The Point, Issue 5, Volume 27 - March 10, 2023

PALOS VERDES HIGH SCHOOL - ISSUE 5, VOLUME 27 - MARCH 10, 2023

PVPUSD Students Advocate in Sacaramento with Capitol Convoy

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By Sophie Sun reporter

Capitol Convoy is an esteemed PVPUSD program dedicated to having students advocate for improvements in their local school district as well as schools throughout California.

In the 2023 iteration, students advocated for the increase of funding for mental health services and infrastructure.

Students from both Palos Verdes High School and Peninsula High School came together to promote the improvement of their school district and to learn about the legislative process.

On March 7, students arrived in Sacramento to attend a series of seminars hosted by various legislators and policymakers.

Representatives from Capitol Advisors, a team of experts in California politics, education policy and legislation spoke to students about how Californian legislation functions.

Lee Angela Reid, one of the Capitol Advisors representatives, explained how Capitol Convoy encourages student development and benefits education.

“I think [Capital Convoy] gives them a first hand view of the process, because it gives them an opportunity to meet with the folks that are making the decisions and particularly, the people that represent them,” Reid

Through Capitol Convoy, students are able to meet the people who formulate the policies that affect their everyday lives.

Being able to have such a huge impact on legislation that could impact millions of students is a valuable experience these students were able to have.

Students spoke with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who discussed the importance of mental health, universal meals and gender inclusivity.

Students also met with the Department of Finance’s Program Budget Manager, Chris Ferguson, who spoke about where California funding is allocated and how allocation is determined.

Senator John Laird expounded upon how school bonds function as well as his predictions for the new education budget this year.

The Senior Director of the Association of California School Administrators, Iván Carrillo, shared his heartwarming story about how he went from a drug dealer to a policymaker, providing unique insight into the mental health crises as well as just how important student representation in government truly is.

Capitol Convoy delegates met with former and current California State Superintendents of Public Institution Jack O’Connell and Tony Thurmond

at dinner to discuss advocacy points and have more in-depth conversations about how students may institute change in California.

California Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, representing parts of the South Bay, also dined with students and discussed the fundamental causes of the mental health crisis as well as environmental justice and improvement of infrastructure in PVPUSD schools.

On March 8, students continued to attend their team legislative appointments where they met with various Californian assembly members and their staff to advocate for mental health and infrastructure funding.

At noon, students met and had lunch with Muratsuchi once more to further elaborate upon their advocacy points.

Capitol Convoy allowed for students to have a meaningful experience with local legislators

and become more deeply involved in democratic processes.

“Our students are learning first hand how the government works,” Thurmond stated.

“They’re meeting policymakers and our students are working on policies to improve mental health and school facilities. To me, that’s civics education at its finest and it was an honor to be a part of today’s program. Great things are happening here.”

GSA Members Speak Out in Support of LGBTQ-Inclusive Curriculum

In light of a challenge to a book featuring a transgender character, PVHS Gay-Straight Alliance attended the March 8 PVPUSD Board meeting to share their experiences and thoughts on the importance of books such as middle grade novel “Too Bright to See” by Kyle Lukoff. The following are excerpts from their speeches:

“This isn’t about creating special rights for the LGBTQ+ community but something more basic - the right to exist - just the right to exist without judgment, without prejudice, without hatred, and without violence. How can anyone have a right to exist in life if they can’t even exist in a book? There is an LGBTQ+ youth mental health crisis. Preventing discussions in schools about being different will only lead to confusion and loneliness in teen years.” - senior Audrey Munro

“By taking away the book ‘Too Bright to See’, which is approved by the California Department of Education, as it is on its Recommended Literature List for grades three through five, we are showing a community already in crisis that we do not care about them. However, by keeping this book, we will show our support to the LGBTQIA+ community, benefitting everyone by showing that Palos Verdes cares for the success of all people.”

- junior Cayden McGuire

“According to the Human Rights Campaign, ‘82 percent of transgender individuals have thought about taking their own lives while 40 percent have atttempted suicide with the highest risk occuring among transgender youth.’ And taking this book away from kids will benefit them how? Honestly, I believe that having a main chracter being transgender is a good place to start. Being trans or a book including a trans character is not controversial.”

- senior Sharlize Moayedi

“If I had access to a book like this growing up, it would’ve made me feel less confused, less selfhatred, and may have helped me blossom into who I truly was. As parents and those who oversee our community’s education, it’s important to be mindful of the fact that you could be affecting family members, strangers, and other students by banning this book.”

- junior Ryan Um

Members of GSA, PVHS/Pen alumni, teachers, parents, PVE Mayor Jim Roos, and author Kyle Lukoff’s parents, all spoke in support of LGBTQ+ visibility in schools. (Photo by Eva Mayrose)

Annual Honors Recital Ends on A Good Note

By Amber Chen editor-in-chief

Bright yellow lights pierced through an otherwise dark auditorium. As a storm raged outside, live music flooded the room, captivating an audience of hundreds.

On Feb. 24, the PVHS music department held its annual honors recital. Featuring 13 performances, the recital showcased various soloists and studentled small ensembles.

For student musicians, the annual honors recital is an opportunity to demonstrate their talents to a community rather than a musically-trained audience. Since she usually performs for competitions, sophomore violinist and violist Zoe Barton viewed the honors recital as a low-stress occasion to perform for her friends.

“The honors recital was an opportunity to perform for people who don’t usually hear what I do,” Barton said. “I usually perform elsewhere, not often at school, so most of my friends rarely hear me.”

Junior and multi-instrumentalist Vanya Agrawal, another seasoned performer, shared what she loves about performing.

“I think having an audience honestly makes me do better,” Agrawal said. “When

performing, you feel a lot more energy, you feel the mood, which is very different from rehearsing. You feel elevated. It’s an entirely different atmosphere.”

Barton enjoys performing as a way to share her unique artistic rendering of centuries-old pieces of classical music.

“There’s something about performing music that’s been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, with thousands of different interpretations, when you get to show your own interpretation to the audience and try to help them feel that with you,” Barton said. “Introducing people to [my interpretation of a piece] and making them realize that classical music is super cool is what I enjoy most about performing.”

Shein’s Questionable Success

By Zara Deen reporter

Shein, an online fast fashion retailer based in China, is now worth over 100 billion dollars and is one of the top five online stores, along with Amazon. The company is known for its cheap clothing and easy-access shipping. But how do they sustain these low prices while making so much money?

Some say the use of inexpensive material; another argument is the use of underpaid workers and staff.

“I believe Shein’s success stems from manual labor and the cheaper, maybe even dangerous materials used for their products,” freshman Nirvana Khaleeli said.

According to senior writer Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz on The Cut, “In one factory, Channel 4 found that workers receive a base salary of roughly $556 to make 500 pieces of clothing per day and that their first month’s pay is withheld from them.”

This comes out to around four cents per item. Workers work up to 18 hours per day and are only given one day off per month.

Because of these hard working conditions, pleas for help have been periodically found hidden in Shein’s

clothing tags. Employees write notes such as “Need your help” or “I have dental pain” in an effort to grab customers’ attention.

Apart from the working conditions, Shein’s quality may also be harmful to customers. In an experiment done by Greenpeace, it was found that “Product tests on 47 Shein products found that 15% contained hazardous chemicals that break EU regulatory limits, with five of these products breaking the limits by 100% or more.”

The effects of this on customers could include allergic reactions or more longterm effects, such as types of cancer and developmental issues from the harsher chemicals.

However, there is an upside to this fastfashion company.

“While I do understand some of the downsides to order from Shein, it is an extremely convenient and fast way to add to your closet,” freshman Sarah Huang said. “I could find something that would normally be 100 dollars for only 10, and have it at my doorstep within three days.”

“I do understand why people would order from Shein,” Khaleeli said. “Shein’s cheap prices make shopping easier and more affordable, but is it worth it, considering all the downsides and dangers from the company?”

The honors recital offered students opportunities to step outside their comfort zones. In addition to soloing on a classical piece, Barton also performed the genrebending anthem “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

“I had a lot of fun playing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ even though it was outside of what I usually do. Everyone knows

‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ so it was fun to show the audience a piece that they all knew and had memories associated with.

While student selections of well-known pieces united the audience, the honors recital also imparted a greater appreciation of musical diversity upon the audience.

Not only did the recital exhibit classical, jazz and rock songs, it also introduced the audience to Hindi music.

Accompanied by five other musicians, Agrawal sang while playing the harmonium, a South Asian wind instrument that resembles a keyboard.

Agrawal shared the reason why she chose to perform the Hindustani classic, “Raag Puriya Dhanashree,” for the recital.

“Most people are only familiar with Western music, but music is so diverse, and I really wanted people to be able to see that when they came to the honors recital,” Agrawal said.

“Through the piece I performed, I wanted to showcase the key differences between Indian classical music and Western music.”

College Board Creates Controversy

Lessons omitted from AP African American Studies

By Olivia Kao reporter

In mid-December of 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ heavy criticism over the College Board’s AP African American Studies course caused the non-profit organization to revise the curriculum.

According to The New York Times, the College Board released “an official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies—stripped much of the subject matter that had angered the governor and other conservatives.”

Some of the mentioned subject matter that sparked controversy among conservatives included lesson plans on the LGBTQ+ population within the African American community, the Black Lives Matter movement and critical race theory.

With these topics omitted from the curriculum, students and staff feel that having important aspects of understanding our modern world skimmed over weakens forward movement and progress in society.

“I think it’s important for us to learn those kinds of things because if we don’t learn history, we’re doomed to repeat it,” junior and BSU Treasurer Zayan AdameGeffner said. “Having these things taken out of the program prevents people from really seeing the whole picture. When I had heard that [College Board was] taking certain aspects out of the course, I was disappointed because as a school

(Graphic by Olivia Kao)

with a majority of white students, it’s very important to open some people’s eyes to what’s going on in the world and to bring awareness.”

Teachers and staff members agree.

“We need to teach our kids to be kind, respectful, empathetic and compassionate to all peoples regardless of their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Learning about all different histories of all people is important so that we can be an educated society,” Associate Principal and former AP US History teacher Dane Hill said.

“We as a society often focus on our differences, when in reality, we are human beings first,” Hill said. “We represent our country and our government and make decisions for our future; knowing and understanding all the diverse peoples and cultures of our country is extremely relevant to making informed decisions and to continue to make our country a better place.”

Although the AP African American Studies course will not be offered across the country until 2024, PVHS offers an engaging Ethnic Studies course that will eventually become a state-mandated class for students to take.

The class dives deep into the importance of cultural and historical diversity and representation.

The feud between the College Board and Governor DeSantis is much more than just a debate over the contents of a high school class; it is the internal conflict of a nation torn between ideas of how American history should be told, and will likely last for generations to come.

(Photo by Chloe Choi)

The Danger of Earthquakes

Tremors in the Middle East cause concern for California

By Eva Yancheson reporter

In the early morning of Feb. 6, Syria and Turkey were rocked by a deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Two weeks later, a 6.3 magnitude quake caused additional injuries and damage.

Currently, the death toll is over 47,000 and climbing, with 87,000 injuries reported.

The cities also took a big hit: around 47,000 buildings were severely damaged in both countries.

“Most importantly, the incredible damage and terrible loss of life were due to the fact that the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria were tremendously powerful,” AP Human Geography teacher Louis Harley said. “Earthquakes in that part of the world are common, but a 7.8 followed by a 7.7 just hours later is very unusual. These were the largest earthquakes to hit [Turkey and Syria] since the 1600s.”

California is known for earthquakes— strong ones—but none have been this destructive.

“To put this in context, our last big earthquake almost 20 years ago was the 6.7 Northridge quake,” Harley explained, “a much less powerful quake that still caused about $50 billion in damages.”

California keeps earthquakes in mind when constructing new buildings, as many codes are in place to keep them intact in the case of an earthquake.

However, Turkey wasn’t as prepared.

“Secondly, many buildings in Turkey were either older buildings unable

to survive major earthquakes or newer construction that failed to follow modern earthquake guidelines. It’s not unusual for building construction in developing countries like Turkey to completely avoid construction laws and guidelines due to corruption and the lack of inspectors,” Harley said.

As for who is to blame for the immense damage, Harley has found that “12 Turkish building contractors have been arrested for faulty construction of buildings that collapsed.”

The government has issued more arrest warrants for contractors and there are

What Happened to Armenians 108 Years Ago?

By Ella Sherry news editor

Beginning in the spring of 1915 and ending in 1923, an immense number of Armenians living in modern-day Turkey were murdered or driven from their homes by the Ottoman government.

An estimated 600,000 Armenians died, but the exact number of deaths is unknown—some sources say as many as 1.5 million people were killed.

“It started when the rulers removed several people from the capital into a forced deportation and then added more and more into the death marches,” history teacher Anna Driver said.

“[It was] part of the Young Turk movement where there was forced assimilation into Turkish culture.”

The killings were violent, sudden and tragic.

According to a CNN article by Kevin Liptak, Armenians “are reported to have died in mass burnings and by drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation. Children were reported to have been loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard.”

This April marks the 108th anniversary of the genocide, but it’s a largely unknown event.

The Turkish government has long denied accusations and Western governments have been hesitant to admit the murders as a genocide.

But two years ago, the US government decided to acknowledge the massacre despite the possible strain on the relationship between the US and Turkey.

This was a major win for the Armenian people; the Armenian president tweeted that it was “an important day for all

Armenians.”

The US was late to acknowledge the genocide—31 other countries and the UN recognized it before the United States did officially.

“It was defined as a genocide by the United Nations in 1948 during a Genocide Convention,” Driver said. “[At the convention,] they defined what made a genocide and how to punish those responsible for genocide [to] stop them from happening in the future.”

Armenians are still largely affected by what happened today.

Many survivors were forced to convert from Christianity to Islam and were driven from their original homeland. Modern-day Armenia is much smaller than the ancient kingdom, which at its height in 95 C.E. to 66 C.E. stretched throughout modern-day Turkey to northern modern-day Iran.

Additionally, there has been a large diaspora over the globe: an estimated eight million Armenians live outside of the country.

California is especially populated with Armenians, and in Glendale, Los Angeles, Armenians make up around 40% of the population.

Despite the large population nearby, there is little recognition in the PVHS school curriculum and curriculum worldwide.

“One of the reasons why we don’t talk about [the genocide] is that we don’t have the records of the people and who has died and how many. A lot of the time we see [Armenian deaths] as war deaths versus persecution of people in [the Ottoman] empire,” Driver said.

“We don’t have enough background information to cover it as much as we should.”

ongoing investigations related to building collapses.

Though Turkey and Syria were hit by the same magnitude, Syria’s situation is arguably tougher.

“In Syria, a country wrecked by a decade of civil war, the situation is even more grim,” Harley said. “In parts of Syria, there is no organized government presence and there have been no building regulations enforced for many years. Here, buildings quickly collapsed and we don’t know the real extent of the damage.”

California’s history is riddled with earthquakes, making many wonder how

an earthquake similar to the one in Syria and Turkey could affect Californians.

Marta Wood teaches Marine Biology and shed some light on how California experiences seismic activity.

“Syria and Turkey lie on a transform fault, which is the same type of fault line that lies in California,” Wood said. “Transform faults, like the San Andreas Fault, are a little different in the way that they don’t come together or spread apart like convergent or divergent boundaries, they slide past each other. Because of that they build up a little more friction because they never stop grinding up against each other.”

It’s possible for the San Andreas fault to produce an earthquake with a magnitude as high as 8.2.

The last high-magnitude earthquake that California experienced was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which leaves the state waiting for the next one.

“Historically, high magnitude earthquakes along the San Andreas fault happen every 150-200 years, so we are due for a big one. When miles of slab rub up against each other we have little earthquakes, but the fault is due for a bigger shift,” Wood said.

Although California’s buildings are better prepared than those in Syria and Turkey, damages and deaths are still a possibility for the future.

According to an article in the LA Times, a large earthquake would “bring disaster to all of Southern California simultaneously, with the fault rupturing from near the Mexican border to Monterey County.”

(Photo from the Daily Maverick)

The End of the Beginning: Caiden Falstrup-Finney’s Acting Journey

By Eva Mayrose opinion editor

When one thinks of the PVHS drama department, a few words come to mind: unprecedented, talented, and Caiden Falstrup-Finney.

Having immersed himself in PVHS’s drama department since his freshman year, senior and actor Finney began acting from a young age.

“My brother did high school theater, so I grew up watching him. I started acting when I was five at my community theater in my old hometown of San Diego. My first show was ‘Lion King,’” Finney said.

Finney has cultivated many passions throughout his youth. They range from zoology to engineering, but he truly felt that he wanted to begin working towards a career in theater in middle school where he “set in stone that [he] wanted to do acting for the rest of [his] life.”

“Right away you could tell that Caiden had something special, and he didn’t have that ego that often accompanies that sort of talent,” said drama teacher Nicole Thompson. “It was refreshing to see someone

work so hard and not take it for granted. He is really grateful for every opportunity that he has been given over the past four years and he’s earned them.

”Finney has not only poured his blood, sweat and tears into the department throughout his high school career, he has also been an inspiring figure and helpful mentor to the rest of Thompson’s actors and actresses.

“He’s really funny, and he’s

also an incredible leader. Caiden leads with his kindness and is such a wonderful role model for my younger students,” Thompson said.

As much as Finney has made his mark on the PVHS drama department, he emphasizes the fact that the family he has found here and the department in general has “really shaped [him] as an actor [and] definitely paved [his] path in wanting to pursue comedy and a life of theater and acting.”

In the midst of preparing for the final show of his PVHS career, Finney expresses how bittersweet the cast’s preparation has been.

“I am sad that it’s going to be my last show, but I think it’s important that we as seniors move forward and step down from the mantle and give a chance to the younger actors.”

The charismatic young artist is looking forward to putting his best foot forward on the spring musical, “Something Rotten!.”

“I am super excited for this show. It’s one of the funniest musicals I’ve ever watched. It’s gonna be really good,” Finney said.

Finney isn’t the only one excited for this musical.

Thompson is looking forward to seeing her star student play the role of Shakespeare in “Something Rotten!.”

“Caiden is a very versatile actor,” Thompson said. “The way that he uses his body and is comfortable within himself to carry himself with confidence on stage is very unique and neat. You just believe he’s that character, because he puts everything into it.”

So, what’s next for Finney?

Well, before we see him on the red carpet in 10 years, he will be studying screen acting at Chapman University as one of the 12 actors chosen nationwide for Chapman’s highly selective screen acting BFA.

As Finney looks forward to cultivating his passion in university, Thompson reminisces on her four years with

Finney as a student and as a talented individual.

“He’s created relationships and friendships with the whole department,” Thompson said. “I already know I’m going to know him my whole life, I can’t wait to see where he goes.”

Painting the Picture on PV Art Club Explaining Wellness Tiktok’s New Trend, Lucky Girl Syndrome

By Quinn Kearns social media manager

Sports are not the only things that Sea Kings excel at.

Our very own art club welcomes people of all different artistic styles and methods.

It meets every Monday during lunch in Room 213 and welcomes people of all artistic backgrounds.

“We host fun activities for the members like drawing popular characters from memory or creating things based on themselves. Because lunch doesn’t leave much time for help and improvement, the art club also hosts meetings outside of school times in the same place. With the extended time, we go over things like color theory, drawing from reference, and even help with character designing skills,” said junior Ari Tousey, copresident of the art club. Inspiration comes from all aspects of life.

Pursuing art has given club members the opportunity to express their inspiration in something that speaks through more than just words.

“I first became interested in art when I was a very young child, probably at the age of eight when I first decided I wanted to draw like the cartoons I watched on television. Animations like Gravity Falls or Steven

Universe inspired me with their character designs and story and I decided when watching them that I wanted to do things like that too,” said Tousey.

Through the art club, students like Tousey have been able to find people with shared interests at our school.

“The art club gave me a place to connect with people who felt the same way I did and allowed me to meet people with other inspirations I could seek advice from. It’s been a warm and comfortable place to share my work without judgment and even encouragement to continue practicing my craft.” Tousey said.

Many teachers at our school encourage creativity, but only a select few fuel it.

Kristy Jimenez, the photography teacher and sponsor of the art club, has shown her devotion to giving students the resources they need to engage in different forms of art.

By Lucia Ruiz editor-in-chief

The romanticization of health and wellness has taken social media by storm. Since the original self-care movement in the 2010’s, there have been numerous trends online regarding self-healing and wellness. In January, a new trend called “lucky girl syndrome” came to light.

Lucky girl syndrome is the viral TikTok trend in which people utilize gratitude and manifestation techniques to supposedly bring luck into their lives.

“The lucky girl syndrome is a way of looking at life in a more positive context,” senior Tina Duran said.

“The way your life goes has a lot to do with the way you think. The energy you put out into the world usually comes back to you one way or another.”

This mindset could be beneficial, especially to students with a long, intimidating list of tasks, Duran noticed.

“Sometimes, I get discouraged from wanting to even look at my to-do list, but incorporating manifestation into my mindset has subconsciously made me do

things that lead me to success,” Duran said. “Usually, I end up manifesting joy and success in life, and just having that in the back of my head makes me work harder and want it even more. Manifestation and hard work go hand in hand.”

In order to determine whether or not manifesting luck affects a person’s wellbeing, psychology teacher Bryce Stoddart discusses luck and the ramifications of believing in external forces which influence a

working for you and helping you realize your potential is very empowering.” However, believing in bad luck may have the opposite effect.

“People that are pessimistic also tend to lack what’s called an internal locus of control, meaning that they feel that there are forces outside of their own agency as a human being that are determining their future that they have no control over,” Stoddart said. “That’s the idea that ‘no matter what I choose to do about my own future, [it] will not make a difference because there are forces outside and circumstances I can’t control.’”

person’s future. “A person’s thinking and their beliefs have a big impact on how they feel about themselves and their life and their ability to realize their dreams,” Stoddart said. “People who are optimistic have an internal locus of control, meaning that they feel empowered and they feel that they have agency in their lives and can realize their dreams.”

Believing in luck generally is positive. As Stoddart says, “The belief that the universe is

Overall, believing in the positive effects of luck does have benefits. Whether or not luck truly does exist, convincing yourself of the benefits may improve your outlook on life and increase levels of happiness.

Duran said, “I would recommend it to anyone who feels bogged down in their day-to-day life in the sense that the lucky girl complex is a way of forming your own ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ Changing your mindset can alter your way of seeing the world in a positive way.”

(Photos courtesy of Caiden Falstrup-Finney)

(Photo courtesy of Ari Tousey)

A Case of Test Flu: How Skipping Tests Creates a Variety of Problems for Teachers and Students

Story and graphic by Chloe Choi centerspread editor

Test flu is a highly contagious disease that has been targeting overwhelmed high school students for years. Many students participate in extracurricular activities, sports and community service on top of their heavy course load to improve their resumes.

These packed schedules create a high stress environment that allows test flu to infect the student and give them the mindset that they can’t allot time in their schedule to prepare for exams.

An academic habit many students have adopted is to skip the original test and quiz days in order to temporarily relieve stress. Hypothetically, students should quickly bounce back after missing one assessment, but in reality skipping class causes problems for students and teachers alike.

Contrary to popular belief, skipping class to create more time to study has not been an effective strategy for most students. A common trend observed by teachers is that taking the test later doesn’t result in improved performance.

“In my experience, they don’t do better, they do worse. Material doesn’t stop coming and we move on to the next unit and they’re studying twice to keep up with the current unit as well as review for the test,” said AP Math teacher Michael Swatek.

Students that take the tests on later dates often hear previews of the test from classmates. To prevent cheating, many teachers make multiple versions of each test with slightly modified questions.

“I have to spend so much time making different versions of the test, to the point where it takes me five times longer to

make the test than it takes for kids to take it. I’m old, it shouldn’t be that way,” said AP Social Science teacher Louis Harley.

“If the student is consistently missing the test if they have “test flu’’ or if I see them walking around a couple hours after the test it drives me crazy. That’s not honest behavior and they’re trying to get an advantage,” he continued.

One disadvantage of taking make-up tests during later class periods is that the student is unable to ask the teacher for clarification regarding difficult test questions.

This is because the teacher is busy teaching the next content as scheduled and they are unable to help the student working on prior material.

“I build a system where a person should be able to see the rewards of being there on test day. That can be like facts I give them at test time like ‘Here’s how this test links to what we did in class this week,” said AP Physics teacher James Warren.

“I can’t give those facts on make-up test day, it’s impossible to do that. When someone dodges a test [and] puts us in an impossible situation, then we don’t have the resources to help them. I try to show them how the normal schedule of doing things provides the best resources for students to learn.”

Not only is the student taking a makeup test unable to ask for help, but they are also missing out on the crucial information

Summers in South America

Senior Valentina Gardner Connects with Family in Colombia

By Kelly Donahue features editor

For senior Valentina Gardner, visiting her family in Colombia every summer has been an absolutely amazing experience. Although she tries to do different things every year when she goes, one of her favorite things has been helping teach English.

“I got the opportunity to teach kids English in Colombia, like kids without access to school, and I kind of got that connection of having friends in Colombia. I really didn’t see them from a teacher perspective, I saw them more as friends that I got to help out,” Gardner said. Gardner has been traveling to Colombia every year since she was born.

“Going to Colombia is not a vacation. To me, going to Colombia is like going back to my second home and going back to visit my family,” Gardner said. When her mother used to take her and her siblings to Colombia for the entire

summer, she didn’t like it at first.

“At the beginning, I hated going because growing up in the United States, I kind of hated the idea of being something other than fully American and as I have grown up I have grown to love and appreciate my Latin side,” Gardner said.

“I look forward to those trips to Colombia every summer because it makes me realize that me being Latin is something that a lot of people don’t have and going every summer has kind of made me feel in touch with my heritage.”

Gardner loves going to Colombia for many different reasons, but one reason stands out among the rest.

“I really enjoy going just to see my family,” Gardner said. “It’s really the only time that I get to see them and as my grandparents get older and reach that age of not being as mobile as they used to be, I go every chance I get to go see them and I don’t take it for granted.”

that is being taught.

“As a veteran teacher, I backwards map from the AP Exam date. If a kid is out on the test, that puts [the student] behind. The next class they show up, I’m lecturing [and] they’re taking a test. The next day after that I’m doing a lab based on what I just lectured [and] now they’re joining a lab they don’t know [anything] about. It just kind of snowballs,” said AP Environmental Science teacher Marie Kuhn.

“My average [percentage of students absent on quiz days] is 24% and that ranges anywhere from 11%, which is reasonable, to 39.3% absence rate. That’s a lot, a quarter of the class gone, on average, on quiz days,” Swatek said.

“If it’s just by chance that on quiz days they are absent like this, I’d only get this average of 24% once out of 100,000 times according to the statistical study that I did. This implies that people are skipping on purpose.”

The pandemic forced teachers to be more accommodating when students were absent while quarantining with COVID-19. However, this created a standard for students that make-up tests will always be available, regardless whether or not the absence was for a legitimate reason.

“Since COVID, some kids have gotten used to taking everything open note or at home and I think that has an effect on people,” said Harley. “I’ve had kids tell me ‘Can I just use my phone’ and it was only two years ago, so I think most kids have that memory of COVID time where you could look everything up.”

The schedule teachers spend time making is done to benefit their students, especially in AP classes that have a month less time to teach the material.

Noticing a couple absences here and there may mislead Sea Kings to believe that skipping on quiz or test days is an uncommon academic habit.

Swatek conducted a study on the correlation between quiz days and the average percentage of students absent.

He found that an average of 9.4% of his students are absent on regular class days and that number spikes to 24% on quiz days which provides evidence that there is a strong relationship between assessments and attendance.

“I’ve told [students] from the beginning it’s important to be here on test days and it’s an AP college level class and they’re going to have to learn that. If they try to pull that in college and miss a test, they get a 0. I think that will be a rude awakening for some people,” Kuhn said.

“The effort you put in is the result you get out and there’s a famous quote. ‘If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.’”

(Photos Courtesy of Valentina Gardner)

PVHS Students Share

“When I’m rock climbing, I bring my lucky gloves, otherwise, I feel uneasy. I won my first competition with them, and I feel like I’ll always do better when I bring them or wear them. I definitely think it’s a placebo, but it’s what I’ve grown used to, so I still bring them everytime I go rock climbing to this day.”

- Meeka Rahimi (10)

“[The nerves] go back days before the meet. I like to visualize [the race]. At any opportune moment I’ll just visualize myself in the race and then for some reason I’ll be nervous from that. Even though I imagine myself having a really good time I still somehow get nervous from that. So at a swim meet before getting behind the block or before I have to race, I shake my arms a lot and jump a couple times. The shaking clears my mind of all the nervousness before stepping up to the blocks.” -

Vincent Wang (10)

“For rowing before a race I have a little folded American flag that I always put in the back of the boat. We had the flag when we did a PR practice in Marina Del Rey and when we went to regionals with the flag we did really well there. We brought it to Florida with us to nationals and did well. It’s probably a placebo or it could just be a coincidence. I’ve always just kind of had [the flag] with me just to have it, it doesn’t hurt. It’s just kind of an easy thing to bring good luck so I just do it because it doesn’t hurt to do a little extra.”

- Sean Halligan (11)

“My lucky show called dance, “Kiss up” they team and perform helps me is just

“Before a race, I listen to the song ‘Sidelines’ by Phoebe Bridgers three times in a row, and then ‘Titanium’ by Sia twice without interruptions or else I have to start over. I actually hate the song ‘Titanium,’ I just listen to it because I always have. I get really nervous before races and ‘Sidelines’ helps calm me down, and ‘Titanium’ gets my adrenaline up before I run.”

- Kate Sherry

(10)

“My visor because I practice with my visor a lot so racing with it feels more comfortable. I wear my grandpa’s watch sometimes. I feel like when I wear it, things start to go my way and I feel lucky. I have my [rubber] chicken Benito, but I lost him – I got a new one but it’s not the same. The chicken makes the scariness of a race kind of go away because it reminds me of how fun it is since it’s just a toy.”

- Alex Naehu (11)

“I listen to some NBA Youngboy when I walk into the classroom before my tests. This is my intro music that I listen to with my headphones in, like I’m Kobe. I’m locked in. When I listen to NBA Youngboy I win my races in track and field and do well on my tests. I got an 88% on my Ms. Palosaari test. That’s coming off an F on the previous one so that’s how you know it really works.” - Matthew Liu (11)

Share Their Lucky Charms

“During basketball season, right before halftime, I would run into the dance room and do a cartwheel. This started because in one of the first halftime dances we performed, I had to do an aerial and for some reason I thought doing a cartwheel before could warm me up. Now I do this a lot because it gives me the burst of energy I need right before my performance. Although this ritual started as a nervous last-minute decision, I think it’s a funny tradition that helps my body warm up, so I will continue this tradition. ”

- Jenny Grennan (11) right

Lucky Charms and Superstitions: Real or Placebo?

By James Lew reporter

Long ago, superstitions began as a way for our ancestors to explain natural events. Before science came to explain how mirrors worked, people once believed that mirrors revealed part of their souls.

increases the production of muscle glycogen and decreases muscle recovery time.

lucky ritual is actually stolen from a called Dance Moms. It’s the little “Kiss kiss knee knee floor floor they do before they perform. My and I do this every time before we [for choreo]. This lucky charm me calm down all the nerves and fun to do with your friends.”

- Carli Govel (9)

“Before I play tournaments, I have a little McDonalds Edna Mode figurine from The Incredibles. It’s kinda like a bobblehead. I put it on the dashboard of my car and face it towards the court where I’m playing, and so if I lose and come back sad, then I’m happy because I see her. If I were playing and I was trying to make myself feel better, I feel that she’s watching.”

- Naomi Kao (12)

Nowadays, there are still many commonly held superstitions around the world such as the fear of Friday the 13th and seeing bird droppings falling on you as a sign of good luck.

Many people hold personal superstitions as well. Baseball Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, once ate chicken before his baseball game and had a base hit that game.

Boggs believed eating the chicken before the game enabled him to get a hit, and he subsequently ate chicken before every game he played for the rest of his career.

Similarly, some PVHS athletes hold superstitions about their pre-game meals. Junior Adrien Santiago, a varsity basketball player, said, “Before every basketball game I eat pasta to help me play better.”

Unlike some other superstitions, Santiago’s is scientifically plausible and may actually enhance endurance during exercise.

Studies in 2006 showed that the consumption of simple carbohydrates within 60 minutes before exercise significantly

On the contrary, many other superstitions are based on psychology instead of on scientific experimentation. Sophomore Brooks Mhyre, a varsity soccer player, wears a headband every game because he believes it helps him play better.

“My hair used to get in my eyes, and the first time I wore the headband, we won and I scored a goal in that game. So ever since this happened, I have been wearing the headband.”

The practicality of wearing a headband, in combination with the confidence and lucky feeling it brings, seems to aid Mhyre in his performance on the field.

“When I wear the headband, I usually do [well] and if I don’t, my hair would get in my face, and I may not play as well.”

Other students like junior Milo Daluiso do not believe that superstitions are real.

“I don’t really believe in luck, but I believe that if you are wellgrounded and prepared, things will go favorably for you,” Daluiso said, “However, placebos can be really powerful, and as a placebo effect, I guess [routines and objects] can be helpful. It doesn’t matter if an object has some supernatural power. If you give it that power [and confidence], then it will help you.”

“Before a game, whenever we cheer and huddle, I always have to do it with my left hand, otherwise I feel like I’m going to have a bad game if I do it with my right hand. Although I am right handed, I’m not really sure where that superstition came from. I just have a better game when I do it with my left hand. I score more goals, or we win a game. I feel like if we lose it’s because I did it with my right hand.” -

Gabby DiCamillo

(11)

“Before I perform, I like to do five jumps, up and down. Sometimes in addition to doing five jumps, I like to run a lap because if I’m more tired, I’m less likely to [blank and] make something up on the spot [while performing]. It helps me rely on just muscle memory. I always use the same brand of strings, go to the same person who does my hair, I warm up the same way every time. I don’t eat anything for an hour before performing.”

- Anthony Yoon (12)

Nepo-Babies: The future of Hollywood

By Olivia Kao reporter

Nepotism babies: children who were, more or less, born into the spotlight. A hot topic of debate in today’s generation is whether or not nepo-babies deserve their fame.

Many celebrities have spoken out against having privileges and denying being nepotism babies, while some have acknowledged holding this controversial status.

Are having famous parents or a hard work ethic the ticket into Hollywood?

In short, it sure does give you a headstart. Having the same manager or agent as one of your parents is certainly easier than having to wait years and years for your big break, let alone even being able to get an agent.

Having famous parents is like having a fastpass for a roller coaster in which you’re able to get on in under ten minutes, whereas everyone else must wait hours.

The term “nepotism baby” is arguable in itself. However, when celebrities outright deny or speak out against their clear head start in the industry is when they begin

to receive backlash.

Just one case of a celebrity who sparked controversy over her remarks on nepotism is Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of iconic actor Johnny Depp and supermodel Vanessa Paradis.

In early November of 2022, the young model and actress denied holding the nepotism-baby status, and claimed that “‘If somebody’s mom or dad is a doctor, and then the kid becomes a doctor, you’re not going to be like, ‘Well, you’re only a doctor because your parent is a doctor’” in an interview with Elle Magazine. But can the path to becoming a doctor be compared to growing up on the red carpet? Not really.

Faking Disabilities for Clout Dissecting internet influencer morality

By Aidan Shen reporter

Attention is something that most young teens crave and some don’t have an original idea good enough to get it. So, they resort to more immature options that come with fleeting fame, and not so fleeting consequences.

recently been exposed for faking tics and other mental illnesses for clout.

This Tik Toker has been ridiculed and shamed by multiple other creators who truly experience the everyday struggle of Tourettes, calling out the misconceptions they have been spreading on their page.

The path to fame and success is a complicated one, making it difficult to determine who has put in the work and who has not.

Many nepotism babies, like Lily-Rose Depp, are talented and have worked hard to some degree, but disregarding their advantage in the industry is simply ungrateful to their parents and ignorant of those who have worked their way from the ground up. Whether or not nepotism babies are able to curate the accessible fame they are provided with into something of their own image is what will determine their success.

Queerbaiting is Problematic for Everyone

By Sophie Stoddart reporter

Today, queerbaiting is considered a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which creators hint at or imply a queer relationship or identity, but do not depict or confirm it. The meaning of the term has evolved over time, changing drastically from the 1950s until now.

Queerbaiting was first relevant during the1950s. America was experiencing what is known as the Lavender Scare, where queer people with governmental positions were viewed as untrustworthy, which put their jobs at risk. As a result, queer people anxiously hid their sexualities.

To identify those who were a part of the LGBTQ+ community, people would queerbait or pretend to be an ally or queer person themselves. They assumed the undeserved trust of queer people to out them to the public and turn them in.

Presently, queerbaiting has been used by television shows like “Stranger Things”, and fans have accused artists such as Harry Styles and Billie Eillish for presenting misleading representations of who they are, by dressing, acting, and speaking a certain way, to attract and maintain the loyalty and

attention of their queer fans and audience members. Queerbaiting not only attracts the queer community’s attention, but also opens their wallets as they are teetering on this false hope that they will receive some confirmed representation.

There is no question that queerbaiting is a real issue that can harm the LGBTQ+ community. Queerbaiting can take a large toll on the mental health of the queer community.

Representation is incredibly important. It is validating and comforting to see who you are and the struggles and adversity you face reflected by the media. It sends the message that you are not alone, there are people out there like you, and there are people who care.

For heterosexual people who are having trouble imagining how queerbaiting would feel, picture never seeing any confirmed straight characters or relationships in your favorite T.V. shows, movies, and books, yikes.

Accurate representation is far more essential for the LGBTQ+ community because of the homophobic world we live in.

While queerbaiting is a serious issue, it can also perpetuate a serious double standard. The LGBTQ+ community has always stood for being true to oneself, and expressing who you are, and accepting others for who

they are. Although, many queer individuals and allies will call out and blatantly accuse celebrities and characters in the media for queerbaiting without much consideration, this completely goes against what the LGBTQ+ community stands for.

These individuals overlook the fact that these characters and celebrities could be accurately expressing themselves, queer or not, and are invalidating them in the process. Critics are basically saying that their identities and self-expression are only valid if they outrightly confirm their sexuality. Additionally, they are pressured to fit certain perceptions others have of them, conform to a specific identity, and feel obligated to reveal personal information to the public.

The bottom line is that using queerbaiting as a marketing technique deeply affects the mental and emotional well being of the LGBTQ+ community.

The community deserves direct, explicit representation and the community’s desire and anticipation should not be taken advantage of for monetary profit, but the double standard it has created is just harmful as people accused of queerbaiting feel pressured or obligated to disclose their sexuality and justify themselves to the public based on their appearance or behavior, which is incredibly unfair.

Cancel culture has become a huge topic online over the past few years. During quarantine over 2020 and 2021, social media entertainment evolved more than ever, with the change of humor and slang. Like all good things, these have come with a use for wrongdoing as well.

A popular trend that has made a large appearance, has been the imitation and mocking of disabilities.

In my personal experience on Tik Tok, every video I see raising awareness for a mental illness or disability comes with an online war in every comment section.

It warms my heart to see people defending a community that should be seen as nothing but a group of people fighting more than most of us ever do, in a single day. The most prominent disability that I’ve come across on Tik Tok specifically is Tourettes.

Tourettes is a condition that affects an individual’s nervous system, causing sudden twitches or movements called “tics”.

I’ve seen the good side of the user base, and unfortunately the bad.

One such example of this negative side of Tourettes awareness on TikTok, would be a content creator who calls themselves “@ticsandroses”.

Their content explores everyday living with a sometimes debilitating disability, Tourettes, or so viewers thought. They have

There is a false view on the internet that people with Tourettes can control or anticipate what their tics are going to be, and when they come. A content creator and twitch streamer with the username “@Dapz” reinforces that fact that “you can’t really choose what tic you have at any given moment, it kind of just happens.”

Even when trying to raise awareness for a good cause, it is still immoral to exploit any sort of disability or mental illness, regardless of the intention.

An inspiring example of what someone can do regardless of their abilities, or disabilities, is Lewis Capaldi. Capaldi was initially diagnosed with the condition Tourrettes in March of 2022, revealing it publicly in September.

A wholesome act by fans of Lewis Capaldi at one of his concerts, shows fans finishing the end of his number 1 hit song, “Someone You Loved”, as he experiences tics at the end of his performance.

The whole end of the chorus was finished for him by his crowd as he watched, giving a perfect example of how you can support those with impaired abilities.

Instead of fishing for clout online by misusing the algorithm, Tik Tok users and the rest of the world should take inspiration from Lewis’ fans on the night of February 21, and support people with these disabilities, instead of faking it themselves.

(Graphic By Olivia Kao)

(Graphic By Aidan Shen)

A Letter From the Editors

Humans have generations upon generations of experience with writing. For centuries, writing has been a way to share ideas, communicate emotions and connect with others. But in 2023, these powers are being relinquished to robots.

One of the primary issues with ChatGPT is the lack of sincerity in its writing. From letters to novels, human writing conveys personality and experience, neither of which AI can successfully emulate. In a yearlong competition hosted by Dartmouth College, a panel of ten judges were shown six poems written by humans and four poems written by two different computer algorithms. The judges easily differentiated between human poetry and AI poetry, proving that AI cannot communicate authenticity as humans can. In the end, results showed that AI algorithms are incapable of replicating the art of writing.

That being said, updated versions of ChatGPT now have the ability to incorporate emotional vocabulary into its writing in a startlingly accurate way. With this recent development, users are utilizing the bot to write anything from personal statements to wedding vows. This shifts the problem of sincerity onto the users themselves. Does a thankyou letter written by ChatGPT hold any value? Any ounce of sincerity? Using AI for situations like this defeats the purpose of having kind gestures in the first place.

Even OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman has been desperately trying to downplay his own hit product. Altman took to Twitter, calling ChatGPT “incredibly limited” and warning users “it’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now.” Originally, OpenAI was planning on releasing the chatbot in early 2023, but in a worried frenzy at the fact that competitors may release before them, the company decided that just 13 days would be enough to debut ChatGPT-- 13 days to develop their latest version of a chatbot that over 100 million users accessed within its first two months in the public domain.

Already, there have been countless stories of AI detectors exposing students for using chatbots to write papers, bringing upon them the consequences of plagiarism. As students increasingly rely on AI for assignments, they miss out on valuable skills that the assignments are designed to teach students. It’s not just an issue of neglecting integrity, but also an issue of hindering language development. Students forfeit their understanding of academic content while losing the ability to communicate effectively.

ChatGPT’s powerful abilities have severe consequences for generations of students, pulling apart the fabric of integrity that holds together the academic system and society as a whole. In order to avoid hindering our growth, we cannot use AI and allow it to think, write, and act for us.

Fast Fiction

The problem with “BookTok”

By Ella Sherry news editor

If you’re a reader who also has social media, whenever you open TikTok or Instagram you’re probably bombarded with videos about the same books you heard about months ago: “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Mass, “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller and every single book Colleen Hoover has ever written.

Of course, there are some exceptions, but for the most part the bookish corner of TikTok, accurately named BookTok, popularizes poorly written and undeserving novels.

This is not a new concept. The literature industry has always published easy reads because they sell well. But with the recent rise in social media usage related to books, the sales on these types of books have skyrocketed.

Bookstores and the literature industry are seeing the benefits of BookTok; book sales are reaching “an almost 20year peak” and more people are buying from bookstores (Coleman, The Week).

While the effects may seem positive, there is a dark side to the popularity of these kinds of books.

An example of this is the controversial work of Colleen Hoover, one of BookTok’s most popular authors. She has written books such as “It Ends with Us,” “Verity” and “Ugly Love,” all of which have gained popularity on the platform.

“It Ends with Us” has been both celebrated and heavily criticized for its content. It’s about the dangers of an abusive relationship, but some readers have accused Hoover of romanticizing domestic abuse.

Many of Hoover’s readers are teenagers, which presents a problem with the subject matter of her novels: if young readers are seeing toxic relationships portrayed without any consequences, will they know how to navigate away from and protect themselves from dangerous relationships in real life?

This issue isn’t unique to Hoover’s work, either; many

How Old Is Too Old?

other popular books on TikTok romanticize hazardous subjects. Another drawback of BookTok is the actual quality of writing. There are some popular books that are well-written, but the majority are written solely for sales, often focusing on tropes and aesthetics instead of plot, character development, theme and eloquent prose.

A recent example of this comes with “Lightlark” by Alex Aster. When Aster pitched the novel’s plot on TikTok, it gained immediate traction and was published in August of 2022. Soon after its release, readers complained about her writing style, calling it juvenile and generic.

Despite this, it’s not possible to stop writing these kinds of books—not everyone wants to read novels that examine the purpose of life.

But writing is an essential part of the human experience: it allows people to connect over hundreds of years, to tell meaningful stories that impact lives and to document important cases of individual experience. If we prioritize stories that are written only for the purpose of a quick, easy read on vacations, we lose so much relevant insight on humanity.

Colleen Hoover will go down in history for her immense number of book sales and Alex Aster is a prime example of BookTok’s influence over the publishing industry, but their novels will not be remembered as monumental, expertly-written works of literature.

The toxicity behind Hollywood’s glamorization of age gap relationships

By Eva Mayrose opinion editor

48 and 19, 31 and 21, 64 and 39. No this isn’t a sudoku puzzle, it’s the ages of three famous Hollywood names in comparison to the ages of their wives or girlfriends. You may have noticed the smallest number between each set of numbers is 10 years, a number that, today, is regarded as a small age gap as a result of the increase of older men going after freshly legal women in the celebrity world.

Now, age gap relationships aren’t a new phenomenon, but our desensitization to seeing a man on the verge of senior citizenship dating a woman who just got the right to vote in the U.S. is. Hollywood has been the main reason for an increase in these types of relationships being broadcast and normalized in the minds of young women.

However, that’s not to say

that women are the only ones being victimized; there are also countless celebrity age gap relationships in which the man is younger and has been “seduced” by an older woman or married her because of her position in show business, etc.

Though all relationships with significant age gaps have proven to be much more toxic and unhealthy to the younger spouse despite gender, it is no secret that women are disproportionately affected and victimized in these scenarios.

So, what has birthed this new trend of women dating men the same age as their father? A lot of the influence, I believe,

Editors-in-Chief

Amber Chen Lucia Ruiz

Adviser Cynthia Mindicino

has been from the resurgence of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita.”

This novel outlines the perverted relationship between a 12-yearold girl and her mother’s new

Editors & Leadership

News: Ella Sherry

Features: Kelly Donahue

Opinion: Eva Mayrose

Sports: Jonathan Liu

Photography: Sierra Namvari

husband. The child’s stepfather takes a keen interest in her youth and she is soon manipulated into a sexual and romantic relationship with him.

Though this book is regarded as a literary classic, it brings up morally questionable and not to mention illegal acts and normalizes them.

An example would be that it has been responsible for the birth of the “Lolita Coquette Aesthetic” which glamorizes age gap relationships, mirroring the sickening plot of Nabokov’s story.

This aesthetic has been trending on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, and can range from simply enjoying the childlike innocence of the “girly” aesthetic

Centerspread: Luka Ardón

Chloe Choi

Online: Ella Sherry

Social Media: Quinn Kearns

to envying women who are in relationships with significantly older, wealthy men in which their purpose in the relationship is to be the Victoria’s Secret model girlfriend or wife.

Sadly, the toxicity of this glamorization often goes unnoticed. Women in these relationships often are more likely to endure physical and mental abuse as well as are manipulated into being trapped in extremely unhealthy relationships in which they are afraid to speak out against their spouse or seek help.

This is not to say that all age gap relationships are disgraceful or necessarily toxic and unhealthy. However, if the media is going to glamorize this trope, I believe that it is equally important to shed light on the dangerous possibilities of this normalization, especially regarding impressionable teenage girls and young women.

Staff

Zara Deen, Enna Hosoi, Olivia Kao, Hailey Kim, James Lew, Aaron Propst, Aidan Shen, Sophie Stoddart, Sophie Sun, Christopher Vasey, Eva Yancheson

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@pvhspoint

(Graphic by Eva Mayrose)

(GraphicbyEvaMayrose)

Hassanein Tops the Charts on the Court

By Enna Hosoi reporter

Junior Alex Hassanein started playing basketball early into elementary school, but did not realize his passion until high school.

“I started playing in second grade, but I didn’t really put in the work or time into it that I do now until my freshman year,” Hassanein said.

Hassanein has an impressive record as top scorer on boys varsity basketball, averaging 17.8 points per game.

“If I had to [credit my success] to one thing, I would definitely say it’s my mindset when it comes to the game,” Hassanein said.

“I was always naturally skilled and a solid player, but when I started to put in all the extra hours over the last couple of years, I really noticed how much my game as a whole has improved.”

While Hassanein’s mindset has improved his performance during games, he also has his coaches to thank.

“I’ve been fortunate to have so many great coaches and trainers over the years, it would be impossible to credit my success to just one of them.”

Hassanein has had incredible success and has made many memories this season.

“My favorite part about playing basketball is upsetting the opposing fans.”

He has others he looks up to for his inspiration.

“I don’t model my game after a single person, but I take certain things from all different players.”

Over the years, Hassanein has learned many new skills and has developed a better understanding of how to use his strengths to his advantage.

“The thing I’ve learned most about myself this season is that it doesn’t matter who I’m playing against, they can’t guard me.”

Junior Teh Han Kim has played on the same team with Hassanein for two years now, and talked about what it’s like to have Hassanein as a teammate.

“He pushes everyone to be their best and lets you know if you are lacking in certain areas,” Kim said.

“He doesn’t ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He works hard and is respected by everyone on the team.”

Hassanein is an incredible player but also a great teammate who everyone looks up to.

“He’s extremely disciplined in his craft, working out to the point where his body can’t handle it,” Kim said.

“He does every rep and every workout at 100 percent and overall, he is very hard working.”

PVHS’ Annual Choreo Concert

Students express their emotions through dance

By Sierra Namvari photo editor

Choreo’s annual Spring Concert is coming up this March, with some emotional performances.

“I really like the theme this year because I’m a very energetic person which is shown through my dancing,” Senior Brynn Ottolia said.

“Expressions through dance gives a lot of perspective of different people’s choreography styles, as well as covering historical, social media, and societal issues.”

The expressive dances range from connective duets, to the personal struggles of mental health.

PVHS’s choreo students spend hours everyday, preparing for this show in order to make it a passionate experience.

Senior Vivian Chan is choreographing for the show for the first time in her four year experience.

“I’m choreographing three pieces and dancing in another student choreographed one along with four guest teachers’ dances,” Chan siad.

“I think I’ve been managing it pretty well. Ms. Mastan has

definitely been very helpful during this process. One of my dances is about burning out and another one is about two people converging paths creating a

friendship”.

Through choreographing, many have found out about the competitive aspect.

“Choreographing is very

stressful, more than I thought it would be,” sophomore Lauren McDonald said.

“The piece is about the competitive side of everyone,

and is represented through two people who are against each other, only to realize they’re the same.”

The two dancers in a duet are co-choreographing for the first time which brings more responsibility and learning to this process for them.

“Working with my friend can be difficult sometimes when we have different ideas, but it can also be really helpful when one of us gets stuck,” McDonald said.

One freshman, Jordan Bulatao, goes through the process of learning new styles for this show.

“I am doing a swing dance, which is very different from what I normally do,” Bulatao said.

“I’ve done formal ballroom dances, but this style is a lot more energetic.”

These dances have connected many of the students to their personal struggles or emotions.

Expression through dance is a big part of creativity and getting the opportunity to put on a show filled with each dancer’s unique experiences is what makes it so special this year.

The choreo show is March 22 and 23 at the James Armstrong Theatre in Torrance at 7 pm. Tickets are $15.

(Photo by Sierra Namvari)

(Photo by Sierra Namvari)

March Madness Preview

The yearly college basketball tournament is on track to live up to the hype

By Aaron Propst reporter

In the month of March, the highly anticipated college basketball tournament, March Madness, is held.

Fans around the world deem this as one of the most unpredictable sports tournaments.

68 of the best college basketball teams all compete in an epic tournament full of upsets, star players, and surprises.

During the tournament, many prospects get their names out there with high quality performances.

This tournament is so unpredictable that the odds to correctly pick every game correctly is one in nine quintillion.

Roughly 70 million brackets are created each year and a perfect bracket still has not been predicted.

This year there is no clear best team, but how important is being a one seed?

In the last five college basketball seasons, all five champions have been a one seed.

“I think Kansas has a very good shot at repeating, they have really good guard play,” Assistant Principal Jason Ito said.

“But I would love to see USC make the tournament, they’re on the bubble right now, so I will be rooting for USC and Kansas.”

Kansas is led by Jalen Wilson and superstar freshman Gradey Dick.

In the Big 12 conference, Kansas has proved every game that they deserve to be at the top.

Kansas has a fantastic resume as they have notable wins include wins against Texas, Baylor, and TCU.

Houston has had a tremendous season, racking up some incredible resume-boosting wins en route to being the overall one seed.

This includes wins over Saint Mary’s and Virginia.

Guard Marcus Sasser leads the Houston Cougars with 17 points and 6 assists, but questions linger on the legitimacy of Houston’s 27-2 record as they are not in that strong of a conference.

Alabama has been in the mainstream of college basketball headlines coming into March.

Brandon Miller, superstar Alabama forward, has made the headlines with his off court actions, as he has been accused of involvement in a murder.

In the midst of this controversy, Miller’s performance hasn’t

seemed to be impacted, as he has been performing at a National Player of the Year level, like in a 41 point game at South Carolina. Another spectacular team through the course of the season has been UCLA.

UCLA has always been a strong basketball school, and they are looking to win it all this year.

In 2021, UCLA had an improbable Cinderella run to the final four.

They have proved big wins are not farfetched for their program, as they have won 11 national championships in their history. There are some other teams to keep an eye out for in this tournament.

Gonzaga is always a threat and they look to finally get over the hump and win it all.

Oral Roberts, who made a run

Who do PVHS Students think is the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time?

By Jonathan Liu sports editor

When the casual fan discusses basketball, one thing always comes to mind: who is the Greatest of All Time?

LeBron James or Michael Jordan? Or is it Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, or others? To some fans, it’s a tough debate to have.

“I believe Michael Jordan is the G.O.A.T., but I have personal favorite players such as Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson,” junior Kaya Bilgic said.

In the month of February, LeBron James has become the number one scorer in the history of the NBA, passing Kareem with 38,390 points and counting with his career.

To some fans, this does not change the fact that they think James is the greatest of all time.

“In my opinion, LeBron has been the G.O.A.T. for a long time, and him breaking the scoring record didn’t influence my opinion,” junior Aaron Paik said.

While LeBron has the upperhand on Jordan with the scoring record, Jordan counters that with other accolades.

Jordan has accomplished a career with six championships compared to James’s four, has earned five MVP awards to LeBron’s four, and has 10 NBA scoring titles to LeBron’s one.

However, LeBron has dominated Jordan

in other categories such as All NBA awards, and All Star appearances.

To some fans, in order for LeBron to be considered the G.O.A.T. is if he wins a couple more championships to end his career.

“The only way [LeBron] will be considered the G.O.A.T. to me is if he matches Jordan in championships and wins another MVP to match Jordan as well,” junior Will Jorczack said.

Aside from NBA fans, current and former NBA players have also been tasked to answer who their “G.O.A.T.” is.

As YouTuber “JxmyHighroller” collected all this data from player interviews, it is well-documented that Jordan and James’ peers view Jordan as the clear “G.O.A.T.”.

Out of 112 players surveyed, 69 voted Jordan as the G.O.A.T. compared to 30 votes for James.

Excluding the votes for other players such as Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jordan accumulated 70% of the votes to LeBron’s 30.

As James’s career is nearing an end, the question now is: Is a player in the future going to overtake James and Jordan as “G.O.A.T.” candidates?

“It’s definitely possible that another player could overtake LeBron and Jordan as the G.O.A.T. with the new talent coming in the league, but I don’t think it’ll happen anytime soon,” senior Faizan Jaffer said.

to the sweet 16 just two years ago, has an incredible scorer in Max Abmas leading them to another great season.

North Carolina, the preseason number one overall, has fallen all the way to out of the tournament, and will need to win multiple games in a row to get back into March madness.

Many fans believe a run in the ACC tournament, will help their case in getting in the big dance. Notable bubble teams, or teams on the brink of being in or being out, include Clemson, North Carolina, Arizona State, Michigan, and Auburn. So, who do you have winning it all this year?

(Graphic by Aaron Propst)

PVHS’s CompSci Curriculum Prepares Students to Revolutionize the Tech World

By Hailey Kim reporter

As technology continues to advance at lightning speed, it’s no secret that coding and computer science are becoming increasingly important skills for high school students to possess.

At Palos Verdes High School, students have access to a variety of coding and computer science programs which can prepare them for success in the digital age.

One of the most popular coding courses at PVHS is the AP Computer Science Principles course, which teaches students the basics of coding languages like Python and JavaScript.

According to teacher Laura Palosaari, “This class would be perfect for anyone who has little or no experience in computer science, but wants to learn about the basics. We learn how the internet works and the basics of programming, among other topics.”

Palosaari also stated that a particularly successful lesson implemented in her class is when “students start out the class with paired programming, working with another student to create and debug code. One of their first projects is a 3-level Maze Project, and it is so fun to play each other’s versions in class, and then peer-review the projects.”

For more advanced students, PVHS also offers AP Computer Science, which covers a wide range of computer science topics and prepares students for the AP exam.

Students currently taking the course agree that it is

challenging, but they are learning a lot.

In addition to these classes, there are also a variety of coding clubs and extracurricular activities available to students.

The Palos Verdes Institute of Technology (PVIT), for example, offers multiple teams for students to join, where they program and build robots for competitions.

Of the many PVIT teams, sophomore Isabella Juelle chose to join the Space Team — more specifically, its subteam that is dedicated to software.

Like many others, Juelle joined PVIT to explore topics like programming and robotics.

Preparing for competitions with a team is an opportunity for students to take their coding skills to the next level as they learn from one another.

“Being part of a team and competing in competitions has helped me develop valuable teamwork and problem-solving skills,” Juelle said.

Not only do students find it a lot of fun, but they also get to see the practical, real-life applications of what they have learned within the classroom.

“It’s amazing to see our code come to life,” Juelle said.

PVHS’s emphasis on coding and computer science education ensures that students are wellversed in rapidly advancing technology and have the opportunity to pursue their interests in these fields.

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your skills to the next level, there’s something for everyone.

From A Disappointed Marvel Fan: Ant-Man Tanked

By Chris Vasey reporter

Marvel just released one of their most disappointing movies of all time, “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.”

According to Rotten Tomatoes, it was one of Marvel’s worst rated movies, and personally, I thought that it was extremely boring and confusing.

The movie lacked the special charm of the first Ant-Man movie. The sequel wasn’t funny at all, whereas I was laughing the entire time throughout the first film. What made the first Ant-Man special was Luis’ hilarious commentary.

Unfortunately, in the latest movie Luis made no appearance and was not even mentioned a single time.

Luis was the best character in the first Ant-Man movie, and his absence from the continuation of the story is a huge reason why this movie wasn’t on par with the other Ant-Man movies.

On top of the best character having zero screen time, the film was also quite boring. It never really felt like anything was being accomplished and the story wasn’t developing.

The ending was abrupt and unfulfilling, it seemed like all of a sudden there was a big final battle and then the movie was over.

The first thing I felt about the movie when I left the theater was how uneventful it was. It felt like a waste of my time; nothing really happened for the whole two hours. The introduction of

the Quantum realm in the movie also made it very confusing. The complex storyline was not portrayed in a way that was easy to understand.

Furthermore, the addition of the Quantum realm into the storyline seemed to lack purpose. It felt like they were just introducing the audience to the Quantum realm instead of actually developing

the backstory. I feel like the script writers took advantage of the Quantum realm being a new place by just adding new things to bail out the heroes.

Marvel has had multiple movies lately that have felt just like “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” and they need to fix it soon before they start to lose fans.

Is Artificial Intelligence Replacing Human Intelligence?

By Sophie Sun reporter

The rise of AI has been a hot topic for the past decade, with the inventions of AI robot Sophia and the quickly growing machine learning industry, artificial intelligence is more relevant than ever.

Recently the rise of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that has startlingly human-like responses, has raised questions relating to academic integrity and the ethical consequences of AI.

The Stanford Daily reports that a percentage of their students used ChatGPT in their fall quarter 2022 finals, whether as a reference or as a direct submission; this raised the question of academic integrity and how the development of ChatGPT will impact college admissions and personal essays.

“The personal statement, the personal essay – the key word here is personal,” College and Career Center director Joanne Lewis said. “You can’t cite, you can’t footnote, ‘by the way this was written by an artificial intelligence.’ It’s meant to be coming from the student, which is where the issue of integrity is going to lie.”

Lewis explains how it’s mainly highly selective colleges using software to detect usage of AI in college admissions essays.

Detection largely depends on the selectivity, time, and energy a college is

willing to invest in this issue.

On the other hand, Lewis contends that in the not so distant future, colleges may drop the need for college essays, much like how the requirement for standardized test scores has become optional in many applications.

Another option is colleges replacing long essay questions with more short answer ones.

“Ultimately it’s who you are, it’s your personality, it’s how you think that colleges are interested in, not in artificial intelligence,” Lewis said.

ChatGPT represents a greater issue with creativity and society – people are increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence. Prestigious schools like Vanderbilt University use ChatGPT to write letters about mass shootings, judges use ChatGPT as a deciding factor in their rulings, and “authors” are using ChatGPT to publish books.

As humanity continues using AI as a crutch, human innovation dies out. Textbooks, paintings, stories, songs, poetry – the basis of human development is more and more reliant on AI and the thoughts of a virtual machine that cannot replicate genuine human connection.

Lewis recounts how, in a recent interaction with the Texas Christian University Dean of Admissions, the

concrete human emotion she felt and conveyed via email could not have been imitated by words composed by a computer algorithm.

Of course, AI isn’t entirely evil – ChatGPT challenges the way we think about literature and the development of AI can reduce human error.

However, AI also raises many ethical and moral questions. Can AI replace human work? If AI makes a wrong decision, is the developer to blame? Are AI-made decisions equivalent to humanmade ones?

These questions will continue to be debated as the rise of artificial intelligence continues and humans adapt to an automated world.

Despite all this, one thing is certain – the growth of AI has already led to a decrease in human innovation and creativity; people are passing off the work of ChatGPT as their own and artists are using AI to generate artwork. Hours of hard work are being replaced by the single click of a button and humanity is working hard to match it.

When asked to determine which sentence was written by ChatGPT, most students selected Sentence A, which was written by a human, demonstrating how hard it is to differentiate between writing styles.

A.) Cats are a type of feline animal often found at home as pets. There are many different kinds of cat, such as British Shorthair, Persian, Ragdoll, and Birman. (Human)

B.) Cats are adorable pets that are known for their playful and independent nature. (ChatGPT)

(Graphic by Sophie Sun)