October 2016 -- Silver Chips Print

Montgomery Blair High School SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND

A public forum for student expression since 1937

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School additions to begin in 2020

October 6, 2016 VOL 79 NO 1

Bomb threat prompts evacuation

Taking a knee

By Emma Cross

Blair’s population reached 2,977 students this year, becoming the largest enrollment in the past ten years. Increasing population projections have prompted plans for future capital expansion by 2020.

According to Principal Renay Johnson, Blair has been approved for an addition to be constructed in 2020, to add about 18 classrooms, a larger SAC, and another gymnasium to meet the needs of the increasing student body. The current building capacity is 2,920 students, 57 students below the current enrollment.

The population growth will continue at a rapid pace, according to MCPS predictions. Blair’s population is projected to rise to 3,100 students in two years and 3,400 students in five years. “While it’s great to have a lot of students, it’s not just [needing] more teachers. It’s [needing] more resources, more Chromebooks, more chairs, more places for students to sit and eat,” Johnson said. As the number of students increases, the need for more resources also rises.

Freshman Ceilidh Wagner thinks that having 400 more students would ultimately have a positive effect. “They are going to need a whole lot more teachers, and possibly more classrooms, [but] it means a whole bunch of kids are getting education,” she said.

As plans for the expansion are

see ENROLLMENT page A5

By Leila Jackson and Erin Namovicz

wide. Figures from the American Medical Association indicate that the rate of concussions across all levels of organized football in the country is highest among high schoolers.

A number of school districts, including MCPS, have taken steps to better treat and ultimately prevent concussions. As of the 2014-2015 school year, MCPS requires that every high school employ a certified athletic trainer who must be present at every football game. The new policy hopes to increase prevention and recognition of concussions and treat them more quickly and effectively so students have a more successful return to learning

Students and staff evacuated the building on Sept. 20 during sixth period at 12:28 p.m. after a student called in a bomb threat.

Staff and students initially treated the threat as a fire drill, until students were moved away from the building and police responded.

The bomb threat was called into police at 12:14 p.m. by a student identifying herself as a Blair security officer, according to the Montgomery County Police Press Statement. She told the dispatcher that another student had told her that there was a bomb in the school.

The police then notified School Resource Officer Sharese Junious, who told security and Principal Renay Johnson about the threat.

“Given that there had been evacuations in D.C. and other places, I decided to evacuate the building,” Johnson said at a PTSA meeting. In bomb threat situations, the principal holds the responsibility of deciding whether or not to evacuate the building, according to MCPS Regulation COB-RA: Reporting a Serious Incident.

Once Johnson made the decision to evacuate the building, Junious notified the police, who sent more officers and a K-9 unit to the school. After the police determined that the football stadium was clear, students were moved there while police and school security searched the rest of the campus. “We looked at every room, every bag, and it was double checked

by K-9s who came in and sniffed,” Cooper said.

The building was deemed safe for reentry at approximately 1:48 p.m., and students were allowed to return to seventh period.

After students returned to the building, Johnson made an announcement asking for anyone with information about the bomb threat to come forward. Students quickly reported to security, who notified Johnson. “The kids who came told us because, number one, they thought this person could hurt us all if they follow through with any other threats; and number two, you know, this is dangerous, and this is wasting taxpayer money and county resources,” Johnson said.

The student who placed the threat was new to the school and called from inside the building. At this time, her motive is unknown.

see FOOTBALL page F3

see BOMB THREAT page A4

GRIFFIN REILLY

SILENT PROTEST Members of Blair’s cheer team show their support of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s political protest, and kneel during the National Anthem at the Sept. 30 football game versus Paint Branch. For more on the protest, see Christian’s Column on F3.

Local community rises from the ashes

By Erin Namovicz and Isabella Tilley Most of the residents of the Flower Branch apartments are sleeping, but Guillermo Fuentes is not. Suddenly, the wall beside him collapses, and he runs to his brother and the other people he shares the apartment with, telling them to get out. All he can hear is screaming. After that, he does not remember much. Somehow, his legs carry him to safety. Once outside, he watches the flames consume his home and light the sky orange.

The entire apartment building, from the first floor to the roof line, is being swallowed by fire.

Several hours and 25,000 gallons of water later, the fire is out.

What remains are the charred remnants of lives left behind. A metal high chair stands in a burned out room, with everything around it— the kitchen table, the cabinets, the walls—disintegrated into ashes, blowing away in the midnight breeze. Bits of glass from the window cover Arliss Street.

None of the residents seem to have processed what has just hit them.

The fire

midnight on Aug. 10, when a gas explosion shook the neighborhood. Some residents suspected an earthquake; others simply thought that the neighbors upstairs had dropped something heavy.

For junior Christy Canjura, it was not until neighbors knocked on their windows that she and her mom realized they needed to get out. They rushed out of their basement apartment, two buildings down from the fire, and Canjura found herself standing in the parking lot, unsure of what to do next.

She stood shaking in silence, and

see FIRE page C6

The fire started shortly before

Friday night, blurred sights

By Alexander Dacy

5 years, Blair is projected to be over capacity by 476 students.

In

NEWS A2

JOSHUA FERNANDES

JEDIDIAH GRADY

Senior Wellington Uzamere sits in his house with all of the lights and electronics off. He is unable to look at his phone or read a book without getting a pounding headache. He is prohibited from going to school, due to difficulty concentrating for long periods of time. He is even wary of sleeping after his doctor told him it could be hazardous to his health.

As startling as this scenario sounds, it is not uncommon. This is the reality for many high school football players suffering from concussions.

The number of concussions caused by playing high school football is alarmingly high nation-

insidechips

Blair’s Recycling problem

Freshman’s guide to survival

The issue with students mixing trash and recycling

A manual to surviving high school for freshmen

B3

OP/ED B1

CALEB BAUMAN

FEATURES C1

D1

ENTERTAINMENT D1

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

Sueño cumplido

Elite athletes

Inmigrante gana una beca a una acreditada universidad

These Blazers fence in Poland, play tennis in Monte Carlo, and win state competitions.

E2

CHIPS CLIPS D6

COURTESY OF VALERIE HO

F1

LA ESQUINA LATINA E1

SPORTS F1

A2 News

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October 6, 2016

Governor Hogan orders schools to start after Labor Day Executive order requiring school year to start late and end before June 15 stirs controversy

By Christian Mussenden Governor Larry Hogan signed an executive order on Aug. 31 requiring all Maryland public schools to start after Labor Day and end before June 15. The order will take effect in the 2017-2018 school year.

Hogan’s decision marks an end to an almost two-year-long debate over school start dates. He passed the order to boost state businesses and generate extra revenue over the Labor Day weekend from an increase in vacationers, as well as to let Marylanders enjoy an extra week of summer.

“This sensible, long-overdue adjustment of Maryland’s public school calendar will be a lifeline for those small, locally-owned businesses that are the backbone of our state’s economy,” Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said during the announcement of the executive order at Ocean City. “It will generate new state revenues that can be reinvested in our classrooms and for other vital priorities. It will spare tens of thousands of teachers, students and school employees from having to return to sweltering, unhealthy classrooms in the hottest days of August.”

The executive order states that schools must open for 180 days to satisfy state law and end the school year by June 15. School systems can file a waiver to be exempt from starting after Labor Day, and may develop their own calendar for the school year. The waiver would have to be renewed and approved each year by the

state of Maryland.

Board of Education member Patricia O’Neill said that the new start date is not only an overreach of executive power, but will also harm education. “It is bad for students, and sets guidelines that are very hard to follow. I think it’s

a negative thing,” O’ Neill said.

“Having an after Labor Day start is counter to what many jurisdictions across the country are doing, because AP’s and IB exams are given in May, and the instructional time is better used upfront than at the tail end of the school

year.”

Before Hogan announced the executive order, MCPS had planned on moving the school start date a week earlier than past years, beginning with the 20172018 school year.

According to O’Neill, MCPS

COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF MARYLAND GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN

GOING PUBLIC Governor Larry Hogan announces that Maryland public schools must start after Labor Day and end before June 15 at the Ocean City press conference on Aug. 31.

hoped to maximize instruction while making it easier to produce a school calendar that ends before June 15. “We find that the end of the school year, June, is not as productive as early in the year. At the elementary level it’s been culminating activities such as field days, or end of the year trips, and people had an eye for summer instead of necessarily being focused on instruction,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill said that it will be challenging to create a calendar that adheres to the new start date after Labor Day. “Every year we adopt a calendar based on the 184 days and the Governor’s executive order is for 180 days,” O’ Neill said, “Now, I’m not sure exactly what we will do.”

Senior Alicia Pearson applauds the new start date, calling it a welcome change for students.

“I think that the new Labor Day times are great for students. It gives us more time during the summer, which is always a good thing, and it still lets us get out around the same time.” Pearson said. “The only problem is it sucks that it was passed this year because I won’t be able to experience it.”

Other students voiced opposition to the new start date. Freshman Gabriel Winston-Bailey worries that the new start time will lead to shorter winter and spring breaks. “More summer is good, but I heard that they’re going to take time away from our winter break, which is already pretty short,” Winston-Bailey said. “I’d much rather have a shorter summer.”

MCPS updates their policy on community “club” sports

By Isabella Tilley MCPS revised its Guidelines for Competitive Community “Club” Athletic Teams this July to clarify the distinction between schoolsponsored interscholastic teams, such as cross-country and soccer, and community “club” teams, such as crew, ice hockey, and ultimate Frisbee.

The new guidelines do not allow club teams to receive fund-

ing from the school, the county, or school booster clubs. They also prohibit club teams from conducting fundraisers at school events. If club teams wish to practice or hold any “team-sponsored activities” at school, they must apply through the Interagency Coordinating Board.

The guidelines also state that “competitive community teams shall not be included in school yearbooks,” except for in certain

non-athletic sections. Club teams will not be allowed to participate in school pep rallies or award ceremonies, and schools cannot include club teams or their results on school websites or social media outlets. Schools are not allowed to include club teams in announcements, “except to the degree that any and all other non-school activities and results are included in announcements.”

Some club team names and uni-

COURTESY OF LEAH PHILLIPS

COMMUNITY CLUBS Crew, a club sport, is not allowed to be mentioned on the school website or social media, or be featured with other athletic teams in the yearbook.

forms may also have to change to accommodate the guideline stating that “competitive community teams shall not use the school’s name, colors, or mascot in competition or for any other purpose unless it is clearly identified as a community team.”

Schools are also not allowed to issue certificates or varsity letters for participation in club teams.

According to athletic director Rita Boule, the athletics department will be enforcing these regulations “100 percent.” Boule said that she has always kept club sports such as crew, hockey, and ultimate Frisbee separate from Blair athletics. “That’s always how I’ve been instructed to answer the question with crew and hockey, and Frisbee,” she said. “Even though I love that they’re mostly made up of Blair kids, and I love the Blair students ... they never have been considered part of athletics.”

Junior Madeleine Allou, one of crew’s captains, and senior Nathaniel Blower, one of Frisbee’s captains, do not think that the guidelines will affect fundraising for their teams, because neither team has depended on funds from the school in the past. “[We] were not funded [by the school] at all, so I don’t think it’s going to affect us that much,” Allou said.

Blower does not anticipate that the new guidelines will affect the team’s practices because Frisbee is used to being kicked off the practice field so that other sports can play. “Instead of getting a designated time to use the field and a designated place, we go on to the practice field and play for usually as long as we can, until another sport will come and tell us that they have to use it,” he said.

Senior Noah Dalbey, one of hockey’s captains, said that his

team will probably change its name and colors because of the new guidelines. Currently, the hockey team, despite being composed of students from Blair, Northwood, and Einstein, is called the Blair Blazers. They will most likely change their name to the Blades, since the guidelines do not allow teams to use the school name and mascot at the same time.

Club teams are allowed to use only either the school’s name or the school’s mascot.

Allou said that the new guidelines will hurt the crew team’s outreach efforts since Blair is not allowed to mention crew on the school website or social media. “It’s important to have everything that’s happening in the school, because otherwise how are people going to join the clubs if no one even knows they’re there,” she said.

Boule said that if club sports wish to become interscholastic sports, there is a process they can go through at the county level.

“You have to submit a plan to the county, and it has all these things, like where you would practice, how much it would cost, how would you support the program, how many schools could actually have a team,” she said.

Individual schools do not get to determine whether a sport is interscholastic or a non-school-sponsored club sport.

Blower thinks that Frisbee would benefit from becoming an interscholastic sport because the county would help organize the team games and transportation.

“Other sports get like buses, we have to drive ourselves and figure out how we’re gonna get there,” he said. “[If we were an interscholastic sport], we’d have designated field time, transportation, it [would] probably be more organized.”

News A3

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October 6, 2016

Staff member departures result in changes for new year

New assistant principal and security team leader named over summer

By Aditi Shetty A new assistant principal and head of the security team joined the staff this school year after the positions were vacated this summer. Brandi Richardson replaced Darlene Harris as the administrator for the class of 2018, and Darryl Cooper took Kathleen Greene’s place as security team leader.

Both changes were finalized during the summer. Richardson, who previously worked as Assistant School Administrator at Winston Churchill in Potomac, accepted the administrative job in June.

According to Richardson, her old role and new one are fundamentally similar, but she liked what she had heard about Blair

and decided to make the switch.

“When the position became open here at Blair, I certainly jumped on it,” she said. “I knew a great deal about [Principal Renay] Johnson and about some of her work.”

In her new position, Richardson most looked forward to learning about the Blair community.

“There are almost 3000 students in this building and about 300 staff, and I think relationships are very important to all of our work together,” she said. “Meeting everybody and getting to know them is very important.”

Cooper replaced Greene as the school’s head of security in July. He previously worked at two MCPS high schools, Gaithersburg and Watkins Mill. He has also worked

BEN DOGGETT

MAKING CONNECTIONS Brandi Richardson, Blair’s new administrator for the junior class, speaks to students about county policies.

in maximum security correctional facilities and in the military.

Cooper decided to pursue the Blair position to shorten his commute, but also because he relished the opportunity to work at a larger school. “Watkins Mill has a population of around 1800 kids [but Blair has] around 3000, so it’s just more work,” he said.

“But I wanted the challenge.”

Upon transferring to Blair, both Richardson and Cooper were impressed by the school community.

“One thing I could tell here at Blair is that everyone wants to be here,” Richardson said. “There is a sense of pride in being a Blazer.”

Cooper said that his favorite part of Blair is the friendliness from fellow staff members.

“The staff is very helpful. The security team has taught me a lot about their school…” he said.

“Everybody helps me a lot.”

Richardson said that coming to Blair was an appealing opportunity for her. “As soon as Ms. Johnson offered me the job, there was no hesitation,” she said. “I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.’”

Harris, whom Richardson replaced, departed in May when MCPS offered her a promotion to Assistant to the Chief of Staff at MCPS’s central office. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to still work with [Blair students] and with everybody in the county,” she said. Harris had worked at Blair for three years.

Harris said she loves that her new job allows her to see many different schools and interact with many students. She said her favorite part of Blair was the students. “That’s what I miss the most,” she said.

BEN DOGGETT

KEEPING BLAIR SAFE Darryl Cooper replaced Kathleen Greene as Blair’s new head of security over the summer.

In July, Greene, the former head of security, was promoted to Investigation Specialist in the Performance Evaluation and Compliance Unit at MCPS headquarters.

Her job involves conducting internal investigations within MCPS, connecting the police and Child Protective Services to MCPS, and collecting and preparing evidence for potential disciplinary action.

Greene said her favorite part of her new position is that she no longer has to wear a uniform. “The only downfall is I now have to decide what to wear to work!” she said in an email.

Although Greene enjoys the investigative aspect of her new job, she said she misses Blair.

“My new office proudly displays my Blair magnet, a picture of my great security staff, artwork from Blair, a Blair coffee mug, and the Blair Blazer,” she said in the email.

Harris reflected the same sentiment. She still visits Blair regularly and talks to Johnson every day over the phone.

“I can’t get away,” she joked.

Greene and Harris summed up their feelings about the school in the same way. “Once a Blazer, always a Blazer,” they both said.

Number of seniors who transferred out of AP English reaches new highs English Department adds new class to accommodate extra Honors 12 students

By Henry Wiebe Thirty eight students requested to switch out of AP Literature to Honors English 12 this year. As a result, the English department created a new Honors English class.

Twelve of the students’ requests were not met because all of the available Honors 12 sections had reached their maximum capacity. According to English resource teacher Vickie Adamson, most of the students who requested a transfer had chosen to be in AP Literature, and then requested to move down a level sometime during the summer or in the first few weeks of school.

Administrator Peter Ostrander determines the number of class periods for a certain course in a given year immediately after students request courses. “When the school does the staff allocations for how many sections will be taught in that following school year, they do that based on the number of students who sign up,” AP Literature teacher Kelly O’Connor said.

Over the summer, the English department added another class to accommodate the extra students who wanted to switch, but spots were taken quickly. “We already created another section of Honors English 12 over the summer based on what we were seeing... That class filled up before school started,” Adamson said.

According to Honors English 12 teacher Lauren Termini, students who request late schedule changes disrupt the process that teachers and administrators have laid out for the start of the year. “It is difficult for me to have to catch up every new student that comes

in. I have to give them all the work that they missed,” she said. “The summer reading is very difficult, because they have a totally different summer reading assignment, so we’re all a little bit confused as to what to give them. All of our summer reading is based on certain books and they read something else.” This can make the process even more complicated for the staff members. “It’s a headache, definitely,” Termini said.

According to O’Connor, the

overcrowding of the English classes can be extremely detrimental to the overall experience of the students in those classes. “When [class sizes] fall under 20, it’s great!

It’s like a college class, you can give a lot more individual attention,” she said. When there is an imbalance of student distribution in the classes, then some students receive more instruction than others.

Although more students dropped out of AP Literature this year than in years past, it has not

been unusual for a few students to move down into Honors English. “This happens every year, and every time it happens it seems like it is this shocking thing, but every year, the 12 Honors teachers are used to getting more kids from AP Lit a week or two into the semester,” Termini said.

The English department is unsure why this issue affected an abnormally large number of students this year. “We are trying to figure it out, why this is happening un-

2016-17 AP Literature Enrollment

-Students currently in AP Lit

-Students unable to transfer out of AP Lit

-Students who dropped out of AP Lit HENRY WIEBE

like any other year,” Adamson said. She pointed out that it could be because there is generally minimal guidance from counselors and teachers. “We don’t know if it is because, now that students are the ones initially putting in the classes they want to take, there is no voice of reason on the front end.” Adamson wants to make sure every junior English class this year has someone come and inform them about what each class entails. Hopefully, this will lead to more educated and permanent choices in the spring regarding class schedules.

Senior Jamila Moses switched out of AP Literature and into Honors English 12 on the first day of school. She thinks that after working hard through the first three years of high school, many seniors have no interest in taking an additional AP class. “I think since it is senior year and seniors have already gotten over that big junior year hump, they don’t want to put themselves through too much.” she said.

Adamson also believes that many students drop out once they realize how difficult AP Literature is. “AP is a college course, and I think that sometimes students think, ‘I need AP classes on my transcript.’ Don’t start with AP English. It is not the class to start with. It is not an introductory AP course,” she said.

Termini believes in an approach to requesting class schedules that keeps students accountable for their decisions. “When I was in high school, you couldn’t change. This is what you picked. You [knew] what you were getting into. You don’t get to just go ‘Oh I don’t want to do this anymore,’” Termini said.

A4 News Newsbriefs Smoking light fixture causes evacuation A light fixture in the Student Activities Center (SAC) began to smoke and caused a school evacuation on Sept. 19. Students and staff evacuated the building for approximately 20 minutes.

At around 11:20 a.m. during fifth period, smoke began to emerge from the light, which was being repaired at the time.

The incident is being attributed to a faulty part in the light.

“The smoke was caused by a bad ballast,” Building Services Manager Yakubu Agbonselobho said.

“Those light fixtures occasionally burn out, but rarely do they begin smoking heavily. The heavy smoke triggered the decision to evacuate.”

A ballast is a device that regulates currents to lights, and when it is disconnected from the light source or broken, the light can burn out and sometimes overheat, causing smoke.

Fifth period was extended, and eighth period was shortened later that afternoon.

Local middle school under fire for students’ racist chant Students and administration of Robert Frost Middle School drew national criticism after a video was posted online showing students on a school bus chanting a racial slur.

The bus driver pulled over and addressed the students, explaining why the chant was inappropriate.

According to the Washington Post, the video first came to light after a shocked black student filmed the scene on the bus and showed the video to her parents, who posted it online. The school and MCPS are using the incident as a teachable moment to discourage the use of offensive and derogatory terms.

In a letter to parents, Frost Principal Joey Jones expressed his concern over the incident. Jones said, “As an African-American educator, this incident is personally very disturbing and we must address this incident and issues of race so we can all move forward together.”

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Blair evacuated after student calls in bomb threat from BOMB THREAT page A1 “We can always say people think it’s a funny prank but I’m just not sure if it wasn’t more malicious,” Johnson said. The students who came forward gave security enough information to identify the student who phoned in the threat.

Johnson suspended the student with recommendation for expulsion. “I want to be really clear that it’s never my goal to not educate kids. Blair may not be the best fit.

When I recommend for expulsion I am recommending for a higher level to determine what school is best for them,” Johnson said.

There has not been a bomb threat at Blair during Johnson’s six-year tenure as principal. Blair Security Team Leader Darryl Cooper expressed confidence that if the bomb threat had been real, the students would have been safe. According to Cooper, bomb threats follow the same protocol as fire drills, which students regularly practice.

Johnson notified parents of the incident via an email sent out at 1:16 p.m.. Many parents believed that the bomb threat was a prank.

“I wasn’t concerned. I felt that school protocol was followed,” parent Tara Sheridan said.

According to Johnson, students heard a loud noise on the beltway during the initial stages of the evacuation. Johnson suspected

CALEB BAUMAN

STUDENT EVACUATION Blair students were evacuated during sixth period due to a bomb threat called in by a student. They awaited further instruction from staff members in the Blazer Stadium. that it was due to a tire blowing out. “When I heard the explosion, everyone else started running so I started running. I thought, ‘I’m not taking any chances,’” said sophomore Lucille Solomon.

Many students were not immediately aware of the severity of the situation. “We knew it was a prank. We thought someone pulled the fire alarm,” said fresh-

Newsbriefs compiled by Alexander Dacy

man Liam Devo.

Some students evacuated to the field next to the beltway and found out by word of mouth that it was a bomb threat.

Aside from the loud noise on the beltway, students remained relatively calm over the situation.

“In middle school we didn’t see that stuff. It was a good introduction to high school,” freshman Ipsa

Mittra said.

According to Cooper, staff took the threat seriously due to bombings in New York and New Jersey the previous weekend and a bomb threat at a theater in D.C.. “We felt that it was necessary and that it was a credible threat,” he said.

The day before, an electrical fire during fifth period also caused an evacuation.

MCPS adopts students’ religious rights guidelines

Policy demonstrates how teachers should respect religious diversity

By Gilda Geist The Board of Education revised the Guidelines for Respecting Religious Diversity this summer. This is the second year that the policy has been implemented, and it instructs staff to respect religious diversity in school while maintaining the separation between church and state.

The Board of Education and the Montgomery County Executive’s Faith Community Working Group assembled the Guidelines for Respecting Religious Diversity in

which covered the guidelines.

According to assistant principal Dirk Cauley, one reason that some staff members only became aware of the guidelines this school year is that the staff training was different. Every year, the faculty receives copies of MCPS policies through department resource teachers.

Cauley said that there was also a more effective training session this year that was run by administration. Cauley also said that there was a greater emphasis on religious respect this year than in the past.

MCPS track coach arrested after reported sexual assault A Seneca Valley assistant track coach was arrested and put on unpaid leave after allegedly sexually assaulting a teenager. Onaje Robinson, 42, used social media to meet a 14-year-old girl and convince her to have sex with him, according to the Washington Post. Robinson claimed that she had told him she was 20 years old.

Robinson turned himself in on Sept. 13 and was charged with two counts of third-degree sexual offense and one count of seconddegree assault. He was released on a $10,000 bond.

The victim, who lives in Anne Arundel County, reported to police that Robinson, posing on social media as “Jay,” agreed to pick her up on Aug. 20. Robinson pursued a sexual encounter, in which he allegedly hit her with a stick.

In a letter to parents, Seneca Valley Principal Marc Jacobs voiced his displeasure with the situation. “The actions alleged in the charging document are troubling and unacceptable,” Jacobs said.

“This behavior is not a reflection of the values of Seneca Valley High School.”

October 6, 2016

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

RELIGION IN CLASS Comparative religion teacher David Whitacre received the Guidelines for Respecting Religious Diversity last year.

July 2015. According to comparative religion teacher David Whitacre, the document was distributed to faculty at a staff meeting at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year.

Some teachers did not find out about these guidelines until this year. International studies teacher Paul Moose first heard about the document this past summer during the teacher pre-service week.

Moose said that there was a set of nine required courses for teachers during this week, one of which was called “Religious Diversity,”

The policy provides specifics regarding to what extent the mention of religion is allowed in teacher instruction, including assignments, discussion, and school assemblies. “When students are taught about religion, they should expect instructional activities to be fair, objective, and not demean any religious or nonreligious beliefs,” the guidelines read.

According to Derek Turner, MCPS Director of Public Information and Web Services, these guidelines are the first of their kind nationwide. “We are the first

school district in the country to put together these guidelines, because we do value the religious diversity in our schools,” he said.

The guidelines consolidate and clarify previous policies such as Student Attendance, Student Rights and Responsibilities, Display and Distribution of Informational Materials and Announcements, and Bullying, Harassment, or Intimidation.

The new guidelines include information from these regulations and divide it into six main topics—Absences for Religious Holidays, Prayer and Religious Dress, Religion in Instructional Program, Food and Religious Observance, Distributing Religious Informational Materials, and Extracurricular Student Religious Activities.

In explaining the procedure for students who miss school for religious holidays, the document reads, “MCPS understands that students may miss school for a variety of reasons, including the observance of religious holidays.

These are excused absences.”

The guidelines also explain that students are allowed to pray and wear religious clothing as long as it does not disrupt learning.

According to Board of Education member Jill Ortman-Fouse, one of the goals of MCPS in creating the guidelines was make sure that students of all different religious faiths are treated fairly. “It’s very important that every student has a right to his or her religious beliefs and practices, free from any discrimination, bullying, harassment,” Ortman-Fouse said.

Ortman-Fouse said that the discussion and advocacy for making the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha a professional day brought attention to the issue of religious respect and diversity in MCPS. “We were talking about Eid a lot last year in relation to the calendar … that was probably a piece of the conversation,” she said.

According to Turner, students who feel that staff members are not following the Guidelines for Respecting Religious Diversity or

respecting their religious freedoms may go through an appeals process, which is outlined in the 20162017 Student’s Guide to Rights and Responsibilities in MCPS. The Employee Code of Conduct lists the consequences for staff members who do not comply with MCPS policies. Consequences vary based on the severity of the infraction. They range from an informal warning from a supervisor to termination.

Ortman-Fouse said that reports of bullying and harassment were growing among Muslim students as result of the political climate in the United States. “There’s a lot going on in our country right now, politically, and Muslim students have reported that the level of harassment has increased,” OrtmanFouse said.

A 2016 International Cultural Center survey of 110 Muslim students in Montgomery Village found that one out of five Muslim students felt harassed or bullied because of their religion, and onetenth felt that a teacher had treated them unfairly because of their religion within the past six months.

The survey corroborated the results of a survey conducted by the Muslim Community Center (MCC) in 2015.

The MCC interviewed Muslim students in grades 3 through 12, most of whom attended school in MCPS, and found that 32 percent had been verbally insulted or abused about their religion.

Whitacre said that the guidelines do not change the way that he discusses religion in classroom instruction because religion is part of his curriculum. “A lot of teachers, I think, don’t have enough depth of different religious backgrounds to actually discuss it,” Whitacre said.

Turner also emphasized the importance of respecting the religions of all students, including but not limited to Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Christian. “We need to be able to respect one another, but you can’t respect someone until you know their culture and their background,” Turner said.

News A5

silverchips

October 6, 2016

Blair implements new dinner program for students Free meal program available to all students after school in the SAC

By Serena Debesai At the start of the school year, Blair began a new dinner program to offer students a free meal after school every day in the SAC. Blair joined approximately 50 other schools participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program, an initiative sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture to aid low-income students who may not have access to food at home.

Eligibility for the program depends on the percentage of students eligible for Free and Reduced Meals (FARMs) according to Marla Caplon, Director of the Division of Food and Nutrition Services for MCPS. “In order to qualify for the after school supper program, a school or feeder school must have a student enrollment of at least 50 percent free or reduced price eligible students,” Caplon said.

Although less than 50 percent of Blair students receive FARMs, several of Blair’s feeder middle schools including, Parkland, Argyle, and Loiederman met this threshold.

Additionally, the program aims to encourage student participation in after school activities. “We want kids to stay after school to be a part of athletics, to be a part of afterschool activities, to get tutoring support.

So if we want to keep them, we have to feed them,” principal Renay Johnson said.

The school opened the program to all students, which Johnson believes is a strength.

“That’s the beauty in the dinner program…

Any kid can go, so there is no stigma about getting dinner,” Johnson said.

To ensure that students obtain only one meal per day, students enter their student ID number at the register.

A pilot version of the program ran during the previous school year, although meals were limited to students in afterschool programs. Club sponsors sent in requests for meals.

In response to the program’s expansion, the cafeteria increased staff presence and the number of meals prepared. “Last year, we only had the pilot program. We served maybe 80, 90 meals, but this year we are hitting 300 or 400 meals,” cafeteria manager Christine Blanton said.

According to Blanton, students have responded positively to dinner. Within three weeks of implementation, the program saw a dramatic increase in student participation.

“From the first week of school to the third week of school, we…hit double our amount of numbers ... The kids like it, so it will keep going,” Blanton said.

Freshman Steven Castellanos regularly gets dinner before football practice. He believes the program will benefit students who have trouble eating at home. “It’s alright, for

JEDEDIAH GRADY

DINNER TIME Students receive their free meal from the dinner program after school. people that don’t eat at home sometimes. It will probably be good for them,” he said.

Dinner options include entrées, such as pizza and mozzarella sticks, milk, juice,

and side options, such as apples and plums.

“Every day is something different. But fruit, vegetables, and juice is always on the menu,” Blanton said.

Blair gets preliminary approval for 2020 building addition School works to accommodate increase in student population with plans for expansion from ENROLLMENT page A1

in the beginning stages, Johnson is unsure if a fourth floor will be added or if the school will expand onto the fields. Before the expansion takes place, Johnson said portable classrooms provided by the county may be used to accommodate extra students.

Fall 2016 enrollment exceeded the projected enrollment in March. According to

Johnson, the inaccuracy of these projections has caused increased class sizes and a deficit in staff members. “The staffing I received initially is based on 2,901 students ... and kids are enrolling every day,” she said.

Senior Theresa Guirand prefers the aspects of a smaller classroom setting. “When there’s a smaller number of people in the class, it gives the students more of an opportunity to learn and to build the relationship

soapbox

Would Blair benefit from an addition?

“We’re doomed to overpopulate the school. The easiest and most likely thing to happen is to add portables. This would be the best and most logical way to expand the school. However, we run into the problem of where to put them.”

— Haden Kelther, junior “An addition would definitely be beneficial in the long run, but the school isn’t overcrowded enough yet to justify the cost.”

— Kevin Peachey, junior

with the teacher, and feel more open to go speak to them,” she said.

One cause for the rising enrollment is the growing popularity of Blair itself.

Johnson believes that athletic and academic success, like winning the National Science Bowl, attract kids to enroll at Blair. “Parents are very smart, they look at the data on how our students perform… the number of students going to Ivy League schools, the number of students that are young entrepreneurs… all that positive publicity is contagious,” Johnson said.

While the county provides more funding to support extra students, the rapid growth in population can be too fast for the school to keep up with. Despite the large number of people, Johnson wants to make sure students are comfortable in Blair’s environment. As part of her plan to achieve this, Johnson wants to add seating in the SAC to keep students from eating on the floor.

“Last year I got the nine booths, and then we ordered the brown tables that sit on the stage… we’re going to get more of those, but even after all that some students still choose to sit on the floor, but I don’t want it to be because we don’t have furniture,” Johnson said.

For Guirand, the dense population has not posed a large problem in everyday school life. “You don’t always find a table [at lunch], but you can always resort to going somewhere else, either sitting outside or going to the library, or just being in the hallway,” she said.

Blair is not the only school experiencing rapid growth in the county. MCPS forecasted that high school enrollment across the district would grow from 46,142 in September 2015 to 47,242 in September 2016, a 2.4 percent increase.

Bethesda-Chevy Chase is another high school facing increasing student populations. To accommodate more students, the high school has begun construction on an extension similar to Blair’s potential addition.

Wagner found the large number of people unsettling at first, but she eventually got used to Blair’s substantial student body.

“It’s different from [middle school], because there weren’t so many people,” Wagner said. “When you come here it’s a little overwhelming because there are so many hallways and so many different classrooms … but once you get to know the school a little it’s so much easier.”

Up and Coming October 10 Parent Visitation Day

October 19 College Readiness Day

October 21 Homecoming Game

October 22 Homecoming Dance

Student & Teacher Awards & Honors

National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists 2016-2017: Ali Anwar, Griffin Badalamente, Anna Barth, Ankit Bhargava, Amy Borton, Daniel Busis, Sambuddha Chattopadhyay, Daniel Chen, Ethan Chen, Maya Chudamani, Eleanor Cook, Rohan Dalvi, Sandeep David, Sherry Fan, Annie Fang, Jessica Fang, Joshua Fernandes, Gabriel Field, Noah Friedlander, Raymond Guo, William Hartmann, Nicholas Healey, Benjamin Jacobsohn, Emma Jin, Derek Lamb, Simin Li, Calvin Liu, Sophia Liu, Juliana Lu-Yang, Alex Ma, Elia Martin, John Merlo-Coyne, Alex Miao, Ramida Phoolsombat, Kendall Price, Neal Sarkar, Aditi Shetty, Lara Shonkwiler, James Vinson, Richard Wang, Minie Zhang

Senior Juliana Lu-Yang was selected to the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program.

Juniors Olivia Amitay, Mehana Daftary, and Sarah Gao won the Rotary Club Essay Contest.

Math Teacher David Stein and Magnet Coordinator Peter Ostrander were published in the journal Gifted Child Today.

B1 Opinion silverchips Montgomery Blair High School 51 University Boulevard East Silver Spring, MD 20901 Phone: (301) 649-2864 Winner of the 2015 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker Winner of the 2015 Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Crown

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Unsigned editorials represent the views of the editorial board and are not necessarily those of the school. Signed letters to the editor are encouraged.

Submit your letter to Jeremy Stelzner’s mailbox in the main office, to room 158 or to silver.chips. print@gmail.com. Concerns about Silver Chips’ content should be directed to the Ombudsman, the public’s representative to the paper, at silver.chips. ombudsman@gmail.com. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.

silverchips

October 6, 2016

The dangerous trend taking over popular slang

Phrases such as ‘Kill me,’ ‘I’m dead,’ and ‘RIP’ are harmful to students

By Hermela Mengesha

An opinion “I’m going to kill myself.”

His friends all laugh. He forgot his English essay was due today.

“You’re so screwed,” they tell him.

To an observer oblivious to popular slang among teens, this scene is troubling at best. This young man has seemingly said he plans to commit suicide. What is even more shocking is the way his friends brushed off the comment.

“Kill me,” “RIP,” “I’m dead,” and other similar expressions have become a common part of teenage vernacular. However, we cannot afford to ignore this dangerous trend any longer, as this slang is insensitive to people struggling with mental illness.

It is not at all uncommon to hear teens casually mention the idea of self-harm or suicide in response to stress or frustration. We say it all the time, often without realizing. “If I get annoyed or upset about something, I’ll be like, ‘I’m going to kill myself,’ but I’m not actually planning on killing myself,” says junior Oriana Zwerdling.

Teens have become desensitized to such language, to the point where the line between the serious discussion of self-harm and everyday banter has become terribly blurred.

The familiar justification of “it’s just a joke” is not enough. Using this slang only around friends is not an excuse. “When we communicate with each other we have to watch who’s around us because

we don’t know who may have anxiety or depression, or who may have suicidal ideations,” says Blair counselor Kirk Simms.

Mental illness is not as easy to identify as the look in a person’s eye or as obvious as the outfit they are wearing. The signs of a person who is struggling with self-harm can be missed because references to mental illness are tossed around without any serious weight behind the words. The signs of mental illnesses are

subtle, and they can be lost in a slew of “RIP”s and “I’m dead”s. No matter how attuned students may feel to their classmates’ feelings, they can never truly know the struggles others are facing.

Mental illness is much more prevalent among teens than some may think. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five teens have or will have a serious mental illness.

In Blair, a school of over 2,900 students, it is difficult to know how many of our peers are coping with mental illness, and even more challenging to discern is how our words will affect them.

When students use this kind of slang, they fail to create a positive environment surrounding mental illness. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist and the author of the book Words Can Change Your Brain, explains how negative words can have a detrimental effect on people already suffering from mental disorders. “For brains that already are having problems, this can potentially lead to worsening of the

SABRINA TAN

neurological and psychological effects,”Newberg said in an email.

Death-related slang is also indicative of a larger issue at hand: society’s attitude toward mental health. “I think it’s a very, very small part of a larger misunderstanding of mental illness,” says senior Willa Murphy.

The use of death-related slang is not only inconsiderate and

harmful, but perpetuates the large stigma that already surrounds the discussion of mental illness.

According to NAMI, this stigma is one of the most challenging aspects of battling a mental illness, and can lead many with mental illnesses to strive to hide serious issues instead of seeking help.

This issue of insensitive slang may seem small compared to the larger issue of how people view and dismiss mental illness.

But what is wrong with starting small? The changes we make in our language are steps towards combating the stigma around mental health.

The fear of being labeled as the “oversensitive one” or the friend who has “no chill” stops many from speaking out. This concern should not detract from the serious nature of mental illness. It is not a crime to be conscientious of others’ struggles and feelings.

The way teens choose to handle stress and frustration are behavioral patterns they will carry into adulthood, according to Newberg. “If we establish positive behaviors and emotions early on, these are the connections that form and strengthen,” he says.

If we recognize the weight our words carry and translate that into consciously being more considerate when we speak, maybe one day it will not be so taboo to discuss mental illness openly.

Perhaps one day, both deathrelated slang and the stigma surrounding mental illness will be things of the past.

Acceptance in demographics, but not in the mind

Racial diversity does not make us tolerant in regards to culture

By Laura Espinoza

An opinion “We are such a diverse school!”

This is a universal truth of Blair. It leads people to believe that everyone is inclusive and accepting of all cultures. Unfortunately, this masks the reality that not all students are tolerant of different groups of people.

When I first started talking to students about the subject, there seemed to be no problems. Junior Eldana Negash feels acceptance from other students toward her Ethiopian roots.

“It’s really cool! For me, a lot of people from here...like Ethiopian food. They tell me, ‘Oh my God, I love Ethiopian food,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my God really? Thank you!’ So it’s like other people are interested,” Negash says.

Statistically speaking, Blazers come from a variety of races and ethnicities. With a population that is 31 percent Hispanic, 27 percent black, 22 percent white, and 16 percent Asian, Blair is a poster school for diversity. However, past experiences show us what Blair would be like without our golden percentages.

Junior Lien-Dai Cao attended Sligo Creek Elementary School, a school she describes as predominantly white. She remembers an incident where a, “group of older kids came along...and they started laughing and pointing at me and pulling their eyes to the sides, like I have small eyes because I’m Asian,” she says.

People may blame this on the ignorance of age, but there is an underlying issue. Where there is a large majority group, whether it’s based on race, ethnicity, or any other factor, people feel more

comfortable teasing or bullying others when they have strong support behind them.

Junior Suraya Mohamud, president of the Muslim Student Association, sees this behavior in the treatment of Muslim students at Blair. “People may be diverse, but they also have their own prejudices. They might not be intentional, but it’s subconscious,” she says.

Mohamud highlighted an incident last year where two younger girls felt unsafe in school. Their hijabs were pulled on, and they were constantly taunted when walking down a certain hallway. Even she felt the ripple effects from the event. “Knowing that…students in Blair also have this mentality where they already subjugated me and alienated me to a point where I’m a Muslim girl who should not be a part of the environment? That

made me feel like I was not a part of the Blair community,” Mohamud remarked.

In the Magnet and CAP programs at Blair, diversity is not widespread. Junior Jaya Hinton sees the disparity in her CAP classes as part of a small black population in the program. She feels that students often do not try to connect with her in an appropriate manner, but rather try to act differently to fit in with their perception of what black culture is. Hinton wants non-black students to seek interactions with other students of color rather than just acknowledging their presence at Blair. “I feel like the more time you spend around somebody of a different race, the more likely you are to do that because you just see them as another person,” Hinton says. It is great that people try to

understand others, but it is also important to do so in a respectful way. Mockery and appropriation are not forms of acceptance, but rather forms of insult.

How can students actually be aware and accepting of their peers?

Do ask people about their culture. They love it and want to share it with you.

Do not make racially insensitive jokes. It is not funny.

Do stand up for others when you see injustice occur.

Do not speak over people.

They want you to stand beside them, not in front of them.

But most importantly, acknowledge your biases and work to move past them.

Unless you take this first step, Blair’s diversity will exist solely in the numbers.

ARITRA ROY

Opinion B2

silverchips

October 6, 2016

Is Gov. Hogan’s executive order to push back school start dates beneficial to all students?

YES:

NO:

It does not adversely affect learning.

The school board is one of the most vital parts of the school system, and of its hundreds of decisions, none seems to cause as much controversy as the calendar. Governor Larry Hogan’s Aug. BEN DOGGET-T 31 executive order mandating that school Alexander Dacy start after Labor Day just made the conversation a lot more interesting. Having an extended summer will undoubtedly thrill students, and the benefits will outweigh the logistical concerns brought up by the state and its school systems.

Despite complaints by local school boards and parents, starting the school year after Labor Day will not result in a learning setback to students. In 2014, the Maryland General Assembly convened a task force made up of teachers, administrators, and students from across the state to examine the potential effects of a post-Labor Day start date. The task force found “no quantifiable evidence that a post-Labor Day start is harmful to local schools systems.”

The decision also benefits Maryland’s economy by increasing direct revenue to the state. According to the executive order, pushing the start date back would provide an “additional $74.3 million in direct economic activity” and an additional $7.7 million in tax revenue, which could be reinvested in Maryland schools. The Maryland State Comptroller also notes that starting school after Labor Day will not cost Maryland taxpayers any additional money.

This expected economic boost allays fears that Hogan’s move was strictly a decision to support businesses and tourism across the state. The revenue could be used to support schools in need of repair or renovation, especially in lower-income areas.

For example, the task force identified the problem of schools that lack functioning air conditioning, citing this as another reason to move the start date to after Labor Day. Students who go to school in the scorching August heat without air conditioning suffer in both learning and health. Some of the additional revenue could be invested in fixing this problem, which would satisfy those students’ needs and mitigate their parents’ concerns as well.

Changing school start dates has received public bipartisan support from Maryland citizens and lawmakers. In 2014 and 2015, two independent polls by Goucher College found that more than 70 percent of Marylanders support starting school after Labor Day, according to the Maryland Governor’s Office. The Office also cites a petition supporting a post-Labor Day start that has re-

It will widen the opportunity gap.

ceived nearly 25,000 signatures. A poll from Goucher College taken after the executive order was passed showed that 68 percent of Marylanders still support the action.

Hogan’s approval ratings also remained at a high 70 percent after the decision.

Despite the benefits of starting school after Labor Day, Governor Hogan did make some mistakes in his implementation of the executive order. Most notably, he included a clause which states that schools must end by June 15. This, as noted by statewide school boards, will create scheduling headaches because school systems must fit in 180 days of learning to satisfy state law, while still accounting for mandatory holidays and built-in emergency weather days.

While there were unwanted logistical issues caused by this clause, the school

When I heard Governor Hogan had mandated all Maryland school start dates to after Labor Day, I thought it was awesome. He sold it as another week of vacation, with no effect on education, and a major boost to CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA the state’s economy.

Noah Chopra-Khan However, in his executive order, he forgot to include that increasing the length of summer vacation would do nothing but add to the widening opportunity gap between low income students and their affluent peers. Many kids enjoy the break

systems have an “out.” As stated in the executive order, they can apply for a waiver, which, if granted, would allow the school systems to make their own calendars for the following year, like they have done in the past. A solution that would make everyone happier is eliminating the June 15 clause. Schools could still start after Labor Day while not significantly restricting local school control or reducing learning time.

The decision to move school start dates after Labor Day has drawn many critics, but the state and its students will benefit greatly from the decision. The state’s economy will receive a major boost, learning environments will be improved, and students will suffer no learning setbacks in the process.

Plus, what student would say no to a longer summer?

from school. But very few benefit from it.

Research like the Beginning School Study (BSS) show that the achievement gap widens the most over the summer. The BSS was conducted by professors at Johns Hopkins University by monitoring the educational progress of a random representative sample of Baltimore school children from first grade through age 22. They tracked testing data, learning patterns, and high school completion, among other indicators.

Their key findings included that “betteroff and disadvantaged youth make similar achievement gains during the school year; but during the summer, disadvantaged youth fall significantly behind in reading.”

They found that the loss of learning time for disadvantaged students over the summer accounts for roughly half of the achieve-

SHIVANI MATTIKALLI

voicebox

ment gap, and that by the end of fifth grade, underprivileged kids are behind by nearly three grade levels in reading skills. It is not a surprise that this early learning gap has a major effect on achievement factors like “high school curriculum placement, whether kids drop out of high school, and whether they attend college.”

Governor Hogan justified the impact in schools by guaranteeing a growth in the economy. But is it really worth it?

Maryland’s own educators do not think it is. All 24 local school system superintendents and the state superintendent have voiced concerns about a post-Labor Day start date. In a 2014 Maryland General Assembly task force, educators emphasize the need for local control in order to address the unique needs of each jurisdiction. Some counties have too many snow days, and starting school after labor day would push school further into the summer. Others could benefit from a later start date because the classrooms get really hot in late August.

Although a post-Labor Day start date might be beneficial for some schools, it does not work for all schools. And it certainly does not work for all students.

In the executive order press release, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot suggests that lengthening summer break would give all families more time to spend together. He suggests going to the beach, lakes, an Orioles game, “or just relaxing a bit at home.” This perfect picture of summer does not exist for most families.

According to the New York Times article “The Families That Can’t Afford Summer,” “the assumption that underlies summer vacation — that there is one parent waiting at home for the kids — is true for just over a quarter of American families.” For the rest of families, “summer’s supposed freedom” is expensive. “Parents who can’t afford camps or summer learning programs” have to leave their children with friends or family or even home alone.

The summers filled with camps, sunny beach vacations, and afternoons at the Maryland State Fair only exist for a few kids and are just a dream for the rest. The only guarantee for all students during the summer is a loss of instructional time, especially for those who cannot afford summer camps and vacations.

If Governor Hogan cared about all Maryland students, he would not lengthen summer vacation, because it is the time during which the opportunity gap widens the most. The best way to ensure the “significant economic benefit” Governor Hogan called for in his executive order is to interrupt the cycle of poverty for families and create the strongest career and college ready workforce as possible. Invest in summer camps and education for all kids instead of only creating benefits for a few.

Emanuel Sankoh Junior

Hannah Kannan Junior

Gael Sullivan Freshman

Carlos Rivera Senior

Eva Bhattarai Sophomore

“Yes, it would give kids more time to change their bed times and get used to school.”

“No, because it will shorten breaks during the school year and those are nicer.”

“Yeah, everyone is happier with a longer summer; there is more time to recharge.”

“No, because so much material is already forced right now and with a shorter school year there would be even less time.”

“Yeah, I think it’s good because we have more time to preapre for school.”

JEDEDIAH GRADY

B3 Opinion

October 6, 2016

silverchips

Stop trashing Blair: End the epidemic of teenage laziness Students’ indifference to recycling at school reflects poorly on the community

By Cole Greenberg

You are strolling through the Blair courtyard with a paper in hand and friends at your side. You want to recycle that paper, but there is no recycling bin in sight.

You do, however, see that trash can ten feet to your left. Chances are, that paper is going in without a second thought.

Or maybe it never goes in at all, and instead the paper lays on the concrete until a gust of wind blows it away. Either way, you smother the voice in your brain that throws the word “sustainability” at you like a dodgeball, and you happily continue on with your day.

It happens all the time. Students shrug off the clear division between trash and recycling, and save themselves the time and effort needed to seek out the correct bin. The same circumstances apply when a student comes across a lonesome recycling bin, and decides to toss in their leftover macaroni and cheese, creating a terrifying mix of calculus homework and moldy cheddar.

The issue does not spring from an epidemic of colorblindness, or a malicious cult of students dedicated to poisoning the natural world.

Instead, it comes from a general attitude of laziness.

DoSomething.org, an ecofriendly fundraising website, reported that nine out of ten people would gladly recycle if the process was “easier,” a fact that both inspires hope among environmentalists, and creates a foreboding sense of doom. While self-preservation is within the reach of our species, people’s indifference to recycling

JEDEDIAH GRADY

STAYING GREEN The Blair Green Club goes through the school’s trash and recycling bins in an effort to decontaminate them and find the proper place for the waste. is like a punch in the gut.

Students do not realize that when they dump their paper in the trash, Blair’s janitorial staff suffers from it. According to building services worker Marianne Christopher, janitorial staff sifts through the school’s waste every day, attempting to fix the negli-

gence of the community. Not only do they have better things to do than dig through your garbage, but they are often too busy to decontaminate all of the bins. “We don’t have that kind of time,” says Christopher.

Even Blair’s student run Green Club, a group of eco-friendly do-

gooders that gathers once a week to sort waste and help the environment, cannot hope to tackle the Herculean task of decontaminating every bin in Blair. At a certain point of impurity, recycling plants reject the waste altogether; proving that even a small amount of trash can defile an entire bin of

papers.

Regardless of trash’s environmental impact, it has societal implications as well. When soggy milk cartons end up in a paper recycling bin, or litter is strewn across the hallways of Blair, it reflects poorly on the whole school. Blair needs to live up to its MCPS classification as a “green school,” rather than earning a reputation as a trash heap.

Although the simplest solution to make renewability seem “easier” is the addition of more trash and recycling bins at Blair, taking a second to locate the right bin is not a hardship. If we can increase recycling among Blair students, there is a better chance that students will consider their carbon footprint, and partake in more environmentally friendly activities. School is a great place to develop life-long eco-friendly habits, like printing double-sided, or drinking from a reusable water bottle.

The solution to the bin problem is actually an easy fix. Blair has extra trash and recycling bins in storage, and through the School Energy and Recycling Team, Montgomery County’s green schools initiative, any school in MCPS can request more bins, either for free, or at a low price.

Starting with the addition of more recycling and trash disposal bins, Blair can do its part in helping the environment.

As a school of 3000 students, it is impossible for us to save the whole world, but that does not mean we cannot do everything in our power to try.

Does College Readiness Day prepare students for the future?

College Readiness Day only helps with the testing aspect of the application process

By Leila Jackson There is a lack of enthusiasm among students about College Readiness Day. Of course practicing for the SAT is useful, but many students do not know what to do when they get their PSAT results and there is a lack of knowledge about the application process in general.

On Oct. 19, freshmen will take the PSAT 8/9 and sophomores and juniors will take the PSAT, and seniors will participate in college and career activities, according

to a Sept. 9 letter from Principal Renay Johnson.

MCPS pays for all sophomores to take the PSAT, but unlike juniors, they cannot qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. Seniors attend a College Fair where 150 to 160 colleges are represented; there are also seminars, college essay sessions, financial aid presentations, and motivational speakers, according to College/Career Coordinator Phalia West.

Despite efforts like College Readiness Day, many students feel like they are going into the college

soapbox How well do you think College Readiness Day prepares students for college?

“The PSAT only prepares students for the SAT, not college, and also a lot of students dont really try on the PSAT beacause they aren’t motivated.”

— Lydia Mohamed, junior “It doesn’t prep us too well. They wait too late to prepare the seniors, and underclassmen aren’t prepared enough.”

— Krystine White, senior “College Readiness Day helped me to realize that I am not suited to take the SAT, so I was more prepared by knowing that I should take the ACT.” — Grace Weissman, senior

application process blind. There is a lot of anxiety around applying to college and many seniors feel confused about the process, even as application deadlines are looming.

Senior Niarah Jackson says that it would be helpful to know when and how to send transcripts and SAT scores. There are also students whose parents did not go to college or perhaps studied in a different country and this can add an extra layer of stress for those who are already unfamiliar with the system.

Junior Darien Price, whose mother did not grow up in the United States says, “I have to go out of my way to learn about certain aspects of the process. For example, my older sister took the SAT late in high school because she was not well informed.”

Having a clear idea of the application process before senior year would help in alleviating the stress of the college application process. Tests like the SAT are only one aspect of getting ready for college.

Inviting admissions counselors from local universities to talk to sophomores and juniors on College Readiness Day could address concerns and give students the information needed to be confident when applying for college.

After students have taken their tests, they return to class for the remainder of the day. It would make more sense if College Readiness Day lasted for the whole school day, since students miss about half of the day already. It would be beneficial for sophomores and juniors to attend the

events held on College Readiness Day. Sophomores should also be given the chance to learn more about the PSAT and SAT to get familiar with the format and find out what they need to work on.

Juniors could attend the fair so they can ask questions and get the information they need on about anything they are unsure of.

Since freshmen have only been at Blair for about a month and a half, they are still getting used to high school. On College Readiness Day they could take the test and do low-stress activities like career quizzes that could give them an idea of what kind of studies they might want to pursue.

It is important for freshmen to see what classes are available at Blair and ask questions about them. There are a lot of classes offered in many different subjects that they could continue to pursue in college.

While College Readiness Day is not perfect, it has improved since years past. Tenth Grade Administrator, Dirk Cauley, says that for the most part, students are not extremely excited about College Readiness Day, but they appreciate having the opportunity to take the test and get familiar with the format.

In previous years, there was barely any information about how to use the results of these tests as learning experiences. Students also did not know how to improve if they found that they did not do so well on one or more sections.

When students took the PSAT in the past, Cauley says, “they did not get meaningful reports back.

This time they will have comparisons on where they stand in terms of college readiness.”

While this is helpful, there should be more measures in place for students to prepare for college. Hopefully, this type of feedback will be meaningful and students will get a better idea on their strengths and weaknesses for testing.

Preparation for the SAT is an important aspect of college readiness. Blair however, should do a better job explaining the application process to students before their senior year so that they can be reassured that they will get into the college that is best for them.

SAY

D LIN

RIS

HAR

Opinion B4

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October 6, 2016

Reaching beyond ice breakers to unite the classroom

Creative class bonding activities cultivate a positive learning environment

By Erin Namovicz An opinion Sitting in a circle in class on the first day of school, Magnificent Mandy, Creative Kevin, and Famous Fatima gaze inattentively at Cranky Carlos. It is now his turn to recite each of their alliterated names before saying his own.

By the end of the period, no one knows more about their classmates than they did when they entered the classroom.

Icebreakers rarely teach students much about each other. “It’s hard to get to know somebody, especially during an icebreaker,” English teacher Lauren Termini says. Students rarely pay much attention to these activities. “They’re a welcome waste of time,” junior Aviah Krupnick says.

Termini says she has acknowledged students’ disinterest in these games, and has tried new creative ways to engage students.

In her classes, Termini has moved away from the traditional ice-

breaker and developed an anonymous activity for students to talk about themselves, hopefully with more depth and honesty.

It is essential that all teachers take this step away from traditional name games, because students thrive in classroom settings where they are comfortable with each other. The more students learn about their fellow classmates during a bonding activity, the more relaxed they are.

Math teacher William Rose says that in classes where people must collaborate, they also need to be comfortable with each other.

“If people are depending on each other a lot, if there’s a class which involves a lot of projects, or group work, I think it’s definitely important for everyone to feel comfortable with each other,” he says.

This allows students to be confident to speak their mind in groups and ask for help when they need it. “If you know the kids, you can participate freely,” sophomore Yesreshe Bade says. Feeling a bond

soapbox What have been your favorite ice breakers on the first day of school?

“We wrote stuff about ourselves on a piece of paper and threw them at each other around the class and someone would read the one they caught and the class had to guess who the person was.”

— Alannah Oliver-Foster, sophomore “We threw a ball of yarn around the room to each person and had them say their name and things about them.”

— Aaliyah Khan, junior

with fellow students allows students to open up themselves and learn about each other.

Rose has taken a much needed step in expanding the concept of an icebreaker. Each September on a day off from school, a group of senior students enrolled in his Logic Math class meet at the bottom of Sugarloaf Mountain for a hike. Along the way up the mountain, they do a series of team-building exercises, and enjoy time with each other outside the pressures of school.

The first stop along the seven mile hike is a “strange game,” according to senior Anna Barth. The objective of this game is to try to turn over a tarp as more and more people step onto it. “It turns into people crowded around clinging onto each other to not fall off,” Barth says.

On the top of the mountain, the students stop and tell stories. Rose takes his students on this hike so that they can “get outside and sort of be with nature, and talk to each other away from computers.”

Especially in competitive classes, students’ individuality can be lost. This innovative hike creates a communication between students that fosters a friendly classroom atmosphere. “The hike is humanizing,” Barth says. “It’s a chance to ... see that they have lives outside the classroom worth respecting.”

Communication is also key when learning a new language. In AP Spanish Language, students who have taken Spanish as a second language and native speakers who have taken Spanish for Spanish Speakers find themselves in a language class together for

SAMI MALLON

WORKING TOGETHER Students in Logic work on problems in groups. the first time. According to Dora Gonzalez, who teaches the course, most students start the school year only associating with people they have been with in the past.

Gonzalez combats this separation with mixed-up assigned seats and an icebreaker called “broken hearts.” Students each receive half of a paper broken heart and have to find and talk to their other half, usually someone who they have never met before. By engaging in a conversation with someone new, instead of just reciting their names in an icebreaker, students are able to be more patient and understanding of everyone’s abilities.

After doing this activity, students “kind of got past that some of us were more fluent in Spanish than others, and we kind of just understood ... where everyone is coming from,” says senior Ilcia

Hernandez, who took AP Spanish Language as a native speaker.

“By the end of the school year they realize that learning a language takes practice and that you have to do it with native speakers,” Gonzalez says.

In AP Spanish, and classes like it, students need the opportunity to bond and feel comfortable with their classmates so they can get the most out of the course.

Cranky Carlos may not learn much about his classmates from their brief introductions. But creative class bonding activities can help students respect their classmates as people with unique experiences and talents. A sense of class unity is key in cultivating a positive learning environment, and basic icebreakers simply do not do justice to the complex people in every Blair classroom.

B5 Opinion

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THEN: 1979

My Blair: Personal Column The Hollow “A”

By Marta Woodward Guest writer Last year — my fifth after four happy years of teaching — a few significant cheating incidents in an advanced level class had a profound effect on me.

The fallout was extensive and involved several meetings with supervisors, administrators, and parents. In the aftermath of the incidents, I spoke to students, including several former students and Blair alumni, about cheating.

They confirmed my fears that cheating was more widespread than I’d ever thought, and I settled for a long time into a state of disillusionment. How have we come to this, I wondered, and what are we, as teachers, supposed to say to our students about cheating?

I think I’d want to begin by telling my students how much I love teaching, and why cheating incidents cut me up so badly. I’ve told my students in the past that teaching is a privilege. I’m awed by the students who come to school every day, work hard, and stick with a tough topic because they realize the struggle is worth it. Whether their grades are good or bad, I just feel privileged to know them. I care about their futures, and I want to invest in them. This shared feeling of purpose is what drives teachers, who worry about students and their performance, give up personal time to support them, and seek out opportunities to be of help, in and out of class. These efforts can be emotionally and physically draining. A significant cheating incident in this context can stop a teacher in her tracks. All the hours, worry, and stress that come from a place of sincere goodwill now appear to have been wasted.

Setting aside my own feelings of betrayal, it’s important to point out that when a student cheats in a class, he or she is betraying other students. I would be furious if I were a student who

October 6, 2016

refused to cheat, only to find my grades suffering because the higher scores a cheater earned set a standard for the class. The cheater’s actions may have the power to change the culture of the class, and cutting corners might feel like the only option left to those who don’t want to be left behind. Professional and Olympic athletes deal with this dilemma every single day; it ruins our trust in the sports we love to watch and casts a shadow of doubt over our favorite athletes. Last year’s cheating incidents left many questions unanswered, and a cloud of suspicion hovered over my class. I was compelled to GRIFFIN REILLY tell my students that they might want to think long and hard before asking me to write them a college recommendation. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to tell a class of students.

Cheating is never just about the cheater; it impacts everyone else striving towards the same goal. Everyone is hurt by the cheater’s actions.

What are we to do about it? I worry that we are cultivating a culture in which students might not fully comprehend the consequences of cheating. It’s almost as if the prevailing sentiment is that cheating is fine as long as you’re not caught. And then you should act very, very sorry. But clearly, cheating is never fine, and should be dealt with seriously.

If you’re a student who is tempted to cheat or are impacted by cheating, I’d like to leave you with this thought: Maybe you can’t change the culture entirely, but you will certainly never even shift it in the right direction unless you examine your own expectations of yourself. You may not always get a fair shake in life, but developing a sense of integrity allows you to give others a fair shake; others like your classmates, your teachers, your future employees. Ultimately, your integrity is worth way more than that hollow “A”.

COURTESY OF SILVER CHIPS ARCHIVES

STRONG OFFENSE Klaus Whitney dribbles the ball around a Churchill defender.

& NOW: 2016

SAMI MALLON

EYE ON THE PRIZE Junior Mohammad Rafsun looks to score in a game against Springbrook. Blair was propelled to a 1-0 win with a goal from senior Austin Kokkinakis.

My Blair: Personal Column Comparing “Les Bleus” and The States

By Sebastien Kraft Guest writer Thomas Jefferson once said, “Chaque homme a deux patries, la sienne et la France” (“Every man has two countries - his own and France”). Such is the case for me, Sebastien - or Sébastien, as it is written in French – Kraft.

I am indeed Franco-American, and thus possess dual-citizenship as a French and American citizen. Born in Paris, I lived in France for the first five years of my life, and speak French at home every day.

In many ways — though with English I possess two “Mother Tongue” languages — French is my favorite language. I simply love speaking it and have found an innate appreciation for its fluidity and its intricacy.

To exhibit its intricacy, I can sit here at my computer and literally type out more than 10 symbols - or “accents,” as they are called – that, due to their Latin origin, are almost exclusive to the French language: é-ç-à-û--î-è-ô-ö-ù-ë-â, to name a few.

These symbols spell out but one of

BEN DOGGETT

the differences between France and the United States, for indeed, there are quite a bit more: In France, soccer is the national sport.

Every time the World Cup - or, as was the case in 2016, the Euro – takes place, fans are either at the Stade de France, on the Champs-Elysées, or in front of their television sets, chanting, “Allez les

Bleus!”

In the U.S., baseball is the national sport - oh right, well, being a baseball player, I suppose I possess a bit of a bias.

For this column’s sake, let’s just say it’s a tie between baseball and football for the title of America’s national pastime; after all, we all tend to go crazy for the Super Bowl!

France has elegant cafés, chocolate crêpes, and handcrafted wine from Bordeaux; the U.S. has Chipotle, tailgating, and cold bottles of beer.

France has the “Marseillaise”; the U.S. has the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

France has the quiche; the U.S. has the bacon cheeseburger.

France has the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and the Arc de Triomphe; the U.S. has the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Statue of Liberty.

France has gun control; the U.S. doesn’t.

France has St. Tropez; the U.S. has Hollywood.

France has Jean Reno and Christian Clavier; the U.S. has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart.

As a Frenchman, I am thankful to the U.S. for its efforts on D-Day and in the World War II (WWII) liberation of France; as an American, I cannot help but feel a small part of that national pride that tells us that, due to such military efforts, we are by far the strongest country in the world.

In the end, I am proud to belong both to the tricolored flag of France and to the American stars and stripes. Just as Jefferson expressed, I could not have one without the other, for I adore them both.

Want to submit a personal column? Email it to silver.chips.print@gmail.com The Editorial Board will read through all submissions and determine a selection.

Editorials B6

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October 6, 2016

Montgomery County, let’s talk about race Discussing race prevents insensitivity before it occurs

In the past few weeks, several concerning incidents involving race and respect have come to light in Montgomery County schools. On Sept. 16, at a football game between Watkins Mill and Damascus, players on the Watkins Mill team kneeled during the National Anthem. They acted in solidarity with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, aiming to bring awareness toward racial injustice in the U.S. The game prompted discussions at the two schools about race relations and engaging in political protests.

The next week, on Sept. 20, a video posted to YouTube depicted a bus full of middle schoolers from Robert Frost chanting a slur taken from a viral Vine clip that included the “n-word.”

Shortly after, a video emerged on social media of cheerleaders and other students from Clarksburg High School spelling “Watkins Mill is going to get lynched,” in a game of hangman on a school board.

In response to these events, Damascus and Frost principals sent out open letters to the community. Superintendent Jack Smith released a video commending the schools for their responses, and emphasized the need for community members to engage in constructive conversations about race. In his video, Smith says, “While these issues are complex and difficult, and these conversations can be uncomfortable to have, they are critical for us to address, and we must do so with meaningful dialogue that will

allow our community to gain a deeper understanding and respect for both our differences and our shared values.” He then commends responses from administration at both Watkins Mill and Damascus. According to MCPS spokesman Derek Turner, the schools involved in all three incidents are taking steps to discipline students and organize forums to discuss the events.

These three incidents in the first month of school demonstrate the current racially charged environment of the county and the nation. The events should not be treated as isolated incidents, but as signs that MCPS needs to do more to teach its students acceptance, respect, and basic courtesy.

Smith’s sentiment is correct. The community and the county would benefit from open dialogues about race. However, rather than leave schools to host their own “meaningful dialogues,” the county must come up with a comprehensive plan to engage all community members in meaningful discussions about racial bias and tolerance.

From a young age, students spend most of their time in school.

Kids must learn to have open conversations about race in the classrooms they spend their days in, because getting exposure to other viewpoints leads to respect.

Blair has held open dialogues and forums before, and many students are naturally open to exchanging ideas about race relations.

However, students at schools

with more homogenous populations will be just as open to sharing their thoughts, opinions, and perspectives if they are given the opportunity to do so from an early age.

Students and community members should take this opportunity to be proactive and continue hosting conversations in response to incidents that occur within and outside of our county, but schools should not wait for a racially charged incident to occur in their community before inviting their students to discuss race. Breaking down barriers can actually work to prevent these situations before they occur.

Schools have the responsibility to educate their students and prepare them for meaningful and informed adult lives.

Without community conferences about the issues of racial and cultural acceptance in our country, schools are not fulfilling their duty to their students, leaving them ill-prepared for life after graduation.

SHIVANI MATTIKALLI

Do you have any feedback or see any mistakes? Let us know.

E-mail the editors at silver.chips.print@gmail.com

Corrections In the A1 photo story caption, senior Aaliyah Byrd was incorrectly identfied as Aaliyah Khan.

Buzzfeed perpetuates negative stereotypes

In the B3 personal column “Just breathing” by Franchezka Mendoza, the last word was cut off. It should read “I am normal, I am just dealing with a condition that I was able to overcome.”

The media powerhouse disguises sexism as satire in its videos

By Cole Sebastian As a commentator on the journalism industry, I feel obligated to write about the dismal state of print media and credible news sources. Journalism is a sinking ship and the iceberg consists of websites and blogs such as Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and Elite Daily: news outlets that rarely corroborate their sources and write with extreme bias. Buzzfeed, the chief offender, presents itself as the liberal and progressive alternative to the straight-laced New York Times and Washington Post.

However, Buzzfeed is the not the social justice warrior it tries to be.

In the video section of Buzzfeed, their legitimate editorials blend together with videos that perpetuate stereotypes and alienate cultures in their hopelessly ignorant attempts at progress.

The most common video uploads from Buzzfeed are the “Americans try…” videos in which they film the reactions of Buzzfeed staff as they eat foreign food. Buzzfeed has made over 90 videos with this same concept (including three separate videos featuring Japanese Kit-Kats). Not only are these videos incredibly pointless and repetitive, but they are also fundamentally insensitive to the cultures that the food originates from.

These videos ostracize and alienate cultures from every corner of the earth because the foods are all made fun of and presented as weird and alien. Food is deeply ingrained in people’s cultural identity. By making fun of foreign food and calling it weird, Buzzfeed is making fun of foreign cultures and calling them weird.

Food videos are among the least of Buzzfeed’s offenses,

however. The worst of their aggressions appear when they tackle gender issues. A common format of Buzzfeed videos is what I call “gender swapping stereotypes.”

They write a script that simply lists generalizations of one gender and casts the sketch with the opposite gender. They play it off as societal commentary, but they are really just perpetuating the stereotypes.

A prime example of this is the Aug. 2014 video “If Guy Best Friends Acted Like Girl Best Friends” which depicts two male friends acting superficial and overly self-conscious. The video generalizes friendships based on gender and the male friendship depicted imitates an unrealisti-

cally generic female one.

Another, from Sep. 2014 is called “If Girls Worried About The Things Guys Do” and depicts two female friends being constantly rude to each other. The videos generalizes men as shallow and distant beings who are only concerned with having sex and asserting their dominance. Buzzfeed is not exposing issues of gender and masculinity in society like they may think they are, but they are just supporting the existing negative stereotypes about men.

The worst of them all is the eight-minute sketch entitled “If Groomsmen Were Bridesmaids” which follows a fictional group of groomsman leading up to a wedding as they exhibit stereotypes

Ombudsman Cole Sebastian

associated with bridesmaids.

The men act completely vicious toward each other and treat the wedding like a competition. The message that Buzzfeed sends with this video is that women do not have any sense of comradery and are always out to get each other.

These are not just a few isolated videos. Buzzfeed has dozens of videos that swap gender stereotypes. If Buzzfeed made any one of these videos without swapping genders, there would be a social media outcry.

They are using gender swapping as a disguise for outright sexism.

Because of that, people do not recognize the videos as sexist and the stereotypes represented in them are reaffirmed in the viewer’s subconscious.

Of course, all these videos can be dismissed as satire. Buzzfeed actually attempts real social commentary with some of their videos, but there is no distinction between what Buzzfeed is satirizing and what they truly believe. This means that the sexist ideals perpetuated in these videos are just as powerful as the progressive ideals they try to promote.

The impact of Buzzfeed cannot be dismissed. Their sexist messages reach a large audience: each of the videos I described have at least a few million views and Buzzfeed has over 20 million subscribers between its four main Youtube channels. Buzzfeed is a major player in the media landscape and they need to be held to same standards as any other major media outlet. So next time you watch a Buzzfeed video, do not watch a Buzzfeed video. It is Buzzfeed. You have better things to do.

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Features C1

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October 6, 2016

Skipping school is not as glamorous as Ferris Bueller makes it seem

Students reflect on the causes and consequences of being chronically absent

By Olivia Gonzalez Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identity of the sources.

Sarah drags her feet at a snail’s pace toward her first period class, wishing she were invisible. With each step, her heartbeat seems to double. Her hands shake as she gingerly opens the door, and she sighs as she enters the classroom.

Another day, another class, and another tedious lecture from her teacher about missing school.

According to the Department of Education (DOE), Sarah is classified as chronically absent, a quality she shares with over 16 percent of the MCPS student body, and six million other students nationwide.

The DOE defines chronic absenteeism as a student missing either 15 days or 10 percent of the school year, whether the absences are excused or not.

Causes of truancy Students may be frequently absent for a variety of reasons, from health issues to family obligations to general apathy. In addition to missing full days of school, absences can also accumulate from

more likely to be absent than their white peers, and black and Latino students are 30 percent and nine percent more likely, respectively.

Conversely, students who are learning English as a second language are 22 percent less likely to miss school compared to native English speakers.

Chronic consequences The effects of chronic absenteeism are often serious, according to the DOE study. At the elementary level, students who are chronically absent are less likely to read on grade level, which down the road makes them four times more likely to be high school dropouts, increasing their future risk of poverty, poor health, and a criminal record.

At Blair, students also face the loss of credit policy, which is detailed in the student handbook.

Three unexcused absences in a class result in a letter sent home warning the student and parents of possible credit loss, and five unexcused absences lead to an automatic loss of credit.

Students with numerous unexcused absences may also be ineligible from participating in extracurricular activities and obtaining

soapbox How difficult is it to make up work after missing school?

“I refuse to miss school when I’m sick, because in the long run, I don’t think I’ll be able to completely make up [the work].”

— Quinn Kirk, junior “Somteimes, one has enough stress based on the homework they already have. When you miss a day, you must make sure you get the work and thoroughly understand it.”

— Alexandra Montes de Oca, freshman

habitual tardiness, according to Blair’s Pupil Personnel Worker Tia Scott. “If you come to school after a certain period of time, I’m sure you well know that that counts as an absence,” she says. “Tardies build up into absenteeism, and that’s something that we try to prevent.”

In Sarah’s case, the causes of her absences include both mental and physical illnesses. “I’m prone to sinus infections, so I tend to get sick a lot,” she says. “I would say a big factor is that I have depression, and, so, I can’t come to school sometimes.”

For junior Elia Griffin, the reasons stem more from the constant struggle of getting enough sleep.

“Last year I tended to miss school a lot, just cause I didn’t get a lot of sleep and so I would ask my mom to let me sleep in,” she says.

Griffin also says she had to deal with managing a heavy workload.

“I think it was a lot of the time, I just kind of loafed and procrastinated,” she says. “I didn’t do a lot of my homework sometimes, and so I would stay home to catch up.”

Cindy Gilbert, a 2016 Blair alumna, says she often missed school because the environment created by her teachers and peers was unwelcoming. “I was fed up with the way teachers treated me,” Gilbert says. “Each time I faced criticism over my life choices from teachers, it dramatically worsened my depression.”

Certain demographics are also more likely to be impacted by chronic absenteeism, according to a 2016 study by the DOE. Students of American Indian or Pacific Islander backgrounds are 50 percent

a learner’s driving permit, if they are under the age of 16.

Scott says that family members may also face the consequences of a student’s chronic absenteeism.

“The student and the family can be referred to the courts for a hearing,” she says. “Ultimately jail time can be the result for the parent.”

According to Maryland law, a parent may be fined up to $500 and imprisoned up to 30 days if the parent did not make a reasonable effort to send his or her child to school.

eyesus, missing school due to a concussion resulted in a drastic change in his academic performance. “[In] sophomore year my grades dropped,” he says. “They were lower than they’ve ever been in my life.”

Like Gebreyesus, Gilbert’s grades were affected by her frequent absences. “My grades were terrible, and at the end of each quarter and semester I’d really plead with teachers, so I wouldn’t fail out of high school,” Gilbert says. “I couldn’t care to put in effort daily when no matter how much effort I put in, I was still out of place.”

Sarah says that confronting her teachers also made returning to school difficult. “I found that some of my worst experiences in high school have been dealing with teachers yelling at me for being absent, even though I honestly was absent because I could not come to school,” she says.

Sarah adds that some of her teachers responded angrily to her truancy, even when she received high grades in their classes. “I’ve just been yelled at for it, even though I did well in their classes and I worked hard,” she says.

“They hated me all year, just because I was absent a few times.”

The internal struggle faced by students is echoed by Rina Pesce, a psychologist at the Behavior Therapy Center of Greater Washington.

“A student living with the challenges of anxiety or depression can really fly under the radar,” she says.

While Pesce acknowledges how challenging mental illnesses can be, she says that if the stress is not physical, students should try to go to school. “Overall, I would say it is mostly better to go to school, even if one is feeling emotionally stressed,” she says. “Having a plan for dealing with that stress is important, and talking with teachers, parents, and caring friends can help.”

In-school solutions In 2014, the state of Maryland sought help from the nonprofit organization Attendance Works to address chronic absenteeism, according to an article by the Washington Post. In collaboration with school boards and state officials, Attendance Works strives to re-

SHIVANI MATTIKALLI

duce chronic absenteeism during the first month of school.

Since 2013, the organization has recognized September as Attendance Awareness Month, drawing attention to the fact that students who are frequently absent in September tend to continue missing school throughout the year.

Some students have taken it upon themselves to find alternative ways of dealing with absences, but say they have not always found a warm reception.

Sarah says she tried to develop a digital method for keeping up with schoolwork. “One thing that I wanted to do one time was video chat into class, with my camera or my phone and stuff and I could watch it from home,” she says.

“But the teacher rejected that.”

Sarah acknowledges that a virtual class program could be abused by students who were simply cutting class. “Something like that would help because then I wouldn’t miss the lesson, I could still learn, but, I don’t want to encourage people not to come to school,” she says. In Griffin’s case, her grades were not severely impacted, so she says her chronic absences did not feel wrong.

She says that more involvement from administration and teachers would have been beneficial. “If you’re missing more than a couple of days, maybe they should try to talk to you,” she says. “Like if it’s like a couple of days in a row or you miss a day every week, they should definitely send a letter home, because if they did that for me last year, I think I would’ve gotten the notion that, ‘You need to start doing your work.’”

Griffin’s difficulties, which were sleep-related, could potentially be addressed when the Board of Education reconsiders high school start times.

According to Gilbert, taking online classes allowed her to stay in school. “If I had known online [school] wasn’t as grueling or lonely as it seemed to me beforehand, I would have tried it freshman year, and gotten out as soon as I could have,” she says.

Despite all of the challenges that lead to chronic absenteeism, some students still want to attend school regularly. “I just try to come to school as much as I can,” Sarah says. “I think that coming to school most of the time is better than not coming to school at all.”

The price of being absent Even if their absences are excused, chronically absent students encounter roadblocks, both mentally and physically.

Griffin says that making up late work can add to the pressure of school. “I would have to catch up and talk to all my teachers after school, and sometimes it took me a long time to retake tests and it was just very stressful.”

For senior senior Abeselom Gebr-

SHIVANI MATTIKALLI

C2 Features

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October 6, 2016

The secret life of forbidden relationships at Blair For some students, dating exclusively at school is the only option

By Emma Cross

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources.

Junior Amanda looks around in anticipation as she walks down the street with her boyfriend. She remains tense with her hand by her side, unable to publicly display her affection, terrified that any small action could reveal her secret. She never expected her relationship to be easy, but her relationship would become much more difficult with the pressure of disapproval from her parents.

Relationships in high school are always complicated, but try dating someone that you know your parents would not like. As students settle back into the school year, some of their classmates are working as hard on their homework as they are on keeping their family from finding out who they are dating.

Amanda also attributes her parent’s disapproval of her relationships to their cultural background.

“They came here from China, [they expect me] to focus… on [my] future, and not boys,” Amanda says.

their daughter’s dating life. Her parent’s disapproval of a former six-month relationship was specific to her choice in partner rather than her relationship as a whole.“My parents didn’t like [my girlfriend]

his girlfriend’s parents, Jacob has been avoiding any suspicion by limiting the relationship to within the school day. “We make do at school,” he says.

Amanda also uses school and

The stress of it all

A forbidden affair Jacob, a senior, started dating his girlfriend over the summer.

Jacob’s parents do not have any strong feelings, but his girlfriend’s parents had a different reaction.

Cultural differences between Jacob and his girlfriend force them to hide their relationship. “I’m Indian, she’s Chinese, there is a deep-seated, ingrained hatred between the two countries, which has only been exacerbated [in the disapproval of this relationship],” he says. Since June, Jacob’s courtship has been repressed as his girlfriend’s parents express their disapproval.

dezvous in and around the school to have the most time with her boyfriend.

Abigail, however, hid her relationship in plain sight, telling her parents that her girlfriend was just a friend, “We played it off as though we were really close,” she says. Doing this, Abigail was able to avoid confrontation with her parents on the subject.

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

SECRET LOVE Some students are willing to risk their parents’ wrath in order to be with the one they love.

Her parents will only allow her to date once she is successful, though she has still managed to have multiple long-term relationships in high school.

Sophomore Abigail’s parents also harbor strong feelings about

as a person,” Abigail says. “They were really suspicious and set lots of rules only for that person.”

Sneaky tactics With strong disapproval from

extracurricular activities as a way to hide her relationship. “I play a sport ... It’s usually okay because [my parents] are so busy that they can’t come to my sports game,” she says. She makes the most of this opportunity by having secret ren-

Across three different relationships, parties agree that hiding their dating life is hard, regardless of the circumstances. The relationships are not ideal, because those involved are limited in the time they can spend with their partners.

“It’s really stressful to constantly be covering that up,” Abigail says.

“It might have gone better if we had just told them from the start.”

After ending a nine-month secret relationship, Amanda realizes that forbidden relationships are not worth the emotional hardship, “Every single night I go to sleep, I worry that someone might find out …” Amanda says. “It’s really not worth it. It causes an emotional drain actually; you begin to focus more on trying to keep it a secret than [the relationship itself].”

In a forbidden relationship, options are limited. But, according to Jacob, there are ways to go about secret courtships that will make them much easier. “Make the most of what you can do,” Jacob says. “You have a finite number of things, finite amount of time, finite amount of places you can go, so make the most out of each and every one of those.”

Blair’s entertainers are not just clowning around

Two kinds of performances students enjoy for the same reason

By Noah Chopra-Khan

“What the heck!” one student exclaims, pacing up and down the classroom with his hands on his head, trying to make sense of what he just saw. “Seriously, how did you do that? Stop playing.”

reason why they are doing magic, they will say the reaction they get, because it’s just invaluable,” Kumar says.

Kumar insists that you have to be a magician to feel the joy that comes from a startled face or the look of amazed disbelief in some-

Kumar has a humble, easygoing presence. His confidence comes from practice and mastery of tricks and illusions. He says he knows how to improvise but generally follows a practiced routine.

Craig sprints in the other direction. Purposely outrageous and over-the-top, he says his goal is comedy through spontaneity. “I notice when I am telling a joke sometimes and it’s okay, and they just give me this sh**ty tepid laughter that I hate. And then sometimes I will say something outrageous and they will go, ‘Oh s**t!’ Just shocked!” Craig says. “I realize I like that reaction a lot more than that sh**ty tepid laughter.”

A magical beginning

SAMI MALLON

CAPTIVATING MAGIC Senior Suriya Kumar shows off his special skills during lunch and is greeted by the amazement of fellow students.

Another student simply gets up and leaves, shaking her head on the way out, while a third person sits across from senior Suriya Kumar, staring at the card Kumar just picked out of the deck. A minute ago, he selected the card randomly and shuffled it back into the deck himself. And now the card lies on the table in front of him. Kumar grins.

The joy of entertaining “If you asked any magicians the

one’s eyes. From experience, he says that reactions vary. “Different people react in different ways. Like some people will be like, ‘Oh that’s a nice trick.’ And some people go crazy about [it].”

Senior Lucas Craig, an actor and comedian, can relate to this feeling.

He enjoys performance of any kind because of the vibes he can draw from a large crowd. “I love acting, I love improvising anything. I rap. I sing. I am in a band,” Craig says. “I love being in front of a crowd. I get energy from that.”

Kumar became interested in magic during the summer before ninth grade, when his uncle’s friend showed him a magic trick.

“It was a simple card trick but at that moment I wanted to know, ‘What is he doing?’ Like ‘How is this even possible?’” he says.

Kumar’s magic also taught him how to socialize when he needed to make friends. He started high school at Blair immediately after emigrating from India, and Kumar says magic helped him gain confidence to meet new people. “My freshman year I was a lonely kid. I didn’t know anyone except two or three friends,” he says. “Magic got me really into how to talk to people and I can approach anyone right now.”

Craig has been comfortable in front of large crowds and new people for a long time, but says he started cracking jokes to deal with other kids’ teasing.

“I had a tick, it’s called complex motor stereotypy, it’s a finger movement. I don’t really have it anymore,” Craig says. “When I was a kid, it was pretty bad, and kids would make fun of that because they thought it was pretty weird. Anyway, I started making fun of that more than anybody else.

Every time someone caught me doing it, instead of feeling all embarrassed or feeling sorry for myself, I would make a joke about it.”

“They started to get to know me, instead of the kid who had the tick, as the kid who made fun of it, who was funny, who was cool.

Once I realized I was funny, I sort of just one day was like ‘f**k, I’m funny, that’s f**king awesome.’”

The appeal Magic tricks and jokes both re-

quire a captivating performance.

People want to be distracted and entertained.

High school students especially want a break from stressing over homework, parents, and other problems. A joke makes fun of reality, while a magic trick allows people to leave it behind, if only for a couple of seconds.

Craig got into comedy because he needed a way to escape his own situation. Now, his goal is to provide a similar outlet for others.

“When people ask me what I want to be, the only [answer] that’s ever seemed like something I actually want to do is comedy,” he says.

Craig says he tries to return the positivity he gets from performing in front of a happy crowd.

“I love sharing that energy,” he says, “and then giving it back to them.”

SAMI MALLON

SHOCK AND AWE Students stare in amazement as they witness their peers’ unique and memorable entertainment skills in the SAC.

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October 6, 2016

Entrepreneurs at Blair learn to mind their own businesses Students get a head start on building a career through creativity and self-employment

By Gilda Geist A plain black notebook falls open to reveal pages and pages of brightly colored shapes, designs, and drawings, all bearing the name Moy Silk. The phrase “God Hates Moy” superimposed atop a rainbow flag fills up one page, and spiky purple letters outlined in black and green adorn another. This small book contains much more than just absentminded doodling — any one of the colorful sketches could end up being printed on one of the Tshirts that senior Marcus Murphy makes and sells for his business.

Many students at Blair already know what they want to do when they grow up, but some students are getting a head start while they are still here. Young

entrepreneurs at Blair are, in the spirit of business, jumping at the opportunity to gain experience for their entrepreneurial futures.

Launching an enterprise While running a business may be a daunting task, some students at Blair have plenty of stories of success.

Murphy started his T-shirt business, Moy Silk, at the beginning of last year. Since then, he has sold over 100 T-shirts, and his brand name has become familiar among Blair students.

Murphy’s business started out as a hobby. He says he would make shirts just to give to his close friends, but after a while, others began to take notice and ask him if he could make shirts for them too.

“Once I got that enough times, I was like, ‘You know what, I can make money off this,’” Murphy says.

Senior Amy Gilbert is also pursuing her own business by baking up a storm. Over the summer, she operated Subourbon Bakery, which specializes in bourbon coconut blondies.

Meaghan and Caitlin Murphy, owners of Capital City Cheesecake in Takoma Park, allowed Gilbert to use their kitchen space and sell her blondies through their restaurant. By the end of the summer, Gilbert says she had sold between 60 and 70 blondies.

Junior Aiyana Chery is also pursuing a baking business, but with a different approach. As part of Blair’s Entrepreneurship Academy, Chery she was assigned to develop a business plan. She made

SAMI MALLON

OPEN FOR BUSINESS Marcus Murphy plans designs in his notebook for his t-shirt company, Moy Silk.

a pitch for a baking business and brought in cupcakes for her project. “When a lot of people bought them, I was surprised,” she says.

According to Kevin Murley, the lead teacher of the Entrepreneurship Academy, when high schoolers start businesses, they are preparing themselves for future ventures. “They get a little taste for the personal responsibility and the initiative that it takes to actually run your own business, and so they get inspired,” he says.

Putting ideas into action Murphy’s production process has three main steps. First, he creates a design in his notebook or on his computer. Then, he looks for shirts at thrift stores. After that, he prints the design on the shirts, either with the help of friends, or using his own silk screen. Finally, the shirts are ready to sell.

Murphy says that the prices of his shirts fluctuate. “Every shirt’s different,” Murphy says. “It also depends on who I’m selling it to. So let’s say it’s someone that I don’t really like, but they want a shirt. I might charge them more.”

Gilbert’s process began by finding how much each ingredient cost in order to determine the selling price for the blondies. Then she baked and packaged two large batches over the course of the summer, the first of which sold out in four days.

According to Murley, students can gain valuable experience from running a business, including important skills in finance and marketing, as well as life skills like responsibility and communication. “Anytime that you actually take steps toward actually doing a business, the learning has begun,” he says.

Gilbert found her experience learning how to manage money and profit particularly valuable. With help from the owners of Capital City Cheesecake, Meaghan and Caitlin Murphy, Gilbert was able to learn more about business and finance.

Looking into the future Some student entrepreneurs at Blair have pinpointed what they want for their businesses, their careers, and themselves after high school.

Moy Silk is a venture Murphy says he wants to continue after graduation. He says that regardless of what he sells in the future or how his business evolves, he wants the brand name Moy Silk to stay with him. “It’s definitely not temporary,” he says. “I’m going to be rich, I’m going to be famous, and Moy Silk is just my current way of getting me there.”

Unlike Murphy, Gilbert’s business was temporary. Despite Subourbon Bakery’s short life span, Gilbert’s business is closely correlated with the career path she says she wants to pursue in the future.

“This is sort of the starting point for exactly what I want to do in the future, because I would like to own a bakery, and I would like, maybe, to sell bourbon blondies,” she says.

Gilbert’s plans for the future include studying business in college, completing a culinary program, baking in her own kitchen, and selling at her own store.

Similarly to Gilbert, Chery also wants to sell her baked goods in the future. “For a long time, I’ve wanted to be a baker,” she says.

Chery says she also wants to attend college to learn business, pursue baking as a career, and eventually open her own bakery.

Staff members share their perspectives on the first weeks of school Teachers are eager to make a good first impression when they start a new school year

By Henry Wiebe He takes a deep breath as he enters the gaping front doors of the school and slowly trudges toward his first period classroom.

He got to school early for the first day and is wearing an outfit that he picked out the night before. He brings a bag along with him that contains the work he has completed in preparation for the start of classes. He looks around at the hundreds of unfamiliar faces of the kids who will dictate the sentiment of his year. Despite the feelings of anxiety and stress, he is excited to start school again, and is ready to see what the new year will hold. He reaches his room before anyone else and unpacks his materials on the desk at the front of the room, preparing to teach his first lesson of the school year.

For teachers, a lot depends on the first few weeks of school. It is important for them to think about how to portray themselves. If they appear too strict, their students will dislike them. If they do not appear serious enough, students will walk all over them. “You are always nervous,” social studies teacher Kevin Shindel says. “The first week you want to set a really strong foundation for what is going to come up, and I have definitely seen things where if that foundation wasn’t set, or if the relationship wasn’t established, or something didn’t happen in those first few days, it is going to take you a while to recover.” Preparation can help make the difference

in being able to set this foundation.

That time before school involves hard work from teachers that students rarely get a chance to see. Many instructors spend weeks planning lessons and working hard to make sure that their course and lesson structures are coherent and relevant for students.

Waking up early can be tough on teachers during the start of school, so many try to relax and before the first week. “I just tried to sleep in and enjoy that before this killer early schedule. It’s stressful the first few weeks,” ESOL teacher Danelle James said.

Some teachers even take the relaxation a step beyond getting a good night’s sleep and allow themselves a few extra days of vacation. “I went down to Ocean City with a group of my friends,” Physical Education teacher Louis Hoelman says, laughing.

“And I was down there the week before that with my family.”

Just before the school year begins, Shindel especially looks forward to the introduction topics that he covers during the first few days of classes. The effects of these class conversations are often comedic to him. “I broke a student,” Shindel says with a grin. “The student came, and we got into some heavy discussion, and the student after class just said, ‘you broke me’.”

Shindel says that students in his class in past years have also said that his discussions have “broken them”. He likes to start the first weeks of school with deep, intellectual discussions that can be

MARISSA HE

THE VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE Teachers feel nervous and excited for their first weeks of school. shocking for students who may have been expecting a smoother transition into the school year, and he thinks that these class debates often help him get to know his new students a little bit.

Compared to the other staff members at Blair, second year math teacher Grace Hsu is very young. This, coupled with the

fact that she is still new to the school, makes for some awkward encounters with both students and other faculty members.

“I got mistaken as a student several times … By teachers, students, everyone,” Hsu says. To prevent this, she tried to dress more formally than she would usually prefer. “I was re-

ally dressed up, and I thought that would help, but it didn’t.”

Despite the awkwardness and anxiety that accompanies the start of the school year, the teachers are happy to be back at Blair.

“We are excited to come back,” Hoelman says. “[We are] sorry to give up summer, but excited to come back and start a new year.”

October 6, 2016

UnaCcompanied i

silverc

The stories of minors who left their and traveled to the United State

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identit Marvin Hernandez sits wedged between two other boys. He shifts uncomfortably with his back against the rough bark of a large tree. It is pitch black, but the rustling of animals in the distance reminds him that the night is very much alive. He hears the howling of wolves as they roam the forest.

At any moment, something could lunge out from the darkness and attack the boys. But Hernandez and his companions know their only option is to remain in the forest and press forward in the morning. Back home lie dangers more terrifying than wolves.

Hernandez, now a junior at Blair, fled from his home in Usulutan, El Salvador, when he was just 16. He is among the thousands of unaccompanied children who make the trek from countries like Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador without a parent or guardian.

Leaving in search of a better life Four years ago, at the age of 15, senior Alexander left Usulutan, El Salvador, to escape gang violence. He says that members of the group Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) continually harassed

when they told me that they were going to send me back, I told him I would rather stay in jail.

“

”

I’m a dead man if I go back.

and attempted to kill him. “First th they said, if they see me Alexander him regularly, and even attempted to ted him on a street corner and began Alexander says he ran to his scho office. “When he wouldn’t say wher was my first friend who died becau He estimates that now, close to 80 Salvador have perished at the hands Three months after this confronta U.S. Hernandez says he faced similar in El Salvador, though he simply w being a young person, they would explains. “There was always the dan side…there were going to be gangs.

Adolescents living in many Lat considered prime targets for gang many young people share experien nandez and Alexander. A 2014 stud Nations High Commissioner for R dren from Guatemala, Honduras, a 48 percent of these children had ex home country.

While violence is a major motiv nied minors to leave their homes, fac cation and poverty play a larger role Adrian, a sophomore, lived in Ho ents. He says he came to the U.S. to to America before him in search of e better quality of life.

Adrian says that he grew up lea place where there were gold streets.”

States of America, it was living a d The expense of traveling made it im ly to leave for the U.S. together at th The costliness and danger of the Alexander and Hernandez to embar their families. Although the decision a difficult one, both feel that it was n their loved ones.

Coming to th

Hernandez left his home one A two shirts, two pairs of pants, and a a backpack.

He embarked on the journey alo with a group of boys traveling the hitchhiked, and bussed through sev taking boats to cross rivers. When t they pooled their money and bough the sun was out, Hernandez says t ering as much distance as possible. sleep wherever they happened to be Many boys in the group had alre fore. Their experience was invaluab when the group attempted to slip a Mexican borders. “They knew exact dez says.

During particularly rough nights, Hernandez. “I don’t think I would ha I did without them,” he says.

Alexander, on the other hand, tra him three busses and $300 to reach M rides, Alexander mostly slept and tr police would make all the people g them, but they never say anything to was always hidden in there.”

Alexander’s father, who was alre ranged for a human smuggler, comm to guide him through Mexico and ac Once Alexander sailed across the coyote abandoned him, and Alexan three days, he roamed the desert an dad. One morning, he stumbled up the night under a fire truck.

Luckily for Alexander, a schoolt ing and offered to take him in. The father, who arranged for the boy’s u

into a new Life,

rchips

r homes es alone

tities of the sources.

they stole my bicycle. Then er says gang members tailed d to trap him. Once, they spotan to chase him on their bikes. hool and hid in the principal’s ere I was, they shot him. That ause of me,” Alexander says.

0 percent of his friends in El ds of gangs. ntation, Alexander left for the

ar pressures to join gang life wanted to be at school. “Just d want me to be in one,” he anger that if you walked outs.” atin American countries are ng recruitment. As a result, ences similar to those of Herudy conducted by the United Refugees surveyed 404 chiland Mexico, and found that experienced violence in their

ivator for many unaccompafactors such as family reunifiole for some.

Honduras with his grandparto join his parents who came economic opportunity and a

earning that America was “a s.” “If you went to the United dream come true,” he says. mpossible for his entire famithe same time. he trip to America also forced ark on their journeys without on to leave their families was necessary in order to protect

the US

August morning with $100, d a sweater, all crammed into

lone, but soon found himself he same path. They walked, everal countries, occasionally n their stomachs were empty, ght food together. As long as s they pushed forward, cove. They rested their heads to be when night fell. lready attempted the trek beable to Hernandez, especially p across the Guatemalan and ctly where to cross,” Hernan-

ts, the companionship helped have been able to get as far as

traveled mostly alone. It took h Mexico. During the long bus tried to avoid attention. “The e get off the bus and register to me,” Alexander recalls. “I

lready living in America, armmonly known as a “coyote”, across the border. he Rio Grande into Texas, his xander was quickly lost. For and attempted to contact his upon a small town and spent

olteacher found him wandere man contacted Alexander’s uncle to pick him up.

Alexander’s uncle never showed up.

Confused and frightened, Alexander headed back toward the Mexican-American border.

For Adrian, the first day of his journey to the U.S. was the most difficult. “It was when my grandma and grandpa went to leave me at the border of Honduras and Guatemala,” he says.

Adrian says it took two years for his parents, who were working illegally in the U.S., to save enough money to pay a coyote to guide him from Guatemala to Silver Spring. After saying goodbye to his grandparents, Adrian boarded a plane for the first time in his life and flew to Mexico from Guatemala with the coyote. He was only six years old.

Adrian was driven to a safe house located along the U.S.-Mexico border and owned by the coyote. The house was brimming with people also attempting to enter the U.S. There, Adrian says they waited for several days until the time was right to cross the border. Immediately after boating across the Rio Grande, Adrian and his coyote were picked up by a large, windowless van. They drove for miles and did not stop until they reached Four Corners. “It felt like a [kidnapping] because you were stuck in there. You couldn’t talk, you couldn’t say anything,” Adrian says.

Caught at the border Entering the U.S. legally was not an option for Alexander, Hernandez, and Adrian. According to Alexander, visas are very difficult to obtain, and his application was rejected. In addition, visas may take multiple years to be approved, such as in the case of Adrian’s grandmother, who received her visa after two years of waiting.

For those in positions similar to Alexander and Hernandez, two years is time they do not have. They say their only option is to enter the country illegally.

As a result, many unaccompanied minors, including Alexander and Hernandez, are apprehended at the border. In the first six months of the 2016 fiscal year alone, the U.S. Border Patrol stopped 27,754 unaccompanied minors as they attempted to enter the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

Alexander and Hernandez both agree that crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. was the most difficult part of their trip.

The U.S.-Mexican border, which runs along the Rio Grande River, is a fence swarming with Border Patrol Agents (BPAs), dogs, and helicopters.

As they attempted to cross the border, Hernandez and his companions hid in bushes while dodging an overhead helicopter. He says they walked for hours until they reached a gate that separated them from the U.S. But on the other side, they were met by BPAs, dogs, and helicopters that caught them.

After leaving the teacher in Texas when his uncle did not show up to meet him, Alexander traveled south and found himself back at the U.S.-Mexico border. There, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested him. “They put me in a car, they were yelling at me,” Alexander says.

Hernandez and Alexander were each taken to a detention center after their arrests, and their fathers were contacted. Both describe the centers as frigid, concrete rooms packed with other detainees who had also been caught at the border.

They recall shivering under the plastic covers that they were given to keep warm. “You are always seeing the light and the concrete,” Alexander says. “You can’t tell the difference between day and night.”

After two days, Hernandez was flown to Chicago, where he stayed in a housing complex with other immigrants. Throughout the ordeal, Hernandez says he was left uninformed of what would happen to him. “They didn’t tell me anything. So I didn’t know if I was going to go back or if I was going to go with my father,” he says.

Alexander was initially told that he would be sent back to El Salvador. Crushed and frightened, Alexander told the officers that he “would rather stay in jail…because [he was] a dead man if [he went] back.”

After contacting his father, Alexander was eventually transferred to another housing complex. His father was called once again, this time to fill out several forms so that Alexander could be released to his care.

Adrian says he managed to avoid ICE officers when he entered the country. As a result, he and his parents are living as undocumented and unprocessed immigrants in the U.S.

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found that they are not alone in their experiences as formerly unaccompanied minors. Hernandez acknowledges that having a community of students with shared experiences has given him a sense of perspective. “I learned that a lot of people suffered more than I did,” he says.

Additionally, this network of students and teachers can be crucial in finding resources like food banks and housing.

Adrian feels that he was lucky to be able to attend highly diverse elementary, middle and high schools. “I didn’t feel like a total outsider… I didn’t feel that big barrier between me,” Adrian says. Learning English was also significantly easier because many of his friends spoke Spanish and English.

Although many unaccompanied minors establish lives in the US, there is always a fog of uncertainty surrounding the future.

Until they can become naturalized citizens of the US, the possibility of deportation looms.

In 2012, President Obama issued an executive order called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allowed illegal immigrants who entered the country before the age of 16, and prior to June 2007, to receive a temporary work-permit and immunity from deportation. Adrian could not qualify for DACA at this point because he was unable to prove that he entered the country before June 2007.

Obama expanded the program in 2014 to include those who met the same requirements, but entered the country before January 1st, 2010. However, a Texas District Court quickly filed an injunction against the expansion, pausing Adrian’s case and leaving many in limbo.

Martinez, who is also unqualified for DACA, is in a similar predicament. In October, he will present himself in court for the second time, and may be deported to El Salvador.

In contrast, Alexander, who has obtained his work permit, will soon have a social security number. On October 5th, he was

If you went to the United States of America,

“

A new home and an uncertain future Unaccompanied minors face many challenges even after successfully entering the U.S. They are able to enroll in public school, regardless of their legal status. However, in a majority of cases, these students do not speak English, which makes adjustment to a new culture even more difficult. In MCPS, students can take English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.

ESOL 2 teacher Robyn Gopin says that this language barrier is frustrating for many students. “It’s a challenge because they want to say more than they are capable of saying,” she explains.

At Blair, however, Alexander, Hernandez, and Adrian have

”

it was living a dream come true. interviewed by immigration officials, and may be granted asylum in the near future.

Sharing their experiences can still be difficult for some students who immigrated to the U.S. alone. However, Alexander stresses that it is important that students who choose to tell their stories are heard. “Sometimes we see people differently, and we don’t know the reason why they are here or what they went through to get here,” Alexander says. “I think we all deserve an opportunity.”

story by: Serena Debesai art by: Shivani Mattikali design by: Dawson Do & Brianna Forté

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October 6, 2016

Despite fire and tragedy, a community pulls together Neighborhood members reflect on the impact of the Flower Branch apartment fire

from FIRE page A1

did not go back inside until 4 a.m.

Freshman Oscar Avelar says he initially only heard a thump and vibrating windows, so he glanced out the window. He did not know what the sound was, and did not know if his parents had heard it too.

When Avelar checked the window again, he saw smoke. His family ran out of the apartment, checking to see if people were okay. “I didn’t expect that in my neighborhood,” Avelar says, but there he was, helping his father evacuate residents to the other side of the property.

Firefighters were dispatched at 11:55 p.m. to respond to the fire.

Neither Captain William Cooke from the Silver Spring Fire Station 16 nor Captain John Peppel from the Takoma Park Volunteer Fire Department expected to see several apartment buildings engulfed in flame. “Normally, when we go on a call for a fire, you’ll have a house fire or an apartment fire with minimal fire involvement, maybe a bedroom, or a room or two,” Peppel says.

This apartment fire was different. People were hanging out of windows and screaming for help.

“It looked like ash was just raining,” sophomore Michaelangelo Villavicencio says.

Cooke describes the fire as the worst he has seen in his career.

“This is by far the largest fire that I initially was on, with the most complex problems,” he says.

The explosion was caused by a gas leak which continued fueling the fire until it was shut off, so the fire continued to grow. The buildings at 8701 and 8703 Arliss Street collapsed entirely.

According to Peppel, putting out the fire was unusually difficult.

“Normally what we would do on a fire would be a little bit different than this one. This one, we had immediate rescues to make, so our first goal is to protect ... the people who need rescuing and then get them rescued as quickly as possible,” Peppel says. The firefighters had to simultaneously douse the buildings with water and set up ladders to rescue residents trapped in the burning building.

The firefighters left the scene at 7 a.m. The fire was no longer burning uncontrollably, but according to Peppel, there were still hot spots in the debris and the buildings were still in danger of collapse.

Thirty-five residents had been injured, three firefighters were hurt, and seven people, young and old, had lost their lives.

The morning after The next morning, the neighborhood was quiet, still shocked by the chaos of the night before.

According to Avelar, residents whose houses were safe to return to stayed inside all day.

Surrounding streets were closed off by police, so few people could leave the complex. Avelar says he stayed with friends the day after the fire, “just to stay together.”

Weeks after the fire, the neighborhood is still quieter than before.

“We don’t see the people that we used to back then, because a lot of them got evacuated,” Canjura says.

About 100 people lost their homes on the night of Aug. 10. The displaced were sent to a temporary shelter at Long Branch Community Center, down the street from the fire. “I was scared. I was crying because we had lost everything,” Guillermo Fuentes says in Spanish, who lived in the building that caught fire.

At Long Branch, the county provided shelter, food, therapy, and recreation programs for the displaced children. The Community Center served as the host shelter for the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, the Red Cross, and the County’s Emergency Preparedness and Management Team.

These departments brought nurses and doctors to tend to victims with non-life threatening injuries, according to Long Branch Recreation Center Director Morris Buster. They also brought in therapists and provided free therapy to victims of the fire. “We had a van, to take kids to the YMCA for camp, you know for the day program.

And other agencies had busses that go to the crisis center in Rockville,” Buster says. “Everything was accessible to people if they needed something.”

items to donate. “The cars did not stop. It wasn’t like, you know, one car would unload and we’d have to wait a couple minutes before the next car came in, it was like a continuous stream of cars coming in,” Phoolsombat says.

Some Blair students who felt the jolt of the explosion themselves also pitched in to help their neighbors. Canjura volunteered at the Long Branch Community Center, and helped the Red Cross package supplies such as diapers, toothbrushes, and laundry detergent, while Villavicencio bought canned food and other supplies to contribute to the drive.

Long Branch employees were at the center on shifts for 24 hours a day responding to the victims’ needs, according to Buster. “I don’t know how it happened but we just came together and just had to work.”

Some residents who remain in the complex live in constant anxiety that this tragedy might repeat itself. “With the people who witnessed it, it’s more like we’re waiting for something to happen so we’re always on the edge, we’re always thinking, or we’re always stressing that something could happen,” Canjura says. “I remember my mom telling me, ‘Okay, we need to have a plan for a fire escape in case something happens.’”

To help ease the dread of living in the complex, Canjura went to free therapy sessions at the Long Branch Community Center. Living in a building near the origin of the fire “was just getting too much to handle,” Canjura explains.

During the weeks after the fire, she attended cross country practice in the morning, but the rest of her days fell into a monotonous routine. “I would start panicking. I re-

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

ABC7 reported that the resident, Adrian Boya, called 911 at 10:16 p.m., and firefighters arrived at 10:20 p.m. After spending 12 minutes on the property, the firefighters left. Officials are still investigating what the responding unit did on the scene.

The National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB), the lead agency investigating the official cause of the fire, has not yet released a report confirming the source of the gas that caused the explosion.

To Canjura, the firefighters’ dismissal of the smell of gas illustrates a larger problem. The Flower Branch apartments are part of a largely Latino immigrant community, and Canjura feels that a serious complaint coming from a different demographic might have received more attention. “If this was more in a richer neighborhood this would’ve been taken care of immediately,” she says. “We’re a minority, and that’s one of the reasons I’m advocating ... for this incident to get more exposure.”

Canjura feels that the safety of housing available to lower-income minorities is often overlooked, simply because that is the only housing they can afford.

Looking forward

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

HOPE LIVES ON A stuffed animal memorial hangs from the fence outside of one of the destroyed buildings.

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

MASS DESTRUCTION One of the apartment buildings lies decimated after the fire and explosion of Aug. 10.

The food and goods that Long Branch dispersed were collected

by CASA de Maryland, a local organization that helps make the immigrant community aware of their rights. Senior Ramida Phoolsombat volunteered at CASA de Maryland, sorting donations for the fire victims.

Phoolsombat says that baby supplies and food were in high demand, and the community responded by donating the essentials. However, the victims needed more than just food and water.

“People didn’t think about basic things like pots and pans, like everyday things. When you think disaster you think, you know, clothes, food, water. After that immediate recovery, then they had to think about the long term,” Phoolsombat says. Victims of the fire had to restart their lives with nothing, and Phoolsombat says that the community’s generosity helped these families remain on their feet.

At CASA de Maryland’s location on University Boulevard, the community demonstrated overwhelming support by dropping off

The mental effects For days after the fire was out, smoke continued to rise from the charred buildings. Eventually it stopped, but community members say the mental effects of the horrific night still linger. “It’s like PTSD,” CASA de Maryland Youth Organizer Rommel Sandino explains in Spanish. “They will be at their jobs… and in that moment their mind will begin to relive the experience, and they begin to tremble, they begin to sweat, and they lose attention, and they lose control of their body.”

Former resident Bolivar Fuentes says that memories from the night of the fire follow him wherever he goes. “I have to push myself to get out, to walk in the street, and to try to forget this. And to try to eat too, I have lost control of everything,” he says in Spanish.

Bolivar Fuentes goes to therapy to help him process what happened to him that night. There, they tell him to do daily deep breathing exercises to help him fight through the mental anguish.

ally didn’t want to do much during my day,” she says.

Canjura says the therapists told her that this feeling was normal, and would eventually subside.

Like Bolivar Fuentes, she learned breathing exercises to help calm her whenever she started to panic, and she received advice on how to deal with her anxiety.

To Villavicencio, life has generally returned to normal, but the experience still resonates with him. ”Just knowing that it happened, it feels unsettling,” he says.

Villavicencio also worries that another explosion might happen in his own apartment, and he says he is concerned for the safety of his 18-month-old and 4-month-old siblings. “Their safety was my concern, first,” he says, recalling when the fire alarm first sounded on the night of the fire.

Signs of trouble On July 25, only a few weeks before the fire, a Flower Branch resident called 911 concerned about a gas smell, according to ABC7.

Residents who lost their homes have begun the search for a new place to live. Guillermo Fuentes and his brother Bolivar Fuentes received some help from Kay Management, the complex’s management company, and are now living in Wheaton.

Many residents have been relocated to other buildings that Kay Management owns in the Silver Spring and Wheaton area, according to CASA de Maryland’s Sandino.

CASA de Maryland is organizing the tenants of Flower Branch apartments to help them improve communications with the management. “It has been a month and Kay Management has not communicated to the tenants any development of the situation or what they’re doing to prevent this from happening in the future,” Sandino says. CASA also plans to take legal action against those responsible for the fire after the NTSB releases a full report of the investigation.

Canjura, Avelar, and Villavicencio have returned to school and to their apartments. Buildings with structural damage now have a fence around them, and security guards prevent people from returning to them. A small memorial has been placed in the fence as a reminder of the lives that were lost in the fire.

According to Canjura, the community needs to move forward, and prevent this from happening again. She says that neighbors need to “be in contact with all facility companies, whether it’s your electricity or gas, anything like that, just to make sure that ... everything is the way that it’s supposed to be.”

The Flower Branch Apartment fires bring new attention to the issue of apartment safety. The tragedy shook the community, but it also demonstrated the resilience and charitable spirit of Silver Spring.

The Fuentes brothers have lost everything, but remain hopeful. Guillermo Fuentes says he is working harder than ever to get his normal life back. “We need to overcome the situation, not look back, and keep moving forward,” he says.

Esquina Latina reporters Michael Hernandez and Sofia Muñoz contributed to this story.

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October 6, 2016

D1 Entertainment

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October 6, 2016

Silver Chips’ Declassified School Survival Guide: Freshman Year Edition

By Christian Mussenden Being a freshman at Blair entails one of two things. It can be a great experience to make lifelong friends, get exposed to perspectives from people of many different backgrounds, and learn new things inside and outside of the classroom. Or, it can be a miserable year to get lost in the crowd of 3,000 people and pray for June 15 to arrive as quickly as possible.

To prevent the latter from happening, Silver Chips presents the freshman class with an expert guide on how to successfully navigate their freshman year.

Tip #1: Do not be afraid to meet new people.

There are approximately 3,000 students at Blair. Attending school with such a huge population leaves it up to you to make a couple friends from the 3,000. You can always go out into the halls and choose a random person to try to befriend, but chances are that you will have better luck talking to your classmates.

There is no foolproof way to casually introduce yourself to somebody you do not know, but there are ways to prevent the unbearable awkwardness.

Standard topics like school work, teachers, Blair sports, and clubs are great ways to spark a conversation. Always try to keep your cool when talking to someone you do not know. You do not have to laugh at all of their jokes, or agree with everything they say; just be yourself. As long as you do that, you will eventually find someone that appreciates you for you.

Tip #2: Navigate lunch like a champion.

Without a doubt, the most stressful time of the day for freshmen is walking into the SAC during lunch, where half of the school crams into the lunch booths and huddles on the floor of the hallways. Lunch can be overwhelming, even for upperclassmen. If you find yourself without a seat, it can become one of the most dreaded parts of the day.

To navigate lunch like a seasoned veteran, the first thing you should do is try and find a group of people you know, and carve out a piece of real estate. These people do not have to be your best friends; they just have to be a group of people that will not make you count down the forty-five minutes until

CALEB BAUMAN

LITTLE KID, BIG SCHOOL Freshman Griffith Wachter idly looks on as the daily traffic of Blair Boulevard rushes by him. Being a freshmen can be overwhelming at times, but it is also full of fun, memorable, and life changing experiences. the bell rings.

The location of choice does not have to be a table either; it can be a place in the hallway near the lockers or, if the weather is nice, a spot outside on the grass.

If you do not know anybody in your lunch period, there are many alternatives to sitting with people. The media center and the computer lab in room 174 are usually open during lunch, so you always have the option to catch up on your work. Also, there are teachers in every department who will let you hang out with them or do work for them in their room during lunch; you just have to find them.

The only thing you cannot do as a freshman is sit in the senior courtyard. Seniors have waited three years just to sit in that walled in, ugly courtyard, and if you decide you can just waltz in and forego the manda-

tory wait, you will be kicked out in an unceremonious manner.

Tip #3: Stand out, but not too much.

As teenagers, we often think that receiving attention is something negative and should be avoided at all costs. Yet, not all attention is bad. Stating your opinion in class or cracking a joke earns positive attention. It may require some guts, but earning center stage in class can boost your confidence and make classmates look up to you.

Do not get too cocky though, because there is also a wrong way to get attention.

Do not be that person who thinks it is cool to insult their teacher in front of the class, or that student who chases their friends down the halls. Most importantly, DO NOT be that guy who carries around a speaker and

blasts music down Blair Boulevard. It does not matter if the song is fire — headphones are allowed in the hallways for a reason. Do these things if you want, but you might as well carry a sign that says, “I’m an obnoxious freshman!” while doing it.

Tip #4: Stay ahead in your assignments and branch out.

The school year is long enough to inevitably feel like you are just repeating the same monotonous routine every day. To get rid of that feeling, get out of your comfort zone, even if you have some doubts. A great way to get out of this routine is by joining a club or sport. Participating in a club or sport gives you something to look forward to, like playing our rival school Northwood in a “Battle of the Boulevard” game. Engaging in new activities also introduces you to a new group of people that support you and can become your family at school.

A great thing about Blair is our huge staff. If you are falling behind in English and do not feel comfortable consulting your teacher, you can easily find a faculty member in the English department who may better suit your learning style to help you out.

Also, Infoflow always has announcements regarding study groups for subjects students may have trouble with, like math or chemistry.

All around the building there are also posters advertising the same study sessions Infoflow mentions. Do not be afraid to utilize these resources to your advantage.

Tip #5: Be yourself.

CALEB BAUMAN

BEWARE OF THE SENIOR COURTYARD The posters taped to the door of the senior courtyard state who is allowed into the exclusive location. Freshmen, sophomores and juniors are forbidden from entering this hallowed ground.

High school is often described as the first time in your life where you have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. You no longer have to be who you were in middle school and you can change yourself to be whoever you want to be.

But that does not mean that you should change your clothes or your personality just to find acceptance. The great thing about going to a school with as large a population as Blair is that you are almost guaranteed to find a good group of friends, and an extracurricular activity to devote your time and passion towards.

You do not need to be somebody you are not to have a great high school experience.

You can have one simply by being who you truly are.

There is not anything quite like being a freshman at Blair. It can be scary, no doubt, but it can also be a life changing experience that you will never forget. By following these tips, Silver Chips hopes for your freshman year to be filled with more joy than fright.

October 6, 2016

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Entertainment D2

Finding a cozy corner for fall: Exploring the café scene The quest for the perfect autumn brew in the Downtown Silver Spring area

By Hermela Mengesha In first person

“Can I have a tall pumpkin spice latte?”

Ah, the sound of fall.

It is not the chill in the air, or even the leaves changing color that marks the start of fall for some. No, autumn is officially here when menus change and the trends that make people go wild are back.

After years of sitting in our local Four Corners Starbucks, I set out to find the best cafe in Downtown Silver Spring — one where I could imagine myself inside, warm drink in hand, to escape the frigid fall air.

So, I hopped on the Metrobus in search of the cafe with the best ambiance to lose myself in. Is there a better way to spend a chilly Friday night?

I found myself at Kefa, a cafe with a long established place in the Silver Spring community.

Kefa, a cafe which prefers all-natural flavors as opposed to adding syrups for flavor, does not have a pumpkin spice latte. “When you add syrup it takes away from what the coffee really is,” cafe co-owner, Abeba Tsegaye, says.

It is easy to see that making coffee is an art to this small Ethiopian cafe. One taste of their chai latte explains why: it is a perfect taste of fall.

The sweet, cinnamon-y drink is more akin to drinking dessert than anything else. It left me wondering how they took a cake and turned it into a drink.

What is the secret behind these delicious drinks? “We make it with love,” says Tsegaye.

Coffee is not the only thing Kefa is known for; paintings and books by local artists fill the cafe. But, what lasted in my memory was the taste of the chai latte.

A short walk away from Kefa was Zed’s Cafe, where the motto is “One Big Living Room.”

I fell in love with Zed’s as I took in the steady calming beat of the smooth jazz playing overhead and the soft trickle of the indoor water fountain. The haphazard collection of artwork and furniture seemed like it should not work, yet it only added to the warm and snug feeling of this small cafe on Georgia Avenue.

The fireplace and the walls that mirror the changing leaves outside make the cafe seem almost as if it is made for fall. As I sink into their couch, I am transported to Central Perk, the favorite hangout of the “Friends” cast, but I cannot help but be disappointed by their pumpkin spice latte.

There is not much to distinguish it from a regular latte, save for the foam art that has become all the rage among coffee aficionados. Even after I requested extra pumpkin, it tasted like a sweeter, creamier version of coffee. The chai latte, however, reminded me of warm milk, with its creamy vanilla and hint of chai.

I got the latte in a to-go cup, but I stayed for hours – long enough to enjoy the open mic Zed’s holds on the first Friday of every month.

Maybe it was the people, maybe it was the three cups of coffee I was hyped up on, but I found myself relaxed enough to perform a poem in a room full of strangers.

The drinks may not have the same incredible effect Kefa’s did, but Zed’s makes up for this shortcoming in style and atmosphere.

To my dismay, halfway through the open mic, my time at Zed’s was up. My job was still not finished, and new discoveries laid ahead.

Fortunately for me, there is a cafe on almost every corner in Downtown Silver Spring. I

did not have to search too far for Kaldi’s Social House. Kaldi’s is all business compared to Zed’s, and its motto, “the favorite spot of the civilized world”, speaks volumes.

Varying shades of gray cover the walls of Kaldi’s. This, coupled with the rows of one seater couches with people staring at computer screens, was enough to show Kaldi’s appeal to the more urbane customer.

For those with extravagant tastes and pockets that are often empty, Kaldi’s is a happy medium between the business world and the affordable.

Sadly, the drinks are not memorable.

Strangely enough, the pumpkin spice latte tastes little like pumpkin and more akin to coffee. But, you can never go wrong with a chai latte. Kaldi’s has the basics down; sweet and creamy, but it left no lasting impression.

Unsatisfied with Kaldi’s vibe and unimpressed by their drinks, I made the trek to Peet’s Coffee & Tea. The interior was all too familiar. I could change the sign outside to Starbucks and switch up the menu a bit, and someone might not even notice the difference.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this was the only drink I had that day

that truly tasted like pumpkin. Far better than what Kaldi’s and Zed’s had to offer in terms of sweetness, but not quite up to par with Kefa. But this delicious drink did not do much to raise my opinion of the cafe. Familiar was boring, and Peet’s personality fails to stand out among the dozens of cafes in the area.

My mind kept circling back to the unique and cultured Zed’s. While Kefa’s chai latte stood out, Zed’s quirky and cozy interior could not be matched. During this fall season, I know I will be coming back to Zed’s, my new home away from home.

TIFFANY MAO

Stylish scholars: Students have some fierce fashion competition

A glimpse into the fascinating closets of Blair’s best dressed teachers

By Olivia Gonzalez

since she started working. “It started out as trying to dress professionally for work and evolved from there,” she says. “I don’t necessarily think I always succeed at being fashionable, but being put-together and adventurous simultaneously qualifies to me as a success.”

Like Russell, Spanish teacher Gale Shipp aims to combine style with professional flare. “I like to set a positive tone for the students,” she says. “For work, my style is

able student.

Michelle Edwards, English teacher and advisor of Silver Chips Online, effortlessly rocks colorful, edgy looks, and does not hesitate to break gender roles. She idolizes Carrie Bradshaw, Janet Jackson, and Jennifer Lopez, as well as normal people on the street. “On the streets of New York, I see people walking by, and I don’t want to say I’m in competition with them, [but] I’m really inspired by [them].”

streets.” Edwards’ colorful clothes radiate positive energy while she channels her inner Teaching high school students is no easy New Yorker in Blair’s halls. feat, yet somehow many instructors manage Although Edwards is now a fashionista, to not only engage students, but look good that was not the case when she was a stuwhile doing it. Rain or shine, these teachers dent. She wore things that got reactions, are always dressed to impress. Students have from funky bracelets to signs on shirts that taken note of these runway-worthy instruccriticized her school. “It was me being raditors and, at long last, they have revealed the cal and crazy,” she says. style secrets that earn them straight A’s.

Christopher Knocke, who is in his first year MCPS’ Employee Code of Conduct makes teaching chemistry, is the king of color. “Evno specific restriction eryone just knows on what teachers can me by the bowwear, except that attire ties and the bright must be “professionshirts,” he says. “I ally appropriate.” This had one kid come gives teachers flexin here and be like ‘I ibility and allows their come here just to see passion for fashion to what color shirt you shine through. wear every day,’ Alison Russell, who and I was like ‘Oh is in her third year okay! I’ll try to wear of teaching AP NSL a wild one tomorGovernment, is one of row.’”

Blair’s best dressed. In Knocke dresses spired by Audrey Hepwell in order to look burn and the late 50s like a teacher. “I’m aesthetic, Russell can very new to the be found wearing colschool, so I don’t orful skirts and trendy want to look like a shoes, with a daring kid,” he says. “If I pixie cut to match. wear a bowtie then Just like us students, no kid’s going to -Russell gravitates toactually, I’ve seen ward stores that are a few kids wearing both trendy and afbowties, I’m not goJEDEDIAH GRADY fordable. “H&M, Taring to lie -- but most get and Loft are prob- STRIKE A POSE Social studies teacher Alison Russell (left), science teacher Christopher Knocke (center), and English teacher people are going to ably my big three,” she Michelle Edwards (right), show off the Instagram worthy outfits that garner them daily praise and compliments from students. assume that I’m a says. “When I splurge teacher versus a kid I go on ModCloth.com, although it has to be classy, older, and casual.” Just like us, she Edwards’ motivation to dress well comes who’s supposed to be in class.” something pretty unique.” finds her inspiration from the stars. She cites from her emphasis on uniqueness. “How we Knocke’s signature bow ties are not just When it comes to buying clothes and as- Kerry Washington and Viola Davis as some look is an expression of who we are, so I feel stylish -- they are practical, too. “I’m worksembling outfits, Russell does not have a of her fashion icons. like what I present to the world has to be an ing in chemistry where we have flames and specific taste. “If a pencil skirt has a cool Shipp’s interest in style dates back to her accurate representation of who I am,” she stuff,” he says. “If I had a tie, it could easily print and speaks to me, I’ll get it, if a metal childhood. “Growing up, my aunts were says. “I love taking risks.” catch on fire, so bowties are safer.” studded jacket looks good -- ditto. It’s not seamstresses and they made their own stylEdwards purchases most of her clothes Whether it is to prevent a fire, or to light systematic or stylized, so I’m glad that you ish clothing,” she says. “They taught us how from individual designers or vendors at a flame in their students’ imaginations, we seem to think it works,” she says. to dress well [and] how to sew.” In addition, festivals. “I’m a New Yorker, so we have a students are grateful to have these fashion Style has been important for Russell ever Shipp says this influence made her a fashion- pretty big culture of buying things on the able figures to look up to.

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silverchips

October 6, 2016

The slippery slope of subtweeting online

Blazers of Note

Looking into the toxic trend of throwing shade on Twitter

By Olivia Gonzalez

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

Feline Neymndorff Junior Most students travel a few miles to get to school, but for Feline Neyndorff, the commute is closer to 4,000 miles. Neyndorff became a Blazer this school year as an exchange student from the Netherlands.

She says she thought her school back home was big, until she came to Blair and was completely taken aback by its size. “It’s very hard because it’s so big, to find sort of your group of people that you wanna hang out with,” Neyndorff says. “Nobody notices that you’re new.”

Despite being intimidated at first, Neyndorff has quickly found her groove by joining the varsity field hockey team. She says the concept of school sports teams is new to her. In the Netherlands, there are no Friday night football games, no team jerseys, and no cheering in the stands with your classmates.

At Blair, “it’s more ‘we are one school,’ we are supporting our sports teams, and we are proud of them and our school,” she says.

An opinion “Let’s all welcome @ChloeGMoretz to Twitter, since no one knows who she is. Your Nylon cover is cute boo,” tweets Kim Kardashian after Moretz, among others, shamed her for posting a nude photo. The Kardashians are not newcomers to the world of celebrity subtweeting. Kardashian wasted no time calling out 19 year old Moretz on her Twitter icon — a semi-nude picture from her photoshoot for Nylon Magazine. Calling the kettle black, Chloe?

Twitter beef is the colloquial term for an argument on Twitter. It is usually sparked by subtweets, or tweets that vaguely reference another person without actually mentioning them. Subtweets are generally used for “throwing shade”, or talking badly about or making fun of someone. Subtweets may not seem like a big deal, but it is easy to lose track of the slippery slope from a “harmless” subtweet to cyberbullying.

It is easy to hide behind the anonymity of a subtweet that discloses everything but a name, but just because no name is mentioned, does not mean the tweet is any less direct. Anyone who understands the context of an argument between two people can easily decipher the subtweet’s direction and engage in the digital conflict as well. This is especially true in high school, where text messaging and social media allow an entire group of friends to verbally abuse the same person online, without disclosing to others who the target is.

Trying to act cool in front of your friends by “casually” slut shaming a girl on Twitter falls under the “subtweet” category, too.

In fact, according to the 2014 Pew Research Internet Project on online harassment, 25 percent of women age 18-24 reported experiencing online sexual harassment. Instead

of stigmatizing women for being themselves, cyberbullies should start standing up against harassment.

To put it simply, subtweeting and the “throwing shade” culture that is the norm nowadays is a glossed-over form of cyberbullying. Talking badly about others through subtweets and promoting girl-ongirl hate both fall under the overarching umbrella of cyberbullying. Instead of building each other up and encouraging girl positivity and support, girls tear each other down on Twitter and perpetuate the problem. By doing so, they make it appear acceptable for guys to also tear girls down.

It might seem funny when celebrities throw shade at one another, but women like Kardashian and Moretz are public figures. Disregarding subtweets, which are intended to hurt or embarrass others, as just a joke perpetuates an attitude that accepts and abuses this kind of language. Instead of spreading negativity, female role models should empower their fellow celebrities online and make it clear that cyberbullying is not funny or acceptable.

Bringing conflicts to social media to avoid face-to-face confrontation is simply immature and petty. Hiding behind a keyboard is not the way to approach an argument, especially because Twitter is a public space. Not only does the social media network allow for others to glimpse into your private life and pictures, but it can also lead to other people joining in, which can cause petty bickering to be dramaticized. Often, a conclusion or compromise is not reached.

Instead the two original parties get more emotional and invested in the argument.

Social media is still a relatively new phenomenon. There are few solid and strictly enforced cyberbullying laws. For many celebrities, the amount of attention their online

CALEB BAUMAN

profiles receive makes it easier for social media outlets to notice and take down hateful posts. However, for teens, there are few consequences for throwing shade or subtweeting about a friend, making it tempting to post things one would never say in person.

Twitter is often used as a place to rant, which can lead to a subtweet or two. It is tempting, because it is so much easier to subtweet than confront a problem in person, but it is important to try to practice self control. Refraining from subtweeting or ranting on Twitter altogether can be difficult, but it is wise to evaluate the negative repercussions first. If you must post a subtweet, think carefully about who will read it. Oh, and @ me next time.

Dare to watch these stranger Netflix originals

Get off your high horse, man, Netflix has some great shows too

By Cole Sebastian Netflix announced on Sept. 20 that they aim to make 50 percent of their library original content. The question is, as a production company, does Netflix have the eye for talent that will keep its viewers happy? If Netflix can manage to continue to produce shows like these, it will become the go-to source of quality television. Netflix proved their worth with these releases of spring and summer 2016.

GRIFFIN REILLY

Iyanu Bishop Junior “#ForTheLoveOfBlackGirls,” Iyanu Bishop posts on Twitter, before taking the stage at the Uniquely You Summit at Drexel University. The event is part of Bishop’s work with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), which strives to empower black women and combat racism. Bishop recently received the YWCA’s Mission Impact Award, which is given to a member who shows exemplary leadership.

Bishop never thought that others saw her as an activist, but she says this award has given her renewed motivation and confidence to keep inspiring others through the YWCA. “The hope is that the black girls who come to the program, they can take something away and make new bonds with people,” she says.

Looking ahead, Bishop sees herself empowering black girls through the performing arts. “My end goal would be to create an organization that specifically helps poor black girls and gives them dance classes and gives them acting classes in the hopes of them building more confidence,” she says.

“I know that’s what theater and performing arts did for me, [and] other black girls didn’t have the resources that I had.”

By Olivia Gonzalez and Hermela Mengesha

Daredevil season 2 The return of the “man without fear” is Netflix’s latest exploration of the shadows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Daredevil” follows Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), the blind lawyer and vigilante known as Daredevil, as he defends the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, New York City. Following the debut of the gritty and seductive “Jessica Jones” last fall, Netflix continues to expose the darker side of the world of the Avengers with the introduction of Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher.

A man driven to murder dozens of criminals after the death of his family, the unhinged anti-hero is the perfect foil for Daredevil’s righteous and merciful form of vigilantism. Daredevil Season 2 challenges the viewer to consider the morality of the Punisher’s murders and whether the men he kills deserve to be put down. The Punisher sees himself as the cure to New York’s crime and compels the viewer to sympathize with his determination for vengeance.

The Punisher provides plenty of action, but Jon Bernthal’s greatest contribution to the series is in his quieter moments, when he subtly and skillfully exposes the man behind the murders. This is most apparent after Daredevil rescues the Punisher from being tortured by the Irish gang, when Bernthal delivers one of the best television monologues on the air.

Beaten and bloodied, the Punisher tells the touching story of his reunion with his family after coming home from Afghanistan. Bernthal drapes a layer of sorrow on every word as audience sees the the Punish-

er’s incomprehensible struggle as he recovers from the loss of his family. Charlie Cox and all of his co-stars bring powerful performances, but Jon Bernthal is the reason to sit down and binge watch all of “Daredevil.”

Bojack Horseman season 3 The outrageously peculiar “Bojack Horseman” hits hard in its third season as Bojack (Will Arnett), struggles to find happiness as he is bombarded with praise after the success of his first major film. The seriocomedy reintroduces viewers to an ensemble of characters that are so crushingly human that it is easy to forget that they are not—as the show takes place in a world inhabited by humanoid animals.

Bojack Horseman, a horse-man, finally launches his career from a has-been television actor to a mainstream movie star. However, he discovers that he could not be more miserable. “Bojack Horseman” skillfully captures the cycle of depression as Bojack continues to trick himself into thinking that his success will bring him joy, only to feel empty when he strikes stardom.

“Bojack Horseman” excels in making all of its characters feel raw and relatable.

While Bojack is the fascinating title character, the supporting cast is just as compelling.

“Bojack Horseman” provides characters that start off just as complicated as they are funny, and they stay that way for the entire series. In many ways, the characters do not change at all and that is what makes them relatable. Bojack Horseman is the perfect show to make viewers laugh out loud and simultaneously contemplate the meaninglessness of life.

town in Indiana in the 80s and is heavily inspired by the Stephen King novels of that era. It follows a group of friends who tries to track down a monster and rescue their friend, who was abducted to an alternate dimension. “Stranger Things” is in many ways an 8-hour monster movie, but it never relies on the tired tropes of that genre. The show creates fear from suspense without using jump scares. Viewers are scared because they care about whether the characters live or die, not because the monster looks scary.

“Stranger Things” does not show possessed children or freaky visual gags to create fear; instead, it creates real characters and uses the monster sparingly so that viewers are actually afraid when it does show up.

The highlight of the series by far is the actors. Stranger Things brings the best performances from child actors ever seen on television. They are not just good for children, but they are at the top of their entire profession. Millie Bobby Brown, as the mysterious character Eleven, especially brings a powerhouse performance as she tries to find her identity while struggling with her newfound telekinetic powers. Almost all of the actors were not well-known before the show, which makes “Stranger Things” refreshing compared to most mainstream television shows. Each actor makes viewers care about their character, which makes the monster all the more scary.

Stranger Things season 1 “Stranger Things” popped up out of nowhere and became an overnight cultural phenomenon.

The series is set in a small town in Indiana in the 80s and is heavily inspired by the Stephen King novels of that era. It follows a group of friends as

SABRINA TAN

silverchips

October 6, 2016

Entertainment D4

Under-the-radar discoveries that are out of this world Up in space and down on Earth: a closer look at what is new in science

By Laura Espinoza Imagine living in a world operating without fossil fuels or vacationing on an Earthlike planet a few light years away. While science fiction books and movies allow people to live out these fantasies, they still seem far away at times.

Luckily, the scientific community is constantly tinkering with new ideas. In the past several weeks, they have made developments that seem to bring science fiction to life.

Two is company, three is a crowd Did you think having two parents was bad? How about three? Information has just been released on a baby boy born to three parents in April 2016.

A Jordanian couple wanted to conceive a child, but the mother has mild Leigh syndrome, a devastating genetic disease she could pass on to her kids. The couple’s two other children sadly passed away from the disease, so they searched for another option, refusing to give up hope.

John Zhang from the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City was recruited to help the couple. He worked on develop-

said principal investigator Wieger Wamelink in an announcement of the experiment in June.

Previous experiments have also shown that vegetables grown in these soils are safe to eat.

The Mars craze appealed to everyone, and money started pouring in to expand the test garden. In their experiments, researchers mixed the soil with compost to simulate growing produce during manned missions.

“This is important since nothing can be lost or wasted over there, especially nutrients for plant growth. Manure is manure, even when it originates from humans,” Wamelink explained in a press release by Wageningen University. It may sound gross, but there are no other fertilizers in space!

The university held a futuristic Martian dinner for everyone who pitched into the project. However, the potatoes were not served because of deformities during the growing period that affected the taste. It seems like Mars might have to go without fries for a while.

With many Martian crops containing less arsenic and copper than foods grown in Earth soil, the possibilities are endless!

Maybe one day, people will find Martian apples in their Thanksgiving pies.

MARISSA HE

ing a three-parent system where no embryos would be killed. This process involves replacing the nucleus from a donor’s egg with the healthy nucleus from the mother’s egg.

The egg is then fertilized with the father’s sperm, allowing an embryo to form. Crazy family dilemmas are already happening – before birth!

No story is complete without a twist. The U.S. did not approve this method of conception, so the team did something sneaky. The team went to Mexico to do the procedure, where, in an interview with New Scientist, Zhang says, “there are no rules.”

This development is possibly exciting news for other couples who cannot conceive children naturally.

Leigh syndrome occurs in the mitochondria of the cell, where the cell gets most of its energy from. Now, just one percent of the new child’s mitochondria is affected by the disease. This method seems to be a powerhouse in new fertility technology!

Martian soil grows healthy crops Matt Damon’s small farm in The Martian may look like movie magic, but based on a recent experiment conducted by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, farms on Mars may become a reality. Researchers planted ten crops, including radishes, peas, rye, carrots, tomatoes, and potatoes, in soils similar to those that cover Mars and the moon. This is good news since even people on Mars have to eat their veggies!

The high concentration of heavy metals in these foreign soils spurred an initial concern about the health risks of eating the produce.

After all, while vegetables certainly are not everyone’s cup of tea, most people would agree that they taste better without lead and cadmium in them.

Fortunately, results from Wageningen University’s test trials suggest that metals in soil do not present an issue. “For radish, pea, rye and tomato we did a preliminary analysis and the results are very promising,”

It is electric!

It is the year 2200, and there is no more oil left on Earth. Large industrial countries are suffering because they did not listen to scientists and invest in clean energy, and cars are parked idly in driveways without any fuel to run on.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, this dark scenario could soon become a reality, as fossil fuels are slowly dwindling and projected to dry up in the next century. This grim prospect increases the urgency of finding alternative fuel sources unless humans want to return to travelling on horse and buggies!

Instead of waiting around for doomsday, one government took the initiative to change their future. Starting on June 17, the entire electric grid of Costa Rica operated on 100 percent renewable energy for 76 days. Placing solar panels on homes and using windmills is a hassle for most people, but that did not deter this Central American country from adopting these changes!

Hydropower generated by dams provided more than eighty percent of the nation’s electricity during the fossil fuel-free stint.

Geothermal, solar, and wind energy also supplemented the country’s electrical consumption.

To be fair, Costa Rica does consume significantly less energy than other developed countries. Although an infeasible idea for more industrialized countries, like the U.S. or China, the Costa Ricans’ accomplishment is an admirable feat. They have proven to the world that it is possible to party it up while keeping the planet clean.

MARISSA HE

Earth is just far enough from the Sun to allow for liquid water, a rather uncommon trait. Any closer and the water would evaporate. Any farther and the water would freeze.

It is a rare Goldilocks situation, if you will – everything is just right.

Considering these precise conditions necessary for water to exist, scientists were understandably ecstatic upon discovering a planet with the potential of harboring life.

However, they may have been geeking out.

Proxima b, a planet orbiting around the star Proxima Centauri, was discovered in late August by a number of astronomers at several institutions, including Queen Mary University of London.

Move over puny Pluto – there is a new planet on the block! To date, Proxima b is the closest planet to Earth that could potentially host life, at just 4.2 light years away. It is basically a next door neighbor!

The next step is to find signs of life on Proxima b. Pete Worden, chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, emphasized the need for more information before sending a probe to the planet. “Over the next decade, we will work with experts here at ESO [European Southern Observatory in Chile] and elsewhere to get as much information as possible about the Proxima Centauri planet…prior to launching mankind’s first probe towards the star,” Worden said.

After all, humans would not want a WallE situation over on Proxima b!

Panda-monium

Pandas are not just Kung Fu masters, but also gentle giants that roam China – and they just mastered the move “not endangered!”

Transitioning from an “endangered” to “vulnerable” species may not sound like a promising change, but these furry, bambooloving friends have pulled off a huge feat!

The International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the change for giant pandas during their annual update of the Red List of Threatened Species on Sept.

4.

In the report, the organization called the decision “a positive sign confirming that the Chinese government’s efforts to conserve this species are effective.” Thanks to China for making sure these creatures will not disappear any time soon!

With over 1,800 pandas now living in the wild, according to the National Zoo, conservationists have a newfound hope for this spectacular species.

China collaborated with the World Wildlife Fund to accomplish this milestone, and the government continues to work toward increasing the panda population by creating wild panda reserves.

Thanks to these clever scientists, there will be hundreds of Bei Beis roaming the Chinese bamboo forests, not just at the National Zoo!

New habitable planet just 4.2 light years away With Earth’s population steadily rising every day, some people might view rocketing off our planet as a solution to overpopulation. However, it is rare for a planet to have the requirements for sustaining life.

MARISSA HE

D5 ADs

silverchips

October 6, 2016

INSIDE JOB

by Neal Sarkar

Chips Clips D6

silverchips

October 6, 2016

Across 1. Great Falls obstacle 6. Letter starter 10. T. Rex, eg.

14. Make amends 15. Slight advantage 16. Director Kazan 17. Encouraging platitude 20. Macbook variety 21. Aflame 22. The 1% 23. Part of I.P.A 25. Calc prereq.

26. 2002 Sparks melodrama 33. Rotten 34. Lake rentals 35. Furry “Star Wars” creature 36. Love to bits 38. Dove’s call 39. Chewy pho meat 40. Turkish cheddar?

41. Blair alum Chung 43. Game of Thrones patriarch Stark 44. Rescue mission trope 47. Ripped 48. MD state team sport 49. Invitee 51. Sneeze-like dance move

53. MD Rt. 200 56. Tim Burton’s Carroll adaptation 60. Digging 61. MoCo has a red one 62. Cut off 63. Sign illuminator 64. Beer barrels 65. “It’s _____!” (“See you then”) Down 1. Tampa Bay slugger 2. Perched upon 3. Rain cats and dogs 4. Headway 5. Girl having a ball?

6. Sub spot 7. Modify 8. AARP membership criterion 9. Goes back 10. Like Givenchy jeans 11. “Before ____ you go...”

12. World’s longest river 13. Boor 18. Justice Kagan 19. Manning and Whitney, eg.

24. Wedding gown material

25. Soulmate 26. Circle distances 27. Locker room emissions 28. Tax that seven US states lack 29. Thugs 30. The Olsens, eg.

31. Optimist’s feelings 32. Squeezed (out) 33. Low volume?

37. Snitched 39. Prefix with byte 41. Click and Clack show 42. Schwarzenegger’s words before “back” 45. Pharmacist’s unit 46. Banished 49. Out of sight 50. Golden rule preposition 51. Car nick 52. Highest poker pair 54. Chipotle of Mediterranean food 55. Tech review site 56. Take the cake 57. “This is 58 across”, eg.

58. Joburg’s home 59. Compton Clinician?

Sudoku (hard)

Mini Across 1. Parts to play 6. WWII threat 7. 2 down nickname 8. “_____ ears” (“Lay it on me”) 9. West of the Windy City?

Down 1. Twisty puzzle creator Erno 2. Start to care?

3. Military nav system 4. Before the bell 5. Class

COURTESY OF WEBSUDOKU

County Worker

Laco the Taco

MARISSA HE

Election Day

ARITRA ROY

SABRINA TAN

E1 español

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6 de octubre, 2016

La Esquina Latina

Silver Chips 6 de octubre del 2016

Explosión en Long Branch conmueve a la comunidad latina

Fuga de gas desaloja a 55 familias y resulta en la muerte de 7 personas Por Sofia Muñoz La noche del 10 de agosto, inquilinos de los apartamentos Flower Branch y sus vecinos fueron despertados por el estruendoso sonido de una explosión que ocurrió en el complejo de dichos apartamentos en Silver Spring. Unos minutos después, los edificios 8701 y 8703 en la calle Arliss se derrumbaron, tomando las vidas de siete personas y desplazando a más de 50 familias de sus viviendas.

Bomberos y policías sospechan que la explosión y el incendio ocurrieron debido a una fuga de gas en el sótano de los edificios. Personas en el vecindario reportaron que vieron llamas azules las cuales indican que habían moléculas de gas en la explosión. Meses antes, los residentes de los apartamentos afectados llamaron al 911, reclamando que había un olor a gas. La administración del complejo no llevó a cabo un mantenimiento adecuado, lo cual muchos residentes presumen que fue a causa de la población de inmigrantes que residen en dicho complejo.

Bolívar Fuentes, quien vivía con su hermano en el segundo piso de uno de los apartamentos afectados recuerda que estaba durmiendo cuando sintió la explosión y se cayó de la cama en donde dormía. Cuando se levantó, “mi hermano sólo me agarró, me preguntó, “¿Estás bien? ¿Estás bien?” Inmediatamente reaccioné un poco y vi que el

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

LA COMUNIDAD Christy Canjura, estudiante en Blair, vive en el complejo. cuarto ya estaba destruido. Ya venía el fuego sobre nosotros y corrimos para afuera.”

Otras personas en los pisos más altos tuvieron que saltar de donde estaban.

Dayana Muñiz, trabajadora de apoyo familiar del preescolar CentroNía cuenta sobre una de las familias afectadas donde, “la mamá vivía en el tercer piso, entonces tuvo que aventarse de la ventana y pasó a los niños por la ventana porque la puerta estaba bloqueada por el fuego.” Muchas personas resultaron con fracturas por haber tenido que saltar de sus ventanas.

Christy Canjura, estudiante en el onceavo grado, tuvo la suerte de residir más lejos del edificio en donde ocurrió el incendio. Canjura escuchó las sirenas de los policías y bomberos dos minutos después de la explosión, más o menos a media noche. Canjura comenta, “No sabíamos cómo reaccionar… todos estábamos parados en silencio.” Los policías estaban ayudando a la gente y les dijeron que tenían que esperar afuera hasta que el incendio fuera controlado. Eventualmente, pudo ser apagado a las 2 de la mañana.

Los residentes del edificio quemado fueron atendidos por miembros de los equi-

pos de bomberos y las personas que sufrieron heridas graves fueron llevados al hospital.

El resto de las personas se quedaron afuera hasta ser llevados al Centro de Recreación Long Branch a las 3 de la mañana. Ahí, oficiales del condado de Montgomery y de la Cruz Roja ayudaron a las víctimas, dándoles comida y un lugar donde dormir. Guillermo Fuentes, hermano de Bolívar recuerda que no pudo dormir. Fuentes relata que esa noche, “Nos sentíamos mal, triste, llorando porque no sabíamos qué hacer.” Los hermanos perdieron todo en el incendio, cómo fue el caso para la mayoría de las personas afectadas.

Al día siguiente, llegó apoyo de la comunidad y de CASA de Maryland, una organización que presta asistencia a la comunidad de inmigrantes y personas vulnerables. Lo más importante en ese momento era que las víctimas que no hablaban inglés pudiesen comunicarse con la Cruz Roja y otras organizaciones, por lo que los representantes de CASA trabajaron como traductores. Rommel Sandino, el organizador de la comunidad juvenil de CASA, cuenta que las víctimas no sólo eran latinos, sino también habían muchas personas de Etiopía, quienes necesitaban traductores de amharic a inglés para comunicarse con los trabajadores. La Cruz Roja ofreció servicios médicos a todos los residentes ahí para ver si tenían alguna herida que no fue atendida la noche anterior.

Ese mismo dia, CASA empezó a colaborar con la comunidad, pidiendo donaciones para ayudar a las personas afectadas por la explosión. Llegaron donaciones en forma de ropa, comida, muebles y dinero. Montgomery Housing Partnership ayudó a recaudar fondos y recolectaron más de $600,000.

Guillermo Fuentes dice que las víctimas también recibieron una tarjeta de débito para poder comprar cosas que necesitan en otras tiendas. La oficina del Contralor de Maryland anunció que está ofreciendo servicios de ayuda sobre impuestos para los inquilinos que se encuentran con problemas financieros por resultado del incendio.

A pesar de toda la ayuda de la comunidad y del condado, Sandino dice que no se ha hecho lo suficiente para ayudar a las víctimas.

Los inquilinos desplazados fueron mudados a otros apartamentos en Wheaton y áreas cerca de Long Branch con ayuda de Montgomery Housing Partnership y Kay Management, la administración de los apartamentos Flower Branch. Sandino dice que, “Kay management ha dicho que han comprado cosas nuevas para estas familias, camas nuevas, etc.

Pero lo que estamos escuchando y viendo es que son cosas usadas y no son las cosas adecuadas para ellos.” Sandino añade que las familias siguen en una situación complicada, en la cual ha resultado difícil rehacer sus vidas.

Guillermo Fuentes dice, “Ahora estoy trabajando mucho para poder volver a la normalidad porque… siempre siento ahora como que sigo viviendo esa tragedia, lo que pasó en esa noche.” CASA está ocupándose de ayudar a las personas para darles información de agencias que pueden proporcionarles asistencia.

Hay mucha necesidad de tener profesionales de la salud mental disponibles y dar sesiones de terapia a las víctimas. Sandino dice que la explosión ha causado mucha trauma a los inquilinos en Flower Branch.

El trauma mental puede ser comparado a lo que se ve en familias que vienen de zonas de guerra y también hay síntomas de trastorno de estrés postraumático. Hay instancias de niños que no pueden prestar atención en la escuela después de haber sidos expuestos al trauma de esa noche y muchas personas también se encuentran afectados en sus trabajos.

Bolívar Fuentes y Christy Canjura fueron a sesiones de terapia que están siendo o-

frecidas a no sólo las víctimas, sino también a miembros de la comunidad que fueron afectados. Fuentes y Canjura dicen que sufren de ansiedad y que en las sesiones los terapistas les dieron ejercicios de respiración y les aseguró que podrían

para asegurarse que una tragedia como ésta no vuelva a ocurrir. Sandino dice que hasta este momento, “no han sido de apoyo para sus propios inquilinos… eso demuestra la deficiencia estructural dentro del management de la compañía.” CASA y el comité de

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

FLOWER BRANCH Flores y animales de peluche en honor a los que fueron afectados sobrepasar el incidente, ayudándoles a tratar de olvidar lo que pasó. Aunque le ayuda las sesiones de terapia, Fuentes cuenta, “siempre ando con miedo y cuando yo duermo me ha quedado ese susto,

inquilinos presentaron una lista de demandas para luchar por la seguridad y justicia de los inquilinos de Flower Branch, una de las demandas siendo que los dueños se reúnan con los inquilinos para tener una

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

PREOCUPACIONES Los residentes no han conseguido sus pertenecias de los edificios. cualquier cosita, cuando cierran la puerta o algún ruido me asusta, me levanta de la cama.” El insomnio ha sido muy común entre las víctimas y Muñiz cuenta que en CentroNía hubo reuniones para coordinar esfuerzos de organizaciones para crear un ambiente con sesiones de arte y música para niños que todavía están en un estado de trauma y necesitan olvidar lo que pasó, las cuales van a ocurrir los sábados en la biblioteca de Long Branch. Sandino explica que fue difícil tratar de encontrar diferentes organizaciones psicológicas y legales para poder colaborar con la comunidad afectada porque tenían que encontrar un grupo que podía tomar los casos en gran volumen y trasladarse cerca de donde está la comunidad afectada.

Los próximos pasos para las víctimas y la comunidad de Long Branch es insistir que Kay Management haga todo lo posible

conversación. Todavía hay daños que sostuvieron los edificios en el complejo alrededor de la explosión, problemas de mantenimiento y no es evidente ningún progreso por parte de Kay Management para prevenir algo similar en el futuro.

Tom Hucker, el concejal del quinto distrito del condado de Montgomery se reunió con el presidente de Kay Management a la solicitud de los inquilinos de Flower Branch, dándoles la buena noticia que él estaba dispuesto a reunirse con ellos ya que los inquilinos y CASA sometieron una demanda judicial.

Todavía hay mucha incertidumbre sobre lo que ocurrió la noche del 10 de agosto, pero lo que sí se puede asegurar es que con la ayuda de organizaciones como CASA, la comunidad puede luchar por sus derechos y todos aquellos responsables por esta terrible catástrofe podrían ser enjuiciados y responder a la justicia.

6 de octubre de 2016

español E2

silverchips

Ex-alumno rompe barreras para crear nuevas oportunidades

Ahora continua sus estudios en la acreditada universidad de Georgetown

Por Michael Hernández

Luis Rosales, un ex-alumno de Blair de la clase del 2014 recientemente obtuvo una beca para la prestigiosa Universidad de Georgetown, todo esto a pesar de haber sufrido los retos de pobreza y haber sido un inmigrante indocumentado.

Sus padres decidieron emigrar de El Salvador por la violencia que había en el país.

Ellos trabajaban para el sistema judicial de El Salvador y se dieron cuenta del incremento de violencia causado por las maras.

Rosales relata que había casos donde las maras se llevaban a niños inocentes. Sus padres tomaron la difícil decisión de emigrar a los Estados Unidos para asegurar un mejor futuro para él y su hermana menor.

Por suerte, Luis no tuvo que cruzar la frontera a pie como muchos otros inmigrantes indocumentados. Su familia tuvo la dicha de obtener una visa de turista, la cual dejaron vencer y por eso estuvieron sin documentos legales por un tiempo. Al llegar a los Estados Unidos, sentía un vacío porque había dejado al resto de su familia, sus amigos y su vida en El Salvador.

Luis confiesa que al principio fue muy difícil adaptarse, pero como todo en la vida él tuvo que aprender. Para él, la cultura estadounidense era totalmente desconocida, al contrario de la cultura salvadoreña. Con determinación y dedicación, Luis logró adaptarse y convertirse en un excelente estudiante. Luis cuenta, “teniendo nueve años mi preocupación más grande era hacer amigos.” Por otro lado, sus padres se preocupaban por su vivienda y trabajos.

Luis estaba en tercer grado cuando emigró, pero al llegar a los Estados Unidos, fue puesto en segundo grado. Desafortunadamente sufrió discriminación en su escuela por no hablar inglés y por su diferencia cultural ante los demás. Aunque en el principio tuvo dificultades con el inglés, siempre sobresalía en las matemáticas.

Luis y su familia tenían una perspectiva totalmente diferente de los Estados Unidos. Él cuenta, “mis padres vinieron aquí pensando que iban a tener una mejor vida de la que tenían allá. Desafortunadamente eso no fue el caso, porque sin documentos era difícil encontrar trabajo. Fue un gran cambio porque fueron de tener un trabajo con el gobierno de El Salvador a llegar a

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

HEALY HALL Luis pretende tocar la estructura de la universidad en admiración. limpiar casas y a trabajar en construcción.

Les pagaban ‘debajo de la mesa’, como dicen.” Los padres de Luis tenían trabajos muy inestables porque no tenían protección por su estatus migratorio y en cualquier momento podrían ser despedidos.

Luis siempre había estado muy enfocado en sus estudios, pero cuando llegó a Blair se dió cuenta que iba ser muy difícil progresar en el nuevo sistema educativo y

creía que no podría ir a la universidad.

Cuando estaba en el grado once y doce, su familia pasó momentos muy difíciles por falta de trabajo. “No se podía pagar el alquiler ni las deudas mensuales. Hubo un tiempo cuando estuvimos sin lugar donde vivir.” Luis

Murley ofrece esa oportunidad todos los años a dos estudiantes que son seleccionados por dicha empresa al final del año escolar. HMSHost es el proveedor más grande de alimentos y bebidas para viajeros en los Estados Unidos y Canadá. Ahí Luis conoció

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

GEORGETOWN La ex-consejera de Luis (la señora Charlain Bailey) se reencuentra con él y lo felicita por su gran logro. Con una sonriza en sus caras los dos pozan. tuvo que quedarse con sus amigos, mientras que su hermana se quedó con sus amigas y sus padres en otro lugar.

Con un destino incierto, Luis dudó poder ir a la universidad. Afortunadamente, encontró refugio en su consejera, la Señora Bailey.

El confiesa que si no fuera por ella, él no estuviera donde está ahora en día. Luis relata, “Ella se sentó conmigo y me ayudó a superar ese momento difícil. Estuvo conmigo desde el principio, me vio llorar y me vio trabajar con dedicación.” Ella ayudó a Luis y a su familia, sugiriendo organizaciones que les podían ayudar con programas para que pudieran cubrir sus necesidades básicas para sobrevivir.

No fue hasta en el grado doce que él empezó a darse cuenta que necesitaba valorar su educación si quería ir a la universidad.

Se involucró en actividades extracurriculares y se unió al equipo de fútbol americano. También se involucró con una asociación nacional conocida como LULAC que ayuda a los hispanos económicamente, en sus estudios, influencias políticas y con los derechos civiles. Luis todavía está muy activo en esta organización. LULAC provocó su pasión por ayudar a su comunidad.

Su perspectiva de no ir a la universidad cambió drásticamente y empezó a esforzarse académicamente. En ese momento pensó, “Mis padres se han sacrificado tanto para llegar hasta este momento y yo no puedo dejar que este sacrificio se vaya sin logro.”La Señora Bailey sacaba a Luis de sus clases y lo ponía a trabajar en solicitudes para becas universitarias. Luis solicitó admisión a Montgomery College contra su voluntad, pero la Señora Bailey insistió que solicitara ir al programa de Macklin Business Institute, el cual es un programa de honores de negocios en Montgomery College. El programa le otorgó una beca completa, la cual cumplió el sueño de Luis de seguir su educación universitaria.

Rosales relata, “Era una situación diferente, mi familia nunca había pasado por eso.”

Durante ese tiempo también pasaron la ley de los “soñadores”, o el Dream Act como le dicen en inglés. Por medio de DACA Luis pudo recibir un permiso de trabajo y un número de seguro social. Luis confiesa que le debe mucho a DACA porque sin esa ayuda no hubiera podido empezar su carrera en Montgomery College. Un requisito muy importante para poder solicitar becas estudiantiles es tener un número de seguro social.

El verano antes de graduarse de Blair se ganó un puesto de interno con la empresa HMSHost por medio de la academia de negocios de la escuela. La clase de empresarios ofrecida por Blair que es dirigida por el Señor

al consejero general de la compañía, Paul Mamalian y se inspiró mucho en él. Rosales cuenta, “Él pasó una situación similar a la mía donde tuvo que emigrar de otro país por la violencia y diferente adversidades.

Yo encontré motivación en él y de todos los trabajadores ahí.” Este fue su primer trabajo en una oficina corporativa y le enseñó que era capaz de eso y mucho más.

Después de un verano productivo, inició sus estudios en Montgomery College donde su liderazgo sobresalió. Se unió a una organización que se llama Enactus, donde usan conceptos y habilidades de negocios para ayudar a personas en todo el mundo.

Luis estuvo en muchos proyectos donde ayudaban a personas y hacían negocios para que continuaran después de ellos. Luis relata, “Tuvimos un café donde vendíamos Starbucks, allí nosotros contratamos a estudiantes internacionales y estudiantes que no tenían papeles y no podían trabajar en otro lugar.” Enactus proveía vivienda a los estudiantes para que pudieran trabajar.

En su segundo año, Luis se convirtió en el vicepresidente de Enactus y logró que muchos otros estudiantes se unieran a dicha organización. También se unió al gobierno estudiantil, específicamente en el senado. Su liderazgo llegó muy lejos en Montgomery College, tanto que el gobernador Larry Hogan lo nombró miembro de la unta de síndicos de MC. Rosales cuenta,“Yo tuve el mayor impacto estando en el consejo de Montgomery College.”

El esfuerzo de Luis por alcanzar sus sueños no paró en Montgomery College.

Estando en el programa Macklin, él solicitó para la beca “Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship.” La fundación Cooke selecciona a 85 estudiantes anualmente en la nación que demuestren liderazgo, necesidad económica y un gran desempeño académico. La coordinadora de los programas de honores de Montgomery College, la Dr. Lucy Laufe le dió la noticia mediante una sorpresa a Luis que él se había ganado la beca, lo cual incluye $40,000 en colegiatura cada año y es la única beca que ofrece la mayor cantidad de dinero para que estudiantes se puedan transferir de un colegio comunitario a una universidad. Al recibir esta noticia Luis confiesa, “No sentí nada cuando me dieron la sorpresa. Fue raro, no se sentía real. No fue hasta que escuché la voz de mi mamá que me di cuenta de la noticia, empecé a llorar y ella también empezó a llorar. Este logro ha significado mucho para ella y para mí porque tantos sacrificios no fueron en

vano.” La Universidad de Georgetown también ayudó a Luis para que él no pagará ni un dólar de su bolsillo y pudiera asistir a la prestigiosa institución sin problemas.

La clave para que él pudiera llegar a la Universidad de Georgetown fue rodearse de gente positiva que querían lo mismo que él, ir a la universidad. En el programa de negocios de Macklin, él tenía alrededor compañeros altamente competitivos que tenían un promedio de calificaciones de 4.0. Rosales cuenta, “Ellos fueron aceptados a escuelas muy reconocidas y tuve dos amigos que se transfirieron a Georgetown. Entonces viendo algo así, vi la posibilidad de poder hacer lo mismo.” Luis solicitó a escuelas como la Universidad de Columbia y la Universidad de Georgetown pero también solicitó a escuelas de menos prestigio donde él creía que encajaba. Luis, confiesa, “Nunca pensé llegar tan lejos, pero traté y aquí fue donde acabé, en la Universidad de Georgetown.”

A Luis no le gusta especular lo que va hacer, a él le gusta que las cosas se vayan construyendo en el camino. Eventualmente, él quiere tener un trabajo de gerente y después lanzar su candidatura para un cargo político. “No tenemos representación en nuestra comunidad, es importante explorar estos campos. Pero con mis experiencias, mi futuro siempre ha sido inestable y siempre está cambiando.”

Luis tenía miedo compartir su inspiradora historia con la gente por su seguridad en los Estados Unidos. “Mis padres me enseñaron que era mejor quedarme callado y que no le dijera a nadie para evitar problemas.” Luis y su familia temían revelar su estatus migratorio por temor a ser deportados a El Salvador. Su consejera, la Señora Bailey le insistió a Luis que tenía que contar de dónde venía y de la difícil e larga travesía que había tenido que pasar. “Ella me enseñó lo importante que es sobresalir.”

Después de todo lo que Luis ha pasado él quiere inspirar a otros estudiantes que pueden estar pasando por lo mismo que el

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

CHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

HOYAS Luis posa con la mascota, el buldog de la universidad de Georgetown. pasó. El enfatiza que las situaciones difíciles no definen a una persona, si no como la persona reacciona a esas decisiones. “Como yo, estando sin hogar e indocumentado, esa no era la persona que yo era. En realidad, yo era la persona que reaccionó a esas dificultades, uno no puede dejar que las circunstancias nos derroten. Uno tiene que por lo menos tratar y sacar lo mejor de cada situación.” Luis ha tomado como responsabilidad el ayudar a otra gente porque no todos han sido afortunados de tener una consejera como la Sra. Bailey y un Montgomery College que lo ha ayudado mucho. El consejo más grande de Luis es que uno debe tener una visión, trabajar duro y tener dedicación porque cuando alguien se esfuerza las cosas se producen con más facilidad.

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6 de octubre, 2016

El mes de la herencia hispana: historia, cultura y pasión

Fiestas, carnavales y eventos dan color a esta celebración Por Andrés Pérez

Del 15 de septiembre al 15 de octubre, el ambiente se tiñe de colores vivos y rítmicas canciones nos mueven para celebrar el mes de la herencia hispana. Esta celebración se originó de la necesidad de reconocer la importancia de los aportes de la cultura hispana a la historia y desarrollo de los Estados Unidos.

Esta celebración se formalizó en 1968 bajo la presidencia de Lyndon B. Johnson, el cual declaró que una semana del mes de septiembre sería reservada para festejar la cultura hispana. En 1988 el presidente Ronald Reagan extendió la duración de este festejo a un mes.

Para conmemorar el envolvimiento de los hispanos en la evolución de este país, se llevaron a cabo festivales, eventos e incluso exhibiciones de arte en partes de Maryland. El sitio web de www.hispanicheritagemonth.org ofrece un calendario en el que se encuentran los eventos más sobresalientes en honor a esta celebración.

Cada año se le da comienzo a esta gran celebración el 15 de septiembre, ya que en esta fecha muchos países de latinoamérica como Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador y Guatemala celebran su independencia.

En todos estos eventos, aquel que los visita puede tener una experiencia inmersiva en la cultura hispana: música, comida típica, fiestas alegres y ruidosas le permiten a aquellos que atienden las celebraciones darse una idea de lo que la cultura hispana tiene que ofrecer.

Uno de ellos fue el Guate Fest, el cual se llevó a cabo el pasado 4 de septiembre en Hyattsville. Este festival fue más específico, ya que fue dedicado a la cultura guatemalteca. Al evento asistieron bandas muy reconocidas en Guatemala como los Conejos Internacionales y el grupo Mala-

cates Trébol Shop, las cuales contribuyeron a crear un ambiente de fiesta familiar.

El onceavo festival salvadoreñísimo tuvo lugar exactamente una semana después, el 11

llevó a cabo en Washington D.C. el Festival Fiesta D.C. Este festival fue el que tuvo mayor impacto en la comunidad, ya que fue el más notable porque estuvo lo-

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CELEBRANDO SU HERENCIA Personas disfrutan platillos tipicos en el festival hispano. de septiembre en Montgomery County Fairgrounds. Este festival siguió una dinámica similar al Guate Fest. De similar manera, asistieron celebridades muy conocidas en la cultura salvadoreña como la Tenchis, quien es una comediante y Luciana Sandoval, una presentadora de televisión nacional.

La siguiente semana, el 18 de septiembre el Festival Hispano en el condado de Prince George revivió la vibra latina con más espectáculos. Este festival fue un poco más inclusivo, ya que se pudieron observar más culturas, como una presentación de flamenco en honor a España y la danza de los Tecuanes que es típica en México.

Ese mismo día, un festival casi igual se

calizado en la capital por lo que tuvo mayor asistencia.

A pesar de que algunos eventos fueron en honor a países específicos, el objetivo principal de ellos es unificar a la comunidad, ya sea de origen hispano o no, en un ambiente de hermandad y regocijo.

En todos estos eventos se llevaron a cabo actividades en las que los que los atendían tenían la oportunidad de socializar y compartir la experiencia con otros visitantes.

Otro evento sobresaliente de este mes son los Hispanic Heritage Awards que tomaron lugar el 22 de septiembre en el teatro Warner en Washington, DC. Esta ceremonia de reconocimiento se realiza en honor a aquellos

miembros de la comunidad hispana que han aportado algo valioso a la comunidad.

No solo se premian celebridades, sino también otras personas como líderes de la comunidad, educadores y oficiales electos para reconocer su dedicado trabajo.

El presidente Barack Obama, en su discurso de apertura el pasado 15 de septiembre, declaró que para él todos los hispanos viviendo en el país son como estadounidenses. En este mismo discurso, Obama reconoció la importancia de la cultura hispana en la cultura estadounidense.

Este año, incluso la política forma parte de la celebración. Organizaciones en favor de los hispanos como NALEO, Voto Latino y Mi familia vota han tomado acción y han salido a las calles a registrar posibles votantes.

El objetivo de este movimiento es utilizar la motivación de la celebración para lograr que más ciudadanos participen en las elecciones y que por lo tanto, tengan una voz en la decisión final para las elecciones presidenciales.

Tanto ha sido el alcance de este movimiento que estas organizaciones le dieron al mes un segundo nombre de “mes de acción de la herencia hispana.” También, iniciaron las etiquetas de #iDecide2016 y #yoDecido2016 en las redes sociales para alcanzar a la población hispana más joven, que generalmente no se interesa en la política.

Como se puede observar, este es un mes no solo de fiestas y expansión cultural, sino también de activismo a favor del beneficio y derechos de la comunidad hispana, lo cual impacta no solo a nuestra comunidad, sino al país entero porque mantiene vivas las culturas que hacen este país único y diverso.

Latinoamérica en las Olimpiadas La Copa Mundial 2018, 33 medallas y orgullosos de nuestros atletas el sueño de 32 países Por Carlos Fuentes

Las Olimpiadas son unos de los eventos que nos definen como humanos, da motivacion al deseo de ser lo mejor del mundo en un deporte y hace que trabaje más duro para lograr nuestros sueños.

Las primeras Olimpiadas oficiales tomaron lugar en el año 1896 y han sido un elemento importante de relaciones y competencias internacionales. Las últimas Olimpiadas tomaron lugar en el verano de 2016 en Rio, Brasil donde 204 naciones participaron para promover la paz y unidad en la comunidad global a pesar de que esos dos elementos no siempre están presente por todo el mundo.

Las Olimpiadas son un escape de toda la violencia, los conflictos y problemas mundiales.

Lost atletas de Blair son un ejemplo de como las Olimpiadas dan inspiración para trabajar duro en su propio deporte. Jennifer Vargas, una bolivia-na del doceavo grado corre pista para Blair y toma inspiración de ver a los mejores del mundo competir. Dice “ver a los atletas de las Olimpiadas competir en un nivel tan alto me da ganas de mejorarme lo más posible”. La energía y determinación de un atleta no se puede comparar cuando tiene su mente enfocado en ser lo mejor que pueda ser. El año escolar 2015-2016 Blair tuvo éxito en la competencia final de pista y campo del estado con esta determinación entonces uno puede ver que no es ser muy ambicioso decir que uno quiere lle-

gar a ganar premios y ganar competencias nacionales en su deporte.

Jennifer dice que quiere continuar de correr pista en el colegio y quien sabe, si continuará en ese pasaje tal vez ella podrá lograr sus sueños.

Estas Olimpiadas en particular fueron muy similares a las otras

CARLY TAGEN-OYE

Olimpiadas de verano de años recientes. Las naciones que se encontraron encima de los otros países en la tabla de posiciones fueron los Estados Unidos, China, e Inglaterra. A pesar de que nuestros países latinos no se encuentran entre los que más sobresalen en las Olimpiadas, nuestros atletas deben de estar orgullosos por lo que sí lograron. Sin contar a Brasil y Belice, Latinoamérica ganó 33 medallas en total. Esto significa que Latinoamérica ganó 3.4% de los 954 medallas que fueron repartidas. Los países que contribuyeron más a la cuenta fueron Cuba con

11, Colombia con 8, y México con 5.

Es un pena que la mayoría de los paises de Latinoamerica no lograron ni una medalla en Río pero estas Olimpiadas todavía fue ron muy especiales. Por ejemplo Puerto Rico ganó su primera medalla de oro en todo su historia de participar en las olimpiadas. Monica Puig ganó la medalla de tenis para mujeres contra la Angelique Kerber quien fue considerada unas de las favoritas de ganar el oro. También Mijaín López, un luchador de Cuba terminó su carrera con su tercer medalla de oro, defendiendo su título y saliendo del deporte con orgullo. Con la salida de un atleta más respetado y gastado viene nuevo talento.

Ismael Molina, un compañero de López, también ganó su primera medalla de oro en su división de peso en luchar. Es fácil mirar solo a las estadísticas cuando uno determina lo bueno que hicieron los países pero aunque solo hay una o dos medallas gando, hay atletas que dedicaron su vida al deporte para traer orgullo y alegría a su nación.

En conclusión las Olimpiadas son eventos para la diversión del mundo y los atletas quienes ganaron medallas representando a los latinos deben de estar orgulloso. Todo el trabajo duro y formación que resulta en éxito inspira al resto de los atletas en la escuela secundaria como los de Blair para que hagan lo mismo para lograr sus sueños de también llegar a un nivel alto de su deporte.

Por Angie Mejia Los 209 miembros de la FIFA se han inscrito con el fin de competir y calificar por uno de los 31 espacios disponibles para la Copa Mundial 2018. Rusia queda auto calificado por ser el anfitrión del torneo. Las eliminatorias empezaron marzo 2015 y culminarán en noviembre del 2017.

Este proceso se compone de seis confederaciones que determinarán la manera de elegir y clasificar a los países en zonas designadas. La institution que se encarga de las eliminatorias de países como Estados Unidos, Honduras, y Haití es la Confederación de Norteamérica, Centroamérica y el Caribe de Fútbol (CONCACAF). Para ganar los 3 espacios disponibles para esta zona, los 35 países de esta confederación están apunto de comenzar la última ronda de sus 5 rondas de eliminación. La Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL) está a cargo de América del Sur con 10 países que luchan por los 4 puestos disponibles. Al otro lado del At l á n t i c o , la Confederación Africana de Fútbol (CAF) determinará cuáles de los 53 países inscritos de África van a llegar a ocupar sus 5 puestos disponibles.

Las eliminatorias están en la última fase de sus tres rondas clasificatorias. En la zona europea está la La Unión de Asociaciones Europeas de

Fútbol (UEFA), con 13 espacios disponibles para sus 52 miembros.

Los partidos se juegan en solo dos rondas. El continente asiático cuenta con 46 miembros, incluyendo Australia, representados por la Confederación Asiática de Fútbol (AFC). Tienen 4 espacios disponibles que lo están compitiendo en 4 rondas. Al momento, están el la fase tres. Países como Fiji, que es parte de Oceanía, son dirigidos por la Confederación de Fútbol de Oceanía (OFC). Esta confederación únicamente cuenta con 0.5 puestos para sus 11 países participantes.

Por consiguiente, la OFC, junto con la CONMEBOL, la CONCACAF y la AFC, también tienen los 0.5 puestos adicionales. Ellos tendrán que enfrentarse con sus respectivos países en las segundas fases intercontinentales con el fin de lograr acaparar los últimos dos puestos disponibles para la clasificación.

Estudiantes de Blair comparten su emoción, interés, y entusiasmo ante estas eliminatorias. Jason Monroy del doceavo grado apoya a la selección brasileña, dice “Brasil es un equipo con gran cantidad de energía y debería llegar a las finales otra vez.” Cristian Paniagua del noveno grado también comparte su opinión, expresando “Creo que Holanda tiene posibilidad de clasificar. No es mi equipo favorito, pero han logrado calificar en las últimas tres copas.”

En finales del noviembre 2017, nosotros ya tendremos conocimiento de cuáles van a ser los 32 países que jugarán en Rusia. Asi que, marque su caJED GRADY lendario, llame a sus amigos, encienda su televisor y apoye con orgullo y pasión a su equipo favorito en la lucha para ganar su puesto en el Mundial.

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6 de octubre, 2016

Cuando muere un ángel Una mirada a la vida de Juan Gabriel Una despedida triste llena de recuerdos Por Alisson Fortis

Alberto Aguilera Valadez, conocido mundialmente como Juan Gabriel, falleció el 28 de agosto debido a un paro cardiaco a los 66 años de edad. En ese poco tiempo, el nativo de Juárez saltó a la fama como cantante, compositor y actor. “Estaba devastado cuando me di cuenta que había muerto,” dice Señor José Medrano, director del programa de ACES de Blair. “Sentia cómo si un familiar hubiese fallecido. Todos, especialmente mi madre, lloramos.”

Juan Gabriel nació en Michoacán el 7 de enero de 1950. El último de diez hermanos, tenía 4 años cuando fue ingresado a una escuela de mejoramiento social conocida como “El tribunal.” Estuvo internado por ocho años hasta que pudo escapar y fue a vivir con el director y maestro de la escuela. Juan Contreras, el maestro, lo trato y cuido cómo si fuera su propio hijo. Le enseñó a trabajar en una iglesia cercana y le enseñó cómo tocar la guitarra.

A los 13 años, el nativo de Michoacán empezó a escribir sus primeras canciones. Ansioso por que alguien escuchara sus nuevas creaciones, empezó a trabajar en el Bar Noa Noa bajo el nombre “Adán Luna.” Fue allí donde ganó fama con el público local y obtuvo la oportunidad de cantar para artistas que eran parte de RCA, una compañía discográfica. Cambió su nombre artístico a “Juan Gabriel” como honra a su padre Don Juan y su maestro Juan Contreras, quienes tuvieron un gran impacto en su vida.

La carrera musical de Juan Gabriel oficialmente inició en 1971, cuando el cantante firmó un contrato con RCA Records. Se

mudó a la Ciudad de México donde grabó su primer éxito, “No tengo dinero.” Durante los próximos 14 años, Juan Gabriel grabó 15 álbumes y vendió más de 20 millones de discos, dando le reconocimiento a nivel internacional.

No todo fue sonrisas para el compositor mexicano en su carrera musical. Entre los años de 1985 y 1994, Juan Gabriel se negó a grabar nuevo material debido a un problema con RCA sobre sus derechos como com-

MEGHNA SAMBATHKUMAR

positor. Al fin, en 1994 la compañía discográfica y el cantante llegaron a un acuerdo. En 1995, lanzó sus nuevas canciones, 3 de las cuales llegaron a ser parte de la lista exclusiva de Billboard Top 40.

Un año después, en 1996, no solamente lanzó su álbum de 25 aniversarios, también fue agregado a la lista de Salon de fama de Billboard, un gran honor para el cantante y compositor. Desde su gira patrocinada por Sears Inc. en 1999, Juan Gabriel produjo un álbum cada año.

Aparte de cantante, Juan Gabriel también fue un actor. Su pri-

mer debut cómo artista del cine fue cómo el rol principal en la película Nobleza ranchera (1977). En 1981 fue actor y productor de El Noa Noa, una película nombrada por su canción exitosa Noa Noa. Su carrera cómo actor no fue muy larga, en total solo estrenó en 10 películas y programas de televisión.

Tristemente, la carrera del legendario cantante mexicano y actor solamente duró 40 años. La mañana del 28 de agosto, el cantante y actor fue encontrado muerto en su hogar de Santa Mónica, California. Un día después de su muerte, fue determinado que la causa fue una mezcla de complicaciones de diabetes y problemas con el corazón.

El cantante estaba muy involucrado en ayudar a su comunidad.

Cómo acto de caridad, cantaba en conciertos benéficos y fundó una escuela para huérfanos de 6 a 12 años en la ciudad de Santa Fe. En vez de enfocarse en su buenas acciones de caridad, los noticieros decidieron enfocarse en cosas más escandalosas cómo cuando se cayó del escenario en su concierto.

El artista mexicano Juan Gabriel es y siempre será una leyenda. Su vida juvenil fue difícil pero él luchó por su éxito y lo logró! Se convirtió en un fenómeno musical. Fue una persona que le daba de regreso a su comunidad. Aunque físicamente no esté aquí, Juan Gabriel siempre vive. Medrano dice, “mientras sus canciones sigan siendo escuchadas y sus películas sigan siendo vistas, Juan Gabriel nunca va a morir.”

Por Joseph Martínez escritor invitado

Glenda fue una de las personas más maravillosas que pude conocer en estos últimos 3 años.

Yo la consideraba mi mejor amiga, cada momento vivido con ellas siempre lo tendré en mi mente y en mi corazón. Nuestra amistad

Tan solo con 3 años de conocerla le tomé mucho cariño. Tenía un futuro por delante, teníamos planes de ir a Miami después de graduarnos e ir a recorrer el país entero si era posible. A pesar de todo, sé que ahora está en un mejor lugar cuidándonos desde el cielo.

Ahora quiero dejarles saber a todas esas personas que tienen

poco a poco se convirtió en un cariño de hermanos. Cada fin de semana a ella siempre le gustaba salir a comer, al cine o a mi casa a divertirnos con nuestros amigos.

El lugar de Glenda nadie podrá reemplazarlo. Podríamos tener peleas e indiferencias pero al final siempre estábamos el uno para el otro. Glenda siempre era positiva en todo momento de su vida, decía que ella podría lograrlo y luchó hasta el final. De una manera u otra ella nunca se rindió, continuó la escuela sin importarle su estado de salud. Me acuerdo del mejor fin de año que tuvimos con ella al lado de su familia y sus otros grandes amigos: Luis Galeano y Kevin León, quienes formaron una parte importante en la vida de Glenda.

amigos o familiares con cáncer que no se rindan. Ellos pueden ganar la batalla hasta el final así como lo hizo Glenda Hernández.

Tal vez no pudo sobrevivir pero luchó cada segundo hasta el final.

Una cosa de la que sí estoy orgulloso es que la hicimos feliz en vida, cada momento fue especial. Fue era muy agradable verla sonreír a pesar de su enfermedad.

Será muy difícil despertar cada mañana y pensar que ella no estará más con nosotros, que ahora esta con Dios. Él siempre tiene propósitos y razones en la vida de cada persona. Supongo que necesitaba a un angel más. Donde sea que ella está ahora siempre tendrá un espacio muy, muy especial en mi corazón y siempre será recordada como un ángel.

CORTESIA DE JOSEPH MARTINEZ

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October 6, 2016

High level athletes need more than just big muscles Mental game: the overlooked aspect of sports that turns athletes from good to great

By Cole Greenberg The light signaling a point for his opponent goes off. Junior Nicolas del Vecchio takes a deep breath and focuses on his opponent through his mask. He ignores the lights, the noise, the referee, the spectators, the sweat coating his armor, and the muscle fatigue in his arms and legs. He is 5,000 miles away from home and five seconds away from winning or losing an international fencing tournament match. At this point it is all a mental game.

Del Vecchio first picked up a fencing sword when he was eight years old. “I started fencing pretty much because I like Star Wars and I wanted to lightsaber duel. I signed up for a summer camp and I have been doing it ever since then.” It was not until he was ten that he began competing in serious tournaments, and it was only after he turned fourteen that he started winning. A lot. He is currently ranked twentieth in the United States out of all ages.

What happened? What moved an amateur athlete with a decent skill set to national rankings and competitions in Poland, Germany, and Hungary? The answer is mental game.

In fencing, points are scored in milliseconds. The blade del Vecchio uses, Saber, is a light, flexible blade that extends slightly over three feet. He has no time to think when he is moving back and forth dodging, parrying, and lunging. It is all action and reaction. Del Vecchio’s speed helps, but his ability to stay focused and relaxed is key. “Fencing is mostly a mental game. When I was younger I was really stressed out at these tournaments but then I figured out how to relax and focus and that helped me a lot,” he explains. “I meditate and there are relaxation techniques that you can do. Just being able to focus and think positive thoughts—that’s huge.”

Elite tennis player, junior Valerie Ho, relates to the importance of a strong mental game.

Ho played in her first tennis tournament when she was ten and competed in her first national tournament when she was 12.

“When I was 14 I did really well at this big national tournament and I realized I can really compete with these top girls and I can go to a high level D1 college.”

But it takes an enormous amount of work.

“I practice every day for at least three hours.

On odd school days I practice from eight to eleven, then I go to school and then might go

COURTESY OF VALERIE HO

FULL STRETCH Junior Valerie Ho reaches to return the ball to her opponent in a match.

later that night. On even days I go to tennis after [school] from two to five or from five to nine,” Ho says.

Similarly to fencing, a tennis match is broken down into points that you can either win or lose. Just like del Vecchio, Ho has to stay calm under pressure and bounce back from multiple setbacks every match. “You get upset and you have to control your breathing and make sure you stay calm and your heart rate is optimal and you’re not too anxious so that you are fully ready for the next point.” Ho goes through various steps to get into a good mindset. “For example, breathing in colors. Like breathe in a color like blue because it symbolizes calmness and you breathe out yellow or red for anger. It helps calm my heart rate,” Ho says.

Sports psychologist Peter Lee works with top performers across many fields, from athletes to surgeons and Navy seals. His goal is to alleviate his clients’ stress and optimize their performance. “Generally, a lot of people are focused on outcomes or results, so I like to focus on procedures. Going through those specific detail oriented procedures that are crucial lead to that positive outcome. Instead of focusing on the outcome, what is the process?”

Lee also helps performers deal with setbacks and failure. He emphasizes the great importance of a growth mindset. “Failure is where growth occurs. Setback and lessons learned—that is huge, that is where growth occurs. That is where the greatest athletes are coming from. So go ahead have your pity party, be upset, eat your Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Be upset for as long as you need to be, but at the end of the day, you need to learn what actually happened or occurred in that mistake so you don’t repeat it. We wouldn’t grow if we didn’t have this adversity,” Lee says.

Senior track runner Thierry Siewe Yanga has learned a lesson from failure. Months before outdoor track began in his junior year of high school, during the indoor track season, Yanga qualified for regionals in the 800 meter event as one of the top ranked sprinters. He ran poorly and he did not even qualify for the state finals. After his initial

COURTESY OF THIERRY SIEWE YANGA

SPRINT FINISH Senior Thierry Siewe Yanga competes in the Maryland State Final.

anger and frustration, he decided to move on. “I didn’t qualify so I was really mad, I was really pissed. Instead of letting myself down, I became motivated on transitioning from indoor to outdoor track. I started something new I hadn’t done before, which is running in the morning,” Yanga says. To increase his stamina, he started running two to four miles before school. Months later, he won the Maryland Athletic Association State Championship competition in the 800 meter race and the 4x800 meter relay.

What separates del Vecchio, Ho, and Yanga from other athletes is their mental toughness. Lee insists that being mentally tough is critical in individual sports and is what separates good athletes from great athletes.

“Every morning when my alarm went off, to be honest, I hated it. I’m like, ‘Do I really have to wake up, do I really want this, do I really need this, oh my god, can I just have my extra hour of sleep?’ Yanga says. “But I told myself if I really want to be a top athlete, then I have to do what top athletes do.”

Golf team’s perfect undefeated start a result of above-par work ethic The unrecognized challenges, intricacies, and logistics of playing competitive high school golf

By Cole Greenberg The team outscores their opponents, successfully navigating the nooks and crannies of the golf course like skilled professionals.

After hours of trekking through vast grassland sparsely populated with pine trees and flat sand, the team finally clinches a victory at the Redgate golf course in Rockville, Maryland. But no matter how impressive the

achievement of Blair’s golf team, there is no deafening upheaval in the stands. There is no horde of grinning fans waiting to rush the team, because it usually takes fewer than ten fingers to count the number of spectators.

The athletes, eight of them, straighten their bright red polo shirt and khaki outfits, and pat each other on the back, quietly acknowledging their victory.

Blair’s golf team, one of the 25 high school

golf teams in the county, is all too familiar with their sportsmanship reaching deaf ears.

Senior Steven Dunne, a four-year member of the golf team, often feels blank receptions from students in the hallways.

“I’ll say I’m on the golf team, and some people will say, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know Blair had a golf team,’” Dunne says.

Unbeknownst to most, playing golf requires a level of mental and physical coordination that takes years to master. “The hardest part about the game is probably the mental aspect, because you have to be really concentrated throughout while you’re playing, otherwise you’re just going to get messed up,” says sophomore golfer Max Edminster.

The harder side of a golf club

HANNAH SCHWARTZ

PAR-TEE TIME Sophomore Joseph Lesage takes a few practice swings in a match at Redgate Golf Course against Kennedy, Wheaton, and Watkins Mill on Sept. 21.

Along with the intricacies of the game, playing on a high school team comes with a whole other set of logistical obstacles, such as playing expenses and transportation.

Through a close partnership with MCPS, public golf courses in the county set aside free playing time for high school teams, providing athletes with unobstructed access to at least nine different holes of golf, various putting greens, and on some locations, a driving range.

While this system offers teen golfers a chance to develop their skills without spending a penny, it is not without flaw. In most instances, rescheduling lost practices is rarely an option, says last year’s golf coach, Daniel Cole. According to sophomore golfer Sam Hardin, transportation tends to be an issue as well. “I think it’s the hardest sport to practice because they don’t have a bus for the golf team,” Hardin says.

Just like any other high school sport, equipment or attire of some form is a requirement to play on the golf team. Clubs, shoes, and other golf-related equipment can

cost a player hundreds of dollars.

It eases the pressure on a student’s wallet that the only required materials are clubs, a red polo t-shirt, and khaki pants. The polo is provided by the school, but the clubs, by far the most expensive piece of golfing equipment, must be purchased by the athletes, according to Athletic Director Rita Boule.

“We’ve never had to purchase them,” Boule says, “but of course if a kid needed equipment, we would figure out a way to get him equipment.”

Looking fore-ward Although it is possible for a student with no experience, equipment, or golfing knowledge of any kind to join the ranks of the golf team, this seldom occurs at Blair. All eight of the students on the golf team have some experience with the sport, whether it be one year of playing, or a whole lifetime immersed in the game.

Sophomores Joseph LeSage and Pattara Kijlertkittikul have both participated in numerous youth golf tournaments, giving them the experiences and qualifications to play in college and possibly beyond.

College scholarships for golf, though small in supply, are on the table for players like LeSage and Kijlertkittikul. Colleges value golf players just as much as the next athlete, and even though the reception of Blair’s golf team does not rival that of the football team, they continue to play their hardest. The team has rocketed past its first nine matches undefeated and hopes for an explosive season — even without the roar of a crowd.

“We do get some recognition, and that’s always good. It’s also kind of hard to ask for spectators cause you’ve got to walk out for three hours and walk with us in the sun, and everything,” Dunne says, “I’m glad we get the support we do.”

October 6, 2016

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Taking traditional yoga classes to a whole new height

Swinging, hanging, bending, and stretching in an aerial yoga class

By Leila Jackson In first person I hang upside down, suspended from a piece of fabric hooked to the ceiling, and I can feel the blood rush to my brain. This is not what I expected when I first walked into the studio. I am in the middle of a session of aerial yoga, which is regular yoga with a twist: all of the poses and movements are performed in the air.

I have never done aerial yoga before, so I went to Spark Yoga, a studio in Arlington, to try it out for the first time. The studio is cozy and features padded floors, mirrors on one wall, and several circus-grade silk hammocks hooked to the ceiling. The room is pretty small and only four other beginners join me in the class, which makes it easier for the instructor to help us all out. My first

impression tells me that they are stereotypical 30-year-old white yoga enthusiasts, so I feel a little out of place.

First, the teacher measures us and resizes the hammocks if they are not the right height. We start with some simple stretching while standing on the floor. From there, we jump into some more complex poses using the hammocks. I do traditional yoga poses like the tree pose, where I balance on one leg and my other leg forms a triangle with my shin, all while standing up in the hammock. The first few poses are grueling, so I cannot imagine what the instructor will ask me to do later.

Part of aerial yoga includes doing elaborate poses upside down, and while they look cool, they are actually pretty difficult to achieve. The feeling of being upsideCHAMINDA HANGILIPOLA

soapbox What are some cool or unusual exercise classes that you have tried?

“Meditating. It is a great way to relieve all the college stress.”

— Shraddha Anand, senior “Aerial silks and other circus arts are my favorite ways to exercise and get stronger.”

— Emma Creekmore, junior “A class called ‘Body Positive’ is a really cool mix of dance, yoga, and strength workouts.”

— Grace Weissman, senior

HANGING AROUND The writer, junior Leila Jackson, performs an aerial yoga pose. down is extremely awkward and stiff at first. I stay there for a while and my face feels like it is overheating. During my first upside-down pose, I cannot stop wondering how long it is going to last and how I am going to get down without falling on my face.

For some of the poses, I refuse to let go of the hammock. Hanging upside down in a contortionist-like pose is enough for me. I remember to breathe and the pose starts to feel a little more natural, but my knuckles are still white from gripping the fabric.

My arms tremble with the exertion of every movement and I desperately wish that I had more upper-body strength. One example where this occurs is during a move called an L-drop. To accomplish the pose, I have my feet in the hammock and I must pull myself away from it, so that I end up an arms-length away from the fabric and my body makes the shape of an “L”. By the time the move is over my “L” looks more

like a “C.” The last ten to fifteen minutes of a typical yoga class is set aside for savasana, a relaxation period to lay back on the mat and unwind. I still get the chance to do this, but I am suspended in the hammock to relax instead of laying on the floor. Normally savasana is an awkward time to listen to people breathe and sigh around me, but in this class I am cocooned in my hammock away from the others in my class.

After I complete the session, I feel accomplished, slightly dizzy, and physically, very light. I have done yoga in the past, but I found aerial yoga to be vastly different from anything I have tried previously. Initially, it unnerved me to hang upside down, but as the class went on I got used to the unusual feeling, and even let go of the hammock. I recommend aerial yoga for anyone who is interested in completing an acrobatic workout and can embrace the difficulties of a suspended workout.

Blair handball comes out with strong start to the season Decisive passes, accurate shots, and effective communication leads to team’s first victory

By Elias Monastersky Nelson H. Kobren Memorial Gymnasium- On Tuesday, Sept. 27, Blair handball beat the Churchill Bulldogs 36 to 14 in their first game of the season.

Blair took the lead early and kept it, as strong defenders made multiple turnovers and an aggressive offense created many scoring opportunities. With liberal use of substitutes, Blair remained fresh all game.

Seniors Gabe Field and Jonathan Esubalew were quick on the court, shooting often and moving the ball effectively. The fast pace of the game continued to the end of the first half.

Important plays, such as Field rushing the goal with the ball and then playing it out wide for a shot on goal, gave the Blazers many chances to score and contributed to their win. After settling into the game in the second half, the Blazers passed more effectively and held a sizable lead until the end.

The buzzer blew and the ball was thrown by the Blazers for the last time.

Churchill, with a now 0-2 record, fought hard and had some very effective players, according to Esubalew. “They are good, they have a couple players that are stand out players, they like to balance their roster,” he said. Esubalew said that he played a good game with multiple shots, but he did not do as much passing as he would have liked, which stopped him from reaching his full potential.

Coach Louis Hoelman said the Blair team performed well, and identified weaknesses in the game. “I think that for our first game we did a really good job … We work on passing a whole lot to start every practice and at halftime,” he said. “I talked to them about that because I thought we were sloppy with our passes, making inaccurate passes which means people were open and couldn’t get good shots off.”

Hoelman also said that Churchill has a great handball team and fully realizes the spirit of handball. “They played a very good game against us and it was a good team to play in our first game and I thought they

did a great job,” he said. “I love Churchill because their coach really gets the sport. He plays all of his players and they all pass the ball around a lot and I feel that we do that here also.”

COURTESY OF TUNG PHAM

STRAIGHT SHOOTER Sophomore Dagmawe Aychiluhim attempts a shot at goal as he dribbles down the court. in a game against Churchhill on Sept. 27.

Montgomery County is one of the only school districts with handball as a varsity sport. As a result, Hoelman says making the county championships is one of the team’s biggest goals for this season. The Blazers have won division titles in 2012 and 2013, and won a county title in 2014.

Hoelman said that another win is within reach this year. “That’s our goal this year.

Our goal is to work together well as a team and to win the championship this year.”

Field also agreed that the team has the potential to progress far this season. “I definitely think that we can make it to the playoffs,” he said. “We made it to the playoffs the last two years and so I hope we take the championship this year.”

The team needs unity to make it there, according to Hoelman. “In this sport everyone has to play well together ... You have to talk and communicate on defense so you can create a shell around the goal so the goalie doesn’t have unobstructed shots coming at him,” he said. “It doesn’t work if you just dribble up the court and try to take a shot yourself, so passing is super important.”

Senior players also emphasized the importance of the team aspect of the sport.

“Teamwork, hard work, cooperation makes sure everyone’s together as a team basically like a family,” Esubalew said.

“I think we definitely try to focus on passing and spreading the ball around, not only is that good to include everyone on the team but it also makes the team the most effective,” Field said.

Hoelman concluded by emphasizing the team’s focus on sportsmanship. “I think the most important thing is to keep everyone involved and make everyone feel like they are a big part of this team,” he said.

Handball’s next game is on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Bethesda-Chevy Chase. This is their second game of the season and their chance to remain undefeated.

F3 Sports

silverchips

October 6, 2016

An examination of the high rate of concussions among high school football players from FOOTBALL page A1 and playing.

A strict protocol Prior to the sports season, all student athletes must take a baseline concussion test. According to Blair athletic trainer Meghan Wilkinson, players suspected of having a concussion perform a series of memory and physical tests, ranging from repeating word and number sequences to an examination of the athlete’s balance and pupils.

If the player fails these tests, they are diagnosed with a concussion. The player then must undergo a rigidly monitored recovery program, which prohibits them from all athletic activity until fully cleared by a medical professional.

The Zackery Lystedt Law, passed by the state of Maryland in 2012, mandates this clearance rule.

The law, which has been adopted in 48 states nationwide, requires any player “showing signs of a concussion to be examined and cleared by a licensed health care provider before being allowed to return to play,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Senior Spencer Helsing, a tight end and linebacker who has sustained multiple concussions, recalls his restrictions once he was diagnosed with a concussion. “I stayed home for three days and wasn’t allowed to use computers, TV, or my phone,” Helsing says.

By Christian Mussenden A month ago, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, a black man, took a knee during the national anthem to protest the treatment of people of color by police forces across the country. Kaepernick not only singlehandedly helped reignite an increasingly passive movement, he helped renew the age-old discussion of the position of professional athletes in the social and political landscape. Not since the days of Muhammad Ali’s draft evasion in 1967 and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ Black Power salute during the 1968 Summer Olympics have professional athletes created such a stir by participating in or creating a social or political statement.

Nowadays, we rarely see professional athletes taking much of a stand on issues outside of sports, and if they do, their stance is relatively tame and forgettable. Take, for example, when four of the NBA’s biggest superstars—Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and Lebron James— took center stage during the ESPYs this summer to urge their fellow athletes to express their views on the issue Colin Kaepernick is currently protesting: police relations with people of color. Yes, their action was courageous, but after a week their speech quickly faded into obscurity, with no effect on the social landscape.

We enjoy sports because they offer us a sanctuary from the issues of the real world while giving us, the average person, a somewhat magical storyline to follow and be a part of. That is part of the reason athletes are encouraged to

“Then, I went back to school and did half days for three more days, and then slowly increased going back to school at a regular pace.”

Like Helsing, junior lineman Micah Burton remembers, “I had to miss school for two days … I went

physical activity only after receiving a signed clearance note from a doctor. The athlete then begins the “Return to Play” protocol, which is a series of progressively more intense workouts that allow the athlete to move on to the next step

suffering a concussion.

“I started off missing one day of school,” he says. “But when I came back to school, I almost fainted in the middle of class, but I caught myself. And then I told the nurse, and she told me not to come to school for a whole week.”

Uzamere also remembers not being able to fall asleep because of his doctor’s warning. “The doctor said that if I went to sleep, I might not be able to wake back up,” he says.

menting [the rule] last year where they were supposed to make more calls for helmet-to-helmet plays,” Wilkinson says. “That didn’t seem to look like it was happening.”

Burton has a simple message for anyone who may be experiencing concussion symptoms. “If you do feel like you have any symptoms, you should tell, because it’s your brain, it’s a serious part of your body,” Burton says. “It’s not worth trying to tough it out. Just go get help.”

Sobering statistics

GRIFFIN REILLY

A CRUSHING BLOW Senior linebacker Travis Taylor lays a big hit that knocks the helmet off of Northwood running back Ike Ehrenberg. back to school, but I could only do certain work and if my head started to hurt, then I would stop the work.”

Under the Lystedt Law and MCPS policy, players can return to

suppress their political views during their time in the spotlight, because we fear that separate world of sports being compromised by the problems of the real world.

But Kaepernick’s actions have reminded us that sometimes there are issues like police brutality that are bigger than sports. This is why Colin Kaepernick’s actions have been so captivating. Not only have they revived the discussion about race relations with police forces, they have encouraged athletes at every level, from the NFL to the Watkins Mill football team, to break the mold and express their point of view on something bigger than the sport they play. No matter what opinion you hold on what Colin Kaepernick does during the national anthem (both sides have legitimate points of view on the subject), it is important to remember that what Kaepernick is doing is bigger than football and, in the grand scope of things, police brutality. Colin Kaepernick is again encouraging athletes to take a risk by expressing their opinions and making statements on issues they believe in, not just serve as sources of entertainment. This is something that should not only be respected, but revered.

only if no concussion symptoms are reported or observed. If the athlete clears the program, the trainer allows them to return to full activity.

Nearly fainting “in the middle of class” Headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, and memory loss are some of the most common symptoms of concussions, according to the CDC. Some athletes do not always report their concussion-like symptoms until they have a scary, potentially life-threatening experience during athletic activity.

“I remember during practice, I sort of could tell I had [a concussion],” Helsing says. “I kind of blacked out a little for a couple of seconds and then got back up. I didn’t really think much of it, and then later that night and the next day when my head was just killing me, I realized—yeah, I have a concussion.”

The competitive instinct in athletes often causes situations like Helsing’s, where an athlete may experience concussion symptoms but will not report them for fear of letting down their coach or teammates, a phenomenon described as a “culture resistance” in a 2013 National Academy of Medicine report.

Uzamere, a senior lineman, describes a similar, yet more frightening, experience he had in class after

A 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 57.7 percent of concussions sustained by high school football players occur during practice. The study also found that, of the concussions reported by youth, high school, and college football players in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, 66.4 percent of them occurred in high schoolers.

According to the CDC, tackling is the primary cause of concussions at the high school level. “Tackling is responsible for almost two-thirds (63 percent) of concussions in high school football,” the organization reports.

Daniel Cole, the running backs and linebackers coach of Blair’s team, says the coaching staff is aware of the dangers of tackling and tries to limit the amount of contact in practice.

“Usually just two days a week, we’ll wear full pads,” Cole says.

“Those days, we can hit or tackle if we want to. Even within that, we tell the kids to ‘wrap-up.’ They’re not going to take kids up and throw them to the ground in practice.”

“Go get help” Coaches, trainers, and medical professionals are working hard to prevent future concussions among athletes.

Cole says that the Blair coaching staff teaches players the proper way to tackle in order to prevent helmet-to-helmet contact. “Routinely, a couple times a week we’ll practice tackling,” he says. “We do what we call a ‘tackling circuit,’ which is practicing the basics of tackling—the form for it … your footwork, where your head placement goes, your shoulders, and how you do all those things.”

According to Wilkinson, referees have been instructed to call more severe penalties for helmetto-helmet contact in an attempt to discourage these types of collisions and reduce concussions.

Despite this initiative, Wilkinson believes the change has not been enforced consistently. “The refs were supposed to start imple-

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

ALEXANDER DACY

insideSPORTS Checking in with the golf team see page F1

SHIVANI MATTIKALLI

A new yoga trend takes hold see page F2

“Christian’s Corner” is a monthly column where staff writer Christian Mussenden expresses his opinion on current events in the world of sports.

GRIFFIN REILLY

BEARING DOWN Sophomore defensive lineman Olyfride Okombi lays a big hit and knocks a Churchill running back to the ground.

ALEXANDRA MENDIVIL