May 2019 — Silver Chips Print

Page 1

silverchips A public forum for student expression since 1937 Montgomery Blair High School

May 8, 2019

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND

VOL. 81 NO. 6

PROM?

Boundary analysis divides county

Blair and Northwood vandalized

By Amanda Liu and Sarah Schiffgens

By Uma Gupta

STAFF WRITER

STAFF WRITERS

Four community meetings hosted by the Montgomery County Board of Education this spring garnered national attention as residents debated factors that impact current school and cluster boundaries. Topics of discussion ranged from racial and socioeconomic disparities among schools to general merits and drawbacks of redrawing boundary lines. Each of the four meetings, held over the course of the past few weeks at Quince Orchard, John F. Kennedy, Earle B. Wood Middle School, and Walter Johnson drew large turnouts with hundreds of participants. Over 300 community members attended the final meeting at Walter Johnson. The Board of Education proposed the use of an external consultant for an in-depth review and analysis of school and cluster boundaries, focusing on whether boundaries can support or impede education and student use of facilities, on Jan. 8. The four meetings compiled community input that will direct the external consultants’ focus in their efforts and analysis, according to the Board. No potential district line changes will be made until after the spring of 2020, at which time the Board will review the external analysis to make a decision.

Discrepancies among boundaries

Montgomery County schools have gaping socioeconomic and racial disparities, largely based on zip codes. Current boundary lines can split neighboring students into vastly different school systems. The downcounty schools Blair and Northwood are only 1.2 miles apart, and students from the two high schools may live no more than a neighborhood apart from each other. Nonetheless, at Blair, 36.3 percent of students are eligible for the Free and Reduced-price Meal System (FARMS), whereas at Northwood, the number jumps to 52.5 percent, eight percentage points above the Maryland state average. In contrast, at upcounty schools in the western part of Montgomery County, such as Bethesda’s Whitman and Bethesda-Chevy Chase, only one percent of the student population qualifies for FARMS. 77.5 percent of Blair is non-white,

see REDISTRICTING page A2

YEKATERINA VAKHROMEEVA

ROMANCE ON THE BOULEVARD Seniors Miles Brown and Helena Mulageta share an embrace as spectators gather around the main stairwell after their prom-posal.

Blair hosts teen book fair By Prayag Gordy STAFF WRITER

On April 15, multiple local authors visited the Blair media center to participate in a student-run book fair. The event ran from first period until the end of sixth, though some time slots were not evenly filled due in part to the school administering a student survey. Juniors Elias Chen (a Silver Chips staff writer), Lintaro Donovan, and Bianca Sauro were the main organizational force behind

the effort, according to Media Specialist Andrea Lamphier, who supported them. “I would say logistical support [was my main role], putting things on our webpage, sending emails directly to Blair teachers, helping get the schedule tweaked, definitely setting up the room—those kinds of things,” she said. The media center set up stands to sell the participating authors’ books. Sauro and Chen first thought of hosting a book fair at Blair when they attended a similar event in Virginia. “We started last year when Elias and I went to the NOVA book festival, and we [realized] we don’t have anything like this in Montgomery County,” Sauro said, “so we decided that we should make one.”

Among the authors in attendance was Michelle Ray, whose primary job is an English teacher at Eastern Middle School. Partly because she has another job, Ray writes for her own enjoyment. “This isn’t my only job: I’m a teacher and a parent who happens to write, and that’s awesome,” she said. “I have these things that I can hand my children and say ‘Look what I did,’ but if I’m writing for money it does not work well for me.” Ray believes that Chen, Donovan, and Sauro—all of whom were former students of hers—all of whom were former students of hers—organized the event well and hopes for an increase in Blazer participation in any following book

see BOOK FAIR page E3

insidechips

COURTESY OF JORDAN BONDO

NEWS A2

Conscious Protests

Estuardo Rodríguez

The importance of being an aware protester

Entrevista con el CEO del Museo Nacional Latinoamerica

B2 OP/ED B1

CORTESÍA DE SABRINA KALÍN

C2

LA ESQUINA LATINA C1

KHUSHBOO RATHORE

Robotics Success

Old Town Road

Inside the successful season of The Blair Robot Project

Lil Nas X’s charttopping smash hit: country or not?

D4

FEATURES D2

ELAINE CHENG

E2

CULTURE E1

Blair staff found vandalism on various parts of the school campus on April 22. The building’s sidewalks, storage shed, and turf field were graffitied by an unknown individual. The incident followed a similar occurrence of vandalism at Northwood by suspected Blair students the prior weekend. Police and school security are currently investigating the incident. Principal Renay Johnson described the graffiti, which consisted of words and drawings, as “vulgar and destructive to our facility” in a letter to families on April 23. Although the graffiti was covered up by the end of the week, students and staff alike expressed disappointment and anger after learning about the situation. “I feel a little mad at the people who vandalized it cause we have pretty nice fields and that’s kind of messed up,” freshman Owen Kaiser said. In her letter to the school, Johnson expressed concern over the use of school resources in clearing the graffiti from the premises. “It is unfortunate that our school, MCPS, and Montgomery County resources will have to be used to remove and investigate the offensive vandalism,” she wrote. According to security guard Brian Leatherwood, investigators have been using footage from security cameras to help inform the police department. “We try to use our cameras to see if we can identify students and if we can identify them, if they are ours [Blair students] we can pass it on to the police department,” he said. According to the MCPS Student Code of Conduct, intentional destruction of school property may be punished with consequences ranging from community service to expulsion depending on the student’s age, motive, and the value of property destroyed. The student responsible for the vandalism may also be required to pay a fine. As the school continues to investigate these incidents, Leatherwood reminded students to make better choices. “If you want to paint go to art class but other than that it doesn’t make sense to vandalize a school property or anyone’s property,” he said. Contact Blair’s security office (301-649-2828) to share any information relating to the investigation or call Blazer Tipline (240-6887940) to share an anonymous tip.

Silver Chips Print @silver_chips @silver.chips Silver Chips Print

CHIPS CLIPS E5

SPORTS F2


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