Daily Archives: January 18, 2017

School Life

Four Seasons field trip

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Students at Highland Park Senior High (HPSH) were given a chance to spend the day with Four Seasons Elementary 4th graders on January 6th, 2017. Students that went on the field trip were from the school’s Newspaper and AVID classes.

When the students arrived at Four Seasons, they were instructed to put their belongings on the back wall of the gym. Every student was given a name tag and a button to show they were students from HPSH. The students were there to be “helpers” to the youth group leaders that were in charge for the day.

After checking in with everyone, the youth group leaders came and had the students stand in a circle. There were three leaders: Sebastian, Vanessa, and Sesay. While two of the leaders were setting up, the third taught the students what to do when the 4th graders arrived in the gym.

When the 4th graders arrived, the high school students paired up and went to choose a number for their small group. My partner and I chose number “4.” Every 4th grader with a number “4” by their name tag was in our small group. We met up near one of the walls of the gym and sat in a circle.

In our small group, we had around eight 4th graders. We went around the circle introducing ourselves. After that, we were ordered to follow the instructions on the back of the sheet of paper we were given. We talked about what were some of the bad things that happen at school. We listed them all. The one that came up the most was “spreading rumors around the school.” We then talked about ways to end these bad behaviors in school.

Soon after, everyone gathered up again and to play a few games with the leaders and other groups. The games played were: Ships Ahoy, Train Dance, and many more. After playing the games, we had story time. Sebastian told us stories about when he was faced with bullying and when he saw people being bullied. The stories were great and full of lessons.

After a while, we were sent back to our small groups and then talked some more. Lunch time came after the small group talk. We had to sit by our small groups for lunch. After lunch, we played a game kind of like Charades. Our group tried, but we only got 8 points.

Once the games were over, after lunch, everyone went back to the front and listened to the youth leaders. Everyone got up and we danced and danced, and at around 1:15, it was time to leave. The trip was fun; everyone seemed to enjoy the retreat.

Every 4th grader had a great time with us (hopefully). The kids really enjoyed the leaders, though some seemed to like them more than others.

Hopefully, we will get the chance to go go back next year to help with the students and upcoming retreats.

Editorials/Student Voice, News

Trump vs. Streep

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The Golden Globe Awards is a ceremony where the most esteemed actors and actresses are recognized for their work. This year Meryl Streep, a well known actress, was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award. While stepping onto the stage and quieting the crowd, Streep had a few things to say to our soon to be president, Donald Trump. She spoke of the comment Trump made when he imitated a mentally disabled reporter, and how she felt it was absolutely unacceptable. Although Streep’s speech wasn’t the longest ever given, many of the other people attending the ceremony were nearly in tears or gazing in awe.

When she went up to give her speech many things happened: she started out by saying how thankful she was for the award, she then moved on to name many actors, and actresses, then she listed where they were from, and explained that if we take out all the foreigners from Hollywood then we wouldn’t have anything entertaining, art filled, or even meaningful.

Streep then went on to say how we have let someone who is insensitive, and not speaking for the greater good, into our most cherished and honored seat of our country. She talked about how having our president elect making fun of disabled people makes Americans feel ashamed and hurt.

Meryl Streep was standing up for America, and then got dragged under the bus by that very same president elect for exercising her first amendment rights.

When he heard what Streep had to say about him, our president elect, Donald Trump, went to Twitter to share his opinions on the actress. He went on to call her a “Hillary flunky who lost big,” as well as “overrated.”

The Internet was enraged by his comments, with many pointing out how unprofessional it was. An international hashtag regarding the feud was started: #ThingsTrumpThinksAreOverrated. Many disagreed with his statement and went to Twitter to share their opinions. The tag was filled with tweets agreeing with Streep’s statement against Trump’s controversial and hateful comments.

Even though Streep had her supporters, there were still many people who agreed with Trump and defended the comments he made. For example, Tomi Lahren, an online video host for TheBlaze had multiple comments for Streep. Lahren called the people at the ceremony an “Overrated collection of liberals” and “Out of touch with the rest of America.” Many others along with Lahren sided with Trump and began to bash Streep.

Whatever your views are, we hope we can all get along under the new president.