Category Archives: Departments

Ms. Ball Wins “Teachers are Heroes” Award

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Ms. Ball, winner of ABC2 Teacher Hero award (Photo: John Dingzon, Patterson Press)

Ms. Ball, winner of ABC2 Teacher Hero award (Photo: Amadou Bah, Patterson Press)

By John Dingzon,

This year’s nominee of Teachers are Heroes was Ms. Sharon Ball. She was nominated by her colleague Mr. Nicolas Yates. Ms. Ball used to be an Engineer; now she’s a teacher at Patterson High school. She teaches Engineering classes, coaches Robotics, and mentors students in STEM programs.

She won the award of Teachers are Heroes, sponsored by MEW & ABC 2 News. Ms. Ball said when she found out she won, “I was surprised and excited.”

Ms. Ball would like to thank her colleague Mr. Yates for getting nominated so she could receive the award of Teachers are Heroes.

 

Freedom of the Press Matters (OPINION)

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By Justist Rice,

Freedom of the press is very important because it gives everybody a right to voice their opinions and express how people really feel. There have been more and more victims to police brutality every day. People’s families have been broken because of the deaths of family members at the hands of police abusing their authority. There are so many people who are hurt and angry. They all have stories to tell, and freedom of the press helps them tell their stories.

Government censorship affects journalism in a very bad way, because it blocks out and ignores very important facts,  making it difficult to tell the whole story. Before Freedom of the Press, people weren’t allowed to voice their opinions, and if they did they were either arrested or bullied, and were stopped from writing–period.

There are limits to Freedom of the Press, such as libel, fabrication, and invasion of privacy. All these things are forbidden. People are not allowed to publish false statements to damage someone else’s reputation. It’s also forbidden to invade someone else’s privacy, meaning you can’t take a picture of someone if they are not in a public place. Similarly, you can’t hack into someone’s emails or messages and post them online.

In many states, reporters for school publications do not have the same rights as other news reporters. In many schools, student reporters are not allowed to talk about certain things, such as politics. The Maryland New Voices Act, which went into affect this October, allows student journalists to exercise freedom of speech without prior restraint. It gives student reporters a chance to express their opinions on any topic. Freedom of the Press is essential for people who want their voices to be heard, who are tired of being overlooked, who want to vent to the world.

Volleyball team shuts out Douglass

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Douglass Varsity vs Patterson Volleyball ( Photo by Justist Rice)

Douglass Varsity vs Patterson Volleyball ( Photo by Justist Rice)

By Justist Rice,

The Patterson Clippers had an amazing game against Douglass on September 16th at home. They showed their big hearts and used their skill and strength to carry them to victory. The Lady Clippers went undefeated; they won every round. The scores: first round 25 to 16, second round 25 to 11, third round 25 to 12.

Varsity coach Mr. Murray was super exited. He was so proud of his team. He knew that his team was going to take this victory and use it as fuel for the next big game. This was by far the best game of their season. Let’s hope the lady Clippers can keep up the good work.

The Election of 2016

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Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump (photo is copyright free)

By Faran Nadeem,

As we all know, the election of 2016 is only a couple days away. This time it’s going to be big. The reason for that is some people still don’t know who are they are going to vote for.

The Narrator, also known as Tyler Durden (a famous actor and artist), says on his website, “Voting for president is like picking out which gun you wanna get shot from”. Amadou Bah, a student at Patterson High School, chooses Donald Trump because he says, “Its better to have an idiot rather than a criminal”. On the other side Sartre Ndebaneza, another Patterson student, chooses Hillary Clinton because according to him, “bad is better than worst”. So maybe this time people don’t have a favorite person they are going to vote for; they will just choose the one which they think is the lesser of two evils.

There is an interesting debate going on between the two candidates, Trump and Clinton. Donald keeps bashing Clinton about her emails and Clinton is bashing Donald by calling him a bully. According to BBC News,”Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has looked past a fresh inquiry about her emails to label Donald Trump a ‘bully’ who insults women.” Also according to the BBC News, Clinton is about 1% ahead of Trump in the polls (11/06/16).

It’s your right to vote. Everyone who is 18 or older should go and vote for the candidate you like the most.

Volleyball team puts up tough fight against Digital in season opener

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Douglass Varsity against Patterson Lady Clippers. (Photo by Justist Rice)

Douglass Varsity against Patterson Lady Clippers.
(Photo by Justist Rice)

By Justist Rice,

The Patterson Lady Clippers volleyball team (both JV and Varsity) lost to its host, Digital Harbor, in the first game of the season. Although they did not win, the Clippers played a wonderful game. They put forward all their effort and that’s all that matters. The final score for JV was 25 to 14; for Varsity, 25 to 20.

”Our number one thing we have to work on is serving; good serving wins games”, said the JV coach, Ms. Heggins. The server for the JV team, Erica Purvey, had this to say: ”Next game is going to be different. It was our first game and we were a little rusty but next game we will be ready”.

The Varsity coach, Mr. Murry, had a positive outlook. ”We played a good game. Everybody did their very best. All we can do is stay hopeful and get ready for our next game”, he declared.

The all star player for varsity was Tatyana Matthews, who made an amazing hit on her knees. The captain of the girls varsity team, Memi Desta, pointed out how much the team has already improved since the previous season. ”Our team from last year to this year really progressed and we are only going to get better”, she insisted. The good sportsmanship that the Lady Clippers have has made them true winners even though they lost this game.

Coding Club is Back to Making Apps

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Coding club (photo: Mohamed)

by Mohamed Alhamdani

Coding Club is back at it again!

Coding Club is an inspiring way to learn about computer science, Cyber security and a lot more things about the internet-even apps. In Coding Club, you can make websites; it’s about developing knowledge that is useful to have. In Coding Club, you learn new things that it is very far beyond the average human knowledge. It can give you a pathway of engineering or computer science.

“Coding club is a fun that to learn,” Mr.Yates said. “And at Coding Club, we have fun and snacks. We make a lot of things that you will like.”

Now you can even get the Patterson app. Download it on Playstore or the App Store.

Coding club is on Wednesdays after school in Mr. Yates’ room, #110, at 3:45. All are welcome.

Forsett and The Ravens part ways

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By Anthony McNeill,

After a week 4 loss at home against the underrated Oakland Raiders, not even 72 hours after the game, the Ravens cut veteran running back Justin Forsett. I think that was a bit of a bad decision because their running back group needs a leader to set the example for the young backs the Ravens have.

Justin Forsett is a veteran so I don’t think that was a good move. If the Ravens don’t sign a veteran running back that has experience with playoffs to give them a edge in close games, then the young guys will freeze up in critical moments .

Everyone knows the name and number of Justin Forsett (#29). Getting rid of him wasn’t very beneficial and was a big loss for the Baltimore Ravens . During the 2014-2015 season Forsett’s rush yard total was 1,266. It would have been beneficial for him to stay because when he came to the Ravens it was his first year rushing for over 1,000 yards.

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.

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