The Playwickian Fall 2019 by Playwickian

-The PlaywickianNovember 2019| Issue 1| Volume 90 2001 Old Lincoln Highway, Langhorne , PA 19047

Graphic// Gabi Ellis Pictured: Brooke Cordisco and Peyton Ritchey

In This Issue... Mrs. Dougherty A tribute to Neshaminy’s own

Greta Thunburg Who is she and what is she speaking out about?

Join the Howler!

Antonio Brown

Why his career is on the line

Homecoming

An overview of Homecoming weekend

Mini-Thon

What is it? Where did it come from?

In Loving Memory

Mrs. Janet Dougherty

See page for information on how to join and read an exerpt of one of our member’s pieces.

Join the Playwickian!

See page to see how you can become a part of Neshaminy’s student-run news publication

STEM vs. STEAM

Should arts be included in the program that teaches science, technology, engineering, and math?

Vaping

The unknown effects of vaping are being revealed

Hollywood

Is Hollywood out of ideas?

Bill Gates’s Toilet

How Gates is cleaning up the environment one toilet at a time

News

Mrs. Dougherty has been a teacher at Neshaminy High School since 1999, where she taught many Business, Computer and Information Technology classes. She was the assistant coach for Neshaminy’s field hockey team, and the impact she had on her team and her students will never be forgotten by the Neshaminy Community.

Turn to the back to complete our fallthemed crossword

Nov. 2019

Greta Thunberg: A Young Voice for Environmental Change By Kezia Joseph and Gabi Ellis Her face is stretched tight with anger. Her voice trembles with emotion. Her eyes, normally stoic and serious, are glittering with purpose. 16 years old and addressing multiple world leaders about a global crisis— her name is Greta Thunberg. On Monday, Sep. 23, the climate and environmental activist Greta Thunberg spoke at the UN Climate Action Summit. Her name has been plastered all over the news in recent months, both with anger and admiration. But who is she? Born in Sweden, Thunberg is a schoolgirl with Asperger’s Syndrome who first learned about climate change at the age of 8, as many other students do. However, instead of learning about the problem and then allowing the higher-ups to take care of it, she took action herself. Once Thunberg grasped the seriousness of the situation, she could not understand why those in charge did not seem to feel the same way. Her worry over climate change eventually led to depression by the age of 11, but it did not slow her down. Instead, her worry about climate changerd during these years seemed only to fuel her desire to fight. She decided that those in charge were not doing enough, and she chose to take initiative. She would fight for climate change herself. Thunberg’s fame began in May 2018, when she won an essay contest about climate change in her homeland. She began to skip school every Friday to strike on her own in front of Swedish Parliament to demand a bigger and tougher response. Soon, she was not alone—more and more people would join her each week until her cause became too big to ignore. “She is an effective speaker with as many perspectives as her peers and is able to convey it in a way that speaks to youth,” said Mr. Horchheimer, an Earth and Space science teacher at Neshaminy. Thunberg has since then spearheaded numerous international school protests for climate change awareness, including a recent one on

STEM vs. STEAM: Which is Better? By Charlotte Spina

September 20, a strike that had participation from over 6 million people across the globe, according to The Guardian. Her passion for fighting climate change quickly became channeled into personal appeals as she began to meet with global leaders to personally ask them to take initiative, raise awareness, and make change. She has spoken with Pope Francis, who reportedly supports her cause. Thunberg has visited the French Parliament and has met with leaders in the UK. She has also met

Graphic// Google Commons with former President Barack Obama. She has publicly called out politicians and companies for not doing enough to adapt policies to the climate change crisis and has spoken at numerous international conventions and forums about fighting for change. Thunberg, in spite of her young age, has been the subject of rage, hate, and ridicule. Many of her opponents have attributed her actions to wanting popularity, and have degraded her efforts because she is young. Others wonder if her efforts are misplaced or uninformed, or that she is oversimplifying the problem. Among the critics are Russia’s President

News

Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, and various well-known journalists and experts. “They (corporations and opposing world leaders) are in a position of power that benefits from denying,” said Horchheimer, “Their GNP is tied to producing CO2.” Thunberg has proven time and time again that she truly believes in and will work for her cause. She frequently cites the work of scientists to back up her cause. She even travels with the environment in mind—she takes trains to travel while in Europe, refuses to travel on airplanes, and has even traveled on an emissions-free yacht across the Atlantic, a journey which took two weeks. Her efforts have turned her into a public figure and a constant presence on the global stage. Thunberg’s campaign shows no signs of stopping, and awareness is only increasing worldwide. At the time of this writing, she has over 7.5 million Instagram followers, and she uses the platform to update the world about her work frequently. Her heartfelt appeal and warning to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people— the video has over 4 million views on YouTube and countless other shares on social media. In the future she is scheduled to appear at global discussion opportunities in New York and in Chile. Ordinary people can also join this cause and slow the effects of climate change. “We can start with the common sense things...and what we do on a daily basis to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Horchheimer. Using less plastic, carpooling, eating less meat and animal products, converting to different energy sources, and changing our daily lifestyles will all help prevent global warming. However, most of the problem stems from giant corporations and their million tons of waste. Call local congressmen and legislation to make them aware about the issue and vote based on climate change are all steps towards big changes that ordinary people can make.

Nov. 2019

Schools across the United States offer a STEM curriculum for their students, but should STEM be changed to STEAM to include the arts? Research for this topic began with the simple question of why. Why would schools need a program like STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) driven in these subjects? The condensed answer is jobs. As technology is expanding vastly around us, the jobs children will have, or even their children will have, do not exist. At the turn of the century, the STEM program was created to give young students a pathway towards these jobs and encourage them to choose this academic journey in order to boost jobs in these fields, as they predicted they would need them. “These are the kinds of skills that students develop in science, technology, engineering and math—disciplines collectively known as STEM. If we want a nation where our future leaders, neighbors, and workers have the ability to understand and solve some of the complex challenges of today and tomorrow, and to meet the demands of the dynamic and evolving workforce, building students’ skills, content knowledge, and fluency in STEM fields is essential,” stated by the U.S Department of Education. The idea of STEM creating a future where careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engi-

Graphic//Gabi Ellis

neering, and Math are obtainable, is not necessarily detrimental. “Design, thinking, and creativity are essential ingredients for innovation.” Thus, the debate on transitioning began, from STEM supporters feeling that to add the arts would be arbitrary, being that “STEM merely gives time and attention to subjects and skills underrepresented in American education.” Opponents of this believe the “STEM movement has caused a marginalization of arts programs and funding in schools and has led to widespread student disengagement.” These arguments have improved acceptance of STEAM, but many schools still follow the STEM labeled curriculum. Analyzing all the different sides to the STEM vs.STEAM argument, it seems the program itself may be more negative than at first glance. Through time different subsets of the STEM program have been created, like girls STEM which is essentially the STEM program but tailored towards getting women involved as well, due to its predominantly male involvement. Girls STEM wants to normalize girls in Science and Math, but may instead be dividing it more. The STEM program, in general, is giving students the false idea that depending on one’s career field, they do not need to incorporate certain subjects in your education.

Scientists Finally Learning the Longterm Effects of Vaping By Madison Groves US officials reported 26 deaths and around 1000 cases of illnesses connected to vaping in 15 states since October 21st. People who vape don’t even know or realize what they are putting into their body or how its being affected by vaping, but according to the article that MPR news published, anything sold on Amazon’s website filled with any type of vaping fluid or sold on the black market is being pulled off the website for having high illness and death rates. “However, anyone could

purchase these and other materials from Amazon’s website, filled with any vaping fluid and sold on the black market, where sales of illicit marijuana vaping products have flourished recently.” Even though illegal vapes are more dangerous, Nicotine vapes have more chemicals, such as diacetyl, which is linked to deadly lung diseases. They also contain metals such as nickel, tin and lead. Vaping can lead to many health issues like dry mouth, dizziness,

dry eyes, nosebleeds, and insomnia. Vaping can also affect a person’s blood pressure and heart rate. Micheal Maestri, a 26 year old man from New Jersey, is one of the 14 cases of lung illness related to e-cigarette use. Meastri said “Needless to say, it was the scariest thing I’ve ever gone through. I lost 15 pounds in like two weeks.”

5 News Nov. 2019

All the Reasons Why Antonio Brown’s Career is on the Line

by Rebekah Schrack

By Julia Barth

Graphic// Google Commons

Top NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown has been getting a lot more attention then he normally does recently after 2 accusations of sexual assault have surfaced. But that’s not all; after singing with the Oakland Raiders after years with the Pittsburgh Steelers, many instances of foul play quickly occurred. These instances started when he started to not show up to many of the Raiders pre-season practices. One reason for the lack of practices was because he got frostbite on his feet from wearing the wrong shoes in a cryotherapy room. Then, the NFL made it illegal for players to wear a helmet older than 10 years. Brown didn’t like this because he wanted to wear his helmet and threatened to retire. He didn’t. Then, according to ESPN, five days later on August 14th, Brown was accused in a lawsuit of cheating his celebrity chef $38,000 by refusing to pay the bill

Neshaminy’s 2020 Minithon

and holding his food and utensils hostage after kicking the chef out. On September 4th, general manager Mike Mayock, noted Brown that the team reserved a right to fine him for missing practices and shortly after this, the two got into a heated argument ultimately resulting in Brown having to be restrained by fellow teammates. He later apologized for his actions. After being fined for $219,000 for the dispute, Brown was released from the Raiders and shortly after signed by the New England Patriots. Everything blew up again on September 10 when, according to ESPN, Brown was accused of sexually assaulting his former trainer on 3 separate occasions between June 2017- May 2018, and was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list. This means that Brown was exempt from the active player list while his legal claims were dealt with. Also, he is suspected of sending intimidating messages to the women he is accused of assaulting after the ordeal blew up. 3 days later, Brown lost his helmet deal with Xenith. And, on September 19th, Nike announced it was ending its endorsement deal with Brown because “Antonio Brown is not a Nike athlete”. The Patriots ended up firing Brown and, two days later, he resigned from the NFL over twitter. Brown didn’t stay quiet though. After announcing his “retirement” via Twitter, he attacked teammate Ben Roethlisberger for only being suspended for 4 games and the Patriots president, Robert Kraft, for his sex solicitation scandal. Brown is now suing the Raiders and the Patriots for the following: “Fine appeals with the Oakland Raiders: $215,000, Salary

Sports

guarantees with Oakland: $29 million, Signing bonus with Raiders: $1 million, Oakland’s unpaid Week 1 salary: $860,000, New England Patriots’ salary guarantee: $1 million, Patriots signing bonus: $9 million, Patriots’ unpaid Week 3 salary: $64,000, Patriots’ option year in 2020: $20 million”, ESPN states. Brown will now have to wait to see how his legal actions and decisions play out before even thinking about signing with a new team.

Mini-Thon has become an extremely popular event in the Neshaminy community, but what is it? Mini-Thon came from Penn State’s “THON.” For 48 hours straight, the participants are on their feet to raise money for research to help find a cure for pediatric cancer. Mini-Thon is a smaller version of that, while everything else is the same, participants will only be on their feet for six hours. There are many activities to participate in during MiniThon, such as dodgeball and KanJam, and crafts, such as bracelet making. While they do play games and have fun, there are other moments of Mini-Thon that are more personal and

impactful. Children and their families that have been personally affected by pediatric cancer tell their stories and talk about how Mini-Thon has helped them get through the difficult time. Some of the stories are so touching, many of the participants tear up, and become even more inspired to help this cause. According to Abby Cherry, an organizer for Neshaminy’s MiniThon, “There has been an increase in participants each year.” Abby has been helping organize and promote MiniThon since her junior year of high school. She says, “It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth the time I put in. It’s for the kids after all.”

Neshaminy High School’s Homecoming Dance was held on Saturday, October 5th following up a successful win against William Tennet’s football team 3414. Friday night, October 4th, Neshaminy Redskins ran out onto their home field known as Heartbreak Ridge, to face their opponent- William Tennet. The stadium was filled with both parents and students that crowded the bleachers, which was expected nonetheless for Neshaminy’s homecoming football game. The excitement from the team’s win did not end there as the next night the school was hosting their annual Homecoming dance. Held in Gym Three, the homecoming dance took place including all grades 9 through 12. The Student council played a huge role in organizing the event, and expectations were high for both the dance and student’s attending it. When interviewed student council member, Maggie Wiley, provided a glimpse on what happened behind the scenes of homecoming, and the turn out. “This year’s homecoming dance had a lot more people in the previous year. Last year it only had around 800 tickets sold whereas this year the dance had 1054 people that brought tickets.” The ticket’s sales reflect perfectly how this year’s homecoming dance was increasingly popular compared to ones in the past, since not only were over 200 tickets more were sold this year, but considering two years ago homecoming was canceled from a lack of tickets being bought. The preparation for the dance was

not all easy, as Maggie explained one of the hardest parts was obtaining the ticket money from all of the students in attendance, which was before the end of the day around a week prior. However, preparation was not only done by the student council, but the students themselves when deciding what to wear, what color, and what matches with what. Overall, there was a wide variety of style trends in what attire was worn to the dance between darker toned colors and different length dresses. The fashion trends at the dance were definitely clear with the dresses this year; dark colors. Many dresses were plain colors along with simple designs, rather than bright, bold colors. Many people purchased simple dresses from stores such as JCPenney and Macy’s. This leads to the question, why were darker tones more of a trend? Gianna Coyne, is a junior who attended the dance in a form fitting dark dress. “I liked how form fitting it was and the accents of the bling around my waist and neck” she explained. Others chose the dress for the look itself. Darby Brant, another junior described, “I chose my dress because of all the sparkles and glitter, since I like the way that looks on dresses.” Both of their dresses were darker colored. Many dresses were also more plain and simple, which is what made Gianna chose her dress. However, others such as Darby, went for the opposite! She explains “I didn’t want something super simple, because I like more blingy types of

A group of about 30 members plan the event with the help of Mrs. Montone and Mrs. Romano. It takes a lot of people, planning, and passion to put this whole event together. Many students at Neshaminy like Abby are excited to participate in this purposeful event. “The cause keeps people coming back. It’s the most fun I’ve had at Neshaminy.” Mini-Thon is to be held in Gym 3 of Neshaminy High School on January 17, 2020 from 3:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

HOCO Turnout, Dress Trends, and More By Darby Brant and Anna Lewis

Graphic// Google Commons

Nov. 2019

Graphic//Gabi Ellis dresses. We also don’t get to dress up very much so if there’s an opportunity to I won’t stick to simple.” One thing is clear, no matter what was worn, people chose their dress because they felt confident in it. Homecoming was definitely a way for everyone to express themselves through fashion, and it’s an essential part of what makes it so fun. All of the time and effort put into the dance seemed to pay off, as many students recall the night as a great time to dance and have fun with their friends, while having the opportunity of expressing themselves through what they wear.

Campus Life Nov. 2019

Hollywood: Out of ideas? Dying for a quick buck? Or both? By Emme Oliver Since 2015’s Cinderella, Disney’s “remake renaissance” has taken the place of their more original titles such as 2010’s Tangled and 2016’s Moana. Disney’s The Lion King just ranked in a worldwide total of $1.632 billion and has received a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes. The box office total is high, but the reviews are rather low. Disney movies aren’t the only titles hopping on the remake craze. Horror movie’s box office sales have been at an all time high (just in time for Halloween!) with Child’s Play (2019) and Pet Sematary (2019) remakes. Critics are quick to voice their opinions about these unoriginal films being produced rapidly. Andrew Yang tweeted, “I find live action remakes of Aladdin, Lion King, and other movies I grew up with a bit depressing. It’s like we can’t come up with new stories.” One twitter critic pointed out a quote from Walt Disney himself “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths”. This quote was displayed in the credits of Disney’s 2007 animated film Meet The Robinsons which ironically, is often one of the most overlooked and thought be oddest Disney movies but received a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes (notably higher than The Lion King remake). Yet the box office doesn’t lie and many

remakes have been known to make even more money than the original film like 2005’s remake of Roald Dahl’s classic tale Charlie and The Chocolate Factory which grossed $293,423,115 while the 1971 movie only grossed $25,289,074. Audiences crave fresh content but are still supporting the remakes which ultimately take up spots in the theater, leaving little room for fresher films such as The Peanut Butter Falcon an indie film starring Shia Labeouf with a certified 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie received fantastic reviews but only grossed 16.8 million which seems highly insignificant compared to the remake’s totals. Film Editor, Anita Busch, told ABCnews that the reason why people are so eager to view remade or rebooted content rather than new, is because of the familiarity of it, “They already know these brands, and these combinations have worked on one generation and, if written properly, will work again”. It can also be said that Disney’s remakes are targeting all audiences including adults who loved 90’s Disney classics such as Beauty and The Beast and The Lion King and their kids who they’ve also raised on these timeless tales. With newer soundtracks that appeal to pop culture such as Beyonce’s song Spirit in The Lion King and Will Smith’s renovation of Friend Like Me from Aladdin how could kids not bop along to the catchy pop beats from

stars that they are most likely to recognize. The formula never fails, “if it’s not broken don’t fix it” seems to be the Hollywood motto these days and audiences are left deciding if they want to pay for something they’ve already seen before with maybe a couple modifications, or do they take a risk on original content that may end up being horrible all together? That or, they look for something in between. The biggest example currently is Todd Phillip’s psychological thriller Joker which has just hit theaters last week. The movie starring the titular character, serves as a new take on the Batman supervillian’s backstory with thoughtful but aggressive commentary on mental illness and class issues in society. The movie broke records at the box office with it’s successful $93.5 million made just in the opening weekend. While the reviews are mixed based on it’s violence and disturbing plotline, this serves as an opportunity for all fans whether they’ve seen a Batman movie or not, to see a movie with familiar characters but also a fresh taste and original storyline. The film industry’s goal is to impress and shock audiences, to get people talking and as long as remakes are doing that for them, they’ll keep replacing original content.

Bill Gates is Cleaning Up Human Waste By Chad Laurence

Everyone has toilets, right? Everyone has a place in their home or neighborhood where they can go and release their waste cleanly, right? Wrong. Two billion people in the world in 2019 did not have a toilet or any basic sanitary place to release their body’s unwanted waste. Two billion people can’t go to the bathroom without putting viruses and diseases into their water supply. In a world where we can send men off to space and it is not national news, have everyone and their friends have a device that only lets you access it with your fingerprint, and where 1.73 million people fly up in a plane everyday, the fact that 2 Billion people can’t comfortably go to the bathroom without slowly killing themselves is depressing. In many third world nations, the sanitation in certain areas is a serious issue. With no real plumbing in many villages and communities, people have nowhere to go to the bathroom, so they go wherever. This is putting many diseases into the air that people breathe in everyday. It also causes contamination in their

Graphic// Reuters Twitter

Features

Nov. 2019

water supplies. After rain falls, the excess waste, either in liquid or solid form, can run-off into streams and rivers that entire communities rely on. These water sources are used to clench thirst, clean off people, clean off wounds, wash food, grow crops and do many other countless responsibilities for the community. This water that is a necessity also has your dinner from 3 days ago, in the form of your poop. Many people get grossed out by having somebody else drink out of their water bottle. Now imagine how grossed out one would be if that same person did that and someone else’s waste is lurking around in that water. It is totally inhumane and is causing terrible problems for many people. 4.0% of all the deaths in the world stem from people drinking unsanitary, contaminated water. But that number is inflated to 80% in third world parts of Africa. Four out of every Five deaths stems from bad water. Diseases also come from this poor sanitation situation as well. 500,000 deaths happen a year from people having diarrhea. Diarrhea can be caused by contamination in food and water, two things immensely affected by bad sanitation.As a result of the poor conditions that these people are living in, millions of them are dying. This problem is not going unnoticed, though. Bill Gates, the creator of one of the largest businesses in the world, Microsoft, and a man with a net worth of $104.9 Billion, is making a change. His foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is creating a toilet that does not need a modern plumbing system to operate; a toilet that uses human waste to filter and make clean water to drink or use for crops and generate power to do it again, a toilet that will cost families less than $0.05 a day to use. This toilet is going to allow these families to keep themselves clean, give them clean

Features

Graphic// Google Commons

water and fresh crops, and, most importantly, keep their community clean. Bill and Melinda have invested a lot of money into it ($400 million to be exact) and they believe that this will work. Bill feels that once these toilets get going and operating, that the amount of diseases and viruses spread due to poor sanitation will be cut in half over just one year. This project can change the world. Something so simple in our lives may change the world forever. A toilet is something that people use everyday and don’t even think about it. But what Bill and Melinda Gates are doing is changing the world and is going to change the world forever.

Nov. 2019

The Playwickian CSPA Member 2001 Old Lincoln Highway Langhorne, PA 19047 www.playwickian.com 215-809-6670 theplaywickian@gmail.com Adviser Sean Daly

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Editors-in-Chief Sophie Laurence Gabi Ellis Editors Emme Oliver, Evanna Kujdych, Julia Barth, Kyle Miles Staff Writers Kezia Joseph, Charlotte Spina, Madison Groves, Stephan Brock, Rebekah Schrack, Chad Laurence Featured Howler Author Rileigh Rabea

Diana was shellacked to her uncomfortable faux-leather seat with sweat and grime, but she didn’t feel like this was a pressing matter, for she had no inclination to get up anytime soon. She didn’t feel the inclination to get up, or move, or be. Her spine shuddered despite the heat, and she rolled her shoulders back to kill the movement. This room smelled. Clean and dirty. Sterile and full of blood, like a hospital cadaver. She gagged, then frowned, then let out the most pathetic noise she ever heard in her life. She scowled, and punched herself in the leg, Her head throbbed and felt heavy, stuffed with rocks to bursting, it lolled to the side and her neck popped softly. She consumed herself in the dull stress ache in her neck muscles. When her eyes started to burn, she clapped her kneecaps together. Once, twice, five times, ten times. But it didn’t matter, she cried anyway.

Nov. 2019

The following is an excerpt from Policy 600, which the Playwickian staff must follow. The excerpt is not representative of Policy 600 in its entirety. The PlaywickianContact Editors-in-Chief Sophie Laurence or Gabi Ellis has been directed to publish this excerpt of the Policy in its masthead. The staff feels this sophie.laurence26@gmail.com gabiellis2002@gmail.com section of the policy is also important to be featured in the OR masthead: “It is the intent of the Board of School Directors of the School District thatContact Mr. Daly School District publications be considered government sdaly@neshaminy.org speech for purposes of the First Amendment and to the extent permitted by the First OR Amendment.” Playwickian Policy: The policy of the PlaywickianCome to G202 which shall be published as part of the masthead of the For Information newspaper shall be as follows: “Policy. Subject to applicable law and the terms, conditions g r a m m a r , s p e l l i n g a n d value; (c) indecent or vulgar school employees. and limitations set forth punctuation; (c) check and language is not obscene; (d) The viewpoints expressed in Policy 600 of the Board verify all facts and verify the material that violates the by anyone in this paper of School Directors of the accuracy of all quotations; and legal or constitutional rights shall not be deemed to be Neshaminy School District (d) in the case of editorials of others; (e) material that the viewpoints of the School and this policy statement, it is or letters to the editor will cause a material and District, any official or the policy of School District concerning controversial substantial disruption of employee of the School that student journalists shall issues, determine the need school activities; and (f) any District, or any student other have the right to determine the for rebuttal comments and other material that the school than the student or students content of the Playwickian. opinions and provide space authorities reasonably believe who expressed the viewpoint. Except for advertisements, therefore if appropriate. As should be prohibited. all content shall be prepared examples, and not limitations Within the terms, conditions by students, subject to editing on the proper authority of and limitations of Policy 600 by others. school officials, the following and this policy statement, S t u d e n t s : ( a ) s t r i v e t o types of expression will not students are free to express produce media based upon be approved for publication: opinions. Specifically, a professional standards of (a) material that is obscene; student may criticize school accuracy, objectivity and (b) the work, taken as a policy or the performance fairness; (b) review material whole, lacks serious literary, of teachers, administrators, to improve sentence structure, artistic, political, or scientific school officials and other

Nov. 2019

Fall Fun!

Games

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Nov. 2019