DEADLINE
IN THIS ISSUE: Senior Spotlight: pg. 1 Blocksi: pg. 3-4 Dwarfism Awareness Month: pg. 9 Underpay Disabled Workers: pg. 11-12
TIME IS NOW
SENIOR SPOTLIGHT Angela Dongon
Written by: Danielle Tuazon Hey Dragons! For this latest Senior Spotlight segment, we interviewed Anglea Dongon about her experiences as a high school student and her plans after graduation. Angela is seventeen years old and a proud Filipina. Ever since quarantine began, she’s taken up a lot of different hobbies: drawing, gardening, and longboarding. She loves to catch up on her favorite tv shows such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. She also really likes sour cream. She’s an active person, taking part in jump roping, as well as creating her routines to make it a more fun, enjoyable workout. “I absolutely LOVE Avatar and have rewatched them so many times in the past year.” As for Angela’s plans after graduation, she remains unsure. Before, she wanted to pursue a profession in the medical field, but over time, she began to discover different paths and majors. She has a profound interest in helping and providing aid to underserved and underprivileged communities, whether that may be in medicine or a different field. She’s excited to explore new terrain and options to see what can be the next best thing for her. “The plan is to explore different options and hopefully figure out what might suit my goals the best.” For her last year of high school, she wishes to get accepted to the colleges she applies to and graduate with her associate’s degrees. The expectations of her senior year have changed a lot over the past few months. She expected to have more time with her friends, struggle through their college apps, and was looking forward to giving directions to lost freshmen. She wishes that in some way, we’d have a chance to finish our year strong next semester. Angela has changed over the years from freshman year to now. She said she’s always been an introvert by nature, but over time, her social life/skills have improved. MCHS helped her develop skills that would help her in the future. Being around ambitious and hardworking students have also inspired her to work hard and achieve success. “Overall, even though these four years have been far from perfect, MCHS has helped me in so many ways.” Lastly, this is what she has to say for the underclassmen. She advises not to stress too much about your studies. It is okay to relax and slow down once in a while. Incorporate good time management and pacing into your routine. Always be aware or have an idea of what direction you are heading for so that you won’t be confused or waste time. Finally, take care of yourself, mentally and physically. You mustn’t ignore your mental health, because you’ll function best when you are at your best mentally. “You’ll be a different person than you were at the beginning, so hopefully, it’s someone you are proud of.” Thank you, Angela, for giving us fantastic advice and insight into your four years at MCHS. We hope that you’ll achieve your goals and find something that you are passionate in. We hope to see you accomplish many things in your senior year. Make sure to get to know Angela, especially if you love watching Avatar.
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Netflix Nook Arlene Hickman
Enola Holmes, a new Netflix film that was released September 23, 2020, is based on the 2006 novel series, Enola Holmes Mysteries by Nancy Springer and the 1892 novel series Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Enola, spends the majority of her time with her mother (despite the fact her name spells ALONE backwards). When the teen’s mom disappears on the morning of her 16th birthday, Enola knows she needs to call her brothers for help. As someone who has never read the Sherlock Holmes books, I was a little skeptical about a movie revolving around his little sister. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. Director Harry Bradbeer gives Enola the same sleuthing skills of her famous detective brother, which helped her outsmart him and escape the finishing school Mycroft had enrolled her in. This movie pushes the narrative that young women do not have to follow the “picture perfect� image of etiquette. Enola knows, for the most part, who she wants to be, and that definitely is not a housewife who spends her days cooking and sewing like her brother wants from her. Enola, while young, is extremely intelligent and uses this intelligence in an attempt to find her mother herself. This film is about self-discovery through adventures. Enola lets herself loose in the heart of busy London by herself. I think this movie expands on what young women should view as possible and impossible. Enola has the adventure of a lifetime jumping out of trains, picking out the right corset, meeting a useless boy, and hopefully finding her mother.
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Is Blocksi an Invasion of Privacy? Blocksi is a management program, founded in 2011, that allows teachers to have access and view to students’ window screens in their classrooms. Its purpose is to filter and monitor classroom screens. As of right now, it mainly functions on Chromebooks and Windows OS devices. Some of its features include real-time screen monitoring, live student analytics, and secure test mode. At Middle College High School, they have implemented Blocksi on school-issued devices, specifically Chromebooks, in order to monitor their students’ screens. The justification behind the implementation is for teachers to make sure that students stay on task during school hours and don’t violate any rules while taking tests. Some students were unaware of the program being installed until their teachers brought attention to it. 13 students responded to the survey I put out and among the 13, 11 felt as though Blocksi was an invasion of their privacy. When students became first aware of the program, it brought many mixed reactions. Some felt as though it wasn’t anything new and was a necessary program. “I wasn’t shocked because we had this in middle school, just a different program. But those were school Chromebooks not personal,” explained a student. Another student shared a similar sentiment, as they believed that “it helps hold [them] accountable.” One student felt as if the usage of the program is justified stating, “... it allows teachers to be able to see if their students are doing what they are supposed to be doing in class….What is done in class should be school-related.” However, other students felt betrayed and “surprised that teachers would go to this length.” Students feel as though the program is “invasive,” unnecessary, and “unfair,” because “Lodi [gmail] accounts...can manage…[the] history already” and should not “...force all students to use Blocksi, especially when many...don’t want to.” The students voiced out that they were unaware that teachers were even watching their screen and are still unclear about how much teachers can see after the class is over. A student disclosed, “I was also concerned because I thought it was connected to my personal laptop and had no idea of when the Blocksi would stop or if it just kept going after school.” Their biggest concern was the possibility of the program being linked to their personal accounts on their personal devices, which would lead to teachers being able to access private information stored on these accounts. A student voiced out, “I understand using it to supervise Lodi accounts pertaining to the school environment, but this extension violates that line that should be set apart between school life and our personal life.” Many other students share this sentiment as well, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of the program being possibly installed onto their personal device simply because they are unaware of just how much information is available to the teachers. Another student brings up this concern, “They can see our screen during class, so can they see our screen whenever? That’s what makes me uneasy
Is Blocksi an Invasion of Privacy?
Is Blocksi an Invasion of Privacy? By Aashn
Many of the surveyors also expressed how they believe that Blocksi wasn’t needed whatsoever. “Even though it may be necessary when administering exams, it’s still questionable as to why they should be seeing our screens during the entire class period. Most of the time, students aren’t aware that...teachers can see our screens. It’s invasive because we don’t know and there’s no way to stop sharing our screen to the teachers.” As aforementioned, students believe that it is an unnecessary and drastic precaution to take because school-issued Chromebooks restrict inappropriate websites to use and document the browsing history. A student even expressed how they felt betrayed, as “it genuinely makes me lose trust for the teachers who use them[Blocksi]. Online school is already as difficult as it is. I don’t want to worry about my teachers snooping through my [personal] laptop as well [versus a school-issued Chromebook].” However, few students assert that “... it is fair because [as] it gives everyone an equal chance. Most teachers are able to trust their students, but with distance-learning, in place, anything is bound to happen. I believe Blocksi is a good tool, and if people don’t have anything to hide, they shouldn’t be worried about it being used in school settings.”
Students believe that “these concerns should be addressed because this extension is taking our private data. Our personal files and bookmarks saved through our personal laptops should be for us and only us to see and not teachers or the district,” especially because, “Blocksi collects a lot of personal information, like your specific location, IP addresses, and more. The most concerning part is that it has the ability through administrators to edit, and then restrict your privacy settings.” As known...“On Blocksi’s own website, it is stated that all information sent and received from student Chromebooks passes through Blocksi’ servers. The information is analyzed and stored. This is already a massive invasion of privacy by itself. In addition, Blocksi reserves the right to give information collected on your devices to third parties for unspecified, vague reasons...” However, there is not any information available as to how much information is stored from personal devices. Many students are uncertain as to how much the teachers can truly see. “I don’t know how much my teacher can see of my screen. I’m concerned that as long as I’m logged into my LUSD account, even though I don’t have any tabs open using that account, BlockSi can see my activity on [my personal] Chrome [browser].” Students continue to be confused as to just how much of their information is being monitored, and are uncomfortable with the idea of it being on their personal device without any assurance of privacy.
na Singh Is Blocksi an Invasion of Privacy?
Is Blocksi an Invasion of Privacy?
Genshin Impact Written by: Nora Taing
Genshin Impact is a free, newly released game that has slowly been taking over my life. The game’s company, Mihoyo, had their official release on September 28, 2020. The game works cross-platform, which means it is playable on PC, PS4, Android, and iOS platforms. The great thing about this is that you can play on your PC and later hop on with your phone, so you can continue right where you left off. Mihoyo is a promising game company and has gained much anticipation from the fans of Honkai Impact 3rd, which is another popular game that I have played. I loved the art style of Honkai Impact 3rd, so I was ecstatic when I heard that Mihoyo was releasing Genshin Impact.
This is an actual cutscene from the game. (Your main character & emergency food.)
Genshin Impact is an open-world-action RPG (role-play game). The open world aspect of the game allows you to explore a huge map in the game freely, without being constricted by the story line. I tend to get sidetracked a lot because I wander off to collect ingredients for cooking and open chests in the game. The game does encourage you to explore the map since you level up and unlock new areas by doing so. Genshin Impact is also considered a gacha game, which means that players spend in-game currency to open boxes to obtain characters and weapons of varying rarity(1 star being the worst to 5 star being the best). Players test their luck in hopes that they get a character that they want because, in this game, you collect them and can switch to multiple characters. Each character has an element that they wield such as fire, lightning, wind, water, etc. They also use different weapons such as bow, sword, spear, etc. The freedom to build your team based on the playstyle or combos that you can create makes this game interesting. Genshin Impact is mostly single-player, but you can play with your friends when you reach Adventure level 16. This is when you unlock co-op mode. so you can have friends visit your world or you visit them. Together, you and your friends can fight world bosses, explore, and complete dungeons. There are some restrictions when in co-op mode, such as the inability to complete 5
quests, which can be annoying. One suggestion I have to make gameplay more fun, is to include a trading feature to trade items and money with your friends. As of right now, there is no way to make your character interact by doing emotes to express your emotions. I like to role play with my friends and it’s tough to express happiness, sadness, etc. I am sure that Mihoyo will add these things in the future. The combat system of this game is fun, especially when you have to dodge and beware the fighting styles of the monsters. Genshin Impact has a unique combat system compared to other RPG games. Due to the inclusion of elements, players can combine these elements to create special effects and buffs. For example, if you combine a water attack with an ice attack using different characters, you get a frozen effect that makes your enemies unable to move for a short period of time. Special abilities include a fire tornado when you combine wind and fire elements using the respective skills. The monsters you fight will also have their mechanisms of how you can effectively wipe them out. For example, a golem has weak spots on its head and back. If you shoot those points with an archer, they will stumble making them invulnerable. Genshin Impact’s combat style is more entertaining than most games where you just wack at mobs the whole time until they perish. I give Genshin Impact a rating of 9/10 as of now. The game was just released, so Mihoyo can put updates into the game to make it more enjoyable. The story, art, characters, and music really impacts how players feel about the game. These aspects are so high quality that it is unbelievable that the game is free. I have a lot of experience playing RPG games, and I typically play them for a bit before dropping it later on. With Genshin Impact, there are so many things that you can focus on, so you’d be entertained for a while. Please give this game a try! Mihoyo worked very hard to produce such a beautiful game. Happy gaming!
Screenshot on PS4
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M I X T A P E
No Time to Die Billie Ellish
Excitement Trippie Redd
Wow
Post Malone
Stuck On You Giveon
Better Pill
Christian Kuria
Jesus in LA Alec Benjamin
Feel free to send us your favorite songs: tinyurl.com/mchsmixtape 7
Have some memes! 8
By: Elizabeth Rocili
This month is Dwarfism Awareness Month. In 2009, Little People of America, launched Dwarfism Awareness Month for October. Little People of America, or LPA, is a non-profit dwarfism support organization. The program provides “support and information to people of short stature and their families.” What is Dwarfism? According to LPA, “Dwarfism is a condition that affects bones and cartilage.” According to Mayo Clinic, people affected by Dwarfism have a height of 4 feet 10 inches, or less, as an adult. According to LPA, there are about 30,000 people in the United States with dwarfism. In the world, there are about 651,700 people who are affected by Dwarfism. There are multiple types of dwarfism—around400—and each type is different from the other. Many people with dwarfism have parents or siblings who are of average height. It is possible for people with dwarfism to have children who are average height. Dwarfism is usually caused by a small genetic change. About 1 out of 10,000 children born are born with dwarfism. According to Shoreline community college, many causes for dwarfism are unknown. Still, some reasons that are known are random genetic mutations, genetic disorders, deficiencies in some hormones, and poor nutrition. Dwarfism Awareness Month is recognized worldwide,by governors and state legislatures. According to an article in The Mint Hill Times, Dwarfism Awareness Month raises awareness and educates people about dwarfism. The LPA hopes that Dwarfism Awareness Month creates positive awareness, and addresses misconceptions that many people have about those with dwarfism. 9
By: Jaskaran Bajwa
From a young age, we were constantly exposed to the iconic pink ribbon. The recognizable pink ribbon is a symbol of a disease that claims over 42,690 lives every year. Breast cancer is a disease where malignant cells and tumors are found inside the breast tissue. It can change the shape of the breast and causes hard lumps to form. While many people know about this disease, they know very little about the recognition, treatment, and prevention of this horrible life-threatening disease. Every year there are about 1.3 million new cases of breast cancer all over the world. This cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, both in urbanized and developing third-world countries. Even today, in an age of rapid medical advancement, we have very little knowledge about what causes breast cancer. Which is why early detection is crucial to make sure that the disease is quickly treated for. When detected early enough, the cancer is more likely to be cured. Recovery rates are far higher for cases that were detected earlier rather than later. In the unfortunate case where the cancer is not identified early, treatment may not be an option. For late-stage breast cancer, palliative treatment is the only available treatment. While breast cancer cases occur all over the world, the vast majority of deaths occur in low-income countries and nations, due to the lack of awareness and resources for this disease. The World Health Organization recommends regular comprehensive breast cancer control programs. In many developed countries such as the United States, breast cancer detection programs such as mammograms offer great long term results, can detect the cancer early, and often have a very good long-term prognosis. This horrible disease claims over a million lives every year. With proper identification and prevention methods, it is easy to detect this disease early and treat it with the wonders of modern medicine. For more information please visit the link below. https://www.who.int/cancer/events/breast_cancer_month/en/
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It’s Legal to Underpay Disabled Workers
By, Chau Ahn Nguyen
A
merica, the land of opportunity, has undoubtedly exploited millions of citizens—from minorities to low-income citizens—in its journey to becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world. While racial minorities and women are often discussed when the subject of marginalized groups comes up, one group that is often systematically abused and overlooked is the disabled. So, with October being Disability Employment Awareness month, it is about time that the U.S. reexamines how citizens born without able-bodied privilege are treated in its society.
While seemingly well-intended at first, as the years continued over time, the interpretation of “substandard” became blurred, and many employers have actually attempted to weaponize this loophole in some of the most horrid ways imaginable. For example, employers would commonly argue that because Southern workers supposedly “tended to be slower of movement and less oriented toward production,” they should therefore be paid as substandard workers. This loophole would even be utilized in racist ways, with many seeing this as an opportunity to discriminate against black workers, justifying their decisions by claiming that black employees are “inherently” substandard workers.
Staggering unemployment rates significantly affect the disabled more than other minorities, and the disabled employment-population ratio is only a mere 19.8 percent in 2018 compared to the 65.9 percent ratio among those without a disability. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, “. . . [Across] all age groups, people with a disability were much less likely to be employed than those with no disability.”
Thankfully, these arguments were considered controversial—even for their time period—in the end, and while future progressive actions remedied the racist and/or overall worker abusive practices, disabled people, however, are still one of the few groups to be given subminimum wages today.
The few that are hired face another problem: subminimum wages.
Today, employers who exploit this loophole tend to claim that they’re providing these workers with “vocational training and jobs for those who [would] otherwise never find one.”
According to a 2019 Forbes report, out of the 420,000 disabled people employed, the vast majority of them receive only a meager average of $2.15 per hour as payment for their labor, and this is an obviously low number, especially when considering that the U.S. national minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. In many cases, individuals with disabilities were even paid as little as 4 cents per hour.
These jobs referenced are often a part of “community rehabilitation programs,” otherwise known as “sheltered workshops.” A mix of both nonprofits and private firms, these programs usually utilize disabled labor due to their structures, therefore making them a high subject of interest when subminimum wages are discussed. And while sheltered workshops often claim to purpose themselves around disabled individuals’ best interests, too frequently have many gone against this statement.
While this transaction is morally wrong, it is unfortunately legal due to a loophole in the 1938 Fair Labors Standards Act, which allowed employers to administer payments based on productivity or ability—even payments under the federal minimum wage. The idea was initially introduced in the legislative hearings that followed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s suggestion to implement a national minimum wage, during which Labor Secretary Frances Perkins advocated for reduced wages for “substandard workers,” meaning “persons who by reason of illness or age or something else are not up to normal production.”
Rock River Valley Self Help Enterprises is perhaps one of the most horrific and well-known examples to illustrate this. While Self Help Enterprises prides itself on “recycling, packaging, and pallet [manufacturing],” an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found that the nonprofit organization was guilty of exploiting nearly 250 disabled 11
employees. Rather than paying their workers actual wages, they instead paid their workers in small gift cards.
“unrealistic” and “a drain on the economy.” They commonly emphasized that it’ll “deprive disabled people of employment opportunities in the future.”
This incident alone highlights one of the massive issues with the 1938 FLSA loophole. While the disabled individuals of the Self Help Enterprises were aware that federal law permitted them to be underpaid, they were not aware that it was still illegal for their employers to pay them in gift cards. This confusion around subminimum wages allowed for Self Help Enterprises to escape the consequences of their misconducts for a long time, and on the longer scale, inherently allowed for the exploitation of the vulnerable disabled. Many disabled individuals are not aware of the extent of the loophole’s leeway, and as a result, sheltered workshops can freely abuse their employees with disabilities without much worry.
Nevertheless, the push against the 1938 Fair Labors Act loophole continued, and The National Federation of the Blind pushed for the Morse Proposal to be implemented, urging that disabled workers be given “the same protection of federal law now available to millions of other workers.” In the end, however, legislative powers only modified the Morse Proposal to apply to agricultural employment, permitting disabled labor abuse to continue in other fields. Attempts to close this loophole continued throughout the years, but none were successful. Opponents often pointed to government benefits—including social security support— that disabled people received as justification to keep the loophole in the FLSA.
So . . . why don’t we just close this clause, especially since many inhumane outcomes resulted from this loophole?
While legislation addressing other disabled issues passed in that time period (such as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act), the subminimum wages issue has largely been ignored up until recently.
The fight against subminimum wages has been going on for a long time, dating as far back as the 1960s and began when Senator Wayne Morse first publicly attacked it. In his criticism, he proposed to gradually transition the “moderately disabled” to a full-minimum wage over a three-year period and argued that the “more severely disabled” be paid at least half of the federal minimum wage.
Successful growing calls against subminimum wages began to rise in the 21st century, and the first state to abolish subminimum wages was Vermont in 2002. In addition to that decision, the state also ceased funding sheltered workshops (described earlier), and instead “sends directly to disabled clients for services of their choosing, such as job coaching and transportation.” Nowadays, Vermont is considered the model state for workplace inclusion. Disabled residents in this state are twice as likely to find jobs in this state compared to other states, with nearly 40 percent of disabled workers even working alongside able-bodied people (compared to the 13 percent in the state of Minnesota).
Those against him were, unsurprisingly, employers of the disabled, who often claimed that the Morse Proposal was
Other states soon followed in momentum, including— but not limited to—Alaska, Texas, Oregon, and Maine. However, some states (such as New Hampshire) still allow exceptions or just set limitations to subminimum wages in their legislation. This emerging movement has also been supported by multiple prominent politicians, including former presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders. Finally, subminimum wages also have the chance to be abolished on a federal level, with current Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, proposing to phase out the subminimum wage in one of his campaign promises. [Picture of Senator Wayne Morse] 12
OCTOBER 2020
Thank you for reading the first issue of this year’s MCHS Deadline! If you have any questions, comments or concerns please DM us on our Instagram page: @mchsdeadline. We would love to hear feedback from you. While you are reading our digital copy, we have a website available for you to check out.
TEAM MEMBERS
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Senior Editor: Chau-Anh Nguyen Senior Editor/Social Media: Hieu Ho Graphic Designer/Writer: Aashna Singh
We will continue to accept your song recommendations for MCHS mixtape all year round along with applications to take part in Freshman Interviews! So you may be apart of the next issue! The links for both of those forums can be fond in the linktree on our instagram page.
Graphic Designer/Writer: Nora Taing
The Deadline team will continue to work hard and come up with new ideas! We hope you will come along with us on this journey! Until the next issue, stay fiery Dragons!
Senior Writer: Jaskaran Bajwa
Graphic Designer: Charlene Nguyen Senior Writer: Arlene Hickman Senior Writer: Danielle Tuazon Junior Writer: Mekhi Randle Junior Writer: Elizabeth Rocili