Category Archives: Opinion

Students should be allowed to leave the building during lunch (OPINION)

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(Thrown food around the lunch room) -photo credit Marina Siebor

By Marina Siebor,

I believe that students should have the ability to freely leave the lunch room during their lunch time.

Currently we are not allowed to leave for lunch because people are leaving and not coming back. Personally I think if you are going to leave for lunch and not bother to come back you shouldn’t be able to leave to go buy a lunch. However, students who are being responsible and coming back on time should not be punished for the actions of others. 

My reasoning behind this is that during lunch some students might not enjoy what we have for lunch that day and just want something else to eat, but didn’t bring anything to eat that day. Then what? Should students go the rest of the day without eating? We can’t have that happening. That is just my opinion on the matter.

I asked a student in my class, Jordan Gabel-Peralta, about this, and he said “I think people should be able to leave as long as it is guaranteed for their return. I see no harm in it as long as they return within 15 minutes, or in enough time to eat and go to their next class”.

Another good reason for this is we have no place to sit in the cafeteria. There are way more kids in lunch C than any other lunch period in the school. There are too many kids in the C lunch so some kids don’t have a place to sit at lunch. You will see kids standing up, eating by the air vents because they have no place to sit.

A helpful suggestion is that we create a system where if someone would like to leave the school for lunch they would have to see a staff member at the front door of the school building to gain access to the outside. They would have to sign a piece of paper with their name on it and the current time, promising to return. If they do not return before the lunch period ends then they should be marked absent for the rest of the day and their parent or guardian would be contacted.

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(People putting their lunch trays on the air conditioner due to there being no more room on the lunch tables) – photo credit Marina Siebor

In conclusion, I think students should be allowed to leave the school grounds to buy lunch, because people won’t always like what the school has for lunch and would like a little bit of freedom.

Inside the mind of a teenager

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photo from Wall Street Journal

Photo from Wall Street Journal

By Jessica Branch,

All teenagers make stupid mistakes that one day they may look back at and laugh. But then there are some mistakes that can’t be undone and some become detrimental. Studies have found that it’s not the case that some teenagers don’t always think about a situation they may be involved in; they just can’t always come to a clear decision like adults can.

Just think of it like this: If you’re on a diet and see a slice of pepperoni pizza, are you more likely to just glance at the pizza before eating it or stop and think about the pros and cons?

You can think of it the same way as a teenager. Our brains don’t move fast as adults. They don’t fully form everything we should take into consideration and we tend to just look at what we’re getting out of the situation that would be “fun”.  Teens take an average of 170 milliseconds longer to go over the consequences of a decision, which in turn makes them more likely to decide the risk is worth it. For more information about this, go to:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11739219/Revealed-Inside-the-mind-of-a-teenager.html

It’s okay to make mistakes when you’re a teenager but you have to start thinking outside the box when you’re an adult. Some teenagers don’t realize that since their brains aren’t fully functioned like adults, that they can start now by making good decisions to get their minds processed and functioned like adults and it wouldn’t be as hard if they tried later.

It’s okay to make great decisions because great decisions form you into a great person. So the next time you’re stuck between choosing your diet and that slice of pepperoni pizza, choose the right thing.

Achieving Academic Success As a Student Athlete

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By Aleem Prince,

As a student athlete, sports take up a lot of your time, so it can be almost impossible to make time to study. However, that should not be an excuse to do poorly academically. The life of a student athlete requires a great amount of dedication and determination, not only to succeed in sports but also academically. Practice is held every day and sometimes you are exhausted, but you have to create a balance between practice and class schedules. Therefore, it is imperative to learn proper time management.

Time management is key when you are a student athlete. When you can manage your time, it becomes easier to study, to practice and even to hang out with your friends every day. A great way to manage your time is to make to-do lists before going to bed at night. Write a list of all the activities you have to perform the next day. This helps you to plan and to always have a clear idea of all your obligations. When you complete an activity, cross it off the list. Then you enjoy the great sensation of completing tasks without stressing. By managing your time, you will not be frustrated, especially when you have a hectic schedule.

Many student athletes are ‘stars’ on the court, the field, or anywhere they play sports but when it comes it academics they struggle. As a student and an athlete, you should strive to succeed in both areas. In the future, if you become a professional athlete and you suffer an injury or choose to change career paths, you will have an education to fall back on. Hence, always try to achieve and maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 so you can get into a good college.

Attend class, take good notes and listen to your teachers. Students who do not understand the value of education might try to discourage you but you have a choice to make: do you let that discouragement get to you or do you persevere?

To succeed will not be easy; there will be many obstacles to overcome including people telling you that you will never succeed. Indeed, it will be hard but you should always think about your goals, visualize the end product of those goals, then work relentlessly to achieve them.

Could our smart phones be making us dumber?

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By Diana Nguyen and Manuel Aguina,

Kids today have phones, laptops, and other electronic devices that have games and are ways to communicate with others. The reason many kids have low grades and act rudely, and why people may say this generation is messed up, could be these electronic devices. Some of the people kids communicate with online could be a bad influence because these people are sharing inappropriate things, trying to make others think they are cool.

Phones distract people nowadays because people get lost in them, like its the phone, and not their surroundings, that is their one and only focus.  Twelfth grade Patterson student, Adarely Perez, says, “Phones are making us less intelligent because they are too much of a distraction.”

Also, eleventh grader Jordan Dennis says, “Phones are making us lazy in the way that you can connect with people faster and it makes life for a teenager easier.”

Most people nowadays focus on their social media status. Social media did not used to be so common on mobile devices, so when it first came to mobile devices, people were hooked on it like a drug. On devices now, it is common to see people sending tweets, posting statuses, or sending pictures. It has grown to a point that in schools, students just look at their tiny screens and forget everything else.

Although phones may sound like they are making us dumb, they can also make us smarter. Our mobile device is a highly intelligent device. “IPhone or Samsung Galaxy in your pocket is actually an incredibly sophisticated networking computer”, explains Andrew Keen, author from up front magazine. Some people don’t really understand the power that they have in their pockets the power to use a super calculator, write stories, or even edit movies, but they rarely use those powers. Apps on mobile devices help people edit movies, read books, get news , and also can help learn new things about a specific subject from science to math. Mr Mello says “No. Phones make us dumb only in the way we use them, but they are really good learning tools.”

The point is that phones can be seen as bad and good. Many people can argue that phones are making us dumber but they only see the social media  side of phones. People who see the social media side to phones only think of selfies, videos, and chatting. Other people can see the technological side of the phones, they see that phones are a learning tool. The people who do see the tech side of phones see the immense power like problem solving to reading books.

Clipper Corner Predicament (OPINION)

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By Taj Beatty,

I love going to the Clipper Corner (Patterson’s school store). However, the teachers don’t necessarily want us to chew, eat or drink anything that we buy from the Clipper Corner. You know we all have multiple teachers that will not hesitate to say, “No Gum! No Drinks!”. Yet when they sell it at the Clipper Corner you think, “Oh–they sell gum, so I guess since they sell it, I’ll be able to chew it in class”. So where does the confusion end?

Studies show that when you chew gum while taking notes on a test, if you chew the same flavor of gum during the test, it”ll help you remember your notes. Crazy, huh? Well, I guess teachers just want us to rely on pure brain memory, and to see if we’re actually paying attention.

So don’t be mad at the teachers, they’re just trying to do their part. If you want things to change, ask your teachers and Coach Kelley about this Clipper Corner predicament.

While you’re at it, ask yourself another question: Do your health and gym teachers want you to eat unhealthy snacks before class starts? The candy and chips cause loss of energy and tire you out. You wouldn’t want that–especially if you have a swim meet or a football game. In fact, in all sports we all know that we need a lot of energy and fuel to dominate and destroy the other team. You don’t want to pay the price and lose the game. So maybe eat some fruit and drink some milk.

Still, everybody wants a tasty candy bar once in awhile, which is why you should get your snacks after school ends so you can have it as a treat to yourself, knowing you survived another day of school. Just make sure you make it to school fast enough to get to the Clipper Corner. That’s one more reason to get to school early!

Those are my thoughts on the subject. Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Spread the word and we’ll figure out the Clipper Corner Predicament!

Incarceration does not deter drug use, student survey suggests

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by Nila Strong,

Edited by Ms. Kirsch’s Creative Writing class

This semester, our Creative Writing class received a visit from Ms. Kelly Burke, Patterson’s Sr. Rehabilitation Therapist through the Department of Community Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. She spoke with us about drugs and how they can affect our minds and bodies.

Her visit inspired us to look deeper into the issue, so we created an unscientific anonymous survey that asks questions about drug use and drug possession laws. For example, we asked questions like “Do you feel putting people in jail makes them stop using drugs?” We found that, of the almost 200 people we surveyed, 161 believed that putting people in jail does not make them stop using drugs. People wrote down their reasons for their opinions. Many said that they knew people who had gone to jail and had just as easy a time getting drugs in jail as on the streets. One person wrote, “We are doing this [putting people in jail] but I haven’t seen something change.”

Yet those surveyed, mostly Patterson students, did believe that many drugs are dangerous and that laws should be changed, not to make drugs more accessible, but to keep people safer.

We came up with the questions by having discussions about drugs and possession laws. We asked each other questions and we brainstormed, too. Creating and administering a survey was a great way to find out more about an important topic.

 

Darren Wilson’s acquittal was the wrong decision (OPINION)

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By: Xavier Williams

Protests and riots broke out in Ferguson, Missouri after a  grand jury decided not to charge Darren Wilson with a crime on November 24th, 2014. Darren Wilson was a  Ferguson police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teen, Michael Brown, on August 9th.

When I found out that the jury had let Darren Wilson go, I was very upset, because what he did to Michael Brown was wrong and insane. I mean, how could the judge be so stupid to let that sick man go? It’s just not fair to the family of Michael Brown; Wilson doesn’t deserve to see another day free at all. Michael Brown was a very bright young man. He didn’t deserve to die like that; he had so much life ahead of him.

The judge had no guilty charges on Officer Wilson, so he decided to let him go. Its like history is repeating itself: it gets more and more dangerous for everyone in the United States of America, and it’s not fair. I believe that the grand jury should have charged him with murder because he killed a boy who was innocent with no intention of hurting anyone at all. He had his hands in the air and Wilson shot him multiple times.

The Michael Brown case is an example of  what goes on in other cities, including here in Baltimore, and how police officers get away with doing bad things to African-American people. This is not okay; it’s not okay because it’s racist and people should stand up against it.

Why do students use drugs?

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By Lithza Juarez,

Depression can be a common thing between teenagers. That may lead them to use drugs to make them feel good. Also, drugs and alcohol are the easy way out. Students are more likely to use drugs to solve their problems. They have the pressure of school work and then there may be problems at home or somewhere else.

Patterson high school is not an easy school, and there are a lot of wrong paths to take. Everyone needs an escape and most of the time, students will choose the easy way out. Teenagers always need to express their feelings and, in my opinion, anger or withdrawing and drugs offer both.  When a teenager is depressed, all they want is stop feeling whatever they are feeling. Alcohol and drugs are very dangerous, and sometimes there can be episodes in our lives that makes that behavior, though dangerous, the only solution.

Drugs may help the feeling stop but the feeling will come back, and at that point they will think that drugs are the way out. Parents, teacher, counselors, and friends can make a difference in a teenager’s life.

Para leer este artículo en español, haga clic aquí .

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