Highland is a very diverse and open school. From what we have seen, Highland tries to make students feel welcomed, accepted, and feel like they have someone to talk to. While the school does accomplish that, some of the students still feel un-welcomed or that they can’t be themselves here.

As students here, we hear so much throughout the day: positive and negative. But something we have noticed is that students tend to make fun and use phrases that are offensive to the LGBTQ+ community. Phrases like “that’s so gay” or the word “fag” are still being thrown around like it’s nothing. Most people don’t think twice before they talk/say anything.

We asked some of the students at this school that are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and supporters, about their thoughts on this situation. A member in the community, who chose to stay anonymous said, “It does annoy me. There is no point of using words or phrases like that. It’s pointless and stupid.”

Someone else we asked, who also chose to stay anonymous said, “We aren’t taken seriously. We are made fun of all the time and no one is doing anything about it. People are getting in trouble for saying the “n” word but not for using ‘gay’ or ‘fag’.”

As people that have many friends in the LGBTQ+ community, it hurts us when they’re hurt due to the things people are saying about them, or when people throw around “gay” and “fag” like nothing.

We should all work together, not only as a school, but as a community and friends, to try to fix this issue. We certainly can’t control what others say, but we can try to persuade them to be kinder.

It’s the ultimate day for school spirit week: Friday. Friday, the day we get to get out of seventh hour and see what student council has prepared for the school to get hyped about. As tradition goes, our team representatives, dance team, and cheer team performed fun routines for their fellow students, and Homecoming royalty was announced. This year, as many of you had noticed, student council decided to change the rules when it came to nominating Homecoming royalty.

In years past, the classes nominated people from their class, then the top few girls and few boys names were put on a sheet paper to be elected. However, this procedure allowed for “bully nominations,” which can be defined as a mass of students that come together to target a specific individual, nominate, elect, and heckle the said individual. This also didn’t allow for the GSA community to fully participate in Homecoming, because there needed to be a male and a female elected.

This year, student council asked that anybody who wanted to be nominated had to nominate themselves with a partner, and write a response as to why they embody positive Highland Park spirit. This way did eliminate the gender restrictions, and opportunity for bully nominations, however, some students still didn’t agree with this new tradition.

One Highland Park Senior High student didn’t observe much of a change this year. The student noticed, “[That] the concept of it being more accepting was present but like what actually happened wasn’t really different if people were to just get nominated.” He further explained, “People should, like, be able to get nominated and not be so discriminated against but like being able to sign yourself up…it’ll cause there to be uneven numbers, or a lack thereof.” The student also went on to mention how GSA requested a change in the nomination process, giving gay couples the opportunity to run together which they felt was a positive move.

Another Highland Park Senior Student disagreed with the partner requirement as well. She said, “[I]f they didn’t have someone they felt comfortable running with then they couldn’t run.” She had stated that student council should have gone about the changes in a different way, ultimately eliminating the partner requirement. “The two people with the most votes should win, regardless of gender.”

One Highland Park Senior told me she liked the old process, “because it’s the whole school’s choice who’s running, not just people who signed up.” Having said that, she did however praise the idea “of it not being so heteronormative so like maybe if people could still nominate others but there wouldn’t be a boy-girl restriction, people would just nominate ten.” She added that this year’s way of nominating forced nominees to find a running partner, but she said, “when maybe there’s no one to run with.”

As a senior, I’ve sat through both the traditional and progressive ways of Homecoming. Reflecting back on years prior, I can definitely see the opportunity for bully nominations, and how the process of nominating can be abused. I can appreciate the changes made this year, in attempt to make the spirit of Homecoming week more accepting, but I don’t believe it quite got there.

I do believe there should be students who sign themselves up to be nominated, eliminating the opportunity for bully nominations, but I can’t say that I completely agree with the idea of “duos” or partners. I believe that the requirement for having a partner weakens the idea of independence and lessens the opportunity for one to win. I believe that winning Homecoming would be more exciting if you didn’t have to worry about having a partner. That being said, there should still be two winners per class, regardless of their sex.

Highland Park Senior High is taking great strides towards being a welcoming and supportive community, and I hope it continues to be progressive in its thinking.

Walking out into the hallway from my classroom, someone always has to spray a ton of perfume into the air. I get that people want to smell good but they should be more considerate of other people around them.

People can get headaches, asthma or even allergic reactions to the smell of perfume. For the safety of students, the school should do something to control the use of perfumes. If not banning them, then limit the amount that a student can use.

On November 19, 2010, an article was posted about a mother wanting a school to ban perfume because her son had had several severe allergic reactions. Her son even needed an ambulance to get to the nearest hospital.

To avoid situations like these, people should not spray perfume into the air in the middle of the hallway. Do it in the bathroom, or where people aren’t, so no one gets affected by the smell. People don’t even need that much perfume that is sprayed in the air.

For people who don’t know where you’re supposed to spray your perfume, spray where your pulse points are. Most people spray perfume on their wrists, behind their ears, and behind their knees. Hopefully, people become more considerate and stop spraying perfume into mid air.

Upon returning to school after the end of spring break, I was one of the many angry and exhausted students who wished spring break had been even just a day longer.

The next day, upon waking up, I realized that yes, I was not excited to return to school, but I would have to return eventually. This got me thinking about whether this feeling of agony was normal, or, would I feel even the slightest bit better if spring break were extended. Thus came the question: Would an extended spring break benefit students?

Spring break is a week off of school that tends to follow the end of the third quarter. This week off of school is very beneficial to students for several reasons. 

Not only do students travel, and spend time with family and friends during spring break, but this week off of school gives students time to destress, which in turn benefits students’ health. The de-stressing that occurs over spring break is especially helpful because it allows students to come back to school during fourth quarter, which can be seen by students as the hardest quarter, more energized and alert. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, the stress that most students feel during school has many negative effects on their bodies including mentally, emotionally and physically.

Some of the common physical effects include low energy, stomach aches, shaking, muscle aches and pains, and frequent colds or infection.

Mental and emotional effects that are often experienced due to stress consist of anxiety, depression, feeling constantly overwhelmed, the inability to relax, low self esteem, and becoming easily aggravated.

These effects can be very harmful to students. Physical effects can become much larger problems, and mental and emotional effects can cause students to withdraw from those they are closest to, affecting more then just their school life. 

Although the week off of school gives students sometime to destress, one week doesn’t seem to be enough time to fully benefit students throughout the last quarter.

Another week of spring break, or even a few more days could give students several more advantages.

For the teachers that assign homework over the break, this would allow students to both complete the assignment and have free time, instead of choosing to do either or.

This extra time could also be used to help students form a plan for the fourth quarter and going back to school. These days could also be used as an opportunity for students to regulate their sleep schedule so they aren’t exhausted their first day back.

While these days could be beneficial to some students, it’s very likely that students would use these days for non school related things, which may benefit their health, or social and home life, but not their academics.

Also, extending spring break means that students would either extend the school year further into June, or take away the three day weekends that students wish for every week.

So, would an extended spring break really benefit students?

After pondering all these things, I conclude that an extended spring break would not benefit students all that much. Yes, some students may take advantage of theses days and actually do something productive, but a majority of students, including myself, would most likely sleep in and do a brainless activity, such as binge watching a Netflix series.

However, there is another solution to revive students upon there return to school after spring break: take it easy on students. Please teachers, no pop quizzes to see what information we retained over spring break, because it will most likely be nothing but disappointing. This solution also includes students being nice to each other.

As students, we just have to suck it up and show up to school and at least try to learn something. After all, we are lucky to have a free education.

Happy fourth quarter!

Today I’m looking into a mystery that’s been going on this past week at Highland Park Senior High.

April 12th, 2016 some mysterious student(s) decide to put sticky notes, with positive messages written on them, up in the girls bathroom. But, they decide, the next day, to take them off. This left people with questions about who this person, or people, is/are and why are they doing this.

Being one of the individuals that was left with questions, I decide to take it into my own hands and try to find out more about this mystery.

It turns out, random students (girls) are the ones putting up the sticky notes. During the school year, they decide to wrote positive Post-it notes to make other girls feel better when they were feeling down. They put them around the school bathrooms to remind them they were not alone. Usually, the people who do this sort of thing don’t take credit for it. It’s like they want it to be a mystery, and students have been doing this for a while now, according to some older students at Highland Park.

I decide to ask a student about what they tought about this. Her name is Olivia Verdeja, a freshman at HPSH.

I asked was, “How did you personally feel when you saw this notes around the bathroom what we’re you’re toughts and reaction?”

She responded with, “I liked it and thought it as cool because in high school a lot of people don’t have self confidence and I think if girls see this it means that other girls feel the same way and aren’t alone.”

My opinion is that people at Highland should start to do this more often, as just one little thing can make a difference in others’ lives; both those who are struggling, and those who aren’t. Also, kids need to know that everyone cares and they’re not the only ones who feel like they do. Working together as a whole school coming together is a great thing.