Raven Report Sequoia High School
Volume V, Issue 7
1201 Brewster Ave. Redwood City, CA 94062
dance your heart out
May 4, 2012
Academies focus on potential futures By TY DEWES Staff Reporter
Sitting in class and listening to the teacher talk seems to be a normal routine for a class. What if going to class meant designing video games or creating videos? How about going to class and preparing to pursue a career in medicine? The Health Careers Academy (HCA) and the Electronic Arts Academy (EAA) are the two academies at Sequoia. Within the academies, students Advanced dance performers Audrey Inglis and Nick Pauley lead a happening hip-hop routine. take classes specific to their academy. These include video game design, movie production for the EAA, Carrington Theater on April 20-21 at 7:30 p.m. may have and human health classes, such as health profes felt like the center of a concert with all the screaming of sions or medical clinical, for the HCA. the enthusiastic crowd. The only difference is that the “rock You don’t have to know that your going into the stars” who performed were Sequoia’s very own Ad vanced, Intercareer to be in the academies. You can join just to mediate, and alumni dancers. The performances this year did not fail learn more about the subjects taught. to shine whether hard hitting hip hop, emotional contemporary “We get to experience and learn about the difdances, or even some lesser used styles such as pointe and tap. ferent health careers that are out there,” said HCA Sequoia dance shows have a legacy of stellar performance and showsophomore Lauren Delgado. manship, and this year’s performances most certainly did not disapYou can join the academies as a sophomore, and point. —ALSACE PATRONE you get to stay with the same people throughout your whole high school career. “[We] get to know each other a lot better, and we already know a lot about each other,” said EAA senior Katherine Zea. Not only are the classes the same every year, the class sizes are smaller than other classes, with a normal teacher to student ratio of 1:25 in the academies. “We are able to spend more time with the student [in the academies],” said EAA social studies Photos by Tiffany Ah Tye See ACADEMIES, page 2
Miss Representation weighs in on abusive media By LAUREN KIRKPATRICK Feature Editor I decided to quit gymnastics at age six because I thought I was too fat to wear a leotard (I probably weighed 40 lbs). Two years later, I quit ballet for the same reason (I held out a little longer, though, because I was allowed to wear a tutu and a ballet wrap sweater to cover all 50 lbs of me). In fourth grade, I made a diet plan that was supposed to get me into my Lim-
Editorial:
Cyberbullying Revisted Page 4
ited Too “goal jeans” by Christmas (spoiler:never ended up losing that ten pounds). A countless number of similar events have ensued since, all of which are embarrassing and sound like uncomfortable jokes. While I know that my experiences are personal and somewhat extreme, the documentary Miss Representation claims that stories like mine are all too common and part of a broader issue: the media’s mission is to sell America’s youth the idea that the value of women is based on their beauty and desirability. Although I typically roll my eyes at the notion that sexism is anything but archaic, I arrived at last month’s Carlmont
Opinion: Asian Stereotypes Debunked Page 6
screening of Miss Representation. As the film diagnosed the problems with the portrayal of women in the media and gave its symptoms, my perspective changed. The statistics that women comprise 51 percent of the population but only 17 percent of congress, the US is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures, 1 in 6 women are survivors of rape or attempted rape, and that the rates of depression among young women have doubled in the past 10 years, make it clear that even if we don’t notice it, as a society we are somehow getting the message that women are the inferior sex. And before the title even rolls it
is clear where this message is coming from. A series of images flash quickly across the opening screen: Jessica Simpson squirming in a red bikini atop a soapy car, a “Toddlers and Tiaras” six-year-old fussing over her stuffed rhinestone bra and falsies, Nelly throwing bills at a woman’s grinding crotch. Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom intercuts these images with ones of women acclaimed for quite different contributions: Hillary Clinton being pinned by a newscaster as “haggard” and a “bitch,” an interview clip of Sarah Palin being asked about breast implants, See REPRESENTATION, page 6
156 students responded to a Facebook survey:
Can the school punish you for what you put on Facebook? 18% yes, if it’s illegal
76% No.
6% yes, if it involves the school