The Emery Issue 3 2017

2727 Fuller Road Ann Arbor, MI 48105

The Emery

Volume 3 Issue 3 December 2017

The Student Publication of Huron High School

News Briefs #StopSpencer Speakout at Michigan Huron stacks up well among other high schools Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

The U.S. News recently conducted national high school rankings. They first examined 28,496 public high schools across the nation, and the number was then reduced to 20,487 after certain schools did not have high enough enrollment numbers to be considered. Schools were then ranked on their performance numbers as well as how sufficiently they prepare students for college. Schools would then be given a gold, silver or bronze medal based on how well they meet these criteria. If they scored very low, it would be possible to not receive a metal. The selection process consisted of four steps. According to U.S. News.,“The first three steps ensured that the schools serve all of their students well, using their performance on the math and reading parts of their state proficiency tests and their graduation rates as the benchmarks.”

After high schools passed these steps, a fourth step was used to determine how well a school prepares students for “college-level work.”

Huron High School ranked 1173 best high school in the National Rankings of the 20,487 high schools and earned a silver medal.

Since Huron received a medal, it was considered for state ranking. Of the 1,097 public high schools in Michigan, Huron ranked #29.

A poster given to Huron for being awarded as one of America’s Best High Schools. Photo taken by Jack Harrison.

Mosaic made for Huron’s upcoming 50th Anniversary Samantha Ruud | Staff Editor

To celebrate Huron’s 50 year anniversary, the students are giving back to the school. A mosaic company was employed to have students work together as a community to build a mosaic for the hallways of Huron. This particular gift is special because the students had a chance to contribute to it.

All day on Friday, Dec. 1, students could place tiles on the mosaic. It has two phrases: “remembering our past” and “inspiring our future”.

“The idea of this mosaic is that when people graduate, the school gives so much to them, and they should be able to leave something behind and give something back to the school,” they said. “By leaving something in the building, you’ve left your mark and it is a way of saying thank you.”

Students also felt like they were leaving their mark on the school by adding to the mosaic.

“I felt like I was leaving a mark,” sophomore Kate VanEe said. “It was cool because all the students were contributing and coming together.”

Students add tiles to the mosaic for Huron’s 50th Anniversary. Photo taken by Samantha Ruud.

Upcoming performances Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

Next week, several groups will perform in Meyers’ Auditorium. On Monday, Dec. 18 at 7:30 the Huron Bands will perform their winter concert. Varsity Band will be performing “Escape From the Deep,” by Brian Balmages; “Suite Francaise,” by Darius Mihaud and arranged by John Higgins; and “Melodious Thunk,” by David Biedenbender. Concert Band will performing three tunes: “Folk Song Suite,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams; “Fortress,” by Frank Ticheli; “Joy Revisited,”

by Ticheli. Symphony Band will also be performing three selections: “October,” by Eric Whitacre; “First Suite in E Flat,” by Gustav Holst; “In This Broad Earth,” by Steven Bryant.

Not only will the band be performing, the Huron Choirs will also, on Wednesday, December 20 at 7:30. Bel Canto and Acapella will be performing three tunes together: “Three Holiday Songs from Home Alone” by John Williams; “Let There Be Peace on Earth” by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson and arranged by Mark Hayes; “A Holiday Sing Along” arranged by Audrey Snyder.

Every year many of Huron’s clubs come together to showcase their talents at the show known as Multi-Culti. An assembly is held during the school day, but a performance is always held during the evening to allow parents and friends to attend. This year, Multi-Culti’s evening performance will be held on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m.

Gena Harris| Staff Writer

In response to the possibility that white supremacist Richard Spencer could speak on their college campus, University of Michigan students organized a #StopSpencer speakout at the U of M Diag. Nearly 100 protesters showed up to the event on Nov. 28, 2017 to pressure college administrators against allowing Spencer to give a speech in defense of their safety and well-being.

In recent cases, Spencer had been denied from speaking at Michigan State University and Ohio State University. However, denying Spencer a space to speak is technically violating his First Amendment rights. The university could reasonably argue that there is too much safety at risk in allowing Spencer, and possibly his violent followers, onto college campuses.

U of M President Mark Schlissel announced on Nov. 22 that the university would meet beforehand with Cameron Padgett, Spencer’s speech coordinator, to determine whether the speech’s content is detrimental to students’ collective health.

On Thursday Dec. 8, the decision was announced that Spencer will speak at U of M during spring break between Feb. 24 and Mar. 4.

“I will also encourage everyone to stay away from areas where the presence of his supporters might contribute to an unstable situation, which will help to keep our community safe while at the same time standing up for our values,” Schlissel said. “The University of Michigan is home to our nation’s strongest and best academic community – with students, faculty, staff and graduates who care deeply about their fellow Wolverines and who strive to lead in a better world. No one who rents space on our campus can take that away from us.”

Still, Spencer’s arrival could put the community and campus at risk for violence to occur, especially considering highlights ongoing racial issues at the university.

Earlier this fall, racist acts of vandalism on the U of M campus unleashed a fight outside campus. Three black U of M students were targeted with racially derogatory language on name tags in the West Quad Residence Hall. “N*****” was written below their name tags on their dorm room doors. The crime is not only vandalism but a hate crime.

On Sept. 2, 2017, hateful words

“I feel really exploited by this university, because they(administration) assume after years and years of student activism that it’s on us(students) to call out white supremacist bullshit for what it is, and to educate our peers and professors who are supposed to be more educated than us, “ University of Michigan student Darien. “We shouldn’t have to do this in 2017. All Richard Spencer is doing is talking to his white supremacist brothers to come to place where he will find support and he knows he will find 1,000 followers at this institution.” Photo illustration by Gena Harris.

were written on the University Rock. According to The Michigan Daily, President Schlissel addressed the issue during his speech at new student convocation.

“Rigorous discussion of conflicting viewpoints is one way we learn, but hateful displays by anonymous provocateurs do not enhance learning in any academic environment,” Schlissel said. He also welcomed students of all backgrounds and noted the importance of

having a diverse community on campus. “We are proud you have decided to pursue your education at the University of Michigan. You make us a stronger university and enrich our community and nation by your many talents, hard work, and the diverse perspectives and life experiences you bring to campus.”

While U of M will defend each individual’s right to free speech on the campus, these attacks that target individuals or

groups still exist. The university’s purpose is to create a safe learning environment that is free of harassment, and students feel its message valuing equality and individuality is inconsistent. The community is looking for Schlissel to say no to Spencer and show his support for racial equality at U of M. *Indicates word was not spelled out due to its meaning.

Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor on serving the community

Julie Heng | Staff Editor

From the front row, it was easy to see that Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor’s enthusiasm was infectious. After every statement, he would bounce on his heels, smiling. It was hard not to be inspired by the simple conviction with which he spoke.

Nearly every other student in the library was anxiously jotting down details about the new universal access playground in Gallup Park.

On Nov. 27, Mayor Taylor spoke to interested Huron students about the importance of serving the community. His visit was hosted by HHS’s Interact Club, the youth branch of this area’s Rotary organization.

“Volunteering is the best way to initiate change in the status quo,” Taylor said. He stressed how volunteering allowed people to “enact social change and positive social benefit.”

Mayor Taylor also fielded questions from dozens of Huron students, explaining developing projects around Ann Arbor and giving his opinions on everything from couches on fire to his favorite local restaurants (Tomokun, Blimpy, Spencer, Mani, and Detroit Street Filling Station).

He was very vocal about his opinion that Ann Arbor is an incredibly unique place with highly successful academics in the University of Michigan and the public school system, and he praised the resources available in the city that allowed such growth. He said the factor that allowed Ann Arbor to diversify its interests was the absence of systemic poverty in the city.

His proudest achievement to date is contributing to a Washtenaw Coun-

ty millage supporting climate action, mental health, and affordable housing, for which he plans to build 2800 new units by 2035.

Taylor said his biggest focus for the city’s future lies in infrastructure. Recent and upcoming major undertakings include managing downtown traffic, fixing streetlights, preserving street trees, and adding 1000 new saplings to the urban forest annually. Some plans to clear up downtown traffic include building a protected bike highway, creating two-way streets from existing one-way lanes, encouraging the use of the city bus system, and changing the crosswalk near Kerrytown’s farmers market.

In general, Taylor’s outlook on the city was optimistic, even though he could not feel the same about the country at large.

According to Taylor, however, “[i]n [this] difficult and, I think, shameful time, we have an obligation” to speak up about what we stand for.

When asked about the hot topic of sanctuary cities in the United States, Taylor emphasized the city’s principles as a “welcoming” city with citizens who advocate for safety for all people. Ann Arbor has expressly declined to honor detainer requests.

“We are a welcoming city, a city that affirms the value of pluralism,” he said.

Furthermore, he condemned “loathsome” ideology of the likes of Richard Spencer, calling his remarks “disgusting” to the point of being a “national disgrace.”

These views, of course, are not shared by all, and as mayor, Taylor has to endure criticism from constituents.

“Public criticism bothered me a

Between working as a lawyer at Hooper & Hathaway and informally singing in community theaters, Chris Taylor occupies a part-time job as Ann Arbor’s mayor. Here, Mayor Taylor speaks to Huron students about the importance of volunteering as social change as well as personal fulfillment. “Honestly, just do it,” he says. Photo taken by Rithvik Kodali.

lot in my first two years in City Council: 2008, 2009, 2010,” he admitted. But he has learned that he can’t help or please everyone. “[Now], I can even read the comments section and nasty things [people say] about me.”

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the people of Ann Arbor and the culture and changes they embody.

“I like Ann Arbor the way it is,” Taylor said. “We are doing a lot of things that are good and positive. But all successful cities change… and grow. Some change, some disruption is of necessity.”

To disillusioned students who feel like they

cannot be agents of change in their communities, he said not to fear. Even if taking on a task alone may seem hopelessly daunting, it is crucial to gather together with other similarly disillusioned students and to work together towards a common purpose.

“Volunteering can be very satisfying, and it really makes people start to feel like part of the community,” he concluded. “It’s a chicken and egg thing.”

If there’s something that falls below our standards, it is ultimately our responsibility to “peacefully, but forcefully” address the issue and make things right.

Getting ahead of the game: middle schoolers attend Huron Ritvik Jillala | Staff Writer For around the past 10 years, middle school students have been taking advanced courses at Huron High School. From Geometry AC to AP Computer Science, these students have been competing with high school students and expanding their knowledge. At Huron, there are currently three students, two 7th graders and an 8th grader, from Clague Middle School attending classes here.

A few years ago, when some math courses were not offered at the middle school, Huron would sometimes receive a bus full of middle school students taking Geometry AC or other classes, according to Huron High School teacher Kevin Behmer. Now, the number has decreased due to the addition of high school classes at the middle schools.

There are numerous ways that these students become so advanced. They can take placement tests or take short online classes through various universities.

Transportation is not an issue either for these students. Most of them carpool to the high school and then take a bus to their middle school in time for second hour. However, some of the students may not actually belong in these classes.

“It’s tough,” said Huron high school teacher Kevin Behmer. “Sometimes, we as math teachers, wonder ‘What’s the rush?’ We are not sure the students really understand the full consequences. You can see a difference between kids that are superstars [and those] that just had things done to them,” said Behmer.

The students maturity level could also cause problems, but may be improved by the high school environment. He or she may not be mature enough to handle the extra stress, workload, and responsibility that are part of high school classes, but it is possible that he or she could grow into the maturity level that is needed. However, the student may also break from the pressure.

“There are situations where you are less than

mature, then the older students may call you [out] on that,” Behmer said. “It may play a negative effect on how students feel about themselves or their ability to contribute to class.

Sometimes we establish that pecking order.”

On the other hand, students could also grow with critiques.

“With every change of levels, there is a heightened expectation of individual responsibility,” Behmer said.

Seniors Rosie Li and Kevin Tan were once eighth graders taking Accelerated Geometry at Huron and answered some questions about their experience.

How did they reach this level?

Li: She reached this level after testing out of sixth grade math in middle school and followed this pathway up the system. She explained that she decided to test out because her parents introduced her to this option and

because she felt math was easy.

Tan: He reached this level after testing out of sixth grade math in middle school and followed this pathway up the system. He explained that since many of his peers were testing out of their math levels, it prompted him to do so as well.

Was transport an issue? How did that work?

Both Li and Tan took the a bus along with other Clague students to and back from Huron every morning.

How much effort was required in the class?

Li: She did not notice much of a change in terms of workload. However, she does recall taking her first quiz and it being challenging.

Tan: Since he was in a class only made up of other Clague eighth graders, he did not notice any change in terms of the classroom environment. In fact, he explained that it felt no different than a typical classroom at Clague.

News

2

Behind the fences Caitlin Kaleta | Staff Writer

Within the last year, there have been five accidents off the tops of parking structures in downtown Ann Arbor, three of which were fatalities. Whether these were accidents or not, the tops of parking garages have proved to be dangerous enough to end the cause many deaths that could have been prevented. Safety precautions need to be taken.

In September, the Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously to put suicide prevention fences at the top of parking garages in downtown Ann Arbor. They are planning to install the fences to six garages in downtown Ann Arbor. However, no action is currently being taken to install the $1.4 billion worth of permanent fencing.

The Downtown Development Authority voted on Oct. 4 to spend $148,840 on temporary chain-linked fencing on top of the six garages. They have also installed sui-

cide prevention signs in an attempt to lessen the number of suicides. However, many say the fences are not enough to stop people from falling from the towering structures.

A suicide hotline responder from Suicide.org said that the fences will decrease the suicide rates.

“The fences will definitely provide a physical barrier for the jumpers,” the suicide hotline responder said. “However, when many people are in the process of committing suicide, they will find a way around the fences.”

Even the signs put up on the fences can only do so much to prevent people from falling off the structure. One suggestion is that people should monitor the area.

“When someone is at the point of committing suicide, they believe that no one cares and nothing else matters at that point, so they will not see the signs and will find a way to get around the fences,” the suicide

hotline responder said. “If someone else is up there, they could take action and prevent people from jumping off the structures.”

This would also be more cost efficient than permanent fencing options and could potentially be a better solution for the growing issue.

“For many students stress and societal pressures can contribute to anxiety and depression,” the suicide hotline responder said. “No one wants to be struggling when others appear to be doing great, and many don’t realize that other people have their own struggles.”

One way to stabilize mental health is to make sure people are aware of the resources available to them and to look out for each other. People are all fighting their own battles, and people need to help each other through it all. The fences are only the beginning of the solution to prevent suicide.

An Ann Arbor parking structure with new fences added to help prevent falls.

Photo by Caitlin Kaleta.

Online classes: how do they impact students?

Ritvik Jillala | Staff Writer

For the past few years, online classes have been a substitute for traditional classes. When taking online classes, students get a free hour during the day when they listen to videos, read lectures, and spend time on their computers. However, students may not be spending all of their time on their class.

Each online class is structured differently. AAPS partners with various companies such as Apex Learning and ALEKS to create them. Each student has a teacher; however, there is no face-to-face contact.

The student works at his or her own pace.

“Some days I work on [my

class] for five minutes, and some days I work on it the whole hour,” freshman Prathik Guduri said, who is currently taking Health and Wellness online.

It all depends on the amount of work each person has.

“If I’m behind, then I will work on my course for the entire hour, but on other days I do other homework,” freshman Hunter Schrupp said.

There are, on-average, 200 students signing into the library in a day, according to librarian Lauren Warren. This includes people who do not have a scheduled class, have an online class, or are taking a class through

an outside source such as the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College or Community Resourcing. About 70 percent of these students do not have a scheduled class. 61 students take an online class.

There is no one assigned to specifically look after the students to ensure that they are on track and working on their online class. They are just given space in the library.

This leads to either growth or procrastination.

“It’s all personal,” Schrupp said. “It helps me manage my time better. If it’s someone’s first [online] course, then they should get more supervision to help them get started on the right track.”

Some of the courses also do not have deadlines for the students.

While this may be helpful to some students, it definitely isn’t for others.

“They’ll procrastinate and be like ‘I’m only a week behind. It’s not that much,’” Schrupp said. “But there comes a time when they are a week or two away from their final and are like ‘Oh man! I still need to do a quarter of my class.’”

This usually leads to students cramming.

“It justs messes up their lives and their sleeping schedules,” Schrupp said. “A lot of times people stay up re-

ally late just working on their class.”

Some of the other courses have hard deadlines.

“At least in my course, there’s a pacing guide that you have to stay on,” Guduri said. “But I took another course last year that didn’t have a pacing guide, and yeah, it was bad.”

It is up to the students to decide if they want to stay on task. Many students end up making the wrong decision, and that turns out to be harmful.

“There’s a lot of places they could improve,” Guduri said.

Pros at pronouns Cierra Slater | Staff Writer

Huron High School’s art director and teacher, Kristin Kubacki, has started a pronoun friendly ritual that allows students to write their preferred pronouns on the name tags they make when they first join one of her classes.

Kubacki was inspired by her daughter, who has a number of non-binary friends, to create this new policy.

“I have been trying to use students’ preferred pronouns for the past few years, but on more of an individual basis,” Kubacki said. “This year, I decided to ask all students to include their pronouns in the initial class introductions.”

It became standard practice in Huron’s QSA (Queer Straight Alliance) three years ago to ask what peoples’ preferred pronouns were, but Kubacki didn’t start asking all of her students to tell her what their pronouns were until last year. Other teachers, like English teacher Christopher Erickson, feel that knowing a student’s pronouns and names is important in a learning society.

“It’s really important that the pronouns that we select and the pronouns that we ask others to use match what we want and how we identify and how we feel,” Erickson said.

Students who are able to choose how they are identified are appreciative of the efforts.

“ I think the Huron community is very accepting, far more accepting than most places,” Alex*, a non-binary Huron student, said. “I do feel that we, like every community, still could improve.”

Sometimes teachers and stu-

dents call them by their wrong pronoun.

“Unfortunately, I have misgendered students many times,” Kubacki said.

“Like many adults, I’ve spent the majority of my life with a binary understanding of gender. With time, I’m becoming more open-minded about this. Despite my best intentions, I do make mistakes. But when I do, I try to apologize, correct myself, and move on. I’ve found my non-binary students to be very understanding about this because they know I’m trying.”

And the efforts are working.

“Not using the correct pronoun can cause extreme dysphoria to some people.” Alex* said. “Using the correct pronoun not only shows respect and demonstrates good character but also helps people prevent depression and anxiety.” * Alex is an anonymous source.

Female

Agender

Bigender

Male

Intergender

Genderqueer/Non-Binary

Neutrois

Epicene

Demiboy

Demigirl

Androgyne Pangender/Poligender

Bigender: Third Gender and Demiboy

Demigender: with Demigirl

Genderfluid: Intergender and Neutrois

Bigender: Androgyne and Neutrois

Third Gender

Genderfluid: Androgyne and Female

Genderfluid: Female and Genderfluid: Third Gender Male and Demigirl Image by Katherine Gurgenian.

Image by Cierra Slater.

Students’ voives: Do gender-neutral pronoun policies improve our school environment?

Niyati Kellenberg Calla weart Eilyn Sanabria | Staff Writers

“I think it depends. I Don’t think it’s anyone else’s decision. I ask them what they prefer to be called. But if someone is confused on it then I guess it could help them.”

“I think it would be helpful for the school because it can make people feel more comfortable and included.”

“Yes, because I have friends that are transgender and prefer different pronouns than the ones they were biologically born with.

This makes them more comfortable.”

“I think it’ll help most people who don’t know how to identify themselves. It’s a good alternative to saying he or she. I also think it’ll confuse others.”

“I think it’s great because it will normalize the use of the they/them pronouns for non-binary people.”

Joe Brown, freshmen

Hailey Johnson, sophomore

Solomon Ebrahim, sophomore

Liz Alfaro, junior

Trevor Dial, senior

“No, because the ones who prefer to use only he or she would feel oppressed by having to add “they” as a pronoun in their vocabulary to refer to someone.”

“I guess because if you don’t know someone’s gender then it can come off rude.”

“Yes, because it is inclusive of all gender.

The only thing is that teachers should start saying they for people who aren’t boys or girls.”

“Absolutely, because it will help people come out and feel more comfortable and supported.”

“Yes, it will help people that don’t identify as a gender and include everyone.”

Gabriel Pabon, sophomore

Anoushka Idilani, sophomore

Luke Hurley, junior

Abbi Beghidja, senior

Liz Lochocki, senior

News

3

Development without displacement

Gena Harris | Staff Writer

Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines.

Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and subsequent changes in the area’s character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for “improving” a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change.

But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies.

Gentrification has a negative impact on our communities. Although there is no clear-cut definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes:

Gentrification isn’t a purposefully malicious act but it does have a serious im-

pact on less developed areas within a city.

Many lower-income residents are unable to afford home ownership, so when neighborhoods gentrify, their rent prices skyrocket simultaneously. Landlords increase rent, driving people out of their homes, and this clears the way for those same landlords to rent those same apartments for a lot more money.

Neighborhoods are created by the people who live within them, and often the people who make neighborhoods vibrant and culturally rich are the same people that are being pushed out. This prevents them from enjoying the benefits of the communities that they created.

When people are forced from their homes, they’re not just leaving their homes behind. Often they’re saying goodbye to their families and friends, their children’s schools, their place of worship, their jobs, and home-grown business. These moves can be expensive, and those with nowhere to go sometimes end up homeless.

Gentrification is happening 45 minutes Southeast of Ann Arbor and that is

Detroit MI. It’s had a great change for the city to have all four major league sport teams within a mile radius. Major companies such as Nike and Under Armour have opened up stores in the city. But what is happening to the individual’s that were renting out their own business? You guessed it they are pushed out due to a raise in rent and they are no longer able to rent their facility, so now they lose their job. Gentrification is a problem because they’re not helping the individual’s they put out. Interview from The Michigan Daily; Richard Smith, a western Detroit native, expressed concern over the disappearance of Black-owned businesses in Midtown.

“The migration here and everybody moving back downtown is moving the Black people out,” he said. “There’s this great New Detroit but where are all the Black businesses? They moved all the Black businesses from down there.”

When gentrification takes place the government needs to help the individuals that were there before the major companies.

CULTURE AND CHARACTER:

DEMOGRAPHICS:

new ideas about what is desirable and attractive, including standards (either informal or legal) for architecture, landscaping, public behavior, noise, and nuisance

an increase in median income, a decline in the proportion of racial minorities, and a reduction in household size, as low-income families are replaced by young singles and couples

REAL ESTATE MARKET:

LAND USE:

large increases in rents and home prices, increases in the number of evictions, conversion of rental units to ownership (condos) and new development of luxury housing

a decline in industrial uses, an increase in office or multimedia uses, the development of live-work “lofts” and high-end housing, retail, and restaurants

Components of a healthy, long-term weight loss journey Nuclear war Niyati Kellenberg Callewaert | Staff Writer

Losing weight isn’t just eating healthy and exercising, but also how your brain responds to weight loss. Non- healthy diets can also lead to death. According to The Guardian, poor diet and malnutrition is a factor in one in five deaths around the world.

Dieting isn’t effective for long term weight loss because your body has a ‘set point weight.’ When you lose weight too quickly, an alarm will go off in your brain and it will start to fight back and start to store more fat. In fact, it will also “trick” you into cheating on your diet. By craving certain ingredients or foods, such as

Ivan Martin | Staff Writer

fatty foods, your body is actually expressing the need to omega 3 which you can consume in healthy ways including salmon and other seafood. Before beginning any diet talk to a health provider.

Set Goals

The best way to lose and maintain weight is to make a plan over a couple months and make a goal of losing at most two pounds a week. This will give your body time to adjust.

Find Alternatives

Finding healthy alternatives

to the fatty foods, like sweet potato fries, can actually have more flavor and fill you up more. A great alternative for pasta is zucchini noodles that can be topped with tomato sauce that provides that proper nutrients for your body. Having mashed potatoes every week isn’t the healthiest thing for your mind or body. Instead swap the mashed potatoes for mashed cauliflower, which tastes similar with spices. Also when you eat breakfast in the morning, you won’t over eat later in the day as you try to make up for skipping breakfast. Many people are too busy in the morning to sit down and have a full breakfast, but a great alternative is a protein bar or very quick avocado toast

that will fill you up till lunch.

Exercise Right

Exercise is the way to maintaining your new weight. Everyone should attempt to get at least an hour of physical activity a day, and it doesn’t have to be running, swimming, or biking. Walking is also a great way to maintain your weight.

During your journey, you will learn a healthy lifestyle that can last a lifetime.

Dieting isn’t the number on the scale; it is the feeling of being fit, healthy and happy with yourself and your body.

IB facilitator Carrie James takes on Huron’s IB Career Programme Mishal Charania | Guest Writer

Going into college, Huron High School’s IB Career-related Programme (CP) facilitator Carrie James never thought she would land such a job.

“I was probably always going to be a teacher,” James said. “It was always in that direction. I thought I was going to be a teacher for 30 years...I really thought I was going to be a teacher forever.”

James went to college as a history major with a minor in economics.

As she predicted, she became a teacher in Bloomfield Hills. She loved being in the classroom, where she could make connections with kids. Then, nine years ago, she became the Bloomfield Hills High School Middle Years Programme coordinator.

“A few years into that, about four years ago, I took on the [Diploma Programme].

I left the classroom sometime around then,” James said. “I miss it very much,” she admitted. “It’s even harder for me—moving jobs and not being in the classroom. When I left the classroom, that was really, really hard.”

She feels that she gained confidence as she got older, allowing her to leave Bloomfield Hills after teaching there for 18 years.

“Change is good,” James said.

“I feel really good about it. I was happy in my last district. I wouldn’t have been able to make this kind of move if it wasn’t

Carrie James, Huron High School’s new IB CP Facilitator, taught for many years before starting working as a coordinator for the IB systems. Besides excitedly working to kickstart Huron’s education in a new direction, James enjoys jogging, reading, sewing, and spending time with her kids. Photo by Julie Heng.

for them and for the positive experience.”

In her first year at Huron, she is excited to lead, support, and design the new Career-related Programme.

“I really wanted a new challenge and this school is implementing the first career-related program in the state of Michigan,” James said. “I really wanted to be a part of building a third IB program.”

James recognizes the toughness of the IB and DP programs. She also recognizes the lifelong benefits of IB.

“Choosing the IB program is a choice,” James said. “[Students] are making a choice to do that program and they are receiving the benefits of that program. “[W]hen the students graduated, they said, ‘I can’t believe how prepared I

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am for what I’m doing. The professors are asking me to write these 10 page papers and I wrote a 20 page extended essay—it’s easy.’ They talk about how prepared they are and they have a different mindset.”

James acknowledges that the entire DP is a huge commitment and a personal decision for each individual student, but she recommends that every student try the opportunity of taking at least one IB class.

She has also seen that the kids who are most successful in the IB and DP programs are the ones who are motivated to succeed and are willing to take risks.

“I always found it interesting that the kids who are considered the ‘smart’ kids are not guaranteed to be successful if they are not willing to take risks and push themselves to be better and in different ways,” James said.

IB skills and traits are the elements of a worldly education, which forces students to think outside the box.

“There is greater emphasis on inquiry,” James said. “The teachers don’t provide the answers. IB puts emphasis on student’s original thought. It’s about application. What do you do with what you learn and what can you do with it? I think that there is a time for everything. Finding a place that you feel comfortable and happy is very important.”

These past few months, the president of the United States has been hands-on about possible nuclear war. Communist North Korea has been testing and deploying missiles that caused an alert to neighboring countries. These missiles are capable of spreading radiation, which is harmful to a human body.

Nuclear war could occur at any moment, but nobody can pinpoint exactly when and where. For the first time in recent memory, there is a daily argument raging in both South Korea and Japan about the nuclear option, driven by worry that the United States might hesitate to defend the countries under the threat of a missile launched at Los Angeles or Washington, according to the The New York Times.

John Brennan, the former head of the C.I.A., from the New York Times, estimated the chance of war with North Korea at 20 at 25 percent. A Korea expert at John Hopkins University puts it at a 40 percent chance. Many officials are adopting the same attitude about the possibility of nuclear war between North Korea and the United States.

“It’s a dangerous game of chicken, who will blink first?,” Huron social studies teacher and chess coach Ken Long said. “If ever this nuclear war may happen, the United States will not be first to strike.”

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an intergovernmental organization has its concerns about President Donald Trump having the access of nuclear weapons.

“The NATO, an ally of the U.S. might not join the war between North Korea and U.S.,” Long said.

The doomsday clock is not an ordinary clock watch. It’s not for clock to look at the time to wake up, to go to sleep, to go to work, and to go to school. This clock was made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists It represents the probability of nuclear war in our world. They evolved into a newsletter and later into a magazine. The doomsday clock appeared for the first time in 1947, and this past year, the countdown has begun to tick.

News

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Sexual assault victims come forward #metoo Katherine Gurgenian | Staff Writer Many people fight tooth and nail to enter the Hollywood scene, striving for fame and fortune. Once they achieve this, some feel like they’re on top of the world or like they can do anything, including sexual assault-and get away with it.

As many know, last month, Harvey Weinstein was accused by many Hollywood A-listers and workers for sexually assaulting them.

After the media blew up Weinstein’s sexual assault cases, many men and women took to social media platforms to show that they too have been victims of sexual assault.

It all started with a simple tweet by actress and activist Alyssa Milano on Oct. 15, 2017.

“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.”

Immediately, people flooded her tweet with stories of their own sexual assault experiences:

“My dad’s friend, and no one believed me,” twitter user @durva20 tweeted.

“Me too,” twitter user and Hamilton actor @JMunozActor tweeted. “I don’t know if [it] means anything coming from a gay man, but it’s happened. Multiple times.”

“I stand with my sisters,” twitter user @KevinBoseman tweeted. “And #MeToo. Just started therapy to deal with my abuse 33 years ago and an assault in college. #MeToo.”

These events opened the gates for other Hollywood workers speaking out on their own sexual assault experiences caused by other Hollywood stars.

“House of Cards” actor Anthony Rapp recently spoke out about how fellow actor Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted him when Spacey was 26 years old and Rapp was 14 years old.

Donald Trump grabbed numerous girls by the p*ssy and talked about wanting to screw his own daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Woody Allen sexually assaulted his former adopted daughter many times.

Mike Tyson raped 18 year old Desiree Washington in 1991

Bill Cosby has been accused of rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct.

Despite the large number of sexual assaults that occur time and time again in Hollywood, few do anything about them. The sexual assaulters are still haled as amazing actors, sports players, politicians, and so on. It never stops.

Photo from sxc.hu

Zingy for Candy The truth about teachers on wheels Students get a taste of Zingerman’s gourmet chocolates Micah Etchison | Staff Writer

Cashew Cow

ut an er e P tt Bu ush Cr

Peanut Butter Crush

What the Fudge 9th Grade Survey Results

Peanut Butter Crush What the Fudge

Cashew Cow

What the Fudge

10th Grade Survey Results

Peanut Butter Crush

What the Fudge

Cashew Cow Cashew Cow 11th Grade Survey Results

12th Grade Survey Results

Zingerman’s candy company was imagined in 2002 by Charlie Frank and became a reality in 2009. The Candy company thrived inside Zingerman’s Bakehouse for several years it soon needed more space so they bought a space three doors down from the bakery in between Zingerman’s Creamery and Coffee company. On Nov. 13,

students at Huron High School got to taste and vote on which Zingerman’s Candy they enjoyed the best out of the three options:

Candy #1: What the Fudge Candy #2: Peanut Butter Crush Candy #3: Cashew Cow

Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

With the large incoming class of freshman this year, seven hour days and the introduction of IB classes, Huron’s enrollment numbers are significantly higher than they were in past years. Students have not significantly been affected by this; however, it is a different story for various teachers at Huron.

Due to more classes being offered and more teachers being hired without the addition of classrooms, several teachers have to travel to different classrooms during the day. To prevent teachers from having to move every hour, block schedules were arranged which meant more teachers would move, but they would not have to every hour. However, this meant even more teachers needed to move. The idea of teachers moving classrooms is not something new to Huron, since other teachers have done so in past years.

“During one of my first years of teaching I had to move between a classroom (6216) in the building as well as between two portables (8300 and 8400) outside,” Spanish teacher Lisa Bares said.

“This moving between classrooms was very challenging because not only was I moving between from inside to outside of the building which doesn’t allow me to push a cart around, but I was also moving to different locations during passing time.”

Sharing classrooms has affected what activities teachers use to communicate information to their students.

It also has begun to limit the amount of extra help to which students have access.

“The best activities in class are the ones where students get to learn kinesthetically and require massive amounts of preparation to cut out papers, photocopy, and to set up activities around the room etc. These are some activities I have had to cut from lessons, since setting them up twice in two different rooms is just too much of a burden.

We used to do this fun web-quest with computers, forget it, this year, because dragging the cart around three times a day during crowded passing periods is just another thing to raise my stress,” teacher *A said.

“One major downfall of switching rooms is that it makes it harder for me to effectively support my students. Since I am between three different rooms, none of which feel like they are mine, many of my kids who seek after school help or are looking for me in the middle of the day can’t find me.”

Having to move classrooms not only creates stress for this teacher, but as well for other teachers.

“As a teacher, it is very frustrating and stressful to move between classrooms, teacher B* said.” “Often teachers want to prep their room for certain activities, such as group work or discussions, with a change of desk arrangement, and, when you share, it’s much more difficult to do this. It’s also much harder to offer student support as you move through the building, and students can’t always find you, even with posted signs.”

Furthermore, having to share classrooms shortens the time teachers have to educate their students.

“Sharing classrooms can bring a clash between teachers as we try to negotiate how to share and arrange spaces (and this is complicated even more when four teachers share a room), and it often means forgoing class time rearranging (three minutes or more both beginning and end of class to resettle desks) or having to compromise to try to meet the needs of both classes,” said teacher B.

Teacher Sara Badalamente decided it was time to ditch her cart and carry her supplies in a backpack.

Lastly, a major consequence of teachers moving is that the conditions of classrooms have worsened due to there not being one teacher who can oversee what is constantly taking place in a classroom.

“In all three classrooms I am in, the desks are littered with graffiti that no one cleans because the accountability of who wrote on the desks is impossible to track (whereas last year each Friday I would buy cleaning supplies and my seventh hour would clean the desks weekly)” teacher A said. “I have a classroom with no trash can, no tissues, no white-board markers, and no one who addresses these needs because it is split amongst multiple teachers, and the question of who’s department or who should supply these items is undetermined.”

Although having to move classrooms has been very difficult for teachers, there have been some positives that have come about.

“Since being a visitor in many rooms, I have gotten to interact with students beyond my classes in the minutes while I pack up,” teacher B said.” “I have gotten to work with and communicate daily with colleagues in other departments whose names I previously only knew on email threads.

I have been inspired and inspired other teachers by seeing we each run our class-

rooms. I get ideas but seeing them running their classrooms that I never thought about doing on my own (especially when sharing with an entirely unrelated content area).

In addition, sharing rooms has opened my eyes to the welcoming and caring teachers I work with who have created space on their boards and room in their cabinets to share.”

Katherine Bellows has been teaching for nine years, and, in her first year at Huron, she is moving between classrooms for the first time in her career. Although she said it has been difficult teaching in five different locations this year, she “thrives on chaos” and enjoys teaching in different environments. She further explained that principal Marcus Edmondson has worked hard to try to accommodate the needs of teachers and that her department has done a sufficient job of meeting her needs.

“Most teachers are very accommodating when it comes to sharing, and Huron staff have been collaborating well this year to ensure things work out. We’re all trying to make the best of a very difficult situation! But really, if we don’t get more physical space soon, teachers will continue to need to travel and the mental health of all involved will deteriorate, said teacher B.” *Teachers requested to remain anonymous.

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Opinion 5 Student bathrooms at Huron need fixes now Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

Many soap dispensers are not even filled

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subject to not change, since this is not decided by Huron.

Another point of discussion are the individual stalls. Many stalls in both the women’s and men’s bathrooms do not lock. This is quite concerning because bathrooms are places where privacy is expected and needed. You cannot possibly be comfortable when there’s a chance that the stall door might swing open when you’re using it. However, reports have been submitted and most locks should be fixed in the near future.

In the men’s restroom, there are no dividers between urinals in any of the school bathrooms. This makes many students feel uncomfortable, and as a re-

During lunch, it is quite common to find a line outside the women’s bathroom due to stalls not locking Basra Keynan

sult, it prevents certain urinals from being used creating lines that could otherwise be prevented. q Unlike the locks, it is quite unlikely for this to change due to money in the district being distributed elsewhere. Also, urinals such as the ones in the 3200 wing have been out of order for weeks and there is no toilet seat on one of the toilets in the 4200 hallway bathroom, but requests have been submitted. When urinals and toilets do not

“ We really need stalls in between urinals Freshman student

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Josh Carroll

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School bathrooms often have a reputation of being unwelcoming and messy. Many agree that the state of the bathrooms at Huron can be displeasing, though this is due to the actions of students, rather than due to custodians not doing their jobs.

Although cleanliness is indeed a topic of discussion, the actual components and resources of Huron bathrooms deserve our attention.

Public places, especially public schools such as Huron, with over 1,500 students, are home to thousands of germs.

According to the Edvocate, three out of five parents have concerns related to germs at school, and one in three refuse to let their kid ride the bus due to germs. And bathrooms, well, they speak for themselves.

When soap dispensers are sometimes not filled and the quality of toilet paper is very low, it prevents sanitation while creating longer lines. However, our custodians do a sufficient job of making sure dispensers are filled (unless it is not reported during the day when many are not on duty yet), but the quality of toilet paper is most likely

work, students can be late to class or may have to use the restroom during their class period.

So what is the solution?

With the district’s fund balance being at a comfortable level greater than 9.5 percent, teachers pay increasing, and the recent millages that past allocating more money to special education, the district’s budget is nowhere near the troubles it faced in 2014. In fact, Ann Arbor Public Schools pays 13,828 in expenses per student, which is 1,589 higher than the national average. So, the district is not poor.

Furthermore, back in 2015, voters approved a Bond that provided the district with $33 million to make upgrades to classrooms, playgrounds, athletic fields and musical equipment. Although these upgrades were

The two of urinals have been not working for several weeks in the 3200 hallway men’s bathroom. Photo taken by Jack Harrison.

certainly needed, it seems that several thousand could have been used for bathroom upgrades, such as for higher quality toilet paper and urinal dividers.

Often, the cost of a project can be burdensome and thus a barrier to getting approval for the project, but repairs to bathrooms are not an upgrade that would cost much, nor would money be required for annual updates. Currently, of the $234,898,000 expenses, only two percent is allocated for non academic and support services, and bathrooms may only receive a small portion of the two percent. There is no doubt that the budget can be re-worked to at least provide several thousand dollars for bathroom upgrades just one time. For example, rather than making technology upgrades, such as a computer cart, use that money to repair the bathrooms.

Neglecting any shipping or installation fees, upgrades in only equate to about $1,500 including brackets required for installation. However, this is within the district’s jurisdiction and not Huron’s.

Ignorance- it’s closer to us then we think

“Illegal aliens are not immigrants, they are criminals,” said the bumper sticker on a big old rusty red truck.

The first published use of the word ‘extraterrestrial’ as a noun occurred in 1965, soon after for short people called these extraterrestrials, aliens. This raises the question of why the term ‘alien,’ meaning only to be a foreigner, is associated with an ugly creature that is always perceived as scary and to be causing chaos.

In our present day community, I still see people still using the term ‘alien’ to describe foreigners, often in a derogatory way. One of these instances occurred not too long ago.

It was a girls night out, my friends and I made our way to the Target on Carpenter Road to get popcorn. After we gathered our snacks, we made our way through the parking lot to the van in hopes to head back home. Though the expected short walk through the parking lot isn’t what actually happened, something got our attention. This was just another truck in the vast parking lot of the Target. As I walked past, I didn’t bother to really look at it. However, Prabh Bajwa, my best friend, did notice this truck and what was plastered all over it. There were derogatory and unhumorous bumper stickers covering the bumper of this old rusty red truck, this is where it all started.

“Welcome to America NOW EITHER speak English OR leave,” was what the second bumper sticker said.

When Prabh first pointed out the bumper stickers, this one was the first one that caught my eye. I was appalled at what this bumper sticker said. This bumper sticker implied that America exclusively speaks English, which is not true at all. English wasn’t the first language to be spoken in America. In fact, before the Europeans ever voyaged to America and began to colonize it, the Native Americans lived in America and spoke their own languages. After Europeans first colonized America and exterminated the Native Americans in many immoral ways, they continued their trend and forced Africans to come to America and oblige in gruesome free labor. Along with Africans, their culture was brought to America as well.

“I think [the statements] make other cultures feel attacked,” Prabh said in an interview shortly after the incident occurred. “America is so diverse, and we should be celebrating how much culture is important to individual people and families.”

The 1880s was when we first began to pass legislation regarding allowing people to migrate into our country, as Americans immigration was only allowed at our convenience. Permitting migration was done due to the need for low-paid labor, labor which had unsafe, unhealthy, and hard working conditions. But the moment people begin to migrate over here to improve their lives, they were subjected to a hard life without the same rights as the ‘true’ Americans. Various cultures were brought to America and are now being viewed without compassion by people in this world and by the owner of that red truck.

“‘Welcome to America now either speak English or leave.’ is the quote

Welcome to America Now either

NOW EITHER

Speak English OR Leave speaks to me because most of my family that live in America don’t speak English,” Prabh said. “I personally feel that people don’t need to speak English in order to live in America.”

America is the country of ‘freedom,’ though in the past we didn’t give other races, cultures, and ethnicities other than white people the freedom and liberties that America offered. So as time went on, we supposedly grew as a country.

For example: abolishing legal slavery and giving women and men of all races the rights to vote. “America is great,” every proud American says. But why is America great?

These messages were sending negative and hateful thoughts directly towards immigrants. My family immigrated to America, and we are citizens [of

America]. People should not be attacking immigrants when a lot of America is made up of immigrants.

People shouldn’t receive hate for being different Bajwa

Treating people poorly for years, denying people their freedoms and civil rights, then renouncing everything done and then trying to fix things that were permanently scarred into our history. As a white female, I can’t speak on behalf of other races or ethnicities, but I can speak on my own behalf. I don’t think America is great, and when I see statements like the one the truck made, it only confirms how I feel.

After reading these bumper stickers I was angry. I wanted to confront the person, and that’s exactly what I told my friends. I planned to wait for this person so I could cause a scene, but my friends kept telling me to go. My friends worried that we would get in some type of trouble.

I saw the massive American flag this truck had attached on top of the bed of their truck, and I continued to look at the colors of the bumper stickers. I repetitively saw the colors red, blue, and white; the prosperous colors of our great American flag.

So I got an idea, I was going to make my very own statement. What I planned to do was take this giant flag off of their truck and stomp on it. At the moment, it seemed like a good idea.

Although I attempted to remove

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Alyssa Salamin | Staff Writer

their flag and stomp on it, I didn’t have enough strength to physically remove the flag. More and more cars and groups of people passed me as I attempted to take their flag, looking at me like I was crazy.

After no progress, I gave up. Everyone else was in the van, so I ran back to them and we made a plan. The plan was to write a note calling the owner of this truck out on their racism and place it on their windshield for them to see. The only paper we had in the car was from a magazine, so we took a pen and wrote our note on a piece of the magazine and I placed it on their windshield. Though that night ended in a more simplistic manner than I hoped for, it wasn’t a simplistic night at all. I still think about that truck, and it reminds me that their are still people in this world who are ignorant and hateful, which is so loathsome and unfortunate.

“Hillary for prison,” said the last bumper sticker on the red truck.

It’s clear that this person is a Trump supporter, the bigoted qualities of Trump’s policies are easily identified in what the bumper stickers say. These bumper stickers that were on this truck were derogatory to immigrants, rude, and honestly not humorous at all. President Trump is our country’s authority and is encouraging behavior like this, which isn’t something to be proud of because it discriminates against cultures and ethnicities different from the basic American culture. Trump has made multiple derogatory and degrading comments, saying things like “build a wall” and “grab her by the pussy.” Trump also says he’s going to “make America great again,” with his policies, but how? How is something like building a wall between Mexico and America, or really anything Trump has made efforts to do, benefiting America to the point where it’s “great again.”

As Prabh said, people shouldn’t receive hate for being different. A person’s separation from America’s ‘standards’ aren’t hurting anyone, so they, like anyone else, have the right to be different. If anything the mixing of our cultures in this country has made our communities a better environment. For example, 1914 in Belgium during WWI, British and German soldiers fighting against each other came together and celebrated Christmas as one. Instead of killing each other they celebrated this important day. America as a community should be working together to spread kindness instead of fighting against each other and spreading hate. If we stood together and excepted everyone’s differences, we could truly make America a much better place. Only then could we stand together as a whole and be able to call America “Great Again.”

For information on how this number was formed, please visit the Emery Website.

Although some may argue this issue is less urgent than updating resources in classrooms, it is clear that the current conditions are interfering with the learning of students. Our administration is well aware of these issues, but not necessarily the district. If you want upgrades, now is the time to speak up too.

HURON WANTS TO HELP!

For any issues you come across in the bathrooms, please report them to Kathy Musser in the main office. She will happily report them to the district office for repairs.

Remember, if administration is not aware of an issue, the upgrade cannot be made. It is your job to report it!

Do upgrades need to be made to student bathrooms?

70 students were sampled at random in the cafeteria and media center during late lunch.

Yes: (97%) No: (3%)

When is phone usage enough? takayla Pugh-Henderson | Staff Writer

Cell Phones are affecting people’s lives. How long could you go without your phone? Do you think you would miss something important if you put it down?

In today’s society it is all about technology. What’s going on in the world? What are the hottest trends? Social media has a huge involvement in the lives of people.

Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are the biggest social media platforms that grabs students attention by updating them the latest news.

Cell phones are ruining people’s lives by making them inactive in real life.

Most people are comfortable texting their friends and snapchatting them. However when it comes to actually communicating in person it can be difficult and awkward for many. When people go out to dinner or to the movies they are seen on their phones instead of interacting with the person with them. It seems that for this reason phones are controlling the lives of people. When a person hears a notification go off on their phone they are immediately drawn to their phones. Due to their reflexes. Cell phone usage causes a lot of distraction in people’s activity while drawing their attention away from more important tasks or activities.

There are good usages for phones. When there is an emergency or news that is going around that you cannot catch on television, phones give you that information so that you can stay updated. Your phone alerts you when there is an emergency like an Amber alert which informs you that someone is missing, and it makes you look at your surroundings. There is also an alert when there is a weather emergency like a tornado or a

severe storm.

Most people feel they are fine without their phones, and that it is not necessarily a need or an attachment. Others feel as they would be deprived and feel as it they will miss out on something important, or they need the latest updates on their friends.

There has been cases of people feeling depressed because of social media.

There are usually more girls than boys that feel this way. They may think that they are not as good as the people online, as they feel the need to change something about themselves. When it comes to likes on instagram because if people receive a minimal amount of likes and that could cause girls or boys to feel self-conscious. Using cell phones are a form expressing themselves, and without them they would not have an easy access to social media. Social media is a huge factor of people’s fear of missing out, they rely on social media to catch up with the latest news. Where people are vacationing, who’s concert is in the area.

Cell phone use should be reduced so people will not have to rely on their cell phones. In today’s world, everything revolves around technology. It will be a struggle to reduce phone usage since people are so reliant on their phones. There is an app that will reduce phone use. Pocket points is a fairly new mobile app that gives students rewards for not using their phones during class. How it works is a student would open the app and lock their phone for every time their phone is not used they would gain points, they could be used at businesses for student discounts, coupons and gifts. We should spend more time with friends and family, and try to refrain from using phones all day.

Breaking beauty standards niyati callewaert | Staff Writer How are beauty standards created? All around the world there are different views on what beautiful means for men and women. Beauty standards are created by society’s thoughts on of what a person’s physical attributes should be. The pressure society has put on people, especially women is impossible to meet.

Beauty standards have existed for centuries. For instance, in Italy in the 1700s, women were found to be beautiful if only they had fair skin and full hips.

In Italy today, “beautiful” is defined as having long legs and a fit physique. Beauty standards have changed over the year and are becoming more and more unrealistic.

“Mashable”* presented an article where they had marketing agency Fractl asked graphic designers from eighteen different countries photoshop a woman’s body based on the nation’s beauty preference is. The thinnest the woman’s body was photoshopped to was about 103 pounds and the heaviest being around 150 pounds. A huge trend in the photoshopped photos were thigh gaps and super tiny waists.

The real question about beauty standards is how do we teach our children that there is not one way to be beautiful.

The amount of makeup you put on your face in the morning or size of your muscles isn’t the way to measure yourself as a person; beauty is a lot more than what you see of the outside, it is what your morals and personality are on the inside. These beauty standards are a huge problem with our society and how we think and view ourselves.

Numerous kids, especially teenagers, feel the pressures every day because of social media. They see the models, and they then want to look like them, so they start to feel self conscious about their weight, what they look like, and how much they eat. Today there are many of models we admire and look up to are photoshopped and edited to create an unrealistic image. There are positive role models that are teaching the world that being yourself is the way to go. These role models include Winnie Harlow, Ashley Graham, Ed Sheeran, and Matt McGorry. We need to start recognizing as a society how unique and beautiful each person is and start celebrating our differences instead of hiding them and reaching for the impossible.

Opinion

The Student Publication of Huron High School

Post-truth journalism Julie Heng | Staff Writer

Adviser Sara-Beth Badalamente

Editor-in-Chief Kara Kozma

Staff Editors Jack Harrison Julie Heng Samantha Ruud

Staff Writers Adela Buranova Amber Clark Sydney Crispin-Pischea Micah Etchison Yennifer Guerra-Pantaleon Katherine Gurgenian Gena Harris Alexander Hassan Parker Hermanson Cinthya Hernandez Ritvik Jillala Caitlin Kaleta Niyati KellenbergCallewaert Ivan Martin Daniel Middaugh Takayla Pugh-Henderson Jorge Rodriguez Alyssa Salamin Eilyn Sanabria Austin Shepherd Cierra Slater Shannon Stocking Sindy Vasquez Barahona Marshelle Walker Patrick Wang Anna Weigel George White Ian Wilson

In all honesty, it still baffles me that real people read my writing.

Whenever someone stops me in the hallways to congratulate me on a well-written piece in the latest newspaper issue, I can’t believe that my gibberish on a page has found an audience to connect to. I used to think my unknown identity would only serve as filler in outdated short story anthologies, or in a book of self-published prose. Truly, I’m lucky to have my voice heard within a lifetime’s worth of media that orbits our daily lives.

If you think about it, that’s the ultimate purpose of being a writer of any discipline: to be heard.

However, the opposite is also true, especially for journalists. We are the only ones who can communicate what will be heard. We are known as the “gatekeepers” of information—those who determine what information the public can digest.

Even the most avid of readers, after all, cannot be informed about a subject if the issue has never been written in the first place.

Even the most intriguing of rigged scientific studies won’t be revealed to hungry morn-

ing headlines (chocolate prevents tooth dejust for seeking the First-Amendment-warcay, diabetes, and cancer now, huh?). Thus, ranted truth. we bear the great responsibility of being as

According to the nonpartisan truthful as humanly possible. If we do bear U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, there have the burden of providing the facts, we might already been 31 physical assaults on journalas well provide the right ones. ists this year, and that’s not even consider In fact, I’d say this applies more ing the amount unprovoked verbal abuse to today’s journalistic in person or on social landscape than ever bemedia. At protests and fore, for several reasons. rallies, journalists are Listening targeted or arrested just It is up to us, the to the news today, one for doing their job. This may notice that report- Journalists, to provide the past January, journalers are held in either Jon Ziegler was utmost accuracy when it ist the very highest or the showered with rubber very lowest esteem. On comes to every character bullets when videotapone hand, we owe it all ing aggressive police we publish. to esteemed journalconduct at the Standing ists to dig out corrupt Rock protest. One such policy; on the other, we bullet fractured a bone despise these very jourin his finger. nalists who are clearly I will not say that establishing fictitious headlines. Entire this behavior is a recent emergence, but it news networks have been dismissed as “fake is true that a new anti-media stigma has news,” even though they bear no relation to proliferated. Some constituencies, often what the name implies. Decent journalists duped by unbelievable links themselves, are are accused of being obsessed with sensanow claiming no news source is trustworthy tionalism or fabricating lies. Truth is being whatsoever. distorted, and reporters are being attacked

Last year, Oxford Dictionaries

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The Emery

6

Double standards Katherine Gurgenian | Staff Writer

Double standards are deeply ingrained into our society; men and women face them frequently in their lives. Some double standards are much more prominent than others, appearing in phrases such as:

“Man up!”

“You hit like a girl!”

“Don’t be a pussy!”

From a young age, many boys are taught not to cry and not to talk about their problems; showing negative emotions makes them weak, delicate, and cowardly. If they cry, they’re scolded and told not to do it in public again.

This forces many males to hide behind a mask of fake toughness, masculinity, and confidence. They bottle up their feelings and keep them bottled up until everything bursts.

Some may turn to close friends and family members, while others have no one to turn to.

Women, on the other hand, are very open about their emotions. They can cry, be angry, and be fearful wherever they want to, and people won’t question them showing their emotions. In fact, if a woman is crying, people may walk up to her, ask her what’s wrong, and try to help her.

But if a male were to do those things, people would most likely frown and stare, wondering what could possibly be wrong with him.

While men face many other problems, women also face many problems.

“You look like a slut!”

“You’ll look better if you wore a little bit of makeup!”

“You were asking for it!”

Society expects women to look good all of the time, or else they won’t be taken seriously. But women can’t look too good, or else they’ll be begging to get sexually assaulted.

This applies to women no matter what age they are. Girls in elementary school are asked to not show their shoulders, as if shoulders cause arousals in little boys left and right.

This continues on throughout womens’ lives no matter where they live. If women wear too little, they’re sluts; if they wear too much, they’re prudes.

Men, on the other hand, can wear whatever they want and nobody will bat a single eyelash.

But can women?

No.

This is reinforced even more by the clothing industry. It manufactures and sells clothing that’s more revealing for and to women. Yet, women who are in school are expected to wear conservative clothing, such as having shorts that go past your fingertips. Very few stores sell shorts that go past women’s fingertips

Very, very few.

Both women and men face many double standards, yet society does nothing to fix them. We need to put an end to them for both genders; no one gender deserves to be able to do something that the other can’t.

chose “post-truth” as its word of the year.

It’s defined with careful poise: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In many ways, one could say it epitomized 2016, which was a year during which truth was set aside within a public sphere that was all too willing to classify all media sources as yellow journalism.

This is not the world we, reporters especially, want to live in. Most journalists are people who dedicate their lives to upholding truth. And we, as student journalists ourselves, are these people.

Hurriedly hitting an “undo” button is not easy when every single word is treated simultaneously with way too much credibility and yet holds no weight at all.

It is up to us, the journalists, to provide the utmost accuracy when it comes to every character we publish. It is up to us to triple-check every fact, clear misconceptions, and avoid equivocations whenever possible. Otherwise, we can only hope that our readership understands our integrity and dedication to truth.

Students’ voices: How does your gender determine the way you act?

Katherine Gurgenian | Staff Writer

“We’re expected to act in a certain role.”

“I guess I don’t have to worry about my clothes because I wear the same thing every day.”

Kaye Hoffmeyer, junior

Sampath Eaty, junior

“There’s the whole you gotta be tough thing. That guys gotta be soft.”

“I definitely have a different role in Society…. We’re supposed to act the submissive role.”

Cyrus Abadi, junior

Caroline Bromberg, junior

Politicizing: why both parties must stop Conservative Corner

The Emery Staff Policy The Emery is a newspaper produced by and for the students of Huron High School. The Emery exists to inform and entertain the student body by producing quality content on a variety of school, community, national, and international issues. We at The Emery aim to improve ourselves as writers, thinkers, and communicators serving communities to which we belong, and we strive to maintain the highest degree of journalistic integrity.

All opinions pieces published by The Emery reflect only the views of their authors, not those of the adviser, editor-in-chief, editorial board, or other staff members.

The Emery achieved a Gold Ranking in the Spartan Critique for the 2016-2017 academic year.

The Emery is a member of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association, and the Journalism Education Association.

Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

Our government passes legislative measures and policies for a reason, often resulting from an event with negative and sometimes tragic implications. Typically, immediately after an event occurs that causes harm or even death to civilians, politicians will politicize the event. Politicizing is when politicians use the outcome of a tragic event to explain why a policy they support or plan to pass would have prevented the outcome of the event or would have lessened the magnitude of the outcome. This prompts us to ask ourselves if it is always appropriate to politicize an issue immediately after it occurs.

It is important to understand that in many cases, the policies enacted prove to be beneficial to a large number of Americans, but, sometimes, bills are passed for the wrong reasons or are overly partisan.

When an event or attack first occurs, the first act of both politicians and citizens should be to come together as a community to pray, if you have religious beliefs and to comfort victims and their families. Immediately following a tragic event, those who suffer a loss would much rather have support from their community than debate what could have been done to prevent the incident. As families become able to cope with their loss, often they will then be vocal about solutions and policies, but well after the event. Some individuals simply do not understand the significance of time, but many people, often politicians, are well aware of this time factor, but they choose to ignore it.

Both Republican and Democratic politicians politicize events. There are people that feel politicizing an issue is a partisan move done by the other party. This is not the case. This is a bipartisan problem and a disgraceful epidemic to those who suffer losses or are victims. I am not saying politicians do not empathize with the fallen, but that they need to connect more personally with their constituents when they are harmed. Furthermore, I am not saying that politicians should never discuss the outcome of an event and its implications, but they should allow for a time of unity. This seems to be fading in our current America.

Very common examples include immigration and shootings. Recently, immediately after the Las Vegas mass shooting, many Democrats quickly used the tragedy to promote gun regulation claiming that, with more regulation, the incident could have been

prevented. This is not just strictly something that the Democrats do. This is also present on the other side of the isle. When an illegal immigrant or refugee harms someone, such as the one who killed Kate Steinle, Republicans quickly use the event to explain why all illegal immigrants must be deported.

These scenarios, and many others, all share a similarity: victims’ lives being used to further an agenda. I understand that the loss of life can justify a severe change in policy, but it appears that politicians, in most cases, are using the victims to pass their own partisan agendas. Alluding to the names of the fallen does enhance an argument for a regulation or change, but what we have to remember is that it can affect the emotions of a victim’s family. More importantly, a victim’s family may face scrutiny and be dragged into the public eye without the family’s consent. If they feel the need to speak out, they can and should do so when they feel the time is right, not when politicians and the media decide the time is right.

The major issue with politicizing is related to partisan politics. After an event, such as examples noted above occurs, it seems that one party then claims the event happened because of the other party’s agenda. Members of each party will make ridiculous claims about the other, such as ‘Republicans seem to not care when a gun kills someone’ or ‘this is what is going to happen often if Democrats let refugees come to the U.S.’ Not only does this incite division, but it explains how split parties are today, and that with such right or left demands, no compromises can be made. The consequence is that no solutions are made, and the incident that is sought to be prevented will simply happen again. Also, when lawmakers continue to argue about the past, it does nothing to help the current situation, aside from the awareness or changes that come about from the event.

Keeping all of this in mind, when is the right time to begin politicizing? Is politicizing an event completely wrong, or is it just part of society and politics? I feel that once the story has left media attention and the victims’ families are given enough time to cope, then the event can be politicized, but strictly to ignite policy and not to blame the other party. Politicians should still mention and discuss what can be done to prevent a scenario, but they should refrain from the language they use and the claims they make about the other side. If politicians could seek reasonable demands and strive for compromise while ignoring party loyalties, progress could actually be made to prevent incidents. We cannot always have two agendas always battling for power. Sometimes, we just need one agenda, a bipartisan American agenda.

Echo chamber news: technology’s affect on our news

Staff Editorial

Julie Heng | Staff Editor

As of August 2017, more than 67 percent of Americans report that they get at least some of their news from social media, primarily Facebook and Twitter.

This increasingly digital attitude brings a new phenomenon to modern journalism: polarization. How so? Online, users have the ability to choose what content they read. As such, some news outlets feel the need to seize sensationalist news instead of recounting the truth. Titles are fashioned wholly to garner clicks. Naturally, the worthiest clickbait appeals to one faction over another; a simple headline can pit entire groups against each other.

As a whole, social media algo-

rithms value timeliness over accuracy. News production has become a rush to snatch the spotlight, while well-researched and -crafted pieces are barely given slivers of the attention. A poll done by the Pew Research Center shows increasing pessimism among top news broadcasters and executives—60 percent are worried about the values the Internet is assigning to journalism.

It is crucial that we filter out this kind of echo-chamber news, making sure we critically analyze and evaluate the information we are presented. The internet was meant to connect, to allow permeation of knowledge, not to divide its users. We must regain this sense of cooperative unity to collectively advance the wisdom of the human field.

What percentage of media executives think the Fundamental values of journalism are changing?

Image by Julie Heng.

Winter Fashion

Feature What is the What are you industry saying? wearing?

Ian Wilson | Staff Writer

This winter season we are seeing a lot of pieces incorporating suede and leather, including patent leaether. Big designers like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are going for a more “flashy” look with their womens apparel. As far as mens fashion, designers seem to be taking a more simple and essential aproach to their designs.

Mens Winter Trends: •Top Coats •Camel coats •Vintage suede and leather jackets •Denim and varsity jackets •Sweaters •Beanies •Scarves •Boots

Womens Winter Trends: •Ski jackets •Puffy coats •Over coats •Sweaters •Leggings •Knee high boots •Scarves

Source: pintrest.com

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Ali Ouda, senior: •Tops- hoodies, sweaters, light jackets, long tees •Bottoms- joggers, sweats, khakis •Shoes- runners and skate shoes •Accessories- watches, wristbands, and necklaces, dad caps, beanies •Brands: American Eagle, On the Byas, Stance, Nike

Mikael Atnafe, senior: •Tops- long sleeve tee shirts •Bottoms- jeans •Shoes- sneakers •Accessories- wristbands •Brands: Nike, Levi’s

Issac Yun, senior: •Tops: sweaters, hoodies •Bottoms: khakis •Shoes: boots, timbs •Accessories: necklaces, baseball caps •Brands: Patagonia, North face, American Eagles, Vineyard Vines, Adidas

Elizabeth Conatser, junior: •Tops: sweatshirts, crewnecks •Bottoms: leggings, pajamas •Shoes: birkenstocks •Accessories: scrunchies, fuzzy socks •Brands: Lulu Lemon, Birkenstock

All about Anna

Adéla Buráňová | Staff Writer

What does it mean be an exchange student?

Twelfth grader, Anna Domagala knows exactly what it means to be an exchange student. This school year she is an exchange student at Huron High School. Anna traveling with the YFU (Youth for Understanding) Organization in their study abroad program from Poland.

In Poland, near Warsaw, she attends a technical school where she focuses on photography.

“ My life hobby is taking photos, editing photos, photoshop and everything related to photography,” Domagala said. She also loves to travel.

For Anna being an exchange student means that for ten months her life will change pretty dramatically. She has broken away from her family and friends, and she had to leave her pet behind. She has taken a step forward in her life and left her daily routine.

Her life changed on the first day of her exchange. She now lives with a host family, and they were the only people waiting for her in the new country.

They wanted to show her the local culture and the things Michigan and Ann Arbor have to give. It’s a big decision in life and not everyone is ready for it at such a young age, but Anna is loving the experience.

When Anna moved in with her host family she also learned that there was another exchange student there from Thailand who is a sophomore at Huron.

“I am 30th exchange student my host family has hosted.” Anna said. She shares her room with the girl from Thailand.

Sometimes it’s hard for her to share the room with the much younger girl, but most of time it is fine, and they are becoming friends.

So far Anna is enjoying the exchange program making, new friends here at Huron High School, and learning lots about the culture.

CLAY on DISPLAY

Jorge Rodiguez | Staff Writer

Name: Orion Bondock Piece Name: Dissociation Medium: Clay Meaning: “[My piece] is supposed to represent how people tend to have ‘multiple faces’ to try and fit in with groups of people. These faces are represented with animal features such as aggression, which is shown with a part of the head of a Hammerhead Shark and it’s teeth” Name: Alexandra Negro Piece Name: La Mulata Medium: Clay Name: Anna Kochanak Piece Name: The Hand Medium: Clay Meaning: “[The piece] represents humans having the power to take away nature and destroy it.”

Meaning: “It represents an African-American woman in Spain and what her experiences were like during her time. Also, it’s supposed to represent Puerto Rican culture. I was inspired by the hurricanes that passed through earlier this year”

Feature

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Check Mate

Our River Rat chess players Member Q & A

A It has provided students with oppor-

Jack Harrison and Ian Wilson | Staff Editor and Staff Writer Mr. Long (club director); know there are many members in chess Q Iclub, but are there board members? If

so, could you give me their names?

Joy Chen- President, Ryan Gudal- VP, Joe Liang- Secretary

A

Q Can you recall a special/funny memory?

A It could be a tournament win. The

Huron staff vs. student tournament games are a blast! Students have traditionally been stronger than staff, and in one particular game an (unnamed) staff member got clearly outmatched. When the student delivered the early mating move, they looked up at the teacher and quietly said “I’m sorry”, as if they had done something wrong.

Ryan Gudal (club vice president):

did you begin sponsoring this Q When club?

As a student teacher in 1991

A did you decide to sponsor this Q Why club? wanted to contribute to the Huron A Icommunity by volunteering.

do you do as the club vice Q What president of the chess club?

A I help organize events and gather club

a game you are passionate about, Q Isor chess do you just want to provide a place

members

for those interested in the game. (It can be both)?

Chaitanya Nrusimhadri, Luke Smith, Derek and Sid sit in Mr. Long's room in order to play chess during lunch time. Most members like to use this time to hang out and spend time with their friends while playing chess. There are about 8 members that participate in other Huron chess activities (such as tournaments) and about twenty members total. Chess club meets during both lunches in Mr. Long's room.

Q How much work do you put into the club as a vice president? you plan on pushing/changing A In terms of day to day stuff, pretty much Q Do aspects of chess club in any direction

like to play chess and enjoy tournaA Iments.

I also enjoy providing a home-

no effort. Mr. Long does a lot of organizing for tournaments and competition. But me and Joy (club president) ask the club members if they want to go and actually preparing for competition.

room for the Huron lunch crew, both chess players and chess boosters.

Q

tunities to improve their strategic thinking skills, leadership potential, and social connections. Additionally, Chess Club is a good item to list on one’s resume.

And also, Huron’s Chess Club has earned 11 state titles.

How has the club impacted Huron?

this year?

I plan on increasing the amount of publicity we have for chess club. I think we can all agree that the amount of people

A

competing has slowly reduced. We want to increase that number and increase awareness.

Q Why do you compete in chess?

was inspired by my grandfather and I A Icontinue to play with him. Thats one of the main reasons I play chess. It takes up a lot of time because you have to study for chess in order to get better. Mainly for me now I play because it’s fun.

Club Corner: Women in Science and Engineering

This year they plan on: •Doing more charity work in the community.

•Informing middle school students about the purpose of STEM. •Creating a project that is community based- they are currently gathering information and input from members.

•Making an effort to be more involved with those beyond the Huron community.

this year. We also plan to set girls up with U of M WISE student mentors who are women in fields the students are interested in.

does the club this year compared Q How to the club two years ago?

school girls and to get them back into the interest of STEM fields and giving high school girls such as myself, the opportunity to be mentored by students from the university of Michigan. I think my understanding of what it means to be a woman interested in STEM changed, I never really noticed that there was a gender gap and how girls lean away from STEM related subjects after their childhood.

club is relatively new to Huron.

A This My freshman year I wasn’t involved in

have you changed as a result of Q How being in this club?

Q Member of the women in Science and Engineering Club gather for a group photo after one of their recent meetings. Photo taken by Hawa Sow.

Jack Harrison | Staff Editor

Who are the members and why did they get the position?

Beginning in 2014, the Women in Science and Engineering Club has made tremendous contributions to Huron and the neighboring community. This year, they are planning to make an even bigger impact while continuing to grow in membership.

The board members of WISE include senior Devyani Agarwal, senior Peyton Carroll, senior Elizabeth Lochocki, senior Gillian Tibbetts and sophomore Elizabeth Li. These individuals were chosen to serve on the board because of their commitment and dedication to WISE in past years. Specifically, Lochocki, who joined WISE in its first year, noted that she and other board members were selected because they were more engaged at meetings, because of their previous experience, and because they will take a more active role in the club.

Why some of the board members joined WISE

Tibbets took an interest in WISE after she made observations in the engineering and science industry. She explained how there is a strong stigma today that girls cannot perform at the same level in mathematics and in the sciences as boys. She feels strongly about changing this and believes it begins with educating those at the middle school level.

Lochocki joined WISE due to her feelings regarding those in the industry. She feels passionate about bridging the gap between men and women involved in STEM programs. Specifically, she noted that most engineering classes include a very small number of women. She is looking to get more girls interested in engineering and design.

How the club has changed since it first started

Both Tibbetts and Lillian explained that WISE was not as active in previous years, but they plan to become more active this year. The board members

also tended to lecture at meetings, which was important to providing information and educating members. However, it was not very interactive. This year, the board is making an effort to create an energetic and fun environment for the membership that encourages participation from everyone.

Projects:

WISE always has a project it undertakes. Currently, members are working on creating reusable healthcare products to help those in other countries who do not have access to sufficient medical resources.

Additionally, this year they have aspirations of creating more recognition for STEM and providing Huron students a better understanding of its purpose. They intend to distribute t-shirts to the student body to elicit a response from students and to grow their message. In the future, they plan on starting a Hidden Figures project.

Advisor: Ms. Marchionna

Q A did you decide to sponsor this Q Why club? am very interested in getting more A Ifemale representation in STEM fields, When did you begin sponsoring this club?

Last Fall (2016)

and the students in the club are very excited about spreading this message. you are passionate about Q Isor itaresomething you just giving students a place to

discuss their beliefs?

This is something that I am very passionate about. I hope to work with the students to get more girls involved in science and engineering and to help them feel supported.

A

Q How has the club impacted Huron? club hasn't been very active recently, A The but I hope to change that this year. I want all STEM students at Huron to feel like they belong and to have the support they need to succeed.

Savanah Fort

Q decided to join WISE because of my A Iinterest in engineering and to have Why are you a club member?

a bond with my female peers. I’ve taken engineering classes at Huron for three years, and, in these classes, the majority of students are white males. I see nothing wrong with this, and I encourage people to keep joining the engineering classes if they have interest in it. However, having a club for women, by women, can make women have a sense of belonging in a male dominated field (STEM). This club also acts as a launchpad to help me pursue my dream of becoming an engineer by giving me exposure to engineering in the real word.

Q How has this club impacted Huron? has given students an opportunity to A Itexplore the world of science and engi-

neering. For example, we have plans to tour different science and engineering labs later

Club has impacted Huron so far by A This trying to build up ties between middle

How have you changed as a result of being in this club?

club has expanded my knowledge of A This different fields in engineering and creating new bonds with my female peers.

the club. To my knowledge the, club wasn’t fully established until last year. Actually started freshman year, took break, then again you also tell me about the Hidden Q Can Figures?

No final decision has been made about the Hidden Figures project. I will keep you updated when I find out more information.

Liz Alfaro-Mendoza

Q Why are you a club member? am a club member because I am very A Iinterested in STEM and how it influences people and why there are less roles as a female in STEM. Aldo, I am very interested and curious about Mechanical engineering and Biomedical Engineering.

Q How has this club impacted Huron?

think i have changed as a person A Ibutdon't rather my understanding of things.

We get lectures every now and then from women in STEM. At our last meeting, We had a lady who did an internship at NASA over the summer come and talk about Aerospace engineering and how Hidden Figures (the movie) relates to what they did at her internship at NASA. We also have an instagram page @Huron wise. Our current project is split between a lot of things, I am helping work on our Popcorn and Pads fundraiser. Which is essentially a movie night, we will be playing Hidden figures and selling popcorn and other snacks. Alongside we are also trying to have a Pad drive to send in care packets to women in India because they do not have these resources.

Entertainment Hollywood lacking diversity in films

Sriracha Review

9 Up and coming artist Marteen Estevenz makes it big with new single

Minorities are being underrepresented or incorrectly represented in today’s film business Gena Harris | Staff Writer

In 2016, the Hollywood film area was terrible when it came to representation for women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ community. According to USC Annenberg report examines representation of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT status and disability across 900 popular movies from 2007 to 2016 The report’s “invisibility analysis” reveals that beyond the overall statistics, Hollywood regularly fails to portray speaking characters from diverse groups. Of the 100 top films of 2016, 25 featured no black/ African-American characters, 44 included no Asian or Asian-American characters and 54 depicted no Hispanic/Latino characters.

Further, 38 films portrayed not a single character with a disability and 76 failed to include an LGBT character.

“These findings reveal that the erasure of different groups is still acceptable to some — we need look no further than film to see a vision of America that no longer exists,” Smith said. “Film paints a distressing portrait of exclusion.”

When looking at how women are depicted, the study found female characters to be four times more likely to be shown in sexy attire, three times more likely to show some nudity, and nearly four times as likely to be referred to as physically attractive.

Teenage female characters (age 13- 20) were just as likely as young adult (age 21-39) female characters to be sexualized. Their results also indicated films and TV shows with women or people of color in the important jobs behind the scenes, such as director, producer or writer, tended to have better diversity numbers. Broadcast TV also saw a number of TV shows featuring characters of color debut during the study’s

tabulation period, including Black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat on ABC, Jane the Virgin on The CW, and Empire on Fox. Still, when researchers looked at all TV shows; including broadcast, cable and streaming services, they found under-representation, noting that women of color over 40 were deemed “largely invisible” and just 22 percent of TV series creators were female.

If we look back across literature and cinema over the past one hundred years or so, taking into account what’s really considered as ‘classic’ fiction, very few of the protagonists are black or any race other than white. Those characters that do make it through are often typecast, pigeon–holed into roles as maids, slaves, criminals, or tribes people. A common problem, particularly with cinema adaptations, has been an issue called ‘whitewashing.’ Whitewashing happens in films based on historical events, where white actors play the role of non-white characters. An example of this is Johnny Depp, a white man, playing the role of an Native American man in the Lone Ranger.

Black people are underrepresented here are the numbers; Over the last 6 years only 33 of the top grossing 600 movies were directed by a black director, of which only two were women. Only 5 of the top 50 grossing actors of all time are African-American men – Eddie Murphy, Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith and Denzel Washington.

On an annual basis the Oscars have been criticized for an all-white slate of acting nominees, the study shows the film industry does worse than television.

On social media the public have created

#OscarsSoWhite which went viral. In the Academy Awards’ 88-year history, only 16 black actors have won acting Oscars. The first was Hattie McDaniel for Gone With the Wind in 1940, and the last was Lupita Nyong’o (who was born in Mexico) for 12 Years a Slave in 2014. The winners’ pool is even shallower for other minorities. A mere five Latino actors have won prizes, as have just three actors of Asian descent. Similarly, the only indigenous acting winner in history is Cherokee-Irish actor Ben Johnson. The Academy consistently fails, to appreciate and honor the work of non-white actors.

However, it is an issue when all the cultures are not represented properly.

This goes back to the difficulties minorities face when obtaining jobs, not just in film, but in basically every major industry in America. It has to be clear that regularity in film ceases the ability to report on growing trends based on different perspectives. If every actor or actress has the same interests and thinks alike, the film will unknowingly and collectively produce the same stories and target the same audience, leaving other sections of the readership or viewership undeserved and underrepresented. Diversity doesn’t just mean race or gender either, but a variety of factors, including age, socioeconomic background, and more. It is important to have diversity throughout media because we can learn from another’s differences and grow as an individual’s.

Diverse organizations draw upon the widest possible range of views and experiences so it can listen to and meet the changing needs of its users. The encouragement of diversity benefits society.

APEX prepares for its upcoming shows (Description corresponds to photo number) 1: Sophomore Henry Zhou and freshman Garrett Jin practice their yo-yo skills.

2: Freshmen Sherry Pan, Bridgitte Jung, Candice Jung and Annabele Yung also practice their yo-yo skills.

3: Freshman Jesse Sedayao practices glow sticks.

4: Members of the club practice a routine on stage. Photos taken by Gerald Vaughn.

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Amber Clark | Staff Writer

According to the New York Times, 16 year old high school Marteen Estevenz from San Francisco Bay Area, California released “Sriracha,” and it has become a hot new song! The song is ear catching, funny, and straightforward. Estevenz is a singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist.

“My music is a modern take on nineties R&B with a little Bay Area edge. Coming from Northern California, you have a certain mentality. Estevenz said, It’s an indescribable attitude.”

Estevenz even got to share the stage with many famous artists such as Fifth Harmony, Bryson Tiller, Super Duper Kyle, Lil Uzi Vert, and Kehlani on tour. Since Estevenz is young and still in high school, his song caught the eyes of many. Thereafter, Estevenz signed a label with Warner Bros. Records.

Estevenz also created a music video for “Sriracha” on YouTube which now totals to 281,840 views, 4 thousand likes, 294 dislikes and 9.8 thousand subscribers.

“Girl you got a body like Sriracha, every time I bring you around the homies want to watch yah, get it from yo momma, ” Estevenz said.

Estevenz describes a girl built like Sriracha, meaning that her body is curvy and spices it up whenever she comes around. He goes further to say she got it from her “momma,” but her mom taught her well, so that’s why he likes her and calls her “racha.”

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APEX will preform at the Huron Multi-Cultural Show for students during school on December 22.

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“The Best Way to Find Yourself is to Lose Yourself in the Service of Others.”

-Gandhi

Sports

Get your

12

Head Game in the

Shannon stocking | Staff Writer

They say that in sports 90% of the performance is mental. It’s completely natural as you’re running down the track or sideline or hitting the ball to experience a rush of adrenaline.

Even though most of our performance depends on our mental state, the majority of our focus and practice goes into physically preparing for the game.

“Mindfulness is essentially being aware of what your mind is doing,” said Sports Psychologist and Fer De Lance Field Hockey coach Maren Langford.

Many student athletes experience their minds drifting off to drama or academic work due to the amount of stress that is put on this generation of students. Many coaches are becoming aware of how effective mindfulness can be on and off the field.

“Athletes should practice awareness of their thoughts prior to games and trainings,” Langford said. “It is essential for athletes to recognize their thoughts during competition.”

Adding 5 minutes of mindfulness through meditation, yoga, or simply concentrating on your breathing can change the way you perform on and off the field. Being mindful can help to overcome emotions that will have effects on how you play.

“One of the most detrimental emotions is frustration,” Langford said. “When frustration exists, players can exhibit behaviors they would not otherwise exhibit. If players are mindful, the frustration is less likely to play a role in the behavior of a player.”

Becoming more aware of your mind and mental health in sports is gaining popularity in the athletic world, and Olympic coaches have reported adding yoga and meditation into their training routine.

“Athletes must first practice outside practices and games, and then they will be able to recognize their thoughts during competition,” Langford said.

Maren Langford, A former member of the USA national field hockey team, dribbles down the field in the Pan American games. Langford is now a coach and co-founder with her husband of Fer De Lance field hockey. Courtesy Photo

Be mindful of yourself

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A quick and easy way to pull your thoughts inward and focus on yourself in the present is to just listen.

A few minutes before a game or warm-up take time to just stop and listen to the sounds surrounding you the cars on the road, the lights buzzing above, your teammates motion on the field. Focus on the sounds surrounding you and that only. Breathe in and out slowly and bring your thoughts inward. This method can be practiced at many times even if you’re just off the field for a minute, use it as a way to focus on the present.

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One of the most well known versions of practicing mindfulness is meditation. Although this method takes a longer amount of time it is extremely effective to bring down stress. “Anytime I am feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, I close my eyes and focus on my breath and bring my mind back to the controlables in the present moment.” Langford said. To practice meditation, sit in a comfortable position and focus on your breathing. Listen to how your body is feeling and bring all your thoughts inward to focus on yourself.

3

Visualizing how you want a play or race to play out is an effective way to calm your nerves down. Visualizing is a way of reminding yourself of the steps you have gone through to practice and prepare for your game or race. Often times your nerves can overwhelm your mind causing mistakes in the areas you have practiced the most. Picture how the wind will feel against your face and use all your senses to create a sense of familiarity with the situation.

JUMP IN: Mens Dive team prepares for their meets as competition season starts

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Divers have started preparing for their first meet on Dec. 14 against South Lyon. 1. Junior Kyle Huehn works on a back twister lead-up. 2. Senior Nick Zacharek practices an inward 1 1/2 flip. 3. Coach Brad Huttenga watches as Huehn loads the board for his dive. 4. Huehn dives in head first. 5. Zacharek loads the board for a big inward dive. 6. Huehn pikes for his dive and prepares to go in the water. The team has its first meet this Thursday at 6 p.m at Huron. Photos by Samantha Ruud

Getting top status: freshman athletes on varsity teams

Samantha Ruud | Staff Editor H i g h school can be a scary place for anybody, especially freshmen who are trying to transition from their middle schools. There are big seniors, hard classes, and crammed schedules. Freshmen are just trying to find their way. But when some of these students happen to be exceptional athletes too, their experience in high school may change.

Some freshmen have the chance to play up with the best of the best: the varsity team.

Coaches put a lot of thought into choosing teams, especially when choosing to put freshmen on a varsity team.

If teams are trying to get wins that year, they will bring freshmen onto their team,

which can give these freshmen a great opportunity to play up. However, even though these players are brought up, they aren’t guaranteed a lot of playing time.

“Our current varsity soccer program believes that if someone is going to be on varsity, they should be playing,” said women’s JV soccer coach Sara Badalamente. “If you are a freshman being brought up, you should be starting.”

If freshmen are not starting on varsity, the coaches may hold them back, especially in the Huron soccer program.

“We don’t see the value in having players sit, and if you love soccer you should be playing soccer,” Badalamente said. “Many freshmen will have way more playing time on JV. If the athlete is playing, on the other hand, then

it is worth womit to bring e n ’ s them up.” soccer

team.

Current

sophomore “When Jadyn Smith I was got to see told I both sides made of the story. the varShe was one sity basof the four ketball freshmen on team, I the women’s was revarsity basally reketball team The 2016-2017 girls’ varsity basketball team had three fresman make lieved, in the 2016- the squad. a n d 2017 season, but she also played on the JV I thought about all the work that I put

in during the summer, and how excited I was to start the season,” Smith said.

“I also improved my defensive positioning and I became more comfortable with being loud (ish) from being on varsity.”

One of the difficult aspect of being on a varsity team as a freshman is playing with all the upperclassmen.

Freshmen may have the skills, but they just aren’t as big as some of the seniors they’re playing against, or they may have a hard time fitting in with the upperclassmen and having a good team chemistry.

“As the season went on we became closer, but in the beginning there was a big underclassmen/ upperclassmen divide,” Smith said.