(Photo: Patterson Press)
By Joshua Carr,
Did you see Passionately Pink Day go by? That was the day students and staff wore pink to raise money and awareness to fight breast cancer on October 16. The day may have passed, but you can still give money. See Ms. Edwards in room 230. It was a great success, and we are still fighting!
(Photos: Patterson Press)
Editor’s Note: This article is written in Spanish for the benefit of our Spanish-speaking readers.
Por Jacqueline Morales,
El mundo está preocupado por lo que pasó el 26-27 de Septiembre en Iguala Guerrero de la Escuela Rural Isidro Burgos Raúl donde 43 estudiantes de la escuela iban en tres autobuses después de haber completado actividades para su escuela. Al terminar las actividades de regreso a Chilpancingo policías trataron de bloquear la ruta de los autobuses y comenzaron a disparar balas sin aviso y se perdieron 43 estudiantes a cual aún no saben dónde se encuentran si son perdidos o muertos y aún no saben que les pasó.
Hasta ahora han supuestamente encontrado a un estudiante muerto a cual tienen a muchos padres preocupados y en zona de protestas de lo ocurrido en varias zonas de México.
by Ms. K. O’Brien (formerly Flores),
Students from the programs Pa’Lante and PGC attended a rally in PG County in support of Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown last October. At the time, Brown was running for Governor of Maryland.
Students heard speeches from Congressman Elijah Cummings, Governor Martin O’Malley, Lt. Governor Brown, and even President Obama. All of the speakers sent the urgent message to get out to the polls and vote and to remember the rights that we have fought so hard to gain.
The students who attended were Franklin Aguilar, Jennifer Aristy Moran, Charles Jennings, Adiya Mason, and Heidy Ramirez. Ms. O’Brien (formerly Flores), her daughter, and Mr. Benton and his wife and son also attended the event.
Students pay close attention to Lockheed Martin presentation (Photo: Patterson Press)
By Alex Hunt,
The Robotics Club brought in an engineering contractor for the government to talk to students about pursuing a careen in engineering and technology. The guest speaker came from Lockheed Martin, a Maryland-based company that is making the F-35 Lightning II airplane for the Air Force.
The U.S. government has hired Lockheed Martin to produce a wide range of aerospace and defense aircraft, ground vehicles, missiles, guided weapons, missile defense systems, naval systems, radar systems, sensors, situational awareness tactical communications, training and logistics, and safety management unmanned systems. Lockheed Martin also makes non-military high tech devices, such as a “food printer” that uses food coloring and other materials to make food.
“The Robotics Program at Patterson is great friends with Lockheed Martin”, explained Ms. Ball, an engineering teacher and the faculty advisor for the Robotics Club. “Lockheed Martin helps kids to become interested in the engineering career and also give kids a main set of ideas of what to say and do when you become an adult engineer.”
According to Ms. Ball, Patterson students benefit greatly from the encouragement and knowledge about real-world education and careers given by companies like Lockheed Martin.
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!
Darwin Lopez pins his opponent (Photo: Shane Braden, Patterson Press)
By: Shane Braden,
The Patterson wrestling team worked hard to win their meet against Forest Park on December 10th, with a score of 49 to 19–a spectacular win for our team. At their next meet they are going to work hard to win as well to bring Patterson home another victory. Stay tuned for more on sports and other events happening at Patterson.
Students and chaperons pose on the roof of the Newseum with a view of the Canadian Embassy in the background. (Photo: Jamal Artis, Patterson Press)
by Jamal Artis
The Patterson Press went to the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on December 4. It was a fun learning experience at the museum, where we learned a lot, including about the Berlin Wall. The West Berlin Wall was the free side, where they had put graffiti art on the wall in 1986. It was East Germany, starting on August 13, 1961, that completely cut off contact with people coming in and out of the rest of the city. They also added a guard tower to keep the people in the city; if anybody tried to leave, they got shot at by the person that was in the tower. We learned a lot about the Cold War in Germany. It went on for around 30 years.
The exhibit that was the most fascinating was the 9/11 exhibit. They had a few parts of the Twin Tower from 9/11, and they found a guy’s camera that got destroyed in the fire. Some students cried a little over what happened to the twin tower that day. We also were put on the teleprompter and a video feed makes it look like we’re on the news channel.
We also learned about major bank robberies in the 20th century and the first phone, typewriter, and printing press. The trip to the Newseum was fun and a great learning experience. I hope we do it again someday.
by Nila Strong,
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.
(Photo: Patterson High School Yearbook Committee)
by Adiya Mason
The varsity football team played its Homecoming game against Frederick Douglass High School on Saturday, October 11. In the end, Patterson lost 13-32.
Even though we lost, there were a few players who stood out to me: #11-Anthony Partlow , #2-Mynard Bartfield , and #1-Mautice Greene. These three players were really showing teamwork.
Another team member that really stood out to me was #23-Kelvin Hussey. Even though we were losing, he kept telling his other teammates that “the game isn’t over” and “don’t give up”, even though they thought the chance of winning for them was slim to none. Even though we lost, our teammates know how to show great sportsmanship.
Por Lithza Juarez (traducción por Adarely Perez-Angeles),
Editor’s Note: This article is written in Spanish for the benefit of our Spanish-speaking readers. To read this article in English, click here.
Depresión es algo común en los adolescentes que provoca que usen drogas para sentirse bien, pero las drogas y alcohol son la manera más fácil para causar más depresión. Muchos estudiantes les gustan usar drogas para resolver sus problemas o simplemente para olvidarlos. Algunos estudiantes tienen mucha presión del trabajo de escuela, o puede ser que tienen problemas en su casa o en otro lugar. La escuela Patterson High School no es fácil y hay muchos caminos malos que puedes tomar. Todos necesitan un escape y casi siempre todos los estudiantes escogen lo más fácil para ellos que son drogas o alcohol.
Algunos estudiantes usan drogas porque sus amigos les ofrecen o porque les gusta seguir lo que los demás adolescentes hacen solo para que crean que son “cool” o para que sean populares. Adolescentes siempre necesitan expresar sus sentimientos y en mi opinión enojo, retraerse y drogas ofrecen lo mismo. Cuando los adolescentes tienen o sienten depresión todo lo que quieren es detener ese sentimiento o lo que sea que estén sintiendo. Alcohol y drogas son muy peligrosos pero a veces hay algo pasando en nuestras vidas que nos hacen pensar que es la única solución. Las drogas pueden ayudar a parar ese sentimiento pero también puede hacer que regrese, y por eso ellos creen que drogas son la manera de salir de tus problemas.
Padres, maestros, consejeros, y amigos pueden hacer una diferencia en la vida de un adolescente.
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