Tower The Masters School
49 Clinton Avenue Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. 10522
VOLUME 71, NUMBER 5
Editorial Spring came and so did the dress code tickets. The inconsistency of enforcement allows some students to get away with wearing t-shirts while some get ticketed for jeans.
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015
tower.mastersny.org
Religious freedom bill creates backlash in L.G.B.T. community Jackson Myers-Brown Staff Writer
YIYI OUYANG/TOWER
THE RECENT CASE OF three teenage girls from Britain leaving their homes in an attempt to join ISIS in Syria has drawn attention to the efforts of the terrorist organization to recruit young people through the internet. According to reports out of England, ISIS has had some success in luring teenagers through social media, typically initiating contact by using fake profiles to engage them in dialogue about trivial matters. Such cases have been reported in several countries including the U.S.
ISIS lures teenagers through Internet GaBBy Davies Sports Editor ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has always used the internet to their advantage. Now they are using websites to entice teenagers from around the world to meet them in Syria and Iraq. Recently, three British schoolgirls, aged from 15-16 years old, left their homes and flew to Turkey with the intentions of going to Syria. It’s believed that many teenagers have been making their way to Syria to meet ISIS. Teenagers from the United States, South Africa, Austria, and many other
countries have run away from home to go meet ISIS. British Prime minister, David Cameron, believes that immediate action from everyone is needed. “The fight against Islamist extreme terror is not just one we can wage by the police and boarder control,” Cameron said. “It needs every school, every university, every college, every community to recognize that they have a role to play. We all have a role to play in stopping people from having their minds poisoned by this appalling death cult.” According to The Daily Mirror newspaper, ISIS has been drawing in teenagers through fake on-
line profiles. The terrorist group pretends to be typical teenagers, posting about trivial teenage interests, like fashion, cats, among other topics. Then, the fake profile will publish an extreme, religious post. According to Dr. Katherine Brown at King’s college, by doing this, the terrorists are able to persuade teenagers that the line between living in Syria and living in London, for example, isn’t that big. Turkish student Asli Noyan believes her country should put more effort into trying to stop ISIS-influenced teens from crossing the Syrian boarder. “I think the security checks
in Turkey are very loose. When I come to America, I go through of series of checks. Where as, in Turkey, they just check my passport once,” Noyan said. “To stop teenagers from meeting ISIS is for the Turkish officials to do their research on the people entering the country.” Currently, in 2015, more than 2000 people have joined ISIS. “The increase in people joining ISIS wouldn’t be this large if countries were more careful in their speculations,” Noyan said. “Turkish officials should help the missing child’s country find the child because if they just let them pass, they are just helping ISIS.”
Water supply in California runs dry aBiGail costiGan Editor-in-Chief Senior Abbey Frank wrote her Masters Thesis on the water crisis in California. “Its not directly effecting the majority of Californians today because they just ignore it,” Frank said. To explain this, Frank came up with “The Lucky Charms Effect”. “Every day a boy wakes up and he has a bowl of lucky charms waiting for him before he catches the bus. Every day he expects to have it until there’s nothing there. When he goes directly to the source, the box, theres none left. Thats what happening in California, people
just expect water to come out to their tap but when they go to the source theres nothing there,” Frank said. The Governor of California Jerry Brown enacted the first mandatory statewide water restrictions in an effort to cut water use by 25%.
This restriction shows how dire the situation has become. Water shortages in California are not new. The Colorado river basin, which supplies much of southern California with its water, has long
been shrinking. Lake Mead, the lake made by the Hoover Dam, has been shrinking for years, and watermarks can be seen showing IMAGE REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION BY YOGENDRA JOSHI
h o w water
much has been lost. Due to the shortage of running water, people have been tapping into and depleting the aquifer, which is non-renewable and California’s only back up. California’s water supply is not just about showers and lawns, but also farming. California produces fruits and vegetables that get sold around the country, as well as exported. Without water, it’s impossible to produce these crops.
Now, California is building a huge desalination plant to tap into a new water source-the Pacific Ocean. This comes with all sorts of new problems, including burning through a ton of fuel to convert the salt water into fresh water, the impact on the lives of marine organisms living near the plant, and weather the plant will be used if California ever gets more rain. A water crisis in California is not the only environmental disaster that is going on, and it won’t be the last.
In March, Indiana Governor mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in support of freedom of religion, igniting a controversy that has culminated to an extensive revision of that bill. The bill, which gave corporations and business owners the right to deny service based on their own religious belief, was revised because it was alleged to allow business owners to discriminated against gay people. The revisions to the bill were clear in their intent. “This chapter does not authorize a provider to refuse to offer or provide services, facilities, use of public accommodations, goods, employment or housing to any member or members of the general public on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, United States military service.” But while the important changes have been made, the national argument has not ended. Many conservatives view the revisions as a betrayal against the original goal of protecting religious freedom and the many who opposed the bill from the beginning think that the revisions aren’t good enough. The bill stems from an original Religious Freedom Restoration Act that prevented the Government from burdening a person’s free exercise of religion. At the time, it was a law made for all people of all religions, but had some focuses on Native American aspects. This law has also been under fire in recent years, especially in relation to the Hobby Lobby case of 2014. Since the beginning, support for the bill has been limited to mostly small town business owners. Pence also stood by it. “This bill is not about discrimination,” Pence said at a press conference shortly after he signed the original. But in this case, the opponents have outweighed the supporters, as it has caused an uproar across the country, even with the revisions. Companies like Wal-Mart and Angies List Have been vocal about their disapproval. The National College Athletic Association (NCAA), which held the final four and championship basketball game in Indianapolis, also opposes the bill. There have also been celebrities campaigning against the bill on social media. So while the discriminatory language has been taken out, the protests against the bill and discrimination are still occurring nationwide.