Merionite April 2018

The Merionite

The official student newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929 The official student newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929 www.themerionite.org Volume 89, Issue 5

Ardmore, PA, 19003

April 17, 2018

Students demand an end to school shootings Zoe Shipenberg ’18

Several hundred LM students joined schools across the nation in a walkout on Wednesday, March 14 to protest the inaction of the U.S. Congress in regard to gun laws.

This peaceful demonstration was held in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, which occurred on February 14 and left seventeen people dead. It was organized mostly by freshmen, including Mimi Halpern, Rebecca Altman, Abby Skariah, Sydney Halpern, Davis Giangiulio, and Jada Goonewardene, who took charge with student council.

“I’m proud of the kids to see them doing what they’re doing—it’s a good civics lesson,” said principal Sean Hughes as students flooded out of the Bryant atrium doors.

Halpern chose to voice the need for gun control because, as she explained, “When we saw the videos of the Stoneman Douglas students, we saw ourselves in them. And when we saw their school we saw LM in it.” The organizers stated that they chose to take action on gun control because, as Altman put it, “We all deserve to learn in a safe place and we all felt that it would be vital for our safety to do something about it.”

At 10 a.m., students gathered in the atrium, where they picked up protest signs before walking out and marching around the perimeter of the building.

Television news stations such as WPVI and 6ABC lined up behind a barricade and videotaped students repeating chants such as “What do we want? Gun Control! When do we want it? Now!”.

Though teachers and staff were not advised to speak in the walkout, many of them were on hand to help supervise the students. “I’m completely in support of keeping the school safe. I never thought that school could be an unsafe place. It’s truly a horrific

thought,” said LM communications teacher Diane Werder who walked alongside the student protesters.

Prior to this demonstration, students alerted their peers on social media to wear orange. Many students and teachers wore orange t-shirts that read “#ENOUGH” in support of the nationwide walkout.

In addition to carrying protest signs, some students also tied orange streamers around their heads and arms.

“Our lives are meant to be lived,” repeated Kate Harte-McCormick ’18 and Bethany Eldridge ’18 in a poem they delivered to the student marchers when the group reconvened in front of the Bryant Gymnasium entrance to hear several speakers. “I see a future where children don’t have to map out a route in their heads, worried about where they need to go if there is a shooter,” said Ava Clifford ’21 who personally knows students who attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Other student speakers provided facts and statistics as motivation for students to continue to try to change gun laws. Sydney Barton ’20 shared that “between 1966 and 2012, nearly a third of all of the world’s gun violence happened in the United States.” She added, “ I t d o e s n ’t j u s t h a p p e n across the country: it could happen across the street.”

Photos by Gabby Van Hollander ’18

Please see WALKOUT IN RESPONSE TO PARKLAND SHOOTING on page 2

Superintendent Copeland holds forum on school safety Sophie Yang ’20

School safety and gun control have captured the national spotlight and sparked passionate discussion within Lower Merion Township. Among such discussions was that of the “Ask the Superintendent” forum on Sunday, March 11 in the Lower Merion Academy Building. This regularly held public forum event welcomes all community members to engage in discussions and ask questions about various topics. This time, the conversation centered around school safety.

Throughout his three superintendencies, current LMSD Superintendent Robert Copeland has been holding these kinds of forums. In attendance were LMSD Supervisor of Safety and Security Dennis Witt, Director of School and Community Relations Amy Buckman, Lead Supervisor of School Health and Student Safety Terry Quinlan, and Melissa Gilbert representing the Board of Education.

Due to the concern about school safety stirred by February’s Parkland school shooting and the ensuing outcry for policy change, Copeland’s focus for this forum was to update the community on the school district’s activities regarding safety. He announced the reinstitution of the 2013 LMSD School Safety Task Force. The 2013 LMSD School Task Force was a group that consisted of staff, parents, students, law enforcement, and community members. It was formed after the 2013 Sandy Hook shooting to evaluate LMSD school safety procedures and make recommendations to the district to increase school safety.

Copeland began the forum with a summary of the actions resulting from the recommendations of the 2013 LMSD School Task Force, which included modifications to the main entrances of several schools, the addition of security cameras, and updated operation procedures. The full report can be found on the district website. Given recent events, the school district has decided to reconvene this task force initiative and has begun planning the budget accordingly.

Rather than the broader scope of the 2013’s task force, which included considerations on many school safety topics, such as student abduction, they are now focusing the task force specifically on an active shooter scenario. Copeland says this task force, like the one in 2013, will consider suggestions from the public to plan a course of action and recommendations. This is why it is important for students to reach out and share their suggestions with the school district.

Please see ASK THE SUPERINTENDENT on page 2

NEWS Pennsylvania Congressional districts restructured

FEATURES Rybnik’s forecast

Julian Ginzburg ’19 details the po-

dered districts in the state. page 2

OPINIONS Should basketball keep its two-hour delay?

Eric Bing ’20 argues that this privilege should have been offered to all sports teams, or none at all. page 5

Dora Nathans ’18 wyd Middle School teacher Timothy Rybnik, who is well-known for his weather reports and snow day predictions. page 10 Graphic by Catherine Roser ’21

A&E

Exclusive interview with Kobe Bryant The Arts & Entertainment editors caught up with LM’s most famous alumnus about his recent Oscar win. page 17

Graphic by Sihan Wu ’19

SPECIAL FEATURE How safe are we?

In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, The Merionite explores the strengths and potential weaknesses of LM’s safety procedures from the perspective of students, pages 11-15

SPORTS Bracket predictions See which teams LM students predicted to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. page 24

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News

April 17, 2018

The Merionite

SpeakUp bridges boundaries

Walkout in response to Parkland

Lydon Pelletier ’19

Cont. from STUDENTS STAGE PROTEST, page 1 Students who did not participate assault rifle,” said Dawson. The survivors of in the walkout stayed in their classes and the Parkland shooting have become the core proceeded to lunch during this timeframe. organizers for what may be one of the most Peter DellaFranco ’18 shared his reasoning for powerful gun control movements in Amerstaying inside. “The school is pushing an agen- ican history. LM accompanied thousands da on kids, which I don’t think is right whether of other schools in the country by taking I agree with gun control or not,” he said. “I also action in support of reforming gun laws. thought they were Although some unclear about what it adults in both the was for.” government and After the walkthe NRA, like NRA ou t , t h e s c h o o l spokeswoman made three stations Dana Loesch, have where students made attempts could choose to to disparage this write letters to memgenerational movebers of Congress, ment, the rapid speak in an open outreach to teendiscussion about agers over social the purpose of media has allowed the walkout, or Photo courtesy of Gabby Van Hollander ’18 it to grow and confor those who are tinue to push for eligible, register to vote. Although the League change. of Women Voters could not attend to run the Since the walkout, students have spectable set up to register voters, social studies ulated as to the amount of participants. teacher Peter Dawson volunteered to take According to a survey conducted by The charge of the table for them, stating that Merionite, 88 percent of the 370 respondents young voters are important. “People my age to the survey claimed to have been involved. have failed you guys, we really have. There’s Please see page 12 for more information no reason why anyone should obtain an

Generally, communication between teens and their parents has its difficulties. On Thursday, March 8, LM held a SpeakUp event to promote more communication between young people and adults.

It was also a chance for students to honestly answer questions that parents had about topics chosen by student leaders, and to have discussions that were guided by SpeakUp facilitators.

The event started with a general introduction that described the importance of speaking up. The introduction also included descriptions of different SpeakUp events held throughout the area by other schools and the communication they are trying to build.

In addition, speeches were given by Principal Sean Hughes and the student leadership team that planned the event with the help of the SpeakUp organization. One member of the student leadership team, Aasha Gupta ’19, said, “We se-

Please see ANNUAL SPEAKUP EVENT on page 3

PA congressional districts redrawn after controversy

Updates to township zoning regulations Julia Kreuzer ’19 wouldn’t be as restrictive as [those for] a single-family home.”

In early 2016, the township began to develop ideas for new zoning codes. They created the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, which was made to provide “a framework for future policy and planning decisions” for the township. Township members wanted to have a plan for the future that would “preserve Lower Merion’s classical residential neighborhoods, township’s village cores, and commercial areas to improve walkability, expand transit use, and encourage design excellence.” The plan was developed from several years of community discussion about the vision for the future of the township. In January 2017, the township Finance Committee approved a contract with planning firm DPZ Partners, LLC of Miami. DPZ was hired as a rezoning consultant, meaning they will help develop new policies for the usage of land that are better in accordance with the 2016 plan.

DPZ has been hard at work on the plans for Lower Merion Township. In late February 2018, representatives from the firm met with the Township Board of Commissioners to give an update on their progress. Jennifer Hurley of Hurley-Franks Associates has been working with DPZ, and she told the Main Line Times the following: “We want to make it easy for people to do the things we want them to do… and incentivize the kind of development and preservation you want to see in the township.” According to Leswing, “[DPZ] is currently coming up with ideas, testing concepts, and writing text.” A full draft ordinance is expected to reach the township in the fall.

Once the plan created by DPZ reaches the township, it will be refined to fit the township’s vision. Through open community discussion, the plan will be examined and tweaked. Leswing says the plan would “potentially affect every property in the township, so as a community we will make sure that we go through a series of meetings to make sure we get it just right.” The township will ensure that the new zoning codes will allow for the fulfillment of their hopes for the future of Lower Merion Township.

Julian Ginzburg ’19 Sports Editor With the 2018 federal elections eight months away, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made a controversial decision that could have far reaching consequences for the 2018 midterm elections. On January 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the congressional maps drawn after the 2010 census under a unified Republican commonwealth government unconstitutional, stating that the maps “clearly, plainly, and palpably” violated the state constitution. Furthermore, the court gave the Republican-controlled state legislature and Democratic Governor Tom Wolf until February 15 to agree on a new map.

After the 2010 census, the Republican-controlled legislatureand Republican Governor Tom Corbett redrew a map with the intent of giving Democrats control of only five of the state’s eighteen congressional districts even though the state has since elected a Democratic Senator and Democratic President in 2012, a Democratic Governor in 2014, and a Democratic Attorney General in 2016.

The state legislature presented Wolf with a new map; however, Wolf vetoed it since it was too similar to the previous one. Therefore, the Supreme Court took it upon themselves to develop a new map.

On February 20, the court released a new map, with only thirteen counties being split compared to 28 in the previous

map. In addition, the districts are more compact.

While Republican members of the Pennsylvania legislature have tried twice to appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court, the high court has rejected both of their appeals. On March 19, the Supreme Court rejected the second appeal to postpone the new map until after the 2018 elections. The court-drawn map will stand for the 2018 elections.

As for Lower Merion Township, the new map divides the community into two congressional districts, with the eastern part being placed in the Fourth and the western half being placed in the Fifth.

The districts are divided by Merion Road, North Wynnewood Road, Gypsy Lane, Old Gulph Road, and Williamson Road.

The towns of Penn Wynne, Ardmore, Bryn Mawr and parts of Merion Station and Wynnewood can be found in the newly created Fifth District, that also includes parts of South Philadelphia and most of Delaware County. This district is safely Democratic; Hillary Clinton won that region handily in 2016.

There is no incumbent running in the congressional race for this district since Patrick Meehan resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, but there are eight candidates who have expressed interest in seeking the Democratic nomination and seven who are seeking the Republican nomination.

Please see CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING on page 3

Graphic by Chris de Santis ’20/Staff

As Lower Merion Township changes over time, the properties within the township change as well, and new zoning codes are needed to accommodate this development. The current zoning codes for the township were put in place during the 1920s, and since then amendments have been added to address different projects. The zoning codes are a legal way to make sure make sure that the community can continue to use private development to contribute to the vision the township has for the future by defining how different properties can be used. Now, some believe the time has come to take a fresh look at these zoning codes and make updates in order to make the codes consistent with this long-term vision for the township.

Currently, several types of institutional properties—for example, schools, cemeteries, and country clubs—can be found in residential areas of the township. Single family homes make up the majority of the residential areas and have specific zoning codes that regulate them.

As a result, institutional properties in residential areas are affected by the same zoning codes as single-family homes, even though the types of properties are very different. The township would like to create zoning ordinances unique to these institutional properties so that they have the opportunity to develop with more ease.

Chris Leswing, Township Director of Planning and Building, says that these institutions “define the character of the township and over time they need to be able to evolve.”

LMSD schools fall within this category of institutional properties. As the district predicts that enrollment growth will continue to increase rapidly, changes to the zoning would allow LMSD to address expansion.

Many schools within the district, like Penn Wynne Elementary, have already reached their full capacity. Expanding these schools would potentially put stress on the site, but proposed updates to the zoning codes could allow for potential new sites to be acquired for the district. Leswing states that the new zoning codes would “make sure that if a new facility came into [the district], it would have appropriate regulations that

lected topics that we felt were most relevant to our lives. These topics can be hard or awkward to talk about with the adults in our lives.

Sometimes, these conversations can make us feel misunderstood, judged, and fearful of losing our parents’ trust.” Following this, Gupta stated, “Fears stop communication with the ones that we love the most.”

Afterwards, Elan Holte ’19 and Joshua Martin ’19 led a game called “Just Ask.” The goal of this game was to warm up for the rest of the night in a way that was interactive.

Six students and six adults took part in the game, which revealed how parents and students have different responses to questions like “True or False: if you know what to look for, you can always tell when someone is struggling.” All questions were true or false, and were followed by information that members of SpeakUp have learned over the years such as that “sometimes teens who seem the best are struggling the most.”

Map of the new districts drawn by the PA Supreme Court to reduce gerrymandering.

News

English department leads first Golden Rose Awards

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The Merionite

Ziwen Zhou ’19 Copy Editor For many of us here at LM, we first learned about Shakespeare during our freshman year English classes. We read Romeo and Juliet, one of his most famous plays, and many of us can remember acting out the scenes from the play. For years, teachers have taught Shakespeare in roughly the same manner.

This year, however, LM and Harriton’s English departments jointly decided to adopt a new strategy for teaching Shakespeare by implementing a revamped curriculum that would culminate in a “Golden Rose Awards Ceremony” for students in the LM auditorium. The name of the ceremony is an amalgamation of the famed Golden Globe Awards and Shakespeare’s classic line: “a rose by any other name.”

To begin, the two English departments decided that rather than simply reading and analyzing Romeo and Juliet in class and concluding with a free response paper, they would allow students to take charge of their own studies of classic literature by devising their own creative projects.

These projects would demonstrate both their grasp of the play as well as their ability to present what they had learned in an interesting and original manner. As LM’s English department chair Brian Mays noted, “this new approach was successful in satisfying its original goals of allowing students to interact more freely with the text and pursue more creative venues as well as generate a greater interest in Shakespeare.” The projects students selected varied greatly from reenactments to original soundtracks paired with certain scenes from the play.

Students first began their projects in late December by choosing a theme for their project and assigning different roles to group members. Mays added that “many teachers were happy to see the enthusiasm that students worked with as they were able to collaborate with their friends and explore a topic that interested them.” After completing their projects, students completed a reflective piece that evaluated the challenges they faced as well as the successes they achieved during their project.

Finally, students presented their projects in front of their classmates. English teachers from Harriton and LM then chose exemplary projects that best demonstrated the themes and emotions of Romeo and Juliet as well as great imagination and skill. These would be presented in front of freshmen from both schools at the Golden Rose Awards. Many teachers noted that with such a multitude of excellent projects to choose from, it was difficult to select which projects to display at the ceremony.

During the awards ceremony in February, students were entertained by the efforts of their fellow peers and were able

April 17, 2018

to see the various directions that different groups had chosen. They were excited to see what others had to offer and were extremely supportive and complementary of the varied projects. Winners in different categories ranging from best original artwork to most creative video received roses painted gold and decorated with ribbons and lace.

Lincoln Blouin ’21 added that the ceremony “was very professional” and that he appreciated the fact that “some stu-

Ask the Superintendent Cont. from SUPERINTENDENT HOLDS FORUM, page 1 The forum began with discussion about deterrents such as police officers, metal detectors, and entrance procedures. The first question from a community member was about the rationale against having a police officer in each school every day, saying that this addition could build relationships and trust between the police and young community members.

An example cited to support police in schools was the Cherry Hill school district, which was able to immediately institute a police presence in their schools after an uproar in the community following the Parkland shooting.

Community members in support of police recalled positive experiences in New York City schools with police officers, arguing that the kids and teachers that spend over six hours in schools for five days a week should have as much security as places like banks or jewelry stores.

Others, however, cited the lack of interference during the Parkland and Columbine shootings by officers stationed at the schools, and some parents were uncomfortable with the idea of needing a police officer in a school. Copeland responded with his own experience, saying that, “My experience with police

‘‘ Graphic by Amy Xi ’19 dents were able to have their hard work admired.” A project that stood out in particular to him was a stop motion video created by Harriton student Maya Waldstreicher “that depicted the joy and hardships of Romeo and Juliet’s love. The video concluded with their love trumping their will to live, so they flew away as doves. It was very artistic and clear how much effort it took.”

English teacher Laura Stiebitz added that the ninth grade English teachers are planning on continuing the Golden Rose Awards, but may make modifications to the format based on the feedback they received from the first iteration. For instance, they may explore ways to make it more interactive, perhaps by allowing students to vote for winners on their cell phones. Several English classes at LM have already utilized collaboration and longterm projects as a teaching tool, and the Golden Rose Awards are just another example of the many ways to expand learning to outside the classroom.

Congressional redistricting Cont. from PA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS..., page 2 Bala Cynwyd, Narberth, Penn Valley, Belmont Hills, Merion Station, and a small part of Wynnewood can be found in the Fourth District. The election for the fourth district will not feature an incumbent since Representative Brendan Boyle, who represents the current Thirteenth District that includes parts of Northeast Philadelphia and eastern Montgomery County, will now run for the newly created Second District where Boyle currently resides.

The Fourth District should be more competitive as it includes western parts of Montgomery County that are more conservative. Candidates seeking the Democratic Nomination include State Representative Mary Jo Daley, State Representative Madeleine Dean, and gun control advocate Shira Goodman.

With primaries scheduled for May 15, the 2018 midterm elections are quickly nearing.

Not only does Pennsylvania have a new congressional map, but Pennsylvania voters will be heading to the polls to elect a governor and a senator. Notably, senior Emily Bartos’s father, Jeff Bartos, is running on the Republican ticket for lieutenant governor. These elections will also determine which party controls Congress for the final two years of President Trump’s term.

Some remembered effective metal detectors from schools they attended, while others pointed out the psychological price to pay for such procedures.

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officers in schools is 50/50,” recalling the backlash he received when welcoming police officers into Lower Merion schools about a year ago, and then giving an anecdote of a more positive experience with police officers at the start of his superintendency at New Jersey’s Piscataway School District. This conversation surrounding police officer involvement in schools exemplified the overall discussion at this forum. There were many perspectives and community members were eager to share their opinions and experiences.

Increased security when entering and exiting schools was also discussed.

Some remembered effective metal detectors from schools they attended, while others pointed out the psychological price to pay for such procedures.

Arguments included the target that could be created by the lines of people waiting to pass through these detectors, and examples from the past when metal detectors increased the stress and crime rates in schools.

Campus aides currently monitor school doors, but suggestions made at this meeting to improve entrance security included implementing a panic button in the main office, as well as stricter enforcement against students entering the building from side doors by using alarms or looking at security cameras.

In addition to physical deterrents, mental health was an important focus of this “Ask the Superintendent” forum. Copeland has worked with indepth psychological programs during his earlier superintendencies, which could supplement psychological programs the district already has in place, such as risk assessment procedures and bullying-prevention programs.

Community members stated that they would also like to see increased education on how to identify and report atrisk peers about whom students may be concerned.

Overall, the large variety of opinions, anecdotes, research, and perspectives on the pressing topic of school safety made the discussion one that was engaging and eye-opening. Copeland has visited high schools and has had discussions with students from LM and Harriton. He reflected during the forum that “[these] comments today mirror pretty well [the high school students’] comments,” with some feeling strongly one way, and some strongly the other way.

He responded to community questions with his own experiences, implied that budget was not a concern in these discussions, and said he will share these suggestions with the School Safety Task Force. This topic is of tremendous importance to the community, and the “Ask the Superintendent” forum illustrated the concern and passion over this issue within the community. All are encouraged to be proactive and voice opinions, reach out to the district with suggestions, and attend the next “Ask the Superintendent” forum scheduled for May 2.

Annual SpeakUp event Cont. from ANNUAL SPEAKUP EVENT..., page 2 Martin informed the audience that “the teens who are seen as the best are sometimes struggling to cope…it is so important for us to know that it is okay not to be okay and to speak up.”

Then, the event broke off into different small groups based on which of the four main topics (Friends/ Relationships, Mental Health, Parent/Transparency, and Social Parties) about which students and parents wanted to learn more, although family members were not placed together so that everyone could feel free to be honest. Parents could ask the students questions and students could address other students. For example, in the

Friends/Relationships group, discussion questions were posed about the difficulties in high school friendships such as “What do you consider to be a toxic relationship?”

The breakout groups were led by SpeakUp facilitators, adults who are trained to guide the conversation.

This meeting allowed for some burning questions, such as “How do I get someone to open up to me?” to be answered. These questions by the parents were then answered by a student who was not related to them and thus did not have a biased opinion.

SpeakUp has had previous events at LM and will likely continue its program during the next school year to promote the importance of honest

Graphic courtesy of Janet Tompkins

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April 17, 2018

News The Merionite

Environmental Club composts for change Grace Wei ’19 Arts & Entertainment Editor In an age when our environment is particularly by an experiment involving worms and their role vulnerable to our choices and actions, the LM Enviin the compost process. Throughout the experironmental Club has taken measures to ensure that ment, the kids were able to observe the compost LM is joining the fight against climate change. The process firsthand and learn about the differences club has initiated several projects over the course between organic and inorganic materials. They of this year to counter the effects of global warmalso learned about the detrimental effects of ing. They started off their initiative by producing a fertilizer on the environment and gained a greater documentary that has been published on the LMSD understanding of the advantages of composting.

Green Page to examine LM’s own actions against The club hopes that by interacting with the kids global warming and determine their next steps. and demonstrating the compost process, the younger Through research for the documentary, the club generation will be eager to utilize the compost discovered LM’s trash isn’t transferred to a traditumblers next year. Mr. Cronin, the advisor tional landfill; instead, it arrives at the Covanta of the club, states that “getting the younger Plymouth Renewable Energy Facility where it is generation involved and interested in their transformed into renewable energy and used to environment early on can prevent harmpower hundreds of homes. During the documenful actions to the environment later on in tary process, the Environmental Club conducted a their lives.” He notes that “having high survey to garner feedback from the student body school students teach the kids can affect about LM’s environmental efforts. Out of 248 retheir perception on certain matters like comsponses, 73 percent were in favor of a compost proposting since these kids are accustomed gram, triggering the club’s new compost initiative. to learning from adults most of the time.”

Just this school year, the Environmental Club The club is planning to make more trips applied for, and was successfully awarded, the to the fourth grade classes of Penn Valley Disney Summer of Service grant in partnerElementary School and the rest of the elemenship with the Youth Service of America. With tary schools. Holgado stated that “not only did the grant money, they were able to purchase the composting program impact our communiseveral compost tumblers and supplies. The ty, but it also allowed the members of our club Photo courtesy of Grace Wei ’19/Staff to improve and gain leadership skills.” She club collectively decided that this grant could be used to benefit LMSD as a whole. From there The Environmental Club worked side by side with adds that she hopes the kids will “spread the on, they focused on starting an educational students at Penn Valley Elementary School to share knowledge they’ve obtained and help their own compost program in the elementary schools. the importance of composting for environmental community as well.”

Haley MorgenOrganized by chemistry teacher Patrick protection. stern ’20, another member of the club, reCronin, Lauryn Holgado ’20, and myself, the marks that “seeing such young kids with initiative produced a series of compost lessons to accompany the tumblers. The a passion for the environment was really inspiring for [her].” The U.S. club made their first appearance at Penn Valley Elementary School and were currently contributes to about fifteen percent of global carbon emissions worldenthusiastically received by the fourth graders in Ms. Ashley Wire’s class and the wide, and this percentage will only grow in the near future. Any action we do now can members of the Green Council Student Club. The kids were especially fascinated truly impact the deteriorating condition of our environment in the upcoming years.

Opinions

April 17, 2018

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The Merionite

The Merionite Official newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929 www.themerionite.org Columbia Scholastic Press Assocation Silver Crown 2013 Editors-in-Chief Dora Nathans ’18 Sophie Roling ’18 Managing Editor Nisha Arya ’18 News Editors Molly Cutler ’19 Julia Rappaport ’18 Kathy Yao ’18 Opinions Editors Andres Bermudez ’19 Caleb Shack ’19 Kelsey Stanton ’18 Features Editors Molly Kaiser ’18 Catherine McFarland ’18 Julia Rosen ’18

Editorial: spring break stolen On Thursday, March 22’s (questionable) snow day, the day before school would let out for break, LMSD announced that it would be piling on two school days at the start of spring break.

This came as a surprise to students as well as faculty, who were notified at the same time as their pupils. This surprise made the new schedule inconvenient and ineffective. While causing trouble and stress for all members of the school community, the added days did not even successfully resolve the real problem: the loss of instruction time due to snow days.

Frustrated and confused, many members of the community came forward with complaints.

They were met with somewhat insubstantial excuses. Administration offered the explanation that there was no room at the end of the year for more extension days. Summer school required “prep” days, and any elongation of the regular marking period would interfere. Superintendent Robert Copeland offered that the plan to add days to spring break was “a Board decision that was made two years ago.” This reasoning, however, does not make the decision a good one, and although the days have passed, the editors of The Merionite feel compelled to express the frustration and confusion of the community in order to prevent this sort of decision from being made in the future.

In its handling alone, the decision to utilize spring break for makeup days was compromised. Students and teachers were given no time to prepare, either in making lesson plans or changing vacation dates. Many students had to deal with losing the precious few days in which they could forget about school. Many more who had made non-refundable commitments had their vacations tarnished when they had to spend their time on the beach anxious about what they were missing at school, especially those in Advanced Placement courses, whose breakneck pace did not stop over the two days. Along with this, because of spotty attendance—41% of students were absent on the first make up day, 54% on the second—the days came and went with little accomplished.

Faculty felt the same frustration, as most had to cancel their plans for relaxation before the beginning of the furious dash to the end of the calendar year. Moreover, just like the day of the Eagles parade, teachers of all classes had to deal with the dilemma of either losing instruction time or having to reteach the two days’s lessons in their following five Lunch and Learns.

In these ways, the choice to have two school days during spring break, regardless of when it was made, was not well thought out and was insensitive to the teachers and students.

Arts & Entertainment Editors Minori Cohan ’18 Claire Ochroch ’18 Grace Wei ’19 Sports Editors Julian Ginzburg ’19 Zach Simons ’18 Zack Slogoff ’18 Copy Editors Benjamin Schmid ’19 Caroline Spencer ’18 Ziwen Zhou ’19 Graphics Editors Christopher de Santis ’20 Sihan Wu ’19

Graphic by Caleb Shack ’19/Staff

Ball out, sleep in

Business Manager Eric Bell ’18 Advisor Charles Henneberry

The editors believe all facts presented in the newspaper to be accurate. All articles have gone through an intensive, independent fact-checking process to minimize factual errors.

The paper acknowledges that mistakes are possible and welcomes questions as to accuracy. Inquiries regarding accuracy should be directed to the editors of the paper. Editors can be contacted via e-mail at merionite@gmail.com or in Room 200A. To represent all viewpoints in the school community, The Merionite welcomes all letters to the editor. Letters can be sent via e-mail or dropped off outside the Merionite office. The Merionite reserves the right to edit letters to the editor for length or clarity. All unattributed images are courtesy of WikiCommons.

Unsigned editorials reflect the general opinion of the staff and not the opinion of any single editor.

Articles and letters featured in the Opinions section reflect the viewpoints of individual contributors and not necessarily those of The Merionite editorial staf f.

Web Editor Jake Gurevitch ’18

Business Advisor Sean P. Flynn, Esq.

As evidenced by a recent LMSD press release, the Board had other options for dealing with excess days. In fact, shortly after the interrupted break, the state approved the district’s appeal that will allow LM to cut off the previously planned extra days on the week of June 18.

This solution, which has been utilized in years past, would have eliminated the need for school during spring break and would have provided a much more convenient solution for students and teachers. Indeed, adding school time in the summer rather than spring break would have provided the community with more time to adjust their plans. In addition, final exams take place at the end of the school year, so students could have simply rescheduled their exams to adjust their schedules. Truly, regardless of the solution utilized in any scenario, long-term warning for the school community would have served to smooth out many of the issues.

The Board planned the school days in order to meet government quotas and failed to find a solution that could work for everybody or even most. Rather than serving as a tool to educate students and set up plans to keep the school moving fluidly in extreme cases, the Board took the easy way out. They failed to create a plan in which the well-being of faculty and students, as well as the importance of real teaching time, were considered, and for this the school community is disheartened and frustrated. So, on behalf of the LM community, The Merionite editors call for the Lower Merion Board of School Directors to consider more strongly the needs of the community in future decisions and to reconsider policies which put bureaucracy and simplicity before the principles of our school, the people who they serve, and education as a whole.

Eric Bing ’20 The buzzer rings out, and the crowd’s cheers reach an electrifying peak. It’s the end of LM’s climactic basketball game against Penncrest, and after hours of intense struggle between the teams, the Aces have managed to pull through. Despite the clock reading a late 9:32 p.m. on a Thursday night, excitement and energy flow throughout the gymnasium.

Nobody feels tired; however, for almost everyone there, in exactly ten hours, at 7:30

a.m., another buzzer will ring through their ears—the school bell—signalling the beginning of an exhausting day after a late night out. That is, for everyone except for the members of the basketball team.

For them, that bell wouldn’t hold any meaning until 9:30 a.m., giving them two precious hours of recovery and preparation time after an exhausting night. They were protected by a policy that no other extracurriculars enjoy, giving them the first two hours off for the school day following a late night game. The existence of this policy has been confirmed by multiple sources including Lawrence McAfoos, a chemistry teacher at LM whose students have utilized the policy, and Zack Slogoff ’18, a member of the basketball team who has had the privilege of using this the policy in the past. However, Don Walsh, the athletic director at LM, has denied its existence. What is for certain is that it is

now officially (or unofficially) gone, and if it is to be brought back, it must be changed to account for all extracurriculars.

In a school with so many diverse extracurriculars, it is easy to find yourself overwhelmed and pressed for time. Many popular clubs at LM are notorious for their periodic late dismissals.

All of us have likely heard at least one horror story of a PLAYERS member staying late during tech week, of Dawgma members endlessly tuning their robots in preparation for their competitions, of band, orchestra, choir, and jazz concerts extending past 10 p.m., or even hockey games not even starting until 10 p.m. Dedicated PLAYERS member and sophomore Laura Mernagh further elaborated on the nightmare: “During tech week, stage crew stays after school and aren’t dismissed until around 9:00 p.m.. In that time, we’re fully focused on school work. transitions, cues, etc., so we aren’t able to do any school work.

Please see BASKETBALL DELAY on page 7

Letter to the editor: freedom of expression To the Editor: In 2016, LMSD ratified Policy AR 259, a ten page document addressing the rights and needs of transgender students. It includes multiple pages of guidelines regarding official student records, privacy and confidentiality, restrooms, athletics, and other topics.

Under Section D, entitled “Names/Pronouns,” there is a statement that reads, “Every effort should be made to use the preferred names and pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity. While inadvertent slips or honest mistakes may occur, the intentional and persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity is a violation of District Policy.”

This policy was created with the simple intention of protecting the rights and liberties of transgender students, just as they are for every other student in our schools. The document

mostly addresses the fact that students may want to change their name on school records and IDs, the rules regarding access to different locker rooms based on gender identity, and the general assurance that no student is discriminated against based on their affiliated gender. However, the policy regarding students’ pronouns seems to have caused concern among a few students who feel that it is a violation of their freedom of speech. The last edition of The Merionite included an article titled “Free Speech?” in which the writer, David Sommer ’19, made the claim that this policy is unlawful and unethical; I am interested in responding to a few of the points he made.

First, Sommer cites Tinker v. Des Moines (1969) to justify his opinion on the application of freedom of speech in schools. It is true

that this case ruled that students do not shed their constitutional rights when they enter school buildings. However, the author left out an important aspect of this case. The verdict in Tinker v. Des Moines also states that schools have the right to censor speech if it “materially and substantially interferes with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school.” On that note, as previously stated, Policy AR 259 declares that “the intentional and persistent refusal to respect a student’s gender identity is a violation of District Policy.” The policy explicitly states that our school’s requirements of appropriate discipline include the utilization of correct pronouns. Therefore, according to the verdict in the Tinker v. Des Moines case, our school’s policy is perfectly within the bounds of the law.

Please see FREE EXPRESSION on page 7

6

Opinions

April 17, 2018

The Merionite

Our curtain of complacency

Molly Kaiser ’18 Features Editor For as long as I can remember, LMSD has been dubbed a vastly liberal and progressive school district. “Hate Has No Home Here” is stamped on people’s lawns, and during the 2016 election, intermittent Trump signs in the area sparked outrage. In class discussions, liberal ideas dominate the conversation—you could probably count the few outspoken conservative students in your grade on one hand. But despite this massive liberal presence among the student body, the amount of students who get involved with activism or speak up when they witness daily injustice is surprisingly small. Although I can admit that this area is definitely progressive in the polls, there is an odd inconsistency between our voting patterns and the way we conduct ourselves.

LM’s gun control walkout was the first time I saw this disparity broken; students came around an issue in large numbers for something other than sports or a promposal. I am incredibly impressed by the group of freshmen that organized it, and I hope this is a sign of a new wave of activism from the next group of LM students. However, walking through the hallways after the march, I was disappointed to hear people making jokes

about it, explaining that they only did it to get out of class, or hearing stories of those who didn’t participate simply because they “didn’t feel like going outside.” These short conversations I heard in passing reminded me of a subtle but unequivocal truth about LM students: we don’t care. We label ourselves as a progressive school district to give ourselves a pat on the back, but when push comes to shove and it’s our turn to speak on important national issues such as #MeToo or police brutality, we often fall silent.

This silence is understandable.

Speaking up is hard. You risk seeming

“uptight,” “annoying,” getting labeled a “social justice warrior,” or getting a bad reputation. For most of us, it’s easier and more comfortable to hide behind our curtain of complacency.

It’s easier to point from the other side and call those who speak up bothersome or overzealous, to roll our eyes at their passion when deep down, we might very well agree with them.

The harsh reality is that we aren’t truly a progressive student body, one that risks discomfort to foster change.

We have yet to create an environment where someone can call themselves a feminist without some degree of

backlash, or where a boy can openly advocate for social justice or women’s rights without being called “gay” or “soft.”

I hate to say it, but your VSCO post with a flowery image about “girl power” or “equality” isn’t changing anything if you’re not applying these ideas to your everyday life.

However, telling your guy friends that calling each other hurtful words such as “fags” or making rape jokes isn’t cool, just might. Telling your peers it’s pretty insensitive to sing the n-word during their favorite rap song at a party might just get people to start thinking about race. Calling out someone for naming a girl a “hoe” after she simply embraces her sexuality can help transform the expectations that are set for female students.

These tiny moments of courage are part of a bigger picture of being a truly progressive school by being a part of the change to the age-old stereotypes that we claim to be tired of.

I’m not saying every student needs to be an activist. I understand we’re all busy with school work and extracurriculars and that some people simply like to distance themselves from politics and related issues, but how much better would things be if we were all just a little more honest with each other? If we really spoke our minds? If there wasn’t a magnifying glass on those who spoke out for what they believe in, liberal or conservative, because we were all just as transparent in showing what we believe? The current political and social climate has proven that the world is in need of young voices, and I hope LM students will soon become part of the conversation.

Photo courtesy of Caleb Shack ’19/Staff

The F word

Melissa Dash ’19 We all recognize it. Whether it is overheard during conversations in our school hallways or seen posted on social media, the word has become a constant in our daily lives: feminism. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” When asked, many students at LM are ready and willing to declare that they believe in gender equality but refuse to label themselves as a feminist.

So why is this the case? Why has a word that advocates for the equality of genders received such a negative connotation? Oftentimes, those who struggle to identify as a feminist associate feminism with misandry—the hatred of men—or believe that identifying as a feminist implies a desire for female superiority or privilege—in essence, to turn the current gender hierarchy upside down.

Furthermore, there are a lot of radical implications now accompanying feminism. Words such as “feminazi” have been used to describe this movement of radical feminism, discouraging people from identifying as a part of the feminist movement.

A sad truth I have noticed among many of my peers is that when they are asked what feminism is, they say, “Something along the lines of freeing the nipple complete with a lack of shaving.” It blew my mind to hear this response.

How can one think that the definition of feminism is based solely upon body standards? Feminism is equality. If a woman chooses not to wear a

bra or not to shave, that is her choice and this choice should be inconsequential in an equal society. This decision, however, does not apply to every woman who identifies as a feminist and thus does not define the feminist movem e n t .

The choices dealing with body de-

you are a feminist you are automatically a part of the LGBTQ+ community. This applies for both men and women. For women, due to the man-hating stereotype plaguing both lesbians and feminists, something seems to click in a sexist, non-heterosexual mind and thus some people treat the groups as if they are one and the same.

For men, advocating for women’s rights is seen as a threat to masculinity and is associated with the false stigma of being gay. Although it makes absolutely no sense that advocating for gender equality would determine your sexual orientation, this is a common claim. The way those against feminism phrase their comments is by painting members of the LGBTQ+ community in a negative light, as if being a part of it is a bad thing. Yes, you can be non-heterosexual and be a feminist, but one does not imply the other and neither should ever

“

I have no bigger pet peeve than when young girls and boys refuse to call themselves feminists due to the incredibly false and negative stigma associated with the word. cisions, again, are entirely specific to each and every individual and in no way determine whether or not you agree with the general principle of gender equality.

Similarly, there is the false connotation that if

be spoken of in a harmful or insulting manner.

Personally, I have felt saddened by people who make automatic assumptions due to the ignorance revolving around feminism. The immediate conclusion is that if you identify as a feminist then you are a liberal extremist. Not only is this not true, but it also aids the effort in turning people away from categorizing themselves as a feminist.

I have no bigger pet peeve than when young girls and boys refuse to call themselves feminists due to the incredibly false and negative stigma associated with the word. It is upsetting that people I consider incredibly close friends and similar to myself share these beliefs. “The F Word” isn’t a bad word and we need to stop treating it like it is one.

Opinions

April 17, 2018

7

The Merionite

Role models for gay America

Bethany Eldridge ’18 An impressive amount of the student body at LM is hyperfocused on accepting different groups. We wear our pride flags, our progressive pins, our Instagram feeds are filled with captions preaching acceptance. In my opinion, this is great. It is great to support groups that have not gained support in the past.

On a personal level, it makes me especially happy to see students at our school prideful and ready to support the LGBTQ+ community. As a president of our LGBTQ+ club, the All Genders and Sexualities Allied (AGSA), it gives me hope for other kids to be out and proud just like I have been in two of my four years at LM. However, sometimes when I see all of this support and love it starts to feel romanticized. Our efforts to support the LGBTQ+ community end up overshadowing queer people themselves. Representations of a diverse and amazing community are diminished when the media is focused on support and calls for unity, rather than spotlighting real figures and their experiences. I appreciate the growing opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community here at LM, but I crave role models and portrayals of gay life for the school to see.

Because of this, the new Netflix revival, Queer Eye, was one of the highlights of my second semester senior television binge. The original show, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, was set in the 90s, during a time when gay culture was less accepted compared to today. As one of the members of the revived show Queer Eye, Jonathan, stated in the premier, “the old show was about tolerance;” this time the show is about “acceptance.”

From my perspective, the show’s success comes from this shift of focus.

In the old show, the cast was made up of five similarly “flamboyant” gay men, who mainly focused on amping up the style of troubled straight men. However, from the onset of the new Queer Eye, each man has had a different story to tell and a different skill set. The premise of the show is similar to the old one; most of the episodes have the five men enter into the lives of troubled men “fixing” different parts of their old ways. Tan, the style guy;

Karamo, the culture king; Antoni, the head chef; Jonathon, the stylist; and Bobby, the house expert, are not only very successful and inspiring men, but they all have different personalities and personal lives. Having such a varied crew represents the very different ways members of the gay community live: a powerful and underdeveloped statement in our conversations today.

One thing the cast does have in common: each of them focuses on how we are more similar than we are different, something a lot of supporters and even members of the LGBTQ+ community do not.

Throughout the show, the men untangle the

to see. Although it is not always safe for members of any marginalized community to educate others after stereotyped statements, I really appreciated how the crew of Queer Eye used their platform to educate in subtle ways throughout the show. This way, they helped to develop a welcoming tone for viewers to understand and learn about the LGBTQ+ community without feeling “attacked”. Nevertheless, the crew unveils through many conversations that those feelings of victimization are often ingrained in nonsense.

Another aspect of the show’s acceptance is the crew’s self-love, and their transference of that positivity onto their clients. Many clients come onto the show feeling “ugly,” “alone,” or lacking self-understanding. During each episode, no matter what the crew’s official job title, they make sure to direct their clients toward a more positive lifestyle.

In episode four, “AJ” best demonstrates this for me. At the beginning of the show, it is obvious that AJ has not fully gained self-acceptance and autonomy. He is a gay man who struggles daily with the fact that he never came out to his deceased father, and therefore feels incomplete and secluded from his community. Throughout the journey, the crew helps him to accept all parts of his identity and enables him to live the life that all of the crew are living: one that is forgiving, happy, growing, and positive.

Sometimes we seem to get lost in our advocacy without really taking a look at our communities.

Queer Eye has gotten some criticism for not representing all parts of the LGBTQ+ community.

Some queer critics complain that Queer Eye is not queer enough: that having a crew of cis-men is not monumental.

In my opinion, we need to start adding different forms of diverse media instead of tearing down the positive ones we have. The popularity of Queer Eye should lead to shows with other representations of the LGBTQ+ community, which exGraphic by Sihan Wu ’19/Staff cites me. There should be more shows working to represent the diverse community. I do not believe issues in front of them without harsh criticism of that every show or movie can represent every astheir clients. In one episode, two members of the pect of a diverse group, and therefore a form of meteam are faced with a typical stereotype from their dia that is attempting to represent one part should client Tom, who is from a very cutoff rural town and not be torn down for lack of diversity. is from the older generation. Tom asks Bobby, who The most monumental part of Queer Eye for me has been happily married for many years, who is is that the show never focuses solely on being gay. the “man and who is the woman” in his homosexual Cast members all have different and dynamic fearelationship. tures that shine and are developed, making them Instead of jumping down Tom’s throat, Jon- much-needed role models and figures in our world. athon and Bobby broke down what Tom meant I think that everyone should take a chance on this by his statement and why it contained connota- show, especially for all of you seniors on your sections. This path of understanding and acceptance ond semester kicks. of Tom’s lack of knowledge was refreshing for me

Basketball delay

re: Free expression

Cont. from page 5

Cont. from page 5

We do not get home until 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m., depending on the day, so we barely have any time to eat, do homework, study, or sleep before the next day.” In times like those, a two-hour delay the next morning would serve to greatly reduce stress and promote student health by allowing enough precious time to balance all of their responsibilities and recover from the prior night. Unfortunately, they have never had that luxury.

Instead, we have let LM’s bias towards basketball programs allow for this unfair privilege to exist, and we’ve left a plethora of students unaccounted for. A policy such as this one has been sorely needed for people like Mernagh. If this policy is to return, it needs to be available for all people when it really matters, not just the basketball team. On the days leading up to and during the show for Players, the nights of music concerts, the final moments of robot-building for Dawgma, the days before competition for Science Olympiad and TSA, the final night of editing for The Merionite and for any sport that goes later than 9 p.m., it is important to ensure that people are not overwhelmed. If the policy cannot account for everyone, then it should not exist. We cannot allow for our passion for our basketball program to form biased policies such as this one, and its removal was a much needed ethical change.

It was also stated in this article that “the right to coerce others to address you in a certain manner is not present in a state of nature [as written by John Locke], and therefore is not a right that the government needs to protect.” John Locke wrote about the natural rights we are born with—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—but those are certainly not the only rights that our government protects. It protects our right to vote, our right to a fair trial, and in many states, the law protects us from discrimination due to our gender identity.

The federal government clearly guarantees equal protection of the law to all (as outlined in the 14th Amendment), which includes against discrimination and mistreatment. And yes, freedom of speech is another example of a right that the federal government protects. However, as demonstrated by the aforementioned Tinker verdict, there are certain places, like a school, where those in charge decide the code of conduct and what kind of speech they will and will not accept.

In my mind, school is meant to be a hub of acceptance and openness. Our school has students of many races, religions, genders, and sexual orientations. Policy AR 259 was created to protect the rights of our transgender students. If a teacher overheard a student using derogatory terms to an-

other student based on their race or religion, they would be punished for bullying. In the same way, an intentional refusal to use someone’s preferred gender pronoun is punishable because it is bullying due to a flagrant disregard for another person’s self-expression. Someone might not agree with or understand another’s transition, but that does not prevent their ability to respect them as a human being. Refusing to utilize someone’s preferred pronouns is blatant disrespect and thus should not be allowed in a school environment.

If you have firm beliefs that do not align with the ideals of transgenderism, there are other routes you can take to maintain your beliefs instead of offending others. For example, you can choose to address them by name rather than pronoun. It is important to remember that everybody has the right to practice their religion and beliefs. It only becomes an issue of bullying when people’s beliefs come at the expense of others. In this case, misusing someone’s preferred pronoun does come at their expense because it degrades and devalues a very important part of their identity. So before you choose to defend your words and actions, think about the impact they might have on others. We should be making respect a priority, not an afterthought.

Amelia Baker ’19

8

Opinions

April 17, 2018

The Merionite

Solving nothing, one march at a time

Ryan Fisher ’18 On March 14, students “heroically” picked up their bags and walked out of school in the middle of class. Take notes, second semester seniors, because apparently cutting class is fine as long as you are standing against an issue. If you gain enough support, our administration will even greenlight posters to hang around the school.

This class-ditching movement began after a recent string of school shootings left dozens of students lifeless. People are distraught. People are mad. People are confused. People want to help. I’m sure we all fit into one or more of these groups. These reactions are fine, until LM students overwhelmingly decide to disrupt their classes to protest a slow-moving Congress, at which point the attempt becomes counterproductive and futile.

Some opponents of my view would argue that schools should teach students how to advocate for themselves, and that this walkout is a prime example of that. This position is reasonable, yet misguided. Student protesters could have marched out only during Lunch and Learn, but instead decided unanimously to skip out on half of their Latin and math classes alike. And with the exception of certain history courses, civil

disobedience is not exactly in the curriculum. The administration shirked three fundamental responsibilities in advertising the walkout. First, they allowed students to select a class period to skip, when they have the responsibility of ensuring that students attend class and get the education they need. Second, they advertised an event by Women’s March, a group that is perversely liberal, when the goal as a public school is to be viewpoint-neutral.

And third, they ironically endangered students by exposing them to threats potentially present outside of the school even with the few additional police officers. These three components suggest th-

“

This protest, on balance, violated many of the principles that LM students and administration are supposed to uphold...We have created more threats...than we have removed.

”

at the administration’s decision to sanction such a walkout was a serious lapse in judgment, and this poor decision-making outweighed the positives associated with allowing students to protest government inaction during school hours.

The most striking effect of both our walkout and others across the country is that they actu-

ally cause more mass shootings, not less. I arrive at this conclusion on the premise that these protests are meant to gain publicity through appearing on social and news media, such as Twitter, across the country. In doing so, however, we induce the media contagion effect, in which additional attention paid to shooters leads to additional shooters. This idea was most strongly supported by Javier Garcia-Bernardo of the University of Amsterdam and his team who analyzed 57 billion tweets, and then “compared the social media data with a database of mass shootings incidents, including day and place of shooting.” Amazingly, they found that the greater the amount of time the proportion of tweets about school shootings went beyond ten per million, the higher the chance of another shooting in the next eight days. For example, the researchers concluded that if the aforementioned proportion of school shooting tweets was met for 35 days following a shooting, it was nearly 100 percent more likely that another shooting occurred. Worse, Garcia-Bernado also found that the number of tweets about a shooting is linked to a higher number of fatalities in the next few shootings. In other words, by looking to publicize our efforts to protest mass shootings, we are unwittingly contributing to the creation of newer, deadlier shooters, a result we could have averted had we not engaged in this walkout.

This protest, on balance, violated many of the principles that LM students and administration are supposed to uphold. In addition, we may have created more threats in our attempt at publicity than we have removed. We love virtue-signaling and we love showing others that we are doing the ‘right’ thing, but perhaps we should consider that the right thing to do in school is to stay in class. Otherwise we risk promoting the chaos we tried to prevent.

Features

April 17, 2018

9

The Merionite

A tribute to Scott Beigel Emma Becker ’20

It was Valentine’s Day 2018, and I came home from school as if it were any doorway in front of all his students. normal day, sitting down on my couch to watch YouTube. Little did I know, “Mr. Beigel was my hero and he still will forever be my hero,” Friend in about an hour, this day would turn into one of the saddest days of my life said, “I will never forget the actions that he took for me and for my feland the lives of my entire generation. low students in the classroom. I am alive today because of him.” I was My Youtube video was abruptly interrupted by my mom running not surprised to hear that Scott had acted heroically, because he was over, grabbing the remote, and turning on CNN. Breaking news flashed known around camp for making sad kids smile and for helping shy across the screen: There was a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman campers find their confidence. He was just that kind of person, but Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. I stared at the screen in we still didn’t know if Scott had made it out alive. despair, watching as the video of frightened students running out I was tossing and turning all night, thinking of the students of the school played on repeat. I looked at my phone to see hunand of Scott, wondering if they were all safe. At dreds of texts from my camp friends. Our 2:42 a.m., my phone illuminated my ceilmost recent division leader, Scott Beigel, was a ing with an email from the camp director: Global Studies teacher for freshmen at MSDHS. “Scott Beigel’s life was tragically cut short by We were all praying that he was safe. the senseless act of violence that took place at We may have been states apart, but the entire Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.”

Camp Starlight family was glued to the news, desperNow that a month has passed and I have had ately waiting for some kind of confirmation that Scott was some time to process the situation, I can’t help but okay. Hours passed, and every few minutes as the number of wonder how things could have been different. What if lives lost climbed higher and higher, my heart sank deeper the FBI had acted on the reports of Nikolas Cruz’s trouand deeper in to my chest. I was just hoping that Beigel was bling social media posts? What if the teachers had all not one of them. been armed? Would Scott have been able to save himThe heart wrenching evening continued and then, sudself, and stop the shooter, if he had access to a gun? denly, an interview appeared on the screen between a reI don’t know what the solution is, but I do know porter and a student from MSD named Kelsey Friend. The that I was lucky enough to have known Scott for eight Graphic reporter asked Friend questions about how she got out of amazing years and to have been a part of his final diviby Sihan Wu the school and about her experience inside. She revealed sion of campers.

Scott always knew how to make any‘19/Staff that a teacher, Scott, had unlocked his classroom door one laugh. He was one of the most amazing and into allow her and some other students to come in and stay safe. Unfortu- spirational people I have ever known. He spent almost thirty years at Camp nately, he did not have enough time to close and re-lock the door before the Starlight and added something truly special that no one will ever forget. shooter, Nikolas Cruz, made it to his classroom, and Scott was shot in the Scott Beigel was a hero long before February 14, 2018, and forever will be.

LM Teachers Crossword Puzzle Across 4. Which LM english teacher grew up in Narberth?

5. Which LM science teacher spent years handcrafting a violin?

7. Which LM english teacher used to advise the Merionite in their spare time?

8. Which LM language teacher played wide receiver for the LM football team?

9. Which LM science teacher played D1 lacrosse at The University of Virginia?

10. Which LM history teacher is a Revolutionary War reenactor in their free time?

13. Which LM science teacher played D3 college football?

14. Which LM language teacher is originally from Uruguay?

Down 1. Which LM history teacher coined the infamous phrase “Better since seeing you”?

2. Which LM science teacher does dog agility?

3. Which LM gym teacher used to teach at Penn Wynne Elementary School?

4. Which LM math teacher is fluent in Polish, Ukrainian, and German?

6. Which LM math teacher is named after his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father?

11. Which LM science teacher frequently wears a flat cap?

12. Which LM gym teacher is a three-time state champion coach?

Amelia Baker ’19 , Gabriella Barrett ’19, Lauren Else ’19 and Julia Kreuzer ’19 Albert Einstein once said, “Play is the highest form of research.” In computer science teacher Thomas Swope’s Seminar class, this statement holds true. Swope’s students have been expanding their own knowledge of technology in a fun and creative way with an app design project. The students in the class are all skilled computer scientists and have completed three computer science courses including Advanced Placement. They are in the process of creating applications usable on iOS devices with a common theme: helping people. All of the apps help people in one way or another, whether that be help with fitness, directions, or stirring the seeds of competition in sports. Each app has a specific and authentic purpose with a targeted audience, but the creators of the apps have the public in mind. While this might seem like a simple group project, it has the potential to contribute to the real lives of the general population. Even though YouTube and Snapchat might be at the top of the download list, some day Fitchoice or MyMenu could be instead. Don’t believe us? Read more about the apps: Fitchoice Don’t feel like going to the gym or hiring a trainer? Not a problem with Fitchoice. Fitchoice provides various exercises that target specific muscle groups. Fitchoice is a quick and easy way to get the most beneficial workout for those who are new to fitness or are simply in need of exercises alike.

MyMenu Cooking can be overwhelming for anyone. The students are aiming to provide aid to cooking novices with MyMenu. The goal behind it is to find recipes based on the ingredients the user has at that moment. MyMenu has the potential to help new chefs find their way in the kitchen and show that cooking is not as scary as it seems.

Bracket With the beginning of sports seasons comes passionate fans, thrilling games, and bracket predictions. Many fans avidly follow their favorite teams and use their knowledge to make predictions of how the season will play out. The app, Bracket, will help any person create a bracket for the sport they love. It is intended for both the fair-weather fan and

the over-the-top fanatic. The future of bracket making will be made simpler with Bracket.

Movieheads Movieheads has a fresh outlook for movie-lovers of all ages, by providing different opinions on a wide genre of films. Whether the movie came out last week, or you are trying to track down a classic for which you forgot the title, Movieheads can help you. It can also provide you with the plot of a film if you are unsure the film is for you. Looking for a chick flick? Rom-com? Sci-fi? This app also supplies viewers with a wide collection of movies that are organized by genre.

Hallwaze Freshmen, new students, and LM visitors will never have to worry about getting lost in the winding halls again! Hallwaze is an app that contains a full layout of LM, and it syncs up with students’ schedules! The app will show you where your classrooms are and how to get there using a complete map of the school! Coming into a new building with over 300 rooms can be very overwhelming to people of all ages. Now, with Hallwaze, anyone can find their way around our school with ease!

10

April 17, 2018

Features The Merionite

Dora Nathans ’18 Editor-in-Chief

The situation: It’s 10 p.m. on a school night, and you haven’t started your homework. The local forecast says that flurries will start at midnight and continue into the early morning as a cold front arrives from the Great Lakes region. But will it be enough to warrant a snow day?

And if not a snow day, at least a two-hour delay? In other words, do you need to complete your homework? The solution: Mr. Rybnik’s “Snow and Hazardous Weather Forecast.”

Some students know Rybnik as a former math teacher and current Challenge teacher at Bala Cynwyd Middle School, but nearly everyone knows him for his weather forecasts. Whenever there is bad weather approaching the area, Rybnik will post about the content of the weather as well as a percentage prediction of a two-hour delay, early dismissal, or full closure, as applicable.

Dora Nathans (DN): How did you first become interested in weather forecasting?

Tim Rybnik (TR): I first became interested in weather forecasting as a young child. I was always primarily interested in forecasting severe weather, especially snow since snow is so magical to a young person. The school ‘snow day’ is such an American institution. It represents a day off from the predictable and allows youth almost endless possibilities for the day. Even as an adult, snow days have retained their magic for me.

Take, for example, his

prediction from January 16:

“The preponderance of evidence from the latest models indicate that the surface temperatures are probably not going to be cold enough to support a 2-hr. delay prediction in good faith. I’m not saying that we cannot get a delay, but it appears that, even with heavy precipitation during the morning rush hour, we still may be sitting at 34 degrees. In other words, it will be snowing, hitting the ground, and probably melting. For now, I place the delay at 35 percent. It hurts me just as much to write this as you hurt to read it. I’ll update if anything changes.”

Seeing as Rybnik plays such an important and appreciated role in our community, I thought I’d ask him a few questions about his weather forecasts. is a good short-term model (within 24-36 hours of the event) but it often overpredicts for precipitation. Therefore, forecasters often “blend” several models together to arrive at their prediction. A word of caution, however, is that although these models are wonderful, they are not gospel. One cannot rely on models alone to forecast. The best predictor of what a storm will do is observing what it is currently doing. Also, I watch and listen to every TV and radio forecast. I need to know if they are seeing something that I am not seeing. The bottom line is that I use everything at my disposal.”

DN: Have you calculated an accuracy rate for your predictions and, if so, what is it?

DN: When did you start making weather predictions about LMSD closures and delays?

TR: I began making snow predictions to my classes almost eighteen years ago. I did not post them back then, but I would often just draw a map on the whiteboard and show them what I thought was going to happen. When those students went to high school, some of them would email me with snow day questions. When the volume of emails became too great to answer individually, I began a tab on my eBoard about my forecasts and predictions (about six to seven years ago). It apparently has grown exponentially from there.

TR: I have never calculated an accuracy rating for my predictions. I am typically confident in what I predict; if I am not I will say so. I know if I put in the hard work to the best of my ability, I will be correct most of the time. This is not to say that I have not blown some forecasts. Every forecaster gets things wrong from time to time. If I was always 100 percent correct, I would either be the wealthiest individual on Earth or I would be God. Since I am neither, I can tell you that I have been humbled many times in my career by busted forecasts. It is humiliating to be wrong but it happens.

DN: Can you walk us through how exactly you make your weather pre- DN: How would you compare your accuracy to that of local newscasters? dictions? From where do you receive the information, and how do TR: Compared to local forecasters, I think I have a decent track record. Remember, some individuals that you see on television are not actual meteorologists. The ones that you convert it into language the average reader can understand?

TR: Well, it typically takes me several hours to formulate a prediction. I use every available resource out there. First, I receive hourly observation reports from every airport in the country. This helps me see where the low-pressure and high-pressure systems are. It also allows me to check wind direction and speed as well as temperature. Just the pressure alone communicates volumes about the weather. I receive skew-t reports, satellite images, infrared images, water vapor images, etc. that are easily available from the National Weather Service website.

I also receive all the major model runs that meteorologists use. You have probably heard local TV weather personalities talk about the GFS, the NAM, the EURO, etc. There are about six major models out there. These models are algorithms. Each model has its strengths and weaknesses that a forecaster must take into account when making a prediction. For instance, the NAM model

are, however, are good. Philadelphia has to be one of the toughest areas to forecast for since we are under the influence of the coastal waters to our east and the mountainous terrain to our west. Adam Joseph and Cecily Tynan at 6ABC are two such forecasters that deserve praise. They are confident, knowledgeable, and, most of all, willing to explain meteorology in terms that most lay people can understand.

DN: What, if any, feedback have you gotten from the LMSD community?

TR: Feedback among parents, teachers, and students has always been positive. This is an educated and grateful community. I truly am blessed to work here. Even when I have been wrong, there is no blowback. Trust me, I have a lot of forecaster friends that actually receive death threats when they are incorrect with some forecasts. All that I have ever received in LM has been encouragement and gratitude. Let me just say to all of you in return, the feeling is mutual.

Brian Ungar ’19 Admirable Activity:

Photo courtesy of Brian Ungar

Junior Brian Ungar has a unique pastime: he’s an aerialist and acrobat and performs in circus shows. He has been an aerialist for seven years but has been practicing competitively for the past four years. He trains anywhere from three to five times a week. He describes it as an “addiction.” Being an acrobat has provided Ungar with some special opportunities. For the past two years Ungar has participated in an intenstive summer camp at the prestigious École Nationale de Cirque and was one of sixty aerialists worldwide to be selected. He will attend again this summer.

He has also participated in the West Coast Aerial Arts Festival for the past two years, placed second and third in his trapeze acts, and won the dance trapeze category. Through these festivals and schools, he has been able to meet and train with Cirque Du Soleil and Ringling Brothers artists as well as professional coaches. Ungar’s favorite part about acrobatics is “wowing audiences, especially when I can make difficult and often painful skills look easy.” He hopes to inspire someone in the crowd to realize that they can accomplish what they thought was unimaginable.

At LM: Brian is a member of the swim team, the digital arts magazine InsideOut, and Art Forum.

Favorite Quote: “If it doesn’t hurt, then you’re not doing it right.”

-All Circus People

April 17, 2018

Special Feature

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The Merionite

Gun violence: a brief overview

Graphic by Chris de Santis ’20/Staff

Melissa Bell ’20 Almost twenty years ago, two students at Columbine High School in Colorado opened fire on their peers, killing twelve students and one staff member. Despite the horror stories that followed the event, many other fatal school shootings have occurred. Recently, the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida has gained national attention. Students across America have declared that they have had enough. Many school districts, including LMSD, are in the process of discussing and implementing new safety procedures within the school community.

On Wednesday, February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Nikolas Cruz killed seventeen people and wounded fourteen more using an AR-15. The day of the

shooting, Cruz took an Uber to the school and then began shooting in classrooms and banging on doors as students hid in closets and under desks. He was then able to flee the school by dropping his gun, running out, and blending in with the frantic pack of students. After that he went to Walmart and McDonald’s, where he was taken into custody.

The students of MSDHS are still in deep mourning for their fallen peers and teachers, but they are taking action for gun reform in our country. Many of the students confronted federal lawmakers and are demanding justice by advocating for common sense gun laws. They even spearheaded the Never Again MSD movement and led the national March For Our Lives on March 24. This movement has fiercely swept through the nation and is succeeding in

inspiring the youth of America to take action by protesting, walking out, voting, and getting informed. Even though citizens across the country are fighting for change, not much legal action has taken place yet. So far, the governor of Florida has recently signed a new bill: the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. This bill does several things including raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm from eighteen to 21, barring a person who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder or has been committed to a mental institution from owning a firearm, and even allowing some teachers to be armed. Even though this law only affects Florida’s legislation and doesn’t necessarily do much, it could be the beginning of the rectification of the lenient gun laws in our country.

Graphic by Sihan Wu ’19/Staff

Superintendent Copeland’s upcoming plans The Merionite (TM): How did you find out about Parkland, and what was your initial response?

Superintendent Robert Copeland (C): I was at a national superintendent conference out of town. I was in communication with the staff back here about what was going on and how we could reassure our community.

TM: What is your response to President Trump’s proposal of arming teachers in schools?

C: Not a positive one. I don’t think that it’s an appropriate thing to do. I don’t think that adding more armed people into a school situation is good. I am imagining a chaotic situation where police would come in not knowing who was and was not supposed to have a gun. I am also concerned that there is a sense that having a weapon is the same thing as being trained on a regular basis. If you’re in that kind of situation, you’re wired as a human to do the opposite of what a trained professional would do.

TM: What kind of messages have you received from parents, students, and faculty about this issue? Does a clear position emerge from the messages you have received?

C: About a month ago, I held a Sunday forum for the community on this issue and I think there is a range of thoughts around the concept of how secure we want to make schools.

We want to make sure our kids are safe but we don’t want to make school look like a prison. How do you find a balance?

One of the things that came up in my discussion with stu-

dents, which was interesting, was that we have drilled for a lot of things, but we have not done a drill during Lunch and Learn. What do we do in that situation? So one of the things we’re looking at is a safety drill for Lunch and Learn.

We decided, as soon as the Parkland shooting took place, to reinstitute our School Safety Task Force. After the Sandy Hook shooting, the district implemented a School Safety Task Force. The point we want to make to the people is that we are not reacting to just Parkland. We’ve been looking at various things ever since Sandy Hook. We thought it was a good idea because recently there has been a divergence in thought, so we could bring people together. The Task Force is looking to put together a proposed plan of action by July 1, mainly in response to an active shooter. We’ve put aside about $1.5 million in our budget to implement whatever they come up with.

TM: Which people and entities (for example, the State Legislature, the local police, the School Board) do you work with when you develop policies regarding school safety?

C: Montgomery County has a rapid response task force, so we are using their expertise. We’re also using the expertise of our local school district and outside resources, such as a book about active shooters written by former LM resident Peter Langman.

TM: Has LMSD implemented any new behind-the-scenes security measures since the Parkland shooting?

C: We have cameras and most of our campus aides are retired police officers. We also have panic buttons (we don’t necessarily tell people where the panic buttons are) so when one is pushed, a signal goes out to 911 and a police officer.

They don’t know what they’re going to meet, but they come immediately to the schools.

TM: Are you considering keeping an armed officer on campus?

C: It’s one of the recommendations that has been made.

That’s something that will go through the Task Force. I’ve had school resource officers in the last superintendencies I’ve had, and in my experience, they provide more of a link to the community than they do a deterrent. In one district, the officer was the head football coach, so that added ease to the situation. In another, it was a parent. The task force will consider and hear what people have to say about that.

TM: If you had the ability to do any single thing to make students at LMSD safer, what would it be?

C: I would ban the distribution of assault weapons. I’ve said this at a board meeting once: It costs $30 to renew your driver’s license in PA, and it takes $20 to renew your gun license in PA. When I said that, someone said, “You don’t have a constitutional right to a driver’s license,” and I said, “If you read the Heller’s decision, you don’t have a constitutional right for an assault weapon either. So meet me halfway on that, and we’re all good to go.”

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April 17, 2018

The

The following data and quotations come from two surveys: one that was emailed to all LM students and posted in the student “Aces Nation” Facebook group, and one that was emailed to all LM staff. Over the course of three weeks, 370 students responded and 58 staff members responded to their respective surveys.

According to the district website, there are currently 1,408 students in the school.

‘‘

We should require students to wear color-coded lanyards with their school IDs and those taking classes in the administration building would have another color to indicate they were authorized to go from building to building.

–Anonymous Staff Member

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Campus security should be armed and trained on how to use guns.

–Anonymous Student

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The drills we do are but I would recommend do Lunch & Learn to see us in otic point of the day.

–Anonymous S

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e Merionite

great practice, oing one during n our most cha-

Staff Member

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Have a door alarm sound every time someone opens a door that should not be opened. I hate to say this, but perhaps an armed security guard at the main entrance might help. It may be a deterrent.

–Anonymous Staff Member

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All windows should be bulletproof.

–Anonymous Student

Graphic by Sihan Wu ’19/Staff

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Anyone can walk in and out of the buildings in between sets due to the fact that the chemistry classes take place in a different building.

–Anonymous Student

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April 17, 2018

The Merionite

LM’s flawed security system Alek Lexa ’19 The horrifying mass shooting in Parkland, Florida showed school administrators all over the country the tragic reality of American schools: they simply don’t have the necessary resources to protect their students.

According to data collected by Everytown for Gun Safety, in 2018 there has been an average of one school shooting every 63 hours. This is more than double the number of school shootings in the previous three years.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, there were calls for new gun control legislation by community members, activists, and parents of the deceased children. The Democratic Party is the largest advocate for gun control legislation in the country, yet when Democrats had nearly complete control of Congress, with a 56 senator majority, they did not pass any major gun control legislation in response to the shooting. They didn’t take action for one simple reason: there is no law or regulation that could have prevented the shooting— or any of the school shootings that have occurred since.

While people have different opinions about the morals and ethics of having firearms in society, these tragedies shouldn’t be exploited to advance certain narratives about gun ownership. The reality is that laws and policies for background checks are in place to prevent individuals like Nikolas Cruz, the man responsible for the Parkland shooting, from obtaining a firearms. Despite this, the disorganization and incompetence of government agencies

such as the FBI, the Florida Department of Children and Families, and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office led to breached security measures. Background check databases were not properly updated with dozens of police reports and FBI documents, which included Cruz’s disturbing activities and threats to kill people at Stoneman Douglas High School. The shooting in Florida could have been prevented if our existing laws had been executed properly, but our government’s inability to enforce laws somehow allowed the Parkland shooter to legally purchase an assault weapon. Since it is clear that our nation’s laws will not protect students from gun violence, American school administrators need to take action to protect students and accept the unfortunate reality that no law, regulation, or weapons ban will ever prevent a school shooting.

LMSD’s Superintendent Robert Copeland told members of the Principal’s Advisory Committee that research and data showed no effectiveness in defense against a school shooter by placing a single armed person in a school. The superintendent is correct that placing one armed person in a school with a nine-round pistol will not be an effective defense against a mentally unstable intruder with a semiautomatic assault weapon. This is why we need several well-trained campus aides to carry firearms in the event that the lives of LM students are ever threatened by an active shooter. Currently, several of LM’s campus aides are former police officers who have been trained to operate a firearm under stressful and intense circumstances. In addition, the superintendent also claimed that a nine-round pistol won’t be effective against an intruder carrying a semiautomatic weapon, but it is better to have a weapon that could prevent a horrible situation than to have nothing at all. Since the tragic shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, several massacres have

been prevented at schools that have added armed security to their campuses. In early March, at a high school in Maryland, an armed security guard shot and killed an armed student who wanted to kill his classmates. The student only caused minor injuries to two students, but the incident likely would have been much worse with several casualties had it not been for the armed security guard who quickly took action to neutralize the threat.

In addition to armed security, LM should have metal detectors and random searches of students. Many students and staff members, including the superintendent, have voiced concerns about the potential negative impact of additional security on the “school learning environment.” The discomfort caused by having additional security is a small price to pay for keeping everyone at LM safe. According to The Economist, the average police officer response time for emergencies is nine minutes. In that time, an intruder could cause a catastrophic amount of harm to LM students. Armed security is the best way for LM to defend its students, and the discomfort and inconvenience caused by having additional security is worth it to protect our school.

Of the estimated three school shootings that will happen this week, there is a one in 13,506 chance that it will occur at a school in LMSD. Statistically, it is more likely that a school shooting will occur at LM than that the next plane you fly on will be hijacked, yet many would agree that the inconvenience caused by airport security is worth it to prevent a terrorist attack. Although it is unlikely that there will ever be a shooting at LM, it is even more unlikely that an airplane will be hijacked. Given this information, why should security at schools, which hold our nation’s children for the majority of their adolescent lives, be any different?

‘‘

In a scenario where an active shooter has a semi-automatic long gun and is wearing body armor, it is preposterous to think teachers in khakis with a handgun would do anything but make the situation more dangerous.

—Anonymous Staff Member

The following are more quotations from the aforementioned survey conducted of LM students and staff. For more information, please see pages 12-13.

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Although expensive, each teacher should have some sort of vault to store weapons that only they have access to. The code should be teacher-chosen, and nobody else should have access.

—Anonymous Student

‘‘

If the police enter the school in the event of an active shooter, they will look to find the person with the gun.

If teachers are also armed, there will only be more confusion and chaos.

—Anonymous Student

‘‘

I have never touched a gun nor would I ever feel comfortable having one on my person. This is not the answer.

—Anonymous Staff Member

”

‘‘

”

Julia Rudy ’19 Gun violence is nothing new to Americans. It is not out of the norm for us to read the news headlines featuring a list of the never-ending names and ages of citizens who lost their lives far too soon at the hands of an assault weapon. It happens in schools, clubs, malls, on street corners, and in theaters. Gun violence has simply become a facet of American culture by now, and every time we see a headline, we know the drill. Reactions are as follows: we blankly read the obituaries, send our thoughts and prayers, conservatives say that it’s too early to politicize the deaths of these victims or to talk about gun control, and then nothing happens until the next shooting.

All of this changed after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre. The victims themselves fought back against their critics; MSD student and shooting survivor Sarah Chadwick tweeted, “To the politicians saying this isn’t about guns, and that we shouldn’t be discussing this: We were literally being shot at while trying to gain an education. So this is about guns. You weren’t in the school while this was happening. We were, and

”

In specifically the context of a shooting, perhaps an armed staff member would make a difference. My concern is more the normal day-today. If there are guns in the building, that increases the chances that those guns will be fired, even accidentally.

—Anonymous Staff Member

Graphic by Sihan Wu ’19/Staff

Don’t fight fire with firearms

”

we’re demanding change.” It was like the world had been reawakened. Finally, thanks to many strong advocates, the push for gun control is gaining momentum.

But in the midst of all of the progress, a ludicrous new debate had surfaced. President Donald Trump, a mere days after the shooting, took to Twitter, writing: “If a potential “sicko shooter” knows that a school has a large number of very weapons talented teachers (and others) who will be instantly shooting, the sicko will NEVER attack that school. Cowards won’t go there... problem solved. Must be offensive, defense alone won’t work!”

This argument is utterly insane. First of all, far too many schools struggle to provide funds for pencils and textbooks, and it speaks volumes for politicians to immediately support the idea of factoring assault rifles into the budget over basic educational resources. Second, this is not a James Bond movie. It is inconceivable for our country to expect teachers, no matter how skilled, to make instantaneous decisions in an environment with hundreds of children. The fact that our politicians would consider demanding this of teachers, whose primary purpose is to provide knowledge for students and not to serve as bodyguards, is absurd.

Additionally, arming teachers drastically increases the risk of injuring or killing someone in school: the more guns in an environment, the more likely one is to go off.

In the week leading up to the March 14 walkout, there

”

were three accidental incidents where guns were triggered in schools. At LM, how many times have you seen a teacher accidentally project his or her email or even leave out a copy of a test? We can’t actually predict whether or not a gun will be perfectly stowed away from students.

Moreover, what kind of environment do we want our schools to be? When a student comes into school knowing that their teacher has a gun in the room, will the student refuse to engage in a civil disagreement with a teacher? Students might be afraid to go in for help during Lunch and Learn if they know the teacher is in a bad mood. While the idea of arming teachers exists to provide safety for students, it will actually create a more tense and potentially dangerous space which could greatly stifle any chance of a quality education.

Finally, the debate of arming teachers is not only deeply flawed, but it is also irrelevant. Whether he intended to or not, President Trump’s proposal of this idea has shifted the conversation away from the real debate: gun control. We need to either repeal the Second Amendment altogether or make it far more difficult to gain access to assault-style weapons. This conversation is now taking place as the NRA continues to manufacture and sell these weapons, profiting from the thousands of deaths they are responsible for, because yes, guns do kill people. So, no, we should not arm teachers, and we should not even be talking about it.

Special Feature

April 17, 2018

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The Merionite

Stick to your guns Ryan Fisher ’18 Mass hysteria. Never in my life have I seen so many people fearing for their lives, praying that they are not next in line. Of course, I am talking about mass shootings, especially in schools. Instinctually, we want to mourn those lost. We want to comfort their families. Yet most importantly, we want to prevent additional shootings. This reaction is normal, which has caused increased gun control to explode in popularity.

Almost every student wants to talk about it, yet I have found that those in favor are quick to cast away those against as trigger-happy radicals. I will be demonstrating why this is a false characterization, and further explain why it is more important than ever to keep hold of this freedom to bear arms.

The first issue is that most people overestimate the death tally of school shootings.

The New York Times reported that there have been 138 deaths from school shootings in the past six years, including the Parkland shooting. These deaths are tragic, yet represent a tiny fraction of all deaths. In comparison, our society has seen 31,854 pedestrians due to moving vehicles over those same six years, often at the hands of drunk or speeding drivers. Why are we not issuing car control through enforcing a drastic speed or size limit for sold vehicles or installing strict background checks for all drivers?

The answer is simple. We choose to permit these vehicular freedoms to everyone, even if a small percentage of irresponsible or inhibited drivers abuse those freedoms. Few would disagree, and it is

with that same principle that we should approach gun control. Sure, some people misuse their firearms in horrible ways, but that does not mean prospective gun owners should be discouraged from purchasing a firearm through additional regulation. Yet our school’s community readily accepts this double standard, with students offering only destructive or incorrect rationale such as the following in order to support their inconsistency.

Gun bans in other countries have gone well. This is partially true, but shortsighted.

The UK enacted a handgun ban in 1996, after which homicide rates trended upward until they peaked in 2003 (crime rates have decreased internationally since then). Ireland banned firearms in 1972 after experiencing a static homicide rate, only to see their murder rate increase fourfold by 1975. Australia, on the other hand, saw a fall in the murder rate after their mandatory gun buyback, but culturally-similar New Zealand also experienced a similar decline over the same period without this policy.

We must raise the minimum purchasing age for firearms. This idea is a red herring meant to increase perceived government action in the wake of a tiny number of shooters who were between the ages of eighteen and 21. Even moderately liberal newspapers like the LA Times have conceded that “few mass shootings are committed by killers younger than 21 using rifles.” Thus, there would be an unjustified removal of freedom without an increase in public safety.

We must ban assault weapons. “Assault Weapon” refers to any weapon that does not have to be reloaded after each shot—a standard feature in most guns nowadays unless one plans on buying a revolver or Spas 12. Modern semi-automatic weaponry is thus essential towards self-defense. One example of this was a largely forgotten shooting at the First Baptist Church in Texas with 22 murder victims whereby a civilian named Stephen Willeford used an AR-15 to take out the heavily-armored shooter.

In an emotional interview, he claims, “if I had ran out of that house with a pistol, and faced bulletproof vests and kevlar helmets, [the effort] might have been futile.”

However, there are things we as a society can do in response to these shootings.

Firstly, we could limit the way we publicize shooters. If their purpose was to get retribution, then we are causing more shootings by allowing each one to shock the country.

Secondly, we could reevaluate how we deal with mental health in this technological age. Many young people are disillusioned, and cases of mental illness are on the rise.

This needs to be fixed, and fast. Until then, we need to only be concerned with keeping our liberties safe from a society desperately looking for answers in the wrong place.

An interview with LMPD The Merionite met with Captain Frank Thomas and Officer Josephine Murray from the Lower Merion Police Department (LMPD) to understand how the local law enforcement is taking action in response to recent gun violence in schools. The police department is collaborating with LMSD to build better relations with the community and to prepare for times of need at school.

The Merionite (TM): What kind of safety responses are in place if someone were to call 911 and say that there was an emergency at LM? Captain Thomas (CT): It used to be that police would not immediately enter the school in these situations, which added to the response time in these situations. After Columbine, police departments have adopted a policy called “active shooter” or rapid deployment. What that means is that we no longer wait for the SWAT team or supervisor to show up. If someone calls here and says that there is even a suspicious person, let alone someone with a gun, you will have every LM police officer coming here immediately, light, sirens, and all. The first groups will make entry right away and will go right after the shooter.

Everything else is secondary. Once we stop the shooter, the rest of the teams come in to help the wounded and assess the case.

TM: How long might it take for this response?

CT: According to statistics, the response time is, on average, about 6 minutes. However, there are 136 members of the LMPD, which is pretty big, and LMSD is located right in the middle of town. So I imagine our response time would be much less than that.

TM: What training does the LMPD do to prepare for an armed intruder in a school?

CT: We train in the high schools on days off, and we do fullscale deployment drills at LM, where we practice to train for events. Sometimes, we get student volunteers to act as victims, which helps us practice evacuating people. Sometimes, we use simunitions (basically paintballs) to add even more stress and reality to these drills.

Officer Murray (OM): In addition, we are participating more in the lockdown drills that the schools have. We will take advantage of in-service days and half days to familiarize more officers with the school and to familiarize staff with certain training routines. The better that the officers know the school, the faster a response could be in an emergency. We can know the blind spots and shortcuts this way.

TM: How do you feel about the idea of arming staff members?

CT: Well, that’s a decision for Superintendent Copeland, but in my opinion, it’s not a great solution. We’re police officers, so we train very frequently for this situation. A high

school teacher wouldn’t have the time to train for that. It’s not practical in my opinion.

TM: Do you think it would be a good idea to have an armed officer on campus?

CT: In my opinion, having a uniformed Lower Merion police officer on school property in the event of an emergency is always beneficial in terms of immediate response. There tends to be a negative viewpoint surrounding police for young people. We don’t want that. But when you think about it, nobody calls us when you’re having a good time.

We’re here to respond to societal distress. That’s aside from the school safety issue, but we want everyone to be aware of that as our role.

TM: A lot of students and staff expressed concern that it would be easy for an intruder to enter LM. Is this true and, if so, is it resolvable?

CT: The most secure building I’ve ever been in is a prison, and no one wants the school to be a prison. So unless we add walls, barbed wire, and TSA-style metal detectors, we can’t keep out outsiders. The problem is that most of these attacks come from the inside--they’re committed by students. It’s up to the students to have situational awareness in these situations.

Again, we really want you to be on the lookout on social media.

Even if it’s not a legitimate threat, we’re looking to not just arrest people, but also to guide people where they need to be and to assist them in improving their mental health.

TM: What’s the process in place if someone reports a student to the police?

OM: Officially, we take reports like that as terroristic reports. Whether or not they are intended as a joke, they will be treated with the utmost seriousness. We will come in and arrest a student for saying something like this. That’s something that students need to understand—the seriousness behind your words.

TM: What, if anything, do you think LMSD should be doing differently in order to make its schools safer?

OM: Many solutions originate with you students. We need to focus more on your mental health, but really, it comes down to this: if you see something, for example on social media, you need to say something. Parents need to help their children. We can’t do this all by ourselves as law enforcement, the school can’t do it all by themselves, and parents can’t do it all by themselves.

CT: Every student here has a responsibility to make the school safer. If you see a door propped open, you should either alert a staff member or go and close the door, even if it was for your friend. If you see someone that looks suspicious in the building, you need to notify somebody.

Graphics by Chris de Santis ’20/Staff

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The Merionite

Best Driving Test Lo cations Aviva Weinstein ’19

Now more than ever, driving and obtaining a license at a young age has become an overlooked privilege which many have taken for granted. Especially in areas like LM, where many families can afford multiple vehicles per household and provide their new drivers with their own cars, teenage driving has become a prevalent norm. On a national scale, from the minute teens become eligible for their permit, they are taking time out of their daily lives to get out on the roads and obtain the hours they need to then receive the freedom of a license.

In Pennsylvania, students can receive a junior learner’s permit after passing an eighteen question exam once they turn sixteen. Once these students hold their permit for six months, they are then eligible to take a road test in order to get their junior driver’s license. In LM especially, these set times are almost always met, so that teenagers can then feel free to drive to school, the mall, or Starbucks as soon as possible, already on the road to becoming a young adult.

For many years, the main hub for anyone in Pennsylvania to get their license was the closest Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), with locations in Granite Run, Norristown, and Malvern. Parking, controls, and driving a short distance are all included in every administered test and at the end of each assessment, the driver is given a pass or fail in which case they

must reschedule another exam on a future date once they have learned the additional requirements needed to pass. The DMV has high standards for accuracy and skill to ensure that all drivers, especially teens, are extremely safe and confident while out on the roads.

While DMV’s are still widely used today, new third party test centers have been established to create a more convenient, comfortable experience, and offer an arguably easier driving test. New programs like these include Driven2Drive on Montgomery Avenue, Cantor’s Driving chool on Monument Road, and Henry & Joe’s Driving School on West Chester Pike. These test spots have become increasingly popular as the new generation of drivers has grown tired of stressful test experiences.

With places like Driven2Drive, it is simple for many in the area to schedule and pay for three quick driving lessons with one of their trained instructors, and then go in for the license test, all in a very short amount of time. “Since many times, at branch-off sites, the person who administers the test is the lesson instructor, the student is more likely than not to pass, as they have already formed such a strong relationship with their instructor before even taking the test,” states Isabelle Gordon ’19. This is not always the case at the DMV, which truly works more on the nitty gritty details in a students driving skills, and where the test

Makerspace Caroline Spencer ’18 Copy Editor

Have you ever had an idea for a design or a desire to create something?

With the new Makerspace, LM students have the opportunity to do so! The new addition to the LM Art Department is a place where students can learn creatively through building and design.

The Makerspace contains all the tools that a student could ever need to transform their designs into reality. It is composed of a woodshop with a variety of saws, drills, and other materials, even a 3D printer! According to AP Art teacher Russ Loue, the Makerspace was created to give students and teachers “the opportunity to turn concepts into objects.”

This is the first year the Makerspace has been in use, mainly by AP Art students.

Currently, students taking AP Art are using the Makerspace for a woodworking project: to build a chair out of one 4x4 piece of plywood. After weeks of designing and experimenting with model chairs, the students are now working alongside Loue to turn their concepts into a fully functioning chair. First, the students measure and draw out their designs onto the wood. Then, using the tools and machines available in the Makerspace, they cut their pieces and assemble the chair. A careful design is especially crucial to the process as all of the measure-

Graphics by Chris de Santis/Staff ’20

ments must be exact in order to ensure a successful product. Several students have already completed their chairs, and each design further shows how the students’ hard work has paid off.

Loue is excited about the success of the newly implemented project and the Makerspace. He said, “The class completely changed when they went from design to construction. What I really liked was seeing many students use power tools for the first time, seeing the apprehension and fear turn into excitement and accomplishment. For many students, I saw a tremendous amount of growth and confidence.”Art students are realizing their full potential and learning valuable skills by working in the Makerspace. AP Art student Sarah McConnell ’18 said, “It’s really awesome to be able to have this space where we can create and design in 3D. The Makerspace allows students to think critically and problemsolve in a way never seen before in the art department.”It is available to all students, but a student must first be certified on the equipment. Loue is looking forward to incorporating the space into more art classes in the future, giving more LM students the opportunity to benefit from everything the Makerspace has to offer.

Answers to Crossword Puzzle on Page 9

Down 1.

2.

3.

4.

Grace Vinci Pisoni Kaczmar

Across 6. Hawkins 11. Elder 12. Downer

4.

5.

7.

8.

Keenan Burch Quinn Capkin

9. Murphy 10. Henneberry 13. Moyer 14. Nemoy

administer is never the same as the lesson instructor.

“Places like Driven2Drive are nice because you get to drive on streets that you are familiar with like Montgomery and Conshohocken,” explains Alexa Shapiro ’19. “The instructors are also really nice and the test is easy to schedule, whereas at the DMV you have to make an appointment up to six weeks in advance.”

These new additions to the neighborhood have been effective at getting more young people on the roads if they are simply willing to pay the $75 and take quick lessons. On the other hand, some argue that these test locations are almost too effective at getting young people on the roads. Many argue that the third party locations judge a student’s driving ability less harshly and have an incentive to give out licenses due to the fee for the test. Additionally, many believe driving only a few more miles to take the test at the DMV is nominal compared to the $75 cost. Despite these concerns, it seems as though these locations will only continue to grow in popularity.

While many have varying opinions on the correct location for their teenager to take his or her driving test, each site is different, good or bad, for various reasons. Sites like Driven2Drive offer a more convenient and quick test experience, but with a large price tag. The DMV offers a more affordable but lengthier test process. Which one will you choose?

The Writing Center Ziphron Russel ’20

New this year at LM is the Writing Center. It’s a space where students can collaborate as well as receive peer feedback on everything from English homework to college essays alike. The Writing Center exemplifies how LM is always coming up with new ways to help students in their academics. Regardless of whether or not writing comes easily to someone, it’s a skill that can always be built upon. Vital for college applications and a multitude of careers, writing remains an essential life skill long after high school graduation.

The Writing Center was created after it came to the attention of some teachers that students needed more help than they were currently receiving with their composition skills. This great resource is located in the Learn Center during the second half of Lunch and Learn on A, B, and C days. Not only does the Writing Center benefit the kids who show up, but the peer tutors also benefit from reading and assisting their fellow students. The best way to learn is from each other! The peer tutors leading the writing center were chosen by English teachers who believed the students to have strong writing skills and could successfully assist other students with their writing. Brian Mays, Diane Shannon and Leslie Pratt, the founders of the center, hope to see it blossom into an impactful and resourceful place for the student body. If you feel as though your writing skills could be elevated, feel free to stop by the Writing Center on the next A, B or C day! This could turn out to be one of the best stops you’ve made at LM.

Arts & Entertainment

April 17, 2018

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The Merionite

Julia Rudy ’19 “Dear Basketball, from the moment I started rolling my dad’s tube socks and shooting imaginary game-winning shots…I knew one thing was real: I fell in love with you. A love so deep, I gave you my all.” These were the opening few words of Kobe Bryant’s 2015 poem that narrated his animated short film, Dear Basketball.

Just when America thought that Bryant’s days of victory had ended, he triumphed again, but not due to his talent on the court. On March 4, Bryant’s short film won an Oscar in the category “Best Animated Short.” Bryant was inspired to make this film by his eleven-year-old daughter Gianna, who told him, “Dad, you always tell us to go after our dreams, so man up.” The six-minute short film pictures Bryant making his goals as a young boy and then achieving them as an adult. The simple pencil sketches show a young Bryant training to become the basketball star we know today. The movie also served as his swan song when, at the end, Bryant says, “This season is all I have left to give. My heart can take the pounding, my mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.”

Glen Keane, the animator and director of Bryant’s short film, accepted his Oscar by saying, “It’s a message for all of us. Whatever form your dream may take, it’s through passion and perseverance that the impossible is possible.” Afterwards, when Bryant gave his

acceptance speech, he jokingly noted that basketball players are really just supposed to “shut up and dribble,” but he noted his gratitude to be able to do more than just that. Several NBA stars, including LeBron James, identified with that message. James congratulated Bryant for his Oscar on Twitter, accompanied by the hashtag #WeAreMoreThanShutUpDribble.

By creating and writing this film, Bryant has proven that he is more than just a basketball player; he is multifaceted, an idea that sports stars are starting to express more. The idea of a professional athlete using their talents and voice for more than just sports sends a message to kids that they can achieve anything they put their minds to.

According to a post-Oscars interview, Bryant does not believe that this film is his last accomplishment.

The NBA star revealed that this is only the beginning of his second career as he is already working hard on a series of novels, adding “I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to write, I can’t wait to get to the studio.” It is evident that Byant enjoys this new aspect of his career, as he admitted that winning his Oscar was a better experience than winning an NBA championship. Bryant’s Oscar-winning film has the power to change our one-dimensional view of professional athletes. Without a doubt, there is much more inspiration to come from Bryant’s new career, as he shifts from “shut up and dribble” to “shut up and write!”

Graphic by Sihan Wu ’19/Staff

The Merionite reached out to Kobe Bryant and asked if we could interview him about his film, Dear Basketball. We learned a lot about the process of creating the film, and Bryant’s plans for the future. You can watch the Oscar-winning film for free on go90.com.

The Merionite (TM): What inspired you to turn Dear Basketball from a letter you wrote for The Players’ Tribune about your retirement into an animated short film?

Kobe Bryant (KB): I first wrote it as my letter to the game. I had never spoken directly to the game before, so that made the piece feel special. As my basketball career was ending and my career in storytelling was beginnning, I knew I wanted to work on a project with two icons in their industries – Glen Keane and John Williams. With the Dear Basketball poem sitting in front of me, I figured there was no better time than the present, so I picked up the phone and called them both.

TM: What was the process behind deciding the style of animation you wanted for the film?

KB: I wanted it to be hand-drawn animation because you see the raw lines and the process of creating the artwork that was reminiscent of my basketball career. It was raw and gritty, but there was beauty in that journey.

TM: What was it about your film that inspired John Williams’ composition?

KB: John and I have been friends for years. He’s always been a great mentor to me in learning about leadership and conducting a team. When I reached out to him about this film, he was happy to be a part of this story about a childhood dream. John’s composition brought great emotion to the piece. I was speechless when I first heard it.

TM: Throughout the film you talk about your continuing love for basketball, but were there ever any moments when you questioned if basketball was your life path?

KB: I was always very focused on basketball and being the best player in the world. Nothing took me off that focus. It’s what I call the Mamba Mentality.

After I tore my achilles, I realized I needed to find my next passion but basketball and I will never say goodbye. It’s a part of who I am.

TM: This film is a great message to kids about wanting to pursue their dreams and going after their goals. What would you say to a child who is unsure of their goals or dreams?

KB: My guidance counselor once told me I should have a back-up plan if basketball didn’t work out. I didn’t listen. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew I needed to put EVERYTHING into making it work.

My advice is to follow your dream, but put all you have into it to make it successful. If you do things only halfway, you can never be great. Realize your dream and then pour yourself into being great at it.

TM: Throughout the film you talked about your father supporting your dream of playing professional basketball. In what ways do you encourage your own children to follow their dreams?

KB: We believe in trying out different things when you’re young and have supported all of our daughters’ interests. Now that our first two have gotten older, they’ve started narrowing in on what they love. But it’s their choice and we support what makes them happy.

TM: Was your overall experience at LM supportive of your dream? Did it also inspire your artistic side, which you found helpful in creating this film?

KB: Lower Merion was a great experience for me.

Moving there from Italy was tough, but I found my way on the basketball court and in other ways. It was actually in Jeanne Mastriano‘s English class where I started to find my voice in writing and storytelling.

TM: You said in your Oscar’s acceptance speech, “As basketball players, we are really supposed to shut up and dribble. But I am glad we do a little bit more than that.” As an extremely successful basketball player with tremendous influence, what do you wish to do in the future with such influence?

KB: I hope to inspire the next generation of athletes to reach their full potential. I want to create stories that make this world a more accepting place because they teach young people about themselves, how to handle adversity and grapple with different emotions. I hope storytelling becomes my legacy – even more than being a basketball player.

TM: After the Oscars ceremony you said, “[winning an Oscar] feels better than winning the championship.” What was the difference, for you, between winning the Oscar and winning the championship?

KB: Winning the Oscar is special because it was never expected of me to have that statue. As a basketball player, I was always expected to bring home the championship every year. This win seemed special because not only was I the first athlete to win an Oscar, but also the first African American to win in the animated category. There’s nothing sweeter than breaking down barriers for others to follow.

The Merionite gives special thanks to Doug Young for his help in arranging this interview.

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April 17, 2018

Arts & Entertainment The Merionite

Davon Collins ’19 Marvel’s newest installment, Black Panther, is the long-awaited Afrocentric superhero action film that the world needed. The story of this Avenger opens in a Wakandan jet, with Okoye, the General of the all-female Wakandan army (the Dora Milaje), advising her king not to freeze during his mission. This opening scene is breathtaking and sets a very high precedent for the rest of the film. The next scene is just as gorgeous; it is a dark night and the prince, T’Challa, is in the middle of a mission where he just somersaults into the earth onto a high-speed car and rips a tire off the car like it is nothing. The film oozes with Afrocentric themes that create an overall visually pleasing experience.

Part of what makes Black Panther so incredible is the carefully woven-in Pan-Africanism symbolism. Pan-Africanism is defined, according to Wikipedia, as “a worldwide intellectual movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent.”

This attitude is shown most through the movie’s supervillain, Erik Killmonger, played by actor Michael B. Jordan. Killmonger acts as a resentful bridge between the two worlds: reality and Wakanda.

He knows of both worlds and knows that Wakandans live better, utopian lifestyles while there are struggling black people in the rest of the world. Additionally, this sense of Pan-Africanism is symbolized more subtly through traditional African props and costumes, along with art direction.

In a segment with Vanity Fair

titled “Notes on a Scene,” director Ryan Coogler breaks down one of the film’s most iconic scenes: the fight scene in the Korean Casino. Here, Coogler explains the symbolism behind the costuming of the main characters Okoye, Nakia, and T’Challa, who sport colors from the Pan-African flag (black, green, and red). Okoye, or the general, is wearing red with accents of gold, which is used here as a symbol of status. She was originally wearing a wig to help her “blend in” by conforming to Western standards. However, when the fighting begins, she throws her wig in the face of one of the men she fights.

This theme of embracing black roots does not stop there. It is also highlighted in the film’s soundtrack, featuring tracks

by Kendrick Lamar and other black artists such as SZA, 2 Chainz, and Khalid. The soundtrack also combines the two black societies from the film. Lamar features American artists who rap and sing over a set of instrumentals with Afrobeat-esque sounds and is jam-packed with drums, flutes, and other instruments. This soundtrack is very refreshing in that it introduces a unique side of rap to Western society.

Black Panther is a remarkable representation of two very different black experiences.

These experiences are portrayed through complex original characters in a fictional world that many people desperately wish were real. The film is a defining moment for contemporary black America and also marks a major milestone for society as a whole.

Graphic by Chris De Santis ’20/Staff

Sydney Zelinger ’21 Several of the most popular TV shows of the 90s, such as Full House and Will & Grace, still have many fans today. To the delight of those who miss these classic shows, the writers and directors have created reboots, reuniting the stars of these shows for more seasons, several years after their original debut. When the reboots of some shows were announced, many fans were enthusiastic. They could not wait to relive their favorite childhood television shows and see their all-time favorite actors and actresses back on TV. After these shows are viewed on cable or Netflix, the question remains whether reboots will be received by critics as incredible or as a major bust.

Reviews are only a part of shows being brought back; many executives believe that reboots can bring more money and prestige to a production company. They also believe that the show will get many viewers as it already has an established audience. However, many believe that original content from networks would lead to better TV and innovative shows, unlike reboots. This debate on the ideas of reboots has left many people with mixed opinions and reactions.

Netflix released a reboot of the beloved television show Full House, introducing the world to Fuller House. Full House follows the life of widowed father, Danny Tanner, who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse and best friend Joey to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle. Fuller House centers around Danny’s oldest daughter, wid-

ow and mother D.J. Tanner-Fuller, her sister Stephanie, and best friend Kimmy, all who live together in the Tanner’s childhood home. The overall plot of this reboot sounded exciting to fans of the original show, but critics and TV watchers were disappointed with the show overall, manying finding the reboot unnecessary. It seemed to them

Graphic courtesy of that the show was just trying to capitalize off of 90s nostalgia and love of the original show, without providing anything new and substantial to viewers.

Another recently rebooted TV show, Will & Grace, made a comeback with its ninth season on NBC last year. The characters have not changed much, but the world has. In its original run, the show was incredibly successful, winning sixteen Emmy Awards.

When Will & Grace came out it influenced many

people’s views on the LGBTG+ community, with Vice President Joe Biden commenting that the show “probably did more to educate the American public [on LGBTQ+ issues] than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”

The show picks up right where it left off eleven years ago, with Will and Grace moving back in together after having both gone through divorces.

However, the new season adds a fresh relevance by using the Trump-era setting as a counterpoint to this LGBTQ+ focused show. It also uses the passage of time as a basis for hilarious story lines about the characters realizing that they cannot have the same habits as their younger selves, like when Will and Grace went on dates with young men and found out they could not keep up with them. The new Will & Grace was extremely well-received by critics, many of whom think the show is as funny as it was in its prime.

Reboots like Fuller House and Will & Grace represent a large trend of TV networks wanting to capitalize on nostalgia and bring back beloved Sihan Wu ’19/Staff shows. Though many viewers like seeing their favorite shows, such as Gilmore Girls, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Queer Eye, come back to life, they are often not satisfied with the new version. With reboots taking up networks’ time and money, many have wondered what great shows may have come out if they had put effort towards producing original content. Though reboots may be good, it seems networks should embrace any opportunity to put new voices and ideas on the big screen.

Arts & Entertainment

April 17, 2018

19

The Merionite

Bobby Tarantino II–Logic Rapper Logic released his seventh mixtape on March 7.

Highlights from this album include “44 More,” “Everyday,” and “Midnight.”

My Dear Melancholy–The Weeknd The Weeknd surprised his fans on March 30 by revealing his new project without prior notice. This album immediately skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard 200.

Vessel–Frankie Cosmos Small indie rock artist Frankie Cosmos released her eighteen-track album in March, making it her sixth album release since 2013.

Her songs are known for being short, averaging one to two minutes.

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino–Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys will be releasing their first album in six years on May 11. Since the announcement, an album trailer and U.S. tour dates have been announced.

1.“Lemon- Drake Remix”– N.E.R.D. ft.

Rihanna 2. “Pray for Me”– The Weeknd ft. Kendrick Lamar 3. “Powerglide”– Rae Sremmurd ft.

Juicy J 4. “You”– The 1975 5. “III. Telegraph Ave. (“Oakland” by Lloyd)”– Childish Gambino 6. “Psycho”– Post Malone ft. Ty Dolla $ign 7. “Get Out”– CHVRCHES 8. “Wake Up”– Arcade Fire 9. “Love My Way”– The Psychedelic Furs 10. “Plug Walk”- Rich the Kid 11. “Cold War”- Janelle Monáe 12. “GOLD”– BROCKHAMPTON 13. “Baby You’re a Rich Man”– The Beatles 14. “Nice for What”– Drake 15. “Stacy’s Mom”– Fountains of Wayne 16. “Don’t Take The Money”– Bleachers 17. “Take Me”– Aly & AJ 18. “Psycho Killer”– Talking Heads 19. “Never Be the Same”– Camila Cabello 20. “Hard Feelings”– Lorde

PLAYERS’ Yerma

4/26, 4/27, 4/28 @ 7:00 p.m.

4/28 @ 1:00 p.m.

Come see a PLAYERS production this spring! Yerma is being showcased and directed by LM’s own talented students. The show chronicles the tale of a young woman who struggles with internal conflicts. She lives in rural Spain where women are pressured to conceive children and enter motherhood. Yerma, however, has trouble becoming pregnant, and this conflict triggers her obsession with having children. She unceasingly longs for children and even makes a pilgrimage in hopes of conceiving a child. Her desperate desire results in a heinous crime that exposes society’s standards for women that drove many into insanity.

Band and Orchestra Concert 5/8 and 5/9 @ 7:00 p.m.

The LM Music Concert will feature colossal works of music that have remained timeless. The Concert Band and Wind Ensemble are performing Symphony #4

by Andrew Boysen Jr. together, which will be a unique experience for both ensembles and the audience. The full orchestra will be performing Aaron Copland’s Hoe-Down from his ballet Rodeo, which has established the “Americana” Sound.

The chamber string ensemble will perform the Bloch Concerto Grosso, another monumental piece that is widely popular in classical music repertoire. The award-winning jazz band will also make an appearance in this concert. Throughout the spring, they have competed and won numerous awards at each jazz festival. Come experience a night filled with exquisite classical and jazz music!

Claire Ochroch’s pick: Lil Dicky Lil Dicky is a comedian and rapper who is storming the charts and gaining recognition with his new single “Freaky Friday” ft. Chris Brown. The single is about Lil Dicky switching bodies with Chris Brown. His other music includes the album Professional Rapper with the hilarious song “$ave Dat Money,” which contrasts rappers regular habit of spending money with Lil Dicky’s goal of saving money. He is from nearby Cheltenham, Pennsylvania and went to the University of Richmond. Make sure to look for more of Lil Dicky’s unique comedy/rap hybrid music.

Minori Cohan’s pick: Wallows Wallows is a small but growing alternative band that I discovered about a year ago through the co-lead singer Dylan Minnette, or Clay from 13 Reasons Why. A newly established band, the group consists of three main members including Minnette.

Their most popular song is “Pleaser,” but they just dropped their first EP on April 6 called Spring, a timely release. They have been on tour since March, and stopped in Philly where I saw them on April 8 at The Foundry. The trio (plus a trumpeter) were incredible and were as good live as they are recorded.

Grace Wei’s pick: blackbear blackbear has been one of the most prominent artists of this generation. He has collaborated with artists ranging from Justin Beiber to G-Eazy. His hit songs “idfc” and “do re mi” have already been certified platinum. He is renowned for his play on words and witty one-liners in his song lyrics.

Besides his great talent, his music videos are also unique visual works of art. blackbear features petty songs about his past experiences with his exes that are relatable for many. lackbear has catchy tunes and beats that will linger in your memory.

Art Show

4/30-5/4 LM Art Show Opens 6:00 p.m.

Every year, the LM Art Show exhibits fantastic art by every student who takes an art class. All pieces are impressive, but some of the most eye-catching artworks are the panels designed by the seniors. Here are the reflections of two seniors on their experiences in AP Art. They have also included information about their themes in their panels.

Cathy Si ’18: For my AP concentration this year, I chose to create pieces loosely based on the idiom “a trip down memory lane.” I took my most poignant memories from the past decade and viewed them through another perspective while playing with surrealism. I try to emphasize how our memories are often exaggerated or sometimes unreliable through my work. I had a lot of fun coming up with the craziest images I could think of, but definitely not as much fun as I’ve had creating them and experimenting with new art mediums. I’m extremely grateful for the artistic freedom that I have received this year, and I’m looking forward to my future projects!

Samantha Dilsheimer ’18: AP Art has allowed me to have greater creativity freedom starting this year. I have been allowed to find my own style and create artworks that I’m interested in instead of drawing still-lifes that are unappealing to me. For my concentration, I chose to recreate pieces from TV shows. One of my favorites pieces is “Bold and Brash” that was originally painted by Squidward Tentacles on the TV show Spongebob Squarepants. It was really fun to make, and everyone always has a good laugh when they see it. Another one of my favorites is a portrait of Kim Kardashian in the style of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe prints.

I love to use color, and my pieces are usually in a graphic style like his prints. I love to pull references from pop culture and draw inspiration from Andy Warhol.

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April 17, 2018

Arts & Entertainment The Merionite

Samantha Anderer ’20

Fiona Pollack ’21 Back from their 2017 tour in Italy, the battle-hardened veteran Jazz Band returns for another year directed by Andrew Neu. Though most people may not realize the hours they spend practicing, the Jazz Band is a dedicated and driven group of musicians and everyone can hear the fruits of their labor. The majority of current members in the 2017-18 ensemble are returning as veterans from last year’s ensemble that travelled all the way to Italy to perform. Every Wednesday from 6-9 PM, the ensemble rehearses in the music rooms, sightreads new charts, and perfects performance tunes as directed by their fearless leader, Neu. The weekly practice is accompanied by private “sectional” rehears-

Last month, the Philadelphia Flower Show returned, bringing with it a much needed preview of spring to the city. From March 3-11, the Pennsylvania Convention Center attracted 250,000 visitors looking to experience the breathtaking displays which blend botany with art. Many LM students exhibited hand-made jewelry crafted entirely out of plants, and the Flower Show Club created a front door display.

Started in 1829 by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Philadelphia Flower Show is the largest and longest running horticultural event in the country.

Exhibits showcase new varieties of plants, organic and sustainable growing practices, and garden and design layout ideas for everyone from the seasoned farmer to the curious newbie. Besides displays, the show also includes competitions and demonstrations in categories such as gardening and floral arranging. The Flower Show provides something for everyone, even if you just want to stop and smell the flowers.

Every display in the 2018 showcase was centered around the theme “Wonders of Water,” which aimed to celebrate “the beauty and life-sustaining interplay of horticulture and water.” Designers found creative ways to incorporate this idea into their work; some focused on the presence of water in nature, weaving grandiose waterfalls and flowing streams into their displays, while others focused on water’s increasing absence: dried up landscapes dotted with succulents and floating hydroponics relying on minimal water. While not as traditional of an interpretation, the latter sought to draw attention to the growing impact of environmental neglect on our water supply and how our landscapes might look in the future.

Many pieces provided the public with education on the importance of plants in the ecosystem and served as a call to action for the preservation of natural resources.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Hughart ’19 The performers passionately play their instruments for an awestruck audience in Italy. als organized by the instrument section leaders, during which the players can practice their parts in a more personal and casual setting. And, of course, there is the necessary hard work that each of the players puts in outside of organized rehearsals. “There is… a lot of individual talent,” commented trombone section leader Ethan Spingarn ’19. “That means we don’t have to spend as much time mastering the technical content and that we have a lot of potential as a band.” Currently, the ensemble has over ten tunes moving through the creative process, including pieces such as the Latin big band chart “Lament,” the classic jazz standard “Dolphin Dance,” and Neu’s own arrangement of Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love.” (This song can be heard on Neu’s fifth and most recent album Catwalk, available on iTunes, CD, and Spotify today).

The majority of the Jazz Band’s performances take place at jazz festivals (e.g. Cavalcade of Bands), where the ensemble travels to rival schools such as Cheltenham, Upper Merion, and Marple Newtown and plays a set of typically three tunes–an opener, a ballad or slow swing, and an energetic closer–in front of an audience and a panel of judges. The musicians are judged based on tone quality, blend, rhythm, precision, interpretation, and other criteria. The various bands compete against each other, aiming for the highest possible ranking. The ensembles can also win “Best Section” awards, which are earned by the specific sections–trumpet, saxophone, trombone, or rhythm–for distinguished musical performance. In terms of soloist recogni-

Photo (L) courtesy of Samantha Anderer ’20 Photo (R) courtesy of Claire Ochroch ’18 At left, Grace Tomlinson’s first prize winning jewelry constructed with only plants. At right, the LM Flower Show Club’s front door display, which captured a second place prize.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Hughart ’19 Led by Andrew Neu, the jazz band impresses their audience with their performance in Italy. tion, individual players can receive awards of different levels, including “Outstanding Soloist in the Band” and “Overall Outstanding Soloist of the Night.”

LM’s competitive festival season has already begun, with multiple festivals already under their belt and more in the lineup. LM jazz players gained a solid lead with a “Superior” ranking and a Best Trumpet Section award at t he Cheltenham Jazz Festival in late February. LM Jazz’s “home game,” the Lower Merion Jazz Festival, collected several A class and Open class bands from the Philadelphia area, including Highland Regional, Interboro, and Camden Creative Arts. These festivals will continue into the month of April, culminating at the Cavalcade of Bands Jazz Championships. Outside of competitive festivals, the band will also be playing shows at venues across the Philadelphia area, including Chris’s jazz café and Suburban Square. The band is always looking to gain experience performing jazz music in front of a host of different audiences. LM also had the opportunity to host a rehearsal with a touring jazz ensemble from Germany in early November, and will be sharing a stage with the Dave Stahl Big Band in May. Watch out for upcoming performances and make sure to see the award winning ensemble.

Upon entering through the main entrance of the showroom, attendees were drawn into a lush rainforest, complete with soothing bird calls and a 25-foot waterfall. Amid the leafy canopies of palm trees and tropical pink flowers were signs explaining the interactions between the water cycle and the plants found in that particular ecosystem. Bryn Mawr’s own Hunter Hayes Landscape Design contributed their piece Spring Thaw, depicting melting snow caps flowing downward into a valley of fresh vernal blossoms. Other highlights included Sakuteiki, a Japanese rock garden etched with wave-inspired patterns; Cascade, a floral homage to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater; and sus·tain·a·bil·i·ty sə stānə bilədē, featuring solar panels, rain water receptacles, and sculptures fashioned from quirky recyclables.

Additionally, LM’s Flower Show Club participated in some of the competitive events. They created a Nantucket themed front door display, which won second place in the cate gory. Other students submitted jewelry pieces under the theme of dream catchers and key chains, and ended up taking home many awards. Grace Tomlinson ’18 won first place for her entry, “Raindance.”

She used “feathers” made of miscanthus and field horsetail to represent each of the five oceans and attached charms to the feathers to symbolize what each of the oceans is known for. Plants were incorporated into the rest of the design as well, such as the ring of ivy, the webbing made of palm leaves, and detail work comprising of almonds, rice, and chili seeds. “It was really daunting at first,” said Tomlinson, “because, how are you supposed to create a dreamcatcher out of only plant material?” Despite the challenge, she and the other participants were able to figure it out and produce topnotch works of art.

The Philadelphia Flower Show never fails to astound and enthrall the hoards of people it draws to the city. While it may be too late to witness the “Wonders of Water,” the show will return next March. Don’t miss your next chance to experience this spectacular display of art first-hand.

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April 17, 2018

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April 17, 2018

Sports The Merionite

Baseball looks to knock their season out of the park Shuli Weinstein ’18

Despite the snow days and constant blizzards through- opponents, the players remain confident in their abilities to out early March, spring sports commenced with high enthu- succeed on the field. The Aces are especially proud of their siasm. Typically, at the start of the spring sports season, LM pitching lineup for the upcoming season. Some of their top teams aim to take advantage of the longer days filled with pitchers include juniors Alec Deegan, Therein Moore, Casey more sunshine. However, the wintry weather caused snow to Murphy, and Garrett Ryan. Additionally, sophomore Kyle cover the track, fields, and streets. Because of this nuisance, Patlove will be a key pitcher for the next few years at LM. teams were forced to adapt. Many of the first few practices While it is vital to embrace the strengths of the team, took place in the Downs Gym, the KBG, or at St. Joseph’s it is equally important to acknowledge the team’s weakUniversity. However, a change in the typical training location nesses. Looking back on the 2017 season, the Aces somehas not affected the progress and rigor of the team’s routine. times struggled to create consecutive successful plays at Practice locations for the first two weeks were not the the plate. In almost every game, strong plays were made by only changes LM baseball experienced this season; they the offense; unforuntately, the Aces did not live up to their also hired three new coaches: a head coach, assistant varsi- full potential and could not generate their hits into wins. ty coach, and freshman coach. The integration of these new Senior Marek D’Alonzo is confident that the upperfigures brought about great transformations to the mentali- classmen will help to address any weaknesses and contribty of many teammates. With the help of these new coaches, ute to shaping the team through their incredible leadership. the team has gained D’Alonzo shared, “As with greater confidence any team, senior leaderas a whole. Senior ship is crucial, and with Jake Rocco shared, our group of seniors, lead“Instead of just ership will be the highest looking to comit has ever been. I say this pete in the Central because we have seniors League, we want to that have been through it be at the top and all. We have seniors that know we have the are new to varsity and ability to do it.” seniors that are veterans The Aces are on varsity. This helps eager to beat two because they have been of their toughest with our younger guys Photo courtesy of The Enchiridion and that means our young opponents from the 2017 season: Strath guys can be comfortable The seniors (from left: Will Ebby, Josh Jenkin, Jake Haven and Spring- Stoller, Marek D’Alonzo, Danny Gabor, and Jake Roc- with us to have good team field. Both of these co) look to take control of the team and perform at a chemistry.” D’Alonzo also teams have many much higher level than recent years. With a core of noted that a large portion of returning varsity play- older leadership, experience will help. his varsity teammates are ers and are expected returning varsity playto provide strong competition for the upcoming season. ers. This skilled group of veteran varsity members are While the team has yet to face the aformentioned therefore quite familiar with their upcoming competitors.

As the seniors jump into their final season of high school baseball, Rocco gives some advice to the underclassmen: “Stick with the program and buy into the process. Baseball is a game of many failures; if you have a down season, just put the work in during the offseason. It’s all about development now.”

As an LM track athlete, these words of advice resonate with my athletic career as well. Not only baseball, but sports in general, are full of highs and lows throughout the season. Nevertheless, the LM baseball program has honed the boys’ passion for the sport, their immense talent, and their cohesiveness. They have high hopes for the upcoming season.

Photo courtesy of The Enchiridion Senior Captain Jake Rocco focuses in at the plate, awaiting the next pitch.

Boys’ track aims to repeat as Central League Champions Eric Bing ’20

As our calendars flip to April, and sun begins to show its face on the horizon, the boys’ track team resumes its training for the spring season. After an inspiring end to the winter season with many qualifications for the Champions’ and States meets, it is apparent that their hard work and dedication have payed off. But they are not done yet. Despite the wind, ice, and muddy roads, the team is stronger than ever as they pick up their pace in preparation for a brand new season.

Their training regiment has been hard and unforgiving. The team trains six days a week, only stopping

Photo courtesy of The Enchiridion Jasper Lim-Goyette ’19 sprints during the 4 x 400 relay at a meet against Ridely and Penncrest, grippng the baton in hand.

to rest on Sundays. Sophomore Max Palish describes, “With the combination of workouts and off days, our coach Neal Berman creates pain-filled schedules to destroy every last muscle in our body.” And to make matters worse, the weather hasn’t been the most favorable either, with recent snowstorms, icy roads, and canceled school. But even with all these inconveniences, the team runs on. Ethan Manin ’20 described, “We train in all weather conditions. The cold weather, although not ideal, doesn’t stop us from training each day. Even so, snow days are annoying. It’s easier to get done all of our training as a team, compared to trying do to it by ourselves when school is canceled.”

But when the running gets hard and legs begin to burn, self-motivation and team spirit have been key in continuing to train hard. Senior Joel Herbert states, “My motivation comes from both self and team competition.

Having run track for four years now, I want to break my own personal records in every event, while also competing against some other really talented kids on the team.”

This was further emphasized by Coach David Van Houten, who believes that team togetherness and consistent training have been the biggest contributors to their lasting success. “The key to our success is consistent and committed training. The first thing we emphasize is showing up everyday and being ready to work.

We also work as a family—we share, we help each other, we hold one another accountable. We argue occasionally, but most importantly we support and love each other. Whether we succeed or fail, we do it together.”

Last year’s graduating seniors left holes in the team that many younger runners have been happy to fill, allowing the team to mature and grow. As described by Van Houten, “We’ve lost some key point scorers to graduation and are looking to our younger athletes to step up and become competitors rather than participants.” Gabe Brodeur ’20 further elaborates that he has been training hard to fill that role. “I hope to and will work hard to have fast enough times to qualify for the Central League Championships, although it will be very difficult to achieve that.”

And difficult it will be. After dominating Central League Championships last season, the team is staring down some tough opponents if they want to do it again.

Photo courtesy of The Enchiridion Nick Rhodes ’19 runs hard around the turn, hugging the inside lane, in a meet against Ridely. The boys are looking to repeat as Central League Champ; a feat that has never been accomplished by an LM track team.

Particularly, Penncrest is looking to take back their title after a devastating loss from LM last year. But no matter how difficult the race, vengeful the opponent, or long the road may be, boys’ track is more than happy to step up to the challenge. As Herbert would say, “The team has a winning mentality. We have a big reputation to follow from last year, and we’re all eager to see what we can do.”

Sports

April 17, 2018

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The Merionite

New talent joins LM boys’ tennis

Sophie Meyer ’20

Photo by Zack Slogoff ’18/Staff

Justin Minerva ’21 completes a powerful serve while warming up during a home match at the beginning of the season.

Leading the freshman trio is fourteenyear-old Justin Minerva, who is currently ranked fourth in the state for his age.

He is currently sponsored by Babolat and Adidas, and he has attended three winter nationals in Arizona as well as Zonal Team Championships in North Carolina where he scored third place on the East Coast. Justin Minerva discusses how

he plays for two and a half hours with additional fitness training every day. Justin regularly attends tournaments within the tri-state area. As of now, he resides as the second seed singles on the varsity team.

The young star discussed his thoughts about this year, “Our team aspires to win with heart and skill. Losing some very key players from last year is a minor obstacle for us, with fresh nuances we can rise up and go far.” Justin believes that his role on the team will consist of beating big Photo by Zack Slogoff ’18/Staff

Photo by Zack Slogoff ’18/Staff

Elliot Ginzburg ’21

Ethan Blum ’21 warms up in preparation for the difficult opponent that lays in his future.

The LM boys tennis team came into the 2018 season with a very high bar set for them: win another state title.

The last three years for the Ace’s varsity team have been strong and prosperous.

Unfortunately, with key players such as Matt Chen graduating, the team is at a point where new players are needed for the Aces to remain victorious. Fortunately for them, three stellar varsity freshmen have stepped up to do the job.

Vikas Miller ’21 locks in and focuses up while warming up for a crucial match against Abington.

players in the Central League and continued play as an important part of the team.

Vikas Miller and Ethan Sarodia Blum are the other two freshman varsity players who are stepping up to hopefully win another state championship this year. Ethan Blum, who is the LM boys’ third singles player, discusses the season, saying, “I think that we have a very good varsity team this year that has talent and determination to win another title. We have really good depth and we are confident that we can win most of our doubles matches this year.”

Miller is part of the second doubles team that will be instrumental helping the Aces secure another state championship.

The boys tennis team trains hard every day to capture a spot among the top schools in Pennsylvania once again.

With fresmen already filling in integral roles, the question is, can the freshman trio step up and get the job done?

Freshman Sarah Cooke What sport(s) do you play?

Cross Country, Winter Track, and Track What is your most memorable April Fools Day Prank?

I once tricked my friend that I had eaten a krabby patty, from Spongebob, and she believed me all that day.

Describe how it feels when there is snow in April?

Annoying and sad. It really makes spring track feel like the winter season.

What is something that everyone looks stupid doing?

Looking at their phones.

Softball continues to improve

Sophomore Jared Ocampo

What sport(s) do you play?

Baseball What is your most memorable April Fools Day Prank?

One time this guy replaced the cream part of an oreo with toothpaste What is something really popular now, but in 5 years everyone will look back on and be embarrassed by?

Bad Spongebob memes What is something that everyone looks stupid doing?

Dabbing

Spirits high, preseason work in the past, the girls’ Junior Varsity and Varsity Softball teams are as ready as ever to dominate the Central League. With thirteen Varsity players and eleven Junior Varsity players, the girls could not wait to get onto the field when the season commenced in the beginning of March..

Tryouts were held from March 5 to March 12 and Coach Denise LaPera was happy to see some new and returning faces. With new players on the Varsity team, the captains are excited to see how the team will work together and succeed. Anastasia Kolker ’20, who is new to the team, exclaims, “Everybody’s really nice and ready to play. They’re always focused and looking forward to games to work together. With more practice I’m excited to beat the tougher teams.”

Leading up to their first game, the team will practice on the field as much as possible if weather permits; otherwise they’ll be in the gym for extra work. LaPera states that the focus will be drills so she can get a better feel for all of the players. “This year the team is really excited to improve our abilities and bond as a team,” says Varsity captain Emma Rosenau (‘19). LaPera hopes the team will repeat their stellar play from last year and notch wins against rival teams such as Radnor and Harriton.

Last year, the team’s key win was defeating the Conestoga Pioneers.

With numerous strong teams in the Central League, the girls must go into every game with a winning attitude in order to see victory. “Although winning is fun, our team’s passion for the game is what makes us love softball so much.” Rosenau said.

Coach LaPera’s main focus this year is preparation; the girls need to be readily equipped with a strong game plan every time they step on the field.

Coach plans on doing drills and basic field training so they can get the feel of a real game. It is vital to have a great read

Junior Zoe Kaplan

Photo courtesy of the Enchiridion

Hannah Charlson gets into an intense wind up before firing to home plate. The Aces are looking to continue improving their program. on each player to help them improve.

Varsity captains Maddie Kitnick ’18, Hannah Charlson ’19, Zoe Kaplan ‘19, and Emma Rosenau ’19 are planning on defeating some of the teams they came up short against last year. Last season, the team played well and had some good wins against teams they sought out to destroy, but also suffered some tough losses to teams they thought were easy wins. In order to incentivise his team to win, Coach LaPera promised the girls Chick-fil-A nuggets after they secure their first three wins.

Hopefully, the team will carry over the good play from last season and add to it by winning the close games they lost. Excited to play the tougher teams in the Central League and make a name for themselves, let’s wish the Aces good luck with their season!

Senior Brett Schwab

What sport(s) do you play?

What sport(s) do you play?

Lacrosse Softball What is your most memorable April What is your most memorable April Fools Day Prank?

Fools Day Prank?

Anthony Davs fake shaving his brow.

When my brother put honey in my shampoo bottle What is something really popular now, What’s your favorite spring activity? but in 5 years everyone will look back on Keeping Passover and be embarrassed by?

Eating Tide Pods.

Describe how it feels when there is snow in April?

What is something that everyone Like the world is ending looks stupid doing?

Losing in Fortnite.

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Sports

April 17, 2018

The Merionite

Zack Slogoff ’18 Sports Editor This year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) March Madness tournament was nothing short of insanity. Of the millions of brackets entered throughout the nation, only 54 contained a fully correct Final Four—one of the top five lowest numbers of all time. In order to fully relay the sheer excitement this sporting event brings the people of America, let’s break down some of the craziest games, best performances, and memorable moments of the month.

Round of 64: A #1 seed loses in the first round for the first time in history: The Virginia Cavaliers came into the tournament as the favorite to win the whole thing. Playing hard-nosed, lockdown defense the entire year, opposing coaches feared the team’s ability to generate stops and push the ball in transition. Fortunately, the hype never fazed underdog University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), as they upset Virginia in the first round. Behind the rather unknown Jarius Lyles’ 28 points, UMBC pummeled University of Virginia for every minute of the game. This was the biggest upset in tournament history, as no other #1 seed has ever come up short at the very start.

Round of 32:

#3 Michigan beats #6 Houston at the buzzer: Down by two with 3.6 seconds left, things were not looking good for the hottest team in college basketball going into the tournament. Right as it looked like another potential favorite was going to bite the dust, Wolverine Freshman Jordan Poole nailed a deep three pointer for the win. This electrifying play gave Michigan the momentum to start a run that would take them to the National Championship game.

Sweet Sixteen: Last year’s runner up #4 Gon- Championship: Nova wins, Donte DiVincenzo zaga gets upset by #9 Florida State: Gonzaga put together an impressive campaign in last year’s tournament, going all the way to the championship game, but suffered a tough loss to UNC. This year, their hopes of redeeming themselves were dashed by the surprising Florida State Seminoles who used their length and athletic ability to send the Zags packing.

Elite Eight: #11 Loyola-Chicago shocks the world, reaching the Final Four: If you had told most college basketball fans before the tournament that #11 seed Loyola Chicago would reach the Final Four, many would have laughed in your face. However, taking advantage of an upset-ridden portion of the bracket in the South (where UVA lost), the Ramblers conquered the near impossible and defeated #9 Kansas State to become the fourth #11 seed to make the Final Four.

The duo of Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer combined for thirty points in the win. They were dashed by the surprising Florida State Seminoles who used their length and athletic ability to send the Zags packing.

shines: The Wildcats became the fourth team in history to win two championships in a span of three years.

Thanks to the godly play of sixth man Donte DiVincenzo, who had 31 points, two crazy blocks, and a ferocious slam on the game, Nova defeated the Michigan Wolverines in their final test. The Wildcats won every game in the tournament by double digits and were dominant throughout the whole month of March.

The survey was conducted between March 26 — March 30 through the Aces Nation Facebook Group. There were a total of 61 student respondents.

How many Final Four Teams did you predict correct?

Final Four: #1

Villanova embarrasses #1 Kansas to reach their second title game in three year: The Nova Wildcats showed up to play on game day, routing the Jayhawks by a whopping 95-79. National Player of the Year Jalen Brunson dropped a solid eighteen points and six assists, while big man Eric Paschall scored 24 points, going 9/10 from the field. The Wildcats would attempt to go for their second championship in just three years’ time.

What team did LM students predict would win it all?

Who will win their respective Final Four Game?

Graphics by Sihan Wu ’18 and Chris de Santis ’20/Staff

Who will win their respective Final Four Game?