Julia's fall portfolio

fall 2019

julia knies

portfolio

I cannot believe I am in the middle of my second year of being an editor. Time has passed so quickly. This semester, I feel like I just built upon my previous InDesign skills. I can do everything much faster and easier— without as much help from Adamson. I have learned a little more about using Photoshop and hope to build upon those skills over my last year and a half.

Though I can work with InDesign much faster this semester, I have been absolutely terrible with deadlines. I rarely finished my story before production week; however, I always got it done. I think it became a cycle after the first issue, and I could not break from it. Next semester, I hope to be on time and hold myself more accountable because it is not a good habit.

As far as working with others, I feel like I always do pretty well. I rarely disagree with people and always can find a solution. I try my best to avoid any drama going on in the class and take a logical approach with

everything. I do not want teenage drama to disrupt our production of the paper.

The importance of citing sources properly has been even more defined this year as editor of the opinion pages. It is crucial to make sure that the writers do it correctly.

To help the publication and show my dedication, I made sure to always stay after when needed and offer as much help as I could. With people writing for my page, I tried to make sure that they always knew that I was there to help them.

My biggest struggle this semester was, by far, deadlines(it always is).

Especially with writing for my own page, it is difficult to stay on track with them. I need to manage my time better and do research earlier. If I am struggling, I hope that in the future I can ask for help earlier. I really feel like this semester, I grew closer to some people on the staff, and it is a really nice feeling. I like how much we all learn and grow together.

r e f l e c t i o n s

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

the

The Editorial: As We See It

Banning vaping does not solve the problem

With the recent vaping-related illness outbreak, lawmakers have urged the FDA to ban vaping devices, specifically targeted at the flavored ones.

Banning them will not get rid of the disease and will only make the devices seem more appealing, especially to the younger crowd.

Throughout history, banning does not tend to work. A prime example is the Prohibition Era. During this time, alcohol was illegal, but people still got their hands on it. It only made it more desirable, leading to bootleggers producing potentially dangerous concoctions. Two infamous alcohols they produced were dubbed bathtub gin and rotgut moonshine. Some were made with industrial alcohol that was used in medical supplies or fuels, and drinking it could possibly leave the consumer blind or poisoned. According to the History Channel, the poor-quality alcohol “may have killed more than 10,000 people before the repeal of the 18th Amendment.”

If vaping products are banned, they will definitely not be FDA-regulated, causing more problems than there already are, just like during the Prohibition. In fact, many of the vaping-related deaths have been linked to black market devices. Keeping the products FDA regulated will help The EDITORIAL represents the cut back with some of the dangers, instead of letting consensus view of the members of bootleggers run the operation. the Editorial Board.

Because it is not known what specifically is causing The Editorial Board members are the disease, pulling e-cigarettes from stores may not Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, solve the problem. It could be what is found in THC vapMax Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia ing products—either bootleg or sold legally, not just nicKnies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, otine.

Jo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, Hope Black, and Vaping at a high voltage—around 5.0V—creates high Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. levels of formaldehyde-producing chemicals, according to a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine. Another possibility is the vitamin E found in the products; however, now doctors at the Mayo Clinic are doubting that.

At this point, banning vaping devices will not help much—too many people use them. A better option is to make it more difficult for younger users to obtain them. Raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 nationwide may be the simplest option. Twenty-oneyear olds are not around high schoolers as much, as opposed to eighteen-year-olds who may still be in high school.

If the disease turns out to be strictly caused by THC, banning vaping nicotine may only cause people to turn back to cigarettes packed with over 70 cancer-causing chemicals, according to the American Cancer Society.

New information about the health effects of vaping are coming in almost daily. In the meantime, the best option is to stay away from vaping nicotine or THC, and definitely do not choose cigarettes as a “safer option”—there are still many harmful chemicals in them.

At first, vaping seemed like the perfect alternative to smoking, however, now it is proving to become its own epidemic.

October 18, 2019 ● 5

press Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

I think one of the best pieces I wrote this semester was October’s editorial. September was difficult because I was not sure how to write a proper editorial, but I feel like I wrote October’s a lot better and more easily. It was much better organized and not many edits were made compared to the previous month. I remember feeling proud of myself for completing it. I, of course, waited until right before production week to start writing it, but I finished it. I think one of the reasons it was easier to write was because vaping is such a prominent issue. It was easy to do the research because it was all developing at the time, and it is something I care about. At first, it was unorganized. It took a bit of rewriting and planning to figure out exacly how I wanted it to be. In the end, it worked out

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400

October 18, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 2 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

` Evan Myers

1 + 2

s

Comment

t h e

20 ● September 20, 2019

Julia Knies opinion editor

W

Health

Calm Down Meditation: a proven way to reduce stress

ITH THE SCHOOL year beginning, many find themselves overwhelmed

while adjusting to the new workload. Taking up meditation as a practice of mindfulness is a beneficial way to take a moment to regain thoughts and release stress.

“We tend to get stressed when we’re thinking about the future, and when we focus on the past, that tends to cause feelings of depression.

The practice of mindfulness is about being present, in the moment,” said Corrie Klinefelter, a school counselor.

CHILLING OUT Ella Bowman , a sophomore, decompreses after a stressful day at school. She decided to try meditation to help reduce her stress levels.

The benefits Along with relieving stress, other potential benefits of meditation include increased immune function, control over emotions and anxiety, a deeper sense of self, and others.

There are no reported negatives or side effects. As science advances, soon accurate studies to show the full benefits of meditation and mindfulness will be available. “[When I meditate,] I feel like I’m able to control my thoughts more. I don’t feel as distracted. You need to recognize your thoughts but not chase after them,” said Maddie Terhark, a junior who has been meditating for about a year.

Tips and Tricks to reduce and cope with stress High schoolers are under a lot of stress and are dealing with a lot of different stressors this can be very difficult to handle if you don’t have coping skills and stress reducers to turn to. Everyone deals with stress in their own ways but many people do not know useful and healthy ways to cope and deal with stress.

According to an article by mayo clinic food could also help with a person’s stress.

A healthy diet and exercising has proven to help people with stress. When a person exercises their brain gets flooded with dopamine which is the chemical responsible for happiness.

Practicing meditation does not require any outside materials. However, there are apps such as Headspace, Calm, and Smiling Mind, or videos on Youtube, that provide guided meditations. Guided meditations can help novice meditators to get into the right mindset and keep the mind from wandering. Meditation can be done anywhere, but a quiet, comfortable place is usually the best.

“You don’t have to be a Buddhist to meditate, it’s just something that you can do. It’s really easy to pick up. You don’t need a class for it or anything, it’s just something that you need to find in yourself,” said Sophia Barnedo, a sophomore who has been meditating since she was young.

Some people use music as a coping mechanism when they are under a great amount of stress. Music can be a very useful stress reliever because it stimulates your brain. All music is helpful but the type of music is another key factor.

If a person is facing a problem, 12 ● December 20, 2019 listening to a song that relates to that problem can let them know that they're not alone.

“

The history of meditation Meditation has been around for thousands of years, and it is found in ancient religions throughout the world. It is most aGianna Lazzaro commonly associated with Eastern belief systems such as early forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The word meditation comes from the Latin term meditatum, meaning “to ponder.”

“The big thing [with mindfulness] is making time every day, and it’s about being preventative instead of waiting until you’re really stressed out. It’s really hard to come back down. I think it’s important for everyone to find something that they enjoy and do it every day,” said Klinefelter.

Beyond meditation, there are other mindful practices to release stress. These include yoga, taking a bath, or simply sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea or a book.

It is important to take time to decompress throughout the school year.

This was the first article I wrote this year. It was in September’s health section. I chose it because I am very interested in mindfulness. Because of my interest, it was very easy to write, and I got it done on time.

Studies have shown that talking to people and venting can help reduce stress. If someone is facing a problem hearing a different perspective or solution to the problem from a friend or someone trusted can be extremely helpful.

Anyone can do it

b e s t

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

The big thing [with mindfulness] is making time every day, and it’s about being preventative instead of waiting until you’re really stressed out.

In Depth

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

The changing internet

If someone is stressed out, it is not healthy to try to push it down and hide it. Once someone can calm down and realize the fact that they’re stressed then they can start to use tools such as music, a healthy diet and talking to someone to help reduce that person's stress.

Upping the game from 4G to 5G

3 Kolton O’Connor

C orri Klinefelter

a school counselor

No homework, no tests, and no stress with Biannual Rest and Renew weeks Philip Tate staff writer

R+R WEEK IS A RELATIVELY NEW CONCEPT THAT

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

“I think we would try and see dates and things like that and let’s see the first one and see how we do and see if we want to do it ‘semesterly’,” said Swetter.

Some schools that have R+R week schedule it to be the week before state college applications are due. This gives seniors more time to focus on essays and applications. Juniors could also use the time for SAT and ACT test preparation.

“I think it would be extremely helpful to have the week scheduled twice to accommodate early applications and regular applications,” said Alyssa Tate, a senior The Goal of R+R week would be to ease the load of homework and stress that students have. Another goal is to give stu-

Comment

some schools around the country have implemented. It stands for rest and renew week. During the week, teachers can not assign homework or give tests. The point of this week would be to give students time toEditorial: get caught up See on missing work and The As We It try to relax and relieve stress from being behind and worrying about how they are going to do on tests.

“No homework would take away stress because it's a big part of grades,” said Emily Deatsch, a sophomore James Swetter, the principal, can see this idea working out once a semester.

Social media affects the spread of news

Social media allows information to travel more quickly than ever before. While access to information is a good thing, it has also led to the rise of fake news by creating a world where people think that what they are reading and seeing is factual news when, in fact, much of it is unverified.

Millions of people post 24 hours a day about news and things happening in the world.

According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of U.S. adults get their news from social media. Referencing other sources to put together a more complete— or incomplete— picture is easier than ever before with all the different social media outlets. The herd mentality does not help in slowing the spread of news, fake or otherwise. Now, when one person shares something on their page, it spreads like wildfire.

For example, during the recent Amazon Rainforest fires, a tweet that went viral did not contain current photos of the fire but had photos from 1989 and 2012. The photos were misleading and did not depict up-to-date news.

Also, there was misreporting during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. A student at Brown University named Sunil Tripathi was falsely identified as one of the suspects of the bombing from a surveillance photograph. It began on Reddit, then spread to Twitter. Tripathi had disappeared from Brown about a month before the bombings. However, this post was the catalyst for journalists from mainstream outlets to call the Tripathi family all night, along with sending TV cameras to their home.

There are obvious positive sides to social media’s involvement with the news. Brutalities can no longer be hidden by governments because people post photos to social media, and there have been cases where it has contributed to solving serious crimes.

It allows citizens to take part in being journalists, and in 2011, this ability helped The EDITORIAL represents the shine a light on police mistreatment during the Arab Spring. consensus view of the members of Also, in June, 2019, social media went blue for Sudan, resulting in increased the Editorial Board. awareness of the human atrocities that were happening there. While the The Editorial Board members massacres in Sudan had been going on since December, 2018, they were not are Avianna Hoppes, Logan widely known until users changed their profile pictures to blue. Without McDade, Max Sotelo, Miah social media, neither of these instances would have been as widely shared.

Thirion, Julia Knies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, Jo Breese, Ryan In Paul Lewis’ TED Talk, “How mobile phones helped solve two murders,” Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, the Guardian reporter talks about solving a murder using readers as “coHope Black, and Frida Alvarado. producers.” By sending a general request via Twitter for witnesses of a death during a G20 protest in London, he was able to track down video footage that proved the police were responsible for a bystander’s death.

Despite the positives, more needs to be done to make sure people understand that information posted on social media sites is not verified, factual truth. The only place to find that would be at a legitimate news site.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter need to strengthen their policies about posting.

Facebook, a major platform for fake news spam accounts, has taken some action. They are mainly focusing on preventing fake news by “disrupting economic incentives because most false news is financially motivated; building new products to curb the spread of false news; and helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.”

It is a good thing for these companies to make it harder to post false information, but, in reality, there is only so much they can do. The truth is that people need to take more responsibility when reposting “news.” There is a step that everyone should take that would help the situation immeasurably: before reposting anything, verify that it really happened.

With the rise of social media, there has been a shift in how people receive news. The accessibility of it has fostered a rise in fake news.

dents time to catch up with their families. The main goal is to make students feel rested and a little more capable of September 20, 2019 ● 5 finishing the rest of the thesemester with confidence and ease. Students can do more and perform at a higher level after a break, something the students can not do week after week, month after month.

“After the first six weeks of school I feel burned out and a break would help Editors in Chief Avianna Hoppes feel recharged,” said Anthony Carmen, a Logan McDade sophomore Online Editors in Chief Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Students are not the only ones benefitEditor Julia Knies ing from thisOpinion break, teachers would benNews Editor Grace Carey efit, too. Teachers couldAvianna catch Hoppes up with Sports Editor Foodhave Editor time Devinto Dorough their grading and refresh old Jo Breese lesson plans.Creeker They,Editor too, could have more

s

press

Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor

Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado

Staff Phoebe Arnold, Caitlin Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alexa Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

time to catch up with their family and come back reenergized.

The negatives of Rest and Renew week could be that teachers assign more work the week before R+R week starts or pile up project due dates for the week after.

It could take longer for teachers to complete the unit they are teaching. Students may blow off the week and not try to catch up on missing work.

“I feel like students would just not even try to catch up they would just go have fun,” said Emliy Deatsch, a sophomore.

As of right now, rest and renew week Julia Knies and Jo Breese editor and Creeker editor is just anOpinion idea but students, such as Emily Radke, a junior, are trying to make this N THE US,Shadows. the Internet Service Providers happen at Cactus

I

industry has grown 4.1 percent per year from 2014 to 2019, and it is only going to continue to grow, according to IBISWorld, a business and market research company founded in 1971. With this growth comes prices, and Americans are paying more for internet access compared to many other countries.

Noemie Neipert, a French teacher who moved to America from France, has experienced firsthand the price differences for internet access.

“In America, it’s fifty dollars, at least, a month. In France, it’s nineteen dollars at the most, and you have the fastest internet…

When you’re used to paying so much less for service, then it is hard to pay so much more,” said Neipert.

Price comparison Cable.co.uk, a price comparison website, did a study on worldwide mobile data pricing in 2019. Their research showed that the country with the cheapest data is India, coming in at 0.26 U.S. dollars per gigabyte. America has an average cost of $12.37 per gigabyte. France and the United Kingdom come in at $2.99 and $6.66 per gigabyte, respectively. However, not all of Europe’s data is cheaper than the U.S., as Switzerland’s data costs just over 20 U.S. dollars per gigabyte, according to the same study. The most expensive country is Zimbabwe, costing about $75 per gigabyte.

“We switched to an unlimited data plan

\Evan Meyers because my brother kept going over each month, which was an extra fifteen dollars [per gigabyte] per month,” said Max Rigler, a senior who uses Verizon.

Some of the high prices for internet access come from the cost of installing the equipment required to run the technology, however, it also comes from the competition between providers. “[The country] is so big that it costs a lot of money to those towers in… The companies also don’t want to lower the prices so they can compete like that,” said Neipert.

The top five largest mobile broadband providers in America are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Cricket according to Practical Ecommerce, founded in 2005 to help e-commerce businesses. Coming in at number six is MetroPCS, recently rebranded as Metro, a prepaid phone service brand by T-Mobile.

“I have MetroPCS, and it doesn’t work anywhere it should… I have to use wifi everywhere I go,” said Zoe Rosenthal, a senior.

How to avoid over paying To avoid overpaying for internet service, one can start with being aware of what their main purpose for using the internet is.

Downloading a lot, playing games online, and using social media, as well as having many devices can drive up the price. Exploring different companies for what speed needed can help narrow the cost down to the best deal.

Bundling and upgrading can provide other benefits or lower the price, as well. Always check the fine print to make sure there are not any hidden costs.

5G In other countries The US is behind on this 5G rollout, as 5G only recently launched in America. Many people believe that the US will suffer from being behind in the “5G race.”

“

areas already have and use 5G data.

Devon Breese, a freshman, said, ”I think that America should have focused on getting 5G more. I think that made China more advanced than us.”

China coming in first

“[The country] is so big that it costs a lot of money to those towers in…

The companies also don’t want to lower the prices so they can compete like that,” Noemi Neipert French teacher China was one of the first countries in the world to have 5G data freely available to consumers. Over 50 cities in China got the 5G service on Nov. 1 and more are getting the new technology everyday. China did not roll out 5G to everyone at once, but is slowly rolling it out across the country. 5G data is the next generation of data, an upgrade to 4G data, that allows download speeds of up to one gigabyte per second. Currently, in China, many of the residents located in high density

While the United States was the leader in technology for a long time, China could now become the first to release new technology due to the release. The benefits of 5G include driverless cars, AI-controlled phones, and completely autonomous weather systems.

The main consequence of losing the “5G race” is that China is going to have faster internet which can allow them to become more advanced than the US. “[I think 5G is] safe, but I think it needs more research probably,” said Brandon Wells, a junior.

Many people are also concerned about the mass adoption of 5G. Some 5G cell towers are shown to interfere with various weather sensors, which could be harmful. A lot of people believe that the radio waves given out by 5G may be harmful, but the FDA and the FCC claim that 5G is not harmful towards humans.

“I don’t really like Huawei, because of how they are connected with China and such,” said Matthew Scott, film and TV teacher.

One of the main reasons 5G was held back in the US is due to Huawei, the main distributor of 5G technology around the world, and their relationship with the US. Huawei is a tech company based in China that makes the technology that 5G needs to work and supplies it around the world to many countries.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 September 20, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 1 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

This was the first editorial I wrote. It was rough at first. I was very unorganized; however, once it was edited, it was better.

I am proud of this piece because I did not give up, and I finished it. It was a really interesting topic to write about.

This was the second article I wrote this year with interviews in it, and getting the interviews was a struggle. I was not used to it, but I really wanted to write for Frida’s page. In the end, she combined it with Jo’s article, and I think they work well together. I am happy that I got to write it.

t e a r

s h e e t s

s e p t e m b e r

s

Comment

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

September 20, 2019 ● 5

the

press

The Editorial: As We See It

Social media affects the spread of news Social media allows information to travel more quickly than ever before. While access to information is a good thing, it has also led to the rise of fake news by creating a world where people think that what they are reading and seeing is factual news when, in fact, much of it is unverified.

Millions of people post 24 hours a day about news and things happening in the world.

According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of U.S. adults get their news from social media. Referencing other sources to put together a more complete— or incomplete— picture is easier than ever before with all the different social media outlets. The herd mentality does not help in slowing the spread of news, fake or otherwise. Now, when one person shares something on their page, it spreads like wildfire.

For example, during the recent Amazon Rainforest fires, a tweet that went viral did not contain current photos of the fire but had photos from 1989 and 2012. The photos were misleading and did not depict up-to-date news.

Also, there was misreporting during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. A student at Brown University named Sunil Tripathi was falsely identified as one of the suspects of the bombing from a surveillance photograph. It began on Reddit, then spread to Twitter. Tripathi had disappeared from Brown about a month before the bombings. However, this post was the catalyst for journalists from mainstream outlets to call the Tripathi family all night, along with sending TV cameras to their home.

There are obvious positive sides to social media’s involvement with the news. Brutalities can no longer be hidden by governments because people post photos to social media, and there have been cases where it has contributed to solving serious crimes.

It allows citizens to take part in being journalists, and in 2011, this ability helped The EDITORIAL represents the shine a light on police mistreatment during the Arab Spring. consensus view of the members of Also, in June, 2019, social media went blue for Sudan, resulting in increased the Editorial Board. awareness of the human atrocities that were happening there. While the The Editorial Board members massacres in Sudan had been going on since December, 2018, they were not are Avianna Hoppes, Logan widely known until users changed their profile pictures to blue. Without McDade, Max Sotelo, Miah social media, neither of these instances would have been as widely shared.

Thirion, Julia Knies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, Jo Breese, Ryan In Paul Lewis’ TED Talk, “How mobile phones helped solve two murders,” Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, the Guardian reporter talks about solving a murder using readers as “coHope Black, and Frida Alvarado. producers.” By sending a general request via Twitter for witnesses of a death during a G20 protest in London, he was able to track down video footage that proved the police were responsible for a bystander’s death.

Despite the positives, more needs to be done to make sure people understand that information posted on social media sites is not verified, factual truth. The only place to find that would be at a legitimate news site.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter need to strengthen their policies about posting.

Facebook, a major platform for fake news spam accounts, has taken some action. They are mainly focusing on preventing fake news by “disrupting economic incentives because most false news is financially motivated; building new products to curb the spread of false news; and helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.”

It is a good thing for these companies to make it harder to post false information, but, in reality, there is only so much they can do. The truth is that people need to take more responsibility when reposting “news.” There is a step that everyone should take that would help the situation immeasurably: before reposting anything, verify that it really happened.

With the rise of social media, there has been a shift in how people receive news. The accessibility of it has fostered a rise in fake news.

Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado

Staff Phoebe Arnold, Caitlin Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alexa Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 September 20, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 1 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS COMMENT

Absent minded

September 20, 2019 ● 7

Closing earlier

OPINION

The library now closes at 2:15 instead of 3:00 like classrooms and around OPINION previous years. Having the library no longer open the campus looking for after school causes difficulties among students. This somewhere to work. When A change in the absence polproblem needs to be resolved so students can regain the library was open later, icy has led to a more difficult time their place to work on homework, group projects, or security and staff at least to complete missing work if a stuknew where students rent textbooks after school. dent was absent, and it was counted Students have obligations such as club meetings were. as unexcused. This change will negAt present, the woman and office hours after school, so closing the library atively affect students by makat 2:15 causes students to be late to those activities working in the library is ing them unable to make up work if Emma instead of giving them time to go after. Additionally, not a certified librarian, so their absence was unexcused and will Weaver the campus is big and has many students. Getting she is not getting a lunch inevitably cause their grade to lower staff writer Michael across campus to the library after school can take at break because she needs if there was any work assigned.

Kaegi least five minutes in itself, leaving only five minutes to stay open for lunch.

An absence is considered excused Closing the staff writer Administration is working for students to get what they need from the library. if it is either an illness, a doctor's library immeIf students wish to stay after school, they must on a solution to this probappointment, a family emergency, or diately after Changing the stay in a teacher's classroom during office hours. lem. They are either going a religious holiday. It has to be conschool creates This puts a lot of pressure on the teachers because to find someone who can tacted through the attendance phone unexcused problems for they not only have to help students who are strug- stay for the last fortyline within 24 hours after the absence absence policy students gling in their class but also give other students a five minutes of school or has started. If the absence fits under place to stay after school. Additionally, there is the relieve the current librarian for lunch so she can keep the qualifications of the ones listed problem of office hours no longer being available on the library open until 3:00. above but is not called in, it will still There is a simple fix to the problem that the Monday due to teachers having mandatory meetings, be unexcused. which adds another uncertain factor when students administration has yet to consider. One of the secuThe previous absence policy allowed two days for rity guards on campus can easily watch over kids in should stay after school. every day missed in class to complete the missing work, This situation does not just inconvenience the stu- the library during lunch or the forty-five minutes the no matter if the absence was excused or not. However, dents but the security guards and the staff as well. librarian can not work. It is not difficult to watch stustarting this year, it was changed to students only being Currently, students are scattered all over teachers' dents quietly work on their homework or projects. able to make up work for excused absences, which is causing issues among students to get their work completed.

With the changed policy, students will now have a harder time completing the work that was assigned.

Students will then be less likely to review and learn the OPINION topics they missed in class since there will be no incentive for completing the work which will, therefore, be Two lunches are better than one, stay after. They would have to either have one hurting their grade in the class all because their absence right? Wrong. Having two lunches lunch meeting during each block or just none at all. was deemed unexcused.

One lunch period also keeps friend groups seems like a great idea until it is This will then hurt their test grades in the long run realized. Even though there is an together. Imagine having two lunch periods with because they were not able to make up the work and fully increase of students at the school students randomly assigned to each one. Students understand the specific topic they missed. With the lack this year, having one lunch is easier and their groups of friends would be separated into of credit comes the lack of knowledge and understandfor teachers and students to commu- different lunch periods. This would likely cause a ing of what was taught, and being able to get credit for nicate, and it also lets students get lot of students to switch back and forth from each making up work on an unexcused absence can benefit period to try and sit with their friends. together for lunch.

Jo Breese the student greatly.

Supporters of two lunch periods would point out Having one lunch allows teachers creeker editor With no credit for making up work, it does not give to hold lunch office hours for anyone that the reason we need two lunches is because of 1 stuenough motivation for students to go to all their teachwith to visit and get help on their work. If how overcrowded our lunchroom is now,Table Table 1 er’s office hours to catch up on what was missed. It would there were two lunches, then teach- dents sitting on floors to eat because they cannot 11 18 49 Switching back help to maximize a student’s learning of the subjects and a table and lunch lines being extremely long. ers could only hold lunch office 9hours get 39 30 13 9 to two lunches make sure they would understand the content if it was during their lunch periods, which This can easily be fixed by adding more tables outmay not be the given on a test. could be either the first lunch or side of the cafeteria and all around campus, along best idea While the school is trying to make sure no one is trysecond lunch. This would only allow with adding more places to buy lunch around the ing to ditch and still be able to make up the work, it still students with the same lunch period campus, such as opening the snack bar in the gym doesn’t mean they should make unexcused if a student to get help on their work, alienating and supplying it with food. was out for a week because of an occurrence like this and If you like going anywhere you want during students with different lunch periods who cannot it was considered unexcused, then their grade would suflunch, thank the one block lunch we have now. If come after school. fer because they would have no opportunity to make up Clubs are able to meet during lunch, which we switched to a two-block system, the campus the work. For a valid excused absence, such as those, it would not be the case if there were two lunch would most likely be closed off for students and we would still be difficult to complete any assignments on blocks. Clubs could only meet after school or would have to stay in the cafeteria during lunch so time let alone not being able to at all. before school, which leaves out students who want students in class aren't distracted by students eatWhat could be done to show that students need to to join clubs but cannot make it before school or ing their lunches. make up work even if the absence is unexcused, is to explain to the teachers that it will affect the grade in THE REPORT CARD: How d0 you grade your summer and the homecoming theme? their class if it gets counted as a zero. With enough people struggling because they can’t do their work, it could CLASSES NOT SO SURE ABOUT HOMECOMING STUDENTS GIVE GOOD GRADES TO SUMMER F F show the heads of school that with being able to comA plete work comes better overall performances in class, Most D students D which then leads to better AzMerit and final exam scores 9% 11% Only 11% A 9% had a good of polled at the end of the year. summer.

9% 13% students Only 9% of The excused absence policy has led to many changes 18% 39% gave the sttudents starting now and into the rest of the school year on how Homecoming 13% gave their theme an A. B students will get their absent work done and how they summer C an F. will get help on the topics, they missed and are struggling on. Without being able to complete the work, the C 49% 30% fewer students will succeed and excel with the subjects B they missed and will perform weaker on tests and quizzes.

Two lunches versus one

6 ● September 20, 2019

COMMENT

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

Do violent video games make people violent?

M

Raven Ramirez

ORE THAN HALF of the 50 top-selling video games contain violence, according to Crystal Ayres, the chief editor of the Vittana blog. Violent video games are to blame for increasing violence in the

real world.

As many as 97 percent of U.S. kids play video games, and many of these games contain violence, according to the American Psychological Association.

One risk of video games containing violence is the gamers having a higher risk of creating an addiction to these games. In a report issued by Nottingham Trent University and the International Gaming Research Unit, about 12 percent of online gamers exhibit signs of addiction with their playing.

Furthermore, these violent games can cause the urge to punish others in reality. Research from the University of Missouri-Columbia shows that consistent exposure to violence in video games can diminish the response of the brain when it encounters violence in real life. In the research, players were also given an opportunity to punish a fake opponent.

Those with the highest levels of violent video game exposure, exhibiting the lowest levels of brain response, were the most brutal in their response to such an offer.

Gamers can also emphasize the need for conflict while playing these games. The structure of a violent video game suggests that violence is the primary way to solve problems in the world today. If this perspective transitions to the real world, then some gamers may find themselves aggressively pursuing physical altercations when they have an issue with someone that must be addressed.

These games can keep the ones playing in their fantasy world, and they could potentially lose the ability to know what is reality and what is not. Some gamers find that the world of the game is more intriguing or beneficial to them than the world in which they live. They spend their time in this world, only engaging with those who share their perspectives. This can lead some gamers into a life of social isolation, even if they communicate with others for team-based activities within the game. About 3 percent of gamers face isolation tendencies, sometimes at extreme levels, because of playing video games that may be violent according to Natalie Regoli, chief editor of the Green Garage Blog.

Game creators encourage all aged kids to play them, as long as they get the money from all of the purchases. Most violent video games are given a mature rating.

The cartoonish nature of some games, such as Overwatch, invite children to want to play them at an early age. In 2016 a Twitch streamer helped a 7-year-old boy during the Trials of Osiris in Destiny, which was widely distributed through Game Rant.

Promoting young children having success in video games like these encourages others to do the same thing.

Besides encouraging violence, violent video games can contribute to unhealthy effects such as increasing the risk of obesity. Sitting and playing games all day and not moving is one of the many contributions video games can play a part in causing obesity. A team from the University of Zaragoza in Spain found that every hour spent playing video games increases the risk of being overweight for a teen.

In the end, violent video games make hurting and killing people look fun. This notion causes the players to act upon these actions in reality.

YES

V

IOLENT VIDEO GAMES have recently come under fire for pro-

moting malicious or violent action, with the main idea being shootings. The mainstream media loves to push this idea of the two being linked when they really are not.

The biggest claim people make is that violent video games cause these sorts of mass shootings and other things. This is widely accepted by the population because historically, people are more likely to go along with something they hear from a public figure or celebrity.

According to a paper published in Royal Society Open Science written by Andrew Przybylski and Netta Weinstein, this connection does not exist. The paper details a survey of over 1,000 14 to 15-year-olds of both genders and found no connection between video games and violent action.

This is further supported by an article published by the American Psychological Association, finding no solid connection between the two. The article did, however, state a link between violent games and less prosocial behavior.

As far back as 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled that a link between violent video games and aggressive behavior does not exist, based purely on research having been conducted over the span of multiple years.

Findings such as this are something that major political figures and celebrities either do not know of or simply ignore the evidence for. People like that are the reason why violent video games come under fire so often in the wake of a tragic event like a mass shooting or a bombing.

Armed with little and often unconvincing or even made up evidence, politicians have blamed violence on video games for years, probably decades would be more accurate now. Their rhetoric turned up to an all-time high in the 1990s after games like Wolfenstein 3D and the original DOOM popularized the genre of violent first-person shooting games.

Since then, video games have been blamed for shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 all the way up to Marjory Stoneman Ryan Douglas High School in 2018, anything in between, and it can be Bartholomew assumed that the trend will continue in that direction.

An article by the New York Times has a quote from Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, that seems fairly concrete.

“The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive,” said Ferguson.

According to him, the numbers really do work out about the same.

It was mentioned earlier a link between games like DOOM and whatnot being linked to a decrease in prosocial behavior, which makes sense.

Most people, when thinking about or picturing a gamer, tend to picture overweight people, usually male, or those who are super secluded and shut off from the world.

Justifying a stereotype is not what this article seeks to do, but all stereotypes were at one point based on some level \Evan Myers of truth. It would not have started had it not been a very common appearance for gamers, be it a reflection of the truth or simply a media portrayal.

The issue of antisocial behavior is another beast altogether, and something that I, as an avid player of these games, would want to see addressed a bit more, since there is concrete evidence to support it.

However, the claim that violent or lethal action is the result of video games is not supported by the sheer amount of evidence opposing it.

NO

Based on a poll of 100 students taken on September 12, 2019.

1

1

13

9

Health

20 ● September 20, 2019

Julia Knies opinion editor

W

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

Calm Down

Meditation: a proven way to reduce stress

ITH THE SCHOOL year beginning, many find themselves overwhelmed

while adjusting to the new workload. Taking up meditation as a practice of mindfulness is a beneficial way to take a moment to regain thoughts and release stress.

“We tend to get stressed when we’re thinking about the future, and when we focus on the past, that tends to cause feelings of depression.

The practice of mindfulness is about being present, in the moment,” said Corrie Klinefelter, a school counselor.

CHILLING OUT Ella Bowman , a sopho-

more, decompreses after a stressful day at school. She decided to try meditation to help reduce her stress levels.

The benefits Along with relieving stress, other potential benefits of meditation include increased immune function, control over emotions and anxiety, a deeper sense of self, and others.

There are no reported negatives or side effects. As science advances, soon accurate studies to show the full benefits of meditation and mindfulness will be available. “[When I meditate,] I feel like I’m able to control my thoughts more. I don’t feel as distracted. You need to recognize your thoughts but not chase after them,” said Maddie Terhark, a junior who has been meditating for about a year.

High schoolers are under a lot of stress and are dealing with a lot of different stressors this can be very difficult to handle if you don’t have coping skills and stress reducers to turn to. Everyone deals with stress in their own ways but many people do not know useful and healthy ways to cope and deal with stress.

Studies have shown that talking to people and venting can help reduce stress. If someone is facing a problem hearing a different perspective or solution to the problem from a friend or someone trusted can be extremely helpful.

According to an article by mayo clinic food could also help with a person’s stress.

A healthy diet and exercising has proven to help people with stress. When a person exercises their brain gets flooded with dopamine which is the chemical responsible for happiness.

Anyone can do it Practicing meditation does not require any outside materials. However, there are apps such as Headspace, Calm, and Smiling Mind, or videos on Youtube, that provide guided meditations. Guided meditations can help novice meditators to get into the right mindset and keep the mind from wandering. Meditation can be done anywhere, but a quiet, comfortable place is usually the best.

“You don’t have to be a Buddhist to meditate, it’s just something that you can do. It’s really easy to pick up. You don’t need a class for it or anything, it’s just something that you need to find in yourself,” said Sophia Barnedo, a sophomore who has been meditating since she was young.

Some people use music as a coping mechanism when they are under a great amount of stress. Music can be a very useful stress reliever because it stimulates your brain. All music is helpful but the type of music is another key factor.

If a person is facing a problem, listening to a song that relates to that problem can let them know that they're not alone.

“

The history of meditation Meditation has been around for thousands of years, and it is found in ancient religions throughout the world. It is most aGianna Lazzaro commonly associated with Eastern belief systems such as early forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The word meditation comes from the Latin term meditatum, meaning “to ponder.”

“The big thing [with mindfulness] is making time every day, and it’s about being preventative instead of waiting until you’re really stressed out. It’s really hard to come back down. I think it’s important for everyone to find something that they enjoy and do it every day,” said Klinefelter.

Beyond meditation, there are other mindful practices to release stress. These include yoga, taking a bath, or simply sitting down and enjoying a cup of tea or a book.

It is important to take time to decompress throughout the school year.

Tips and Tricks to reduce and cope with stress

The big thing [with mindfulness] is making time every day, and it’s about being preventative instead of waiting until you’re really stressed out.

If someone is stressed out, it is not healthy to try to push it down and hide it. Once someone can calm down and realize the fact that they’re stressed then they can start to use tools such as music, a healthy diet and talking to someone to help reduce that person's stress.

3 Kolton O’Connor

C orri Klinefelter

a school counselor

No homework, no tests, and no stress with Biannual Rest and Renew weeks Philip Tate

“I think we would try and see dates and things like that and let’s see the first one and see how we do and see if we want to some schools around the country have do it ‘semesterly’,” said Swetter.

Some schools that have R+R week implemented. It stands for rest and renew THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS week. During the week, teachers can not schedule it to be the week before state assign homework or give tests. The point college applications are due. This gives of this week would be to give students seniors more time to focus on essays and time to get caught up on missing work and applications. Juniors could also use the try to relax and relieve stress from being time for SAT and ACT test preparation.

The Editorial: We See It helpful to “I think it would beAsextremely behind and worrying about how they are going to do on tests. have the week scheduled twice to accommodate early applications and regular “No homework would take away stress applications,” said Alyssa Tate, a senior because it's a big part of grades,” said The Goal of R+R week would be to ease Emily Deatsch, a sophomore the load of homework and stress that stuJames Swetter, the principal, can see dents have. Another goal is to give stuthis idea working out once a semester. staff writer

R+R WEEK IS A RELATIVELY NEW CONCEPT THAT

dents time to catch up with their families. The main goal is to make students feel rested and a little more capable of finishing the rest of the semester with confidence and ease. Students can do more and perform at a higher level after a break, something the students can not do week after week, month after month.

“After the first six weeks of school I feel burned out and a break would help feel recharged,” said Anthony Carmen, a sophomore Students are not the only ones benefiting from this break, teachers would benefit, too. Teachers could catch up with their grading and have time to refresh old lesson plans. They, too, could have more

Comment

d e s i g n s

Social media affects the spread of news

Social media allows information to travel more quickly than ever before. While access to information is a good thing, it has also led to the rise of fake news by creating a world where people think that what they are reading and seeing is factual news when, in fact, much of it is unverified.

Millions of people post 24 hours a day about news and things happening in the world.

According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of U.S. adults get their news from social media. Referencing other sources to put together a more complete— or incomplete— picture is easier than ever before with all the different social media outlets. The herd mentality does not help in slowing the spread of news, fake or otherwise. Now, when one person shares something on their page, it spreads like wildfire.

For example, during the recent Amazon Rainforest fires, a tweet that went viral did not contain current photos of the fire but had photos from 1989 and 2012. The photos were misleading and did not depict up-to-date news.

Also, there was misreporting during the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. A student at Brown University named Sunil Tripathi was falsely identified as one of the suspects of the bombing from a surveillance photograph. It began on Reddit, then spread to Twitter. Tripathi had disappeared from Brown about a month before the bombings. However, this post was the catalyst for journalists from mainstream outlets to call the Tripathi family all night, along with sending TV cameras to their home.

There are obvious positive sides to social media’s involvement with the news. Brutalities can no longer be hidden by governments because people post photos to social media, and there have been cases where it has contributed to solving serious crimes.

It allows citizens to take part in being journalists, and in 2011, this ability helped The EDITORIAL represents the shine a light on police mistreatment during the Arab Spring. consensus view of the members of Also, in June, 2019, social media went blue for Sudan, resulting in increased the Editorial Board. awareness of the human atrocities that were happening there. While the The Editorial Board members massacres in Sudan had been going on since December, 2018, they were not are Avianna Hoppes, Logan widely known until users changed their profile pictures to blue. Without McDade, Max Sotelo, Miah social media, neither of these instances would have been as widely shared.

Thirion, Julia Knies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, Jo Breese, Ryan In Paul Lewis’ TED Talk, “How mobile phones helped solve two murders,” Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, the Guardian reporter talks about solving a murder using readers as “coHope Black, and Frida Alvarado. producers.” By sending a general request via Twitter for witnesses of a death during a G20 protest in London, he was able to track down video footage that proved the police were responsible for a bystander’s death.

Despite the positives, more needs to be done to make sure people understand that information posted on social media sites is not verified, factual truth. The only place to find that would be at a legitimate news site.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter need to strengthen their policies about posting.

Facebook, a major platform for fake news spam accounts, has taken some action. They are mainly focusing on preventing fake news by “disrupting economic incentives because most false news is financially motivated; building new products to curb the spread of false news; and helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.”

It is a good thing for these companies to make it harder to post false information, but, in reality, there is only so much they can do. The truth is that people need to take more responsibility when reposting “news.” There is a step that everyone should take that would help the situation immeasurably: before reposting anything, verify that it really happened.

With the rise of social media, there has been a shift in how people receive news. The accessibility of it has fostered a rise in fake news.

time to catch up with their family and come back reenergized.

The negatives of Rest and Renew week could be that teachers assign more work the week before R+RSeptember week starts or pile 20, 2019 ● 5 up project due dates thefor the week after.

It could take longer for teachers to complete the unit they are teaching. Students may blow off the week and not try to catch up on missing work.

“I feel like students would just not even Editors Chief would Avianna just Hoppesgo have try to catch up inthey Logan McDade fun,” said Emliy Deatsch, a sophomore.

Online Editors in Chief Max Sotelo As of right now, rest and renew week Miah Thirion Opinion Editor Julia Kniessuch as Emily is just an idea but students, News Editor Grace Carey Radke, a junior, make this Sports are Editortrying Aviannato Hoppes Food Editor Devin Dorough happen at Cactus Shadows.

s

press

Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor

Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado

Staff Phoebe Arnold, Caitlin Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alexa Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 September 20, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 1 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

w r i t i n g

s

Comment

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

the

press

The Editorial: As We See It

Banning vaping does not solve the problem

With the recent vaping-related illness outbreak, lawmakers have urged the FDA to ban vaping devices, specifically targeted at the flavored ones.

Banning them will not get rid of the disease and will only make the devices seem more appealing, especially to the younger crowd.

Throughout history, banning does not tend to work. A prime example is the Prohibition Era. During this time, alcohol was illegal, but people still got their hands on it. It only made it more desirable, leading to bootleggers producing potentially dangerous concoctions. Two infamous alcohols they produced were dubbed bathtub gin and rotgut moonshine. Some were made with industrial alcohol that was used in medical supplies or fuels, and drinking it could possibly leave the consumer blind or poisoned. According to the History Channel, the poor-quality alcohol “may have killed more than 10,000 people before the repeal of the 18th Amendment.”

If vaping products are banned, they will definitely not be FDA-regulated, causing more problems than there already are, just like during the Prohibition. In fact, many of the vaping-related deaths have been linked to black market devices. Keeping the products FDA regulated will help The EDITORIAL represents the cut back with some of the dangers, instead of letting consensus view of the members of bootleggers run the operation. the Editorial Board.

Because it is not known what specifically is causing The Editorial Board members are the disease, pulling e-cigarettes from stores may not Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, solve the problem. It could be what is found in THC vapMax Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia ing products—either bootleg or sold legally, not just nicKnies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, otine.

Jo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, Hope Black, and Vaping at a high voltage—around 5.0V—creates high Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. levels of formaldehyde-producing chemicals, according to a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine. Another possibility is the vitamin E found in the products; however, now doctors at the Mayo Clinic are doubting that.

At this point, banning vaping devices will not help much—too many people use them. A better option is to make it more difficult for younger users to obtain them. Raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 nationwide may be the simplest option. Twenty-oneyear olds are not around high schoolers as much, as opposed to eighteen-year-olds who may still be in high school.

If the disease turns out to be strictly caused by THC, banning vaping nicotine may only cause people to turn back to cigarettes packed with over 70 cancer-causing chemicals, according to the American Cancer Society.

New information about the health effects of vaping are coming in almost daily. In the meantime, the best option is to stay away from vaping nicotine or THC, and definitely do not choose cigarettes as a “safer option”—there are still many harmful chemicals in them.

At first, vaping seemed like the perfect alternative to smoking, however, now it is proving to become its own epidemic.

October 18, 2019 ● 5

Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

Table 1 A

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

B

C

29

D

33

11

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 October 18, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 2 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS COMMENT

No (E)CAP: is it worth the time?

OPINION

ECAP should be offered but not required for graduation.

Students who care about it should be able to do it at their own discretion instead of the state requiring it for graduation. The money spent on it could be spent on more useful things like teachers or bathJo Breese rooms. creeker editor ECAP stands for Education and Career Action Plan. It is ECAP takes a system meant to help stuaway time from dents prepare for life after class even if it high school by helping them will not help all create resumes, browse colstudents in the leges, and plan their classes. future.

It is required to graduate in all Arizona high schools, but it is not applicable to all students.

ECAP is meant to help plan for life after high school, but the program mostly only helps people who plan to go to college after high school. For people who plan to go straight into college, it is helpful but does not provide as much for career-focused students. Students who plan on joining the workforce after college should not have to do it.

ECAP takes away from time in class. Some teachers complain about ECAP due to how it takes away teaching time away from them. Teachers have to take their students to the computer lab to work on planning for their futures instead of taking notes on important lectures or presentations.

Another major problem with ECAP is how it expects

“

A

Table 1 October 18, 2019 ● 7

B

THE REPORT CARD: 36

C

23

ECAP is required to graduate, but it is not applicable to all students.

D 4%

Jo Breese

students to know what they plan to do after high school.

ECAP forces students to make major choices after put less than an hour's worth of thought into them. Because only an hour is spent on such serious topics, such as creating a resume, students may feel pressured to rush through it and not put much thought into it. If students are not taking it seriously, then the class periods are wasted regardless. Many parents do not even know what choices their kids are planning on making because they are not helping them with it.

The state is wasting money on ECAP when they could be putting the money elsewhere. The program is funded by taxes, however, the money used would be better spent on fixing the bathrooms or hiring teachers.

Defenders of ECAP say that even if it is not for everyone, it still helps students who want to go to college after high school. While this is a fair point, I think that the time and money spent on ECAP could be better used in other places. Helping a few students plan for college is good, but using the money to help all the students is better.

6 ● October 18, 2019

COMMENT

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

Xbox One vs PS4

Ever since the two consoles were released in 2013, people have been arguing which is better.

The PlayStation 4 is superior to the Xbox One. The console’s audience, exclusive games, interface, controller, graphics, and other options make it the finest gaming console.

According to a study done by YouGov and Gutcheck, teenagers and a younger demographic preferred Xbox to PS4, whereas the core gaming age group from 18 to 25 years old prefer the PS4.

The Playstation 4 has 229 exclusive games, whereas the Xbox One has only 122 exclusives. Some of the best on PS4 are God of War, Spiderman, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Days Gone, Bloodborne, and Persona 5. The Last Of Us Part II, coming next spring, is highly anticipated for PS4. The only good exclusives on Xbox are Forza Horizon and Halo.

The Xbox One software has too many menus and different pages.

Along with that, the home page only displays recently played games. The quick menu on Xbox is too complicated—it has seven different tabs with way too much The Xbox information for a quick menu. The Playstation One quick menu is one page software has with everything necessary quick access, making it too many for difficult for someone to be Phillip Tate menus and confused while using it.

The PS4’s Dualshock 4 condifferent troller is better than the Xbox conpages, along troller because it is not as big. The with that, buttons on an Xbox controller have the home to be smashed down, but on the Dualshock 4, the buttons are quick page only to press and are very satisfying. The displays Dualshock 4 has a speaker and the recently Xbox One controller does not. The Xbox controller has a big port on played the bottom of it that can only be games. used with an adapter that is needed to plug in a headset unless it is one of the newer controllers. The DualShock 4 also has a touchpad that makes it easy for typing on a keyboard.

The graphics on the base consoles are better on the PS4.

Before Microsoft came out with the Xbox One S and X the graphics were not good compared to the base PS4. The Xbox One X does have 4K gaming that the PS4 Pro does not, however, very few games support 4K. This makes most games that are on both the PS4 and Xbox One X look the same.

Virtual reality is not supported on Xbox, making it the only primary gaming platform that does not have it. Even the Nintendo Switch supports it and the processor in it is not even close to as good as the Xbox's processor.

The list of top ten selling gaming consoles ever says that the PS4 has currently sold 88.06 million units placing it in sixth place. Xbox One has sold 41.8 million units in its lifetime, less than half of PS4’s sold, making it unranked on the top ten list.

The one advantage that the Xbox One does have over the PS4 is that Microsoft implemented reverse compatible games, which makes it possible to play games from the older Xbox 360. The PS4, unfortunately, does not have that option.

PS4

day was able to be spent trick-or-treating, the younger children would not have to be out as late.

Most children have bedtimes, especially on weekdays.

Having a day for celebrating on a Saturday will allow the kids to stay up later and not have to worry about school the next morning. The morning after Halloween, kids are always exhausted from trick or treating. This would give them time to rejuvenate energy and do homework over the weekend.

The purpose of celebrating on Saturday is to promote the holiday and to allow people to celebrate all day.

There is more time to get ready for the holiday instead of rushing immediately after school or work.

Actually changing the date of Halloween is unrealistic.

It is not considered a Federal holiday like Thanksgiving, therefore, even if the petition gains hundreds of thousands of signatures, the President can not actually do anything to change the date. Many parties are already on the weekend before Halloween, so everyone is celebrating on that day anyway. Adding trick-or-treating would not be much of a change.

Many people like to celebrate Halloween on October 31 because that is how it has been for years; however, it would make it much easier for everyone to celebrate on Saturday. This does not mean that people cannot celebrate on October 31 still. After school and work, families can stay in and carve pumpkins or watch Halloween movies. It would be less stressful for parents and take the pressure off of kids having to worry as much about homework. It would benefit the kids in the best ways possible. The kids are the ones who trick-or-treat and, moving the date would keep them safer.

F 15

8

A 11% 29%

23%

C

B

33% A

B

Table 1 C

D

Most students like14the new iPhones.

Only 12 15% of students gave it less than a C.

13

CLASSES ENJOYED FALL BREAK

F

D

1

8%

A

15%

36%

18%

C

23%

B

OPINION The Halloween and Costume Association launched a petition to change the date of Halloween to always be on a Saturday. Instead of completely changing the date of Halloween, creating a designated day for trick-or-treating Paul Wernes the Saturday before Halloween staff writer would make it safer for kids who are trick-or-treating, as Dedicating a well as give people more time Saturday to to celebrate and prepare for trick-or-treatthe holiday.

The petition has 75,000 siging will relieve natures and counting. It has to some of the get 100,000 signatures in the stress parspan of 30 days to be reviewed ents face when

by We the People, an organizaHallowen is on a tion that will ensure the petiweekday. tion is brought to the attention of the White House and receives an official response.

The safety of the kids is the most important part of changing the date. A statistic from the nonprofit organization Safe Kids Worldwide states that twice as many kids are killed while walking on Halloween than any other day of the year. Halloween is a holiday meant for kids to have fun while trick-or-treating. Parents are constantly thinking about their kids' safety, on Halloween especially. There are predators roaming the streets and cars speeding down the roads. If the whole

D

18

STUDENTS GIVE GOOD GRADES TO NEW iPHONE

F

Ghosting Halloween on weekdays

XBOX

4

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

` Evan Myers

The debate on whether Xbox One or PlayStation 4 is the superior console has been going on for years. When it comes down to it, Xbox is the best choice because the PS4 lacks in many spots.

One of the big reasons that make Xbox One the better console is that it has backward compatibility. Backward compatibility means that games made for the older Xbox 360 Another are able to be played on the Xbox One. There are some feature that exceptions, so not every sin- the Xbox one gle game is compatible with has is game the Xbox One. However, new games are frequently sharing. released. Another benefit is Once a user that every game bought is logged for Xbox comes with a free Windows PC into an Xbox copy.

One, it lets Another feature that the everyone Xbox One has is on that game sharing. Once Xbox play a user is logged into an Xbox One, it lets everyone that user’s on that Xbox play that user’s games. games. The system creates a new Cloud save for each user, which lets each user complete their own achievements along the way.

Dylan Lies Microsoft also makes it very easy for people to change their usernames on the Xbox, and even lets them change it for free for the first time. With the PS4, once it is created it cannot be changed.

Exclusive games are a big argument between the two consoles. Xbox has more popular shooter and racing exclusives such as Halo, Gears of War, and the best in class racing game, Forza. They also still support third party hits such as Call of Duty, Destiny, and Battlefield.

Microsoft has a deal with Electronic Arts called EA Access. This allows Xbox users to have access to popular franchises such as Fifa, Madden, Battlefield, and Skate 3. For five dollars a month or 30 dollars a year, it gives ten percent off all digital EA purchases and pre-release trials to some of EA’s biggest games, along with an all-you-can-play buffet of all EA’s games.

This year, new generations of each console were introduced, the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro. The Xbox One X is the most powerful video ` Evan Myers game console aside from a PC. wThe Xbox One is able to play 4K Blu Rays, unlike the Playstation.

The Xbox’s controller selection is significantly larger than the PS4’s. They are customizable with dozens of colors or designs to choose from. Microsoft also gives gamers the option to splurge on the Xbox Elite controller to enhance their experience. Along with that, the design of the Xbox controller is more comfortable to hold and is not as bulky as the PS4’s.

Xbox overall has a better online experience. Xbox Live is completely stable, unlike Playstation Plus which has had significant outages. In a 2016 IHS Markit study, Xbox was reported to offer better speeds and better reliability than PS4. Xbox One also offers a family gameshare service, wheras PlayStation offers nothing alike. Xbox is also partnered with Comcast, Xfinity, NFL, and Time Warner Cable to enhance the entertainment aspect of the console.

F

23

Over half of the students polled gave their Fall Break a B or higher.

STUDENTS STRUGGLING TO FIND HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

F

A

1

14%

B

12%

42%

o c t o b e r

13% 19%

C

D

Finding a Halloween costume is not going well for students. Nearly half of them gave it an F. Based on a poll of 100 students taken on October 4, 2019.

1

F 19

42

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

the

The Editorial: As We See It

Banning vaping does not solve the problem

With the recent vaping-related illness outbreak, lawmakers have urged the FDA to ban vaping devices, specifically targeted at the flavored ones.

Banning them will not get rid of the disease and will only make the devices seem more appealing, especially to the younger crowd.

Throughout history, banning does not tend to work. A prime example is the Prohibition Era. During this time, alcohol was illegal, but people still got their hands on it. It only made it more desirable, leading to bootleggers producing potentially dangerous concoctions. Two infamous alcohols they produced were dubbed bathtub gin and rotgut moonshine. Some were made with industrial alcohol that was used in medical supplies or fuels, and drinking it could possibly leave the consumer blind or poisoned. According to the History Channel, the poor-quality alcohol “may have killed more than 10,000 people before the repeal of the 18th Amendment.”

If vaping products are banned, they will definitely not be FDA-regulated, causing more problems than there already are, just like during the Prohibition. In fact, many of the vaping-related deaths have been linked to black market devices. Keeping the products FDA regulated will help The EDITORIAL represents the cut back with some of the dangers, instead of letting consensus view of the members of bootleggers run the operation. the Editorial Board.

Because it is not known what specifically is causing The Editorial Board members are the disease, pulling e-cigarettes from stores may not Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, solve the problem. It could be what is found in THC vapMax Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia ing products—either bootleg or sold legally, not just nicKnies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, otine.

Jo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, Raven Ramirez, Hope Black, and Vaping at a high voltage—around 5.0V—creates high Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. levels of formaldehyde-producing chemicals, according to a study done by the New England Journal of Medicine. Another possibility is the vitamin E found in the products; however, now doctors at the Mayo Clinic are doubting that.

At this point, banning vaping devices will not help much—too many people use them. A better option is to make it more difficult for younger users to obtain them. Raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 nationwide may be the simplest option. Twenty-oneyear olds are not around high schoolers as much, as opposed to eighteen-year-olds who may still be in high school.

If the disease turns out to be strictly caused by THC, banning vaping nicotine may only cause people to turn back to cigarettes packed with over 70 cancer-causing chemicals, according to the American Cancer Society.

New information about the health effects of vaping are coming in almost daily. In the meantime, the best option is to stay away from vaping nicotine or THC, and definitely do not choose cigarettes as a “safer option”—there are still many harmful chemicals in them.

At first, vaping seemed like the perfect alternative to smoking, however, now it is proving to become its own epidemic.

d e s i g n s

s

Comment

October 18, 2019 ● 5

press Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 October 18, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 2 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

` Evan Myers

w r i t i n g

s

Comment

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

November 15, 2019 ● 5

the

press Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson

\Evan Meyers

The Editorial: As We See It

Remembering the meaning of THANKSgiving

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time for being grateful— originally conceived as a huge feast after the harvest—for the bounty of nature. However, in today’s world, other activities such as Black Friday seem to be more important than taking time to express gratitude.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been a time for families to get together and spend time sharing a meal and memories, perhaps playing a family football game on the lawn, or taking a walk together after the big meal. Families bonded over the preparation of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie.

In recent years, however, the focus has shifted slightly.

With the advent of Black Friday, a day set aside for shopping the day after Thanksgiving, people are shoving away their plates and rushing out the door to get the best deals.

Black Friday has become a major shopping event. It used to start Friday mornThe EDITORIAL represents the ing, but now many sales consensus view of the members of the Editorial Board. begin at midnight on Thanksgiving day itself, The Editorial Board members are Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, which obliterates the time Max Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia that is supposed to be dedKnies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, icated to family. This has Jo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, shifted the focus from gratRaven Ramirez, Hope Black, and itude to money, and people Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. have gotten away from the whole idea of being grateful.

Although Black Friday signifies the beginning of the holiday shopping season, it should not be the main focus of the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

With the rise of online shopping, Cyber Monday was created for another day of shopping. This has extended the shopping hype after Black Friday for online retail. For com-

panies with both physical and online stores, this only gives them more opportunity to rake in the cash.

Beyond Thanksgiving, many other national holidays, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, and others, have simply become an opportunity for companies to have countless amounts of sales. These holidays meant to bring unity to the nation are no longer doing that. Even on Christmas and after holiday shopping is over, companies will have last-minute sales to make some more money.

A way to diffuse some of the hype with shopping may be by extending the holiday shopping season by a week, giving people extra time to prepare. Thanksgiving was on the fourth Thursday in November from 1863 until 1939. Then, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that celebrating Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November would be better as an effort to help the economy at the end of the Depression. This, however, did not last, and in 1941, Congress insisted that the fourth Thursday should be the holiday. While everyone is used to Thanksgiving being on the fourth Thursday, moving it up a week would not make too much of a difference.

Celebrating Thanksgiving is an important event for America, but perhaps it is time to get back to the original ideas of being grateful and spending time with loved ones.

Everyone loves a good sale, but Black Friday should be toned down, at least to let families spend time together instead of being distracted by shopping.

Thanksgiving is meant as a time to be grateful for what you already have, not rushing to buy new items.

Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 November 15, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 3 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS COMMENT

November 15, 2019 ● 7

Assemblies take away class time OPINION

The purpose of assemblies is to hype students up for big events and encourage school spirit, but many students do not and instead result in being bored and uninterested.

Michael Assemblies should Kaegi not be required staff writer because it makes Should stu- students who do dents be not like them feel required to like they are wastgo to assem- ing their time when they could blies? be completing their schoolwork instead.

Compared to the cheerleaders and football players, the students in the stands end up observing instead of participating and adding to the energy of the assembly. Instead of going to them, some students would rather get their work done. The extra time can be taken

any sort of bad behavior that may interrupt the assembly, However, some of the teachers and administrators would rather everyone participate and show off their school spirit. They think that by having everyone there, it shows that the students really care about their school and want to support all the hard work put into the pep rally.

Even though everybody is at the pep rally, it does not mean that they will participate and show support. While it looks good to have everyone there to support, in the long run, it will lead to less enjoyment at the pep rallies overall, thus harming the reputation of the school.

While there are pros and cons to students not going to assemblies, it can greatly benefit the individual student rather than the student body as a whole.

Overall, it can allow for more space in the gym, as well as cut down on bad behavior for the kids who aren’t interested and need something to do, as well as give a quiet environment for students who would rather get work done.

to optimize and manage the amount of work they have in order to not stress as much.

With not having as many kids during the assemblies, all grades could fit on one side of the gym. Then everyone could see the performances instead of the sophomores and juniors having to look at only the backs of whoever is on the floor.

Teachers who also have to get work done could open their classrooms to students who would rather work than be in an assembly for an hour. It would help students to maximize their workload and stay ahead of their classes instead of having to participate in something that they are not interested in.

Requiring students to go to assemblies can also result in delinquent behavior due to students needing something to do to keep themselves entertained. During the school’s last pep rally, people were messing with the vines hanging from the ceiling, which could have fallen and destroyed the Student Council’s work. If students were not bored and instead had somewhere else to go, it could prevent

THE REPORT CARD: STUDENTS GIVE GOOD GRADES TO THE WEATHER

F

D

C

4% 3% 15%

STUDENTS INDIFFERENT TO THE HALLOWEEN SPIRIT WEEK

F

D

5% 12%

39% 31%

A B

A

16%

36%

39%

B

C Most students gave the Halloween Spirit Week a C, with B following close behind.

Nearly 80 percent of students gave the weather a B or higher.

CLASSES ENJOY BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING 6 ● November 15, 2019

COMMENT

F

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

Should politics be on social media?

16%

Social media websites have been re-evaluating their terms and conditions and debating if politics should be allowed to be posted.

When talking about social media and politics, it is hard to not mention names like Donald Trump or Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. These people, among others, use social media as a means of communicating their own politics and ideas to a larger audience.

This is not limited to people with copious amounts of money, many people express their views using online platforms. Now, some social media sites seem to be shutting people down for doing exactly that, which goes against their whole purpose and abuses an unfairly complicated censorship system.

The prevalence of social media in politics is in no small part due to how elected officials and candidates have the ability to publish content and broadcast it to millions of people all over the country. This instantaneously allows campaigns to carefully manage the image of their candidates with little to no cost, in most cases.

Platforms like these are not without their flaws, of course. There exists bias, and in some cases, that bias has led to other people being forced to take down certain posts, or even have their whole account deleted or permanently banned for voicing their opinions by platform administrators who might see things differently.

Most people, when confronted with the long terms of service page while creating an account, simply scroll to the bottom, and do not bother to read it. It is in this where a site supposedly outlines its censorship guidelines, although these tend to vary. Some may find themselves victims of this censorship down the line, as something harmless to say out loud to someone else may completely violate the terms of service of Twitter or another social media service. It is important to ask what is what when it comes to censorship, as very frequently, it is different to our First Amendment rights.

Completely removing politics from social media makes even less sense for shutting down people who are expressing their views. There are sites online where like-minded people can congregate, and these are great. The inability of people to talk respectfully about politics and such should not mean the complete removal of those topics from a platform designed for the sole purpose of expressing oneself.

A popular case of free speech coming into quesRyan Bartholomew tion was with professional Hearthstone player Ng Wai Chung, more commonly known as Blitzchung, and a protest during an official esports broadcast in mid-October.

Blizzard Entertainment, the developers of Hearthstone, saw his protests,issued a one-year suspension from esports tournaments, and rescinded his $10,000 in tournament earnings. Driving up an audience like this also helps with the money side of things for a site like Twitter or Facebook, because now with any controversy, millions more people will visit the site and earn the platform millions of more dollars.

Someone with a large enough follower count is able to do almost anything without whatever platform or website they are partnered with taking action because of how profitable the person is, where smaller accounts are left completely helpless against what is, all things considered, a pretty unfair system of copyright claims and lawsuits.

I will not say that politics absolutely belong everywhere, and everyone should be talking about it constantly, even though that is what we, as a society, are leaning towards. The real issue stems from censorship and people not remaining civil when discussing these topics. The First Amendment must be extended to cover the rights of people online and protect the freedom to speak on whatever topics interest them.

YES

\Evan Meyers

A

D

6%

17%

17%

Politics in social media have corrupted our system.

Social media is commonly used as a way to connect with friends, family, and allows people to voice their opinion on a global scale. Only now, social media has become overwhelmed with political ads, opinions, and hateful comments or posts.

Within every social media app, there is a user agreement that lays out the rules, regulations, and guidelines. Many users simply scroll to the bottom of the user agreement hit the button that says “I’ve read over the agreement,” and never think twice. Except when they either get demonetized, censored or deleted all together due to their posts.

The user agreement for any social media platform clearly states what is accepted and what is not.

Politics within a face to face conversation can get heated quickly, especially when there are two or more people on opposite sides of an issue. When that conversation is then posted on social media, millions of people can comment and voice their opinions. It morphs into others displaying their hatred of people's opinions or thoughts on a topic. The fire of hatred only gets bigger from there, as it spreads further and further, affecting more people as it continues to grow out of proportion.

Hiding behind a screen leads to problems such as cyberbullying, threats, and humiliation of others.

Adding in a controversial topic such as politics causes the whole situation to go up in smoke. A simple post can blow into heated conversations, which may lead to threats, protests and, worst comes to worst, the ultimate worst casino.

To other countries, this looks—in one word— unprofessional. Within a social media platform, there is no longer such a thing as professional. No one can just say “agree to disagree” anymore, because people hide behind their devices, making them think that they now have the right to do and say whatever they please.

In 2017, the U.S. had 834 protests due to Presidential Emma Weaver tweets and differences alone, according to The Washington Post. Due to the controversy, violence, and struggles that surround the political world, why should we have that broadcasted for the world to see? Why should we listen and get ourselves wrapped up in strangers’ comments? We are human beings and we need other people's satisfaction and validation in order to be happy, which is why we defend our candidate, celeb or side of a decision until it gets out of hand.

On the other hand, there are those that point to the First Amendment and our freedom of speech. The First Amendment means that companies should not be able to censor anything because it is our birthright. Americans have an entitlement to their own thoughts and perspectives on different topics. However, this does not give people the right to hate, bully, humiliate, and even threatened others just because they do not have the same opinion.

Steps are already being taken to help this situation. Twitter announced in October that they would no longer accept political ads. Facebook employees sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg not to just ban false political ads but all political ads. It is a step in the right direction to help keep politics off social media platforms, for our sake, and for those who may get harmed physically or emotionally by one post.

NO

C

44%

B Over half of students polled gave shopping on Black Friday a B or higher.

from a poll of 100 students taken on November 5, 2019.

New curriculum causes confusion OPINION The newly introduced Pre-AP program is intended to assist students in future AP classes and streamline writing styles, however, the curriculum’s transition into Cactus Shadows has caused confusion for many incoming freshmen, is costly, and Claire Geare has been poorly implestaff writer mented by the school.

In past years, the first AP Could the new class many students took Pre-AP curricuwas World History and lum been introGeography. It was a reladuced more tively low consequence smoothly? means to learn AP writing styles and testing formats and was primarily taken by freshmen. However, with the introduction of the Pre-AP program, many freshmen believed that Pre-AP World History was a prerequisite to AP World History. This caused many students to take an unnecessary World History course—which can dissuade students from taking AP World History since they have already gained their required history credit.

The most frustrating aspect of the curriculum’s implementation has been how poor of an effort the school made to explain the new courses offered. For example, in the school’s course catalog, the description for Pre-AP Biology Honors strongly suggests that college credit can be earned by taking the course with language used such as “doing well on the AP test allows individual universities to award up to 6 hours of credit.

Coursework and homework are demanding, but completion of at least one AP course is now considered by college admissions officers as the single best indicator for a successful freshman year in college,” and even including a footnote saying that “**fees for advanced placement courses are due prior to the first day of class.” However, no college credit is awarded for the completion of any Pre-AP course.

One more downside to the new curriculum is the cost. At roughly 3,000 dollars a year per course, when multiple courses are bought, the curriculum can become very expensive. Since the curriculum is not proven to benefit students yet, this money should be contributed to more pressing campus issues such as the vaping epidemic, overcrowded classrooms, or lack of teachers.

While the integration of the Pre-AP curriculum has been rocky, there are some obvious, while still theoretical, benefits to offering Pre-AP courses. For one, the teaching of AP writing styles from an early age may help students with more challenging AP courses later in their schooling career and in college. Also, the curriculum replaces freshman benchmarks with a mandatory PSAT, encouraging students to begin studying early for standardized tests. Additionally, the Pre-AP program is certified by the College Board, and having Pre-AP classes on transcripts may demonstrate rigor to colleges.

While the implementation of the Pre-AP curriculum may be beneficial, the confusion caused by a lack of information given to incoming students and it’s costliness has given the program poor rapport with many students.

n o v e m b e r

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

s

Comment

November 15, 2019 ● 5

the

press Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson

The Editorial: As We See It

\Evan Meyers

Remembering the meaning of THANKSgiving

d e s i g n s

Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time for being grateful— originally conceived as a huge feast after the harvest—for the bounty of nature. However, in today’s world, other activities such as Black Friday seem to be more important than taking time to express gratitude.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving has been a time for families to get together and spend time sharing a meal and memories, perhaps playing a family football game on the lawn, or taking a walk together after the big meal. Families bonded over the preparation of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie.

In recent years, however, the focus has shifted slightly.

With the advent of Black Friday, a day set aside for shopping the day after Thanksgiving, people are shoving away their plates and rushing out the door to get the best deals.

Black Friday has become a major shopping event. It used to start Friday mornThe EDITORIAL represents the ing, but now many sales consensus view of the members of the Editorial Board. begin at midnight on Thanksgiving day itself, The Editorial Board members are Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, which obliterates the time Max Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia that is supposed to be dedKnies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, icated to family. This has Jo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, shifted the focus from gratRaven Ramirez, Hope Black, and itude to money, and people Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. have gotten away from the whole idea of being grateful.

Although Black Friday signifies the beginning of the holiday shopping season, it should not be the main focus of the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

With the rise of online shopping, Cyber Monday was created for another day of shopping. This has extended the shopping hype after Black Friday for online retail. For com-

panies with both physical and online stores, this only gives them more opportunity to rake in the cash.

Beyond Thanksgiving, many other national holidays, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, and others, have simply become an opportunity for companies to have countless amounts of sales. These holidays meant to bring unity to the nation are no longer doing that. Even on Christmas and after holiday shopping is over, companies will have last-minute sales to make some more money.

A way to diffuse some of the hype with shopping may be by extending the holiday shopping season by a week, giving people extra time to prepare. Thanksgiving was on the fourth Thursday in November from 1863 until 1939. Then, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that celebrating Thanksgiving on the third Thursday of November would be better as an effort to help the economy at the end of the Depression. This, however, did not last, and in 1941, Congress insisted that the fourth Thursday should be the holiday. While everyone is used to Thanksgiving being on the fourth Thursday, moving it up a week would not make too much of a difference.

Celebrating Thanksgiving is an important event for America, but perhaps it is time to get back to the original ideas of being grateful and spending time with loved ones.

Everyone loves a good sale, but Black Friday should be toned down, at least to let families spend time together instead of being distracted by shopping.

Thanksgiving is meant as a time to be grateful for what you already have, not rushing to buy new items.

Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 November 15, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 3 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

w r i t i n g

Comment

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

December 20, 2019 ● 5

s the

press Editors in Chief Online Editors in Chief Opinion Editor News Editor Sports Editor Food Editor Creeker Editor Spotlight Editor Photo Editor Travel Editor Style Editor Global News Editor Trending Now Editor In Depth Editor Health Editor

Avianna Hoppes Logan McDade Max Sotelo Miah Thirion Julia Knies Grace Carey Avianna Hoppes Devin Dorough Jo Breese Ryan Bartholomew Logan McDade Raven Ramirez Miah Thirion Hope Black Max Sotelo Frida Alvarado Emma Bauer

Staff Cait Bunkers, Kaitlyn Cross, Blake Dorame, Claire Geare, Sharon Goez, Alex Grove, Max Hancock, Nolan Honea, Michael Kaegi, Gianna Lazzaro, Jaden Lea, Dylan Lies, Sarah Love, Colin Mesenbrink, Evan Myers, Kolton O’Connor, Callahan Schwartz, Hayley Smith, Nia Sogaard, Philip Tate, Zachary Valentine, Mikayla Warriner, Emma Weaver, Paul Wernes

\ Evan Myers The Editorial: As We See It

Potential dangers arise in Mexico Mexico is a common spring break destination, especially for those who live in Arizona. Not only is it reasonably priced, but it is also one of the closest beaches. However, recently many tourists are increasingly concerned about their safety.

With the recent deaths of Americans in mind, families have canceled reservations for hotels in fear of events like this happening to them. On November 4, nine Americans were killed, among them were three women and six children, according to National Public Radio (NPR). Robert Bunker, an international security expert and professor at the University of Southern California, believes the attacks were deliberate, based on the timing. While some argue that the family may have been mistaken for a rival cartel, Bunker argues that the two attacked cars were far too spread apart to be mistaken for a cartel, because the cartel often travels close.

For many, the travel warning, issued by the US Department of State, is a concern.

At the moment is a level two, meaning one can carry out normal activities but be mindful of surroundings.

According to USA Today, the areas of high danger include Sinaloa, Colima, and Guerrero.

However, the popular spring break destination, Puerto Peñasco, appears to be stable.

Reporters have also voiced that the people who have died were either involved with the cartel or had spoken out against the cartel publicly.

Just last year, roughly 35 million tourists visited Mexico, of those 35 million, 67 were killed in homicide cases. This works out to be less than a .00000191 percent chance of not making it home because of an act of violence, according to KHOU, a news station out of Houston, Texas.

The EDITORIAL represents the consensus view of the members of Additionally, in 2018, almost 39 percent of Americans who left the the Editorial Board. country went to Mexico. The US Embassy found that the majority of The Editorial Board members are people who spent their spring break vacation there felt they were in a Avianna Hoppes, Logan McDade, safe and fun environment.

Max Sotelo, Miah Thirion, Julia In 2019, there are an estimated 44 million people who will visit Knies, Grace Carey, Devin Dorough, Mexico on vacation. For beach cities, tourism is one of their priJo Breese, Ryan Bartholomew, mary revenue outlets. Therefore, the Mexican government focuses on Raven Ramirez, Hope Black, and Frida Alvarado, and Emma Bauer. keeping popular tourist destinations safe, so the cities stay lucrative, according to USA Today.

The high priority that has been placed on keeping these cities safe has proven to be primarily effective, considering that the travel warning went from a level three down to a level two.

There will be controversy about traveling to Mexico, but if one visits the right areas, stays knowledgeable of their surroundings, and uses common sense, it is not typically a life-threatening place, especially considering how busy Puerto Peñasco becomes with families during the spring.

The safety of Mexico, a frequent vacation destination for many, has been questioned with the recent outbreaks of violence.

Advisers Lori Hart, Robert Adamson Editorial Policy: The CSPress is published by the Journalism class of Cactus Shadows High School.

The newspaper serves the students and staff of Cactus Shadows High School and as a connection to the surrounding community.

The objective of the CSPress is to publish a factual, informative and entertaining the newspaper, and to provide a forum for the expression of diverse viewpoints.

The opinions and views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, the adviser, or all CSPress staff members.

The CSPress is also published online, at cactusshadowscspress.com.

The editors reserve the right to reject any material that is libelous, obscene, or poses an immediate and material disruption to the educational environment.

WE VALUE YOUR OPINION. EMAIL YOUR LETTER TO CSPRESS.OPINION@gmail.com The CSPress values comments from its readers.

If you have something to say about anything you have read, please write a letter to the editor and send it to cspress.opinion@gmail.com. Letters must be typed, less than 100 words in length and signed.

The editorial staff reserves the right to edit for length. The CSPress will not print letters that are obscene, libelous or that target an individual.

Advertisements that are obscene, misleading, or illegal to minors will not be printed. The CSPress reserves the right to reject any advertisement. To place an ad, contact the adviser or the Advertising Manager at (480) 575-2493.

The CSPress is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, the Journalism Education Association, and the Arizona Interscholastic Press Association.

The CSPress Cactus Shadows High School 5802 East Dove Valley Road , Scottsdale, Arizona 85266 tel. 480-575-2400 December 20, 2019, Volume 11: Issue 3 School enrollment: 1957 Number of copies printed: 1100

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

December 20, 2019 ● 7

Brexit breaks Britain OPINION

Today, Brexit has become a topic that has ravaged headlines nationwide. It is clear that the United Kingdom should exit from the European Union ,since the people of the country voted to do so.

First voted on June 23, 2016, the affair has turned out to be much more difficult to enact than originally thought. The Max government has presented Hancock three different options for staff writer how to leave the EU, and, Since 2016, each time, they are sent back there has been to the drawing board. a debate about Fifty-two percent of citiwhether or not zens voted on the exit of the UK should the United Kingdom from leave the the European Union while 48 percent voted to remain.

European Union.

Based on a study done by Gurminder Bhambra, who is a professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, England, the 52 percent were primarily made up of the working middle class of the rural portions within the United Kingdom. The 48 percent opposed was made up of younger adults from metropolitan areas.

The voice of blue-collar workers is crucial to the success of a country since they help the country run by contributing to the economy.

One concern about Brexit is that it will cause a loss of jobs, according to politicians such as Mark Boleat, ex-

chairman of seven years to The City of London Policy and Resources Committee, who claim that a massive amount of jobs will be lost that are hosted in London. However, Brexit will allow the UK to rid itself of heavy regulation from the European Union. Because the United Kingdom is such a heavyweight trader and military force within the European Union, the EU forces many laws of regulation on the nation. Freeing themselves of the European Union should allow more jobs to be created because of the UK having control over their own manufacturing and other fields of production without the EU breathing down their necks.

Other arguments opposing Brexit include the fear that the economy of the United Kingdom will plummet without the support of one of the biggest unions in the world.

However, as seen in the histories of neighboring nations and nations around the globe, economies adapt when given enough wiggle room to reign free with support from a working-class. For example, Automation and AI in manufacturing in the U.S. and our economy adapting, even with the loss of jobs.

While Brexit should go forward, more action needs to be taken to make the process faster and more effective.

The UK has already lost one prime minister to resignation after heavy retaliation from UK citizens and officials.

Brexit was originally voted on in 2016, and the deadline has been extended to January 2020, when it will most likely be moved once again.

The United Kingdom will also now have the opportunity to discuss new trade deals with other countries without the say of the European Union. They will have the final say in the deals instead of being just a voice in the process.

The European Union keeps a tight leash on who the countries in the union can trade with and what they can trade.

Controlling your Life360 OPINION

6 ● December 20, 2019

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

Should schools require uniforms?

Nearly 22 percent of schools in America require uniforms, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Should more require them?

THE DEBATE ABOUT uniforms continues, as schools

across the country make the choice to let students wear their own clothes, or assign a uniform. While the majority of public schools do not use uniforms, they can be the right choice. From creating a sense of unity at the school to not having to struggle with outfits every day, uniforms would be a good choice for Cactus Shadows.

The main reason to support uniforms is that it would limit stereotypes, and other students would not judge others off fashion. Many students who have made the switch to uniforms have said it was easier to not have to stress about what they were going to wear, or the anxiety of re-wearing outfits.

Although this may seem like a trivial issue, it is important to recognize that clothes are a form of expression, but can lead to unneeded stress in the school environment meant for learning.

Uniforms also create a healthier environment with less social stress for students. Social segregation is taken away dramatically when using uniforms, they also allow you to make more friends when uniforms are what take away. School bullying and violence is reduced, kids are not focused on high fashion trends and it helps focus on blending everyone together to accomplish a goal and dress for success.

Another reason uniforms are a good choice is how easy it is to get ready in the morning. Instead of staring at a closet and choosing the “perfect” outfit, you know exactly what you are going to wear that day and every day. As a teenager myself, I know it would cut at least twenty minutes of having to pick an outfit every day.

Although controversial, uniforms actually create a space where all students can focus on their academics and learning in the school environment as opposed to their outfits. School Sharon Goez uniforms encourage identifying with a common enterprise the excellence of a school.

"Studies show certain types of clothing and accessories have come to distinguish between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots.’ By instituting a school uniform policy, a feeling of ‘oneness’ can be promoted by removing the messages of social and economic status carried by clothing, rather than the segregation that occurs without uniforms,” said by Paula Roguski; background and descriptive research at New York University.

Even schools that do not require uniforms have dress code policies on what kinds of clothing is appropriate, meaning staff monitors students’ attire. If uniforms were enforced, staff members also would not always be on the lookout for IDs and this would save students a few detentions and referrals since they know you belong on campus, thus making the school safer.

Finally, some argue that uniforms take away student expression. But there are ways that a student can still express themselves within the regulations of their school uniforms, such as jewelry, belts, hairstyles, and shoes.

Despite the controversy associated with uniforms, they can have various benefits for both schools and students and have the potential to make the campus and environment healthier.

YES

SCHOOL UNIFORMS ARE a bad

idea because it stops students from expressing themselves, costs a lot of money for the schools and families, and they are not comfortable to wear.

Wearing a school uniform restricts students from their freedom to express themselves.

Choosing the clothes you wear is “a crucial form of self-expression” according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which also states “allowing students to choose their clothing is an empowering message from the schools that a student is a maturing person who is entitled to basic self-determination.” The uniforms reduce the individuality of the student population within a school district. Uniforms teach students that it is more important to act and blend in with a group than thinking to be an individual or a leader.

The problem for parents comes down to the cost of school uniforms and the effort of procuring them. Many families that live near the poverty line find themselves shopping at thrift stores or discount stores, and if a public school requires a uniform, it could be very taxing. According to Greater Greater Washington, the average cost of school uniforms is $249 and the cost of a full wardrobe can be up to $600. For families that have to purchase multiple uniforms for their children, the cost could be a lot higher.

Philip Tate The idea of school uniforms is to look nice, professional, and have students looking their best, but that is almost never comfortable. A polo and slacks compared to a tee shirt or hoodie and shorts can be very uncomfortable, especially when it is hot outside. If the school’s colors do not reflect the sun, then it can get very hot in warm weather. Uniforms are also tight, the collar can be irritating, the pants can be too thin, and the skirts can be too long. If the student’s uniform is uncomfortable, it will distract them and they will not be able to focus during class as well as if they were comfortable.

A myth about school uniforms is that wearing a uniform can increase learning.

There is no evidence that having a school uniform, by itself, will improve performance, and behavior or attendance for students.

Another thing one could argue in favor of uniforms is that students will still find a way to express themselves by wearing jewelry and makeup. While that is true, students will find other ways to express themselves, it is not even close to as effortless as wearing brands that they support. School uniforms do not solve discipline problems, students who are looking for trouble are inevitably going to find it, the uniform will not stop them. Adding a uniform just gives students more rules to break.

NO

\Evan Myers

THE REPORT CARD:

Teens today seem to constantly have their cell phones in their hands—and it drives parents crazy. However, parents have begun using this mobile technology to their advantage by installing tracking apps on their children’s phones. While these apps are meant to help keep Nia Sogaard teens safe and parents sane, it staff writer seems to be doing more harm than good.

Life360, along Mobile apps such as Life360 with other and MamaBear have become tracking apps, very popular in some houseinvade chilholds, providing parents with dren’s lives the ability to know where their children are 24/7. Tracking apps claim to help keep kids and teens safe, but in reality, these apps seem to have a negative effect on both the parent and the child.

The use of tracking apps affects parent-child relationships, leaves the child unprepared for adulthood, and has proven to be unnecessarily invasive.

In an interview with Shaping Youth, the CEO of Life360, Chris Hulls, described the app as “a tool to keep families in touch with each other when a phone call may not be necessary.” However, the real way parents use tracking apps may not be as innocent as Hulls explains. Life360 provides the parent with full access to the location of the user in real-time, the speed at which they are driving, and the history of where the user was. Though the app was made with the intention of safety, it gives the parent a lot

of information and power. Parents can end up obsessively checking their Life360 to see every detail about their kid’s day. This overprotective manner can be damaging to the psyche of the parent.

Many teenagers feel that the use of tracking apps is an invasion of privacy and sends a message of mistrust. In fact, some teenagers have found a way to bypass Life360 and have begun sharing how to hack the app on the popular video-sharing app, TikTok. It may be damaging to the growth of a teenager when they are constantly being tracked. Having a watchful eye knowing all the details about their day takes away the ability to practice independence.

Teenage years are arguably the most formative for a person in terms of their capacity to trust others and to form and maintain healthy relationships. With the reins being held so tight, the teenager is not able to learn through making mistakes, which will ultimately result in an unprepared young adult. They may grow into adults who frequently engage in impulsive or risky behavior. On the other hand, they may have zero sense of true independence, a lack of honest communication skills, anxiety knowing that they are not being held accountable, or just general trust issues.

In the end, tracking apps prove to be counterproductive to their purpose of bringing families closer and keeping kids and teens safe. The use of tracking apps is generally an unnecessary one, and there are alternatives to this excessively invasive option. Setting the expectation that the teenager checks in through texting and calling teaches them communication and allows them to be held accountable for their actions. Creating clear boundaries for the teen teaches preserves a healthier, more trusting relationship between the parent and the child.

STUDENTS GIVE MEDIOCRE GRADES TO PREPARATION FOR FINALS

A

F

9%

20%

21%

B

25% 25%

D

C Seventy percent of students gave how prepared they feel for finals a C or lower.

CLASSES ENJOYED THE 2010s F D

A

9% 10%

35%

15%

C 31%

B

Over half of students polled gave this past decade a B or higher.

STUDENTS MIXED ABOUT MAKING NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

F

A 11%

D

18%

16%

23%

C

32%

B

Most students gave the importance of making New Year’s resolutions a B, with a C following close behind. from a poll of 100 students taken on December 10, 2019.

d e c e m b e r

In Depth

12 ● December 20, 2019

THE CACTUS SHADOWS PRESS

The changing internet Upping the game from 4G to 5G

\Evan Meyers Julia Knies and Jo Breese Opinion editor and Creeker editor

I

N THE US, the Internet Service Providers

industry has grown 4.1 percent per year from 2014 to 2019, and it is only going to continue to grow, according to IBISWorld, a business and market research company founded in 1971. With this growth comes prices, and Americans are paying more for internet access compared to many other countries.

Noemie Neipert, a French teacher who moved to America from France, has experienced firsthand the price differences for internet access.

“In America, it’s fifty dollars, at least, a month. In France, it’s nineteen dollars at the most, and you have the fastest internet…

When you’re used to paying so much less for service, then it is hard to pay so much more,” said Neipert.

Price comparison

d e s i g n s

Cable.co.uk, a price comparison website, did a study on worldwide mobile data pricing in 2019. Their research showed that the country with the cheapest data is India, coming in at 0.26 U.S. dollars per gigabyte. America has an average cost of $12.37 per gigabyte. France and the United Kingdom come in at $2.99 and $6.66 per gigabyte, respectively. However, not all of Europe’s data is cheaper than the U.S., as Switzerland’s data costs just over 20 U.S. dollars per gigabyte, according to the same study. The most expensive country is Zimbabwe, costing about $75 per gigabyte.

“We switched to an unlimited data plan

because my brother kept going over each month, which was an extra fifteen dollars [per gigabyte] per month,” said Max Rigler, a senior who uses Verizon.

Some of the high prices for internet access come from the cost of installing the equipment required to run the technology, however, it also comes from the competition between providers. “[The country] is so big that it costs a lot of money to those towers in… The companies also don’t want to lower the prices so they can compete like that,” said Neipert.

The top five largest mobile broadband providers in America are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Cricket according to Practical Ecommerce, founded in 2005 to help e-commerce businesses. Coming in at number six is MetroPCS, recently rebranded as Metro, a prepaid phone service brand by T-Mobile.

“I have MetroPCS, and it doesn’t work anywhere it should… I have to use wifi everywhere I go,” said Zoe Rosenthal, a senior.

How to avoid over paying To avoid overpaying for internet service, one can start with being aware of what their main purpose for using the internet is.

Downloading a lot, playing games online, and using social media, as well as having many devices can drive up the price. Exploring different companies for what speed needed can help narrow the cost down to the best deal.

Bundling and upgrading can provide other benefits or lower the price, as well. Always check the fine print to make sure there are not any hidden costs.

5G In other countries The US is behind on this 5G rollout, as 5G only recently launched in America. Many people believe that the US will suffer from being behind in the “5G race.”

“

areas already have and use 5G data.

Devon Breese, a freshman, said, ”I think that America should have focused on getting 5G more. I think that made China more advanced than us.”

China coming in first

“[The country] is so big that it costs a lot of money to those towers in…

The companies also don’t want to lower the prices so they can compete like that,” Noemi Neipert French teacher China was one of the first countries in the world to have 5G data freely available to consumers. Over 50 cities in China got the 5G service on Nov. 1 and more are getting the new technology everyday. China did not roll out 5G to everyone at once, but is slowly rolling it out across the country. 5G data is the next generation of data, an upgrade to 4G data, that allows download speeds of up to one gigabyte per second. Currently, in China, many of the residents located in high density

While the United States was the leader in technology for a long time, China could now become the first to release new technology due to the release. The benefits of 5G include driverless cars, AI-controlled phones, and completely autonomous weather systems.

The main consequence of losing the “5G race” is that China is going to have faster internet which can allow them to become more advanced than the US. “[I think 5G is] safe, but I think it needs more research probably,” said Brandon Wells, a junior.

Many people are also concerned about the mass adoption of 5G. Some 5G cell towers are shown to interfere with various weather sensors, which could be harmful. A lot of people believe that the radio waves given out by 5G may be harmful, but the FDA and the FCC claim that 5G is not harmful towards humans.

“I don’t really like Huawei, because of how they are connected with China and such,” said Matthew Scott, film and TV teacher.

One of the main reasons 5G was held back in the US is due to Huawei, the main distributor of 5G technology around the world, and their relationship with the US. Huawei is a tech company based in China that makes the technology that 5G needs to work and supplies it around the world to many countries.

w r i t i n g