Category Archives: Public Safety

Asesinato de estudiantes en México provoca protestas (SPANISH)

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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.

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.

EMT students participate in fire department thrill show

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Patterson EMT students pose with Fire Chief Ford (left), Lt. Governor Anthony Brown (center) and EMT teacher Jason Casey (right) (Photo: Patterson High School Yearbook Committee)

By Dabreonna Waddell,

The Baltimore City Fire Department held its annual Fire Department Thrill Show at its training facility on Pulaski Highway on October 4th 2014. This thrill show has been an ongoing event put on by the department to gives the public a chance to see how and what the fire department really does.  The thrill show has been running for several years.

I along with several other Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) students in the Patterson High School EMT program were invited and given the opportunity to participate in the thrill show. This was a very exciting experience and I had lots of fun. The opportunity gave me the chance to interact with children by doing arts and craft such as face painting, and demonstrating and modeling how firefighters suited up and wore fire turn out gear (fire equipment). We were able to interact with firefighters and fire apparatus.

While at the Fire thrill show, we also had the chance to meet and interact with new people, including the new fire chief Mr. Ford and also Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown who was running for Governor of Maryland at the time.

I believe going to this event has given me and the others a better opportunity at becoming an EMT because we met two these two important people now that they know our name and faces and see that we are very interested in this career and they may help us out in the long run with getting an EMT job.

This experience was very fun and interesting. It gave me a better understanding of how things are done and it also showed me what my EMT teacher, Mr. Casey, loves to do. I am very interested in coming back and helping out again.

 

Patterson hosts 4th annual community fair

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A youth percussion band performs at the Community Fair (Photo: Patterson Press)

by Xavier Williams,

Patterson High School held it’s 4th annual community fair and back to school night inside the school’s cafeteria on September 25 from 5:30 to 8:00. It was held to motivate students to help and support their school and get help from their community.

At the community fair there were different organizations sharing some services to students so they can help them be successful in the future. So many great colleges, companies and non-profit organizations came like, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center,  Morgan State University, Towson University and the University of Baltimore, New York life insurance and the Real Food Farm. One of the people that worked at the University of  Baltimore explained that they had come to the fair to “[recruit] students to come to the university and to inspire them to go to college”. There were more people from different groups that participated in the community fair, including a United States Marine who said he is looking forward to speaking with male and female students to help them become successful.

There was a belly dancer, flamenco dancer and hip hop dancers as well. The hip hop dancers were male students from Patterson who did an amazing  job performing at the fair.

I asked Mr.Benton,  “After seeing the laughter and happiness here at the community fair do you think that Patterson High School will be a top 500 school?” and he said he always believed Patterson High School would be a top 500 school and that the school strives for greatness.

I agree with that 100 hundred percent because we do strive for greatness and after seeing how great the fair turn out to be i’m just really proud of my school.this years community fair turned out to be a blast. Everyone enjoyed it, they danced they laughed and they ate. It felt like they were happy to be there and they had a great time. People who were at the fair expressed that next year’s fair will be even bigger.

CHECK BACK LATER FOR MORE PHOTOS (OR SEE THEM ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE NOW)!

Curfew law goes too far (OPINION)

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(Illustration by Shane Braden, Patterson Press)

by Regina Bell,

The Baltimore City Council passed a controversial new curfew law on August 8th, 2014. According to the Baltimore Sun, “[c]hildren under the age of 14 have to be inside by 9 p.m., while teens ages 14-16 have to be inside by 10 p.m. on school nights and 11 p.m. on non-school nights”. The curfew law stipulates that if you are under the minimum age and the police catch you violating the curfew, your parents have to pay a $500 fine.

I think that the curfew law should only be for children under the age of 14, because some teenagers have jobs or do other things to earn money, like babysit. I feel as though teenagers are not going to get the experience they need in the work field if they can not work the hours that are required.  I do not think that they should get picked up by the police for certain things like coming home late from hanging out with friends, coming from school, or a sporting game. It is not fair to the young people who are doing good and staying out of trouble after the curfew. If their school is too far from their home than the police should not have a problem with them coming home late. I think that if they are doing a good deed then they shouldn’t get taken away for being late. I think that young people should have a certification card or document that says that they have a job and work later than ten o’ clock.

I asked some other people in my community and school about the curfew law, including Ms. England, Patterson’s community liaison. Her opinion is that people in the neighborhood should help the kids to go inside their house during the curfew time. She also said that they should have recreation centers open for teenagers that stay open until around ten o’clock. Additionally, she believes that the police should be friendlier towards the kids and not harass them. If they catch someone breaking the curfew, they should take them to a recreation center close to home rather than putting them in jail.

I with agree her because some people’s parents cannot afford to come pick up their kids up from jail or another far-away location, so their kids have to stay there until the police decide to release them on their own. I do not think that is fair or appropriate for a young person who was not doing anything wrong but only getting home late. I also think that parents should automatically stay on top of their child or children about them coming home late because something can happen to them and their parents might not know where they are.

In conclusion, I believe that while there may be a need for some kind of curfew for younger children, the new curfew law is too strict and unfairly punishes teenagers who are not doing anything wrong.

Student mentors help freshmen avoid making the same mistakes

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Illustration by Shane Braden, Patterson Press

By Ty’Shawn Key,

Individual Advancement Mentoring (I.AM) is a peer mentoring program started last year by my brother Alonzo Key. I.AM was created because too many students throw away their freshmen year. Whether it is due to chasing popularity, getting involved with the wrong crowd, focusing on other things, having too much fun, or just pure goofing off, every year a large percentage of students squander their Freshmen year. I.AM was designed so we can get that year back. Our goal is to reach the minds of our incoming freshmen classes, and influence them to get on the path of having a more proactive high school career through the acts of peer mentoring. Our mentoring uses the simple tools of motivation and enlightenment through student voices. Older students are acting as the big brother or sister figures that some of our younger peers may lack. These mentors are a select few members of this year’s senior and junior classes.

The program is supervised by Mrs. McIntosh, myself and several other upperclassmen, including Kwynten Brooks, a star player on the Patterson Clippers Boys Basketball team, Johnny Alvarez, an amateur skater and photographer sponsored by Fly Geenius, Jamahl Loney, a DECA Regional competition placer, and several other decorated individuals. Together we are actively trying to change the lives of our Patterson 500 Family’s young men and women, the future faces of our school. Our mentors sacrifice every other Tuesday and Thursday Futures period to shed some light on these young individuals, so that they can have the advice and help that we all wish we had as freshmen.

Olagoke Sanusi, one of junior leaders, described working with the freshmen as an experience that he would never forget. “Never would I imagine that me and my few life experiences could ever really help someone else with their life and situations just by talking to them about it”, he said. “It put me in a position where I was that external factor for someone else. I was the one who decided to either give them the assist, or let them get fouled…”

This has been one of the best years of my entire high school career, and it’s not because I’ve been accepted into the school of my dreams or because I have achieved some of my personal goals. It has been one of my best years because I can now leave my school saying I helped change someone’s life. As the saying goes, “a diamond in the rough shines its brightest only after someone picks it up to polish it.”

If you know of any intelligent, caring, respectable, productive and well-spoken individuals who will be juniors or seniors in the fall, please direct them to Mrs. McIntosh’s office for mentor enrollment for next school year.

 

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Patterson launches anti-violence campaign

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Students model clothing in a peace-themed fashion show (Photo: Mr. Canty)

By TyShawn Key,

It started with a bang. Punches were thrown, mace was sprayed and cameras were rolling. Television sets everywhere all over the city were tuned in to see the set of malicious brawls going on at Patterson High School. A school once known for its success with career pathways and production of superb athletes is now being depicted by the mass media for its “jaw dropping” fights. What happened? Where did things go wrong? Did things go wrong? Does this article really represent Patterson?

The media has this picture of Patterson colored in with the dirt found around the outskirts of the boundaries of our school, only showing a certain aspect of it. They’ve taken one extreme incident, and exploited it to make it seem as if this type of thing is a norm for our school. The media has attacked us, but will anyone respond? Is there one who has the gall or can muster the courage to take a stand for our school–for our Patterson family?

Our response is a new campaign called Patterson for Peace. Designed by Mrs. Shanell England, Patterson’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Patterson for Peace was created to reduce the level of violence in our school. The campaign was created because of fights like the one mentioned above. Mrs. England wants to change the community’s perspective of Patterson High School. She wants to show them what Patterson is really about. Patterson for Peace is calling for a full month without any fights at the school. The ultimate goal of this thirty day period of peace is to completely change the vibe of Patterson.

No longer will Patterson be known for its fights. Soon it will hopefully be known for its unity, peace, sports career pathways and other positive accomplishments. Under Mrs. England’s leadership, Patterson for Peace has already partnered with several outside businesses and organizations that have agreed to aid its efforts. Mrs. England understands some of the problems being concealed in the children of today, and knows the struggles of not having enough resources to solve these problems. Her ultimate goal is to reduce this problem. No longer should there be a “I don’t have” response  if there is ever a need in the mouth of Patterson 500 Family member. Mrs. England ultimately wishes to evoke, or rather resurrect, the spirit of brotherhood at Patterson, making it an even better place.

Most recently the Patterson for Peace organization presented the school with a fashion show where gorgeous student models graced the student body with their best expressions of peace through fashion, strutting their stuff, and making swag the ultimate understatement. Also, students have been creating many beautiful works of art promoting the message of peace. Some of this artwork can already be seen decorating the hallways. According to Mrs. England, this is just the tip of the iceberg, meaning that the best has yet to come. Patterson for Peace has promised to provide even more exhilarating events and jaw dropping experiences, along with many other character and confidence building activities.

Mrs. England would like to make a shout out to all of the beautiful models and everyone else who has volunteered their time, and the Patterson 500 family for keeping up with her. She looks forward to further engagement with the students, faculty and staff and sends her best regards to the Patterson 500 family. Anyone who wishes to take the Pledge for Peace or get involved with the campaign should see Mrs. England for more information.

(Photo: Mr. Canty)

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