A MUCH NEEDED BREAK

by Paula Ramos

Thoughts begin to accumulate, just like the many assignments sitting atop your desk. From advanced classes, extensive schoolwork and a poor sleeping schedule, there comes a time where the stack grows too high, folding under gravity as papers avalanche to the floor with your mental well-being in tow. Alarming rates of mental health issues amongst students raises the question: should excused mental health days be offered for students?

Even though school-related stress affects the mental health of 61.5 percent of students, only 26.1 percent of them have ever taken a mental health day (Solstice RTC). With 1 in 3 students reporting persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and 1 in 5 seriously considering suicide, it is vital for schools to bridge the gap between the treatment of physical and mental health. Taking a mental health day from school is a chance for pupils to receive an everyday break from the stress of exams, deadlines, and social and academic pressures. All in all, giving students the option to take an occasional mental health day would drastically improve wellbeing, giving students a chance to make their mental health a priority.

Students should know when to take a rest before the accumulating pile of thoughts gets to be too much.

by Lawrence Delano

The Suicide Squad is a great film. It takes as many surprising turns and no one is guaranteed to survive except Harley. The jokes are positively hilarious from the bird’s revenge on Savant, Polka Dot Man’s hallucinations, and Sebastian’s antics

The mission is to destroy every trace of Project Starfish, which is located at a secret facility on the island nation of Corto Maltese. They are told as little as possible as they are not trusted and might jeopardize the mission, but this doesn’t stop one member from alerting the island’s military, getting a half dozen of the members killed, Colonel Flagg M.I.A and Harley captured.

It is then revealed that there was another group dispatched to the island and they notice the lack of soldiers and then see a massive explosion where the original team landed. HQ writes it off as a diversion. The leader, Bloodsport, starts arguing with Peacemaker. These two spend the whole movie annoyed at each other. They set up camp for the night, with a few hi-jinks involving King Shark, Rat Catcher, Bloodsport, and Polka Dot Man. The funniest of which is Bloodsport’s rat-phobia and Ratcatcher’s whole thing being rats. In the morning, they set off to rescue Colonel Flagg after hearing he’s been captured by the island’s military. They make their way though silently until they reach Flagg, and then he asks them what happened to the freedom fighters in the camp. Realizing they overcame their allies, they claim not to have seen them until Polka Dot Man says he turned them into his mom in his head and then killed them.

The movie becomes less gags and more story past that point, which is a brilliant story by the way. The ending is terrific and the after credits clips are so satisfying. I wold rate this film 9/10 the only thing keeping it from perfection is killing off one too many characters and not quite enough backstory and lore.