she dropped her case because she would be questioned by her assailant.

But what makes DeVos’ action even worse, is the fact that this is not the first time that she has meddled with sexual assault laws.

In Jan. 2018, DeVos and her department were sued over her new sexual assault guidelines. The plaintiffs, Equal Rights Advocates, SurvJustice and the Victim Rights Law Center, all represented people who had been sexually assaulted. The suit points out that after the guidelines were implemented there was a decrease in the number of sexual violence survivors seeking assistance, as well as an alarming trend of universities not responding to sexual assault claims, according to the New York Times.

What is sad about this situation, is that not only is DeVos a woman, and should understand the fear of sexual assault, but that she is repeating a past action that was met with intense opposition.

It is embarrassing to have such a powerful woman represent women so poorly. I’d like to think that my government would have my back when it came to such a pressing issue.

Sexual assault is not an issue that is viewed differently by the republican or democratic party, but one that everyone agrees is an imminent problem that must be resolved. No person who sexually assaults another should be able to avoid the consequences, and DeVos has allowed for just that.

Hopefully, another group will come out and stop her plan. Hopefully, we can make sure that all who are assaulted can be heard so when the next set of college freshmen step foot on their campuses, they will not have to feel the fear that if they are assaulted, they will be ignored.

a time when everyone is trying to become their “true” selves. Laguna is a very tolerant city, and thankfully, I found it very easy to be a scrawny black girl from Berkeley there.

Newport Beach, where I moved in eighth grade, will forever be a special place to me. The stereotypical Newport girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, 20 designer purses, and her own Range Rover waiting in the garage is not the type of girl I was used to seeing everyday. I took Newport head on and ended up with some of the most gracious and supportive friends I could have ever hoped to find. All of the places where I have lived in have had one thing in common: they all were in their own unique ways a bubble.

Each bubble was a tight-knit community full of people who could not imagine a life outside of Berkeley or Laguna Beach or Newport Beach or now, Del Mar. A bubble might be defined by politics or geographic location, or by a certain level of conspicuous consumption. All of these bubbles may appear difficult to live in ,as I normally made up the two percent of the black population in the places in Southern California.

Going to a school with people who are not your race may be nerve-racking for most, but this in balance in representation has exposed me to new cultures and a range of new people.

Nonetheless, living in a bubble is not all bad; it allows an individual to enjoy the positive aspects of the bubble, but it can isolate one from other experiences and perspectives.

I have found that one of the most significant benefits of being a new student at a school, and

a new member of a “bubble,” is that living in different places has allowed me to expand my worldview and consider ideas, values and even fashions that I never would have encountered.

In this respect, while many young people may hope to go to school and find a career in the area in which they grew up, my experiences have led me to be more open to the possibility of living outside California in the future.

Between all of these moves, the most difficult part was feeling “the new kid syndrome,” —that is, the desire to just fit in so that I could make new friends in this new place, yet still try to stay true to myself.

Over the years, my interests have vastly changed. Living in Newport, I was exposed me to different forms of fashion and music, leading me to develop my own style and preferences.

Living in Laguna, allowed me to discover the sport of beach volleyball which would lead to my love for playing indoor volleyball. Living in Berkeley, helped me become someone who is comfortable in an urban environment

and concerned about current events and social justice, which led to my involvement in journalism and to join the Falconer!

Over the past year, I have discovered the most authentic parts of myself, and I have tried to encourage those aspects of my life and personality to blossom, which has enabled me to become a person that I could have only aspired to be when I was younger. My only hope as I enter this new community is that I continue on my journey to becoming the best version of myself that I can be.

I can’t wait to see how I will grow as a person in this new chapter of my life as I meet a myriad of new people who could impact my life in a multitude of ways.

Some view change as a negative thing, but relocating has encouraged me to grow as a person, and to aspire to and achieve goals that I would not have even imagined possible, if I hadn’t lived in these various California bubbles, each of which has enabled me to be able to see the world and myself with new eyes.

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For many TPHS students, the only limit on SAT and ACT prep is how much they are willing to spend, with some courses and tutors costing up to thousands of dollars.

It’s no surprise, then, that research by the College Board, the company that owns, publishes and proctors the SAT, found that the higher a student’s household income, and the more college degrees his or her parents had, the better he or she performed.

Replacing the SAT and ACT with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) scores, as the University of California is currently considering, would reduce the socioeconomic roadblocks

art by seyoung lee/falcon artist

From its very beginnings, Korean pop music, or K-pop, has always had America in mind. But with its homogenous, cookie-cutter “flower boys” with identical pretty faces and dyed hair, and girl groups with painfully optimistic names like “Rainbow” and “Wonder Girls,” K-pop has struggled to establish itself in the diverse, rapidly-changing American soundscape. Only recently has it scored a victory with the Bangtan Boys (BTS), a seven-member boy band that reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Artist 100 chart in June and has returned to the top this month with the release of its new album, “Love Yourself: Answer.” The album features a collaboration with American rapper Nicki Minaj on an alternative version of the band’s new song, “Idol.” As expected, there are the usual squabbles in the YouTube comments section of the song’s music video over whether or not the collaboration was a success, but they’re all failing to see the big picture: as BTS reigns as the top musical act in the U.S., it is now such a powerful force that it has secured a spot in the American music industry regardless of what its music is like. However, as BTS becomes more involved with American music, it should continue to collaborate with American artists to create opportunities for the K-pop genre’s globalization but be careful not to let these interactions alter their unique work.

With the advent of social media came the opportunity for K-pop to bypass traditional music establishment pathways such as features on radio stations, which are difficult for

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inherent to current standardized tests.

The SBAC, taken from 3rd to 8th grade and then again at the end of junior year, is a standardized test tied to Common Core standards that allows the state to compare scores from different schools. Unlike the SAT and ACT, the SBAC is free, and testing is split up over two to three class periods, giving students time to rest between sections.

Money buys power in the political process, and if the SBAC were to become a fixture of UC admissions, it’s not hard imagining parents from affluent communities like Carmel Valley successfully lobbying for changes to the SBAC that mirror the SAT, such as the option to cancel scores, retake the test and curve results. Test prep companies would likely roll out SBAC classes.

Even if those hypotheticals came to pass, the SBAC still has another major advantage over the SAT and ACT: its alignment to the school curriculum.

Whereas the SBAC is written to assess mastery of Common Core standards, the SAT and ACT are not aligned to school curriculum, and benefit from graphing calculator usage, a skill schools

international musicians to access given the lack of openness to foreign music in the U.S.. Due to these restrictions, it’s clear that the internet or collaborations with notable American artists are the lifeblood of K-pop’s globalization.

The image Korea wants to present at the moment is one of a country that’s a fully integrated part of global culture. However, this vision is far harder to achieve for a musical genre with no notable global base other than K-pop singer PSY’s 2012 hit “Gangnam Style,” which rose to fame more for its frivolity than anything else. For serious K-pop artists, it takes more than a silly dance and satire to become respected artists in a competitive global industry.

That’s where BTS comes in: to trailblaze a path for other K-pop groups to join BTS in establishing the genre in the U.S..

While the two musical worlds have crossed paths in the past, these interactions have been few and far between. Most collaborations thus far involved obscure artists, and even those with notable singers failed to take off in either industry; K-pop idol G-Dragon’s collaboration with Missy Elliott on “Niliria” in 2013 peaked at a measly No. 30 position on Billboard’s K-Pop Hot 100 chart in Korea and failed to appear on American music charts altogether.

The biggest obstacles in K-pop’s path to globalization, ironically, is its fans, who fear the loss of K-pop’s cultural richness.

The main concern fans have with the way Americans have embraced BTS and K-pop is the possible westernization of K-pop music. While BTS is wildly popular internationally, its music remains a key part of Korean culture. And, as many have noted, including K-pop entertainment companies who have their eyes set on expansion to the U.S., K-pop artists struggle to kick off a career in U.S. if they don’t commit to writing songs in English, taking up an American social media presence, and essentially Westernizing their personas.

the falconer

are not required to teach. Familiarity with test questions is partly why so many students pay for prep courses. While privileged students can spend their summers studying for the test, their low income counterparts cannot always afford expensive prep programs. Additionally, they are often required to contribute to their household income, meaning that instead of studying, they spend their vacations working.

Furthermore, the monopoly the SAT and ACT hold over access to higher education is concerning, because privatization incentivizes money making over access to education and opportunity.

As income inequality worsens and the cost of living skyrockets, college degrees are crucial to attaining financial success. It should be the government’s priority to ease the pathway to colleges, especially public ones like the UC system.

The socioeconomic

disadvantages around the SAT and ACT have driven some schools to become “test optional,” meaning standardized test scores are not required for admissions. Even prestigious, highly selective schools have found themselves jumping onto the test-optional bandwagon. The University of Chicago, ranked 3rd on U.S. News’ Best Colleges List, recently made that decision for the 2018-19 admissions cycle.

However, in the absence of standardized tests, GPA becomes an applicant’s only qualitative academic metric. As the college

However, in “Idol,” there’s no evidence of Westernization. BTS’s passionate vocals are as strong as ever, and there is a very clear difference between BTS’s voice, a wholesome celebration of loving yourself with Korean lyrics, and Minaj’s verses, which cockily flaunt her success in English.

Even with a strong Korean

art by kristen ching/falcon artist

A9

admissions process has become more competitive, the pressure on schools to hand out As has increased grade inflation. Joint research by the College Board and the University of Georgia found that in 2016, 47 percent of high schoolers had an A average, compared to only 39 percent in 1998. Researchers doubt the change is reflective of rising academic skill because SAT scores fell during the same period, from an average of 1026 to 1002 on a 1600 scale.

Even worse, the prevalence of grade inflation was highest in private schools and public schools with wealthier and whiter students.

Not only are GPAs unreliable when comparing students who attended different schools from across the nation, the discrepancies caused by racial and economic privilege hurt low income and applicants of color.

Discussions about adding the SBAC to the UC application process are still preliminary. The SAT and ACT would still be required for Californians applying to non-UC schools, and for any UC applicants who do not reside in the 12 states that currently administer the SBAC. Still, any move toward making the college application process more equitable

is welcome.

The UCs are among the most prestigious and renowned universities in the world, and they are in a position to influence other colleges to follow their lead.

vibe, “Idol” sparked an enormous international response: the attention generated by BTS’s collaboration with Minaj on “Idol” propelled it to the biggest YouTube 24-hour debut of all time, garnering 45 million views and surpassing Taylor Swift’s previous record of 43.5 million.

As K-pop’s ambassador to the West, what BTS has to gain from these collaborations is much larger than its own success. By collaborating with more American artists, BTS can create a true platform for K-pop as a respected musical genre to flourish in the U.S., making K-pop more than just one band in a sea of Western rappers, singers and artists.

In fact, BTS has already begun ushering K-pop into the Western world. The standard for K-pop groups has transformed in the wake of BTS’s immense success; contrary to the conventional perfectly styled uniformity of groups, BTS established itself as a band of seven unique singers, each with his own appearance, voice and personality.

And, especially in the U.S., where individualism is applauded, this sets BTS apart. In turn, this has inspired the creation of bands that embrace individuality rather than conformity to the classic standards of beauty and elegance that defined K-pop in the past.

So does BTS really need more Western validation by working with American artists? BTS doesn’t need more recognition. K-pop as a genre has much more room for globalization, and the attention generated from BTS’s collaborations with notable American artists are a major way for K-pop to establish itself globally. BTS just needs to preserve the unique Korean flavor that defines its music. While K-pop groups of the past would have readily changed their identities to gain access to Western audiences, BTS will continue to perform on its own terms.

If that includes collaborations with American superstars, all the better.

NO BACKUP PLAN[ET] Read about the rise of mosquitoes on A14.

78.6

record temperature of La Jolla ocean waters in August 2018 in Farhenheit; the warmest temperature in 102 years

2 billion the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean is increasing by 2 billion tons per year

o

o c

30% 25%

1.62

percent decrease in body size of fish for every one degree Celsius increase in water temperature

average surface temperature increase on the planet since the late 19th century, in Farhenheit

percent loss of shell growth in mussels by the end of the century

8 number of inches that sea level has risen in the last century, increasing the risk for flooding and other natural disasters

30

percent increase in ocean acidity in the past 200 years — faster than any known change in 50 million years

INFORMATION FROM NASA, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, INFORMATION TAKEN FROM NASA, NOAA, SMITHSONIAN AND NBC NEWS/INFOGRAPHIC BY COLETTE CHIANG

T S U J L L A E WE’R

R E H T O H C A TO E ay (11)

Neilah Solid

Smile plastered in place and head held high, they get their work done. On the outside, people see someone who’s put-together, organized and successful. But even as they accept compliments and rewards for their hard work, there’s a nagging doubt inside of them. They don’t feel like they deserve everything they’ve accomplished. They feel like frauds.

Imposter phenomenon, also known as imposter syndrome, is defined as “inaccurate self-assessment that may affect receptivity to feedback,” according to the National Institutes of Health.

People ranging from celebrities to CEOs have spoken about their experiences with imposter phenomenon, which about 70 percent of the US population can relate to at one time or another, according to a study done by psychologists in the 1970s.

Dr. Susan Tapert, a psychologist who has worked with victims of imposter phenomenon and specializes in the development of the adolescent brain, said “[people with imposter syndrome] tend to overestimate the abilities of others, but underestimate their own abilities.”

Tapert, who has worked at UCSD’s psychology department for over 15 years, has worked with people with imposter syndrome from many different backgrounds.

“Folks from minority groups can be more vulnerable [to experiencing imposter syndrome], especially when they’re in areas where they’re underrepresented,” Tapert said. “But it’s really important to remind yourself that you absolutely deserve to be [successful and accomplished]. You earned it. You’re there because you’re qualified and smart and talented.”

Spencer Schroff (12), known for his passion for physics and math, among other subjects, says that imposter phenomenon can be influenced by racial backgrounds.

“Maybe you’re treated differently because of the color of your skin, and that can have an especially potent effect on feeling like an imposter,” Schroff said. “On top of the self-doubt, you have external doubt coming into the picture about your race.”

Schroff advises ignoring any negative influences on selfconfidence or ability.

“You can have a mentality where instead of looking at the stereotypes that may surround you as a burden, you can look at them as something to defy or move above or prove wrong,” Schroff said. “That way you can use that negative energy to do something constructive or break the status quo and move the views of society away from the thing that could have pinned you down.”

Nadia Farjood (‘09), a Harvard graduate who majored in government, has previously worked at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and Political Parity, a non-partisan, non-profit organization aiming to increase representation of women and women of color. When Farjood worked at Harvard as a counselor, she often encountered people suffering from the effects of imposter phenomenon.

“I think it’s very common for women and people of color to attribute their success to luck and not actually own up to all of the tremendous contributions that they’ve made to get to where they are,” Farjood said.

Farjood herself has suffered from imposter phenomenon before.

“There can be this overwhelming phobia that you don’t deserve the spots for the seat that you sit in,” Farjood said. “I felt that phobia, or fear, extremely pronounced throughout my entire academic tenure, especially at a place like Harvard.”

Tapert noticed that imposter phenomenon is more common among females than males.

“Sometimes women tend to have a little bit worse selfesteem than men,” Tapert said. “A lot of females who get into advanced training like graduate school or medical school suffer from imposter syndrome. [Females] feel like they just got [into medical school] because they were lucky or because [those schools] needed more women to fill the slots.”

Although imposter phenomenon is thought to be more common in the workplace or at university graduate programs, high school students can experience it as well.

Neilah Soliday (11) has felt like an imposter in her AP Studio Art class at times last year. There, Soliday constantly felt less talented than her peers in her artwork, though their artistic style contrasted from hers to begin with.

“I feel like every Torrey Pines student could relate to [imposter phenomenon] because we’re all just constantly comparing ourselves to each other,” Soliday said.

Schroff agrees that imposter phenomenon is common in students who, according to him, should prioritize learning over competition or grades.

“I think [imposter phenomenon] mainly comes from placing too much emphasis on how much you know and not how much you’re learning,” Schroff said. “Because that’s what should be important — it’s how much you’re learning.”

On the other hand, Schroff’s imposter phenomenon stems from an internal conflict, which comes from pushing himself past his academic limits.

of people experience imposter syndrome in their lifetimes According to a 2018 study surveying undergraduate students, women tended to have higher feelings of imposter syndrome than men.

Men with high feelings of imposter syndrome were more affected by harsh feedback and responded with less effort and a worse performance, while women with high feelings of imposter syndrome responded by working harder and a better performance.

In 2013, researchers surveyed students of ethnic minorities and concluded that Asian-Americans were more likely than AfricanAmericans or LatinoAmericans to experience imposter syndrome.

A study done by the two researchers who discovered imposter syndrome showed that mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and lack of self-confidence are correlated with imposter phenomenon.

“I’ve felt a doubt about how good I actually am at math or science or whatever because I get test scores and I feel like the test scores say that I’m better than I actually may be at the subject,” Schroff said. “You create an expectation for yourself. And then when you feel like you’re not able to reach that high expectation anymore, you start to close up.”

Parents, directly or indirectly, can factor into the pressure which accompanies imposter syndrome, according to Soliday.

“For me, I think that I could never achieve [what my parents have] without feeling some sort of guilt or feeling of fraudulence, because I’ve had so many more opportunities,” Soliday said. “If I build myself up anywhere close to that — to the way [my father] has — I’ll never feel like I did as much as him or as much as the people around me who didn’t have these opportunities that we have living where we do.”

In addition to being role models, parents can unintentionally pressure their children into feeling inadequate.

“I think that in families where a student feels this kind of pressure, it is really detrimental to the parent-child relationship,” Soliday said. “I mentioned that I feel like a lot of the pressures I put on myself, I reflect on and push them to my parents. And I kind of imagine in a way that that’s what they expected of me, but my parents are so supportive.”

Pressure can also be instigated by competition among

friends and peers for jobs and grades.

“That competitive nature here [at TPHS] has obviously been really detrimental,” Soliday said.

Mental health is also closely related to imposter phenomenon, which is correlated to feelings of insecurity and guilt. According to Tapert, imposter phenomenon is correlated with serious issues: those with imposter phenomenon have been found to be more likely to commit suicide.

“People who tend to suffer from imposter phenomenon are at increased risk of having suicidal thoughts,” Tapert said.

Among many other things, imposter syndrome shines light on the importance of mental health, especially because the phenomenon is largely tied to underlying guilt and emotional instability within victims.

However, there are various ways to cope if someone has imposter phenomenon.

“Talk to somebody about it and try to be really honest about it. A lot of people have very similar feelings,” Tapert said.

According to Tapert, for those negatively affected by imposter phenomenon, it is important to realize that their success in life is not due to luck or chance, but by their talent, skill and perseverance. Smile plastered and head held high, they achieve goals in life and ignore the little insecurities; their success is of their own making and no one can say otherwise.

by Esther Choi

Information Provided by Digest, Wiley Online Library, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Research Gate

The crowd roars as the ball whizzes. Falcons and Tritons score touchdowns, adding point after point to the board, and the numbers under “Visitor” and “Home” escalate. The score is even, but then the visitors pull ahead. The timer counts down from 11 seconds, then ten seconds, nine… Forced to make a quick decision, the coach looks over at where Ted Merrifield (12) is watching the game closely, waiting in anticipation as the final seconds of his first home football game pass by. This final play could mean victory for the Falcons or result in them losing the first game of the season in an intense back and forth battle with San Clemente. However, the choice is clear. Without a second to lose, Merrifield dashes onto the field, knowing that the fate of his team rests in his field goal; he stretches out his leg a n d punts the ball into the air. Time seems to come to a still for an instant, as all eyes are on the ball as it goes through the goalpost and lands on the turf with a soft thud.

Then, the crowd cheers, and the scoreboard flickers to 47-45. He’s done it. He’s won the game.

As a three-sport athlete, Merrifield is used to being in the spotlight and under pressure not only in football, but soccer and lacrosse as well. Since he was about five years old, he has been playing sports — soccer is his first love.

“I’ve just been playing it for the longest [ t i m e ] , ” Merrifield said. “I’ve been able to develop my game for 10 or 11 years now.”

For other athletes, playing one sport is already a big time commitment — playing three is unthinkable. But each sport has a special meaning to Merrifield.

“My brother played lacrosse in college, my dad was actually a kicker in college for football and my sister played lacrosse,” Merrifield said. “I’d definitely say that I got [my passion for sports] from my siblings and parents.”

That’s what drove him to TPHS, a “bigger, public, sports powerhouse school,” in his freshman year.

Since his first year at TPHS, when he joined the freshman soccer team, Merrifield has met some of his best friends on fields which forge close relationships and camaraderie.

“That team-teammate relationship is something that you can’t create by just hanging out with someone; you put a lot of trust in someone else when you’re on the field,” Merrifield said.

This stems from practicing for hours together, especially now that he plays varsity in all three sports. And because his schedule is packed, Merrifield has learned how to effectively manage his time, such as by getting homework done whenever he has a free moment. He also has to work around schedule conflicts because practice times often overlap.

“I’ll have to work all the times out,” Merrifield said. “Sometimes I’ll have to miss Wednesday soccer practice and be late to the Tuesday and Thursday ones [in order to go to football practice],” This time management and hard work is what makes scoring goals and winning games much more meaningful, according to him. But that success doesn’t come easily.

In addition to working out and having practice, playing soccer means he often has games on Saturday and Sunday, some of which are out of town.

“We have games in Arizona or Nevada on a weekend, or in LA, so that normally costs me the weekend,” Merrifield said.

Still, Merrifield is motivated by a challenge, regardless of what it is, — like the marathon he ran last June, despite having only two months to train.

“I wouldn’t say that I like running, but it was the challenge that I liked,” Merrifield said. “I was running for soccer,

and so I extended my runs for training for the marathon and got up to 16 or 17 miles a week.”

After running an average of 40 miles a week, though never actually doing 26 miles straight, the day of the marathon finally arrived.

“I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and drove downtown, and all of a sudden, there’s thousands of people out on the street; I started feeling really good,” Merrifield said. “Once I hit about mile 20, my legs just started giving out, and I was thinking, ‘This is a tough race,’ but then mile 24 came around and that meant only two more miles to go, so I pushed through. The last 500 feet, I got my last burst of energy and sprinted as hard as I could.”

Crossing the finish line was one of the coolest experiences ever.

“My parents came to watch me, and the first words I said to them were, ‘I’m not going to be doing that ever again,’” Merrifield said. “I was just so exhausted, but I definitely will [run a marathon] again.”

Until then, in the rare moments when Merrifield isn’t on the field or working out, he enjoys the lifestyle of a Californian, which includes indulging in two things: burritos and the beach.

He considers himself a big “foodie,” especially for California burritos and sushi. And when he’s not out buying food with his friends, he’s likely on the beach.

“I’ll go surf; that’s another one of my hobbies,” Merrifield said. “[It] definitely releases stress; me and my friends call it ‘saltwater therapy.’”

In addition to his outdoor hobbies, Merrifield created a nonprofit organization in 2017, called The Other Fellow, dedicated to finding employment opportunities to the homeless people.

“Every month or so, I contact businesses all around San Diego and get in contact with their [human resources] recruiters,” Merrifield said.

He organizes around six of those recruiters come down to a venue where they have a job fair offering interviews and applications to homeless men and women, trying to get them experience in interviewing and other aspects of employment.

“We’ve gotten a few guys jobs, which is awesome,” Merrifield said. “I never thought we’d get that far, but we did. It’s really cool to see the results and make a difference in people’s lives.”

In the future, while he wants to continue playing soccer, Merrifield is interested in pursuing a career on Wall Street.

If the opportunity presented itself, he’d look into playing soccer professionally; right now, he is looking at soccer recruiting, being unsure about which division he wants to play in.

Looking back on his fond TPHS memories with teachers that “have all definitely made an impact on [him],” late night homework sessions and many memorable games and moments, Merrifield can’t imagine how his life would be without sports. Sports are his passion, and he “wouldn’t have it any other way.”

by Colette Chiang and Katie Flint photo by david vapnek/falconer

If you thought that the past few months in Southern California strangely resembled a sticky, East Coast summer, you weren’t imagining it. It wasn’t just the humidity — it was the mosquitoes.

Black salt marsh mosquitoes (also known as aedes taeniorhynchus) have invaded Del Mar from nearby breeding grounds and are rapidly reproducing, according to Chris Conlan, a supervising vector ecologist with San Diego County Vector Control.

Conlan said that those mosquitoes are particularly special because they are the only ones in the area that can breed in salt water and have chosen to repopulate in salt marshes like the Peñasquitos and San Dieguito lagoons.

Excessively high tides are helping the mosquitoes out, leading to numbers not seen here since 2015.

“Those tidal waters push into areas, and then the tide recedes and the water holds into those spots for a bit,” Conlan said. “That offers those mosquitoes an opportunity to mature and become adults before the water percolates into the ground.”

He also said that the increased temperatures brought on by climate change lead to faster breeding time, and that, although he’s “no climate change expert,” rising sea levels naturally result in more salt water deposits left by the tides.

According to a case study in the Journal of Coastal Research, salt marshes are threatened by coastal squeeze — a phenomenon in which the rising sea level erodes the seaward edge of the salt marsh, but the salt marsh is prevented from moving inland due to naturally rising land and is “squeezed” between the two. As it reduces the size of a salt marsh, coastal squeeze also reduces its biodiversity, decreasing the amount of fish that consume mosquito larvae.

However, Conlan said that salt marsh restoration efforts often help the mosquitoes thrive, as they did in the San Dieguito lagoon. What was once less than an acre of breeding area is now several acres, and, despite hatching and developing in northern marshes, the insects have found themselves in Del Mar through their ability to fly multiple miles.

While black salt marsh mosquitoes are aggressive and persistent biters, Conlan said that those in San Diego are not transmitting illnesses to humans.

However, they have been known to transmit heartworm to dogs, according to an insect profile from the University of Florida.

The larvicide drops that the Vector Control Program conducts are aimed at freshwater mosquitoes, according to Conlan, and prevent mosquito pupuas from developing properly; while Conlan said it’s been working, “working” is subjective.

“When we get an increase of complaints from the area, it genuinely means like, ‘Yeah, there’s too many,’” Conlan said. “Something is going on and we need to take a closer look to see if we can fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

by Eve Gross-Sable

açaí what you did there...

Everbowl is a new addition to the ever-growing food scene in Carmel Valley, and as a newbie to acai bowls I decided to wake up my taste buds and give Everbowl a try.

As I entered the restaurant, the server warmly greeted me and was patient while I looked at the menu. This store is famous for their acai bowls: an acai blend topped with granola, fresh fruits and drizzled toppings. Different fruit bases like blended acerola, graviola or pitaya are also offered, along with smoothies, salads and oatmeal.

After glancing at the menu, the first item I decided to try was their signature dish, the Everbowl ($8). It

PHOTO BY KATHERYN YOO/FALCONER

As someone who has lived in California for many years now, it would be impossible for me to have missed out on the acai craze. These South American berries have found their way onto the menus of many cafes and juice bars along the West Coast, such as Nekter in our very own Del Mar Highlands.

While the outside parking lot was teeming with students fresh out of school, Nekter was relatively empty and small in size, making me question whether the juice bar could handle a large number of customers. But the interior proved to be clean and bright, promoting the aesthetic of a quality cafe.

The menu was not extensive: it was mostly made up of different smoothies, juices and acai bowls. Out of interest in seeing what they had to offer for acai, I ordered three different options and was excited to see which would be the best. This is especially relevant considering the cost: $8.35 each; as such, I expected them to be worth the price.

The first bowl I tried was the Acai Banana Berry Bowl. It was topped with bananas, strawberries, blueberries and granola. Right off the bat, I noticed

has a classic acai base and is topped with a generous amount of granola, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, grapes, goji berries and, of course, agave.

When the bowl came out five minutes later, I was excited to take the first bite. It completely melted in my mouth with the right texture: smooth, creamy and thick. The fruits and granola mixed with the acai really well, making every bite sweet and fruity.

However, I have to say that too much agave was added, taking away the bowl’s natural flavor.

Next, I tried the Dream Smoothie ($8), another popular item on the menu. It’s made of peanut butter, spinach, acai, blueberries, cacao, bananas and chocolate almond milk. Typically, I only drink smoothies made of fruit, but once I saw the Dream Smoothie’s ingredients, I had second thoughts about it. Again, this smoothie once again went above and beyond my expectations. The smoothie was very refreshing, with all of the ingredients blending very well. I thought that the peanut butter and banana would make the smoothie way too sweet, but I was wrong. I have to thank the server for recommending

everbowl

12750 carmel country plaza #A112, san diego, ca 92130

how fresh and aromatic the fruit was. Each bite gave me a perfect blend of the toppings and the cold texture of acai on the bottom. That being said, it should be noted that after I had gotten through the initial layer of fruit, the actual acai blend beneath was basically flavorless. It was as though it was just a carrier for the sliced fruit on top, and because of that, I lost interest in finishing the bowl.

Despite disappointment with my first bowl, I moved on to the next one: the Dragonfruit Bowl. This time, the acai was paired with, reflective of the bowl’s name, dragonfruit, as well as bananas, strawberries, coconut, pineapple and granola. The acai blend was also a much brighter pink compared to the first bowl.

I picked up on the pineapple and coconut flavors, and found that they perfectly complemented each other.

Not only that, the blend could be enjoyed by itself, as the dragonfruit created an interesting sweet and sour flavor. Overall, it was an improvement over the last bowl and partially redeemed Nekter in my eyes.

Finally, I got to the Acai Peanut Butter Bowl, and while someone may wince at that combination,

nekter

3435 del mar heights road, suite d9, san diego, ca 92130

Smack dab in the middle of the Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch, right next to the always-crowded Starbucks, lies the small little restaurant Vitality Tap, known for its healthy food alternatives with an assortment of uncommon fruits and vegetables.

When I stepped in, a cold blast of air conditioning and the scent of fresh produce hit me immediately, which was refreshing coming from outside, especially with the recent smoldering hot summer weather.

The restaurant itself is pretty small, with two tables, the whole kitchen, a bathroom and a shelf of assorted snacks and beverages filling a space half the size of a TPHS classroom. There was music playing,

PHOTO BY DAVID VAPNEK/FALCONER

this smoothie because I would have never tried it in a million years.

Finally, I sampled two Whatever Bowls ($8), for which you pick your own ingredients. For the first one, I chose an acai base, granola, almond milk and all of the fruit toppings possible besides goji berries. I ended up disappointing myself because of the handful of fruits I added in the bowl, as they made the bowl much too sour. For the second one, I got a pitaya base, coconut water, dried mangoes, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, agave and granola.

Once I took a scoop from the bowl, the taste of the pitaya impressed me. I also got a smaller variety of fruits, which made the flavor of the acai bowl more natural. I was more than thrilled with this bowl.

Overall, Everbowl is what you expect it to be — a great place to get your fruit craving satisfied. It’s perfect for a quick on-the-go breakfast or a snack with your friends. Although it might be tempting to make regular visits to Everbowl, be careful, because your wallet will certainly feel the consequences.

by Maggie Choy

but while I was inside I rarely heard it because the sounds of blenders and click-clack of other kitchen utensils mostly drowned it out. This definitely is somewhere you should always order your food to-go.

After I walked in, I ordered the Almond Butter Acai Bowl with granola, strawberries and bananas ($9.25) along with the Stay Classy Smoothie ($8.75).

Within a couple of minutes, both were ready.

I began with the Almond Butter Acai Bowl, which looked visually stunning with the bananas stacked in a nice half circle and the strawberries filling out the rest of the cup. My first spoonful was amazing: the coolness of the acai paired with the sweetness of the strawberries and bananas made a great combination. As those flavors faded, a nice aftertaste of the granola along with the almond butter completed the arc of flavor. It was really impressive, and I could see why the place is usually crowded. The only real downside I found with the bowl was that as I kept eating, only the acai was left, and it didn’t have that much flavor by itself. But overall, I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed the bowl.

vitality tap

5980 village way, san diego, ca 92130

it worked very well. In addition to bananas, strawberries and granola, this bowl also had green apple, reminiscent of the fruit’s classic pairing with peanut butter. The nutty flavor blended well with the acai and fruit, making for a unique, tasty concoction.

I finished the whole thing, as it was a perfect blend of flavors that made me excited to finish it.

While none of the bowls were inherently bad, the first bowl was too bland, and the second one paled in comparison to the final one. The only one worth the price was the Acai Peanut Butter Bowl, as it was the only one that left a lasting impression.

by Vlada Demenko

PHOTO BY ANNA JEONG/FALCONER

My next item was the cleverly-named Stay Classy Smoothie. I could tell they weren’t as concerned with the presentation of this smoothie, as it was just a sickly green color that came from the kale. Once I took my first sip, the strong taste of kale and spinach hit my taste buds hard. It was a bit overpowering to be honest, and not what I was expecting. However, as the taste of kale faded, a lovely hint of sweetness from the pineapple along with the nice, refreshing aftertaste of the orange juice rounded out each sip nicely. The thickness of the smoothie was perfect: not too viscous like a milkshake you can barely get up the straw, but also not as thin as water.

Overall, I really enjoyed the acai bowl with each spoonful and its complex flavors blending together blissfully, making it actually worth its price. However, I had a hard time handling the strong flavor of the kale and spinach, despite the aftertaste that sold me on the smoothie in the end.

I could definitely see myself coming by and getting something to go more often.

by Leo Silverman

Paul Feig’s “A Simple Favor” left me in giggles, but I can’t exactly pinpoint why. It’s a weird movie. I loved it.

The film, based on the novel of the same name by Darcey Bell, follows Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a thirty-something, who records homemaking tutorials for suburban moms like herself, on her journey to solve the disappearance of her best friend, Emily (Blake Lively). They really aren’t best friends — simply each other’s only friend and therefore best friends by default — and have only known each other for about a month before things go awry. It’s details like that make the movie because, while the plot itself is too wild and wacky ever to occur in reality, the characters and background are not.

Stephanie is “that mom” — the one who volunteers for everything at her son’s preschool, seems to have everything under control at all moments of the day and owns a helium tank. The other moms (and one dad) talk behind her back partially out of jealousy and also because they have nothing better to do. That part is familiar.

The revenge movie “Peppermint” has no uncommon elements to it, and the plot is overwhelmed with clichés that make the movie dull and redundant. In effect, there is no unique color in this bland excuse of an action thriller.

Jennifer Garner plays Riley North, a bank employee whose husband, Chris (Jeff Hephner), runs an autoshop. They live in an ordinary house with their daughter, Carly (Cailey Fleming).

The movie hits the ground running with an intense fight between Riley and a man whom she repeatedly asks if he remembers her. After her repetitive inquiries are over, she murders him in cold blood and stuffs him in the trunk.

A flashback then portrays Riley and her daughter constantly having to endure the condescension of Carly’s school’s rich and snobby kids and their parents. One parent in particular is especially cruel to Riley and Carly.

The movie then goes on to introduce Chris, whose friend lures him into a scheme to rob drug dealers. Chris backs out at the last minute out of fear of things getting out of hand and potentially threatening the well-being of his family. But word has gotten out to the drug kingpin Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba) that Chris is part of the arrangement to rob him, even though Chris has not taken part in anything yet.

So is the part where Emily is the mom who can rarely be seen on school grounds and whose mysterious life intimidates everyone around her.

Their Connecticut suburb could be described as “great for raising kids.”

What’s interesting about all of that is that instead of giving off eerie vibes, it’s funny. Perhaps the most consistent source of comic relief is when Stephanie gives updates on Emily’s search to her viewers, transforming from Martha Stewart into Sherlock Holmes. The movie isn’t so much a thriller as it is dark humor, which makes it just the right amount of uncomfortable to watch.

Think somewhere between “Scary Movie,” “Gone Girl” and “Get Out,” but don’t expect that to be accurate because it’s only the closest comparison I can make.

The plot, while certainly not a straight line, is gripping. These days I find it difficult to actually pay attention for the entire duration of a movie in the theater, so I’m proud to say that this one passed the test. Stephanie is supposed to be the angel and Emily the devil, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that nobody is without her secrets. The characters’ decisions are mind puzzles and multiple red herrings make it an enjoyable struggle to discern who we should be rooting for. All the while, the sprinkling of humor amid spooky exchanges makes for an

The following evening, when the family is out celebrating Carly’s birthday and the holidays at a carnival, gang members drive by the celebrating family and murder Chris and Carly. Riley survives the attack and identifies the killers, ultimately taking them to court where a majority of the officials overseeing the investigation and trial are secretly corrupt and help to free the suspects.

Confused and enraged, Riley escapes from an ambulance and disappears for five years, only to pop up every now and then on the radars of the FBI. She is seen training in cage matches or stealing military-grade weaponry — all in preparation for her grand revenge on the entire drug network that gunned down her family, as well as the corrupt officials that are in Garcia’s grasp.

The movie is action-packed and features many violent and gory scenes. Director Pierre Morel directs the movie in a way that carries out the scenes of violence in a very exciting manner. The camera moves quickly from angle to angle and perfectly captures Riley’s swift blows and hand-tohand combat. The movie is especially gory when Riley proves to be more than just a cold-blooded killer, like when she nails the hands of the corrupt judge who let the murderers of Riley’s family go free, to his desk and proceeds to blow him up.

To be honest with you, I’m not qualified to be writing this review. For the last hour and thirty minutes, I nearly killed myself watching a remarkably scanty portion of the movie through a tiny web formed by trembling, criss-crossed fingers. The latest offering of the high-profile horror franchise consisting of noteworthy works like “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle,” “The Nun” supposedly takes place before any of its less, if not equally creepy, cousins. In all its traditional, morose and gothic glory, the setting is a desolate church convent in the isolated woodlands of Romania, where a nun has just recently committed a serious sin: suicide. The suicide remains an enigma until the Vatican very impulsively appoints some holy investigator named Father Burke (Demián Bichir) and an amateur nun-to-be named Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga), both of whom soon emerge as the movie’s valiant protagonists, to investigate the unsettling case.

interesting experience.

Advertisements for the movie were incredibly misleading, but after watching it I realize it was probably intentional. Posters pictured Blake Lively in a Stepford Wife-type get-up with a martini in hand and Anna Kendrick in a black dress, both posed in front of a pastel background.

I thought it was going to be a rom-com before I started being bombarded by chilling Spotify ads in the late hours of the night.

And I’ll admit that I was confused after discovering that the film was a thriller. Anna Kendrick does comedy, Blake Lively is from “Gossip Girl,” and that’s it. How is Anna Kendrick supposed to act in a serious movie?

The answer is that it’s not all serious. But, it’s also not a comedy, and Kendrick and Lively were impeccably cast. Lively did what Lively does; she’s used to playing the enigmatic and troubled beauty, and Kendrick proved her versatility once again. Henry Golding, who plays Emily’s husband, Sean, was also a perfect fit for his role of grieving-but-suspicious spouse.

You will probably walk out of the theater feeling unsettled, so see it with your friends and rehash the whirlwind of emotions. And make sure you have your ID.

by Eve Gross-Sable

Despite the smooth and action packed scenes, the plot of the movie is lost in the series of clichés that the movie indulges in. The movie is supposed to be an action thriller, yet every supposedly “thrilling” scene in the movie is predictable and leaves no room for the audience to feel the heightened suspense thriller movies are supposed to induce.

This movie is only recommended to those who are exclusively into action elements of films rather than the plot. The lack of thrill and suspense in “Peppermint” makes it colorless and boring, and should be watched as a last resort.

by Jeremy Chung

More like a suicide mission than anything else, the “investigation” involves blasting through an ominous door that very clearly reads in blood-red (no pun intended) Latin “God ends here”; getting entombed alive in a coffin; cowering from severed hands; playing hide-and-seek with sketchy, dark-cloaked figures (did I mention zombies?); and being stabbed, slashed and scared a whole lot of times — plus a whole lot more overused techniques.

Bichir and Farmiga, in addition to Jonas Bloquet who plays Frenchie and provides tasteful humor amidst all the depressing haunting, take the term “hard carry” to a whole new level.

Because of the actors’ impressive abilities to squeeze emotions out of the poorly crafted (and barely existent) script, the hollow and flavorless plot somehow scrapes by.

I get it: in an ideal world, horror movies should be so scary that popcorn buckets go flying in the air, but jump scares alone do not define horror movies: a captivating plot is crucial to an excellent horror film, and that’s exactly what “The Nun” lacks.

In the beginning, the film tries to shed light on a dark and mysterious past in a futile attempt to make it seem somewhat deep and complex.

Let’s just say that the result is something like a murky soup whipped up from preposterous

ingredients — say, a perfectly-preserved vial of Christ’s blood.

Maybe it’s because I’ve already acquainted myself with the nun’s nightmarish face before or I’m bored with the storyline, but “The Conjuring 2” eclipses its newest cousin by far. You can only be scared by the same old monster (a.k.a. Valak the demon) for so long, and the fact that the CGI was second-rate doesn’t help the situation at all.

Nevertheless, “The Nun” manages a couple frightening jolts of its audience because of the cleverly-timed and plentiful jump scares. As well, what “The Nun” fails to capture in visuals, it partly compensates for in its praiseworthy sound effects. While a little too overplayed for my taste, the chilling choral singing and beautiful string instrumentals that accompany moments of painful suspense fulfill their roles in spiking viewers’ heart rates.

In the end, “The Nun” as a whole is much blander than the trailer makes it out to be.

Although director Corin Hardy’s movie may have been a little short of traumatizing for me, its watery plot and elementary fright tactics are probably the film’s only elements that will “traumatize” seasoned horror movie buffs, making them reluctant to give the franchise another try.

by Kahyun Koh

A

s the school year begins once again, so does the popular music festival KAABOO. Its three days of music, comedy, food and fun were held at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Sept.

14-16; and my fourth year at KAABOO did not disappoint.

Thanks to its different style, compared to festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza, KAABOO is always an intriguing festival. Instead of trying to target a certain demographic or music genre, KAABOO organizers try their hardest to diversify the musicians every year, getting fans of all ages and music preferences. For example, this year’s lineup saw popular rappers like Gucci Mane and Post Malone, while also featuring rock legends like Robert Plant and Stone Temple Pilots. On top of that, KAABOO also offers appearances by comedians and top television chefs to differentiate the event even further from the typical music festival experience.

This year KAABOO stuck to its system of four stages, placing one in the parking lot of the Fairgrounds, a smaller one in the courtyard of the Grandstands, one right in front of the racetrack and the largest stage at the north end of the property near the lagoon. In between the stages were many booths selling food, artist merch and alcohol. Popular companies like Playstation, Chipotle and Bai even had booths set up. On top of that, to compensate for the hot weather, KAABOO allowed guests to bring empty reusable water bottles and set up free “Hydration Stations” to allow attendees to fill up those bottles for free.

Day One for me began with the annual rush from school at 2:35 p.m. straight home and then down to the racetrack to begin the amazing weekend. This year my friends and I decided we were going to stay at one stage the entire day since Gucci Mane, Incubus and Post Malone were playing there. We got there as quickly as possible, filled our large water bottles and marched in.

Since we got to KAABOO so early, we were able to stand about five feet from the stage the entire night. First up was Gucci Mane, and to be honest, his performance was not the best way to start KAABOO for me. He came out 10 minutes late and really didn’t do much talking to the crowd or hyping up at all. It felt like he was just going through the motions and kind of bummed a lot of people out. Thankfully, Incubus was a refreshing change. Jam-packed with head banging guitar riffs and crazy dances, Incubus got all of us up front pushing, shoving and jumping. I even was able to snag one of the drumsticks tossed into the crowd at the end of the set.

I will always remember how badly my legs were aching and how hot I was after being packed in tight with all those random strangers up front following Incubus. However, as the clock hit 8:30 p.m., out came the “always tired” legend Post Malone, and all my aches and fatigue flew away. I had heard that Post Malone concerts weren’t the best due to his use of autotune on his albums, but, honestly, he had a good grasp of all his songs’ vocal ranges throughout the entire set. He made sure to shout out the fans for their support many times and even played guitar to the flash

of thousands of swaying iPhones.

It was a great way to end the first day.

Day Two was full of great performances, no matter how popular the artists were. Whether it was the creative electro rock of Robert DeLong, the fiery guitar of Stone Temple Pilots, the captivating voice of Billy Idol or the breathtaking passion of Imagine Dragons, I was blown away. I found myself running from stage to stage from 1 until 8 p.m. trying to catch all of these exciting artists.

Day Three was a bit more relaxed: after all, it was Sunday.

Whether it was Wiz Khalifa and his giant inflatable joint bouncing around in the crowd, the forever-catchy melodies of The All-American Rejects or the amazing theatrics of Katy Perry and her many costumes, the final day was just as memorable as the others. I even got to see the unique art show and its many local artists showcasing their projects. It was a nice, relaxing way to end my fourth year at KAABOO. In the end, this year’s KAABOO may have started off a bit rocky, but it was still one of the best weekends I’ve had this year.

The combination of the diverse music genres, amazing people and the SoCal sun made this KAABOO the best one I’ve been to yet. I cannot wait to see what they’ve got planned for next year.

by Leo Silverman

PHOTOS BY DAVID VAPNEK/FALCONER

As she makes her way down the field during the Manchester City Cup at the SoCal Sports Complex in Oceanside, Amber McCorkle (12) is looking at her teammates and debating whether she should pass the ball or aim for the goal, when she miscalculates and ends up on the ground. On the way down, she hears a popping sound and is hit with a sharp pain in her knee.

Later, she discovered that she had torn her left anterior cruciate ligament.

Her only previous major injuries were a

b o n e bruise and trauma to her medial collateral ligament that left her benched for a month; this diagnosis is different: she won’t be able to play competitive soccer for at least the next nine months.

“It takes nine to 12 months to heal. I can start playing at six or seven months, but non-contact,” McCorkle said.

In the meantime, McCorkle is dedicating the time that she would be practicing to recovering.

She attends physical therapy three times a week, and continues at home.

“I do a bunch of exercises to strengthen my quad, mostly leg presses,” McCorkle said. “I can slowly do more and more — soon I’ll be able to run, and then [run] with [breaks] … and I can do some other stuff.”

One treatment that McCorkle finds especially useful is neuromuscular electrical stimulation. “[They’re] little pads that you put on your quad and they shock them, and then you do exercises which stimulate your quads,” McCorkle said.

All of this is to help her gain strength and regain mobility. But, the hardest part about the injury hasn’t been the training or not being able to play, but the inability to perform simple actions that she normally takes for granted.

“The hardest part has been not being able to do simple things like jumping and running,” McCorkle said. “I couldn’t walk without crutches for a month and couldn’t bend my knee too much.

It’s just not being able to do a lot of daily things.”

Before the injury, McCorkle practiced three to four times a week for an hour and a half with her club team, the San Diego Surf Soccer Club.

Because of her commitment to the team and the league, the U.S. Soccer Girls Development

Academy, she was not able to play for the TPHS varsity girls soccer team during her junior year like she did during her freshman and sophomore years.

“I wanted to play for the school team, but the league [I’m] in … [doesn’t] allow high school soccer since it [is] year-round, so [there’s] no way I can play,” McCorkle said.

Despite not being able to play for the school team, McCorkle said being a member of her club team has helped her grow as an athlete.

“It just kept me focused and disciplined on just always doing the best that I can in soccer and in life in general, and also working with other people,” McCorkle said.

Like many other athletes, McCorkle fell in love with her sport when she was introduced to soccer as an 7 year old. In the 10 years since, her affection has only increased.

“My parents signed me up, and then I liked it and decided to continue playing. I just got really into it,” McCorkle said.

This is only part of the reason that she attributes so much of her success to her parents and why she doesn’t believe that she would be as triumphant without them. “[I owe it to] everyone, [such as] my parents, for pushing me, and even now, during physical therapy, for making sure that I do the exercises and making sure that I’m on top of it,” McCorkle said.

She also credits her younger sister, soccer coaches and friends for “always being there for [her]”.

Arguably, the most significant of her achievements occurred the summer after her freshman year when she verbally committed to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

There, she plans to continue to play soccer for four years, but she is unsure if she will pursue the sport professionally after graduation.

Before then, however, McCorkle plans to return to the field next March, ready for any challenges she might have to face.

“It might be a little hard because I’ll probably be a little nervous to just get back into it and [about] getting another injury, but I think it’ll be okay,” McCorkle said.

Until then, though, McCorkle remains dedicated to recovering, so when she steps back onto the field she can proudly say that her greatest feat was not committing to a university, but successfully returning from a torn ACL.

by Alexei Serguienko

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Serena Williams was fined $17,000 dollars at the 2018 US Open for offenses charged by the umpire, Carlos Ramos.

Naomi Osaka won 6-2, 6-4 against her idol, Williams. Osaka’s win, the first time a Japanese player has won a Grand Slam, was overshadowed by the three penalties given to Williams.

The first penalty was given at the second game of the second set, which caused allegations regarding the coaching rules of tennis. First, Williams didn’t deserve to be penalized since she didn’t accept the coaching.

Williams told the umpire, “If he gives me a thumbs up, he’s telling me to come on...” She thought she was being penalized for receiving a thumbs up. Williams claims that she didn’t know what her coach did, so she couldn’t accept the coaching. The coach actually used both hands with his thumbs up, moving back and forth, most likely meaning to go to the net. She didn’t understand why she was being penalized which lead to frustration, later affecting

her game.

“I was, like 100 percent of the coaches in 100 percent of the matches coach, so we have to stop this hypocrite thing...Sascha (Bajin, Osaka’s coach) was coaching every point, too,” Williams coach Patrick Mouratoglou said.

Many in the tennis world and beyond are calling for repealing the rule. Osaka missed a shot and her coach gave her mental coaching to smile through her disappointment and she reluctantly did.

She accepted the coaching, but she wasn’t penalized.

Because of the constant presence of coaching at tournaments at that level, Williams should have been given a warning. In fact, that’s what she thought had happened.

“Yeah, that’s a warning…” Williams said when she realized she had been given a point penalty.

Williams smashed her racket in anger and frustration, causing the second violation (racket abuse), resulting in a point penalty, meaning on the next game she would start 0-15. This occurred when Williams was down 2-3. That violation

was deserved, however it caused the last violation of verbal abuse, since Williams started arguing about the fact that the first violation was invalid.

“You stole a point from me, and you’re a thief too,” Williams said. Her language resulted in the third violation. The violation resulted in a game penalty, so instead of Osaka serving at 4-3, the set score became 5-3 for Osaka and became Williams’ serve. Umpires, especially in Grand Slam tournaments, should try to affect the match as little as possible, but here Ramos may have changed the outcome of the match.

Ramos also came under fire for the purported sexism of his calls.

In 2009, in the men’s final with finalists Roger Federer and Juan del Potro, Federer repeatedly cursed at the umpire.

“Don’t f**king talk to me,” Federer said frequently to the umpire in that match.

Federer was not penalized.

The allegations of sexism should be directed at tennis, as an institution, rather than at Ramos, individually, who has a reputation for strict rulings. “He’s never taken a game from a man because he said

‘thief.’ For me, it blows my mind. But I’m going to continue to fight for women,” Williams said at the post-match press conference.

After Ashleighye Leighye (12) needed a jacket to deal with the “absolutely freezing” temperatures in her English class, she realized that climate change just couldn’t be true.

“There I was, sitting next to an open window and a broken thermostat during first period when I realized that I had proven billions of dollars of research and the world’s best scientists wrong,” Leighye said.

Leighye had first learned about climate change after Rihanna mentioned the term in a red carpet interview.

“I mean, like, Fenty Beauty changed my life, but, like, I haven’t become any tanner since visiting the Bahamas this summer,” Leighye said. “It got so chilly when I was in my backyard that I had to go inside my greenhouse. For some reason it’s warmer in there.”

Leighye, who cites falling asleep during a Bill Nye video as proof of her scientific expertise, has a hypothesis of her own for the lack of sun.

“This is obviously a punishment

by God for the evil liberal witch hunt Mueller has led into our Supreme Leader, Donald Trump,” Leighye said.

“Here, in the Democratic People’s Republic of America, people are letting evidence and facts control their minds. If we all agree on the same facts, that’s like sharing, which is, like, basically communism.”

Leighye sees a broader trend in American politics of facts becoming less trustworthy.

“Like, just because it’s a ‘fact’ that the Earth is warming or that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians or that my criminal record says I have a stolen $4,578 worth of goods from Sephora, doesn’t mean any of it is true,” Leighye said. “Like, I probably didn’t steal from Sephora, but, like, if I did, it’s probably because the Facetune app on my phone stopped working.”

Leighye finds evidence against climate change in everyday life.

“My freezer still works, and teachers still give me an icy glare when I pull out my phone during tests,” Leighye said. “Plus, crystal meth still gives me these amazing chills.”

Leighye also knows that she can

trust the Trump administration’s rejection of climate change.

“Why would Andrew Wheeler, former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry and now Trump’s head of the Environmental Protection Agency, purposefully deceive the American public?” Leighye said.

Jerome Jeromes (11), one of Leighye’s friends, realized she was right about climate change during a recent visit to Starbucks.

“I was skipping my AP Environmental Science class during fifth period when I realized my Iced Caramel Macchiato was cold,” Jeromes said. “I was like, hold up, isn’t coffee supposed to be warm? If

global warming is real, then why does my Iced Caramel Macchiato have ice in it?”

Leighye does not understand why TPHS science teachers continue to teach about the existence of climate change.

“I think that this is a conspiracy of the highest order. Our evil overlords in the teachers’ union, which is really the mafia, force us to take science classes in order to graduate by claiming it’s education,” Leighye said.

“Really, this is a George Soros funded attempt to brainwash a generation of students into believing that penguins are more important than that sweet, sweet Antarctic oil.”

For now, Leighye believes the best path forward is continuing to ask tough questions about the world around her.

“Like, my dad says I can only spend $2,000 at Sephora per month,” Leighye said. “Maybe detaining kids at the border is a human rights violation, but like, isn’t putting a limit on my spending even worse?”

ICY: Local genius knows that if there is ice in an Iced Caramel Macchiato, climate change must be some crazy hoax (its not like there are facts to back any of it up, and, like Donald Trump said, the Chinese government invented it, and when has he lied?)

A MESSAGE FROM THE FALCONER: Please do not ask if this page is real. Learn what satire is. by the Falconer staff

We’re proud to flaunt our wonderful color budget with this hypnotic backpage. Be careful! If you stare too closely, you might forget that the district has been raising vending machine prices. $2.00 for a water bottle? Was it always like that?