Chronically Online - Eagle Eye News - Volume 9, Number 3 - March 2024

Editor Letters

Tired Teachers

Dear Editor,

As of recent years, more teachers have been less inclined to return to teaching. This issue has become increasingly prevalent after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many teachers have said that they are not happy with the low pay, especially after all the effort that they put into the classroom. They are discouraged by the students’ lack of participation and end up retiring earlier than they intended or just leave. This unfortunately results in a lack of educators and having understaffed schools. Students are left to go to classes with a substitute teacher or combine their class with another. This also results in overcrowding classrooms, that can cause a teacher to burn out.

JACQUELYN CHEN, 9

Classroom Culture

Dear Editor,

Each day, I hear a cacophony of hushed whispers. Girls chatter in the halls, sneaking glances at other girls, while laughing. Every day, a new rumor is spread. Every day, a friendship is betrayed. Every day, another girl feels hurt and confused, wondering what they did wrong. Constantly, girls blame and fight with each other, leaving destroyed relationships and “friends” in isolation. Instead of girls putting down other girls, we should be there for each other.

We should support each other when in crisis, be there for each other when times are hard. Instead, we often spread lies and rumors to feel better about ourselves. It’s human nature to want to fit in, and often people believe spreading rumors and putting others down will help you fit in. But when the truth gets out about things you’ve said, you may find yourself to be the next “friend” in isolation.

VIVIANA MEANEY, 9

Up All Night

Dear Editor, Sleep deprivation is something that I never truly experienced until my junior year of high school. I had been warned about junior year being the most stressful year of high school, but I never truly could imagine it–not until I started to experience how much work I actually had to do.

Schoolwork, tests and extracurriculars had made it so hard for me to gain the recommended eight hours of sleep. I’m lucky that I can consistently manage six hours of sleep every night. I thought I had it bad, but I have talked to multiple friends who get much less, like four hours, three or none at all. The prospect of going to school later, like 8:30 a.m. instead of our current time, does sound appealing, especially since I wouldn’t have to catch my bus at the early time of 6:40 a.m. However, I wonder how much good this would actually do over all if it would mean school would end later.

ALANA KARAM, 11

Dear Editor

Lengthier Lunches to

The lunch lines in the cafeteria are long. I know that there’s nothing we can do about the sheer number of kids who want school lunch, but long lines are a huge hassle.

For one, we get less time to eat. Lunch is already 30 minutes long, and if you spend 20 minutes in the line, you only get 10 minutes

eat.

We should get longer lunches. Instead of decreasing the time spent from getting class to class and adding the minutes to class, add it to lunch. Adding two extra minutes in class barely affects anything, it makes more sense to add it to lunch where those minutes count.

Aggravating Attendance

Dear Editor,

The 10-10-10 rule in our school is kind of pointless, and it just makes school more stressful for students who want senior privilege. If a student doesn’t care about senior privilege, the rule completely falls apart, and there’s nothing keeping them from staying home past the 10-10-10 limit.

And if a student does want senior privilege, they are forced to stay within the 10-10-10 limit every year of their high school career, meaning that if something bad arises, like a bad sickness or something, they will have to choose between risking senior privilege rights

Dear Editor,

A school-related issue I would like to discuss is how our school recently delivered a presentation about bullying and discrimination. I will not sit here and pretend that majority of students took it seriously. A reason being is that the staff did not either. I make this accusation for many reasons. I felt the whole PowerPoint to be rushed over and stating that “the sooner you are quiet, the quicker we will get through it” does not send the right message. It makes the students make notice that they can get out of here sooner but letting the staff talk. No kid wants to sit through a presentation, but if you want your message to get across, maybe you need to deliver it another way.

and suffering through the school day with that sickness.

Either way, the rule negatively affects everyone, from the school to the students. Yes, it weeds out the people who skip school, but it also hurts those who get frequently sick or injured, and it harms the school attendance system when people choose not to care about it. Placing limits on attendance matters is difficult, and our school would be a much more enjoyable place to be in if we did not have to worry about the 10-10-10 rule.

CHRIS SALAZAR, 12

The video, to me, was a great way to invoke feelings for some kids. In the end though, it was the closest the staff got to presenting their message which was not even in their words.

To add on, I felt a lack of preparation in giving the message. For us students who have to prepare several hours before a presentation at school, they did not seem to be that well versed in the presentation at hand, and I saw them eighth period on the first day. Four periods before me and then still did not seem well equipped to be talking about this issue.

Overall, if the staff wants us to take an issue seriously, they should make it seem like they are serious about it as well. Otherwise, how do they want any kid to take such a serious issue earnestly.

KALLI WHEELER, 10

Mind Your Manners

Examining Educators Editor to the Lacking Lessons

put it away.

People need to clean up after their messes and stop being gross. It is inconsiderate to other people that need to use the laptops. To solve this unsanitary issue everybody should wipe their laptops with Lysol at the end of class when they are done. It is not hard to keep things clean especially when it is maintained.

RHIANNON MARKAJ, 11

Have something to say about the school? Have something to say about a local, national or global issue? Have something to say about this issue of the Eagle Eye?

We want to hear your opinions. Email submission to: MSDEagleEyeNews@gmail.com Submissions must be between 100-200 words

Senior Struggles

Dear Editor,

Not long ago, an announcement over the intercom declared that seniors with off-campus study hall can no longer stay on campus during this period. This news came as a rude shock to many seniors, especially seniors with clubs and extracurriculars after school. Though the period is called off-campus study hall, many students stay on campus if they need to make up a test or have a club after school. Being a senior means worrying about college admissions, who are more than ever looking for well-rounded students with many pursuits and commitments.

Senior year is a time to discover passions, interests, learn to get involved in the community in preparation for college or entering the workforce. However, a school that encourages this involvement just caused a major hindrance to club participation. Now that students cannot stay on campus, they will have to leave, find somewhere to stay for an hour and a half if they do not live close to the school, then return to school past 3 p.m., ten minutes after most clubs start. Why are seniors being punished when there are already so many strict requirements to have off-campus study hall?

MALLORY STETZ, 12

Dear Editor, The school’s wi-fi is so bad. The school’s own computers have trouble getting on and depending on what part of the school you are in your own data might be slow or completely unable to work as well. It cuts down on the amount of work that could be done when one must first wait to connect before being able to do anything. Improving the wi-fi would also let the students become a lot more productive, with them being able to start and upload assignments from anywhere rather than the common solution of waiting until they get home by which point many simply forget too anyway.

MICHA PATTERSON, 10

Dear Editor, This school needs to make weekly/monthly checks on teachers and their performance. Many students often fail or have to resort to cheating in some of their classes because of how bad their teacher or teachers are. For a student to excel in a class, they must have an excellent teacher as a role model to learn from. If the teacher teaches poorly or gives off an “I don’t care” attitude, how else is the student going to pass/care?

Some teachers are genuinely clueless because they haven’t taught the subject in a while and this truly needs to be evaluated. It’s not fair that many straight A students give themselves a hard time when they get a C- because the teacher “taught” poorly. With the amazing teachers, students can get amazing grades.

GABRIELLA CASTELLANOS, 9

NIKITA SINGH, 10

MSD

for your information

COURSE CARDS. Course cards were released for rising sophomores, juniors and seniors for the 2024-2025 school year from Jan. 22 to Jan. 26. Due on Feb. 1 or Feb. 2, the course cards included new Cambridge Advanced International Certificate in Education classes for students: AICE General Paper and AICE Marine Science.

STUDENT VS. TEACHER KICKBALL GAME. MSD’s Teaching Academy held a students vs. teachers kickball game on Friday, Feb. 2. The teachers won 8-7.

MEN’S SOCCER DISTRICTS. The MSD men’s varsity soccer team beat the Monarch High School Knights 2-0 on Monday, Jan. 29 to clinch the title of district champions. The district title is the second won by Head Coach Christian Chacon.

I LOVE MY LIBRARIAN. MSD media specialist Diana Haneski won the 2024 national “I Love My Librarian” award, hosted by the American Library Association.

Haneski, along with nine other librarians, beat over 1,400 applicants to be honored as a librarian that went above and beyond to serve their community.

CHEER STATES. The MSD Cheer team competed in the state tournament in Lakeland, Florida from Feb. 2 to Feb. 4. The team ultimately placed second out of the ten teams that competed.

CURRICULUM NIGHT. MSD held its annual Curriculum Night on Thursday, Feb. 8 for current eighth graders and their parents. Along with informational meetings, clubs and extracurriculars advertised the benefits of joining their programs to incoming freshmen and their parents.

LAUGHTER HEALS. MSD DECA’s “Laughter Heals” held assemblies during first, second, fifth and sixth periods on Jan. 16 and Jan. 17. Students were allowed to tell their jokes in an attempt to get teachers to laugh.

MR. DOUGLAS. MSD’s LED Dance Club held its seventh annual Mr. Douglas Pageant on Thursday, Jan. 25, in which one male student from each grade level is chosen to compete against each other. Senior Joey Chiera won overall, but freshman Adam Shelowitz, sophomore RJ Meis and junior Levi Goffstein all took home individual awards.

COMPUTER TECHNICIAN. New technical support specialist Ray Haneski joined the MSD staff in December 2023. Haneski served as Westglades Middle School’s technical support specialist for 21 years, but began working at MSD to join his wife, media specialist Diana Haneski.

WOMEN’S SOCCER REGIONALS. The MSD women’s varsity soccer team beat Cypress Bay High School at the regional finals tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 21. Their record this season is 15-1-2.

BRAIN BRAWL. The National Honor Society Brain Brawl team

preparation andpractice

The MSD theater program will present the upcoming “Mean Girls” musical in March, which they have been preparing for since June 2023. The musical, inspired by the 2004 movie “Mean Girls,” explores the struggle to fit in and bullying in high school.

Douglas Drama’s production of the show follows the same plot as the titular movie “Mean Girls,” focusing on fictional high school junior Cady Heron and her experience attending public high school for the first time. The movie mainly highlights Cady’s interaction with her school’s

popular trio known as “The Plastics,” exploring familiar topics for many such as popularity, vanity and bullying among high schoolers.

“I chose ‘Mean Girls’ because it is just such a fun play which I had seen originally on Broadway,” drama teacher Melody Herzfeld said. “I knew it would highlight a lot of the girls we have in our program. It has such a timely message about acceptance and feeling insecure about yourself as a young high school student and where you belong in the high school setting.”

Senior Angelina Kennedy plays Cady in the lead role. Juniors Zoe Schwartzberg, Sydney

won the County Championship, beating Cypress Bay High School on Wednesday, Feb. 21. The winning members are seniors Jason Johnson, Arya Gujarathi, Evan Ng, Daniel Miranda and Tyler Dilek and junior Ely Herman.

MEN’S WRESTLING. The MSD men’s wrestling team won their third straight district title, with six wrestlers winning district championships: freshman Keegan Lake, sophomore Arav Shintre and juniors Rocco Duygulu-Depersio, David Leiva, Jimmy Messmer and Jackson Zajkowski.

WOMEN’S WRESTLING. The MSD women’s wrestling team won the first ever women’s Broward County Athletic Association Championship for wrestling. The team had five county champions: freshman Addison McMahon, sophomore Mickayla Sugrano and seniors Gaby Caro and Grace Mackenzie.

REPORTING BY Brynn Schwartz and Carolina Ochoa Lozano

MSD Drama Club prepares for ‘Mean Girls’ the musical

Lotz and Alanis DeSouza play “The Plastics” characters: Gretchen Weiners, Karen Smith and Regina George. Freshman Ella Valente plays Janis Ian, and senior Oliver Paul plays Damian.

Rehearsals began in September 2023. Since this time, the cast and technical group worked to perfect not just the music, but the choreography, lighting and props. Additionally, two weeks prior to the show, the drama program will hold a technical rehearsal, requiring all students involved to rehearse after school until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m.

“Rehearsals have been going very well recently, we have them everyday for about three hours along with Saturday practice. It gets tiring and overwhelming sometimes, but we all know it is important in order to make an amazing performance this year,” DeSouza said. “I have been working as hard as the other members in the drama program to put on an amazing show, and we are very excited for and proud of how it is going and its turnout.”

The drama program has advertised the show throughout the school year. “Mean Girls” characters were included in the Spanish Club’s annual Multicultural show. Additionally, MSD students have been encouraged to wear pink on Wednesdays, referencing one of the many fashion rules established by “The Plastics” in the movie.

To help the show come to life, the drama program’s booster club assisted in raising money for the musical during the school year.

MSD culinary sold themed cookies on Oct. 3, also known as, “Mean Girls Day.” The drama program also sold “Mean Girls” merchandise, hosted kickbacks, donut sales on Wednesdays throughout the year, Fall-O-Ween, Coffee Houses and more.

“I am thrilled to show friends and families our making of ‘Mean Girls’ and how it has come along these past months,” Schwartzberg said. “Other members and I have been working on this show to make it perfect.”

Alongside the actors casted, different departments within the drama program including stage management, lighting, sound, props, rails, makeup, hair, publicity, costumes and special effects all work to ensure the show is done to the best of their ability. Each department has a head that works closely with the stage managers to direct their crew to complete the independent work for that category.

“I work as the Production Stage Manager, or PSM, which is the head out of the three stage managers,” senior Hannah Hackney said. “I work throughout the process to organize all of the tech departments by assigning class members to each crew, giving them deadlines and outlining the tasks they have to complete before show day.”

As “Mean Girls” the musical draws closer, MSD drama hopes to see all students and their families attending the show in the auditorium March 6-9. Tickets can be purchased on the GoFan website for $15.

STORY BY Emily Haas

MEET THE PLASTICS. Senior Angelina Kennedy and juniors Zoe Schwartzberg, Alanis DeSouza and Sydney Lotz rehearse a scene as ‘The Plastics’ from Drama’s “Mean Girls” musical production. “I usually play villainous roles and completely different characters,” Lotz said. “It’s fun to try out something new.”

PHOTO BY Lydia Varghese

power to the people

To commemorate Black History Month, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s Black Student Union hosted its ninth annual Black History Month Show in the auditorium on Friday, Feb. 23 during first and second periods and included a nighttime showing at 7 p.m. Preparation for the show began in November 2023.

Various on campus clubs have hosted the event since it’s inception. More recently. the BSU has taken over the job of curating the show, which is student-run, with dancers, hosts and speakers from all grade levels.

The show has a total of nine choreographers and 17 acts. Auditions were held in the cafeteria on Nov. 6, 8, 9 and 13.

Students were able to try out for acts centered around Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad, as well as a Beyoncé tribute act. The dancers were tasked with learning a small portion of those act’s dances in order to audition.

Choreographers recorded those auditioning and selected people from there.

“I direct the show and make sure everything is taken care of,” event coordinator Eleasha Augustin said. “We have done a lot to prepare. We make sure dances are on task, scripts are written and everything is approved.”

If an act is not where it is supposed to be,

BSU hosts ninth annual Black History Month Show

or there is a conflict, Augustin fixes the problem and makes sure that all of the dancers are ready and able to perform by the day of the actual show.

Rehearsals were held in the auditorium in preparation for the show. All of the acts came together to practice and perfect the dances and poems, as well as to get a feel for the overall flow of the show. They also had a dress rehearsal the week before the show.

The BSU held a spirit week the same week as the show. They chose themes for each day based on Black culture. The week started off with Kickback Tuesday, in which students dressed up as a barbecue dad or soccer mom. Then, on Winning Wednesday, students wore Black athlete’s jerseys. On Throwback Thursday, they wore clothing from previous decades and finally, on Black-Out Friday, students wore all black clothing.

The Black History Month Show and all of the events leading up to it served as a way in which members of the BSU and other MSD students were able to recognize and celebrate Black culture. BSU representatives hoped the event was as entertaining as it has been in previous years and that they succeeded in informing others on the depth and beauty of Black culture.

STORY BY Chelsea Townsend

lighting a path

Each year, the seniors in DECA teacher Mitchell Albert’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hospitality and tourism class form a Junior Achievement Fellows entrepreneur project. In this project, students are able to create their own business as a group and participate in different competitions. This year, the seniors created a candle-making business that aims to educate others on mental health, called “That’s LIT.”

The students and Albert assigned teams and officers to help ensure that their business runs smoothly. There is a marketing team run by Lucy Greene, sales team run by Emma Kramer, management team run by Macy Meis and a finance team run by Evelyn Patton. Each student is then assigned to a team and works in groups to make sure that their part of the business helps towards the success of the business as a whole.

The candles are sold online on their website, as well as in person at different local events in South Florida. The candles come in two different sizes, 7 oz and 20 oz, and cost $15 and $12 respectively. Customers also have the opportunity to customize their candle, which incurs a $5 upcharge.

“‘That’s LIT’ has taught me a lot about entrepreneurship, marketing, management, and so much more,” project CEO Ananyaa Sutaria said. “I feel prepared to go out into the real world, and I have a step up compared to others. I have an idea of what it’s like to run a company, and there couldn’t be a better opportunity for exposure. I will carry all of these lessons with me as I go to college and enter the workforce.”

The students entered “That’s Lit” into the Junior Achievement Fellows competition, in which senior hospitality students around the United States compete for the best business. The competition takes place throughout the

JUST DANCE.

WRAPPING IT UP.

DECA seniors form nonprofit candle-making business to support mental health

school year, during this time, students can run their business and promote it to other students, family, friends and people in their community. The competition caps each project’s profits at $750, ensuring the competition is fair to all those participating.

“LIT” stands for laughter, inspiration and tranquility, helping to promote the importance of mental health alongside the product itself. Meis and Sutaria have found that those three aspects are the things that the Parkland and Coral Springs communities find the most relevant.

“Beyond just our company, there’s positivity in the light that we want to spread [to] the world–no pun intended, since it’s candles,” Meis said.

The candle scents that “That’s LIT” produces correlate to each of its letters—for instance, a candle with a eucalyptus scent would go under the tranquility category of candles— and the coloring of the candle and graphic corresponds to the letter as well. When the candles are purchased, 10% of the profits from the specific candle go towards the charity that they are matched with.

Each letter corresponds to the three charities that “That’s LIT” donates to as a part of the business. They support Laughter Heals–another DECA JA project–which is an international nonprofit that advocates for the healing properties of laughter that correlate with mental and physical wellbeing. For inspiration, they support breast cancer research. The profits of the eucalyptus candle, correlated to tranquility, will be donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation

“I really enjoy showing that even as teenagers that we’re capable of creating a great business and running a business within our classroom,” Meis said. “I think it’s just a very big testament

to our generation and kind of shows the world what we have to offer, and it will only grow from here as we grow in the future.”

The students are also working to promote the business throughout the City of Parkland. Every other Sunday, representatives from “That’s LIT” attend the Parkland Farmers’ Market to sell their candles. They also allow for any and all customers to customize their candle with their mobile graphic system.

“That’s LIT” currently does most of their business at the Farmers’ Market, but they also

started an online platform where people can purchase and customize their own candles without going to the market. The website is thats-lit-candles.squarespace.com, and they have an Instagram account @thatcandleislit, which people can send direct messages to buy candles as well.

The sale for “That’s LIT” candles will continue for a few more months, allowing for MSD’s team to continue participating in the competition.

STORY

BY Ava Thomas

Choreographer Nakia Small rehearses the Trinidad dance a week before the Black History Month Show. BSU members applied to choreograph dances prior to auditions. PHOTO BY Reygan McIntosh

Math teacher Alexandria Mighty and senior Ronel Chery celebrate the end of the BSU Black History Month show dancing in the soul train. PHOTO BY Carolina Ochoa Lozano

SENSATIONAL SMELLS. Senior Molly Glassman explains to a customer what types of candles DECA students were selling at the Panthers’ Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise on Feb. 10. DECA sold scented candles, for their business “That’s Lit,” including “Watermelon,” “Float All Day” and more. PHOTO BY Reygan McIntosh

Adjust Alter and

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

High School students are facing a variety of changes regarding their courses and course selections as the end of the school year approaches and preparations for next school year begin.

Among the shifts in requirements and options for students is the implementation of the personal financial literacy requirement, the restructuring of the progression of social studies courses, higher passing scores for standardized tests, rubric changes to Advanced Placement history courses and the introduction of the Advanced International Certification of Education Cambridge program at MSD.

New Financial Literacy Requirement

Kick-starting changes to course cards and course structures at MSD, a half-credit financial literacy course is now a graduation requirement for current juniors and all the following classes to graduate.

MSD’s administration and the guidance departments decided that for next school year, economics would be paired with financial literacy, and government would be paired with law studies. Students are also required to complete a half credit in government and a half credit in economics to graduate. In previous years, economics and government were paired together for seniors.

The change would force rising seniors to have to take two social studies classes, causing them to lose out on an elective. This has prompted many seniors to turn to options like dual enrollment or Florida Virtual School to take personal finance, economics and/or government.

“I feel like the change has been largely inconvenient for those trying to knock out two credits in one course selection, including myself,” junior Taylor Le said. “My friends and I are thinking about taking economics online, so we can meet the credit.”

Adjust

This change was a cause of concern for DECA students and students who dual enrolled in personal financial literacy already, as they would receive a “double” credit and be placed in a class they did not need to be in.

Students who complete four years of DECA, a series of four finance-related courses, earn the personal financial literacy requirement without needing to take the newly added financial literacy elective.

MSD subsequently added back the government with economics pairing for next school year for seniors that had already earned financial literacy.

In order to prevent students from having to double up on social studies credits in the future, the typical course progression for history classes will change. Previously, freshmen would take a geography course, sophomores would take world history, juniors would take United States history and seniors would take government and economics.

Geography, which was never a graduation requirement, has been removed from the history structure and, instead, will be offered as an elective. This includes AP Human Geography, which was typically the only AP class offered to freshmen.

Now, freshmen will take world history, sophomores will take government and law studies, juniors will remain in U.S. history and seniors will take economics and personal financial literacy.

AP World History teacher Devin Schaller expressed concerns about freshmen taking his AP World History course, as most previous students took AP Human Geography their freshman year to prepare for the difficulty of the course.

“The difficulty that existed in AP Human was not too much for freshmen but gave them the stepping stone to be successful in AP World,” Schaller said.

Graduation requirements, class course options change

State Adjusted FAST Cut Scores

During the 2022 Florida legislative session, SB 1048 removed Florida’s old system of standardized testing, the Florida Standard Assessments, and replaced it with the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking.

Current sophomores and juniors were the first to take the FAST last school year, which is administered three times a year. It is given to students at the beginning of the school year, the middle and the end in an attempt to show progress students have made throughout the year.

This year, the cut score, or minimum score required to pass, for the FAST was approved by the State Board of Education, according to the Florida Department of Education. Previously, the state determined the minimum score to pass as lowest score of the top 50% of students. Now, however, the FLDOE has shifted it to where only 47% of students pass.

“The FAST is more difficult, I feel, than it’s been in the past, and you really have to read the questions to understand, and the passing rate is going to be harder,” English II teacher Holly Van Tassel-Schuster said. “The state felt that it wasn’t challenging enough, so they’ve adjusted that, so now the cut score is 47 [percent].”

There are significant implications for this policy change. For one, it could affect the graduation rate because sophomores must pass Progress Monitoring 3, or the final FAST test of the school year, to graduate. If they do not, students must retake the FAST as an upperclassman or seek concordant scores. Students who score a level one or two on the FAST “fail,” and level one students may find themselves in a remedial reading class the following year.

Additionally, the increased cut scores could impact MSD’s rating as an “A” school because test scores are a factor considered when determining a school’s grade. Should an additional 3% of students fail to show reading

proficiency on the FAST, it could lower MSD’s grade, which affects school staff’s A+ bonus money.

New AICE Cambridge Program

One of the biggest changes coming to MSD is the introduction of the Cambridge AICE program for the upcoming school year. While the program will be expanding in the years to come, students will be able to take AICE Marine Science, AICE Thinking Skills and AICE General Paper next year.

While rising juniors and seniors will only be offered the three classes, incoming freshmen and sophomores will have the opportunity to earn the AICE Cambridge Diploma by earning seven credits across three curriculum areas. Earning the diploma automatically qualifies students for a full Bright Futures scholarship, which means their college tuition is completely paid for if they were to attend a public, in-state university.

In addition to the benefits for students, the AICE program could help MSD more easily achieve an A-rating, as bringing in programs such as AICE helps boost school acceleration points, which factor into a school’s overall grade.

However, some AP teachers are concerned about the future of their programs now that students will be offered an alternative, which some consider easier than AP classes. Others are waiting to see the impact of the AICE program.

“I think that it’s a little bit too soon to see the actual impact,” AP Language and Literature teacher Laurie Edgar said. “There are certain students for whom the AICE program is going to be more appropriate and certain students for whom the AP program will be more appropriate.”

Current and future MSD students now face a variety of changes to the standards required of them throughout high school. While the impacts of most cannot yet be determined, they will surely play out in years to come.

STORY BY Rio Rice

A QA Q &

School Counselor Melanie Taylor provides students with the tools needed to succeed in their academic and personal goals

our students an opportunity to expand their access to higher education at the same time as they are high school students,” Taylor

School Counselor

What does your job as a school counselor entail?

School counselors engulf multifaceted roles. We’re not just academic advisors. We’re also here to support students’ mental health, personal social, college and career life readiness development. And obviously, your academic journey through high school, middle school, elementary, depending upon what level. I am in a unique position as a district support counselor because I get to provide school counseling services to multiple schools. School based counselors are just assigned to one school, whereas in my role I get to support two. In general, a school counselor is usually assigned a caseload, and we would be helping students with their classes, making sure they’re on track for graduation, making sure that they’re taking the right classes and getting the credits they need for their diploma. We also help them find volunteer experiences and make sure that they’re developing their life skills and readiness. Skills development, formerly known as social emotional learning, is feelings, responsible decision making, relationship skill building, social awareness, resilience and self management. That’s what our role is: academics and personal and social development, and then helping you see where you want to be after you graduate high school and what’s going to bring you joy and make you fulfilled as an adult.

What piqued your interest in applying for this job?

I would say I originally wanted to be a doctor, and then I got changed into speech pathology and realized that math was not my forte. I ended up taking a lot of psychology classes, and I just switched to psychology. When I graduated with my degree in psychology, I realized you can’t do anything with a bachelor’s in psychology in regards to mental health. When I sat down with an admissions rep for my Master’s in Counseling, I was called to the school counseling component because I liked the fact that I was going to be there with students on a daily basis versus just in a private practice once a week per se, with students or children because that’s my passion. I love children. I also had an interesting childhood where I didn’t really necessarily have a counselor who was there for me, so it kind of motivated me to want to be a counselor and be there for students to have a champion on campus, somebody that’s gonna believe in them no matter what their situation looks like.

Why do you love being a school counselor?

I love being a school counselor because like I said, I didn’t have a great school counselor in high school, and I have a lot of childhood experiences that have helped build my resilience. I really love being that person for kids even if it’s just to escape whatever you guys deal with as teenagers. I just like being there for kids and hopefully changing the trajectory of even one child’s life. Every single year, if I can impact one kid’s life in a positive way, then that’s the reward for me. I just like helping kids and being there for them because I know what it’s like to be a kid and not have somebody there for them unconditionally.

What are your goals working in this field and what have you been doing to achieve them?

My goal working in this field is always to help. We’re data driven, especially in my role where I have to provide data on a weekly basis on how many students I see and how many crises I attend to–things like that. My goal is always to try to help provide preventative support so that students don’t feel like they have to get to the point of a crisis and feel like they are alone. I like to try to dabble into a lot of different things, even dual enrollment. That’s one of my goals is to try to make sure that I’m inserting myself and making myself visible in multiple ways, not just with credits in classes and mental health. I do classroom visits every year, because I’m eager to have kids see like, oh, a school counselor is there for me. One of my goals is to make sure kids know that they have someone on campus to help them have a safe space to come to.

What do you do to support and motivate students that need your help?

I try to provide an open door policy; I provide my email and I have a QR code on my door. If I’m not here, students can email me directly. I tried to just be a constant unconditional support, so they know that if they are in need, or even if they’re not in need, they just want to say hi, I want to be their person that they can just say hi to and kind of change their day. They may have started with a bad day at home, maybe they had a disagreement with their parent or significant other or a friend, or they got a bad grade on their test, and it completely ruins their day. I really hope that they know that by coming to my

office, there’s no judgment, and then I’m going to love them as is, and hopefully send them back off feeling a little bit better.

Describe any challenges you encountered in this job and how you overcame them.

One of the challenges I experienced 10 years as a school counselor, is that a lot of the community doesn’t realize or don’t understand that school counselors are mental health professionals too. We know we can’t provide clinical long term counseling, but we can do individual counseling, we can do group counseling and we can provide solution focused counseling therapy, which is short term grief counseling. A lot of students, a lot of people hear the word guidance counselor and they think that we’re just vocational, we’re just here to help you figure out a college and career and get you in the right classes, and we do so much more than that. I think another challenge is time, because I am split between two places, but when I was school based, time was still hard because I had almost 1,000 students to myself. I feel like the caseloads for school counselors in general is one of the challenges that we can’t always impact every single student in a way that we’d like to intervene and try to help them grow individually sometimes. That is a big challenge right now for many school counselors is the caseload is really large, which is where my position comes in. I don’t have a caseload, and I can help any student because all the counselors are busy. I want to be able to have that open door policy for them to say, okay, somebody’s here to try to help me right now

What makes coming

to MSD special?

I think coming into the school counseling guidance office, it’s very warm to me, I feel very welcomed here. Even though I’m not here full time, I feel like I’m accepted and appreciated, and that to me is a huge deal. When you’re a professional, you want to feel at least appreciated because I put my heart and soul every day into what I do because I love kids, and I want kids to feel loved and no matter what’s going on outside at home, that they that they had somebody in their lives that said I believe in you and you you’re going to you’re going to fulfill your dreams. I think the potential of being able to impact a student’s life is what makes it special and we are a bigger school, so I have the potential to impact more students’ lives.

Melanie Taylor

FLIPPING THROUGH FORMS. Fixated on her computer screen, school counselor Melanie Taylor reviews Broward College summer dual enrollment dynamic forms during third period on Feb. 7. Assisting MSD students with the dual enrollment process is one of the many responsibilities Taylor focuses on. “Dual enrollment gives

said. PHOTO BY Victoria Damaso

In Service

MSD hosts sixth annual Day of Service and Love

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hosted its sixth annual Day of Service and Love on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Students who chose to attend school that day attended a non-academic day from 7:40-11 a.m. and were able to participate in a number of service activities to benefit the community and campus.

Students were required to fill out a form at the beginning of January, determining whether or not they would attend school on Feb. 14, and what service activity they would be participating in for the day. The students received confirmation the week prior as well as numerous phone calls to make sure that they knew the appropriate attire and what to bring for each of the service projects they signed up for.

These activities included working in the garden, working on cleaning up campus, making breakfast for first responders, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to donate to food banks, crafting no-sew tote bags out of old T-shirts, sewing blankets for homeless shelters, creating spoken-word poetry, participating in yoga and doing body mindfulness.

Students were directed to a table where teachers signed them in and gave them a wristband, which would determine what activity they would be participating in that day–green wristbands for the garden, purple wristbands for sandwich making and others. Students spent time and worked at their activity until 9:30 a.m., when they would begin to clean up and head to the memorial for a service at 10 a.m.

At the service, a moment of silence was held at MSD’s on-campus memorial for the 17 lives lost in the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting. Assistant Principal Jay Milmed and Principal Michelle Kefford spoke, and afterwards, teachers and family members of the 17 placed flowers to commemorate their loved ones.

“It’s a reminder of what we lost,” TV production teacher Eric Garner said. “But it’s a method for some people to heal, to put forth some form of positive energy out of something so negative.”

Students were able to access support systems throughout the entire day. Therapy dogs also came on campus during the day, greeting the students in the courtyard and first responders as they came from the cafeteria after being served breakfast by students.

“

It’s a reminder of what we lost, but it’s a method for some people to heal, to put forth some form of positive energy out of something negative.”

Eric Garner TV production teacher

Many students have found that the Day of Service and Love has provided them with an outlet to give back to the community.

“It felt really good to be able to help out my community and get to do this activity with my friends,” sophomore Alex Freedman said. “Everyone’s really active in participating in all the activities. I think it gives people a purpose higher than them, and it’s a really cool thing.”

The garden has had a particularly large attendance over the last few years; this year about 70 students and 14 teachers attended. Constructed in 2018, Marjory’s Garden is a place where students come throughout the year to have lunch and relax; some teachers even host classes outside in the classroom area. Every Sunday, students in the Marjory’s Garden club work to complete new projects to beautify and expand the garden.

“The day of service is a way to bring students and community together, especially in the garden,” Garden Club President Riley Walsh said. “Working with my peers to build and plant is a great way to spread kindness, and has even been therapeutic for me and many others.”

Prior to this year, the activities offered have been working in the garden, serving breakfast to first responders, mindfulness and campus beautification, which have supported the roughly 300 students that generally attend year to year. This year, however, 436 students signed up to go to school on Feb. 14, so more projects were needed to support a greater number of students.

To determine new projects for this year’s Day of Service, MSD’s Inter-club Council met on Nov. 14, 2023 and discussed ideas. The ICC tasked each club with submitting one idea for a service project back to the council and those activities would be hosted by the clubs on the day of service.

“The goal is to try and get the clubs to have more input on the projects, and to have them assist in facilitating those projects,” ICC adviser Danielle Driscoll said. “Because, as the years have gone on, the number of students that come to school that day has increased exponentially—which is a great thing, and we encourage that so that students can participate in service projects that day, but the need is growing.”

The new projects offered this year included making friendship bracelets and sewing blankets with the Maker-Space Club, making PB&J sandwiches to donate to local food banks with DECA and making no-sew tote bags out of old T-shirts.

For the past six years, through the Day of Service and Love, the school community has come together with the Parkland and Coral Springs communities to build resilience, as well as grow and heal.

and Love and Love

STORY BY Ava Thomas

PHOTO BY Andres Fuenmayor

GARDENING GALORE. Junior Mia Lubin works in Marjory’s Garden to help move soil for planting new trees on the Day of Service and Love. The new trees, including a pomegranate and jabuticaba tree, are intended to be for a new orchard extension of the garden.

PHOTO BY Andres Fuenmayor

DESIGN BY Ava Thomas

MOMENT OF SILENCE. Coach Ken Gendason looks over Coach Aaron Feis’s portrait shortly after the memorial ceremony. The ceremony was held at 10 a.m. with a moment of silence at 10:17 a.m.

PHOTO BY Andres Fuenmayor

SHARPENING THE SAW Chemistry teacher Sean Simpson saws wood planks in the Everglades section of Marjory’s Garden. For this project, students and teachers assembled a wooden support system to house the roof of the astronomy dome on campus.

PHOTO BY Ava Thomas

FEEDING FIRST RESPONDERS. Senior Ethan Askin holds a greeting sign at the First Responders Breakfast in the cafeteria. Askin and the other volunteers for the project made signs, prepared gift bags and served food for the first responder attendees.

PHOTO BY Reygan McIntosh

CRAFTS FOR A CAUSE. Junior Ella Maurice makes a blanket in the teachers conference room behind the media center. The Maker Space club hosted this event, and all of the blankets made were donated to children in hospitals or shelters. “I really like that it [blanket making] can be a solo or group project and the fact that it lets people craft and have fun, while also doing something to help a great cause,” Maurice said.

PHOTO BY Rayne

SHARPENING THE SAW

FEEDING FIRST RESPONDERS

STRENGTH IN UNITY

BREAD AND BUTTER. Sophomore Ella Li scoops peanut butter out of a jar to spread on her sandwich. Students who signed up for DECA’s activity on Feb. 14 spent their day making hundreds of sandwiches to donate to food banks across Broward County.

PHOTO

STRENGTH IN UNITY. MSD faculty and staff share an emotional moment of togetherness during the memorial service. Teachers were selected to walk up and place flowers on the memorial, before sharing this moment to “Shine,” a song created by MSD alumni in response to the shooting.

PHOTO

OFF THE BENCH Juniors Luana KunzlerMaldaner and Carlos David Matani glue planks of wood together to make a bench leg. This activity was one of the many garden projects on the day of service, and participating students were able to make four new benches for the garden‘s walkways.

PHOTO BY Ava Thomas BREAD AND BUTTER

OFF THE BENCH

Welser

BY Ava Thomas

BY Andres Fuenmayor

CRAFTS FOR A CAUSE

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Toxic masculinity’s growing prominence online impacts students

Man’s World

Man’s World It’s a Man’s,

Exhausted after a long day of school, a teenage boy scrolls through his Instagram feed, staring at the never-ending content on his screen. Countless pictures of men with unattainable muscles, videos of men explaining why therapy is overrated and posts of men ranting about the lack of support they have at home appear one after another. He feels overwhelmed by this content, wondering if his own behaviors are socially acceptable, and begins to believe the content he is seeing.

As social awareness increases, discussions about what defines gender and gender roles continue to change. The definition of masculinity is evolving, as men around the world rethink the ideals instilled in them from an early age and begin movements that they believe better express manhood.

According to a 2017 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, “While majorities of men and women see gender differences when it comes to the way men and women approach parenting and how they express their feelings, there is a wide gap between the two groups in views of whether these differences are mostly based on biology or on different expectations society has for men and women.”

According to an October 2023 Salon article written by sociology professor Micahel Flood, the term “toxic masculinity” first emerged in the 1980’s, but did not become part of mainstream social vocabulary until 2015. The term refers to a particular version of masculinity that emphasizes the worst parts of stereotypical masculine attributes, like violence, dominance, emotional illiteracy, sexual entitlement and

hostility to femininity.

This version of masculinity stems from an expectation that boys and men should be strong, active, aggressive, tough, daring, heterosexual, emotionally inexpressive and dominant. According to Flood, not only is toxic masculinity bad for women because it “shapes sexist and patriarchal behaviors, including abusive or violent treatment of women,” it is also bad for men and boys because the “narrow stereotypical norms constrain men’s physical and emotional health and their relations with women, other men and children.”

The proliferation of these stereotypes often takes place within homes through the teaching of harmful stereotypes and, more recently, through the internet via an increase of online influencers who are spreading their ideas and opinions. This trend has led to a rise in toxic ideologies and misogynistic views, especially among impressionable young boys. Misogyny is defined as the dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

It Starts at Home

The presence of these hyper-masculine personality traits among young men often stems from the actions and words they hear at home. According to Jabeen Begum from WebMD, risk factors that contribute to toxic masculinity include dysfunctional family environments and exposure to social norms that encourage male violence and dominance, including within the home. This is especially true when the figures young men have within their household, such as their fathers or older siblings, project these traits. These role models tend to reinforce practices that

can have a negative impact on the way young men think. When phrases that express overly masculine ideals and beliefs are used regularly, young boys are left susceptible to the negative effects of expectations. A common ideal for young men is that they should hide their feelings and emotions, portraying a false narrative that men should always maintain a strong face, according to a BetterHelp article from December 2023. This may lead to mental health issues later in life as a result of prolonged repression of one’s thoughts and feelings.

According to a November 2023 article from family therapist Kevin Foss, physical and mental health treatments are strongly opposed by toxic masculinity. By suppressing mental health issues, their symptoms can worsen, leading to isolation, loss of jobs and friends and in extreme cases, suicide.

Sayings such as “man up,” “boys don’t cry ‘’ and “stop crying like a girl” pressure men to suppress their feelings or even feel that their emotions are not appropriate. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey revealed that 86% of men feel pressure to be emotionally strong and 53% believe that today’s society looks up to men who are manly or masculine.

Role models can create or increase the pressure to demonstrate these traits. Some students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School feel this pressure from males in their own life.

“I think toxic masculinity is pretty detrimental to men’s mental health,” sophomore Joshua Brown said. “It’s one of the reasons why the mental health of boys is so low and creates a cycle of boys bottling up their emotions. Personally, it felt like there was a rule that we had in my house, and I grew up knowing not to cry in front of others.”

In addition to toxic masculinity’s psychological effects, encouraging it at home may create behavioral issues like physical aggression. Another 2017 Pew Research Center survey revealed that 69% of Millennial men face at least some pressure to throw a punch if provoked, a significant increase in comparison to 55% of Generation X, 53% of Boomers and 34% of men from the Silent Generation. Phrases such as “boys will be boys’’ justify men’s violent behavior.

“Honestly, I think it’s stupid because it excuses their behavior under the premise that they’re just being boys,” freshman Lucy Woo said. “I feel like girls are sometimes held to a higher standard when it comes to how they act, and phrases like that let guys get away with things that wouldn’t be considered acceptable from a girl.”

This is a double standard, or principle that applies to men and women differently. For example, it is widely accepted and expected that a woman will cry, but if a man were to cry, it is frowned upon. This double standard extends to material items, such as toys and hygiene products. They are often gendered and can contribute to feelings of exclusion among young men.

Though there is often an influence of toxic masculinity at home, the internet has amplified the issue. Without any encouragement to express themselves at home, young men turn to the internet for influence. Podcasts, social media

platforms and chat forums all are ways that boys learn and spread toxic masculinity.

“On the internet, so many people judge boys and males in general thinking that they can’t cry,” freshman Jayden Castro said. “I think that’s just wrong for them to say as we have feelings as well.”

Known as the “manosphere,” this online community can range from sharing health and fitness advice to bashing others because of their looks or beliefs. This gives many opportunities for people to be sexist and misogynistic, which are the ideas that women, transgender and nonbinary people are inferior to cisgender men.

“I think toxic masculinity is a weak philosophy that desperately allows men to assign a pseudo, mental and physical dominance over men and women who don’t share their traditional values,” junior Tahji Garcia said. “Men use this online space to spread those beliefs and assign it to other men who don’t particularly have a direction.”

A topic commonly discussed within the manosphere is the role women have in marriage. According to 2017 Pew Research Center study results, men who are influenced by the ideals of toxic masculinity typically agree that women should have the caretaker role in their family and they must prepare food for their husbands and children. They talk about how a woman’s purpose in a marriage is to provide for children, while a man’s purpose is to get a job and make the money necessary to support a family.

“Men, for centuries, have always had the upper hand in everything, which makes women sometimes afraid of men,” freshman Aurora Davis said. “Men and their violence have been putting women under a chokehold, which is wrong.”

As a result of engagement with online content perpetuating toxic masculinity, the algorithms on social media platforms will recommend more videos with similar content, which further fuels beliefs in such ideas.

Impact of Influencers

The beliefs instilled in young men create a breeding ground for ideologies of toxic masculinity online. Some popular idols and influencers of the manosphere have caused the spread and introduction of toxic masculinity to young men. One of these influencers is Andrew Tate, who has a large teenage following with which he shares his misogynistic ideals.

While most people know Andrew Tate from his arrest which made national headlines last year, many know him online for his ideas on masculinity and misogynistic views. His growing list of followers has led to young men idolizing him as the definition of what a man should be. After his Twitter account was reinstated in November of 2022, following his arrest, Tate’s following rose from 40,000 to 8.8 million today. His influence is especially prevalent among a younger demographic of boys.

According to a 2023 survey conducted by YouGov Children, 54% of children between 6 and 15-years-old , 60% of which were boys, know of Andrew Tate. 17% of those children have a positive opinion of him.

“I agree with some of the stuff that Andrew Tate says, especially his takes on discipline,” sophomore Matthew George said. “I think that he is a good

example of a man’s mindset for success to be, but I totally disagree on the misogyny aspect of it all.”

On the other hand, some students feel influencers like Andrew Tate do more harm than good when influencing the mindset of impressionable teenagers.

“Whenever I saw Andrew Tate on my screen it felt like I was watching a circus, and he was the clown,” senior Oliver Grushka said. “The way he phrases things is so absurd that it genuinely feels like satire.”

Misrepresentation in Media

The reinforcement of traditional male gender roles remains a common theme in television, movies, books and music, according to Newport Institute, a national organization that works to improve the mental health of young people. Male characters are often depicted as dominant and assertive, being described as having exaggerated muscles and features. Such representation often leads to men, especially teens, having unattainable body standards.

According to the Newport Institute’s website, “The muscular superheroes in action movies and the highly

documented body transformations and workout regimens of celebrities contribute to feelings of inferiority among young men with ‘average bodies.’ This mistakenly convinces young men that they too, can attain the ‘ideal’ body if they try hard enough.”

This is largely achieved through inaccurate casting in the media. Actors playing high school students are typically much older than their portrayed characters. This gives a dramatized illusion of what young, teenage boys should look or behave like.

An example of this is the character Nate Jacobs, played by Jacob Elordi, from the HBO Max series “Euphoria.”

Jacobs, an 18-year-old high school student, sports a heavily exaggerated body type, with large, brooding muscles and sharp facial features. His actor counterpart was 24-yearsold at the start of filming, therefore creating an inaccurate portrayal of what a teenage body is supposed to look like.

“I feel like most shows don’t actually show what real men are like,” George said. “Having actors that are so much older than their characters not only makes the show feel off but makes it hard to relate to the characters. I think there’s this need for teens to replicate what they see in the media, I just wish it were realistic.”

Men are more likely to have substance abuse problems from this, according to Medical News; and, their mental health is affected by their efforts to fit into the mold. They may experience symptoms of eating disorders, anxiety and depression and will most likely avoid seeking professional help due to their ideals and the embarrassment they feel they will face.

Solutions

The issue of toxic masculinity will continue to persist so long as pressure from outside sources continues to influence the next generation of young men. This cycle will continue to be perpetrated so long as these ideas continue to be ignored instead of talking about them in discussions.

According to a 2022 article by Newport Institute, “for many men, asking for assistance, whether from loved ones or a mental health professional, is the hardest thing of all. Understanding that men have been conditioned in this way can help reduce the stigma.”

Therefore, to help combat the issue of toxic masculinity, researchers encourage more men to seek help and talk about their problems through therapy, breaking the stigma of therapy. By finding healthy ways to cope and move forward, men can learn how to better themselves without jeopardizing themselves and those around them. This could also help men overcome any trauma they have experienced in their childhood, which would have led to toxic masculinity in the future. There is a positive trend of more men seeking professional help through therapy in recent years, as the percentage of American men going to therapy has risen by 30%, according to a 2023 article by the Guardian.

By raising awareness of toxic masculinity and encouraging men to value their mental health, the harmful ideals of the movement can be transformed into healthy attitudes for every man.

9

STORY BY Jasmine Bhogaita, Ahana Tippanagoudar and Javier Otero

ChronicallyOnline Online

Phone addiction disproportionately affects teens

Emma cannot draw her eyes away from her phone. With her AirPods in, effectively drowning out all “unnecessary” noise, she can only hear the faintest murmur of her teacher in the background. Her phone and life online serve as a much more pressing matter than the math she will never again use after high school. Before she knows it, the bell rings overhead. An hour and a half has passed in what felt like thirty minutes, and she has managed to spend an entire class period with her eyes glued to her phone.

As the first generation to truly be brought up in the digital era, today’s teens have been raised in a drastically different environment than all of the generations before them. Growing up in a society in which they were surrounded by and afforded easy access to cell phones, Generation Z has developed an addiction to them at an early age and is now facing the consequences.

Phone addiction, despite having no official diagnosis, is something that greatly affects teens today, including those at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Sometimes referred to as nomophobia–the fear of being without a phone–phone addiction is one of the defining problems of Gen Z and one that most distinguishes teens today from those of preceding generations.

lives is something specific to this generation of teens and one that has played a unique factor in their upbringing.

Phone Addiction Causes

It is not uncommon to hear older generations complain about teenager’s excessive phone usage, blaming it on laziness or indifference. However, while this may ring true for some, many more factors are at play that have led teens to depend on cell phones to the degree that they do.

One factor is the early age at which teens were exposed to cell phones. Unlike Gen X, who have watched phones become increasingly popular over the course of their lives,

“

gotten their first phone before the age of 12. This and teens’ early exposure to cell phones, have worked to instill the idea within Gen Z that cell phones are a necessity.

“I got my phone when I was around 8 years old, mainly because a bunch of my classmates had phones as well and I kept nagging my parents,” senior Adnan Sanaulla said. “It definitely established a habit of me using my phone throughout the day and has led me to rely on it more than I should.”

Aside from the normalization of cellphones, the marketing of apps to children and teens has also played a role in Gen Z’s addiction. Games, and other content geared towards kids, is what kept members of Gen Z occupied on their devices throughout their adolescence.

I got my phone when I was around 8 years old, mainly because a bunch of my classmates had phones as well and I kept nagging my parents. It definitely established a habit of me using my phone throughout the day and has led me to rely on it more than I should.

Adnan Sanaulla, 12

A study by Common Sense Media found that 50% of teenagers ages 13-18 feel as if they are addicted to their cell phones. This is more than consistent with the findings at MSD, where in a survey of 350 MSD students, 63.1% stated that they would personally consider themselves addicted to their phones.

While on their phones, teens have access to a seemingly infinite number of apps, but for MSD students most of their time is spent on social media. In fact, the survey found that 71% of MSD students spend more time on social media apps than educational, entertainment or gaming apps. The time that social media use consumes in teens’

27% of MSD students spend seven to eight hours on their phone per day

Gen Z was largely born into a world in which cell phones were prominent. Today’s teens were raised around phones and other similar devices, and many even had an iPad as a child.

It was Gen Z, after all, whose excessive iPad usage in childhood prompted the coining of the term the “iPad kid.” Referring to children whose only entertainment growing up was technology, Gen Z was the first generation to take on this term.

Then, once Gen Z had outgrown iPads, they went on to receive their own phones at young ages. In the MSD student survey, 76% of MSD students reported having

63% 0f MSD students would consider themselves addicted to their phone

Children’s mobile games are a multi-billion dollar industry–having been worth $2.3 billion in 2017 according to Statista–and to support it, apps like Subway Surfers, Piano Tiles, Geometry Dash and YouTube Kids are advertised to children.

Then, as Gen Z grew older, it was no longer games that were being advertised to them, but social media platforms. Most of the features on these platforms and the services they provide are specifically designed to engage teenage or young adult audiences. The original purpose of Snapchat for instance, was to provide teens and college students with an app on which they could share photos and videos with one another, that would disappear moments later.

“Snapchat is appealing to me because it’s fun to be able to message primarily in pictures and have everything I and others send disappear eventually,” sophomore Emma Schwartz said. “Plus, I love being able to set goals about my streaks and keep in contact with my friends in a more enjoyable way than just texting.”

Practically everything people do and engage with online is monitored, which helps companies build an idea of what individuals want to see. Information regarding personal interests feeds the algorithms and advertising on

47% of MSD students spend five to six hours on their phone per day

71% of MSD students think their attention span has shortened due to their phone usage

Andie Korenge and Brynn Schwartz

Korenge PHOTOS BY Isabella Rocha and Mia Donovan GRAPHICS BY Andie Korenge and Liliana Griffis

social media platforms and dictates the content that will appear on users’ feeds later. This technique ensures that people will engage with content on social media platforms for longer periods of time, thus fueling teens’ phone addiction.

Still, there are other factors at play that are keeping teens addicted to their phones, namely the dopamine release their phone usage stimulates. According to Very Well Health, using cell phones and social media platforms results in the release of the neurochemical dopamine, which provides people with feelings of pleasure.. This leads teenagers to use their phones as a source of instant gratification, as they associate their cell phones and the apps on them with feelings of happiness.

Besides the biological factors, teens also tend to spend a lot of time on their phones for the convenient modes of communication they provide. Teens are naturally sociable and are at a point in their lives in which forming connections and communicating with others is important, especially when it comes to their development.

Phones provide teens with a means by which they can maintain and enhance their connections with others. Whether they do this through texting, making phone calls, video calling or communicating via social media platforms, teens are often using their phones to actively communicate and keep in touch with their friends, family and others in a timely and convenient manner.

“Honestly, I do believe my phone has improved my ability to communicate with others,” freshman Brynn Levy said. “It brings me closer to people because I can just text them often, and sometimes talking to people in-person can be scary.”

Phone Addiction Effects

While teens’ cell phone addiction is partly a result of the device’s ability to help them communicate and maintain relationships, it also causes teens to isolate themselves and lose relationships. This is because the presence of smartphones in teens’ daily lives can draw their attention away from in-person interactions and serve to worsen their communication skills in real life.

Serving as a tool for distraction rather than connection, cell phones can lead teens to neglect their in-person relationships. For a lot of teens, the urge to check their cell phone during an in-person interaction is often present, but acting on that urge can be off-putting to others.

In a 2018 study by Pew Research, it was found that 72% of parents felt that while trying to have a conversation with their teen, they were at least sometimes distracted by their cell phone. A teenager being distracted by their phone during an interaction with their friend, family member or significant other can lead to feelings of neglect and disconnection.

“I am constantly harassing my daughters to ‘get your face out of your phone,’” English teacher Donna DeStefano said. “I remind them the phone is not making them better people, not helping them, and it is not a respectable way in which to spend time. I guilt them over their screen times and find myself greatly resenting any task or chore that went unfinished, but phone time wasn’t

interrupted.”

Those close to teens are not the only people who have taken notice of this; even teens themselves have become aware of the wedge their phones are driving in their relationships.

“I think my phone has hindered my familial relationships since sometimes my family is all together, but we’re not really talking,” junior Tam-an Nguyen said. “We’re just existing in the same space and using our phones in that space.”

Teens’ relationships are not the only thing to be

applies not only to their relationships and capacity to communicate, but also to something significantly more detrimental–their involvement in car accidents.

According to data from the Center for Disease Control’s Youth Behavioral Surveillance System, 8% of teen drivers involved in fatal car accidents were distracted, with 23% of the distractions being a cell phone. At MSD, 33% of the student drivers who responded to the survey admitted to having used their phone while driving.

Much like the biological reasons for phone addiction, there are also biological effects, including the alteration of one’s brain chemistry.

Story continued on page 17

65% of MSD students think their phone usage negatively impacts their performance in school

80% of MSD students think that phone addiction is a problem within their generation

59% of MSD students think their phone usage negatively affects their familial relationships

In a study conducted by the Radiological Society of North America, a link was uncovered between phone addiction and the amount of gamma aminobutyric acid teens produced.

Smartphone addicted teens had increased levels of gamma aminobutyric acid, which is a neurotransmitter that slows down the brain’s motor functions by inhibiting brain signals. Too much of this neurotransmitter can disrupt the normal functioning of the brain and lead to mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.

Phone addiction is an addiction after all, and it presents with effects similar to those of other behavioral addictions including gambling. The phenomenon causes teens to have a dopamine deficiency, which instigates a cycle of compulsive behavior. Then, when teens do not have access to their phones, they suffer from withdrawal symptoms that can disrupt their daily lives.

“Any type of dependency can lead to students feeling anxious or irritable when they cannot use/have access to the item/substance they depend on,” psychology teacher Dawn Tavares said. “They will likely experience a dopamine release when they receive access to the substance or in this case, their phone. Therefore, as time goes on, they don’t necessarily produce enough dopamine on their own–without access to the phone–because their body begins to depend on the phone for the dopamine release.”

The effects phone addiction has on teens are often exemplified in the classroom. Simply having a cell phone within reach has been proven to reduce one’s cognitive capacity.

A study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research dubbed this phenomenon the brain drain hypothesis, which dictates that people are less likely to rely on their own knowledge when they know they have easy access to an alternative source of information.

In terms of the classroom, this could mean that students are more likely to look up the answers to their assignments than use their own critical thinking skills to complete them because of the presence of their cell phones.

In response to teens’ phone addiction and the impact it has had on their education, state legislatures across the U.S. have imposed new laws that dictate how and when cell phones can be used in schools. Florida is one of these states, with Gov. Ron DeSantis having signed a bill that does so–House Bill 379–into law last year.

“Being normal kids, like kids were prior to social media is important,” DeSantis said when signing the bill. “The social media [causes] more problems than it solves, and I think it causes more harm than good. So, let’s have our education system be as much about traditional education as we can.”

This law took effect in July 2023 and imposed several new restrictions in Florida schools that brought about notable changes for students. One major thing that resulted from this law was the increased use of phone pockets by teachers.

As stipulated by HB 379, students are not to use cell phones or other wireless devices during instructional time unless “expressly directed by a teacher solely for educational purposes.” Building upon this stipulation, teachers have also been instructed to have a designated area in their classroom for students’ devices.

This, in addition to the disruption that cell phones have posed to teens’ educations, are the reasons many MSD teachers have chosen to hang up phone pockets in their classroom.

“

of an emergency.

“I disagree with the use of phone pockets,” freshman Ishan Hossain said. “I see where they [teachers] are coming from, but there could be an easier and less stressful way. Some people may need their phones on them in case of emergencies.”

However, teachers have taken this factor into consideration when choosing a location for their phone pockets.

“I chose to place my phone holder in the “safer zone” so students who felt they needed access in case of an emergency could feel confident they would have access,” Tavares said.

Phone pockets have not, however, completely kept students away from their devices during instructional time. It is not uncommon to witness students purposefully not placing their phones into their teacher’s phone pocket in order to use it during class. In fact, 52% of MSD students admitted to doing just that in the student survey.

Any type of dependency can lead to students feeling anxious or irritable when they cannot use/have access to the item/substance they depend on... As time goes on, they don’t necessarily produce enough dopamine on their own—without access to the phone—because their body begins to depend on the phone for the dopamine release.

“It is extremely difficult to compete with any device as a teacher–students know they have such ease of access by turning to their phone, so they’ve learned to utilize it as a resource,” Tavares said. “Rather than taking the few extra seconds or minutes to think through the problem, they google it or ask Siri… Therefore, they become dependent on the ability to look up an answer rather than think through the problem and deduce information.”

Then, the shortened attention spans that teens have garnered as a result of their phone usage, limits their ability to pay attention in class. At MSD, 71% of students even admitted to believing that their attention span has become shorter as a result of their cell phone use.

“[My phone impacts my education] negatively,” senior Karen Liu said. “It distracts me from my school work and has decreased my attention span, so it’s more difficult to focus on the task at hand.”

Teens’ grades, test scores, classroom engagement and college attendance are all things that are being impacted by phone addiction–but this is not going unnoticed.

Restricting Phone Use in Schools

Dawn Tavares, psychology teacher

“I do have a phone pocket–I felt it was necessary, not only to comply with the law, but also to minimize the student’s temptation to reach in their pocket or hide their phone use during class,” Tavares said. “It was an easy decision to make on my part as I felt it truly was what was best for my student engagement.”

While not every teacher has been using phone pockets, a lot have and as such, students have had to adapt to this change. Unsurprisingly, this is not a change most MSD students are fond of.

In the student survey, 82% of MSD students stated that despite the fact that they understand why teachers are using phone pockets, they still ultimately dislike them and disagree with their use.

One reason the use of phone pockets is controversial is the threat of school shootings. Detractors of phone pockets argue that if all students’ are placing their phones away from them at the start of class, they would have no access to them in case of a shooting in order to call for help. This may prove upsetting to parents as well, as it is natural that they would want to be able to contact their children in case

In addition to cell phone access being restricted by the new law, so was access to TikTok. As of July, the social media platform was made inaccessible to students on school WiFi and on devices owned by Florida school districts. Still, students can access the app at school when using cellular service or a Virtual Private Network.

This restriction is, once again, not one that MSD students are in favor of, with 73% believing that they should be able to access TikTok on school Wi-Fi. Nevertheless, it is one that teachers appreciate.

“I do not think students should have access to social media at school,” Tavares said. “I think it is another distraction. Additionally, I think cyberbullying is too common and we have an obligation and a duty to protect students on campus.”

Conclusion

Within Gen Z, it is commonly understood that phone addiction is a phenomenon they are disproportionately affected by. Nevertheless, cell phones are not going anywhere and neither is teens’ dependence on them. Cell phones are a necessity in today’s society and that is a reality that will not be changing anytime soon. What can change, however, is how teens and their families, educators and politicians respond to the problem of phone addiction, in order to prevent its effects from worsening and carrying on to subsequent generations.

STORY BY Andie Korenge

DESIGN BY Andie Korenge and Brynn Schwartz

Senior Tyler Dilek has always been captivated by history and the science behind ancient machinery, and his collection of early 19th and 20th centuries Americana allows him to physically own pieces of his interests. He owns a variety of vintage books, computers, phonographs, video game consoles and film reels, all produced before the year 2000. Dilek accumulates Americana for mainly two purposes: to preserve history for succeeding generations and as his own personal hobby.

“They way I view it is, ‘if I don’t, who will?’” Dilek said, in regards to his vast collection. He describes the Americana as his life’s work, as he spent years fixating and repairing the objects in the assortment.

From CDs to ketchup, MSD students share their most prized possessions Collection

After receiving a personal stereo from their mom back when she was a teenager, junior Violet Greenstein was inspired to collect more CDs, as they initially had a small variety of records to choose from. The musiclover began purchasing CDs from thrift stores and Ebay because of their good quality, despite being cheaper in price.

They consider Wave by Patti Smith one of their favorite CDs because the album plays “Fredrick,” a special song to Greenstein. To them, music sounds fulfilling when played from their CD stereo and the colorful cover of each record adds to the aesthetic of their room.

“I collect this because it feels more real and fun playing CDs than playing music on Spotify and I like the way they look,” Greenstein said.

CRAZE CRAZE

Following his bedroom makeover, junior Gabriel Nierman finally had the space to add a meaningful collection to him: the Coca-Cola bottles in which his great grandfather largely invested in.

“In his house, you couldn’t walk five feet without seeing a Coke bottle,” Nierman said.

BOOKS-A-MILLION

Sophomore Madison Hamilton always possessed a passion for reading but initially read a few books per year. However, three years ago, sophomore Madison Hamilton returned to her habit of reading after finishing one of her favorite book series–“The Summer I Turned Pretty”–before it was adopted into a show on Amazon Prime.

“Then, everyone started going crazy over all these people, and I’ve been obsessing over them for years by myself,” Hamilton said.

Presently, she has about 60 books in her collection and reads about one book per week. To Hamilton, reading is an escape from the stress of her responsibilities at school.

“When I’m on my phone, I can’t distract myself from stress from school,” Hamilton said. “But when I’m reading, I’m in a whole different world.”

REPORTING AND DESIGN BY Victoria Damaso

PHOTOS PERMISSION FROM Tyler Dilek, Violet Greenstein, Madison Hamilton, Ethan Leavy, Gabriel Nierman and Emma Schwartz

The Coke bottle collection reminds Nierman of his great grandfather who he did not know well, as well as his great grandmother who recently passed away, as both had a collecting spirit.

He obtains the Coke bottles from Mexican coke bottles he previously drank from or from thrift shops. In his Coke bottle collection, Nierman has both old and new bottle styles of the brand

TOMATO, TAMATO

Ever since senior Ethan Leavy was a child, he remembers adding ketchup to almost every meal he ate. His parents, soon recognizing his love for ketchup, began gifting Leavy ketchup related objects, transforming his bedroom shelves into a private Heinz museum.

Leavy collects ketchup memorabilia “for fun,” as he enjoys accumulating objects of a certain subject and organizing them into specific categories.

“Ketchup is what used to define me,” Leavy said. “Even my Bar Mitzvah was ketchup themed.”

She purchases a majority of her novels from Barnes & Nobles, Amazon and Target and has an additional virtual book collection on her Kindle. Her bookshelf serves as a reminder of what she loves about a particular novel by teleporting her back into the plot of the story.

KEY TO MY HEART

Since the second grade, sophomore Emma Schwartz began accumulating the hotel cards from her father’s business trips. She soon expanded her collection to include the cruise cards or gift cards she received over time, as it serves as a remembrance of the memories she fostered with her family and friends on special occasions.

“My collection means memories to me,” Schwartz said. “I have a bunch of cruise cards, and I will be like, ‘Oh, I remember all the stuff from the cruise’ or like a birthday card, and I will remember my birthday party from that year and the gifts I got.”

COCA-COLA CONNOISSEUR

SPINNING TUNES

COCA-COLA CONNOISSEUR TOMATO, TAMATO

On

Air Air

PGrowing number of podcasts allows MSD students to explore new ideas and hobbies

odcasts were virtually nonexistent in the U.S. up until the early 2000s. All throughout the 1900s, Americans were reliant on the radio for news, entertainment and music. With the turn of the 21st century, a new and revolutionary form of media arose in the form of podcasts. From 2006 to 2023, the Pew Research Center found that there was a 53% growth in podcast listeners, accounting for a monumental 200 million Americans. Tuning in on a daily and weekly basis to hear podcast creators talk endlessly about topics ranging from sports news to pop culture moments, listeners have access to a diverse array of opinions.

Podcasts are pre-recorded audio episodes that allow people to access them from the Internet or download them to their devices to listen anywhere and anytime. They differ from radio shows, a similar form of media, as they do not require the audience to tune in at a specific time for them to be able to enjoy the entertainment.

Their gradual rise has been a result of many factors, including the 2020 pandemic, when radio shows popularity began to decline. According to the Pew Research Center, between 2019 to 2020, terrestrial radio listenership dropped 6%, the biggest drop in the period between 2009 to 2022. While both forms of media contain similar elements, podcasts have become more widely available and their prominence have helped it prevail where radio has faltered.

For some, the appeal of podcasts comes from not only the entertainment they receive, but also from learning new facts and ideas while feeling engaged in the recorded conversation.

“It opens me up to more knowledge and to become aware of others’ opinions on things. I like hearing other people’s points of view and perspectives,” freshman Mohrosh Seyedd said.

Podcast accessibility rose from the internet and popular audio streaming services, like Spotify. These sources provide a large catalog of shows in one place. Spotify, with over 5 million podcasts, allows anyone to listen to or host their own, including students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Podcasting equipment is relatively inexpensive, and some record episodes on their cell phone.

“I wanted to start a podcast because I couldn’t find anyone who I could relate to. I wanted to hear about medicine from a teenager, but the only things I could find were from medical students and doctors,” senior Madeline Zelinka said, who co-hosts a podcast called the Pre-Med Pod.

There, she interviews doctors and medical students not only for her to learn about different medical fields herself but for listeners as well.

“My friend and I knew we wanted to do it together and medicine was something we were both passionate about,” Zelinka said.

Podcasts give people the opportunity to experience

Spotify has over 32.5 million U.S. podcast listeners

stories, whether through storytelling or news reporting, that have been previously inaccessible to them. This new form of media can often inspire others to explore new topics and fields they may have never thought about before.

“ It opens me up to more knowledge and to become aware of others’ opinions on things. I like hearing other people’s points of view and perspectives.”

Mohrosh Seyedd, 09

“I listen to true crime podcasts. I love learning about new crimes, and it makes me want to go into that field,” sophomore Illyana White said.

Hosts of podcasts can express themselves while developing an audience who enjoy the same subjects they discuss. This newfound group may be able to offer new opportunities to the hosts that they may not have been able to have without the podcast.

“My best memory [with the podcast] is talking to my idol, Dr. Jeffrey Raskin, a neurosurgeon from Northwestern,” Zelinka said. “He researches exactly what I want to research and his path to neurosurgery was very similar to what I have in mind.”

Some hosts, after making a series of episodes for so long, may make their podcasts into their profession. This allows them to have a source of income through posting

Multiple Topics

their recordings online. They are able to expand, creating a brand across multiple social media platforms while still being able to do something they enjoy.

Podcasts’ strong relation to the internet provides a way for hosts to connect with their audience on other platforms and expand their brand to being more than just the recorded episodes. Many have moved from strictly audio podcasts to recording themselves on video and posting it to sites such as YouTube. TikTok is also used to push podcasts out to more people through the algorithm picking up short clips that podcast owners decide to post.

However, there can be issues with the accuracy of the information provided if hosts are not careful. The Pew Research Center found that 87% of listeners believe the information on podcasts is mostly accurate.

A February 2023 study by the Brookings Institution found that nearly 70% of podcasters in their study on the most popular political talk show podcasts made unsubstantiated or false claims. For example, 20% of podcaster Steve Bannon’s “War Room” episodes contain false, misleading or unsubstantiated statements.

Podcast hosts are not obligated to fact check their information in the same way as professional news sources, which increases the possibility of spreading misinformation to their audiences. Because of this, it falls on the host to fact check what they are saying, and the audience to call them out if something is incorrect.

The many successful and popular podcasts that now exist have inspired others to create their own. Zelinka cautions about the work it takes to create one, but feels it is worth it in the end.

“It takes a lot of planning, time, money and dedication. It isn’t easy, but if you have the drive and are willing to commit to it, you can definitely do it,” Zelinka said.

STORY BY Grace Brill

Generation Z should not be blamed for addiction to phones

Internet Internet Welcome to the

“Young people these days never look up from their phones.” Every generation has grown up with some sort of new technology that older generations claim “ruins lives.” They accuse younger generations of being “addicted” to video games, television and now, artificial intelligence. It has become a pattern to blame the younger generation for taking advantage of the technology they were born into.

Phones are no exception, as Generation Z commonly faces an onslaught of comments about their phone dependency. These accusations, however, ignore the reality and causes of phone addiction.

That is not to say these accusations of addiction do not hold merit. According to Pew Research Center data, in a survey of teens’ phone usage in 2023, nearly half of teens say they use the internet “almost constantly.”

This is hardly surprising. Most of Gen Z, born between the years of 1997 and 2013 according to the U.S. Census, were given access to technology like tablets or cell phones from a young age. They do not know a world without mobile technology, meaning it can be difficult to take a step back from technology like phones. Thus, constantly shaming and blaming Gen Z for their phone addiction is based on faulty reasoning and does not truly represent the factors leading to phone addiction.

This is coupled with the fact that phones and the apps on them were designed to be addictive, according to ex-Silicon Valley employees.

“It’s as if they’re taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that’s the thing that keeps you, like, coming back and back and back,” former tech employee Aza Raskin said according to BBC News in 2018.

However, it is not cocaine that keeps people attached to their phones, but rather dopamine. Dopamine is a pleasure-related hormone that

serves as the reward center in human brains; it motivates people to continue with beneficial behaviors. It is released when anticipating or experiencing “rewarding events,” such as eating, having sex or doing drugs. In the evolutionary sense, it would encourage people to eat in order to stay alive or have sex in order to procreate.

“But, in modern life, we live in a world of abundance rather than scarcity, and Lembke says, our brains weren’t evolved for the ‘fire house of dopamine’ of sugar, social media, TV, sex, drugs or any number of dopamine-triggering stimuli available,”

National Public Radio reported in an interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, a psychiatrist and researcher.

“

However, this eventually leads to an adjustment in the brain where it feels unnatural and painful to feel “normal,” or not in a dopamine-high state. Lembke calls this a “dopamine deficit state.” In the context of phones, people are in this “dopamine deficit state” when they are either not with their phone or not engaging in dopamine-triggering behaviors on their phone, such as receiving notifications or earning likes.

Constantly shaming and blaming Gen Z for their phone addiction is based on faulty reasoning and does not truly represent the factors leading to phone addiction.

Eagle Eye News Editorial Board

In addicts’ brains, dopamine pathways are dysfunctional, and addicts seek out the euphoric “highs” of dopamine release increasingly often by engaging in pleasurable, but often harmful behaviors.

While dopamine dysfunction is commonly associated with drug addiction, phones and social media function in a way designed to release dopamine. For example, receiving notifications, having digital social interactions, playing games, watching entertaining content and earning likes can cause the release of dopamine.

Almost everyone these days carries a cell phone; such common exposure to dopamine via cell phones means that people constantly feel the euphoria that dopamine provides.

“We’re not able to take joy in more modest rewards,” Lembke said in the interview with NPR.

“Now, our drug of choice doesn’t even get us high. It just makes us feel normal. And when we’re not using, we’re experiencing the universal symptoms of withdrawal from any addictive substance, which are anxiety, irritability, insomnia, dysphoria and craving.”

Certain features on social media apps encourage the constant “dopamine-high” state. For example, Raskin designed infinite scroll on social media apps. While it was designed for seamless usage, it creates a never-ending stream of content, meaning people often spend hours scrolling through their phone, chasing dopamine.

“There was definitely an awareness [among employees] of the fact that the product was habit-forming and addictive,” former Facebook employee Sandy Parakilas said in a 2018 interview with BBC News.

It is therefore disingenuous to blame Gen Z for their addiction to their phones, as they were handed a deliberately addictive substance at such a young age, often by their parents.

Pew Research Center found in a 2020 survey of parents with a child under the age of 12 that 67% say their child interacts with a tablet computer and 60% say their child interacts with a phone.

A 2020 study published in the National Library of Medicine found a positive correlation between parental and child screen time, meaning that children of parents with high screen time are more likely to have high screen time.

“Parents who had higher screen use on weekend days were more likely to have children who demonstrated the same pattern,” the study said. “... More recent work has concluded that parental screen time is the strongest predictor of screen time for children 0-to-8-years-old. A possible explanation may be that children learn through watching their parents’ behaviors.”

This research holds more significance than shifting the blame from Generation Z to their parents. It shows a possible cause of high screen usage among Gen Z and Generation Alpha, born from 2014 to present, which can help lead to solutions.

Parents need to model appropriate mobile device usage to their children by limiting their screen time. Children will eventually pick up on their parents’ screen usage habits, and they are much less likely to fall victim to phone addiction.

The prevalent narrative that Generation Z is to blame for being addicted to their phones ignores the reality and causes of phone addiction; instead, it faults children for acting as expected when exposed to addictive substances. In order to ease the prevalence and severity of Gen Z’s phone addiction, the true solution does not lie in blame; instead, laws should be passed to restrict the purposeful design of apps to be addictive.

EDITORIAL BY Eagle

Eye

News Editorial Board

GRAPHIC BY Gabie

Soivilus

corrupted

Coverage bias in media negatively alters people’s perceptions

coverage

Prejudice seeps through the news we consume every day, and Western society has grown accustomed to it.

Coverage bias is the prejudice of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of stories that are reported and how they are covered. It tampers with the public’s understanding of the news and the media needs to be held accountable for it.

Coverage bias can favor or attack a particular race, religion, gender, age, political party, ethnic group or person. It can severely alter the distribution of power in society because the media has the ability to influence those in power, and those in power have the power to influence the media.

Forms of media bias include using more sources that support one view or drawing on only one interpretation of an event. It can also come in the form of labeling, describing the preferred person or group with positive labels, and placing information in news stories to downplay that which supports the opposing viewpoint.

Media bias causes journalists to risk spreading misinformation to their readers. Misinformation can promote violent extremism in readers. Violent extremism takes form in horrific hate crimes and puts the lives of innocent people at risk.

A study of 1.8 million news headlines from major U.S. news outlets from the years 2014 to 2022 shows news stories about social issues

in modern media are becoming increasingly biased. A team from the University of Rochester used machine learning techniques to analyze headlines and presented their findings about growing media bias at the MEDIATE workshop of the International Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference on Web and Social Media.

The researchers studied a vast sample of headlines over eight years across nine representative media outlets: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NBC, CNN, Christian Science Monitor, the Federalist, Reason and the Washington Times. Computer science Ph.D student Hanjia Lyu developed machine learning techniques and was the lead author of the study.

“We observed a lot of subtle differences in the words they choose when they cover the same high-level topics,” Lyu said in a 2023 interview with the University of Rochester. “For example, when covering abortion issues, Reason tends to use the term ‘abortion law,’ while CNN underscores its ideological position by using the term ‘abortion rights.’ On a higher level they are both talking about abortion issues, but you can feel the subtle difference in the words that they choose.”

Media bias is linked to a loss of credibility for journalists. Journalists who are known for their bias risk losing their hard-earned careers. Politics is the most commonly discussed topic

that has coverage bias. Liberal and conservative bias in the media is known to contradict the standards of professional journalism and even influence readership’s political ideology.

In a project by journalism students from the University of Nebraska, they investigated bias in national media reports of the 2020 presidential race and their impact on the election. Results showed that Donald Trump was covered significantly more than Joe Biden in every form of media.

The students also found that most of the stories were more negative toward Trump and that the media constantly portrayed him in a negative light during his political campaign. This could have influenced voters’ opinions as he lost to Biden in the 2020 election.

Some ways to spot coverage bias are by

substantial spending

People around the globe follow the latest trends, trying to keep up by replacing items like electronics, clothing and makeup. Society constantly pressures people into fitting new “norms,” which ultimately leads to overconsumption—the excessive use and purchase of goods and services. Society has created the desire for “more,” and has consequently, caused damage to humans’ mental health and the environment.

Humans have historically always wanted “more.” Ancestors of today’s humans have traveled far, expanding their territory and finding new foods. As people evolved, so did their desires. What used to be a desire for basic needs, like food, water, shelter and survival, has become a desire for clothing, makeup, technology and unnecessary services.

According to neuroscientist David Priede’s May 2023 Medium article on human desire, humans naturally tend to compare themselves to others, further fueling their desire to have the same items.

For example, using large, colored water bottles called Stanley tumblers has recently become popular. Some people own multiple insulated cups, even though they are reusable. The influence of other people owning the tumblers creates a never-ending cycle.

A video on TikTok helped spark the craze for the cups, showing how the cup went undamaged in a car fire. This caused an influx of consumers to buy the bottle and Stanley sales soared by 215% in its best-selling category, according to a November 2023 article published by Retail Dive. As the demand for the cups grew, people began to resort to different and extreme methods to own one, often robbing stores and camping

overnight in front of them to attain one.

When Stanley collaborated with Starbucks, people flocked to the stores, desperate for the bottles. People camped overnight to be the first to get to the cups. The chaos-filled event consisted of people shoving and hurting each other to get an easily replaceable water bottle.

The craze was filmed all over social media platforms and the cups eventually went on to sell for extreme prices on shops like eBay. The desire for these cups is a clear case of overconsumption and how a person’s thirst to fit in with trends can lead them to act absurdly.

People engage in overconsumption because they believe purchasing more makes them happier; however, it is detrimental to people’s mental health. According to a May 2017 article on Greenpeace’s website, overconsumption causes people to behave in ways similar to addiction.

Unfortunately, even after people have purchased the things they desired, most find that they are still unsatisfied, so they buy more. This creates feelings of regret and uneasiness, which can lead to anxiety and depression. Social media makes this addiction worse by constantly promoting products to people.

Overconsumption also has had adverse effects on the environment: it deprives the earth of its natural resources, destroys ecosystems and ruins natural habitats. A November 2021 episode of National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” reported that overconsumption is the main cause of environmental problems around the world today.

looking out for loaded language, unsubstantiated claims and emotionalism. Loaded language is rhetoric used to influence an audience by using words and phrases with strong connotations. Unsubstantiated claims appear to be facts, but lack evidence and emotionalism leaves a shocking impression on the reader.

The media needs to be held to a higher standard. By providing only partial and sometimes misleading information, media outlets risk distorting the reality on the ground and hindering a global understanding of the situations they report. People need to be ready to call the media out and stay aware of bias in its many forms as this will allow them to be more conscious consumers of news.

OPINION BY Lydia Varghese

GRAPHIC BY Grace Brill

Overconsumption strains resources due to pressure to perform

Pollution is caused by the manufacturing of items and the release of greenhouse gases, which in turn can affect global warming. Factories in the U.S. produced 23-25% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These emissions will only grow in severity if no actions are taken now to end overconsumption.

An October 2022 article published by Population Media Center reported that increasing populations around the world partly causes overconsumption. Large populations need more to survive, which takes an immense toll on the environment. By adding the daily wants of society into the mix, the environment becomes even more damaged.

Shopping for sustainable products is a great

way to ensure that the product will be longlasting. Simply, spending less also reduces the threat of overconsumption and boosts mental health. Reusing, reducing and recycling is another method that allows for everyone to lend a hand in improving the environment.

Reducing overconsumption is imperative to the protection of the environment and society as a whole. People need to stop focusing on achieving the latest fads and instead on using sustainable, reusable items that are not easily replaceable. It can be challenging to change habits that have been active for years, but reusing, reducing and recycling is the only way to lessen the damage that consumerism has caused.

OPINION BY Ahana Tippanagoudar

GRAPHIC BY Gabie Soivilus

At the

Finish Line Finish Line

Senior athletes complete fourth and last season at MSD; look forward to future

REPORTING BY Ashley Rogalla and Lily DaGrosa PHOTOS BY Glory Lee, Carolina Ochoa and Rebekah Sasser DESIGN BY Brynn Schwartz

Jayden Thurasingham

“I am grateful that I got to experience four years of playing the sport I love and making memories with my teammates... I enjoyed laughing and bonding with my teammates, which is something I’m going to miss.”

Devin Fitz-Gerald

“This sport has been all I have known since I was little. I love to play, and it has impacted my future in a great way with all the great support from the people around me, and I am happy I will get the chance to go play at the next level at North Carolina State.”

Rylan Lujo

“My grandpa who passed away my freshman year has been my motivation and will always be to continue [to] work as hard as I possibly can in this sport.”

Camilla Mercer

“Playing volleyball all four years of high school was definitely one of my favorite things I did... It was cool to work with so many different teammates, from playing with my sister freshman year to playing with the girls that I now consider sisters and are my best friends.”

Ian Selvaraj

“What motivated me to play all four years was the thought of one day being captain of this team in the future... I constantly worked for this captaincy.”

Niko Benestad

“Waking up everyday and going out to play the game I love with my boys motivated me to be out there and chase a state title everyday. After winning my first ring freshman year, I became obsessed with the grind and wanted to graduate with four rings.”

Alex Rodriguez

“It has been a great experience between winning three state and national championships and also all the guys I got a chance to play with.”

Valeria Anzures

“Swimming has taught me a lot about hard work, determination and resilience. It is a sport that requires you to train hard and perfect different aspects so that you get better every time you race.”

DECISION DAY. Seniors Taylor McGovern, Victoria Diaz, Isabelle Silva and Jeremy Fishkin sit in front of the crowd wearing the merchandise of the university they committed to. The seniors represented their schools and will continue to do so by playing sports for them at the Division 1 level.

LACROSSE LADIES Seniors Celebre Rhodes and Taylor McGovern both sign their letters of commitment to their university of choice. Both Rhodes and McGovern played lacrosse throughout high school and plan to continue playing at the University of Wisconsin and Lee University.

SIGNING AWAY. MSD senior athletes gathered in the media center to officially sign with the college they will be attending next year. 15 seniors signed on Nov. 15, 2023 and 6 signed on Feb. 13.

Ella Mamane

“My experience playing all four years of golf in high school was amazing. I was able to make amazing friendships that I will have for a long time.”

Jack Servaites

“Basketball has impacted me in many ways, not just on the court, but off of it as well. It has made me more confident in who I am and has made me more resilient in tough situations... Basketball taught me many lessons that have helped me become the person I am today.”

PHOTO BY Jayson Muncan

PHOTO BY Jayson Muncan

PHOTO BY Mia Pappalardo

NEXT CHAPTER. Seniors Will Ross and Jeremy Fishkin smile in front of the camera with coach Christian Baldwin and brother James Ross. Baldwin was Ross and Jeremy’s coach throughout their years of playing at MSD.

PHOTO BY Jayson Muncan

Breaking Breaking the ice

MSD hockey teams exist as unsanctioned high school sport

In the sun-drenched state of Florida, where the love for ice hockey might seem as unlikely as snowfall, a group of passionate athletes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are defying expectations. The men’s varsity hockey team players think of the sport as more than just a game; it is a way of life.

However, hockey is not part of the mainframe of Florida’s sport scene. At MSD, and for all Florida high schools, hockey is not sanctioned as an official school sport. Compared to football and soccer, which are officially sponsored by schools, hockey is not part of official sports lists and are not sponsored or connected to schools.

“I think hockey not being a sport negatively affects our program,” forward and captain Luke Colton (13) said. “Our sport is just as hard, if not harder, than the majority of sports at our school, and not being recognized is unfair and brings our team morale down.”

The Florida High School Sports Association is designated by the Florida Legislature as a governing organization for high school sports. Executive Director Craig Damon has been working for FHSAA for the past two years and is in charge of the 26 staff members that make up the organization.

FHSAA holds an extensive lineup of 35,000 championship series games with participation from 32 diverse sports. However, hockey is missing from this roster, as it is not considered an official high school sport by the FHSAA. As of 2022, 18 schools participate in ice hockey across the state.

“We don’t have an issue with adding it,” Damon said. “There needs to be enough schools across the state board that are already participating in hockey.”

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“I think hockey not being a sport negatively affects our program. Our sport is just as hard, if not harder, than the majority of sports at our school, and not being recognized is unfair and brings our team morale down.

Captain Luke Colton (13)

There needs to be enough resources, including ice rinks, to support a viable and competitive hockey program statewide. Currently, there are 23 rinks across the state of Florida that are usable.

The lack of ice rinks in Florida, in addition to the poor conditions due to free skating, directly impacts teams who rely on these facilities for training and events. The rinks’ conditions contribute not only to the team’s success, but to the competitive hockey community statewide.

Yet, this has not hindered the team from continuing to pursue their sport. The team plays as part of the Florida Panthers Scholastic Hockey League, which was originally founded in 1998. The league has grown from four teams to 40 teams in two conferences. There are enough MSD hockey players to support two teams: Eagles 1 and Eagles 2.

The Eagles 1 hockey team consists of 21 players who all contribute to the team in different ways. Sianu Hogue (3), Artem Velmakin (8), Joȁo Pedro Alves (9), Zohaib Ashrafali (11), Ethan Blanksy (12), Luke Colton (13), Ethan Pakhomov (16), Slater Szirovakta (27), Adam Shelowitz (77) and Von Seys (28) play as forwards.

Nathan Shelowitz (29), Zachary Brill, Luke Mowery (6), Braeden Kravitz (19) and Carter Alonso (21) play defense. David Korenblit (73) and Ryan Trokey (91) play as both forwards and defenseman. Brandon Trokey (1), Jonah Lenamon (30) and Matthew Schreier (98) goal tend.

According to Assistant Coach Ian Kravitz, the team has a lot of future potential in the current underclassmen.

“Schreier is one of the best goalies in the league, even as a freshman,” Kravitz said.

The team won seven games this season with Schreier in net.

Despite a slow start to the season, Alves contributed significantly to the team’s goal-scoring efforts.

“JP Alvez has nothing but the sky as his ceiling on how far he can go,” Kravitz said.

Captain Luke Colton, an MSD senior led the team to many of their victories, giving them countless pep talks and good strategies for each game. Colton also led by example, scoring at least one goal per game.

The MSD Eagles 1 team finished their regular season with 7 wins, 12 losses and 1 tie.

The team played in the Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida championship in Orlando on Feb. 24–27 and lost all three games.

STORY BY Natalia Solera and Sophia Hamm

BREAK

Szirovatka

SLAPSHOT.

SKATING

AWAY. Forward Slater Szirovatka (27) breaks away across the ice alongside defensman Nathan Shelowitz (29) and forward Luke Colton (13) in an effort to score.

scored against the West Side Mutts during the second period and tied the score 3-3 on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.

PHOTO BY Anna Horowitz

TOUGH BREAK

SLAPSHOT

TOUGH BREAK. Forward Nathan Shelowitz (29) carries defenseman Ryan Trokey (91) after he injured his ankle playing against Archbishop McCarthy High School on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023 at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. Despite the injury, the Eagles were able to win 6-3.

PHOTO BY Natalia Solera

RACING AHEAD. Defenseman Carter Alonso (21) chases after the puck. The Eagles lost 3-4 to the Westside Mutts on Feb. 1 at the Florida Panthers Ice Den in Coral Springs.

PHOTO BY Natalia Solera.

Center forward Adam Shelowitz (77) sends the puck flying during a play. The Eagles lost the game to the Westside Mutts with a socre of 3-7 on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.

PHOTO BY Anna Horowitz

IT OFF. Forward Von Seys (28) heads toward the bench after his hand was injured during the playoff game by an opponent’s skate. The injury was minor and Seys continued to play in the Feb. 1 playoff game against the Westside Mutts.

PHOTO BY Natalia Solera