Monthly Archives: March 2016

News, World

ISIS recruits children for war

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The Islamic terror group ISIS has started to now recruit children to add to their ranks. As horrifying as this sounds, it’s true. ISIS is posting horrifying videos, of children they have recruited, shooting weapons, training and  murdering others who rebel against them. ISIS is brainwashing these kids to believe in the ideology of ISIS. Most children that do mange to escape to freedom say it’s like “hell” being there. To get to freedom most kids have to swim over the Orontes river, in the night, undercover, risking their lives. Children are brainwashed, turned into suicide bombers, and are made into soldiers that battle on the front line when walking into battle.

Children that are recruited range in ages 5 to 18. These children follow a very rigorous routine. According to the British website Mirror, they are awakened at 4:30 A.M. for prayer, go back to bed and are awaken again at 8 A.M. for breakfast. At 9 A.M. they are taught  lessons in the Quran and ISIS’ so-called Islamic doctrine. At 12 P.M. they have lunch and from 1 to 5 P.M. they have training including military, and physical drills.

These routines have been confirmed by kids that were able to get to freedom like Raghib Al-Yas Ahmed, age 14, said “They taught us how to slit throats and how to blow ourselves up. We put our hand on their forehead, lift the head up and put the knife on the neck and slaughter (them). 10-year-old Hamada Shihab Ahmed added that “Military training included how to use the machine gun and undisciplined children were punished by leaving them under the sun or lashing them with a hose. ”

This article from CNN further explains what ISIS is trying to do.

“ISIS is integrating children into its project in a way that is more reminiscent of a state than a non-state actor. It’s thinking with the long term in mind. It’s not just bringing children into its ranks and using them immediately on the battlefield. What it’s doing is bringing them in, indoctrinating them, training them, spending a lot of time instilling them with jihadist ideology.” ISIS wants to make sure that they really put their ideology into the minds of these kids to create the next generation of jihadists. ISIS calls these kids the “cubs of the caliphate”.

While there are kids who voluntarily join following in their father’s and brother’s footsteps, there are boys who are taken away from their families and forced to be in the group. ISIS uses propaganda videos, cash, toys, and other means at their disposal to lure children from their families. Their emphasis on youth makes eradicating ISIS much more imperative as children who grow up under their influence may not be able to be reasoned out of an ISIS mode of thinking.

Travel/Food

Shamrock shake

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It’s that time of year again, when people start looking forward to drinking green frosty drinks. I looked at three shamrock shake recipes, a regular shake, a diet shake, and a lactose free shake.

The first recipe I wanted to look at was the traditional shamrock shake. It looks super easy and you might just have the the stuff to make it in your home. Here is what you need:

  • 3 cups vanilla ice cream
  • 1 3/4 cup whole milk
  •  1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • green food coloring
  • whipped cream and cherry (if wanted)

In a blender put in ice cream, whole milk, peppermint extract and food coloring.

Mix until smooth.

When adding food coloring add just a few drops.

In this case a little goes a long way.

The next recipe I looked at was a diet shake. What you will need is:

  • 3 1/2 bananas
  • 5 spinach leaves
  • 1 tablespoon mini chocolate
  • 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 2 tablespoon low-fat wiped cream

Put all the stuff in a blender and mix it up. With the food coloring a little goes a long way. If you feel that you are having a hard time hiding the spinach leaves with the amount of peppermint extract just add a little more at a time to hide the taste.

The last recipe I looked at was a lactose free shamrock shake. What you will need is:

  • 2 cups vanilla soy milk ice cream
  • 1  1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
  • 1/4 teaspoon mint extract
  • 8 drops food coloring

Mix in blender until smooth.

Clubs and Activities, Events, School Life

Let’s talk about Benstock 2016

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Hmmmm……What can you do with that lucky $2 you surprisingly found in your back pocket, especially on a Friday night? Come to Benstock on Friday March 11, held in the auditorium from 7-9:30 pm! Tickets are only $2 for students, and $3 for adults. However, if you bring in a canned good, you will save $1 off the ticket price. 

At Benstock you can enjoy a series of performances featuring a variety of singing, dancing, not to mention it is a show of amazing talent.

Benstock has been a rewarding tradition for the past 17 years, and every year students have the chance to see their classmates show off their talent. In the past years, there have been performances by rock bands, breakdancers, spoken word artists and singers. 

Benstock is also Highland’s annual student charity event, hence another fantastic opportunity to share back with the community. The amount accumulated from ticket admissions will be used to donate to a charity of choice, still to be decided. All of the canned goods will also continue to be donated to the local food shelf Francis Basket. 

History

The original event began with a student’s desire for a trip to Australia. In 1999, student Ben Rosales organized a way to fund the trip by performing with his band on the school stage. Now where did the name Benstock originate from? His inspiration was developed from the music festival Woodstock. To personalize the name of the show, he decided to replace the ‘Wood’ prefix with his own name, thus the name Benstock was created.

The shows started mainly with performances from bands. Many of the past performers have grown successful musical careers. Eventually, the show expanded into a talent showcase encompassing a wider range of performances such as spoken word and both original and cover music.

It was not until 2007 that HPSH’s National Honor Society started to sponsor Benstock. This was also the same year Ms. Landreau became the adviser for NHS. The thing that makes Benstock special is that it is a production where everything is student led. Ms. Landreau and Ms. Hanson only stand back to support by the executive control.

 Spreading the Word

In the recent years, promotion through social media such as Twitter and Facebook event invitations have been considered to be effective on some level. This method of advertisement is more relevant for student to student promotion rather than the way publicity was handeld in the past. The effects of media usage to spread the word about Benstock was more centered around Highland students, and therefore, more Highland students attend the event now in comparison to previous years.

T-shirts were originally a major factor towards promoting Benstock, as executive members would travel around town selling the personally designed Benstock t-shirts, and advertise by posting flyers around the neighborhood. As a result, historically, there the audience was more diverse in that that there were not only students, but also people from the local community, including more teachers.

Risk Takers: First Time Performers

Other than the fact that Benstock is a student organized production that is both fun and entertaining, it is also an amazing opportunity to encourage students to try something new and become risk-takers. Every year there are several students who admit that Benstock was their first stage performance in front of anyone. Yet, every year, Ms. Landreau is astonished by the audience members themselves. “They are just the nicest crowd, with wonderful affirmation, and every year the crowd shows their love to the people on stage. I want people to feel safe.”

All students were welcome to audition for Benstock. This year, there are even three acts that include freshmen. Ms. Landreau hopes for Benstock to continue in the future years to come, and for more teachers to come and discover and be awed by the talents of students and encourage individual voices.

Here are some video clips of past Benstock Events : Benstock 2014  Benstock Intro 2009

People who will be featured in the performance include:

Raquel Loera
Ramona and Maeve
The Father
Maeve and Roland
Schyler Jackson Fish
Charlie, Alex, Thomas, Evan, and Fernanda
Owen Stanley
Olivia Mason and John Manning
Taji and Nehali
Kenji Callahan
Malik Griffin
Claudia Stensrud
Paige and Sydney
Leah and Maria
Pohla and Manning
Francisco, Zach, and Nathan
Sami and Sydney Linssen
Dean and Ricardo
Makeshift

People who have passed the auditions have worked hard and are proud of their talent, and therefore it is our obligation as awesome Highland classmates to come support the talent in our school.

Clubs and Activities

First time for everything

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Every February, Highland Park Senior High Thespian Society has a winter production called the One Acts. The One Acts are 10 to 30 minute performances that are picked and directed by students. Although the One Acts are an annual event, there are two things that set this year apart from all the previous years.

One way is that this year’s One Acts are different than past years is that the Thespian Society decided to open the opportunity for any grade to direct. In past years only Seniors had the opportunity to direct, but due to lack of students interested in directing, the option opened up to all high school students.

The directors of the One Acts this year were Sophomore Zoë Challenger, Junior Schyler Fish, and Senior Max Muter. Zoë directed Variations on the Death of Trotsky and First. Schyler directed 13 Ways to Screw Up A Collage Interview and Sure Thing.  Max directed The Philadelphia and The Chicken and The Egg. The end products of each of these performances were amazing.

Zoë Challenger’s performance First was an extra special production in that she had written it herself.

“I started writing in mid-August of 2015,” Zoë told me, “I didn’t write it for the One Acts, it was more like ‘I’m bored and I really want to write something’…I had a completely different idea at first. I knew I wanted it to based on teens and their problems, but I was going to have it have way more of a plot and be less of a spoke word.”  Zoë was very proud with the end product of First. She told me that she was happy she didn’t stick with her original idea because “it would have been really bad and cheesy.” 

First tells the story of a twelve year old who is excited to turn 12, leave adolescence and experience “firsts.” The girl’s sixteen year old brother and his friends share their “firsts” experiencing everything from sexuality, feminism, mental illness, being a person of color, and coming of age.

First isn’t just powerful in its context and performance, but also the story behind it.

Zoë created the characters based off things that both she had experienced herself, and also things the people close to her had experienced. I asked Zoë about how she had gone about writing about the experiences. “It was really casual, like I just texted them and I was like ‘hey can I ask you somethings’. They new I was writing something so the were like ‘yeah no problem’.”

Zoë submitted her play and Director of the Thespian Society Steven Houtz approved it.

Although the One Acts are “very stressful to direct and manage,” Zoë along with all other directors were very happy and proud of the end result, so in the end it was worth it.

Be sure to see the One Acts next winter!

Local, News

St. Paul Youth Services

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On Wednesday February 10, St. Paul Youth Services (SPYS) hosted an event at the Sun Ray library for finding the next St. Paul Police chief. Mayor Chris Coleman and City Council member Russ Stark attended. SPYS wanted to hear youth voices on how the police affect our community.

We talked about how police officers influence our everyday lives. You can find a police officer in most SPPS high schools. At Highland Park Senior High School we have Officer Hull. In a country that has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, does our discipline on teens have to be linked to police officers?

The school to prison pipeline has been a growing topic in the media. The school to prison pipeline is a term that refers to pushing at risk schoolchildren, who are predominantly people of color, into the criminal justice system. There have been studies that have shown the link between students that are suspended to their committing future law violations.

What is most disappointing is how small the ethnic population is in Minnesota schools, compared to their suspension and high school drop out rates. For example, nearly 60% of suspensions in Minnesota were from black, Asian, Native American, and Hispanic students, but they only make up a quarter of the population of the schools. 

SPYS is trying to help us learn that the school to prison pipeline is a real and urgent issue. We should be using our law enforcement to help and protect youth instead of making it difficult to get an education.

St Paul Youth Services was founded in 1973, and provides many services, including the Pre-Court Diversion Program, which helps young adults that committed petty theft offenses like shoplifting and curfew violation have other alternatives to help them stay out of the criminal justice system. Another service they provide to young adults is the Ambassadors for Youth program, which provides counseling and tutoring in community centers.

Local, News

Joe Biden visits Twin Cities

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Over the past week, you may have noticed some spontaneous road closures and a large motorcade and helicopters whizzing through the air constantly. This is because Vice-President Joe Biden made a stop in St. Paul, the final of 3 city visits throughout the country.

The Vice-President’s main stop, while visiting St. Paul, was at the Union Depot, which received over $35 million in economic stimulus money for its renovation in 2009. That money came from the Economic Recovery Act, a federal program that invested in infrastructure and renewable energy sources, and its primary objective was to save and create jobs immediately. Other financial areas of concern that were addressed in this plan were health care, education, and expansion of unemployment benefits.

Biden’s goal during this brief tour was to remind people what the economic climate was like back in 2009, and why he says the economic stimulus package was a great benefit for the country and its people. He stated how projects like the Union Depot renovation helped spark many other jobs of the same sort, which in turn helped in pulling our country out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Mayor Chris Coleman also chimed in about the benefits of the stimulus:  “When you look at the success of downtown St. Paul, and you look at that partnership that we’ve had both on the state level and the national level, that much of the growth that we’re seeing in downtown is directly attributable to that support.”

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

A personal what?

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I have a question, who actually took time to do their personal project?

After asking 10 different sophomores, 8 out of 10 said that they had.

The IB MYP Personal Project is a project completed by sophomores at Highland Park Senior High. It is an opportunity to express a personal interest as well as the development of a student’s writing and thinking skill. The project consists of three parts: journals, a paper, and the product. The paper is typically due in the middle of February and the final product is presented in a showcase around spring. The full completion of the project overall takes a year.

The project is first introduced to students at the end of their freshmen year. This gives them the chance to explain and decide what they actually want to do for their project. Then later at the beginning of sophomore year, students are assigned an adviser who will help them and lead them through their project. Each adviser is assigned about five students. This gives them (the advisers) a better chance to actually sit down one-to-one with each student to keep them on track. Each student gets the chance to meet with their adviser three times before actually completing and turning in their project.

Now that you know about the project, let’s ask a few of our HPSH sophomores about it. I asked 10 students (the same 10 from the beginning of the article) the following question: Do you think you were provided with enough help? Here are some of their answers:

Danasaja: “No I didn’t {Receive help}. I had to ask other students.”

Mohan: “Little help on the journals, but I did fine on the final paper.”

Sydney: “There was not  enough structure, but yes, enough help was provided.”

Even though there wasn’t a lot of positive feedback, the project does help us prepare for being independent for our adult lives. The project can become time consuming when we have other homework to focus on.

After taking a poll from the same 10 students, 6 out of 10 were proud of their final products. Even thought it wasn’t favored, many were proud of their final product.