October 2022

Malden High School’s

Homecoming A Starry Night

Football Team Home Opener

Daniel O’ Toole Head of Sports Bo Stead Reporter

After a long year of preparation the Malden High School Gold en Tornados are ready once again to hit the gridiron.

Anticipation was high as the young team played long-time rival, Melrose, in Friday night’s game. After a rocky road last season, the growing pains of the team are start ing to come to an end. Perhaps the most asked question is about the quarterback situation and how the team is going to have to grow around a new young quarterback.

Sophomore quarterback Aidan Brett is optimistic and grateful to have the opportunity of being the starter. Brett is having fun with the big expectations and taking it in strides. “It hasn’t been too different. Varsity is a lot quicker and faster paced, but it’s a lot of fun,” Brett stated. He looks to continue to help propel the team’s offense past their Greater Boston League opponents this season.

During the matchup against Melrose, the Golden Tornados had a series of penalties called against them on both sides of the ball, dragging down some of the team’s forward progress down the field. Several blocks in the back killed large gains by Malden.

Once the game clock hit the 6:30

mark both teams’ offenses seem ingly exploded. Melrose powered down the field in a quick drive and rushed in for a five yard touchdown to put the Red Raiders up 6-0. After wards, the Tornados offense stepped back onto the field, Brett completed a 47 yard touchdown pass to Junior Davian Mcguffie as the clock ticked past 4:35 to tie the score at 6-6. Mal den would experience some hiccups on special teams as Melrose was able to slip past them to punch in a 76 yard kick return touchdown, pairing it with a successful PAT to take a 13-6 lead.

Mcguffie would look to make another huge play by taking the ensuing kickoff 47 yards down field to give the Golden Tornados excel

lent field position. Despite the effort from Senior Makhial CoulangesBlaise, who had a powerful stiff arm off of a screen pass from Brett, Malden would be hit with a 12 yard tackle for loss and then would ulti mately punt the ball away.

Both teams would show off their stingy defenses by forcing back-to-back three and outs until Mcguffie took off on a jet sweep run, which was good for 12 yards. In the end, Melrose’s defense would prove to be too much as they were able to get the ball back and allow their quarterback to take a run into the endzone from 22 yards out. With the PAT soaring through the uprights,

Most students wake on an aver age Monday morning expect ing to go to class. But on October 17th, no Malden students were in class. From 7:45 onwards, Malden’s teachers, aides, and other staff were not in their classrooms. Instead, they gathered outside their schools, officially on strike.

The strike had been announced the night prior, after the School Committee and the bargaining com mittee of the Malden Education Association (MEA) failed to reach a consensus. With a deadline of mid night, RoboCalls and emails were sent out to families - before 8pmthat there would not be school the next day.

The strike, as pointed out by Superintendent Ligia NoriegaMurphy, was illegal. Back in 1919, the Boston police force went on strike due to their wages and work ing conditions. During the four days of strike, though, the city experi enced several nights of heightened crime, leading to the deaths of nine. The Governor at the time, Calvin Coolidge, declared public sector strikes illegal.

Despite the known laws sur rounding the strike, Malden staff re fused to enter the buildings. Haver hill staff joined them in this protest, also garnering for new contracts.

At Malden High, teachers gath ered around the Brunelli steps. Staff registered their attendance through QR codes and forms, before mak ing their way into the crowd. At approximately 8:15am, MEA VicePresident Rachel LeBlanc made the first speech of the day, followed by a few select others.

Malden High’s running back Makhial Coulanges-Blaise gets back to the line of scrimmage after a play. BO STEAD

Mack Keating Lead Reporter

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

Students attending the Homecoming dance. HAJAR AZEGZA. Artlicle on pages 12-14.

New Year, New School Policies

Dani Licona-Cruz Reporter

Joao Ferreira Neves Rep0rter

The 2022-23 School Year at Mal den High has come with a whirl wind of changes. There have been a plethora of new school policies put in place as well as a plethora of opinions on said policies. However, to have an opinion, one must first understand what these policies are.

One of the biggest changes this year has to do with hall passes. As students and staff already knew, this has been a problem for a while. Students would take passes and lose them or never give them back, wan der around in the halls with friends, and even just fully leave class or school.

This year, however, faculty has found a way to remedy these is sues with a new digital SmartPass. The pass is also only available on laptops so that students do not use their phones to avoid trouble for taking too long.

The SmartPass has an allotted time given depending on where students are heading. For the bath room, it is seven minutes. To enforce students to get back to class on time, an alert is sent to all faculty when a student’s pass expires.

There have also been rumors of detention if your pass expires, but nothing has been confirmed by the administration.

Another change to the school, which has probably received the most backlash, is the new phone policy. While levels of enforcement may vary from classroom to class room, one thing is clear: cell phones are not permitted.

The policy states that phones, smartwatches, and headphones should be off and out of sight dur ing class. If you get caught with it more than once, it gets taken until the end of class. If it happens again, it is given to your house principal. It reaches a point where students’ cell phones can be taken up to four weeks, but faculty doubts this will happen.

Some teachers have decided to give five-minute breaks where stu dents can use their phones to scratch their technological itch.

It has definitely had the most critique compared to any other policy this year. Still, many teachers believe that it has made a big im provement in student engagement.

Principal Chris Mastrangelo agreed and stated that there was “no need to come in with a sledgeham mer if a little tap was going to do the job.”

However, the attendance mea

Meet the Blue and Gold

Reporters

Lead Reporter : Mack Keating ‘25

Lead Reporter: Jessica Li ‘25

Lead Reporter: Dani Licona-Cruz ‘25 Lead Reporter: Zachary Nedell ‘24 Lead Reporter: Lily Nguyen ‘25 Lead Reporter: Ruka Truong ‘25 Reporter: Hajar Azegza ‘25 Reporter: Ryan Coggswell ‘24 Reporter: Elijah Etienne ‘26 Reporter: Qiuting Fang ‘24 Reporter: Joao Ferreira Neves ‘23 Reporter: Christel Jean’ Baptiste ‘23 Reporter: Edmund Kam ‘23 Reporter: Aiden Luciano ‘24

Reporter: Jenayah Moreno ‘26 Reporter: Beatriz Oliveira ‘26 Reporter: Emanuelle Oliveira ‘24 Reporter: Gabriela Parini Cordova ‘26 Reporter: Chouaib Saidi ‘26 Reporter: Ace Showstead ‘26 Reporter: Bo Stead ‘25 Reporter: Emalie Teixeira ‘24 Reporter: Haset Tesfaw ‘26 Reporter: Delina Yohannes ‘26 Reporter: Ada Zhang ‘26 Reporter: Zhi Zhu ‘23

sures taken to make students be on time is a close second. It has put a ban on students bringing in their own breakfast, most popularly from Dunkin’, and any drinks other than water.

All doors are locked after 7:50 and attendance is being taken a lot more seriously this year; students are encouraged to be on time and in class before 7:45.

Students are also being “grad ed” on their attendance for FLEX Block. It is a simple pass/fail system depending on attendance.

While the phone policy has had the most critique, the dress code has had the most controversy.

After years of pushing to make the dress code less targeted towards feminine-presenting students and misogynistic, it seems the Feminism Club is still trying to update the dress code.

There was a Google Meet at the start of the year where the adminis tration stated a different dress code than what is being enforced which caused confusion among staff and students alike. Depending on what staff are around, some students will

get dress coded and others will not. Malden High’s new school year has come with lots of changes. It will take some adjusting to and it

will not come without its hardships, but it is bound to be an interesting year.

Editor-in-Chief:

Editor-in-Chief: Julisns Luong

Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design: Kayley Glavin ‘23

Editor-in-Chief of Web and Mobile: Kaoutar Wakaf ‘23

Head Copy Editor: Gabriel Fesehaie ‘23

Head of Photography: Divina Wembi ‘23 Managing Editor: Nathan Dean

of Sports: Daniel O’Toole

Head of Local: Hadjar Yousfi

Class Advisor: Ryan Gallagher

Malden High Adopts a New Phone Policy

Christel Jean Baptiste Reporter

Divina Wembi Head of Photography

This year at Malden High School has sparked a lot of new changes for the returning upper classes. As they walk through the doors, they do not know what this school year had in store for them. Things such as the infamous new phone policy, which left most feeling conflicted.

The phone policy works as a way to prevent students from using their phones and other distract ing devices during class time. The implementation of the phone policy was made in hopes of promoting consistently engaged students whilst stimulating their minds.

Though this policy could be used for better or worse during the remainder of the school year, many students, as well as faculty, have very divergent opinions on this mat ter.

Leisha Fortunat, a senior in Malden High School, is stuck be tween both sides when asked her opinion on how the student phone policy can benefit students who abide by them. She goes on to ex plain how strict screen time gives students the chance to live up to their fullest potential as a learner and as a contributor in the class. With the removal of distractions, it enhances the student’s focus. “The attention will totally be on the teach er,’’ states Fortunat. However, she mostly agrees with the fact that the phone policy shouldn’t be included in the curriculum. It is entirely too restrictive, and “feels like an ongo ing punishment”.

Clarah Ambroise, a senior in Malden High, also sides with her fellow peer Fortunat. She also un derstands why teachers would pos sibly favor the phone policy since it would allow them to teach the class in a more “proficient way”. In addition, she displays to us a differ ent perspective by stating that “the students are too focused on finding ways to sneak their phones”, mean ing that students distract themselves even further by coming up with dif ferent solutions to use their phones during class time rather than ac cepting their fate and following the guidelines of the school rule.

The Student Phone policy so far has been utilized to terminate dis tractions. Its main goal is to encour age focus and productivity. Taryn Belowsky strongly agrees with this perspective. Phones for so long have been the backbone of our society, but even something as innovative as this has side effects. Though they are extremely helpful, phones carry the

Hallows Eve

“Hello? Is someone there?”

Ruby gets up from her desk to check the hall after hearing an odd noise. As far as she can see, there is not anyone there. She shakes her head and draws the conclusion that she is simply sleep deprived from studying for her chemistry exam.

She returned to her room, but heard another clatter.

When she went to look, one of her soccer trophies from the hall table was on the ground. Odd, thought the young Stillwell.

She picked up the trophy and went into her younger sister Cal liope’s room.

“Cal, were you running in the hall again?”

The nine-year-old shook her head, “Not since I almost fell down the stairs.”

Ruby nodded and recalled how shaken up Cal was after the inci dent. It definitely wasn’t her in the hall. Ruby sighed and walked down to the kitchen for a glass of water.

“Maybe I’m just dehydrated,” she told herself.

Suddenly, a popping sound began behind her. She turned to find the microwave on with popcorn in side. She frantically looked around and found no one to be nearby. She felt her hands go cold and she looked at the calendar.

It was the day before Hallow een. Could it be? She thought.

“Am I being haunted?”

She suddenly heard an eerie laughter coming from somewhere around her, but found nothing and no one. She felt goosebumps up her arms and ran upstairs to her room. She immediately closed and locked the door. “Not that that could stop a ghost”, she thought bitterly.

She immediately looked up how to get rid of a ghost.

“Aha!”

She gathered all things nec essary and rushed to the kitchen again. Calliope was sitting at the island drinking milk when Ruby be gan rummaging through the pantry.

“What are you doing?”

capability to generate distractions, especially in younger generations.

In this case, students have found it difficult to focus, while teachers have trouble controlling their class es. “...and I think it’s really hard for teachers to monitor and make sure that the students in front of them are focused on understanding the curriculum. And if cell phones are a distraction, that makes it 10 times harder. So I do think it’s helpful for students and for staff in regards to focus.”, stated Belowsky.

“Trying to capture a ghost,” the older sister replied seriously. Cal liope laughed until she realized her sister was not joking. Their parents then walked in the room with gro ceries.

“What is this I hear about a ghost?” their father asked.

Ruby faced him as she held a bag of flour in her arms, “I’m being haunted.”

Her parents laughed until they realized she was serious and frown ing at them.

“Why do none of you believe me?!”

Her mother sighed, “Where’s Anton? Anton, come down and help with the groceries!”

Ruby looked perplexed, “What are you talking about? Anton’s stay ing over Nana’s house to help her with that broken light bulb.”

The oldest male Stillwell chuck led, “No, your brother fixed it two days ago and came with your Nana back home. She’s been asleep in the guest room. And I have an idea as to what Anton’s been up to.”

Ruby furrowed her brows, con fused. However, she heard a loud, “Boo!” from behind her and jumped. She shrieked as well and threw flour at the ghost behind her.

“Hey! What did you do that for?!” The “ghost” grumbled as flour now covered his face and shirt. Ruby instantly recognized that voice and his face, albeit covered in flour.

“Anton?! Oh, I’m going to kill

Belowsky believes the reason why phone addictions have sky rocketed among teens is because they have become heavily depen dent on them during quarantine. In the course of that time, teens had no choice but to rely on phones to connect to the outside world. This certain lifestyle has created an ad diction within them, and much like other dependencies, it is extremely difficult to let go. “I think it’s about having the correct limits when you’re using different technology,”

you!”

“Hey, hey. Your brother was just playing around, he didn’t mean any harm. Now, Anton, go clean yourself up and come help with the groceries.”

Ruby stuck her tongue out at Anton and went over to help put the groceries away. She thought she was finally free when suddenly a voice close to her ear whispered, “Boo!”

She shrieked and almost dropped the bag of peaches in her arms. She turned to see her family laughing and she playfully rolled her eyes before laughing with them as well.

“Just another Hallow’s Eve in the Stillwell home,” her father smiled.

she said. This is where the Student Phone Policy comes into action, by reinforcing a strict time frame for phones within a learning environ ment. Belowsky also explains how the phone policy has been in the works since 2021-2022. Based on that time period, administrators have created the phone policy with the expectations that it would im pact students greatly and she agrees in that aspect it’s done a great job.

Editorial: College Advice on the Process of Applying

Chaimaa Assli Editor-in-Chief

Juliana Luong Editor-in-Chief

Kayley Glavin Editor-in-Chief of Print

Kaoutar Wakaf Editor-in-Chief of Web and Mobile

All of the worries we had junior year are finally coming true. This is the moment we’ve all been preparing for since we were fresh man. We were always told to main tain good grades if we wanted to get into a good college. Or make sure we do a lot of extra curricular activities to stand out from other applicants. Senior year has been full of scram bling to get things done and way too much stress. The college essay. Meeting deadlines. Also let’s not forget the continuous appointments in and out of the College and Career Center. Our heads are filled with what ifs right now. What if I don’t get into a good college or a college at all? What if I don’t get a good fi nancial aid package? What if I can’t get my college applications done in time?

Although we are always told not to think of these things it doesn’t stop us from worrying. I am waiting for the moment we get to breathe and just relax but it feels like that moment might never come.

At the same time even with all of this stress, we’re full of excite ment for what’s next. What will col lege life be like? Will we make new friends? Will our plans for the future

change? I know most of us have thought about these questions many times.

Upon entering high school, we are told these four years are go ing to fly by. At that time, I didn’t pay much attention but looking back at my time in high school so far, it really has flown. I’m sure this also has to do with the fact that our freshman and sophomore years were cut short and affected by the pandemic. Nevertheless, I cannot believe that we are now becoming adults as I vividly remember enter ing this building fresh out of middle school. The idea of college, full time jobs, moving out and branching out does scare me.

As it will make some stu dents after us nervous as well, we would like to share our tips and tricks that you may not know start ing your senior year.

The college essay. We’ve all heard of it. There are many options when it comes to writing your essay. There’s the question that most peo ple answer which is to write about what you are interested in writing, a specific moment or something that has shaped you or your identity. If that is too broad and you are in decisive, there are still many other questions that specifically focus on a topic. Focus on writing about a topic that is unique to you, and that you will enjoy writing. You can only truly capture the idea of something that matters to you, not something you don’t actually care about. There is no right way to approach a college essay, so take it easy on yourself.

Starting the brainstorming process early even if it’s in your head helps a lot. Some people have

no ideas and others can write para graphs about three different topics. Either way a major delay in the college process is trying to narrow down the focal point of your essay. I started with well over 600 words and eventually after multiple visits with the college and career counsel ors I figured out what was not need ed and what I wanted to focus on. After you have a rough draft then you should start making it unique to yourself, which won’t take long once you find your style.

High school isn’t just a place where you make new friends, but also connect with your teachers. They help us with things that may seem small now, but make all the difference later. Recommendation letters are a must have for the col lege application. It’s better to ask your teachers and counselor as early as you can as well as let them know your deadlines, depending on how early you apply.

Don’t ask just any teacher. Make sure to ask a teacher that knows you well as a student and as a person.

Another thing is scholar ships. Make sure to apply to as many as you can. The money matters for any school, college is expensive.

When choosing your schools you should always have at least one or two safety schools. Safety schools are schools that you can afford financially and ones that you are positive you can get accepted into, based on academic and extra cur riculars. They are the plan B in case you don’t get accepted into your top choices. They will have your back in the long run. It doesn’t hurt to apply so why not?

If you’re having trouble decid ing on a school, go visit it. College visits are very informative and help ful. Try to go to as many as you can. When going to visit a school their campus is the first thing you see and get an impression from. How ever, just because the college has a very nice campus doesn’t mean it will be a good fit for you. Look into the school and what opportunities they offer. Some offer co-ops, study abroad, internships, research, etc. Look at what interests you the most. Co-ops give you experience work ing in the real world before you even graduate. Studying abroad gives you a chance to make connections and achievements in different parts of the world. Internships are great learning experiences and a way to dip your foot in the water to make sure you really like your field. All these opportunities will help you reach your best potential in your desired career, you just have to pick the one that’s right for you.

At the end of the day we are all going to find where we belong and what we want to do. Don’t let these things get to your head. Make sure to give yourself time to relax and enjoy your life.

Editorial

The Blue and Gold is an open forum for student expression. It is produced by students for the school and the community. The views presented in this paper are not necessarily those of the advisor or the school administration. The views presented in the editorials are those of the editors-in-chief or guests. The goal of The Blue and Gold is to inform and entertain students as well as the community regarding issues that we feel are important.

We strongly encourage readers to respond to material printed in the form of signed letters to the editors. No libelous, malicious, defamatory, obscene, or unsigned material will be printed. The Blue and Gold reserves the right to edit the let ters. Names may be withheld upon request. Not all letters will be printed.

Although The Blue and Gold appreciates the support of advertisers, we may refuse any ad vertisement that violates the above policy or that promotes products questionable to student use.

Any correspondence concerning this publi cation should be directed to Mr. Ryan Gallagher’s room in J387 or to his mailbox in the main office.

The Blue and Gold c/o Malden High School 77 Salem Street Malden, MA 02148

MEA Calls For New Working Contracts

Mack Keating Lead Reporter Ryan Coggswell Lead Reporter

With contracts for teachers expiring, students, teachers, administration, and faculty were left searching for answers. Although the contracts expired on August 31st, negotiations and proposals were be ing held, but there was not a clear end in sight.

On Wednesday, September 21st, the Malden Education Asso ciation (MEA) met with Malden’s School Committee to discuss the overdue contracts. Despite the timeline, no proposals were agreed upon. The last offer of the weekend before the strike from the school committee was a starting wage of $22,000 with a 3% raise per year for the lowest-paid workers.

Public schools across Malden had been attempting “working to contracts” where teachers left at exactly the end of their contractual day, and not any longer. At the same time, some teachers came in early to hand out flyers promoting their cause.

President of the MEA Deborah “Deb” Gesualdo pointed out the lack of equity for teachers’ wages: “Our goal is to, number one, win contract language that supports both the students and educators to create welcoming, safe, and eq uitable schools for everyone.” She noted that this applied to both stu dents and teachers as well as para professionals, alias teachers’ aides. Paraprofessionals are currently the lowest-paid staff: “They’re actually paid well below a living wage - they actually make poverty wages.”

This issue was what brought forth their mission for the contracts. “Our goal is to try to move [para professionals] much closer to a liv ing wage so that they only have to work one job, as opposed to many of them who work three jobs. Because no one should have to work three jobs to make ends meet,” explained Gesualdo.

“We here at the high school, and I think [students] have felt it, it’s been a really great opening to school,” Principal Christopher Mas trangelo noted.

He elaborated that there are stipulations and other factors: “I also

know that we have to work inside a budget, but we have to figure this thing out because the longer these things fester the more resentment and negativity grow.”

PACE teacher and member of the MEA Representative Council Rebecca Griffith described herself as highly passionate about this is sue. With five years of experience in her position, Griffith has not had experience with this issue before. “I have seen other schools experience challenges like this, but this is the first time I’ve experienced working under an expired contract.”

“A living wage for education support professionals (paraprofes sionals, licensed practical nurses, therapy assistants) is really impor tant, as well as a commitment to smaller class sizes and fully staffed schools,” she asserted. “I’d say most educators feel disappointed and [are] anxious to settle a contract so that we can focus on our main pri ority--student learning. That is defi nitely how I feel as an individual.”

The Mayor had declined to comment on the situation, but noted that he was “confident that we will engage in constructive dialogue so that we can make progress and move forward.”

Superintendent Ligia NoriegaMurphy has also declined to com ment on the issue at hand.

“But we need to figure it out, we need to just pay our teachers what they deserve.”

- Chris Mastrangelo

School standout dates. Screenshotted from @maldeneduassoc.

All photos screenshotted from Instagram handle @maldeneduassoc.

Malden Teachers Go On Strike

Continued from page 1

Following the speeches, MHS staff split into groups and divided across the perimeter of the school. Each group managed their own form of striking. They parted ways chanting, “When we strike, we win,” as a spin off of the chant “When we fight, we win,” as seen at previous events.

Near the Tiny House and com munity garden, one group of staff was handing out leaflets about the MEA and why they were striking. Some members marched back and forth chanting numerous calls, while others sat or stood while talking to pedestrians. The leaflets were found in multiple languages, outlining the MEA, the protest, and what the bargaining team was fighting for. It also included a QR code with more information for those interested.

The next group was spread from the gym entrance to the in tersection on the corner of Holden Street and Eastern Avenue. With signs galore, teachers chanted and cheered from the sidewalk and street median to amass the most attention. With cars whizzing by, this location was exemplary for attracting new eyes to the scene.

The following group was the most physically active, marching back and forth down Eastern Av enue. Gesticulating signs, the group chorused their protests through a myriad of call-and-responses and numeral rhymes.

As this group marched, the end of their loops intersected with a group at the edge of Ferry Street. Similar to the group by the Tiny House, this group set up a table with a spread of leaflets and informa tion. The staff created a semi-circle behind and around the table at the ready to spew more information.

Penultimately, an quite possi bly the loudest group, was gathered in front of the Malden High School emblem on the corner of Ferry Street and Salem Street, adorned with signs and cow-bells. The staff marched the corner, rang their bells in unison, and chanted to their beats.

The final group could be found up and down Salem Street. Led by

history teacher Jessie Belfer and French teacher Paul Degenkolb, two smaller groups of teachers marched around each other, dulcetly chant ing their indignation.

Malden High was not the only school on strike, though: every pub lic school in the district shut down due to the strike. Forestdale held most people in front of the main steps; Salemwood hosted its staff from edge to edge of the property on Salem Street; Beebe staff was spread across the front entrance area of the property; Linden displayed their

unity across Wescott Street; and Fer ryway held protests on Ferry and Cross Street.

Despite the teachers being found all across the city, they were one body and one union fighting for the same cause: their new contracts. More information about the con tracts can be found on pages 5 and 7.

Union President Deborah Ge sualdo detailed her day: “My Mon day started with a meeting with our building leads and picket captains at 6:45am. We went over details for the day, helped everyone load supplies

into their cars, and then everyone went to their schools.” Although Gesualdo was not one of the main people organizing the strike, she did play an important role.

The strike vote happened on the Friday before, under the condi tions that it would commence if an agreement was not reached before Sunday nights. “That type of vote is VERY serious and not something I, or any educator, goes into without much thought and without believ ing it is truly a last resort. Actually going through with the vote was scary, but also empowering for the majority of the rank-and-file mem bers of the MEA.” She elaborated that “It was scary because it’s such a big action, but empowering because we knew we were taking back the dignity and respect that had been taken from us in the workplace. We also knew we were fighting for the schools our students deserve--we know that our students deserve the very best when it comes to their education and our schools.”

“From there, I went to 5 of our 7 schools to be on the picket line with my union family…The MEA Coalition Bargaining Team and I assembled a Contract Action Team to get out into the schools and have conversations with the rank-andfile members of the MEA to listen to their concerns and find out what types of actions they wanted to take as a union.” She joked that she “also did more media interviews than I can even remember.”

Following that, “We found out in the early afternoon that the School Committee was willing to begin bargaining again. We went to part of the rally and then into City Hall for bargaining--I believe we were there until at least 9:00pm.”

That bargaining session was a success, and the School Committee and MEA reached a tentative agree ment, which was voted into action on Oct. 20th. School resumed on Tuesday.

Gesualdo concluded that “Tak ing such a big action is very serious and not something anyone wants to do. I sincerely hope we never feel like we are at the point of having to take a last resort action again.”

Malden High Class of ‘23 seniors Allison Yu holding a sign (left) and Andrew Landaverde Lemus (right) both standing outside city hall, supporting teachers in the rain. ZHI ZHU

A Malden High School teacher with a megaphone leading a picket line outside of the school on Salem Street. ZHI ZHU

Teachers forming a picket line outside of Malden High School. ZHI ZHU

Malden Teachers Hold Rally, Win Contract

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

Mack Keating Lead Reporter Jessica Li Lead Reporter Dani Licona-Cruz Lead Reporter

After numerous attempts to build new working teachers contracts , a new way the MEA tried to garner attention to the cause was a rally at City Hall. On Oct. 15th at 4pm the teachers and staff united to yell their displeasure. With families, students, and other staff watching, the MEA and special presences gave speeches for the cause.

From 4-4:30, staff gathered and collected attention from pedestrians and cars. With horns blaring and pedestrians cheering in support, the MEA rally leaders set up the loud speakers and passed out signs and posters.

The speeches went on for just around an hour, starting at 4:30. With Jessica Gold Boots introduc ing the speakers, Malden educators, staff, and even the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association (MTA) Presi dent Max Page.

Page has been President of the MTA since May of this year, serving as Vice President previously since 2018. “My goals are whatever the members want, but they’re fighting for fair pay, especially for educa tion support paraprofessionals, but they’re also fighting for things like preventing evictions in the city. So there’s a broad range of things they’re trying to win.”

Ms. Gold Boots holds several important positions: Vice President of the MEA, Bargaining Team mem ber, and English Learner Instruc tional Coach. In terms of contracts, she contextualized that, “Anyone working in the Malden Public Schools, who is in a teaching role, a coach role and the assistant prin cipal role library roles… anyone in those roles, a school psychologist, paraprofessional. We are currently working without a contract as our contract expired on August 31.”

“I think it’s a way to rectify this would be simple. It would be to come to the bargaining table. in good faith and with comments on proposals,” she commented. “We understand that there are going to be issues in which the school commit tee mayor and Superintendent may not always see eye to eye with the balm Education Association. How ever, negotiation requires dialogue and that dialogue has been non exis tent. We often come to the table with pages and pages of proposals often sending those proposals in advance so that we can get responses in ad

vance. And often when we show up it is very clear that the other side so to speak is unprepared, often not speaking at all and so I do strongly believe that we can work together. But in order for that to happen, we need to actually be speaking to each other. And so we do have bargain ing [10/16/22] at 9am.”

Paraprofessional and SSC di rector Kayla Morello followed the statement: “I think that my unit does great work in the buildings and we deserve to make a living wage be cause we do not make a living wage in the district. And I think that the students of this district deserve bet ter they deserve teachers who are heard and understood.” Paraprofes sionals make the lowest wage in the district, at poverty wages. Most of these teachers end up working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet.

MHS teacher Rebecca Griffin added that “As an educator, I’m extremely passionate about what I do. And I am incredibly anxious to be back in the classroom with my students in the best possible condi tions to do the incredible work that we do together.”

Colleen Ryan, Kindergarten to fourth grade Phys. Ed. teacher

Citizens hold sign in support of Malden educators. DANI LICONA-CRUZ

at Ferryway, added her own twocents. As a teacher of 17 years, she mentioned, “After the superinten dent fired about over 100 teachers, you’re operating with no contract,

worst pay work… you have less job security. It’s got to be really demor alizing, to say the least.”

The crowd in intense engagement at the rally. JESSICA LI

The crowd at the rally shouts in support. JESSICA LI

Community member delivering a speech. DANI LICONACRUZ

The Malden Teen Enrichment Center

Hadjar Yousfi Head of Local

When it comes to the Malden Teen Enrichment Center (MTEC), it seems as though every one at Malden High knows about it. But do you truly know what they are all about? And just how much do they have to offer to the youth of Malden? The MTEC was officially started way back on December 12th, 2012. In fact, this December, the MTEC celebrates its ten-year an niversary. They plan to celebrate by hosting a huge party and fundraiser.

But how did MTEC get to be ten years old? Well it all started in 2011, when a shooting occurred in Malden, shaking up the population. After that happened “a group of us got together, just people that just love the city of Malden and love the kids,” Cathy MacMillan, Head Co ordinator of the MTEC explained.

This group of concerned adults worked hard to host their very first teen night at the YMCA. On just the first night they had over 120 kids and with each night hosted, the numbers just continued to grow.

As numbers began to grow, and times continued to change, Mayor Gary Christenson was elected. When he was finally in office, MacMillan explained that, “Greg Lucey [mem ber of the City Council] brought it to the Council. The mayor approved [the start of this program], but it still had to get by the city council.”

Many people supported this new program and with votes being close, Steve Ultrino, a State rep resentative who at the time was a member of the City Council, ended up being the last vote needed. Peo ple like Mayor Christenson, Lucey, and Ultrino helped to build up the program with their support, and encouragement.

MacMillan explained that Mayor Christenson had been with them since the beginning because “he believes in us, and he believes in all the kids.”

“And this has just grown to be something that is just wonderful,” MacMillan said, reminiscing on the beginning of the program.

Over the past few years, MTEC has bounced around from building to building, but they finally seemed to have found the best one for them. The center is currently located at 7 Washington St. Malden and is open to all high school-aged students who live in Malden or go to school in Malden.

“We have the location that is essentially right up the street,” Jay Ortiz, Youth Leader, explained. He thinks that this is extremely helpful as it allows students a fun place to go directly after school with little travel time.

The doors open at 2:30, roughly 15 minutes after classes at the high school end. Currently, students sit

in the cafeteria where “we always have food, already set up for the kids,” Ortiz explained. “They then have about an hour to have some free food.”

During this time the Youth Leaders are setting up the equip ment for the students to use, since during the morning, 7 Washington Street is also known as the senior center. They set up various things such as the pool table, ping pong tables, their Playstation 4, Xbox 1, and many other things for the stu dents to use in the hours to come.

Around 3:30 the rest of the building is finally opened up to the students. This allows them access to a huge and wonderfully stocked building. There are many things to do such as playing ping pong, pool, badminton, maybe using the Xbox, Playstation, or piano. Maybe you’d like to bring in a group and play dodgeball. You could also find a place to study or just chat with friends.

Jake Mullin-Bernstein, Ac tivities Director explained that “we have the library, so if they need a quiet place to do homework,” students have the ability to just sit in there, study, chat, read, or play a board game.

There is almost no limit to the things that you can do at the MTEC. Students get access to all this for no fee, but they do need to register, as a safety precaution, and for statisti cal purposes. However, there is no commitment if you don’t want to go back you don’t want to. After reg istering, your membership will be active until you graduate from high school.

Essentially MTEC is a “free safe space for high school-aged students who either live in Malden or go to school in Malden,” according to Sheena Lapia-Pappas another Youth Leader.

Overall MTEC is pretty laid back “we are like a drop-in center, in the sense that we’re open every day after school for them, but we also have the more structured programs,” Mullin-Bernstein explained, so then

what sort of structured things hap pened at MTEC?

At MTEC, students also have access to different activities, such as the Fine Arts Club, cooking classes, camping trips, skiing trips, trips to DC, snowshoeing, kayaking, canoe ing, and helping out at the Com munity Garden. They also hope to bring back their Friday movie nights and are slowly hosting more tourna ments every one to two weeks for games such as badminton, or ping pong.

Students have access to these and many other incredible activities at MTEC. These activities are as ex pected quite expensive. MacMillan touched up on this topic, stating, “I think people think that we get all our money from the city-- and we don’t.”

Lapia-Pappas explained “we’re a nonprofit, we do not take money for anything that we do, any of our services. It is all funded through grants and donations.”

This program is also funded a lot by the many partnerships MTEC has. The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), the Bread of Life, and Summer Search are just a few of the

organizations that support MTEC in their efforts to support the youth.

Because of all the support they’ve had recently, MTEC hasn’t had a fundraiser in quite a while. So they hope to host one alongside their anniversary party this Decem ber. MacMillan explained that dur ing the fundraiser they would raffle off programs. So for example, if there was a camping trip “you could sponsor someone for 30$ and that pays for them to go camping for the whole weekend.”

December, however, is quite a while away, and as of right now things are quite calm at the MTEC. Many new youth workers employed through the Mayor’s Youth Employ ment Program (MYEP), have finally started working at the MTEC. In fact, Lapia-Pappus confessed, “I started working here as a youth worker, through the Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program.” She loved the job so much as a teen, and even now because of the various skills it taught her.

But of course, no matter the time of year, and how calm every thing is behind the scenes, things are always busy and plans are always in progress. Because, “the population is always changing and social norms are always changing, so the things that people like vary from year to year,” as Lapia-Pappas explained.

MacMillan illustrated the idea of a program that is currently being discussed and has not been started just yet. “We’re talking about start ing a women’s program and talking about women’s issues, and women’s books. There’s a book out now that is called Electable [by Ali Vitali], and it has everything to do with why there isn’t and when there is going to be a woman president.”

But that’s not all! MacMillan hopes to bring in different domes tic violence survivors to talk about not only “how they struggled, but

Continued on page 14

Sophomore students Raine Gatrey, and Leo De Souza playing a board game in the MTEC Library. HADJAR YOUSFI

Left to right: Hala and Shahd Abdulghani, Alex Moco. HADJAR YOUSFI

Class of 24' T-Shirt Design Contest

Hadjar Yousfi Head of Local

This year, the class of 2024 is try ing to bump school spirit up a level by hosting a t-shirt designing contest. All class of 2024 students were given the chance to send in their design ideas via Google Form, up until Friday the 23rd. By the time submissions closed, quite a few people submitted their designs to later be voted on.

Hosting this contest was some thing the class of 2024 council, felt they had to do. One of the class Ad visors, Shannon Votaw, explained that they “just really wanted to get a great diversity of input.” Votaw elaborated on this, explaining that they felt including the class in this design process and decision would be a great way to include the class in decisions that may affect them.

Votaw explained that they figured if they hosted a contest, they could add a fun twist to just having students vote on the Council’s de signs.

According to Votaw, they also “figured it’d be a good way to unify the class.” Makeila Scott, the Vice President of the Student Council, explained that they felt hosting this would be a “fun way to amp up school spirit,” and engage the atten tion of the class early on.

The shirts the class of 2024 have are the shirt that were made for them in freshman year. So the council is currently working hard to make sure our new shirts are avail able before the pep rally in Novem ber.

The contest was announced on their Instagram page @maldenco24, at least 10 days before submissions closed, while more information was put on their Google Classroom. The Google Form was also linked there

mHS sprouts Gardening Club

Kesta Fang Reporter

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

With a great start to the year after a productive summer, the Gardening Club is back in town to bring greenery to the high school and its students. Over the break, students of the Gardening Club held several activities ranging from giving out and selling their stock, to working with the city, to being studied by Tufts, all while making a fair wage.

“Tufts University worked with us… There was a graduate student named Yume Menghe Xu: She ran the garden kids over the summer, so she was in charge of the kids and meeting with them. [The students] wrote a journal about what they were doing in the garden, since they planted the vegetables, and they built some supports to hold up some of the vegetables. They repaired the [plant] beds because when they built the beds some of them were breaking down, so they had to repair them and they really just watched the plants to see what they needed,” said Ms. Maglio, one of the advisors.

Talking about the beginning of the collaboration with Tufts Uni versity, Xu, a PhD student in STEM Education at Tufts University, men tioned her advisor, Professor Brian Gravel: “[Gravel] has been working with… workshops for more than 10 years. And he has been work ing with [Ashley] Freeman to CO design the engineering curriculum of [a] modern high school. And at the end of last year, Ms. Freeman and Ms. Maglio reached out to us saying, ‘oh, we want to do some gardening related activities,’ so we

Yellow Marigolds thrive in one of the many planters built by the Garden Club. ZACHARY NEDELL started.” Tufts also funded materials they had before and over the sum mer. Xu expressed that these funds were from the Lego Foundation and the National Science Foundation. She continued saying, “both of them fund engineering, we fund educa tion research.”

Christopher Bazzinotti, the auto shop instructor, is responsible for the construction that helps plants grow. Bazzinotti wants plants to be self-sufficient through engineeringdesign. He added that while work ing with the 22 kids throughout the summer, “They all learned a little bit about construction, a little bit about green energy, [and] a little bit about

installation. We learned about wind farms and all kinds of different resources that were renewable ener gies.” Bazzinotti brainstorms with students in the club and practices the ideas in an attempt to turn them into reality. He goes on to explain the process by identifying what ma terials are needed, researching ways problems can be solved, planning, and then creating a draft to then test and make modifications. “We don’t just build it out of thin air and start with a problem,” he described.

As he mentioned the process of making the plants self-sufficient, Bazzinotti explained, “It’s all about green energy, trying to live off the grid and trying to sustain a lifestyle that [is] not polluting the atmo sphere and not creating any carbons or greenhouse gases.” He explained a project with the MassCEC (Massa chusets Clean Energy Center), that was given a grant of $250,000 from the state of Massachusetts to install solar energy in the Tiny House and give it clean energy.

Belen Quispe Almendro, one of the Gardening Club members who created the garden, is currently a junior student. Almendro talked about this friendly cooperation with Tufts, expressing the Tufts provid ing a lot of resources that the gar den needs, weather supplies, and Continued on page 10

for submissions.

The process could take a while, as first, the students of the class of 2024, were given the chance to vote for their favorite design over Google Forms starting Friday the 30th. Once the official decision has been made the Student Council will work on starting the production of these new

t-shirts.

But until the printing process has begun, there is no definite price set for the cost of each t-shirt, as each student will have to pay for a shirt. Except for the winning designer of the Design Contest, who will actu ally be given a free t-shirt!

As for now, the council is work

ing on other stuff, as the production of the t-shirts is still a work in prog ress. Scott encourages the class to “look forward to upcoming events,” as the Council has hosted a Commu nity Yard and Craft Sale on October 15th, they are bringing back Danc ing with the Teachers on November 3rd. Registrations are open .

Flyer for the Class of 24’ shirt design contest.

One of the Garden Club’s planters; this one is decorated by the class of 2024. ZACHARY NEDELL

mHS Gardening Club

money. Tufts has researched and taught the engineering process to the Gardening Club members. The members “spread it to the young preschoolers.”

Chris Giordano remembered some of the teachers were gather ing together in fall and considering offering gardening opportunities d started right around January, and has to grow plants inside, because of the season and weather. “We were growing plants just in water with nutrients,” he added. About the stu dents, he mentioned, “The students designed the raised beds, made “over the course of the weeks, we were able to bring some of the plants home as well. So I got a basil plant that they had started growing here in the garden that they then sold at their garden party.” Giordano still has a large flourishing basil plant at his home.

For the plan of this school year, Maglio mentioned, “We have devel oped a Garden Club to help with the garden, so the plan is to close down the garden as the weather gets cold er and we’re going to plant what’s called a cover crop. So it’s just some grass that will stay on the dirt in the garden beds in the boxes. And that’ll just protect the soil from erosion from getting blown away from the wind. And then in the winter that grass will die and then they’ll just lay there for the winter. And then in the spring, we’ll plant some new vegetable plants. But in the winter, we’ll start some seedlings. We’ll plant some seeds maybe in January. And we’ll have those seeds grow big enough so that by April or May, they’ll be big enough to bring out side to plant in the outside garden.”

Freeman, the engineering class teacher, wishes it to be a community space and said, “They’ve been work ing on making signs to welcome people to the space and making benches making pathways. So it’s a place that’s not just for the Garden

club, but it should be a community space for everybody to enjoy.” Julian Demora, one of the CO presidents on the board, has the same thought as Freeman and wishes people “Take what they need and what they want for their families or friends.”

Almendro is planning to re design the inside of the tiny house with junior Megan Le who was pre viously involved in this club, and still wants to do beneficial things for this club. “I have been participating lately in the garden events, such as community service and having our own little stand. And I have helped create. I haven’t gotten to create more like little merchandise to sell to the public and to help raise money for the garden.”

Sandra Tang, a junior and Social Media Coordinator for the Gardening Club, thinks gardening brought a really fun experience and it won’t be boring. Henry Zhao and Wilson Jiang, both seniors, think this is a good chance to enjoy nice green scenery, since people often live in a polluted environment. In this club, they could enjoy and get plants that they grow.

Malden High School Principal Christopher Mastrangelo expressed, “The Gardening Club really sprang up.”

Giordano encourages people who haven’t found anything that they are interested in for their FLEX to pick gardening and “see if it’s something that they would be inter ested in and find joy in.” Demora ex pressed, “We’re always looking for some new people to help volunteer; they don’t necessarily have to be in the club, but just to help out with watering and with anything that is.”

All members of the Gardening Club are very enthusiastic to every one, they wish there could be a place that makes people relax and social. Members working for their plans, for the goal to make the Gardening Club better.

Foodland Halal Market Opening

Chaimaa Assli Editor-In-Chief

FoodLand Halal Market, a grocery store, opened their fifth and largest location on Friday, October 7th in Malden. Food Land is also located in Cambridge, Burlington, Dorchester, and Lowell.

The first FoodLand branch was opened in 2006. Though their Cambridge location is their busiest store, it is not as big as the new Malden store.

The store contains various foods from many different countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Morocco, and Somalia.

Mahfuz Chowdhury, the manager of Food Land Halal Market, explained how their store is in a perfect location as it is close to the mosque which is convenient for him to go pray Friday prayers.

Chowdhury also expressed that “being located next to the mosque brings good business,” since many Muslims can come after prayer to his store for anything they may need. Although it is a bonus for the store, this was not a part of the original plan.

The plan for the store was to give people from different back grounds access to the foods they enjoy easily. “We just want to do something nice for people and provide Halal food since people are not able to get them in most places,” he explained.

Customer Ching Lee was so glad to have an international mar ket open near her. She was excited to try new food from different countries, such as Bangladesh and Morocco. Lee also likes the conve nience of the store being located near the Orange Line. She believes that it will attract more customers to the store.

Yamina Danoune attends the Malden Islamic Center regularly and expresses her love for the store. “I think it is very organized and eye-pleasing. Seeing all these goods makes me feel interested in the cultures they represent.”

She explains how the location of the store is more than perfect not only for her, but for her friends as well. “It will be fun to go to the halal store during Ramadan,” Danoune said, illustrating her excite ment.

Chowdhury said the store isn’t completed yet. He looks forward to hopefully expanding the menu for their restaurant located in the back of the market. Chowdhury also has high hopes for the store and believes it will have great business.

A sunflower planted in one of the Garden Club’s planters. ZACHARY NEDELL.

Outside of the new Halal Market. CHAIMAA ASSLI.

Words on the Water

Juliana Luong Editor-In-Chief Lily Nguyen Lead Reporter

Like most years, Malden Reads has picked their book of the year, An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo, the first Native American Poet Laureate in the Library of Congress.

“It ignited a sense of hope and unity that we could restore this river to its former glory,” said an anonymous volunteer, as they recalled the blessings put on the Malden River. Words on the Water was the result of a collaboration between Malden Reads and Project Misik.

The idea was created through a mutual desire to have an event at the Malden River, Malden Reads’ focused on the indigenous people of North America, while Project Misik is centered on the people of Africa.

For over one hundred years the Malden River was used as a dumping site for many chemicals and other pollutants by businesses, which made the water difficult to use for water activities.

Senior Katelin Dzuong who volunteers at Words on the Water stated, “you can see how dirty and devoid the river looks.” Luckily, in 2018, the city of Malden looked into the river with the help of the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) to assess the safety of the water. The city concluded that people were able to boat, kayak, etc. but swimming is still uncertain.

Words on the Water did not only hold Malden Reads and Project Misik but many other organizations as well as some small businesses came with tents and tables.

However, the main allurement was the special guests from both the Wampanoag and Nipmuc tribes. Guests enjoyed free canoeing, food, poetry, reading, music, performances, the works

of indigenous Wampanoag and African artisans, and more as they celebrated the river’s native spiritual and cultural significance.

With this, both artisans hosted a healing ceremony—a way to offer the river a traditional blessing and “take care of the resource we have,” shared Marsha Manong, a member of Malden Reads.

The events not only highlighted the importance of the Malden River, but of preserving native lands. “Their land has been wounded; if the current climate isn’t enough to warn us to take care of our land, we are not going to have it,” Manong affirmed.

Overall, Malden Reads’ Words on the Water event proved success ful in uniting the local community for a day of celebration and liveli ness by the Malden River.

The Earth Echo International table. JULIANA LUONG

Citizens canoed around the Malden River. JULIANA LUONG

Malden High School Garden Club selling lemonade. JULIANA LUONG

The Enchanted Magnolia clothing accessories, and gifts table JULIANA LUONG

Malden High Hosts First Ever Homecoming Week

Mack Keating Lead Reporter Ryan Coggswell Reporter

Malden High School’s Class of 2025 recently hosted a home coming for the first time in the school’s history. The class officers set a theme for each day of the week with matching fundraisers and clothing challenges. The week cul minated with a homecoming dance on Friday, October 7th.

The first day of the homecom ing week was Flannel Day on Mon day, October 3rd. Class Advisor Le anne DeRosa encouraged students to put on their “favorite fall flannel for maximum comfort and spirit.” Before the school day began, the council raised money by selling fall treats including caramel apples and apple cider.

The next day was Charac ter Day: students dressed up in costumes of their favorite enter tainment icons. A large variety of costumes were worn, ranging from Daphne and Velma to Stitch to Ted.

On their way out, ramen was avail able to students for just $2.

Wednesday was Blackout Day. This day had the largest turnout of participants, with the hallways flooded with people dressed in black. Chocolate and chocolate products were available for pur chase at the Blackout Bake Sale after school. It was so popular that it sold out after ten minutes.

The penultimate day of the week, Thursday, was Blue and Gold Day. DeRosa told students to show “school spirit with all blue and gold or Golden Tornado gear!” Pompoms, hats, and scarves were sold during the school day in prepara tion for the evening’s football game between the Golden Tornados and Lynn Classical Rams. A tailgate was

hosted for two hours before the game started and offered hotdogs, hamburgers, and soda. Students were provided tickets to the game, which Malden lost 22-6, in addition to their tailgate ticket.

Finally, Art Day came around on Friday. As the name suggests, there were endless possibilities for students to express their creativity. Some dressed up as their favorite artists, while others showed off their makeup skills. As it was an early release day, students left the build ing at 11:00 to prepare for the dance later that night.

Class President, Lovely Anne Gerochi, explained that the council put a good amount of effort into deciding on themes for each day, even polling the students about the process. She emphasized the goal of making the themes acces sible so people can “participate without having to go out and buy new things every day.” Although the group tried their best to include student input on the themes, they

still met some backlash. “People did disagree with some ideas, but we also had people agree with our deci sions,” she noted.

DeRosa supported the council’s strategy. “The officers did a great job of picking themes that most of the student body could participate in rather than specific themes that specific students wanted.” She said that the overall goal was to allow everyone to “celebrate the spirit of the blue and gold and Golden Tor nadoes throughout the week.”

Malden High School Principal Christopher Mastrangelo described the week as, simply put, “awesome.” While he expressed concern about drama relating to homecoming court campaigning, he was pleased by the event. “We have never had anything like it,” he mentioned. “It will pump some school spirit back into this building.”

With exciting new ideas com ing to the school, the Class of 2025 is ready to find success in the new school year.

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Tuesday-

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Ending Homecoming Week with A Starry Night

Kaoutar Wakaf Editor-In-Chief of Web & Mobile

Thursday- Blue and Gold Day

Homecoming is something a lot of teenagers look forward to. It’s something we’ve always seen in movies. Malden High School celebrated its first homecoming this year, which was organized by the class of 2025.

According to the class of ‘25 vice president, Huong Ly, “we wanted to start a new tradition at our school where students could get involved. The idea of homecoming always piqued our interest but our school didn’t have a homecom ing like many other schools, so we wanted to bring homecoming to reality.”

President of the class of ‘25 Lovely Anne Gerochi, added, “we came up with many themes for homecoming. Our original theme was going to be wonderland. When we were brainstorming homecom ing themes, Huong was the one who suggested ‘starry night’ and after lis tening to our peers’ opinions about their thoughts on wonderland, we decided to change homecoming’s theme to starry night.”

Zineb Laghzaoui, a junior, stat ed that making homecoming a part of Malden High School’s tradition would be a great idea, especially because “our school doesn’t really have school dances apart from the senior prom.”

Ly reported that there were some difficulties leading up to homecoming. The council needed to find a way to please everyone but in a realistic manner and with the budget they had. “As I said, this was our first-ever homecoming at Malden High School. We knew the dance was not going to be like those we saw in Disney shows or Netflix movies. A lot of people weren’t pleased with the homecoming dance set in the courtyard but we had to work with the budget we had. We had to come up with ideas that our peers would enjoy while also being accessible to everyone!”

Freshman Omar Chouiki, ex pressed that he looked forward to having homecoming again because it was a “fun time for everyone.”

Friday- Artist Day

An Inside Look Into The Malden Teen Enrichment Center

resources they need.

where they are today. Which is a success story!”

Things such as the topics above, and other mental health-related top ics, are important to talk about in this day and age, because as Mac Millan expressed, “when we think of first aid we think of a bandaid, and when it’s mental health you can’t put a bandaid on it.” Hence, she wants to make sure teens at the center are given the support and

Mentorship is also an impor tant aspect offered at MTEC “Not a lot of kids have that kind of mentor ship that I think they deserve,” Ortiz explained. He hopes that he and the other leaders are able to offer that to the teens, and give them the support they need.

MacMillan feels passionate that students should stop by, “...come! It’s yours, MTEC is your building, from the 9th grade to the 12th grade,

it’s your building, you make it what you want. As long as you respect this building and respect each other, this is yours, and that’s what the mayor wanted it to be, that’s what we wanted it to be.”

And so do the other MTEC Youth Leaders, Mullin-Bernstein ex plained that MTEC is a good place to go “...just to have a place to go after school, where you know you’re gonna support, whether that’s with school work. Or mental health, any

issues that you’re having. And you know having people that you can talk to and seek counseling from. And just be able to hang out with your friends in a safe place, and build a network.”

MTEC has been around for a long time, and since the very begin ning it has done a huge deal for teen agers around Malden. It really has “grown to be something that is just wonderful,” MacMillan described.

The Pool Table located in the auditorium of the MTEC. HADJAR YOUSFI.

A beautiful seating area inside of the MTEC building. HADJAR YOUSFI.

State Primaries

Zhi Zhu Reporter

Gabriel Fesehaie Head Copy-Editor

On September 6th, 2022, Tuesday morning, voters walked into voting locations and saw the imple mentation of new voting machines amidst changes in precincts in the City of Malden. Walking into new polling locations for the first time, voters saw the use of new technolo gies and utilizing new strategies for voting during the state primaries, this election was dramatically dif ferent from previous elections. The City of Malden implemented many new technologies and tools to make voting more accessible and easier for voters.

Voters began to trickle into polling locations across the city at 7:00 AM. Throughout the day, there were not many incidents regarding the new change in precincts. Some voters did get confused, unaware of, where their new precincts were. Sheena Lapia-Pappas, a warden sta tioned at the Salemwood School for wards 5-1 and 7-1, claimed that “the hardest part about the new precincts was having everyone find exactly where they need to go.” In the case of voters, it was that it “caused a lot of confusion, and I know [that] a lot of people, especially after work, are rushing to get to the polls to get their vote in on time,” she said.

The City of Malden tried to give out as much information about the change as possible, as City Clerk Greg Lucey explained in a city coun cil meeting on September 20th: “We try to [use] every opportunity we get, we like to promote elections, tell people [to] get information out there so it’s less confusing that day.” Moreover, he said that the Septem ber primary was “unique” as it went up from 16 precincts to 27 — almost double. Although some voters were confused on where they needed to go, many voters had not been changed to different precinct loca tions. Assistant Registrar of Voters, Assistant City Clerk Carol Ann De siderio says in the meeting that they did a census mailing to every house hold where voters got a “tear-off” portion and “told you exactly why your polling location was changing, [and] where your new [voting] loca tion was.” Unfortunately, though it was a good idea, they got many census forms back where the notes were still attached to the bottom of the form. She also stated that this “was a huge year of transition for us, in addition to our polling places being different.”

Voters who consistently voted each election noticed changes with the new usage of technology in the voting locations they have been going to for years. Many dedicated voters noticed a change in voting

Malden High School Speech and Debate Club

Lily Nguyen Lead Reporter Emanuelle Oliveira Reporter

The Speech and Debate club has been thriving at Malden High School for seven years now under the wing of advisor Kurtis Scheer. Beginning this school year, both returning and new members highly anticipate the new debate season to be filled with competition, argu mentation, dramatic performance and, as Scheer put it, “a lot of fun.”

Meetings are held every Tues day in classroom H408. Usually, they consist of preparation for up coming tournaments and in-class mock tournaments where all club members are encouraged to partici

pate.

So far, the club experienced good attendance in this year’s first meetings with 15-25 members of which many were fresh faces. Among them was sophomore So phie LeBlanc, who signed up for the club through the activities fair seek ing to improve her “public speaking, [which is a] really good skill to have that can transfer into academics.”

LeBlanc also believes that “go ing to tournaments is a big network opportunity as you get to meet all these different people from all these different high schools in Massachu setts [as well as] get to know other people with similar interests and maybe make some friends.”

Junior Alejandra Fernandez joined this year to also improve her public speaking skills, and her

English speaking fluency. She found Speech and Debate to be “the closest thing to Model UN as a club” and, similar to LeBlanc, is enthusiastic about partaking in future debate tournaments and reaching out to other fellow debaters.

Senior Michelle Dang con firmed these experiences from her four years in the Speech and Debate Club: “More than anything, I wish for our new team members to expe rience the same joy and belonging I experienced at my first tourna ments,” she said.

Now in her second year as vice president, “I want to actively culti vate the future of the team and con tribute back to the community that had changed my life in freshman year by assuming [this role],” Dang

Continued on page 16

machines, many liked how they got a checkmark when they put in their ballot. Lapia-Pappas says that “it was very helpful, and they enjoyed it.”

Feedback from new ballot box es was not the only thing that was new. The use of the new handheld electronic translator called “PocketTalk” was available to translate information into multiple languages with the push of a button. The Pocket-Talk was accessible at every precinct and was used “specifically as a backup to those precincts that didn’t have bilingual poll workers

that could help,” noted Desiderio. The city made great efforts in at tempting to recruit bilingual poll workers. “We had 17 bilingual poll workers or interpreters, 14 of them spoke Cantonese/Mandarin, a com bination of both,” stated Lucey.

Speaking of poll workers, De siderio added “we did three train ings alone just on the new voting machines and how they work.” The city was stuck in a hard place while trying to come up with new recruits, and Desiderio elaborated, “...our goal was to get at least 66 new poll workers, we came close, we didn’t

meet that goal, but we’re not giving up.” Lucey said, “[We] can’t stress how much more effort it takes and more challenging it is, [to have] 11 different additional precincts.”

For the November election, the city is going to be conducting many improvements and will have a “big push for new poll workers” , and will “continue to tweak and perfect everything that we did for September moving into November,” as Desiderio noted. “We did pretty well considering all the new things that we were juggling, we kept the balls in the air,” she said.

A staff member purchases a cookie to support the Speech and Debate Club bake sale. LILY NGUYEN

Continued from page 8 shared, who is now in her second year as vice president.

With both new and returning members in mind, Scheer found it “really great how it grew from two students and one advisor whom they approached seven years ago into this amazing team.”

Dang echoed his sentiment, expressing that “the new members’ high passion and energy is what sets this group apart from previous years.”

As both Scheer and club president Saura Rathore want such growth to persist throughout the school year, gaining recruitments remains on top of their agenda. “We want to attract new members that are interested in improving their debate, public speaking skills and competitive acting skills, and maybe want to find a club that speaks to them that differs from some of the other ones. The atmosphere we offer here is more like a team rather than a regular club, so it’s for those who have a good feel for that,” Scheer explained.

Rathore was among the many members throughout the years intrigued by what the club offered. “Ever since I was young—five, six years old—both of my parents were into public speaking and encouraged me to . . . speak at school events,” she shared. She knew from there she wanted to continue pursuing speech and debate in high school.

Now a senior, marking this year as her fourth in doing speech and debate and her second as the club’s president, she plans to pursue her goals and tackle any obstacles that entail her leadership.

Scheer emphasized one chal

lenge regarding competition in debate tournaments: “Some of the schools we compete against have speech and debate as a class. While our team just meets one Tuesday a week and maybe a Flex block, these other schools practice speech and debate all week in class like they would math in math class.”

With this in mind, one of Ra thore’s ambitions for the year is to form the club into “an actual class” in order to facilitate participation in speech and debate for students with other after-school commitments.

Rathore understood that it was “hard to get back into the groove of speech and debate again,” espe cially with repercussions from the pandemic and a lack of funding in the previous year. Yet still, Scheer felt that “this hasn’t seemed to stop us here as well. We only keep push ing forward.”

Such determination had worked well in their favor, as Speech and Debate members “over the years placed in the top five of the state for poetry reading, group discussion, declamation, and original oratory,” stated Scheer. “At the end of the sea son, we go and compete in the state finals where everybody throughout the year gets either first, second, or third place in any competition. Our students all get together there and compete for the best of the best.”

As the competitions advance in rank, Scheer explained that “more and more people can come watch each different round. But for the most part, it’s mostly the competi tors and judges who see what’s go ing on; it’s not like in the movies with an auditorium full of hundreds of people--that happens at the state finals!”

Now with the new school year ahead, the Speech and Debate club is already in preparation for an upcoming tournament.

On October 22nd, there will be a classroom novice tourna ment “where students who have never competed in debate but want to give it a shot can sign up for this competi tion and experi ence what it’s like in the main tournaments.”

Instead of rank ings, debaters will receive “encourag ing comments back on what they can do to improve their debate.”

Ulti mately, the club appears to be quickly recov ering well from past difficulties and will only continue to grow.

Students and staff were also able to enjoy a treat while support ing the Speech and Debate club. Recently, a bake sale fundraiser was held after school where club members sold LeBlanc’s homemade snickerdoodle cookies along with

other sweets from twenty five cents to a dollar each. With this fundrais er’s major success, club members ensure there will be more--keep a lookout on them!

Orange Line Shut Down

Nathan Dean Managing Editor

Edmund Kam Reporter

For over a month, from August 19th through September 19th, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) decided to shut down the Orange Line for needed repairs and upgrades. Officials from the MBTA stated that this would af fect nearly 100,000 daily commuters who depended on the service to get to school, work, and carry out their everyday lives.

Orange Line user and Malden High School alumnus Brandon Wong said of the shutdown, “If I’m being completely honest, if they had been keeping up with maintenance to begin with, this shouldn’t have happened at all.”

The shutdown occurred after numerous incidents involving the service. Before the shutdown, on July 21st, 2022, one of the trains caught fire on a bridge over the Mystic River. That incident was just

one of many issues that led to the Orange Line shutdown.

Some weeks before the closure of the Orange Line, on July 28th, the Federal Transit Authority issued a memorandum to the MBTA requir ing them to conduct “an immediate safety shutdown.” Starting effec tively on July 30th at 12:01 am, the MBTA shall abide by this order due to them failing to follow a previous order issued last month calling for them to de-escalate the situation of disabled trains “rolling out of control.” As a result, workers must attend a safety briefing before being allowed to operate disabled transit vehicles, including trains at work shops and maintenance yards.

Incidents of these “rollaway ac cidents” have occurred three times since May of 2022, including a train with faulty brakes rolling out of the maintenance yard onto the active tracks of the Red Line.

During the shutdown, the MBTA is said to have completed five years’ worth of work. They replaced thousands of rail ties, thousands of feet of rail and added newer trains

to their existing fleet.

One plan regarding alternative methods of transportation while the Orange Line trains were out of service included shuttle buses at no cost. The MBTA Board of Directors announced they had given a $37 million contract to Yankee Line, Inc for the operation of the shuttle bus service. Additionally, the Commuter Rail implemented a new permanent stop at Oak Grove Station. For the commuter rail, passengers could present their CharlieCard or Char lieTicket to access the platform.

The shuttle buses were ac cessible at every Orange Line sta tion, except Tufts Medical Center, Chinatown, Downtown Crossing, and State. Commuters would have to utilize the Green Line or walk to their destination for those stops.

Johnny Emmanuel, a senior from Malden High School, used the Orange Line almost every day to at tend his track practice near Harvard Square. He said, “I did not mind the shutdown. I enjoyed the shuttle bus. It [was] faster for me.” Emmanuel also mentioned that he had to pay

after the shuttle bus to transfer to the Green Line to get him to his fi nal destination, which he disliked. Overall, he considered the alterna tive methods provided by the MBTA efficient.

As another regular Orange Line user, Wong echoed Emman uel’s statement, stating that “the shuttle buses worked great. I think they were more efficient when there wasn’t traffic than just using the train. . . I wouldn’t have to wait that long. I remember sometimes I would wait for 30 minutes just for the next train to arrive whereas the shuttle buses I would only have to wait for five minutes for them to arrive.”

However, Wong did not be lieve the MBTA handled the situ ation perfectly. He added, “I wish they gave a bigger heads up [before the shutdown],” and that for the stops without shuttle buses, “more clear directions could have been put in place by the MBTA. The MBTA didn’t really help [the people get around]. It was basically left for the communities to figure [things] out.”

Junior Makeila Scott smiling for a photo during the Speech and Debate club bake sale. LILY NGUYEN

Malden High School Principal Chris Mastrangelo comes to sup port the Speech and Debate club bake sale. LILY NGUYEN

Class Of 2023 First Car Wash

Jessica Li Lead Reporter

Hajar Azegza Reporter

Following an energetic conces sion stand that nearly sold out at a football game the day prior, the Class of 2023 would host yet an other fruitful fundraiser to kickstart the new school year. This particular event featured soap, water, and sponges.

After a great success last year, the Class of ‘23 car wash made a comeback, taking place on Septem ber 17th.

President Kyle Lee mentioned that over $400 was raised in Octo ber of 2021, when the class had last cleaned cars: “For a carwash? It’s pretty good. If we keep doing car washes, we’ll do good.”

And so, that is precisely what members of the council and senior volunteers found themselves do ing on a Saturday morning as they worked to fund upcoming senior events.

The class advisor, Michael Lightbody, who brought up the plan last June, explained, “We thought with the momentum of doing the concession stand, the next morning would be the perfect time.”

“These are the kind of fun events. Sometimes it’s about raising a little money but at the same time, you know, getting people together,” he described.

Ryan Li, among the partici pants, explained the apparent or ganization of the event in terms of jobs: “Essentially, we decided that roles don’t exist, so people just did whatever they could. I switched between rinsing the cars to cleaning the cars, then rinsing, and all over the place.”

He concluded that the event proved successful having attained about $300. “It’s usually one of the more profitable events that we have,” Li commented.

He continued, “My favorite aspect is probably the camaraderie, or the bonding, that we have, espe cially with this class, it’s more small groups,” so “you get to really see the same people who are going to put in the work” and “put in the effort to ensure that our prom is going to be better than we did last year.”

With a number of cars and even fire trucks contributing to the car wash, council members, volunteers, and teachers alike agreed upon the success of the event, with regard to both accumulated money and team bonding.

Michelle Dang, another volun teer at the event, had returned to the annual car wash this year. She noted, “I definitely think this was a success after the police men and the firemen came through with their trucks and their money and [it really helped] getting the citizens’ attention. Get ting tips from them for doing a good

job [was nice]. I think this was pretty much a success, especially for it be ing so early, and [also] starting right before rush hour.”

“With the help of the mayor in bringing down some of the police and the firemen, I think we were able to achieve our goal,” empha sized Lightbody.

This goal--primarily to cheap en the cost and ensure the collective enjoyment of prom--was fulfilled in the eyes of Isabella Ivy, secretary of the Class of ‘23. “It’s going to help and pay for our prom because we already chose our location. Now, we’re trying to get money to pay for food, drinks, decorations, and the downpayment and all that and we also probably will if we need to use it for other activities that we’re mak ing for seniors this year.”

Lee explained that $10k more would have to be raised for the “venue we just chose,” The Danver sport Yacht Club.

Lightbody remarked that the place “checks the boxes on the list: it’s a nice, open venue; there’s ac cess, so folks can hang outside on the deck; and, there’s a beautiful ga zebo and grass to take pictures with a water background.”

He added that the proximity is close enough for seniors to enjoy themselves on the red carpet and not have to rush to get to the prom venue on time. Describing the pro cess of selecting a venue in greater detail, he stated, “We looked at a dozen or so places and some of them just weren’t big enough and others were just too difficult to get to and there was a couple that I looked at in town, and they were booked.”

Treasurer Allison Yu communi cated that while they have their ven ue, features like the DJ and food are still being decided on. Prom tickets are looking “to be around $80 or $90,

so it’s not that bad,” she mentioned. Educator James Valente was also a volunteer for the car wash. On top of feeling obliged to Light body who had helped him when he was the class of 98’s advisor, Valente helped out due to his familiarity with students from the Class of ‘23. “I’ve had them in classes and they’re just probably one of the best bunch of kids I’ve ever met. So I really want to be helpful when I can when they do anything.”

In regard to the event, he re flected, “Any time you can get a group of kids to come out on a Sat urday morning after they’ve had a week of school, they’ve had games, they’ve had club meetings, a football game last night where we worked a concession stand and many of them were there for that as well--I think any time you get kids to come out,

and then you can earn whatever money. I mean, $5 is better than no dollars. But, whether you make it $5, $500, whatever it is, it helps.”

“We’ve gone through some tough trying times here in Malden, as well as all the high schools have with COVID, to see the Class of 2020 not have a prom, to see the Class of 2021 say, ‘Hey, we’re having one’ and they did it in the gym and it was fantastic. And then last year, for a class to finally get back on their feet and have a prom, it was great because a lot of underclassmen were invited as guests--if not, dates--and they got to see what it’s really like to be part of something big which they haven’t yet got to see. So, now they know what that is. And they were anticipating it. And I think that, to be honest with you,” what the Class

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Senior Michelle Dang washing a car. JESSICA LI

Seniors

Allison Yu and Sarah Diamond washing a car.

Local

Continued from page 17

of ‘23 knows “is that they can make it bigger and better and they will. So, I am looking forward to it,” Valente continued.

He concluded, “We really ap preciate anyone who supports the Class of 2023. It’s been tough; classes trying to raise money coming out of COVID are finding it difficult. But we have a really good network here of kids; we have a really good net work of staff, faculty; we’ve got ex cellent parent and guardian groups.

They come out to support us, and that’s just what we want.”

Lightbody added, “I really ap preciate leading the class of 2023 as the advisor with that loss of about a year and a half due to COVID. The students really have worked hard to make our fundraisers and activities a success. So, all the credit has to go to them.”

Finally, volunteer Sara Dia mond highlighted a message to the senior class: “Prom doesn’t just

magically happen. There are people who put work into it. And, we all rely on those people to do a good job. So if you want a good prom, one way that you can ensure that is to do it yourself to help yourself.”

This car wash will not be the last fundraising event Class Of 2023 has planned for the future. With football and volleyball season pass ing, the Class of ‘23 still plans to run concession stands during these games and are looking forward to the basketball season especially

since these concession stands seem to be a big hit.

The closest event coming up hosted by the Class of ‘23 will be the Krispy Kreme donut sale in October. This donut sale is just the start of endless fundraising events leading up to prom including a winter ball, Candy Grams, a popcorn fundrais er, dodgeball events, a powderpuff game, and even a few ice cream socials throughout the next few months.

Senior Ryan Li wiping down Malden police car. HAJAR AZEGZA

Class of 2023 officers and volunteers strike a pose with police chief and firefight ers. JESSICA LI

Food Land had many different types of fruit to choose from.

Food Land has a mini resteraunt in the back of the store.

CHAIMAA ASSLI

There is a variety of snacks from many different coutries

CHAIMAA ASSLI

Food Land has a lot of ramen flavors to choose from CHAIMAA ASSLI

Girls Volleyball Celebrates Victory Sending Them to States

Gabriela Parini Cordova Reporter

Emalie Teixeira Reporter

Delina Yohannes Reporter

Starting off strong and continuing to a 12-3 record, this year Malden High’s Girls Varsity Volleyball team has played a successful season filled with ups and downs. The team did not let the losses put them down as they learned and grew from them, building a stronger team.

The October 4th game against Stoneham was a big win for the Malden High Volleyball team and volleyball fans. The team is looking to carry good momentum into the Division 1 State Tourna ment, which they qualified for after beating Stoneham at Malden High School.

This game had many im pressive plays from the players and many thrilling moments. Shuyi Chen and Vivienne Crawford hit many spikes at the Stoneham team while Anna Yak and Alina Dao made many defensive blocks.

The crowd was ecstatic, screaming cheers of encouragement and support. The game ended with a 3-0 score which had the Malden High Volleyball team finally achieve their second goal of qualifying for the Division 1 State Tournament.

Every set was close but Mal den took the lead each time. The scoreboard went back and forth at the start of each set with Malden making amazing plays to get the upper hand from Stoneham.

Alina Dao scored the team many aces while Rachel Lin and Kelly Li had amazing dives across the court. The crowd stayed hopeful even when the scores became close the cheers of the crowd weren’t left unheard. They finished off the third set with a 25 to 15 score leading them to a successful and well deserved victory.

Rachel Lin said it was in timidating but this change made her a stronger person as well as a stronger player. The captains have gone through a lot this season but have come to adapt and love this year’s team. The other girls on the team have expressed that they have grown both athletically and person ally.

”It hasn’t always been per fect this year. We’ve had some ups and downs but for the most part I think the girls have kind of stepped up to the challenge even though we were very inexperienced,” Coach Daniel Jurkowski expressed.

The girls continue to thrive as they make it to states completing

their ultimate goal for the year. They all have different opinions of this season and different experiences throughout but went on and did the best they could making this an amazing season.

“I was nervous at first [about coaching volleyball] but it’s some thing that I’ve come to enjoy…it’s something that I look forward to

every single day so even if I have a bad day in school, I know having volleyball after school is gonna be something positive and brighten my day and I hope my kids feel the same way,” stated Coach Daniel Jurkowski.

Even when things were looking down, the girls stayed de termined, ”Never give up no matter

if you’re having a bad day or not,” stated Kim Nguyen. Through the mistakes and losses this season they shook it off and tried again in their next game.

“Each play is a new play, each set is a new set,” Coach Dan iel Jurkowski said encouraging his players to leave the past behind them.

Left to right: Jade Mora, Kim Nguyen, Ramneet Chahai, Alina Dao, Vivienne Crawford, Shuyi Chen, Abigail Lee, Loreus Victoria, Chloe Chen, Anna Yak, Keira Lin, Rachel Lin, Kelly Li, Yuki Yang, Taylor Lee. EMALIE TEIXEIRA.

Left to right: The team huddling together; Kim Nguyen setting the ball. EMALIE TEIXEIRA

Boys Varsity Soccer Season

Chouaib Saidi Reporter

Ace Showstead Reporter

Ada Zhang Reporter

Elijah Etienne Reporter

With States now officially out of reach, Malden High School’s Boys Varsity Soccer team is trying to find something positive about this season.

The season did not go as well as the team hoped. “There were a lot of close games that weren’t finished off; we won’t be making States this season, but hopefully next season we will do much better, and we’re working on what we can do right now for the future,” Donny Wright, captain of the varsity team, said.

Sandesh Ghimire, the only freshman on the varsity team, said he was disappointed because they “couldn’t make States.”

Chemistry is a vital part of any team and when asked about it, Wright said, “there are a lot of new players for the soccer team but since we have practiced everyday, [the] chemistry is not too bad, but at the beginning of the season, it obviously was, because we lost a lot of seniors, but we’re definitely working on that.” The team has changed a great deal since many players graduated or left last year.

“Whenever we play and I see that intensity from everyone, everyone really wants it. You get some type of passion for the game and you feel a connection throughout the team,” Wright continued.

This type of passion was on display at the game against Gloucester, which resulted in a 4-1 win on September 26th, 2022.

Samuel Pinto, the goalkeep er, feels more “hyped” and puts in more effort when the crowd cheers for him.

“When I’m trying to prepare for a game, when it’s an intense game… I have to be mentally focused, thinking about trying to do my best, not making mis takes… you’re going to end up giving the game away and I just try my best,” Pinto said.

Sandesh Ghimire feels that motivation to prepare for a game is important, “I have to train hard and show that I want to play.”

“I always feel like it’s necessary to [elevate the team] as a captain; it’s your job, that’s what you always have to do— you got to get to practice, you got to motivate them for the game, you got to embrace the hunger to win,” Wright said.

“What we really have to do is work harder” and “be more positive. We [have] to re ally put in the 80 minutes of the game. We [have] to keep play ing every second of the game and we can’t stop,” Wright said. Coach Smith hopes for his team to bring hard work and that they do not play only for victories.

Golf Season Comes to End

With a strong start to their sea son, the golf team has won several games and is showing great progress throughout the opening of their season. In one of the first matches of the season, a tri-match, they played against Everett and Medford. While Malden lost to Medford, they did end up beating Everett.

“We lost to Medford just by a little bit in both those matches. But I mean, we started strong, and we’re even with them for the record,” elaborated Saul Kruckenburg, cap tain of the golf team. “We’ve been spending our hours of practice well as we get down to business. So I think that if we just keep practicing then we’ll keep improving.”

Sophomore Christopher Mac donald and Freshman Billy Gavin agreed, saying that “We’re off to a

hot start. We’ve split almost every match that we’ve played.” Kruck enburg added to that saying, “it’s fun to get to hang out with the team. We have a lot of good people on the team and the coaches are great. So just any day that we get to go to

practice or having matches, it’s just exciting to get to go and hang out with the with the guys on the team.”

Kruckenburg continued, say ing “we have a good, focused team,

Team photo of the Malden Golf team. Photo submitted by Coach Malatesta.

Zachary Nedell Lead Reporter

Kesta Fang Reporter

Defender Donny Wright covering the attacker with pressure. CHOUAIB SAIDI

The team discussing ways to improve their gameplay in the second half. CHOUAIB SAIDI

Girls Varsity Soccer Season

Haset Tesfaw Reporter Beatriz Oliveira Reporter

Jenayah Moreno Reporter

Malden High School’s girls’ varsity soccer team started this season with a rough patch, but pulled through and started to improve their streak after playing against Chelsea at their September 28th game.

They were passionate and de termined as they stepped onto the field. The girls moved through the game with perseverance as the JV girls soccer team and fans cheered them on. Ultimately, they won the game 2-1.

Catherine Santos, the captain of the team explained that, “it’s been rough dealing with a bunch of hard seasons and some good seasons but also at the end of each season, it’s mostly the memories of the players and the actual games. So I think the thing that I cherish the most about the soccer team is the memories and being able to be in a fun environ ment.”

As the weeks went by, the girls’ varsity team practiced more and more to try and improve throughout this season.

On October 12th, the girls tied with East Boston. For a while, no scores were in sight, but eventually in the last half of the game Malden scored and finally tied with East Boston. After the game, the team still felt proud of their tie as the coach gave them a pep talk.

Alysaa Mini, a center back on the team, said “our coach is very encouraging. And he has really led the team in a really strong way. And he encourages us to be our best… and pushes us towards things that he notices that we do really well. He will always encourage that. He’ll make sure to encourage us when we are giving our all every single time.”

When Malden High first competed against East Boston on September 12th, they lost 7-4. Hence why the girls were so proud of themselves for being able to im prove to this level.

“I feel like today was our stron gest game that we’ve had all season. I think that we pushed to our fullest potential. I think that there’s always

we’re able to get down to business but we also have lots of fun with each other joking around and what ever.” Elaborating on the healthy relationship the team has, Dante Federico, a sophomore, added, “The mindset was there, the effort was and we were ready.”

Federico continued, saying, “What I like most about golf is even

room for improvement, but this game specifically, I felt the strength of all of the girls on the team and I felt like every single last one of them was giving everything that they had and they weren’t holding back their skill level. And I think that their skill levels have improved a lot over this whole season,” Mini said.

Junyu Wu, a new addition to the varsity team, explained that, “East Boston is a tough team, but we still managed to bring it to a tie.” She continued, “we worked our hardest, just to like keep the score from being 1-1, and not letting any goals in.”

The players have progressed over this season according to Mini, “I love the girls on my team. I know a lot of us have improved a lot over the season and they’re very en couraging. And every single game, they just give all of their effort. And they’re very hardworking, and they don’t give up.”

Even with their record being 4-10-1, the Girls Varsity Soccer team has made an impact this fall. They played Revere today, October 20th, at Pine Banks Field while also rep ping pink in support of Breast Can cer during this awareness month. They will then finish the season with games against Charlestown

though it’s somewhat solo, you still work together as a team because what you do on the course can make up for somebody else’s actions. Like, alright, you gained a stroke, somebody else can make up [for] that and then by making a birdie or something, it’s still collaborative. And what I like most about the team is our effort and our respect, and we have really good coaches. I’m really grateful for what we have.”

and Medford.

Leyla Rodriguez, one of the senior captains of the varsity team, says that over the years the soccer team has become more of a community and as the sea son progresses they’ve all connected more. She enjoys the team and calls them a family.

With the seniors leav ing soon, it’s understood that many players will miss them. “I’m really gonna miss the seniors,” Wu said. Thankfully these seniors and the rest of the varsity team, have certainly left an impact this season.

The team poses for a picture after their win against Chelsea. HASET TESFAW.

The team huddling up during a timeout. HAYLEE SEELEY

Catherine Santos kicking the ball at the Sep tember 28th game. HAYLEE SEELEY

Tornados Field Hockey Destroys North East Metro Tech in 9-0 Game

Edmund Kam Reporter Nathan Dean Managing Editor

Malden High’s Field Hockey

team opened up their seventh game hosting Northeast Metro Tech at Pine Banks on Thursday, October 6th, 2022. They hoped to improve on their current 1-5 (Win-Loss) record.

Starting from the beginning, Malden was efficient at moving the ball effectively into their opponent’s territory. Junior Lilly DeSantis, a for ward for the team, put up the first point of the game. Afterwards, the two teams began to trade posses sions due to mistakes and turnovers. Once Malden got possession back, senior Edmond Chen was able to score the second goal after maneu vering through multiple defenders.

Moments later, Metro Tech committed a penalty, and senior Darryn Ho was able to quickly put the ball into the goal with Malden now up 3-0.

Metro Tech began moving the ball into Malden’s territory, threat ening to score. However, penalties ended all hope of Metro Tech’s at tempt to score on that drive. This marked one of only two times where Metro Tech had been able to move the ball to Malden’s side during the entire first half.

Overall, during the first and second quarter, Malden was able to capitalize on many penalties com mitted by Metro Tech, scoring four more points before the first half ended.

At halftime, players and coach es got together to discuss mistakes and adjustments. The team agreed that communications should have been better. Senior Andrew Lan daverde explained that the players were too clumped up during the first half and they needed to spread out more on the field.

At the beginning of the second half, coaches began to bring up players from the JV team including Wilson Jiang, Daniel O’Toole, Zach ary Nedell (O’Toole and Nedell are members of the Blue and Gold), San dra Tang, and most notably: fresh man Ace Showstead (also a member of the Blue and Gold). Showstead expressed that playing on varsity was fun and a good change of pace.

It was also during the second half when Junior Pampam San substituted in for Senior Peyton Lightbody to play as goalkeeper allowing Lightbody to play as for ward. Lightbody ended up scoring the eighth goal of the game, her first goal of the season. San also played exceptionally well, letting in zero goals, in part due to solid play in the back from O’Toole. San was “very proud” following her terrific perfor

mance. She usually plays defense, but the coaches have occasionally subbed her in as goalie.

Throughout the third and fourth quarter, there were ineffec tive offensive actions from both teams. Yet Lightbody still scored the first goal of the second half in the middle of third quarter putting Malden up 8-0. Despite a number of penalties committed by both teams, none were able to take advantage of this and it would not be until the fourth quarter until there would be another goal.

Starting off the fourth quarter, Malden made several advances towards Metro Tech’s territory but was not able to score a goal. Metro Tech was also unable to score with the Malden defense holding off any attempts by them. Towards the end of the game, Malden made another effort of advancing towards their opponent’s goal and they were suc cessful. Players began passing the ball to each other with senior Wilson

Jiang making a tight pass to sopho more Kyle Huang who managed to score the last goal of the game with Malden winning 9-0.

At the end of the game, Junior Sandra Tang said that “it was really hot” and that she thought “this game went by too fast. [It was] a blur.” She also added that her childhood friend played for the opposing team. When asked whether or not she felt bad about beating her friend’s team in such a commanding manner she replied with a simple no.

Jiang, who has been spending a lot of time in the gym recently, men tioned that he has been running and doing cardio frequently and says this makes him “faster than most people” but added that he is held back by “lack of skill.” Specifically, Jiang hopes to improve his ball han dling skills which he says is “not in [his] nature.”

“We won. We [do not] win very often so winning feels good.” stated Senior David Flores about how he

felt after winning their second game of the season. He explained further that the team did pretty good as a whole but there are definitely im provements needed to be made. He thought that communication and footwork was a priority. It was men tioned that the team had a few new players substituting in and with more practice they can improve and perform better.

Motivated by their dominant win, Landaverde hopes that the team can capitalize on this, win more games, and qualify for states. Last year, the team finished with a 7-7-1 record and qualified for states. Unfortunately, they were not able to make it past the first round. A winning mentality was what helped them reach states last year, revealed Landaverde. After the game, Lan daverde expressed that although he was not satisfied with his playtime, he is determined to work harder for the team.

Entire team’s victory picture after the game . NATHAN DEAN.

Senior Darryn Ho preparing to strike the ball toward’s opponent’s goal. NA THAN DEAN

Senior captain Lyra Gold in a team huddle. NATHAN DEAN

Cross Country Nears Season Finish Line

Gabriel Fesehaie Head Copy Editor

Zhi Zhu Reporter

The cross country team is nearing the end of their season, most recently competing against Chelsea on October 12th. After a win against Everett and a loss against Somer ville, the team’s record thus far is 5-4.

Their meet against Everett was quite uneventful. The course of the day was long and circuitous, going around Pine Banks Park and trav eling through the trees. The team performed well and won handily, with Malden’s runners occupying the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions in the final table.

The team had been consistently improving week to week, and there were no significant mishaps against Everett, one of their toughest rivals. Coach Sean Weldon noted that he had “a lot of athletes new to cross country this year, and they have been putting in a lot of time and effort every day to get where they are today.” He admired the sports manship of the respective teams and thought that it was a good thing that Malden’s fans cheered both for Mal den and for Everett.

Co-captain Nicholas Duggan echoed that sentiment: “Cross coun try is a team sport, but it’s reliant on the person…what I saw today [was] that everyone was pushing themselves to give their best effort.” This seemed to be a position that can be echoed by most athletes, as Mal den’s best performing athlete for the day, Rolando Meija, also gave his two cents on the day: “I did better than before, but could be better be cause I ended up slowing down.”

Captain Jonathan Brill added that there were some minor things that the team could work on in or der to get the most out of them. He elaborated that the team was mak ing “leaps and strides” compared to their previous position.

Boy’s cross country appears to be in a very favorable position, as they have created quite a powerful team, and Malden’s squad is armed and ready to shock the GBL. Their next match is up at the GBL invita tionals, and we are sure that Malden will gain a well-deserved victory.

Malden High’s Cheerleading Team Welcomes New Coach Jazmine Dessert

Aiden Luciano Reporter Ruka Truong Lead Reporter

Anticipation was through the roof as Malden High School welcomed Jazmine Dessert, the new coach for the cheer team, and their new captains.

Sophomore Isabella Truong thought the captains were great and even mentioned that “they’re very supportive of us, and they’re always trying to help us do better.”

Truong thought the season started off great but “had a couple of bumps,” though she ultimately feels that the team has really pro gressed. Others such as sophomore Saniah Charles also only had posi

tive things to say about the captains.

However, this year they will not be competing as Coach Des sert thinks that “high school cheer is supposed to be fun and not so competitive.” In the time they took to take a break from competing, they grew the bond they had with each other.

Julisa Ramrez, a junior, agrees with the coach’s decision not to com pete. Junior Jessica Nguyen is also fond of this year’s coach. Nguyen even goes on to say, “I think she’s re ally sweet and values our opinions.”

Nguyen is relieved about not having to cheer competitively this year as it gave her “more time to complete school work.” However, Nguyen was also mildly disappoint

ed as she hoped to compete this year and was looking forward to it.

The team is thrilled to have the opportunity to cheer at Fenway, three days before Thanksgiving. Ramrez stated that she is “excited. I think it’s going to be fun but nervewracking.” Ramrez felt this way as she was new to the team and to cheerleading after going on a break since she was 11.

Overall, the cheer team has strengthened their bond with one another and has brought new im portance to cheerleading as it is no longer just about competing, but about working on themselves and their team.

Cheerleaders discuss during the game. NATHAN DEAN.

Malden and Everett runners lining up before the start of the race. GABRIEL FESEHAIE

Melrose would take a commanding 20-6 lead over the Golden Tornados.

Coulanges-Blaise would show more flashes from his game against Whittier Tech as he piled in rushes of 13, 10, and 14 to get the Malden offense moving. Unfortunately, the drive would stall out after Melrose missed a potential interception and Malden was forced to punt on 4th down.

The Red Raiders’ offense came out guns blazing, complet ing consecutive passes which were both good for first downs. Their drive would finish as quick as it had started after a 47 yard passing touchdown capped off by a good PAT to put them up 27-6.

With only 2:47 left on the clock before halftime, Brett would have to take command of the game in order to keep the deficit from grow ing even larger. After a costly pass interference call going against Mel rose, the Golden Tornados would take control at Melrose’s 39 yard line. They took full advantage of the opportunity. Brett would hit Mc guffie for a first down and then find Sophomore Kevin Exilhomme in the endzone from 14 yards out to cut the lead for a score of 27-12 going into halftime.

Both defenses would come out of the locker room ready to make plays as Malden was able to rip the ball away from a Melrose ball car rier, but the Red Raiders were able to recover it. The Golden Tornados were done there as they would shut down the Melrose drive on 4th down to give it back to Malden.

Melrose was able to respond to this by ending Malden’s next drive shortly after and taking action with a methodical drive down field to get into Malden territory. The mood would change a bit after a 29 yard pass was waived off by a holding penalty on Melrose as well as plays by linebacker John Lloyd. Lloyd produced two stellar plays during the drive which included a sack on 2nd down, then wrapping up Mel rose to force 4th down. Fortunately for Melrose, a great punt was aided by the wind and Malden had to start their drive with their back right against their own endzone at the two yard line.

Malden did their best with what little field position they were given after Brett found Exilhomme for 20 yards, but back-to-back de flections from the Melrose defensive backs forced Brett to punt the ball away. The ball looked a little off from the snap and it showed as the ball was moved to Malden’s own 18 yard line. Shortly after, the 3rd quarter would come to a close with a score of 27-12 Melrose.

The beginning of the 4th quarter saw its first score come quick as the Melrose quarterback rushed his way into the endzone for the second time to take a 33-12 lead. With a three score deficit in front of them, the Golden Tornados didn’t show any sign of giving up. Coulanges-Blaise would take the ensuing kickoff 29 yards out to start

the drive and would later pick up a gain of 13 for a first down. Brett started to carve up the Red Raiders defense with completions of 13 and 10 to Mcguffie and Exilhomme alongside more short ranged passes. The drive would conclude with a touchdown pass to Senior Gabriel Vargas-Cardoso to cut the lead down to 33-18.

Despite another masterful ef fort from Malden, Melrose showed how they had the ability to respond quickly with a drive that ate away at the clock, but featured very little mistakes. Eventually, they found the end zone from 35 yards out to take a 39-18 lead. After a small mistake by Malden’s offense, Melrose was able to pick the ball off and return it all the way for another touchdown to extend their lead to 46-18.

With time for one last drive, Malden put the ball in the trust worthy hands of Coulanges-Blaise would compile a drive with rushes of 27 and 28 yards, both of which came off back-to-back plays. The game would end on a high note for the Golden Tornados as CoulangesBlaise ran the ball in for a touch down from 18 yards. Malden was able to successfully score a 2 point conversion to end the game with a final score of 46-26 Melrose.

The Golden Tornados offensive line was facing off against a rather

experienced and skilled Red Raiders defensive line, which includes Senior Braden Marceau-Olayinka, who is committed to play Division One college football at Columbia University.

Despite this, quarterback Aidan Brett remained almost un touched for the entirety of the game. Brett gives kudos to the stellar per formance of his offensive line which gave him ample pocket time to get throws off.

“My O-line has been almost perfect. I have not gotten touched yet, and they’ve been helping me out. I owe most of my credit to them.” Brett will continue to look for this same safety when he drops back from his line as the season moves forward and opponents adapt to the newer Malden offense.

One of the brightest spots on the field collectively was the pure domination of the Malden special teams unit. Leading the unit to rack up the impressive amount of yards were Junior wide receiver Davian Mcguffie and Senior running back Makhial Coulanges-Blaise. The duo plowed down field during kick returns and contributed to giving the Golden Tornados crucial field position. However, CoulangesBlaise harped on the need for defensive special teams stops that are detrimental to keeping opposing

offenses from obtaining good field position.

Coulanges-Blaise, who is the Golden Tornados starting running back, is off to a monumental season of his own out of the backfield. The senior back looks to keep his foot on the gas and keep himself estab lished as one of the biggest offensive threats on the team, and a problem for any team trying to shut Malden down.

Coulanges-Blaise has set some lofty personal goals for himself this season, “My personal goals are rushing for over 1000 yards in a sea son and beating the school record in rushing touchdowns, then making it to the playoffs and then States.” The veteran not only wants to have a record breaking season of his own but also seeks for team success dur ing the postseason.

Coulanges-Blaise is not the only part of this team with big ex pectations. Second year head coach Witche Exilhomme is eager to see the way the team is going to play through this season and how they will finish it out. But he is also hope ful for the young team to come back next year and build on their compete level from this year.

“I’m eager to see how this group finishes and even more ex cited because this group is coming back. We got 89% of the team back next year. So I’m excited to see how they finish and that will set the tone for what we are going to do next year,” Exilhomme said.

Exilhomme also is a firm be liever in dedication off the field and in the classroom and helps guide the young team. Coach Exilhomme also puts much of the early success on the offseason workouts and practices that were held in order to condition the team and strengthen them for production on the field. “We kept the weight room open from 3pm to 8pm. We had two weight room sessions. So the guys that weren’t playing any other sport, were able to make the first session which is the long one where we covered con ditioning and weightlifting and the guys that had basketball or wres tling or whatever other sport that they had, could come in for an hour lift after their practice.” Exilhomme also encouraged his players to play another sport and keep conditioned in the offseason.

Exilhomme loves the mark on the school he has made so far and notices a shift in culture with the football team and the school as a whole. “For the first time in a while, I think these kids are fighting for something they actually put the time in and the work in the offseason. So now this means something to them rather than just calling it quits in November and then coming back in August for football.” Exilhomme thanks these offseason workouts for being the bread and butter of the early success of the team.

As the Golden Tornados even to 1-1 on the season, they look to beat Chelsea next week and continue to put up a strong fight in the Greater Boston League.

Sophomore quarterback Aidan Brett warming up on the sidelines after the half. BO STEAD

Junior Felix DaCosta chasing down the Melrose ballcarrier. NATHAN DEAN