NEWS

IA story of how Suncoast’s programs came to be. “In the late 1980s, the Riviera Beach High School was on the verge of closing. Like the neighborhood, the student body was mostly black. But the education quality was considered so shoddy that many black families did not want to send their children there. They had a choice: Under a federal desegregation order, the school district allowed black students to leave a school where they were the majority for one where they were the minority.” This excerpt was taken from, “The Powerful Pull of Suncoast’s IB Magnet” a 2005 article written by Nirvi Shah- a staff writer for the Palm Beach Post.

This led to the establishment of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Suncoast in January of 1989 as a way to improve the quality of the school and as a way to increase the size of its student body. However, parents originally pulled their students out of the school due to the school’s troubled racial history.

Schools in the county were segregated until a final ruling was issued in July of 1973 mandating the integration of all schools. Following this decision, Suncoast, then known as Riviera Beach High School, merged with the all-black John F. Kennedy High School and was renamed to Suncoast Community High School.

The enrollment of white students in 1970 was 70 percent while the enrollment of black students was 30 percent*. Then in 1983, the school was nearly 50 percent white and 50 percent black. In 1987, the enrollment of black students rose to about 90 percent, but the percentage of white students at the school declined*.

“[There were] seven to eight [students] in a class… you couldn’t get anybody to come here because of the prejudice,” AP English Literature teacher David Hale who has been teaching at Suncoast for 35 years said.

Despite the growing number of black students at the school, the quality of education at the school declined to the point that parents were afraid to send their children to the school. In 1987, Suncoast, for example, had 17 advanced classes while Palm Beach Gardens had 97*. “There were 17 African Americans and they were the lowest reading [students] in the school… and I made [the class] into an AP Literature class,” Hale said.

Because of the school’s decline in education, parents of white students filed a complaint with the Federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and alleged that their children received an inferior education compared to students at other schools. Following the investigation, the school board and the then-Assistant Superintendent Joseph Orr decided to make Suncoast a magnet school as a way to increase the percentage of white students, and thus the IB program was established along with a computer science program, a math program and an interdisciplinary program.

Admission to these programs was highly selective with students having to meet certain standardized testing requirements in order to enroll in the school. Students, for example, had to score in the 85 percentile on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT)*, but some students could not meet these requirements, so the district let in students whose averages fell below standards. This tactic was also used as a way to balance race at the school, but the admissions requirements have since changed and are no longer as selective.

Now, for example, students who applied for the IB program needed a minimum of a 3.0-grade point average (GPA) to be eligible for admission. Students who applied for the MSE program needed a minimum of a 3.0 GPA and an A or B average in Algebra I, II and Geometry. Students who applied for the Computer Science (CS) program needed a minimum 3.0 GPA and had to have completed Algebra I and Geometry honors with at least a B semester average. Students can also combine the IB program with either the CS program or the Math Science and Engineering (MSE) program and the CS program can be combined with the MSE program as well. There are no eligibility requirements for the Innovative, Interactive Technology (IIT) program. SUNCOAST: A HISTORY Samirah Abellard Managing Editor and Features Editor Photo Source: Gainesville.com *Statistics taken from “The Powerful Pull of Suncoast’s IB by Nirvi Shah

SCHOOL’S OUT, JUULS OUT 5 News

he Palm Beach County School District is among several other school districts nationwide that made the decision to take action against the popular e-cigarette company, JUUL. The school district filed the lawsuit on Friday, Nov. 22, 2019, and demanded compensation because of the “direct and consequential economic injuries as a result of dealing with the JUUL epidemic” in schools across the district.

The complaint accused JUUL of marketing its products towards teens and because of this marketing, some schools in the district revised their schools’ code of conduct, and other schools were forced to create night classes for students who were suspended because of vaping and juuling in school. The number of teens caught juuling in schools has risen and the CDC also stated that “the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes rose from 3.6 million in 2018 to 5.3 million in 2019 [nationwide].”

The suit is countered claims made by the JUUL company, which stated in the past that e-cigarette use is safer than traditional cigarettes as the levels of nicotine in the products are lower than those of cigarettes. However, the Juul contained 5 percent nicotine and due to its concentration, can lead to addiction.

According to the National Center for Health Research, “The amount of nicotine in one Juul pod is equivalent to a pack of cigarettes” and teens often use one Juul pod per sitting and can become exposed to unsafe levels of nicotine that can have adverse health effects in the long run. Juuls not only contain nicotine, but they also contain products such as flavorings, glycerol and benzoic acid, which according to the Center for Disease Control, may cause abdominal pain, coughs and nausea if exposure to a Juul is constant. “Once you get hooked [to a juul] you can’t let it go and you constantly think about it, even if the buzz only lasts for a minute,” Penelo Watson* stated.

However, scientists are still uncertain about the true effects the prolonged use of a juul may have on one’s body and lungs.

Created in 2015, the Juul was originally marketed as a product to help adults stop tobacco use; however, the company’s marketing campaigns stated otherwise. For example, JUUL has marketed its products on social media outlets, which are predominantly used by teens and it has also advertised its products in magazines such as Vice magazine, which claimed that it is the “#1 youth media company.” Hashtags for the Juul have also been created by the company such as #JUUL and #vaporized, which are also predominantly marketed for youth according to the complaint.

Passed in 1998, the Master Agreement Settlement forbade cigarette manufacturers from advertising tobacco products to youth and indirectly or directly targeting people as well. However, JUUL Labs, Inc is not subject to the Master Settlement Agreement,” and therefore not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the School District of Palm Beach County stated. “The lawsuit would be of no cost to the school district and if they receive a settlement from Juul Labs, Inc, then 75 percent of it will go to the school district while the other 25 percent would be for the law firms representing the district.,” according to the Boca Raton Tribune. The school district has finally taken action against the juuling epidemic. Samirah Abellard Managing Editor and Features Editor

*More than one in four teens juul in highschool according to the CDC T *name changed for anonymity

Glycerin (60%) and propylene glycol (30%) Nicotine (5%) and benzoic acid (2.5%) Flavoring (the percentage is unkown) *Statistics taken from QZ.com What is inside a juul?