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Australia Bans Social Media

for Adolescents

by Zach Geller ‘25

From Instagram to TikTok, social media is one of the most

important ways teens stay connected. However this new modern

necessity will soon be banned in Australia for all kids under

a certain age. In late November the Australian senate passed

“The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age)

Bill 2024,” a piece of legislation prohibiting those under the

age of 16 from using social media. This policy came as a result

of News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, calling for social

media restrictions because of the advice of health, wellbeing,

tech and psychology experts. This piece of legislation passed

with almost a two thirds majority, 34 votes for and 19 votes

against. The bill doesn’t acknowledge how it will be enforced

other than fines towards social media sites, nor does it specify

which social media platforms it will apply to.

The ban is anticipated to go into effect sometime in 2025

and already has become controversial. In an article by news.

com.au, some interviewees cited that social media harms more

than helps while others disagreed: “Critics also argued the ban

would not effectively assist children and teenagers’ mental

health, instead isolating them.” Should this world’s-first policy

be enacted, it could radically change future policies adopted all

over the world concerning how governments can play roles in

controlling the internet.

Fed Workforce Facing Cuts

by Chase Sondike ‘26

President-elect Donald Trump has announced a bold plan

to restructure the federal government once he is sworn in on

January 25. His proposition involves significant cuts to federal

agencies and a shift in power away from what he describes as

“the deep state.” Trump has publically been critical of the size

and influence of the federal workforce, claiming it slows down

decision-making and is resistant to reform.

Trump looks to narrow federal staff by a large margin, as

well as decentralize agency operations. This would result in

many government employees losing their jobs or being moved

out of Washington, D.C., to other parts of the country. Trump

has appointed billionaire businessman and CEO Elon Musk,

along with entrepreneur and 2024 Republican Presidential candidate

Vivek Ramaswamy, to head what he calls the Department

of Government Efficiency. The commission is intended

to serve as an advisory body providing counsel on streamlining

the U.S. federal government and reducing inefficiency.

Trump’s supporters believe this could reduce waste and

make the government function more efficiently while skeptics

argue the idea could create chaos within essential departments

and that the plan is politically motivated. Many local elected

officials are concerned that a reduction to the federal workforce

could harm the economies and communities in the DMV.

TikTok Faces U.S. Ban

by Molly Schecter ‘27

For the past few years, the U.S. government in Congress

and through the courts has threatened to ban the app, TikTok. In

addition to concerns over its potentially harmful effect on teens,

the United States has raised national security alarms because

the parent company of Tik Tok is located in China. This month,

a U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that the platform will

face national ban unless the parent company sells the app to a

U.S. company.

Tiktok is owned by Bytedance, which is located in China.

According to DemandSage data company, in 2024 a Tiktok

user spends an average of 58 minutes and 24 seconds on Tiktok

a day, and the U.S. had 120.5 million users. TikTok, like many

other social media platforms, gathers information on users,

such as browsing history, location, and identity. With this many

American users, the U.S. government worries that the Chinese

government can possibly access the information gathered by

the app, and use it to blackmail users. Another worry is that the

Chinese government can use the TikTok algorithm to influence

users and spread false information.

Following the court ruling, TikTok has requested that the

federal court pauses its ruling, asking that the Supreme Court

review the case. The company also hopes that President-Elect

Donald Trump will intervene when he takes office, now suggesting

that he will “save” TikTok.

The Warrior • News

December 19, 2024

HS Rankings Raise Questions about Reliability

by Madelyn Awwad ‘27

and Nisha Khatri ‘26

Montgomery County Public

Schools (MCPS) performed well

in the Niche 2025 rankings. Three

schools in the district are ranked

#1 in Maryland for their grade

levels. Poolesville High School

is ranked in the top spot for high

schools, Cabin John Middle

School is #1 for middle schools,

and Westbrook Elementary is the

highest ranked for elementary

schools. These rankings indicate

that MCPS schools are strong in

academics, teacher quality, and

college prep, and MCPS dedicated

a page on their website to promote

these rankings.

According to Niche, Sherwood

is ranked highly in several

categories among Maryland

public high schools, including

academics, athletics, teachers,

programs, and diversity. It is 25

out of 217 for Best Public High

Schools in Maryland, 27 for Best

College Prep High Schools, and

34 for Best High Schools for Athletes.

Sherwood also ranks 39 for

Best Public High School Teachers

and 75 for Best High Schools

for STEM. The school is also 81

for Most Diverse Public High

Schools in Maryland.

Assistant Principal Tamara

Jennings notes reasons for MCPS

success in the rankings, including

data and feedback collection.

“School improvement is always

the topic of conversation,” said

Jennings. “Schools use a variety

of data points to set meaningful

and measurable goals for improvement.

In addition, at Sherwood,

we involve students and

parents in the school improvement

process by collecting voice

data and allowing these stakeholders

to provide input on our

School Improvement Plan.”

Although MCPS schools

perform well in the rankings,

some question whether the Niche

system is fair, equitable, or even

accurate. Schools that tend to perform

well are typically wealthier;

for instance, affluent schools located

in Bethesda and Potomac,

such as Whitman, Winston Churchill,

and Walter Johnson, consistently

have high ratings.

Private schools are also included

in rankings. Good Counsel,

for instance, received a grade

of A+ overall and grades of A+

on most of the individual sections

as well. Similar to how they formulate

grades for public schools,

Niche also utilizes analysis and

data to determine the grades for

private schools. Private schools

can additionally pay Niche to promote

them on the website.

Niche uses recent data from

the U.S. Department of Education.

When ranking schools and

compiling a value grade, Niche

considers factors such as test

scores, diversity, college preparation,

teacher quality, and information

from student and alumni

surveys. For example, Poolesville

got an A+ in academics, though

Niche does not appear to take

into account or acknowledge that

Poolesville has a highly selective

magnet program that students nationwide

can apply .

Some other MCPS schools

such as Walt Whitman and Poolesville,

however, dropped in

other rankings. The U.S. News

& World Report indicates that

Whitman is no longer in the top

100 internationally, and Poolsevile

likewise dropped slightly.

Still, the Niche rankings show

that MCPS schools are still topranked,

with Poolesville coming

in 32 nationally, Cabin John 465,

and Westbrook 908. Elite private

schools or public ones with magnet

programs usually dominate

the top spots.

Niche also contains a Reviews

section where users can

voluntarily provide a rating and

feedback. Sherwood currently has

380 reviews dating back 10 years.

Niche does not explain to users

how much these factor into a

school’s grade.While Niche leads

the market in linking schools and

colleges with students and families

and has millions of ratings,

biases persist nevertheless. By

utilizing information from current

student and alumni surveys,

information is likely biased due

to the vast difference in experiences

between individuals. Some

may favor their school strongly or

denounce it without regard for alternate

experiences of other individuals.

The data collected, moreover,

may be inaccurate if the root

source is faulty, and old rankings

become out of date and can rapidly

change. Spams and bot reviews

are prevalent as well.

It is impossible for users on

the Niche website to know where

information came from and attain

the full ratio of considered

factors. Niche is therefore a great

resource overall for students

and families at the surface level,

but people should remain wary

and look for other corroborating

sources such as US News and

Princeton Review before formulating

judgements about schools.

Language Deptartment Aims for Future Growth

by Ziv Golan ‘26

It is no secret that the World

Language Department at Sherwood

is limited in scope with the

school only offering Spanish and

French courses this year. Meanwhile,

MCPS claims to offer a

broad range of languages such as

American Sign Language (ASL),

Chinese, Russian, Italian, and

Japanese. Sherwood previously

offered ASL and Italian but abandoned

these classes due to a reported

lack of student interest.

“Enrollment dissipated to the

point that we could not keep the

programs,” said Principal Tim

Britton “For a course to survive,

a minimum of 20 students must

be enrolled unless the course is a

graduation requirement.”

It is also difficult to sustain a

large number of language courses

at a school due to staffing issues

and other problems. “First the

middle schools would also have

to offer it, and to offer a new language

we wouldn’t be able to start

with all the levels because there

probably wouldn’t be enough students

registered in all the levels in

that language,” said World Language

Department Head, Ariana

Peralta. “We would have to build

the program up from the beginning

and offer more levels as the

program grows. The other challenge

with that is that we would

only be able to hire a part-time

teacher and not full time if we do

not have the enrollment to offer

all the levels.”

Other MCPS high schools

offer a greater variety of languages;

however, those schools, such

as Blair, Walter Johnson, and

Whitman are on the larger side

in areas with a greater diversity

of spoken languages. “There are

schools in the county that offer

more languages but you have to

think about the school’s population,

and the diversity of other

communities and the languages

that are spoken in other communities

that make it so you have

more programs,” said Peralta.

With all these constraints

to take into consideration, the

World Languages Department

has moved towards trying to expand

the already existing Spanish

and French programs rather than

attempting to introduce new languages.

“My goal is to grow the

French and Spanish programs.

When I started here we had five

sections of Spanish 5 and two AP

sections and now we’re down to

one AP section and three sections

of Spanish 5,” said Peralta. “The

[student] population has also gone

down, and we don’t have enough

kids signing up for languages.”

However, the French program

at Sherwood has already

been struggling recently, especially

after long time French teacher

John Falls retired in December

2023. This school year, French

5 and AP French are no longer

being offered. There is only one

section of French 1-4.

“We’re always looking to

keep French, but it’s always dependent

on how many students

register, so if we have more students

registering for these courses

then we keep adding sections.

But if every year you have less

and less students, you can’t offer

a course,” explained Peralta.

Although it may look quite

bleak for the World Languages

Department as a whole, Peralta is

putting in extensive work to try to

build the program back to what it

once was. According to Peralta,

currently 27 students are taking

French 4, meaning that if twenty

of them register for AP next

school year then the course can

return. She has also designed an

entirely new Spanish 4 curriculum

this year to smooth the transition

to AP and possibly allow students

to jump straight to AP after

taking 4, therefore growing the

AP Spanish program. It is tough

to get students to take the higher

level courses but this change may

persuade students to take chances

and sign up beyond the two-year

high school requirement.

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