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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.