The Mirror | Van Nuys High School | Oct 2020 | Volume 107 |Issue 1

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10 | OCTOBER 2020 | | P R O & C O N | theMIRROR EDITORIAL TRUMP MUST GO VOLUME 107 | ISSUE 1 PRINT EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Andre Rodas, Ani Tutunjyan ONLINE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Aaron Mejia We’ve had enough. We can’t take it any longer. Chaos and deceit have become our norm. Trump must go. The American people managed to survive the last four years under his presidency but we cannot endure much more. The President of the United States has failed abysmally to contain the covid-19 pandemic. He has inflamed racial tensions, attacked women’s rights and made an embarrassment of the United States on the world stage. Trump knew as early as December how potentially deadly this virus could be and yet he did nothing. In January, Trump remarked “We do have a plan and we think it’s going to be handled very well. We’ve already handled it very well … We’re in very good shape.” And where are we now? Seven months into staying home, into mandatory face-covering, into online school, into missing our friends. Seven months of disarray, fear, distraction and lies. In February, Trump predicted the virus would disappear “like a miracle.” Some miracle. Not only has Trump failed to protect the United States from this deadly virus — our death toll is the highest in the world, sitting now at 219,000 — but he has failed to protect himself. Since the beginning of the year, President Trump has downplayed the danger and severity of this virus and now 219,000 Americans have paid the ultimate price for it. Were it not for his excellent (and free of charge) healthcare, I am sure Trump would have succumbed as well. Part of the President’s treatment plan included stem cells from an aborted fetus. This was only weeks after Trump nominated his pick Amy Coney Barrett, a staunchly “pro-life” conservative judge who has been repeatedly accused of letting her religion steep too far into her decision-making, to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The self-proclaimed “pro-life president” is not only a hypocrite, but he is not even truly pro-life. His atrocious covid-19 response which led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of Americans has plainly demonstrated this. Trump’s pro-life stance is deeply hypocritical, and clearly a facade kept up to maintain his evangelical base. He has promised the end of Roe v. Wade, a landmark Supreme Court case which gave women the right to safe abortion, which 61 percent of Americans approve of according to a Pew survey. The overturning of Roe v. Wade could be disastrous for women’s health. Banning access to safe abortions does not stop abortions, it only makes them more dangerous. Accidental pregnancy rates are highest in countries where abortion is restricted. If Trump was truly pro-life not only would he have not completely failed in his covid-19 response, but he would also advocate for universal healthcare coverage which could provide much needed assistance to pregnant women, advance strong and comprehensive sexual education and make contraception readily available. It’s pretty hard to call yourself “pro-life” when you actively work to tear children away from their parents and lock them in cages, when you cut programs that feed hungry kids, when you stand by while women — especially Black women — die in childbirth. Trump has fanned the flames of racial tensions and signaled his support repeatedly to white supremacist and other far-right hate groups. At the recent presidential debate, Trump not only refused to condemn white supremacists and the alt-right, but he told the Proud Boys — a xenophobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and misogynistic hate group whose members organized the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally — to “stand back and stand by.” During the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, Trump dismissed the rampant issues of police brutality and racial profiling that ravage this country and claimed the lives of thousands of Black Americans. We want a president that protects the rights of all Americans, a president who has a strong moral compass and can set an example for the rest of the country. We want a president whose sentences aren’t grammatically awkward, repetitive and full of lies. We want a president who does not aspire to be a dictator and admits to the country’s shortcomings. What we see in 2020 is Trump’s America and it will not magically change on Jan. 20, 2021. Trump is a hypocritical, pathological liar who does not deserve his place in the White House. LAYOUT EDITOR Antony Nepeyvoda CURRENT EVENTS EDITOR Shaan Bhatia PERSPECTIVES EDITOR Julia Pfau PRO & CON/SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Gwen Langi ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Kasey Kim ATHLETICS EDITOR Andre Davancens PHOTO EDITOR Ivan Delgado PODCAST EDITOR Sevak Harutyunyan BUSINESS MANAGER Isabela Diaz ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Angela Proca ASSISTANT ONLINE EDITOR Nathan Han STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS Alison Arevalo Eleonora Badikyan Adriana Contreras Melanie Contreras Daniel Espinoza Sam Eusebio Itzel Gallardo Jerry Garcia Angelina Gevorgyan Anzhela Harutyunyan Csarina “Nina” Jarencio Briana Jasso Andy Joachin Aiza Kang Terrence Lazo Monica Mazariegos Bobbie Lynn Medrano Owen Mitchell Angel Rendon Felipe Rodriguez Andrew Vega Angelica Venturina Jazlyn Xocoxic Canella Yuson JOURNALISM ADVISER Mr. Ron Goins DANGER TO DEMOCRACY Re-electing President Trump for a second term will leave America in an irreparable state. ABOUT US The Mirror is the student newspaper of Van Nuys Senior High School in Van Nuys, California, a district of Los Angeles, published six times per year. Opinions expressed in bylined commentary articles and columns represent the views of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mirror or the Editorial Board. DISTRIBUTION Copies are free to students, faculty and staff and are available in Room 112, Second Floor, Main Building. READER PARTICIPATION Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Editorial Board. Letters to the Editor may be delivered to Room 112 or mailed to The Mirror, 6535 Cedros Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91411. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space to conform to The Mirror style and format. ADVERTISING Advertising questions may be directed to Isabela Diaz at idiaz0064@ mymail.lausd.net, or by telephoning (818) 788-6800. Publication of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product or service by the newspaper or the school. MEMBERSHIPS National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), Southern California Journalism Educators Association (SCJEA) and Los Angeles Press Club. THE MIRROR | IVAN DELGADO
theMIRROR | P R O & C O N | | OCTOBER 2020 |11 THE MIRROR | IVAN DELGADO PRISONERS PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS | FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS DOLLAR FOR A DIME Major corporations are exploiting felons who are practically forced to work for nearly nothing. Some have never had a loved one labeled as a bad guy by the legal system or have never experienced a loved one being marginalized by society or never had an loved one incarcerated as a convicted felon. Those who have a friend or family member who has GWEN LANGI PRO & CON EDITOR been labeled a criminal by society have heard often disheartening stories from behind bars. One particular story could even be called modern-day slavery. Prisoners are offered jobs to make money while serving their sentence and to help remedy the boredom of being locked up. Would you take a job where you made 8 cents an hour? What about 37 cents? How about 95 cents? Inmates in the California prison system, some who work for the Department of Corrections and others who work for state-owned businesses make anywhere from 8 to 95 cents an hour. The highest paid prisoner-worker makes almost 14 times less than the state’s minimum wage of $13 an hour. Supporters of prisoner labor argue that if prisoners don’t want to work they can turn offers down, but this may be easier said than done. Prisoners without stable support systems from the outside sometimes struggle to maintain a normal life behind bars. Without any financial support from friends or BEHIND BARS &BELOW MINIMUM WAGE family, they often have no choice but to accept job offers so they can save money to start over when they get out. Or they can use the money to purchase goods such as snacks and soap in prison. An inmate might make a little money, but not nearly enough for the work they do. California state prisons charge $3.60 for chicken which means that an inmate would have to work four to 45 hours – depending on the job and its pay – to enjoy a piece of chicken. The system is wrongfully overworking inmates and rewarding them with fake luxuries that free individuals enjoy without thinking twice about. Prison labor perpetuates the idea that inmates aren’t a part of society.Prison labor is unnecessary. Incarceration and isolation from the outside world for years is punishment enough. Which companies benefit from the slave labor of U.S. prisoners? McDonald’s, Starbucks and Macy’s are just a few of many major corporations that benefit from the prisonindustrial complex. Some inmates pack beef, coffee or sew clothes. How is this different from Asian or Central American sweatshops, where laborers toil for pennies an hour? Inmates are routinely used to fight California wildfires. Is it justified to put prisoner’s lives on the line for cheap labor? Last year’s Camp wildfire couldn’t have been contained without the help of inmates from the state’s Conservation Camp Program. The best paid made only a dollar an hour and weren’t eligible to work as firefighters after their release. One firehouse engineer was paid only 37 cents an hour. Her check totalled a measly 56 dollars. The governor recently signed a bill clearing the records of inmate firefighters and enabling them to turn professional after release. Bill AB-2147 is opening new doors to those that have long been marginalized in society and judged because of their poor choices in the past. It is a step in the right direction to allow more career paths for prisoners as they integrate back into society. But a society is judged on how they treat their most vulnerable. A classroom where supporting students is a firing offense MONICA MAZARIEGOS Teachers serve a fundamental role in molding the minds of our youth. Whether students notice it or are willing to admit it or not, they act like sponges when placed in an educational environment. From movie recommendations to academic lessons, teachers exert a strong influence on students, and by extension, the communities they teach in. From the student’s perspective, a teacher’s job is to create a functional and supportive learning environment, which is why one teacher and her students were taken by surprise when her principal ordered her to remove posters that showed her support for the LGBTQ+ community and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. After her refusal to do so, the teacher was placed on administrative leave. This proposes the question of whether or not teachers should participate in this act. And if so, what are the limits to ensure that educators aren’t overstepping. In this case the punishment enacted was unnecessary because she didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing about what the teacher did endangered her students or affected her authority as a teacher. She was doing what was expected of her — supporting her students. She did this by displaying posters that encouraged acceptance. She was modelling open-mindedness for her students. By enabling students to be part of the conversation those students could then contribute to active reform if they pleased – advocating, informing, voting or protesting. These are the kinds of conversations and causes young people deserve to be a part of. Teachers often tell us students that they aren’t allowed to discuss their political views in the classroom setting because they want to prevent heated discussions that get out of hand. This is a justifiable reason for educators to remain neutral on certain issues. But in instances where educators are simply informing their students, Educators can show support of movements that are deemed inappropriate or controversial without brainwashing or forcing a set of beliefs upon their students. There is a line that can be crossed but in this instance there were no blurred or TOO PROGRESSIVE Teachers risk losing their jobs for educating students about current events. SOURCE | TAYLOR LIKIFA crossed lines. There is no reason for Black and LG- BTQ+ community members to have conditional human rights. There is no reason for crimes against these communities to occur as often as they do or to be normalized as often as they are. There was no valid reason for any teacher to be disciplined for showing Black and LGBTQ+ students her support and solidarity. The teacher was reinstated, but it’s important to remember that the school district would not have reversed itself without public backlash, which included an online petition with over 33,000 signatures. The district was plain wrong. One school administrator told the teacher that the small town’s residents weren’t ready for her progressive views. Support for BLM and gay rights are a matter of basic morality and principles — not politics. What the BLM movement has exposed is that too many Americans are uncaring, unprincipled bigots. It has revealed just how little American society has progressed in terms of racial equality over the last fifty years. The school administration wanted to suppress BLM and gay rights, but ironically ended up shining more light on them.
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The Mirror | Van Nuys High School | Oct 2020 | Volume 107 |Issue 1

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