4 EDITORIALFEB. 10, 2012

Iliad

Poway High School15500 Espola Road Poway, CA 92064

The Iliad is a publication of Poway High School. Columns and signed editorials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board, Poway High School, or its affiliates. The editorial board is written by the Editor-in-Chief and represents the opinion of The Iliad staff. The Iliad welcomes letters to the editor; e-mail them to iliad@powayusd.com or bring them to J-6, complete with name and phone number. Phone numbers will not be printed. Limit all letters to 250 words. Letters may be subject to editing. For advertising, call (858) 748-0245, ext. 5228. Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspaper Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.

Editor-in-Chief: Gabriella Kitch

Associate Editors: Norah Cunningham, Chase Pado, Skylar Slotter and Cassandra Vick

Editorial Editors: Elizabeth Gallagher and Sara Pfeiffer

Entertainment Editor: Leah Sarnoff

Feature Editors: Ethan Decker, Sanoma Jean and Natasha Oraha

News Editors: Brigid McCarthy and Will Smithers

Sports Editors: Roslyn Akel, Tori Morin and Ryan Sullivan

Photo Editor: London Detrick

Copy Editor: Brenda Martinez-Gonzalez

Photographer: Megan Peranteau Business Managers: Madison Chapman and Delanie Harrington

Adviser: TeriAnne LibbyStaff Writers: Luke Castor, Maura Duggan, Laura Fitzgerald, Delanie Hausner, Carly Metz, Jessica Pellegrino, and Brea Young

Mission StatementThe Iliad strives for excellence in providing accurate and interesting information in an unbiased and timely manner. As a diverse and opinionated group, we aim to repre-sent the Poway High student body with professional and ethical cover-age by interviewing relevant sources and presenting multiple stances on important issues.

online exclusiveswww.powayiliad.com

News: Healthy vending machines to come on campus

Editorial:Paranormal craze

Entertainment:The decline of music

Parking Lot Judgement

ELIZABETH GALLAGHEREditorial Editor

SKYLAR SLOTTERNews Editor

the iliad’s opinion:

Toddlers on TelevisionSteal the innocence of unaware youth

Fake tans, big hair and sparkly dresses have taken over television, and unfor-tunately, this trend isn’t limited to Jersey Shore.

With shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and Dance Moms, child exploitation has been taken to a whole new level.

Not only do the kids featured have no say in the matter, but they are also ex-posed to criticism from the entire nation.

It’s easy to understand America’s fasci-nation with mothers who live vicariously through their children by putting them in beauty pageants.

However, these shows not only feature the parents, but also their children, who have no control over what America gets to see of their personal life.

It’s clear by their behavior on the show that the kids don’t always enjoy performing in beauty or dance competitions, and it’s easy to as-sume that they really don’t enjoy being on televi-sion either.

Obviously, teaching children to be narcissistic at such a young age can be detrimental to their

development. The parents who sign up for their families to

be featured on these shows need to seriously con-sider the repercussions their children could face.

Being constantly on camera, along with always performing on stage teaches children that life is

nothing more than a performance. Their parents should be more concerned with

making sure their children are doing well in school and building good relationships with their peers instead of traveling all over the county with a fi lm crew trying to make their child a star.

Students unrightfully pressured to leave

titans: A junior legally parks on Titan way, yet risks the consequences of Sophomore attempts at scaring them away. NORAH CUNNINGHAM // The Iliad

The Union Tribune recently called attention to a Poway Sheriff ’s skewed report that made Poway teens out to be major drug users.

Teenagers are often the brute of skepticism in society for being an age group with high suscep-tibility to peer pressure when increased exposure to unknown substances occurs.

When it comes to drugs, however, it seems as though Poway High has gained an even worse reputation for such behavior in recent years.

Poway High has been on the media’s radar for drug and alcohol related incidences lately, particu-larly due to the fatal consequences a few of its student’s actions have had. But do these deaths say anything about Poway High’s drug use as a whole?

It is unacceptable to assume more students participate in drug related activities at Poway High than surrounding high schools simply based on student losses.

All high schools have drug and alcohol use, and Poway High School is no exception, but it’s not fair to classify as an exceptional problem school.

Yes, Poway High’s reputation may be height-ened for many reasons, but before doling accusa-tions those standing on the outside of the school community should be a little more respectful to-ward our student body and give Poway High a fair chance.

Poway wrongly accused of drug problem

It’s safe to say that most people are familiar with the most common forms of etiquette: dining etiquette, social etiquette, computer and in-ter-web etiquette. Unfortunately, it seems that the one etiquette that Powegians often neglect to practice

is parking lot etiquette, and this is particularly evident around Poway High. The fi rst offenders?

The sophomores who park on Ti-tan Way.

We all know that there is no spe-cifi cally designated lot for sopho-more drivers, and that as a result, sophomores are left with two op-tions when it comes to parking: they

can either park on Lake Poway Road and hike to the school or get to school before 7 a.m. to seek one of the public parking spots on Titan Way. As of late, however, sophomores seem to be slightly con-fused as to who owns the spots on Titan Way.

On Jan. 12, several ju-niors who had parked on the street separating the two senior lots returned to their cars in the afternoon only to fi nd “junior lot” written across their win-dows in car marker.

Although we under-stand where the sopho-mores are coming from, it must be pointed out that

their immature antics and attempts to claim the parking spots along the street are without real warrant.

The only way to secure a spot on Titan Way is to earn it. Benjamin Franklin put it best when he wrote, “The early bird gets the worm.”

PHS students are not the only ones who breach parking lot eti-

quette, however. There are plenty of parents who disregard the student drop-off/pick-up system before and after school.

The correct place to load and unload children who cannot drive themselves to school is in the Poway Performing Arts Center parking lot.

Recently, parents have been at-tempting to cheat the system and beat the long lines by using the se-nior lot outside the band rooms ev-ery morning and afternoon.

Not only is this downright annoy-ing for seniors who just want to get in and out of the already congested lot, but it is also creating a safety problem.

Seniors walking in and out of the school are forced to weave, not only between their peers in cars, but also parents anxious to get home.

There is no cotillion or class for parking lot etiquette; the regular DMV driving course hardly touches upon it.

No matter the reason for poor manners in the student lots, parking lot etiquette should not be neglected. If anything, it should simply be em-phasized even more.