The Raider Review December 2017 Meyersdale Area High School 25 cents

By Abbie Simpson

Updates on the school-issued Chromebooks have sparked some controversy. New software, downloaded onto ev-ery student’s Chromebook, al-lows teachers to block what the students are doing. At any point in time, a teacher can access the student’s computer and disable a student’s ability to search any-thing except the websites the teacher allows. The new software, GoGuardian, is similar to Schoolview, which was the soft-ware used in the school com-puter labs before the distribtion of Chromebooks. “I think it’s a great idea because it keeps kids focused and doesn’t allow them to get distracted,” said Heath Montgomery, a math teacher at Meyersdale High School. The GoGaurdian soft-ware is not only helpful to the teachers but can prove to be helpful to students. If a teacher is viewing a student’s comput-er while that student is doing research and the teacher sees something that could prove to be helpful to the other stu-dents, the teacher can take the website from one students com-puter and share it to the rest of the class. “I think it’s a good idea. I have kids at home and I know how they can get distract-ed. The students are allowed to do whatever they want on their devices during lunch but dur-ing class, it’s time to focus and I think this will help,” said Victor Gaibor, Information Technolo-gy Director at Meyersdale Area School District. The idea behind this software is to enhance class-room management. “Any de-vice can be a distraction. And these devices have a lot of purpose but they can still be a distraction. Kids can listen to music while they do their work, they can play a game or watch a Youtube video. This is a way to be able to reel the students back in and be able to keep their focus because teach-ers only have so much time to teach and if kids get distracted, it seriously cuts down on that

already small amount of time,” said Mr. Gaibor. The installation of this software is a very controversial topic to students, as to whether or not the teachers should have the right to decide what is in the students’ best interest. “I think there are some serious prob-lems with it because it doesn’t always work properly. If you get blocked in one of your classes and you have unsaved work in one of your tabs, you can’t get that work back. Plus, whenever a class ends, it doesn’t always unblock you. But I think that staying on track with your work should be the student’s responsi-bility and not the teacher’s. And if I want to play Zelda in class, then that should be my right!” said Kyle Davis, a sophomore at Meyersdale High School.

Digital controversy Who’s in control?

By Kathryn Most

Some MAHS students have begun covering their chromebook cameras with a piece of tape. These students fear the possibility of a some-one hacking into their comput-er and watching them through the camera. Victor Gaibor, Infor-mation Technology Director for the Meyersdale Area School District, covers his Chrome-book camera as do a growing number of the students at Mey-ersdale Area High School. Mr Gaibor said, “It’s a device that’s on your computer that can be turned on by someone, if some-one figures out how to do it. I like my privacy so I put a piece of paper over it and tape over the paper.” Mr Gaibor also thinks it is a valid concern for students and solution is something that doesn’t cost a lot or does any damage to the Chromebook. He also added that it is a good precautionary measure to take. Daniel Knotts, a Mey-ersdale senior, said, “There was a case in Philadelphia...they ‘coded’ (disciplined) a kid for having inappropriate behavior at his house with his laptop open.” Mr Knotts knows of a few of his friends who cover their cameras and several who think he is crazy. Nick Butler, a Somer-set County Tech Computer Networking student said, “It’s just a precaution I’ve taken. with any laptop or something, I cover the camera.” Meyersdale sopho-more, Gage Smith, said, “I don’t cover mine, I’m not worried about it. I think it’s stupid.”

Stop those prying eyes

MAHS Technical Education teacher Doug Horne monitors the activities of his students’ Chromebooks using the GoGuardian app. Teachers are able to block sites and freeze students’ screens. Photo by Alexis Walker

Dan Knotts defeats webcam spies with a high-tech “Dollar General” solution. Photo by Kathryn Most

NewsDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 2

By Kasie Campbell

On Saturday, Novem-ber 25th 2017, Meyersdale held its annual Light Up Night for the town. Every year, Santa and Mrs Claus sit in the Com-munity Center and talk to the kids about what they want for Christmas. A lot of work goes into creating this night for chil-dren and adults alike. The event started at 7pm with Santa and Mrs Claus and their elves riding through town on the top of a fire truck, waving at the members of the town. The fire truck stopped at the red light in time for the Christmas tree to be lit. Once the tree was lit, the fire truck went further down the street and stopped at the town’s Com-munity Center where the event was being held. Inside the Community Center, in addition to a meeting with Santa, partici-pants could visit vendors, who offered various products - from jewelry, food, clothing and home goods. Helpers designed one of the back rooms of the Com-munity Center to look like Santa’s Workshop. Santa and Mrs Claus sat and talked to the children while the elves sat at the tables and fixed up the toys. One of the elves, MAHS senior Kortni Schurg said, “I think it’s fun to get to watch all the little kids and see their expressions

when they see Santa and inter-act with us while we are ‘mak-ing toys’.” In years’ past, town members Paul and Terrie Wer-ner portrayed Santa and Mrs Claus. However this year their daughter, Eve Werner, had to step in and become Mrs. Claus. “Being Mrs Claus this year was a great experience, I was excit-ed to feel the Christmas spirit

By Emily Rosenberger

Meyersdale Area High School had the honor of host-ing this year’s Somerset County Band festival. On Wednesday, November 29 and Thursday, November 30, band students from schools all over the coun-ty convened at Meyersdale for this event. Students from Wind-ber, Conemaugh Township, North Star, Shanksville, Stony-creek, Berlin, Somerset, Rock-wood, Meyersdale, and Salis-bury participated in County Band. Prior to the event, stu-dents were given their music and expected to learn their part so they are prepared to play and

By Kylie Bittner

Many Meyersdale Area High School students plan on attending college or pursuing some sort of higher education after high school, but this post secondary education may come with a very high cost. For most of these stu-dents, scholarships and finan-cial aid can make the differ-ence between paying out tens of thousands of dollars, and receiving an affordable educa-tion. One avenue that students can pursue for this opportu-nity is the Outstanding Young Women (OYW) contest, held annually every spring. On November 17th, the preliminary competition was held at Conemaugh Town-ship High School in Davids-ville, PA. Four Meyersdale girls auditioned for the competition: Kasie Campbell, Caitlin Mill-er, Nadia Minnick and Grace Oakes. Ms Oakes and Ms Minn-ick qualified, and will compete this spring. Tammy Edwards, Meyersdale Area Middle School English teacher, and assistant organizer of the local competi-tion said, “It’s a scholarship pag-eant… that helps students pay for college.” The OYW awards can be especially beneficial, as up-wards of 20,000 dollars in cash scholarships can be won by fi-nalists. Additionally, many local colleges offer individual schol-arships, which in the past 14 years, have amounted to three million dollars made available to the young women of Cam-bria and Somerset Counties. Competition catego-ries include talent, interview, presence, fitness, and scholastic performance. OYW is a won-derful opportunity for any fe-male student that wants money for college. Good luck to our MAHS competitors.

put it together with an entire band. Senior high was conduct-ed by Dr. Brad Townsend, from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Keith Hanlon, a profession-al flute performer, conducted the junior high band. This year, senior high performed Amportia Roca, Shenandoah, Irish Rhapsody, and Chimes for the Peninsulam Amoenam. Junior high played themes from How to Train Your Dragon, Brave, The Rescue, and The Washington Post March. MAHS band director Katie Strong conducted the junior high’s performance of The Star Spangled Banner. The concert was held the evening of Thursday, November 30th.

Light up“The Dale”

Playing for the county

O.Y.W. in the works

come alive in our town,” said Eve Werner. A lot of time and dedication went into preparing for this night. Volunteers took time out of their days to deco-rate the town. Volunteer firefighters decorated the town a week in advance for the event, with lit up wreaths on the light poles and setting up the tree. One of the volunteers, Ethan Shankle

said, “It makes me feel very happy to help make the com-munity look so nice”. Also members of the town like Con-nie Shankle, Jason Emerick, and Charlene Klink helped to decorate the outside and in-side of the Community Center. It’s nice to see members of the community coming together to bring Christmas to our little town of Meyersdale.

Former MAHS business teacher Tim Mikula’s house reflects Christmas Spirit on Salibury Street. Photo by Dawn Hemming

MAHS’s Maria Kimmel (center) practices for the County Band performance. Photo by Kathryn Most Chloe Hyatt is an aunt!

OpinionDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 3

The Raider ReviewKathryn Most - Editor in Chief

Kasie Campbell - News EditorAbbie Simpson - Assistant

Kaitlyn Dowd - Feature EditorAustin Minnick - Opinion Editor

Wes Lee Caton - Sports EditorNadia Minnick - Photography Editor

StaffAli Bragg, Jeremy Carter, Chloe Hyatt, Olivia Kretchman, Rikki Krouse, Maddy Lear, Emily Schafer, Nicole Winegarden, Nick Blough, Glory Canfield, Tiffani

Christner, Danielle Emerick, Courtney Eyster, Horizan Hemming, Elise Hutzell, Ani Beitzel, Kylie Bittner, Dawn Hemming, Karlee Logsdon, Allen Manges, Emily

Rosenberger, Alexis Walker, Brycen Sechler, Katelyn Wahl

By Olivia Kretchman

Over the past few months, it seems as if the me-dia is just blowing up with cases of sexual harassment and mis-conduct. Instances are all over social media, the news chan-nels, music, the radio and the internet. The issue is very wide-spread and open today. Web pages have even been created to report claims of sexual ha-rassment. I constantly hear about big sexual harassment cases in Hollywood, such as Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, which re-sulted in the loss of their jobs as well as their reputations. Everyone seems to be a little caught off guard or shocked in one way or another, by some of these accusations. I know I was very caught off guard when I heard that House of Cards actor Kev-in Spacey would not be return-ing to the series after sexual accusations were made against him. However, I do believe re-tirement was for the best in this case. Allegedly, about fourteen cases of sexual harassment in-volving Spacey, have recently emerged. Some of the instances

took place decades ago, in the early years of Spacey’s career. I really do not under-stand why people would stay quiet about the issue for so long. It makes me question if the ac-cusations are even true. What if innocent people are being ac-cused? Sexual harassment is a very serious matter and when it comes down to it, it is usu-ally someone’s word against another’s, unless there are evi-dential facts. That is the scary fact about all of the scandals we are hearing about today. Recently, Time Maga-zine named “The Silence Break-ers” Person of the Year 2017. The group is mainly made up of women who were some of the first to speak up about their sexual harassment experiences. The movement is claimed to be the fastest-moving social change the United States has seen in years. It is good to hear that people are making a differ-ence and making their stories known; I just hope that all the commotion and emphasis on the issues does not turn into false accusations being made and people being wrongly ac-cused.

Harassment caseswarrant caution

Leave “Birther” theories behind

By Chloe Hyatt

When Barack Obama first became our President, there were many suspicions regard-ing his birth certificate. Many people believed that it was fake, Donald Trump among them. President Trump still remains skeptical on former President Obama’s birth certificate. President Trump has recently been caught saying that he believes Obama’s birth certificate is a fraud. I know that there is so much contro-versy surrounding this issue. I know that many people believe what President Trump is saying but it has indeed been proven to be true that Obama is an American. As long as President Obama met the qualifications to have been president and is

an American citizen, there is no problem. Clearly he met the qualifications twice. I person-ally didn’t support his presi-dency but there was nothing to do about it after he had already won the election. I feel as if this issue is dead and should just be left alone because he is no longer President. He led us the best he could and now we just need to focus on the here and now and move on. I think President Trump really needs to move on and worry about more pressing issues. Our country has many other issues to worry about and Former President Obama’s birth certificate is not one of them.

Bitcoin blowing upBy Austin Minnick

Throughout the histo-ry of our country, we have been suspect to multiple financial crisis and economic collapses. With the recent creation of cryptocurrency many Ameri-cans and citizens of countries all across the globe can invest, and purchase items interna-tionally as well as locally. All purchases are anonymous.

Bitcoin is the most prominent form of cryptocur-rency. One Bitcoin is currently worth upwards of 15,000$. Bit-coin can be subdivided when-ever necessary allowing it to compensate for whatever the owner may purchase. Bitcoin is not a cen-tralized form of currency and is not affected by big banks as well as all transactions occur-

ring without the intrusion of a third party. Other individuals or corporations who are not one of the principals are excluded from the transaction. All Bit-coin transactions are verified a minimum of six times.

See Bitcoinpage 8

FeatureDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 4

Thomas Drug

By Kaitlyn Dowd

Everyone experiences bad luck, but have you ever had an awful day that kept going downhill? This is a short account of my awful, terrible luck on a day that was supposed to be ex-citing. On Thursday, November 30th, I woke up for school (like I occasionally do). I got ready, then went into my mother’s room to talk to her as I usually do before I leave for the day. My mom reminded me that today was the day I was to take my driver’s test to get my license. She told me to go make sure that my insurance card and registration were in my car. So, I went outside to my car in the freezing cold morn-ing air and looked for them. The night before I had also checked, and they were both in my glove box. That morning, they were nowhere to be found. Both my mom and I looked everywhere. Finally after about 20 minutes of pure panic before school, I found my registration under my pas-senger side floor mat. The insurance card was still nowhere to be found but that was fine because it was easy to replace. So I went to school and anticipated getting my li-cense all day. I was going to leave school at 2:00 p.m. to go take my test. I talked to many people who had already taken the test and got lots of helpful tips on what to do and what not to do. Many people reminded me to use my turn signal when parallel parking. I felt ready and was excited. Then, I got a text five minutes before my mom was supposed to pick me up. It said, “call me.” I immediately thought the worst because it was only just a few minutes before she was supposed to pick me up and she wouldn’t have told me to call her if it wasn’t urgent. I left class and went to call my mom. When she an-swered, I knew right away that I wouldn’t be getting my license today. She said, “Kaitlyn, I got a flat tire in your car on my way

to pick you up and something is wrong with your brakes.” My first reaction was an-ger because I had prepared my-self all day to go get my license. I was extremely disappointed. But I shortly just accept-ed it and decided that there was many other days to go get it. My mom explained that my car was going to be taken to a mechanic to get checked out and fixed. So, long story short, a bad day is only a bad day and this situation sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world. There are 365 days in a year, and plenty of hours in that year to go take my test.

At press time, Kaitlyn had rescheduled her driver’s test but refused to divulge the date and time as doing so might “jinx” her chances of passing. - Editor

“I want my license!”

By Nick Blough

Many students at MASD choose to fill their free time with sports, hobbies, or sometimes just relaxation. But a small minority of students choose to spend their off hours working at a part time job. Chloe Hyatt, a Meyers-dale senior and an employee at the Burger King in Grantsville, said some of the benefits of her her job include, ”Money and in-dependence.” But she said that the job leaves her tired and with little to no free time. She says that she would rather have the job than to lay around all day because she has, “bills to pay.” Ms Hyatt had some ad-vice for underclassmen who may consider joining the workforce. She said, “Just get a job. You’ll need the money.” Joel Arnold, a Meyers-dale junior and an employee at Silver Valley Farms, says he too enjoys the pay, but since his job requires him to go outside he be-lieves that the cold of winter can be a disadvantage to his occupa-tion. Mr Arnold prefers hav-ing a job because it, ”gives me something to do.” Joel’s advice to underclassmen is, ”You might as well get one (a job) or you could sit at home and waste all your time.” Donovan Boden, a Mey-ersdale junior and SCTC student works as an employee at the Som-erset Subway. He claims money is his main motivation for join-ing the workforce. On the disadvantages of his job he said, “It becomes a waste of time.” but he also added, “I like having the job. Besides I need the money.”

Part time working,full time broke

Dana Crawford working at Fox’s. Photo by Rikki Krouse

Dylan Sell keeping it real and keeping it clean at Subway in Meyersdale.

Next Raider Review will be published

February 15

Feature December 2017 The Raider Review Page 5

Four Guys

Raider Review Survey

Follow us!

@raiderreview1

By Ali Bragg

The Christmas season is underway at MAHS and fac-ulty and students are showing their Christmas spirit by watch-ing their favorite Christmas movies. Freshman, Laykn Lear, says that “The Santa Clause” is her favorite movie because the focus of the plot is about Santa Claus. Even though other mov-ies exist about Santa Claus, she finds this classic movie to be her favorite. Sophomore, Kyler Murray, without hesitation, says, “‘The Polar Express’ is my favorite movie because it is beautiful.” The magical adven-ture that the main character pursues makes it a beautiful plot that Kyler describes. Junior, Annabella Mck-enzie, explains how “Christmas with the Kranks” is her favorite movie because it has been a family tradition to watch this movie ever since she was little and also because she finds it to be a very funny storyline. Senior, Jenny Fisher says,“My favorite is ‘A Christmas Detour’ because it is a romantic

comedy and is set around New York City, my favorite city ever, especially around Christmas. Two people meet and fall in love instantly. It’s kind of the perfect dream!” Many of Jen-ny’s favorite things - romance, New York City, and Christmas - are found in this movie which makes it her favorite. Not only are students watching their favorite movies, but so are the faculty. History teacher, Chris Schrock, and Chemistry teach-er, Dan Pletcher, share the same favorite Christmas movie: “A Christmas Story.” Mr. Schrock says that this is his favorite because of the scene where the dogs eat the turkey and the way the dad reacts to the situation. Mr. Pletcher finds this to be his favorite Christmas movie because of the famous line, “You’re going to shoot your eye out, kid.” MAHS has a wide vari-ety of favorite Christmas mov-ies that everyone is excited to watch this holiday season.

By Emily Schafer

The Media Center is a popular place for students to do homework, study, or just talk with friends. But recently, a middle schooler at Meyersdale has been trying to use it for dif-ferent purposes. Dawson Maurer is just thirteen years old and has his own Youtube channel on which he creates and uploads videos. Dawson has recently been try-ing to use the Media Center’s resources for his video making. His YouTube chan-nel, “dawsgamingyt”, features a variety of different videos. “I originally created the channel to do gaming and just put it out online. I like to do online games such as Minecraft,“ said Dawson. Dawson began his channel around November 22, 2016 and has been making vid-eos ever since. He has over 63 subscribers and growing. Although his channel was originally created for gam-ing, Dawson also does other types of videos on his channel. One type includes singing covers. “I am trying to work in the Media Center to do a song with one of my friends,” said Dawson. “I have had a hard time getting them to come and getting the help I need.” He does many differ-ent types of songs on his chan-nel, as well as anything else he decides to create. Dawson spends most of his free time making videos for YouTube, but also has some other hobbies. He enjoys play-ing the guitar and piano and occasionally incorporates them

into his videos. He plans to pos-sibly join chorus as well. “The ultimate goal for my channel is to make a career out of it,” Dawson said. A lot of time and ef-fort has been put into creating dawsgamingyt. Do not forget to go check it out and support Dawson in the continuation of his channel.

Video Impresario Ho Ho HoHollywood

Dawson Maurer in one of his customary haunts, ready to edit some video. Photo by Nicole Winegarden

What is the most important aspect

of Christmas?

1 2 3 4

1 - The Birth of Jesus2 - Getting Gifts3 - Giving Gifts4 - Spending time with Family

30

20

10

%

1 - It’s a Wonderful Life2 - A Christmas Story3 - Christmas Vacation4 - How the Grinch Stole Xmas5 - Die Hard6 - Elf

%30

20

10

1 2 3 4 5 6

What is your favorite Christmas

movie?

What do you want for Christmas?

605040302010

1 2 3 4

1 - Peace on Earth2 - Clothes3 - Electronics4 - Money

Survey conducted via Survey Monkey.com

12/1-12/10307 respondents, grades 9-12

%

SportsDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 6

Donges Drive In Clappers

Summit Country MarketAd here

‘Tis The Winter Sports Season

By Elise Hutzel

With a decisive 49-23 win over Northern Gar-rett County (MD), the MAHS wrestling team currently has a record of 4-2. Winning for the Raiders against the Huskies were Luke McKenzie, Lance Smith, Easton Broadwater, Dan Knotts, Jalen Stephens, Logan McKenzie, and Austin Broadwa-ter. It was a strong showing for their first home match. Meyersdale’s varsity Red Raider wrestling team had their first scrimmage at home, Friday, November 25, 2017. Preseason began around the middle of November and pro-gressed into mandatory prac-tices around the beginning of December. The team kicked off the season with their first tour-nament Saturday, December 9, facing five schools: Blairsville, Johnstown, Derry, Portage, and Moshannon Valley. Meyersdale varsity beat Johnstown 39 - 33.

There are four seniors out of the 15 participants on the team, Tanner Krause, Lance Smith, Dan Knotts and Easton Broad-water. The team is excited for their first match. Junior, Brody Sanner, has a long range goal for his season. He said, “Doing a better job of leading people and motivating people is a goal of mine. People often burnout dur-ing the end of a sport’s season, so I plan to persevere through this season”. Head varsity coach, Craig Tresnicky, has many hopes for the team and for in-dividual wrestlers, including qualifying for district duals and qualifying for regionals. Also, he anticipates that at least one wrestler will represent Mey-ersdale at the state wrestling championship at Hershey, PA this year. The next home match will be held in the high school gym, January 4 at 7:00pm.

Wrestling 2018

Pin it to win it

By Wes Lee Caton

The Meyersdale Rifle team has begun practice for their season of 2017-2018. Prac-tices became mandatory late November. The team members shoot from three different posi-tions: standing, kneeling, and in a prone position (laying on one’s belly). A maximum of 100 points may be earned in each position, making a perfect score 300 points. Tristan Donica, a soph-omore, said, “My goal for this year is to shoot in the 270’s, pull some wins, and knock out some tens.” Chloe Rough, a senior, said, “My goals this year are to finally reach the score of 280, qualify for states again, and above all, enjoy my last season of the sport!” The team will be prac-ticing hard to pull off wins this year and beat the other schools that they will face. The first match of the season will be on December 21st at Chestnut Ridge.

Shooters shootMAHS middleweights Logan McKenzie - 132 pounds (left) and Lyle Moody - 160 pounds square off at practice. Photo By Tiffani Christner

Tristan Donica prepares his competition rifle before practice. Photo By Karlee Logsdon

SportsDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 7

Clipped By Mandy

Apex

@RaiderReview1

By Maddy Lear

As the fall sports sea-sons came to a close, the win-ter sports prepared for their upcoming seasons. Leading off the group of sports for the win-ter season is the Lady Raider Basketball team. The Lady Raiders took a win over the Ferndale Yellow Jackets in their first home game of the season. The final score of the game was 52-24, giving the girls’ basketball team their sec-ond win of the season and also making them look good for the week to come. On Monday, Decem-ber 11, the Lady Raiders faced their season opener against the Portage Mustangs. The team came out a bit flat which cost them the game in the end with a score of 61-31. Although this was the first game of the sea-son the basketball team hoped to achieve far greater than what they showed versus Portage. Following the Mon-day game, the basketball team played on Wednesday to defeat the Conemaugh Township Indi-ans. The final score of the game was 44-34. This was the team’s first victory of the season. The Lady Raiders will be attending their first basket-ball tournament this Saturday with the hope of supporting a strong season. From the looks of it, the Lady Raiders will have a strong season with a starting lineup filled with upper class-men.

‘Tis the Winter Sports SeasonHoops they did it again

By Brycen Sechler

The latest game for the Meyersdale Red Raider boys basketball team was against the Conemaugh Township In-dians. Sadly, even though they fought hard, Meyersdale lost the game. The Raiders started their season off with a loss against Hyndman 66-62. Mey-ersdale practiced hard and pre-pared for their next game. They played a tough game against the Portage Mus-tangs. Ultimately, Meyersdale lost to a score of 59-41 but held their heads high. The next game for the Raiders was an away game against Conemaugh Valley on Wednesday, December 20th. Results of that game will ap-pear in the next edition of the Raider Review. The Red Raider boys basketball season commenced with their first scrimmage against Hyndman. Both teams played very tough, fundamen-tal basketball. Their next matchup was against Northern. In the past, Meyersdale usually had a tough time with this school. The boys worked hard and battled Northern until the very end of the game, neither team wanted to give a basket to the other. The game was out-standing, there was never a dull moment in any quarter. The fans were amazed at the team-work shown by the Raiders. Meyersdale’s season is looking increasingly promis-ing. The boys’ next game will be on Tuesday, January 2 at Hyndman. Come out and sup-port your own Red Raiders as they duel with the Hornets.

Up-town dunk

Gracen Miller (center) and the rest of the MAHS Lady Raider basketball team lis-ten as head coach Fred Walters delivers instruction during a timeout in the girls’ game against Portage. Photo by Nadia Minnick

Dakota Kennell (r) drives past Brycen Sechler on a fast break in practice. Photo by Nadia Minnick

News and OpinionDecember 2017 The Raider Review Page 8

Sheetz Food Lion Bitcoin Continued

By Kaitlyn Powers

Did you know that North Korea has launched at least 23 missiles in 16 tests since February of 2017? Don’t you think that our president should be worried about that? The Hwasong-15 mis-sile, launched November 29, was an intercontinental bal-listic missile that officials said was capable to hitting a target anywhere in the US. According to the Union of Concerned Sci-entist, as quoted on TheGuard-ian.com, the missile can reach 5,500 kilometers or higher and has a range of over 10,000 kilo-meters. Our president seems to always have something to say about what is happening. Al-though when this missile was brought to his attention, all he had to say was that he will “take

Should we worry about Kim Jong Un?

care of it.” This does not sound too convincing or to know what he is doing. I think that President Trump should give us a more reassuring answer as to how he is handling what is happening. Instead of a generic answer, he should have developed what he was doing and informed us with that. Hopefully, as the situ-ation continues, President Trump will continue to be on top of things and try to do his best to figure out how to keep his country safe in these sce-narios. In my opinion, while President Trump is dealing with the missiles as he should, the people of his country should know what is going on and they have the right to know what is happening.

Drew Patton and Hope Tressler on the dance floor at the annual Christmas party held at the Somerset County Technology Center. Photo by Jeremy Carter

Bustin’ some holiday moves

Those who verify the purchases are known as Bitcoin “miners”. While deciding on whether or not to invest in Bit-coin it should be understood that Bitcoin is considered by many to be a “high risk” invest-ment, meaning one should be extremely careful with size of his or her investment as well as remembering Bitcoin is still in its infancy.

By Danielle Emerick and Courtney Eyster

Looks like it's time to sharpen up on our Christmas songs as the Tree Fellers sharp-en their chainsaws. SCTC For-estry instructor Rob Harrold’s class consists of seven little dwarfs learning the classifica-tion of trees and their anato-mies. It's that time of year again where the snow starts falling and so do the trees. The anatomy of a tree is rather sim-ple, unlike your grandmother’s Christmas tree. Safety in cut-ting down a tree is very impor-tant in forestry to prevent any

runs to the E.R., so don’t drink too much Eggnog before prep-ping your Christmas tree. A tree lives by its roots - change the roots and you change the tree - change the tree and you change the forest. It only takes one tree to be cut out of the ground with its roots to change all surroundings. Learning the safety and impor-tance of these living objects af-fects people's lives. So in a way, Foresters are like the doctors of nature. They value the environ-ment and care about the future of humans.

Cutting down the tree

Forestry teacher Rob Harrold works with Scott Yutzy on a chain saw. Photo by Danielle Emerick