The Warrior Post - March 2020

conflict issue the

The Conflict Issue sew

for the culture - page 9 where we went wrong - pages 20-27 modern-day slavery - pages 34-35

the warrior post volume 38 • issue 3

'She fought furiously for the people she loved' Students remember sophomore Cheyenne Moore

Meridith Moore• Editor-in-Chief and Shelby Simmell• Copy Editor

S

ophomore Cheyenne Moore passed away on Jan. 12, 2020 in Fort Worth. Those who were close to Moore said they will always remember her for her kindness and her willingness to help those she loved through everything.

Through this legacy of compassion, Moore lives on through those she’s impacted, including her friends, family and classmates.

Moore was known to spend her time with her best friend sophomore Skyelynn Desiderio.

“I have known her for about

two years,” Desiderio said. “I went to her house and we hung out every day. When I first met her, I felt like I was losing myself. But she gave me a reason to stay here.”

Through Erin Teagues’ English 2 class, Moore furthered her connection with Desiderio along with her other classmates.

“Cheyenne was really full of life and she fought furiously for the people she loved,” English teacher Erin Teague said. “She was kind and brave and loyal and had really strong opinions.”

Throughout the hardships and personal struggles that Desiderio faced, the two’s friend-

ship never faltered.

“We would walk to her house at lunch, and when I saw her I would get the biggest smile on my face,” Desiderio said.

“I think about her every day.

That's one of the reasons I got through all of my depression because I would have her on my mind 24/7.”

According to Desiderio, her surroundings and circumstances were against her, but Moore lived a life of love and happiness.

“She grew up in the trenches, but she wasn’t that type of person,” she said. “She wasn't ghetto like people may have

thought. She was one of the best people I've ever met. I felt like I had an angel as a best friend, and then she became an actual angel.”

The vibrancy of her character is what she will be remembered as by those who were in her life.

“A young person's death is always a tragedy,” Teague said.

“Who they are in high school is only a glimmer of who they have the potential of becoming, and what I saw in Cheyenne was a vibrant, charismatic and loving person who didn’t have the opportunity to live her life fully and live out her story, and that's unfair.”

“I felt like I had an angel as a best friend, and then she became an actual angel.”

2 • news

Way to be WP extra{curriculars}

the warrior post

4501 W. Pleasant Ridge Arlington, TX 76016

Take advantage of Martin’s opportunities to make change

{Staff Editorial} New opportunities

Regardless of the negatives or positives that come into mind following high school, stress is not far behind. We have spent all our lives before now being told what to do, walking in straight lines, listening to people tell us what to think.

We often think that, since we are just in high school, we have little impact to make progress on anything.

But, high school has opened up so many new opportunities and provides a way for us to make our own change. We have so many chances to use our voice to express our opinions and could possibly change something we feel strongly about.

All the clubs you need to help

If the environment is your biggest concern, we have the HOPE club to help. The HOPE club wants everyone to recycle and you could find someone that thinks just like you. If you have concerns about how you’re going to fit in high school, SOAR is perfect. SOAR at Martin teams up kids so they can have a buddy throughout high school so you will not feel overwhelmed.

Making a change without talking

If you want to express your voice in a non-speaking way, choir, orchestra, and band could be the way to make a change at Martin. Theatre, for those who like a script, can feel comfortable showing how they feel through a character.

Sports show a way for others to show how much they care about their team and their success.

Creating something to make a change Newspaper, Lit Mag, Yearbook, and Photography are there for the ones who like to create something to start a change. AcDec can start a change by pushing us to do better in school so

you can get on a team. Student Council, our biggest leadership team, can create a change by creating school spirit and keeping it going throughout the year. National Honor Society helps give us chances to serve, and takes changing our school to changing our community.

Using classes not just for gaining credits Maybe clubs are not your way to promote change, so there are classes that can help with that. Public Speaking is a fun way to learn how to show your own opinion and could influence others as well. Classes like African-American Studies can teach you about things that matter outside of our high school bubble. Biomed and similar classes can lead to you making a change in the world using the knowledge.

Using high school platforms to express your own opinion

Being on Martin Student News, one of the first things in the morning we see, can change someone’s day unknowingly. Debate can help you learn how to talk in a way that can persuade others.

Ready Set Teach can shape someone younger than you and teach you how to be a better role model.

Partners in P.E. can motivate everyone to feel included and have fun while doing it.

Making a change a little at a time, even in high school

With a variety of ways to express yourself, or learn who you are, opportunities that we have as a school can continue to make an impact far after graduation.

We are given so many chances to speak up and use our words or actions to make a difference at Martin as well as our community. The only thing left is to do it.

Meridith Moore Editor-in-Chief Shelby Simmel Copy Editor

Sara Blasingame News Editor Caroline Brown & Rylee Richardson Features Editors Humberto Rodriguez Sports Editor Wendi Rivera Opinions Editor Aisha Al-Refai Design Editor Aivrey Zaiger Photo Editor Tricia Regalado Adviser Marlene Roddy Principal Staffers: Collin Adams, Ethan Bagget, Brooke Betters, Jade Bostick, Jordan Clark, Mica Coulter, Grace Dean, Caroline Demby, Alysse Ellerbrook, Elle Forsythe, Makenzie Gaines, Leslie Gomez, Allison Greenwood, Lilly Griffiths, Payton Harris, Emma Henderson, Claire Loyd, Mallory Menard, Grace Mihills, Colton Morrow, Jessica Saling, Haley Trussell, Daniel White The Warrior Post is the official publication of Martin High School. Opinion columns don’t necessarily represent the opinion of The Warrior Post or of Martin High School.

opinions • 3

You play what?

Athletes describe the game of rugby

MALLORY MENARD • REPORTER Rugby is not a sport ESPN airs or the NCAA plays competitively, so why do we have it here at Martin?

So random, yet, intriguing to athletes who want to try something new.

Martin has its own rugby team, or club, that requires a lot more strength and endurance than your regular school sport would normally require.

“For people that dont know rugby, it’s like a mixture of football and soccer, and you have no pads so there’s a big risk of injury,” senior Jaxon Lindell said. “But whatever happens, happens, you know.”

Lindell has been playing rugby for three years now between off-season football, and said he is planning on playing this year like no other.

“When the club started up my sophomore year, football was over and I needed something to do,” Lindell said. “So I went and tried out. And I’ve been playing each season ever since.”

Rugby can be for anyone, as long as you are willing to put in the necessary hard work that is bagged along with it.

Martin’s Rugby sponsor, Photography teacher Ian McVea, has experienced and seen this hard work in action from his past years of playing, to his current year of sponsoring.

“I am responsible for making sure all paperwork is filled out and dues paid,” McVea said. “I go to the practices and watch.

4 • news

We have a good coach, but usually I try to stay out of his way for the most part. If anyone is new to the sport, I’ll help them with basics like passing or the rules because most people haven’t ever played rugby before.”

Rugby is a unique sport with little to no padding for players that hit each other full-force without stopping.

Despite such serious injuries that can occur from the sport, specifically Europeans enjoy the game more than others but there are global teams including our very own USA Rugby team.

When taking a closer look into the game, though, only 40 percent of rugby injuries are muscle strains or bruising. With a sport so aggressive, you would think head injuries would be the most common. This misconception could be the reason why rugby is not a UIL facilitated sport.

“There’s not really enough interest and awareness of the sport,” McVea said. “For instance, for the Rugby World Cup in October, you had to pay to watch it on TV, so it’s not super well known enough and there’s some misinterpretations about it being really brutal and violent. I played soccer in college and I got hurt more playing soccer than I did playing rugby.”

Because of rugby’s lack of interest in Texas, the sport is considered a club here at Martin, giving the opportunity for any students to join, if they’re up to the challenge.

“Anyone can join as long as

Sprinting away with the ball, senior Jaxon Lindell looks back at senior Caleb Irons trying to catch him. Rugby is one of the smallest sports at Martin, but one of the only ones that girls and boys compete in together. Photo by Mark Regalado they have parent permission and a release form,” McVea said. “Rugby is a tremendous amount of running and hitting.

Usually once someone comes out for a couple of practices they find out whether or not it’s for them.”

This year, the rugby team faces tough opponents such as fellow Arlington team Lamar High School, and other schools such as Trimble Tech, Paschal, and South Hills.

Trimble Tech Field in Fort Worth ISD is a prime spot for practices and games for rugby teams across Tarrant County.

One big rule that contributes to the game is that no player is allowed to throw the ball forward to a teammate.

In rugby, passes have to be

thrown sideways or backwards to a teammate while the other ways to move the ball towards the opposition’s goal line to score points is by kicking or running with the ball.

The ball can be turned over to the other team at any time, so players must be ready to switch from offense to defense.

Players are allowed to tackle opponents, but cannot hit them above the shoulders. The main object of the game: score and win.

“Endurance is the game,” McVea said. “You are on the field, the ball never stops, and you’re running for seven minute halves. Going from defense to offense, it’s wearing, and by the end, you’re tired. It’s all about endurance and stamina.”

Confrontation is key How avoiding conflict can be detrimental to relationships

Daniel White • Reporter “Stand up for yourself.” This message has been ingrained in most of our lives for as long as we can remember. Parents, teachers, and even our peers stress the importance of stepping outside of our comfort zones, but how well have we followed this advice?

Conflict is something that makes a lot of us uncomfortable, and being told to “respect your elders” has made us even more afraid to speak up. With these conflicting messages, it’s easy to get confused. Do they want us to stay quiet and listen, or speak our mind?

The divide in our society between those who speak up

and those who sit quietly has been growing deeper, and less people are following the ideology of the former. So the question must be asked, which group has the right idea?

Conflict has been given a fairly negative connotation in recent years. When people think of conflict, they rarely think of anything positive. In doing so, a lot of people fail to realize the benefits conflict can have.

When we avoid engagement, we risk making a divide between ourselves and the people around us. These divides can be detrimental to relationships and healthy communication.

Avoiding conflict can make us wall ourselves off, and by the time we are ready to resolve the strife, the damage has already been done.

When my first boyfriend and I started arguing for the first time, it scared me. I was afraid it would force us to break up, and I avoided resolving the conflict in favor of bottling up my feelings.

It gave me temporary peace to ignore the problem, but over

time the conflict grew too big to be ignored, and we grew apart.

Avoiding the conflict helped for a short time but, in the end, tore the relationship apart.

Good communication is essential for healthy relationships, if one partner is angry, but is unwilling to confront the problem, they will grow distant and the relationship will crumble.

That holds true for other types of relationships as well, not just romantic. When friends stay mad at each other, that friendship may become toxic to everyone involved, and conflict avoidance in families can cause an unhealthy home life.

When we avoid struggle, we hurt ourselves and those around us. But when we accept conflict and handle it in a mature way, problems are resolved quickly, and everyone involved has a chance to make their point of view heard. When conflict is handled in a healthy, and accepting environment, those in the conflicting relationship learn more about each other, and learn healthy ways of

dealing with clashes in future.

After my first breakup, I was better prepared for future arguments. I was able to use the lessons I learned from my first boyfriend, and I was able to handle conflict, and resolve problems without issue.

Even if we don’t like it, confronting problems head on will, more often than not, strengthen our relationships with those around us. Conflict also serves to teach us healthy coping mechanisms in uncomfortable situations, and, where avoiding conflict can damage our ability to connect with others, moving through problems can give us better social skills.

Disagreements in a relationship are unavoidable, every couple, friend group, and family relation will have arguments.

Conflict has the potential to tear those relationships apart, or build them up stronger.

The only way to ensure that relationships remain healthy is to deal with conflict when it arises, and do so in a mature and healthy way.

opinions • 5

Maybe you are the problem The common factor in all your conflicts with people may be you

Jade Bostick • Reporter They say that the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one, but it can become more difficult when you are the issue. There have been many times where I was the reason for some conflict with friends or family, but I refused to admit it.

I couldn’t let my pride go, and only after losing multiple close

friends did I realize that I was the problem.

Denial and refusing to see yourself as the antagonist is one of the most underexamined reasons for falling outs in relationships.

I always tried to say to myself that the other person made me act this way. When a hypothetical friend and I would have any drama, my first instinct was to blame the other person for making me cut them off. It worked at first, but I kept seeing the same thing happen over and over again.

Up until around last November, I just assumed that everyone else was the problem. Then I asked myself, why do I keep losing people?

I kept questioning myself and my motives, which eventually

led to me to be down on myself.

Instead of trying to fix my bad habits, I started blaming myself and made myself the victim again.

I remember even telling a friend that I just have to get used to people never staying.

However, I had somewhat of a realization after I had read a quote on Instagram saying, “The earlier you admit your mistakes, the more time you have to learn and grow from them.” I knew then that I had to start letting go of my pride and straighten myself out.

After a lot of self reflection and time spent alone, I found that my projection of my insecurities and lack of trust were the reasons for a lot of issues in my life. I decided that I no longer wanted to be so secretive

and scared of everyone.

I had been going through some issues with my friend at the time, but instead of running from the problem like usual, I talked it out and fixed things. I proved that I could change, and honestly I had never been more proud of myself.

The feeling of acknowledgement is a strange one. On one hand, you feel self aware and humble that you could recognize this internal conflict.

On the other hand, it can lead to self loathing and blaming yourself. With this in mind, I find that it is important to understand and criticize yourself without harsh judgment.

Teach yourself after each hardship what you can take away and what is needed from you to change.

Best friends for never How to cope with a best friend breakup Jessica Saling•Reporter We’ve all had a friendship that’s ended violently and painfully where a friend group ended up like kids in a divorce.

But how can we change the narrative and go about ending a friendship peacefully?

Talk about what’s happened and set the boundaries of your new relationship Though you can’t just tell a friend, “I’m breaking up with you,” it’s still important to set understanding between the two of you about what it looks like for it to be over. Do you still

8 • opinions

talk at all? Are you in the same friend group or club? How will your new acquaintanceship work? Only the two of you can figure that out for yourselves.

Acknowledge why it ended As much as you may not want it to be true, it takes two to end a relationship. No matter how toxic your ex-friend may have been, it’s likely that there were two at fault for the final result.

Make sure you know your part in this and try to improve so that no more friendships end the same way.

Accept that it’s over,

but don’t resent the good times Just because you aren’t friends doesn’t make you mortal enemies and it doesn’t erase the past. Those nights hanging out and talking are still part of your story.

Keep your other friends close. Your friend groups aren’t kids in a divorce.

It’s easy to let one person take control of your mutuals and for the other to lose all those people, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Talk to your people and make sure they know that they shouldn’t feel like they’re

in the middle of something.

And if they do feel that you’re putting them in that position to call you out on it.

Treat yourself Take a personal day, go to the spa, eat ice cream and watch a Disney movie. A friend breakup may not be recognized as something that’s hard, but it is, so take care of yourself because you deserve it.

Any kind of ending of a relationship is never easy, but hopefully, by following these steps you can handle the end of your friendship with dignity and grace.

For the culture

A conversation with students of different backgrounds about cultural and personal boundaries and how we can respect each other and what’s important to us Grace Mihills • Reporter

What if I can’t tell what somebody identifies as or what pronouns I should use?

Can I just guess? o Yes! Things are too complicated now to understand or know every single person’s identifiers, who cares? I sure don’t. o Wrong again. Everyone has things that are important to them, and just like you wish that people respect your ideologies, you need to respect others. Whether or not you agree with someone, since they are not harming you, you should respect them. According to junior Harley Hudson, “It’s the most heartwarming thing, when people ask.” Often times, people will get confused as to what someone prefers to be called, so they’ll just guess and call it 50-50, which is not correct or good math. People who are non binary or transgender will often request that they be called something different, and the best option is always to just ask. People love to talk about things that they are passionate about and spread awareness.

Can I reach out and touch a black girl’s hair if I’m just trying to learn about the culture? o Yes! I’m just learning about cultures and I’m a hands-on learner. o NO. It’s actually very disrespectful to touch a black girl, or anyone’s hair without permission. “Yes, we want you to learn and yes, we want to teach people about our culture. However, that doesn’t give you the right to reach out and touch something that you don’t understand,” junior Al’Licia Wheatfall said. Any time you put your hands on someone because you’ve never “felt something like it before” or because you’re “curious,” it sends a message of entitlement. To some people, it may not seem that deep, but to others, you’re essentially telling them that just because they are different from you, that gives you a right to touch them and violate their privacy and personal space. “I’m not a museum display, I’m not for your use,” Wheatfall said. “You have to ask me before you reach out to touch me.” So the correct answer is no, you cannot just touch people and take liberties with others’ bodies. Always ask for permission!

What if I want to wear or do something that carries significance in another culture, like their clothing or hairstyles? I can just do whatever I want and call it respect right? o Sure! Take their culture and make it your own! o No! Stop. Anything that carries significance in someone’s culture should not be taken advantage of, used or sexualized. Those are things that carry importance in peoples’ lives and are a huge part of their identities. Because of this, when people appropriate parts of peoples’ cultures, it’s seen as disrespectful because you don’t have enough respect for them to even represent their culture correctly – for example, when people wear traditional wear like the áo dài, and don’t wear pants. “If you wear it as a fashion statement in a way that isn’t as respectful as it should be then it’s offensive to me,” freshman Sierra Nguyen said. Yes, you appreciate their culture enough to pay homage, but when you wear it without the customary pants, it’s been sexualized. Be respectful and considerate when trying to show an appreciation for other cultures.

features features••99

The it

list

L sten to it

Posthumous Forgiveness-

Tame Impala This melancholic ballad takes the listener on a journey through the singer’s relationship he has with his now-deceased father.

The song features many different musical aspects and basically is two different songs combined into one.

It is one of the few singles singer Kevin Parker has released in over four years.

Pl

10 •entertainment

Caroline Brown • Features Editor

Famous Last Words- My Chemical Romance In honor of My Chemical Romance coming back for a tour, and the tickets being absurdly expensive, they earned a spot on this list.

“Famous Last Words” is definitely a song that anyone can rock out to.

It’s one of the final tracks on their most influential album, and in a way is the band’s final words.

y it

We are Young - Fun. No matter what genre of music you listen to, I think we all can agree that this song is a great anthem to our generation.

With many highs and lows in the song, Fun tells the story light-heartedly and genuinely makes the listener feel a sense of euphoria.

4EVER- Clairo This song is one of Clairo’s more popular hits. It features a groovy beat that gives me extreme old school pop vibes.

Ultimately a great bop to listen to in school, driving around, or during a night out with friends.

Colton Morrow • Reporter Death Stranding Death Stranding is an action game developed by famous developer Hideo Kojima. Death Stranding came out on Nov. 8, The main plot of the game is that you play Sam Porter, a delivery freelancer, in a world riddled with mysterious monsters called BTs. These floating humanoid creatures kill anything living if they detect movement.

This results in the player having to sneak around when near BTs. You traverse beautiful and vast landscapes in an effort to reconnect America one package at a time.

The announcement was met with excitement as Kojima’s first title since his unfortunate termination from Konami Games where he had helped create the

famous Metal Gear series.

This game was Kojima’s first steps in the open and it was a huge success, with the first week sales for Death Stranding reaching a phenomenal $11,154,540.

In Death Stranding, the main goal of your journey is to deliver packages across America. The game The game was met with a mixed bag of scores by critics while audiences have shown appreciation for the game as a unique art.

Many of the criticisms posed by reviews are based on the game being “too unexplained and not concrete,” according to Game Radar. However, this same style is why fans are so enthralled with this unique title in a sea of familiarity.

Dr nk it Aysha Mirza • reporter Iris Bagles I-20 service road Coffee: 9. For $5 I ordered the Tall Chai Tea Latte which was perfect – sweet with the right amount of spice to it.

Distance: 10. It’s super close to the school which makes it a perfect place to go to before, during, or after school when Starbucks seems too busy and expensive.

Cost: 6. The most expensive drink was about $6, which is a lot for coffee but I think it’s worth it because it’s a short wait unlike some places and the

at it Jessica Saling • Reporter

quality is great.

Snacks: 7. If you are a person that likes bagels and sandwiches, then this is a place for you.

The owners make their own bagels with a wide variety. Unfortunately, the only other options are Chobani Yogurt, so if you are not really into bagels, I hope you like yogurt because it’s still super good.

People: The workers were extremely friendly. They made sure my coffee was sweet enough and came around to check on how I liked my bagel after a while.

Bethany Boba Tea & Cafe Park Row and Cooper The iconic and stereotypical image of five Friends™ sitting in a cafe with coffee that dominates modern television and permeates every child’s mind is largely regarded as a myth, eliminated by large corporations and big box Starbucks stores, but it doesn’t have to be.

While this communal idealistic fantasy can’t truly be executed as it is in film, one local business makes it a little more real.

Bethany’s is an intimate hole-

in-the-wall cafe on Park Row that brings to life the idea of a friendly barista who knows your order from memory.

The cafe, largely dominated

by Colts, is overlooked and missed out on by skeptical Martin students, but deserves to be explored.

The low cost fried rice and egg rolls are always hot and delicious, and when paired with an iconic boba tea, you never want to stop eating.

Add some close friends and artsy Instagram shots, and the experience is incomparable.

W tch it Payton Harris • Reporter

1917 A technological and visual masterpiece set in World War 1 in France, 1917 enthralls the senses with its stunning visuals, eerily realistic sound and captivating acting.

The director and writer Sam Mendes was inspired to create 1917 by his grandfather’s sto-

ries of war when he was a soldier.

Based in a part of France unclaimed by both sides two soldiers, Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) must travel past the German line to deliver a message to another company in order to call off an attack that could take a multitude of British lives.

Filmed to look like one continuous shot, the audience follows the soldiers in real time without any cuts. This is all thanks to cinematographer Rodger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049) and editor Lee Smith (The Dark Knight), who filmed and stitched together five- to nine-minute segments into one continuous shot. One of the

many problems Deakins ran into while filming, was continuity since the cast and crew had to wait until the sky was overcast in order to continue filming.

Since the camera would continuously move around the actors during takes, they couldn’t set up lighting in shots. This made shooting extremely difficult because they had to rely solely on natural light and an overcast sky in order to maintain continuity.

Another difficulty that Deakins ran into while filming was the complexity of the set. In order to continuously follow the actors, they had to switch between camera rigs, attaching the camera to a truck and Deakins manually following

the actors through the trenches.

One of the other major components is the tremendous set

by Lee Sandales (Star Wars:The Force Awakens). It took months of pre-production to time scenes and walk them with the actors in order to perfectly construct the miles of trenches down to the minute the actors would complete their lines.

Another component that takes center stage is the actors.

Portraying Blake and Schofield, Chapman and MacKay truly draw the viewer in with their talent and their onscreen chemistry.

Altogether, 1917 is a visually and emotionally appealing performance that captures the viewers attention and draws them in as the story progresses.

entertainment • 11

MY RIGHT OF CHOICE

My thoughts on one of the most conflict-riddden topics of our time: Why I think abortion should be legal

Rylee Richardson • Features Editor Throughout all my childhood I never cared about politics. I never showed an interest in elections and certainly not in political debates. However, when the 2016 election rose in the media, so did my new strong opinions.

All of a sudden I was invested in sharing my views, especially when it came to women's rights. The fight over abortion really bothered me because although I have never personally had one, if I were ever in that position I would want a choice. I believe abortion should be legal.

ROE vs. WADE Before 1965, women were forced to rely on men to provide contraceptives because birth control was illegal. A few years later in 1973, the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional during Roe v. Wade to regulate women's abortions, allowing women to no longer be prosecuted for aborting a fetus.

However, even though this

12 • opinions

case is what legalized the practice of abortion, about 1.2 million women sought to perform illegal procedures to remove a fetus before Roe. About 800,000 women died from these procedures that were not only illegal but unsafe.

Women were forced to rely on backstreet abortions that were unsafe and unsterile to

keep an image that did not deem them with a negative connotation.

Even though societies' viewpoints on sex have changed since 1973, the perception of abortion has grown increasingly negative.

Many Republicans today believe that it is no longer constitutional to provide this option to women, and want

to criminalize those who do not want to have a child. If abortion were to become illegal again, it would not stop women from having abortions.

Making it illegal not only moves us back in time, but it also forces women to rely on unsafe, unregulated methods to solve their unwanted pregnancies.

Even though abortion should be a woman's choice, some states have decided that it is the government's prerogative to stop these “murders” of unborn children.

In an attempt to settle disputes between those who support abortion and those who don’t, the Heartbeat Bill was passed in North Dokata in 2013.

HEARTBEAT BILL

This restrictive legislation states that a woman cannot have an abortion after six weeks when the fetus has developed a heartbeat.

This is a problem because it puts women into a very limited timeframe to take action about a pregnancy when in fact most women don’t even realize they are pregnant until after the first six weeks.

Even though the bill still keeps abortion “legal,” it really just takes away any chance for a safe and legal abortion which is simply unfair.

One of the main arguments made by pro-lifers is that a heartbeat indicates life.

This can be deemed true, but a fetus’s heartbeat at six weeks really only indicates slight changes to an embryo

that show how it will develop.

If you were to take the fetus out of the womb at six weeks, it would not survive on its own.

In fact, it wouldn’t survive in the real world until about 24 weeks of development. If the argument is tied around the justification of life of a baby, shouldn’t the baby be able to live and function on its own?

FOSTER SYSTEM The definition of life, in this case, can mean many things.

Whether it is focused around a heartbeat or survival rates, people tend to forget about how a child's life will progress after they are born.

Without the option of abortion, women who are forced to give birth to unwanted pregnancies will be faced with throwing their babies into undesired environments.

That could be a home with parents that aren’t equipped to raise a child, or it could lead to the foster system that is not necessarily a positive solution.

Every year, more than 850,000 women undergo an abortion.

If abortion were to be illegal, that means that every single one of those children would have to find a home,

whether they stay with the birth parents, are adopted, or enter the foster system.

The foster system was intended to be a temporary program until children could find a home, but it has eventually failed to work the way it was planned.

More than 23,000 children end up aging out of the foster system, meaning that it is no longer a temporary solution.

Normally, kids do not stay in one consistent home during their time in the foster system, and this can cause critical damage to the mental health of a child without the stability of a normal home.

The foster system has been able to save some children from a bad home environment, but not all kids who enter leave with a positive experience.

RAPE AND MATERNAL MORTALITY

People tend to forget that abortions are not always the product of consensual sex.

Women who are raped and end up pregnant do not always want to continue that pregnancy.

If abortion was illegal, women under these unique circumstances would be forced to have a child caused

by a violent crime.

In this case, abortion is not used as a form of birth control, and it is simply cruel to force a woman to undergo nine months of pregnancy, let alone the next 18 years of a child's life knowing how violently it was created against her will.

Another reason that abor-

tion is sometimes necessary is because of maternal mortality or any circumstance in which a fetus causes the mother's death.

With high blood pressure or different types of gestational infections, sometimes it is necessary to end a pregnancy for a woman to live.

Granted, these reasons are

a low rate of the people who have an abortion every year, but if you are arguing for the lives of unborn babies, these unique life or death situations should be argued for as well.

If a law is for all of the people, then every instance abortion would be necessary needs to be deeply considered as well.

Many people throughout this country are focused on making the act of abortion illegal, but their energy should be placed elsewhere. Instead of deeming a child to an unwanted home, we should look for ways to better and improve the foster system. Instead of just saying “have safe sex,” the country should offer better incentives for birth control and condoms. Instead of strictly focusing on those who are unborn in our country, we should work to fix issues that make our country unsafe for those who are actually alive. Making abortion illegal does not solve anything, it simply only takes us back in time and limits the rights of women.

Sources: Babycenter Medical Advisory Board, Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization opinions • 13

The playing field Sports funding raises issues between guys and girls teams Elle Forsythe • Reporter The funding for Martin’s football program is very much on display, including the Under Armour sponsorship that allows players free cleats and other equipment as well as the bond money that’s being put towards a new outdoor stadium.

But the question that arises from that is whether other sports get the same opportunities and visibility? Of course, when going through matters of funding and protocol, there is the question of differences between male and female sports.

This brings up the discussion of the Title IX law passed in 1972 which prohibits sex discrimination in education, including all students no matter gender

identity, whether it be in the classroom or on a sports team.

“We’re a part of about 50 schools in the country that from top to bottom our football teams are dressed in Under Armour Gear,” football coach Bob Wager said. “I pursued them relentlessly. I wanted for us to have and to be in a position where at the end of the day it comes down to opportunity for kids. I have always hoped that at some point we will be able to do that schoolwide but the big three – Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas are the broadest range apparel companies in the world and still don’t fit every one of those niches. But I do think we’ve come a long way in regards to equity and opportu-

nities for all kids. There’s been a great shift that girls have every bit as many opportunities as boys.”

In certain aspects of the athletics programs at our school as well as in the district, measures have been put into place to try and help bridge the gap between male and female sports, but some athletes and coaches are still being affected by these differences.

“Being a coach here for the girls’ track team there were a lot of challenges that we had,” former girls track coach Gerri Brown said, “In the context of how much time and space you have in the area, we had some issues with the girls being able to run on the track for an ac-

ceptable workout. There were challenges in getting sponsorship and getting outside financing that was necessary and it can just be hard to be taken seriously on a wider scale here for the females.”

Even if we take out the accessibility to funding from the question, both male and female student-athletes alike can still recognize and point out the similarities in talent and strength.

“I personally don’t think they’re treated with the same respect,” soccer player senior Alvaro Ortiz said. “Some people say that men are faster and that men are stronger, but women really have the same capabilities.”

Ballin’ on a budget Want to go out for a good time and not break your bank? Now you can!

Reporter • Aysha Mierza Finding a place to shop, eat or even hang out on a budget is always an issue. So I did some digging to find local places that you can go on a budget.

with trendy clothes for cheap.

Target - Swimsuits are cheap during the winter so it’s the perfect time to stock up on cute bathing suits.

Clothing Stores

Places to eat

Five Below - I know it sounds strange but Five Below has a lot of great t-shirts for five bucks.

Forever 21 - Supposedly Forever 21 is going out of business, so right now everything is on sale from 30 to 70 percent off.

Uptown Cheapskate - Uptown Cheapskate is a local thrift store

7-Eleven - If you’re in the mood for pizza, 7-Eleven’s large pizza is $5.99 and it’s super good.

Chick-fil-a - With Chick-fil-a’s rewards you can get something free by earning 11 points for every dollar you spend.

Shipley’s - Shipley’s is the perfect place for some donuts

and super handy with its drivethrough for just $3.

Sonic - Happy hour from 2 to 4 p.m. at Sonic is a popular place to find half-price drinks and slushies.

Places to hangout

Levitt Pavilion - During the summer, Levitt Pavilion is an awesome place to see free shows and entertainment.

Free Play - A wrist band for $10 will get you into Free Play to enjoy some video games and eat some great food.

Ft. Worth Water Gardens - If you are looking for a cheap place to take pictures or have a cute picnic, the Fort Worth Water Gardens is a beautiful place to check out.

Crystal canyon- Hang out and connect with nature at Crystal Canyon park where you can dig for crystals for free.

Movie Tavern - Thursdays will become everyone’s favorite movie day with Movie Taverns student discount of $6 and free popcorn. Just show your student ID when purchasing tickets and you’re good to go.

features • 15

Holding it together The power struggle in every student and teacher’s mind between concentrating at school and dealing with personal lives Jacob Mayes • Reporter School. Social life. In an ideal world, these two would be completely separate from each other. From 7:35 a.m. to 3 p.m., you do your school work and try to get the best grades you can. Well, most of us.

Then once the 3 p.m. bell rings, here comes the drama and the fights and every other teenage problem. Unfortunately, life isn’t this simple and isn’t this compartmentalized.

Teenagers that are angry, confused, happy, confused, and confused are thrown into a box and told to sit still and listen to a teacher lecture for an hour and a half. In a perfect world, teenagers wouldn’t let their personal problems mess with their performance in school, but these are teenagers we’re talking about and compartmentalization isn’t in our vocabulary.

Fighting among friends, break-ups, fighting among parents, students walk through the doors of the school with the weight of their own worlds on their shoulders. It would be great if as we entered the school, those problems disappeared, but unfortunately, those problems are compounded upon by tests, quizzes, and due dates.

“It gets hard to concentrate on your homework when you have other problems stealing your focus,” junior Eliza Vidal said.

While some teachers take these factors into account and work with their students to

16 • opinions

find a solution that best fits them, there are other teachers who give a deadline or due date and set it in cement, unmoving.

“Most teachers just give an assignment and a due date, which I totally get, but I can’t always turn stuff in on time because of outside circumstances,” sophomore Koby Maique said. “And teachers see turning stuff in late as not caring when it’s really just kids having other problems more important than an assignment.”

Teachers being completely fluid on due dates and deadlines isn’t the answer to this problem either. While most students might like this idea, this new method would neglect the students who thrive when they’re given set deadlines and students who can actually separate their personal problems from their academics.

These fluid due dates would also give many lazy students the opportunity to blame their unwillingness to do work on “personal problems.” So while complete fluidity and the lack of any concrete deadlines isn’t the way to go, maybe there’s a compromise that can be struck.

While students are full of hormones and 25,002 different emotions, one group of people at this school can get overlooked when it comes to personal problems and how they separate them from their work: teachers. Teachers have full adult lives going on too but have an even bigger expectation on them to abandon those problems and stresses at the door. Students have a choice of separating their lives, but

teachers are forced to.

“It can be difficult to stand in front of your kids and act like everything is okay,” Algebra teacher Sheri Russell said.

Unfortunately, many students don’t think about these things and do things like be disrespectful or disrupt class, which piles onto a teacher’s already heavy stress load.

“That’s often what you see when you see me snap at a student,” Russell said. “There’s usually a lot of build-up and then when a student won’t stop talking or won’t follow directions, it can make things boil over.”

Many people think that having teachers open up more to

their students could lighten their load, however, this once again brings up the debate on if you should keep your home life and school or work life exclusive from each other.

“It’s nice to be asked about my day, but I’ll never tell a student anything that leaves me too vulnerable,” Russell said.

So here are two opposite sides of the spectrum. Students who largely don’t know how to compartmentalize their lives, and teachers who can compartmentalize their lives too much.

It can be argued to the end of time who has the better idea, but it can be agreed that each side could learn something from the other.

features • 17

Bounding across the stage while competing in the annual Martin senior Natalie Almaraz flashes a dazzling smile. This year the even in the auditorium. Sophomore Kiara Mullins overcame mic problem win with the Jackson 5s “I Want You Back.” Photo by Payton Har

1

Varsity baseball team members jump for joy after the first c opening season. This gives the boys hope for a deep playo

What you missed

18 • features

2 3

Preparing to release the ball, senior Jakobi Greenlea coming opponents. The team made history this year b into the playoffs than in past years. Photo by Kay Crim

Attempting to pin his competitor, junior Donavan W in hopes of overpowering his opponent. Whitted i champ in his weight class. Photo by Katherine Cran

4

Dribbling down the vast green field senior C the ball to the goal. Led by head coach Sabina competed in district competition, beating both Young Women’s Leadership Academy. Photo

Darting across court, junior Mariah Rob away from the opposing team and head game against the Leadership Academy e the best final scores all year. Photo by K

5

6

Pushing through the water, sophomore Ruth Hong uses the breast stroke to race to the finish line. The swim team finished off the year with multiple regional qualifiers. Photo by Mark Regalado

e annual Martin Idol competition, s year the event was held Jan. 30 ame mic problems to perform and

by Payton Harris

y after the first couple wins of the or a deep playoff run this season.

Jakobi Greenleaf dodges two onstory this year by traveling further hoto by Kay Crim

nior Donavan Whitted grasps on nent. Whitted is a two-time state Katherine Crane

n field senior Cassady Frey takes d coach Sabina Harrington, soccer on, beating both North Crowley and Academy. Photo by Payton Harris

ior Mariah Roberts carries the ball team and heads to the hoop. The ship Academy ended 83-3, one of ear. Photo by Kay Crim

Photo courtesy of Collin Adams

1

h the water, Hong uses the ace to the finteam finished h multiple rePhoto by Mark

2

3

features • 19

WE

Where He Went Wrong

The Michael Sewell Story Was he really a terrorist or just a perfect storm of being misunderstood? How did society contribute to the downfall of Sewell’s life?

20 • features

COLLIN ADAMS • reporter

M

ichael Kyle Sewell, former Martin student, was much like many of his peers. You could hear him laughing during lunch in room 172, you could see him padded up after school with the football team, and you could recognize him as a standout, opinionated kid in every class he attended.

The difference is that late 2018, Sewell would conspire to aid terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He would be arrested and face federal charges along with making local headlines. And it would be an eye-opening moment to fellow students and the local community.

Sewell had expressed great interest online in going overseas to fight for LeT and had been in talks with a “facilitator” for the organization.

Sewell continued talks with this “facilitator” from around November 2018 until Sewell’s arrest in February of 2019. Unbeknownst to Sewell, the facilitator was undercover FBI agent, Michael Phillipp.

According to court documents, during this time, Sewell expressed that he would be ready in three to five years to fight for LeT and that he was an adept marksman and boxer, going so far as to calling himself a “killing machine” and “a maniac who can kill anyone and not feel a thing.”

In these online conversations, Sewell was very open about his hatred towards the homosexual community and expressed that he wished death upon all homosexuals and liberals, even taking it as far as wishing to burn all of them alive.

He bragged to Phillipp that he had practiced killing on cats, dogs, camels, goats, and pigs, but had not yet killed humans, stating he would rather wait.

While Sewell was preparing, he may have figured the best way to help LeT, until he could go fight himself, was to help recruit.

Enter Jesus Wilfredo Encarnacion, a 29-year old resident of New York City. Sewell had met Encarnacion online and had been teaching Encarnacion the practice of Islam.

Encarnacion would later admit to great interest in going overseas to fight for ISIS along with wanting to one day commit a major terrorist attack in the United States.

Sewell dissuaded him from doing this, expressing that ISIS had no land but that LeT or the Taliban were worth fighting for.

Sewell gave Encarnacion’s contact information to Phillips in an effort to get Encarnacion recruited to LeT. Phillipp told Encarnacion that if he could get a plane ticket to London, LeT would be able to get him to Pakistan from there.

Encarnacion bought a plane ticket from JFK International Airport in New York to London for Feb. 7, 2019. Sewell congratulated Encarnacion, and that short conversation would conclude Sewell’s interaction with Encarnacion.

Encarnacion was arrested at JFK Airport while passing through security on Feb. 7.

Sewell was arrested at his home in Arlington, Texas on Feb. 8.

Both were charged with attempting and conspiring to aid a foreign terrorist group.

On September 17, 2019, Michael Kyle Sewell pled guilty and received the maximum sentence of 20 years in Federal Prison.1

Questions How does this happen? It seems people quickly accepted everything reported and would accept the belief that Michael Sewell – this student who went to our classes and played on our teams – was a terrorist.

I wasn’t satisfied. Something about this bothered me. The whole case seemed odd. I wanted to dive further into what happened to Michael, and why.

Everyone is quick to wonder: Where did he go wrong? I wasn’t satisfied with this question either.

We know where he went wrong – he was a disturbed teenager who converted to radical Islam.

I had questions that I’m afraid no one else is asking. Such as: Why did Michael plead guilty and receive the maximum sentence? Or why wasn’t Michael’s mental state evaluated on this case?

Where did all this hate from a kid considered nice by his teachers and peers come from? Why did the court take Michael literally when there were some flaws in his testimony?

Billionaire philanthropist Ray Dalio has a saying I love and wish many more people would apply to themselves and can be applied to this situation: “Never look at someone else as the problem.

You can never change someone else. Always look at yourself as the problem because that’s the only

1. Encarnacion has not yet been sentenced or had a court date publicly released. He is currently being held in Federal Prison, MCC New York. Sewell’s attorneys have also filed an appeal that has not been scheduled.

features • 21

person you can change.”

Which leads question I believe we should all be asking: Where did we go wrong?

The child who is not embraced by the village A study performed by psychologists Ashlie Perry & Binneh Minteh found there are individual characteristics of the homegrown terrorists and common themes. They are generally male, young (under the age of 35), educated and lack a criminal record.2 They also noted that individuals who feel isolated from the broader society are drawn to membership with a group that they feel gives them an identity.3 The need for belonging is intertwined with the motivation for identity.

For Michael, LeT may have given him an identity.4 But why did LeT become Michael’s identity?

“Hurt people hurt people” is a quote I really love. You can always look at those who hurt other people either physically or mentally and know there is an underlying pain in the person.

In the same way that anger is a derivative of fear, harming is the derivative of hurting.

You can find many examples of this in history.

Hitler was beaten by his father5, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was bullied throughout school, movie shooter James Holmes had been suicidal since he was 11 years old, and even former Martin student and witnesses for convicted murderer Travon McIntyre (AKA Tay-K 47) testified that a troubled childhood that led him into years of trouble and gang activity.

Psychologist Gordon Neufeld stated that bullying is a learned act and develops over time. From leading a mass genocide, homegrown terrorism, a mass shooter, to even a gang member, there seems to be a similarity: something pushed all these people to a hateful state of mind.

You can argue about who was mentally ill or who was just angry and had nowhere else to go, but they all shared the same emotion: anger.

This way of thinking does not have to come from a movie facade that a person would have to witness a tragic event or lose everything or the ones they love. It can be as simple as feeling as if they don’t fit in or belong.

Sewell would be no exception to this. He would

22 • features

be a victim to near-constant bullying throughout his entire time in school.

••• “How would you describe Michael?”

“He was a good kid, but he was socially awkward,” Hugo Avila, Sewell’s former spanish teacher, said. “He would come in here sometimes almost crying from being so frustrated from what kids in the hallways would say to him. This was even before anything had come out on the news, but they would call him terrorist because he liked reading his Quran or he would always bring up his Muslim beliefs randomly in class and it would be like, ‘Dude we’re talking about Spanish.’ Things started getting weird when he started talking about wanting to beat people up for making fun of him.”

“Did it start that way or was it progressive?” I asked.

“It had to have been progressive. You don’t go from nice kid to, ‘I want to beat everyone up overnight.’”

The way Sewell was treated might have made him angry, depressed, and to feel as though he was not of any value. In the words of Aaron Stark, who did a Ted Talk in 2018 about growing up with a troubled childhood and having thoughts of attempting a mass shooting himself, “When you get told you’re worthless everyday, someday you’ll believe it.”

It was not hard to tell that Sewell did not fit in. His classmates described him as a socially awkward kid who struggled to find his place in school.

I remember him squinting his eyes in the middle of a conversation before turning the conversation on an unexpected turn. He was commonly referred to as “book sniffer” as he would forget his glasses and have to read the Quran pressed to his face. He would come to school wearing a Pakistani flag on his shoulders. He would sometimes take off running in the hallways for no reason.

I even remember one day in class out of the blue he wanted to put me into a headlock to show how strong his forearms were.6 Those are just some examples.

In the words of Tim Levinel, Sewell was a mismatched character7.

There is nothing wrong with being a mismatched or a socially awkward person as that

2. All can be applied to Sewell.

3. The same principle can be generally applied to other famous situations such as JonesTown or the Branch Davidians.

4. I strongly encourage you to go onto SSRN.com and read the full article “Home Grown Terrorism in the United States (US): Causes, Affiliations and Policy Implications” 5. It has been debated which mental illness Hitler may have had or if he had any at all, but he showed symptoms of Borderline Paranoid Schizophrenia, Hysteria,and Megalomania.

6. No, he did not choke me out and no, I did not escape the headlock.

does not define who a person is or will become.

But in a world of insecure high schoolers where you are defined by social media likes and fitting in, mismatched people overall do not fare well in high school as they are different from what is deemed “cool” and “popular” and often fall victim to the bullying and harassment of their peers.

The identity Sewell found in Islam and LeT mitigated his insecurity and loneliness. It would come to give Michael purpose.

We turned our backs on Michael and that set the stage for his anger to push him to speaking of committing horrific acts and created a mindset full of anger and hate.

Christian Picciolini, a former Neo-Nazi member and now an anti-hate activist, spoke about the loneliness and struggles he faced growing up. He speaks of being a vulnerable 14 year-old who could not find his place in society, and being reached out to by the leader of a Neo-nazi organization named “HammerSkins” and would later go on to become the leader of the orginzation that recruited him.

Picciolini in 1992 used his love of music to write racist and prejudiced songs to perform, which to his regret would later be music that partially inspired Dylann Roof to walk into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal on June 17, 2015 and kill nine people.

So how did Picciolini turn around his life and come to care for the people he had once hated?

He answers with one word: love.

It took development of relationships with the people he hated from people of color to homosexuals for him to learn “hatred is born of ignorance.” Picciolini concludes that he has found that people become extremist because they want to belong. And the only thing that can heal them is receiving compassion and love from the people they least deserved it from when they least deserved it.

What about Sewell? Was he really a radical Islamist? Did he really have all this hate in his heart? Or was it the idea after he found a group he felt he belonged in, he would make these radical claims and threats in an attempt to win favor and support of his new home?

If Piccioloni has taught us anything it’s that a broken person will sacrifice who they really are in order to fit in.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang referenced Piccioloni in saying “If

anyone had reached out to me when I was that hurt and a broken 14 year old boy, I would have gone with them. If it would have been a coach, I would have gone with them or a teacher I would have gone with them. But instead, it was a hate group.”

Avila said he thought that might be the case with Sewell as well.

“As far as I know, Michael never had a close-knit group of friends he could trust, he never had a group that loved him here at school, so he went out and found a group that he thought did love him,” Avila said.

A short simple African Proverb can sum this all up in one sentence: “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”

I killed a camel There has always been a well-known correlation between serial killers and killing animals during youth. Famous serial killers Luke Woodham, Jeffery Dahmer, and the infamous Ted Bundy fall into this category.

When Michael bragged online about killing dogs, cats, camels, and pigs, that should not be taken lightly.

Animal cruelty is a terrible crime in and of itself, but the red flags that can come is enough to where anyone who brags about this needs to be monitored and should seek help.

But here’s my question. Michael had told me he had never been out of the country: Where do you kill a camel in the United States, let alone Texas? There are roughly 3,000 camels in the United States and almost all are privately owned. If Sewell had killed one, which there is no evidence of8, it would almost have to have been on private property (such as a zoo or farm) which would have launched its own investigation that would most likely have tied back to Sewell. But there is no evidence of any reports of camels being killed during that time frame.

Is it possible that Michael was telling the truth about his experience harming animals? Yes. Is it probable? I would argue it’s not.

The fact is, Sewell was on the Dallas FBI’s watchlist for months. Moreover, he was allegedly on the no-fly list and banned from traveling, which is another reason I don’t believe Sewell was telling the truth.

Psychologists Aurelio Mares and Brent Turvey say people lie for two reasons: the first being that

7. A mismatched person is defined in psychology as someone who does not act or respond in the same sense that society would expect people to respond. Malcolm Gladwell wrote several pages about this in his book Talking to Strangers. Though he did not use it in the same context I am using it here, the principles still apply.

8. Though it may have happend, as far as I could find, there is no evidence of Michael killing any animals, nor any record of a camel being killed in Texas. That may be why he was never charged with animal cruelty.

features • 23

gain in telling the lie.

The second reason being that the deceptive person is incapable of discerning what the truth is, either temporarily or owing to some permanent mental defect.

Throughout the court documents, it’s clear that Sewell was very desperate to win over the favor of Phillipp by bragging about his skills in marksmanship or boxing, or in this case, killing animals.

Assuming that Sewell is lying, why did he lie? Maybe Sewell knew it would be a viable attempt to win the favor of Phillipp. or Sewell is mentally ill and can’t decipher the truth from his imagination.

It is the job of the United States judicial system to find beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant is guilty. If there is a reasonable doubt in the simple statement of Sewell killing animals, what else did the court take literally that may not have been anything more but a lie from an insecure teenager trying to fit in?

In a world where everyone is mentally ill, why not Sewell?

June 15, 2013, a 16-year old male named Ethan Couch killed four people, injured nine, and paralyzed one. He was arrested on site for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol in Burleson, Texas.

As tragic as this story is, it gained national attention and sparked outrage nationwide when in December 2013, Judge Jean Boyd sentenced Couch to 10 years probation and therapy. How does a kid who tragically affected and killed so many people get 10 years of probation? One word: Affluenza.

“Research shows that of the 93 thousand children who are detained in the juvenile justice system, between 75 and 93 percent are estimated to have been traumatized to some degree.

Studies consistently show that approximately 65 to 70 percent of these youth have a diagnosable mental health disorder. Approximately 25 percent are significantly impaired by the severity of their disorders.”

This is an excerpt from an article titled “Kent Make-up Their Minds” by Carmen M. Cusak on SSRN.com. The study argues that our judicial system does not do a fair job at deciphering childhood trauma and PTSD in troubled youth, therefore making a compelling argument to push more kids through a Mental Health Court.

24 • features

The study states that from 1997 to 2000, one third of patients who went through the court were deemed qualified for further mental help, but we do not do this on a nationwide scale. There are thousands upon thousands of mentally disturbed people being placed in prison that could be better off in a mental rehabilitation program.

How different could Sewell’s situation potentially be right now, or even thousands of others, if they went through a Mental Health Court? But this is not how an American courtroom operates.

Our judicial system is not designed to look and seek help for the mentally impaired, and if a court is going to explore this option it has to always be presented by the defensive side.

••• Ethan Couch’s lawyer hired a psychologist who testified that Couch had “affluenza.” He argued that he had a condition that he had grown up in an upper class environment with wealthy parents and that he was unable to know right from wrong, and did not understand boundaries.

Essentially, he argued that Couch was a spoiled teenager who had grown up with a silver spoon, without rules, and that he didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong. This pushed his defensive argument that he needed rehabilitation instead of prison time. And it worked9.

But “affluenza” isn’t even a real condition. There is no scientific evidence backing any condition like affluenza even exists.

Couch’s team used a term to describe entitled spoiled kids from a book that came in the 1990s and somehow convinced Judge Jean Boyd that this word was a noun and a true medical condition that led to the death of four, and the injury of several others.

If a court can rule Couch as mentally impaired, clearly a case like Sewell can too, right? Why does Couch receive legal mitigation but Sewell receives the maximum sentence? Why couldn’t Sewell plea he had his own version of “affluenza”? If Couch could, Sewell could too right? Maybe.

But maybe there is a reason for the success found in courtrooms for the wealthy compared to the rest of the general population. It may be very simple and may have had a crucial role in Sewell’s sentencing. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

The Queen of Cuba Ana Montes, The Queen of Cuba, was an analyst and advisor for the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency from 1985 until right after the 9/11 attacks. Montes had been hired by the DIA in 1985

9. An article titled “Mitigations: The Forgotten Side of the Proportionality Principle” published on SSRN. com details and opens a great argument for legal mitigation and how it’s misused, comparing cases where defendants were presumably over-punished and cases where defendants were under-punished, including great examples of situations very similar to this.

after previously serving in the Department of Justice.

Montes was passionate about what she did, and she was very good at her job. She was spoken very highly of by her co-workers and received numerous awards in a time span that had never been done before. She seemed to be the perfect agent for the DIA. It wasn’t until an American plane was shot down over Cuba that red flags about her came up. The full investigation is complex and is not the purpose of this story, but on Sept. 21, 2001, Montes was arrested in her office. She was charged with espionage after it became clear she was aiding the Cuban government and was a mole in the DIA. The information she had given Cuba ranged from the identity of four American spies in Cuba to aiding another mole in the US government. DIA Counterintelligence agent Scott Carmichael led the investigation that prosecuted Montes. He blamed Montes for the death of at least one American, a Green Beret, Sergeant Gregory A. Fronius. Carmichael even stated that damage or extent to what Montes had informed Cuba may never be fully known.

In 2002 Montes was subject to facing the death penalty, She took a plea deal: Montes pled guilty and instead of the death penalty, Montes was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. She was sent to serve her sentence at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas and has a current release date in 2023.

Why did Ana Montes commit terrible acts of treason to aid one of the United States’ biggest national security threats, and just because she pleads guilty, she gets a good deal? A government official who shared classified information, woke up every day with the intent of aiding an American threat risking national security and the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans and was responsible for at least one death, receives 25 years instead of the death penalty. The point of the plea deal is for a suspect to agree to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lower punishment.

Let’s compare this to Michael, who had not yet physically commited a crime and received 20 years in prison.

Michael had not committed any physical crimes, assuming he did not kill the camel. Michael had spoken of committing crimes, but is that punishable?

We have already discussed the reasonable doubts in some of Sewell’s statements along

with the fact he had done nothing but make threats online with no physical action nor harm to anyone. Sewell had spoken of committing future crimes in war, but court documents don’t suggest he spoke directly against the United States. Nor did he threaten a school or public place (unlike his co-conspirator Encarnacion10).

Am I saying 20 years is unfair for what Sewell did? Not at all. Who knows what the correct punishment is?

But there is a flaw to have Montes and Sewell serving roughly the same sentence for two very different offenses where one endangered millions and committed treason – and the other was a high school student who did nothing beyond making threats online with no physical crime.

Maybe the reason for this is as simple as Sewell got stuck with a defense attorney who provided a lukewarm defense, while Couch and Montes had top-tier private defense teams.

••• Brook Antonio II is a federal public defender. His office is based in Fort Worth and shared with several other public defenders. Antonio was assigned to represent Sewell along with William Hermesmeyer who shared the same office space as Antonio.

When anyone is convicted of a charge, they are given the simple right to obtain a lawyer. If a person cannot afford to pay out of pocket for one, the state will pay for an attorney to represent them.

This is protected by the sixth amendment and the position is referred to as a public defender.

Here’s the catch with using a public defender: A study by Morris Hoffman analyzed more than 5,000 cases in Denver. She found that not only were you more likely to be found guilty when you had a public defender, but your sentence was on average three years longer11.

It makes sense. The average salary for a public defender in 2019 was $53,218 while the average private criminal lawyer is making $133,791.

While there are certainly excellent public defenders, law is a lucrative field and experienced defense lawyers are often going to be working for themselves in a private office, and why wouldn’t they?

If they’re good at their job, why not go where you can make a top living compared to the lower pay of being public?

Along with this, the personal investment that comes when you’re paying them out of pocket proves to be crucial in court.

Maybe most importantly, though, private attorneys are not overworked with an overwhelming amount of cases. That cannot be said with public defenders. If their clients are guilty or innocent,

10. There were notes of Sewell mentioning an unnamed American political figure, but the extent and context of what Sewell said about them was not included in court documents.

11. The study’s main focus was why some defendants turn to public defenders when they have the opportunity to hire a private defense attorney.

features • 25

it will not affect their employment. They will continue to be hired by the government and have no backfire if they never win a case.

They are simply not as intrinsically invested in their defendant as a private attorney is because there is no reason to be. If a private attorney gains a bad track record, he doesn’t get hired. If a public attorney gains a bad track record, nothing changes.

But is it really as simple as Sewell having poor representation? Would Sewell have likely fared better with different attorneys assuming they were public? 94 percent of state cases end in plea deals, and 97 percent of federal cases end in plea deals.

And in a federal case like Sewell’s, the plea may be the right call since federal prosecutors have a 93 percent conviction rate. It usually does turn to a “cut your losses” situation. Thus, why the plea is so common.

Between both Antonio and Hermesmeyer, they represented 17 defendants in 2019. Every single one of them took a plea deal. None of them went to trial.

Which leaves one question: Why did Sewell take a plea deal but still received the maximum sentence of 20 years? That is not why you take a plea deal. If you’re going to receive the max sentence, you might as well take your chances in trial. What do you have to lose?

The idea of pleading guilty and receiving the maximum sentence is illogical. Maybe Sewell’s attorneys were weak and didn’t give him proper legal advice, or maybe a judge decided Sewell deserved 20 years.

But I refuse to accept that Sewell deserves almost as much time as Montes or that Montes deserves as little time as Sewell, depending on your belief of which punishment is justified12.

Whatever went wrong in the sentencing of Sewell is subjective and could be discussed, but I have little doubt in my mind that if Michael Sewell was from a wealthy family, with a private attorney who was willing to go to trial and potentially push a mental insanity plea, he would have still been sentenced to 20 years in prison13.

Minority Report In 2002, a movie called Minority Report was released. It was about a futuristic society where police can predict crimes before they happen and arrest the suspected criminals leading to a safer and more advanced society. The movie

26 • features

takes a twist when it comes out that the system actually may not be accurate and they are prosecuting people for future crimes that would never be intended to be committed.

The last conversation I want to open: There is no evidence of Sewell ever commiting a physical crime towards anyone or anything. Sewell was arrested on the speculation he would go on to fight for LeT, and he will lose 20 years of his life for it and has gained a lifetime criminal record.

Is this a society we want to live in? Where we will ruin a person’s entire life over the speculation that they may one day commit a crime? After studying Sewell’s situation and spending much time debating this question. I’m still not sure.

••• I want this to be noted that I wrote this with one intent: for all of us to look at ourselves and ask, “What could I have done better?” The harassment and disadvantages Sewell faced from his school life to his legal process is not an anomaly.

It happens all the time to the Michael Sewells of the world.

I like to imagine that this could have been prevented if Sewell had one person in his corner to stick up for him. Sadly, I don’t think there was anyone like that.

I had built what you may call a friendship with Michael, but I would never speak to him outside the one class we shared together, and I too was one of the people who would sometimes make jokes about him, which I now regret.

This is not a plea for Micahael’s innocence. He had clearly become a threat to others and himself, and in that aspect I am happy they caught him.

I attempted and failed to get ahold of Sewell’s family to get stories about and references to Sewell’s childhood to early life, and couldn’t find anyone who credibly knew anything about his home life.

I hope we all look at ourselves and see that Sewell was not a bad kid, but the way we mistreated him affected his choices and pushed him away.

Along with some unfortunate circumstances he had no control over what led to him to what I believe was an unjust punishment.

I hope we all are more cautious with what we say and how we act towards our peers, from the jokes we make to what we say behind their backs.

Along with that, I hope you find it in you to be a friend to someone who doesn’t deserve it, and reach out to the Michael Sewell in your life, a kid who isn’t fitting in and feels lost. It may save a life.

12. I reached out to Antonio Brook II on numerous occasions for a comment and failed to get a response.

13. I would argue even a public attorney who is willing to go to trial would have gotten less than 20 years for Sewell, but we will never know. I do like to wonder what would happen if someone like OJ Simpson had to use a public defender or what would have happened to Sewell if he had the same accessibility to top-tier attorneys like Simpson and Couch did.

Pretty woman walking down the street

Claire and Lilly head over to Clearfork to test judgmental sterotypes.

A

Claire Loyd & Lilly Griffiths • Reporters

lthough we would like to deny it, we’ve all judged someone based on their looks. We often stereotype and make assumptions about someone based on how nice their hair looks, what brands they are wearing, or even how “put-together” they appear.

But does this issue rein true in a professional shopping setting? To put this idea to rest, we headed over to the Shops of Clearfork, a high-end shopping location in Fort Worth, to see if designer store employees treat customers differently based on their looks. Shoppers here are normally decked out head to toe in many luxury brands, and the latest fashions.

In the movie Pretty Woman, character Vivian Ward goes into a luxury store dressed in different scales of outfits to see if she gets treated differently. After she is treated poorly while not wearing nice clothes, and treated very well while dressed very poisely, she tells the employees how to not judge a person based on their looks because now this store won’t get her business any longer.

We went into the store in very different outfits to see if the reaction and treatment of the employees was really different based on our outfits.

Lilly went dressed in an outfit that didn’t really fit the crowd of this shopping setting: baggy cargo pants, an oversized shirt, and a pair of Elsa slippers with star socks underneath. Claire went dressed head to toe in a very prim and proper outfit: a knee-length black dress, nice

sandals, a designer wallet, and a pearl headband, an outfit like many clients over in Clearfork.

Our first stop was the Louis Vuitton store, a high-end store famous for their luxury, French leather goods. We had no expectations for how the store employees would act, nor how the shopping setting was organized. When we first walked in, it was quite intimidating. Multiple employees were standing in the doorway to help customers find what they were looking for. Immediately Claire was asked if she “was looking for anything in particular.” Lilly, however, was just looked over.

After a few minutes of browsing around the store, we left after not getting spoken to by an employee again, we decided to head to another store to see if we got the same results.

Our next stop was Neiman Marcus, a luxury department store. Right when we walked in, Lilly immediately felt gazes of judgement in her direction. The store employees didn’t speak to us at all, but they did give Lilly up and down glares. One woman completely stopped in her tracks to look at her. This store made Lilly feel the most out of place. Neimans had many employees located all around, so we think Lilly truly was ignored due to her shambled look. After walking around Neiman’s for about 15 minutes, Lilly got so many looks from employees who were probably concerned with theft, so we left and headed to our next store.

We decided to walk a little bit further down to the non designer stores. Inside Francesca’s,

both of us were acknowledged and asked if we needed help finding anything. The employees barely glanced at Claire not noticing her fancy outfit, and only looked at Lilly probably due to her Elsa slippers. It was refreshing to know boutiques don’t treat you differently due to looks.

It is important to note that at non-designer stores, like Francescas, employees do not get paid a commission for the products they sell. Many luxury store employees get paid a higher wage as well as an additional pay depending on the amount of goods they sell.

So this could account for why many designer store employees only spend their time talking to people who seem to actually be interested in buying something.

One anomaly would be the Kate Spade store employees.

Right when we walked in, we

both felt welcomed and not judged. They asked both of us if we needed any help and even complimented Claire’s headband.

None of the employees gave Lilly degrading or suspicious stares, and none of them treated Claire better for what she was wearing. The employees didn’t follow us or gaze at us while we were shopping, nor did they seem to question why Lilly would be shopping there.

This social experiment highlighted the fact that some designer store employees do judge you on how you look.

You can never get a full story based on the just the appearance of a person. Just like the Pretty Woman experiment, you do get judged on looks in the designer store setting. “Big mistake. Huge.”

features • 29

The new black

Martin works for better inclusion for black students Brooke Betters • reporter Racism. A heavy word with years of history and meaning.

With the diversity of our country or even the halls at Martin, we see less and less individual racism. Yet, in black culture especially, systematic racism is still very prevalent.

In today’s climate, we look at the word equality for all sexualities, races, and ethnicities, while not taking into consideration that in most situations we don’t need just equality, we need equity.

“There’s equality and then there’s equity,” assistant principal Tunya Redvine said. “When we talk about equality, we make sure everyone has access to the same things, but that doesn’t always help. Although they have access to the same things, some aren’t able to take advantage of it. Equity, on the other hand, gives people exactly what they need to be on a level playing field.”

The feeling of being judged on first impression, due solely to the fact that you are born different, affects so many students. It reduces confidence and hurts self image. It takes a conscious effort to not lose the pride of being black because of this neglect.

“I feel like some teachers here put us in a box sometimes,” senior Jasmine Walker said. “They label us as negative when they see us being proud to be black,

30 • features

so a lot of us just suppress the feeling. When we try to incorporate our culture into school, it’s overlooked.”

As a school, interventions and trainings have been incorporated to improve the way we handle students acting out by implementing conflict resolution with students and teachers.

“There are still some issues we have to work on in the classroom,” Redvine said. “Sometimes we as adults can make matters worse instead of being helpful due to those inherent biases we aren’t aware of.”

Redvine said the first step in trying to help biases and inclusivity for black students is acknowledgment. We have to first be aware of the setbacks and put ourselves into the shoes of a black student in order to see the problems that you may not be able to see from the outside looking in.

“We have to work really hard to have people empathize or put them in certain situations where they can actually experience what someone else may feel,” Redvine said. “I think that’s the hard part.”

Sharing and giving personal experiences can help people understand some of the problems that black students face., whether that’s through television, movies, or history itself.

They are all part of the process.

“It’s interesting to me how we have good people in our society who are tolerant, and support-

ive of every culture, but they still keep themselves isolated, so they don’t actually get the experience of the other culture,” Redvine said.

Once this knowledge and mindset is adapted, inclusivity and representation are the most important parts of equity and equality for back students, according to Redvine.

“Representation is one of the biggest concerns and things that need to be addressed on campus,” Redvine said. “In fine arts, and a lot of our clubs and student leadership opportunities, we fall short with representation in those areas if the effort isn’t made to fix representation.”

Including black people into

our school system will help them feel heard and seen, students said.

“When you see the cheerleading squad, my own team (Sundancers), or any other activity that isn’t basketball or football, it’s mostly white kids,” junior Al’Licia Wheatfall said. “We rarely get to see black students on things like Homecoming court. It’s as if black students get overlooked because they don’t fit the bill. I don’t always feel seen. I just feel like there isn’t a lot of representation, and it shouldn’t be something we have to force.”

As a school and a generation, we all have areas of improvement when it comes to acknowledgment, empathy, inclusivity and representation. It’s up to us to take accountability and make that conscious effort to fix things.

“If things are going to change it is up to this generation to make that change,” Redvine said. “These things may not affect you, but there are so many people who these things do impact. We need to be more intentional about making sure we have more people of color in everything we do.”

Conflict in class Teachers give insight on staying unbiased in the classroom Alysse Ellerbrook • reporter In today’s political and social climates, class discussions can turn heated. Martin history teachers cover teaching political topics and are experts on how to stay neutral in the classroom.

AP Government and Economics teacher Trey Benedict is a prime example of a teacher who keeps an unbiased view for his students.

“The main thing is to try and avoid putting my opinion into anything when teaching and to allow students to express opinions on things in a respectful manner,” Benedict said.

Benedict said that teaching conflicting topics isn’t difficult if it’s presented in a neutral way.

“You have to let people know that there are different views, multiple perspectives, and to let them express their perspectives,” Benedict said. “And making sure the discussion doesn’t go overboard is important.”

Benedict said that there is a time for teachers to share opinions, but that isn’t all the time.

“I think it all depends on the context,” Benedict said. “I teach AP Government so in there I am more trying to be the mediator, so I don’t think expressing opinions is necessary in that class.”

32 • features

Benedict said that as far as he knows, students have not complained about how he teaches Government.

“I’ve never gotten any emails about anything we’ve discussed, so I think I’m doing a decent enough job staying neutral,” Benedict said.

Government teacher Jeff Beck said he believes the main thing in teaching a Government class is to teach the data of a topic.

“There are going to be issues and facts that are uncomfortable for some students, and the main thing to do is not express it as my opinion, but to teach the data and the information that supports that idea.”

Beck admits that he has expressed his opinion in the past.

“I’m sure I’ve expressed my opinion a couple of times in the past, nothing really bad though,” Beck said.

Beck said that he believes that teaching conflicting topics can be difficult at times.

“You have to teach in the perspective of not that this is right or this is wrong, but that a certain group of people think this and another group of people think another thing,” Beck said.

Beck said he thinks that there is a time for teachers to give opinions.

“I don’t think that teachers should hide their opinions on everything, as long as the

teacher isn’t pushing a belief on someone,” Beck said. “I do believe that different viewpoints help students think in different ways and form their own opinions, but you have to never preach your opinion to the class.”

YAPA president junior Grant Goodeyear said that he thinks teachers should share opinions on particular subjects.

“I always appreciate it when teachers share their own opinions,” Goodeyear said. “It lets the class know where they are coming from and a little honesty, as well.”

Goodeyear said he believes that classmates should be able to share their opinions.

“People should be allowed to share their own opinions and I

think there should be discussion time for the students to collaborate and share different viewpoints,” Goodeyear said.

Goodeyear said he thinks that teachers should give more discussion time in the classroom.

“Teachers could allow for more discussion time, and also allow us to do research on the topic we’re learning to get more information and form our own opinions before actually learning the lesson,” Goodeyear said.

Goodeyear said he is glad that he has never experienced an overly-biased teacher.

“So far none of my teachers have given me a biased impression,” he said. “All of them have done a really good job teaching touchy topics and not crossing the line.”

sophomore ryan lovett, senior will Hight and sophomore karsen Mcguire perform at Mr. MHS. Photo by Mark Regalado

Coming in

clutch

junior Brandon Parker competes in the swimear competition. Photo

by Mark Regalado senior journey winkle was crowned mr. mhs feb. 27.

Photo by payton harris

Michelle Fratto is the energy behind Mr. MHS. She tells us how it’s changed, and when she’s saying goodbye to the program.

Reporter • Emma Henderson Mr. MHS is a performance and talent contest starring the boys of all grades at Martin. This is held every year in the auditorium, always with new people participating, but what goes on behind the scenes?

Public Speaking teacher Michelle Fratto has been in charge of organizing Mr. MHS since 2008.

“A lot has changed since then,” Fratto said. “The practices used to be after school and now we have to squeeze them in during lunch, due to everyone’s busy schedules.

We also have auditions for each skit and we started working on the show in January.”

The time and effort put in by Fratto and the boys is something an outsider may not see.

“I am working on this 24/7, which can get frustrating,” Fratto said. “Although it is a lot of work, the most rewarding part is hearing everyone excited for it and seeing the boys performances, and their faces afterwards.”

Although Fratto has been involved with Mr. MHS for many years, she will only continue to do it for one more year, 2021,

then hand it over to science teacher Taylor Yates.

“Next year will be my last year just because it is so time consuming for me,” Fratto said.

Since she has been involved for so long, Fratto has seen many different things throughout the years and has invested many hours into Mr. MHS. “I would say my favorite part about Mr. MHS would be pulling it all together,” Fratto said. “We have people from drumline, athletics, choir and theater.”

news • 33

‘It’s modern-day slavery’

Officers give insight into the largest hidden crime in Tarrant County – human trafficking

Human Trafficking Hotline: 1 (888)-373-7888 34 • features

SMS: 233733 (text “HELP” or “INFO”)

T

Sara Blasingame • News Editor

he state of Texas ranks second in the nation for most human trafficking cases. A study done by the University of Texas at Austin found that there are 79,000 minors who are involved in sex trafficking at any given time in the state of Texas.

Tarrant County is the third-largest county in Texas with major highways such as I-20, I-35 and I-30 that link the metroplex to not only other major cities in the state such as Houston and Austin, but also to other states across the country.

“Human trafficking is modern-day slavery,” Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department detective Jessica Brittain said.

Traffickers are those who are willing to use other people like objects that they can buy or sell for their own benefit.

“There are three types of trafficking: labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and debt-bounding trafficking,” Brittain said. “But there is more going on with labor and sex trafficking.”

Human trafficking is a hidden crime due to the use of blackmail, fear of traffickers and/or law enforcement that prevents victims from reaching out for help.

Traffickers can be people of

all genders and races. And they can be family members, neighbors, or online acquaintances.

“Most human trafficking is done online now with social media,” Brittain said. “The victims are found everywhere.”

Traffickers use apps such as Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, Whatsapp, Tinder and Grindr to build intimate relationships with potential victims or advertise false promises of jobs in order to recruit.

The top five recruitment methods that traffickers use to lure victims are personal social networks, romantic relationships, online ads for employment opportunities such as modeling, the lure of wealth, and current victims. ¨The girls like making money and want fast money and a lot of victims go back,¨ Brittain said. ¨It is a lifestyle that they’ve become accustomed to.¨ Although the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department has a fourman unit dedicated to human trafficking, combating this issue is not easy.

“Not a lot of the girls want to talk to the police because their john is taking care of their food and shelter,” Brittain said. A “john” is someone who trades something of value for a sexual act.

The johns tend to present the care that they give to their victims as a debt. The victims need to bring in money, because he provided food and shelter for them. “Last month, we participated in the National Johns Suppression Initiative for the entire month,” Brittain said. “Three female investigators posed as prostitutes during eight operations and arrested 41 johns.”

The state of Texas has devoted $6.6 billion to combat minor and youth sex trafficking. ¨The average age of when a victim gets in is 13 to 15,¨ Britain said. “The lifespan of someone who is being trafficked is 7 years after they get in.”

Teachers and school staff have been trained to look for the signs of human trafficking in students and where to take the informationin order to get the student the help they need.

Arlington ISD works alongside Unbound and Traffic 911 programs to educate staff members on how to help students in human trafficking situations.

“We train the staff by bringing in agencies who can then serve the students,” Student Outreach Specialist Elizabeth Garza-Higgens said. “We are limited in the information we can give to students, because the parents have to give per-

mission for the students to be given the information.”

As students, the best way to help eliminate this issue is when seeing something suspicious, tell a teacher or administrator.

The best way for human trafficking to be diminished is by calling the hotline if you spot someone who may be trafficked.

“Tips come in daily, and we are always investigating and always doing undercover operations,” Brittain said. “It never hurts to call the hotline.”

Human traffickers utilize many different ways to recruit victims such as social media, online employment opportunities, and the ability to be wealthy. The best way to prevent yourself from being human trafficked is by being aware of your surroundings.

“Don’t be on your phone when leaving a store,” Britain said. “Recruitment is everywhere.”

The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department is doing what they can to combat human trafficking, but they can’t do their job unless they know where to look.

“We need help from the community,” Brittain said. “If there aren’t tips coming in, it’s hard for us to do something.”

*Information used in this story can be found on humantraffickinghotline.org, texasattornygeneral.org, dhs.gov/blue-campaign, pact. city and the Human Trafficking By the Numbers study done by University of Texas at Austin.

features • 35