June 2018

Montgomery County’s Longest Running School Newspaper

The Tattler

Volume 91 Issue 9

June 2018

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School 4301 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814

By Andrew Cha and Aidan Smyth With the closing of the 2017-2018 school year arrives a new era for Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. By this fall, the new addition to the school will be finally open for classes, marking the beginning of B-CC 3.0: the third reinvention of the high school and student culture in its history. In 1996, B-CC opened its doors to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program, altering not only the academic life but the culture of B-CC; its impacts are felt even twenty years later. Now, in 2018, with another large renovation to the school, the culture and atmosphere of B-CC will undoubtedly change, marking a new chapter in B-CC’s history: B-CC 3.0 However, as noted by our most recent edition, there are still many areas where B-CC can improve, areas where B-CC can do better to raise the spirits of the student body and overall create a more efficient and communal academic environment. While the Class of 2018 displayed a great sense of school

spirit in their last semester, this did not particularly influence the other classes or the staff. It still appears to the casual observer that spirit at B-CC is fairly low, and even lower should the current frustrations at the administration among the student body and the staff be considered.

In addition to this, the past school year revealed various other areas where both the B-CC staff and student body could improve. As noted by various members of the school community, the fundraising for charity in the month of February was subpar, as compared to previous years, with many students not even aware of what charity they were supposed to be donating to. 2017-2018 also marked another school year where students remained in low spirits for both Homecoming and the Senior Prom; this was only exacerbated by poor ticket management and controversies over promposals.

Undoubtedly, these factors, among others, have

Inside this Edition...

“virtual reality,” Page 9

World Cup Preview, Page 13

contributed to a general atmosphere of discontent within the school. However, it is also important to remember that these feelings are a byproduct of both staff and student actions; just as the staff should be responsive to student interest, the students should be cooperative and driven to make this community as great as it can be. But, what’s so exciting about the new addition and B-CC 3.0 is that it provides us with an opportunity to do more, to potentially solve these problems and make B-CC even more than what it already is. With that in mind, the Tattler editorial staff has decided to finish this school year by pitching some potential ideas that we feel, if implemented, would improve both the academic and social environments of B-CC moving forward.

“B-CC 3.0” is a philosophy for our future education that accompanies the addition of the new building.

Continued on page 5

For immediate releaseuntil the madness ends

School Shooting Press Kit, Page 16

News

Page 2

June 2018

Former B-CC soccer player goes professional

By Pablo Lopez

Nicholas “Niko” Gioacchini, a US footballer and former B-CC student, has just signed a two year contract with League 1 French football team, SM CAEN. Niko was born in Kansas City, Missouri in July 2000, and attended BCC for his freshman year, 2014-15.

Both of Niko’s siblings also attended B-CC. His sister Alexia graduated in 2016 and his brother, Christiano, attended until his junior year, leaving to join his brother in France in the fall of 2016. Niko’s football career started when he was six, playing for a local Overland Park team, The Orange Stars. Two years later his family moved to Parma, Italy

and he played for local teams Audace then Milan Club. A return to the US at the end of 2011 brought him to Maryland where he played for Bethesda Soccer Club, Cerritos Soccer Academy, D.C. United Academy, Olney Soccer Club and ESSA Soccer Academy.

Three years later, he is expecting to begin this fall as the striker for the team’s reserve group as he works his way up to the first team. The 17 year old has been living in Paris for the past three years, and finishing his season for Paris Football Club, a League two team in France. Niko has been the team’s starting striker for those two years, first with the U17 Nationaux and this year

with the U19 Nationaux. In the two seasons he has played in over 50 games and has scored almost 40 goals.

Niko’s strength as a player caught the eyes of many agents and clubs his first season.

However, it was his dominance in the country’s U19 tournament, the Gambardella Cup this year, that confirmed that Niko had talent. He took his team to the round of sixteen by equalizing the first game of the tournament when his team was done 0-1. This was done with his team also down two players, 9 v 11, after a red card and a hurt player. His penalty shot in the shootout gave the team the win. His two goals in the next round of the tourna-

ment ended in a 2-2 draw, but again penalty kicks brought them to the next tier. Instructions by the opposing coach in the round of 16 was to, “Shut the American down.” Niko

By David Schusterman

Photo courtesy of Nicholas Gioacchini

Editors-in-Chief Andrew Cha Sophia Saidi Emily Schrader

level math class.

“I’ve never had to reteach so much precalc,” Pascale said.

“The way [Curriculum 2.0] was implemented in Montgomery County, they stripped out all thought, all creative thought, and it was hard to tell the difference between kids that understood that made a small arithmetic mistake and

“This is a process that involves lots of public dollars. Public trust is very important that they have in us to make sure that we are using the public dollars in making a really sound, strong decision” Magazine, MCPS used a five million dollar federal grant to write Curriculum 2.0, and continued to spend money on development and implementation of materials in the following years. Add this to an almost $446,000 curriculum audit, the cost of teacher hours, and a new RFP, MCPS has spent a lot of money on curriculum development that has for the most part produced negative feedback.

“This is a process that involves lots of public dollars,” Navarro said. “Public trust is very important that they have in us to make sure that we

The Tattler Advisors David Lopilato Rosana Pagán

are using the public dollars in making a really sound, strong decision.”

But, integrity may come at a price. This delay pushes back MCPS plans to introduce a new curriculum for the fall of 2018, despite the many shortcomings of Curriculum 2.0. In 2017, the curriculum underwent an audit by Johns

Managing Editors Paloma Delgado Lee Schwartz Aidan Smyth Art Directors Julia Mencher Daniel Navratil

Hopkins University, which concluded it required major improvements. According to the official evaluation report, both the English Language Arts and the Math curricula did not meet the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards. Additionally, many teachers felt it was unable to meet the learning needs of many of their students.

Ms. Pascale, a math teacher at B-CC, encountered problems with Curriculum 2.0 in her BC Calculus class this past year. She found her students to be lacking the proper foundations necessary for this high

Photos by Sam Heidler and Alessia Modjarrad

Churchill High School

By Sophia Saidi

MCPS’s chief academic officer. “We were responding to an audit, we were responding to concerns about needing to bring in new materials.”

This “bump” in the selection process completely reset any progress made up to this point, despite the money that had already begun to fund this project. According to Bethesda

age

had offers from more than six teams in France and two in Italy for season. He decided on CAEN because he felt it was the best fit.

New MCPS Curriculum Sparks Controversy In 2010, MCPS announced the implementation of it’s new curriculum, Curriculum 2.0, which would be integrated into classrooms across the county in the following couple of years. Now, only eight years after this announcement, MCPS has once again started the process of changing the elementary and middle school curriculum, sending out a request for proposal this past April. But, plans for a new curriculum quickly came to a halt after it was revealed that two high level district employees planned to take jobs at the company hired to develop the curriculum.

Erick Lang, associate superintendent of the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs, and James Fliakas, Department of Secondary Curriculum and Districtwide Programs English and language supervisor, were both involved in the selection process for the curriculum bid. After it came to light that they would be taking jobs with Discovery Education, the company selected to write the curriculum, MCPS got rid of the vendor and restarted the search process for a new curriculum. Although both Lang and Fliakas denied having influenced the selection process, district officials wanted to maintain the integrity of the selection process and the school system.

“We had a bump in our process,” said Marria Navarro,

P 3 News B-CC’s “Memorial to Our Lives” travels countywide June 2018

kids that didn’t get it at all.”

Ben Nicholson, Math Department Chair at Montgomery College, explains the effects of Curriculum 2.0 as both an educator and an MCPS parent.

“I understand what they were trying to do,” Nicholson said. “Where it fell flat is that I thought a lot of the materials weren’t well designed.”

According to Nicholson, two thirds of all students who enter Montgomery College straight out of high school are sent to a developmental math class, meaning they do not have adequate skills to pass

college Algebra 2. Although this is not specific to Curriculum 2.0 as most students currently attending Montgomery College are too old to have experienced it, it proves the need for updated educational materials.

Some teachers, frustrated with Curriculum 2.0, were looking forward to new teaching materials, originally planned to be introduced into selected classrooms the fall of 2018. Now, by that time, the replacement curriculum will only be in it beginning stages.

According to Navarro, the new curriculum should introduce materials that would provide “more opportunities for personalized learning, but at the same time more instructional materials that are meeting [student] needs.”

“So it’s a tough decision because we were on a trajectory to move this work forward,” Navarro said. “But we think it’s more responsible to pause it, restart it in the fall and continue to get the involvement of students, teachers, administrators, [and] parents in this process of the selection of the next set of materials.”

Student newspaper of Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS 4301 East West Highway, Bethesda MD 20814 In association with the National Scholastic Press Association

In the aftermath of national protests following the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida this February, B-CC juniors Emily Schrader and Anna O’Keefe, and sophomore Ethan Tiao, wanted to do something at B-CC to show support for teenage victims of gun violence.

As the B-CC student representatives to Montgomery County Students for Gun Control, a network of students across 32 different DMV schools working to prevent gun violence within schools and communities, and leaders of B-CC for Gun Control, they had the platform to organize large numbers of students.

But they knew another walkout may be repetitive, especially following the national school walkout on March 14th that drew thousands of students to the nation’s capital.

Instead of walking out to protest recent events, Schrader and O’Keefe aimed to create an immersive art installation to commemorate all of the teenagers that have lost their lives to gun violence this year.

“While national tragedies such as Columbine, Sandy

Richard Montgomery High School

Poolesville High School

Hook, Parkland and Santa Fe have called attention to lives lost due to gun violence, they only account for some of the teen lives lost from gun violence every year,” O’Keefe said.

Entitled “Memorial to Our Lives,” the installation featured several hundred shirts with the names of teenage victims of gun violence on the front, serving as the physical embodiment of the devastating effects of gun violence. It aimed to bring awareness to the epidemic of everyday gun violence across the country, including the numerous teenage gun deaths that are often ignored or go without notice.

The installation was stationed along the B-CC fence that lines East-West Highway, in a position that would be seen not only by the students and staff of B-CC, but by the hundreds of passersby every day. Rows of t-shirts, with the names and ages of every teenager killed by guns in 2018 from January 1st to April 20th alone - lined the fence, almost 200 in total.

“When I try to contextualize the number of lives lost due to gun violence [this year], I am filled with literal chills,”

O’Keefe said.

In addition to the 199 shirts along the fence, 12 more shirts were hung on stakes on the front lawn in memory of the 12 students killed in the Columbine school shooting 19 years ago.

In just one week, members of the B-CC for Gun Control club, which now has over 80 members, worked to raise over $1,600 in funds for the project and future endeavors, create the shirts, and hang them up.

The installation received significant public attention, as well as recognition from local news outlets.

This project shines light on some of the activist work that B-CC students do and are capable of doing for our community, and other high schools in Montgomery County are taking notice.

“Students from other high schools requested they receive the display after ours concluded, and we did not hesitate to share the installation,” O’Keefe explained. “I honestly couldn’t have done it without them.”

Dani Miller, the student at Churchill that took charge of installation after B-CC, said that “Emily gave me the shirts,

and it was really easy to take about an hour and a half before school to put it up.”

Churchill was the first stop in a tour of schools in MCPS that took on the installation.

“This project is a great way to bring awareness to these lives, and commemorate them for who they are, with their full names and not just remember them as statistics,” Miller said.

After Churchill, Richard Montgomery, Poolesville, and Einstein followed, and the installation is scheduled to be displayed at Walter Johnson High School on June 14th.

“It does not surprise me that other schools are so eager to have the installation after the impact it had on our community,” O’Keefe said.

The impact that it had may have been a much needed step in the right direction to make a change.

“I feel like throughout all these school shootings,” Miller emphatically told me, “I have moved through almost every stage of grief: denial that these atrocities can possibly happen so quickly, anger that politicians and society don’t seem to care, sadness that they keep happening again and again and that all these innocent

lives are taken; but I refuse to feel any acceptance.”

While students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site in which the tragic Parkland shooting that took 17 young lives occurred, have rightfully gained much of the national attention, students at high schools across the nation have stepped up in the fight to end gun violence, B-CC included.

In the opinion of O’Keefe and Miller, on an issue as contentious as gun violence, change will not occur if people don’t fight for it, and young people have gone to the front lines in 2018.

“As long as they won’t protect our lives, we will not protect their seats,” O’Keefe said.

As a result, that is one of the main goals of this movement: to get young people to go out and vote.

“If we vote, we win,” Miller said. “And I guarantee you: the young people will win.”

The t-shirt installation at B-CC, that may seem small by itself, was a crucial step in a much larger journey towards change, and ultimately, towards safety.

Independent School District looked into the claims of staff bullying and have found them to be untrue. Four pipe bombs were found within the school, but their relationship to the shooting is currently unclear.

None of the bombs went off and authorities aren’t sure whether they were fully functional.

The fire alarm rang at the school at 7:30 AM, when people in the school heard shots along with screams from administrators and teachers to run. Pagourtzis surrendered to the police at 8:02 AM. During the shooting, Pagourtzis displayed psychotic tendencies such as playing music, telling jokes, and saying “another one bites the dust” after he shot a person. He had the intention to kill himself after the shooting; however, he did not follow through. He is currently under suicide watch while in custody.

The 10 victims include 15year old Aaron McLeod, 15year old Angelique Ramirez, Kimberly Vaughan, 17-year old Sabika Sheikh, 17-year old Chris Stone, 17-year old Jared

Black, 16-year old Shana Fisher, 15-year old Christian Riley Garcia and substitute teachers Cynthia Tisdale and Glenda Ann Perkins.

According to the Washington Post’s database, which defines a school shooting as “every discharge of firearms at a primary or secondary school during school hours,” this is the 16th school shooting in the United States this year, a number that has been steadily increasing since the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado.

Due to the abundant amounts of shootings in the United States, many students in Texas weren’t surprised that there was a shooting at their school.

“It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always felt it would eventually happen here too,” said Paige Curry, a survivor of the Santa Fe shooting.

The gun violence epidemic in the United States has affected students, including those who haven’t experienced it directly. Students at B-CC have expressed their concern about the possibility that a shooting could happen to them, and

feel unsurprised that another shooting has occurred.

“I really wish I could say [that] I’m surprised. I feel uncomfortable going to school because it’s something that happens so often,” said junior Kalin Condon.

Many people feel that the Texas shooting has received far less media attention than other recent shootings, such as the one in Parkland, Florida.

People have speculated that this could be caused by a desensitization of school shootings due to their frequency.

“I don’t know if there’s been like, desensitization to school shootings, but I feel like the media hasn’t been covering it as much lately,” said Condon.

Along with the media, many students feel that the entire country has become numb to school shootings over the years.

“I don’t think [that school shootings have] the same shock factor that they need to and probably used to, I mean you look back at Sandy Hook and how the whole country was shaken by that, and the

sheer number of shootings has decreased that shock factor,” said sophomore Maddy Molyneux.

Although many students have felt that school shootings have become normalized in our society, others are still optimistic that things can change.

“One thing that I really like about our generation is that we haven’t really let things settle. I feel like this is the same type of situation where we’re not just going to let it go and say like, ‘Well, we tried. Guess I’m just going to go to school and get shot!’ A lot of us feel like we’re affected,” said Condon.

However, students recognize that in order for change to happen, the laws need to change.

“Until we change the law and not just the opinions of citizens, nothing is going to change. Not enough legislation has been passed to prevent more school shootings from happening,” said Molyneux.

10 people killed in Texas school shooting

By Isabel Danzis and Grace Harrington On Friday May 18th, 10 people were killed at Santa Fe High School in Texas. The alleged shooter, 17-year old Dimitrus Pagourtzis, opened fire on his high school with his father’s legally- owned shotgun and .38 caliber revolver.

The 10 people that Pagourtzis killed included eight students and two teachers.

Pagourtzis had no criminal record previous to the shooting. The only red flag on his social media accounts was a Facebook post in which Pagourtzis wore a T-shirt that read “born to kill.” Additionally, his behavior in school before the shooting wasn’t very alarming. Allegedly, Pagourtzis was a victim of bullying from both students and coaches. “He’s been picked on by coaches before, for smelling bad and stuff like that. And he doesn’t really talk to very many people either. He keeps to himself,” said Dustin Severin, a student at Santa Fe High School. However, the Santa Fe

News

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June 2018

A look into the upcoming election

By Sasha Frank-Stempel and Joshua Garber

Election season is upon us again. Not with student body elections or presidential elections but for the representatives who pass the most legislation in our country: in our state and local legislatures. Many everyday issues that affect us are not tackled in the Capitol Building in DC, but rather in the State House in Annapolis. These legislators are better fit to respond to our needs, as they represent their smaller districts, as opposed to the hundreds of thousands or millions represented by our members of Congress. News is constantly bombarded with unrelated topics about our national government that we, students and local Marylanders, care little about.

It is important to pay attention to these elections, since they pass laws that directly affect our everyday lives. Every year most students who are at the age of voting ability vote randomly for a candidate they know little about. They vote if they have heard of a certain candidate once. They vote for a candidate from their party. But, rarely do they know what policies this candidate stands for. Worse yet, some students who finally become of the age of voting, fail to pursue their duty as citizens of the United States of America and don’t vote at all. America has one of the lowest voter participation rates in the entire world. Citizens of the age 18-24 are a main reason for that. It is incumbent upon us as proud American citizens to uphold our duty of voting. If you care about issues like gun policy or school funding, vote for the candidates that represent your views. We reached out to 18 local and state candidates, here are the responses of the eight who responded.

What The Candidates Have to Say About the Topics that Matter to Us Questions Asked:

1. Do you support arming teachers to ensure the safety of students? If not, what alternative would you support to prevent future school shootings?

2. Do you support increasing school funding? What programs would you support to increase student achievement and college readiness, as well as closing the achievement gap?

Linda Willard (R) - State House of Delegates Richard Madaleno (D) - Governor 1. “NO. Guns have no place in schools unless they are 1. “No, I do not support arming teachers to ensure student safety. I support the recent legislation which I voted for as State Senator in this year’s General Assembly to enhance school safety in Maryland. It requires secure and lockable doors for each classroom, and permits schools to either have a trained school resource officer or adequate law enforcement personnel available.”

2. “Yes, we must increase school funding. Priorities include: investment in early childhood education, increasing spending for at-risk children, increasing compensation for educators, and focusing on college/ career readiness.”

Emily Shetty (D) - State House of Delegates

1. “I am strongly opposed to arming teachers, or anyone, in schools. I believe that the best way to prevent future school shootings is to strengthen our red flag laws to ensure that individuals who are at-risk are appropriately and swiftly referred to authorities, if they demonstrate a potential to harm themselves or others.”

2. “Yes! A recent study examined school funding across our state and discovered that our system is under-funded by $3B annually. I believe in the importance of providing additional resources to severely underfunded schools, investing in universal pre-K, and ensuring that higher need students are allocated more resources to provide the services that they require.”

in the capable hands of a licensed resource officer charged with protecting students and teachers. I also think it’s critical to better address mental health in schools by partnering with counselors and teachers as the first line of defense when they see a student might be a danger to himself or others.”

2. “Yes, I support increasing school funding, provided such funds are allocated prudently. To increase student readiness, it is critical that our school system places a high priority on academic performance, which includes test scores, college readiness and placement, and the offering of AP and IB classes. To help close the achievement gap, I support universal Pre-Kindergarten and smaller class sizes across the board.”

Mila Johns (D) - State House of Delegates

1. “NO. I think it sends profoundly the wrong message about what a school environment should be. I lament the fact that we need security protocols, armed resource officers, and in some places metal detectors to keep schools as safe as we can.”

2. “YES. I believe the most critical step the state can take right away to combat the achievement gap is to guarantee early childhood education (pre-k) for all children in Maryland. The second is to dramatically increase funding for wraparound support services in all schools – but especially those serving less advantaged communities.”

Marc Elrich (D) - County Executive

David Blair (D) - County Executive

George Leventhal (D) - County Executive

Robin Ficker (R) -County Executive

1. “No, I do not support arming teachers. That is a terrible idea. We need stronger gun laws.”

2. “I’m a former elementary school teacher, having taught 17 years at Rolling Terrace ES. I know the importance of resources for school, so I do support more education funding. I think we need to get serious about expanding access to early childhood education; its effectiveness in better preparing kids for school is widely recognized and there is no better return on investment in education, it would appear.”

1. “No. We are fortunate that Maryland has among the strongest gun safety laws in the US. We have trained police officers in high schools, and I would support increasing their number in middle and elementary schools. I will work with the school system to add mental health professionals and expand access to Linkages to Learning, high school wellness centers and school-based health centers.”

2. “Education is the top priority in the county’s budget, and will remain the top priority under my administration. As County Executive, I will be a frequent and persuasive presence in Annapolis, advocating on behalf of our schools, student and teachers. I would like to spend time in the schools as County Executive, interacting with administrators, faculty, students and parents, so that when I advocate for the county in Annapolis, I can describe vividly the experiences and circumstances I encounter.”

Primary elections occur on June 26 All photos were taken from candidates’ campaign websites

1. “NO. I am committed to doing all that I can to make our schools and communities safer. As County Executive, I will fund more school counselors and resource officers; put telemedicine technology in our schools to provide students remote access to mental health services any time during school hours; and launch an anonymous tip app for students to report suspicious behavior quickly and efficiently.”

2. “Yes. As County Executive one area I’ll be keenly focused on is fully funding our schools. This will allow us to provide early childhood and pre-K programs; build and modernize schools; and establish programs to ensure all high schoolers can graduate college- or career-ready.”

1. “I would arm Teachers if they were presently or retired Police or FBI agents. Otherwise, an armed guard in the school is a good idea.”

2. “Yes, ensuring the gambling revenue goes to schools as required will enable us to increase funding. My 3 kids and I all attended MoCo public schools. Make school challenging for all. Have voluntary Saturday catch-up classes for those that fall behind.”

Opinion

June 2018

Page 5

B-CC 3.0 (continued from front page) James J. Biedron Center for Diplomacy

Sister school in D.C.

In honor of the late James J. Biedron, who was, according to Mr. Zehner, one of B-CC’s greatest ever teachers, we should establish a series of courses that students can take to work towards a diploma for diplomacy. Biedron taught History and Language classes, including Russian History, and often structured his classes with the hierarchy of medieval Russian society, with some students being assigned roles as serfs and others as lords. His creative and innovative teaching style left its mark on many current B-CC teachers, including Mr. Zehner and Mr. Soboslay.

With Washington, DC so close by, B-CC should be taking advantage of its unique position and of our school’s connections to diplomats, politicians, and more who work in the District and in the federal government, as well as with institutions such as NIH and the World Bank. We should be using these contacts to create a one-of-a-kind experience for high school students who are interested in diplomacy or in foreign affairs. To not develop this network of connections for the benefit of B-CC students would be a missed opportunity.

Students would gain access to knowledge about foreign affairs and diplomacy from experts in the field, allowing them to explore diplomacy and open their eyes to diplomacy as a potential career path. Even if a student is uninterested in becoming a diplomat, it is undeniable that diplomacy is not only important to understand but valuable because of the lessons that it teaches students regarding creating and maintaining relationships with others, in spite of perceived differences. Having a Center for Diplomacy would prove that B-CC is at the forefront of education in the country and make B-CC a hotspot for diplomacy in the United States.

B-CC students constantly talk about the “B-CC Bubble,” where, as students, we are stuck in our community of wealth and privilege. It can seem difficult, even impossible, to break free from this bubble and truly expand our perception of the world around us, but creating a partnership with a school in Washington, DC would elevate the awareness of students at B-CC about how others live right nearby us. It is important to understand the differences in communities that are near to us and yet can seem a world away.

As a community, B-CC can learn vast amounts from a sister school in DC, and should be willing and eager to do so. We would learn about a community that is in close proximity to us, allowing us the ability to make meaningful connections with students and families in said community. Imagine having a shared prom, or a Baronpalooza-type gathering that combines our community and the community of our sister school. The practicality of having a sister school in DC is significant; unlike having a sister school in another country, we would realistically be able to visit our sister school and spend time in its community to learn about the students there and their ways of life.

To pop the B-CC Bubble, we must be open to the idea of opening ourselves up to the outside world. Partnering with a school in DC would be a first step in this direction, and a meaningfully positive one as well.

End of the year project The school year of 2017-2018 was the first where MCPS started the year after Labor Day and therefore ended a week later in the middle of June, rather than at the beginning of June. However, as the schedules for AP and IB testing remain unchanged, B-CC students are now left with almost an entire month from the middle of May to the middle of June where it almost seems as if there is no incentive to finish any more work. In the recent weeks prior to the ending of this school year, many students across different grade levels have noted that they feel there is no use to come to class anymore, or that everything they are doing is busy work, While this may or may not be true, this type of attitude creates a negative atmosphere at B-CC that leaves a bad taste in our mouths as the year finishes out.

With this in mind, the Tattler proposes that for next year, B-CC adopts an end of the year project initiative. Starting from the end of the IB and AP exam schedule, students across grades nine, ten, and eleven, (as seniors leave essentially right after exams end) are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with others on something that they feel passionate about. Whether it be an environmental initiative to improve the eco-friendliness of the school or a student-led campaign against gun violence in the U.S., students would be able to feel as though they are working toward something meaningful at the end of the year and reaching out to the surrounding community in the process. Of course, the project would not replace regular classes all together, but on days when students would normally be unengaged, teachers could allow their students to work on their projects and possibly even mentor their students on how to improve their projects. At the end of the year, all the students at B-CC could show off what they accomplished; many could continue their projects in the upcoming summer and school year. A project like this would not only allow students more freedom and creativity in their learning, raising morale in the process, but it would also allow the B-CC student body to contribute to the world and make an impact on a broader scale.

Equal recognition for sports teams

It should be a no-brainer for the people who report on sports and give recognition to sports teams at school that we should be celebrating our teams when they are successful. The more successful a team is, the more attention and recognition that team should receive. This is not to say that a struggling team should be completely tossed aside; in fact, struggling teams may need extra support and attention to motivate them to win. However, this should not come at the expense of our successful teams. Unfortunately, it seems that even when a team is incredibly successful, if the team is not a major sport, they may not receive their deserved recognition.

While B-CC promotes the belief that everything deserves recognition, in reality it appears that only certain things do. Of course, recognizing all students for everything they do is unrealistic, but it would seem as though it would be possible to recognize most sports teams and athletes for their achievements, especially in the case of winning a state title. And yet, this has apparently not been easy. The same sports continually receive more attention and recognition year after year. The larger sports like football and basketball receive by far the most attention, even if they are not as successful in their endeavors as other sports. Though they do bring in the most money, which is incredibly important for B-CC, they do not deserve to get more recognition if they do not do as well as other sports.

For instance, B-CC Track and Field and Cross Country brought home four State Championships this year. However, Cross Country was hastily thrown onto the Boys’ Soccer parade after their amazing State Title victory, and many Cross Country athletes reported being questioned by security and teachers as to why they were in the parade. It is time that B-CC begins to recognize the teams that do the best, even when it is a sport that is not the most traditionally popular at the school. After all, it is in B-CC’s best interest to do so. We should be proud of our athletes who accomplish amazing things, regardless of how popular the sport is, and all students deserve to know that their peers are doing such great things. An increase in school spirit will follow as B-CC is shown to be a top academic and athletic school.

Free speech! ...Unless I disagree

By Daniel Navratil In 2012, a Colorado baker turned down a gay couple who requested a cake for their wedding, saying that baking such a cake would send a message of support for same-sex marriage and would therefore violate his Christian values. The couple, humiliated by the experience, filed a complaint with Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission, and six years later the case found itself on the floor of the Supreme Court. This past Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jack Phillips, the baker, citing the Civil Rights Commission’s “clear and impermissible hostility”

toward his religious beliefs.

On the same day, the White House, Fox News, and other conservative outlets celebrated the ruling, describing Mr. Phillip’s denial of service as an exercise of his First Amendment right to free speech and religious expression. They hold that Mr. Phillips should not be compelled to make a statement by baking a wedding cake even if refusing to make one is considered disrespectful. An American’s First Amendment rights don’t end at the entrance to the workplace, they say.

However, their tone changes and their hypocrisy is re-

vealed for other cases of free speech, most notably for the NFL National Anthem protests. On Monday, President Trump canceled a White House celebration with the Philadelphia Eagles, Super Bowl 2018 champions, after nearly every player said they would boycott the event due to the president’s demands that players stand during the national anthem at games.

President Trump and many conservative outlets say that the protests, aimed at fighting police brutality and racial inequality, are disrespectful to the men and women in the military and even warrant ter-

mination of employment.

President Trump and company couldn’t be more hypocritical. They hail the First Amendment when it is used to defend Christian values yet shame it when it’s used to protest social injustice. When Jack Phillips uses free speech to deny service to a gay couple, he is brave and moral, but when Colin Kaepernick uses his free speech as a form of protest, he is a whining degenerate. What happened to standing up for what you believe in? How is the players’ refusal to stand any different than Mr. Phillips’ refusal to bake? Is it different because the protests are dis-

respectful? Refusing service to a customer because of their sexual orientation is extremely disrespectful. Is it different because the football players are in the workplace and they should just do their jobs? You could say the same for the baker; why can’t he just bake?

NFL players should be able to kneel during the national anthem in the same way that Jack Phillips should be able to choose whose cake he makes. After all, free speech is a two way street. Just because you don’t like who’s speaking doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be able to speak.

Page 8

Opinion

June 2018

Recovering from Credit Recovery

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Ever since B-CC didn’t reach its semester attendance requirement this year, all hell has broken loose. The administration have cracked down on hall passes, tardiness, and detention, creating a “credit recovery” system.

For junior Jamie Murray, this pressure on attendance has led to her first experience in credit recovery, and an alarming experience at that. Inherent flaws in the attendance/detention system have raised the question of whether the attendance crisis is with the students themselves or with the administration?

Jamie recounts her experience with attendance at B-CC and what the problems are that are contributing to larger problematic trends in our school. This is Jamie’s story. -Lee Schwartz

In credit recovery, the technology barrier was an immediate conflict. In regular classes, students rely heavily on Chromebooks and technology, and Chromebooks are available in almost every classroom. Most assignments are submitted electronically and it would be a waste of time to hand-write them. During the credit recovery sessions, there was no option but to handwrite. The time becomes unproductive, enabling people to slack even more.

It is an outdated, old-school punishment that is not effective like it once was, or arguably, was never effective. By preventing kids from using the time wisely, credit recovery is nothing more than a time-out. The idea of credit recovery is that students can make up class time, but this cannot be done when they are prevented from actually learning or working.

To be fair, the only reason technology is prohibited is the inability to monitor what the students are doing. Admin constantly walking around checking Chromebook screens is unrealistic, but even with a technology ban, it is difficult to monitor students. Students in credit recovery will watch Netflix on their phones, play games, and do all sorts of “unapproved” activities secretly. With no Chromebooks, they have no other choice. Even if students will often play games on Chromebooks instead of working, they should still have that choice to work or play. Having Chromebooks opens the possibility that they will actually do their work. If the idea is advertised that credit recovery is a time to catch up on work, students would likely use that time more wisely if they were not strictly banned from technology.

The idea of credit recovery itself is not a repulsive one. It makes sense that kids should make up for the time that they missed in order to receive credit. However, if credit recovery is mandatory, and kids are already being forced to be there, why force more rules and policies down their throats? At this point, it is up to the student to be productive and responsible. If kids want to be productive by using technology, they ought to have the right to do that. By taking away the option of technology, you ultimately limit every single kid in the room, and the kids who want to be productive are almost encouraged not to be when all you can do is fiddle with a pencil and paper or secretly play on your phone. -Lee Schwartz

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Overall, credit recovery felt like a power trip by the administration; the session was unproductive and described as “prison” by fellow credit recovery attendees. It felt largely like punishment, rather than a way for kids to improve. It was unreasonable to the point where Jamie vomited in the hall and was asked where her pass was.

Credit recovery, or detention, is so old school. How about solving the problem from its root? Kids aren’t coming to class for a reason, so maybe the administration should care enough to ask them and help them improve their attendance instead of punishing them with “jail time.” -Lee Schwartz

feature

June 2018

Cultural Toxicities Part II: Toxic Shaming

By Paloma Delgado

In an age in which technology provides a facade for one’s identity, it is easier than ever to make hateful comments without feeling the ramifications. Recently, we have seen this sort of behavior on Twitter with Roseanne Barr’s comments directed toward former advisor to President Obama,Valerie Jarrett.

On Tuesday, May 28, Barr’s racist tweet sparked outrage when she described Jarrett as a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes” -- “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” As a result, the ABC sitcom “Roseanne” was canceled.

Only three days later, more controversy erupted after Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a “feckless c**t” on her Comedy Central show Full Frontal. Bee made this comment in response to Ivanka Trump’s “tone-deaf tweet” in which she posted a picture with her children captioned “My ! #SundayMorning” promptly after Trump’s immigration policy had been implemented under which 1,500 immigrant children have been reported lost.

Many conservative voices are furious that Bee’s comments have not warranted the same degree of punishment as that afforded to Roseanne Barr. And while it is argued that Bee is a comedian critiquing the senseless policies of a President that has torn apart countless families and the other is an actress that wrote a racially-charged comment, this stipulates the question as to the acceptability of the comments made online. How do we know when we have crossed the line and how do we come to a consensus on the appropriate punishment?

This situation was all too familiar for the B-CC Crew team, which faced its own problems surrounding hateful comments that were shared in a group chat and later spread for other teammates to see.

The dilemma began with a bracket that had been made by some of the younger girls on the crew team, ranking the athletes on the boy’s team.

Eventually, a group chat was made by the varsity boys on crew in which derogatory comments were made about members of the girl’s team.

The problem, according to Mr. Engler, B-CC english teacher and head coach of the rowing team, was the idleness of the male athletes within this group chat.

“No one athlete in those group discussions stood up and said ‘Wait this is wrong.

Stop doing this,’” Engler said.

Junior Jamie Murray-Hiteshew made clear that there was a culture of disrespect between the boy’s and girl’s rowing teams from the beginning. Soon, it became small things like the disarrangement of the oar slots at the end of the day that caused tension to build.

M u r ray-Hiteshew recalls her reaction upon seeing the screenshots of the texts as being one of anger.

“I literally was thinking about all the things I wanted to do and was literally thinking about ruining these boys futures like I was so upset,” Murray-Hiteshew said. “And I thought about it, and I was like ‘Wait, that’s not going to benefit anyone. That’s not going to make me feel better.’ I was just thinking about how I wanted the culture of the team to like change. I wanted to have a conversation, I wanted to feel understood.”

Mr. Engler used the situation as an opportunity to turn something negative into something positive. Engler brought the entire crew team in a room together, ensuring that the girls were comfortable with

sharing before proceeding.

“They were brave and they said ‘No, this can’t keep happening in our program. We’re going to help do the right thing here and that means sharing,’” Engler said.

They canceled practice that day and began to share how the comments made in the group chat made the female rowers feel.

“I think it helped those who didn’t say anything recognize their silence contributes to the culture, the acceptability of

As a result, we begin to crave that attention to the point where we become consumed with interacting online versus in person. Murray-Hiteshew agrees about the harmfulness of posting and writing messages online.

“The use of smartphones definitely encourages not having to take responsibility for your actions,” said Murray-Hiteshew.

The way in which we address this problem is to attack it oppositely from the way in which the problem was first created: communicating face-toface. That was Mr. Engler’s approach when it came to making sure everything was out in the open.

“Let’s get it all out there.

Let’s pin it to the walls. Let’s all talk about it. Let’s get real honest. What are we doing?” said Engler.

It was asking those types of questions and really encouraging the teammates to listen to one another that transformed the Illustration by Paloma Delgado B-CC Crew’s what’s being said,” said Engler. culture “towards greater hon“I think they heard the impact esty and kindness.” their behavior—this anonyMurray-Hiteshew explains mous shaming behavior—has that this experience was very away from the screens.” eye-opening for both the boys So why do we find the need and girls teams when it came to criticize online rather than to how they viewed their teamin person? The reason is as mates. obvious as it sounds. It’s sim“I saw empathy in the boys ply easier to do. Not only that, that I haven’t seen before,” but writing about other peo- said Murray-Hiteshew. “I ple online or through private think that it’s hard for boys to messages can create a sense of show that sometimes.” confidence and excitement.

Mr. Engler hopes that the “There’s some good sci- B-CC Crew Team will serve as ence to say that likes and likes an example for others within from certain people and that the B-CC community. the volume of comments one “Every athletic program in receives after making a com- the school has this going on ment releases dopamine as a in some way. Every group of neurotransmitter that can be- teenagers in this school, has come addictive,” Engler said. some group chat where some-

Page 7

body’s being disrespectful and is doing so anonymously,” said Mr. Engler.

It’s our obligation as students, educators, peers, parents and mentors to call out negativity and teach from the toxic comments that are made rather than ignoring them.

“I’m really proud of the way the rowing team has come through this,” said Engler.

“I’m proud of how honest the girls were with one another and their male teammates. I’m proud of how much ownership the boys have taken over this.”

If we create a culture that is more positive and open, we can create an environment in which we don’t have to resort to our electronic devices to take out our anger.

In addition, Murray-Hiteshew encourages that we attempt to recognize the importance of other’s viewpoints before drawing conclusions.

“I think you need to walk in someone else’s shoes and see what’s going on,” Murray-Hiteshew said as she reflected on her gradual understanding of why the boys wrote such antagonistic texts.

“Everyone wants to feel included, everyone wants to feel a part of something,” Murray-Hiteshew said.

It’s the community we live in-- the Bethesda-Chevy Chase community-- that heightens that pressure to feel included and to feel a sense of belonging.

“We’ve got a community of stress,” Engler said. “We’ve got a culture of insecurity in Bethesda because of the pressure that’s placed on teens.”

And while there is no excuse for the It’s important to take responsibility for one’s words or actions. It’s important that we create a lasting-effect in our community that paves the way for a culture in which we can be honest and respectful toward one another. Because of these efforts, the crew team was able to emerge stronger than ever.

It worked for the crew team at B-CC, and it can work for anyone else if we choose to have an open dialogue and address the things that we take issue with.

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Feature

Page 8

June 2018

Gun owners for gun control: The truth behind the controversial AR-15

By Lee Schwartz

As an active member of MoCo for Gun Control, I have spent this school year advocating for safety in our school.

I have worked hard so that no one is threatened by guns in the hands of people who should not have them. Waking up at 4am, I helped set up the 211 t-shirts adorned with the names of 2018 teenage gun victims across the fence facing East-West Highway. This cause became something close to my heart as I watched fellow American students threatened in their schools and feel scared to go to school each morning.

So, it came as quite a surprise to me when my uncle told me he owns an AR-15.

This revelation, while a little disturbing, led me on a hunt to understand why my family owns guns and yet can call themselves supporters of gun control at the same time. It is easy to see these two things as mutually exclusive, especially in a place such as Bethesda or Chevy Chase where gun owners are few and far between.

But in order to solve the issue of gun control, we need to completely understand not only the guns we fear so much, but also the people who own them that advocate for the same changes many of us B-CC students do.

These seemingly incompatible qualities actually represent a large number of Americans; of the 60 million to 70 million Americans who own guns, TIME claims in a recent poll that more than half of them (60%) support comprehensive background checks. But, this view is rarer in a place such as Chevy Chase. I conducted an interview with my uncle in which we discussed not only the guns he owns, but the gun control policies that he supports.

I began by asking my uncle to tell me about the guns we owned, along with how and where we keep them. As soon as he began to count on his fingers the guns we owned, I was a little scared of having asked the question, in fear I wasn’t prepared for the answer. He owns, as I have learned, mostly long guns. Two 22 caliber rifles, a 410 shotgun, three 12 gauge shotguns, two antique “almost novelty”- handguns, a Luger (handgun) from WWII, and the renowned AR-15. In all, we own 10 guns. I was pretty shocked to hear about all of the monsters in my uncle’s basement. However, part of the reason I never knew they were there was because of the way my family stores the guns.

My uncle explained that many guns are kept unloaded or disassembled, if possible, in a

state-approved gun safe in the basement. Only he knows the location of the key. The storage of the guns is key in what makes my uncle passionate about gun control.

He claimed: “Owning a gun should mean owning what happens to it.” This goes for everyone, even the honest gun owners who do not mean any harm and own guns for non-malicious reasons. The criminals who are breaching schools with guns are not using the guns they bought last Tuesday. They are taking advantage of guns that have been in the family for generations and have been stored unsafely. In the most recent school shooting at Sante Fe High School in Texas, the 17-year old suspected shooter was using his father’s legally owned guns that the shooter had easy access to. While the guns had been owned legally and for no malicious reason, their lack of safe storage led them to fall into the wrong hands. Taking all guns away from honest people is not going to solve the problem. But all people, including honest ones, have to live up to higher safety standards. This helps ensure the proper usage and owner-

especially why the notorious AR-15 was one of them.

While most of the long guns and handguns could be attributed to my grandfathers and their fathers before them from their time in the war, the foreboding, matte-black AR15 continued to stand out to me as an unnecessary danger in the house. My uncle seemed to answer my hesitations with one truth: gun sales skyrocket when the right to buy them is threatened. “I can almost tell you to the day I bought it,” he told me. It was “the last month a complete functioning AR15 could be purchased in the state of Maryland.” My uncle bought the AR-15 in part because he likes guns and shoots them sometimes for hunting or for target practice, but also because the government was threatening to take away the right to buy them. It amazed me that something so simple could prompt so many Americans to buy an item as dangerous as an AR-15. But, my uncle claimed, sensing my surprise, that the AR-15 is not as catastrophically dangerous as I thought it was.

The smallest conventional rifle in the US, meaning the smallest caliber (size) of the

to look dangerous. This is what makes the AR-15 the monster so many fear.

The bullet of an AR-15 is virtually the same size of the 22, traveling a couple of milliseconds faster. What is different is that it is kept in larger clips than the traditional 22.

While a 22 has only 3-5 bullets before you reload, the AR-15 can have larger clips of up to 30 rounds (depending on the state in which the owner lives). This increases ammunition store, and means you won’t have to reload for 30 shots. This is what makes the AR-15 dangerous because one can shoot up to 30 shots as fast as their finger can pull the trigger. This is not to be mistaken for a fully automatic gun in which one can simply hold down the trigger and let loose bullets, but the semi-automatic AR-15 releases up to 30 shots as fast as a finger can pull. This, and the lightness of the AR-15, make it characteristically different from the 22.

The last difference, while only cosmetic, arguably serves as the largest concern with regards to the AR-15. The AR15 is made to look dangerous.

It looks like a military or law enforcement tool. With sleek

not be subject to safer policies.

One thing my uncle and I both seemed to immediately agree on was the shrinking of clip size. There is no reason that a hunter/target shooter should need more than 10-20 bullets in a clip at once. Having it “for fun” isn’t an excuse. Reducing the number of bullets in a clip could make a significant difference in the time a shooter has to reload his gun.

As the conversation came to an end, one question still remained: what about the schools? Solving the problem at its root with proper gun ownership and the truth behind guns in circulation was one thing, but protecting our schools is an immediate problem that needs to be addressed. One approach my uncle supports is placing an armed national guardsman in schools. This immediately stood out to me as a poor solution - fighting guns with guns was an uncomfortable concept for me to support. But, my uncle put it this way, ““Have you ever seen a place where more valuable things are kept without armed protection than schools? Banks protect their money, airports protect their planes and the passengers in-

“This revelation, while a little disturbing, led me on a hunt to understand why my family owns guns and yet can call themselves supporters of gun control at the same time. It is easy to see these two things as mutually exclusive, especially in a place...where gun owners are few and far between.” ship of legal guns that can prevent mistreatment of them. This may mean higher licensing to own a gun to make purchasing/owning a gun more difficult, as well as storage laws, safety limits and/ or better training with gun ownership. Owners must be equipped to keep guns safely.

This ties into the emphasis on background checks and mental health checks. In order to own a gun safely, the owners have to be safe themselves.

For starters, anyone with a violent criminal background should not be allowed to have guns. A background check for mental issues and disorders must be taken into account to ensure that the gun will not be used unsafely. The safekeeping and ownership of guns is crucial in making sure honest gun owners can continue to be honest.

Though it had become clear how my family’s guns were kept and why this mattered in the larger scale of gun control, I was still wary of why my uncle would own the guns laid out in front of me, and

bullet, and the most popular rifle by far, is the 22. My uncle explained that these are good for target practice and shooting vermin.

Getting your first one was considered a rite of passage

in many families, or a treasured gift to many American boys. It served as the benchmark multi-purpose rifle. The AR15, made the scapegoat of gun-misuse, has only three, though important, real differences from the 22. For one, they are lighter, giving it its name as an “ArmaLite” rifle.

Two, they have a larger clip that can make a shooter with them more unstoppable. Three - a mere cosmetic difference - it is made

black features and a threatening magazine and barrel, it is designed look like a menacing militaristic tool that civilians can own. It instills not only fear in people who come faceto-face with it, but power and thrill in the people who hold it.

This is why people who want to do bad things with guns are drawn to the AR-15. When crazy people want to do crazy things, they are drawn to the physical appearance of the AR-15.

This does not say all AR-15 owners are crazy, but the appearance of the AR-15

makes it so feared by civilians, and thus so loved by those who want to misuse it.

Though the AR-15 itself is not catastrophically more dangerous than all of the other guns in circulation, this doesn’t mean it should

side them… why not schools?”

Though threatening, not much else has proven to be favorable in this current administration; there is limited hope for immediate change in gun laws. It was not a method I previously supported, but it could be one that is necessary.

If one thing had become clear from talking to my uncle and coming face-to-face with the monsters in his basement I had so deeply feared, gun owners are not always the enemy.

They are the very people who advocate for the same changes you do, though they may go about this in different ways. In fact, allying with them may be a way to advance gun control measures and improve safety in our schools. One conversation only scratched the surface of the complicated relationship between guns and Americans, but it is one step closer to me understanding the current situation and how I can make my foes into friends.

T ta he A ke R n -1 by 5 Le rifl e S e. ch Pho w to ar tz .

P 9 Feature Carne y Arena takes virtual reality storytelling to D.C. June 2018

By Emily Schrader The “Pre-Experience:” Mud-caked shoes litter the freezing ground, dispersed among rusty water jugs and the occasional child-sized sandal, faded pink and coated with dust. Above, narrow rows of metal benches line the walls, the only furnishings in the strange, sterile room.

Barefoot, shivering, and isolated without the comforting distractions of social media, you await the sound of an alarm.

A strange, eerie light flashes, and the experience begins.

The waiting room prepares visitors for Carne y Arena (Flesh and Sand), an Oscar-winning virtual-reality art installation by renowned Mexican director Alejandro Iñarritu—who also directed Birdman and The Revenant—that has quickly become one of the most coveted tickets in D.C. The virtual reality exhibit, which debuted at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, places visitors in the shoes of one of modern society’s most marginalized groups: Mexican and Central American immigrants attempting to cross the U.S. border through the Arizona desert.

Rather than allowing viewers to observe the border crossing as spectators, Carne y Arena subjects them to a uniquely intense, and often highly uncomfortable, experience.

Through virtual reality technology, Iñarritu involves visitors in a six-minute simulated confrontation with the U.S. border patrol, setting them directly in the line of action.

Even for ticket holders, the in- stallation is no easy trip. Cold concrete and foreboding walls in the waiting room intentionally allude to las hieleras, or the freezers, holding cells where detained migrants wait to be processed. The discolored shoes and dusty objects are actual belongings of migrants who tried to cross the United States-Mexico border. A sign notes that they were collected in the Arizona desert over a period of six years. In that same time frame, 6,000 migrants died in the brutal desert before reaching the border.

Within the Simulation: Entering another room, you walk barefoot across a floor of gritty sand and pebbles, shrouded in darkness except for a faint orange glow spreading across the black expanse.

In the center, two assistants secure VR goggles and a backpack around your head. Close your eyes. Open them, and you are no longer in D.C. Look around. Dawn is breaking across the desert horizon, and as you take in your surroundings, only saguaro cacti and rocky shrubs can be seen for miles on end.

Until the border patrol comes,

age

that is.

Leatrice McMillan, who visited Carne y Arena as part of a “team-building” excursion with her company, said she thinks the exhibit forces viewers to “open their eyes” to the struggles of Central American migrants.

“Of course, you’re not actually in the desert. You’re not experiencing the coldness at night, or the heat during the day, but you see these interpretations of someone’s experience,” McMillan said.

Because virtual reality is based on human mentality, each experience is individualized and visitors instinctually decide how to behave during the border confrontation. The central tension of the exhibit is the conflict that arises in the minds of viewers: Do they quietly observe the action swirl-

happening. But it was kind of scary, because suddenly there were things happening behind me, and so I had to turn around really quickly,” he said.

The shock comes towards the end, when a patrol officer points a flashlight at the visitor—suddenly, even the spectator has become part of the experience.

“The border patrol agent looks at you and tells you to get down on the ground, and I felt like I needed to jump down on the ground—it felt so real,” Jensen said.

As a relative of Central American immigrants, McMillan said she was startled by the deeply immersive nature of the installation. When she heard the roar of helicopters overhead, she literally fell to her knees in the sand.

stream U.S. culture, Carne y Arena brings a fragment of the migrant experience to life.

“It’s easy to see numbers, or to even read stories, but to be actually feel like you’re in the desert made it much more real,” Jensen said. “Next time I hear the numbers, or read an interview, I’ll have a feeling attached to it as well. I hope something like this helps to humanize the conversation, so it’s not just about numbers, or about some mythical immigrant who commits lots of crime.”

The “Post-Experience:” For employees of the exhibit, who not only undergo the simulation but observe the reactions of visitors, the intensity of the experience encompasses more than just a six-minute span.

y n b atil o i at vr str l Na u Ill nie Da

“We’re in these comfortable couches with nice music in the background, and then all of a sudden we’re in this detention center with dirty shoes, and then we’re in the middle of the desert.” ing around them from a distance, or choose to leap into the middle of the scene?

“At the beginning, my role was more as an observer, since I wasn’t sure how to take in the experience,” McMillan said. “About halfway through, I started going in closer to these people...I kind of slowly brought myself into it.”

On the other hand, visitor Ross Jensen said he jumped right into the middle of the simulated migrant group, despite fears of the intimidating border patrol bearing down upon them.

“I wanted to see what was

“I have family members that crossed in a very similar way, and so coming here I wasn’t sure what to expect, but to understand deeper how hard it is for the families to cross over that way,” she said.

“It’s just a story you hear, that is passed down through your family, but until you have the way of experiencing what it is, you don’t truly understand.”

Even for those who have no personal connection to immigration, however, the exhibit sparks a sense of attachment in visitors. In an age in which immigration is falsely depicted as completely alien to main-

Leo Cantergiani, a graduate of Walter John High School, serves complimentary coffee in the carefully-curated “post-experience” room.

After experiencing the startling sirens of patrol helicopters and rough commands of armed immigration agents in the desert simulation, visitors walk through an ivy-lined path to enter the “post-experience,” a decadent lounge resplendent with softly pulsing lights and plush armchairs.

“I just sit here and brew coffee all day for guests, we have no control over the music or anything like that,” Canter-

giani said, as soft jazz music played overhead. “This whole, like, ‘easy-listening’ thing going on is kind of weird. Same thing with the serving coffee.

Sometimes guests will come and be like, ‘Really? Why would I want coffee right now?

This is—no.’ But I do think it contributes to the experience, to put you in this safe, sterile environment, before and after you have what is generally a traumatizing experience.”

Beyond the safety and security of the “post-experience,” the soothing atmosphere of the room may serve to heighten the contrast between the harshness of the U.S. border crossing and the comfort of urban American culture.

“It’s kind of incredible how much the contrast feels,” Jensen said. “We’re in these comfortable couches with nice music in the background, and then all of a sudden we’re in this detention center with dirty shoes, and then we’re in the middle of the desert. I don’t know if I would have felt the same level of depth if I hadn’t had such a big contrast.”

Similarly, Cantergiani wondered whether the location of the installation itself, “in this area of D.C. that is definitely not one frequented by tourists or others,” also forms an intentional contrast. In his view, the location of the exhibit in an area foreign to most affluent D.C. tourists underscores the fact that the installation forces visitors to venture into the unknown.

“I do think it also has a double impact,” he said.

When Cantergiani first went through the installation, “I was at a loss for words,” he said. “I think it’s almost conflicting in a way, because I was amazed at what is capable of being done with the technology, but at the same time, the emotional impact that was able to be conveyed through this technology is like nothing else you can experience.”

Director Alejandro Iñarritu said Carne y Arena is about sharing the human condition, describing virtual reality as “exactly all what cinema is not.” For that reason, the entire experience is based on real stories of Central American and Mexican migrants and border patrols alike, whose words and photographs are honored in the final room of the installation.

“I hope it shows that we are all human, and regardless of whatever people want to label someone as legal or not, I hope that opens their eyes to the fact that [migrants] are real people, who, under any normal circumstance, wouldn’t put themselves through this if it wasn’t worth it,” McMillan said. “That’s what we all need to understand, is that people are leaving a place that is their home essentially, but they have to, and nobody wants to have to do that. You don’t ever want to be in a position where you can’t live in your own country.”

Feature

Page 10

June 2018

Two B-CC parents keep their success local

By Isabel Danzis and Grace Harrington

B-CC parents bring to the table a wide variety of professions and walks on life. Two notable parents are those of 2011 alum Jonah Goldman. His father, Seth Goldman, is the entrepreneur who co-founded Honest Tea, and mother Julie Farkas, is the Chief Strategic Growth Officer at the non-profit Urban Alliance, have been prominent members of the Bethesda community for a long time . Goldman started Honest Tea after business school with his professor Barry Nalebuff in 1998.

His mission was to create healthy, organic drinks. Goldman first realized that there wasn’t a tasty, healthy drink on the market in 1995, during an in-class discussion about Coke versus Pepsi in Nalebuff’s class. By the end of the discussion, Nalebuff had agreed with Goldman that there was a gaping hole in the beverage industry when it came to healthy, good tasting drinks. Later, in 1997, Goldman returned to the organic beverage idea and contacted Nalebuff to see whether he was interested in

starting a business. “I went for a run in central park and after the run I was thirsty, so I went to a cooler and just didn’t see any drinks that were going to quench my thirst.” Goldman said.

By 2008, Honest Tea had become a huge success, and Coca Cola bought 40% of the company. Selling to Coca Cola was a difficult decision, but, according to Goldman, it eventually proved to be beneficial.“Our goal was never just to sell healthy drinks to healthy people, it was really to bring it to scale and to democratize organics ... before we sold to Coke we were in about 15,000 stores and today are in over 140,000 stores.” said Goldman.

In 2011, the rest of Honest Tea was sold to Coke. However, Seth Goldman remained at the company to serve as the co-founder and was given the honorary title of “TeaEO Emeritus.” As co-founder and “TeaEO Emeritus,” Goldman has less control over the company than he used to, but is still close the inner-workings of it. “I don’t run the business the way I used to, with every-

one reporting to me. We have a general manager that oversees the business and I’m involved in thinking about our innovation, growth and strategy,” said Goldman.

By Goldman remaining close to all Honest Tea functions, he believes the company has kept its initial goal of remaining a non-sugary, delicious drink.“The brand is more honest than it was, meaning our mission is more robust, and our fair trade investments have grown. Before Coke invested we were writing about $30,000 in investments back to these communities and last year we invested over $530,000,” Goldman said.

Being a fair-trade and organic company is an important value to both Goldman and Farkas. The company is all organic, meaning all their tea is sourced from farms that don’t use pesticides and where natural ecosystems are allowed to flourish. By ensuring that the tea is sourced from fair-trade certified farms, it allows tea pickers to invest in their communities, which aids in supporting necessary funding for things like schools, hospitals

and ambulances.

Just this year, Honest Tea expanded their market to Europe. In 2012, Goldman also joined the board of a new company, Beyond Meat, which sells vegetable-based meat products in the meat section of grocery stores. Although Julie Farkas has never been an employee of Honest Tea or Beyond Meat, Goldman says she has contributed greatly to developing Honest Tea’s promise to remain an organic, fair-trade tea. “Julie really was a co-founder of the company.

Her name may not be on the label, but she is very much the soul of the company,” Goldman said. Additionally, Farkas has dedicated her life to helping to create an equitable world. “I’ve worked on social justice issues my entire career, focusing on issues such as structural racism and equity,” said Farkas. Currently, she works at Urban Alliance.

“Urban Alliance is paid internships for first generation to college kids,” Farkas said.

“Students intern their entire senior year. It helps young people make the transition to a positive productive pathway

after high school- whether that’s college, community college, or the military.” As the Chief Strategic Growth Officer of Urban Alliance, she is able to help bring the program to many places in the Washington metropolitan area, including Montgomery County and her old high school, TC Williams High School in Virginia.

Farkas came to Urban Alliance in 2013, but she worked towards bettering other people’s lives for many years prior.

Right out of college, she worked at the Enterprise Foundation that provides affordable housing to those who need it. After leaving the Enterprise Foundation, she continued to look for opportunities to help level the playing field, this time in employment.

“I created and ran an employment program for homeless people in Arlington and Alexandria,” said Farkas. Following that, she moved on to help improve access to healthcare in low-income communities.

26 years in the making: Caps end the D.C. sports curse

Photos courtesy of Sydney Rowan, Evan Charles, and Matt Cohen

Sports

June 2018

Page 11

Washington Capitals win first Stanley Cup in franchise history

By Lansing Lee IV Mark the date,Thursday, June 7, 2018, as the day the Washington Capitals ended the 26 year long DC sports curse, winning the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. With this victory, the Washington Capitals have finally surpassed all the doubters and cemented their legacy in sports history as the second ever team to win the Stanley Cup after being down in every single round of the playoffs.

Not only is this the Caps’ first Stanley Cup ever, but their advancement to the finals was the first of any DC sports team in 71 combined seasons since the Caps made it back in 1998, only to lose to the Detroit Red Wings. But none of that matters anymore. Washington DC sports fans can forget the years of disappointing playoff runs and subpar performances on behalf of their teams and finally rejoice in the glory of this victory.

After years of losses in the second round to the likes of the Penguins, the Rangers, and any other team that stood

in the Caps’ quest to even get to the conference finals, many people thought that this would just be another year of failure in the playoffs for the Washington Capitals. And when the Caps went down 0-2 to the Columbus Blue Jackets after losing the first two games at home, almost everybody thought the Caps were done.

However, the Caps stormed back, winning game three in double overtime, then winning the next three games in convincing fashion, winning games four and six by three goals each. However, in the next round stood their toughest test: the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins were the two time defending Stanley Cup winners and had dashed the Caps’ hopes in the second round each of the last two seasons. Through the first five games, the Penguins and Caps traded blows, alternating wins throughout, the Caps holding a 3-2 lead heading back to Pittsburgh for game six. The teams traded goals, and then locked down to send the game to overtime in a 1-1 stalemate.

Then, after several minutes of back and forth hockey, Caps forward, Evgeny Kuznetsov broke away from the defense and put the puck into the net to eliminate the defending champs and send the Caps to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era.

The next test was the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference: the Tampa Bay Lightning. After blowing a 2-0 series lead with three straight losses (two at home), it looked as if the Caps had gone right back to being the perennial chokers we DC fans had come to know so well.

However, yet again, the Caps came out firing in games six and seven, with goalie Braden Holtby supporting the Caps through back-to-back shutouts, 3-0, 4-0 respectively. In the finals, the Capitals faced the expansion Vegas Golden Knights, hoping to bring DC it’s first major sports championship since 1992.

In the Stanley Cup finals, the Washington Capitals yet again showed a grit and resil-

ience that propelled them to the victory in five games. In game one in Las Vegas, the Capitals started slow, suffering a 6-4 loss. However, in a fashion similar to all of their playoff series this year, the Capitals fought back- winning the next three games straight. Up 3-1, the Caps traveled to Vegas for game five. The Caps went up 2-1 in the second period, only to drop to a 2-3 deficit by the end of the period. But with their legacy in the balance, the Caps bounced back- scoring two goals in the third period from Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller to defeat the Golden Knights and become Stanley Cup champions. The Conn Smythe Trophy for playoff MVP was awarded to three time MVP winner Alex Ovechkin, who with this victory, will no longer be labeled the best player who never won a championship.

For DC sports fans, we all understand how special this moment is. We’ve lived through so many heartbreaks from all of our teams. Think game five 2012, when the Na-

tionals blew a six run lead to lose the NLDS with two outs against the Cardinals. Or last year, when they went up 4-1 against the Cubs following Michael A. Taylor’s three-run home run, only to have their back to back Cy Young Pitcher, Scherzer, blow the game a few innings later. Or when the 2015 Capitals blew a 3-1 lead to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Semis. Or when they came out flat in game seven against the Penguins last year after climbing out of a 3-1 hole. Or to have Robert Griffin III set the league on fire in 2012 only to blow his knee out in the Wild Card round against the Seahawks, and never have another productive NFL season for the Redskins.

There are too many to count.

However, the stellar play of Alexander Ovechkin, Braden Holtby, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and the rest of the Washington Capitals has changed DC’s fortunes, at least this time. We can only hope they’re starting a trend.

Reviewing the top rookies of the NBA 2017-2018 postseason

By Jack Robinson and Jason Martini This year in the NBA was a big year for rookies. There were three rookies in particular that had a large impact in the regular season and in the playoffs. What was particularly interesting was that two of these three top rookies were not suspected to be the most successful of this year’s class. While the hype back in September was on the top two picks, Markelle Fultz to Philadelphia and Lonzo Ball to Los Angeles, the course of the season saw these rookies fall flat in face of their expectations.

Fultz was sidelined most of the season with a shoulder injury, and both fans and team trainers remain concerned with the efficiency of his shooting form. Meanwhile, the excitement surrounding Lonzo Ball of the Lakers died down as the rookie’s performance throughout the year remained somewhat average, and the Lakers did not make much improvement in the win-loss column as compared to last year.

Instead of these top two picks, the rookies who impressed the most this year and specifically in the postseason were Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz, Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics, and Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers. All three of these rookies have displayed talent and knowledge of the game at a much more deep level than suspected for players of their age. Here are our rankings of the best rookies in the playoffs:

3. Ben Simmons: Philadelphia 76ers

Photo courtesy The Ringer

Although originally drafted as the top pick of last year, Australian Ben Simmons was sidelined for the 2016-2017 season due to a foot injury. However, this season he proved all doubters wrong as he dominated the competition and lead the 76ers to their first playoff berth since 2012. Going into the playoffs, Ben Simmons was the frontrunner in the Rookie of the Year race, proving his worth throughout the regular season. However, what sets him lower on this list is his postseason performance. His play in the playoffs did not meet the high expectations set by his regular season showing. His lack of shooting ability was exposed as the 76ers failed to reach the Conference Finals; the team instead leaned on the play of sophomore Joel Embiid in their playoff run. Simmons shot less than 30% from any shots outside the paint and was rather inconsistent throughout the two series he played, racking up a woeful one point performance against the Boston Celtics.

2. Donovan Mitchell: Utah Jazz

Photo courtesy Deseret News

Donovan Mitchell was clearly the greatest steal of the draft. With the 13th pick, the Utah Jazz secured a clear up-and-coming superstar. Initially, Mitchell was recognized for his amazing athletic ability and eye-catching dunks. But, throughout the year Mitchell showed off not only his athleticism but his technique and skill, averaging 20.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. But once the playoffs started, Mitchell turned it up a notch, averaging 24.4 points per game, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.2 assists. He led the Utah Jazz to a 4-2 series win in the first round against the star-powered Oklahoma City Thunder. The Jazz then had to face the top seeded Houston Rockets, losing 4-1 in a hard fought series where Mitchell consistently went toe to toe with top MVP candidate James Harden. With such an impressive playoff performance, many NBA fans have begun debating whether Mitchell is the top candidate for rookie of the year rather than Simmons. The two rookies have even started trash talking each other, with Mitchell stating that Ben Simmons is not technically a rookie since he was drafted last year. Mitchell had an incredible playoffs and the NBA had better be on notice because he is a future star.

1. Jayson Tatum: Boston Celtics

Photo courtesy SB Nation

Jayson Tatum was the third pick in the 2017 NBA draft and did not disappoint the Boston Celtics, who traded their number one pick knowing that Tatum would be available by number three. After a strong regular season, where Tatum was an integral part of the starting lineup for the number two seeded team in the Eastern conference, Tatum has continued to navigate his team throughout the playoffs. As the second team in the east, the Boston Celtics defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and went on to beat Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers in the second. Averaging nearly 20 points per game (19.1), Tatum lead the Celtics to an impressive seven game series with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern conference finals, where they fell short against Lebron James. Tatum is the first Celtic rookie to score 20+ points in five consecutive games, surpassing the Celtic legend Larry Bird. All of these rookies are similarly talented, and any team would be blessed to have them, but what sets Tatum apart is simple: he’s winning.

Sports

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June 2018

A year for the books: B-CC’s top 5 sports moments of 2017-2018

By Will Birks, David Shusterman and Kevin McAuliffe

5. Girls Basketball wins regionals

Photo by George Smith

This season was the best in school history for the Girls Basketball team. Led by Caitlyn Clendenin, who made first team All-County, second team All-State, and was an All-Met honorable mention, the Lady Barons rolled through divisional foes Churchill, Whitman, and Walter Johnson. With Charlotte Lowndes, another first team All-County selection, running the point, the Barons had talent all around the court, making them a very difficult team to beat.

Advancing to the regional championship against a very good Richard Montgomery team, with two All-County selections as well, this game was one of the hardest tests of the season for the Barons. The Barons got off to a slow start as they fell behind 11-0 early in the game.

Their struggles continued into the second falling behind 24-11. After this deficit, the Barons started to claw back, led by seniors Caitlyn Clendenin and Charlotte Lowndes who ended up scoring a combined 40 points. B-CC scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and were able to push ahead to a 10 point lead. As the buzzer sounded, Barons players ran to their teammates to celebrate the 56-49 comeback win. The win gave the Barons the first region championship in school history.

4. Maddy Pfaff: Metros Diving Champion B-CC diver Maddy Pfaff had come so close to winning Metros, the biggest meet of the season, a year ago. In 2018, she was determined for it to be different. This year, Senior Maddy Pfaff had one of - if not the - best individual athletic seasons of any Baron in history. On February 8th, Pfaff started championship season strong by winning the Girls Diving Metros Championship. Towards the middle of the event, Pfaff began to pull out her more difficult dives, and executed them perfectly, bringing in top scores, and vaulting her way out in front of the competition. This year, Pfaff was not going to allow the lead to slip away on the final dive. Pfaff hit her last dive, earning a score of 46.2, and bringing her overall score up to 485.5, enough to win the championship by about 20 points over Hannah Montau of Seneca Valley, the defending champion. Pfaff’s score of 485.5 broke her own school record, which previously sat at 471.10. But Maddy was not done: she went on to win the region for her second straight season, securing her spot in the Maryland state diving final, yet still she wasn’t done. At states, Maddy didn’t just win, she destroyed the state championship record that stood for four years by scoring 479.5. Maddy etched herself in the B-CC record books by winning the three biggest meets of the season and setting the tone for what she will bring to the Duke University diving team next winter.

Photo by David Wolfe

3. Girls Softball makes school history On a rainy day in May, Varsity Girls Softball made program history. The best season in school history seemed destined from the start, with many of the players on this year’s squad having career seasons. The girls ended the regular season with a strong 10-6 overall record and an incredible 6-0 division record that led to the first division title in school history. Their regular season dominance gave them a first round bye and some more time to prepare for their first playoff game. B-CC Girls Softball had never gone to regionals, and the rival Whitman Vikings would stop at nothing to keep it that way. Back and forth the game went, with big players making big plays on both ends of the field. Neither team would give up, and the game was sent to extra innings. With the bases loaded, Cori Davis squared up and sent a rocket to left field, scoring Rose Frank and sending B-CC Girls Softball to their first regional match-up in school history. No former B-CC Girls Softball team had done what these girls did, and their success will forever be remembered in Barons history.

Photo by Tom Condon

2. Barons Baseball: A legendary playoff run The Varsity Boys Baseball team knew that they could make a deep playoff run this year after a very impressive regular season record of 13-5. Their record helped them secure a first round bye, which allowed them a few extra days to rest up for round two. Whitman also came out on top of their first round match-up and went on to face B-CC. Whitman started strong and held onto a 6-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh when things started to head south for the Vikings. Into the batter’s box stepped Sebastian Mieses. Mieses, a Mount St. Mary’s commit, was a key player throughout the season, and the Barons needed him there.

Mieses dug in and ripped a two-run homer to left field, walking-off the game and sending the Barons to the sectional final. The sectional final proved to be no competition for the Barons as they displayed a dominant hitting performance against Churchill to ultimately defeat the Bulldogs 12-2.

B-CC baseball then moved onto the regional final against Quince Orchard, the same team that had knocked B-CC out in the regionals two years ago. B-CC was now one win away from making it to the state semifinals for the first time since 1989.The Barons, however, did not choke under pressure and made quick work of the Cougars, moving on. The Barons would go on to play Howard in the state semifinals, but would fall in the end in front of many cheering fans. It was a disappointing way to watch this fantastic team end the season, but they certainly provided an exciting ride. Barons baseball will return with many key players next year and looks to contend for regional and state finals in the near future and beyond.

Photo by George Smith

1. Boys Soccer: state champions What else? The Varsity Boys Soccer team took home the state championship for the first time since 2007. Coming into the playoffs as a third seed in their section, the boys faced a difficult road to the state championship. However, B-CC cruised through the first two games against Kennedy and Whitman before winning a hard fought game against Churchill to win their section. In the regional final, B-CC won a comfortable game against Gaithersburg 3-0, and then went on to beat Sherwood in the state semifinals 1-0. The only obstacle remaining in their way was the Severna Park Falcons. The Falcons came in as the favored team, having gone through their season in a dominant fashion. The Barons didn’t allow a single goal in the playoffs, and goalie Bennett Schwartz showed the crowd why with his incredible penalty save in the second half of the state finals game. The score was 0-0 going into the 89th minute, until Senior Liam Brocker tapped in a rebounder to win it for the Barons. The crowd went wild, and, within a minute, the whistle blew and the 2017 B-CC Varsity Boys Soccer team was forever etched in Photo by Matt Cohen history.

June 2018

Sports

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The Tattler sports staff’s FIFA World Cup 2018 preview

By Pablo Lopez and Evan Scarupa

The World Cup is by far the most watched sporting event in the world, as more than one billion people watched the tournament in 2014. In 2018, the event will be taking place in Russia from June 14th to July 15th. This will be the first World Cup held in Europe since the 2006 tournament in Germany, and the first ever to be held in Eastern Europe. A total of 32 teams qualified for the tournament—fourteen are from Europe, five from Asia, five from Africa, three from North America, and five from South America. This year’s World Cup differs from previous installments as many notable countries are absent from the tournament and controversies have arisen as a result of the host nation’s perceived prejudices against minorities. With this preview, the Tattler hopes to provide a comprehensive summary of what fans should know before the world’s greatest players take the stage this summer.

Photo courtesy of FIFA.com

The shocking absentees

The rising controversy

Many dreams of a World Cup victory were crushed when notable countries were unable to qualify. Italy’s failure was by far the most shocking, as they were defeated by Sweden in their final game of qualifying rounds. The troubles started earlier however, with a 3-0 loss in Madrid versus Spain marking the turning point. From there on after, the insufficient squad depth and lack of key players that coach Gran Piero Ventura had been trying to hide finally came to the surface, leaving Italy unable to qualify for the first time since 1958.

The United States failed to qualify as well, resulting from their loss against Trinidad and Tobago in their last qualifying match. Poor defending and a lack of youth integration into the first team were big reasons for the collapse. The United States only needed a draw in their final game to almost guarantee qualification, but an efficient and pressing Trinidad and Tobago team brought them down 2-1. Many argue that a quicker implementation of youth players would have helped the team earlier on. Despite being well out of their prime, players such as Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey were brought on and had little to no success.

Other nations such as Chile, the Copa America champion, and Cameroon, the African Cup of Nations champion, failed to qualify. There is a silver lining, however, new teams to the World Cup such as Egypt and Panama will have their chance to shine as underdogs in the tournament, and players such as Dybala, Mbappe and Gabriel Jesus will be able to prove their talents on the world stage.

The dark horses Senegal

Senegal has been a heavily slept-on team on all stages and has something to prove in this upcoming tournament. The team consists of many world-class players such as Sadio Mane, Keita Balde Diao, Idrissa Gana Gueye, and Kalidou Koulibaly, as well as many other class players to accompany them. Many of these players are regarded as some of the best players in their positions and can definitely go far in the World Cup; however, their first challenge is passing a very competitive group consisting of Poland, Colombia, and Japan.

Controversies surrounding host nation Russia also mean the World Cup is not as inviting to fans as other years. Issues have included discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people and the level of racism in Russian football.

Notable players have spoken out against racist chants towards black players. Ivorian national team captain Yaya Touré spoke out after allegedly being racially abused by fans of the Russian club CSKA Moscow, saying that black players could potentially boycott the tournament altogether if racism continues. In March 2015, Anatoly Vorobyov, the general secretary of the Russian Football Union, said that “not everything is going smoothly” in the campaign to eliminate the “virus” of racism from Russian football before the tournament.

Heavy discrimination of LGBTQIA+ people in Russia have also led to other countries speaking out. Thousands of people in the US and UK have signed petitions to strip Russia of hosting rights, and US Senators Dan Coats and Mark Kirk have both written to FIFA in protest.

Controversies regarding racism among fans and the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as the absence of notable nations, means that the World Cup this summer won’t have quite the appeal surrounding it as it has in past years.

Iceland

The story of Iceland is nothing short of a true fairy tale.

A country with a population of just over 300,000 people, Iceland completely shocked Europe by advancing from their group in the European Championship in 2016. They followed this by eliminating England from the tournament with a 2-1 win. Iceland’s team even consists of multiple semi-pro players as well as other players playing on a very small scale. However, there are two big names that may help Iceland escape their tough group of Argentina, Croatia, and Nigeria: Gylfi Sigurdsson and Johann Berg Gudmundsson. These players have experience for the national team, as well as for high-level club teams, and may just give Iceland what they need to succeed this World Cup.

Egypt

The exponential rise of the Egyptian Liverpool star, Mohamed Salah, has come as a complete shock to the entire world. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world right now, but it is unclear whether he can perform this World Cup, as many expect him to carry Egypt’s team on his back.

However, Egypt have a few other players that could help them succeed this year, such as Mohamed Elneny and Ahmed Hegazi. Egypt were also placed in a seemingly painless group, consisting of Uruguay, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. These components give Egypt a real chance of escaping their group and making their mark in world cup history.

Style

Page 14

What’s hot this summer: Style trends

By Callie Wilks, Olivia Andreassi, and Lola Epstein

Summer 2018 is finally here. With warm weather approaching, people are ditching those heavy coats and fur boots and jumping into these new summer trends of 2018!

Some of these new trends in-

clude tiny colored sunglasses, fanny packs, embroidered shirts, and double denim.

Some things that have stuck around are striped shirts, jean skirts, and going natural with your hair. Rompers are also cute and easy, and they come in all different sorts of styles: strapless, longsleeved, shortsleeved, long pants, or shorts.

The best thing about rompers is that it’s a 2-for-1 deal!

One piece of clothing for the whole body, making this style comfortable and easy to get into. People love to dress up rompers with bold earrings or keep it simple with a delicate necklace.

Denim is so in this summer! Break out some old, vintage jackets from your parents, cut it up, and boom! You have a trendy jean jacket to wear when it’s not warm enough to wear nothing. Denim skirts are also a great outfit to hop into this summer. Pair denim with a crop top, long-sleeves, or fun tank and bust out some cute and trendy looks in this perfect weather.

These new colored glasses are perfect for throwing some colors into neutral outfits to show off some summer vibes.

Cat glasses that go out on the sides also create a cool fashion statement that is coming back. However, clout glasses are out! Either way, cat glasses and colored glasses are perfect sunnies to protect those sensitive eyes when the sun is shining.

Socks. Socks are usually just to keep your feet warm and stink-free, but this summer, socks are for style. We are

you deepen your yoga practice. The class takes place in a room heated up to 100 degrees with an added humidity box.

During the class, we learned to “focus on yoga postures that open the shoulders, hips and spine while strengthening your core and upper body”.

When we first walked into the room, the strikingly hot air hit us and we immediately reconsidered our decision to take this class. Unfortunately, it didn’t get better from there.

As we started the exercise, the room slowly got hotter and hotter and when our instruc-

tor turned the humidifier on (which, for the record, we were right under), the temperature in the room reached a whole other level. At this point we were both so drenched that we couldn’t even tell if it was from the extreme humidity, or our own body fluids. Our instructors’ main focus was for us to release the stress and get us to relax and forget about the world for a little bit.

seeing many kids rock chunky white sneakers with some bold socks. Whether bedazzled, sparkly, colorful, or fun, socks are a must with funky kicks in 2018.

Gingham, plaid, and oversized dresses are very fun for summer. With some heat waves in the future, make sure your dresses are lightweight and light colored.

Boys are seeing some of the same trends this summer as in past summers, but we aren’t complaining! Khakis are a

Hot Yoga: Can you take the heat?

By Tina Siyoum and Hanna Oestros

Core Power Yoga has 170 studios located all over America including one on Wisconsin Avenue, right in the heart of Bethesda. Many of their challenging classes include a mixture between core strength and yoga exercises, most taking place in a heated room.

We tried the Hot Yoga Fusion which is a class mostly focused on the yoga practice itself. It is a combination of power yoga and a detoxifying hot yoga which really helps

Hanna

I normally don’t like yoga too much. I can’t take all the motivational speeches and ‘releasing the stress through our breaths’ too seriously. It probably would be good for someone like me, who can’t seem to be able to shut their brain off and actually relax, but it just ends up with me trying to constantly force myself to ‘think blank’, which never works out.

I did enjoy the class more than I thought I would, aside from the whole mindset talk, I did feel really good afterwards and like they said on the website, my body did feel really detoxified, weird as it sounds. This class was good for beginners, like me, because the poses weren’t too challenging and I could actually keep up with the pace.

By Lauren Gips and Julia Taylor

Uber Eats We ordered some sushi and edamame from UberEats, and the expected delivery time was between 40-50 minutes.

The UberEats’ fee was $4.99, which was the lowest fee compared to how expensive the order was. The app is easy to use, provides good descriptions for items. The app is also good about updating when the order is coming. It’s easy to tell exactly how far away your driver is. The meal arrived at 5:56 and the driver was very friendly. I would definitely recommend this service.

Postmates The food was originally expected to take 45 to 60 minutes to arrive. Lauren ordered a ton of sushi and a miso soup from Postmates which ended up charging over $30 after

must for pairing the comfy and cute pastel polos. These shorts are a great way to start off an outfit because everything goes with khaki. Cuffing khakis is a new twist to the style. Show off some new sneaks without having your shorts interfere with patterns on the new kicks.

Vans are always a classic pair of shoes that show off some cool style but are still durable and good to run around in. Say goodbye to sweatpants tucked into socks and hello to socks and sneakers...finally!

Tina

Food delivery showdown Let’s admit it. We all have a day, or ten, where we’re just too lazy to get up and make food or even leave the house to eat at a restaurant. Luckily, these days there is an alternative, actually many alternatives. We decided to order from Postmates, DoorDash, and UberEats to see which delivery service is truly the best.

The rules of the game were simple, order a meal from the same restaurant from each delivery service. Our restaurant of choice: Hanaro. Before you order from each service, there are vague guidelines of when the food will be delivered. All of the food was ordered at 5:15.

Yes, it was rush hour and that may skew our results but we were hungry. Okay let’s begin.

June 2018

tacking on a $5.99 delivery fee. Right after ordering the food a small graphic pops up detailing where in the delivery process your food is, ranging from “accepting delivery,” “preparing order,” “picking up order” and “out to delivery.”

All throughout this process the expected delivery time fluctuated ever so slightly starting at 5:56. This was about 40 minutes from the time we ordered so they were making good time. Once the food was picked up from the restaurant, a map appeared on the screen allowing you to track the driver as well as telling you exactly how many minutes away they were. The food ended up arriving at 6:00 meaning the projected delivery time was correct. Postmates was the second service to arrive.

I was not thrilled to try this class. I hate the heat so I wasn’t exactly jumping at the idea to do a workout in a room that reached the temperature of 100 degrees.

Hanna knew this which made the fact that she tricked me into going to this workout even worse. I never knew you could sweat so much in sixty minutes but I this class clearly proved me wrong.

Although I was opposed to the idea of hot yoga, it was definitely one of the best workouts I’ve ever had. I felt so refreshed and my skin was glowing after… or maybe that was just the heat making me light headed…

Doordash DoorDash gave us a free delivery for some unknown reason although their usual fee hovers around five to six dollars. The app originally told us that our order would arrive within 33 minutes. But this proved not to be an accurate estimate; our order took way longer than expected. It may just be my bad luck, but every time I order from DoorDash, my food always takes so much longer than originally expected to. Whenever I checked the app, the driver seemed to get further and further away.

And the projected time didn’t change, so I really had no idea when he was going to arrive.

The order finally arrived at 6:21, long after Lauren and I had finished our food. And when the driver dropped it off, all that he said was “I was

busy” and walked away. One thing I did like was that Doordash sends you a text when your order is picked up, but the negatives don’t outweigh the positives Final verdict Overall, UberEats is the most efficient, as the app is easy to use, fees are low and food arrives fast. Postmates is the second best, with an app as easy to use as UberEats. While the fees are slightly higher, the food does come exactly when stated. Doordash needs to put in some work if they wish to catch up to their competitors.

The app is difficult to use, and while delivery fees are low, there is very little clarity of where your food is at any given time.

June 2018

Backpage

Page 15

The Rattler: June’s Rejected Stories

By Will Tenpas

Administration Unveils Plan for Massive Firepole from 4th Floor to Basement

MCPS safety officials recently announced their plans for a firepole reaching from the 4th floor to the basement. They say they have tested the concept at another location, and that it was efficient enough that administration will be able to cut transition time from 5 minutes currently to 35 seconds by time of firepole construction. When asked about safety concerns, the official responded saying only “natural selection.” When confronted with the issue of going up, they described a system including helium balloons that would hoist the rider up. MCPS officials hope to replace all stair cases with this firepole/helium combo by winter of 2018.

Student Moans Aloud Upon Seeing AP Question with Numerals An AP World student let out an audible moan today after reading question 24 on the practice multiple choice exam he was taking. Though initially he thought it was just an image analysis, upon further reading he found a list of four options, numbered with Roman numerals, and the multiple choice options below. The options were obtained by the paper and are as follows: a) I and II b) IV and V c) V only d) I, II, III, and IV e) none.

In a post-test interview the student described how he realized he would need to actually know the material, especially because of the “none” option. The student said he “just couldn’t take these questions anymore, especially not after seeing three of them on [his] practice AP Lang exam. It’s like four questions in one!! WTF??” The paper has made sure that the student reached out to his counselor to discuss the stress, but the counseling department turned him away after realizing he didn’t come to discuss a scheduling conflict.

Every Single Freshman Still Only Using That One Staircase The entire class of 2021 still refuses to use any other staircase but the one by the playground and portables. When asked why, one freshman responded by noting how “convenient it is when you’re coming in from a nice game of gravel on the playground!” Upon this enthusiastic response, the student was promptly beat into next week. Experts predict that by 2021, class transition times will have to be extended to 20 minutes because of the backup in the stairwell caused by class of 2021, 22, 23, and 24 collectively.

Chromebook Cords Still Dangling Out of Cart B-CC students went to plug in their Chromebooks today at the end of 5th period and found a familiar sight- Chromebook charging cords dangling out of the cart. One student decided to conduct a science experiment and continued to pull a cord until it ran out.

He managed to wrap the school 14 times in it. “Thank god it can reach the Chromebooks two inches below it!” the student concluded. Montgomery County has reached out to NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, and a team is currently working on a way to keep the cords in the cart. This experiment came after a new study was conducted and published by the AP Statistics teachers, who found that only 4% of students plug their Chromebooks in. According to Mrs. Gallagher, this number could actually be as low as 1% because “teens are notorious liars, and it’s also highly likely they clicked the wrong response.” 75 teachers let out an “I knew it” in unison after reading the results, right before screaming at their seventh period to “PLUG THE CHROMEBOOKS IN SO THEY WORK IN THE MORNING!”

Gilmore, Social Studies Department Throw Pool Party on 5th Floor The social studies department threw a pool party on the fifth floor today. All social studies teachers were invited. All attended, except for Mr. Herner, who remained in exile in the basement. Games including limbo, table tennis, and tether ball were played, along with secret experiments conducted by the psychology teachers who were seen observing from the corner. Mr. Gallagher described the festivities as “a total rager,” and all seemed to have fun.

Illustrations by Daniel Navratil

Page 16

June 2018

You too can be a high school journalist!

Here’s how to cover the next school shooting in four simple steps...

Step 1: Introduction

Step 2: Details

Fill in the blanks with a description of your shooting...

On __(Insert Date) , (Insert Name of School) suffered from a tragic shooting that left (#) dead and (#) injured. This was the deadliest shooting since __(Insert Last School Shooting) .

Students huddled in dark classrooms as shots were fired at their classmates... (Describe sequence of events) The shooter, __(Insert Name) , (was apprehended/remains at large) following the incident.

P R E S S

*Add any other relevant information **Dont’t forget to include the shooter’s name!!!

Choose an adjectives to describe the shooter...

1. Mentally unstable 2. A lone wolf 3. A victim of bullying Choose the type of weapon the shooter used...

1. AR-15 2. Shotgun 3. 22-caliber rifle Choose the shooter’s motive...

1. Notoriety 2. Revenge 3. Copycat shootings

Here are some stats to include for context: *statistics are expected to increase over time

1. There has been, on average, 1 school shooting every week in 2018 (CNN).

2. The U.S. has had 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined (CNN).

3. There have been 288 school shootings in the U.S. since 2009 (CNN).

4. More people have been killed at schools 2018 than have been killed while deployed as members of the military (Washington Post).

6. Seven children and teens are killed by guns in the U.S. in an average day (CDC).

P R E S S

Step 3: Quotes

A good article is never complete without quotes! Choose some sample quotes to give your story a personal touch...

Students: “I can’t believe this happened here.”

“I’m not surprised this happened here.”

Conservatives: “We need to focus on our mental health epidemic. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

“This is too soon to talk about gun control.

Stop trying to politicize the tragedy.”

K I T

K I T

Liberals: “Fear has no place in our schools.”

“Clearly, there is a problem in our country.”

“The NRA has blood on their hands.”

Step 4: Photos

Add pictures so readers can see the aftermath of the event...

Photo Template A:

Photo Template B:

ere]

[School H

[Victim]

Illustrations by Emily Schrader