March 3, 2015 | Issue 5, Volume 3

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PHOENIX

Vol. 3 Issue No. 5 March 3, 2015

RAPE CULTURE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES:

A HUSHED ISSUE FINDS ITS VOICE Photo courtesy of NBC News

by Sarah Kacmarsky Staff Writer

On college campuses, many rape cases have occurred, but more often than not, the culprit has walked away unscathed.

When the rapist is not punished, victims feel as though they carry a burden each day; like Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University student, who was raped in her own dorm.

Sulkowicz reported a sexual assault case in Aug. of 2012.

When she found out that two other students had filed complaints against the same student and he hadn’t been punished, she decided to take action. For her senior thesis, Sulkowicz carried around the mattress in which she was raped.

She made a rule that she cannot ask for help, but she can accept help offered by others. With universities doing nothing to help, victims tend to feel unsafe on campus.

“Everyday, I’m afraid to leave my room. Even seeing people who look remotely like my rapist scares me. As long as he’s on campus with me, he can continue to ha-

rass me,” Sulkowicz stated in her Carry That Weight movement.

More recently, a Stanford student, Brock Turner, was arrested after being caught harassing an unconscious woman on the campus grounds. Instead of the typical reaction, blaming the victim and how much alcohol they’ve consumed, Turner “voluntarily withdrew” from Stanford University. He has also been banned from the campus, cannot re-enroll and has been placed on the USA Swimming Banned for Life list due to his arrest. In comparison to Columbia, Stanford took the correct means of dealing with the problem.

Lastly, on Jan. 28, 2015, an email alert went out to all De Anza students that a female student had been assaulted on the south side of campus. The victim told police the attacker grabbed her by the arm and pushed her against the wall while trying to kiss her. The victim punched the attacker and was able to give a clear description to campus police.

“Whether or not the fix is a few new light bulbs, or

"RAPE CULTURE IS AN ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN IN PARTICULAR,BUT NOT EVEN JUST TO WOMEN—TO TREATING ALL PEOPLE AS SEXUAL OBJECTS,NOTHING MORE THAN AN OPPORTUNITY FOR SEX.”

not, students shouldn’t feel unsafe walking around campus at night or at any time,” said a De Anza administrator. De Anza is looking into ways to solve the problem and prevent situations like it from happening in the future, as colleges should.

Stanford and De Anza’s cases occurred just this year, but in 2014, Pennsylvania State University had the highest amount of sexual offense cases with 56. However, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor had the second highest total of 34, followed by Harvard University with 31, according to a Washington Post

analysis of federal campus crime data. Sex assault, a longtime problem on college campuses, has become a national issue. President Obama created a White House task force to develop proposals to prevent sex assault, and Congress is considering legislation. Dozens of colleges and universities, including Catholic University in the nation’s capital, are under federal investigation for possible violations of anti-discrimination law in their handling of sexual violence reports.

The Post analysis found that 55 percent of about 1,570 colleges and univer-

-ANNA BAHR,A COLUMBIA GRADUATE AND FORMER EDITOR OF COLUMBIA'S SCHOOL MAGAZINE. sities with 1,000 or more students received at least one report of a forcible sex offense on campus in 2014.

These statistics provide an alarming realization that sexual assault is a prevailing problem on college cam-

puses all around the United States. Since it is such a large issue, more and more colleges seem to be taking action and are headed in the right direction with punishing the attacker, not the victim.

News

March 3, 2015

2

Teacher Milestones

by Essam Rao Staff Writer

Afghan translators denied US visas

by Melissa Parlan Opinion Editor

Monica Schuet

10 years

Schuet has taught at Fremont for 10 years and she is also an FHS Alumni. This year she teaches literature/writing, AP literature and AVID 12. When she went to FHS, she had a great learning experience due to amazing teachers, diversity and leadership programs. After high school, she knew she wanted to become a teacher at FHS. Outside of school she enjoys different mediums of art like crafting, painting and photography. Schuet also enjoys spending time with family, reading and hiking

Celia Dudley

15 years

Dudley has taught 15 years at Fremont, but a total of 25 years including other schools like Buena, San Marcos, Monta Vista and Leigh High School. This year, she teaches chemistry honors and sheltered physics.

She received a degree in biology bioengineering at the University of Illinois. She also worked as a clerk for a manufacturing company. In high school, she did not really enjoy chemistry, but while in college, she understood the subject more clearly and eventually decided she could teach the subject. Outside of school, she enjoys reading and playing piano.

Ever since 2003, the US has been at war with terrorist groups overseas, including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. While fighting in Afghanistan, US troops have been receiving help from Afghanistan natives working as translators for the US armed forces, to better understand the terrain and people of the foreign nation.

In return, the US gives these Afghanistan allies Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to exit and enter the country. However, there has been a major decrease in visas issued, putting these translators at more danger than ever, by leaving them where the Taliban can target and harm them and their families.

One thing that people usually confuse with the current war is that the US isn’t at war with the country of Afghanistan. The “war on terror” has been an on going fight against terrorists initiated by the 9/11 World Trade Center attack by radical Islamic terrorist groups.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, these groups, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban, have been traveling throughout the Middle East and mostly residing in Afghanistan.

Given this distinction in who the “real enemy” is, the people of Afghanistan are no where near safe from

these terrorist groups, let alone, the Afghanistanis working against them. If these translators can’t get out of the country, terrorist groups are more likely to find them and their families, and unfortunately, harm or even kill them.

“The Afghan Allies Protection Extension Act, introduced by Shaheen and McCain in May of this year, would extend the Afghan program for another fiscal year and institute other important fixes, including the authorization of an additional 3,000 visas and expanded eligibility, so that the America can keep its promise to those who served alongside us overseas,” Michael Breen, former US military captain and writer for The Hill, said.

According to the Public Broadcast Service (PBS), the issuing of visas started with the Afghan Allies Protection Act in 2009. The act was able to issue about 7,500 visas for Afghan employees of the US and their loved ones. However, out of that 7,500, only 2,000 visas were actually issued. Ever since that year, more bills have been passed to continue the distribution of visas to Afghanistan translators, but less and less have actually been issued and used each preceding year.

“The system continues to face numerous challenges and remains complicated, requiring extensive paperwork, interagency coordina-

tion, and thorough background checks,” Breen said.

There have been stories on this made public to the media by a few stations, including Vice and CNN, however, the issue has been made even more popular by comedian John Oliver on his late night serie Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. On Oct. 19, 2014, Oliver did a segment speaking about the issue, showing the extensive application process for a translator getting a visa and interviewing one of the very few who got to America after serving with the US military.

According to the Washington Times, these translators have to go through a long and extensive process to get these visas, visas that they desperately need and deserve. These Afghanistanis go through months of paperwork and verification, and the most they get is an interview, further extending the process.

Council on Foreign Relations says the problem starts at home, with our own Bureaucracy. Homeland security has been such a huge point of focus recently that coming into the country is harder than ever. On top of that being from a country in war adds on to that difficulty. Because these Afghan translators aren’t US citizens and don’t have much representing them in government, these unseen allies are at the bottom of Congress’ list.

Some believe it’s the

fault of the situation lies in the translators themselves, claiming that they don’t go through the application process in a timely manner.

“A lot of those (applicants), not quite half of them, control their own timing. They’ve started the application, or perhaps they’ve gotten past the first step, but they need to finish their own paperwork before we can take the next step with them,” Jarrett Blanc, Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in an interview with PBS. It’s true that our government has so much to worry about. But shouldn’t our outside allies be given something in return? After all, they are a huge contributor to our advancements on the war and have been risking not only their lives, but also their families’ lives to help keep our troops safe.

Like Oliver said in his segment, if the US could bring an immense amount of refugees to America after the Vietnam War in just four months, it shouldn’t so hard to repeat. Why is it so hard to issue visas to the people who need it the most? It’s understandable how so many people are trying to get into America, but it’s logical to make these translators and the safety of their lives our priority.

Downtown Sunnyvale spending dispute

by Snigdha Rayala & Cindy Zhang

Collaboration

Sue Yim

15 years

Yim has worked at Fremont for 15 years now. She is the data technician for FHS. Yim has also worked at Monta Vista High School. After college, she worked various jobs, but her main one was at FHS. Outside of school. Yim enjoys working out, reading books and dining out.

Maria Jackson

20 years

Jackson has been teaching in the district for 19 years.

This is her first year at Fremont and she is one of the assistant principals. Before, she has taught at Lynbrook High School for 18 years, was an English teacher and an advisor for both journalism and yearbook at various high schools. In college, she got a chance to work at Andrew High School. She loved working with kids and then knew she wanted to become an educator. Outside of school, she sings in a choir. She also enjoys spending time with her family, taking pictures and taking walks in her neighborhood.

The $800 million Sunnyvale town center was set to be completed in 2012.

However, it is still unfinished due to an ongoing battle between developer Peter Pau and Wells Fargo for ownership over the town center.

According to The Wall Street Journal, in 2007, the city sold the Sunnyvale Town Center site to a joint partnership between Peter Pau and Rosenberg Real Estate Equity Funds (RREEF), a real-estate investment management business, so that they could redevelop it.

By June 2009, Pau’s Sand Hill Property had overturned the old mall and was working hard on building up a new complex when the partnership defaulted on the $108.8 million loan from Wells Fargo due to the credit crunch that had affected all of US in 2009. Pau accused RREEF of defaulting on the loan without consulting him first, and RREEF officials have neither affirmed nor denied the accusation.

Due the money default, Wells Fargo sold the property. According to Pau, Wells Fargo did so without offering it to him. However, Wells Fargo denies this by saying they never marketed the property.

Priya Lee | The Phoenix

In May 2011, Pau filed a counterclaim to the bank’s suit in an effort to buy the property. However, a judge suspended the possible sale of the town center, which caused the project to be at an impasse ever since.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Sunnyvale “is losing an estimated $2 million a year in sales-tax revenue that [residents] expected the complex to generate.” With this money, the city could have “captured a surging real-estate market.”

“It just baffles people that here the construction has begun, tons of money has been poured in—and there it sits,” said Brad Lyman, Executive Vice President of real-estate brokerage Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank.

The discord of who

exactly is at fault for the standstill in construction is still an ongoing dispute.

Neither Pau nor Wells Fargo admits to being culpable.

John Pilger, a spokesman for Sunnyvale’s city manager, accused Pau of filing “delaying lawsuits that have served little purpose other than to hold the project hostage.” However, Pau claims he should not be held responsible for the setbacks. “It’s in the bank’s control, not me,” he said.

“There is a finger-pointing exercise to put the blame on me.”

Wells Fargo officials accuse Pau of holding them back with his pending litigation. “Mr. Pau’s litigation impacts the marketability of the title,” says Wells Fargo spokeswoman Elise Wilkinson, “which limits our ability to sell the property to a developer who will move

the project forward in a way that benefits all parties involved.”

Though the Sunnyvale Town Center is still unfinished, there are still some new restaurants and coffee shops that have opened. For example, there was a new bakery called Profilic Oven that opened last October.

There is also a new restaurant called Kabul Cuisine that is opening in April.

In addition to these both, there were also two new stores that opened.

No one is certain when the town center will be finished. The court has already ruled in favor of Wells Fargo, but Pau continues to fight for ownership of the Town Center. Until this case is resolved, the Sunnyvale town center is most likely not going to be finished anytime soon.

News

March 3, 2015

3

US-Cuban embargo comes to an end

by Kristina Lechuga

Staff Writer

After more than 55 years of tension between the United States and Cuba, the US embargo against Cuba is coming to an end.

An embargo is defined as “an official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country,” which in this case, eliminated all trade between the United States and Cuba. It also eliminated direct flights to the country, meaning that the only way to travel to the island was through Mexico, Canada, or Europe. Originally placed during the height of the Cold War in 1962, the embargo was created as a precaution against nuclear attacks and political ideologies of the nation.

On Jan. 20, President Barack Obama gave the State of the Union speech in which he promised to ease sanctions against Cuba; this happened as a result of Cuba releasing Alan Gross, an American aid worker held by the Cuban government for five years. “In Cuba, we are ending a policy that was long past its expiration date,” Obama said in his annual speech. “When what you’re doing doesn’t work for 50 years, it’s time to try something new.”

The United States and Cuba have had a difficult relationship for decades. With the Cuban Revolution ending in 1959 by Fidel Castro coming to power, Cuba has been a communist country since. Cuba’s close ties to the Soviet Union created even more tension between Cuba and the United States.

In 1961, the United States launched the Bay of Pigs invasion, a CIA-sponsored military invasion of the island that ultimately failed when the Cuban military defeated US forces in 3 days. Then in 1962, the Cuban Missile crisis began, in which a US plane discovered nuclear missiles in Cuba that were owned by the Soviet Union. Being that Cuba is located 90 miles South of Florida, this was seen as a potential and alarming threat; it is considered by many to be the closest any nations have come to a nuclear war. Thirteen days later, the crisis ended when the US pledged to not invade Cuba so long as the missiles were removed.

The country has often been criticized for their lack of human rights and the torture of political prisoners, notably criticized by established organizations such as Human Rights Watch. “Refusing to recognize human rights monitoring as a legitimate activity, the government denies legal status to local human rights groups,” Human Rights Watch published in their 2006 world report. “Individuals

Staff Writer

Our nation’s gas prices have been significantly dropping, and they will continue to drop throughout 2015. These low gas prices can be attributed to many market factors, and there are four main ones that directly affect the gas prices. The first one is the large amounts of available oil, the second is a decline in oil prices, the third is the lack of major disasters to the global environment and the fourth is the cheaper blends of gasoline during the winter season.

There are large amounts of oil due to a new drilling project in the Gulf of New Mexico. Accompanying this drilling is an increased use of techniques such as hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing, according to propublica.org, is a process where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart rock and release gas. This technique on the land near the Gulf of New Mexico has increased the amount of oil significantly. This increase in supply has lowered gas prices in the U.S. and as the price of oil falls, the price of petroleum-based products, such as gasoline, will drop as well.

There are always fluctuations in the price of crude oil. When the price of crude oil increases or decreases,

gas prices follow. So at the moment, oil prices are decreasing, which is why gas prices are low. U.S. refineries buy a couple million barrels of oil every day to supply the entire economy, so even miniscule price changes make a huge difference.

There are always fluctuations in the price of crude oil.

When the price of crude oil increases or descreases, gas prices follow.

Oil prices have been decreasing due to multiple reasons, including the increase in production of U.S. crude oil and a stance for weak growth in global oil demand. Also, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, decided towards the end of 2014 to restrict oil production, which would in turn not manipulate any prices.

There have not been any recent major disasters, in 2014, which have ruined the U.S. economy. The Gulf of New Mexico consists of some of the most promising oil fields in the world, but it is also especially vulnerable to hurricanes. Since there haven’t been any natural disasters lately in that

PHOENIX

1279 Sunnyvale Saratoga Rd. Room 84 Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (408)522-2400 fremonthighphoenix@gmail.com fhsphoenix.com Managing Editors Ashley Chavez Kayla Layaoen News Editors Jasmine Salik Sonya Jindal Sports Editor Chau Nguyen Arts & Entertainment Editors Sarah Arkoh Emily Wright

Photo courtesy of America Al Jazeera

who belong to these groups face systematic harassment, with the government putting up obstacles to impede them from documenting human rights conditions.” An estimated 17,000 Cubans, mostly political prisoners suspected of or speaking against communism, have been executed by the Cuban government. According to procon.org, there are an estimated 70,000 incarcerated political prisoners in Cuba as of 2012.

The lift of the embargo is expected to improve both Cuban and American economies, as well as boosting tourism.

Gas prices increasingly fluctuate

by Sravya Bathula

the

specific area, the amount of oil in the region is satisfying the U.S.’s current economic needs in terms of energy.

A strong storm can disable thousands of oil rigs and in reaction gas prices will rise as refineries and petroleum traders determine how long the damage will last. The lack of disaster in the Gulf of New Mexico has contributed to low gas prices.

There are actually different blends of gasoline.

There are multiple different recipes out there, which differentiate. For example, Chevron’s gasoline is different from Shell’s. Gasoline is seasonal as well, just like veggies and fruit. The two different seasons which gasoline are switched up between is summer and winter. There is summer and winter gasoline, the latter usually the cheapest.

Every September, the government begins to ease up on clean-air standards for oil refineries, allowing them to make and produce gasoline with cheaper hydrocarbons such as butane. Refineries don’t really benefit from the cost savings and petroleum traders know that they can buy gasoline at the low prices without hurting any profits that belong to the refineries, so gas prices usually drop in response.

There will be less to spend on gas and more on other goods and services,

such as shopping and groceries. People will tend to drive more to conduct their purchases, rather than online shop, because they are able to buy what they want and need right away. Also, when mailing or receiving something, shipping costs will decrease because the cost of gas is low.

There is a predicted decrease in public transport as more people will be inclined to drive cars and motorcycles since they can afford gasoline. There will also be an increase in sales for a company or retailer because there will be more people actually shopping inside stores and outlets.

More jobs will also be accepted, without the future employee having to be worried about the expenditures for commuting to work. According to a Gallup Poll, as gas prices decrease, respondents feel that the economy is getting better, which is true because there is more economic recovery involved with low gas prices.

As of Feb. 26 however, gas prices have been steadily increasing again due to changes in the oil market.

The cost of oil and the global demand for the oil on the international market directly affects the cost of gasoline. This is additionally due to union strikes and a recent oil refinery explosion, as well as the winter season coming to an end.

Opinion Editors Melissa Parlan Tatiana Castillo Lead Photographer Priya Lee Staff Writers Sravya Bathula Margaret Bernauer Hannah Marie Butay Ariana Honavar Hiro Sarah Kacmarsky James Kanuch Kristina Lechuga Juan Martinez Dana Nissan Rachel Pena Nazmiye Ornelas Rodriguez Essam Rao Snigdha Rayala Nicole Stibbard Julie Wi Cindy Zhang Kelly Zhong Adviser Stacey Stebbins The Phoenix, protected under the California Education code, is a public forum for the students of Fremont High School. The Phoenix staff will publish features, editorials, news, and sports in an unbiased and professional manner.

Editorials are the official opinion of The Phoenix.

Opinions and letters are the personal viewpoints of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Phoenix. All content decisions are made by the student editors, and in no way reflect the official policy of Fremont High School, nor the opinions of the administration, faculty, or the adviser.

Business advertisements are accepted in The Phoenix. However, The Phoenix reserves the right to deny any ad. Those interested in running advertisements can call the Business Manager at (408)522-2400, or email fremonthighphoenix@gmail.com Letters to the editor and questions for the advice column, may be submitted online at www.FHSphoenix.com, to room 84, Ms. Stebbins’ mailbox, or emailed to fremonthighphoenix@gmail. com. Identities of those who submit questions will remain anonymous. The staff reserves the right to edit letters to conform to styles and policy. Letters to the editor will be published at the discretion of the staff.

The Phoenix is the official student newspaper, and is distributed free of cost to the students. The Phoenix publishes eight issues throughout the school year.

News

March 3, 2015

4

Western Association of Schools and Colleges visits Fremont

by James Kanuch Staff Writer

During this month, Fremont High School will be visited by an educational organization known as Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) to validate a self-evaluation report done by the school. The visitors from WASC plan to come into every classroom to otherwise observe FHS. Brian Irvine, a history teacher at FHS, who like many of the other teachers, took part in the self-evaluation.

“WASC stands for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and that’s the organization that determines the accreditation for individual schools,” Irvine said. “All public high schools go through this, most private high schools go through this as well and in addition to all the colleges. It’s just to make sure that the schools and colleges are doing what they’re supposed to be doing to give our students a really good education. This process allows us to study our school, to get in-depth in what we’re really doing and what we’re offering students and how we’re teaching our students.”

The process takes place every six years where a diverse set of people gather to write the report. The report is then written over the course of one year. They aim to help Fremont by trying to figure out needed solutions to problems.

“So we’ve been doing this for over a year and we’ve been studying the school and we’ve been taking it apart working with focus groups,” Irvine said. “I’ve had five great focus group leaders all year long who have been helping us and they have been leading discussions with teachers, with classified staff, with administrators, with students and with parents. So we have all five different groups of stakeholders involved in building this report. It took a full year; we had a lot of questions to answer, we came up with the answers that we thought were appropriate for what we were doing at the school and put it together in a huge report and sent it off to WASC and now they’re coming to visit us.”

Priya Lee | The Phoenix

FREMONT community attends WASC meeting on Feb. 25 in the library.

WASC then looks over the report and comes to check on FHS to make sure that the things said on the report are valid and to also to see what FHS has planned for ongoing years.

“They’re not coming to evaluate the report, they already have a copy of this now and they’ve been studying it, what their job is to do, is to validate the report to make sure that what we say in here is actually what we are doing here on campus,” Irvine said. “So they are going to come for three days and essentially live on our campus for three days, visit every single classroom, talk to students, talk to parents, talk to teachers and talk to all the focus groups to determine how this report was built and to determine whether our action plan.

That’s a cultivation of what our report is the action plan, to determine whether our action plan is going to be sufficient for us to continue our progress in the future.”

Copies of the report are given to staff members such as the teachers and principals to hold on to and usually come in big binders to hold all of the information that the school has given. Most data is usually obtained by either surveys or interviews. “[The report includes] just about everything,” principal Bryan Emmert said. “Academic information, we’ve got all of our testing reports from national testing, they’ve got grades, they’ve got data, they look at all of the professional development work we’ve been doing over the past few years because we put together the report and we’re trying to show what things we’ve been working on over the course of the past six years.”

Along with the information gathered, the areas of concern are one of the many important aspects about this report.

“Well the hope is that it’s ongoing work like our Wednesday mornings where

we have collaboration time,” Emmert said. “It’s PLC’s working together to strengthen the curriculum that they’re providing for kids. And we just implemented FLEX time this year. How do we provide more support for kids so that they are able to get their homework done, they’re able to get the support they need, they’re able to take higher level classes because they have time. Those are the type of things we try to address in the particular targeted goals of the report.”

The report doesn’t just apply to the school’s improvements. The report also helps accredit the school, so that students will be able to get to college.

“What the WASC team does is that they come in and look to see if this school is serious on what it’s offering, if they are working on making rigorous courses and if they are working to support all students,” Emmert said.

Lack of vaccinations lead to disease outbreaks

by Kelly Zhong Staff Writer

Recently there has been a measles outbreak in the US due to the lack of vaccinations and frequency of international travelers.

Disease outbreaks aren’t anything new.

There have been a variety of disease outbreaks throughout history worldwide according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website: smallpox, whooping cough, AIDS and Ebola, to name a few. However, what’s surprising is that there is a measles outbreak.

Measles was declared eliminated from the US in 2000; in other words, it wasn’t continuously transmitted for 12 months. Nonetheless, as of 2014, CDC reported 644 cases of measles.

This doesn’t mean that the measles vaccine is deteriorating. Instead, the vaccine is usually 9397% effective depending on the number of doses (one or two).

“Very few people— about three out of 100— who get two doses of measles vaccine will still get measles if exposed to the virus,” CDC, from

Photo courtesy of Centers for Disease Control

GRAPH above depicts the amount of kindergartners exempt from vaccinations.

“Frequently Asked Questions about Measles in the U.S.,” said. “Experts aren’t sure why; it could be that their immune systems didn’t respond as well as they should have to the vaccine. But the good news is, fully vaccinated people who get measles are much more likely to have a milder illness, and they are also less likely to spread the disease to other

people, including people who can’t get vaccinated because they are too young or have weakened immune systems.”

There are two main reasons why more people are getting measles.

One reason is that international travel is increasing and is getting faster. In other words, measles from places with more outbreaks is just a plane

ride away, which increases the chances of transmitting to the US. Another reason is that some people refuse vaccinations. Even though the vaccine for measles is highly effective, some people prefer to be unvaccinated.

Therefore, communities of unvaccinated people spread the disease around more easily. This could put the public at risk, since measles

is a highly contagious disease.

Parents refuse vaccination for religious and philosophical reasons and usually not for medical purposes, according to CNN. Many believe that their children will suffer side effects from the vaccine itself. While it is true that vaccines sometimes have side effects, they are extremely rare.

“Only one in a million children has a serious adverse reaction [to vaccines],” CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta said. “You’re 100 times more likely to get struck by lightning than have an allergic reaction to a vaccine.” The main reason parents refuse vaccination is that they believe that vaccines cause autism.

However, this belief, started

by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in 1998 and published in a British medical journal, has been debunked numerous times.

“The Institute of Medicine reviewed evidence from the US, Denmark, Sweden and the UK, finding no connection between vaccines and autism,” CNN said. “Around 2010, another British medical journal concluded Wakefield’s study misrepresented and altered the medical histo-

ries of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of his study.”

Although it’s possible that measles can re-establish itself in the US, it can also be eliminated again.

“All member states in the six World Health Organization regions have committed to eliminating measles by the year 2020,” CDC said.

Furthermore, some believe that having a stronger bond between patient and doctor will help eliminate the disease.

“Cultivating a strong patient-doctor relationship is the most successful method of reversing vaccine opposition,” Ford Vox, a brain injury doctor in Atlanta, wrote in a CNN column. “If we’ve done our job right, you’ll seek out the insights we’ve earned from treating many challenging cases over many years. And we’ll know we’ve succeeded in our new relationship when you let us vaccinate your children.”

Opinion

March 3, 2014

5

Crackdown on rules results in boring FHS dances not even remotely close to the music we listen to on the radio today. The rules for the dances and music being played make it feel like as if we are attending a middle school dance, with no freedom to enjoy a night that is majorly paid for by the attending students.

by Sonya Jindal News Editor

Fremont dances used to be known for their wild excitement and array of musical genres. Kids were hyped up months in advance for dances to come, resulting in sold out ticket sales. With this year’s winter formal being canceled due to lack of ticket purchases, students have been reflecting on their experiences of previous dances and the tight policy being imposed on recent dances.

Ever since my freshman year I was an avid school dance attender. Within my first week of high school I was constantly being asked by peers if I was going to attend the school year’s first dance, while hearing abundant remarks on how much fun they were. Listening to all the students rave about their excitement made the week much easier to go through knowing there was a dance at the end of the week.

I’ve only had good experiences at dances. I’ve never felt uncomfortable or

as if my money was going to waste. The build up of getting ready for each dance with my closest friends made every memory much more enjoyable. We were able to let loose, dance and enjoy the music with our fellow classmates.

Once the administrators started requiring students to wear wristbands is when the excitement of dances started to decrease.

No one knew if they were going to be paying money only to have it be wasted by getting kicked out of the dance. I personally did not attend the homecoming dance because of the strict rules that were being implemented. I heard from various students that even the playlist of songs were

Students are angered by the constant changes that have been established within the last year.

I understand that the school is trying to reduce the dances from becoming “over sexualized” but instead of addressing the problem head on, skits and embarrassing posters stating “no grinding” are being publicized. It personally makes me feel like the school is trying to act as my parent by forbidding to attend such events.

Empty stands show that Fremont doesn’t care

by Priya Lee

Lead Photographer

The gym is packed with screaming fans yelling at the top of their lungs hoping for their school to win the game. The buzzer sounds ending the boys’ varsity game. Hordes of students go home, leaving an almost empty gym.

Meanwhile, the girl’s team is warming up. Their game starts and they play without the support of their school.

With the variety of sports that are offered here at Fremont, most of those teams do not have many people coming to cheer them on.

Some of the players from the under supported teams come and thank the seven people for coming to the game, while other sports teams with a higher fan base take the fifty people that come for granted.

It’s expected for football to fill the stands, and it’s a given that the bleachers are never going to be packed for a soccer game.

But why? Why do we set this precedent that we can’t get some friends together and go watch baseball or tennis or water polo? Why do we only choose to go to the “popular” sports like boys’ basketball and football?

I don’t think everyone really knows how much the fans really affect the players.

A little bit of recognition for a team can go a long way.

It actually means a lot to a team when you come out to support them. The players really are fueled by the

voices of the crowd and get pumped up by the energy that the fans provide. Some athletes even say that they play better when the crowd is fired up. Other athletes even say that they are discouraged to play if no one is cheering for them.

When no students or teachers come to their game, it’s like saying that no one cares about all the hard work that the athletes put onto the field, court, or track. It’s like saying that Fremont does not care—and we really should care.

Athletics at Fremont are improving a lot and many teams are going to the Central Coast Section. A couple years ago, it was a rare occurrence to see Fremont in a CCS bracket, but now, more teams are going. I felt great that last school year was the first year that varsity girls’ water polo has ever made it to CCS, but it was kind of a letdown that no one really cared enough to come.

There are also many other sports that consistently do well, but no one seems to notice. Last year, a Fremont wrestler ranked seventh in the nation and the wrestling team had a handful of people go to CCS.

That’s incredible.

However, there still aren’t that many comments about how well wrestling did at their last meet/tournament, how well girls’ soccer did in their last game or how well volleyball played in their last match. We see dozens of Tweets and Snapchats about how well our football or basketball boys did, but we can’t even show a little bit of love towards our basketball or volleyball girls?

We have the cheer team cheering for boys’ basketball, but why can’t they cheer for the girls’ team? I find it weird how cheer chose to go to all of the boys’ basketball games while the girls’ don’t get the same treatment. Why is cheer limited to only cheering for football and basketball? Why can’t they cheer for volleyball or tennis or soccer or swimming? I mean, any Fremont sport can use some cheering.

Why is it that there was a whole spirit section planned for a football game, while there are a multitude of teams that do just as well, but don’t get half the support compared to the more popular teams?

I’m not trying to criticize people, but it’s something to think about when you value some Fremont sports teams above others.

Next time you and your friends have nothing to do in the afternoon, think about going to support your Fremont athletes. Even going to just one game can change the mindset of a player.

Kristina Lechuga | The Phoenix

With OCP, no senior quotes and FLEX, students are angered by the constant changes that have been established within the last year. No one really expected the school to crack down on dances, so when they did it almost seemed as if students banded together for a silent revolution.

This revolution resulted in the cancellation of winter formal. By not purchasing tickets, students showed their distaste and dissatisfaction for the school’s new policy. In all my four years of attending FHS, almost every dance that has occurred resulted in sold out tickets, so the fact that

winter formal was canceled due to lack of ticket sales shocked me.

If the school wishes for students to have more fun after long, stressful days of school, they must cut back on some of the rules. If not, Fremont will slowly derail into a black and white lifeless blob.

Bad ads need to stop

by Snigdha Rayala Staff Writer

I’m watching my favorite show on T.V. and the show pauses for a commercial break. I always dread these breaks since I know that a majority of the ads are going to make no sense and are going to be boring and inappropriate.

One thing I have noticed is that early in the morning, when watching the cartoons, most of the commercials that come on are family related commercials, such as advertisements for cereal or clothing stores. However, in the night most of the ads are related to love and romance. This is to appeal to the crowd that is watching at the moment, since usually kids watch T.V. in the morning and adults watch in the night. It is good to try to appeal to the crowd, but I bet there are some kids who watch T.V. at night. I, for one, always watch T.V. at night, usually with my parents and my 5 year-old brother. Some of the ads that come on T.V. are very inappropriate for me, let alone a 5 year-old preschooler.

One of the ways that ads have become inappropriate is through the portrayal of men and women. Many ads show men and women dressed provocatively. For women, this includes wearing tight shirts with cleavage showing. Men are shown being attracted to provocatively dressed women, insinuating that they would do whatever the woman tells him to do. An example of this was an ad for vodka that first showed a man going to work and his wife telling him that she would make the house perfect by the time he came back. After he left, she puts on some sexy clothes and hires men to come and cook and clean for her, all while whipping them and shouting commands at them. When her husband comes back, she is in a red dress and is holding a bottle of vodka in her hand, waiting for him. One thing that was very clear in this ad was that women can be highly dominating and really know how to handle men. It also showed that men are easily attracted to sexy women. Of course, when it comes to representing men and women in the wrong ways, the topic of sex comes up. A recent American Apparel ad that aired showed a faceless woman, wearing a stretchy dress up to her butt. There was a man’s shoe, which was appearing to be

going into her dress. That ad just immediately grossed me out and made me think of inappropriate sexual activity.

Ads can have an influence on kids and adults. Men are becoming insecure about their physical appearance because of ads idealizing well-built men. I myself have started to wish that I looked as pretty as some of the models in the ads shown on T.V. Parents know very well that kids are influenced by the cereal ads and the food ads that come on T.V. When kids see T.V. commercials for cereal boxes or chips or toys, they immediately want to go and buy them. So, if parents know that ads make a big difference in kids and their wants, then why don’t they consider that the ads that run on T.V. can also cause kids to become insecure?

It costs a lot of money to run ads on T.V. According to smallbusiness.chron. com, local T.V. stations charge between $200 and $1500 to run a 30-second ad.

National commercials cost an average of $342,000 for a 30-second commercial.

If companies are putting in this much money, they might as well make sure that they are putting out good quality work for everyone to see. Some ways they could make ads better are by showing women in a more poised manner, showing men as responsible people, and not showing as much alcohol or drugs in their ads.

The point is, if the ads on T.V. don’t start improving, the future generation will be badly influenced by them. I really don’t want that type of influence to be on my kids or my siblings, nor do I want this influence to be on any of the future generation kids. If we are to protect the kids of America, someone needs to take urgent action soon.

Special Feature

March 3, 2015

6

a generation of

more than 1 billion twitter accounts have been created

the beginning of a new age

by Sarah Arkoh Arts & Ent.Editor

tumblr was the fastest growing social media network in 2014

28 percent of facebook users have fully public profiles 95 percent of teens ages 12-17 are online instagram has 200 million active monthly users

Statistics courtesy of: adweek.com pewinternet.org adweek.com huffingtonpost.com inc.com

social media (n.): websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Many of us associate the origin of social media with sites like MySpace and Facebook but the history of social media goes farther than that. Social media has also evolved in ways no one quite expected.

Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a different date and source of social networking. Some will start with email, others will start with American Online (AOL). While it’s hard to put an exact date on it, Digital Trends, a technology news outlet, suggests the start of social media to be with the creation of the Bulletin Board System (BBS) in the late 1970s. BBS was created in Berkeley, Calif. and was designed as a program where users who had access to the system were able to

download certains files and games.

In the 1980s and 1990s came the wide use of the world wide web and the first uses of theglobe. com, Geocities and tripod. com. All of these sites were started as blog-type forums, bringing together different groups of people.

When the late 90s rolled around is when we see the creation of the personal profile. According to Social Times, there were an estimated 2.6 million users of the internet.

The first big social media site was a site named Makeoutclub (MOC). No, it was not a dating site. Much like Myspace, which was to be established four years later in 2003, MOC was designed to bring young adults together by means of shared music tastes. Users actively sought out and met strangers online later to be added to their “friends list.”

At the turn of the 21st century was the creation of several different social me-

dia sites. In February 2004 came our favorite (okay, once favorite) website, Facebook. If you haven’t seen The Social Network, now is a good time to Google a brief summary. The content of the movie continues to be debated by critics and Mark Zuckerberg himself.

But basically, Zuckerberg of Harvard University and three other students started with Facemash, a database of Harvard students which allowed other Harvard students to rate each other on their “attractiveness.”

Think of it as our now beloved “Hot or Not” app.

As Zuckerberg and his friends developed the site, its use evolved. Soon, it was used as a study tool during finals and eventually it was coded as the site, TheFacebook. Facebook continues to change with every new update.

The year 2006 brought Twitter, a San Francisco based social network. Hopefully you know how it works but if not, the site allows

users to create a profile and share 140 character tweets with the world. According to Wikipedia, there are 284 million users as of December 2014 with approximately 1.6 billion tweets being sent out daily. Unlike the previous social medias that were more focused on bringing people together, Twitter appeals to those who simply want to share their thoughts with the world. Along with venting teenagers, Twitter is also great for businesses looking for cheap advertising.

Some other teen favorites include Instagram, Vine and for the older crowd, LinkedIn. The 21st century has seen the most advancement in terms of social media with sites allowing users to share thoughts, photos, ideas and more. Social media has allowed the world to communicate in ways never thought possible.

What you say online matters

before

Colleges and employers are now checking social media accounts to review online behavior. An insulting comment can lead to you not getting into your dream college or becoming unemployed. What you post online reflects yourself and your integrity. So don’t subtweet, don’t get into Twitter fights, don’t post all those pictures of you under the influence, and don’t post pictures of you doing illegal activities online because that is just telling future employers that you might be trouble. Remember that everything online is permanent, so you should think before you post.

after Maggie Bernauer | The Phoenix

fam hunnit

by Jasmine Salik News Editor

It seems as if all teen conversations these days are one big inside joke and this is because in a way, they are.

Most of the things we talk about, how we communicate things amongst one another as teenagers, is greatly affected by the media all around us.

We are exposed to so many social media apps and movie/TV shows each day, it’s no wonder we pick up one or two words we see or hear daily.

One app that has entirely changed the way we talk and the things we even joke about is Vine. I am sure that in most high schools

in America the number “21” is now perceived in a completely different way.

Now whenever a student or teacher answers a math question with this “sacred” number, laughs and snickers will follow shortly after. And all of this started because of a short six-second video that went viral all around America.

No one could have predicted these videos could have changed the things we joke about in such immense ways. I mean honestly who would’ve thought that by just merely saying a number, teens would explode with laughter.

It’s not only with numbers, it’s short phrases like “barely” and “on fleek”

that we use in our everyday language that are influenced from this cherished app as well. Phrases like “eyebrows on fleek” to describe onpoint eyebrows, to “do you want to hang out or nah”, have found their way in our daily vocabulary.

Does anyone even remember where the word bae comes from? According to dictionary.com: Bae: (noun) Slang. an affectionate term used to address or refer to one’s girlfriend, boyfriend, etc.

The word bae, which stands for before anyone else, is used regularly and is even defined in the dictionary. Although it’s unclear where the word originated from, it’s certain the word’s

popularity spread through the use of social media.

Even songs by singers like Pharrell and Miley Cyrus incorporate the use of the newly invented word.

Additionally, many popular hip hop songs like “Tuesday” and “0-100/ The Catch Up” by Drake have influenced teenagers’ culture.

Everyone understands what “o to 100” means and the great significance of the day of the week, Tuesday. Now, no one can say the phrase “about a week ago” without being reminded of the song

by Bobby Shmurda and the Shmurda dance.

Most of the time, we say these phrases without really thinking about how we started saying them, or

or nah

finna

who started using them.

Although we understand where these sayings originated from, most teenagers across the nation fail to recognize the importance of the influence of media on our daily lives.

Vine was invented two years ago, specifically on Jan. 24, 2013 and ever since then the way teenagers’ interact amongst one another has changed forever. This isn’t to say that other social media apps like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook haven’t altered the way we act as teenagers. All forms of social media has changed this generation in one way or the other, starting with what we laugh about and find amusing. This sounds a

selfie

tbh fire

turn up how social media 21 BAE affects modern lingo YOLO swag

0 to 100

raw

slay

THOT

hmu

lol

‘bout a week ago

barely

the struggle

on fleek

TWERK

little dramatic, but realistically a lot of teenagers’ time is spent watching humorous videos and retweeting racy tweets.

According to the Washington Post, “Today’s teens spend more than seven anda- half hours a day consuming media — watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking and playing video games, according to a 2010 study of eight to 18-year-olds conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.”

It comes as no surprise that we have picked up a few words and phrases along the way.

Special Feature

March 3, 2015

f social media.

trending:

lasting change

by Melissa Parlan Opinion Editor

With the rapid rise of technology comes the immense change in the culture of today’s society. It’s seen as weird and abnormal when somebody doesn’t have a Facebook account, let alone a smartphone or a computer at home. Seeing advertisements for new and improved versions of the iPhone and latest technologies is an everyday thing.

No matter how bad or good you think advancements in technology are for us, it’s hard to deny that they have made a significant change to the way we go about our everyday lives.

Technology was meant to better the world, and there’s no doubt it has.

Computers, smart phones and the Internet were made to effectively and quickly share and obtain information. Social media has been a place where everybody can gain access to information and education.

Because virtually anyone can make any social media account, there is a sort of equality in the information people can access. This has lead to the increased

awareness of topics such as homosexuality, feminism, racial equality, abuse and many other worldly events and concerns. Technology and social media has also opened a huge career field, creating millions of jobs.

However, with the good comes the bad. It seems as if the negatives seem to outshine the positivity in social media. Social networks have definitely changed our society. But is this change necessarily a good thing?

One of the most obvious things social media has changed is the way we communicate with one another.

With instant messaging and emoticons, it’s as if communication, one of the most important human traits, has diminished in importance. Sometimes a simple text message can mean the world and Emojis can convey more of what we mean and feel than actual words.

Even the English language’s words have been shortened, with no regard to proper grammar.

This change in communication has also changed the value we place on human-to-human interaction. Almost everyone has their phone in their hand,

Instagram fhsphoenix

constantly messaging or checking the feed on their social media. At restaurants, it’s more common to see people going through their phone than talking and socializing with the people right in front of them. People tend to be so invested in their social media, rather than what’s going on right around them.

Ironically, social networks make us more antisocial than ever. To be social means to be enjoying the companionship of others. How is social media making us social if it means staring at a screen and being more concerned about what others post online? How can social media be considered social if what is posted are the things we do, showing off what we’ve done that day?

With technology and social media becoming more common, more people have access to it, including our youth. It’s surprising to see how many young kids and preteens have smartphones, tablets, laptops and social media accounts. What once was a place where adults and teenagers can communicate online, has quickly been invaded by children, aged 14

What’s the point?

years old and under. What’s worse is the thought of what these young people find on the Internet. Because the Internet is a place where close to anything can be found, its easy for a child to explore and learn inappropriate things.

On the topic of inappropriateness, social media has definitely caused a shift in what we consider humorous and entertaining. Scrolling through social media, what seems to be the most popular content, are pictures and videos of inappropriate, offensive and rather stupid material. Videos of fights and profanity increase violence and offensive posts attack different sexes. Races and religion are glorified and seen as humorous. It’s as if our society has been desensitized to what is actually considered funny versus what is seen as crude, rude and offensive.

Technology and social media has unarguably changed many aspects of our lives. It has drastically changed the way we communicate with each other.

Social media can be a good and powerful thing if used correctly.

A public display of admiration towards your significant other or celebrity crush.

-Throwback thursday, flashback friday, way back wednesday “Throwing it back” to the good old days when you were a child, or simply posting a picture from last week that you just never got a chance to upload.

-Goals A way of expressing envy towards another in desire to live up to them or their actions.

-ball is life A motto that originally suggested one’s dedication to the game of basketball, but can now be said about anything that involves a physical ball.

-transformation tuesday/ Glo-up Notifying everyone of how much you have changed in a positive way, generally in terms of appearance.

10m

sharing o e id /v o t o h P : m ra g Insta es; “Tweets” ag s s e m t r o h S r: te it w T “pinning” Pinterest: Discovery; you to posts that interest n boards collect and store o that can o e id /v o t o h P t: a h c p Sna ywhere an r o f d e w ie v e b y onl ds between 1-10 secon 3315 likes

-Man crush monday/woman crush wednesday:

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HS Phoe 20 minutes nix ago

Facebook: connecting with friends

123,456

LinkedIn: c onnecting f or business re lated matte rs Ask.fm: Ano nymous que stion forum

Vine: Video Sharing; no more than 6 seco n d s 3,315 likes .

1,622 revin

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There are over 800 social media outlets online today, all serving the same purpose of connecting via internet.

Loops

7

Opinion

March 3, 2015

8

Curriculum questioned

by Nicole Stibbard Staff Writer

For nearly six hours, five days a week, students learn what California believes students should be learning. Within these hours, each teacher is expected to teach their students a certain curriculum relating to their area of expertise, allowing some wiggle room to add or alter things within the curriculum taught to them, with approval beginning at the state level all the way down to the school board.

The California State Board of Education is the association that decides upon what the California standards should and will be for its students. Certain curriculum gets modified frequently, while others have seen no changes in years.

The CA Dept. of Education provides frameworks to implement content standards set by the State Board of Education. These curriculum frameworks are an organized set of standards that interpret the content set to be learned in understandable standards of what students should be taught. The understanding of these standards may not determine graduation, but they will theoretically determine student’s ability to meet the standards set forth by the state.

Now, of course students learn an immense amount of useful information that will benefit them later in life, but is there enough real life connections and basic everyday knowledge within the curriculums taught to California’s students?

“At the local level, there’s very little discussion about whether or not we want to adopt them [new standards], it’s more dictated at the state level,” according to Greg Merrick, staff member of the FUHSD. “We as a school, decided that what’s best for our students is that they have a shared experience, and a lot of it was a result of inequities we were noticing, so we decided to give up some of our curricular freedom in order to better serve your [students] needs,” Daniel Pérez, FHS staff member, said.

When considering that each student is an individual and it’s impossible to tend to each and every student needs, it appears to be that having a generalized curriculum is the best way to go. When certain things are left out of each course curriculum due to the broadness, students get deprived of certain extremely important and useful knowledge.

Between all the formulas, equations and dates students are taught and tested on, where is the knowledge of basic life needs and requirements such as taxes, voting, banking and managing finances among other things, which are being left out in required course curriculums.

While some teachers may cover these topics among others not in the standards, teachers are not required to teach these things.

It’s understandable that it’s a long, lengthy and difficult process to get curriculum approved but for fundamental knowledge, it’s worth the attempt and correction to provide high school students with this consequential knowledge.

Unjust jurisdictions lead to more incarcerations: Flaws in prison system and correctional facilities

by Julie Wi

Staff Writer

Growing up in the United States, we are told again and again that we live in America, the “land of the free”. With all the talk about America’s people being so free, it’s ironic that the U.S currently holds more prisoners than any other country.

According to BBC, the National Research Council reported that incarceration in the United States has quadrupled since the 70s.

With a prison population of 2.2 million, the U.S. has the largest incarcerated population in the world. While the U.S. makes up just five percent of the global population, it is home to a whole 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.

No matter how you look at it, these numbers are insane. Sure, we need prisons to keep dangerous individuals from doing harm and yes, many people are put behind bars for good reasons. However, among these convicted individuals, many are sentenced for non-violent crimes. In fact, the increasing non-violent crime sentences are responsible for the multiplying incarceration rates in the past few decades. Often we hear stories of people spending years in prison for things like theft or, more commonly, drug offenses.

One of the largest contributions to the skyrocketing incarceration rates since the 70s has been the ongoing “war on drugs”. After President Nixon began his

Photo courtesy of www.kpbs.org

anti-drug campaign in 1971, which pushed forward the enforcement of drug control, the question of how to handle drug-related crimes became a growing issue. In the 80s, through anti-drug ad campaigns like “Just Say No”, which was supported largely by first lady Nancy Reagan, “drug hysteria” made its way to American legislators. Imprisonment rates for drug offenses went up and their prison sentences got harsher. According to the Congressional Research Service, drug offenses have been the leading cause for imprisonment in the United States since 1980.

Should people responsible for drug possession or distribution really be punished in the same way murderers and sexual offenders are? That’s debatable— but unfortunately the law does not leave room for discussion. Thanks to a little thing called mandatory minimum laws, people are automatically sentenced a minimum number of years in prison for certain types of offenses (mainly drug-related), no matter what the individual circumstances are.

Mandatory minimum sentencing in itself is a lazy and irresponsible way to deal with crime. It takes away the responsibility of judges to fit sentences to each unique case, and

supports the naive notion that locking up all criminals is the ultimate solution to crime. And even while mandatory sentencing can be understandable in the case of, say, murder, it makes little sense to apply it to non-violent crimes. These laws are another reason why imprisonment rates have climbed so high up to this point.

There are so many things wrong with it that to even begin fixing it would take a tremendous effort.

Well, at least this means we’re preventing crime, right? Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

You can measure how effective a prison is at straightening out its inmates by looking at its rates of recidivism, which is a prisoner’s relapse into criminal behavior after being released. The National Institute of Justice cites a study done in 30 states which found that within five years of release, 76.6 percent of released prisoners were rearrested.

Let this sink in: more than three quarters of prisoners returned to prison within five years. If this is true,

what are prisons even accomplishing?

The prison system is broken— that much is clear by now. There are so many things wrong with it that to even begin fixing it would take a tremendous effort.

But before that, we first need to care enough to do something.

It may be difficult for the average free citizen, let alone a busy high schooler, to care about the lives of prisoners. After all, they are defined as criminals and are literally blocked off from society with walls and barbed wire. However, we cannot disregard the lives that reside beyond those walls. No matter how we label them, prisoners will always be people— let’s not forget that.

Putting them away doesn’t just affect them for the few years they’re in jail— it follows them throughout their entire lives.

Also, prisoners don’t stay in prison forever. Most of them are eventually released back into the world and return to society, meaning it is absolutely vital that our “correctional facilities” actually correct rather than just punish convicts.

A tale of two Sunnyvales: the difference in neighborhoods

by Kristina Lechuga Staff Writer

When I was eight years old, my house was broken into in the middle of the night. No harm done and only a few minor things were taken from the garage, but nonetheless my privacy felt invaded, as did my parents. Living in a relatively safe neighborhood, this was something that was unexpected for us. What I didn’t consider was a 10 minute drive would have taken me to a side of Sunnyvale with higher poverty levels and higher crime rates, among other things that differentiated these two areas. So close by, yet so different from one another.

“Sunnyvale is proud to have one of the lowest crime rates in the Nation,” Sunnyvale Department of

Public Safety writes on their website. “We believe that this is due to the strong partnership between the Citizens of Sunnyvale and the law enforcement Officers that serve them.”

Crime in Sunnyvale is an issue that to some may be nearly nonexistent.

According to motovo.com, Sunnyvale is considered one of the top 10 safest cities in the United States and we have been ranked as such for quite a while. The City of Sunnyvale states that, “people living in Sunnyvale

have a 1 in 98 chance of being the victim of a crime.”

But how safe is “safe” when different neighborhoods play a role? There’s a clear and sometimes ignored divided between the different sides of Sunnyvale. Columbia, Lakewood, Cherryhill, Birdland, SunnyArts and Fairwood make up just some of the different neighborhoods of Sunnyvale, all with different populations, ethnic groups, and household incomes. According to city-data.com, neighborhoods such as San Miguel and Lakewood have a lower median family income than neighborhoods like Cherry Chase or Fairbrae. Housing prices are also lower and population density is higher in these areas.

Statistics aside, this gap is well-noted by many. Lakewood is sometimes affectionately nicknamed “Lake-

hood”, even by people who are residents of Lakewood themselves; and even in this observation, it connects deeply to why Fremont has had a reputation of being “ghetto” in the first place.

I’m very proud to live in such a safe city. I think it’s great that Sunnyvale has managed to be one of the safest cities in the nation, and on the list of top 10 cities, we are the only one

in Northern California. I believe our Department of Public Safety does an outstanding job in crime prevention and responsiveness.

However, there are things that can be done in making the whole city safe on both sides. If any steps should be taken for those areas that are a little less safe, it should be awareness. Sometimes, it’s a little okay to be paranoid. Pay attention and

Photo courtesy of City of Sunnyvale

stay informed about what’s happening in your neighborhood. Follow your gut.

Crime watch groups online have done wonderful things for many neighborhoods, including my own. It’s your neighborhood, your family, and your children. Take ownership of where you live and make it the safest it can be, for yourself and for future generations.

Arts & Entertainment 9

march 3, 2015

The Academy needs to take itself seriously

by Ashley Chavez Managing Editor

What was supposed to be the biggest time of the year for filmmakers and actors, ended up being the weirdest. It’s no secret that award shows can often go awry, and in the last decade The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, have become famous for bad hosts and bad jokes. It’s kind of embarrassing how this generation handles such a classic tradition so poorly.

This isn’t always true, but can surely be said about The 2015 Oscars. An award show that used to be about achievement in filmmaking has now become a showcase for celebrity goofiness.

The groundbreaking, emotional and artistic masterpieces that graced the silver screen in 2014-2015 were wrongfully overshadowed by the unnecessary Oscar antics. Movies like Selma, American Sniper, Still Alice and The Theory of Everything all covered serious topics like civil rights, American troops and illness, yet the most talked about part of the show was John Travolta’s creepiness

(which, don’t get me wrong, was completely creepy).

Whether it’s Travolta’s face-caressing, Sean Penn’s joke about Mexican immigration or Neil Patrick Harris’ crack about The Oscars being mainly white and then later insulting the remake of Annie with an African-American actress, it was all tasteless and frankly, inappropriate.

It’s understandable that people make mistakes— yes Terrance Howard, we forgive you for misreading the teleprompter and rattling the microphone stand around for all to hear—but the unfunny and rather strange jokes that are fed to the audience all night are deliberate. The Oscars are not supposed to be a night of “Did he really just say that?” or “How did that get past the producers?”— that’s what the MTV Video Music Awards are for.

There is no harm in joking and playing around with your friends and even acquaintances, but as one of the most prestigious award shows in Hollywood that is broadcasted globally, there might just be a little tiny bit of harm. Just a little.

Photo courtesy of indianexpress.com

Photo courtesy of ABC

LEFT, Julianne Moore wins Best Actress. Right, director Alejandro González Iñárritu accepts the Best Picture for ‘Birdman’.

According to the Huffington Post, Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu is good friends with Penn, who so eloquently asked who gave Iñárritu his green card before announcing that he had won one of the most important awards of the night. Clearly, Penn disregarded how offensive it is to the Mexicans who can’t gain citizenship and aren’t as fortunate as Penn to be, well, Sean Penn.

Maybe Travolta and

Idina Menzel, the actress who so tragically had to sit through a pat down from him, are great friends. That doesn’t change how strange it was to watch the two.

In an attempt to redeem himself from last year’s show where he fumbled her name, he ultimately made it ten times worse.

Movies, one of the finest forms of art, can stick with you for a lifetime. A “Neil Patrick Harris in his underwear” gag can also

stick with you for a lifetime.

The Oscars are supposed to be about one of those things, but you can hardly tell the difference anymore.

Of course, The Oscars had its stronger moments with Lady Gaga’s Sound of Music medley, John Legend and Common’s performance of Selma’s “Glory”, Meryl Streep introducing the In Memoriam segment and the always-heartwarming speeches from winners.

How is it fair that such

important factors of the show are given as much, if not less, recognition than the antics?

Entertainment can mean a lot of things, but The Oscars are supposed to represent the finest forms of entertainment. This year, they fell short of that duty.

These iconic and cuttingedge films and actors deserved a show that would appropriately honor their achievements, not mock them.

Helpful hints on how to save some extra cash

by Rachel Pena Staff Writer

Money, money, money. Whether we like it or not, money is vital in order to survive in our modern society. We use money to buy what we want and what we need. Today there are so many things that we want to buy, but don’t always have the money for. Saving money is easier said than done. We all the know that saving money will benefit us in the long run

$

but even so, most of us have hard time on saving because of what we see everyday. Most of our money is spent on food and clothing. Shopping may give us a good feeling but we should take it in moderation.

Saving money can be challenging to start because of the amount that we have. Here are some tips on saving money.

Prioritize There are things that we should and should not buy. If there is no need to buy that particular item, then we shouldn’t buy it. If we take of a habit to buy things that are unnecessary then our money will eventually go zero.

10¢

Clearance, sales and discounts Make a budget Making a budget is hard to decide, since our budget can range from zero to hundred dollars. Even though we are saving money, we can’t just have a one dollar budget to survive throughout the whole entire day. Making a budget is different for every individual. You should have a budget that is neither too high nor too low.

25¢

Saving goals If you have a job, it is good to have your own bank account.

This way you can save money by transferring some money that you earned from your paycheck to your savings account. By doing this, you know that your money is secured from spending.

5¢

Keep track of your spending It is important to know the items that we have purchased. One of the ways we can keep track of our spending is by making a bank account. Making a bank account will help you keep track because you will see all of your transactions online and the amount of money you currently have. This way we can restrain ourselves from buying more.

50¢

Take advantage of the clearance, sales and discounts. This is perfect for shopaholics. It’s a good idea to look at the clearance area and it can help save money.

1¢

Arts & Entertainment

March 3, 2015

10

Nekter is not really all that sweet

by Hannah Butay Staff Writer

You’ve probably seen Nekter thousands of times, whether it be on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook or another social media platform.

Everyone’s raving about the new juice bar that opened up in January. Some have even dubbed it the “healthy Jamba Juice.” While Nekter is a good place to get a refreshing smoothie or acai bowl, it doesn’t exactly live up to its hype.

The closest Nekter to Fremont High School is located on 304 West El Camino Real, a little over a mile away. You can get there in less than 10 minutes by car, 20 if you walk. It is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday and Saturday. Nekter is also conveniently located right next to the equally popular Chipotle and Starbucks.

The interior is very

visually pleasing. The store is dimly lit and most of the light comes from the glass walls and door. The store is spacious in a way that makes it seem more open and welcoming. There is little seating when compared to the amount of customers Nekter gets, which makes sense considering its supposed to be like Jamba Juice in that you buy a drink and go. Indie music plays in the background, the kind you’d expect to hear on some hipster Tumblr blog. The back counter has shelves stacked with bright, fresh-looking fruit, further emphasizing the healthy vibe Nekter is supposed to have. The most eye-catching thing there, however, is definitely the left wall.

The left wall of the store is plastered with photos. Pictures of the beach, quotes and other pretty scenery are amongst the fray. The left wall is the perfect background for selfies or Instagramming your food and injecting your followers with envy.

But just because the store’s pretty doesn’t mean Nekter itself is good.

I thought I would have a new addiction, much like my constant craving for Starbucks and sushi (which by the way, isn’t a good combo). And while Nekter was good, it barely lived up to any of my expectations.

For one thing, the smoothies I got (Orange Crush and Pink Flamingo) weren’t as tasty as I thought they’d be. Like Jamba Juice, the food and drinks are prepared fresh and in view.

When I went there for the first time, drink preparation took no more than five minutes. The second time I went, which was a really busy day, I still got my smoothie in seven minutes, which was pretty fast because the place was packed.

The drinks were also equally as good, so Nekter’s drinks are consistent in taste quality.

Unlike Jamba Juice, the smoothies weren’t overly sweet. In fact, they weren’t sweet at all. There were

tangy. I could almost taste the healthiness. In a way, the taste reminded me of those gummy medicines I used to take when I was younger: The label said they tasted good, and while they did, I could taste the vitamins and other health benefits. While I don’t have the anti-health mindset I did when I was five, the smoothie left a tart, almost bitter taste in my mouth.

Depending on what time you go, your experience at Nekter can either be fun or chaotic. Since it’s a new juice bar, expect for Nekter to be crowded. On those days, drinks will probably take around 10-15 minutes to prepare, and you’ll probably have to stand the whole time because there aren’t many seats to sit on.

The workers there are nice and fairly young. Most of them look to be somewhere in their early-to-mid 20s. They all manage to keep their cool during the smoothie and juice rush hour and prepare the drinks in a timely manner.

Featherettes start competitions

by Dana Nissan

All in all, Nekter is good. The smoothies are decent, the acai bowls are good, and everything’s healthy, especially in comparison to other places such as Jamba Juice. But I still think Nekter was built up into something a lot better than it actually is. It doesn’t live up to expectations.

If you like healthy smoothies that taste like

vitamins, or you just don’t have a very big sweet tooth, then Nekter is the place for you.

Nekter 304 West El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA

Helping hands

by Ariana Honavar-Hiro

Staff Writer

Fremont’s Featherettes have started competition season on the right path.

The team placed second after Monta Vista High School in the first competition of the year. They got second in the character division dressing up as I Love Lucy, the famous television show, on Jan. 30th. On Feb. 8th, the Featherettes made it to the USA Dance Drill Regionals Competition in Sacramento.

The process of the competitions seasons starts when the team arrives to the venue. First, the officers, Marine Kat, Ofek AvidanAntonir and Suzie Goodrich perform their solos. The team then gets ready to perform their routine in front of the judges.

For the Featherettes the pressure is high. This leads the team to try to improve and succeed in competitions.

Senior Goodrich is the captain of the dance team, and she thinks competition season is stressful, but at the same time is fun.

“It’s a lot of fun being captain,” Goodrich said. “It’s a huge, huge honor to be captain. It’s a role I never thought I would be given this honor, but here I am.”

Goodrich knows she has remarkable shoes to fill and hopes she is making the team proud.

Goodrich personally loves the rush a competition performance gives her. She feels like performing under pressure is the best, and especially competition season pressure.

“I think our personalities make the team re-

Ashley Chavez | The Phoenix

Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of the Featherettes

THE Featherettes before their first dance competition.

ally special,” Goodrich said.

“Every girl is so unique and beautiful in their own way, but we all mesh together perfectly. Everyone is so funny and outgoing. At away competitions we have so much fun playing games in hotel rooms. So the general personality of the team is the most unique aspect for sure.”

Inbal Tamir, a freshman, says it’s a new experience for her, but it feels good to start competition season.

“The two competitions I have been in so far were a little stressful. I was really nervous to dance in front of judges that would take off points if I messed up,” Tamir said. “However, it’s fun because we’re all nervous together and it’s not only me.”

She explains that there aren’t many hard moments during practice. When the team gets a new routine it can be challenging for her, but she gets used to it through practice.

“There are a lot of funny moments,” Tamir said.

“On my first try dancing the I Love Lucy dance at practice, my partner and I fell in the middle of the dance. It’s always funny when things like that happen.”

Tamir thinks that the fact that the team is going through the same experiences all together is what makes the team special.

“All the stress and bonds we build is what makes the team different,” Tamir said.

Wenting Zhang, a junior, who is a new dancer for the Featherettes, thinks competition season is stressful, but also it’s really fun.

“Starting the season is very exciting for all of the team, especially for the freshmen, since it’s their first time on the team,” Zhang said.

The team works hard on all routines. During competitions the Featherettes listen to the judges feedback and change the choreography and order of the routine to improve for the next performance.

“I think what makes

our team special is how much we care about each other,” Zhang said. “We always support each other through whatever hardships that is thrown at us whether it’s dance related or not. We all care about each other a lot, and that makes us more than just a dance team.”

Lauren Irwin, the coach of the Featherettes, is also really excited and ready to start competition season.

Irwin wants to see growth from one competition to the next and to see the team continue to improve. To succeed in the competitions, the Featherettes practice five-six times a week for two hours each time.

To prepare the Featherettes for an upcoming competition, Irwin let the team know what is expected, and that she will always support and be there for them.

Volunteering: it’s something that most teens have to do at some point. But is it a pain or a good thing? It really benefits the community and makes you feel good about yourself. With sports and other after-school activities, volunteering can be a problem and not everyone sees it as a fun and enjoyable experience. Volunteering can be a great experience if you find something that you love.

One thing that many forget is that volunteering is good for college applications. Colleges want to see that you are helping the community and that you are involved. They want to see that their students are doing good for others.Though sports and clubs can look good, volunteering is equally as important and helps create a well rounded profile.

Volunteering benefits the community, whether its helping out at the local homeless shelter to tutoring kids, and what you do really makes an impact. Some think that volunteering requires a lot of hours and dedication but a few hours can go a long way. Even if you cannot make a commitment to volunteer all the time, when you have the opportunity, you can always do something small.

Websites like handsonbayarea.org and the City of Sunnyvale website are great places to find opportunities to volunteer. Volunteermatch.org is helpful too because you can find opportunities close to you and search for a certain event.

If you have trouble volunteering on your own, you can always join one of the many clubs on campus that do a lot of volunteering. Working with a friend is always fun and you still get hours for helping out. Interact and Key Club are great clubs to join and get some community service hours with your friends.

Pick a volunteer activity that you like. If you love animals, you can volunteer at the Humane Society and help take care of animals. Many teens like volunteering with children. The City of Sunnyvale offers opportunities to be camp counselors in the summer and help out at various events for children.

Helping the community is a great thing and everyone should be a part of helping out. Many volunteers see volunteering as something they do for credit but it is important to keep in mind that it helps others and that it can make you feel really good about yourself.

If you have more questions about volunteering or would like to find some volunteer opportunities, you can always drop by the College and Career Center to see Ms. Villagomez who can help you. You can also go to Ms. Villagomez in the College and Career Center to record volunteer hours that you have already done. Being involved in the community is a great thing and it does not take much effort. Just sign up and help.

sports

11

March 3, 2015

Budgets for high school athletics

by Chau Nguyen Sports Editor

“Pay-to-play policies” state that in order for athletes to participate in sports, they are obligated to pay a certain fee. These policies can apply to other extracurricular activities, but are often found in sports.

However, pay-to-play policies are not legal in public schools and can deter students from low income families to participate in extracurriculars. A study from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital found that 60 percent of those surveyed paid to participate in a sport at the middle or high school level.

“Legally, in a public school, you cannot be prohibited from doing something because you can’t pay for it,” Fremont High School Athletic Director Steven Puccinelli said. “The idea of

being public is you have access to it regardless of your ability to play. So when you see these pay-to-play things in other schools, there’s no legal teeth behind it. You can’t be cut from a team because you can’t pay for it.”

According to Puccinelli, schools are steadily climbing out of the recession and cuts in budgets for extracurriculars are not as common now compared to the 2007-2009 recession.

A Supreme Court case, Hartzell v. Connell (1984) also detailed a similar policy. Taxpayer Barbara Hartzell filed action against the Santa Barbara High School District after the district cut its budget by $1.1 million and charged students an extra $25 fee for participation in “dramatic productions, musical performances and athletic competition.”

The court ruled that “educational opportuni-

ties must be provided to all students without regard to their families’ ability or willingness to pay fees” and those opportunities do not depend on the “fluctuating financial health of local school districts.”

Instead, some high schools like those in the FUHSD ask for donations in order to support their athletic programs and teams.

Schools ask for different amounts of money.

Saratoga High School asks for a $225 donation. Their asking for a higher donation is because the school only pays for the coaches’ salaries. Equipment is paid by the $225 donation.

Budgets for high school sports may be more complicated due to factors such as memberships in Athletic Boosters, the success of fundraisers organized by each sport, and community outreach by parents and

athletes.

FHS asks for a $80 donation, while Monta Vista and Cupertino High School ask for $65 and $60 respectively.

Even the way donations are split up between sports and Athletic Boosters is different. Fremont splits the donation in half for boosters and the specified sport, while Cupertino gives $20 to the boosters and $40 to the specified sport. Monta Vista gives $25 to the specified sport and $45 to their boosters.

Various budgets for high schools also means that the coaches spend their money differently on equipment or warm ups, based on their values.

“So it becomes easier, I think, for students to say ‘Well how come they have this and I don’t have that’ kind of thing and it usually happens a lot at the team

level,” Puccinelli said.

According to Puccinelli, even if schools bought warm ups for a team, not all are returned and some are damaged, so actual expenses are more than expected since they need to be replaced.

“Sometimes that flashiest stuff isn’t the most economical buy unless you have the budget to buy a brand new set of warm ups for everyone to keep each year,” Puccinelli said.

Some sports may also have a greater ability to fundraise than other sports.

For example, varsity basketball coach Jason Townsend organizes a basketball tournament during winter break and there are concession stands held by Athletic Boosters during basketball games.

The varsity tennis team, however, has different ways of fundraising, so

the team may not receive the same amount of money from fundraisers since there are no tennis tournaments held.

“And so they’re going to walk on our campus and say ‘Oh man how come we don’t have that stuff too’ but do you want to pay for that?”

Puccinelli said. “We could have that too if you want to pay for it. And we value as a school, we understand our population that’s not a reasonable request and I don’t think it’s in the spirit of public education to do that.”

Asking for donations is not publicized much in the FUHSD, but the different amounts of money and various ways of spending from each coach in their sport seems an easier discussion and source of complaint among student athletes.

Nike’s marketing College athletes and diploma mills

by Emily Wright

Arts & Ent. Editor

Nike is a top brand in the athletic apparel world, spending a lot of money on marketing and athletic endorsements. Clearly the “swoosh” is doing well.

They also made a lot of money. According to statista. com, Nike’s athletic apparel revenue was $7.1 billion in 2011, second to Adidas, which beat Nike by $87 million.

Similarly in 2014, Nike reported that their revenue was $7 billion, with some of this money covering manufacturing costs.

“These results demonstrate the energy and excitement Nike brings to the market,” Nike President and CEO Mark Parker said about their 2014 results. “Our ability to relentlessly innovate for consumers drove our growth in [the 2014 fiscal year], and will continue to fuel it for years to come.

A majority of Nike’s money is spent on marketing.

Nike spends about $2.8 billion on marketing alone, according to Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst. Some of that money is spent on advertising, while the rest is spent on athletic endorsements. Nike planned to spend around $476.5 million in athlete endorsements during 20062007, according to NBC. Nike has endorsements with Manchester United, Tiger Woods, Lebron James, the Brazilian national soccer team, Michael Jordan, the NFL, Team U.S.A at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Kevin Durant, the United State’s World Cup Team and others.

However, some people are skeptical as whether the money being spent on endorsements is truly necessary.

“I think $400 plus million is a lot of money for athlete endorsements alone,” President of the Leverage Agency, a marketing agency, Ben Sturner said. “Brands like New Balance for example, spend zero dollars on athlete endorsements, and New Balance is a top five company in terms of athletic shoes.”

Despite their marketing practices and emphasis on endorsements on athletes, Nike still profits. In 2014, Nike reported that they profited $698 million. Nike’s Director of Global Transition Management Steve Bence said that a $100 shoe will cost $28.50 to make, but the company receives $21.50 on average and profits $4.50.

For some, the fact that Nike is a top brand is important when they buy clothes.

“I’m big on name brands, especially on Nike, because I feel like it’s a popular trend now and most of the clothes that people wear right now is not based on the style of it, it’s based off the brand,” freshman Hamlet Izmiryan said.

Not just athletes are buying from Nike anymore.

“Athleisure,” the trend where athletically styled apparel is being used as casual wear has become part of their market as well. Parker said that “athleisure” could play to Nike’s strengths Fashion is a part of the appeal and may be a reason why Nike has drawn a more diverse audience that does not include just athletes.

by Kayla Layoen Managing Editor

Fake it ‘til you make it, right? Sometimes, that’s the way top-notch athletes— who just so happen to be bottom-tier students— make their way into the world of college sports.

A “diploma mill” or “degree mill” is a school where students don’t have to attend classes, take tests, or do anything, really, in order to get credit—just pay. They come at high school and university levels, offering to help students bump their GPAs or just flat-out hand them fake degrees.

This makes them look pretty appealing to the few high school athletes who stand out on the field but fail to hit a homerun in the classroom, and may just need a bump in grades in order to be eligible to play or earn scholarships at the universities of their choice.

Get Educated, a website devoted to providing information about online colleges, lists over 40 false accreditation agencies. They are unrecognized by both the US Department of Education as well as the Council on Higher Education Accreditation. If a high school or college is not accredited, then that means it has not been accepted as a legal educational institution and that the degree or diploma is essentially illegitimate.

However, not all students are aware that the school they are attending isn’t accredited by a legitimate organization like the USDE or CHEA, because schools make up their own false accreditation organizations to “accredit” themselves. Schools often try hard to sell themselves as legitimate.

What makes diploma mills different from “real,”

Photo courtesy of Lorenz High School

LORENZ High School is an online diploma mill where people can pay for a fraudulent high school diploma or a variety of college degrees, including a doctorate degree complete with thesis.

accredited schools? For one thing, students do not have to attend class. The students interviewed in the New York Times article stated that they were given packets which had the answers “written on the insides” that made up for each class they had failed freshman or sophomore year. At the college level, with degree mills, the schools are often online, which can be confusing for students who don’t know exactly how online degrees work or are new to the higher education system.

According to Get Educated, this is a half a billion dollar industry. A congressional investigation in 2004 found that 400 government employees had purchased degrees from mills, and all were subsequently fired.

CNN’s Sara Ganim wrote an article last year about students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who couldn’t read or write past a fourth grade level, but who had been recruited to football and basketball anyway.

Learning specialist Mary Willingham found that out

of 183 UNC-Chapel Hill basketball and football players, 60 percent read between fourth and eighth grade levels.

University High School was recently exposed as one such school by New York Times reporters Pete Thamel and Duff Wilson.

The two wrote an exposé about Division I athletes at top universities who ‘attended’ University High and quickly boosted their GPAs by as many as 0.7 points, the difference between a D average and a C-minus average. Oftentimes, GPAs were raised to the exact number—2.75— required in order to be eligible for National Collegiate Athletics Association Scholarships. To qualify with the NCAA just to be eligible to play college sports at a D-1 school, athletes need a 2.3 GPA. University High is not accredited by the state of Florida or the US Department of Education. In the past, the NCAA has been relaxed about athletes using diploma mills for boosts.

Diane Dickman, NCAA membership services man-

aging director, was quoted in the NYT article as saying “We’re not the educational accreditation police” when asked to comment.

Recently, however, they have cracked down more on these schools, investigating suspected diploma mills and releasing several lists of existing diploma mills. Credentials from any schools on the list will no longer be acceptable for credit at most US colleges.

One plus side to these schools is an apparent lack of discrimination (as long as you can afford the diploma).

Anybody can graduate with honors, seriously boost their high school GPAs or “earn” MBAs without going to class—even pets. A quick Google search even brings up “lists of animals with fraudulent diplomas” from degree mills on various websites. In one famous case, an attorney purchased a diploma for his cat, Colby Nolan, from Trinity Southern University in 2004 in order to prove the defendant’s degree was indeed fake and that TSU was not a real school.

sports Junior athlete pitches her way to university

March 3, 2015

12

by Maggie Bernauer Staff Writer

Junior Katie Wingrove verbally committed to California State University Monterey Bay in Oct. 2014.

By doing so, Wingrove promised to attend the school and Monterey has claimed her even before she is legally able to sign with the school.

Wingrove has been playing softball since she was seven years old, but only started to play because she wanted to do an activity with her friends. At eight years old, Wingrove started to pitch because she was intrigued with the position since it looked fun. She liked the idea of being in control of the game.

The recruitment process for Wingrove has been a long journey.

Wingrove transferred to Fremont her sophomore year and according to varsity softball coach Ray Loya, she was a great aspect to the program from the beginning.

“We started winning games and her enthusiasm lifted the team,” Loya said.

“She is very dedicated in all she does and she works hard on and off the field. She looks out for her teammates and is a true team player.”

She started her recruit-

ment process during her freshman year. Wingrove is a pitcher and her many strikeouts and ability to adjust to different situations helped her become a pitcher and earn attention.

My club coach and dad were the most helpful in the process of getting recruited. They both encouraged me to do lots of events and get myself noticed.

Katie Wingrove “The moment I started playing I fell in love with the sport,” Wingrove said. “By the time I was in seventh grade I knew I wanted play in college, so I went for it,” Wingrove used her outside resources to get to where she is today.

“My club coach and dad were the most helpful in the process of getting recruited,” Wingrove said. “They both encouraged me to do lots of events and get myself noticed.”

When Wingrove was in the process of recruitment, she emailed the softball coaches at CSUMB twice a

month for a year, to form a relationship and stay in the loop. She also attended showcases during the summer that colleges host so players can show off their skills to different coaches and colleges.

However, Wingrove did not choose CSUMB just for softball.

“I knew I wanted to go to a smaller school,” Wingrove said.

“I really liked the environment of the campus.

Also I wanted to stay on the west coast, so it was a good location, plus they have a good softball program.”

Wingrove put in a lot of extra work to get to her position now. In addition to playing for Fremont, she also plays for the travel team San Jose Sting. She plays in the 18U division, which is a higher level and for more experienced players.

She also dedicated time at showcases hosted at CSUMB. During her recruiting process, she attended six or seven a year that were set up like scrimmages. “ I decided to play softball in college because I didn’t want softball to end after highschool,” Wingrove said. “I wanted to play at the next level and I love the game.”

Priya Lee | The Phoenix

NFL media policy stirs debates and revisions

by Essam Rao Staff Writer

The National Football League’s media policy has received mixed feedback from teams and fans, as the masses questioned to what extent it should be allowed to interfere with the players’ personal space.

As an attempt to spread the popularity of the game, coaches and players are required to cooperate with the news media. The policy has specific requirements and is organized into several subsections.

Essentially, it demands that certified journalists have proper access to coaches and star players for interview and pictures.

One main requirement is post-game access. The media policy states that after “10-12 minutes maximum after the completion of the game, the home and visiting team locker room areas will be opened to all accredited media with immediate access to all players and the head coach.”

In addition to having access to the locker rooms for 45 minutes on selected days of the week, journalists are also permitted 30 minutes during practices for interviews and pictures. If the team is unavailable to

the media on any given day, that time must be made up later on.

Others rules cover details about drafting conferences, organizing offseason programs, providing accurate team information and accommodating for the journalists’ needs.

Coaches and assistant coaches also need to be present after games for news conferences and interviews.

Obviously, there are expectations to be met from the players as well.

The policy states “it is not permissible for any player or any group of players to boycott the media.”

While some may agree that these policies are fair, as they provide more information to news organizations, many people disagree with the rule that all players must cooperate with the news media, claiming it interferes too much with their freedom. This includes both coaches and athletes, and among them is Seattle Seahawk running back Marshawn Lynch.

According to the NFL, Lynch was fined a total of $100,000 for violating the policy in Nov. of last year for leaving the Seahawks locker room without being interviewed after a loss to

the Kansas City Chiefs According to The Wall Street Journal, the charges were dropped after Lynch fulfilled his obligations to speak to the media on Super Bowl Media Day last Jan 27.

However, his responses were somewhat repetitive, as he replied some variation of “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” to every question.

In an interview with the New York Post, teammate and cornerback Richard Sherman gave his opinion on Lynch’s fines and the rule in general.

“It’s unfortunate,” Sherman said. “I think that every team should be forced to present certain players. But, obviously, if someone is uncomfortable in front of the media and is uncomfortable answering questions and things like that, you have to find a way to accommodate that as well.”

The entire incident with Lynch has stirred some debate in the NFL. According to an article from Reuters, players are suggesting revisions to the media policy.

“I don’t think it’s fair to force someone to talk if they don’t want to talk,” former New England Patriots receiver Deion Branch said in an interview with Reuters.

Photo courtesy of Christian Petersen

MARSHAWN Lynch being interview on Super Bowl media day.

“I don’t know what you are going to get out of someone who makes enough money to pay the fine.”

“I understand we have obligations and things that we have to do and we understand the rules, but I think it would be good for them to go back and revisit it,” former Denver Broncos running back Terrell Davis said in an interview with Reuters. “But it’s a delicate one because where does it stop? If he opts out and they say he doesn’t have to do it, everybody else may raise their hand and say they want to do the same thing.”

Though many players

and fans support Lynch and his actions, there are others who feel that Lynch should have owned up to his actions.

“I have always told my players there are things that you may not like to do,” former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy said in an interview with Reuters.

“You may not like to run gases, you may not like to lift weights, you may not like to block, but it is part of the job, so right now it’s an obligation we have and we got to own up to it. You can’t make it farcical, I think if you are going to do that, then don’t be there and take

the penalty for what it is.

But right now the policy is cooperation with the media so you should cooperate.”

“Yes, players and coaches routinely say nothing of value during these media availabilities,” Mike Florio, a writer for NBC Sports, said.

“But the NFL requires that the player show up and say something. If they don’t or won’t, they suffer the consequences. And if for some reason they can’t, due to social anxiety or some other mental or emotional condition, they need to go through the proper channels to request an accommodation to their discomfort.”