It was the night of Feb. 16, and the Santa Clara Superior Courtroom had fallen silent as the De-fense made their opening statement. It was like any courtroom murder trial on Law and Order: formal suits, impeccable diction, and a constant air of high tension. Only a few key differences stood out; there were only three jurors in the jury box, and no one on either side was over 18. The Mock Trial Quarterfinals were well underway, and teams from Leigh and Prospect High Schools faced off for an opportunity to move on to the next round. Prospect beat Leigh by a small margin, but we had a great season, according to the team. The team was set for success by their consistent sense of motivation that came from a variety of sources.

Though a common assump-tion is that anyone who takes part in Mock Trial must be aiming for a career in law, each team member has a differ-ent reason for joining. Liishi Durbin, Leigh’s Co-Captain, isn’t striving to become a lawyer. “Mock Trial is probably the best extracurricular activity I could have,” Durbin stated. “It [not only] teaches [us] about poise, professional-ism, and the law, but it incorporates aspects of theater, debate and writ-

ing.”

From right: seniors Mikey McFarlane, Tuananh Pham, junior Aaron Shuler, and freshman Chris Wyman after the Quarterfinals.

An Independent Publication of Leigh High School

March 18, 2010Volume 48 Issue No. 5

See “Caffiene Dependency”, Page 13 See “Oscars”, Page 15 See “Olympics”, Page 19

Before hearing which Leigh High School activity evoked the above sentiment, most people would expect that some kind of sport, or perhaps the traditionally-spirited Marching Band would be described by the words. Contrarily, the words came out of the mouth of enthused “Rumors” cast member Trevor Fox when asked about the show. Though the rehears-al I viewed was only the group’s third, strong bonds of camaraderie were evident in a relaxing environment that radiated friendliness. Led by Leigh’s first ever student director, se-nior Shannon Clark, the group sat in a circle for Improv, a practice in which the actors talked in an impromptu unscripted conversation similar to one in the actual script. Throughout the exercise, the actors laughed with each other as if they had all been longtime friends. “We’re like a family at this point. A fam-

The Bay Area plays host to its share of mysteries. From the backyards of San Jose and through the woods to Santa Cruz, myths and stories fly about amongst the locals. But which of these hold true? The Eleight investi-gates to discover which sto-ries are true and which we can leave for the campfire. Hicks Road, San Jose Hicks Road: a beauti-ful mountain road linking the cities of San Jose and Almaden or a nesting ground for a colony of Albino people? “I believe in [albinos],” said junior Michelle Blacklock. Students from high schools all around our area drive the dark and windy road late at night and dare to discover whether or not this age old myth holds true. “It’s fun to ride up there with the windows down and dark…it’s creepy,” said junior Kelsey Bayer. Those who catch a glimpse of the secrets that lie within these hills swear to see glaring eyes amongst the trees, skin so white, you’d swear it was a ghost. Are these rare encounters made up

Kelsey GripenstrawEditor-in-Chief

Varija YelagalawadiStaff Writer

ily of friends who get together—you know, some people go to clubs, we go here!” expressed Fox, who plays Ernie Cusack, a “badass therapist with a ditzy wife”. “We’re rehearsing with friends, and she’s our friend, and we’re at a dinner party with friends in the play,” said junior Lauren Weber, who plays

Claire Ganz, “a sarcastic, self-centered woman” mar-ried to Lenny Ganz, the main character of the play. Lenny Ganz will be por-trayed by senior Wes Bar-tlett. “I play Lenny, and I’m kind of an impor-tant guy,” explained Bar-tlett. “I’m a friend of the guy who’s hosting the party we’re going to.” “Rumors” is the

story of ten friends at a dinner party who soon discover that their host has killed himself and that his wife is missing. The play is about their struggle to figure out the truth about the incidents and to create a story to tell the police when they’re inves-tigated.See Rumors, Page 04

stories, or is Hicks more than just a scenic route?

Mystery Spot, Santa Cruz“Hello and welcome to the Mystery

Spot.”Located in the

mountains of Santa Cruz, The Mystery Spot draws skeptics and believers alike to discover the true mystery of a place of the unknown. Its visitors find it nearly impossible to explain the behavior of the land, proving it to be an unexplained phenomenan.

“Not everything is what we expect at The Mystery Spot,” described tour guide Melissa. “If we knew what it was, we would have to call it The Solved Spot.”

The Mystery Spot was discovered in 1939 when a man named George Prathers bought the land and began to notice some strange happenings to occur. He found that it was impossible to stand up straight (since upright was a hard position to determine), and surfaces that proved to be scientifically level were, in fact, not—all of it strange behavior. Numerous scientists and other professionals have visited this 150 foot diameter of mystery, yet no one has bee able to solve the conundrum.

Rain StitesEditor-in-Chief

Pictured above: Singers at Café Français on Feb. 26 in the cafeteria

First-ever student-run spring play begins rehearsals‘Rumors’ leadership and cast experience ups and downs of theater, prepare for April performances

Unriddle the enigmas: Bay Area mysteries exposed

Leigh Mock Trial 2009-2010 Co-Captains, seniors Emma McGhan (right) and Liishi Durbin bond at the team’s Welcome Potluck on Oct. 10.

Mock Trial

Photos courtesy of Meredith Moseleyn

Lc

lo

The 2009-2010 Mock Trial A and B Teams

smashes its way to Quarterfinals

Durbin, usually an attorney, filled in as one of the prosecution’s expert witnesses for the Feb. 16 trial. Even though mock trial competitions are simply a simulation of courtroom trials, the anxiety and pressure are very real. “[It’s] challenging. It’s terrifying. It’s an intense amount of work and effort. But it’s all worth it, especially for the adrenaline rush,” said Vivian Le, Prospect’s defendant.

The three jurors during the competitions were actual attorneys simply volunteering their time. When time came for their comments, each one agreed that the effort and presentation we put forward was “phenomenal” and that the entire trial consisted of “some of the best cross examination” they had ever seen. Though Leigh’s team will not be continuing to the finals, they are already thinking towards the next year. “It was awesome,” Mock Trial coach Ms. Moseley said of this season. “It’s sad, [that there are so many] seniors, and they’ll be leaving next year.” When it comes down to it, Mock Trial is much more than a simple game of dress up. It requires mental and emotional strength, determination, dedication and quick reflexes. Many countless hours are spent writing and rewriting, practicing and reviewing, but every minute is well worth it in the end. During the Quarterfinals on Feb 16, Leigh’s Mock Trial team put on a performance filled with proper poise, cross exami-nations that left Prospect cornered, and an air of professionalism that led to a very near win.

See Bay Area Myths, Page 12

Photo by Rain Stites

Photo courtesy of Jordan Powell

Senior cast members Marc Williams and Analisa Maurice rehearse.

ino

r

e

d

n

u

G

sn

moments

Shannon KeenerStaff Writer

where students can first change them-selves, then change things locally, and finally they can change things globally. “[We’re] taking a look at [stu-dents’] habits—healthy habits vs. un-healthy habits, and what things they could do to change that to better them-selves as well as better their community and better their world,” said TOPS ad-viser and Health teacher Jenifer Taylor.

Students involved in TOPS work to help fellow students with any problems that they may have and try to make the world a better place. To make this happen, TOPS has given out Cuties (Mandarin oranges) and friend-ship bracelets to students, each with a different message telling you that you are a beautiful person and that there is always something you can do to make

a change for the better. Flyers advertis-ing community service were also passed out to students encouraging them to get involved in the community. Wednesday, Feb. 25, was all about self-change, and the tables in the quad were filled with white bal-loons and speeches given by members in TOPS. Also, TOPS students could be found walking around with packs of Orbit gum, as a symbol for cleanliness, and flyers with a change challenge ask-ing students to clean their mouths and get rid of all their trash talk. There was also a booth that was giving out Cuties to remind everyone that they are cute and beautiful in their own unique way. “I thought the outcome was really creative and fun. I went on Wednesday and there were a lot of people,” said sophomore Taylor Buckelew. Thursday, Feb. 26, was about local change, and green balloons with inspirational messages written on them could be found floating in the sky and tied around TOPS members’ wrists. These sayings were there to motivate students to help out in their commu-nity by doing community service, such as volunteering at a soup kitchen or cleaning up a park. To motivate stu-

dents to clean up the campus, bags of popcorn were handed out to every stu-dent that filled up a bag of trash. Vol-unteer applications were handed out to those interested in helping out locally. Friday, Feb. 27, was a day to in-spire students to change things glob-ally. Due to the weather, the tables that were usually in the quad had been moved under the overhang in front of the cafeteria. Friday’s rally was all about changing the world and what you can

do to make our Earth a bet-ter place. Peace around the world was a major inspi-ration to TOPS students, so they created ideas on how to support peace and make other students realize how much of a difference they make in our

world. “I don’t know if it’s about the volume of the people that show up. It would be cool if we made this huge im-pact on campus, but even if we could impact one person that’s enough. Just making any difference is worth it,” said junior Chloe Elliott, a TOPS member. Altogether, the TOPS week reached out to the hearts and minds of Leigh students, encouraging them to change for the better; they feel that as soon as you change yourself, you’ll be able to change the world.

Photo by Tom Nelson

We’ve all seen it: the balloons, the posters, the students with matching shirts all trying to draw you to decora-tive tables that are set up in the middle of the school. All of this exists because the TOPS (Teens Offering Peer Sup-port) class has created a week of change

Even if we could impact one person, that’s enough. Just making any differ-ence is worth it.

-junior Chloe Elliott

TOPS members Tony Santilli, Katie Werner, Stacey Steadman, Chloe Elliott and Elyse Eitel help out with individual, local and global change activities during the TOPS Week of Change.

of monththePhotos of Café Français courtesy of Tuc Nguyen

Photo by Tom Nelson

1. Gleigh Club members come together on Fridays at lunch to practice.2. Attendees at Café Français on Friday, Feb. 26 enjoy the atmosphere as they eat a four course meal. 3. Juniors Alan Prijatel and Victoria Nguyen perform a duet at Café Français.

“It’s like ‘Clue’ with less whodunit and more comedy,” said Weber. While the actors seemed to ac-knowledge Clark as their superior, it was clear that the rehearsal was an atmosphere in which all input was welcomed; everyone in the circle was equal. The actors feel that this environ-ment will reap definite benefits to the final product, especially considering this play’s subject matter. “All of them are my friends, and they’re not just my friends, they’re my best friends,” said Clark of the cast. “And they weren’t picked because of that—there are people in the class that I had never seen before. But everybody was picked because they were perfect for the part.” “Basically with Shannon we can say whatever we want, and she can go along with it,” said Bartlett. “I think if Mr. Ringsted were running it, it’d be different, because all of us are friends. We can be our characters who are really inappropriate in person.” “Mr. Ringsted’s cool, but he’s not a student, so there are parts [of the script] that would just be kind of awk-ward,” agreed Weber. “With Shannon, we all know her, and she’s at the same level as we are. It’s a little bit more relaxed,” said senior Ca-ity Crooks, who depicts Cookie Cusack, the wife of Fox’s character. “[When we’re

Rumors: continued from front page

and plans to attend either Humboldt or San Francisco State University. “There have been some complica-tions and there has been some drama, but I think for the most part it’s really brought us closer together,” said Clark. One of those complications, Clark explained, is maintaining the close-knit environment at rehearsals while still keeping a sense of author-ity, and though recent challenges have

told to] memorize six pages, we’re like, ‘Alright! That’ll be fun!’ You feel more motivated to do it, because somebody that you respect at your level is asking you to do it. You choose to do it; it’s not forced upon you.” Currently in Drama 4 Honors at Leigh, Clark has independently directed three projects and has assistant-directed three full-length productions. She as-pires to pursue a career in directing film,

made this problem more prevalent, the cast is pushing through to master the script and overcome them, “Sometimes it gets really hard to work with your friends, because you don’t really want to tell them what to do, because you want to be at the same level with them. It’s so hard to tell this person what to do and then go sit next to them in English. But when you get the right people, you’re able to get that balance, when they respect you as a di-rector, and also respect you as a friend. And I think I’ve found that.” The cast agreed with Clark’s de-scription of her relationship to the class, and showed respect for her directing methods and abilities. “She’s obviously a student direc-tor, but she knows exactly what she’s

doing,” said Bartlett. “I’ve been in other things she’s produced, and she’s doing a great job. She knows exactly what she wants to get done, and she’ll get it done.” “She kind of puts faith in us that we’re going to do what we have to do to get it done. She expects us to memorize by the time we come, so we have to put less emphasis on some things in rehears-al because we have stuff to do outside of rehearsal too,” said Weber. The cast feels that their work will pay off, and that Leigh will enjoy watching the play as much as they enjoy creating it. “I think it’s gonna probably be the biggest play Leigh’s ever had,” said Bartlett.-Kelsey Gripenstraw, Editor-in-Chief

Seniors get a chance to explore possible futures with a Career Day

On Tuesday, April 27, Leigh High School will hold its first Career Day for seniors. The Career Day will feature individuals experienced in many different industries, who will answer questions and share stories of personal experience. Seniors were given a survey and were asked to select their top three career fields from a list of 15, some including Public Services, Fashion and Interior Design, and Fi-nance and Business, to help the Ca-reer Day’s coordinators plan the event.While freshmen, sophomores, and ju-niors take the STAR test, seniors will be learning first-hand from people in their field of choice. Career Day will begin with a keynote speaker, and then students will join their group of choice. “There will be 40 to 50 adult vol-unteers from 15 different career fields helping us deliver these sessions at Leigh on April 27 and 28,” explained Vice Principal Jodi Edwards-Wright. “We’re proud to partner with Xilinx Corporation and Junior Achievement as well as the County Office of Edu-cation to help our seniors learn more about the career fields they will enter over the next five to ten years.” Tonette Slaviero, Work Experi-ence teacher, and Alyssa Lynch, Career Technical Education Specialist at the Santa Clara County Office of Educa-tion, are the two main coordinators of this event. Lynch believes that this event will be beneficial to Leigh se-niors, for those who are both sure and unsure of their future plans. “We want to get the seniors ex-cited about their future as well as give them a realistic picture of what will be expected of them when pursuing their field of interest,” said Lynch. “In these economic times, we want to do everything we can to help prepare students for their next steps af-ter they graduate. Career Day will help them learn more about specific career fields they might be interested in ex-

ploring after high school,” commented Edwards-Wright. Edwards-Wright started attend-ing Career Technical Education con-ferences at the county level, where she learned of these types of events. She explained that parents would often in-quire about whether Leigh would ever hold a Career Day. Slaviero, who has taught Market-ing and Career Education classes for 23 years said, “ I feel that students will probably have a few different careers in their lifetime and some of those jobs may have little to do with their college major. Our recent state of the economy has shown us that many adults are go-ing back to school to learn new skills and changing careers.” Slaviero’s Work Experience class will be serving as mini ambassadors for the event and will be walking around answering questions about the Indus-try Sectors. Those involved in coordinating this event are excited in the prospective success, and strive to make Career Day beneficial for all seniors. Leigh seniors also agreed that this event will be suc-cessful. “This is the time when seniors can reflect on what we want to do in

life and realize that we are graduating soon. We realize that this is the time when we need to figure out what to do for the rest of our lives, what our pas-sions are, and how those passions can be our job,” said senior Javier Nino. “[The career field surveys had] enough variety, they were specific. I’m excited; I want to check it out. I have an idea of want I want to do [as a ca-reer] but I want to check others out as a backup. Plus I am happy we don’t have to take the STAR test,” agreed senior Analisa Maurice. The next day, students will be taught tips on interviewing and resume writing. “The Xilinx/Junior Achieve-ment Day will help students build specific skills such as resume writing and interviewing skills they will need to land a job after high school,” said Edwards-Wright. On the final day of the three-part event, Activities Director Gina Nico-letta will guide the students through the senior end-of-the year activities. “Senior announcements, gradu-ation tickets, possible guest speaker, caps and gowns, senior prom, and purchasing Grad Night tickets [will all be discussed]. The senior panoramic photo will be taken,” added Nicoletta.

Budget cuts strike again

Newspapers and magazines everywhere are slathered with news about state deficits and budget cuts in education. Schools are being shut down, class sizes are being increased drastically, and some of the best teach-ers are being laid off. “I guess there’s nothing we can do but wait [until it hits us],” said ju-nior Sasi Pasupuleti. But there isn’t much more wait-ing to do. Starting from as early as this summer, the impact of budget cuts on our district will be evident. Summer school, a program generally offered every year in the CUHSD, will not run (except for Spe-cial Education courses) in the summer of 2010. “This is [horrible]. I didn’t think it would hurt us too much…I failed a semester of math, now I can’t do that over summer,” said an anonymous sophomore. In the next year or so, the district will be preparing to reduce the num-ber of guidance counselors in each school from three to two. Some teach-ers are also expected to be laid off, but it has not been made certain whether this will occur next year or in years to come. “We do not want to do this. If the government suddenly says they’ve found the [millions of ] dollars we need, we wouldn’t do this,” claimed a member of the Board during their meeting to discuss our financial situ-ation. During the meeting, many stu-dents taking classes such as AVID and TOPS accompanied their teachers to make sure the programs would not be cut. The Board later stated that they had no intention of cutting either course, since they had shown tremen-

dous positive changes in students who took either class. Vince Nicoletta, the union pres-ident for the teacher’s association, was able to discuss this issue at length. “We basically look out for the best interest of teachers,” said Nico-letta. “We have to manage with less money.”The proposed reduction is for $3.6 million dollars, and a reduction of around 19 full time teachers. All staff should be expecting a 3 percent roll-back in their salaries, staff given pink slips can hope to be rehired as the economy’s state improves. Statewide, 23,000 teachers have been laid off. Though money is hard to come by, especially in the state of our econ-omy, our school is still adding a new elective for the 2010/2011 school year. “We [already have] less electives. We need to create variety, and we en-courage [existing] teachers to create new and interesting courses,” said Ni-coletta. After justifying the addition of Psychology as an elective option, Ni-coletta tackled another touchy topic: cutting courses. Currently, which courses will be cut is not known, but it is fairly certain that sports will not be in danger. Home Economics courses (Foods, Child Development, etc.) are rumored to be at risk, though nothing can be truly certain at this time. Many teachers mention that the addition and cutting of classes from the school’s curriculum is a yearly occurrence, and is not related to the budget cuts as the school board decides which classes to keep based on student demand. The upcoming years will be dif-ficult, at least until the economy rises out of the recession. But as Nicoletta stated, “This isn’t just a one time blip in the road. [It] will happen again. [We] just don’t want it to keep getting worse.”

Keli DemertzisStaff Writer

Photo courtesy of Jordan Powell

Director Shannon Clark, senior, leads the cast in a read-through of the script at an after-school rehearsal. The cast rehearses after school every day of the school week except for Wednesdays. As the year grows closer to an end,

Leigh faces more budgets cutVarija Yelagalawadi

Staff Writer

Beth AskinsStaff Writer New beginnings are always awk-

ward. Bonds are tenuous, either one or both of the parties unsure. No matter how confident or naturally expert any of us may be, we’ve all been experienc-ing gawky new beginnings our whole lives. In the tender young era of infan-cy we clumsily greet the ability to walk - “Okay, alright, I’m doing it! Greet-ings, increased mobility! Yeah, left foot forward, right, left, right, le-heft! Oof! Well, hello there, theory of grav-ity. Bringing me down, buddy.” F r o m then on, our lives continue to be a series of introductions: “Hello, growth spurt. Whoa, new voice. Acne! Yeah? Screw you, too, pal! Let me introduce you to my friend benzoyl peroxide. Ah geez, what’s up, AP class-es. Hmm? You have someone you’d like me to meet? Sleep deprivation...not pleased to make your acquain-tance. Go away, shoo! Wait, not you, sleep. I said sleep deprivation! Wait, sleep, come back!” Well, you won’t see that fellow again until you make acquaintances with the inside of your coffin. Then, all too soon, the morn’ of your seventeenth birthday rears its bit-tersweet head. If you’re a muggle, you rejoice in the fact that in one year, you shall be legal! We wizards, however, come of age at seventeen. Lagging muggles. I jest, of course. But I digress! Seventeen. An age that is truly the in-between. Sixteen was still inno-cent and young - sweet sixteen it is for a reason. Eighteen bears more risque and adult connotations. So seventeen is the stepping stone year, really getting the momentum going for the transi-tion from childhood to adulthood. Which means more awkward begin-nings! But again, I digress. I am an awkward person, more so than most. If you’ve met me, you either think of me as one of the follow-ing three people: A) a very shy person who rarely speaks but is amiable in her laconic ways, B) a strong BAMF who is extremely outgoing, talkative, and capable of intimidating you when necessary, or C) a strange but amusing combination of the two, a la Jekyll and Hyde. If you’re on the badminton team, you know that I counter everything you say with comments about your mother’s flexibility, talk like an eru-dite sailor who peppers her oaths with Shakespeare, and can kick your derri-ere and won’t pansy about doing it if you deserve it. If you’re in any of my classes, you know that I turn bright red and stay that way for 20 minutes, and sound not too unlike the Tin Man squeaking “oil can” when made to speak. I know that this is a situation that’s not altogether uncommon. Many of us have awkward personas, usually in class or in large groups of people. Awkwardness takes its toll on one’s lifestyle. With friends, I am the one that you worry about the most. I am the crazy one, the loud one, the one that’s willing to take risks in the name of having fun. I make quips with inappropriate connotations, I enjoy innuendo-laden banter like no other. Yet in classes where I am not sur-rounded by a barrier of friends, I am the silent one. The quiet, nice girl who

keeps to herself. And being super awkward, I make other aspects of life awkward. Having gone on a semi-related tan-gent, I return to the subject of begin-nings, and focus back on awkward be-ginnings. I have a boyfriend now. Yes, me. Unbelievable, ennit? Simply typing that sentence makes me feel strange. What business do I have being able to write that as a true statement?

N o w , most couples, e s p e c i a l l y those at this young age characterized by hormones that run high, 24/7, and well! They certainly don’t run away from each other, hide, or tentatively

avoid each other. Quite the opposite, as I’m sure you’re well aware. I, on the other hand, am insuf-ferably awkward around him. I am un-sure of whether I should go up to him and say hi, find myself bursting to say something yet wholly at a loss of abil-ity to say anything in his presence. I’ll be blasting and singing along to “I’m On a Boat” with my girlfriends, but as soon as he walks up, I find myself clamming up and instantly rendered a shy, blushing maiden. Where lies the relevance in this? Why is all I’ve said so far so disjointed? Where is the cohesiveness, you ask? Awkwardness. It’s awkward. Be-ginnings. They’re awkward. Writing about them is awkward. You can’t make a piece on these things flow well. And why am I babbling about them? Because I’ve noticed in my sev-enteen years that all of us are awkward. No matter the GPA, the ability to ex-ecute a perfect dance routine, the con-fident bagging of a 2300 on the SAT, we’re all awkward in some way or an-other. I was partly inspired to write about this because in recent months, there have been several of you, both la-dies and gentlemen, that have told me about how lucky I was to be “cutely awkward”, rather than “looking like a freakin’ idiot like me”. To which I must counter with a scoff and a reassurance - honey, I am very awkward. Not always “cutely” so, either. I must then relay the anecdote of how I couldn’t hold hands with my boyfriend until over a month into the relationship. People pestered us about the glacial pace at which we were mov-ing. I even had two weeks of prepping, where I held a friend’s hand in each class I had, everyday. Lunch periods would be spent with a sandwich in one hand, my best friend’s hand in the other. Finally, one lunch period, he demanded that I replace my friend’s hands with his. I pleaded for another week of practic-ing, just another day, even! But at my friends’ insistence, I awkwardly stood up, awkwardly shuffled over to him, and awkwardly let him take my hands. Awkward, awkward, awkward. Luckily, he’s sweet enough to un-derstand and be patient. So, dear reader, I have reached an awkward end to this awkward column. Doesn’t the word “awkward” look awk-ward now? My hope is that you derive some relief from this disjointed jumble of words. We’re all awkward. We all have clumsy beginnings. We are human, and to awkward is human, and to forgive and under-stand it, divine.

An awkward dissertation on awkwardness

Varija YelagalawadiStaff Writer

Commercialism mars society and influences our decisions

Pledge to say the pledge of allegiance

Every weekday at around 10:15 a.m., the announcements are drawn to a close as nearly everyone in class stands up for the Pledge of Allegiance. It has become a habit for the majority of us to rise and place our hand over our heart whenever we are asked to, but we cannot help but notice that a few of us do not. Generally, it is not a matter that both-ers us or the teacher, and class carries on as it always does. But on occasion, teachers call out students for not saying the pledge or even force them to stand up during it, an act considered il-legal because it violates a student’s First Amendment rights. However, the increasing number of students refusing to say the pledge is not what bothers or concerns most

people. “If you’re not going to say that pledge, at least sit or stand respectfully. Don’t talk right through it, that’s just disrespectful,” said junior Jacque John-son. Many students, regardless of their actual feelings towards the pledge, loudly socialize with others during the twenty

seconds allotted. For some reason, they feel the compulsion to talk about their weekend, APUSH, or that crazy party they attended last night right at that specific moment, thus insulting everyone who had the decency to respect our flag.

It is not mandatory for students to recite the pledge every morning, as it shouldn’t be, but it should still be given a little respect. We may have our own reasons for not pledging our allegiance to America, but the fact of the matter is that we do

currently reside in this country, and many have sacrificed so much just to make our lives better. We owe them, at the very least, a little respect by not in-terrupting the pledge.

Sophomore Colin Lefrancois doesn’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Photo by Tom Nelson

It is not mandatory for students to recite the

pledge every morning, as it shouldn’t be, but it should still be given a

little respect.

Yeah, I think that society is becoming materialistic because people get judged on what they wear and their style.

-junior Jason Manley

I think it’s based on that it can mea-sure on how popular you are.

-freshman Ryan Thomas

Yes I do believe it is. I think part of it has to do with technology. The more advanced we become with technology, the more focused people become on those items that carry or promote technology. I think that unfortunately in society, mate-rial objects show the value of success.

-Band director Suzanne Holden

Photos by Vivian Nguyen

Yes, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing because it just shows the evolution of our society, and if that’s the way society is meant to evolve, then why dispute it?

-senior Keon Vafai

Valley of the Heart’s Delight. Before the invention of the computer, before the dawn of the microchip or even the birth of the famous Steve Jobs, this was the name of our valley. Flow-ers, trees, and orchards blanketed the county, and houses were only sparsely

scattered across a vast county of green. Obviously, the valley was well-named. Take this image and contrast it with one of the modern-day Silicon Val-ley. The names of some of our streets re-flect the paradise that once was, but apart from that, virtually no remnants exist from the county’s past. Our downtown consists of metal and concrete; chain res-taurants and stores coat the once-natural

landscape, and only one orchard remains in San Jose, an orchard which will soon be torn apart for the sake of a new Ikea. Some people like having a Star-bucks on every corner. Some people mourn the loss of greenery and the vast growth of commercialism not only here, but everywhere. This trend is an inevi-table one. Here’s how Leigh students feel about it.

Students no longer show respect toward the flag

Quotes compiled by Emalie Chandras

The Eleight, various students and a teacher speak out on the extent to which commercialism has taken over

Many students revere prestigious schools for the name and everything that comes with that name, rather than the colleges’ actual worth.

Something that would fit me and something with low gas mileage. Nothing fancy. -freshman Krystal Soltani

What do you think is the perfect teenage car?

Jaguar SF. -junior Spencer Thresh

A gas efficient [car] that I wouldn’t feel bad about ac-cidentally crashing. -sophomore Sadie Williams

Compiled by Josh Vasquez and Rebekah Hassen

Chrysler 300. All black. -senior Cameron Ahmadian

What’s in a name?

Human nature dictates that we gravitate for the best, regardless of whether we deserve such or are right for the best of the thing in question. In the past few years, competi-tion for college entrance has explod-ed, and the pressure to go to those schools which have strong enough auras of prestige to be deemed “good colleges” has grown proportionally. Many seniors find themselves apply-ing to schools that are not necessarily right for them, but applying because of the school’s well-known name. “I applied to schools for that reason [famous name and rep-utation] before I had an idea of what I wanted to major in. I thought that since I was unde-cided, I’d pick the best I could and hopefully it would fit with my major,” said Sabrina Prijatel, class of ’09. When applying to the designer label schools, like the Ivy Leagues and top pri-vates, students admit that they are not truly serious about being blessed with admission. Rather, it’s lucky shots in the dark that they’re attempting, ready to accept rejection, but hop-ing for the small chance that they do get accepted to a school that annually gets ranked in Forbes Top 30 Schools in the Nation but not the right place for them. These schools may offer too rig-orous a program, and overwhelm the student that somehow slips through the elite gates of a top school. “Some of my friends applied to

Stanford hoping to get in. My friends said it was their parents’ money for the applications, anyways. But I don’t think it would have been worth the time,” said Lucas Phi, class of ‘08. Those who find themselves granted admission into the casually decided upon “reach school” that they applied to last-minute often quickly find that their blessings are actually

curses in disguise. “Some friends I have went to a good school but got there and figured out it wasn’t for them, and they de-cided to leave after the first year,” said Prijatel. So not only must they find a new school, they must go through the hassle of explaining to school offi-cials, friends, and family why they are switching schools after their freshman year, settling into a new environment where everyone else has already found their circles of friends and know where the buildings are, and retaking cours-

es that may have proved too difficult at the previous school, just to name a few of the dozens of inconveniences and hurdles that students in the same boat as Prijatel’s friends must face. “Don’t choose a school based on its title unless the school has a strong reputation for the major you are pas-sionate about,” cautioned Prijatel. Rather, students today need to

calm down and shake off whatever the Jon-eses’ children may be doing. Attempting to keep up with them will help with very little, and may likely be detrimental instead to your own future. Your mindset and confidence will be damaged if you al-ways feel inferior and believe that you must at least try to match their success. You may look to the wrong major, thinking you must be a doctor, and be miserable as you scrape through medi-cal school, graduate $100k plus in debt, and spend the rest of your career being un-happy, then find your-

self wishing you had just followed your heart

when you were young rather than be-ing in this mid-life crisis now. This isn’t just for this year’s se-niors, who are steadily receiving those coveted fat packets of “Yes! You may attend our school!”. Juniors, sophomores, and even freshmen—I’ve heard those big brand names being tossed around the halls as we talk about our futures. Don’t skip over the college that is The One for you simply because it’s not a well-known school, and instead attend a better-known institution where you don’t reach your full potential.

Annie JungEntertainment/In-Depth Editor

AP classes are worth all the headaches It’s 2:30 in the morning and I’m desperately fighting off that sweet temptress, sleep. I’m juggling my AP Spanish vocabulary list and my AP English notebook, and my bed is a distant oasis in the bleak desert that is my homework load. As I stumble on, three-fifths asleep, I ask myself: are these AP classes really worth it? Despite the late hour and the large magnitude of yet-to-be-com-pleted work, I consistently come to the conclusion that when it comes to APs, the outcome is worth the tribula-tions; no pain, no gain, right? Granted, the vast majority of AP classes entail a great deal more work than your average honors or on-level course. If one succumbs to the cruel Lord Procrastination, then enrollment in AP courses tends to result in higher levels of stress as well as nights be-reft of sufficient sleep. However, this downside can, with determination, be overcome by properly budgeting one’s time; the workload of AP classes may suck free time into a Bermuda Triangle of “Where’d all the hours go?”, but it’s certainly possible to take multiple APs and still arrive at school well-rested in the morning.

The difficult task of balanc-ing assignments is made significantly more demanding when one chooses to take more than one AP course.“I always have trouble deciding how much ef-fort to put into each class,” said junior Alex Ko-sintsev. “Like I might decide to do homework for one class and study a lot more when my grade in that class starts falling, and in the pro-cess I let another class grade fall.” A n o t h e r downside of tak-ing AP courses is that they tend to produce a tunne l - v i s i on effect in which students focus only upon their grade and not upon the education; APs can be time-consuming and stress-induc-ing, and it’s easy to see the tangible outcome of earning an A while miss-ing out on the personal benefits of the

knowledge gleaned from the class. “APs can be very stressful, espe-cially if you take many,” said junior Andrew Lau, who is taking three

APs this year. “Sometimes it’s not to understand something, but just to memorize it so that you can regurgi-tate it back onto paper for a test so that you’ll pass, which really defeats the purpose of higher learning; it also

gobbles up time for extra-curriculars and sports.” The looming AP Exam in May is undoubtedly important. Accord-

ing to the College Board, more than 3,600 universities annually receive AP Exam scores; in the same vein, over 90 percent of U.S. four-year col-leges provide credit and even advanced placement for high scores on the exam. Given this, it’s obvi-ous that APs can be a boon to any high school student’s re-sume. The other imme-dia te ly-apparent academic benefit of AP courses is the fact that an extra GPA point is added on one’s transcript;

students rejoice as their Cs become Bs and their Bs become As. “The great thing about taking APs is the challenge you overcome by taking a college-level course,” said Lau. “It also benefits by raising your

GPA and making yourself stand out to colleges.” Although passing the AP Exam with flying colors is the aspiration of every AP student, the true beauty of these classes is the greater degree of knowledge that they impart. The rigorous coursework can be daunting and even overwhelming at times, but at the end of the day, taking AP cours-es enriches the high school experience in that doing so provides an opportu-nity for a deeper exploration of one’s academic interests. While choosing classes, keep in mind that you should only take APs in subjects that you enjoy or excel in. It is ill-advised to drop AP courses after signing up for them, and it is a terrible fate indeed to be stuck working hard for an entire year in a subject that you aren’t at least somewhat passionate about; the moral of the story is that you should think carefully about your decision. For those who have not yet had the AP experience, the prospect of such classes may seem daunting; how-ever, the obligatory commitment and hard work should not be reason to de-prive oneself of such a rewarding ex-perience. Take AP classes, but exercise moderation in your course selections; there’s only so much time in the day.

Tommy AlexanderNews/Sports Editor

Visual by Viviane Ly

That which we call a university by any other name would educate students just as well

“Break time” is “Best Time”

thinking “I’ll just see them at school,” but nearing the end of my years here at Leigh, I feel like I need to bond with people more. During the last break I went to Santa Cruz again, just to enjoy the at-mosphere of the ever so foggy city of banana slugs. I went with my friend

Russell and fel-low Eleight col-umnist, Annie Jung. W e walked around, looking for things to buy and take artsy pictures of. Then we drove several miles to the beach. We blasted various

songs and dare I say it, sang along [obnoxiously] to Taylor Swift’s song “You Belong With Me” because that is the only song I like of hers. We arrived at the beach after yelling our heads of. Annie and Rus-sell enjoyed the hiking up and down hills to reach the shore, while I did not. You don’t know this, but I hate the beach. “I hate the sand. I hate the bugs. I hate the ocean. I hate the beach,” I chanted, over and over again, each time we had to haul-ass up or down a hill. Several pictures, a bit of frantic running, and another chant later, we were back in the car on our way to eat falafel. It’s these kinds of tandem ad-venture that I enjoy the most. If it weren’t for Annie having said, “We should try falafel,” in the car at some point during our trip, we wouldn’t have tried something new. Being a senior means that ev-ery break I’ve had this year was my last actual break. From Kindergarten until now, we’ve been given multiple breaks in the year. I wish I paid more attention to them and let the “I’m on break” feeling sink in more. Starting next year, I won’t be able to spend my breaks being lazy and doing nothing the entire time. Since college is essentially “the real world” (only you’re paying way too much for it), we’d all have some kind of responsibility. I could have a job at Starbucks, making coffee for the people. I could be doing an internship at some fancy place for college credits. Maybe I could be at a lab doing research for my major, who knows. For these four school years, I never really appreciated the mean-ing of “free time”. I always thought, “well, maybe next time” when it came to something I regretted at the end of break, but now there isn’t much of a “next time”.

I always found breaks to be the best parts of the school year. As a child, I always took these breaks for granted. I hated staying home for weeks at a time. There was nothing to do, nothing to eat, and nothing on T.V…ever. “The Price is Right”, re-runs of the “Drew Carey Show” and two bags of ramen later, and I’m bored out of my mind. I re-member being around seven years old and flipping through T.V. channels during a sum-mer. I watched TLC’s entire baby related show selec-tion while waiting for the Discovery Kid’s channel to air its best show, Croc Files (With good ol’ Steve Ir-win. Crikey). I thought that was the best break of my life. But everyone at the end of a break usually thinks, “Man, that was the best break ever.” Fast-forward several years. I’m 16, going on 17, and on a trip to Las Vegas with my family (being my little sister, my parents, and my grandma). This is an annual trip we take, to do some family bonding. Why we chose to do our family bonding in “Sin City” I don’t know, but that’s where we bond. It’s the one week of absolute [controlled] insanity, where my fam-ily walks miles and miles in malls and in the sun for no reason whatsoever, but to work off the calories eaten in a buffet the previous night. I’ve been doing this for more than two-thirds of my life so far, but I never tire of it. Later that summer, I went on tandem trips to Santa Cruz with a friend. It was the best experience be-cause I was getting away. I learned to appreciate many things by going to Santa Cruz:1) Appreciate the person willingly driving highway 17 for you.2) Appreciate the nature that sur-rounds you because that won’t be there for long.3) Appreciate Red Hot Chili Pep-pers, for they make excellent driving music.5) Appreciate dry clothing, for in the summer, you shall chafe.6) Appreciate cheap food, for maybe you lost your wallet while doing cart-wheels on the beach. These trips to Santa Cruz got me thinking; maybe I need to spend more time with my friends this year before we all go our separate ways. This sat in the back of my head for a while. I never really liked to hang out with people during the year,

Kelsey GripenstrawEditor-in-Chief

Strong performance on the STAR test helps you

scores, and they don’t count towards my grade. I’d rather spend my time studying for the SATs or something.” Why exert actual effort on something that just makes our school look good? When our school looks good, we reap the benefits; benefits that we currently enjoy yet take for granted. Vice Principal Jodi Edwards-Wright explicated that Leigh is allowed to have such a large elective program, as well a short school day, because we are a high-performing school; our API score is over 800. “Students don’t know that at Leigh, we’re on a much shorter day than the state actually requires, which is 64,000 minutes of instruction a year. So the state could come in and say, ‘Change your bell schedule,’” said Wright. “I don’t think students understand the collective value of doing well on the test, [and] what it does for the school.” With the added hours that may result from stooping to the Low-performing status might come added classes, but only in English and Math. Wright explained that this would mean our elective program would be severely cut. Our expansive Music, Drama, and Art programs would have to be minimized or eliminated completely in favor of opening up room in students’ schedules for “multiple periods of English and Math” for all students. “You don’t want the state coming in; it’s like a hostile takeover. You want the state to bless you and sanction you and say, ‘You’re doing a good job,’” said Wright. According to an education data website for K-12 California public

schools, California public school districts received their first API scores in 2003 in order to display results of the No Child Left Behind policy. It is calculated by combining the results of the STAR test and the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam). Leigh’s 2008 API score was 805, but last year it dropped four points to 801, which is dangerously close to slipping us into the low-performing status. That status would put us at risk for losing the privileges like a short school day and elective classes. The second Leigh falls below 800 is when the state imposes stricter measures, so all freshmen, sophomores and juniors at Leigh could very possibly experience the negative changes. Also, the fact that Leigh is high-performing bears important positives for those applying to college next year; Wright mentioned that if a high school is low-performing, college admissions officers immediately view the students’ transcripts with less value. You look better if your school does. Because long multiple choice tests can grow tedious, Leigh has worked hard to come up with an effective testing schedule that the staff hopes will make the STAR testing experience less of a groan for students—students will only be testing in two-hour periods for three days. All Leigh asks of you is six hours of applying your knowledge from the school year to the STAR test, and you will be rewarded with keeping our current 2:05 release time and our abundant elective catalog, and a better appearance to colleges. It’s not too tall of an order.

Brianna ChrismanStaff Writer

Curious to know what your peers think of you, you create an account on Formspring.me. The next day, eager to see and answer all the interesting questions, you quickly open your inbox and your jaw drops. There is maybe one valid question and the rest just a blur of four-letter words, horrid name-calling, and detailed lies about what some anon-ymous person did with your mom last night. If you have an inbox on Formspring.me like this, there is one bit of consolation—you aren’t the only one. Formspring.me is a popular website among high school students that allows people to publish anonymous questions for the account owner to publicly post answers to. However, what was intended to be a fun version of the “question game” has quickly turned in to something much less innocent. “I have a Formspring because I always wonder what people actually think about me,” said junior Samantha Hawkins. “The fact that you get to ask people you don’t necessarily know stuff with out them knowing is creepy but cool. However, I don’t think that they thought through the anonymity part of it.” The downsides of the “anonym-

ity part” Hawkins mentioned occur when people start using Formspring.me as an outlet for verbal abuse and online bullying. It’s not uncommon that students call one another vulgar names, make vicious accusations, and expose secrets that were never intended

to become public. “Anytime a teenager is allowed to hide behind a keyboard and computer screen they are going to be a lot more open and vulgar about their feelings because they obviously aren’t going to be held accountable for what they say,” explained Hawkins. Even some Leigh students have been victims of the teenage cruelty that occurs over Formspring.me. “I definitely think Formspring can be used as a tool to hurt people,” said freshman Makena Volzing. “I have been harassed a few times on Form-spring. [People] think that just be-

cause it is anonymous, they can express hate towards someone and they think its ok.” Because the location and IP ad-dress of posts remain completely un-known, unless the dispatcher chooses to reveal him or herself, the operators

of Formspring.me have no way of monitoring or regulating harass-ment, and thus no way to put a stop to it. “If an anonymous user is harassing you, turn off anonymous questions. If you are be-ing harassed by a regis-tered user, block them,” dictated Formspring.me in their abuse poli-cies. “If you continue to be harassed, we sug-gest discontinuing use of Formspring.me or creating a new account and only sharing it

with your friends.” Many people who are being bullied are reluctant to turn off the anonymous setting that they created their Formspring.me for in the first place and even more hesitant to disable their accounts altogether. So, instead of discontinuing Formspring.me, some Leigh students are forced to use alter-nate techniques to get through. “I got harassed and bullied in the first week of Formspring,” recalled ju-nior Jun Cha, “But you just have to call those anonymous questioners out and they’ll stop showing up on your page.” While Cha prefers to stand up to

Pain and woe: Formspring.me us-ers experience pain of anonymity

“I did have a Formspring, but it got to the point where all I was getting was negative things about me and my body. I had to cancel it because it was bringing me down,” said senior Hilary Ascensao.

Photo by Brianna Chrisman

his tormentors, other students such as freshman Daniel Stromfeld manage to endure the maltreatment thanks to a strong sense of humor. “People write such crap on my Formspring,” revealed Stromfeld. “I’ve gotten ‘Are you gay?’ about fifteen times. But I think it’s really funny and I don’t take it to heart.” Still, not everyone is able to han-dle the harassment and bullying as well as Cha and Stromfeld do. There is even a group on Facebook named “Form-spring Is Gonna Cause the Suicide of Teenagers Everywhere”. “Some people can be really self-conscious, especially in high school

and some cowards can be really cruel on Formspring,” explained Cha. “Put those two together and you might get a sad scenario like that.” Formspring.me was made as a method for asking questions, not as a way to anonymously make another person feel threatened or insulted. The online bullying and harassment has gone too far and something must be done to stop this show of immaturity and malice. “People really need to know ways to vent their disliking to someone oth-er than spreading hate on Formspring,” explained Volzing. “It causes more damage than they may be aware of.”

The STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) test is a fact of the lives of California public school students for about one week every year, spanning the comparably long period between first grade and junior year. As grueling as the test is, students need to realize the true benefits to doing as well as they can on it—it’s not just about improving the image of Leigh. Your performance on the STAR test affects you and your chances at gaining admittance to college. After students reach the high school age, the student population generally tends to split into two groups: students who care about their schoolwork, who work hard with the intentions of increasing their chances of getting into a prestigious college, or merely for the sake of trying their best; and students who do not see the importance of applying themselves in school. There are plausible reasons for both groups of students to ignore the significance of the STAR test. The students who care about school recognize that there is no way it can affect their Grade Point Average, and also recognize the types of questions it asks as commonly more simplistic than what they study in the more challenging classes. “Although I understand that our scores on the STAR test are really important for the school, I have a hard time taking them seriously,” said sophomore Marissa Rodriguez. “There is really no direct benefit for me doing well on them. Colleges don’t see the

If you catch yourself about to talk about someone, think about whether you would want someone to say it about you. If you would not, then keep it to yourself.If your gossiping habit is exceptionally bad, invent fictional characters with scandalous lives to gossip about with your friends.

Satisfy your need to hear gossip by reading about the personal lives of celebrities in tabloids or on the internet.

By Kelsey Gripenstraw, Rebekah Hassen, Rachel Robell, Lauren Tanaka,

Josh Vasquez, Jessica Li, and Annie Jung

“Gossip isn’t al-ways true, it can hurt others, and no one has the

right to judge others before they know them.” -senior Kel-ly Kim “It’s inevitable.” -sophomore Nick Tompkins “Gossip is

just trashing someone for no reason. It’s rumors. It spreads fast as dis-eases. It’s an epidemic.” -senior Kasra Mehrabi “Gossip is hurtful.” -soph-

omore Sadie Williams “I think people gossip because they don’t have a life.” -junior Hiroki Kamihata “It’s for attention.” -sophomore Madison DeMarquez

“People gossip because they think it’s juicy.” junior Ray Wang “It’s dumb.” sophomore Katie Revilla “I gossip because it’s fun. Who doesn’t [gossip]?” -junior Anna Pham

“Gossip is most likely untrue.” -sophomore Kayla Pavlicevich “Gossip should not be spread because it’s not positive. I don’t understand why people do it, just for something to

say?” -freshman Shayda Muttlaib “When you hear gossip, you should keep it to your-self.” -sophomore Saida Muttlaib “Meh, it’s a natural part of people talking.” -senior

Adam Kirby “It’s amazing.” -soph- omore James Eokes “I don’t know... but I heard a lot of gos- sip this week.” -sophomore

Ballesdy Guerrero “I kinda think it’s ridiculous, and it’s not fun.” -sophomore Jessica Spink “It’s

everywhere; get used to it. It’s part of teenage life.” -sophomore Caitlin Kan- chanda “People gossip because there is not re- ally anything else to talk about. Unless school, but nobody really wants to always talk about school. Plus, if you just talk about yourself constantly, I doubt people are go-ing to continue a conversa- tion with you, unless it’s juicy.” -senior Andrea Moody “Gossip can be hurtful depending what it is about. It’s not always hurtful; sometimes it is just information that is interesting.” -junior Megan Pappas “Gossip can be hurtful by twisting the truth about someone into a demeaning or purposefully hurtful way.”-junior Jamie Zaplitny “Most people like to pre-tend gossip doesn’t affect them, but in reality that’s probably what affects them the most. You just can’t dismiss what people day about you – and most of the time it hurts.” -senior Kathryn Pasion “Gossip can never be stopped because people will always talk no matter if it’s good or bad. No one can pre-

vent anyone from saying anything they want to say; it just will always happen.” -senior Bianca Saldana “I don’t believe gossip can be stopped. A lot of gossip is often meant to be hurtful and make some-body feel bad. When used in a way like that, stopping it can be related to stopping the sun from rising and setting.” -junior Tony Fini “Gossip can be stopped by not being interested in gos-sip; then gossip can be stopped.” -junior Michelle Blacklock “Gossip can’t be stopped because it is how information gets

around.” -senior Prisca Toh “There’s this one time when my friend supposedly did something and I felt awkward around him. Gossip made the situation

awkward.” -junior Raymond Ho “Well people do it, and it’s hard not to especially with your closest friends. Everyone

knows it’s not right, but we do it anyways.” -freshman Rebekah Stein “I think that its pointless because if you spread rumors and

lies then obviously there is no truth behind them so what is their point? Gossip is used to humiliate or embarrass a person so why would anyone

do it?” -freshman Arnela Colic “I’ll listen to it and then probably just leave it at that. I wouldn’t go around spreading it and if I knew it wasn’t true

then I’d probably tell the person they were wrong.” -sophomore Jackie Jensen

It seems that for most high schoolers, gossip has become more of an everyday occurence than a bad habit. Notes and texts are ex-changed during lectures, passing periods and lunch. Words are

whispered behind secret and news-bearing hands, and interested and accusing stares are given throughout the day. The Eleight in-vestigates just how often students at Leigh fall victim to and par-ticipate in gossip, and how it has impacted Leigh students’ lives.

1. You see a guy in the hallway with bizarre looking clothing. You… A. Look back and think, “Ew, what a gross looking dude.” B. Call him a weirdo under your breath and move on.C. Stare and walk by quickly.D. Don’t even notice.E. Think, “Wow, what great creativity!”

2. You hear an attractive girl is dating a undesirable guy. How do you feel about this? A. Feel that the girl is really lowering her standards.B. A prep with a freak? Impossible.C. Make fun of them to everyone you talk to.D. Tell them you are happy for them, but talk smack behind their backs.E. As long as they are both happy, who cares?

Mostly As: Player You may have a tendency to look at others’ bodies and think, “Oh damn!” or “That’s gross!” Try to look at what people have to offer on the inside as opposed to what their mere appearences tell you.

Mostly Bs: Labeler You tend to put people in categories, such as “loose”, “preppy”, “goth”, “jock”, etc. whether you are conscious of it or not. Try to realize that people can be a mix of each category, and confining them to one classification taints your perception of them.

3. Someone else is taking your crush to Winter Ball. How do you react? A. Think, “I am so much better than that guy/girl, my crush should have asked me!”B. Make your crush realize that the two are in different ballparks.C. Spread a nasty rumor about the person who is taking

your crush to the dance.D. Be nice to his or her face but plan to ruin his or her time at the dance to make your crush wished that he or she had asked you.

E. Talk to your crush about how you truly feel about him or her, and let him or her make the decision.

4. You hear a rumor about one of you closest friends. What do you do?

A. Ignore it.B. Call the person who said it an idiot and move on.

C. Tell your friend and then plot revenge on the person who started the rumor.

D. Tell the whole school about it and add juicy little tips to spice up the rumor.

E. Tell the person that is not true, and stop the rumor in its tracks!

Mostly Cs: Targeter Though you do not attack the student body as a whole, you tend to target individuals. Focus on mending relationships with certain people instead of of gossiping behind others backs.

Mostly Ds: Two-Faced Friend You have no interest in partonizing people you hardly know (or people you don’t care about). Instead, you focus on talking about the people closest to you: your friends. Weather it is an ongoing fued or you are jealous of them, you are a two-faced friend. Make an effort to maintain your integrity by being a good friend 24/7.

Mostly Es: Sealed Lips You generally do not care about gossip, or what others think. You can keep a secret and you are a great friend.

By Rachel Robell, Staff Writer

How many times a week do you gossip?

*out of 221 students polled

Have you fallen prey to a rumor?

173

48

1124

637152

Gossip at Leigh:do your words define you?

By Kelsey Gripenstraw, Rebekah Hassen, Rachel Robell, Lauren Tanaka,

Josh Vasquez, Jessica Li, and Annie Jung

“Gossip isn’t al-ways true, it can hurt others, and no one has the

right to judge others before they know them.” -senior Kel-ly Kim “It’s inevitable.” -sophomore Nick Tompkins “Gossip is

just trashing someone for no reason. It’s rumors. It spreads fast as dis-eases. It’s an epidemic.” -senior Kasra Mehrabi “Gossip is hurtful.” -soph-

omore Sadie Williams “I think people gossip because they don’t have a life.” -junior Hiroki Kamihata “It’s for attention.” -sophomore Madison DeMarquez

“People gossip because they think it’s juicy.” junior Ray Wang “It’s dumb.” sophomore Katie Revilla “I gossip because it’s fun. Who doesn’t [gossip]?” -junior Anna Pham

“Gossip is most likely untrue.” -sophomore Kayla Pavlicevich “Gossip should not be spread because it’s not positive. I don’t understand why people do it, just for something to

say?” -freshman Shayda Muttlaib “When you hear gossip, you should keep it to your-self.” -sophomore Saida Muttlaib “Meh, it’s a natural part of people talking.” -senior

Adam Kirby “It’s amazing.” -soph- omore James Eokes “I don’t know... but I heard a lot of gos- sip this week.” -sophomore

Ballesdy Guerrero “I kinda think it’s ridiculous, and it’s not fun.” -sophomore Jessica Spink “It’s

everywhere; get used to it. It’s part of teenage life.” -sophomore Caitlin Kan- chanda “People gossip because there is not re- ally anything else to talk about. Unless school, but nobody really wants to always talk about school. Plus, if you just talk about yourself constantly, I doubt people are go-ing to continue a conversa- tion with you, unless it’s juicy.” -senior Andrea Moody “Gossip can be hurtful depending what it is about. It’s not always hurtful; sometimes it is just information that is interesting.” -junior Megan Pappas “Gossip can be hurtful by twisting the truth about someone into a demeaning or purposefully hurtful way.”-junior Jamie Zaplitny “Most people like to pre-tend gossip doesn’t affect them, but in reality that’s probably what affects them the most. You just can’t dismiss what people day about you – and most of the time it hurts.” -senior Kathryn Pasion “Gossip can never be stopped because people will always talk no matter if it’s good or bad. No one can pre-

vent anyone from saying anything they want to say; it just will always happen.” -senior Bianca Saldana “I don’t believe gossip can be stopped. A lot of gossip is often meant to be hurtful and make some-body feel bad. When used in a way like that, stopping it can be related to stopping the sun from rising and setting.” -junior Tony Fini “Gossip can be stopped by not being interested in gos-sip; then gossip can be stopped.” -junior Michelle Blacklock “Gossip can’t be stopped because it is how information gets

around.” -senior Prisca Toh “There’s this one time when my friend supposedly did something and I felt awkward around him. Gossip made the situation

awkward.” -junior Raymond Ho “Well people do it, and it’s hard not to especially with your closest friends. Everyone

knows it’s not right, but we do it anyways.” -freshman Rebekah Stein “I think that its pointless because if you spread rumors and

lies then obviously there is no truth behind them so what is their point? Gossip is used to humiliate or embarrass a person so why would anyone

do it?” -freshman Arnela Colic “I’ll listen to it and then probably just leave it at that. I wouldn’t go around spreading it and if I knew it wasn’t true

then I’d probably tell the person they were wrong.” -sophomore Jackie Jensen

How is the way guys gossip different from how girls gossip? Girls try to bring each other down and

guys try to intimidate each other. What are some of

your gossiping topics? How fat someone is, how

hot some girls are, and how stupid people are.

How are guys affected by gossip as opposed to how girls are affected? Personally, I don’t really care what people say about me, but that’s just me.

High school isn’t the only place where gossip is shown at its grotesque peak; gossip can be widely be found among the media. In the year 2007, the entertainment world took gossip’s drama to a new level filled with romance, broken hearts, lies, scandals, and frenemies on the CW network show: “Gossip Girl”, which is based on the book series written by Cecily von Ziegesar. “Gossip Girl” revolves around a group of privileged Upper East Side high school friends. “Gossip Girl” takes gossip’s consequences to the extreme and demonstrates how gossip controls the drama in the lives of the friends. Whenever the gossip intensifies, so does the drama. “I think it shows [gossip] realistically through their friend-ships, but not everyone will instantly get [the gossip] on their phones. Gossip would gradually happen,” said junior Megan Pappas. While this TV show probably has a considerable amount of influence on the habits of the teens who watch it, gossip jour-nalism centering around the lives of celebrities could also have a significant impact on the way teens spread rumors. Seeing countless unsubstanstiated rumors posed by gossip magazines such as “OK!” “Us Weekly” has the potential to lead teens to start scandalous talk of their own. -Lauren Tanaka, Staff Writer

I have never heard a word that makes me feel [as] gloomy, livid, and nauseous, [as] the word “gossip”. Of course, I have been a main victim of gossip, being as different and flamboyant as I am; however I honestly

do not care. I feel as though I have become immune to gossip. Now you may label me as a hypocrite, as I too, have gossiped; however I deem that [everyone] has gossiped at one time or another. When I was in middle school, there was a boy who constantly made fun of me

for being Jewish. He sent me threatening messages on Myspace, and my mom saw them and called the police. In a nutshell, the kid got suspended and never talked to me again. After this incident, a rumor started that I was suing this boy. Rumor had it that I had won the lawsuit and he lost his house, was living on the street and I was supposedly using their house for sex. This guy was popular, so a lot of people were mad at me for “suing him”. One person actually picked me up, and put me in a trash can! A lot of people seemed to hate me after this rumor, but it soon died down. I don’t know where this weird, twisted rumor came from; however, I

find it funny in a juvenile way.

It seems that for most high schoolers, gossip has become more of an everyday occurence than a bad habit. Notes and texts are ex-changed during lectures, passing periods and lunch. Words are

whispered behind secret and news-bearing hands, and interested and accusing stares are given throughout the day. The Eleight in-vestigates just how often students at Leigh fall victim to and par-ticipate in gossip, and how it has impacted Leigh students’ lives.

The Eleight consulted TOPS adviser Jenifer Taylor on the origins and effects of gossip

Why do you think teenagers gossip?One is a feeling of being in the know, and a feeling of being powerful, a feeling like you have something to say.

Why should gossip stop?It perpetuates lies, and it can be extremely hurtful. I think if people challenged them-selves not to talk about other people they’d find better things to talk about. [Gossip] also creates boundaries with people and makes people distrusting of one another.

Daniel Stromfeld explains his experiences with gossip“I hear storie

s [th

at] I

’m n

ot su

re are true,[and they]

can

reall

y hu

rt a r

eputa

tion.” -senior Jackie Kay

“To anyone who sa

ys th

ey d

on’t gossip at all, it’s

obvio

usly n

ot tr

ue. E

veryone does it

whe

ther

they

realize it or not. It

’s hum

an nature.” -sophomore D

eirdr

e Guthmann

Gossip at Leigh:do your words define you?

“I think its de

fi nite

ly p

art o

f a te

enage

r’s life in high school, b

ut w

hat s

ome

peop

le do

n’t understand is that while

you’r

e

gossiping abou

t som

eone

, som

eone

’s probably talking sh-t a

bout

you

too.

It c

an b

e pret

ty hurtful.” -sophomore J

ustin

e Kw

an

“People gossip because there is not really anything else to talk about. Unless

school, but nobody really wants to always talk

about school. Plus, if you just talk about yourself constantly, I doubt people are going to continue a conversation with you, unless it’s juicy.”

–senior Andrea Moody

“Gossip can be hurtful depending what it is about. It’s not always hurtful; sometimes it is just information that is interesting.”

sion, or will it forever remain an unsolved mystery? You decide.Toy s - R - Us , Sunnyvale: “We call him Johnny,” said Rick, current Toys-R-Us employee, of the spirit that employees believe to roam the halls. Built in 1970, this toy store is home to more than just dolls and bicy-cles. Before construction of the build-ing, the land was John Murphy’s Farm, an apple orchard of the 1800s. Legend says Johnny Johnson, a woodsman who worked on the orchard, fell in love with Murphy’s daughter. While chopping down wood one day alone, Johnny’s axe missed, striking his leg. His pleas and cries for help were left unheard, and he bled to his death. According to locals, Johnny now roams the back aisles, the women’s restroom, and the upstairs of this haunted Toys-R-Us. “It’s just creepy,” described cur-rent employee Jenna of the upstairs storage room. According to employees, the up-

Outside of the marked boundary, everything checks to be normal. Upon entering the sphere of mystery, you can instantly feel its force. With a sense of dizziness and slight nausea, the forces of The Spot affect your entirety. Not only do you notice the physical chang-es, but small mental changes as well. “My body is confused,” described

senior Hannah Stone as she cautiously, but easily, walked up “the stair-case”, which was in fact a wall. W h i l e

most visitors are believers to begin with, skeptics are proven wrong. Gaurav, an engineer and visitor on the tour, attempted to find an ex-planation for The Mystery Spot. “I was a little skeptical at first and I thought there could be answers, and I couldn’t figure it out. It’s scary,” he said. Plenty of theories are assumed about this place of the unknown, how-ever, none have yet to prove true. Is The Mystery Spot just another optical illu-

Bay Area Myths: continued from front page

Cracking the St. Patricks’ Day mythsBeth AskinsSttaff Writer

There are thousands of cultures spread throughout the world with dif-ferent customs that create barriers. However, there’s one aspect binding every civilization on Earth: language. Words give people the power to express themselves, to create works of literature, and to inspire. But, where do these words come from and how is their meaning derived? Languages like Spanish, French and Italian are considered “Romantic” languages, which means most of their words come from Latin. While English shares many cognates with our cousins

Language: our outlet for self-expressionacross the pond, our speech is a cul-mination of many different languages from all over. The Germans, Vikings, and Ang-lo-Saxons all played a hand in creating the words used to produce Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemmingway, and our Face-book statuses. With anything that wants to sur-vive multiple generations, our words have grown and adapted with time. This was probably most evident as we struggled through “Romeo and Juliet” our freshman year, barely recognizing our own language. When we separated from our Motherland to become our own inde-pendent nation, our English took on a

Emma McGhanStaff Writer

life of its own, and became an English dialect, an English 2.0. While great American orators throughout history like Lincoln, Kennedy, and King never would have imagined us expressing ourselves with words like “dude”, “lol”, and “hella”, they showed us how to use words with dignity and integrity. While you are more likely to hear “Omg, did you hear about...? She was so totally…” walking down the halls as opposed to “The lady doth protest too much…”, language is important to our country, as evident through our first amendment, the freedom of speech. And whether we use this right to move the masses or to update our friends on our daily lives, words move us forward.

It’s early morning on a Wednes-day. As the newly-risen sun filters through your blinds, you catch a glimpse of your calendar and realize it’s not just any Wednesday. It’s March 17—St. Patrick’s Day. Oh yeah, you think, recalling what the occasion entails: you rush to your closet, rummaging to find some-thing green. Upon finding a suitable

green shirt, you smile to yourself. You’re not getting pinched today! Never once in the course of this yearly ritual do you stop to ask your-self, “Why am I doing this?” It’s just a tradition you accept and have accepted since you were old enough to know how to dress yourself, a Hallmark Holi-day you celebrate probably just because everyone else does. “I don’t know the real reason [we have to wear green],” said senior Heather Audyski, “I just don’t want to

From typewriters to iPods:

Explaining the common technological generation gap

“How do you play this thing?” my friend asked me a few days ago as she struggled to connect her iPod to my car adapter. “You push the big white but-ton with the sideways triangle on it,” I joked, being too lazy to give her real instructions. Everyone in the car chuckled a bit at my lame comment, but at that moment I realized just how much technology has changed our lives. Thirty years ago, my sideways triangle de-s c r i p t i o n would not have been an unhelpful, obvious an-swer at all. The markings that we now call “universal symbols” – the play/pause buttons on iPods, the green phone icons on “send” buttons, the fast forward symbols on television remotes – were hardly known when our parents were teens, and did not exist at all for our grandparents’ gen-eration. It’s no wonder anyone born before 1980 seems tech retarded! My dad once told me about what he considered to be the biggest tech craze of his childhood: the elec-tric typewriter. Perhaps the equiva-lent of today’s MacBook, these de-vices seemed to be the hot gadget of the 1970’s. Owning one had some definite perks; you could delete any mistake three letters back or less, you didn’t have to worry about scrolling and adjusting your paper manually, and of course, you didn’t have to push the buttons with as much force as the traditional typewriters. What a revolution! I laughed to myself when I first heard of the “amazing” things an electric typewriter could do, and there is a reason why I did. The hu-mor in the situation is derived from the sheer amount of change that the world has seen from his childhood to mine; what was once unbeliev-able technology now seems to have walked straight out of the Trias-sic period. There is a name for big changes like these that set old time apart from modern time: a genera-tion gap. The generation gap that is cur-rently evolving around us is prob-ably the biggest since the 1920’s coupling of the automobile and radio. The explosion of technology at the beginning of this century led to the formation of an entirely new language and an entirely new cul-ture. If you had told your boyfriend “ILY” ten years ago, he would have thought you were talking about verb tenses. The phrase “social network-

ing” didn’t even exist back then! The digital age has completely changed the way that we communicate and act in social situations, and it has left our elders with a bit of nostalgia for the past, perhaps rightfully so. Take my mom, for example. The last day of February break found her driving a SUV-full of my friends home from Tahoe. We were pretty

disgruntled see-ing as there was a four-hour drive ahead and no comfort to be found; suit-cases were in our foot space and ski poles were in our head space. Naturally, we cranked up our

iPods to try to pass time. My mom, however, sat in seclusion at the wheel. She told us of a time when car rides meant hours of family bonding and good conversation and she com-plained of our anti-social behavior (but we didn’t really hear her because we had headphones in our ears). She cursed the death of this entrancing Apple Company, wishing to return to a simpler time. My mother actually does own an iPod. It wasn’t her decision; she got it as a Christmas present last year from the family. It’s a fourth genera-tion, hot pink “Nano” with a built in video camera and an 8 GB memory. The minute it came out the box it be-gan collecting dust in our home of-fice. My little brother stole the head-phones that came with it because he had broken his own in a mishap with our chew-happy puppy. Eventually I snatched the iPod itself from the desk and synced it to my own computer; I could not let it sit there unused while I had to deal with my 3-year-old relic of a music-playing device. It doesn’t really bother me that my mother refuses to use her iPod (actually it doesn’t bother me at all because now its mine!), or that my father needs to read the instruction manual to understand the buttons on our DVR remote. I have realized that it is not because they are dumb and it is not because they are clueless; they need help simply because they are on the older end of an especially deep generation gap. I suppose the world changes too quickly for the stubborn human na-ture to adapt in time. And although our youth puts our generation on top of the world right now, I suspect that twenty years from now we will find ourselves in our parents’ position; we will be longing for the simple times when you could fit the whole world in your back-pocket in the form of that half-inch thick gadget called a “phone”.

get pinched!” But like all holidays, St. Patrick’s Day is much more than the commer-cial façade of four-leafed clovers, shirts that invite onlookers to “kiss me, I’m Irish”, and cutesy little men sporting ginger beards and dressed in buckled shoes and hats. All the traditions came from Ireland, to be sure, but the man who started it all was neither a lepre-chaun nor a T-shirt wearer. St. Patrick, AKA Maewyn Succat (his birth name), was actually not even Irish. No one knows for sure his exact birthplace and time, but most schol-ars agree that he was probably born in Scotland around 375 AD, to relatively wealthy parents. March 17, the day we celebrate, is not actually the day he was born, but thought to be the day he died.

When Succat was 16-years-old, pirates kidnapped him and sold him as a slave to a chieftan named Milchu, who oversaw a large territory in Ireland. While he worked at tending Milchu’s sheep on a hilltop, Succat started pray-ing to God and turned from pagan to Catholic. This was a turning point in Succat’s life. After six years of toil, Succat es-caped and traveled to France to become a Catholic priest, where he changed his name to Patrick. Setting off to Ireland once again, he undertook the task of converting the country to Christianity. After 40 years of building churches and preaching to thousands, Patrick suc-ceeded in his mission. Today, Ireland is still considered a largely Catholic country. Oh, and that four-leafed clover tradition? That was started by Patrick. Except… it actually wasn’t a four-leafed clover. During his preaching, he often used a clover with three leaves to show the people how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could be one being in God.

As patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick is a very important icon in the Catholic faith (for more details on St. Patrick’s life, you can look online at the Catholic Encyclopedia). Throughout the years, the com-memoration of the man who changed Ireland’s official religion has dwindled down to the celebration of leprechauns and pots of gold at the end of the rain-bow. But there is a way to keep St. Pat-rick alive. Next time you see a child’s menu around St. Patrick’s Day, a gift card with a four-leafed clover on it, or a shirt emblazoned with “kiss me, I’m Irish”, instead of thinking “aww, how cute”, take a moment to remember whose day everyone is celebrating. Remember the man who sin-gle-handedly converted the Irish to Christianity. Remember a man who dedicated his life to his faith, perhaps the only man whose life ultimately improved after being kidnapped by pi-rates. Remember the name behind the holiday. Remember St. Patrick.

The truth behind green clothing, getting pinched, and the man who started it all

Wearing green and pinching:In the early 1700’s, when the holiday first became popu-lar in America, people believed that wearing green clothing actually hid a person from the mischievous eyes of lepre-chauns, who would pinch a human if they saw one. To warn ignorant folk against the harmful effects of not wear-ing green, people started pinching those who didn’t wear green, too. Leprechauns:Their relationship with this holiday has more to do with the dawning of spring, when the Irish believed leprechauns to be most active. Leprechauns were said to be greedy crea-tures as well as tricksters, who could often be found steal-

Illustration by Beth Askins and Kylie Brown

Photo by Rain Stites

Photo by Rain Stites

Photo by Rain Stites

stairs storage room during closing is the most eerie of all. Boxes will mys-teriously move and noises will be made throughout the room, although no one appears to be around. “[When] no one is back [in the storage] you’ll say ‘Hey, how [are] you doing? Anybody back here?’ [and no one will answer],” Jenna continued. “[The spirit is] just kind of like, it’s just there, you know?” Surveillance footage has also re-vealed Johnny to other employees of the store. Rick described numerous oc-casions during which footage revealed skateboards and bicycles rolling up and down aisles while no one is around. Also, the store’s slid-ing electric doors violently slid open at around 3 a.m. a few months back, resulting in the ar-rival of the police. Cameras also show the store to be completely empty at the time of the incident. Are all of these accounts just stories, or is Johnny still seeking his long lost love from many years ago? -Rain Stites, Editor-in-Chief

ing gold out of the pot at the end of the rainbow. Various stories have been told of leprechauns who tricked Irish folk into trading their own gold for leprechaun gold, which was said to disappear overnight. You’d think they’d learn.Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:According to the Irish belief, wherever a rainbow appeared, a person could find a giant pot of gold at the end of it. Thus, seeing a rainbow was considered good luck. Unless, of course, a leprechaun had gotten to it first.Blarney Stone:Found in Blarney Castle in Ireland, the stone is said to give a person who kisses it the gift of flattery. Today, the word “blarney” is also used in Ireland to dismiss a person’s flattery, eg. “Blarney! My hair doesn’t look any more amazing today than it usually does.”

What our community has to say “Both; vegetables are better for you, since they’re all natural. However, the amount of vegetables you need to eat to get your recommended dosage of vitamins is unrealistic for peoples’ busy lifestyles.” -Whole Foods Vitamin Consultant Melanie Barker “Technically your better buy comes in the form of a pill; however, vitamins are called supplements for a reason; they make up for some nutri-tion you may be missing, but that is all they do. There are some things vi-tamins provide that are absolutely es-sential to healthy development, such as calcium to prevent osteoporosis. If you are not able to get your full 2-3 cups of vegetables and fruits in a day for what-ever reason, then a supplement is defi-nitely a good idea. So which do I think is better? Of course natural sources of nutrients should be a first choice for any one, but rarely any one actu-ally gets the recommended amounts of nutrients by nature alone, so a supple-ment is a good choice too. Ultimately

Let’s face it: most of us don’t eat like rabbits, so getting all our vitamins is a pretty tall order. So are popping pills really the answer? They’re quick and provide everything you need in a day. Or should we solely rely on vegetables, which have all natural nutrients?

Vitamins Vs. Vegetables:Which of the two is more beneficial in creating a healthy lifestyle?

-Christine Benik, Staff Writer

Caffeine dependency increases amongst teens

Coffee, tea, sodas, energy drinks- caffeine is everywhere. As high school students, many of us seem to depend on it to get through the day. Some drink it to survive their zero period, some to handle all-nighters, and some just like the taste. “I’ve got to be honest, I always drank a cup of coffee during zero pe-riod last year,” admitted an anonymous junior. “I couldn’t last through the class without it. Waking up that early every-day just wasn’t something my body could get used to.” Although caffeine can be helpful for those tiring days and for those who always seem to fall asleep during class, it can also lead to addiction. According to Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of psy-chiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, caffeine alters mood, behavior, and can lead to

physical dependence. “I work here a lot on school days, and middle school students usually come buy coffee after school is over,” said Starbucks barista Emily Adams. “I guess it’s good for business, but it’s so bad for their health.” Even some of your everyday foods and drinks have a bit of caffeine in them and consuming enough in one go can actually kill you. According to energyfiend.com and based off of an average teenage weight of 125lbs., “Gulp down 203.12 bottles of Glaceau Vitaminwater Energy Citrus and you’re history [and] after 53.32 cans of Mon-ster [or Rockstar], you’d be pushing up daisies.” What can you do to prevent de-pendency, addiction, or death? Try lim-iting how much caffeine you consume everyday. Some signs of caffeine with-drawal include headaches, lethargy, nausea, vomiting, and muscle pain. “I used to drink caffeine daily,”

said Leland junior, Ashley Carter. “With all the stress [of ] AP classes, sports, and just life [as a] student in general, it [was] hard for me [to] al-ways be upbeat and awake. But around the beginning of second semester, I no-ticed that [I] could barely go [a] day without drinking a coffee [or] soda. It took a while to [get] used to not drink-ing or eating anything [caffeinated] that often, but [I took] it slowly, and now [I] just drink maybe one, two cups a week.” It’s not very hard to prevent caf-feine dependency- just watch how much you intake. Manage your time and don’t procrastinate on your work so you don’t have to stay up late un-less truly necessary. If you’re tired, go to sleep or take a nap (just make sure you set your alarm so you don’t oversleep!). Sure, caffeine is useful, and there’s no need to completely cut it out of your life; but pay attention to how much you consume.

Jessica LiStaff Writer

Nutrition’s secret weapons in improving health

The old adage “you are what you eat” isn’t far from the truth. The average American consumes over 150 pounds of sugar each year, and according to the USDA, it’s easy to see the correlation between one’s body and a sack of the sweet stuff. Aside from obesity, heart diseases and diabetes that come along with making poor food choices, our bodies are af-fected in different ways than you may think. Scientists now have proven that what you eat can determine your mood. Unless you enjoy how a satu-rated fat laden meal makes you feel, try incorporating these elements to give you a feel good boost. Protein: Proteins are made of amino acids building blocks. One type of amino acid, tyrosine, helps to make the three neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine and epi-nephrine, which can increase your energy and awareness levels. Poultry,

eggs and fish are high in protein. So if you feel a nap coming on, try eating some protein to give you a boost. Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates have been given a bad reputation, but in reality, eating them may relax you and calm your stress. A carbohydrate signals the release of insulin into your blood, then tells all the other amino acids to leave. The lone amino acid that stays is tryptophan. Tryptophan eventually gets turned into serotonin, which is a neu-rotransmitter that can give a sense of calm to the body. In moderation, tryptophan is a stress-reliever, so eat whole grain car-bohydrates such as pasta when you feel the pressures of school take over. Folic Acid: Studies have shown the lack of folic acid has a connection to depression because the lack of this acid causes the feel-good neurotrans-mitter serotonin to decrease in levels. Small amounts of this can make all the difference, so be like Popeye and try some spinach or some orange juice to put some bounce in your step.

Selenium: If you are in a bad mood, you may need a selenium boost. According to Your Total Health, “Individuals suffering from a lack of selenium have been shown to be more anxious, irritable, hostile, and depressed than their non-lacking counterparts.” When you start not feeling like yourself, try grabbing foods such as sunflower seeds or tuna. Choline: When you are prep-ping for a big test and you find your-self spacing out, try eating some eggs. Eggs contain choline, a complex vi-tamin linked to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This neurotransmitter is connected to memory. Also help-ing you focus is a nutrient named nasunin, which is found in eggplant , which promotes brain development and function. The food you eat may do more than just silence your grumbling stomach, so try thinking of your mood next time you reach for a snack.

Keli DemertzisStaff Writer

it is not one or the other, but choosing a careful balance and talking to your doctor or nutritionist about what is right for you.” -Leigh Alumnus Victoria Arcus Hilton RN

What Longhorns have to say “Veggies, delicious, and nutri-tious.” sophmore Zoe Demertzis “I think they’re both fine but probably pills since they’re purely the thing you need.” senior Trevor Hunt “Vegetables, because they are natural and contain everything your body needs where vitamins are artificial and not natural which is not the best way to retrieve the daily dose.” -senior Kimberly Hamilton “Vegetables, of course; the natu-ral way is obviously better for your body.” -junior Matt Nestle “Vegetables! Crunchy yet satisfy-ing, they are refreshing, tasty, healthy, and filling. What more can you ask of food?” senior Vincent Perez “Honestly, pills. They’re just easi-er.” -senior Coby Crider

Eric Darnell – Feature Film Director Eric Darnell has directed four major films – including “Antz”, “Madagascar”, “Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa”, and the upcoming “Madagascar 3” – but he might as well be your next-door neighbor as a resident of San Jose . Darnell explained that directing a feature film is exactly what it sounds

like. “I am in charge of the creative part of mak-

ing a movie. I have picture in my head of what the story is and how to tell it. Without my direction, all the talented people [work-ing on the movie] would come up with great

stuff, but it would go in all different direc-tions,” said Darnell, who has been with Dream-

Works Animation Company for almost 15 years. Darnell always knew that he was interested in filmmaking, but he never imagined that he would end up directing multi-million dollar blockbusters. In fact, Darnell began his higher education as a Biology major at the University of Colorado. “I was thinking of becoming a doctor,” he explained. “But then I changed my mind and ended up graduating with a degree

in broadcast journalism. Then I decided that I didn’t want to be a broadcast journalist ei-

ther!” Beginning to make up his mind, Darnell attended graduate school at the California Institute of Arts and got a de-

gree in experimental animation. Before becoming a director, Darnell got his start working on smaller projects such as an animated short film, “Gas Planet”, and a music video for R.E.M.’s song “Green”, from their album “Get Up”. He also worked for P.D.I., a small animation company that would eventually partner with DreamWorks. Despite Darnell’s journey, his advice to aspiring filmmakers is quite simple: “make films”. He added, “That’s how you get better and get hired. A film speaks for itself; you don’t have to convince anybody.”

Maddy KirschStaff Writer

Unintentional jobs become dream jobs

Your childhood dream jobs may have included Hollywood glamour or a grand princess palace. You probably realized by the time you hit puberty that life does not follow this kind of fairytale storybook, but the following three professionals prove that you can still come pretty close. Although each took a distinct journey, all found success doing what they are passionate about. Read their relatable stories; the same success may be possible for you.

Visuals cortusey of aceshowbiz.com

Co-directors Eric Darnell (far left) and Tom McGrath with their characters from Madagascar.

Carl Fischer– Translator for the Chil-ean Presidency California native Carl Fis-cher used his excellence in the Spanish language to land a job in one of the highest offices in the world. “My official job title is translator in the Unit of Direct Communications, which is a unit of the press office of the Presidency of the Republic of Chile,” said Fischer. “I work with two journalists and a secretary, and we are in charge of the website of the Presidency of Chile.” With this job, Fischer works in a palace, and as the only native English speaker around, he often finds himself giving tours to foreign delegates. “I got to see a lot of cool visitors when they came to the palace, like Bill Clinton, Shakira, Condolezza Rice, Evo Morales, and Jacques Chirac,” re-called Fischer. However, this lifestyle did not consume Fischer overnight; he studied for eight years at Occidental College and Stanford. He says that his educa-tion helped develop the skills to “col-

P

ho

to pr

ovid

ed b

yCar

l Fis

cher

. C

arl F

isher

takin

g a break fro

m his duties to take in the sights..

Jenny Martin – Museum Director Jenny Martin, Director of Education for the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, deals with everything from ancient mammoth bones to face paint catastrophes in a single workday. Martin heads one of the four major departments at the museum. She is in charge of supervising other staffers and planning new exhibits. “My job is to think about what would be fun and good for learning for kids,” Martin described. “One thing that’s great about it is that I always get to keep learning myself.” Martin never pictured herself directing at a museum; she claims to have just “fell into it”. For her undergraduate edu-cation, she attended a small liberal arts college and double majored in English and American Studies. She also broadened her horizons by studying abroad in England for two British semesters. Later on, Martin went to graduate school at Stanford and majored in Curriculum and Teacher’s Education. In her first job out of college, Martin worked with underprivileged kids through an after school club called “Girls Incorporated”. Through this job, Marin was introduced to the museum business. This passion for working with children and making a difference in their lives is, according to Martin, the real reason that she ended up with her current career. “I never knew I would work at a museum but I always knew I loved kids,” said Martin. “By following my interest, I ended up creating a career path for myself that is really great.”

laborate on demanding projects” and “make public presentations”.

A college friend eventually con-

nected Fischer to the Chil-

ean Presi-dency. “A girl in one of my classes at Stanford

put me in touch with

a translator in Chile and

that translator happened to be one of

the people that my future office called when they were looking for recom-mendations,” explained Fischer. Dedication to the Spanish lan-guage and culture, Fischer admits, is the main reason he scored this job. He advises all those with an interest in gov-ernment translating to “take as many opportunities as possible to travel and learn the language you want to trans-late”. “Future employers, I think, really value it if you can show that you’re re-ally familiar with other languages and cultures,” added Fischer.

by askinsbeth

Dear Sun:

I’m writing to complain to you about your recent activities. You’ve been constantly hiding behind the clouds, for one thing. As much as I love gazing up into the sky making shapes out of them, it’s basi-cally springtime in California, and as clothing stores here on Earth will agree, you can’t hide forever. But I also have an ardent request for you: that when you do decide to come out, please, please refrain from doing what you did to me in Ha-waii. Let me ex-plain. I hate get-ting sunburned (and by “hate”, I mean, “loathe with a burning, smol-dering, ungodly passion”). Being a couple shades above albino status, your Sunburn finds me every year be-tween the months of May and August, and after spending much quality time with its effects I’ve come to consider it essentially the bane of my existence. Whenever I neglect to slather on sunscreen, be it out of hope of get-ting a little color in my skin or due to sheer forgetfulness, I pay dearly. Sun-burn has got to be by far the worst punishment you have ever devised for humankind. My reasons? First: one never sees it coming. How is that fair? Take cloudy days, for instance. Personally, when I look out the window and see clouds blan-keting an otherwise blue sky, I don’t immediately embark on an in-house quest for the sunscreen. But accord-ing to Wikipedia, clouds filter out all of your good UV rays—the kind that bestow we humans with vitamins and nutrients—kindly leaving us with only the sort that burn the skin to a crackly crisp. It would be nice of you to give some more warning before striking. Second: your lovely invention tends to ruin any plans one has made for the following week. That includes wearing clothes that touch any part of the burn, and standing outside for longer than ten minutes without wincing. Of course, that one depends on the intensity of the burn. Which brings me to my third point: It hurts. A lot. Now, though residents of San Jose are already apt to feel your wrath during the summer, the poor folk living in Hawaii have to deal with a decidedly higher altitude, which puts them closer to you. Not having pre-

viously been armed with this infor-mation, throughout my entire week in paradise, I only applied sunscreen twice. Out of sheer frustration with your ruthlessness and my own for-getfulness, I’ve attached here a poem, which I call an “Ode to Aloe Vera Gel”. Note that it is not an ode to you.Respectfully yours,

Beth

An Ode to Aloe Vera Gel

O Aloe, Your beautiful sick-ly smell,Reminiscent of lotion-in-fused bile;When I en-vision Your transparent gelMy lips uplift in a reverent

smile.

Your sheen upon my flaming fleshResembles the slime of a thousand snails;Yet my mind the blaze of the sun does refresh,Reminding me what going without You entails.

Exploring the coral between boat and dock,It seems I’ve completely forgottenHow quickly and artfully ill-applied sunblockSizzles and scorches subjected skin.

Swimming, eyes wide, sun-drenched and content,It seems I’ve completely forgottenThe delightful plop of Your mighty descentUnto my palm. How long it’s been!

Hunger for life, my deadly vice,Obscures the memory of Your icy em-brace…For my distraction I pay the price,Raw and aggrieved without Your grace.

O Aloe! Your touch soothes most sensationOf agony: burning, itching, peeling;For thirty-five minutes per applica-tion,You drown out my sense of painful feeling.

So I praise You, in awe of your slimy paste,In you I place my heartfelt trust;Because, in spite of my slight distasteWithout You I’d likely crumble to dust.

Burned.

Use this quiz to help determine what dream job would best suit you. Realistic or not, it’s still fun to dream.1. You see an object on the ground, you decide toa) Listen to itb) See if it will make a nice hatc) Determine whether it’s edible

2. Your allowance is mainly spent on a) New music from itunesb) Clothing and accessoriesc) Food

3. When bored, you tend toa) Search for new bands to listen tob) Look at a magazinec) EatIf you chose...Mostly A’s; Your dream job is with-in the music industry as a producer or a scout.Mostly B’s; Whether dressed up or down, you belong in the fashion in-dustry as stylist.Mostly C’s; With your love of food, you belong as a food scientist, dis-covering which recipes produce thetastiest results.

Quiz by Emalie Chandras

Jenna GoekeStaff Writer

Kelsey GripenstrawEditor-in-Chief

Since the days of Alfred Hitch-cock, Woody Allen, and John Hughes and their infinite classic movies, the genres and storylines of modern mov-ies and television shows have begun to lose a great deal of originality and sparkle that Hollywood is so renowned for. In the past decade, many mov-ies have been made based on comics, cartoons and even dolls. G.I. Joe, Transformers, Superman and Batman are just a few examples. Recently, the idea of using the iconic Stretch Armstrong doll for a movie became a reality. “Twilight” star Taylor Lautner will be playing the role of Stretch, according to allhead-linenews.com. Hollywood has resort-ed to using dolls for movie ideas. Aside from the fact that nu-merous movies are being based off of iconic dolls, there’s the fact that many comic-based movie series make too many sequels and tend to get out of hand after about three movies. “Spi-der-man 4” is set for a release date of May 6, 2011, according to Sony Pic-tures. Then there are remakes, evidence that ideas for movies are more and more scarce, forcing many producers to remake movies that are only a few years old. One example is the entire “Batman” series that began in 1989 and ended in 1997. Then in 2005, the most successful remake of “Batman” was released. “I think that it is a good idea, because Hollywood is making enjoy-able movies that are almost exactly like the classic movies. Also, there are plenty of new movies every year, so

I don’t see a problem with recreat-ing the classics,” remarked freshman Christopher Spear. Other new releases such as “The Stepfather”, “The Last House on the Left” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” are all remakes from older ver-sions. Not to mention many classics that have been remade such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. “Out of all the movie remakes I can think of, ‘Charlie and the Choc-olate Factory’ would have to be my favorite,” added Spear. “Although I do prefer the original version, this movie is very interesting and unique. I feel that it depends on how good a movie remake is made to say whether movie remakes are good or bad, be-cause some remakes are fun to watch and some are terrible.” Hollywood is slowly running out of ideas. Characters and certain plot twists may always be different, but basic themes and storylines are becoming more and more alike. That genre-defining spark is dying as many ideas that could have been done have been made. No need to worry though, be-cause it’s almost impossible that Hol-lywood would ever stop producing movies due to this loss of ideas. Mov-ies are a main source of economic and monetary gain, and will there-fore never go out of “style” for Hol-lywood stars and directors, especially when eager audiences are awaiting new ideas. Box office results show that over 1.4 billion tickets were sold in 2009 alone. With such a large audi-ence and demand for new movies, Hollywood doesn’t have a chance of going down.

Hollywood recycles ideasAdult cartoons can get away with anything

Photo courtesy of Family guy: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/

Hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin looked to the front row A-listers for their comedic inspiration.

Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”Directing: Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”

“We’re playing house…” said Stewie apprehensively. “But the kid is all tied up!” ex-claimed his mother, Lois, with a worried tone. “Roman Polanski’s house…” Stewie responds. Cartoons today, much like “Fam-ily Guy”, get away with almost every-thing. Since 1999, writer and voice actor Seth McFarlane has been able to take jabs at celebrities and take all of today’s issues and make the nation laugh. How far is too far when it comes to cartoons and their subject matter? “‘Family Guy’ and the newer ones do [go too far],” said junior Amanda Daly, “But the old classic ones like ‘The Simpsons’ aren’t that bad.” The content of these shows know no bounds. Shows like “Family Guy” have been criticized for their content be-fore. In the beginning of “Family Guy”’s

82nd Annual Academy Awards captivate audiences

Ending the 2009-2010 movie season on a high note, the 82nd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 7 offered surprises as well as Oscar’s clas-sic charm to make for an entertaining ceremony that just might lift the show out of its viewer rut. Improving by 14 percent in the Nielson ratings, the show drew 41.3 million people to their TV sets, achiev-ing the highest ratings in five years. The changes started with the amount of nominations. For Best Pic-ture, which is generally considered the most important award category of the Oscars, and always reveals its winner last, the usual five nominations were doubled to give a total of ten movies a closer shot at the top prize. The first 16 Academy Awards ceremonies also nominated 10 movies for Best Picture. After the classic “Cas-

ablanca” was named the greatest movie of 1943, Oscar began to allow just five films a year the coveted BP nod. “Having 10 Best Picture nomi-nees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” said Academy President Sid Ganis in a press release. The lengthened nominee list al-lowed movies that would normally slip through the cracks, missing the nod, get that extra recognition. 2010’s high-light of these movies, particularly that of the more mainstream movies such as “Avatar”, “Up” and “The Blind Side”, was probably to blame for the extra viewers. “Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin [who hosted the show] are known co-medians, so I suppose they had some-

thing to do with the popularity as well. [Also,] Neil Patrick Harris started the show brilliantly, and held the viewers’ attention,” said junior Emily Ogle. Another change the show brought was the first-ever Best Director win for a woman, which went to Kathryn Big-elow for “The Hurt Locker”. The Academy still has any plans made for the 2011 Oscars under wraps, but one can guess that it will do its best to improve upon the success of this year by repeating what worked with the March 7 show and introduc-ing new tricks to attract audiences.

run, the PTC (Par-ents Television Council) stated that “Family Guy” was an indecent show, being cho-sen as their “Worst T V

Shows of the

Week” several times. This only resulted in the creators of “Family Guy” satirizing the com-plaints and woes of the PTC. Adult Swim premiered in 2001, being the late night network compan-ion to Cartoon Network, harboring cult cartoons, Japanese anime, and syn-

dicated cartoons (such as Fox’s “Family Guy”). Adult Swim isn’t the only network under fire for inappropriate sorts of con-tent. Comedy Central’s show “South Park” also receives flack. With more than a decade under its belt, “South Park” still gets constant criticism. Not only is “South Park” constantly under fire from critics, the celebrities it aims don’t appreciate their comedy either.

Photo courtesy of Oscars pic latimes.com

Viv NguyenOpinion Editor

At one point or another we have all been victims of overly hyped movies, movies with expectations so great that they could never live up to them. On the other hand, there are movies that deserve to be seen but receive little at-tention from viewers. So why is it that some movies succeed while others fail? Over the past few years, many box office records have been broken. The ‘Twilight Saga: New Moon’, for example, made $26.3 million on its midnight opening, the biggest in do-mestic history. Despite the film’s box office success, it received generally negative reviews. According to Rot-ten Tomatoes, only 28 percent of 199 critics reviewed the film favorably. ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ takes the tepid achievement of ‘Twi-light’, guts it, and leaves it for undead,” said critic Roger Ebert in his review. In January 2009, a movie titled “Moon” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was later given a limited theatrical release in parts of New York and Los Angeles. The film’s total domestic box office revenue was just over $5 million. The budget for the film was $5 million. 89 percent of 167 critics gave the film a positive review according to Rotten Toma-toes. “Moon” won 14 of its 21 award nominations including the BAFTA Film Award for Best Director Debut.

We have no way of knowing whether or not we will like a movie be-fore it is released. Something has to spark our interest before we see it, whether it’s a trailer, a review or a plot synopsis. “When a movie looks so inter-esting in the trailers and looks like it’s going to be something new then that’s what really makes me want to see a movie,” said freshman Krystal Soltani. More often than not, advertis-ing for movies is so overdone and over-hyped that when the movie is finally released, viewers are gener-ally disappointed. These movies are given so much attention that people take the hype and excitement and can do whatever they want with it. “Someone told me that ‘Para-normal Activity’ was supposed to be the scariest movie of the last 30 years,” said junior Tyler Gable. “It wasn’t scary at all, it was just boring. I didn’t like it at all.” Paranormal Activity is a perfect example of a movie being over-hyped. The story and idea of it are original enough, especially in the horror genr but when it’s advertised as “the scariest movie of the last 30 years,” expecta-tions are high and can’t possibly be met. Going into a movie, you have to keep an open mind. If you are being dragged against your will to see a chick flick with your girlfriend or going to the midnight premiere of a movie you’ve been wait-ing to see for months, know that your opinion of the movie before you see it could change by the end.

You won’t get away with this!

Josh VasquezStaff Writer

Hyped up movies don’t always de-serve the attention

Sophomore Juliet HavenerJunior Erfran Modir

1. Little Smirk - Theory of a Deadman2. The Crow and the Butterfly - Shinedown3. Sweet Tooth Suicide - Shinedown4. The Point of No Return - Immortal Technique 5. Seize the Day - Avenged Sevenfold

Photo courtesy by scificool.com

Other box office bombs are Sahara, Cat-woman and Land of the Lost.

1.Badfish - Sublime 2. Not Good Enough for Truth in Cliche - Escape the Fate3. Blueberry Yum Yum - Ludacris 4. Athems of Apocalypse - Winds of Plague5. Blessing with a Curse - Miss May I

Photos by Kylie Brown

We’re off to see the wizardThe Wizard of Oz steals the show again after 71 years of magic

Photo by Josh Vasquez

Menzel are unable to perform these roles, popular second choices for the roles are expected to be Lea Michelle (Glee) for Elephaba and Amy Adams (Enchanted) for Glinda. No matter who plays the roles of Elephaba and Glinda, Wicked is ex-pected to do well in theatres. With the right people on board and the right support system Wicked could easily take the box office, as well has a few awards. “Wicked” isn’t the only new “Wizard of Oz” movie on it’s way. “The wonderful Wizard of Oz”,

the original novel by L. Frank Baum is be-ing adapted to the Hol-l y w o o d screen. Work-ing on the movie is D a r r e n L e m k e , writer of “Shrek For-ever After” and who has already written a c o m p l e t e draft of a script. This movie is

expected to open the doors to future movie adaptation of the other books Baum wrote in his serious about the magical Land of Oz. Another movie about the city of Oz on its way to theatres. According to the Huffington Post, the remake of this original classic will be “darker and more action-packed.” With young starlet, Dakota Fan-ning lined up to play Dorthy’s grand-daughter, this movie will pick up where the original “Wizard of Oz” left off. Fanning will return to present-day Emerald City to fight evil, as mod-eled by the original. With “The Wizard of Oz’ being such a cherished classic in Hollywood, the city of stars is expected to open its arms to these newest projects with ex-citement.

Having conquered Broadway, “Wicked”, the world famous musical, sets off to conquer Hollywood. The musical has been picked up by Marc Platt’s production company, the same company that produced “Rachel Get-ting Married”. “Wicked” is the prequel to the “Wizard of Oz”, telling the story of how the wicked witch became wicked and how the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cow-ardly Lion found them-selves lack-ing a brain, heart, and courage. S o far there is nothing specifically set pertain-ing to the movie, other than the ac-tual produc-tion. Sourc-es say that the movie will come out in 2010; however it is more likely to make its’ debut in 2012. As far as actors go, many would like to see Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth reprise their roles from the original Wizard of Oz as Elphaba (Menzel) and Glinda (Chenoweth). Because the musical first came out about ten years ago, some are worried that Menzel and Chenoweth may be too old by the time the movie comes out. “I could see, definitely, me play-ing Madame Morrible at that point. But I hope they really do it soon, so that I’m young enough to play Glin-da,” said Chenoweth about the movie. But age doesn’t prove to be a problem. Because it is a movie and not a live performance, tools are available to make Chenoweth and Menzel look the right age for the part. This would be the most desirable option for many. However, if Chenoweth and

Kiki ClarkStaff Writer

Photo courtesy of LA Times

Throughout Tim Burton’s illus-trious film career, he has had many re-curring collaborations with actors and other artists. Probably the most long-lasting of these collaborations is with composer Danny Elfman, who scored all but two of Burton’s films. Though Elfman has always seemed to capture the feel of these movies quite beautiful-ly, the soundtrack for Burton’s re-imag-ining of “Alice in Wonderland” takes a completely different direction, with-out even one classical song featured. The soundtrack, titled “Almost Alice,” is composed of original songs inspired by the new film and covers of songs from the animated film by modern pop and rock acts. The genres range from pop to hard rock and ev-erything in between including bands like Owl City, Wolfmother, 3OH!3 and a highly anticipated collabora-tion between Blink 182’s, Mark Hop-pus and Fall Out Boy’s, Pete Wentz. Although the bands don’t seem to be a fitting choice for a Tim Bur-ton movie soundtrack, most of the songs fit well with both each other and the feel of the movie. Songs like “Her Name is Alice” by Shinedown and “Welcome to Mystery” by Plain

White T’s sound like they could be in the film as part of the score. Owl City’s “The Technicolor Phase” is exactly what you would ex-pect from the artist with its unbeliev-ably catchy and poppy chorus and electronic elements. The song from the animated film, “Very Good Advice,” is translated extremely well by The Cure vocalist, Robert Smith. As Burton took the animated movie and made it “real”, Smith took this song and did the same. Smith manages to deliver the most standout song on the soundtrack. All Time Low’s rendition of “Painting Flowers” pulls off the sound and feel that would fit the film, but mostly comes off as boring and unin-spired. The Hoppus, Wentz’s song, “In Transit” is a good song but with a col-laboration as big as this, most would probably expect more as the song doesn’t sound like both artists as much as just a Mark Hoppus song. The most forgettable song on the album is Kerli’s “Tea Party” which seems to be trying very hard to be crazy and over the top like pop stars like Lady Gaga or Ke$ha. This dance track feels very out of place on the soundtrack, as does 3OH!3’s “Follow Me Down.” Overall, most of the artists fea-tured on the soundtrack draw inspi-ration from the movie to make great songs that fit the movie extremely well. On the other hand, the side of the al-bum that was trying to reach the MTV demographic took over too much and threw the album off balance.

From the decor, ambience, and food itself, the experience of Kabob Dot Com was one that was exceedingly disappointing. The service was un-impressive. The artwork that hung on the walls were of completely unre-lated French haute cuisine restaurants. The place itself was rather dingy and very small, with absolutely no atmosphere to recommend it. And the actual falafel was extremely disappointing. It was more a burrito that had a few decent falafel balls on one side, and a wall of straight cilantro and greens on the other. I struggled to finish the wall of cilantro before rewarding myself with the falafel. - Annie Jung

As our first falafel experience, Viv and I were tentatively excited about how the food would taste. When we walked into the establishment, though, we were hit with a delicious aroma and immediately agreed, “Whatever it is, it smells freakin’ good!” We peered curiously at other customers’ plates and speculated until our orders were ready. We took our first bites and... “Mm-mmm!” The falafel was a pleasant texture, with the right amount of spice and vegetables in the wrap. Viv also ordered their baklava. She says it was quite delicious, though quite a bit oily. - Annie Jung and Vivian Nguyen

When one first glances at Falafel’s Drive-In, he or she might wonder, “Why am I at this hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Surely I can get something bet-ter at a McDonalds or something…” But don’t walk away so quickly. This falafel joint down the street from Valley Fair mall may look a bit shabby, but it’s been featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-In’s, and Dives,” and for a darn good reason. On their special menu, they have their signature combination. We tested the signature “Large Falafel and Banana Shake”. Their falafel was bring-you-on-your-knees-and-weep-with-joy delicious. We were hesitant to try their signature banana shake at first because we thought the taste would completely clash with the taste of the falafel, but it was friggen delicious. Everything was fresh and prepared right before us. Not only was theirs the best falafel we’ve ever had in our lives, but it was the best food we’ve even eaten in our lives. - Vivian Nguyen and Annie Jung

Josh VasquezStaff Writer

Directed

Generally, falling down has nega-tive connotations. Imagine your reac-tion falling down and bumping your head, falling down into mud, falling down and breaking a leg. Falling down a rabbit hole, on the other hand, is a whole different story; one magnificently told in this case by Tim Burton and his all-star cast in “Al-ice in Wonderland”. What begins as a story revolving around an engagement party quickly turns into an imaginative adventure filled with vivid colors, as 19-year-old Alice, played by Mia Wasikowka, runs away from a man proposing to her in order to follow a frantic, white rabbit with a pocket watch. Thus begins a retelling of Dis-ney’s first take on “Alice and Wonder-land”, right? Not exactly. Alice’s mission in Burton’s re-make is to kill the dragon-like Jabber-wocky in order to end the reign of the Red Queen, played by Helena Bon-ham Carter, and return the crown to the White Queen, portrayed by Anne Hathaway. While this new story strays from the original plots of Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass” and “Al-ice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, the

two novels “Alice in Wonderland” is based on, it adds a newfound layer of meaning to a story everyone generally knows, but never understands. The Mad Hatter, which could be one of Johnny Depp’s most eccentric and literally colorful roles yet, is not simply mad in Burton’s remake, for in-stance. Instead of only being a ma-niacal tea party host, the Hatter be-comes a sidekick to Alice, guiding her through the maze of Wonder-land (which is actually named Un-derland) until she understands her mission. The Red Queen and White Queen’s battle for the crown also becomes more than just a raging war. As their history as siblings unfolds throughout the movie, the attitude of the Red Queen becomes a little more un-derstood, as it is explained she is acting against the favoritism her parents placed on her younger sister, the White Queen. Besides the enjoyable tale the plot weaves by following Alice’s journey in Wonderland and the character develop-ment that makes the audience feel as if insanity is merely an extension of cre-ativity and emotion, the attention to de-tails paid in “Alice in Wonderland” eas-

ily makes the money spent on a ticket to see this film worth while. The bright-multicolored mush-rooms that grew spontaneously in Wonderland and the architecture of the Red Queen’s heart adorned castle make it clear that Burton paid atten-tion to every single aspect of this film. Each scene had just as much cre-ativity and unique design in the back-ground as in the foreground, making the whole movie a constant stream of “Did you see that?” Even Alice’s dresses matched the atmosphere around her, as she was forced to changed wardrobes with each growth spurt (or growth loss) she had. With memorable characters, in-tricate design and wonderful perfor-mances from all of the actors, “Alice in Wonderland” is definitely a film not to be missed. Anything but an ordinary chil-dren’s story, “Alice in Wonderland” en-chants and entrances, making the movie seem more like an amusement park ride than a two-hour film. So excellent job, Tim Burton. No one will be screaming, “Off with his head!” at you.

Incarceron is a prison like no oth-er. The Prison is alive and has a mind of its own. Author Catherine Fisher debuts her British novel “Incarceron” to the Americans, and it’s an adventure like no other. Incarceron is a unique sealed prison where fear conquers all, where all the inmates are under the constant watch of the Warden and the red eyes, and where there is absolutely no es-cape. Finn, a 17-year-old prisoner, be-lieves that he was from the Outside of Incarceron, but has lost his childhood memories. His inmates don’t believe him that there is an Outside of Incar-ceron, but Finn proves them wrong as he tries to escape Incarceron to the Outside with the help of a crys-tal key and a girl named Claudia. Claudia lives Out-side Incarceron and yet she

feels imprisoned. Her father, the War-den of Incarceron, is forcing her into an arranged marriage. Through her crystal key, she thinks that she can help Finn escape, but in return, Finn must help her as well. But Incarceron harbors deep se-crets, making escape seem impossible. “Incarceron” starts off with a somewhat rough patch despite that the beginning chapter exploded in my face, grabbing my attention. The description of the situation is real-istic in expressing Finn’s fear, but it was hard to visualize where this was all taking place. Fisher doesn’t provide enough visual information about Incarceron, and reveals more description about the Prison throughout Finn’s adventure and yet as a reader, I felt that I never had a solid image of Incarceron but just a fuzzy uncertain image. Countering this set back, Fish-er does a good job staying true to her characters; she focuses on mak-ing her characters realistic. All char-acters haves a goal, a specific per-sonality, problems that they must resolve and morals that the characters fight and struggle

internally.

In conclusion, “Incarceron” never slowed down for me. Finn and Claudia are both the central characters and they alternate chapters to tell their adventures. By formatting the novel this way, I felt that I was reading two books in one, and at the end, both of the stories became cohesive. Finn’s and Claudia adventure kept unfolding new twists in the plot keeping me constantly in-trigued. Fisher captured my attention at the beginning of every chapter and kept me captivated for the chapters to come. She writes effortlessly, her words flowing like mercury: shiny and deadly. From page one, I was hooked and I am still hooked waiting for “Sapphique”, the sequel, to be un-veiled in America so I can continue this whirlwind of adventure.

Written

Photo courtesy of http://www.randombuzzers.com

/

Emalie ChandrasFeatures Editor

Lauren TanakaStaff Writer

Photo courtesy of Sally McBurney

Photo courtesy of http://www.okmovietrailers.com/

Shayna JamesStaff Writer

Kylie BrownStaff Writer

Jordan BoomsliterBusiness Manager

Is there sexism in cheering?Tradition may explain why cheerleaders only cheer at boys’ games

School spirit has gone above and beyond

` For as long as cheerleaders have waved pom-poms, underlying themes of sexism have been whispered about by spectators at sporting events; words such as “exploitation” have been associ-ated with short skirts, phrases like “girl power” and “gender exclusive” applied to the squads’ sex. But now another gender-associated aspect of cheering has been added to the whispers: who the squad cheers for. At Leigh, and at schools across the country, it is a common practice for cheerleading teams to attend only the games of boys’ teams, and not the girls’. This policy is neither fair nor equal in the treatment and support of teenage athletes; if one gender is re-ceiving some kind support from the school, the other should receive it as well. “We’ve never considered it be-fore. It’s just something we do,” said Leigh cheer advisor Michelle Mayhew. While this is not a malicious or exclusionary action for the majority of the squads, it does have a negative ef-fect on high school athletes as a whole. These effects are felt particularly by fe-male athletes at Leigh. “It’s hard being a girl athlete and not having as much support from the school as the guys do. We work just as hard as they do,” said freshman Kendra Schultz. Other lady Longhorns share Schultz’s sentiments, and silently wish for support equal to their male peers;

support that, according to an impor-tant education amendment to the Constitution, is owed to them. Title IX, a section of the Edu-cational Amendments put into effect in 1972, highlights the rights for stu-dents in school, both in academics and sports. The amendment states “No per-son in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educa-

tional program or activity receiving federal aid.” This clause ensures that every student receives the same “benefits” in sports programs, and I would include the encouragement of other teams or school-related programs. Within this excerpt, I suggest, is the promise that cheerleaders should offer equal support to girls and boys. Even with the enforcement of Ti-tle IX and other state-wide regulations,

hundreds of cheer squads continue to cheer exclusively for boys’ teams, large-ly due to an overwhelming workload. “It would absolutely be too much for the same team to attend both games all the time,” said Jim Lord, Executive Director of the American Association for Cheerleading Coaches and Admin-istrators (AACCA). However, in order to maintain fairness and equality amidst all sports programs, Schultz feels they should ar-range to make time for both games.

“Yes I think cheerleaders should cheer at girls’ games because it would encourage more people to come to the girls’ games and they deserve that,” she said. And while some maintain that they cannot fit the extra games into their schedule, other members of the Leigh squad are impartial. “It really doesn’t matter to me. I don’t have a problem with the extra games. It’s our job,” said freshman Emilie Grochowski.

“I’m always open to suggestions; we can figure something out,” said Mayhew. Lord offers a solution that ben-efits both parties, and offers equal sup-port to all athletes while not overwork-ing the squads. “I think you have to start with the understanding that cheerleading is an ingrained part of the Friday Night Lights football scene. Cheer has to be there. But following that, there are some options that can make this situ-ation work: Alternate weeks for basket-ball. Cheer boys this week, cheer girls the next,” said Lord. In the end, Lord concurs that the current policy does have its flaws, while doing the best it can to be fair to the cheerleaders and the athletes. “No, it’s not fair, but it’s also not just about boys’ and girls’ teams. It can’t be solved with a simple edict that cheerleaders will cheer at everything. It’s about fairness as well as what is best for all students including the cheer-leaders themselves,” said Lord. Equality is in the mix, but we need to take a more decisive stance be-fore the whispers in the bleachers are legitimized by open neglect of our la-dies.

Walking down the ashen hall-ways of Leigh High School day by day, life can get a bit monotonous. You see the same thing every time-- the same teacher rushing to her classroom, the same group of people clustered along the walls, and the same hustle and bustle that is essentially high school. However, lucky for us, this is only part of our lives. Just before you succumb to your ever-present boredom, think about what you are missing that is making your life so miserable. The answer is spirit, something that we all know our a t h l e t i c teams are not short of. Team spirit is the glue that binds team m e m b e r s together. F o r e x a m p l e , the boys soccer team is sporting a new and edgy hair cut, the mohawk. They, along with a few other sports teams, accomplished a spot in a play-off tournament known as the Central Coast Section, or CCS. “We got mohawks for the CCS tournament…it gets the team pumped up!” explained Randy Randazzo, a ju-nior on the varsity soccer team. Not only did it jazz up the soccer team and the rest of the school, a few of the players mentioned that they liked their new hair style. “I kind of like my mohawk; I don’t know if I’m going to keep it too long after CCS, but I’m glad I got it,”

laughed Besar Madzar, another junior on the varsity soccer team. Boys soccer is not the only team that likes to switch things up. Leigh’s wrestlers have altered their ordinary ap-pearances as well. “The wrestling team bleached their hair for our league finals, but I decided to dye my hair instead,” said Martin Gonzalez, a junior on the var-sity wrestling team whose hair is now the lime green color of antifreeze. “I’d probably do any rally with my team if they all got involved,” he continued. Our lady longhorns show their

spirit with major fash-ion state-ments. They wear color-ful knee-high socks, Marti-Gras beads, huge sunglasses, clown suits, a n y t h i n g you could imagine. “We try to get the school to come watch our games

by dressing up. It’s re-ally fun,” e x p l a i n e d sophomore

Danielle Koehne of the girls varsity soccer team. The softball players also like to change up their style on special occa-sions. “We rally to get people pumped up for our games, including us. Doing it reminds us that we have a game that day. It’s pretty cool,” said Ciera Lindsay, a junior on the varsity softball team. Sports tend to pull people to-gether because they involve a great deal of spirit. If you take a group of people and add in spirit, you will probably end up with a team that sticks together no matter what.

CCS sends Leigh varsity basketball and soccer teams to playoffs

Beginning Feb. 23, our very own varsity boys and girls soccer and bas-ketball teams went to the CCS play-offs. Leigh sports teams compete in Central Coast Section, CCS, against schools ranging from San Francisco to King City. On average, CCS lasts for two to three weeks. CCS is a highly esteemed com-petition, so it is an honor for a high school sports team to make it to the playoffs. Teams trying to qualify for CCS are required to either place high-er than a set number of other teams or surpass a certain number of teams in their division in points, which are determined by the said team’s amount of wins and what teams they play. De-spite the skill and devotion it takes to make it to CCS, Leigh’s sports teams put up a fight to get there. “Our athletes here at Leigh are typically very talented in what they do. For a public school of our size, it is very seldom that we have students

getting Division 1 scholarships, but with us, it happens every year. As far as us making the CCS playoffs, we fair well in that category too. Each year we typically send at least one team from each season (three seasons in a school

year),” said Coach Chris Perry, Athletic Director of Leigh’s Physical Education Department. This year, Leigh’s varsity soccer and varsity basketball teams, both boys and girls, have qualified for CCS, as well as a handful of individual athletes from cross country and wrestling. One of our wrestlers, Sebastien Chene, is now heading to an even higher pla-

Competition brings both grim and uplifting results for schoolsteau, the state competition. CCS holds playoffs for an eclectic group of sports, including badminton, water polo, and lacrosse. Full teams aren’t necessarily mandatory, however. “All sports can qualify for CCS, but some only have individuals or pairs that go,” added Perry. Unfortunately, all four of our varsity teams that went have fallen short of winning. Our varsity girls soccer team lost to Presentation at the Feb. 27 quarter-finals. Tragically, our varsity basketball teams were defeated after only the first round for girls, and the second round for boys. Our varsity boys soccer team made it the furthest, fighting their way to the semi-finals but losing to Saint Francis, who went on to win the final match and the CCS crown. In the years Leigh High has been a part of CCS, our softball team has twice won the CCS playoffs. Despite Leigh sports teams’ athletic prowess, our basketball and soccer teams have yet to win. Maybe with better luck and improved skill next year, we can make Leigh High history.

Photo by Shannon Keener

Photo by Zack Galou

Keenan Wolfe shows off his mohawk even after the team participated in their hair state-

ment and soccer practices were over.

Our varsity boys soccer team made

it the furthest, fighting their way to the semi-finals.

Outrageous styles showing up for school sports

Varsity Cheer team at the Nationals in Disneyland, where they won second

place.

2 . Mem-

bers of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team cel-ebrate after beating Can-ada 5-3 in a

prel iminar y match. Their

victory created q u i t e an uproar, though

Canada end- ed up winning the gold medal.

3. Sven Kramer despairs after the men’s 10,000 meter speed-skating event. He finished first in Olympic record time but was disqualified because his coach, Gerald Kemkers, mistakenly yelled at him to change lanes.4. Petra Majdic is helped up onto the medal stand. After a nasty fall during training, Majdic skiied in the women’s cross-country skiing event with four broken ribs and a damaged lung to win bronze.

Winter Olympics 2010U.S. takes the lead in medal race

Rachel SteinStaff Writer

The bobsledding team is speed-ing down the track at 90 miles per hour! They’re almost at the end of the track. Suddenly, blackness. What happened? A man on the TV is now telling me that the coverage is be-ing switched to the United States vs. Canada hockey match. Hockey play-ers are now flying across the screen with only two minutes left in the third period. This incident occurred nation-wide on Feb. 21. It was one of many and happened because NBC, owning the rights to the Olympics, was not able to show both events at once with only one channel. “The good thing is they have replays, but I would rather watch it live,” explained freshman Stephanie Mcdowell, who also attended the winter Olympics in Vancouver, Can-ada. If NBC would simply allow other networks to broadcast the Olympics, they wouldn’t have had this problem. After all, it is an inter-national event. Not only was there only one channel, but NBC would also air certain events hours after they actu-ally happened to play them during primetime. Since the events were shared later to the west coast, people

would end up at Yahoo’s homepage and see the results of an Alpine ski-ing competition that was about to be aired. “It's kind of dumb, we’re in the same time zone as them, so it's like, 'why can't we see them live?’” said sophomore Frankie Hendriks. To avoid this problem NBC should simply air the events live and replay them later during primetime. That way they would at least still get the same number of viewers. “Record one and watch the other, or change the channels contin-uously or watch the more important one,” advised sophomore Paulius Jurevicius as a simple way to avoid missing an event. Others had contrasting feelings about this dilemma. “It’s kind of dumb, but I don’t really think it’s a problem. It’s all about having the most viewers, and if you played Olympics all day long, chances are, ratings are going to be low,” said Hendriks. If the Olympics were simply aired live for the west coast we would be able to see the events with the rest of the world and not have to wait and possibly find out from the internet. Now when you’re watching Apolo Ohno speeding his way past his opponent, enjoy it, because you never know when a snowboarder might just appear out of nowhere.

NBC’s selective cover-age of Olympic events disappoints viewers

5. Evan Lysacek cross-es his fingers as he waits for the scores of his free skate program; he defeated three-time Olympic medalist Evgeni Plushenko to become the first American to win the men’s figure skating gold medal since Bri-an Boitano in 1988. Plushenko’s snarky response: “I suppose Evan needs a medal more than I do. Maybe it’s because I’ve already got one.”

Zack GalouStaff Writer

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver proved to be exciting for the US with our number of gold med-als won. This year, we acquired consider-ably more medals than we did in the 2006 Winter Olympics, and took first place. In 2006, the US finished in sec-ond place with 25 total medals: nine gold, nine silver, and seven bronze. In contrast, this year 37 were won: nine gold, fifteen silver, and thirteen bronze, surpassing Germany who took second place and won 30 total: ten gold, thir-

teen silver, and seven bronze. We were tied with Norway for third for the most gold medals won. Germany was following close to the US throughout the majority of the time in Vancouver, but dedicated en-thusiasts at Leigh High School initially predicted we would prevail. “Germany might [have beat us], but [Germany] losing [to Norway] af-ter an 11 medal lead is improbable,” said junior Elias Saba. The medals won have been the result of strong, dedicated work by our nation's best athletes. Our strongest have won events such as snowboard cross, ski cross, Nordic combined, figure skating, freestyle snowboarding

and skiing, and downhill. Although we have won this year, the fight for top spot is never over. Soon the US will compete in the Lon-don 2012 Summer Olympics, and the future only holds more events for us to fight in. But in the meantime, this year has instigated a euphoric optimism for the public in hopes of us winning in the future.

final medal countU.S. - 9G, 15S, 13B (37 total)

Germany - 10G, 13S, 7B (30 total)

Canada - 14G, 7S, 5B (26 total)

Norway - 9G, 8S, 6B (23 total)

Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games- The paralympic games started March 12 and will end on March 22.- Athletes from over 40 countries from around the world, including the U.S., will be participating.- Athletic events are alpine skiing, the biathlon, cross-country skiing, ice sledge hockey, and wheelchair curling.- Highlights from the Paralympic Games will be broadcast on TV throughout the duration of the games.

Rachel RobellStaff Writer

Georgia’s Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a tragic accident on Feb. 12, a loss for the people of Georgia, his family and teammates. Georgia’s hopeful luger had fi-nally made it to the Olympics. After hard training for hours on end, the dream seemed too close to be pos-sible. But as Kumaritahvili trained on Vancouver’s Olympic luge track, he was about to near the finish line with his sixteenth practice turn of the course when his accident took place. This particular turn was called the “Thunderbird” due to fast speed, and tricky maneuvering. Many lugers consider this turn to be a 50-

50 chance at a perfect turn with no difficulties. W h e n Kumaritahvili reached his turn he lost control and slid diagonally, hit-ting a corner of the track feet-first. He was then knocked off his sled and flew into the opposite direction. The young Olympian hit head first on an unpadded support pole before reach-ing a stop on the metal walkway. His sled made it to the finish line, but he did not. Near the finish line, spectators watched with expressions of disbelief. The rescue team, by chance, had been very close by and was by his side in a matter of seconds.

Though Kumaritahvili was in good hands, his fate had been decid-ed, and at 21-years-old, he died at the trauma center. Officials concluded that the ac-cident had not occurred from a tech-nical error of Canada’s ten million dollar luge course, but an error from the conductor of the sled. "What I can say for sure, and the whole luge community around the globe is saying the same thing, is that if the track's fence had been higher, Nodar would be with us today," said Felix Kumaritashvili, Kumaritashvili’s coach and uncle. Still, safety measures were tak-en. Officials claimed they would raise the wall where Kumaritashvili flew off, they would modify the final turn where he crashed, and erect a wooden wall over the steel beams to protect the athletes from further injuries. Of-ficials delayed the reopening of the track, which caused sessions to be

Vancouver Games begin with tragic luge crashpushed back. Many worried that the technical difficulty of the course and a lack of practice time would end up in one catas-trophe after another. " W h a t can I say? Our family is dev-astated,” said Kumaritash-vili’s father David. “I re-member when we first found out. My whole family cried. I had tears in my eyes. A 20-year-old who went there with his hopes and dreams lost his life,” said Ana Kovziridze from the Republic of Georgia. Kovziridze traveled from Georgia to talk about the fatal acci-

Olympian dies at age 21, officials scramble to increase safety measuresdent and its affect on the people of Georgia. Kumaritashvili’s death changed

the tone of the Winter O l y m p i c s before it had even begun. The Gregori-an team wore black bands on their arms in remem-brance of their team-

mate. One t e a m m a t e was so dis-turbed by

the accident that he refused to com-pete in the Winter Games. “If I made it to the Olympics, and worked [that] hard to get there, I would die for my sport,” said junior Terra Steadman.

Candles are lit at a memorial set up in mem-ory of Nodar Kumaritashvili and located atop Whistler Peak, the site of his accident.

Photo courtesy of www.brisbanetimes.com.au

Phot

os c

ourt

esy

of w

ww.

hom

e.ky

odo.

co.jp

, Bru

ce B

enne

t, G

etty

Imag

es, M

ike

Sega

r, w

ww.

exam

iner

.com

-

Gra

phic

s cou

rtes

y of

van

couv

er20

10.c

om

1. Kim Yu-Na strikes a pose as she performs to the music of James Bond in her short program; the 19-year-old went on to win the gold medal. Kim is currently ranked first in the world by the Internation-al Skating Union (ISU).

no

table olympic m

oments

3. Sven Kram

er, N

ethe

rland

s

1. Kim

Yu Na, South Korea

5. Evan Lysacek, U

.S.A. 4. Petra Majdic, Slovenia

2. U

.S. m

en’s i

ce hockey team

03.18.10

1. 2.

the strip Comic by Beth Askins, staff writer

sign of the monthLearn how to say “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”

lyric of the month

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow liesThis is the dawning of the rest of our lives

Test your musical knowl-edge and guess this song lyric!HINT: St. Patrick’s Day could be considered this band’s holiday.

So you must’ve noticed the massive influx of fanned paged on the homepage of your Facebook. I know, I see it too, but a new type of fan page has sprung up on all of our home pages apart from the usual “I hate __” and “I love ___”: Fan pages for your teachers. According to every teacher’s favorite resource, Cliffnotes, during the late 1920s, students began to give teachers apples as a sign of respect and appreciation. Apple giving is still being done now through various sorts of media (such as TV and cartoons). Thanks to the Internet and all of the wonderful things it contains, students have stepped up their appreciation to a brand new level, eons in front of the apple-giving days.

Several students who have graduated or are still attending Leigh High School have made tributes to their favorite teachers on Facebook. As of 2007, both groups and fan pages have appeared on Facebook. The pioneers of these being two groups about two separate English teachers here on campus, Mike White and Rob Warren. “It was a joke,” said creator and Leigh alumnus Jenna Conway on the origins of Warren’s group. “[When Mr. Warren found out] fellow creator Marisa Gomez and I nearly vomited and then considered going into the witness protection program.” More recently, sophomore Tobias Bleisch made a fan page about history teacher David Smith titled “Waiting for Mr. Smith to say ‘Claaaaaaassss’....” “I made it because I wanted to

make an original group that only peo-ple from Mr. Smith’s previous class could join,” claimed Bleisch. “Ev-eryone is always talking about how funny Mr. Smith’s quotes are.” The fan page reports the famous catchphrases that Smith utters every so often, often quoted by students past and present. All of this love and appreciation for teachers may come across as flat-tering, but has the potential be inap-propriate as well. “That’s why I’m leery of it,” stated White. “It could undermine a teacher’s professional standing in the community.” “It’s nice to hear that students like me, but also there’s a certain line that shouldn’t be crossed,” said War-ren. The internet itself harbors many things about teachers, but it’s not that

we can’t stop them, it’s just a matter of finding them. “The thing about the internet is you really don’t have much control about what goes on there,” stated Smith. With enough snooping, you can probably find something more hu-morous about a teacher at school. In some cases, online groups about teachers can also be classified as “cyber-bullying”. The New York Times reports that a student from a South Florida high school was suspended for mak-ing a Facebook Fanpage, with the school claiming that it was “cyber bullying”. “[The student] turned to Face-book to vent her frustration,” wrote Carmen Gentile of the New York Times. “Evans [the student] created a Facebook page titled ‘Ms. Sarah

Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever had’ and invited past and current stu-dents of Ms. Phelps to post their own comments,” resulting in her own sus-pension. With the student suing the school back for suppressing her rights to free speech, we see that with these fan pages come a different mix of emotions. The praise we give to our teach-ers isn’t giving apples and Starbucks gift cards anymore. We dedicate our time [to do homework] and effort [to study] for making webpages for them. “[Facebook] is just a virtual se-nior lawn,” claimed Smith. Students are always going to talk about teachers, but each gen-eration will have a new way to show their appreciation.

Viv NguyenOpinion Editor

3.

Creepin’ on teachersFacebook Fanpages go a little too far