march

tudent leaders from RUSD’s highschools gathered on March 22 at

Ramona High School for the eighth an-nual Leadership Exchange.

North’s United Student League(USL) met with the student govern-ments from Martin Luther King HighSchool, Arlington High School, River-side Polytechnic High School and Ra-mona High School to exchange ideason school leadership and to promoteunity within the district schools.

Each year, the event is held at a dif-ferent high school to increase the con-nection between student leaders andtheir schools.

Last year, the Leadership Exchangewas hosted by North. Unlike this year’sconference, the 2011 exchange in-cluded representatives from the Classof 2014. “Because the hosts alternateevery year, it makes each year’s [expe-rience] different,” said Perez.

Ramona’s gym was decorated withspirited posters and balloons to createa friendly environment for the Leader-ship Exchange.

After a breakfast and a dance per-formance provided by Ramona, studentpresidents welcomed the visitors andinitiated the conference.

Each school’s student president wasexpected to conduct a five to tenminute presentation explaining how thestudent government connects the stu-dent body to the school directly.

Arlington’s presentation focused onmaking connections through studentinvolvement, King on HomecomingDay, Poly on school dances and Ra-mona on pep rallies.

USL President Kevin Perez’sspeech revolved around North’s ath-letic achievements. North girls basket-ball success and the CaliforniaInterscholastic Federation (CIF) tri-umph of the boys baseball from 2011were recognized as happenings that in-creased school pride.

Perez said, “I really do appreciatethe fact that all five high schools fromRUSD take the time and effort in unit-ing student leaders. It gives us an op-portunity to make personal connectionswithin our own community. It’s nicemaking new friends and personallyconnecting with people who have thesame [leadership] position as you.”

Additionally each high school hadto conduct a unity activity. North de-cided to have all participants dance tothe Cha-Cha Slide.

“I felt like this year we interactedmore because each school had to comeup with their own unity activity,” saidPerez.

In the afternoon, students rotatedthrough 13 breakout sessions in whichleaders presented information regard-ing the involvement of their studentgovernment at school and in the com-munity.

Sessions focused on sports, studentrecognition, community involvement,fund raising, communication and othertopics that pertained to what a studentgovernment is capable of doing.

USL officer Alejandra Garcia said,“These sessions were really helpful.It’s interesting to see what other

A&ENEWS A1-A4OPINION A5-A8FEATURES B1-B4A&E B5-A8MIDDLE EARTH C1-C4JUST SO YOU KNOW C5-C8SPORTS D1-D4 PAGE B5-B8

SAT I and SAT II Dates:

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TEST DATE: REGISTRATION:

May 5 April 6

Sunday

Middle EarthAll students has their own stories.Follow the footsteps of Jill andJohnny North in their symbolicjourney to conquer a mountain, anaction representative of the manyhardships that some students facein everyday life.

PAGE C1-C4PAGE B1-B4

Features Low

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High Low

Take a look at literature teacherAnn Camacho’s publication“Bookmarked,” a compliationof student essays offering in-sights into the authors’ lives.

74 F

INDEXTattoos have become a trendingtopic in high schools. Check outthe permanent markingsHuskies have and learn aboutthe deeper meanings behind theart.

District

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ver 400 people die of measlesevery day. Most victims are chil-

dren. The American Red Cross organi-zation at North held its third annualRed Cross Relief Concert on March 23,sponsored by community service clubInteract to raise money to vaccinate ap-proximately three villages wheremeasles is a threat to everyday lives.

The Vaccinate a Village effort atNorth is a part of the American RedCross Measles Initiative which hashelped save lives and reduced measles-related deaths since 2001 one vaccina-tion at a time.

Every five hundred dollars raisedvaccinates one village. “I emailed theRed Cross representative from theRiverside school district and she saidRed Cross is currently sponsoring theVaccinate a Village project so we wentwith it,” said Red Cross presidentKayla Missman. “It was a perfect causeconsidering no [actual] crisis had oc-curred as did the last years of the an-nual concert.”

The Vaccinate a Village Relief Con-cert showcased twenty acts by Northstudents. Classical piano pieces, origi-nal material and covers of hit songscreated the diverse lineup.

“It’s always amazing that our stu-dents who are not necessarily wellknown let their talent come out,” saidRed Cross advisor Ann Camacho. “Allof it is a showcase of the amazing tal-ent on this campus.”

The show began with an introduc-tion explaining the existence and ef-fects of measles by junior Jake Phillips.The information shocked many stu-dents in the audience.

“I had no idea measles still existed.It’s terrible that it’s pretty much gonehere [in the United States] but still ex-ists in other countries. But I think it’sgreat that the disease is preventablewith a vaccine that costs less than adollar,” said sophomore Shaira Erumafter hearing Phillips’ speech.

The concert opened with NorthChambers Singers singing “Be MyGuest” welcoming the audience andsetting a cheerful mood for the rest ofthe show.

The Chamber Singers were fol-lowed by numerous acts including per-formances of classics like “Make YouFeel My Love” and familiar radio tuneslike “Chasing Pavements.” The first actended with sophomore SelenaHoward’s original piece “Hero.”

During intermission, Red Crosssponsored a snack table to raise moneyfor the cause. Even the snack saleswere a collaboration of many studentsand staff members who donated foodand beverages to sell.

The second act opened with fresh-man Yani Mai’s “Souvenirs D’En-fance” followed by “Bound To You”sung by junior Kristen Corona.

The hosts of the show, seniorsAmanda Egbu and Sierra Williamskept a light mood with jokes in be-tween performances throughout the en-tire concert.

Sophomore Melody Goldsmithsaid, “The MCs were really funny.There was a lot of talent up there.”

Students

s ing i n

Vaccinate

a Village

concert

for relief

Huskies save lives at blood drivehe United Student League(USL) collaborated with

LifeStream to host the 20th annualspring blood drive in North’s gym onMarch 16.

LifeStream is a non-profit organiza-tion founded in 1951 that holds blooddrives daily at local businesses,churches, government agencies, high

schools and colleges. The collected blood is distributed to

43 different medical facilities in SanBernardino, Riverside, Orange Countyand Los Angeles. Additionally,LifeStream operates five donor centersthroughout Southern California.

Students who wanted to donateblood registered with a USL officer aweek before the actual blood drive. Inorder to donate, a student had to be atleast 15 years old and weigh at least110 pounds.

Freshman Becky Ramirez said, “Iwish I could donate blood but I’m notold enough. It would be a great way tohelp someone out.” In total, 226 stu-dents signed up to donate blood and163 units of blood were collected.

Students were encouraged to eat anutrient-rich breakfast and drink plentyof water before participating in themultiple steps that were required to do-nate blood.

First students registered with aLifeStream receptionist to ensure that

the student was legally allowed tomake a donation.

Then potential donors went througha semi-physical during which aLifeStream registered nurse checkedeach individual’s blood pressure, bodyiron, body temperature and pulse rate.

Sophomore Gabby Jorin said, “I re-ally wanted to donate but my veinswere too small. I hope I qualify [nextyear].”

[See Unite, page A4][See Exchange, page A2]

J o h n W . N o r t h H i g h S c h o o l

THE NORTH STAR1550 Third St. Riverside, CA, 92507 Friday, March 30, 2012 www.thenorthstaronline.net Volume XXVII Issue 7 Voice of the Huskies

S

[See Donate, page A3]

Roberto GutierrezSTAFF WRITER


Selena HowardSTAFF WRITER

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High

Saturday

Lady Huskies make history Senior Akilah Martin, co-captain of the varsity girls basketball team and other members ofthe Lady Huskies interviewed with ABC 7 News on March 20. After defeating Santa AnaFoothill High School in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Regional cham-pionship on March 17, the team prepared to travel to Sacramento to play Archbishop Mittyon March 23. This is the first time girls basketball has moved on to the state championships.While it is unfortunate that our Lady Huskies lost to the Lady Monarchs, it is still a hugehonor that they progressed so far in competition. See page D1 for more information.

JOHN W. NORTH HIGH SCHOOL

Husky Calendar

revealed that the vehicle involved inthe crash belonged to the student’s fa-ther. Reparation payments and insur-ance coverage are currently beingdiscussed. Aside from facing insuranceconsequences the student has also re-ceived severe disciplinary conse-quences.

Junior Yingjie Du said, “We’re nottoo worried about something like thishappening again because it doesn’tgenerally happen. In the future, hope-fully people will be more careful when

they’re driving. Theaccident did not af-fect our boys tennisseason so we’ll justkeep playing likewe always have.We just really hopenothing happensagain anytimesoon.” Althoughdetails of the inci-

dent are still unclear, a further investi-gation of the events will be conducted.

In other instances, car accidents canbe more detrimental. On March 26,junior Stacee Estrada was hit by a caron her way to school in the morning.She is now receiving medical care atRiverside Community Hospital.

Estrada’s Calculus teacher KatiaDumancic said, “I hope she recoverssoon. No one deserves anything likethis. I hope this can serve as an exam-ple to drivers because it could havebeen worse. Students should be en-couraged to incooperate safety meas-ures when they’re driving.”

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012NEWS A2

n March 19, a minor incident in-volving a North student and his

car occurred near North’s back parkinglot and the tennis courts. The seniorhad crashed his car into the tenniscourts upon waving to a friend outsideof the window while driving.

In the brief moment that he wavedat his friend, his vehicle collided intotennis coach NickMateljan’s car.

Because thestudent was driv-ing at top speed,he was unable tostop the car. Thestudent behind thewheel continuedto swerve to avoidfurther collisionuntil the vehicle finally crashed into thetennis courts. The student driver wasleft unharmed, developing only aminor whiplash. Fortunately, no oneelse was hurt during the incident.

However, the newly-renovated ten-nis courts were not as lucky. A dent wascreated on the side of the tennis fencewhich was fixed the following day.Freshman Timothy Lee said, “I didn’tsee the accident myself but it was re-ally surprising when I heard about it.No one was expecting that to happen.”

After the crash, Mateljan and thestudent exchanged insurance numbers.

The Office of Disciplinary Action

A pair of crashesimpacts campus

On March 21 during lunch, the United Student League (USL) hosted a pep rally in the gym for the girls varsity basketballteam. Students and faculty members were invited to attend the event to celebrate the team’s success and to wish the girlsluck on their California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) game. Performances were provided by band, pep squad anddance team. In the picture above, the Blue Star Regiment performs their competition routine to encourage the team. Thegirls headed off to Sacramento the following day for the state championship game against Archbishop Mitty High School.

Speech and Debate

hroughout the year, the Speechand Debate team has competed

in various regional competitions. Atone of the two competitions at Clare-mont High School, debate pair juniorsJasmine Almaguer and Caitlin Redaktook home first place.

The most recent event, the OptimistOratorical Speech competition washeld on March 15 at North. FreshmanTatiana Su, the only speaker fromNorth’s debate team to place said, “Idid not expect [to place] when I waspreparing for the competition. NowI’m really glad I did.”

The team meets on every Wednes-day to prepare for upcoming events.“It’s important [to be in the Speech andDebate team] because after high schoolyou are going to have to give speechesin classes and in job interviews,” saidsophomore Mauricio Hernandez.

The majority of speech and debatetopics relate to recent global happen-ings so competitors have the ability to

Academic seasons come to an end

proximately 30 high schools partici-pated in this year’s Mock Trial compe-tition and finalists were determinedthrough process of elimination.

Prior to the season, team memberswere appointedspecific positionsaccording to theassigned case.Coaches RyanBuschell andCherilynne Hol-lowell preparedfor the competi-tions by familiar-izing the team

with the laws, court rules and othernecessary information to execute an ac-curate court case.

Hollowell said, “[Mock Trial] isabout following the standards, theprocess and skill. It is a performance asmuch as it is knowledge.”

After a loss to Centennial during thefirst round, followed by triumphs overRoosevelt and Palm Desert, the teamlost to Murrieta on Feb. 25 ending theirMock Trial season for this school year.

Mock Trial will strive to surpassthis year’s ranking and make it as a fi-nalist in 2013.

Spring Musical (7:00 p.m.)May 4 Registration Deadline for June 9 ACT

Spring Musical (7:30 p.m.)May 5 Spring Musical (1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.)May 7 Board of Education Meeting (5:30 p.m.)May 8-9 California High School Exit Exam ELA and Math

Make-Up (10th and 12th grade)May 10 BSR Spring Concert @ University Heights Middle

School May 13 Mother’s DayMay 16 Our Proud Huskies LuncheonMay 17 Faculty Meeting (3:00 p.m.)

PTSA @ Rm. 156 (6:30 p.m.)

GRADUATION CALENDARAPRIL April 19-26 Senior Class MeetingsApril 19 Senior Exhibition AdvisementApril 20 Commencement Announcement DeliveryApril 26 Senior Exhibition

MAYMay 24 Senior Awards NightMay 29 Cap and Gown DistributionMay 31 Baccalaureate

APRIL April 2-6 Spring Recess (school not in session)April 6 Registration Deadline for May 5 SAT

Good FridayApril 8 EasterApril 9 Fourth Quarter BeginsApril 10 ICC Meeting @ Rm. 156April 11 Third Quarter Report Cards MailedApril 12 Faculty Meeting (3:00 p.m.)

House of Advisory @ Rm. 323April 14 ACT TestingApril 16-20 California Standards Test (Grades 9-11) April 16 Board of Education Meeting (5:30 p.m.)April 17 School Site Council @ Rm. 157April 19 PTSA Meeting @ Rm. 156

April 23-27 California Standards Tests (Grades 9-11)Drill Team Auditions

April 25 Administrative Professionals’ DayApril 26 Spring Musical (7:00 p.m.)April 27 Spring Musical (7:30 p.m.)April 28 Prom April 30-May 4 Color Guard Auditions

MAYMay 2-22 International Baccalaureate (IB) TestingMay 7-18 Advanced Placement (AP) Testing May 3 House of Advisory @ Rm. 323

schools do for certain events compared to what North does. It allows us to ex-change creative ideas for the future.”

derstood me. I mean, it’s not easyfundraising for the school and I foundit very interesting that other schoolsfaced the same hardships. I felt com-fortable, as if I knew the other studentspreviously because we had common[school leadership experiences].”

After the day was over, as a repre-

sentative in the fundraising session,Santibanez acknowledged several al-ternative ways of fundraising thatcould be more successful to North’sUSL in the future.

Dances such as Homecoming, Mid-winter and Prom were each the topic ofa specialized session because dancesare typically the most enjoyable butmost challenging events for students toplan. Schools shared themes, ticketprices, locations, attendees and ways ofpublicizing. “Hopefully next year,we’ll be able to plan dances moresmoothly because of everything welearned [at the Leadership Exchange]this year,” said Garcia. As the Ex-change came to an end, the studentsparticipated in a final unity activity.Each received a jersey-shaped posterwith their last name as a memory of the2012 conference.

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano deAztlan representative Adela Sosa said,“The event was overall great. It wasnice to be able to meet all the other[student governments] across theRUSD district. I liked it since we weregetting new ideas on how we can im-prove ... things at North. [The Leader-ship Exchange] will have an impact onNorth because when we create events,it will bring us all together and give usmore school spirit.”

Santibanez said, “I learned that weall have similar issues within our stu-dent body but we just have to keeppushing to strive and make each one ofour schools the best they can possiblybe. We are leaders so we have to shapethe path towards a successful schoolyear.”

[Continued from Lead-ership Exchange,page A1]

After months of hard work and preparation, North’s Speechand Debate and Mock Trial teams fulfill high expectations.


USL officers join other student leaders in the final group hug before the end of the Lead-ership Exchange. This was one of the many bonding activities for the student participants.

obtain a wide spectrum of knowledgewhich would then benefit them in fu-ture competitions. “Public speaking isthe least natural thing we can do andyet [it is] the thing that we have to dothroughout our en-tire adult lives. Theability to publiclyspeak in front of agroup sets publicspeakers apart. Themajority of individ-uals are afraid to getup there and evengive that speech sothe ability to learnpublic speaking makes you that muchbetter,” said the Speech and Debatecoach RobRoy McCandless.

Although the team did not move onto compete in state finals, McCandlessand his speakers are looking forward tonext year’s season.

Mock Trial

After five months of preparation,the Mock Trial team competed fourtimes throughout Feb. 8 to Feb. 25 atthe Riverside Hall of Justice court-house in Downtown Riverside. Ap-

“The ability to ... speakin front of a group setspublic speakers apart.”

Coach Rob Roy McCandless

Prior to the Leadership Exchange,USL officers were informed of the pre-determined session topics. They were fully prepared to discuss these ideaswith other schools once the Leadership Exchange started. Director of RecordsJanet Santibanez said, “I felt like I fi-nally found a group of people that un-

A student’s car crashed into the side of the tenniscourts during the boys tennis practice after school.

Amanda Valdez / The North Star

“In the future, hopefullypeople will be morecareful when they’redriving.”

Junior Yingjie Du

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Husky leaders exchange ideas

Claudia Barrientos / The North Star

Selena HowardSTAFF WRITER

Emily Chen / The North Star

THE NORTH STARFRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 NEWS A3

OUR NORTH STARSROBERTO GUTIERREZ

rom March 22 to 24, senior JoshAragon was in Pasadena, Cali-

fornia as he represented Huskies in theState Honor Choir.

“Music-wise, the experience waslife-changing. For one, you get to workwith world class conductors and ex-perts, people with doctorates in music… it taught [me to do] more than justsing the notes but to put expression[because it] makes people actuallywant to listen to your music,” saidAragon.

He first expressed his interest inmusic by joining various choirs includ-ing the North Chamber Singers twoyears ago.

According to Yvonne Flagg, choirdirector and teacher here at North, thisis the first time we have had a StateHonor Choir qualifier. “I am so excitedand so pleased for him. It is a greathonor to do what he’s doing. He is verytalented and this experience will stretchhis abilities even more,” said Flagg.

It all began when the director of Ar-lington High School’s choir recom-mended that Flagg encourage some ofher singers to audition for the SouthernCalifornia Vocal Association (SVCA)Regional Honor Choir.

Aragon started his journey when heauditioned for the SVCA at Arlington.He was notified that he made it into theSCVA Regional Honor Choir a fewdays later. The vocalists who qualifyfor SCVA are considered to be amongthe top student choir singers in theSouthern California region.

Aragon traveled to Santa Monica inOct. 2011 to meet all other SCVAmembers. He sang in the SCVA mixedchoir and was ranked and judged byprofessionals based his performance. Itwas these same professionals whochose which individuals got to moveon to the next level.

Furthermore, Aragon received spe-cial music training that enhanced hisability to master and interpret musicwhich, of course, contributed to hischances for State Honor Choir.

Shortly after, Aragon received a let-ter that prompted him to try out for theState Honor Choir in Pasadena. Assoon as he got there, he was taken to aroom where he was tested on the ac-curacy of his pitch and the overall pres-entation of his voice.

Aragon was given a total of six op-portunities to prove that he has mas-tered music. He was one of the fewsingers who passed this inspection onhis third try guaranteeing his spot onthe State Honor Choir.

Aragon said, “[State Honor Choirteaches] the different ways music canaffect people’s lives. Overall the com-panionship you have with all the otherchoir people you meet is an experiencethat you will never forget.”

Aragon joined the men’s choruswhich was mentored by the choir direc-tor of the University of Georgia. Hewas then trained in every aspect ofsinging, even in facial expressions, tobecome not only an improved inter-preter but also an entertaining one.

On March 24, Aragon sang in hisfinal State Honor Choir concert. Hesaid, “I dare say it was one of the bestexperiences I have had in my life eventhough it was a lot of work. The effortthat we pushed through was phenome-nal. I met some life-long friends there.It was fantastic.”

When Aragon graduates, he hopesto double major or minor in musiccomposition. It is hoped other singerswill make it to State Honor Choir in thecoming years.

Aragon first toattend the StateHonor Choir

Students donate blood to save lives

Parents graduate from the Institute for Quality Education vided to allow flexibility in parents’schedules. Child care was also offeredto parents who needed assistance withtheir younger children as they attendedPIQE.

Principal Trevor Painton began thegraduation by thanking Vice-PrincipalRichard Davis along with all the staffand students who made PIQE possible.Student Activities Director BeckyPorter and librarian Pamela Holdenwere acknowledged for their contribu-tions to PIQE as well. Because the ma-jority of the graduates spoke Spanish,PIQE assistant Gaby Cisneros trans-lated the speakers’ words.

North’s Ballet Folklorico Los Zap-atistas performed a traditional Mexicandance for the graduating parents.Dancer Michelle Quintero said, “Per-forming here for these parents whohave worked so much just so that theirstudents could become better studentsis a privilege for us. Our dance servedas a treat for all the work they havedone.”

Four graduating parents deliveredmessages describing their experiences

n March 27, North held its firstparent graduation for the Parent

Institute for Quality Education (PIQE).From Jan. 31 to March 27, 82 North

parents participated in PIQE sessionsevery Tuesday to learn about their chil-dren’s education system including as-pects such as graduation requirementsand educational opportunities beyondhigh school.

Executive Director of the RiversidePIQE said, “PIQE is important becauseonce parents go into the program, theygo through the process of raising thelevel of concern. In PIQE we give rel-evant information. Now there is notonly the school and the students in-volved but three components. If par-ents, teachers and students worktogether at once any student can suc-ceed in life.”

Parents of English learners were thefocus of this year’s PIQE. Both morn-ing and evening sessions were pro-

The last step was the screeningprocess where individuals answered an in-depth health, travel and medicine

history questionnaire. This examina-tion determined whether or not if thestudent was qualified to make a blooddonation.

Once the donors satisfied the re-quirements, they were called to lie

down on special beds. Each persongave one pint of blood which was sep-arated into a transfusion dose of redblood cells and platelets and plasma.

Students would be able to recoverthis blood in one day with proper ali-

mentation and fluid intake. “I think it’s awesome [that students

donate blood] because it is a good way[for] them to give back to the commu-nity,” said registered nurse Desiree Sal-gado.


Students perform a traditional Mexican dance for graduating parents.


Top Left: Senior Pablo Esteva saves three lives with his donation. Bottom Left: Senior Kevin Perez and junior Juan Andrade signsenior Robert Lattimer in for his appointment. Right: Seniors Lindsay Jacketti and Joseph Mendoza are surely each other’s types.


USL and LifeStream provided stu-dents who completed the blood dona-tion with a wide variety of healthysnacks and beverages.

They were recommended to remainseated on mats surrounded with air fansfor at least fifteen minutes to preventdizziness and nausea.

Many students were nervous priorto donating blood for the first time. “Iwas kind of [scared] at first but I feelgood since it is for a good cause. I needblood but other people need it more,”said sophomore Tiara Malaki.

North staff members also partici-pated in this year’s blood drive. Officeassistant Joanne Muller said, “[Donat-ing blood] saves lives. It was simple. Itwas easy to do. Anyone can do it and itmakes me feel good that I give back. [Iwould] absolutely donate blood any-time.”

Altogether, Huskies saved 489lives. “Blood drives really do help outthe community. Every pint of bloodcan help up to three patients so everytime a person walks in they are helpingthree people when they leave,” saidregistered nurse Valerie Gilmore.

While nurses and staff fromLifeStream took charge of the blooddonation process, USL officers madesure the event ran smoothly.

Officers created motivationalposters, checked students in and outand accompanied donors during the do-nation process. “USL did a very nicejob. This is one of the smoothest blooddrives we have ever had,” said Directorof Activities Becky Porter.

Though USL did not reach the ex-pected number of donors, the blooddrive was still a successful one. JuniorMitra Motamedi said, “The blood driveis always great because it’s amazinghow there are kids, even at our youngage, who are willing to donate bloodfor people who are in need.”

.

[Continued from BloodDrive, page A1]

Emily Chen / The North StarEmily Chen / The North Star

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Scan this QR code to see a video of josh aragon performing in choir

with this program. Painton said, “[InPIQE] we talked about grade point av-erages, what failing grades are, the im-pact SATs have, make up grades andcollege entrance requirements. PIQEcreates a mindset that college is avail-able for everybody.”

Senior Tatiana Armeta encouragedparents to become involved in theirchildren’s education based on her ownpersonal experience.

After living in Mexico for sevenyears, when Armeta arrived at North,she was discouraged from takingclasses that were not meant for EnglishLearners.

Yet Armeta decided to take honorscourses to prove those who questionedher abilities wrong. She has now re-ceived admissions from various presti-gious colleges. Towards the end of theceremony, parents received diplomasand medals of completion.

Painton hopes that PIQE will be heldevery year. Superintendent RichardMiller will consider spreading PIQE tothe rest of the high schools in theRiverside Unified School District.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012NEWS A4

News in Brief

Plaza For Sale

The city’s most popular shoppingcenter, the Riverside Plaza (Plaza), hasbeen put up for sale by WestminsterFunds, its owner for the past 20 years,on Feb. 15.

The stores, restaurants and entrain-ment centers are to remain open be-cause only the ownership of the Plazais for sale.

Forever 21, Chipotle Mexican Grilland Trader Joe’s along with 47 otherstores and restaurants have made thePlaza a favorite shopping attraction inRiverside. Along with the restaurantsand stores, the Regal Cinemas is an-other key to the success of the Plaza asa whole.

“The Plaza is one of my favoriteplaces to hang out because they haveeverything. After watching a movie,my friends and I can go eat and shop,”said sophomore Tania Martinez.

The Plaza is expected to attractmuch interest in potential buyers. Al-though it appears for sale, the RiversidePlaza does not have a defined price atthe moment.

Martinez said, “I am so glad thestores and movie theater will stay openafter the plaza is sold. It is one of thefew places that I enjoy in Riverside,since there isn’t much to do here.”

Thankfully, residents of Riverside,including North students, will still beable to shop and eat at the Plaza with-out disruptions throughout the salesprocess.

Huskies Place in NHD

The 29th annual Riverside CountyHistory Day Competition was held bythe Riverside County Office of Educa-tion (RCOE) on March 17 at RamonaHigh School. Hundreds of studentsfrom 11 school districts in RiversideCounty participated in the event.

National History Day (NHD) is anacademic competition first establishedin 1974 for sixth to 12th graders. Itspurpose is to educate students in thefield of historical research. This year,the NHD theme was Revolution, Reac-tion and Reform in History.

Four North students advanced fromthe district competition in January tothe county competition. Two of thefour entries placed in their categoryand will be competing in the state com-petition on April 27-29.

Freshman Alexandra Itkis placedfirst in Individual Exhibit with a projecton the Russian Revolution. “I had fam-ily living there during the time [of theRevolution]. I just want to learn moreabout my heritage,” said Itkis. Freshman Alison Baird placed secondin the same category. Her projectchronicles the Saint Domingue SlaveRevolution.

This year’s state competition willbe held at the Riverside Mission Inn.History teacher Scott Zyber said, “Ihope that [Baird and Itkis] will takemore from the competition than theirmedals. I hope that they will learn howto conduct research and use the skills[NHD] has given them in the future.”

Graduation Changes

On March 5 the Riverside UnifiedSchool District (RUSD) Board of Ed-ucation approved the last proposal tothe high school graduation requirementchanges for the Class of 2016.

The proposal was presented to theBoard on Feb. 6 and consisted of trans-ferring 20 credits from the 70 creditelective requirement to the Visual andPerforming Arts (VAPA) or a foreignlanguage leaving 50 required creditsfrom electives. The VAPA and foreignlanguage section will require 30 creditsin comparison to the 10 credits re-quired before.

Students will also be able to acquirethe 30 credits from Career TechnicalEducation (CTE) classes. Twenty ofthe thirty credits are to come from thesame area.

Literature teacher Tracy Alberrysaid, “The changes are better for thestudents because it helps them becomeinvolved in one program.”

Previously, the Board of Educationhad decided to increase the amount ofrequired credits to graduate from 215to 220 in order to stimulate educationprogression in the district. Other dis-tricts’ graduation requirements weretaken into consideration when settingthe new amount for RUSD.

Alberry said, “I think the requiredchanges will help better prepare stu-dents for college and the classes re-quired in college.”

The Board of Education has ap-proved all of the proposals in hopes ofimproving and extending the grasp ofthe educational opportunities offered inRUSD.


s a part of North’s accredita-tion process for the Western

Association of Schools and Col-leges (WASC), over 40 Huskiesmet after school on March 8 in fivestudent committee focus groups –Vision and Purpose, Curriculum,Instruction, Assessment/Account-ability and School Culture.

These students were previ-ously invited and introduced to thisprocess by Student Activities Direc-tor Becky Porter and Theatreteacher Michelle Grotness on Feb.23. In their focus groups, these stu-dent leaders engaged in specificdiscussions corresponding to theirtopics whichdealt with thecurrent state ofNorth and pos-sible improve-ments for thefuture.

W A S Cp a r t i c i p a n tJuan Andradesaid, “Mygroup is Vision and Purpose andduring our meeting we collaboratedon revising the school’s missionstatement and will continue to workon what we think the vision andpurpose of John W. North HighSchool is, or [what] should be in themeetings to come.”

WASC gives North its ac-creditation for a number of yearsdetermined by how well the schoolfulfills its duties.

Previously, North earned asix year accreditation with a mid-point visit in 2006. However, thegoal for 2013 is to receive a six yearaccreditation without the midpointfollow-up.

“Certainly, you want to gothrough this process and have theaccreditation because it does makeus look like a more serious, impor-tant school in terms of applying tocollege...it makes a difference,”said WASC coordinator ArleneGolds.

All aspects are inspected in-cluding the curriculum efficiency,discipline practices, teachingprocess and even the physical ap-pearance.

“It’s an overall view of ourschool but they are not judging us,”said Golds. “They are analyzingwhether or not we understand ourown problems and if we know ourown strengths and weaknesses.”

Teachers and staff contributeto this operation by directing thestudent groups.

Literature teacher June Bier-nitzky is in charge of Curriculum,Literature teacher Michelle David-son of Instruction, Counselor JoyceGreen of Vision and Purpose, His-tory teacher Cherilynne Hollowellof School Culture and CounselorAllison Lattimer ofAssessment/Accountability.

Teachers may also receive spe-cific tasks as required, which addsto their involvement.

Additionally, parents will be re-ceiving a survey later this year ask-ing for their views on North. Goldssaid, “The WASC accreditation or-ganization wants everyone in-volved ... that means parents,teachers, other staff and students. Itis supposed to be everybody com-ing together and looking at the

school, so thatall of our voicesare heard.”

U l t i -mately, North’soverall imagewill be pre-sented in an in-f o r m a t i o n a lreport taking theshape of a book.

Golds is mainly responsible for ac-cumulating the facts and compos-ing this report.

Each focus group will produceits section of the report based on itsdiscoveries and discussions. AfterGolds compiles the information,she will send her product to anotherteacher in WASC for revision.

This process was launched ayear ago and will continue until thereport is finished. She has alreadywritten the first two chapters. In theend, the report will exceed 200pages.

In March 2013, a WASC com-mittee will arrive on campus for aweek and review the documentsand reports. This committee willmeet with the students, teachers andparents involved in the examinationpreparation process. They will alsovisit classrooms to make sure teach-ers are fulfilling their responsibili-ties in teaching the appropriatecurriculum. WASC will concludetheir observations and make recom-mendations for North.

Most importantly, WASC willthen decide if North deserves a sixyear accreditation without the mid-point check-up. “It is a school wideresponsibility [to get accreditation].Every teacher has a role, every staffmember has a role and every stu-dent [does too],” said Golds.

Huskies will continue thisprocess until WASC members ar-rive at North for their visit nextyear.

The concert concluded with“Danny Boy” sung by ChamberSingers. “Overall, it was a great show,”said Goldsmith.

North’s Red Cross invested manyhours and a lot of hard work in organ-izing the Vaccinate a Village Concert.

“It takes about two months,” saidCamacho. “We start thinking about agoal and then we start getting the wordout.”

Auditions were held a month beforethe actual concert. Missman said,“During the auditions, people wouldwalk in and honestly we weren’t ex-pecting very much. When they actuallystarted singing, we were in awe. Wedidn’t expect them to be so good.There’s a lot of hidden talent in somany students here.”

The concert would not have beenpossible without the help of theatreteacher Michelle Grotness and choirteacher Yvonne Flagg. “It really was agroup effort,” said Camacho.

Grotness and her theatre staff pro-vided technical assistance for the con-cert while Flagg provided the club withthe choir room for auditions and re-hearsals. Missman said, “It was crazy!But we actually had a really good teamand our workers were really good. Soit pays off in the end although it’s re-ally, really nerve-wracking.”

Although the concert was compet-ing against sport events that afternoon,it was still a success garnering over 200attendees.

In the end, North’s Red Cross raisedapproximately $1,000 dollars in justticket sales alone. The club earnedenough profit to vaccinate two villages.

[Continued from Con-cert, page A1]

Welcoming future HuskiesRoberto Gutierrez

STAFF WRITER

usky Pride Day was a spiritedday for the Class of 2016 as they

were introduced to North, their futurehigh school. On March 6, the UnitedStudent League (USL) held the annualHusky Pride Day giving incomingfreshmen an opportunity to see the dif-ferent activities that North has to offer.That evening, USL hosted Husky PrideNight giving parents and guardians thesame experience.

During the day,hundreds of eighthgraders from Central,Chemawa, Earhart,Gage, Miller, Sierraand University HeightsMiddle School got aglimpse of the variousclubs, programs, or-ganizations and sportsthey can participate in when they get tohigh school. “I’m excited to come tohigh school,” said Jason Roberts fromUniversity Heights. “There’s so manymore choices here. I [want] to joinband and baseball.”

Prior to the event, USL and volun-teers set up and decorated tables at theirdesignated areas inside the gym. Everyorganization was presented by an infor-mation booth worked by at least two ofits current members. The incomingfreshmen browsed these booths andsigned up for clubs depending on their

own personal interests. Each of thebooths was designed by members to at-tract students and encourage them tobecome future members of the organi-zation. “The booths allowed us todemonstrate what kind of [activities] astudent could be involved in,” saidsophomore Matthew Jung. “I remem-ber when I came to Husky Pride Dayas an eighth grader and signed up fortennis. I ended up playing it.”

This day was also beneficial tosport teams giving them a chance to re-cruit new members for the upcomingsummer practices. Emily Hughes from

Gage said,“There are somany differentclubs! I can’timagine howawesome itmust be tocome here nextyear.”

While thefirst group of

students was in the gym, a secondgroup was directed to the theater wherethey were introduced to principalTrevor Painton, along with Student Ac-tivities Director Becky Porter and USLofficers.

Eighth graders also watched a pre-view of the spring musical “Guys andDolls” and performances by membersof choir and the dance team.

In the evening the gym was filledwith Husky pride as parents and stu-dents were greeted by the Blue StarRegiment’s songs and the Pep Squad’s

“Literature teacher Arlene Golds

cheers. The Squad presented a specialchoreographed dance followed by abrief presentation of North’s historyand academic programs given byPainton. For the first time, booths runby club members were left on displayfor parents during this night.

Parents were then dismissed to var-ious classrooms with their appointedcounselors in which parents were intro-duced to both the International Bac-calaureate Program and the AVID(Advancements via Individual Deter-mination) Program. These sessionsprovided counselors and program di-rectors the opportunity to explain whateach program entails and what will beexpected of the students if they chooseto be in either of these programs.

Furthermore, parents were familiar-ized with the University of CaliforniaHigh School Graduation Requirementsand what to expect as their teenagertransitions into high school.

Husky Pride Day and Night notonly introduced North’s educational as-pect to the Class of 2016 but the socialaspect as well. Hughes said, “North isso diverse. It seems like a great placeto learn and it just seems like such agreat opportunity.”

Over the past few years HuskyPride Day and Night has succeeded ingiving incoming freshmen the oppor-tunity to scope out North’s benefits.Oscar Dablia from University Heightssaid, “I am super excited about comingto North. My three brothers came hereand they loved it and I [know] I willtoo.”

Juniors Charlotte McMinn and Benjamin Scott answer the questions of incoming freshmen.

School evaluated by WASC


Camacho said, “The students of theRed Cross should take pride in theirconcert.”

For the past three years, the annualrelief concert has welcomed and

brought students together to unite andcontribute to a common cause. In 2010,the concert raised money to help Haitiafter the devastating 7.0 earthquake.The following year, the “World Relief

Concert” was renamed the “Japan Re-lief Concert” as all profits went to-wards the reparation of Japan after the9.0 earthquake followed by the destruc-tive tsunami that struck the nation.

Top Left: Seniors Cesar Casteneda and Elizabeth Alba serenade the crowd with a Spanish tune “Last Kiss.”Bottom Left: Freshman Kathy Chen and junior D’onna Plummer team up to perform Adele’s hit “ChasingPavements.” Right: Sophomore Selena Howard ends Act One with a performance of her original song “Hero.”

Campus unites to end measles in villages

“I’m excited to come tohigh school. There’s somany choices here.”

Eighth Grader Jason Roberts

Roberto Gutierrez &Selena HowardSTAFF WRITERS

It’s an overall view ofour school ... they arenot judging us.”



The concert truly showed that de-spite the time conflicts and the varia-tion in causes, North students continueto show support for not only each otherbut greater issues in the world.

A

H

Cesar Rivasall our troops have earned.The gender segregation in military

responsibilities is a huge infringe-ment on the rights of women. If peo-ple wish to serve their country, theirmeans of service should not be lim-ited by their gender, race or creed. Itis somewhat embarrassing to thinkthat America still has difficulty inprotecting its minorities in many are-nas, including that of the armedforces, when we are supposed to havethe best army on the planet.

At any rate, is there a real and le-gitimate reason why women cannotserve on the front lines? As of yet,there have not been studies or exper-iments conducted proving thatwomen are incapable of serving incombat units. If there is no scientific,legitimate reason, then there must bea bias in the Pentagon. Perhaps evena bias against progress in general, notonly on the front of gender equality.

If naysayers claim that it wouldnot be practical, then at least the logicof numbers should speak to them.There are situations when there aren’t

enough men to be had. By ignoringthis important minority of

trained and future sol-diers, we are notutilizing our re-sources as a na-tion.

It issenseless todeny troops ac-cess to the frontsimply on thebasis of gender.More troops aremore troopswhich meansmore fire-powerand the odds inour favor on thebattlefield. Still,for our country,it is better tobe decades

late thann e v e r

progressat all.

or many years now women havebeen allowed to serve in the US

military, serving their country withhonor and pride. Traditionallythough, this has been in the intelli-gence or the medical corps, awayfrom the front lines and out of imme-diate danger. This is now subject tochange.

The Pentagon recommended thatCongress allow women to serve incapacities closer to the front lines.Despite being a well-intentioned steptoward equality, this is not necessar-ily a good thing. Not because womenare inherently less capable but be-cause it may negatively affectwomen’s families, as well as practicalconcerns regarding changing militaryprocedure. Women deserve everyright to serve in the front lines but thegovernment needs to care more for itscitizens and allowing women to servein the front lines isn’t the way.

The United States might be readyfor this change but the rest of theworld isn’t.

True, there are many militaries inthe world that admit women. Onpaper, that is. Only a handful allowwomen to serve in combat positions.Countries such as Japan and Switzer-land have no rules barring womenfrom the front lines but haven’t beenin war in recent history.

This issue has to be looked atfrom an international perspective, notjust the American point of view. Withwomen on the front lines they willhave to fight against terrorists andsoldiers of other nations that may nothave the same perspective on genderequality. The ugly truth is that womenare vulnerable to a particular crimeon the front lines, that of rape after

he Pentagon has decided tomake an advance towards the

integration of women on the frontlines of combat. They have now madeit possible for women to do more“dangerous” jobs closer to the frontthough some positions are still off-limits.

By allowing women to becomepermanently assigned to battalions,they are able to be involved as radiooperators, medics, tank mechanicsand other critical jobs. However,many military women have alreadybeen doing these jobs because previ-ously women were allowed to betemporary units in the 800 unit battal-ions. Along with that, women havebeen, in effect, breaking these rules,often staying in the battalion oncethey have been assigned.

Many critics have claimed that thePentagon had not taken a step into thefuture but merely a step into the pres-ent, that is, making many female sol-diers’ jobs just as they were beforebut now with official sanction.

Women should be allowed towork on the front lines in combat po-sitions. Just because you are a medicor intelligence officer does not pre-vent you from being attacked. Byplacing women on the front linesin positions of combat, those incharge are better off equippingsoldiers already there.

In reality, over 140 womenwho were supposedly “pro-tected” by not being allowed tojoin the troops on the fronts,have been killed in the line ofduty. It is evident that womenhave already lost their livesfighting and that keeping themoff the front is not necessarilykeeping them out of “harm’sway.” Gender is no indicatorof honor or patriotism.

Women have longproven themselves equalin every other part ofAmerican society, whynot in combat?

An argument canbe made for womenbeing more level-headed in somes i t u a t i o n s .Women arenot drivenby testos-

WWOOMMEENN OONN TTHHEE FFRROONNTT LLIINNEESS

OPINIONA5-A8PAGES MARCH 30,

THE NORTH STAR

2012

Noah Myers-Gilpin

STAFF WRITER STAFF WRITER

P

terone meaning that adrenaline wouldaffect them less than it would a man.“Keeping it cool” on the front is ofgreat importance because you need tobe able to keep your head and make in-telligent decisions in dangerous situa-tions.

From an international perspective,the United States is a little behind thecurve, as many other advanced westerncountries have no barriers stoppingtheir women from serving on the frontlines. It wasn’t until 1989 during the in-vasion of Panama that a woman com-manded American soldiers in battle. Inthe history of the world, women havelong been present at the front lines inwar. Since the American Revolutionwomen have disguised themselves asmen to serve in the army.

By sanctioning fuller integration ofwomen into the U.S. armed forces, inboth war and peacetime, we are betterproviding for our soldiers. There ismuch to be said for knowing that yourcountry and your government appreci-ate and support your service to them.Surely, that issomething

capture. Another possible problem would be

that the presence of women could bedamaging to a unit’s espirit de corps orunit cohesion. There are real psycho-logical concerns about men shiftingtheir attention to protect their femalecomrades rather than concentrating ontheir missions.

It should also be noted that from apurely practical standpoint, Islamicmilitants rarely ever surrender to fe-male officers. On the other hand,women are usually better able to com-municate with civilian women andchildren than men and have provideduseful intelligence while on the front.Though this is present on the frontlines, these women are there for intel-

ligence and relief work, not combat.Sophomore Justiene Noh plans to

enter the Marines or Coast Guard aftershe graduates. Noh viewed this changein policy positively and said that it“proves that we can be just as good asguys.” Her sole reservation was the im-pact on families. “The bad thing aboutit is that you’re taking a mother awayfrom her kids.”

It’s obvious that children need par-ents especially the care that has tradi-tionally been provided by the mother,that of constant emotional support forinstance. It’s no coincidence that mostpreschool teachers are women.

The things that happen in war arecatastrophic. Soldiers in general de-serve better care — cliche as it may be,

In February, the United States Pentagon announced that it intends to open up 14,000 combat positions forwomen in the military, though one-fifth of active duty positions will remain off limits. Women have long beenallowed to serve in the armed forces but usually as intelligence and medical officers. Since this is now up forchange, it is important to examine the benefits and consequences that this decision may have for our society.

T F

The time has come for the United States

to push gender equality to the front, both

literally and figuratively. The armed

forces have been behind the times.

This is an issue of practicality and safety,

not one of gender equality. The matter

is that moving women to the front lines

has more points against it than for it.

RO

war is terrible.Many may argue that women

have earned their right to be on thefront lines and that it would provethat they are equal to men and thatwoman are capable of handling thedangers and catastrophes of war. Still,the fact remains that women on aver-age are generally weaker, scoringlower on endurance tests and withlower bone density, making themmore prone to breaks.

Additionally, a number of studieshave shown that post traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD) is twice as commonin women as in men. It is a hard truththat twice as many women as men ex-perience depression. There are manyhealth issues, both physical and men-tal that are specific to women that themilitary may not be well-equipped tohandle. For example, having womenin combat necessitates the militaryemploying extra medical staff such asgynecologists.

Women do have every right to beon the front lines but the role of gov-ernment is to protect its citizens. Al-lowing a measure that would createmore casualties is unethical. By al-lowing women to fight on the frontlines we could be giving the enemyan advantage to harm our citizens.

A woman on the front linesdoesn’t prove that women are equalto men. In this day and age, no proofshould still be considered necessary.Nevertheless, the fact remains thattaking this step, however well-inten-tioned, is not the right thing to do inthis climate when the United States isstill involved in conflict.

Perhaps in better times when theworld’s militaries are better prepared,our government will continue tomove forward on the front of genderequality and will do so without plac-ing anyone, male or female, in unduedanger.

Sophomore Just iene Noh

CON

Do you think women should beallowed to participate in the

armed forces?

200 Huskies were selected at randomto share their views on female

participation in the armed forces.

Yes Unsure no

Do you think women should beallowed on the front lines?

56% 31% 13%

Yes Unsure no32% 47% 20%

“The bad thing about

[women in the military] is

that you’re taking a mother

away from her kids.”

Alice Koga &

Salam Elchami

OPINION EDITOR & STAFF WRITER

here might not be a bus stop atevery corner but there sure is a

Starbucks.Caffeine is everywhere, from regu-

lar coffee to energy drinks and as timegoes by it keeps evolving, the latest

evolution being AeroShot,created by a Harvard pro-

fessor. Basically, the prod-

uct requires you tostick a little tube inyour mouth and tug.That’s one cup ofcoffee minus thecalories.

Accord -ing to its website,“AeroShot is a rev-olutionary new wayto get your energy. Itdelivers a uniqueblend of caffeineand B vitamins in afine powder thatyou draw into yourmouth and swal-low. So you get aquick boost of en-ergy that startsworking rightaway. The energy

of the future ishere.”

It all sounds im-

Cesar Rivas

JOHN W. NORTH HIGH SCHOOL 2011-2012

CORRECTIONSThe wrestling team qualified for the CIF masters tour-nament (7).

STAFFAlicia Alvarado, Anum Arshad, Claudia Bar-rientos, Maxene Denholtz, Salam Elchami,Tiffany Fors, Roberto Gutierrez, SelenaHoward, Serena Howard, Jose Jimenez,Gabriela Kreszchuk, Arthur Love, Kazi Mah-mud, Gilberto Melendez, Alissa Murphy, NoahMyers-Gilpin, Zahab Qazi, Sabrina Quillen,Cesar Rivas, Emily Roose, Marlyn Sanchez,Nancy Valdovinos.

The North Star

Editors-in-Chief

Managing Editor

Business Editor

News Editor

Opinion Editor

Features Editor

Middle Earth Editors

A&E Editor

Sports Editor

Backpage Editor

Adviser

Tyler DavisFalon Opsahl

Kaitlyn Lozano

Kaitlyn Lozano

Emily Chen

Alice Koga

Amanda Valdez

Kara BillingerKudo Sung

Dominique De La Rosa

Usman Siddiqui

Caitlin Redak

Kathy Rossi

The North Star is the recipient of the River-side Inspirational Youth of the Month awardfor October 2009, the NSPA All-AmericanAward 2002, the NSPA Best of Show AwardFirst Place 1998, Third Place 2006, FourthPlace 2010, Fifth Place 2004, Tenth Place2007, the NSPA Special Edition Best of ShowEighth Place 2002, the Los Angles TimesHigh School Journalism Awards Third PlaceAward 2002, International First Place Quilland Scroll award 1996, 2002, 2004, 2007, TheColumbia Scholastic Press Association GoldMedalist 2009, Silver Crown 2003, 2010 , theOveral Design Second Place, the JEANCMulticultural Journalism Award 1995, theAmerican Scholastic Press Association FirstPlace with Special Merit 1993, 1996, FirstPlace award 1995, 1998, the Inland JEA FirstPlace Sweepstakes 1998, Second Place Sweep-stakes 1990, 1996. The North Star is a non-profit publication created by the Journalismstudents of John Wesley North High School,1550 Third Street, Riverside, California, 92507.The telephone number is (951) 788-7311, x 63117.The North Star is printed by Gardena ValleyNews Web Offset Printing Press and has a cir-culation of 2500. Letters to the editors are welcome and en-couraged. Letters should be accompanied bya full name and signature. All letters may beedited for clarity and brevity. Please direct allresponses to room 322. Advertisements, com-mentaries or political cartoons do not necessar-ily reflect the opinions of the paper, the school,the writers or cartoonists. Unsigned editorialsare the views of a simple majority of the editors.

EDITORS

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012OPINIONA6

Pledging little allegiance to the flagt’s not something most peoplespend too much time thinking

about, those words we’re supposed tosay every day before the announce-ments. Learning it from rote sincekindergarten kind of dampens the pa-triotic spirit. In fact, some of us evenlearn it with the wrong words, habitu-ally saying, “I pledge of allegiance ... ”

To those of you who have actuallyread the First Amendment, the words“under God” in the pledge can seem alittle jarring — we’re supposed to havea firm separation between church andstate. The original pledge didn’t have“under God.” The words were insertedin 1954 by Eisenhower’s administra-tion when the infamous “in God wetrust” was put on our money.

Depending on your point of viewthis may actually be important. Thereare those, largely non-religious, whodemand the phrase’s removal. The flipside of this are those who claim that theUnited States is a Christian nation.True, about 80 percent of the countryis monotheistic, largely Christian.

The problem, they claim, is that thePledge of Allegiance is said at most of-ficial government meetings, sportingevents and in classrooms — the lastbeing the most worrisome.

The irony of this issue is that thosemost vocal about it aren’t the studentswhose rights are supposedly being vi-olated. Even if you agree that thephrase is offensive to the non-religiousor polytheistic, it’s fairly obvious thatin the classroom, the words lose theirpotency. A lot of teachers simply re-quire that you stand but you are not

Wake up and smell the AeroshotT

I

STAFF WRITER

AeroShots.It’s easy to imagine the worst case

scenario, that of a child mistaking it formedication, like inhalers for asthmat-ics.

It is scientifically proven that toomuch caffeine is bad, even lethal. Likeevery other thing that is taken exces-sively, it’s possible to become addictedto this product. Misuse is always pres-ent and the consequences can be se-vere. If the inhaler is combined withalcohol it can cause problems and a lotof people will do just that for the thrillof it.

When someone drinks coffee thehuman body consumes the caffeine lit-tle by little but with this new product itwill consume it all at once.

This can be dangerous since toomuch caffeine in the body can be harm-ful. This new inhaler isn’t regulatedmuch because it can’t really causeharm, however, this can lead to prob-lems since it will be available to many,including those who will misuse it,turning it harmful.

It’s easy to be careless about thenegative effects of something so con-venient. A limit needs to be placed onhow far these new inhalable productscan go.

AeroShots are making their way toCalifornia and into the lunchboxes ofstudents of the North student body. Stu-dents are bound to achieve their ownthrifty and life-risking highs onceAeroShot makes it into conveniencestores.

pressive but the truth is that this “en-ergy of the future” can damage yourhealth and it might not be the future weneed.

Recently the Food and Drug Admin-istration (FDA) issued a warning letterto Breathable Foods, the makers ofAeroShot caffeine inhalers, for “falseor misleading statements” in the pro-motional material for its controversialnew product.

Their biggest argument was that thecaffeine inhalers deliver “breathableenergy” but are “intended to be in-gested by swallowing.”

The fact of the matter is that it’s ac-tually impossible to swallow and inhaleat the same time.

AeroShot advertises that it provides100 milligrams of caffeine in one“shot,” the same amount as in a largecup of coffee.

There have already been caseswhere individuals have died after con-suming more than the daily recommen-dations such as two Monster Energydrinks in a 24 hour period.

Being able to inhale the sameamount in a few seconds with just asingle three dollar product is inviting aposthumous Guinness World Recordaward. The appealing flavor does noth-ing to stop consuming more and over-dosing.

Gastroenterologists make it clearthat the population needs to be awareof how much they consume. Drinkingten gallons of coffee is much harder todo than downing ten tubes of

100 Huskies were se-lected at random to

share their views on thePledge of Allegiance.

Whether the Pledge of Allegiance should say “underGod” has been a heated controversy for several years.Huskies have their own thoughts regarding whether ornot these words are acceptable and should be allowed.

37

generally obligated to say it which alsoallows students some freedom ofspeech. It’s not so much that the pledgequalifies as “in-classroom religiousteachings” as some may argue. Rather,the Pledge of Allegiance contains aphrase that can be considered some-thing explicitly religious sanctioned bythe government. Perhaps more thananything, to those who have never ac-tually read the Bill of Rights or passeda US history class, the pledge givesthem vague evidence that the US is aChristian or at least monotheistic na-tion.

It’s one of those issues that proba-bly doesn’t matter in the long run butis distressing to the observant. Like alot of American political controversies,it is a matter of splitting hairs.

This isn’t to say that those who ad-vocate the phrase’s removal are in thewrong, just that there are probably bet-ter things to worry about such as envi-ronmental issues or the state of publiceducation’s budget.

There are those who claim that be-cause most of America is at least reli-gious, such a phrase shouldn’t beoffensive and that this is in fact a goodexample of American democracy. Thisis simply untrue as American democ-racy is checked by ensuring the rightsof the individual, even those who donot share the beliefs of the majority.The words themselves aren’t that big ofa deal, rather they promote a particularmisconception about the United States.When thought through, it’s almost aridiculous issue.

At any rate, it’s too much of abother to enforce a new pledge, as thefirst one doesn’t actually mean thatmuch to a great many people, espe-cially recited blindly in the classroomevery day.

Scan this QR code for more infor-mation about the product aeroshot.

“I really do not mind that‘under God’ is in thePledge of Allegiance. I ac-tually like it because itgives it more meaning andI think that it is actuallycomforting that we have aprotector for our entirecountry.”

— Freshman Dalia Jimenez

“It doesn’t bother me that‘under God’ is a part of thePledge of Allegiance be-cause it basically repre-sents that the UnitedStates is not on top. Thereis something greater andthat is God.”

— Sophomore FernandoRitzinger

“I personally do notmind that ‘under God’is mentioned in thePledge of Allegiancebut for other people, Ithink that they shouldhave the right to say itor not.”

— Senior Brenda Diaz

“I don’t mind that the pledgesays ‘under God.’ I believethat everyone has somethingthey believe in so whether itsays ‘under God’ shouldn’t bean issue. The pledge alsosays, ‘for which it stands’which is a notion created withthe purpose of having free-dom of religion and speech.”

— Junior Andrew Gomez

Do you think saying thePledge of Allegiance every

day is important?

Do you think studentsshould be required to recite

the Pledge of Allegianceevery day?

Do you say the Pledge ofAllegiance every day at

school?

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

58 42

76

24

54 46

100 Huskies were se-lected at random to sharetheir preferences regard-ing energy supplements.

2916

126

Coffee

Energy drinks:Monsters, Rockstars,

Red Bulls or other

Soda

5 HourEnergy

Tea

t’s pretty commonplace to datesomeone older or younger than

yourself, even in high school. ManyHuskies date students one or moregrade levels higher or lower.

Though reasonable to place limita-tions on who we can take to our dancesfor safety reasons, it is simply silly tostop Huskies who are dating graduatesfrom bringing their dates. Many cou-ples are made of partners of differentages. Why, when both of them attendeda dance one year as junior and senior,should they be unable to attend whenthey are senior and graduate? Talkabout a way to ruin your night. Highschool only happens once and you onlyget two chances to attend prom, onceas a junior and once as a senior. As a

Alice Koga

OPINION EDITOR

THE NORTH STARFRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 OPINION A7

TURNING THE TIDE

ALICE KOGA

o my grandfather died last month.To be honest, I’m not really sure

how to feel about it. A little sad, some-times annoyed but mostly I feel re-lieved.

You see, for the past dozen years orso, he had been slowly withering awayto the point where I questioned his cog-nizance. I think there is something in-finitely sad about living to the point ofbeing a shell and I wonder if voluntaryeuthanasia would be kinder.

We put down our pets when theyface incurable disease and that is con-sidered well within the realm of hu-mane behavior. I found it strange thatin granddad’s obituary, it said that he“passed away peacefully.” My grand-father was not euthanized.

In the long days and final hours, hespent them in semi-consciousness,gasping for breath and twitching due toParkinson’s.

Being slowly deprived of breathuntil you literally die is not my idea of“going peacefully.” I’m one of thosepeople who hope that death comes sud-denly and painlessly, ending in an in-stant — like accidentally falling off avery, very tall building. I hope you un-derstand that I am half-joking when Isay that. Frankly, death is a funnything.

According to Chinese tradition, atthe viewing (after Granddad had beengiven a postmortem makeover), coinsand pearls are supposed to be placed inhis hands. In that somber momentwhen my mom and her brothers weresupposed to do this, they had to wrestleand struggle to get the old man’s handopen. That’s right, they couldn’t gothrough with the somberness of the oc-casion due to what I suppose can onlybe called “technical difficulties” ... orslapstick.

Perhaps it counts as an instant ofblack humor, which usually deals withmaking light of serious subjects. Youknow, death, famine, disease, suicide,depression, racism, corruption, vio-lence — all the fun stuff.

One of my favorite routines is bythe late George Carlin, where he talksabout frustrated suicide. He makes funof people’s difficulties in committingsuicide, usually due to mundane obsta-cles, such as your kid’s recital anddoctor appointments.

I wonder if nothing is sacred but thepossibility that’s true doesn’t alarm me.It might be more entertaining actually.There’s such a thing as comedic so-ciopathy.

Maybe it’s not just death that’sfunny but rather it’s anything that getstaken so seriously sometimes — evenwhen that’s not always possible. Peo-ple tripping at graduations, mis-spellings on signs and days when it’sborderline tragicomedy that the worldjust seems out to get you.

I’ve been told many times in mychildhood that I am too sarcastic, cyn-ical even. Looking back (especially atthe viewing when I was stuffing my fistin my face to keep from laughing)maybe snarking is a kind of defensemechanism. They say that comediansdraw upon their own suffering for in-spiration. I can’t say I’m surprised. Theleast you can do in a crappy world islaugh at it.

I’m not saying that everyone shouldgo and laugh at the dead (well, maybeI am — what kind of life is worth liv-ing without a joke?) as there really aredead serious (pun unintended) mo-ments that deserve a measure ofsomber pathos.

Still, I have to wonder if at times,there’s a bit too much of that and notenough chuckles and wry observations.I think that aside from the snide re-marks exchanged by my feuding rela-tives, there wasn’t much in the way ofentertainment. The eulogies were, atbest, diplomatic. As people told methey were sorry for my loss, I usuallyreplied facetiously that I didn’t like himmuch anyway.

In the face of tragedy, be it bore-dom, disease or any other disaster,what can people do but laugh?

And is that really so terrible?

Death andother stuck-upsubjects

This column rotates among The North Star’s

opinion staff to give a platform for our views.

OPINION EDITOR

My Two ¢ents:We hear about politi-cal corruption all thetime: bribery, scan-dals, embezzling. It’seasy to become jadedwith the politicalarena. With the up-coming elections,many of North’s sen-iors will be oldenough to vote andtherefore able totruly participate inthe democrat i cprocess. We asked ifstudents feel theneed to participate.

Prom should be open to alumni

I

S

fter years of rumors about a fee onplastic bags and the introduction

of eco-friendly, reusable bags, the in-evitable has come to pass in 2012. Cali-fornia finally charges for the use ofplastic bags that are harmful to our envi-ronment.

There is little reason for consumersto complain. When stores provided themwith the opportunity to keep their pre-cious bags by recycling them with binsin the stores, the population generallydid not cooperate, bringing inonly 120,000 plastic bags, thesecond most common trashin landfills and onbeaches. This figure isonly five percent ofplastic bags.Worldwide, onlyone percent of plas-tic bags are recycled.

The fee on plasticbags is projected to cut thenumber of bags in half due to thefact that the Riverside, San Bernardinoand Ventura Counties have not jumpedon the bandwagon yet.

Plastic bags, although mass pro-duced, cost more than paper bags madeout of recycled material because theyhave a longer life and are non-biodegradable. Every year, 12 millionbarrels of petroleum are used to makethe plastic bags we use in a year. What-ever benefit plastic bags have is a curseto other lifeforms and indirectly to our-selves. As a part of this planet, we are al-ways eventually affected by changes inthe precarious balance of ecosystems.

The estimated yearly cost for retail-ers is $4 billion. Basic economics re-veals that when a store pays less forsupplies, it can offer better prices to cus-tomers. The only reason consumers dis-like a surcharge is because they formerly

received bags free. There is strict legislation on the re-

quirements that a reusable bag needs tomeet. They need to be able to carry atleast 22 pounds over a 175 feet radiusand have a volume of 15 liters. Theymust be machine washable or be able tobe disinfected and free from lead, cad-mium or toxic levels of other heavy met-als. These requirements are not a waste.In fact, durable bags come in handy asopposed to plastic bags that break with

the least strain. Consumers proved that they

are willing to cut the usage ofplastic bags cold-turkey when all

IKEA locations charged five centsfor them.

Imagine: IfCalifornia

raised thestakes by increas-

ing the price amonga wider group of stores,

the state would be one ofthe first to abolish the usage

of detrimental plastic bags.Now stores in Santa Clara

County, Los Angeles County,Marin County and Long Beach all

charge ten cents for paper bags madefrom recycled material. There is no prob-lem with this. Paper bags were used inyears preceding 1977 and if a ten centsurcharge will wean consumers off plas-tic bags then so be it.

Excise taxes on plastic bags can pre-vent their usage. If Californians can seeworld issues from outside their wallets,they should understand. Even if they donot believe in the harm plastic bags doto the environment, they can at least con-sider the revenue that will be generatedfor the state from this charge. Riversidemust join in the campaign to stamp outplastic bags that could end up in theocean. The city has some of the worst airquality in California and it can make upfor it by keeping citizens away fromplastic bags.

Plastic bags are outArthur Love

STAFF WRITER

A

lanned Parenthood is under at-tack once again. Representative

Mike Pence, former Chairman of theHouse Republican Conference, is thechief advocate of a plan to removefunding from Title X, most particu-larly the 25 percent that goes toPlanned Parenthood, the country’slargest private provider of abortions.

Every year, Planned Parenthoodcarries out nearly one million lifesav-ing screenings for cervical cancer and830,000 breast examinations. Itshealth centers also provide contra-ception to nearly 2.5 million patientsand nearly four million tests andtreatments for sexually transmittedinfections, including HIV.

This organization has long provedto be a decent source of sexual healtheducation, the promotion of women’shealth and numerous clinics to pro-vide vital medical tests and referrals.In an age when sexually transmitteddiseases (STDs) and teen pregnan-cies are such prominent and prevail-ing issues, this is even moreimportant as health class and sex edare no longer requirements for grad-uating from high school.

In the House Appropriations Com-mittee’s federal year 2011 (FY11) Con-tinuing Resolution, they proposed tocompletely eliminate the Title X familyplanning program which has providedmillions of American women with life-saving healthcare since Richard Nixonsigned it into law in 1970.

Thankfully, as withall controversial issues,neither side is defense-less. One hundredmembers of Congresssigned a letter showingwidespread support forPlanned Parenthood. Itdeclared, “We are writ-ing to strongly opposeefforts designed to un-dermine women’s ac-cess to basic,preventive health careand the women’s health providers theyrely on in their communities. In partic-ular, we are deeply concerned about theimpact that H.R. 217, the ‘Title XAbortion Provider Prohibition Act,’[Rep. Pence’s companion, standalonebill] would have on American womenand their families. H.R. 217 is aimed

squarely at Planned Parenthood healthcenters.”

As always, there are those who tryto claim that certain programs are un-democratic. They argue that PlannedParenthood should not receive federalfunding, as some voters disagree withabortions and the medical tests pro-

vided by Planned Parenthood. It is,after all, taxpayers’ money. By thesame token, many people dislike theexorbitant budget spent on national de-fense on their own moral grounds —yet they are often ignored.

Gutting Title X would deny fivemillion American women preventive

care, including annual exams, lifesav-ing cancer screenings, contraceptiveservices and testing and treatment forsexually transmitted infections.

The possible casualties are not sim-ply limited to the organization itself.Pence’s initiative will also take fundsfrom Medicaid and other forms of so-

cial security. In doingso, the Pence amend-ment also reverseslong-standing patientprotection in Medicaidlaw that ensures thatMedicaid patients canaccess family planningservices with any will-ing provider.

1.4 million Medi-caid patients areserved by Planned Par-enthood. That 1.4 mil-

lion or 48 percent of PlannedParenthood’s patients use Medicaid fortheir healthcare coverage and as a di-rect result of the Pence amendment,they would lose access to their health-care provider.

Pence’s proposal is an unprece-dented, ideological attack on a specific

healthcare provider that will result inmore women losing access to thevery basic healthcare they need.More than 90 percent of the carePlanned Parenthood health centersoffer is preventive yet Rep. Pence issteadfast in wanting to cripplePlanned Parenthood.

When health insurance is expen-sive and health care tenuous at bestin the United States, it is immoral todepose an organization that clearlyalleviates some of our country’shealth problems, particularly in thearea of women’s health.

Medical professionals agree thatthe best treatment is prevention andbeing informed about sex and its re-lated health issues is part of that, nomatter how some people may wish toignore such “unclean” or “immoral”topics. Even if you disagree withabortion, it is an undeniable fact thatpeople, including hormonal teens,will have sex. It’s an inevitable factof life. We need to do our best to en-sure fewer people have to suffer de-bilitating and lethal illnesses, muchof which is preventable and PlannedParenthood does just that.

PEditorial: Save Planned Parenthood for women, health and sex ed

Student views on acurrent controversy

I think it’s important to par-take in this year’s election.By not doing so, I feel like peo-ple are making choices for methat are important to my fu-ture. Inaction is just as impor-tant as action. I’d rather bean active participant than anidle pawn in the game of life.

— Jodie Burton

I do not plan on voting be-cause I do not favor any ofthe candidates that are run-ning for the presidency thisyear.

— Jesse Diggs

I believe that we need to par-ticipate in the election consid-ering the path that thegovernment is going down. Itis a good way for the youngergeneration to get involved.

— Christina Garcia

I think it is really importantfor me to vote this year. I canvote in this election and Iwant my vote to make a dif-ference.

— Garrette Biggers

school, our policy allows for studentsto bring dates from different schools —as long as they’re still in high school.

It seems easy enough. You fill out aform and have your off-campus dateget his or her parent’s permission andyou’re good to go. Why can’t we havesomething similar for dates who arejust one or two years out of highschool? Biologically, there is little dif-ference between a 19-year-old and an18-year-old. Perhaps the worry is thatby allowing overage students (nevermind the fact many seniors are 18 andolder), it will become easier forHuskies at prom to get their hands onillicit substances. This is ridiculous. Ifstudents are already that irresponsible,there’s little we can do to deter themfrom such behavior.

Senior Halle Potter has been work-ing on a petition to the United StudentLeague to change this rule. So far, her

petition has gathered over 300 signa-tures. “My boyfriend doesn’t go to thisschool anymore,” said Potter. “Every-one tells me I should go to prom ... I’mone of those people who wouldn’tenjoy it without a date so I’ll probablynot go and that’s one more experiencethat I won’t have.”

At the very least, a policy change isin order, especially for Husky alumniwho have recently graduated. True, itwould be sketchy at best to have a 20-something adult for a date to prom butan absolute age limit could be imposedrather than an ill-fitting standard of“high school students only.” This way,the school does not have to be con-cerned about irresponsible adults orthose who could be fairly accused ofstatutory rape. This policy is unfair tothose couples who wanted to have theirdream prom together but cannot simplybecause one of the two has graduated.

Republican candidates:Republican candidates:

Compiled by opinion staffCaricatures by Alice Koga

Politics can be disillusioning at worst andPolitics can be disillusioning at worst and

confusing at best. In this upcoming election, manyconfusing at best. In this upcoming election, many

seniors will be able to vote. It’s a bigseniors will be able to vote. It’s a big

responsibility when politics and multipleresponsibility when politics and multiple

politicians are difficult to keep up with already. Sopoliticians are difficult to keep up with already. So

in preparation, we have assembled here thein preparation, we have assembled here the

relevant facts to let you know just what yourrelevant facts to let you know just what your

options are within the Republican party. Unlessoptions are within the Republican party. Unless

you want to vote for Barack Obama. It’s up to you.you want to vote for Barack Obama. It’s up to you.

the weird

Rick

Santorum

the good

the bad

Ron

PaulAlthough against same-sex marriage. Paul has no qualmswith gays in the military and voted for the repeal of the“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in December of 2010, sayingthat behavior, if disruptive should be dealt with, be it hetero-sexual or homosexual. He is also generally supportive of em-briotic stem cell research, though like his opinion on federalregultion of contraceptives he believes both are in the realmof medicine and should be outside of federal jurisdiction.

Paul opposes all federal aid and scholarships for higher ed-ucation and in the 1980s and 1990s he sought to abolish allpublic education, replacing it with private schools. He hasalso gone on record saying that climate change is not a threatto human civilization. He opposes the federal law that re-quires hospitals to treat all those who seek medical care inthe emergency room regardless of their ability to pay. In2008 he ran for the Republican Party presidential nomina-tion but won no state primaries, losing out to John McCain.

Paul’s nickname is “Dr. No” because he claimed that he wouldnever vote for anything not expressly authorized by the Constitu-tion, which results in his votes being cast as the sole “no” on manyissues. He has a medical degree and from the 1960s to 1980s hedelivered more than 4,000 babies as an obstetrician-gynecologist.During this time, he refused to accept Medicaid and Medicareand lowered fees for patients who could not pay.

the weird

the good

the bad

In 1995, Time named Gingrich “Man of the Year” for end-ing the 40-year Democratic hold on the House of Repre-sentatives. In the 1970s, he taught history and geographyat the University of West Georgia. He favors rigorous mathand science courses as well as competition betweenschools and between teachers. He is a green conservative,having co-sponsored the reauthorization of the Endan-gered Species Act, though has recently expressed skepti-cism about human activity affecting climate change.

During Gingrich’s tenure as Speaker of the House, 84ethics charges were filed against him. All but one chargewere dropped, for which he was fined $300 thousand, thefirst time in US history that a Speaker had been disciplinedfor ethics charges. He used to be pro-life with the excep-tion of cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life was atrisk. After being criticized for this in 1998, he has sincechanged to opposing federal funding for abortions in allcases.

Gingrich was raised as a Lutheran, then became a South-ern Baptist in graduate school. In 2009, he converted toCatholicism, the faith of his third wife. Although he isagainst same-sex marriage, his half-sister Candace Gin-grich is a lesbian and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender(LGBT) rights advocate. He has been a prolific reviewerof military history and spy novels on Amazon.com. He hasauthored and coauthored 18 non-fiction books since 1982and is listed as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.Apparently he has also co-written alternate history novels,the most recent of which is Valley Forge: George Wash-ington and The Crucible of Victory which came out in2010.

the weird

the good

the bad

Santorum has unexpectedly reached and maintained a firm holdon second place in the race for various states’ primaries.Rooted in the Grand Old Party’s (GOP) Tea Party base, he ap-peals to the most conservative of Republican voters. Santorumis also vehemently against pornography and has expressed mis-givings about the death penalty. While in Congress, he has sup-ported efforts to combat HIV and AIDS as well as fundingautism research.

Santorum is strongly against same-sex marriage and birth control,which alienates a lot of American moderate voters, including youngpeople. In 2001 he was unsuccessful in attaching an ammendmentto the No Child Left Behind Act that promoted the teaching of in-telligent design and questioning the academic standing of evolutionon public schools. There were 96 scientific and educational organ-izations which demanded that the ammendment be removed and itwas. Santorum has also spoken out against higher education. In aninterview with Glenn Beck he said, “I understand why BarackObama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoc-trination mills, absolutely … The indoctrination that is going on atthe university level is a harm to our country ... 62 percent of kidswho go into college with a faith commitment leave without it.” Hedid not provide a source for that figure.

After bowing out of the race for a seat in Pennsylvania’s senate,Santorum went back to working as a lawyer and became a contrib-utor to the conservative Fox News cable network. Santorum hasfathered eight children with his wife Karen. Like Romney, he is areligious minority in the political arena as a practicing Catholic. In2005 he published a book called It Takes a Family, which was a re-sponse to Hilary Clinton’s It Takes a Village. His book claimed thatliberal social policies have devastated family structure. It receivedmixed reviews.

the weird

the good

the bad

Romney is a mainstream and moderate Republican. Assuch, he appeals to a different demographic than manyother Republican candidates and reels in many young peo-ple who are sitting on the fence about the election. Havingbeat out others in many of the primaries, Romney is be-lieved by many experts to be the next Republican Partynomination. In 2003, he was elected governor of Massachu-setts.

In 1994 Romney ran for the US Senate in Massachusetts butwas defeated by Edward Kennedy. Many of his opponentsclaim that he flip-flops on key issues such as abortion andhealthcare reform though his views on other topics are basi-cally those of traditional Republicans. As a moderate he maylose appeal within the conservative base of Republicans. Ad-ditionally, he is Mormon, which is unusual among politicalcandidates of any party.

In 2002 Romney helped rescue Salt Lake City’s OlympicGames from financial woes. Apparently he announced the startof his campaign at a New Hampshire farm. In his 1994 Senatecampaign he advocated getting rid of the Department of Agri-culture but in 2007 a spokesman said that he believed “agricul-ture is key to our economy and families.” There are a few otherissues that bring the same kind of reaction from Romney likestem cell research.

Mitt

Romney

Newt

Gingrich

TT HH EE GG OOOODD, , THE BADTHE BAD && THE WEIRDTHE WEIRD

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012OPINIONA8

The Teacher’s Tale

FEATURESB1-B4PAGES MARCH 30,

2012THE NORTH STAR

Not only are we students preparingfor life outside of North’s walls, weare young adults who are trying toestablish our own identities.Through clothing, style and hob-bies, we aim to set ourselves apartfrom the rest of the world. Tattoosare more than just designs inkedpermanantly into the skin. They aresymbols representing a part of whowe are on the inside. We exploreda variety of tattoos found amongour student body and documentedeach of their individual stories.

All inked up

1. Senior Leon Smith“I got it for my mom. Ichose a heart because Ilove her and this is howI show it. I wanted to bedifferent from every-body so I got the wings.It means a lot becausemy mom had me and Iwill always respect her.”

2. Freshman Wykeya Pope“I got my tattoo to remindme to always have faith inmyself because I cansometimes be insecureabout myself.”

3. Junior Sheena Edquid“The word strength on theinfinity sign means that I’ll

always have strength andthe Roman numerals standfor [the date of when mygrandpa passed away] sohe’ll always be with me.”

4. Junior Kyle Helmle“My tattoo is of a tribalshark. [The design] is tradi-tional to get in my family. I

got it to show lineage andheritage. It’s a family thing.”

5. Senior Dominic Gathrite“[I got my tattoo] to sym-bolize my family’s unitywith my brother’s,grandpa’s, mom’s, dad’sand my own birthstonecolors. [Since] my

grandpa is soon to passand with me going awayto college, it’s kind of likeI’ll always have them withme. California is wheremy life all came together.”

6. Senior Rachael Hermann“It’s a tree so it representsgrowth and life. But if you

look closely it’s clear atthe bottom and it startsto get blurier at the top.That’s because ... youdon’t really have harddecisions [to make]when you’re young butwhen you’re older deci-sions become harder tomake.”

1.

2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

Bookmarked.....................B5Hunger Games................B6Apps..................................B6Memes..............................B7Heat Festival....................B8

I N S I D EGet to know the story ofthe teacher on North’scampus who has gonefrom taming wild animalsto educating students.

Heat FestivalAlumna Cartoonist

Page B4

Page B8

Meet the former Northstudent who went fromdrawing in art class tocartooning for WarnerBros.

Page B5

BloodyDreams................B2Horoscopes......................B2TOMS..............................B3Teacher’s Tale..................B4Jon E. Quest.....................B4

Learn about the an-nual Heat Festival thatwas held on the Uni-versity of California,Riverside campus.

Gabriela Kreszchuk

FROM DREAM TO REALITY

or most teenagers in high schoolthe majority of their worries re-

volve around school and their sociallives. For junior Selena Kramer how-ever her stress comes from ensuringshe meets deadlines for her new noveland ensuring they include proper char-acter development.

For two years Kramer has beenworking on the first book in her 21book series titled The Bloody Dreams

Series: Stephenie Book1. She plans onwriting three books for seven differentcharacters from the story each withtheir own story line.

Her book focuses around Stepheniewho seems to be a perfectly normal girlbut when a new guy comes to town,problems start to occur. The problemsseem to be related to three newcomersshowing up and mistaking Stepheniefor someone else. The real question iswhether or not they are right.

Similar to many other authors’ in-spirations, the idea for the series camefrom a dream but Kramer’s personalinterests turned it into something more.“The idea for my book came from adream I had but the inspiration camefrom my love of horror movies and thatsecret wish that a lot of people have forthe supernatural being real,” she said.

Being a teenage novelist in highschool has been a good experience forKramer. “It’s not a feeling of achieve-ment or accomplishment but more like[I’ve] reached something so many peo-ple said I wouldn’t and for a while even[I couldn’t] believe it.”

According to Kramer she first got

into writing after being a straight A stu-dent but falling behind in reading. Sheneeded a way to let out frustration aswell as a way to practice her spellingand grammar skills by writing shortstories that eventually turned into acomplete book.

Writing a book while going toschool isn’t as hard as people think itis. Her day usually consists of going toschool, doing her homework and hope-

fully writing at least five to 10 pages inher journal.

Her writing process is not as simpleas sitting down and having the ideasflow out of her for pages and pagesthough. Kramer usually begins writinga story only after getting an idea for it.“It can be as simple as a line or phrase[or] something as intricate as a stringof events,” she said.

She then plans out every chapter

STAFF WRITER

We’ve all had those times when we just don’t feel like doing our homework and all morning we’re wracking our brains for a good excuse.A few teachers shared some of the best excuses they’ve heard over the years about why their students didn’t do their homework.

“My mom doesn’t thinkit’s good enough yet

so she’s not letting meturn it in.”

English teacher,Arlene Golds

along with the background of eachcharacter. She imagines the scene andwrites down every detail that comes toher mind until she has no morethoughts to write down.

She also draws on her own life ex-periences and uses them to get a differ-ent perspective on things. Her dreamshelp to enhance her characters and cre-ate small details. What seems to be thehardest part of writing for her is mak-ing it perfect in her mind so that shecan stop writing.

Though the writing process was notvery hard, the publishing process wasfairly difficult. Thanks to researchingonline Kramer discovered the processshe would need to go through. In orderto continue she would have to find apublisher, an agent and a freelance ed-itor. The editing of her manuscriptwould depend on her editor. The prob-lem was that being a 16-year-old writerwho has never been published is notwhat most publishers want. An editorwould take her manuscript only for afee. Instead she chose to self-publish.

As a soon-to-be published writerKramer has some thoughts as to whatothers should do if they are trying tobecome authors. “Being an author doesnot mean being published. Know thatnot everyone is going to like yourbook. Someone will hate it and if notthen you did something wrong.”

Kramer is also in the middle ofplanning another book that is not re-lated to her Bloody Dreams series. It isan idea she has been thinking about fora while, though after she finishes plan-ning she will continue with her originalseries. Her book The Bloody Dreams

Series: Stephenie Book1 is expected tocome out in July of this year.

“My brother chewed myhomework up; he stuck it all in his mouth and

chewed it up.”Science teacher, Rolland Fezzey

We’ll be perfectly honest, we get a lot of our visions while we’re listening to strange

music. So if it seems like your horoscope reminds you of a song you’ve heard, it’s prob-

ably no coincidence. That doesn’t, however, affect the validity of our visions.

By: Telepath Emily Chen & the Great Seer Amanda Valdez

“One kid said their goat atetheir homework. It wastrue; he even had his dad vouch for him.”

History teacher, Marc Gonzalez


Aquarius Jan. 20-Feb. 18When we were younger we were afraid to favor our stuffed an-imals because we thought they would get jealous and kill us inour sleep. Don’t laugh at us, we’re just trying to warn you.

Pisces Feb. 19-March 20Hello, we love you, won’t you tell us your name? We’re just kid-ding, we’re psychic so of course we know your name. You reallydidn’t think we were for reals huh? Don’t be such a skeptic.When you’re older you’ll fall in love with a fortune teller.

Aries March 21-April 19You may be thinking, “Is this it?” Well we’re here to tell you it’snot. Keep trying and never give up! Your hard work will pay offin the future and you’ll get into the Guinness Book of WorldRecords for most persistant person in the world.

Taurus April 20-May 20You’re going to find the one and believe it or not you’re goingto win their heart by winning a debate contest. They find intel-ligence attractive and every word you said about the ozone layerwill make them want to go up to you and propose on the spot.

Gemini May 21-June 21We understand that all you want to do is eat Oreos and talk onFacebook all night but don’t forget to handle all of your otherresponsibilities. Believe it or not school really is most important.

Cancer June 22-July 22They love you like a love song. We’re not sure what that meansbut we don’t think anyone but Selena Gomez knows. Come tothink of it she told Oprah she didn’t either. Oh well, just keephitting repeat and maybe it’ll start making sense.

Leo July 23-Aug. 22Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack felldown and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. If youknow either a Jack or a Jill you should really tell them not toleave the house today. This has nothing to do with your futurebut come on, be a good person and help out your friends.

Virgo Aug. 23-Sept. 22Spring break is coming up which probably means late nightstalking on the phone. Take our advice and stuff a towel underthe door if you don’t want your parents to hear you.

Libra Sept. 23-Oct. 23You’re going to have a lot of homework to do next Wednesdayand you’ll end up going to bed extremely late. But if you don’tpay attention you’re going to go to bed with toothpaste anderaser shavings all over your hair. That’s pretty icky. Scorpio Oct. 24-Nov. 21You, yes you. You’re our favorite. You always look incredibleand you smell fantastic. Not like that other S corpio, they alwaysgive us mean looks. It hurts our feelings.

Sagittarius Nov. 22-Dec. 21Your dad is going to forbid you from marrying your fiance be-cause he’ll confess that they’re your sibling. Your mom will tellyou it’s okay though because your father isn’t your father. You’lllive through quite the scandal but at least you’ll get married.

Capricorn Dec. 22-Jan. 19This won’t be easy and we’re sorry for telling you this but youshould get over that certain person. You don’t realize this be-cause you’re head over heels in love but they secretly steal locksof your hair and take pictures of you when you’re not looking.

I think my dog ate it

“I don’t know where it is but Ireally thought I did it. They

didn’t say they did do it. Theysaid they thought they did.”

Math teacher, Candice Reed

F

The cover art for Selena Kramer’s first novel which istitled, The Bloody Dreams Series: Stephenie Book1.

Courtesy of Selena Kramer

As if high school isn’t enough, senior Jessica Brown discusses working two jobs while balancing student council and cheerleading.

The North Star: Where do youwork?Jessica Brown: At Shiekh Shoes in theMoreno Valley Mall and Romano’sFamily Italian Restaurants & ChicagoPizzerias in Canyon Crest.

NS: How long have you had thesejobs? JB: [For Shiekh since] last June. Al-most a year. For Romano’s, since Oc-tober.

NS: What do you do at Shiekh? JB: I’m a cashier and a salesperson soI sell shoes, put shoes back and sendshoes out to different stores.

NS: What about your job at Ro-mano’s? JB: I seat people, get drinks for people,answer phones, etc. I’m like a hostessor waitress.

NS: What job do you like more? JB: Shiekh. They play loud music andit’s really fun.

NS: Why don’t you like Romano’s asmuch? JB: I don’t like doing things for people— people are mean. If you seat them atthe wrong table they’ll get mad and tellyour boss on you … If you do to-go[orders] wrong or if you put their orderin wrong and it’s the not the right food,they’ll tell your manager that it’s yourfault. Everything you do is your faultbut Shiekh is [cool]. We listen tomusic, dance and just get people theirshoes.

NS: Why did you want a second job?JB: So I could go out and have moneyto spend. The job at Shiekh doesn’t payas much as Ramono’s does. There I gettips plus a paycheck. For Shiekh, I justget a paycheck.

NS: Tell us about some of the thingsyou’re involved in at school. You’rethe cheer captain? JB: I’m the only Pep Commissioner,which is like the head captain. I havetwo co-captains as well but I’m thehead captain and [I represent the teamfor the] United Student League (USL)too.

NS: For what does that make you re-sponsible?JB: The dances, pep rallies, assem-blies, class competitions, what outfitswe’re going to wear, hair up or hairdown, if we need our poms or not anddeciding which girls will do the cheers.

NS: What do you spend your moneyon?JB: Bills! Lots and lots of bills.

NS: How do you have bills already?JB: I’m 18 so my parents help me a lit-tle but I pay for my car and my phone.Anything I want I have to go and get,including clothes.

NS: How long do you plan to main-tain this kind of schedule? JB: Until I graduate and get a real job.

NS: How long have you had a job?JB: I’ve been working since I was 15.

Minimum wage memoir:NS: Why so early?

JB: I’ve been saving [money] since Iwas 15 so when I graduate [I won’t]be struggling to pay for things on myown ... I’ve worked at a lot of places[like] Daisy Fresh Dry Cleaners,Daisy Fresh Foreclosed Homes, Ibaby sat, worked for Aramsco Com-pany for a little bit, Shiekh and thenRomano’s.

NS: It’s not hard for you to find ajob?JB: No because I’m very bubbly ...After I apply I’ll call them and keepcalling them and bugging them untilthey say, “Okay, you’re hired.” That’show I get [work]. I don’t stop until Iget the job.

NS: What have you learned becauseof this?JB: That I’m very independent.

NS: Do you like that?JB: It’s hard but I learned that to getwhat you want in life you have towork because no one is going to benice to you. No one is going to be byyour side and help you with every-thing you need.

NS: How do you manage going toschool, having two jobs and being incharge of the cheer squad?JB: It’s very hard but I do my home-work between classes [and] I figureout dances for cheer at lunch. I usuallywork after school until about nine[and that’s when I] go home and go tobed. Then I wake up and do it all over.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012FEATURESB2


magine a life where you have toovercome difficult challenges every

day of your life. Where you have towalk great distances just to find cleanwater for yourself and for your familyand are not able to attend school be-cause you simply can’t afford it. Nowimagine how much harder your lifewould be if you have to complete all ofyour daily tasks without even a simplepair of shoes.

In your own personal life as youwalk around school you see several dif-ferent people wearing colorful andunique shoes with the familiar TOMSlabel visible on the side.

TOMS shoes have started a sort of

Anum Arshad

THE NORTH STARFRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 FEATURES B3

revolution in helping children aroundthe world through their One For OneMovement. This trend has becomepopular across the world and is as sim-ple as purchasing a pair of TOMSshoes. Of course a customer has towonder: How does someone help chil-dren by buying a pair of shoes?

The TOMS revolution began in2006 when Blake Mycoskie took a tripto Argentina and found that many chil-dren there did not own a single pair ofshoes to protect their feet from the out-doors. Inspired to make a difference hewent back to America and created acompany that would give a pair ofshoes to a child in Argentina for everypair of shoes purchased in America. Hethen returned a year later with 10,000pairs of shoes for the children.

The company establishes shoe-giv-

Changing the world one shoe at a time

ISTAFF WRITER

ing partnerships with humanitarian or-ganizations around the world that helpidentify communities that are in needof shoes. They then give them shoesthat are sized for and are the best forthe children that are receiving them.

Most of the time the shoes that aregiven to the children are the black uni-sex canvas slip-on shoes with a sturdysole because they are the most versa-tile. These shoes are the best for chil-dren because many school uniformsrequire black shoes and they aredurable enough for children who usethem quite rigorously.

Junior Juan Andrade said, “I thinkit’s a good charity. They help childrenin need [receive] shoes so that theydon’t roam around barefoot. It’s some-thing that we don’t appreciate muchbecause we’ve always had shoes. I also

think it’s a good sales tactic. Peoplebuy their shoes to look good but also asa way to help someone out.”

They are popular among many peo-ple for their style and comfort.“They’re cute shoes, have a comfy fitand in my opinion they last long. Alsotheir ‘Buy one give one’ contribution isgreat,” said sophomore Alondra Leon.

Not only are they trendy but theyenable shoppers to give back to the lessfortunate. Freshman Natalie Sauer said,“Even though they are a little expen-sive [it’s] okay. I mean to help children… [it’s] such a good feeling.”

Since we have had shoes our wholelives we aren’t as aware of the dangersand problems these children encounterif they do not have shoes to wear.

There are so many children in de-veloping countries who grow up bare-

foot and even simple tasks put them atrisk.

Soil-transmitted diseases can pene-trate the skin through bare feet whichputs people at risk by just steppingbarefoot on an unclean surface. Wear-ing shoes can easily help prevent chil-dren from contracting these diseases.

Due to uniform requirements, chil-dren cannot attend school withoutshoes in Argentina. Those who haveshoes are able to go to school to receivean education which will help them be-come successful in the future and en-able them to better their lives.

As remarkable as it sounds, TOMSmay be indirectly helping end povertyin developing countries. Everybody isentitled to basic necessities and TOMSare working towards turning that into areality one pair at a time.

Salam Elchami / The North Star

MIRROR IMAGES

SERENA HOWARD

o ahead — ask us if we’re re-lated. Or if we’re identical. If the

phenotype doesn’t give it away, thensurely a DNA test will. After sharing aroom for 16 years (and an additionalnine months in the womb) we’ve got-ten used to hearing and answering thisquestion, sometimes while rolling oureyes. Along with the questions, stereo-types about twins seem to wiggle theirway in too. Most are not true. Some arehilariously true.

One of the most difficult thingsabout being a twin is establishing yourown identity. Having been raised in thesame house in the same room with thesame closet that holds the same clothes,it’s a little difficult to establish yourown style and identity. The sad truthfor twins usually isn’t the burden offinding their own identities but the ideaof following a path of non-identicalstyles, hobbies and personalities andensuring that as two people, they are infact living their lives like they are twopeople.

At seven years old, I fell victim toa motorcycle accident that required meto undergo reconstructive facial sur-gery. The surgery had slightly alteredmy appearance but heavily impactedour twin relationship. For once welooked different and we weren’t surehow to take that; as a form of rebelliontowards these new differences Selenaslept on her left side for months inorder to mold her face in the exactshape of mine. However this colossaldifference seemed nonexistent toeveryone else but us.

As we grew older people got betterat finding our differences. “Serena’sthe taller one,” they would say. “Se-lena’s the one with bigger eyes,” otherswould point out as if we didn’t alreadyknow. Although these remarks wouldmake us uncomfortable nothing elsebothered us more than when people as-sumed our personalities were differentbecause we are twins. The commonquestions “Who’s the devil and who’sthe angel?” and “Who’s the smart oneand who’s the dumb one?” strikes achord with us whenever we’re asked.We’re equal on almost every level;something Singletons (people withouta twin) don’t understand. Almost alltwins strive to maintain a level ofequality with one another. Unfortu-nately the rest of the world makes thatslightly challenging.

Our kindergarten name tags werebrandished with symbols in order totell us apart: Selena was a penguin be-cause she wore blue and I was a straw-berry because I wore red. Petty ways totell us apart became the very bane ofour existence. We hated it — still do —when people compare us. Even mixingup our names would be better than try-ing to find ridiculous ways to tell usapart. This is not to say that we want tobe the same person—just equal in peo-ple’s eyes. To twins the word “identi-cal” doesn’t mean the “same”; it meansthat we have such a strong bond thatwithout each other we can’t truly findour identities.

Singletons are somewhat rightwhen assuming twins share the samehobbies at least. We pretty much can dowhat the other can but that doesn’tmean that we prefer to. Selena playsthe keys on the piano to write songswhile I plays the keys of the computerkeyboard to write. At the end of the daywe both play keys and if a situationopts us to trade places we’ll be success-ful on both ends. It’s not telepathy. It’sbeing raised together, sharing many ofthe same experiences and having thesame opportunities. In a way it’s ourupbringing that’s made us so similar.

Curiosity about twins, consideringwe’re such a minority, is definitelywelcome. Trust us, we’re curious aboutSingletons too. How can you all sur-vive alone, without anybody to helpyou do your homework when you’retired or speak to you in your own lan-guage when you’re sad or share yourbirthday presents with you whenyou’re happy? Having a twin automat-ically sets you up with a lifelong bestfriend, roommate and sometimes spar-ring partner. And honestly we couldn’thave asked for a better lifetime guaran-tee.

S i n g l e t o n sj u s t d o n ’ tunderstand

G

Jon E. Quest: Co nne ctingthr oughmusic

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012FEATURESB4

hen students think about theirteachers, most assume that

teaching was all they ever wanted todo. They sleep on their desks at nightand live at school because they loveteaching more than anything else. Ormaybe they loved school so much theywanted to do just that for the rest oftheir lives. Regardless, for Earth Sci-ence teacher Thomas Castiglione thisis far from the case.

Growing up as an only child sur-rounded by animals led Castiglioneinto a career that allowed him to do ex-actly what he loved: training animals.

As he was going through highschool he took Regional OccupationalProgram (ROP) classes that trained stu-dents to care for animals. Castiglionesaid, “The teacher and I got along won-derfully and ... she kind of pointed mein directions where there would be ca-reers with animals.” In addition to hishigh school courses, he received helpfinding what would help him to pursuewhat he loved to do. “She also intro-duced me to a college that’s here insouthern California called MoorparkCollege and they have a two year pro-gram in exotic animal training andmanagement,” he said.

From there he put all of his effortstowards achieving his goal and twoyears later he graduated with his degreein exotic animal training and manage-ment. Afterwards he applied every-where he could and worked with every

animal that he could. First, Castiglione started working

with and training elephants. “With ele-phants we did educational outreachprograms. We did circuses, events andstate fairs. They also did plenty of filmwork with the elephants.”

He’s worked with all types of ani-

mals from lions to great apes andeverything in between. His first jobwas working for Siegfried and Roy inLas Vegas on their show at the Mirage.“Following that, I worked for theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Grand[Hotel and Casino] with their lions andtheir lion habitat for a little while. Then

I went with a company that I’m actu-ally still employed with called Birdsand Animals Unlimited,” said Cas-tiglione.

Through working with the companyhe has even been able to train many an-imals for films. One of his more fa-mous animals is the monkey from The

Hangover Part II.Something as simple as bringing his

work home with him became his onlyproblem. Soon he had enough animalsthat he had a small zoo. The problemsarose when he no longer had just him-self to think about but the safety of hisfamily and small children. “I found it

risky to endanger my children withdangerous animals like chimpanzeesand other things that like to bite littlefingers,” he said.

He also wanted to spend more timeat home with his family. Because hiswife was a high school teacher, he de-cided that he could do the same seeingas he enjoyed being around people justas much as he enjoyed being aroundanimals.

Fortunately, he has not forgottenwhat he has learned from being an an-imal trainer and still uses those tech-niques in the classroom. Castiglionesaid, “A lot of what we do relies uponpositive reinforcement and that couldbe something as easy as telling the stu-dents that they are doing a great job.”

When training animals he had to beable to adapt to any situation. The sameis true for teaching. But he will alwayshave his stories to tell his studentswhen they’re misbehaving. One of hismost memorable encounters involveshim being the target of attack duringhis time with Siegfried and Roy.

“I had a full grown lioness stalk meand come up behind me to basically tryto attack. Somehow … she started tobut instantly stopped. I’m not sure howor why she stopped but she did and Istill have all my fingers and toes toshow for it.”

Throughout his 13 year career as ananimal trainer, Castiglione has trainednumerous animals. Evidently misbe-haved students haven’t proven to betoo much for him and he continues totrain animals during the holidays andhis time away from North.

Gabriela Kreszchuk

STAFF WRITER

The teacher’s tale:out of the wild andinto the classroom

Castiglione and tiger Tsumura relaxing after tak-ing a walk behind the Mirage casino in Las Vegas.

Although it was his day off from training, Castiglione went toLake Elsinore to see Tai, one of the elephants he worked with daily.

When we think ofwho inspires us atschool we instantly thinkof teachers. Fortunately,North is home to not only tal-ented students and risingstars but established pro-fessionals and gifted fac-ulty members who impactour lives. Jon Smith, one ofthe campus aides at North, hasmade a big name for himself among thestudent body. After rapping a song at arally during Multicultural Week lastyear and preforming during this year’sMidwinter, Smith has been approachedby many students facing struggles whosay that he is their voice of reason.“I’m very humbled to know that mymusic influences students in a positiveway. They come to talk to me abouthow they wake up in the morning lis-tening to the CDs I gave them and howit brings light into their lives. It contin-

ues to inspire me,” saidSmith.

When it comes to over-coming life struggles, he believeshis love for music came from a placeof hopelessness. “I’ve been writing

[music] since I was seven years old. Ihad a hard life—growing up in a bro-ken home—so the outlet that I turnedto was music,” he said.

He created a good foundation forhimself when he began spendingtime in the studio to record his ma-terial. It was here that he realizedmusic was a strong passion ofhis. Smith said, “Slowly butsurely my name started get-ting out there.” Despitehaving recorded in thesame studio as well-re-spected hip-hop artistssuch as Tupac Shakirand Redman,Smith was not in-terested in becoming the samestereotypical rapper. Stylistically headds a touch of Gospel to his flowsand rather than singing verses aboutgunshots and self-indulgence he aimsto send a more positive message. “I tryto think about the audience and whatthey’re going through rather thanfocus on myself and where I am,” saidSmith. “I want to add something posi-tive to every person who hears my

music.” With his music being distrib-

uted to a fairly large and re-spectable fan base Smithreaches out not just to Northstudents but to all types of

people regardless of age, eth-nicity or background. “I really

look forward to reaching souls thatare just like I was,” said Smith, “andhopefully giving them some light, pos-

itivity and [inspiring them] to do wellin life.” Some of the themes

Smith promotes through hismusic include accept-

ance of one another,avoiding vio-

lence andnever giv-

ing up.

W

Courtesy of Thomas Castiglione

Scan this QR code to hearjon e. quest’s song, “the light.”

By Serena Howard

Courtesy of Thomas Castiglione

orth is recognized as a place thatoffers students structure, support

and learning fundamentals that can becarried throughout life. Over theyears North has been the startingpoint for current athletes, activists,performers and even artists.

Alumna Joanna Ramos is cur-rently a character and background de-signer at the legendary WarnerBrothers film industry for the MADshow on Cartoon Network. Ramosgraduated in 2002 but even beforethen she knew what she wanted to do.After high school Ramos was ac-cepted to the California Institute ofArts.

Shortly after graduating in 2006,she found work animating and laterdesigning for television shows andhas been in television ever since.

However, it wasn’t until a lifechanging summer school programthat Ramos knew what she wanted todo. “I knew that I liked to constantlydraw and that I’ve always liked draw-ing cartoons but it wasn’t until I wasaccepted into a summer school ani-mation program for high school stu-dents, [The California State SummerSchool for the Arts (CSSSA)], that Iknew I had to try to get into the ani-mation industry,” said Ramos.

The CSSSA is a rigorous pre-pro-fessional program in the visual andperforming arts, creative writing, an-imation and film for talented highschool students. The program pro-vides a supportive environment forstudents to explore and acquire newtechniques for an exciting learningexperience. California residents en-rolled in grades nine through 12 areeligible to apply to CSSSA but only alimited number are admitted eachyear.

The admission process is highlycompetitive as just last year fewerthan half of all applicants were ac-cepted in each department. These par-ticipants are selected on the basis oftheir talent and creativity in their as-signments and teacher recommenda-tions.

After completing the four weekprogram students are named Califor-nia Arts Scholars and receive the Cal-ifornia Arts Scholar Medallion. Artteacher Wayne Clack told Ramosabout the CSSSA program and en-couraged her to apply.

For any student paying for school,money can become a stressful obsta-cle. Ramos, however, had a morecarefree attitude about money. Instead

of spending valuable time thinkingabout the money, she focused onschool. “I feel that if you’re going outon a limb to invest in your career youshould concentrate on school and notwaste that time fretting over studentloans. I pretty much ignored the num-bers on my student loans in an out-of-sight, out of mind sort of way.”

This type of determination onlymade Ramos more confident. “Thescariest it ever got for me was aftergraduating and before my first gig inanimation. I had a few hundred in thebank, not really enough to cover rentwhich was due soon. I had actuallytaken a week off of an arbitrary job,my only source of income I took onto make ends meet, so that I couldfocus on taking a test for an animationstudio. In the end, my hard work paidoff. My test met the studio’s expecta-tions and I got hired,” said Ramos.

While working in television ani-mation it’s easy to be temporarily un-employed when the show you’reworking on isn’t selected for anotherseason. “It feels incredibly lucky ifyou can get another job lined up afterthe one that just ended. This gets eas-ier the more you’re known but therehave been times where I have beenunemployed for a few months. Ifyou’re proactive and have a goodamount of money saved up to live offof, things seem to always work out fa-vorably. I’ve learned to trust that,”said Ramos.

Inspiration can be found in anysurrounding either frightful, danger-ous, peaceful, private or completelybeautiful but the most common waypeople learn and find inspiration isfrom the people in their lives.

For Ramos, inspiration comesfrom former and current co-workerswho make her feel lucky to have hadthe opportunity to work alongsidethem. For drawing characters shefinds inspiration in laughter. “If I canget someone to laugh at a drawing Idid, I feel like I won the lottery.”

High tech computers and simplepaper and pencil are equally impor-tant for Ramos because “you need toknow how to work on a Cintiq ortablet for jobs but when you’re work-ing on paper it feels like it exercisesa different thinking process. You haveto commit to the lines you’re makingand really have a clear picture of whatyou want to do in your head. On thecomputer you can guess and test untilyou have it the way you want it tolook which is really nice if you needto bust out a few variations of oneidea.”

At work Ramos uses Cintiq andFlash Creative Suit 4 (CS4) but “at

� ��

home I like using water solublecrayons and pencils with a waterbrush or a good old sharpie.”

The workplace plays a major rolein any job. Working with creativepeople who share common interestsmakes a job easier and memorable.

“I animated on the first season ofThe Ricky Gervais Show for HBOand Ricky Gervais himself actuallypopped into the studio to take a lookat what we were working on [and hewas] super nice. Also SurgioAragones, a famous MAD magazineartist, will visit every now and then atthe show I’m currently working on,”said Ramos.

Other memorable moments Ramosshared was working with a boastingboss learning to bake. “We ended upwith everyone in the studio compet-ing in a bake-off. I didn’t win and ac-tually he didn’t end up winningeither,” said Ramos.

No matter how competitive the an-imation industry is, North alumnaJoanna Ramos is an inspiration toanyone who is equally passionateabout the arts.

From learning about line drawingsin art class to drawing and designingfor Warner Brothers EntertainmentInc., Joanna Ramos is a North star.

N

A&EB5-B8PAGES MARCH 30,

THE NORTH STAR

2012

tract was offered soon after and signa-tures needed to be obtained from the 70authors of the manuscript. The publish-ing company cut 20 of the original 70and Camacho said, “It was like a fingerwas being cut off each time they didbut they said it [would] be 50 or noneso really my choice was clear.”

All the proceeds of the book aregoing towards a John W. North highschool scholarship. “I have no ideahow much the book is going to make.So instead of splitting the money 51ways we decided to do this instead,”

said Camacho. The scholarship willwork something like this. A student hasto have taken Honors American Liter-ature to apply; this is not restricted onlyto Camacho’s class. If they meet thisprerequisite the student then proceedsto write an essay much like those in thebook with their life philosophy tied intoa quote from literature. Then that essayand the reason behind applying for thescholarship will be reviewed by a com-mittee. On this committee are all 51 au-thors of the book including Camachoherself.

For her it was a privilege to be apart of all these kids’ amazing journeys.In the acknowledgments of Book-marked, Camacho expresses her grati-tude to all the writers by saying,“Finally to every student who submit-ted an essay, whether it appears or not,thank you for your willingness to bearyour soul and step up with courage totell your story. There are no words totell you the gratitude and admiration Ihave for you all.” She said, “The storiesare amazing, the writing is amazing butthese young people are amazing.”

In advising students who are begin-ning to write personal statements sheexplained that they must find a seed, aninner foundation and build upon that.“It can be anything: literature, a restau-rant you love, a stuffed animal but ithas to be a seed.” For the most part Ca-macho didn’t have trouble juggling aschool life and a home life but she ad-

mits that sometimes during these pasttwo years there were times of extremestress. “It has been an incredibly shortjourney now as I look back. Andsometimes it just seems surreal,” saidCamacho. She and the students in thebook are eagerly anticipating thelaunch of the book.

Camacho would absolutely love todo a second version of the book.“There are still so many stories to tell,so many seeds. I would absolutelylove to,” she said. An excerpt fromCamacho’s own essay in the bookreads, “We read to become better peo-ple and we read because we have thepower to change lives. Books can tellus who we are and who we aren’t —or at least who we don’t want to be asindividuals.” This is one of the lifephilosophies Camacho lives by andthat is the philosophy surroundingBookmarked.

Courtesty of Joanna Ramos

Claudia BarrientosSTAFF WRITER

“I just said, ‘hey that sounds like agood plan,’ when it was a fairly ridicu-lous plan as stats will tell you onlythree in 10,000 manuscripts get pub-lished,” said Camacho. Yet what main-tained her belief was the incredibleessays she began to receive and the sto-ries, insight and wisdom within them.Camacho began by sending out invita-tions to her past and present students towrite an essay with their life philoso-phy anchored to a quote from a pieceof literature. The submitted essays werethen combed over and tweaked by her-self and two student editors, JessicaTrumble and Adam Fletcher. Their es-says are also featured in the book.After six months of editing, Camachowrote a query for publishing compa-nies. The manuscript was picked up byFree Spirit and once the manuscriptwas in the publishers’ hands, theprocess was fairly quick. A book con-

ookmarked is a compilation ofpersonal student essays written

by former North students. The ideabehind the book came from Advance-ment Via Individual Determination(AVID) and Honors American Litera-ture teacher, Ann Camacho, who isalso the book’s editor. Most of thewriters in the book were part of the In-ternational Baccalaureate (IB) andAVID programs and every author inthe book once sat in Camacho’s Hon-ors American Literature class.

From the conception to the day thebook will launch on March 30, the en-tire process took a little over two anda half years. Camacho admits thatlooking back, the idea of getting abook published seemed pretty crazy.

B

Zahab Qazi STAFF WRITER

n a world of everchanging revolu-tions in technology, applications or

“apps” have become indispensable.Apps are available for a wide array

of technology, from any Apple productto most tablets and smartphones. Somecompanies have a wider range of appsthan others, with the top competingmarkets being Android’s Android Mar-ket and the Apple App Store which re-cently reached 25 billion downloads. Interms of price, apps can range fromseveral dollars to less than a dollar.However, the Android Market, whichwas renamed Google Play Store, holdsthe prize for the most free apps with 67percent of its total products costingnothing at all.

Currently, there seems to be an appfor everything from basic entertain-ment to cooking instructions and im-mensely popular entertainment appswhich include games like Fruit Ninja,Angry Birds and Temple Run.

Companies like Twitter, Facebook,Oovoo and Skype have also developedapps. Apps like these make it possiblefor people to be socially connectedanywhere in the world at any time.

Radio Disney and Pandora also haveapps which make music easily accessi-ble.

The Amazon Kindle app eliminatesthe need for an actual Kindle or bookand users can read anywhere they havetheir phones. It’s no wonder that bookstores are going out of business whenbuying a book no longer involves leav-ing your living room.

There are also the weird but never-theless useful apps. One such app is theHave2P Restroom Locator. When theurge to go becomes unbearable, usingthis app the user can quickly find a listof nearby restrooms. The app even listswhich restrooms have added amenitiesand those that are nice and clean.

Who knew men could read smallerprint than women but women couldhear better? Or that the heart of a gi-raffe is two feet long? An app calledWeird Facts provides an ample supplyof really weird and mostly uselessfacts. Close to the Weird Facts app isthe Weird Laws application that pro-vides information on really wackylaws. For example, in Long Beach,California it is illegal to curse on a minigolf course.

Some apps are just a way to killtime doing something amusing. If any-one has the urge to pop something and

finds no balloons handy, the PimplePopper might be what they are lookingfor. The app provides the user with aface with pimples on it that can bepopped. This game is disgust-ingly satisfying.

Squeak MyVoice is an appthat givesthe user’svoice ac h i p -m u n kquali tyt h a tm a k e ss a y i n gthe sim-p l e s tthings ane n j o y a b l etask.

But in casethat isn’t enoughthe Face Fat appshows people whatthey might look like with20 pounds added to theirface. Face Fat is hilarious anda good inspiration for when it isreally tempting to skip the gymand eat the pint of chocolate icecream instead.

Apps seem to be the bane and boonof this generation. Without some apps,life would be hard to imagine. Wherewould anyone be without Facebook ontheir phone? However, some apps are

so intriguing that theymake real life

seem dull.T e m p l e

Run any-one?

100 North students were polled on their favorite smartphone applications.

51% saidFacebook

21% saidAngry Birds

21% saidTemple Run

7% saidPandora

��

he Hunger Games, one of themost anticipated movies of the

year, premiered one week ago today.Based on the first book of the famoustrilogy, also titled The Hunger Games,by Suzanne Collins, the film adaptationwas co-written and co-produced byCollins herself and directed by GaryRoss.

The movie’s opening weekendbrought in a record-breaking net profitof approximately $155 million and isnow expected by several analysts tobring in a $300 million profit for the in-dependent studio, Lionsgate, that pro-duced the film.

Fans throughout the nation lined upat local theaters on the Thursday beforethe midnight premier in order to beamong the first people to see the filmadaptation of one of the country’s best-selling novels.

For many, the movie exceeded ex-pectations. For others, the outcome wasabsolutely mind-blowing, already con-tributing to the acclaim that will pre-dictably earn the film a set of

well-deserved Oscars.The film takes place in a fictional,

post-apocalyptic North America wheretwelve impoverished districts surrounda prestigious, dominating Capitol. Inpunishment for a previous rebellion,there is an annual event called theHunger Games in which each of thedistricts must send one boy and one girlbetween the ages of 12 and 18 to theCapitol to participate in a fight to thedeath.

It is no surprise that the book, beau-tifully written and perfectly plotted,caused so many to eagerly anticipatethe movie.

Fortunately, the film stays fairlyloyal to the book, diverging from theoriginal plot line only when necessary,usually in order to fill in missing infor-mation that is discussed in the bookwith interior monologue.

The individual changes are all donetastefully and only rarely take awayfrom the original meaning of Collins’novel. However, the film sometimesspends too much time on seeminglyunnecessary aspects that take awayfrom the characterization and theme inthe original story that made the novelso well-received in the first place.

Overall, the movie lived up to all of

the hype. The casting was nearly per-fect with the main character, Katniss,played by Jennifer Lawrence, clearlyserving as the starlet every audiencemember idolizes before they even walkinto the theater.

In a word, Lawrence was breathtak-ing. One of the most touching momentsof the entire film, if not of all films inrecent memory, was the moment oftearful suffering at the death of hercompanion Rue. Most people in theaudience were moved to tears, feelingnot only Katniss’ pain but also thesense of friendship, devotion and disil-lusionment at her fate following Rue’sdeath.

Perhaps the greatest complaintabout the film has little to do with theplot or the ability of the film’s star ac-tors. This would be the camerawork.

At times, the camerawork was soturbulent, shifting and moving thefocus of the lens so quickly that thescreen became nothing more than ablurry blob for the eyes of eager audi-ence members.

There’s something to be said aboutthis type of camerawork, reflective ofthe style of documentaries, for it makesthe film feel realistic and relatable,something that makes its content more

powerful.However, there were points in the

movie where the camerawork ab-solutely distracted from the heart-wrenching, tense or even passionatemoments it was relaying to the audi-ence. To be honest, certain scenes madeit questionable whether or not the filmshould have issued a warning for the-ater-goers who suffer from epilepsy.

All in all, the film is definitelysomething that will satisfy most fans ofThe Hunger Games trilogy and willbring them back to theaters for the twoplanned sequels.

Zahab Qazi

STAFF WRITER

Scan this QR code to see thetrailer for “the hunger games.”

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012A&E B6

Tyler Davis &

Falon Opsahl

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

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I

ff the southeastern coast of theAsian mainland there exists a

cluster of islands known as the Philip-pines. The Philippines are the secondlargest group of islands in the worldwith over 7,000 individual tropical is-lands. The capital of the Philippines isManila and that is where sophomoreShaira Erum was born. Erum livedthere until she was six years old and isstill waiting to be able to go back.Since she has not been able to travel tothe Philippines just yet her relativestypically visit her and her family in theUS instead. These visits are certainlyanything but ordinary for Erum.“They’re usually loud and crave a lotof rice and want to do a lot of sightsee-ing. They also like taking a lot of pic-tures,” she said.

For Erum’s relatives, certain as-pects of the US seem very different. Inthe Philippines, the streets are narrowand the houses are very close together.There are always children runningaround on the streets and the traffic issupposedly worse than in Los Angelesas there are no freeways, only high-ways. “On the streets there are a lot offood vendors but [sometimes a] lot ofthieves too,” said Erum. “It’s best to becareful whenever you’re walking downthe street.”

Typical foods for Filipinos are riceand mangoes for breakfast, spaghettiwith hotdogs, roast pig, egg rolls, pan-sit, which is a type of noodles, and fish.“Pretty much everything is eaten withrice,” said Erum. Filipino cuisines havebeen influenced by many other culturesincluding those of the Spanish, Frenchand Chinese.

Erum explains that traditional Fil-ipino music is usually about telling astory. In her own words, it “focusesmore on Filipino values.” They aresung in Tagalog, the language that themajority of the population speaks.Modern music typically focuses on ro-mance, life struggles and advice. Thereare variations in music based on the in-terests of the different regions withinthe Philippines. It’s a big part of cultureto be able to do something associatedwith music. Erum herself plays a fewinstruments including the guitar andpiano. The “tinikling” is a traditionaland very popular dance in the Philip-pines. It involves two bamboo polesthat are about eight feet long. One per-son holds a pole on each end andmakes rhythmic beats by tapping andsliding them on the ground while an-other person steps in between the poles,corresponding with the beats.

Holidays and special events are abig part of almost every culture. In thePhilippines, New Year’s Day is more ofa family holiday than Christmas. Mid-night on New Year’s Eve brings an out-burst of firecrackers and gunfire fromupwardly aimed firearms. Independ-ence Day, celebrated on June 12, is alsoan important holiday as it celebratesfreedom from Spanish rule. It is hon-ored with fiestas, parades and fire-works.

In the Philippines, an 18th birthdayis celebrated with a party called a“debu.” “It’s a way of celebrating youbecoming an adult,” said Erum. “[It’ssimilar to] a ‘Sweet 16’ or aquinceañera.” Another unique charac-teristic of Filipino culture is its empha-sis on respect for elders. In Filipinosociety, the parents are accorded thehighest position of honor in the family.For Filipinos, upholding close familyties is very important. Most Filipinoslive close to their family for most oftheir lives even when they are inde-pendent adults. “You always greetadults or older people with ‘po’ or‘opo.’ [The American equivalent wouldbe] saying ‘Mr.’ or ‘Mrs.’ Everyone istreated like family. [Essentially,] youcan call anyone your aunt or uncle,”said Erum. For her, being Filipino isvery important. “The family traditionsare always fun. [I enjoy] how the val-ues are being passed from generationto generation. And the food [is great],”she said. Even though she hasn’t beenback to the Philippines in a long timenow, technology allows her to remainin touch with her family. “We’re ableto Skype, call, email and [just talk allthe time],” she said.

NORTHSTARREVIEWS

If you like this also try...

About a Boy

Meet the Parents

The King

There Will Be Blood

Being Flynn, an adaptation of NickFlynn’s memoir, Another Bulls**tNight in Suck City and directed by PaulWeitz, was released on March 2.

Nick Flynn, played by Paul Dano,has never had a father who was presentin his life. Jonathan Flynn, played byRobert De Niro, is a con man, corruptto the root and also a self-proclaimedgreat American writer. Aside frombeing estranged from his father, Nickhas also lost his mother Jody (Ju-liana Moore) to suicide. So whenJonathan and Nick meet in ahomeless shelter whichJonathan has checked into andwhere Nick works, fate inter-venes. Though Nick wants noth-ing to do with this man who is hisfather he realizes that this is fate’sway of showing him a path for bothhimself and his father.

Dano and De Niro are incrediblyheartwarming as the Flynn men in thistale of father and son. As the movietoggles with the two men’s stories theaudience views both men’s perspec-tives of their lives.

Dano does an impeccable job driv-ing the angst of his character home.Nick Flynn is an aspiring writer whostruggles with the ghosts of a family.The mother he loved left him and henever knew a father but Nick findssome peace in a relationship withDenise (Olivia Thirby), his coworker.Dano manipulates his emotions beau-tifully as a man who struggles with ad-diction and trying to reconnect with hisfather.

De Niro is also wonderfully adap-tive to his grisly role as an alcoholicman with big dreams. Jonathan Flynn,a man who never lived to his potentialand who left his family and dreams toseek comfort in a bottle of booze.Throughout the movie the man assurespeople of his great talent as a writer.Despite his failures there is arroganceand an ego in him. Jonathon Flynn saysthere have been only three great Amer-

BEING FLYNN

ican writers. Mark Twain, J.D. Salingerand himself.

The acting of both Dano and DeNiro is matched with a great directorialhand. Weitz finds the balance betweenthe two men and it is this balance in thescreenplay that makes the movie differ-ent from the many movies dealing withlife struggles. The events are unpre-dictable which is what makes themovie so engaging.

Despite themovie

beinga tug att h eh e a r t -strings itreally isn’tyour typicalFriday nightmovie. If youare looking for an intellectually stimu-lating movie, this is it. Overall it was agreat movie about human emotions andthe sometimes ugly entanglements be-hind them.

On April 4 the worldwide phenom-enon Titanic will be rereleased in 3D.The movie, directed by JamesCameron of Avatar fame, originallycame out almost fifteen years ago on

Dec. 19, 1997.The resurrection of

the movie is to com-memorate thefact that onApril 15 it willhave been100 years

since the un-sinkable ship,the RoyalMail Ship(RMS) Ti-tanic, met herunimaginabledoom.

It seemsunthinkablethat the RMSTitanic couldever be revi-talized yetthat is whatJ a m e sCameron didin this time-less movie.The ship

lost foreverhas been

given a new lifealong with a new story and

insight. Titanic is a lot more than just amovie that keeps its audience en-thralled. The haunting message that un-derlies the movie is much deeper.

The phenomenon of Titanic can becontributed to how much of a completefilm it is. Leonardo DiCaprio and KateWinslet display incredible charismaand energy in their characters and thefilm to this day continues to give theactors great fame.

Every ship needs an able captain tosail and James Cameron proves himselfthat. Cameron’s eye for detail and

TITANIC 3D

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Inception

Pearl Harbor

Revolutionary Road

Romeo and Juliet

CULTURE CORNER

NANCY VALDOVINOS

“Being passedfrom generationto generation”

he word “meme” may meannothing to some people but there

are others, those who spend most oftheir time online, who would know ex-actly what the word means. A meme isa modern day phenomenon where anidea is spread through the Internet fromone person to another. Memes canrange from picture graphics to videos.

The definition of a meme in scien-tific terms comes from a theory byRichard Dawkins which states that anidea will be thought of by one or morepeople. When the idea is shared ver-bally or written it mutates, which is ex-actly what memes have done: mutated

alone guy. Instead of moping aroundabout not having a date, we can look atthe humor of the situation throughmemes.

Memes also gives a new meaning tothe word “troll.” Before, a troll wassimply a small being that was said tobe found underneath bridges but in2012 this is certainly no longer thecase. Looking up the word “troll” nolonger brings you to the mythologicalcreature but to what is now known asthe “Internet Troll.” The Internet Trollrepresents the sinister side of the Inter-net and its definition is a person whocomments on a certain idea or topicwith something ironic and off-topicthat mostly creates an argument. The“Troll Face” is another Microsoft Paintdrawn face that resembles a taunting

smirk, similar to the face made whenpranking someone. But where did allthis start? Most memes started from“Rage Comics.” Rage Comics andmemes as a whole were said to havestarted on 4Chan, an online image-board forum site. Rage Comics includea wide variety of characters such as theclass nerd who always reminds theteacher you have homework, stereo-typed with the name Melvin. They alsoinclude familiar faces such as the emo-tionless face you make when someonecatches you in a lie, known as “PokerFace.” Of course the most popular ofthese faces and characters is the infa-mous “Rage Guy.” Rage Guy is theside of everyone when they get floodedwith anger.

Other memes include “LOLcats,”

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taking over the worldo n e t r o l l a t a t i m e

Zahab Qazi

STAFF WRITER

which uses humorous cat pictures withtext in a broken form of English nowknown as “LOLspeak.” Then there is“Okay Guy,” who represents all thetimes people say “okay” when reallythey wish to decline. Okay Guy is thepassive aggressive side of the memeworld. Each meme has its own person-ality. Even though memes started on4Chan’s Internet forums, that is notwhere they must begin. Anyone with aclever idea or picture can easily start anew one by posting on any social net-working site. It’s certainly not guaran-teed to become the next Rage Guy butit might just grab a few reblogs onTumblr. Memes have even been knownto turn people into Internet sensations.Memes often come from noticeablelines from popular television showsand video games. This includes the “Itook an arrow to the knee” joke fromthe popular game, Skyrim. The jokewas brought about because the line issaid repeatedly throughout the actionrole-playing game.

In a generation filled with the Inter-net, memes are an important part ofcultural exchange because of their pop-ularity. Even advertising companieshave turned to memes to sell productsbecause of their popularity. Despitetheir sometimes offensive material, onething is for sure: Memes are growingjust as fast as the Internet.

THE NORTH STARFRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 A&E B7

throughout the Internet. Ranging fromthe popular “Troll Face” and “ForeverAlone” to the new ones that appearevery day on social networking sitessuch as Tumblr and 4Chan.

The more popular memes seem tobecome, the more they seem to appearin places other than the Internet. Say-ings such as being “forever alone” and“trolling someone” seem to be risingamong many. Being forever alone isderived from the meme which includesa Microsoft Paint drawn cartoon facethat is crying. This meme representsloneliness and disappointment in astrangely funny manner. One thing thatmakes memes so popular is how relat-able they are. Everyone at some pointhas had a moment when they’ve feltalone and therefore been the forever

O

Zahab Qazi

STAFF WRITER

Dominique De La Rosa

A&E EDITOR

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painstaking accuracy in the story allmade the experience unforgettable andnow this entire process has been metic-ulously converted to 3D. The thrill inthe 3D experience is promised to beeven more jaw-dropping.

Just the history behind the RMS Ti-tanic is enthralling enough to make itan event that history would never beable to forget.

Adding that incredibly powerfulhistory to a love story worthy ofRomeo and Juliet is a recipe for a boxoffice hit. When originally released, Ti-tanic broke all previous box officerecords.

The movie now stands as one of thehighest grossing movies of all time,achieving a worldwide gross of 1.8 bil-lion dollars. This record remained un-challenged for 12 years until broken byanother James Cameron directedmovie, Avatar.

One of the most memorable aspectsof Titanic remains the heart-wrenchingtheme of “My Heart Will Go On” byCeline Dion. After the release of themovie the song became a romance sta-ple. Aside from winning the AcademyAward for Best Original Song it be-came the best-selling single of 1998.

Titanic remains one of the greatestromantic tragedies of cinema historyand the story behind the film remainsone of the most shocking, horrendousand ironic twists history has ever seen:an unsinkable ship that sank and a shipof dreams that took with her the livesof her passengers.

The movie Titanic captures theselessons. So it is fitting that 100 yearsafter the tragedy of the RMS Titanic itis paid tribute by a movie that beauti-fully enfolds the true emotions of theincident. Titanic will rise to the surfaceonce more, redone in all its glory, neverto be forgotten.

Riverside Heat Festival

he University of California,Riverside’s (UCR) sixth annual

Heat Music Festival was on Saturday,March 4 at UCR’s campus. The festivalwas presented by the UCR HighlanderUnion which, along with the help ofstudents and staff, made the event pos-sible. The event was not only for theUCR students but it was also open tothe public.

The festival was the grand finale ofUCR’s annual Homecoming celebra-tion and featured both popular and up-coming artists. This year the AirborneToxic Event, Mac Miller and MajorLazer headlined the event. The eventwas divided into three areas whichwere the Highland Stage, the South-land Stage and the Vantage Stage. Thefestival’s three stages were positionednear the Bell Tower and the HighlanderUnion Building (HUB).

At the Highland Stage DJ Lootz,

Iration, Mac Miller and Airborne ToxicEvent appeared. At the SouthlandStage Dangerous Stranger, SecretPanda Society, Karmin and ChiddyBang played. At the Vantage, whichwas the dance stage, it was PressureWave, DJ Fei-Fei and Major Lazer.The event started at 8 p.m. and endedat midnight.

Out of control behavior from acrowd is sometimes expected at musi-cal events but it can take away from theactual show. At each of the stages therewere huge waves of people gatheredextremely close together. Everyonewas so packed that there were timeswhen the hosts had to ask everyone totake a few steps back just to make moreroom.

The fate of your life was in thehands of the beat played by the artiston stage. If the song being played waseven slightly up-tempo then the wholecrowd would erupt into shoving may-hem. At the Highland stage you weresafe during bands like Iration since theeasy-going reggae music wasn’t going

to start a riot. However as soon asartists such as Mac Miller came onstage, it was a different story. “Youwould get shoved and stomped on byrandom people,” said senior BriannaMendoza, who could attest to the outof control feeling of the concert. “ButI had a great time.”

In addition to the shoving it alsodidn’t help if you were anything shorterthan six feet tall. “Most of the time Icould hardly see anything,” said soph-omore Nohemy Quintero. Unless youwere tall, on someone’s shoulder or oneof the lucky few who were at the frontof the crowd, you probably couldn’t geta good view of the performers.

There was a wide variety of groupsplaying music ranging from reggae andalternative rock to techno and rap. Theacts were chosen to match the diversemusic taste of the campus in order toget as much range as possible. So evenif you could only hear what was play-ing from the stage, it was still possibleto enjoy yourself. Most of the perform-ers did a great job of connecting with

the crowd as members of the AirborneToxic Event started crowd surfing dur-ing their set and acts like Chiddy Bangwould freestyle to topics given by thepeople in the crowd.

Despite the roughness that camefrom being in a sea of people, thesound of good music over the cries ofthousands singing along made every-thing about the night worthwhile.

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Nancy Valdovinos / The North Star

Violinist Anna Bulbrook of the band Airborne Toxic Event performs “Sometime Around Midnight” at the University of California, Riverside’s Heat Festival.Nancy Valdovinos

STAFF WRITER 100 Huskies were asked about their musical preferences.

T

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30 , 2012A&E B8

Vena Sera The Non-Sequiters

Scan this QR code to see otherriverside events coming up.

Members: Aquinas alumnus Richard Mann andseniors Anthony Duran and Victor Duran

The Black Jacks

Members: Alumnus Nigel Luster, Poly junior Steven O’Donnell andseniors Sebastian Cisneros, Javier Guerrero and Anthony Duran

Members: Sophomores Tyler Castleman, OverathEspinoza and Nicholas Ontiveos

What device do you usually use to listen to your favorite music?

iPod Computer

Radio Phone8

34 20

38

What is your favorite genre of music?

Alternative: 15

R&B: 5

Hip Hop: 40

Pop: 40

MIDDLE EARTHC1-C4PAGES MARCH 30,

THE NORTH STAR

2012

Against All OddsJill and Johnny North Tackle the Mountain

Truly extraordinary people don’t exist only inworks of fiction or in television specials. Theywalk on the same concrete we do, sit in thesame blue plastic chairs and eat the samechicken patties. We may not see any tabloid ar-ticles, press crews or halos. Yet, even withoutthese things, these individuals shine. They haveovercome incredible obstacles in their past and,against all odds, have succeeded. We are notwithout these special individuals, our ownNorth stars. As Jill and Johnny North maketheir way up the mountain, they representsome of our fellow Huskies and the very realobstacles that they must face each and every day.

Compiled by middle earth staff

THE NORTH STARMIDDLE EARTHC2

*Michael Gonzalez

*Kristen Spencer

*Susanna Kim

My parents were really bad drug addicts and never had any money topay for me and my sister. We went to live with our aunt and uncle. Thiswas when my mom was finishing rehab, as she finally began to over-come her difficulties with drugs. My mom started living with a friendbut the friend also started getting heavily into drugs. After that, mymom went to live in Arkansas and I haven’t heard from her in 16 years.This year is the first time I have ever gotten in contact with her. My dadover the years has been absent too. Just recently, he’s been trying to getback into the lives of me and my sister. It’s troubling to me. I don’t callmy aunt and uncle Mom and Dad, I call them Auntie and Uncle. I don’thave a mother-daughter relationship like I want in my life. It’s just nevergoing to be there. My sister was never a fan of our true parents, espe-cially when my mother was into drugs and not living with us. My sisteralways thought of my aunt and uncle as her parents. I think of them asparents too but I always wanted to know my true parents. It didn’t affectmy sister as badly and I never made it obvious that I wanted that in mylife but I remained the curious child. I still wanted to know them. Theirformer presence has affected us in little ways, though. My true parentsgot really heavy into smoking when I was little and so, whenever I amaround cigarettes, even now I need to walk away. I hate, absolutely hate,them. For my sister and I, no drugs. Luckily, it never affected my school-ing. In elementary school I was a stellar student, in junior high I hadstraight A’s and a 4.00 grade point average (GPA). Additionally inhigh school, I have done pretty well, considering my background.

I was born here in America but I moved to Taiwan with my momwhen I was two or three years old because my dad was living there.My mom gave birth to my brother in Taiwan. She got pregnant therea few times. One time my mom was pregnant with twins. I’m not sureif she got an abortion or if she had a miscarriage. So then my momgot cancer but I am not positive as to how my mom developed thateither. Soon, my mom became sick. She didn’t have a job and wedidn’t live with our dad. I know my dad would have given her moneyto support us but she knew she was getting sick and that she couldn’ttake care of my brother and me so she sent me to America to livewith my grandma. A few months later she moved here with us as well.My mom passed away when I was eight and my dad stayed in Taiwan.He would call occasionally and send money sometimes but often hewould go half a year without calling. In short, he wasn’t really in mylife. When I lived with my grandma, it was with my two cousins andmy brother and me. When we first moved here, my grandma and mygrandpa were still alive as well but then my grandpa passed away justa couple months after I arrived. Then it was just my grandma, myself,my two cousins, my brother and my mom in the house. My mompassed away a few months after that. So it was my grandma, a singleold lady who couldn’t speak English and couldn’t drive, taking careof four kids. She always put a lot of emphasis on my education be-cause, as she reminded me, I didn’t have parents like other kids andI needed to set a future for myself because once I grow up, she would-n’t be able to be there for me forever because she was so old. She knewthat I needed to be self-reliant. I think that’s where most of my moti-vation comes from for trying to get good grades. My grandma wasjust very protective. She passed away when I was in eighth grade andmy only relative in America was my uncle but he made it really clearthat he didn’t care about my brother and me and that he wasn’t goingto take us in. As luck would have it, my grandma collapsed from anartery burst. When the ambulance came, the neighbors were drivingby. My neighbor stopped and stayed with us the entire time at the hos-pital and she decided to take us in. Ever since, I’ve been living withthem. I guess the reason why I work so hard in school and why I tryto push myself to the limit is to be the best that I can be in every-thing I do, because through all of my experience, I’ve learned thatI need to be self-reliant and that no one else is going to take care ofme. Even with the people that love you the most, sometimes it’sjust not within their power to help. They can’t stay with you forever.

Last year when school was beginning I was at my uncle’s house withmy father. It was only us three. I come from a family who often drinks.My uncle was really drunk and so was my father. My uncle had a gunin his drawer and he wanted more beer. He was drunk and just jokingaround but he threatened my dad and put the gun on his neck. Wetold him to stop but he just said, “Don’t worry, it is not loaded or any-thing.” As my father moved, the gun fired. And it hit me. It wentthrough my shoulder and through my chest and through my otherarm. I had been shot. I am very religious so I didn’t panic, I didn’t cry;nothing. There was blood gushing everywhere and it seemed to hap-pen in slow motion. Anyway the first thing I did was get down on myknees and pray. Before this incident, I hadn’t talked to my father fortwo years. And now he was crying and trying to hug me and bloodwas everywhere. My uncle started panicking. They wanted to take meto the hospital. But I knew if I went to the hospital they would ask howit happened and we would have to say my uncle had a gun. And Ithought about my cousins and they are just little kids. I couldn’t letthem live without their father. So I said I wasn’t going to go. My unclesaid he didn’t care what was going to happen. He just wanted me tobe okay. But I resisted and said I wasn’t going. I went and took a showerand then I wrapped the wound in gauze. We decided to keep it a secret.But then, when I took the gauze off, it was bleeding terribly. So I hadto tell my mom. My uncle went to get medicine, the kind doctors hadto cure me. And thanks to God I healed. My wound didn’t get infectedor anything. But it hurt horribly for a really long time. I couldn’t movemy arm or anything. I [feel] blessed that I came out okay. Before all ofthis I didn’t care about anything. Freshman year I had 1.8 grade pointaverage (GPA). After this I turned my life around. I take all honorsclasses and get straight A’s now. I had a 4.00 GPA last semester. I usethis as a motivating factor. Right before I was shot I felt a push. Itpushed me back. I don’t know what the push was but it saved my life.

*All of these Huskies have been given aliases for both their security and their privacy. Each of these first-person accounts was based on an interview conducted between the student telling the story and a member of The North Star.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 C3

*Kristen Spencer

*Cristian Santos

*Tammy Phillips

Coming from a working class family and parents that are illegalimmigrants, life is really hard for me. Even though my mom tookgood care of me and my siblings, my dad had to work up to 17hours a day in order to meet the needs of our family. More thanhalf of my life was spent living in various crowded apartments anddifferent schools in Santa Ana, California. My parents were doingtheir best for me and my family. It wasn’t until middle school thatmy family was able to buy a modest house in Moreno Valley anda brand new Toyota. Life was looking up. All of this was takenaway in November 2011, a week before Thanksgiving Day, whenmy dad was arrested to be deported outside of our house at around3 a.m., just when he was about to go to work. I was a freshmanat North when that happened. The house and the new car had tobe turned in because our main source of income was gone. As formy mom, she has to leave the country by the summer of 2012. Iwas grateful that my aunt was willing to take me and my siblingsinto her home. I am currently living in one small room with threeof my siblings and my mom. We live off food stamps and bor-rowed money. My mom tries to look for a better job and if it wasn’tfor my aunt, my family would have been homeless. But no mat-ter what, I will do my best in school. Currently my grades aremostly As and Bs and I am also involved in varsity [sports]. Inthe end, I will continue to do my best, in spite of the circumstances.

My parents were really bad drug addicts and never had any money topay for me and my sister. We went to live with our aunt and uncle. Thiswas when my mom was finishing rehab, as she finally began to over-come her difficulties with drugs. My mom started living with a friendbut the friend also started getting heavily into drugs. After that, mymom went to live in Arkansas and I haven’t heard from her in 16 years.This year is the first time I have ever gotten in contact with her. My dadover the years has been absent too. Just recently, he’s been trying to getback into the lives of me and my sister. It’s troubling to me. I don’t callmy aunt and uncle Mom and Dad, I call them Auntie and Uncle. I don’thave a mother-daughter relationship like I want in my life. It’s just nevergoing to be there. My sister was never a fan of our true parents, espe-cially when my mother was into drugs and not living with us. My sisteralways thought of my aunt and uncle as her parents. I think of them asparents too but I always wanted to know my true parents. It didn’t affectmy sister as badly and I never made it obvious that I wanted that in mylife but I remained the curious child. I still wanted to know them. Theirformer presence has affected us in little ways, though. My true parentsgot really heavy into smoking when I was little and so, whenever I amaround cigarettes, even now I need to walk away. I hate, absolutely hate,them. For my sister and I, no drugs. Luckily, it never affected my school-ing. In elementary school I was a stellar student, in junior high I hadstraight A’s and a 4.00 grade point average (GPA). Additionally inhigh school, I have done pretty well, considering my background.

I started my life with bad luck. My father died when I was two monthsold and my drug-addicted mother struggled to take care of me. Shehad no money and no place to live so she depended on friends andfamily to help her out. There have been times when my mom wouldbe given money and she’d spend it on a night at a hotel since a roofwasn't always above our head. Some time after, my mom met a newguy and gave birth to my brother two years later. My dad’s motherwas reluctant to allow us to live in her house and aid us financiallybut she did anyway. A little while after that, my mother got out of con-trol with her drugs so my grandma kicked us out. Things between mymom and dad were over and we basically broke all ties with peoplewho could help us. Child Protective Services took my brother and meaway and put us into foster care. Life was pretty tough. In my child-hood, I’ve been through a total of four foster homes. Every time theagency would take me away from a home, I would burst into tears be-cause of how attached I had become with the family. I thought thatmy mom would rescue us from the constant moving and that shewould be the hero and save us from the pain. I’ve lost all hope andI’ve come to hate my “mom” because I felt that she didn’t care aboutus. If she did, she would’ve gained custody. After my second-to-last fos-ter home, the agency granted my grandma custody of my brother andme and we lived there for a limited time. Soon afterwards, mygrandma’s husband died. She went into a depression and would leaveus at home alone every day after school to go “drink her pain away.”With my grandma constantly leaving us at home, our neighbors no-ticed that we were abandoned in the house. Eventually, Child Protec-tive Services sent us to our last foster home. We arrived there and itdidn’t take long for me to realize that I really loved this family. Onweekends, my brother and I would have our weekly visits with ourgrandma. When she told me that she was fighting for custody to haveus back, I broke down. I didn’t want to live with her again. I cried intomy foster mother’s arms, sobbing to her that I wanted to stay thereand that I loved her and the rest of the family too much to go to ahouse where my brother and I were neglected. It turns out that theyloved us too and within months we were adopted. Looking back at mypast experiences, I have learned many things. I have learned that peo-ple are placed in your life for a reason but that that doesn’t mean thatthey’ll be there forever. I learned that just because someone gave birthto a child, it doesn’t automatically make them a mother. They have tobe there for the child at all times to provide for them, to love themand to never leave their side. Being adopted was the best thing thathas ever happened in my life. The family that I live with now savedme from suffering and I’m forever grateful that they did. When itcomes to school, I try my absolute best in every aspect of my academic life.

*All of these Huskies have been given aliases for both their security and their privacy. Each of these first-person accounts was based on an interview conducted between the student telling the story and a member of The North Star.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012MIDDLE EARTHC4

How many students do you know have

difficulties at home to deal with?

What grades do you get in school when

you have difficulties to deal with?

Who in your family, if anyone, struggles

with substance abuse?

“I work hard in school and try to do

my best so that I can be independ-

ent and build a future for myself.”

Susanna Kim

“But now I am here for a reason,

I was given a second chance.

And now it’s up to me to do

something amazing with my life.”

“I work hard at my studies because sta-

tistics say that most foster children end

up either dropping out of school or liv-

ing on the streets ... I want to beat all

the odds ... and not be a part of those

statistics ... I can honestly say that

I’m on the right track to beat them.”

Tammy Phillips

Michael Gonzalez

“Currently my grades

are mostly A’s and B’s

and I am also involved

in varsity [sports]. In

the end, I will continue

to do my best, in spite

of the circumstances.”

Cristian Santos

30

40

20

10

0I ignore

it

I rely on

my faith

I do other

activities

I talk to

someone

How do you try to overcome the

hardships in your life?

30

20

10

0Parents /

Siblings

Distant

Relatives

Friends Just me No one

Mostly As Mostly Bs Mostly Cs Mostly Ds Mostly Fs

30

40

20

10

0

0

30

40

20

10

None 1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 10 +

100 Huskies were selected at random to share their own experiences in regards to overcoming hardships.

uring the 2008 elections the stateof California added an amend-

ment to the constitution stating that“Only marriage between a man and awoman is valid or recognized in Cali-

JUST SO YOU KNOWC5-C8PAGES MARCH 30,

THE NORTH STAR

2012

Proposition 8 continues to create divisions in Californiaof students who both support and op-pose Prop 8.

Many of those who support Prop 8feel passionately that it clashes withtheir religious and moral beliefs.

Within other groups many studentshave relationships which could eventu-ally be impacted by repeal of the con-troversial proposition.

ering again as the presidential electionnears. Many organizations are cam-paigning to both keep and remove theamendment against gay marriage inCalifornia. A group called the MarriageEquality Movement is petitioningagainst the law banning gay marriagein the state of California.

Here at North there is a community

In 2011 Equality California an-nounced plans to attempt to repeal theaddition to the Constitution.

Later on that year it was stated thatthey would not try and pursue the casebecause of inevitably high campaigncosts and a very slim chance of win-ning.

Currently more enthusiasm is gath-

more conservative approach and theopponents of Prop 8 were typicallymore liberal.

Along with this many people offaith joined in saying that gay marriageis against the Bible and thereforeshouldn’t be allowed. This argumentcaused outrage as it crosses the “churchand state” boundary.

fornia.”This sparked outrage from some

factions and joy from others. Many people cried breaches of civil

liberties while others argued it was apreservation of traditional marriage.

The topic became an even moreheated debate between the two sides asthe proponents of Prop 8 ideals took a

D

Caitlin RedakJUST SO YOU KNOW EDITOR

“Just So You Know” gives an in-depth look at a particular topic that directly relates to the North community.

I’ve been ou

t since 7th gra

de. My

girlfriend at

the time had

called me and

my sister

overheard th

e conversat

ion and that

was it. My fam

ily

already knew

but that just co

nfirmed it. I had o

ther gay

relatives so

they were ok

ay with it … I’ve se

en the effec

ts of

Prop 8 like

my uncle isn’t l

egally married

to his boy

friend and

so when h

e gets olde

r if he were to

die [his

boyfriend]

wouldn’t get any

thing. They’ve

been togeth

er for a lon

g time now

and to just get

nothing when s

omeone dies, th

at’s hard ...

I’m

planning on

joining the N

avy so if I were to

get shipped

out

and I’m not

married — like l

egally married

— my girlfriend

would have to s

tay here and

I’d be away for

a long time

like four or f

ive years. Bu

t if we were married

I might

be able to s

ee her every

day and tha

t would be a lot

better. It’d ju

st be a lot

easier becau

se she

could live on t

he base with m

e. But

you’d still hav

e to be married

and

there’s no w

ay to do tha

t if you’re gay

except for

going to ano

ther state.

I’d have

to move and I hate

traveling. It’d be

much harder

and I don’t

know what w

ould happen to

her … If the

repeal pass

es I would get married

when I get o

ut of high

school. _ Sarah*

THE NORJUST SO YOU KNOW C6

52.3 % of

people voted“Yes” on Prop 8. 47.7% voted

“No.”

Gay marriage is legalin Massachusetts,Connecticut, Iowa,Vermont, New

Hampshire, New York,Washington andMaryland.

“I think that marr

should be reserved

a man and a wom

have nothing aga

the LGBT comm

but I just do

believe in gay ma

- Madison

* The North Star has provided only the first names of these students in order to ensure their privacy.

RTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 C7

I think Prop 8 is really

important. I mean it’s

obviously a big deal. It’s

more than a legal thing.

It’s really a civil right.

I was really involved with Prop

8 and I did rallies and stuff for it because it’s

something that matters to me ... My boyfriend and I have

been together a bit over a year and a half and we’ve been

engaged actually for most of that time ... I don't think

that because other people aren’t getting married I should

not get married. I know there are some people like Jason Mraz

who are actually engaged but won't get married until people can

get married regardless of their sexual orientation. I think that

Prop 8 is really a bad thing because it takes away the right

people have to try for happiness ... I have met people at rallies

who have been together for 50 or 60 years and can't get married

or were only able to get married for that short brief period

when marriage was legal in California and even now aren't

recognized federally for being married. It's horrible because

they've been together longer than most people I know even

in my own family and they're not recognized as a couple.

_ Kim*

Each year anaverage of

3.4 couplesout of 1000

get divorced.

riage

d for

man. I

ainst

munity

on’t

arriage.”

n*

“I have n

o right

to

tell eve

rybody

what

to do

but I do

n’t

agree w

ith gay

mar-

riage. B

ut you kn

ow,

it isn’

t my c

hoice.

“

- Hect

or*

California isestimated to

have thehighest numberof gay couplesin the country.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012JUST SO YOU KNOW C8

Repealing back layers of inequalityThere have been many groups over the years that have helped shape the landscape of American politics and government.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community has had many successes but their mission has in no way been completed. Theyfight for complete equality every day with the law and in society.

The first establishment of a gay rights organization was in 1951 when Harry Hay started the Mattachine Society. By 1973 the gay rights move-ment had succeeded in removing homosexuality from being classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.

1980 marked the year that the gay rights movement gained enough traction to be picked up by the Democratic National Convention.They added the following to their platform: “All groups must be protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national

origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation.” This gave the movement credibility as a major political party gave it support in thenational arena.

The term “LGBT” became normalized around the mid-1980s as gay movements broadened to include lesbians, bisexualsand transgender individuals in a fight for equal rights across the United States.

Along with it came pride flags and an upside down triangle as symbols of LGBT pride. The LGBT communitymade great strides in 2003 when the Supreme Court struck down Texas’s sodomy laws effectively deeming anti-

sodomy laws unconstitutional in 13 states.More recently on May 15, 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the rightto marry. But by Nov. 4, 2008 California citizens voted to pass Proposition 8 which aimed to eliminate

the rights of same-sex couples who wanted to get married. The case was later appealed and onAug. 4, 2010 District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional as it violated

the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.As of Feb. 7 of this year the ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Judge Walker’sassessment that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Another issue that the LGBT community has been focusing on is the removalof the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which has essentially banned the service

of openly gay men and women in the US military.On Dec. 18, 2011 President Obama officially repealed the “Don’tAsk, Don’t Tell” policy.

Despite this official motion military servicemen and offi-cials have been wary of the actual implementation of the

newly repealed policy stating that the military does nothave the capacity at the time to deal with the added

troubles that this change could bring. Though the LGBT community has

had success in removing institutional ob-stacles to their journey towards equal

rights they have yet to touch theminds and hearts of all the

American public but it isevident that the com-

munity will keepfighting for

t h e i rrights.

LGBT Pride Flag

Bisexual Pride Flag

Transgender Pride Flag

Asexual Pride Flag

Scan this QR code for moreabout LGBT and similar groups.

By Anum Arshad

“I don’t mind seeing gay marriages if they’redoing it for love. But if I were to see a gaycouple on the street I’d find it awkward be-cause it’s not natural since what people areused to are opposite sex couples. So in thatcase I am in the middle for Prop 8 becausethe whole situation is different for me tostand my guard on.”— Freshman Natalia Alvarado

100 Huskies were asked if theyapprove of gay marriage.

Yes 70%

No 30%

“I don’t know I’m kind of half and half.It shouldn’t be allowed because of myreligion but then I know it’s not rightto deny people ... what they want. Idon’t discriminate against gay mar-riage but I don’t approve of it. I’m notgoing to be like, ‘Oh I hate them!’ I’mgoing to be like, ‘Uh, I don’t agree withwhat you’re doing but hey, yay for you.’”— Sophomore Stephen Chang

Lady Huskies fall short in CIF state title gameEmily Roose / The North Star

Forward Brittany Crain shoots a three-pointer over Archbishop Mitty forward D’Andree Galipeau in the California Interscholastic Federation state championship game.

SPORTSD1-D4PAGES MARCH 30,

THE NORTH STAR

2012

Scan this QR code to view ABC7News coverage of the team

ast Friday, the Lady Huskiesmade a huge mark in North his-

tory by becoming the only girls basket-ball team to get the chance to travel toSacramento to play in the CaliforniaInterscholastic Federation (CIF) statechampionship game.

In order to get to this game, theLady Huskies defeated Santa AnaFoothill in a game in Ontario at Citi-zens Bank Arena to win the CIF South-ern California Regional championshipgame by a score of 57-49. Multiple fac-tors played a role in this victory and theHuskies were able to pull it out afterthe game remained fairly close until thefinal minutes. “Motivation is why wewon. We won because we wanted itmore than the other team, it was adream come true,” said guard KamilleDiaz.

The team finished with an overall

L

record of 4-21 last season but withcoach Leonard DeCoud heading themthis year, they flipped the script impres-sively and finished with a 31-6 overallrecord winning just under 84 percent oftheir games. The Lady Huskies provedto be great not only on their home courtbut also on the road as they only lostone game in both categories againstBig VIII League opponents. The teamalso only lost two games in their entireCIF journey which included the CIFSouthern Section (CIF-SS) tournamentand the CIF state championship.

One loss came at the hands of Lyn-wood High School of Los Angeles inthe CIF-SS championship at Anaheimand the other came in their champi-onship game against the ArchbishopMitty Lady Monarchs from San Jose.

Though the game did not end theway that the team wanted, the girls’spirits were high after the 56-54 loss.Coach Leonard DeCoud remained verypositive after the game and still felt thathis team was successful this season. He

insisted that he and his team would beback to the CIF tournament next yearand would be even more accomplishedthan they were this season.

In order to get to this game the LadyHuskies went through four rounds inthe CIF state championship bracket.The first round was an automatic ad-vancement for the team because theyreached the CIF-SS championshipgame. In the second round, Northplayed at home and defeated theMonache Marauders by a score of 72-49. In the next round they maintainedhomecourt advantage and emerged vic-torious by a score of 71-61 making thebest out of the much deserved asset.After this game, the Lady Huskies trav-eled to Ontario and earned themselvesthe title of CIF Southern California Re-gional champions with a big win.

The final game stayed very closethrough its entirety and the teams shotalmost the same percentage from thefield in the first half. The Lady Huskiesshot just 32 percent and the Lady Mon-

archs shot just 31 percent but ended uptaking a 22-19 lead going into the half-time break.

Coming out of halftime, the story ofthe game did not change at all and thethird quarter finished with the LadyMonarchs leading the Lady Huskies bya score of 36-34. The game was backand forth from the opening tip-off tothe final buzzer. However, the scoringin the game was relatively low for threeof the four quarters. The scoring in thefourth quarter finished level but muchhigher than the scoring earlier on in thegame. Both teams scored 20 points inthe final period of play and the LadyHuskies came up just two points shortof forcing overtime.

The Lady Huskies trailed almostthe whole game and by nine pointswith just one minute and 40 seconds re-maining in the fourth. The teamquickly picked it up and kept firingback and cutting the lead slowly. Theyeventually cut the lead down to fourpoints with 12 seconds left in the game.

Center Priscilla Brooks caught a passinside and dropped in a running layupto cut the lead to two points with justthree seconds left. However, the highschool basketball format prevents theclock from stopping after a shot ismade and this kept the Lady Huskiesfrom being able to foul the Lady Mon-archs and get another chance to tie thegame and send it to overtime or win itin regulation.

Time expired as the Lady Monarchschose not to inbound the ball and thegame resulted in only the sixth loss ofthe long season for the Lady Huskies.

The players held their heads higheven with the loss and had a very pos-itive reflection on the season. “It’smuch better to win those kinds ofgames especially when they are thatclose. But it is what it is and we are justglad to have made it this far becausenone of us were expecting it,” saidguard Shilo Benic.

The Lady Huskies were a very im-pressive group this season and they at-

tracted much attention from the localmedia. ABC Channel 7 News made aspecial trip to North to cover what theydescribed as the Lady Huskies’ “rags toriches” journey to a state championshipgame. The team also received attentionon the radio as 99.1 KGGI stationboasted the accomplishments of theteam.

Usman SiddiquiSPORTS EDITOR

Baseball

Mariel Mendoza..............D3Big VIII League Honors.......D3Debate...............................D4Individual Sports............D4Title IX.............................D4

I N S I D ELearn about another vic-tory for the defendingCIF-SS champion base-ball team.

Boys TennisCIF-SS Basketball

Page D2

Page D3

Read about theprogress that the boysand girls basketballteams made in theirCIF tournaments.

Page D3

Baseball............................D2Marcus Baugh................D2CIF-SS Tournament.......D3Boys Tennis......................D3Sports Calendar.............D3

Read about how theboys tennis team isdoing midway throughtheir season.

Senior Jack Johnson pitches in a league game against the Riverside Polytechnic High School Bears.

their success this season. It is safe tosay that the Huskies are on the fasttrack to another CIF championship. Or-tega said, “[Obviously] we are lookingfor a repeat but for now, we are takingit one game at a time.”

After defeating Anaheim ExperanzaHigh School by a score of 7-1 in theCIF-SS championship game last Juneat Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, theHuskies are looking to repeat and bringanother title to North.

With nine returning seniors who al-ready have ringsfrom last year, theteam hopes to addeven more rings totheir hands.

O u t -fielder Justin Ghe-orghe in particularwould like to earnanother ring as he

already has two from his time here atNorth. He received one from last year’schampionship and got another for hisperformance in the 2011 Riverside All-Star football game as he helped bringthe Riverside team to victory.

Even though they have lost some ofthe players from last year’s champi-onship team, they have regrouped andthe new varsity members have done agreat job of replacing the outgoingplayers.

THE NORTH STAR FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012SPORTSD2

PlayerProfile MarcusBaugh

Scan this QR code for Marcusbaugh’s MaxPreps.com Profile

in 1994 when Major League Baseballplayer Adam Kennedy was on theteam. 2011 proved to be the year forthe baseball team when they finishedthe season with a 27-7 record and achampionship ring. This season islooking just as bright. Thus far, theteam is undefeated with an overall 11-0 overall record and a 4-0 record inleague. Last week, the Huskies de-

Baseball continues success after winning CIF-SS title

Marlyn Sanchez / The North Star

feated the Riverside Polytechnic HighSchool Bears with a score of 8-6 andRoosevelt 4-3.

One of the more impressive factsabout the team is that they are rankedeighth in the nation by Entertainmentand Sports Programming Network. Ontop of that, the team is ranked numberone in the state. This is a first for theteam. The team has defied society’s

standards. They have accomplishedthings that people outside of the Northcircle would have never expected. Inthe 2008-2009 baseball season, therewere seven freshmen on the varsityteam.

Now, all seven of those freshmennow make up the team. ShortstopGabrial Franca describes the field as agreat place to be. “The atmosphere is

great. Everyone is in the game at alltimes and there are no individuals sothat is what keeps the team together,”he said. “We have a lot more confi-dence this season knowing we’re goingto win.”

Franca is one of the seniors thatwere a part of those freshmen.

Although there are players whohave been on this team for four years,there are also newcomers. PitcherRobert Ortega may be the new kid onthe team but he feels as if he has beenplaying with this teamfor a lifetime. Comingfrom Martin LutherKing High School(King) was definitelya transition for thesenior.

Albeit, King hadan exceptional base-ball team but themindset of the Huskies was differentthan what Ortega was used to. “Thisteam is definitely a lot more close anda lot more of a family. At King, we allgot along but we didn’t have the chem-istry and the ability to clutch up likethis team.”

If there is anything the Huskiesknow how to do, it is clutch up. Inother words, the Huskies come up bigwhen it counts.

In 11 games, the Huskies havescored 85 runs.

This is greatly in part by the big hit-ters on the team.

Senior Gabriel Clarke is the leadinghitter on the team. Incidentally, last No-vember he signed his National Letterof Intent to the Oregon State Universitywhere he will attend with a full ridescholarship.

There are many assets to the 2012Huskies.

The pitching, the defense, and thehitting have all played a great role in

ast season, our boys baseballteam brought home a California

International Federation Southern Sec-tion (CIF-SS) championship. This wasa big deal because the last time thebaseball team won a championship was

Emily RooseSTAFF WRITER

L

Marcus Baugh has proven

himself a great football

player. He has topped

charts in the Inland Empire

and, as a junior, has al-

ready received offers from

12 schools nationwide.

The North Star: What schools have

given you offers?

Marcus Baugh: I’ve gotten offersfrom University of California Los An-geles, Arizona State University, Uni-versity of Arizona, Ohio StateUniversity, University of Miami, Uni-versity of Florida, University of Ne-braska, University of Washington,University of Hawaii, University ofMississippi and the University of Cal-ifornia, Berkeley.

NS: Do any of these schools interest

you?

MB: The school that most interestsme is Arizona State but I also likeOhio State University and the Univer-sity of Washington.

NS: Do you look forward to playing

football in college?

MB: Yes, I definitely look forward toplaying football in college but I wantto win a ring my last year here atNorth.

NS: How many years have you

played at North?

MB: I’ve played varsity football atNorth since my freshman year.

NS: When did you begin playing

football and what did you do to

start?

MB: I first started playing organizedfootball when I was nine years old.Before I started playing organized Imostly just played backyard footballwith younger kids in my family.

NS: How much time do you put into

practicing and staying in shape?

MB: To stay in shape and get better Ilift weights three times a week andplay with a seven on seven team inLos Angeles to work on speed and myroute running.

NS: What do like most about playing

football?

MB: I like how hyped football is. Play-ing in front of big crowds really excitesme. I just love the atmosphere it brings.

NS: Have you had to make any ad-

justments to be able to perform bet-

ter while playing here?

MB: I think the coaches did most ofthe adjusting for me. They put me inthe position where I could use myskills at full potential.

NS: What do you feel is your

biggest strength?

MB: My biggest strength wouldhave to be how versatile I am. I cancause big mismatches with line-backers and safeties.

NS: What do you feel is your

biggest weakness?

MB: My biggest weakness wouldhave to be my laziness.

NS: What has been your biggest

inspiration for playing football?

MB: My biggest inspiration forplaying football is my family. Theyreally push me to do my best.

NS: What do you think ultimately

led to you getting these offers?

MB: I think I got a lot of these of-fers because I’m very athletic. I canbe used in many different offensesand different ways.

NS: Is there anyone in particular

that you try to learn from?

MB: I try to [learn from and] playlike [tight ends] Anthony Gonzalesor Antonio Gates of the NFL.

Usman Siddiqui / The North Star

NS: What was the most encour-

aging thing your parents or

coaches have told you?

MB: The most encouraging thingthat I have been told is that I havethe potential play in the NationalFootball League (NFL).

NS: What is your main goal for

the future?

MB: I want to go to college andget an education. After college Iwant to play professional football.

BIG VIII LEAGUE STANDINGS

NorthCorona

King

Roosevelt

Baseball W L T Pct.

Poly

Santiago

Norco

Centennial

“This team is definitelya lot more close and alot more of a family.”

Pitcher Robert Ortega

4 0 0 1.0003 1 0 0.750

3 1 0 0.750

2 2 0 0.500

2 2 0 0.500

1 3 0 0.250

1 3 0 0.250

0 4 0 0.000

or the first time in several years,both our boys and girls basketball

teams made it to the California Inter-scholastic Federation Southern Section(CIF-SS) playoffs and also placed firstand second in the Big VIII League, re-spectively. With new coaching staffsand players, the teams left a great im-pression in their final year in the BigVIII League. In the past few years, theteams had not been as hot as was ex-pected from a school with a long andrich basketball tradition.

With Coach Michael Barteereturning to lead the boys team, therewere great expectations for the team,something which they lived up to withtheir recent success. The Huskies cameout on top by winning the Big VIIIChampionship for the 2011-2012 sea-son.

As the CIF playoffs came around,the boys’ first opponent was the SimiValley Pioneers whom the Huskies beatwith a 68-44 victory.

The next game was against Temec-ula Valley High School. In this gamethe Huskies topped the Golden Bearswith a final score of 66-44.

Finally, after all their victories, theboys met their match as they traveledto Sunny Hills and played the Lancersin what ended up being their last gamein CIF. The final score was 75-77. Theboys put in their best effort but in theend they were unsuccessful. “After thegame I was angry. Just thinking aboutall the hard work we had that still ledto a loss made me upset but it alsomade me realize that this was the lasttime I would be on the court with theseguys,” said forward Aaron Peck afterthe loss to Sunny Hills.

Although the boys team was notable to go all the way through CIF thisyear, the girls team stepped up theirgame. The girls team placed second in

Sports in Brief Mariel Mendoza signs

with BerkeleyAfter making great progress on

both the track and the cross-countryteams here at North, senior MarielMendoza earned herself a full ridescholarship to the University of Cali-fornia, Berkeley. Mendoza signed herNational Letter of Intent to Berkeleytwo weeks ago.

During her four years of running atNorth, Mendoza has broken many in-dividual records. By the end of hersophomore year, she was named thesecond fastest sophomore in the stateof California as well as the 31st fastestgirl in the country. Also in tenth grade,Mendoza became the new holder of theschool records for the 3200 and 1600meter races.

In September of 2010, Mendozawas named one of ESPNLA.com In-land Empire Athletes of the Week asshe finished second in the WoodbridgeInvitational team race in Irvine just 12seconds behind the first place runnerwith a time of 16 minutes and 55 sec-onds in the three-mile race.

This year Mendoza went to the Cal-ifornia Interscholastic Federation (CIF)state individuals championship and fin-ished second. Also this year she was in-vited to the Nike Cross Nationalswhich is an invitational race whereonly 50 individual runners and 22teams in the nation get the chance togo. In this race, she finished 54th outof 200.

In the CIF state individual champi-onship race, she finished second be-hind the winner of the of the NikeCross Nationals.

Coach BarteeFour years ago, Coach Michael

Bartee announced his retirement fromthe boys basketball program at North.Before his retirement, Bartee had al-ready earned a spot in the RiversideSports Hall of Fame. In addition, Bar-tee had won 16 league titles and madeit to the California Interscholastic Fed-eration (CIF) Southern Section finals atotal of seven times. Of those seventimes, the team won twice in 1984 and1993.

This year, he came out of retirementto head the team again. During his firstseason back, Bartee was able to leadthe team to the playoffs for the secondconsecutive year. Due to these accom-plishments, Bartee earned the recogni-tion of Big VIII League Coach of theYear.

With Bartee in control, the team re-ceived the number three seed in theplayoffs in Division 2AA. The high-light of the season for the boys teamwas that they won their last four gamesto earn their first league championshipsince 2001. Coincidentally, Bartee wasalso the coach when the team last wonfirst place in league.

Bartee has coached 29 varsity sea-sons and he has 575 wins under hisbelt.

Although the team lost in the thirdround of playoffs, he will be back nextyear to lead them to achieve more.

Aaron PeckThe boys basketball team’s success

this season came in part from the helpof senior Aaron Peck, the footballteam’s star wide receiver and basket-ball team’s starting power forward whoearned the title of Big VIII Player ofthe Year.

Peck signed his National Letter ofIntent to Fresno State University toplay football earlier this year. Thishowever did not stop Peck from enjoy-ing his senior year on the varsity bas-ketball team. Peck was always a crowdpleaser with his amazing layups as wellas everyone’s favorite dunks that al-ways brought the fans to their feet.

He led the team to an overall recordof 23-6, compared to last season’srecord of 19-11. This season Peck av-eraged 15.2 points per game along with5.4 rebounds. He was also averagingabout 2.1 steals, which helped him landthe prestigious award.

This season the boys basketballteam was named the Big VIII Leaguechampions which landed them a spot inthe California Interscholastic Federa-tion Southern Section (CIF-SS) play-offs where they finally fell to SunnyHills in their third round of the CIF-SStournament when they lost by a mere 2points. In this game Peck scored 23points that helped to keep the boys inthe competition.

Although the team couldn’t alwayskeep it together, Peck made sure that hewas always doing his best with 440total points this season.

THE NORTH STARFRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012 SPORTS D3

league behind the Corona SantiagoSharks. As they started their long jour-ney into CIF play their first opponentwas the Yucaipa Thunderbirds. Northdominated the entire game and cameout with a win of 78-32. After thisgame, guard Simone DeCoud wasnamed Player of the Week by Max-Preps.com for receiving her first dou-ble-double in points and assists,meaning that she scored in double fig-ures in both categories.

Girls and boys basketball progress in CIF-SS tournamentsEmily RooseSTAFF WRITER


Forward Akilah Martin sets up the offense against Lynwood guard Jazmine Johnson in the CIF-SS championship game.The next round was against the Cy-

press Centurions where North onceagain showed why they are so highlyranked. The team came out with an-other blowout win of 74-27.

The quarter final game was at thehome of the Thousand Oaks Lancerswhere once again the Huskies walkedaway with a win of 63-48, a win whichtook them into the semifinals againstthe Cougars of Ventura.

This victory for the Lady Huskies

brought excitement all around campusafter the 65-49 win.

The Lady Huskies then traveled tothe Anaheim Convention Center for theCIF-SS championship game againstthe Lynwood Lady Knights of Los An-geles.

North trailed almost the entire gameuntil the fourth quarter when theyclosed the game to a two-point deficitafter guard Kamille Diaz and forwardAkilah Martin dropped two three-point

shots driving the North crowd crazywith excitement. The Huskies’ dreamsfell short as the game ended in a loss of55-66 to the Lady Knights.

This loss was not the end for thegirls who took everyone’s doubts andshowed them what they are capable ofdoing. The Lady Huskies played in theCIF State Championship game onMarch 23, after winning the CIFSouthern California Regional Champi-onship.

n the midst of an unpredictable sea-son for the Big VII League and the

Huskies themselves, the boys tennisteam made a powerful statement abouthow they intend to finish it out, decid-edly defeating Redlands East Valley(REV) High School on March 26 with

a score of 17-1. From the beginning,the Huskies demonstrated their superi-ority on the court, taking an immediatelead of 6-0 at the end of the first roundbefore extending this lead to 12-0 bythe end of the second round.

A few members of the junior varsity(JV) team were rewarded for the var-sity team’s success by being subbed infollowing the dominance of the firstround. The JV team continued this

trend, winning all but one match at theconclusion of the match.

Because the match against REVwas not a league match, severalchanges were instituted to the varsitylineup prior to the beginning of thematch, as a way to try out new combi-nations at a time when winning was notcrucial as in a typical league match.One such change was the inclusion intothe varsity lineup of doubles team

season, a statement that would not beincorrect in itself. However, with ayoung and talented lineup, expectationsfor the beginning of the season werevery high and the Huskies have had afew tough losses where it came to justa few matches separating victor and theloser.

Boys tennis coach Nick Mateljanbelieves that the team suffers from alack of consistency, something that hefeels has improved as of late and thathe hopes will continue to do so as theseason continues. “We have been gain-ing consistency which when you havea young team, sometimes that is thecase. We are gaining experience andhopefully in the second half of the sea-son, we can gain more consistency andwin a few more of those close games,”said Mateljan.

However, as the practice and train-ing continues, the Huskies will con-tinue to draw the positives from theirsuccessful first half and their decisivevictory at REV.

“I think it reflects on how good ourteam is [when it comes down to it] andthe potential that we have to do betterfor the second half of the season,” saidvarsity doubles player MaximillianCotterill.

Boys tennis wins big at REV to close out first half of season

Freshman Andrew Xu returns a ball as he practices after school for an upcoming game.

Jonathan Jones and Aaron Tagaloa, ateam that won all three of their matchesthroughout the day.

Jones believes that the victory willcertainly have its benefits for the restof the season. “[Our win against REV]really gave us a lot of confidence. Itshowed that we are a good team as awhole when we work together, whichwill serve us well for the future,” saidJones.

This is certainly a sentiment sharedby the whole team as the second half ofthe season approaches with several keyleague games that have the capabilityof determining Big VIII League playoffscenarios.

Varsity doubles player Joshua Kangbelieves that the hard work and amountof time spent on the court by the tennisteam will pay off in their upcomingmatches.

“As we practice more and moreafter school and continue to play moreand more teams, I think we will be bet-ter prepared for the big matches com-ing up soon,” said Kang.

The tennis team has been anythingbut unsuccessful throughout the firsthalf of the season. With an overallrecord of 6-3, it would appear that theteam has had a positive first half of theTyler Davis

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

F


IDOUBLES

6-1

7-5 6-0

6-0 6-0

6-1

6-2

6-0

6-3

Jex/Chea

Hou/Mikial

Lee/Gan

Gyi/Kang

Malgo/Knight

Jones/Tagaloa

SINGLES

6-0

6-0

6-0

6-4

5-7

6-2

6-0

6-16-0

Jesse B. Troy R. Steven L.

LeonZhouJamesDing

TimothyLin

SPRING BREAKBoys Golf @ SantiagoBoys Tennis vs. Redlands 3:15 p.m.

Baseball vs. Santiago 3:15 p.m.Boys Tennis vs. Santiago 3:15 p.m.Softball vs. Santiago

Golf @ King 3:15 p.m.Coed Track vs. Santiago 3:15 p.m.Coed Swim @ King 3:15 p.m.

Baseball vs. King 3:15 p.m.Boys Tennis vs. King 3:15 p.m.Softball vs. King 3:15 p.m.

Softball @ Canyon Springs 10 a.m.Softball @ Canyon Springs 12 p.m.

Golf vs. Norco 3:15 p.m. Boys Tennis @ Norco 3:15 p.m.Softball @ Norco 3:15 p.m.Baseball @ Norco 7 p.m.

Golf vs. Corona 3:15 p.m.Coed Track vs. King 3:15 p.m.Coed Swim @ King 4 p.m.

Baseball vs. Corona 3:15 p.m.Boys Tennis vs. Corona 3:15 p.m.Softball vs. Corona 4:30 p.m.

Boys Tennis @ Poly 3:15 p.m. Golf vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m. Baseball vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m.Boys Tennis vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m.Softball vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m.Coed Swim vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m.Coed Track vs. Centennial 3:15 p.m.

Baseball @ Poly 3:15 p.m.Softball @ Poly 3:15 p.m.

THE NORTH STAR

side from the typical teamsports, many athletes take part in

individual sports, opportunities to com-pete where they can do all they need todo on their own without teammates.

Senior Daniel Robles is a bicyclerider who competes in various racesand invitationals throughout SouthernCalifornia.

He did not start his athletic careerwith the intention of riding but after hewas forced to take a break from soccer,things changed.

Robles played soccer his entire lifeuntil he hyperextended his knee andhad to take a break to recover. This in-jury resulted in severe damage to hisanterior cruciate ligament and the de-cision to reevaluate his soccer career inthe hope that he could preserve the re-maining tissue in his knee.

After recovering for almost a year,Robles went to see his doctor who toldhim that biking would be a great wayto rebuild his knee strength before re-turning to the soccer field.

“My dad had an old Bianchi hang-ing up in the garage so I decided togive it a try. I immediately fell in lovewith riding and I realized that I was ac-tually pretty fast.” said Robles. Hebegan to ride his bike at a biking trailand soon after that he began looking

he Civil Rights Act of 1964 wasoriginally written in order to end

discrimination based on race, color or

need improvement and have to carrythrough with their workouts and prac-tices on their own time without anyhelp from partners on a team.

Cazares enjoys participating in an

US WITH THE QUILL

USMAN SIDDIQUI &SABRINA QUILLEN

here are some things in thesports media like ESPN and the

daily paper these days that really justhave us scratching our heads wonder-ing what allowed them to take prece-dence over showing highlights ofbasketball and tennis events from ear-lier in the day. There are two in particular that arejust total mouth droppers to us and wewould like to invite you to read a de-bate about these “sports.” Enjoy.

Start your engines.Time to begin a 500 lap race.

Usman: Nascar is probably one of themost strategic activities that receivesattention from ESPN. Not only doesit require you to be alert at all timesbut it also requires you to be able tocontrol a car moving at an incrediblespeed. This takes great tactic andstrategy. But there just isn’t enough inthe activity to make it a sport.

Sabrina: Not only is it one of themost watched sporting events, it isalso a game of skill. How many peo-ple do you know that can drive a cargoing 250 mph? It’s utterly amazingthe precision and control that thesedrivers demonstrate.

Usman: You are right. The tactic ofNascar racing is impressive. But theidea of a sport is to burn calories andbe active. Sitting in a car and pressinga pedal and turning a wheel does notdo any of these things.

Sabrina: The idea of a sport is to besmart and intuitive. Not solely to burncalories. Nascar racers work underpressure. At any given moment theycan lose control of their car but theystay cool, calm and collected just likein any other sport.

Usman: I will have to agree withSabrina. If an activity requires somesort of knowledge outside of justdoing something like driving a carit is a sport and in this case, it doescontain most, if not all, of the ele-ments of a traditional sport. Keep-ing cool and calm under pressure ina given situation is very importantin sports like basketball and footballand Nascar drivers have to do all ofthese same things. I can’t argue withthat.

Get those pom poms out.It’s time to cheer.

Usman: Alright, next up. Cheerlead-ing. I don’t even know where to startwith this. How can this possibly be asport? What possible competition cancheerleaders compete in? How do youtell apart the good cheerleaders andcheer teams from the bad ones? Whatmakes a cheerleader well-skilled? Imean I was watching TV with mybrother the other day and saw this onESPN and began wondering how itgot on the channel and what thejudges were doing.

Sabrina: I’d have to agree with youon cheerleading. Without soundingtoo cynical, there is really nothingthat makes cheer a sport. You prancearound a little and cheer at the top ofyour lungs. Now, extreme cheerlead-ing is a different story. When you’reflipping around and actually doingstunts, then it could be considered asport. In my eyes, though, standing ona box and basically singing is not asport. I will admit, however, when thefootball team is down by six with oneminute left, it is nice to look to thecheerleaders. Hearing “Go big blue”being yelled throughout a stadiumwill never get old.

Usman: There is simply nothingsporty obout cheerleading, They areentertainers at sports events if any-thing. When I go to basketball gamesand the cheerleaders come out I don’tthink that their purpose is to be ath-letes and do anything like the actualatheletes do. It’s as simple as that,Cheerleading just isn’t a sport.

Everythingon ESPN isno t a spo r t

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012SPORTSD4

for riding groups to join and eventuallystarted racing.

The first group Robles joined wasthe Riverside Bicycle Club and he hasbeen competing locally in Ontario.

Robles has also been a part of sev-eral races recently, including a roadrace known as “The Devil’s Punch-bowl” that was held in Pearblossom.California and the Redlands BicycleClassic on March 24, a race that hasbeen held since 1985.

Robles really enjoys bicycling be-cause he likes the experiences that hehas while competing or just ridingaround for fun. “I love the fact thatwith cycling I get to go out and dis-cover new places on my own without... a car. Being able to ride all the wayup a mountain is a great [experience],”he said.

Another participant in an individualsport is senior Bronson Casarez who isa mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter as-sociated with the MMA gym RiversideSubmission. Casarez started training inMMA at the age of 11 and has beenwith his mentor Frank Romero eversince. In 2010 he became as theyoungest athlete to play at a profes-sional level at just 17 years of age.Casarez fights in the 125-poundweight class, otherwise known as “fly-weight” in MMA terms. In order toprepare for his fights, Casarez fre-quently goes to the gym and trains.

He takes his training very seriouslyand he spends his time away from

school at the gym doing drills. On atypical day, after getting out of school,he immediately heads to practice. Hisregimen is so strict that he even thinksof it as being like a job.

On weekdays he trains from four tonine and on weekends from 12 to twobefore going back and practicing fromsix to nine.

Because he is a professional fighter,he can be offered a fight at any time,meaning that he wants to be in shapeso that he is ready when he is presentedwith a fight opportunity.

Although he is very dedicated to hissport, Casarez’s priority is academics.“I live by the statement ‘the differencebetween living and living well is in agood education,’” he said.

Cazarez hopes to have a career asan MMA fighter but still plans to go tocollege just in case his plans do notwork out.

Currently he teaches a class at agym and while in college he plans tocontinue with his classes and eventu-ally open up his own studio. Cazarezdecided to take a break from MMAafter he stretched a ligament whiletraining.

Though forced to stay out of action,Cazarez continued to train while in-jured which resulted in him having totake a longer injury leave.

These athletes work on their ownand have no team for them to trainwith. They individually put emphasison the areas where they feel like they

A

Title IX allows Lady Huskies to succeed

Gilberto Melendez &

Emily Roose

STAFF WRITERS

individual sport rather than a teamsport. “I’d say [that I prefer] an indi-vidual sport because [achieving suc-cess] is all on yourself as a person andhow much you want to win,” he said.

Husky athletes achieve as individuals

Sabrina Quillen

STAFF WRITER

T

national origin. The act also ignited thewomen’s rights movement. Title IX isbest known for its impact on highschool and collegiate athletics thoughthe original order made no mention ofsports. When President Lyndon B.Johnson signed and issued executive

orders that made clarifications to theacts, the National Organization forWomen (NOW) convinced PresidentJohnson to include women in his exec-utive orders. The main concern womenhad was equal opportunity in the work-place.

Title IX was originally drafted andproposed by Patsy T. Mink. She fo-cused on the hiring and employmentpractices of federally financed institu-tions in the congressional hearing inwhich she first brought up Title IX.There was very little mention of athlet-ics in this hearing. However, Title IXwas passed on June 23, 1972. It stated,“No person in the United State shall, onthe basis of sex, be excluded from par-ticipation in, be denied the benefits of,or be subjected to discrimination underany education program or activity re-ceiving Federal financial assistance...”

Over time, Title IX was implementedinto sports and it started out with malecongress members arguing that rev-enue-producing sports should be ex-empt from Title IX rules. With muchdebate, it was finally concluded that theDepartment of Health, Education andWelfare (HEW) should include “rea-sonable provisions considering the na-ture of particular sports.”

Title IX has expanded from theworkplace, to sports, to organizationssuch as school-bands and clubs. How-ever, sex specific clubs such as sorori-ties, fraternities, Girl Scouts and BoyScouts are exempt from Title IX re-quirements. The legislation applies toany institution that receives federalfunds. This is the sole reason that ath-letic programs are subject to Title IX;despite the fact that there is very littledirect federal funding of school sports.

All universities that receive federalfunding are required to perform self-evaluations to ensure that they offerequal opportunities. They then have towrite a statement to the Department ofEducation that proves that the institu-tion is in compliance to the act. Thereare ten factors which institutions mustlook over. These factors include but arenot limited to whether the selection ofsports and levels of competition effec-tively accommodate the interests andabilities of members of both sexes,equal provision of equipment and sup-plies, equal scheduling of games andpractice time and equal publicity.

Title IX is not just some law thatdoesn’t affect North High School. Thisyear, the graduating class of 2012 hasthree female athletes who are all re-ceiving full ride scholarships to accred-ited universities. Brittany Crain, AkilahMartin and Mariel Mendoza are thethree athletes who will be competing inDivision I sports next year. Crain andMartin have both signed to play basket-ball at the University of California,Riverside. Mendoza signed to run crosscountry and track at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. These amazingaccomplishments would not have beenpossible over 40 years ago. Even moreintriguing is the fact that all three fe-males happen to be members of minor-ity groups. This proves that Title IX isdefinitely involved in the futures ofthese aspiring athletes.

T

Casarez RoblesProfessional Belt Holder

Youngest athlete to go pro

Youngest holder of aprofessional belt

Holder of kick boxing belt

Winner of GladiatorChallenge event

Winner of Extreme BrutalConduct event

3-0 record as a professional

20-3 overall amatuer record

Competed in OntarioGrand Prix-Series

Competed in Dare to RaceGrand Prix-Series

Competed in Redlands Bicy-cle Classic Criterium

Finished eigth in Devil’sPunchbowl

Competed in Summer EndGrand Prix

Competed in multiple 12-15 mile races

Competed in multipleraces annualy

Will compete in Pearlblossomevent this year

Dominique De La Rosa / The North Star

march

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