The Knight August Issue 2013 by The Knight News Blog

HATS OFF TO THE NEW STAFF!

VAUGHN HIMBER EDITORIN-CHIEF

SOPHIA PAGE MAGAZINE EDITOR

NICK HALABY BLOG EDITOR

CAMERON DE MATTEIS BUSINESS/ SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

GRACE MCKAGAN ADVERTISING MANAGER

HALEY WIMMER WRITER

LAUREN CRITTENDEN WRITER

HALEY GILFORD WRITER

KATHERINE BRACKER WRITER

ALEX STEPHENSON WRITER

ANDREW GAVINET WRITER

VERONICA HUSTON WRITER

JANET YEO WRITER

GABRIELA AVILA WRITER

VICTORIA MARTINEZ WRITER

COVER PHOTOGRAPHER: Christine Marie, Christine Marie Photography

ERIC TALAMAS WRITER AUGUST 2013

JEANNIE GONZALES WRITER THE KNIGHT

To catch up on past issues of The Knight Magazine, check out our e-magazine on The Knight News Blog at www.ndhsmedia.com/e-magazine/

AUGUST 2013

contents

SCHOOL 04

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION

BAND CAMP SUMMER 2013

FRESHMEN ORIENTATION

are oriented

FRESHMEN TIPS

TEACHER PROFILES

The future of Notre Dame

Keeping the rhythm

In which the Freshmen

Did you know?

Educators, welcome!

FEATURES 09

SUMMER COLLEGE TOURS

outside of school

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

ADOPTED KIDS

Visiting a school...

This Month’s Theme:

NEWNESS

Students at work

SPORTS 12

GIRLS GOLF

TAINTED

IS YOUR PRIVACY AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?

RISE OF NO-KILL ANIMAL SHELTERS IN L.A.

NEW Campus NEW Students NEW Teachers NEW (School) Year!

Sports Scandals

OP-ED

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OUT WITH THE

O LD NEW IN WITH THE

By Janet Yeo Beeyo! Beeyo! Beeyo! There were tons of bulldozers over the summer at Notre Dame. and students are curious about the new additions around campus. There were rumors floating around, but most people do not know what is going on and when the new additions are going to be finished. President Brett Lowart created a five-year plan in 2010 that would make advancements to the academic, administration, and athletic facilities. The first project on the Light the Way campaign was to get all the administration together into one building. Prior to this plan, the administration was spread all over the campus, making it difficult to communicate with each other efficiently. Lowart decided to ask the Holy Cross Brothers if they could move into their residence. “We’d like to remodel your house and you’re not invited to come back into it.” Lowart jokingly said. The Brothers granted permission for the offices to be moved there, making it easier for students and teachers to access the offices. After the relocation of the administration offices, the library and faculty offices were ready to remodel. They expanded with more room for collections and new technology that is always accessible to the students. There were additional classrooms added for more students to take advantage of the library. Director of Facilities Mary Oyler said, “the educational side of the school is built out… that came first and then we moved onto our next most important which is our activities.” The next step in Light the Way was to add air conditioning and air handling systems in the gymnasium. Before it was a little difficult to be comfortable during long assemblies for the students and teachers. The air conditioning made it easier for everyone to enjoy the rallies rather than worrying about sweating so much. Also on the agenda: to build a new swimming pool that will be located where the current weight room and maintenance area are. The maintenance area will be moved in between the tennis courts and the track. The new building has very spacious storage areas and offices for the staff members. The weight room will temporarily be on the tennis courts for two years. The building is slightly bigger than the current weight room so all the equipment will be moved there. With a larger swimming pool coming in, it will block off the parking lot behind the weight room. The City of Los Angeles did not approve of this arrangement. To accommodate the issue, a 62-spot parking lot will be behind the outfield of the baseball stadium for students and teachers. Now some students will not have to park on the streets or in the Westfield Mall. The existing swimming pool has different depth levels that are not ideal for competition. The new swimming pool will have eight lanes all seven- and-ahalf-feet deep that will be meet all the aquatic teams’ AUGUST 2013 THE KNIGHT 04

needs. Notre Dame will be able to have home games rather than go to other swimming pools to host a match. This is estimated to be finished around spring 2014, hopefully before the swimming season starts. The present pool will be replaced by a fitness center. The new weight room will be larger and have modern equipment. There will also be offices for the coaches in the fitness center. This will hopefully be done in 2015. The last project was the gymnasium lobby. The seating area in front of the gymnasium will become the new entrance of the gym. It will have a concession stand inside and a trophy case displaying all of ND’s achievements. The lobby will also showcase the school’s history and the Holy Cross heritage. The gym floors will also be replaced. These renovations are projected to be finished in 2015. The baseball field will be getting a new press box, dugouts, snack bar, and new bleachers. There will be seats that alumni or guests can buy permanently that

will have their names on them. The earnings for the seats are used for the baseball stadium’s fund. The field will now be turf rather than grass, letting other sport teams takes advantage of the area, like Girls and Boys soccer, Softball, and physical education classes. “[Funding] was a combination of a lot of support from the community, parents, and alumni,” Lowart said. Many foundations and generous donors supported these projects. An anonymous, genours source donated the baseball funds to help the school. The Fritz B. Burns Foundation donated 1.4 million dollars. The Ahmanson Foundation donated half a million dollars for the projects. The Holy Cross Brothers provided $600,000 to the scholarship fund, allowing students from every background attend this thriving school. Lowart stated, “These are historic improvements to this school. They will complete and make our physical campus and our facilities second to none.”

Band Camp: The Inside Scoop By Alex Stephenson

ithout them, school would be a lot more boring and we definitely wouldn’t have those awesome rallies. Yes, the band is back, and they are training harder than ever. Band Camp is where it all happens. Members trained tirelessly from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. the week of August 5-9. What people may not know is that there are three intricate parts of Band: Percussion, Drumline and Dance Flags. Percussion practiced in the Band room and marched on the field. Dance Flags, however, reviewed their routines outside and in the activity center while Drumline banged away in the theater. Each have their own specific job and together, the ND Band forms a musical entertainment group unparalleled to any other. Band Camp can be extremely entertaining. “Cluster Groups” are a very fun part of Band. “We play games throughout the day and gather points, putting on a skit on the last day of camp for parents and friends,” says Ashley Vera, Junior Percussionist. However, Band Camp is not all fun and games. As Manny Aguilar, Junior Bass Drummer, puts it, “Whether it’s getting your steps down for the half time show, or learning your music, or practicing your dance routine, everyone is always working hard, though it doesn’t mean the Band doesn’t come together to have fun.” Each day was hard work, with students always striving to be better musicians. The Band marches on the field often to get ready for the upcoming games. “We are constantly pushed to our limits,” says Aguilar. Attending Band Camp is considered mandatory, for the purpose of refreshing memories and getting extra prep time with close to 90 people attending this year. Vera confides, “Band Camp and just band in general helps you find a pride in your school that I feel you couldn’t really find otherwise.” She also adds, “You’re always meeting new people and getting to know yourself better through them. You not only learn routine and how to play musically, but you also learn the importance of dedication and hard work.” Veronica Irwin, Dance Flag Team Captain, reveals that 12 hour workdays can make practice strenuous, however, Irwin “loves it because everyone gets really close.” When asked what band Camp entailed for Dance Flags, Irwin replies, “Basically, we try to get a leg-up on everything for the upcoming year. So it’s a lot of marching, learning a lot of routines for dance, and learning a lot of songs for band.” Basically…. hard work. Band Camp is a lot of paying attention, listening to the director or coach, and practice, practice, practice. Good luck to the Band and great work in camp! AUGUST 2013

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FRESHMAN ORIENTATION

By Kathryn Bracken

From the icebreakers to the pep rally, the majority of the students at this year’s Notre Dame High School freshmen orientation had a great time getting to know each other, and getting a first look at the high school experience. We all remember our Freshmen orientation, however, changes have been made over the past few years. The organization have added more icebreakers, seminars, an introduction with assigned counselors, more background about the mission and goals of Notre, more information about Christian Service hours, and they have added mass to the orientation. The goal of this orientation is to get the Freshmen more acquainted with each other, with the upper classmen, and with the school. According to Mr. Thomas, Vice Principle of Student Life, “The point is to give them an opportunity to come, to get comfortable with being here on campus, meet their teachers, know where their classrooms are, know how to open the lockers, know a little bit about the school and it’s traditions, so that when they start off on the first day of school they aren’t

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totally lost.” The new incoming class of 2017 is made up of 333 freshmen, and according to Ashley Vera, a Junior ASB member, has “potential to be something great, just like every other class has.” Based on the attitudes and response during orientation, the freshman seemed energetic, funny, and outgoing. The upper classmen were great at making the new Freshman feel welcome, and showing them that high school is not as scary as they might have thought it was. The new Freshman start off their orientation by registering at the check-in table, then they’re given a folder and a nametag and head to the gym for the opening assembly. After the assembly, all of the Freshmen go to their assigned classrooms to meet with their group and group leaders. The group leaders, all members of ASB and Varsity Cheer, lead the groups in various games known as “icebreakers.” The icebreaker games include charades and fruit bat, and these games are designed to bring the new Freshman closer together. According to Jane Feldmeyer, an incom-

ing freshman, she believes that “talking… and learning about each other,” truly made that goal materialize. After everyone has gotten to know each other better, the group leaders took their freshman group on a tour of the school. They toured the campus completely, entering every building and seeing all of the campus grounds. They even showed them how to open their lockers. After the tour, they were given a mock seven period day so that the freshman know how to get to their classes, what they can expect, and get to know their teachers. Once their short seven period day was over, all the incoming Freshman went out to the quad for lunch. The day was completed with a spirited pep rally and briefing how to use Blackboard to track homework assignments and grades and to download papers from their teachers. The Freshman orientation for the class of 2017 at Notre Dame was a tremendous success. Lockers were located, teachers were met, procedures were discovered, and the Notre Dame tradition of educating hearts and minds continues on.

HEY, FRESHMEN!

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THESE ND FAVORITES? THE TOP 5 PLACES TO EAT ON FRIDAY NIGHT BEFORE THE GAME

THE TOP 5 SCHOOL DRINKS

1. Water 2. Arizona Iced Tea 3. Starbucks Frappacino 4. Snapple 5. Gatorade

1. Westfield Mall Food Court 2. Mazzarino’s 3. Cafe de Mexico 4. El Pollo Loco 5. Hugo’s Tacos

THE TOP 3 SCHOOL LUNCHES

1. Cookies 2. Pizza 3. Orange Chicken

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ND NEWBIES Recently Added Teachers

By: Haley Gilford

Freshmaen, Sophomores, and Juniors oh my! Ms. Alisa Binetti is your new counselor to go to for all your problems. Binetti is a Seattle native who loves sports, reading, and runs weekly. Any Laker fans or wanderlust individuals should strike a conversation with this recent resident of the Holy Cross Center. She is completely up for the job thanks to her background at Washington State, getting her degree in advertising/business and her masters in counseling at LMU. “I think it is so fun and always entertaining. There is something to do everyday and I get to work with awesome kids,” said Binetti about her position. As a high schooler herself, Binetti was competitive, loved sports, and was involved in ASB. So, keep an eye out for her this year at all Notre Dame’s different activities. Favorite Movie: The Sandlot Favorite Dessert: Berry Pie

All you abstract thinkers can rejoice, your new photography teacher is here! From a young age Ms. Leila May was interested in art and was always exposed to it since her mother was a painter. “I always viewed the world as pictures,” said May. Before coming to ND she was a free-lance photographer and worked on getting her Master of Fine Arts. You can find May at Bikram Yoga classes and occasionally ocean kayaking. A foreign exchange photography program was her fondest and greatest experience as a teen, sparking her love of life behind a lense. May is here and ready to boost our program. Favorite Movie: Blade Runner Favorite Dessert: Chocolate Ice Cream

Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do, picture that sound in your head and then walk straight over to Ms. Jaclyn Sutley, ND’s new choir director. Her love of music began at three years old when she botched the national anthem in front of her school. “Sounds conceited, but I loved being prom queen and being involved with all the people in my school,” shares Sutley about her high school memories. Since then Sutley knew that she wanted to teach, so she went straight to Westminster Choir College and got her bachelors in music education and her teaching credential. Outside of the director seat you can find Sutley engaged in a softball league with her husband. Favorite Movie: A Beautiful Mind Favorite Dessert: Ice Cream Honors Spanish 2 and Native Speakers Spanish 4 are you ready for your new expert? Ms. Jennifer Serrano is the new member of the foreign language department. Serrano moved to the United States 10 years ago from Ecuador. She immediately began working at St. Bernadine of Siena Middle School and through her graduates learned about Notre Dame. Serrano has a Bachelor of Animal Science from a Catholic University in Ecuador and is currently getting her Certification of Catechists at Dayton and a bachelor/master in Psychology at the University of Phoenix. Despite her busy schedule, she finds time to go to zumba classes and spend time with her dogs and family. As a high schooler, Serrano loved the Catholic environment. “For this year, I am excited to bring my gift of being a native speaker to my students and continue the mission of the Holy Cross,” said Serrano.

Favorite Movie: Rudy Favorite Dessert: None! Hispanic Food

Alumni Mr. David Borok is back at Notre Dame to make band even better. Borok is this years new Jazz Band Director, Intro Band Teacher, and Assistant Band Director. Since childhood he has been involved with music, playing the piano at age eight and starting his favorite instrument, the trumpet, at age 12. “Music has always been involved in my life since,” said Borok. He is teaching to give back to when music made an impact in his own life. Outside of music, Borok loves baseball. Favorite Movie: Young Frankenstein Favorite Dessert: Chocolate

This story is continued at www.ndhsmedia.com

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By Veronica Huston

ollege tours are both the most interesting and boring things in the world. If you like the college, then the forty-five minutes you spend sitting in front of a projector listening to their Admissions lady drone on and on is not only educational but exciting! And the additional forty-five to an hour tour is not some boring walk-about, but a fascinating lecture on majors, campus life, and school traditions that makes you want to jump up and down with giddy excitement. My experiences with college tours have been as unique and varied as the students that go there. My favorites were Stanford, Berkeley, and Washington University in St. Louis. Each of these highly regarded institutions have a certain flare and personality that strikes you right off the bat and you know instantly that it is the place for you. However, that’s happened to me three times so far. There weren’t many colleges that I disliked, but there were quite a few I felt rather ambivalent towards. Washington University in St. Louis was the first college I ever went to. I really didn’t want to. In fact, my sister and I fought my dad the whole way but he insisted that we take a look, at the very least. But that one look was all it took. They were almost indistinguishable. It reminded me of a cathedral I had seen in New York, with its immense size, intricate carvings, and sense of grandeur. It was one of the most beautiful places I had visited. The tour showed that the inside was just as intriguing as the outside. The smiling guide told us all about the crazy traditions they had, such as painting a statue of the school’s mascot as well a tunnel nearby, and pointed out an archway that you were only allowed to pass under on your first day and your last, lest your time at the University ends badly. She showed us a street lined with shops, some empty, others bustling with customers. More and more, the guide told us about Wash U’s ‘learn-by-doing’ teaching style that many other colleges shied from. It is a school built on independence. The university would help students find jobs, internships, and a unique course schedule that helps fit their interests. Only too soon would I learn what a rarity that flexibility was. The next college on our stop was the famous University of Notre Dame. I had high hopes. Well, as high as hopes can be in Indiana. The campus, though beautiful, was very spread out and isolated. Though it was summer, other campuses had housed stragglers and other prospective students looking around. The presentation was rather lackluster. They showed clips from football games, lectures, and interviews with both students and professors. Each person interviewed had the same thing to say: that they loved the challenge of their school, that they are all a family, and that it is a great place to learn and grow. However, I was expecting to see many different points of views. Stanford is as impossible to describe as it is to duplicate. Imagine everything you could want on a college campus, absolutely everything. Photo credit: Sophia Page

Now, color it yellow and red, make it Spanish Mission-style, surround it with oak trees, and spread it out over 8,180 acres and then you will have an approximation of the Stanford campus. But even that would not do it justice. Add people singing, juggling, dancing in fountains, and doing cartwheels, with the occasional studier hidden on the background. Imagine people on bikes, roller skates, unicycles, mopeds, and pushing themselves on skateboards with oars. That should about do it. Stanford still manages to maintain its reputation for stupendous academics as well as its trademark quirky campus. It’s too bad other schools choose to emulate the more rigid schemes of East Coast Ivy League and dismiss Stanford’s frivolity as typical West Coast nonsense. But its fun, upbeat style doesn’t seem to effect Stanford’s ability to dominate the West and earn a formidable record for its educational faculties, especially its math and science programs. Its incredible wealth and generous alumni allow Stanford to build specialized buildings for its projects, like ones that have wipe boards for walls or a specialized foundation that allows students to observe the miniscule properties of life and matter without seismic disruptions. Of course, this doesn’t make it any easier to get in. Of all the schools I have visited, it was the only one that did not have a spare seat during the lecture, which was to be booked up two months in advance. A hop-skip-and-a-jump away lies Berkeley, a fun, exciting little town with a bustling university filled with professors with goatees and clip on bow ties, and lobbyists lining the streets, handing out flyers for clubs and showings. Kids flocked to their favorite hangouts, including a block-long line for an ice cream sandwich place that had such a seductive smell that I was surprised some were able to resist and walk on, wading through the tables of jewelry, pins, and postcard salesmen, hawking their wares and bartering with customers. It was a total sensory overload with students singing, dinosaurs in lobbies, and homeless people curled up on the sidewalk reading books from the Rebellion Bookstore a few shops down. For students who want to immerse themselves in life, in a town as diverse as L.A. and as loud as New York, and learn from professors who have segments on wellrespected news stations, there is no greater place for you than Berkeley. I visited many other schools, but after a while, they all start to run together and you forget to appreciate the individual spirit of the school. That, I would say, is the most important thing. A school without a soul is dull and worthless. If you can’t get excited about it, then don’t bother going. That is why tours are so important. Each year, I hear stories about kids who wanted to go to a college all their lives but when they got there, they were desperately unhappy. Four years is a long time and the years that you spend in college are the most important of your life. College is not just important for education, but for growth and exploration. Your school should not only be comfortable for you, but should be a challenge from orientation to graduation.

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ON THE JOB By Lauren Crittenden

Currently, it seems as if summer jobs for teens are scarce due to increasing competition. Back in our parents’ generation, it was uncommon for teens not to work during the summer. Nowadays, with it being more difficult to get into college, many teens need to spend their summer months playing sports, for athletes who want to have a competitive edge, attending summer school, taking test prep courses along with summer reading assignments. This leaves us with very little free time for a job. However, there are the few high schoolers that participate in summer internships, volunteer opportunities, and jobs. Junior Katie Warden’s summer job was at Tom Sawyer Camp in Altadena. Warden felt it was a good idea to give up her summer time since she has been participating in camp activities for 12 years. Warden explained, “I started this camp when I was four years old and I just remember always looking forward to going back in the summer, but this was my first year actually working the camp, and it was great to have the same experience but from a different perspective.” During the camp Warden was known as a “floater”, a junior counselor that goes to whichever group needs the most help. According to Warden, it was little boy groups that needed the most assistance since they were the most rambunctious. “One of the boys in my group was mentally challenged, so I needed to be trained to work with him, which was difficult at first, but overall everyone in my group had a great camp experience,” said Warden. Warden thought the great thing about the camp was the stress free environment provided for the kids, so they come out of their shells and interact with the counselors as if they are friends rather than superiors, which makes Tom Sawyer Camp a lot more fun for everyone. Activities included horseback riding, swimming, archery, nature walks, rock climbing, wind surfing, and beach trips. Some activities are for all age groups, but the ones that are more intense are reserved for the older campers. Warden stated, “It is great because the kids learn about the life around them, even though it doesn’t seem like it since they are not confined to a classroom.” Personally Warden feels as if the camp allows her to relax and have fun while learning new things and experiencing new activities. Nick Halaby, Junior at Notre Dame, took some time out of his summer to intern at Creative Age Publication in Van Nuys. This publication owns a number of beauty magazines like Nail Pro and Nail It. Halaby said, “I wrote some pieces for Nail Pro’s online publication as well as filing and assisting the editors, designers, and writers with whatever they AUGUST 2013

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NEW summer experiences for interns provide both fun times and future career insight

needed.” Halaby mentioned that he received the internship through his dad who works in the beauty industry as a sales representative. Halaby commented, “This internship was a great opportunity and experience since I hope to be a writer or journalist in the future, and it showed me that journalists can be found everywhere.” Halaby also admitted to writing more pieces outside of his comfort zone like, how to dry ones nail polish, how to attract men to nail salons, and a feature on OPI’s San Francisco nail collection. “Usually I write stories on sports and politics,” Halaby said, “But the articles I did were about nail polish and gave me a different perspective on the life of journalists.” Brett Elder, a Loyola Senior, helped supervise the Xtreme Youth Baseball Camp in Manhattan Beach. The baseball camp required Elder to work with kids ages six through 12 and help them develop baseball skills for the future. “I’m a senior counselor and get paid compared to the junior counselors,” Elder said. Throughout the camp the kids learned to hit, catch, pitch, and run the bases properly through various stations the counselors and coaches set up. Elder went on to say, “We do drills as well as scrimmages to improve their techniques since some of the campers are so little and they are just learning the fundamentals.” In addition to helping out at the baseball camp, Elder also worked as a production assistant at the Red Zone Channel. This show is for football fans that do not want to miss any action throughout Sunday. His job includes retrieving files, printing out cards for the on air talent to read, as well as sending out tweets to Red Zone followers with updates of the current NFL Sunday games. He went on to explain that it could be difficult, especially when a mistake is made on a tweet. “Fans start tweeting me saying I screwed up and that the score may be off.” Elder said, “Ultimately I learned the hard way what was expected out of my job.” He also mentioned the stress of the show being live, meaning everyone needs to get their job right the first time around. “I can’t really complain because I get paid to watch football every Sunday, which I have a great passion for.” Elder believes this job is a great opportunity since it opened his eyes toward other career paths one can take in sports without being on the field. These three high school students are overachieving and taking the necessary steps in preparation for their future. It is obvious that summer internships and jobs are great ways to earn money and have a better idea on what career paths may interest that person.

NEW Notre Dame’s

Family

Adopted Kids

The stories of three Notre Dame upperclassmen and how they ended up living with their loving foster families

By Haley Wimmer

doption may be defined as the process of providing parents for children and children for families when birth parents are unwilling or unable to care for their child. Although adoption is very complex, it seems to be a working solution. Adoption affects three groups: the children, the adoptive parents, and the birth parents. It is a very sensitive subject, which enriches the lives of all who are involved. Being adopted can cause low self-esteem and rejection because of loss of biological parents. Many adopted children are happy to be with a family that can provide for them. At Notre Dame there are many students who have been adopted. Some adopted students are Rory Barnett, Dexter Keaton, and Haley Gilford. They go on with their life the same way every other teenager does. Junior Rory Barnett was adopted the day he was born and has known about it ever since he was little boy. He was very lucky to be welcomed into a family right when he was born, because there was never a day he was alone. He was able to grow up as everyone else. He feels the same as all his friends do, and has never felt outcasted due to his family situation. Rory feels very comfortable being adopted and has no problem sharing it. He thinks that adoption is a great opportunity for a child that has struggling parents. It gives them a chance for a better life. “Adoption has made me appreciate what my biological mother has done for me: giving me up to people who could take care of him and his needs,” Rory explains. Though adoption can be very tough, Rory has come in contact with his mother multiple times since he can remember. They are even Facebook friends! As for his biological father, he does not wish to come into contact. His relationship with his adoptive parents consists of love and care just like a child’s relationship with his or her biological parents. Senior Dexter Keaton was also adopted at birth and ever since she was a little girl, she has known. Dexter was able to grow up with a loving mother who treated her as her own child. She was very lucky to have someone who could provide for her. Dexter does not feel any different. She is living a normal life like

anyone who has not been adopted. “I think adoption is a great thing because it gives infertile women an opportunity to be a mother. Adoption has influenced and affected my life in a positive way because now I have multiple opportunities in Los Angeles that did not exist in North Carolina, my birth place,” Dexter said. Dexter does not seek to find her biological parents because she looks at her mom, Diane, as her only parent. She does not think about the fact that she is adopted, and intends not to meet her biological parents. Her relationship with her current family is great because they are her only family and they provide her with all the love and care she needs. Junior Haley Gilford had a different perspective on adoption. She was an only child, living with her single mother in a 2-bedroom apartment until her mom, Lisa, met a man named Dean. The two got married and Dean decided to adopt Haley as his child when she was twelve. With the marriage and adoption, they moved to the valley, met completely new people, and went through many changes. Haley said, “Adoption has affected me in a social way because I learned to meet and socialize with all different personality types.” She also became a sister, which was very different, since she grew up as an only child. It was different, because she understood the world as her and her mother being such a team and then had to start answering, asking, and thinking with Dean and another younger girl. Haley feels different because she never got that traditional father. It is not something she thinks about a lot, but she does not feel on the same level with every other whole family. Haley though, does have a really good relationship with her family. She and her sister are best friends. Even though she does not call Dean “dad”, that is how she refers to him with others. They are use to being a unit now. Haley never met her biological Father because there were some issues, but she is very happy with her life that she has today. These three students have had the same experiences as a child who grew up with their biological parents. Adoption is a very good solution to any orphan who should be given the same opportunities to succeed as any other kid with a loving family.

“He was lucky to be welcomed into a family right when he was born, because

there was never a day he was alone...”

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The

Girls are

Back in Town

By: Lauren Crittenden and Janet Yeo

The Back-to-Back CIF champions are back at work as they prepare for the upcoming season. The girls have come back from their annual boot camp in Ventura where they played several courses and spent quality time with the team. An average day in camp started out with them cooking and eating breakfast together and getting

On the Green

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The Lady Knights of Girls Golf Stride to Another Season ready to go play. They played five different courses and played in one tournament. Junior Janet Yeo placed first in the Spanish Hills Country Club Invitational. After golf, the team had a little down time to head to the beach and have fun in the sun. After, they would come back, have team bonding, mental strength exercises and cook and eat dinner together as well. The girls played five different courses and a total of 72 holes. After their stay in Ventura, the girls worked out in the Notre Dame weight room and then practiced their short game on the baseball field. The team ended on a high note by playing at one of their rival’s home course. After their trip, the girls practiced on their own and played in multiple tournaments individually to get ready for the season. They had a kick off party before the start of school to discuss the season as well as introduce new teammates. The newest addition, Kennedy Menifield, joined the veteran team in Ventura whereas Cassie Lee is a new Sophomore transferring from West Ranch High School. This golf season, the girls have their eyes set on the prize, to win a third CIF Championship. Although the team lost Tina Nagai and Arielle Valdez, two key performers for the team, they plan on kicking it up a notch to strive for that third consecutive championship. Co-Captain Vivian Markel said, “I just want us to try our best and have fun as a team. Even if we don’t come out win-

ning CIF, just knowing we tried our best is enough...I really just want us to be successful in our own way.” Many people are expecting them to win CIF again this year but the girls are not making it the biggest priority. “I would obviously feel disappointed if we didn’t win, but if I knew we tried our hardest, gave it our all, and had a good time during this season, than its fine by me,” said Junior Lauren Crittenden. Whatever the outcome, the girls will try their absolute best and have a great attitude no matter what. Co-Captain Katelyn Reynolds is optimistic and ecstatic for the season. ”We know how to handle ourselves better in stressful and nervous situations. For example, we are going to approach CIF with confidence but not too much as that might hurt our chances mentally. All in all I believe we are going even farther than last year.” Due to the number of members they are able to work close together which creates their strong relationships. “[the golf team] has given me a second family that I go to because we are all so close and in a tight-knit group that loves one another,” Markel said. The Girls Golf team will always be working hard to do their best in everything. Whether they win CIF or not, they will always be a very close family that works hard and has fun while doing it.

Marcus Allen’s NFL Draft status was not affected by a story about his fake girlfriend, but an argument can be made the Manti Te’o’s was. By Nick Halaby

Over the last decade and a half, much has happened in the world of sports. Although professional sports have been a part of American culture for more than a century, there seems to be a growing trend that has only surfaced in recent decades. Every year, no matter what is going on in the world outside of sports, it seems like an off the field scandal captivates the American public. Are athletes of the present more flawed than those of the past or is there just too much of an obsession with their personal lives?

Babe Ruth never lost all his sponsorships over an ugly divorce scandal, but it happened to Tiger Woods just a few years ago. Marcus Allen’s NFL Draft status was not affected by a story about his fake girlfriend, but an argument can be made that Manti Te’o’s was. Do athletes just act worse off the field now than they did 30 or 40 years ago? Athletes are paid a lot more money than they were before. Many of the super stars today own expensive homes in very exclusive areas while athletes in the 1950s worked part time jobs in the off-season to make money. It can be easy to put the blame on enormous salaries and huge endorsements, but the reality is that the problem runs so much deeper than that. It is not that they are spoiled, but it is that they are given too much attention. Kareem Abdul Jabar and Mickey Mantle were both superstars in their sports. They were deemed as royalty, but only to those in the world of sports. With the rise of the computer age, the status of the common superstar athlete changed. They are now, and will forever be considered, celebrities. That use to be a title that was only held by those in the entertainment industry. Sports are now part of the entertainment industry and athletes are now part of that royalty. That is what has created this problem. An obsession with the personal lives of performers has always existed in the tabloids. Now that athletes are just as popular, they are just as likely to be thrown into scandal. Jennifer Aniston and her breakup with Brad Pitt is exactly the same as Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend. Why is Tiger Woods famous? He is one of the best golfers ever. Nobody should care about whom he dates or if he cheated on his wife. His morals are not the reason why he was liked in the first place, so why should they be his downfall? Athletes do not behave any worse than they did 30 or 50 years ago. The only difference is that we pay more attention to them now. Sadly, we cannot go back to when an athlete’s personal life did not determined their public appeal. Athletes and other celebrities will continue to be scrutinized for not being perfect and people will continue to care, and that is what the real problem is.

AUGUST 2013

THE KNIGHT

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TAINTED

IS YOUR

PRIVACY

By Vaughn Himber world of perpetual war, fear, and paranoia, where individual rights and freedoms are but illusions of the past. Sound familiar? No, this is not George Orwell’s 1984, but the slippery slope our country is headed toward within the current climate of civil liberty undermining. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, more and more rights-violating legislation has been gradually implemented. The argument can be made that these laws have had greater success in achieving the erosion of civil liberties than in their declared purpose of terrorism prevention. The first law to be passed in this carnival of constitutional destruction was the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act. This bill allows the government to issue generic wiretap warrants, secretly scavenge through one’s home without telling the owner of a warrant, look through all sorts of personal records regardless of any criminal suspicion, give citizens’ information to the CIA, confiscate the property of any person or group labeled as participants in “domestic terrorism” (a concept which lets the government “effectively bankrupt an organization with which it disagrees”), and indefinitely detain immigrants, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Even though the Authorization for Use of Military Force, also passed in response to 9/11, was a minuscule bill of 341 words, it has unleashed incalculable amounts of destruction upon people, property, and liberty, having been used to “justify torture and illegal warrantless surveillance of Americans. . . [and] lethal drone strikes” to wage the War on Terror, wrote Yasmine Taeb and Isaac Levey on The Hill’s Congress Blog. They assert that, ever since the AUMF was designed as a war declaration “against core al-Qaeda and the Taliban – the groups actually responsible for 9/11”, their relative threat level toward the U.S. has declined in light of other dangers, and thus the law should be revised to eliminate the extensive executive war authority it permits. What were you doing on New Years Eve in 2011? Regardless of whether you were sleeping or staying up late, you were most likely not paying much attention to the news, because on December 31, 2011 the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 became law. Congress annually passes the NDAA to fund the military and related national security services for the next year. Why does this matter to a high school student? The 2012 NDAA not only increased the federal government’s license to conduct the so-called “War on Terror”, but also included ambiguous, cryptically worded portions which violate your constitutional rights. The NDAA’s Section 1021 grants the government authority that is startlingly akin to the police state Oceania’s in 1984, except the possible abuse of these powers is all too real. With the AUMF as a precedent, it “affirms” the U.S. military’s power to “detain” any “person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces”. This incredibly vague, unclear definition could be exploited to justify the incarceration of not just foreign terrorists, but Americans as well. The ACLU, journalists such as Amber Lyon and Chris

AUGUST 2013

THE KNIGHT

ENDANGERED SPECIES?

Hedges, MIT linguistics and philosophy professor Noam Chomsky, and Daniel Ellsberg of “the Pentagon Papers” leak fame are concerned that U.S. citizens, including journalists who do not reveal their sources, civil rights activists, whistleblowers, and environmentalists, could be targeted by the NDAA, which permits, for those labeled as “covered persons”, the indefinite “Detention under the law of war without trial” in prisons like Guantanamo Bay (which still has not been closed), warrantless arrest, and suspension of due process “until the end of the hostilities” of this seemingly endless War on Terror has arbitrarily been declared. According to StopNDAA.org, the NDAA “violates the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th Amendments of the US Constitution and most of the Bill of Rights”, which include the freedoms of and rights to speech, press, assembly, religion, petition, no unreasonable search and seizure, due process, an attorney, a speedy and public trial, to be informed of charges, and immunity from cruel and unusual punishment. The 2013 NDAA bill has not rectified these constitutional abuses. The National Security Agency PRISM scandal revealed that the NSA collected millions of Americans’ phone call records and e-mails, “without an individual suspicion of connections to terrorism”, according to the Guardian. Chomsky observed that “younger people are less offended by this than

the older generation,” which he attributed to “the exhibitionist character of the Internet culture, with Facebook” and their expectation that “everything is going to be public.” His comment seems to encapsulate the majority of U.S. adolescents’ views. Either the blissful ignorance or general apathy of our current generation will likely further fuel the government’s wretched assault upon civil liberties and destruction of the Constitution. Spying, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite detention neither guarantee nor produce “life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness”; indeed, these abusive practices have so far overwhelmingly spawned the opposite. Furthermore, our national security could realistically still be maintained through less drastic, constitutionally grinding, though more humane and effective, methods. Therefore, greater vigilance, and above all, awareness, are the first key steps toward counteracting the tide of repressive federal policies designed to restrict your natural and fundamental rights. Take action today, lest you continue perpetuating the contemporary mindset so eloquently expressed in 1984: “[T]he consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.”

Rise of No-Kill Animal Shelters

By Sophia Page

If everybody loves cats and dogs so much then why do they get killed at animal shelters? Isn’t an animal shelter supposed to be like a refuge for homeless pets? The first thing that usually pops into people’s minds when they think about animal shelters is a jail for animals where they get killed if not adopted in the next day. This may be true for the stereotypical animal shelter we all imagine; however, with the expansion of no-kill animal rescue groups in the Los Angeles area, hundreds of homeless pets are saved each day with the guarantee of not being killed. No-Kill Los Angeles is an organization that works to get more animals off the street and more pets adopted. This organization works with animal shelters across Los Angles to try to get them to end the practice of killing animals. Led by the Best Friends Animal Society, it provides services such as inexpensive adoptions and free neuter

surgeries for pit bulls, cats, chihuahuas, and anyone who cannot afford to pay for them. This organization is dedicated to helping animals of all kind, big or small, young or old. Animal shelters are notorious for euthanizing cats and dogs after only being in the shelter for a few days. It is a fact that more cats are killed than dogs. No-kill animal rescue groups do the opposite by putting an end to this practice. Instead, they make room for the animals and try to get them adopted as well as make them feel comfortable. Since the rise of these centers, the number of euthanized pets has fallen. About 4,000 animals were saved from being inhumanely killed in Los Angeles this past year by no-kill shelters in Los Angeles . This is some great news for animal advocates and pet owners in the city. “It’s a social issue. It’s just like addiction, poverty, or homelessness. Everyone needs to be involved to make it better,” according

to Michelle Sathe, Public Relations Specialist at Best Friends. The Best Friends Animal Shelter located in Mission Hills is just one of the many rescue groups that takes loving care of all their animals. The center is equipped with dozens of cages and play rooms for all the animals. There is a plethora of volunteers running around feeding the animals and playing with them. There are even volunteers feeding newborn kittens in the shelter’s animal nursery. Overcrowding is the number one reason for the murder of thousands of animals by our animal shelters. The Best Friends Animal Shelter has a solution for overcrowding: transporting dogs, such as pit bulls and chihuahuas, to different shelters across the country where these types of dogs are not as common. This is just one example of a no-kill shelter in Los Angeles . No-kill animal rescue groups often have special deals on adopting a pet. In

August, Best Friends had a deal where any animal cost ten dollars. These deals are of course to attract more people to adopt a pet. This is also a great deal compared to regular shelters that are more expensive. “All of our pets, when you adopt them, are fixed, vaccinated, they come with a collar and an ID tag, and we also provide a bag of dog food or cat food, and one month of veterinary insurance, so it’s a really good deal,” explains Sathe. Next time you and your family are thinking of adopting a pet, it may be a good idea to go out to a no-kill animal shelter to adopt a bundle of joy instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a fancy purebred. Animal shelters are full of all kinds of breeds. You will be saving a life and at the same time making room for another homeless animal to be welcomed into the shelter. For more information visit nkla.org or bestfriends.org for volunteer opportunities.

AUGUST 2013

THE KNIGHT

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