Whittier April 2019

The Whittier

Miscellany

APRIL 2019 • WILMINGTON FRIENDS SCHOOL’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER • WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

BREXIT: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN... BUT WHY? HENRY WIEMAN ’21 NEWS WRITER

On June 23, 2016, a Thursday, citizens of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales, weighed in on a decision that would impact the United Kingdom’s future as a global superpower and independent nation. The people weren’t voting for any congressional or executive hopeful, but were instead deciding a colossal question in Foreign Policy; a complex and nuanced choice that would bring with it dramatic consequences to the populace and economy of Great Britain, many of them unforeseen. The referendum held in the UK on that momentous day determined whether the sovereign nation would remain a part of the European Union.

The European Union, or “EU” for short, is a political and economic union, consisting of 28 European countries including France, Spain, and Germany. Its predecessor, the European Economic Community, was created after WWII, its goal being to further economic cooperation and interdependence amongst the member nations. With the Nazi regime still in mind the EEC hoped to avoid future conflicts through their bold economic efforts. Since the foundation of the EEC, 22 countries have joined the union, communally forming a single market (multiple countries trading amongst themselves without tariffs or restrictions), and the organization had shifted from solely economic connections into political ones as well, covering issues including Climate Change and Healthcare. Citizens of the EU (renamed in 1993) are able to travel to or work in any other member country they choose, and EU countries are required to treat all EU citizens the same as their own in terms of employment, retirement, and taxes. Since it is a single market, goods, services, and money travel more freely amongst the EU. In addition, the EU has created a communal currency across the continent, the euro, that 19

countries now use. The EU has become a very powerful influence on the entire globe, its interdependence and economic prowess propelling it to the world stage.

In 2015, to secure election victories for his party, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold a nationwide referendum (general public vote) to decide if the UK would leave the EU, even though he personally opposed abandoning the Union. Supporters of a Britain absence from the EU, coined Brexit, were largely drawn from the ranks of conservatives and the far right. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) was formed for the very purpose of exiting the EU, and gave many enticing arguments. Brexit advocates, often called Brexiteers, pointed out the immediate monetary value of not paying the “membership fee” of sorts. The UK contributes £1.5 billion to the EU budget each year, and Brexiteers claimed this money could be put to better use. More importantly, Brexiteers said that a Brexit would help re-establish the UK as a sovereign power, with greater control on its trade policy and tariffs, more control of domestic affairs, and better control of the nation’s borders. In the end, although Brexit faced serious opposition and legitimate concerns, the citizens of the UK sided with disunion, winning the referendum with 51.8 percent of the vote. In response, Prime Minister Cameron resigned, refusing to preside of the UK’s separation from the EU, and Europe prepared for Brexit, set to take action March 29, 2019.

Almost immediately after the votes were cast, and the decision to leave the EU was confirmed, the economy of Great Britain took a turn for the worse.

The diplomacy that Britain has had with the EU also confirmed Brexit detractors’ greatest fears.

Right off the bat, Great Britain was given a little over two years to negotiate a deal with the EU in how it will interact with the multinational political union. These negotiations are vital to both

parties; 53% of British imports come from the European Union, and 40% of EU imports come from the UK. The EU and Great Britain would have to face policies ranging from healthcare to immigration to trade, and all within two years.

Since the United Kingdom and the European Union have been united for over 70 years, and as policies and and trade becomes more enmeshed, it gets increasingly difficult to untangle. The main decision for Britain is whether they want a “hard” or “soft” Brexit. A “hard” Brexit would mean that Great Britain leaves the single market, instead trading with the rest of Europe under World Trade Organization rules, and the country would get a larger say on border control and immigration. Alternatively, if the UK opted for a “soft” Brexit, it would remain as a part of the EU single market, where UK goods wouldn’t be subject to border checks, and Great Britain would have less control on the immigration of EU citizens.

Should the UK leave with no deal, the results would be disastrous; without negotiating the EU peace treaties they’ve relied on, recreating the EU laws used by the UK, or creating new trade agreements, the UK would face catastrophe.

As Brexit draws near, it is important for the United States and its citizens to understand the economics of one of its largest trading partners.

Although Brexit is a dangerous prospect for many US businesses, citizens, students don’t seem to know much about Brexit, its causes or its possible outcomes. Alex Saville ’21 admitted that “he didn’t even know it was a thing,” and although Ahmad Ayoub ’20 felt confident in his opinion on Brexit “in general people should know more.”

Donald Morton ’94 concurred, saying “we now live in a such a globally connected world, we cannot afford to avoid informing ourselves.” Brexit is a momentous task, and it is important for even American citizens to stay informed, as there are few people that Brexit won’t affect. In the next few months, we will hear a lot more about this!

COMMUNITY

Is the college process fair? yes and no. . . the unjust system:

Nick Redd ’20 Community writer

The college process can be one of the most stressful and rigorous things that a high school student can go through. Most high school students begin worrying about the college process during their freshman year as parents press their kids to get perfect grades in school. Later on, as Seniors, there is so much more to think and worry about. These days, most Universities and Colleges are solid schools that can prepare you for the future. Getting into these schools is very difficult, but with hard work, anything can be achievable. Depending on the type of school, the process could be even more rigorous. Most schools require a solid GPA (grade point average) and good SAT/ACT scores as well as extracurriculars. Depending on the school, the requirements may differ.

In our community, many seniors have had a crazy year when it comes to their college process. Recently, most of them heard back from their schools and either got the best or worst news of their high school careers.

A handful of seniors gave their point of view on their college processes. All agree that the college process for students with almost perfect grades, can still be difficult and challenging.

Seniors sharing their thoughts on their processes and

“I applied to a somewhat wide range of schools, but most were fairly large schools, with competitive, but not crazy admission standards. I think the college admission process can be confusing and stressful, but if you get all your applications out early in the process, much of this stress can be avoided. I think the admission process is somewhat fair, but obviously, there are exceptions. I did not get denied, as I got into the school where I applied Early Decision. My dream school was Barnard College since my freshman year, and I’ve pretty much only liked that school since then, though I thought I never had a chance at getting in. My college process was kind of hard at times because I was so set on that one school, and I felt like I wouldn’t be happy if I ended up anywhere else. I applied Early Decision to Barnard, and also applied to 8 other schools, some other women’s colleges, lots of liberal arts, and a few other city schools. I was deferred from Barnard ED, which was very stressful, but I did end up getting accepted Regular Decision. I got into all of my other schools except for my two reaches. I think the college process can be somewhat unfair, but I don’t think that my personal experience was unfair at all. I feel really lucky that I got into the schools that I got into, and I am incredibly fortunate to have had as much support from College Guidance and my parents as I did.

The

Whittier

Miscellany EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Connor Miller ’19 NEWS EDITOR: Ellie Bradley ’19 SPORTS EDITOR: Carlin Beskrone ’19 ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: James Butterfield ’20 SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR: Elise Johnson ’21 PHOTO EDITOR: Lilia Machado ’20 COLUMNISTS: Lucy Knudsen ’19 & Nic Urick ’20 WEB EDITOR: Honor Dearlove ’19 FACULTY ADVISOR: Daniel Scott

STAFF James Tallman ’19

Connor Rosas ’20

Oliver Gooderham ’20

Dylan Roskovensky ’20

Liam Hudgings ’20

Sam Boulos ’21

Olivia Ivans ’20

Kyle Nisbet ’21

Craig Lyttleton ’20

Nate Rashkind ’21

Nick Redd ’20

Henry Wieman ’21

Stay alert for the new Whittier podcast, available on iTunes and Spotify!

The Whittier Miscellany is published six times during the school year by the upper school journalism staff of Wilmington Friends School, 101 School Road, Wilmington, DE 19803. To access the Whittier Miscellany online, go to www.wfswhittier.net.

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If I could give advice to anyone who just started/hasn’t started their college process, it would be to apply to the schools that you love, regardless of your chances of getting in. You need to be realistic, but you also owe it to yourself to give it a shot. You never know!”

“The college admissions process is overwhelming and nearly impossible. Your chances of getting into the top schools are a million to one even though you work hard, do activities, and have a great applicant profile.

The process itself is overwhelming with many supplementals - I had 32 pages full of essays - and many applications. I applied to top liberal art/Ivy League schools as well as some mid-tier schools as well. Because it was such a shot in the dark I ended up applying to 17 schools hoping I’d get into one. The process is not fair for a number of reasons. While we all go to Friends here, other people are not afforded the same private school education that prepares us for college, gives us a great team to help us get in, and gives us an added boost when people read our apps. Furthermore statistically speaking students of color and low income students (the two often go hand in hand) are much less likely to do well on the SAT/ACT around the country for a number of reasons, namely because their counterparts are more likely to be able to afford an education that prepares them more thoroughly and the $60+ an hour tutoring courses.”

the spice of community olivia Ivins ’20 Community Writer

For the first time, WFS has chosen a S.P.I.C.E. of focus for the academic year; community. Coincidentally, this is our strongest spice according to our students. After being asked why community, Ildikó Miller, Dean of Students states, “We decided to begin this tradition on our most valued aspect of WFS life, and the one most clearly represented everyday.” Fellow Quaker schools have adapted this practice and now WFS has done the same. This implementation of S.P.I.C.E.S. will draw attention to an admirable set of expectations for our community as well as highlight an important aspect of the Quaker life that otherwise could be overlooked. Fortunately, this new adaptation will enhance our community’s value for itself!

According to WFS Head of School, Ken Aldridge, following some healthy evaluations in order to maintain and improve our great school, ”It was (brought to our attention), similar to many Quaker schools, we are very humble. Their suggestions were to create aspects that celebrated who we are as a school.” The Administration team wanted to create something with meaning in accordance with the suggestions given. Accentuating our core values gives the entire school an opportunity to consider which values they most conform to, as well as celebrate what makes WFS such a great place. The most recent issue of the WFS school magazine affirms this year’s focus on community, by hashtagging it inside the front cover in bold lettering! According to the head of the upper-school, Rebecca Zug, this

addition was put in place in hopes of continuance in future years. When asked why community was chosen she states, “Our community is already very strong and we have many activities already in place to feature this.” Examples of these would be small, mixed group Meeting for Worships, where students from all different grades are randomly organized into groups and given queries to reflect on. Gathering in smaller numbers gives students a chance to feel more comfortable sharing. Similarly, the school often engages in advisory meeting for worship groups, which offers students an opportunity to form stronger bonds with their peers and get to know someone they may not have otherwise approached. Recently, students were asked questions directed towards self-awareness, particularly in the sense of another SPICE, stewardship.

SPICES are a part of everyday life, and by emphasizing it we benefit ourselves in a variety of ways.

Our students were asked how they felt about accentuating community in this way. Unfortunately, many were unaware this was even the spice of the year. Still, not a single student felt that our community was unsuccessful in creating community. An example of a major contributing factor to our community is our athletic teams. Teams can be overheard chatting about team dinners or sleepovers as they run through drills.

A former Friends student, Lindsey Nolen quoted her coach who said, “Don’t underestimate those girls (Girls lacrosse), because no matter what star players have or not, they are athletic girls who have been playing together for a long time.” This quality is seen in all teams and it does not just apply to our lifers. New students are seen excelling in our competitions, for example our Football Quarterback Wyatt Nelson ’20. Nelson, most commonly known as Nelly, is seen beaming on and off the field. He says, “My transition into a new school would have been much more difficult, if I had not played football.” Just recently, Kat Nix ’19 took up the responsibility of persuading the administration to approve of girls wearing headscarves in school. Our school constantly implements the SPICES everyday unconsciously. It is important that our community reflects what we represent and by accenting a single value we improve ourselves.

April issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

news

Why You Need To Change Your Tune now Carter Ross ’23 News Writer

According to a poll of over 20,000 people, around 92% of people will listen to music while they are working. Whether people are at home, at school, or at work, most people will be jamming out to something. People will put on music they can sing to, dance to, or relax to. They do it to make their work fun and entertaining.

But if they choose the wrong music to listen to while working, can that make doing work harder? Scientists say listening to the wrong type of music can distract you from your working and make it harder to concentrate and get things done thoroughly and efficiently.

So, how do you choose the right song so you can balance having fun and getting work done?

Before we dive into how music can or can’t help you focus, let’s find out what focusing actually is. First, every person has a conscious attention system, or selective attention, that acts as a spotlight. The spotlight can be anywhere from really wide to really narrow.

Right now, it is probably pretty narrow since you are reading. This means your brain is pushing out surrounding sounds or distractions so you can stay focused. The other part of your attention system is your unconscious attention system, or your locus coeruleus. It is always paying attention to what is around you.

Also, it operates faster than your conscious attention system, so when you hear a noise, see movement, etc., you are already focusing on it without even knowing it. Basically, your unconscious attention system is your emergency system, and without your conscious attention system, you would never be able to get anything done because you would constantly be getting

distracted. This is where music comes in. The point of music is to give your brain just the right amount of music to let you work while still giving your brain enough stimulant to prevent it from trying to find something else to focus on.

The are many benefits to listening to music while you are working. Music can help create a mood. It can get you to feel more inclined to do something while keeping you on task. It can help relieve anxiety or stress over a task. “It makes work more enjoyable,” said Madeline Rowland ’23, an 8th grade student at WFS. Another thing music is good at is cutting out outside noises or distractions as well. “It will keep the distractions out and it helps me get my work done,” said Jackson Redd ’23, an 8th grade student at WFS. The problem is, if you pick the wrong music, then it can actually hurt your efficiency and effectiveness of your work. For example, if you are listening to music that is too loud or fast, it will spring your unconscious attention system back into action. Another thing to watch out for are lyrics. The brain likes to pay special attention to human voices or sounds, so I wouldn’t recommend listening to a capella music while you are trying to read (I’ve tried it). Also, listening to your favorite song or your least favorite song aren’t great strategies either as they can pull you out of your work and will get to pay attention to them instead. “If I’m listening to a song that I really like, I’m going to be jumping up and down and singing it,” said Helen Thompson, an 8th grade biology teacher and Dean of MS students.

So how do you find a balance? Well, here are some ways you can be sure you are listening to the right music. First, try to pick music you neither like nor

dislike. It can allow you to absorb the music without having to feel the need to scream your favorite lyrics at the top of your lungs or feel the need to rip your headphones out of your computer. Second, do your best to avoid lyrics. The more human noises or sounds you hear, the harder it is to continue to work. One interesting theory by Dean Burnett, a neuroscientist and an author for The Guardian, is that video game soundtracks are one of the best types of music to listen to while working. They can be a great source of music to listen to while working, considering that the point of a video game soundtrack is to “help create an immersive environment and to facilitate but not distract from a task that requires constant attention and focus,” says Dean. But then again, it all depends on the person. Overall, when it comes down to picking the right music, “anything that can be accurately described as ‘soothing’ will probably do the job,” according to Foundation Education, an online educational training organization.

Focusing is a skill. It requires a lot of energy from your brain and it requires you to push out many distractions. “The entire process of maintaining focus for an extended period of time is not easy. It requires work on the part of your brain and can be considered a source of stress,” according to Focus@Will, a “neuroscience based music service that helps increase your focus.” There are many other ways to improve your focus, such as making sure you are getting the right amount of sleep each night and making sure you have a good diet. Music can be a great way to get work done efficiently and effectively, but you should do what you need to do to create the perfect environment for you to strike the right note with your work.

China’s Vast Oppression of Uyghur Muslims Imagine living in a community where neighbors spy on neighbors, and the government spies on everyone.

A community rapidly diminishing, where one person in almost every family is behind bars. This is a reality for the Uyghur Muslims. The Uyghur Muslims are an ethnic group who inhabit the Xinjiang region in the far west of China. Recently, international outrage at China’s treatment of this community has come to a head.

China’s suppression of the Uyghur Muslims has been a long-standing issue. When China first took control of the Xinjiang region in the 1950s, the Uyghurs constituted around 70% of the region’s population. Today, they make up only 40%. In the past, Chinese governmental efforts at forced assimilation and oppressive policies have led to protests among the Uyghurs.

Some extreme cases have led to terrorist attacks both within the Xinjiang region and in China as a whole. One such case was the Kunming Train Station Attack. In this event, 5 or 6 terrorists wielding knives managed to attack people at a train station in Kunming. As Runlai Jiang, a senior here at Friends, pointed out, “There are terrorists there who are using Islam as a tool to do bad things. I don’t think Islam is bad, but there are terrorists in Xin-

jiang. If you’re in China, you have to follow its laws.”

The Chinese Government identifies the Uyghurs as a terrorist collective, and thus justifies its actions in the Xinjiang region.

The Chinese Government’s crackdown on Muslim minorities has been getting more and more extreme as of late, and it is estimated that the population of Uyghurs that are currently being held in detention

ing imprisoned. In recent years, President Xi Jinping has had an extensive surveillance system installed throughout the Xinjiang region in order to spy on the Uyghurs and other groups. This surveillance system includes cameras with face recognition on street corners, GPS tracking on all vehicles, and government apps that must be installed on every phone. Not only is the government surveying people, but Uyghurs themselves are working with the Chinese Government to spy on their neighbors.

President Jinping’s administration has remained staunch in defense of its actions. Recently, as international outrage and media coverage have increased, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights demanded answers from the Chinese Government. In a press conference in March, the head of the Xinjiang government, Shohrat Zakir, dismissed the idea that Uyghurs were being kept in detention centers, saying; “our centers are like boarding schools where the students eat and live for free.” He also claimed that the number of people in these centers is much lower than most estimates, and the number will continue to drop as long a Chinese society no longer has need of them. Ultimately, it seems that China seems to be largely unconcerned with the international opinions of this issue. The general focus for the communist government has been to continue propaganda efforts to keep the people on its side. http://www.k12academics.com

Liam Hudgings ’20 News Writer

Two Uyghur Muslims surrounded by soldiers

centers is upwards of 1 million people, but much of the information about these centers is unknown due to China’s efforts to keep the procedures opaque.

What is known though, is that it is very rare to find an Uyghur family without at least one of its members in jail, and people in Xinjiang live in constant fear of be-

April ISSUE 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

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Community

prom Spreadsheet: the victims and the ‘Villains’ Lucy Knudsen ’19 Columnist There has been a lot of controversy and hurt feelings surrounding the prom spreadsheet. It appears that to a large extent this issue has blown over. The spreadsheet has been shut down and people have mostly moved on. This is a retroactive attempt to see all sides and set the record straight. I will share my stance at the end of the article, but I encourage the reader to maintain an open mind.

Many would agree that the spreadsheet was made with pure intentions, which Evan Pittenger ’19 recognizes: “I understand that the intentions were never meant to harm anyone, but unfortunately that’s not what it seems like to a lot of guys.” Pittenger continued: “In my opinion, it feels like the sheet makes everything set in stone, and the guys have no input whatsoever on who they want to ask.” From Pittenger’s point of view, the spreadsheet seemed to exert control that pressured people into things that they might be uncomfortable with. Pittenger went on to say: “I know that it doesn’t really matter and you can ask anyone you want, but there is a lot of pressure from others that makes it seem like you are forced to ask one specific person.” When asked if this ‘pressure’ continued after the spreadsheet was effectively shut down, Pittenger replied: “I don’t know if the pressure was the same. As soon as the whole issue became apparent to the whole student body I asked someone from Archmere to avoid any more drama. I know some people asked who they were paired with, but I feel the effects still lingered a little.” Furthermore, Pittenger mentioned: “It also can unintentionally exclude some people without anyone but that person realizing.”

An anonymous Sophomore boy seems to agree

with what Pittenger had to say, and mentioned: “I think that the spreadsheet places people in a state of awkwardness.” In other words, although perhaps the spreadsheet was created with the right intentions, it makes some people uncomfortable. The source continued: “Not only are people not asked if they want to be put on it, but they are also not asked who they want to be put on it with.” This source did not mention the pressure to follow through on what the spreadsheet predicted, as Pittenger referenced, but seemed to think that it was harmful enough for people to be placed on a list and paired up without consent.

Quentin McAbee ’19 noted: “My issue with the prom spreadsheet is that it felt more like setups than predictions.” This seems like a fair assessment. The goal of the sheet was not only predictions but to make sure that everyone had a date. Therefore, there was, indeed a ‘setup’ aspect. McAbee continued: “Personally, I have known a few people who haven’t asked who they wanted to because they weren’t on the spreadsheet together.” Herein lies an unfortunate downside to the spreadsheet. However, this issue seems like it could be solvable with a bit of communication on the part of the guys. McAbee furter said: “I understand the intentions of the spreadsheet were never bad. But if good intentions have bad effects then I feel it should be stopped.” McAbee brings up a valid point, and it is worth mentioning that the sheet has been stopped accordingly.

On the other hand, Katrina “Kat” Nix ’19, who helped to put the spreadsheet together, argued: “I think it was a good idea. The purpose behind the spreadsheet was to avoid confusion in asking and to give girls more of a chance to have some say in who asked them.” To provide some context for this quote, many girls have reported to being asked to prom by people who they were not very comfortable going with and felt pres-

sured to say ‘yes’ to avoid rudeness or awkwardness.

Nix mentions that the spreadsheet helped to alleviate this pressure on the part of the girls. Nix went on to say: “Had people embraced it more, guys could have communicated amongst each other about who they wanted to ask.” In other words, perhaps McAbee’s issue with the sheet could be addressed sufficiently with a bit of discussion and openness. Nix concluded by saying: “It’s also just to try and make sure everyone has a date. People just didn’t give it a shot really.” As many will agree, at the end of the day, the spreadsheet is not a huge deal. It was created to make sure that everyone who wanted to ended up getting asked to prom.

My take on the matter is that the prom spreadsheet was created by a few Senior girls in an attempt to make sure that every girl had a chance to go with someone with whom they’d feel comfortable. Of course, prom is only one night, but it has made its way into the American high school narrative as a landmark opportunity to express one’s individuality, interact with classmates, and celebrate the closing of a great and difficult year of school. Therefore, although it’s just one night, it feels uniquely important. The spreadsheet has been going on for approximately six years now--often with a bit of backlash. However, the fact remains that the goal has never been never to hurt anyone, but simply to avoid discomfort on the part of the girls, rejection on the part of the boys, and overall awkwardness. This year, however, the spreadsheet reached a new level of controversy, which I attribute to the widespread awareness of the sheet, whereas in past years it has remained among Senior girls. The issue is truly two-sided. Due to personal reasons, some girls are uncomfortable going to prom with certain guys. Some guys feel unwanted pressure to act according to what the sheet predicts.

In the end, it’s hard to make everyone happy. I invite others to share their opinion on the matter.

ity of siblings or students of faculty members driving separate cars. Obviously, though, this is an issue which is difficult to solve. You can’t just tell someone to stop driving to school. Regardless, at this point in time, it’s inconvenient for students to be unable to find parking in the morning when being on time is very important.” Fallon raises a viable point - it seems impossible to just stop students from driving to school, but should families be able to have more than one parking spot? These comments indicated that there is a variety of opinions regarding the potential solutions at hand.

Some students argue that this issue is unsolvable yet needs to be remedied, while others argue that there is a quick and fast solution to the problem.

On the one hand, students like Fallon are fed up with the issue, and share a common conclusion that the issue needs to be remedied. Yet, other members of the student body don’t feel as though the issue is worth all of the attention it’s receiving. For instance,, Annabel Teague ’20 contended, “ I personally don’t think parking is a big issue at our school. It is a first come first serve kind of thing - there is enough room for people to park their car, whether it be on the street or on the other side of the school. While sometimes it is difficult to walk, if you put the effort to come to school by 7:45, you’ll be able to get a space. With the location of our school being in a neighborhood, it’s not like we have a ton of space to expand our parking. The only way we could would be by building into the space where the previous parking lot used to stand, which would pose a variety of issues for children who like to play there and spend time there after school.” Teague poses an interesting angle to the problem - she asserts that there really isn’t a big issue to begin with. This is

an important point to consider, as in previous years the parking situation has functioned just as Teague depicted it.

The faculty at friends are also affected by the parking situation. While some have not yet weighed in on the issue, other faculty members find the parking situation to be problematic. Faculty also must get to school on time. It is often difficult for faculty to find parking with all of the student drivers s at the school, which creates an even bigger conflict. Christopher Golding ’99, the HL History and Theory of Knowledge teacher at Friends commented on this ordeal, stating, “I’m not sure if there are any remedies that people are going to agree too. I haven’t talked to anyone in any official capacity, but it seems that any parking voucher or assigned spots that you elect to pay for might be something to consider to alleviate the clog we’re experiencing in parking. Yet, I’m not sure if they’re going to do that. It’s actually an interesting problem. When I was going here, the school was a good bit smaller, but we still have the parking spots now that we did then.

To a certain extent, then, it’s due to the success of the school growing in size and a larger student body, so it’s hard to solve. ” Therefore, while much of the parking situation is often centered on the students, Golding contends that faculty also struggle to find parking.

Today, the parking situation at Wilmington Friends remains disputed; its origins remain at question, there is a lack of universal solutions, and some even ponder whether the issue is a viable one. It’s hard to say considering all of the constraints at hand, but it surely seems as though it will continue to be a topic of fervent and constant discussion.

Problem: the dreaded Parking lot Situation Nic Urick ’20 Columnist

This year, a topic of great controversy has been the parking situation at Friends; many students have struggled with obtaining a parking space in the morning, which often renders students late to class, creating an unnecessarily stressful morning.

Thus, in accordance with traditional Quaker values, the community has introduced this controversy to discuss, with the hope of bringing together a wide variety of perspectives to contribute to a definitive remedy for this issue. Yet, the hopes the students of Wilmington Friends have expressed to alleviate the stress of their mornings have gone unremedied, as the student body and faculty together have been unable to formulate a resolution to solve this enduring problem. Thus, the issue remains: will there ever be a clear solution to Wilmington Friends’ infamous parking problem?

While these reasons are not exhaustive, many argue that the ‘parking problem’ stems from either the surplus of upperclassmen drivers, or the removal of the second parking lot at Friends. Chase Fallon ’19 argues that the possible resolutions to these issues are far more complex than how they appear to be at surface level. During a conversation about the parking situation, Fallon asserted, “As a senior who has been parking at Friends for two years now, I’ve consistently found it difficult to find a parking space in the morning. Sometimes you have to arrive fifteen minutes earlier than you usually would just to get a space that is convenient to the entrance at the arches. To me, the problem seems to stem from the commonal-

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April ISSUE 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

Science and Technology

Algo-Rhythms: A Unique Opportunity for All

been a lot of fun.” According to Whittenburg, this class is different than any other elective course that is taught at Wilmington Friends School because “this class has As students get older and classes get more adtwo teachers with different backgrounds sharing invanced, many might notice that their classes begin formation. It is pretty broad in subject matter so you to intersect. When balancing a chemical equation or can be interested in a number of things and still get calculating velocity, you must use your math skills. something out of this class.” Butterfield also learned a When writing a history paper, you must utilize skills lot from Whittenburg, saying, “Jenks and I are learnyou have acquired in English class. One’s knowledge ing a lot ourselves. I have been learning a lot of really of history could be necessary when evaluatcool things about computers. I learned some ing a great piece of literature in English class. background information during my sabbatThis principle is the basis for the brand new ical, but we’re taking it a step further.” It is a Algo-Rhythms class which allows students to unique and engaging experience for teachers learn about both computer science and music to co-teach and learn together. theory, essentially using computers to make This class is an interesting opportunity music. for students at Wilmington Friends School.

Samuel “Jenks” Whittenburg and MargaMany students spend their time on their ret Anne Butterfield have a specific process computers consuming; they play games, before each class in order to ensure that the watch Youtube videos and look at pictures computer aspects and the musical aspects are on Instagram. While this is not necessarily evenly represented. Whittenburg explained, a bad thing, it is good to expand your hori“We alternate classes between a focus on techzons. After being asked why he would recnology versus music theory, so we can go back ommend this class to students, Whittenburg and forth but we generally sit down and plan said, “Every student has a laptop, and this is specifics of each class. We are both always in a way of getting students to use laptops more class and teach together.” Additionally, the Alcreatively. Margaret and I are giving tools to go-Rhythms class is not in the computer room be creators with laptops instead of being connor in the choir room. It is in the design lab, sumers.” When Sainten was asked the same which is another factor in maintaining the balquestion she said, “I would recommend it, I Students learn to use MIDI keyboards in coordination with Reaper. ance between music and computers. think it’s a really fun and creative way to get This new class has also resonated with many get the chance to make our own music.” The general your computer credit. I think it’s really appealing bestudents new to this type of class. Tamryn Sainten consensus from students was that it was a fun way to cause people like music and it’s really fun to see what ’21 commented, “I think Algo-Rhythms is a real- learn and get your credits. you can create and come up with.” Algo-Rhythms ly interesting class because it combines both music While students are the ones officially enrolled in gives music-loving students the opportunity to take and computer technology. I like how there’s a struc- the class, they are not the only ones who learn from it. their music-making to the next level, and on the other ture to the class and a basic guideline but aside from The class’s teachers actually learn from one another as hand, it gives computer-loving students room to exthat there’s also the ability to be creative on your own well. When asked about this, Whittenburg said, “I am periment with different sounds and melodies. It also and figure out what sounds good and what doesn’t.” learning a ton about music theory from Mrs. Butter- gives students who do not necessarily know what they When asked to describe an interesting lesson, Sainten field, which is how and why humans interpret music are interested in an opportunity to learn more about explained, “We have learned MIDI, which is basical- the way they do. I find it all really interesting and it has themselves and their interests.

ly when you’ve taken or downloaded a sample of an instrument from the internet, or a plug-in and put it into a program called REAPER where you can compose music. From there you plug in a keyboard and the sound you downloaded and you can play on the keyboard and create a little song. It’s cute.” Another student taking the class had similar opinions. Alex Saville ’21 said, “I think the class is very fun and we actually learn a lot about how music is made and we

Photo By Lilia Machado

Sam boulos ’21 Science and Tech Writer

Sleep: a necessity for high school Students Kaitlin Merriman ’23 Science and Tech Writer Tick. Tick. Tick. time is getting later, your eyes are getting heavier, your mind is getting slower. After getting between 3 and 4 hours of sleep for multiple nights in a row, while working on a term paper Gabriel Levine went into his kitchen at 3 am to get a snack.

Instead of slicing through a wedge of cheese he sliced through his thumb clear to the bone, severing a ligament. This is one of the many consequences that come with not getting enough sleep. Do you want to end up just like Gabriel?

Lack of sleep and school don’t go well together. Sleep deprivation affects a lot of teens. Teenagers should get 8-10 hours of sleep each night, though, most get around 7 hours. Award-winning author Christopher Silas Neal states that recent national polls show that more than 87% of high school students get much less than the recommended 8-10 hours of sleep each night.

You might not realize it but sleep deprivation deeply affects you and your body in really bad ways. Teens especially are very much affected by sleep deprivation.

The main things that cause teens to not get enough sleep are homework, sports, and their phones. If you regularly don’t get enough sleep then that can lead to chronic sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation hurts your entire body and most people think it’s no big deal.

Sleep deprivation has some very large impacts on your body. According to Deborah Weatherspoon

April ISSUE 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

who is an advanced practice nurse with a Ph.D., sleep deprivation causes hallucinations, paranoia, depression, obesity, and suicidal thoughts. Sleep deprivation really makes a huge impact in teens lives. It impacts their mental health, increases their risk for depression, can cause anxiety and low self-esteem, and it can really affect their academic performance. The list goes on and on. You could have concentration difficulties, drifting off during class, shortened attention span, loss of memory, poor decision making, lack of enthusiasm, moodiness, and aggression, depression, risk-taking behavior, and reduced sporting and academic performance. Sleep deprivation will also affect your central nervous system, immune, respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, and your endocrine system. It’s a much bigger issue than most people make it out to be.

Teenagers are exposed to many challenging things that can be the causes of how little sleep they get. Teens nowadays especially are addicted to their phones. That’s why screen based devices are a cause for sleep deprivation. Teens are on their phones so much during the day that it just continues into the night. Especially if you sleep with your phone or computer in your room. Another cause that has to do with phones are social attitudes. Teens want to stay active on social media and look “cool”. If teens hear that ding then they immediately look at their phone to check the notification. Something many teens struggle with is a hectic after-school schedule. Most teens have some sort of after-school activity. Most if not all teens have homework and that takes up a lot of their

night. I only gave you a few major reasons but there are lots more. Teens probably don’t even realize they have sleep deprivation but I know these problems affect lots of teenagers.

You may not know how to help stop the sleep deprivation so here are some tips. Many teens bodies want them to stay up late, though, the morning after it’s always hard to get up. Here are some tips you should use to help with the sleep deprivation. First, you should start gradually moving your bedtime up till your body adjusts. If you can’t you that then you should try to go to bed at around the same time each night so your body gets used to that “bedtime.” A big thing is trying to avoid staying up late on weekends because it will mess up your sleep schedule. At the time it sounds fun and since you have no school it sounds like a good idea. Though, it really it hurts your sleep and just makes you even more tired during the week. The last tip and in my opinion one of the most important is even 30 extra minutes of sleep will make a huge change. It might not sound like it now but it will make a really big difference. It will make a life-changing effect on you as a person.

You’ll still be exhausted. You’ll start to drone off during school. When will it stop? It’ll be a weight on your shoulders for the rest of your life. You slack off and procrastinate instead of getting those few extra minutes of sleep. But you get home late and stay up even later doing homework. Do you want this? Or do you want waking up in the morning to be easy, to feel awake during the day, and have energy? It’s up to you.

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Entertainment

Movies that get the conversation going James Tallman ’19 Entertainment Writer

2018 was a great year for film, topped off with Green Book winning best picture, and the hit movies Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War that stormed the box office with unprecedented stature.

However, there are always many films that fly under the radar. This article has the intent of highlighting three films which came out this year that did not penetrate into the public domain.

These films range from documentaries to dramas to both, each garnering different amounts of acclaim. Nonetheless, they should all be added to one’s watchlist.

Thoroughbreds was a little known film that came out earlier this year. It was Cory Finley’s directorial debut where he showed a mastery at the use of the camera.

Particularly, towards the end of the film, there was a ten-minute long take which maintained suspense in a unique fashion.

This film was advertised as Heathers meets American Psycho, but it was so much more, telling the story of two teenage girls who come from different backgrounds as they become friends. As the first act ends, the audience learns it is their plan to kill the stepfather of the main character.

The stand-out of this movie is the young but powerful cast. Anya-Taylor Joy (Split, The VVitch) packs a powerful punch as her character turns from a bratty teen. Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One, Me Earl and the Dying Girl) plays the stoic teenager. The two actresses play off each other with an unfathomable amount of chemistry that is not seen in young actors. Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Charlie Bartlett) stars in this movie as well. While it is his final movie, seeing him on the screen once again is an amazing sight.

Even years after his death, he is remembered through this movie.

Zarina Stone ‘19 said “In “They Shall Not Grow Old” Peter Jackson brings the past to life in his breathtaking restoration of WWI film, providing the audience with an experience one could never forget.”

They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson’s (Lord of the Rings) passion project, was a brilliant recoloration of World War One footage that was then dubbed with

audio from interviews of the war and a visual narrative of the war that is unheard of. This event was a spectacle. In the United States, the film had a two-day release. On the first day, at a 4pm showing, the theatre was packed. It was sold out that night. This film was a shoo-in to win the best documentary award except for

the fact that they did not file it for the Oscars by the deadline.

Peter Jackson said about this film “We made a decision not to identify the soldiers as the film happened. There were so many of them that names would be popping up on the screen every time a voice appeared. In a way, it became an anonymous and agnostic film.” He wanted to make this film appear as human as possible, and he achieved this feat. The film did not take a breath while it described the events of the Great War. This film will be a landmark of the war for likely the next century. The crew of the film restored 100 hours of footage that they then packed into its 90-minute runtime. They additionally listened to over 600 hours of interviews. Connor Manning ‘22 said “I thought it was incredible that they were able to take this old, scrambled footage and colorize it, put sound to it, and a make a movie out of it. 11/10.” Of all films that came out this year, this one should be seen.

Keeping on the path of documentary features, American Animals offers an innovative part doc, part fictional retelling. This story focusses on four college students who slowly decide that they will perform a heist of a multi-million dollar book held in their college library. The innovative portion of this film is that it is a story being told, that then gets acted out. The actual members of the heist are interviews and all tell slightly different stories of the occurrences. In a way, this film asks the question of what is the truth, and can the truth be remembered. Because of the innovative storytelling of this movie, and an enthusiastic form of editing that keeps the film at a high pace the entire time, this film was one of the best, unseen films this year.

theater in the wilmington friends community Jimmy Butterfield ’20 Entertainment editor Back in 2017, rapper Ja Rule and CEO of Fyre Media Inc. Billy McFarland, planned to host Fyre Festival: a “luxury music festival,” and thanks to Netflix’s new documentary on the fiasco—“Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened”—McFarland and Ja Rule are getting a lot of unwanted attention and a significant beating on their rep. The festival was enticing to a huge audience, as many celebrities went to social media outlet Instagram to promote the festival, along with the pretty rad lineup that they had in store. It was scheduled to take place from April 28 to 30 and May 5 to 7, 2017. It was advertised that the festival would be on one of Pablo Escobar’s private islands in the Bahamas that he used to smuggle cocaine into the United States. But what McFarland didn’t tell his customers was that they had been kicked off of the island and had to resettle on another island that they claimed to own—They didn’t. Even more, when they showed the map of the festival area, they removed part of the island to make it seem like it was a private island. What was intended to be “the best in food, art, music, and adventure,” ended up being a complete disaster: Not enough water, poor housing,

PAGE 6

bailed artists, and poor transportation. Some believe that this scandal was just do to poor planning and lack of infrastructure, while some also believe that this was just a scam by McFarland.

When talking about Fyre Festival, Oryem Kilama ’20 had this to say: “Honestly I think it’s kinda funny that they failed this heavily, but it is also a huge waste of

money.” McFarland eventually stole over $27.4 million from investors. Kilama ’20 continued, “Personally I wouldn’t go to this ‘cause it’s too expensive, but yeah it’d be nice I guess, just that the lineup wasn’t

really that good in my opinion. I also found it sort of amusing that all of the infrastructure was nothing like what they advertised I think that all of that money could’ve been much more useful somewhere else, though. But what I thought was the worst was that the people running it didn’t really give headway to their partnered companies there, so everything was just kinda in the air.” Kilama ’20 talks about the failed infrastructure of Fyre: the big thing that defines this huge failure. The Fyre team never gave predicted numbers to their food suppliers, so they weren’t expecting all the angry tourists that expected luxury.

McFarland is currently serving a six-year jail sentence for mail and wire fraud. Not really surprising given the fact that even after the Fyre Festival failure, he continued to scam customers by selling illegitimate tickets, and most of the people who bought from McFarland, whether it be for Fyre or some other pursuit, still haven’t gotten reimbursed. This entire scandal shows us that it is imperative to have all the right resources and planning before announcing something big, or even small for that matter—and not just for a music festival, but anything.

April issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

Sports

Friends baseball team and a passion for service This spring, the WIlmington Friends baseball team is using some of their free time during the season for a new community service project. They will be volunteering their time to the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, an organization which tries to teach at risk youth good moral values through the game of baseball. This presents a great opportunity for the team to help younger kids learn to play baseball and have fun while giving the kids a great experience.

The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation is a non-profit organization which dedicates all of its work to the late Cal Ripken Sr., who was a longtime coach and mentor for at-risk youth.

The foundation seeks to continue his legacy through community service volunteer work. Their mission revolves around instilling the values of leadership, work ethic, personal responsibility, and healthy living in the children they mentor, all of those traits being what Cal Ripken Sr. embodied.

The foundation tries to create safe spaces which give at-risk children a chance to learn those values Cal Ripken Sr. embodied and gain a positive connection with local law enforcement. To gain more of an insight here are some statistics about the foundation and what they do for at-risk youth. According to their 2017 annual report, he foundation had seven-hundred-nineteen law enforcement agencies engaged in five-hundredeighty-two cities or towns.

Baseball Coach Jonathan Huxtable had some good things to say about the foundation and what they stand for. He commented on why he chose them as the team’s volunteer organization: “A lot of the teaching and passion that Cal Ripken Sr. brought to baseball is what resonates with me. It was never just about baseball. It was much more. They make it so baseball is a vehicle for developing life skills.”

He also commented on their values and how he wants to provide a good role model for the kids: “Educational research shows when the same message is delivered from different sources, it is more likely to stick, if a child has only one voice, it is good, but it is not as strong as others, and what were hoping to do is to provide another voice of these values, putting them to action.”

baseball team, had this to say on his hopes for the impact this opportunity will have: “For me I hope it could spark an interest for the kids. Baseball is a great game. It’s popularity is decreasing, and I would hope what we would do could get them to do something around the sport.” Ropars also commented on the values the foundation tries to give the children involved.

“I think all those values help make up a person. You can’t get anywhere without a work ethic, with a good work ethic you can have both personal responsibility and healthy living, work ethic is the base and personal responsibility and healthy living come from that.” He also spoke on how he hoped that this time given would help him as a person. “I feel like I can struggle with explaining things sometimes, and this is a way that I can do it and get better at it.

I also like helping people and I enjoy community service. It’s the first time I’m doing it with baseball, so hopefully this will help me as a person.”

Joey Mullen ’19 commented on the baseball team’s first training experience with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. “It was a really fun experience and we had a lot of fun when they first came. Hopefully we can turn this into a really impactful moment for us and the kids.” He also spoke on what he wanted to gain out of this experience for the team, and for the kids. “I hope that The Wilmington Friends Baseball Team in the Midst of their this will be a great team bonding Service With the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation experience and can help us along the season, and I also hope the kids Finally, Huxtable commented on what he want- that we teach get something out of it as well.” ed the baseball team to get out of this opportunity: Overall, it seems like the baseball team should ben“The same thing, it is not just importing values onto efit from this experience in many ways. They are excitthe Ripken Foundation, I want those values for us as a ed for this opportunity and hope that it will help both baseball team, it is not just about baseball, and that is the kids involved and the team itself. This community why it is such a great sport. We can take it to another service should be a very fun and beneficial experilevel.” ence, as it shows how baseball is much bigger that just The players themselves are also excited about their a sport. service. Alex Ropars ’20, a member of the Friends Lilia Machado

Dylan Roskovensky ’20 Sports Writer

golf team season off to a strong start Nathan Rashkind ’21 Sports writer With the Spring sports season well underway, the Wilmington Friends School Golf Team, who are in the midst of their inaugural season, have already made a name for themselves in the strong D.I.S.C conference with a few wins at the start of their year.

The team, which is made up of nine students–4 girls and 5 boys–practices nearby at Dupont Country Club, which happens to be where head coach Sue Kampert works part-time. The team holds their home matches at Bidermann Country Club, which is continually ranked as one of the best courses in the state.

The team has a wide variety of experience between its nine members, from beginners to seasoned veterans. In fact, two of the most experienced players on the team are not even in high school. Those two players are Drew Clark ’23 and Josephine Wellons ’23 , both of whom have been playing for years and

have already become leaders of the team, despite the fact that they are only in eighth grade.

One player who’s currently in the middle of his first organized golf team but plays golf recreationally is Timmer Farley ’19, who you may have seen hitting buzzer beaters and making other exciting plays during basketball season. Farley commented on his opinions concerning their season thus far: “I think the season is going great so far, and we’ve already had some big wins. My favorite part about our team is having Sue as our coach. She is a great teacher and helps us all get better.”

A recurring sentiment from the team is the longing for better weather, which slowly but surely is on its way. Alonia Needs ’19, another player who is in her first organized golf season, commented on the team’s displeasure with the cold beginning of spring: “I’m happy that the weather is starting to get better, because at the beginning of the season it was freezing.” It is clear that the players will be happier with a warmer temperature.

April ISSUE 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

One thing Ross Clark ’19 is excited about is, “the progress new players are making. It is great to see kids already making strides so quickly.” he added. One person who seems as excited as the players about their progress is Head Coach Sue Kampert. Before coaching at Friends, Kampert coached for fourteen years at Ursuline Academy. She commented on the players rapid improvement: “I’m really excited about the way the team is meshing. I feel like we have a great group of kids who are getting better each and every day.”

The season got off to a strong start with a big win over Sanford and a loss to Tower Hill in a three-team match at Wilmington Country Club, with Wellons shooting a forty-seven and Drew Clark right behind at forty-eight. After the match, Kampert was very happy about the way things went: “I think we fared very well against Sanford, and Tower Hill was a good test at the beginning of the season.”

Finish reading this article at wfswhittier.net

PAGE 7

News

Trump’s National Emergency Kyle nisbet ’21 News writer In 2019, President Donald Trump said in a speech that he’ll be “signing a national emergency” due to an “invasion of our country with drugs, with human traffickers, with all types of criminals and gangs.” Many politicians on both sides of the aisle,however, say that Trump unjustly manufactured his so called emergency. Due in part to him saying “I didn’t need to do this” and “but I’d rather do it much faster,” it also appears to be clear that Trump is incorrect about his definition of an emergency, shown by what other students say.

Katherine Harron ’21 said, “There isn’t clean water in flint, cops are killing innocent people. None of those things warranted a national emergency according to Trump, yet he declares one for the lack of funding towards his border walls. He’s got to get his priorities straight!” Another dissenter of Trump’s policies, Carson Davis-Tinnell also stated, “I think it’s a horrible decision due to the fact that other presidents like Bush and Obama called for national emergency when actually needed. For example The September 11 attacks, and the wars in The Middle East.”

National emergencies themselves can be very legitimate, and in the past Presidents have used it for what both historians and the public agree on to have been truly dangerous emergencies. For example, in December, 1950, Truman signed a national emergency due to Korean hostilities, and in September, 1939 Roosevelt used it to create a safeguard from the start of World War II. In comparison to other, more practical uses of national emergencies, Trump seems reckless and short sighted by abusing presidential powers to achieve his personal goal of getting $8 billion for a wall on the Mexican-American border.

The senate also showed their discontent with Trump’s abuse of power by voting to overturn his act. The vote was 59-41, but Trump ended up using another executive power, the veto, to basically negate all of the dissent that the senate showed against his own abuse of power. In addition to the senate also disagreeing with Trump’s definition of an emergency, 61% of the American public also disapprove of Trump’s use of a national emergency to help build his wall. More specifically, 94% of democrats, 12% of republicans, and 63% of Independents according to the National Public Radio.

Carter Gramiak ‘21 conveyed this, saying “He is using his power to disrupt government in order to promote his personal agenda. It truly is a shame.”

Grace Terranova also stated, “Wow, he really is a disappointment to world history and the past sorrows our ancestors fought so that we could enjoy various liberties. Washington is rolling in his grave because Trump just overrode one key function of The Constitution, the balance of powers.”

In the end, both sides can only hope that a diplomatic decision, and not an abuse of power, will lead to what the American people want, and what will be best for them. The students of Wilmington Friends, however, seem to mostly come to a consensus on the fact that Trump declaring a national emergency in order to build his wall was not optimal for the country and its citizens.

PAGE 8

there are no simple Choices Sameer Vidwans ’23 News writer Bump bump. Bump bump. Bump bump. A living, growing fetus begins to change and develop into a human being, its heart beating slowly but surely, just like every other living mammal on Earth does.

At 20 weeks old, the fetus is only eight inches tall, but it is becoming human as every second passes by. It’s alive... Until the abortion occurs. The heart suddenly stops beating, every cell in its body stops growing, and he (it has a gender at that age) stops moving and living.

Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the story.

A 16 year old girl was raped by her uncle 20 weeks ago. The fetus that is growing inside of her is the bane of her existence, as it is always reminding her of the terrible, terrible ordeal that she had to go through.

Even worse, the fetus will have a severe birth defect, and it will face an extremely difficult life full of hardship.

Abortion is an incredibly complex and controversial topic that we will never be able to fully come to terms with. However, there are several crucial questions to look at, which can help us delve deep into some of the biggest, most controversial issues.

Let’s start with the most important, difficult question: is abortion ever OK? People who are pro-life generally respond to this question by saying that as the fetus has the potential to become human, and it is wrong to kill humans, it is always wrong to abort the fetus. Pope Francis agrees, saying, “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary.’

For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day…”

Pro-choicers retaliate by saying that you can’t compare a mass of cells to a human life; otherwise, you would cry every second as millions of your cells die. Pro-lifers also say that if you abort a fetus, you may be ‘killing’ the next MLK, or the next great person that could help the world, but you could think the other way with this too, saying that by aborting the fetus, you may be ‘killing’ the next Hitler.

That scenario may have seemed simple for some of you, as you may think that as long as the embryo is only one or two months old, it’s not a big deal if they have an abortion. Conversely, what about scenarios in which the mother wants the child, but later on in the pregnancy, (let’s say 6 months) doctors discover that the child has severe birth defects? The mother will be tasked with caring for the child for the rest of her life, despite her potential lack of desire to do so.

Should the mother be allowed to abort the child, as it could harm her life in order to allow the fetus’s life to begin? Or, should she have to keep it, depending on how serious the child’s defects are?

Let’s take the example of Amy and her husband.

She wrote, “Our much-wanted baby was diagnosed with anencephaly, a fatal condition. We had to arrange for a surgical abortion in a different country.

We paid for it ourselves: for flights, hotels, the procedure. We brought home our baby’s remains in our hand luggage and buried them ourselves in secrecy.”

In those cases, it may seem easy for some of to decide to abort the fetus, as it won’t even make it through the week upon being born, and seeing the child die could physically and emotionally harm the mother.

Further, consider cases where the fetus has Down Syndrome. The fetus can live far beyond adulthood, and will experience pain when aborted, unlike the fetus with anencephaly. However, in allowing the child to be born, the parents will have to care for the child their entire life, with the expense of the parents potentially harming their own lives . And what about the child after its parents pass away? There is substantial controversy surrounding this topic.

Another difficult question is, who decides whether to abort the child? This question will wrack your brain, as there are so many people who could make that decision. Naturally, most people will say that the mother should get to make the choice. However, consider scenarios where the mother is in mentally disabled or under age, and may be making a choice she will regret? Let’s say that the mother is mentally disabled. Should the child be aborted immediately, alleviating the responsibility of taking care of another child?

Or, should the mother get to keep the child?

Another question people have begun to ask is whether the father has any say in the matter. “The man is not the one having the kid, so whatever the woman wants is what should happen,” says Aubrey Nisbet ’23, an 8th grader at Friends.

However, what if the father doesn’t want to raise a child? Should he be forced to pay child support even after expressing his disapproval of having a child? In the United States, the father is always required to pay child support, as the courts aren’t considering whether it’s fair to the father or not. They are only thinking about the well-being of the child. Having two steady streams of support is better than one, so the courts require the father to support the child, even in cases where the father is taking the steps to ensure there was no pregnancy, but the mother did something to potentially cause the pregnancy.

No matter how much we may argue on abortion, and no matter how different our views are, abortion is a topic that people need to find common ground on. There are places where it is too difficult to get an abortion, such as Andorra or Malta, where abortion is not even allowed if it were to potentially save the mother’s life. There are also places where it’s too easy to get an abortion, and gendercide is happening at alarming rates! For example, in India, there are only 933 females for every 1,000 males. In comparison, in the USA there are 979 males for every 1,000 females.

Families are asking to know the gender of the fetus, and if the gender doesn’t meet their expectations, they terminate it. This has gotten so bad that eligible men from Haryana, India have to travel nearly 3,000 kilometers in order to find a bride. We may never find the right answer to abortion, but each individual needs to find something that allows them to sleep at night.

“Pro-lifers also say that if you abort a

fetus, you may be ‘killing’ the next MLK, or the next great person that could help

the world, but you could think the other way with this too, saying that by abort-

ing the fetus, you may be ‘killing’ the next Hitler.”

April issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

Community

Understanding Self-Harm and its Impact on Teens Audrey bilek ’23 community writer Every day thousands of teens struggle with an issue that is very much concealed from everyone else in their life. The emotional pain torments their brains to an unmanageable point. So they hurt themselves.

Then the cycle begins of the pain. Then guilt. Then more emotional distress. Later the self-harm. It then slowly becomes an addiction eating away at their life until one person sees the scars and tries to help.

However, do not worry if you don’t know much about it; most people don’t. “I don’t think [self-harming] is talked about enough. You were the first person I know who has even gone into depth with it, like, I’ve never heard anyone talk about it before you,” says Jane ‘23. Most of the students I interviewed about this topic didn’t know much, and they thought people don’t talk about it enough. However, a few people believed that this is something that we shouldn’t talk about. So, it just depends on if you think this is an important issue right now.

Every year 1 in 5 females and 1 in 7 males engage in self-harm. So what is it? The dictionary definition is, “the act of purposely harming yourself without the intention of killing yourself.” Self-harm, also called self-injury or self-mutilation is not a diagnosable medical condition and, as of now, is considered a condition for further study. The most common forms are cutting, scratching, burning, or hitting yourself. SelfHarm is used most commonly as a coping strategy

for people who are having problems in everyday life or people who feel numb and want to feel something.

One of the most significant issues with self-harm is that it is most common in teens. About 90% of those who self-harm begin in their teen or adolescent years.

So, it is more common than one might think.

You might be wondering why anyone would ever do that to themselves. Self- harm is used as a coping strategy most of the time for people who have a mental disorder. The school consulting psychologist Dr. Meredith Joppa says, “In my clinical experience, people who self-harm have an underlying disorder just about all the time.” Self- harm is used as a coping strategy for Borderline Personality Disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, and many more.

One of the most common types of treatment is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which try to identify and change negative thinking patterns. Self- harm is sometimes hard to treat because it is conceptualized as a ‘Therapy-interfering behavior which means that people never get anything done in therapy because self-harm is all they talk about.

Due to people being uneducated about self-harm, there are many common misconceptions about it. One of the most common misconceptions is that self- injury is always a suicide attempt or that all people who self-harm want to die. Most studies have found that people do it to avoid a suicide attempt. Another common one is that people who self-harm are crazy or that they are a danger to people around them. Even though they might have an underlying mental disorder, most

people who do it are not considered crazy.

There are a few things you can do to help a friend or family member who self-harms and wants/needs help.

Most people care, but they do not know what to do in the situation. “I think if one of my friends said that they did it, I would try to talk them out of it and try to make them feel comfortable even though I wouldn’t really know what to do” says Kaitlin ‘23. The first and most important thing is to offer support and tell them you are there to help and to stay calm when they tell you or when you find out. You can also encourage them to get treatment or talk to you about what is going on. The last important thing is to notify an adult that can do something to help them. Although this might be challenging, it will benefit the person in the end and lead them to get better. However, most importantly, give them a shoulder to cry on and be a good friend that they can trust. There are also a few things that you should not do in this situation. The first thing is to not freak out at the person or yell at them in any way. Overreaction can cause the person to lose your trust and regret their decision to ask for your help. Bottom line- stay calm.

So imagine that there is a person who is cutting her wrists every day and not telling anyone. They are depressed and do not know what to do. They are very good at hiding it most of the time and not letting anyone see. They are your best friend, and you happen to see the cuts on their wrist when you are in math class.

Later during lunch, you ask, “Are you okay?” “I see the marks.” They start crying and tell you they want help.

Now you know what to do.

Where is your food coming from? It really does matter.

Arielle Flaherty ’23 community writer

Everyday you walk into the cafeteria. Your mouth waters as you grab a tray and hop into the line that snakes around the wall. You ask for the chicken nuggets and some fries. This same process is repeated daily. You get some food, maybe a packaged snack.

Then, you punch in your number, and within seconds, you’re seated upon a hard plastic bench shoveling food into your mouth. But do you ever think where the food comes from? Is it a truck filled with frozen ingredients, that lugs this food from a warehouse all the way to the school? Is it a local farm that delivers these ingredients? What are the obstacles to being fed wholesome, healthy meals that will satisfy our stomachs as well as our minds?

Until the Healthy, Free-Hunger Kids act in 2010, and the passing of updated nutrition standards in 2012, there were very few regulations for the food that U.S. public school students would eat at lunch.

The Healthy, Free-Hunger Kids act, passed under the Obama Administration was monumental. Updated nutrition standards helped to lower the maximum possible calories certain meals could have, lowered sodium amounts meals could have, and helped to include more whole grains in meals. Another part of the act was helping communities to establish local farm to school networks and to create school gardens. Also, this act helped the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) work to improve the nutritional quality of foods that schools would receive and use in their breakfast and lunch programs.

Why does this funding and government assistance for public schools matter? The meals that we eat at lunch impact our performance in school. Juliana Cohen, a professor at Harvard, says, “there is some evidence that healthier school foods when eaten regularly can improve something called ‘executive

functioning’. This is upper level cognitive functioning which is associated with academic performance.” So, even though some may think that cafeteria time is a break from classes and learning, time in the cafeteria directly affects what happens in class.

There is even more evidence about how what we eat at lunch can impact our school performance. Another study, by researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research, showed that when schools contracted with healthy lunch programs, students’ test scores raised. During the study which was published in the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of lunches purchased stayed the same before and after the lunches were made healthier, not decreasing or increasing because the food was more healthy. The study also said “we estimate that it costs approximately an additional $80 per student per year to contract with one of the healthy school lunch providers relative to preparing the meals completely in-house.” This may seem expensive at first, but as noted earlier, with healthier food comes better scores and smarter students which will probably lead to more government funding in the future.

The food that is eaten in the cafeteria at schools across the U.S. impacts the overall health of students.

In America, one in six children are obese, and lunch at school is where children receive about ⅓ of their overall energy. So, even though regulations and government acts like the Healthy, Free-Hunger Kids act will help combat this problem, what else is being done? A lot actually. Many chefs are starting to engage in local outreach. Dan Giusti used to serve as the top chef at Noma, the number one rated restaurant in the world in 2014. After he realized the need that existed in his own community, he decided to start an organization called Brigaid, which is a private company that contracts with public schools to bring healthy food to their cafeterias. Brigaid has created healthy meal and nutrition programs for schools in Massachusetts, New York, and California. But healthier food doesn’t neces-

April issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

sarily mean healthier students. Julia Cohen also noted “that a meal is only ‘good’ if students actually eat it, although it is possible to make it both healthy and good tasting meals.”

Other schools have also started farms. For example, Westtown Friends School, in West Chester P.A., has a one acre farm where students can work and help cultivate farmland to provide vegetables for their cafeteria.

Another school, Scattergood Friends School, also has a farm that provides up to 140 different varieties of fruits and vegetables for their dining hall. Even though some schools may be able to start farms, like private or independently funded schools, it is much harder for public schools to secure the funding for this kind of project.

What about our school? What is our cafeteria and school doing to provide healthy cafeteria options? Mr. Charriez, a 6th and 8th grade teacher at Wilmington Friends says “WFS started a gardening program about five years ago.” And, with the creation of this program, lettuce, kale, and other vegetables have contributed to the salad bar. Even with these changes and improvements, some students at Wilmington Friends still seem to want more healthy options. A 8th grade student named Sameer Vidwans said “I think the food is good, I just wish it was a little healthier.” So what can Wilmington Friends do to improve the quality of the food in the cafeteria? One idea is to expand the gardening program so that all three divisions can be involved and active in helping to make what we eat.

The next time you enter the cafeteria and hop into the line, the options will be different. Instead of grabbing chicken nuggets, you grab the organic humanely raised chicken from a nearby farm and some rice. You also get fresh cut strawberries and a small salad in which the lettuce is from the school garden.

You sit down and enjoy the close proximity that all of your food has come from. Cafeteria food does matter. It matters because of its impact on our bodies, our minds, and our environment.

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Science and Technology

Plastic: Convenient and useful, yet Harmful Jane Burns ’23 Science and Tech writer

Do we care enough to save animals lives, help our oceans, and save our future? Every year 4 billion pounds of pollution enter our oceans, and the harsh reality is that we aren’t doing much. Mahatma Gandhi once said that we must “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Organizations are spreading awareness and trying to make a difference, but how do we get everyday citizens to take that extra step to help? There are many ways we can help.

Overall, we need to work together to put an end to this pollution problem. Ocean pollution needs to be acknowledged before it’s too late to save our waters and the animals living there.

Plastic is the worst type of ocean pollution because it is extremely difficult and time-consuming for it to break down. For example, plastic takes 500 years to decompose whereas paper takes only 2-4 weeks. However, plastic has its benefits. It makes our everyday routines much easier by making daily chores quicker. In our fast-paced world, would we pick cleaning a food container every time we use it or simply discarding a plastic bag into the trash? This one decision, by one person, on one day has a huge impact on the future of our world. Many people don’t have the time to cut down on plastic in their homes.

On the other hand, many people don’t realize the consequences of using this much plastic.

Plastic is also the worst type of ocean pollution because it threatens our marine animals. Sadly, 100,000 marine animals die every year from plastic entanglement and ingestion. Whales, dolphins, seabirds,

seals, and turtles are killed annually from harmful plastics in their environment. Some of these animals mistake plastic bags for jellyfish to eat. Once ingested, the plastic bag remains stuck inside the animal’s gut.

The plastic fills the animal’s stomach causing them not to feel hungry. Therefore, they do not eat and end up starving themselves. This is one of many tragic effects of plastic in the ocean. We need to be aware of these fatal effects. The reality is that plastics cause more than 80% of the negative effects on our marine animals. “I have found as many as 329 plastic pieces in one sea turtle,” says Dr. Hardesty. “It doesn’t matter where you are in the ocean, you will find plastic.”

When pollution is in the ocean, it is unavoidable. It affects more than 820 marine animal species around the world. Unfortunately, turtles are the most likely victims to this ocean pollution. They don’t know the difference between plastic and food and therefore they cannot help themselves. We need a call to action.

Let’s step in and take action for these helpless animals.

Every day, across the world, people are trying to solve the issue of ocean pollution. Mr. Slat, the chief executive of Ocean Cleanup came up with a great idea. “A multimillion-dollar floating boom that is designed to corral plastic debris littering the Pacific. The 2,000-foot-long structure was the product of about $20 million in funding from the Ocean Cleanup.

Within five years, with the creation of dozens more booms, the organization hopes to clean half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” (The New York Times) We also need to solve the issue of people carelessly littering and not caring about our environment. The younger generation may feel that they can’t do much to improve this pollution problem, but this is not true.

Each human can help just as much as Mr. Slat does.

If each person were to cut down on the amount of single-use plastic, it would greatly improve this issue.

Single-use plastics consist of plastic bags, plastic water bottles, plastic straws, and plastic utensils. Instead of using hundreds of single-use plastics, we should use reusable bags, stainless steel water bottles, and silverware. Investing in environmentally safe items is a great way to cut down on plastic. This will have a huge impact. Plastic is destroying our oceans. With human help and awareness, we can save the oceans!

The majority of the waste we produce on land eventually reaches the oceans. Littering, sewage, ocean mining, oil spills, agricultural runoff, toxic chemicals, air pollutants, and maritime transportation are all causes of ocean pollution. We can stop that waste production today. We can reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce the amount of single-use plastics in your home. Reuse plastic packaging as many times as you can. Recycle plastics rather than throwing them away. Whenever you see litter, regardless of what it is, pick it up and properly dispose of it. This small action will go a long way. Let’s challenge one another to think about how much we enjoy the ocean. We waterski, kayak, paddleboard, swim, scuba dive, surf, and sit and watch the waves roll into the shore. Imagine if we couldn’t do these enjoyable activities anymore. These are just our hobbies. This is where we go to have fun. That is not the case for marine life. The ocean is their home.

365 days a year, 24 hours a day, they live there. Do you want to take their clean, safe home away from them? Or do you want to be part of the change? You can make a difference in the world. It all starts with you. Think globally, act locally and change will occur.

child can’t get his measles vaccine. “Gorrow also lives in a community where she said being anti-vaccine is as acceptable as being vegan or going gluten-free.

Almost a quarter of kids in Clark County, Wahs., a suburb of Portland Ore., go to school without measles, mumps and rubella immunizations.” While other places have that problem, officials are worried about how fast the disease is spreading in Clark County.

The reasons vaccines are so controversial today began when an article was published in 1997, theorizing that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine was increasing autism in British children. The doctor who wrote it published it to The Lancet, a medical journal.

The article has been proven false many times, and it even included procedure errors, financial conflicts, and violations. The doctor lost his license and the article was taken down from the journal. The theory was taken seriously and tests were done. No connection was found. Some other common myths are that vaccines have unsafe toxins, the infant immune system can’t handle that many vaccines, infections are already low in the United States, and many more. “I think it has caused a lot of controversies and I think it caused a lot of arguing among health care professionals, and people who believe in those myths and legends, so I think in that respect it might have caused a little bit of back and forth, for the worse,” said from Sharon Saliman, R.N, B.S.N. All of these theories are false.

Vaccines have a big effect on the health of people.

Without vaccines, so many people would be sick of diseases, and so many deaths will occur. Recently, a 6-year-old boy was hospitalized for almost 2 months because he didn’t receive his tetanus shot. The boy got a cut on his forehead. His family cleaned and stitched the wound up. Almost a week later his jaw started to clench and lock, his arms and upper body began to spasm beyond control. His whole body began to get seizures and his neck and back began to arch. Later

the same day, he was struggling to breathe. The boy then got escorted to a pediatric medical center. The boy was craving water but unfortunately couldn’t open his mouth and eventually, doctors had to stick a tube down his throat. The boy spent 47 days in intensive care, with special requirements, catered to his needs.

He was being monitored and watched all the time.

On his 44th day, he could drink certain clear liquids and he left the intensive care unit two days later. After spending 50 days in the hospital, the boy could only walk 20 feet and still needed to spend 17 days in a rehabilitation center to be able to move his legs and body again. The parents ended up having to pay over $800,000. However, after the near-fatal experience, the parents still refused the second dose of the DTaP vaccine.

Many call for stricter vaccination laws, however diseases spread rapidly and are highly infectious. People don’t listen to federal guidelines and diseases are spread all the time. When asked if vaccinating children should be a law, Bethany Kutz, M.D responded, “I think it should. We passed a lot of laws for public health. We passed seatbelt laws for public health and we’ve made it legal to buy cigarettes until you’re a certain age and drink alcohol at a certain age and we pass public health measures all the time and I don’t see how this is any different. I think there should absolutely be a law, 100%.” Besides making laws, major companies like YouTube and Amazon have pulled and banned anti-vaxx ads and videos on their sites. Washington has lawmakers favoring stricter vaccine requirements and are supporting the second effort in the past three years for making it harder to not get vaccines.

Hopefully one day these diseases will be erased, but for now, vaccinating your children is the best thing you can do for them. By choosing to vaccinate, you are not just saving your life, but the lives of countless others.

The importance of vaccinating children Brooke Harrison ’23 Science and Tech writer

Serena King was an infant, just like you. She was expected to grow up and live a long healthy, normal life. Go, to school, get their first job, eventually get a car, go to college. But that wasn’t the case. Unfortunately, Serena didn’t make it to live past one month old. She contracted whooping cough from an unvaccinated person, and she died.

After Serena’s death, her mother wished that people in the United States would educate themselves and to get their children and themselves vaccinated for preventable diseases. Situations like Serena’s death happen daily, all across the country. In reality, vaccines are one of the safest ways to prevent themselves from fatal diseases. Now, vaccines are easy to access and are available to everyone in the United States: at a doctor’s office, pharmacies, health clinics, health departments, and more. Especially this day in time, more and more people are getting more nervous about vaccines. With the measles outbreak across several states in the country, people need to be extra cautious of their surroundings, their children, and themselves.

When you think or hear the word vaccine, most people probably think of the flu shot, or the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. Those are 2 out of 14 vaccines the average person gets in their lifetime. No matter how long or confusing the name is, they all have one thing in common: protecting you. Sometimes, people don’t always trust them and are doubting them, and their effectiveness and safety.

Recently, measles has been spreading quickly in the state of Washington and Oregon. That area has a problem of children being unvaccinated. The Washington Post interviewed a mother, Amber Gorrow gave her opinion about the breakout since her 8-week

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April ISSUE 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

News

The importance of taking Naps (seriously) Madeline Rowland ’23 news Writer

“Walking zombies,” is what Cornell University psychologist James B. Maas, Ph.D., calls American teenagers. About nine hours of sleep is the ideal amount of sleep people should get. However, more than 41 million Americans get six or fewer hours of sleep per night. For teens, the situation is even worse. About 49% of teens get only four to six hours per night, and only 15% of teens actually get the sleep they need.

This lack of sleep leads people to have a 38% risk of feeling sad or hopeless and a 58% increase in suicidal attempts. It also increases teens’ use of drugs and alcohol, drunk driving, and unprotected sex. No doubt, teens need to get more sleep.

There are several things teens can do to improve their sleep habits. It starts with creating an environment good for sleeping. Teens should choose a restful place, with a good temperature, and a limited amount of noise and light. Having a bedtime and wake up routine is also helpful. Teens should try to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Homework is a big issue that interferes with teens and adults not getting the ideal amount of sleep, and technology makes the problem worse. Technology is a huge distraction. Teens are constantly checking their social media and other social networks. “I get about two to three hours of sleep every day because I am up all night talking/texting or watching YouTube,” says Erin Wilhelm-McKinley in the 8th Grade. Teens should try to turn off their phone and any other distracting electronics that will probably keep them up at night. Exercising and doing yoga can also help teens sleep better because it makes the body tired and relieves stress. Avoiding eating sugar at night also helps the body prepare for sleep. Teens should try to use these strategies in order to increase that amount of sleep they get and to improve the quality of their sleep.

Naps are a great way to increase the amount of sleep a teen gets. Just a five to ten-minute nap can help improve performance by 34% and give teens 100% more alertness. A nap can even feel like a mini-vacation. Some people may feel like naps are for little kids, but many famous and successful people often took naps such as, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Napoleon, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and George W. Bush. There are three types of naps one can take. A planned nap is when you are tired and know you will stay up later than your normal bedtime so you take a nap. An emergency nap is when you’re suddenly very tired and can’t continue on with your day until you get a boost of energy from a nap. A habitual nap is where a person takes a nap at the same time every day. Naps are an easy way to decrease sleepiness, which will help teens feel better and do their best throughout the day.

Although there are many benefits to napping, there are also negative aspects. Some people have trouble sleeping in places other than their bed. Napping can amplify sleeping problems which can increase the risk of heart failure later in life. Napping can lead to laziness, lack of ambition, and low standards. A nap lasting 30 minutes or longer can be accompanied by sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is a period of grogginess that sometimes follows sleep. Napping is a great strategy for improving sleep, but it might not be right for everyone.

Some people find naps helpful, but can’t find the time to take one. Imagine if schools provided a peaceful and quiet time for teens to rest during school.

Well, this is what most teens crave. Teens are completing their homework until late at night and they end up not getting enough sleep in the process. The next day it gets harder for them to pay attention so they end up with a workload of more homework the

next day. The process happens all over again making them more and more tired. Teens have been shown to benefit greatly from naps. Even just 20-30 minutes gives them the time they need to help improve their focus. So, why don’t schools give teens the time and space to take naps? Are schools aware of the sleep problem?

Some high schools allow students to take naps during the school day in the nurse’s office or just a quiet place at a desk. For example, high schools in Japan experimented with having a period of 20 minutes during the school day of no talking which resulted in a dramatic rise in test scores. Kakogawa Junior High School in Kakogawa City allows students to take 10-minute naps not only to increase attention span but also to conserve electricity. Students put their heads down on the desk and it is up to them if they want to take a nap.

The school also encourages teachers to join, too. High school English teacher Emily Genser suggests, “kids would benefit for later start times as well as naps.”

There are many creative ways to help teens get more sleep as long as schools recognize that it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

If teens don’t develop healthy sleeping habits now, they might not ever. There are severe consequences for not getting enough sleep. Teens who are “walking zombies” are not able to focus or perform their best.

This is not what is good for teens or society. It is time to make a change. Schools and parents should play a role. Although some schools are trying to help teens get more sleep, most still aren’t doing enough. Offering naps, creating a good sleep environment and encouraging a phone free zone is just the same ways to help solve the teen crisis. This is a wake-up call for teen and a call to action for society. Spread the word that teens need more sleep and start helping them change their sleep habits now. While you will lose some potential work time, you must take naps for your health.

Drones and the dangers they come with

Jackson Barnes ’23 Columnist

Imagine you and 10,000 other people are stuck in a cramped, crowded, metal building for hours. That’s what the people in Gatwick Airport had to do for 36 hours because of two, little flying machines no bigger than a laptop. We don’t know who did it and still remains a mystery. Even the smallest things could lead to the biggest mistakes. If one of those drones hit the plane, the plane could crash. People could die. The pilot would be a criminal. For example, on July 21st, 2015, a drone flew 100m from an airliner landing.

Now, 100m may be a lot, but when it comes to flying an aircraft, it feels closer.

When flying a drone, there will always be limits.

Drones must not be flown closer than 1km from the boundary of an aerodrome without checking that you have permission first. Also, the drone has weight limits when flying. “Although operators of drones weighing 7kg or less are not required to have the permission of Air Traffic Control, the air navigation order requires that any person in charge of a small drone: may only fly the aircraft if reasonably satisfied that the flight can be safe, and must maintain direct, unaided visual contact with the aircraft…. For the purpose of avoiding collisions. Note: (The use of normal corrective spectacles(glasses or contacts) is acceptable within the term of unaided.)”

If anything all drone pilots should just follow the rules. Think about it. If nobody followed the rules in a football game, it would be no fun. It’s the same thing

as drone flying! Everybody enjoys having fun, and the purpose of drones is to use them for fun or entertainment.

Drones can be used for more than just leisure.

Drones can be used for cargo purposes, racing, and even photography. But, a camera weighs a lot and lots could go wrong. For instance, If you’re flying a drone that weighs 12kg(26lbs) and the batteries fail, the drone would turn into an expensive, falling hunk of metal from the sky. It hits the ground and makes a crater, and catches on fire. You could’ve hurt someone!

All because you didn’t follow the rules! Have a look at this. “Any camera equipped drone operator who does not have additional permission for the Civil Aviation Authority is restricted to remaining at least 150 meters from congested areas or any or any organized open-air assembly of more than 1000 people. ” This definitely covers the part about “What if the drone crashes?” and “You could hurt someone.” This can go wrong though.

If a drone pilot is flying in a space with no people, and they go over to where the pilot is flying, that can make the drone pilot nervous and maybe even crash, causing the drone pilot to lose a lot of money.

So for my interviewees, I interviewed two people.

I interview my dad, who is a United Airlines Captain on the Boeing 737. I also interviewed a friend who is an RC plane pilot named Kobe Cantin, who is also a world champion RC pilot. The interview had some very good points in it. “Drones, in general, are something kid get for Christmas. Kids will get drones will fly them with zero experience. sometimes fly in fields near airports without knowing.” Very true, because

APril issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

some people think that flying a drone for the first time will be a piece of cake. Flying a drone for the first time is like playing a sport with no experience. “They are a great tool, whether it is for a hobby, or for work.”

That is also true because sometimes work can interfere with other things. For example, you’re using a drone to observe a building and a Helicopter flew very close by, that could risk the pilot’s lives. Then the pilot will report it, and the grip around drone laws will get tighter.

Have you heard the story about the Hudson River? An airplane was flying and a flock of birds flew right into both of the engines causing them to fail and forcing the plane to land into the Hudson River, thus giving it the name the ‘Hudson Miracle’. Well, that has nearly happened multiple times before. “In July of 2014, a drone narrowly missed colliding with an Airbus A320 as it was taking off from London’s Heathrow airport. The drone was about 700ft (300ft over the limit).” This will probably be one of the closest times a drone has nearly hit an airplane. But, Drones haven’t just hit planes. “In Washington, a news helicopter was covering fire when the pilot noticed a drone flying too close for comfort.” This may seem unimportant, but flying near any aerial vehicle could be very, catastrophic.

Next year, 7 million drones will take flight in the sky. How many of those will end in disaster? We don’t know, but you can predict it if you follow the rules and be smart with your drones. “Whether good or bad, everyone seems to have an opinion on drones. Few technological advancements are as hotly debated as drones are right now.”

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Sports/puzzles

Luka Doncic’s season takes the nba by storm

This season will mark the end of Dirk Nowitzki’s historic NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks. Over 20 seasons, the West German native has scored over 30,000 points, was given the Most Valuable Player Award, and won an NBA Championship.

The Dunking Deutschman received much critical acclaim throughout his tenure, and is considered to be one of the most influential European athletes of all time. As one European basketball star walks away from the game, a new one emerges; his name is Luka Doncic.

While only recently entering the NBA, Doncic, a Slovenian native, is no stranger to professional basketball. At the age of 13, he signed a deal with Real Madrid, an overseas professional basketball team, and made his pro debut on April 30, 2015 at the age of 16. His first season was lackluster, as he only played 5 games in the 2014–15 ACB (an overseas basketball league) season, averaging 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds in 4.8 minutes per game. The 2016-17 season is where his rise to prominence began.

He put up big numbers in exhibition games against NBA teams and led Real Madrid deep into the Euroleague playoffs. Throughout the season, he produced stats that were particularly impressive for such a young Euroleague player, and his performances would continue to improve in the following season. In 3 seasons, Doncic won multiple Euroleague honors such as MVP, championships, and all league teams as well. His stellar play overseas did not go unnoticed, and in 2018, the NBA came knocking.

Doncic has wasted no time in becoming a premier player in the NBA and has built a strong case for Rookie of the Year. The Dallas Mavericks acquired him in the 2018 NBA draft at the 3rd overall pick, after trading their 5th pick and a 2019 first round pick to the Atlanta Hawks. Although the Mavs sit at 14th

in the Western Conference and will miss the playoffs, Luka leads the NBA’s rookies in scoring with 21 points per game, and has amassed the most triple doubles for rookies with 6. He’s also hit his fair share of buzzer beaters, and 30 point games this season. During all star weekend, he played in the rising stars game, but although receiving among the highest votes for the All Star game, he was snubbed because of his rookie status. He was 3rd overall behind Lebron James and

A. Smith. His future hall of fame teammate, Dirk Nowitzki said “He plays with a savviness that I never had, and still don’t have. The way his carries himself in those scrimmages, and brings the ball up. The way he reads situations in pick and rolls, and his passing, and court vision. I think he’ll be fine.” (ESPN) Luka has also gathered quite the social media presence with 2.5 million followers on instagram, and nearly 400,000 followers on twitter.

If statistics are any indication of potential, Luka Doncic possess a tremendous upside going into his sophomore season. Although only being 20 years of age, his skill and basketball IQ are far ahead of his years. By amassing a large fanbase and garnering the admiration of veterans throughout the NBA, Luka Doncic has become a legitimate NBA talent in a short amount of time. There are a few months left of the NBA season to decide the Rookie of the Year award. Luka has had a great season, but fellow rookie, Trae Young, has being playing well as of late and has earned his way back into conversation for Rookie of the Year. Junior Will Davis said “Luka Doncic should definitely be Rookie of the Year because he came into the NBA and was consistent throughout the whole year. Trae Young is also in the conversation for Rookie of the Year but didn’t really start playing at a high level until towards the end of the season.” History Teacher and Basketball Fan Donald Morton agrees with him, and stated, “I think that Luka Doncic should be the Rookie of the Year. He is first among rookies in scoring and second in assists and rebounds. I like Trae Young, but the stats show Doncic to have had a better season.” The sky seems to be the limit for Young Luka Doncic, and it will be interesting to witness his improvement and success for many years to come. The NBA community is excited to see him develop.

Lilia Machado

Craig lyttleton ’20 sports Writer

Luka Doncic in the middle of a game, his jersey number is 77.

Giannis Antetokounmpo. “He’s a pretty cool to watch,” said senior Quentin McAbee. “But I wouldn’t pick him for Rookie of the Year. That should definitely go to Trae Young. Luka’s skills are there, but Tre is better in my opinion.”

His shooting, ball handling, and knowledge of the game are what have propelled him above his rookie counterparts, and have garnered him attention from notable figures throughout the basketball world such as Steve Kerr, Steph Curry, Paul George, and Stephen

Spring holidays puzzle: This one’s tricky!

April issue 2019 THE WHITTIER MISCELLANY

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