Issue 4: November 28, 2 - Lake Stevens School District #4

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8opinion November 28, 2012 Check out more photos on Facebook at “Lshs Valhalla” Lunchtime Freedom An open campus would provide students with many benefits “The ability to ensure an open campus for our school would let students show their responsibility.” An open campus at school would be great to some. Being able to leave school during lunch and taking the choice to not have to eat school lunches, or even going home to take a quick power nap, what’s bad about that “I think an open campus would be kind of awesome because we could have lunches better than the ones served at school,” sophomore Camryn Dietrich said. However, as there are many reasons why an open campus would benefit the students at our school, there are many reasons why the school chose to close campus. “It probably isn’t allowed now because the school could lose track of the kids, if there is an emergency at school, teachers wouldn’t know where people are and wouldn’t know whether or not they need to search for kids within the buildings or if they’re safe and just aren’t on campus,” Dietrich said. Also, some students don’t always love the lunches here at school and would prefer to go home to make their own lunch for themselves. “I think it would be good because the school lunches are not very good, and it gives students more freedom,” junior Alexander Verhoeven said. In my opinion, Lake Stevens High School should include an open campus. Open campuses are a fantastic way to let students know they aren’t being fully controlled during lunch. It gives them freedom to do what they please during their lunch break. “Don’t fence me in”: no more shortcuts New barriers bother students and block off easy pathways Walking from the 400 building to the cafeteria not all students have noticed little changes that happened over summer break. Certainly a few of the veteran juniors and seniors have noticed that the shortcut to the grass in front of the cafeteria has been blocked off by awkward rails. “When I saw that there were rails there [by the cafeteria] it honestly pissed me off, not just because it was unexpected, but also because it feels a little bit restricting,” said junior Tyler Baggs. Likewise, I personally enjoyed having the quick get away when things became really jammed up between periods. The traffic in between classes is still just as bad. Now, students decide to jump over the bars, which could end badly if they ever happen to misstep. If they wanted people to get off the grass, it didn’t work out too well. “Some rails were left out of a previous construction project, so we finished the job at a nominal cost. Our Facilities Department works very closely with the school to address maintenance and safety needs... Students can assist in the effort as well by notifying a building administrator or teacher about repairs Photo by Chloe Rowland Over the summer, the maintenance team put metal bars connecting the railings around campus to stop students from cutting across the grass by the commons. needed,” said Robb Stanton, Director of Operations Services. The high school seemed like it treated its students like adults, but now it seems like the school officials want to keep students controlled like pigs in a pig pen. The railings may reduce students from going directly from the dirty grass to the cafeteria, but it doesn’t stop them from walking all over the lawn or putting themselves in risky situations by jumping over the slippery metal. This is another pointless addition to the school, when there are much more important things to take care of, like the broken cement benches and the beat up lockers. More could be done to the school to make it more appealing to the eye and give the students a somewhat more beneficial environment for learning. Girls are fed up with domestic stereotypes Students give their opinion on the saying “Cool story, babe, now go make me a sandwich” There are always stereotypes about the roles of men and women, such as women belong in the kitchen and men belong at work to support a family. Recently, some students have been wearing T-shirts that say “Cool story, babe. Now, go make me a sandwich”. This t-shirt design comes across more like a joke than anything else, although the message it portrays is not exactly right for the sake of women’s roles. A lot of people view these shirts as just a joke not thinking of the deeper message. “It’s not degrading if she makes a great sandwich,” senior Brenon Thompson said. Teenage boys are just acting like teenage boys. They don’t care or know any better, and they view those things as jokes more than as serious disrespect towards women. Jokes at girls’ expense are funny to boys; sure, part of it is human nature, but most of it is just immaturity. “I think the ‘make me sandwich’ joke is degrading because many men think making a sandwich or cooking is all we can do or are good for,” junior Brittany Willis said. In this day and age basically nobody is raised with a stereotypical stay-at-home Photo by Marissa Fredrickson Juniors Izel Thomson and Andrew Ralph act out the “Make me a sandwich” stereotype that annoys most girls. mom like it was many years ago. Most women want a career of their own and plan to build their own life without relying on men to do it for them. It’s wrong for men to think otherwise of women, they are good for many more things than cooking and cleaning. Women do everything men can do and sometimes, do it better. With regard to college graduate rates, “Women aged 25-34, 42% had earned an associate or bachelor’s degree, while just 34% of men of that age group had done so,” according to mainstreet.com. Women and men are becoming more and more equal every year, and more women are getting an education to have a career of their own. These shirts shouldn’t be allowed at school, just like any other inappropriate shirt. The shirts are degrading to women in a society that still needs some work on equal rights, and the message on them is negative towards women.
Check out more photos on Facebook at “Lshs Valhalla” November 28, 2012 opinion9 Twitter is the new Facebook This social media giant is surpasing the previous leader in popularity Facebook has been at the center of social networking ever since the infamous Myspace days ended. However, tough competition has risen in its place. Twitter is a fun, less annoying and more efficient go to site that many, including myself, have come to prefer. Facebook has been our shoulder to lean on for a long time, but will that change “Twitter is easy to post on. Something happens and you pull out your phone and tweet about it. Facebook posts are typically longer,” sophomore Julia Chalk said. Although Facebook offers much more room for words, I know from experience that many people use it for all of the wrong reasons. From whining about 45-minute relationships to quoting conversations nobody else cares about, kids take almost too much advantage of it. It’s connecting with friends, not making friends want to hit their head against a brick wall. “People think it’s necessary to post all of their issues and cry about stuff that is irrelevant to any person with a brain,” junior Karissa Seiersen said. Twitter users do their share of whining, but somehow, it’s a completely different atmosphere where the 140 character blurbs about life are somehow much less bothersome. Users on Twitter actually relate to each other. There’s less obligation to follow people you don’t really like. “Twitter is a place to vent, to say what you’re doing, where you’re going and anything else you want and everyone loves each other for it,” Seiersen said. While Facebook seems to have everything networking wise, Twitter has a secret weapon: the retweet button, the place to capture words you like. The only downside is when people go crazy with it. Photo art by Chloe Rowland “You can “retweet”, which is kind of cool, unless you retweet everything you read, which is what half of the people I follow do,” junior Nathan Moore said. The hashtag is slowly taking over the world, one word starting a trend that will take over your feed for about a night. “The power of the hashtag is underestimated,” sophomore Jack Petterborg said. One major downside to Twitter however, is that inner curiosity isn’t totally satisfied. Facebook allows users to log endless albums of pictures for sharing, commenting, liking and just safekeeping. Twitter only offers single posts with pictures in them. This not only makes it harder to capture more, but also makes it so that Twitter provides less snooping opportunities. “On Facebook, you get to stalk people. Their pictures, videos.... relationships,” Seiersen said. Facebook does defeat Twitter when it comes to keeping in touch with family. Something to think about is that the older generations are probably going to stick with Facebook. Quickly typed messages take up less time than hour long phone calls to distant relatives. “I am connected to a lot of family that I don’t see regularly on Facebook,” Chalk said. While Facebook is something that we are all used to, it’s like a frenemy, which we’ll all get tired of eventually. Twitter is working itself in more and more every day, making its way to the top. Hola Vikings, I have noticed in the past few weeks that guys have been becoming less and less chivalrous. And I don’t mean that every guy has to be a knight-in-shining-armor, but every girl would like to have a guy open and hold a door for her every once in a while. Just last week, I was walking to class, going through the 400 building, with my hands full and this guy was in front of me, I knew he saw me, and he went through the hallway door and then slammed it in my face. I felt annoyed it was a rude gesture. I clearly couldn’t open the door because my hands were full yet he didn’t care. Its common courtesy to hold a door open for someone. I feel like manners have been going down the drain as the years go on. I’m not sure if it is because we are teenagers or if the younger generations are just being raised with fewer manners. Well, whatever it is, common courtesy needs to be on everyone’s mind, and a note to boys; girls like when boys hold the door open for them, just FYI. RANTS AND RAVES “I hate that I don’t get to leave campus at lunch. That is something that I want to do, that my brothers got to do.” – sophomore Jarod Hampton “I love when teachers plan your homework around your sports schedules to give you more time.” – sophomore Tehya Harney “I love to go mountain biking. Especially up at Stevens’ Pass Ski Resort.” – junior McCager Bryant “I hate when I’m waiting for my coffee in the morning in the Cove and I get stuck behind a big group of people who think it’s okay to let their friends cut.” – sophomore Austin Sutherland Unnerving Misconceptions Scientists debunk controversy surrounding the 2012 apocalypse The ancient Mayan Civilization’s Empire—what is now Central America—reigned from 300 A.D. through 900 A.D. They constructed an elaborate calendar system with an end date of December 21, 2012. Nowadays, some people view this end date as the Mayan Prophecy of an apocalypse. As the clock winds down to this possible doomsday, I can’t help but feel just the least bit uncomfortable. However, while I don’t view it as a silly belief, I still don’t think the world will be ending anytime soon. Many think the world will come to an end through a zombie apocalypse, but according to the Mayan Prophecy, the Earth’s solstice will align with the sun and the “center line” of the Milky Way Galaxy on December 21, 2012. Known as the Galactic Alignment, it is supposed to cause mass destructions to our Earth due to as solar flares, meteor impacts, polar shift, the collapse of our magnetic field and the absorption into a supermassive black hole located at the galactic center. “If there is one, it’s [going to] be awesome,” junior Cassandra Bennett said. “I think it will happen [through] natural causes like tornadoes or earthquakes.” However, scientists think otherwise and are far more reliable than a modern man romanticizing the story behind a 1,300-year-old calendar. According to NASA, these alignments occur every year. They hold no significance and pose no threats to Earth. Even the Mayans of today are protesting against the deceits, lies and the twisting of the truth. They claim that people are turning them into folklores only to gain profit. The end date of the Mayan Calendar truly signifies the end of a cycle, not the end of the world. Recall the Y2K bug scare back in 2000 marking January 1, 2000 as an apocalypse. People believe that a computer bug would crash many computers and cause catastrophe leading to the destruction of our society. The myths surrounding the 2012 apocalypse became so popular that movies have been produced based on it, further proving that people are trying to feed into it to gain money. But the 2012 myth may be just one of the other 200 debunked end-of-world predictions as the world remains intact to this very second. “I don’t buy into all that stuff,” junior Austin Elmore said. “If some people think Michael Bay movies are that convincing to believe in 2012, then let them believe. I’ll just sit here and watch all of [them] look stupid.” No matter whether the theory is true or not, it is still very unnerving to know and hear that some people believe the end is near. I cannot be 101-percent comfortable until we make it past the winter solstice alive, but I won’t be scrambling and stocking up on supplies or sending out goodbye messages. But if for some divine intervention the world does cease to exist on December 22, 2012, let’s all hope that it won’t be because of a zombie apocalypse. photo courtesy of creative commons.org
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Issue 4: November 28, 2 - Lake Stevens School District #4

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