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Raven ReportVolume vi, Issue 5 1201 Brewster Ave. Redwood City, CA 94062 February 6, 2013

Sequoia High School

Opinion: Sports:Pro-gun vs. Anti-gun Concussions hit hard

By HANNA BOLAÑOSEditor-in-Chief

Page 8

By the Numbers

Winter formal tickets sold

Even with the small crowd of fans, the energy of the Sequoia boys varsity soccer team was felt by everyone on the field. After four years, the Cherokees finally walked away with a win over their crosstown rival, the Woodside Wildcats, by a score of 4-1 Thurs. Jan. 17.

The team has been waiting for this moment since 2009 when head coach Julio Calles took over the boys soccer program. That year, Woodside handed Sequoia its only loss of the season, beating them 0-1 at home.

“Since I’ve been coaching at Sequoia, I’ve always wanted to beat Woodside. It took four years,” said Calles, referring to the 2009 game. “The referee took away [that] game from us. That was a clear offside. That’s why I was waiting for this day to come.”

Senior captain and starting sweeper Carlos Ramos received seven staples in his head after colliding with a Burlingame player Jan. 11. Sequoia lost the game 1-3. The team then lost 1-2 to San Mateo, the lowest-ranked team in the league at the time.

“Unfortunately I [didn’t] have my sweeper Carlos Ramos, and I miss that guy a lot,” Coach Calles said. “That was one of the reasons we lost against San Mateo. Carlos Ramos plays a tremen-dous [role] in the game. He’s so important playing that position, especially the way he plays it. He always goes 100 percent, Carlos Ramos goes 100 percent.”

After making adjustments to its defense and regain-ing its focus, the team came prepared to beat Wood-side in honor of its captain.

“We had to do this for [Carlos],” said senior captain Bryan Calles. “We had to win, he deserves it.”

The two teams appeared to be evenly matched until the 27th minute, when center midfielder Bryan Calles sent a shot that slipped through the Woodside keeper’s hands to give Sequoia the 1-0 lead.

You’re walking down the hall, starved and rushing to the lunch tables. Suddenly, your Eng-lish teacher emerges from a room that smells of heaven, toting a steaming plate of chicken teri-yaki. With a wry glance at your peanut butter sandwich you wish that, for only a day, you could be in your teacher’s place.

As part of a program that teaches pupils im-portant skills such as customer service, how to operate under pressure and teamwork, the ad-vanced cooking class offers their food service to the staff every other Friday in the form of zesty pesto, creamy alfredo, classic sandwiches and other culinary creations.

“It gets us ready for how to treat customers, and also I think it’s just for the teacher’s benefit,” said senior Sydney Albin, one of 16 students in Foods II.

Started three years ago, the food service pro-vides meals for $5 which include an entrée , a side and a beverage. For the total cost for the food, preparation time, effort, trained talent and qual-ity control, teachers are getting a great deal.

“Dollar for dollar it probably exceeds [restau-rant value]… it is very quality,” said teacher and regular customer Daniel Bliss. “It’s kind of cool to know the kids who are cooking your food.”

Just like with essays, test and projects, teachers have high standards for student performance–an expectation that is not lowered, but rather in-creased when you’re responsible for their spring roll. Luckily for the chefs, Home Economics teacher Lindsay Bussey’s high standards and their own expertise leave them with mostly compli-ments.

“If it doesn’t look restaurant quality, I won’t serve it. If I don’t want to eat it, I don’t want them to eat it,” said Bussey, checking the cleanliness of a pot for the fourth time. She then handed the pot back to the student for further scrubbing.

The food service draws an average of 35-40 staff each time, and depending on the dish, the students may serve 60 customers. Faced with the challenge, pressure in the kitchen may rise.

“Someone starts to panic, then somebody else starts to panic—it’s like a domino effect,” senior Jordan Robinson said.

When tackling difficult dishes like jambalaya, a mistake or poor time management means a raise in wait time.

In addition to teamwork and handling pres-sure, being able to whip up a solid meal is a main reason to partake in the class.

“Going to college and everything. . .I don’t re-ally want to rely on Top Ramen,” Albin said.

Foods II serves the love to hungry teachers

Cherokee soccer finally defeat WildcatsSequoia celebrates on the field after its first soccer victory over the Woodside Wilcats in four years.

Photo by Simon Greenhill

By GLENN BILLMAN and CLAIRE BUGOSStaff Reporters

Just ten minutes later, senior Erick Millan dribbled down the right side of the field, past two defenders, be-fore centering it. Junior forward Johnny Esquivel fin-ished off the goal with authority, sliding it clean past the goalie with the inside of his foot.

Just six minutes into the second half, a Woodside defender passed it back to goalie Brian Lopez, who had the ball for fewer than three seconds before senior forward Diego Medina picked his pocket and passed it into the goal with ease.

Sequoia continued to attack Woodside’s goal with persistence and was robbed of a goal in the 13th min-ute when a shot from Esquivel rebounded off the crossbar.

Sequoia’s final goal was the result of a cross from the left side of the field, which sophomore Fiston Kizungu dove in front of, deflecting the ball off his torso and

into the net.Woodside was given a penalty

kick in the final two minutes, making the final score 4-1.

“That was a given goal by the referee,” said Coach Calles, in reference to the penalty. “That was a Christmas present. [The referee] didn’t like it [when] I

told him, ‘Christmas is over.’”Ramos, who watched from the bench, was very

proud of his team’s performance.“It’s good when the team doesn’t just rely on one

player,” Ramos said. “That shows that the work we put through is finally coming out. If we play like this every game, I think we got the league.”

Ramos had his staples taken out Jan. 18 and has al-ready returned to playing.

“[Menlo-Atherton and Burlingame] are the two teams that I wanna beat,” Coach Calles said.

For the time being, however, the team is excited to relish in its victory over its rival.

“I told the kids, I wanna beat Woodside by playing good, and they played hella good,” Calles said.

“Good chemistry shows that the work we put through is finally coming out. If we play like this every game, I think we got it. I think we got the league.”

—Senior Carlos Ramos

325 Page 5

Feature2

Enter the 3rd Annual Peninsula Young Writers

Writing Contest for High School StudentsVisit pwlp.org for details!

Deadline: February 10, 2013

We are proud to support the Raven Report

New pieces of technology such as brain powered cat ears and a mini tablet that plays HD com-puter games all are shaping the advancement of human technology. Some of the devices have been shown at Consumer Electronics Show 2013, a convention that announces new pieces of technology and demon-strates how these devices work. Here are some gadgets that have been released or will be in the near future that could shape how we as humans live. —CARLOS GARCIA and KYLE SHEA

Necomimi Brain Powered Cat Ears:You can have your very own set of working cat ears. This headband with

cat ears attached will sync with your brain waves. The cat ears will flop around depending on your mood and the brainwaves will signal the ears to move around. Priced around $100, these cat ears have been said to work decently by the New York Times blogger David Pogue.

“For people with disabilities who have a tough time expressing theselves, the technology might be a way for it to show,” Electronic Arts Academy teach-er Greg Stein said.

Nvidia’s Project Shield:Nvidia, a company that creates video game cards, has recently anounced

a small tablet device that will play many computer games ranging from As-sassin’s Creed 3 to the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It has a Custom 72 core Nvidia GeForce GPU, which is supposed to be the world’s fastest mobile processor. The screen is 5 inches and has 720p retinal multi-touch display. It will run Android as its operating system and have integrated Wi-Fi. You can register to be notified when it will at shield.nvidia.com.

“The concept and idea of this is pretty cool, but the device itself looks very pricey,” junior Larry Godinez said.

Sound Oasis Sound Therapy Pillow:This isn’t your average day looking pillow. Yes, it may be fluffy in the

outside and soft on the outside, but this pillow has speakers inside of them so you can listen to your tunes as you go to sleep. This pillow has already been released and is priced at $50.

“I use the White Noise app on my iPhone to sleep, it’s nice, but if it were on my pillow, it would be even better,” Stein said.

The Microsoft Illumiroom:By using an Xbox 360, a Kinect, and a projector, your own room

will become a battleground of war or a jungle filled with death at ev-ery corner. The idea is to project an environment that is similar to that on your TV.

“I think it’s a great concept because it is going to open up a new world in gaming. You no longer have to buy big TVs. It’s gonna be projected in your living room,” junior William Escobar said.

technology headline

Though most students forget about the PSAT shortly after taking it, seniors Zé Martinho and Sunil Butler, along with 11 other students, are still receiving recogni-tion for their performance on the exam.

Every year, the PSAT, also known as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), designates 3,100 students as outstanding participants, 1,600 semifi-nalists, and 1,300 finalists for their supe-rior scores.

Martinho and Butler, both semifinalists, expect be notified in early February as to whether or not they have attained finalist status and have been awarded the National Merit Scholarship.

Seniors Michael Allen, Allison Gee, Mi-chael Grove, Tristan Knoth, Julia Pokorny, Nickie Pucel, Jessica Rice, Frances Welsh, Amanda Willett, Michael Wucher and Danny Yan have been recognized as out-standing participants.

Though PSAT scores are relatively un-important in the college application pro-cess, both Martinho and Butler agree that the PSAT can pay dividends.

“More people should start taking the PSAT a little bit more seriously,” Martinho said. “It just seems like a lot of people say it doesn’t matter, it’s purely for practice, but they’re not aware that it could potentially lead to some big bucks in terms of college savings.”

By SIMON GREENHILLStaff Reporter

PSAT scores earn seniors recognition

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor speaks to sold-out crowd at Fox

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Soto-mayor spoke at the Fox Theater Jan. 28 to discuss her new memoir, “My Beloved World.” Sotomayor was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 2009 and is the first Hispanic and third woman justice in the Supreme Court. The sold-

out event was her second stop in the Bay Area leg of the national book tour. Five students in the Sequoia Dream Club re-ceived tickets from the Foundation for a College Education.

The foundation works to increase the number of students of color who graduate from a four-year college or university.

Sotomayor’s speech focused on how she overcame various hardships to get to

where she is today, inspiring others, espe-cially youth, to do the same.

“She came from the projects and grew up in the ghetto, but got out and went to two Ivy League schools, and now she’s a judge,” said sophomore Beatriz Andrade, who attended the event with the Dream Club. “I’ve grown up in ghettos around the Bay Area and seeing her makes me think that I can make it too.”

Sotomayor’s story touched all the stu-dents who attended the event and she inspired many of them to follow in her footsteps.

“She represents what immigrants and everyone else aspire to, big dreams,” said-sophomore Alondra Soto, who also at-tended the event. “You think, ‘I’ll never reach it’, but she represents the image that you can reach it if you try really hard.”

By CAROLINE LEMPERTOnline Editor

FEATURE 3

Majority of students delay stepping on gas

Cafeteria lunches take a healthier turn:

By ANNA DAGUMNews Editor

By JENNA PALIUGHI and BRIANNA ESCOBEDOStaff Reporters

Photo by Glenn billman

With busy schedules and social lives, driving often gets pushed to the bottom.

Homework. Sports. Clubs. High School is stressful enough without wast-ing long hours at the DMV trying to get a drivers license.

Recently many students have been procrastinating to obtain their licenses and permits. The number of teens with licences has dropped immensely in the past few years. Students feel that is it due to the long hours they must go through to get a license.

“It takes a lot of time,” said junior Pe-ter Bugos, who does not have his license due to time constraints. “[I] have a lot of other stuff I’m doing.”

To acquire your license you must practice and study around 85 hours, which is hard for students trying to maintain high GPAs, send in college applications and keep up with extracur-ricular activities.

“It’s a really long, long process and I was procrastinating, so it took forever,” 16-year-old sophomore Alex Croft said.

The number of students with licenses

has decreased from an astounding 44 percent in 1980 to a mere 28 percent in 2010 according to U.S. Department of Transportation and University of Michigan.

For many students driving is no lon-ger a priority. Public transportation has become more accessible and appealing to today’s teens. Students who choose not to take the bus opt to walk or ride a

Every day, around 650 Sequoia students buy lunch. They pick up their spicy chicken sandwiches or New York pizza from the people behind the counter and walk away. Occasionally you see the truck pull up near the girls locker rooms and unload boxes of sandwiches. If you come back from PE at the right time you see a cart full of apples and oranges being rolled across the quad. But most people don’t know where their food comes from.

The answer is at 300 James St., a nonde-

a closer look at what we’re eating

Sequoia saysWhat would you like to see in

the cafeteria lunches?“A salad bar.”—Tanya Arevalo, Senior

“Fruit infused or sparkling water.”— Matt Mazoni, Junior

“Pasta with vegetables.” — Blanca Montes, Senior

bike to get where they need to go. “I walk to school everyday, so driv-

ing is not really a big deal for me,” Bugos said.

In addition to time constraints, in-surance for teen drivers is more expen-sive than it has been in the past. It now costs about $1000 or more a year for insured students to drive. Insurance in-creases around 44 percent when adding

a teen driver to your plan. “It takes students longer[to get their

licenses] because it costs families a lot,” counselor Tamesha Wise said.

The price of gas is another important factor for many. The average price of gas is now almost $4 per gallon compared to the $1.25 for one bus ride.

Technology has also had an impact on the decrease of teen drivers. Why should a student drive when he can Skype, Facetime, or text their friends in-stantly in the comfort of his own home? Teens now have the ability to imme-diately get on Facebook and chat with pals, whereas in the past the only way to chat with friends was to drive to see them.

However, driving still has its benefits. It offers freedom and independence. It allows teens to go out on their own, without having their parents haul them around. Being able to drive offers short-ened routes, elongated time to oneself and the ability to hang with friends in the car without a parent present.

“It’s a little embarrassing to be 16 and be dropped off places [by your parents],” Croft said.

script building sandwiched between the Teen Wellness Center and the District Of-fice there is an industrialized kitchen that produces breakfast, lunch and snacks for the entire district.

“We basically have our own little Costco,” Director of Food Services Nora DeCaro said.

DeCaro chooses the special items to add to the six basic options each week. The program is federally and state funded, so they have to follow nutritional guide-lines set by the National School Lunch Program.

“We try for variety, introducing color.

We want to stay away from white,” DeCaro said.

The Expressway makes the food with a combination of convenience items like hamburger patties and thing from scratch like nacho toppings. They package the food and send it out to the different school sites.

Recently, DeCaro has been trying to make the lunch options more healthy as a result of new legislation.

“We’re eliminating white bread for whole wheat or whole grain. We try to get locally-grown produce from the Valley,” DeCaro said. “Our goal is to balance nutri-tion, cost, quality, and satisfaction.”

Student input fostered at Healthy Schools Symposium

Amidst the recent food trends condemning frozen foods and high fructose corn syrup and the rising importance of maintaining an active lifestyle, the San Mateo County Office of Education and Get Healthy San Ma-

teo County (GHSMC) united to host the first annual Healthy Schools Symposium Jan. 29. This meeting touched on improving the district’s caf-eteria lunch menus as well as engaging youth for healthy change.

A main pillar of the GHSMC philosophy is incorporating youth ideas into the development of healthy strat-

egies to benefit the public. A healthy lifestyle begins where students spend the majority of their time: school. By promoting health at schools, GHSMC works to ensure a healthy lifestyle start-ing at the roots.

Representatives senior Christian Cruz and Mike Johansen from Healthy Sequoia as well as representatives from

the Food Advisory Committee attend-ed the event. These representatives at-tended the symposium in response to the numerous requests for healthier op-tions and an overall improvement to the “lunch culture” at Sequoia.

“Healthy Sequoia doesn’t only focus on nutrition,” said Johansen. “But also

See HEALTHY, page 6

By LILY HARTZELLFeature Editor

feature4

Imagine if pain and sadness were the only emotions you could feel. Imagine if your pain was treated as a joke. Imagine if you felt alone and helpless.

There are thousands of peo-ple like Haley Reeder out there;

thousands of people hurting, thousands of people struggling to find the will to live. No one should feel alone. No one should feel like their pain is not real.

The problem of self-harm is of-ten disregarded when it’s a real, devastating problem. That amount of pain cannot be faked, nor can it be overlooked.

Any self harm, no matter how small, is serious. Imagine how much emotional pain someone

would have to be in if the only way they could escape that pain was by dragging a razor across their wrists. Everyone has a story, and you probably don’t know all of it.

We don’t believe most people aim to hurt others with their jokes. We’re not perfect, we’ve let insensitive comments slip out, too. All we’re saying is that now is the time to stop. It’s time to think about what you’re going to say or post before you do it.

The best thing anyone can do is offer their kindness and their support. Saying something kind, instead of something hurtful, can make so much of a difference in someone’s life.

Treating our fellow human beings with kindness, love and respect is of utmost importance. Make sure to never disregard another’s pain. Reach out to those who are hurting and be there for your friends when they need you.

Everyone deserves the right to feel like they are ap-preciated and loved, and even a simple, random act of kindness can prove to them that they are.

Your words have power, use them kindly

By CARMEN VESCIAStaff Reporter

Carlmont freshman Haley Reeder began to struggle with depression in 7th grade. She started to pull out her own hair, scratch herself and finally cut her own body. She became addicted to causing herself harm. She felt like she couldn’t talk to anyone about how she felt, or what she was going through.

“In 8th grade, at the beginning of the year, I had plenty of friends. Then I started isolating myself,” Reeder said. “It was just such a horrible feeling. You’re so alone.”

When she began high school, she fi-nally found the courage to ask for help, but even the support from her counsel-or and other students was not enough. In the October of last year, she was rushed to the hospital when a counselor learned Reeder was planning on com-mitting suicide.

Over three months after attempting

suicide, Reeder has stopped cutting and is in a better place. She is sharing her story, starting a group at her school and planning on visiting middle schools in efforts to raise awareness and help oth-ers who struggle with depression and self-harm.

Reeder’s campaign came after a re-cent Internet controversy after photos surfaced on the internet where teen pop star Justin Bieber appeared to be smok-ing marijuana. Thus the #CutForBieber movement was created.

There is some confusion surround-ing its origin, what is truth and what is internet rumor, but it was supposedly started by a user on the prank website 4chan. According to Fox News, the user posted this comment on the website’s message board:

“Let’s start a cut yourself for Bieber campaign,” the user said. “Tweet a bunch of [pictures] of people cutting themselves and claim we did it because Justin Bieber was smoking weed. See if

we can get some little girls to cut them-selves.”

Many memes and posts joking about cutting appeared on Facebook.

Users may not have realized how their posts could affect others who struggle with self-harm.

“These students don’t feel heard,” Head Counselor Guadalupe Navarrete said. “How would you feel if you were in pain and someone laughed at you?”

Soon after #CutforBieber was cre-ated, Reeder started to receive hateful messages on Facebook. The messages included pictures of arms covered in scars. The anonymous user asked Reed-er if she cut for Bieber. Reeder posted a video describing her struggle with cut-ting, which has left her with 526 scars covering her body, which received 53 likes and 18 comments, on her Face-book page Jan. 14. She also addressed the anonymous user, telling them that they could not hurt her, and teasing her was pointless.

By CAM REBOSIO and CARMEN VESCIAStaff Reporters

When the joke stops being FunnyBattling insensitivity towards self-harm

“What if it had happened to some-one who wasn’t as strong as me?” Reed-er said. “We would probably be hearing on the news about how some teen had committed suicide.”

The cyber-bullying Reeder was vic-tim to was an extreme case. It was done by someone who deliberately wanted to hurt her, but even unintentionally in-sensitive jokes, or acting like someone’s self harm is fake or simply a way to get attention can hurt.

“They said that I was just doing it for attention,” Reeder said. “It made me feel like such a horrible person.”

Insensitive jokes may be the result of ignorance, not cruelty.

“They aren’t trying to be mean, they just don’t understand,”said freshman Sarah Swinnerton who heard Reeder’s story. “They think the whole thing is a joke.”

Additional reporting from Cam Rebosio, Staff Reporter

Recently, the media has played a large role in bringing to light the issues of depression and self-harm. In the wake of the trending #CutForBieber movement, it has come to our attention that some people have chosen to be insensi-tive towards these issues, when in reality there are people in our community who deserve our sensitivity.

Warning signs of depression1. Fatigue2. Sudden weight change3. Drop in grades4. Sleeping more than usual5. Withdrawn socially6. Lack of concentration7. Complaints of aches/pains8. Unexplained wounds or scars9. Isolation and irritability

Hotline to call if you are struggling, or just want to talk to someone:

(800) 448-3000

In light of the Sandy Hook shoot-ing, Aurora movie theater shooting and many other mass killings, there has been strong sup-

port from government officials such as President Barack Obama and Sena-tor Dianne Feinstein to impose stricter gun regulation, such as the banning of semi-automatic assault style weapons, restrictions of bullets in a magazine and more government control of firearms. Despite all these tragedies and the in-creased support for more control, I be-lieve that more guns means more safety.

Hypothetically, if you were a rob-ber and there were two shops in front of you, and one shop had a sign saying, “All staff are armed with firearms” and the other had a sign saying, “No guns allowed on premises,” which one would you go to?

I would go into the shop that was un-armed.

Criminal behav-ior varies in countries with different gun laws.

The United States has a gun owner-ship ratio of 88 guns to 100 people, but has 386 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to the FBI. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has the strictest gun laws in Europe accord-ing to Marketplace.org, but is called by “The Telegraph” the “Violent Crime Capital of Europe.” Although the gun violence in the UK is among the lowest, their violent crime, which is defined by the FBI as “offenses which involve force

Opinion 5

A s O b a m a b e g i n s his sec-ond term, y o u n g Americans

are concerned with the grow-ing influence of lobbyists in Washington. Private spend-ing in politics is drowning out the voice of the rest of America—and we are notic-ing. While the average Amer-ican makes about $45,000 a year, 89 percent of Obama’s campaign funds were over $100,000. Thanks to the Su-preme Court ruling Citizens United, unlimited financial contributions to political races are now deemed as “free speech.” The all-mighty dollar has been quietly squirming its

Big money blatantly buys politics, a new generation takes noteBy HAGOP S. NARKIZIANStaff Reporter

The Great Gun Debate:Should gun ownership be restricted?

By PAUL KIRALYStaff Reporter In response

to the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Presi-dent Obama an-nounced a series of gun-control

measures Jan. 16. While it may seem logical that the shooting of primary school children would prompt immediate action against guns, arguments in favor of gun rights have continued unabated.

Those who argue against stricter gun control believe that more guns will make our country safer. In some ways, their argument is valid. If every-one has a gun, everyone can protect themselves against attack—however, in that event, even in self-defense, someone will be killed or wound-ed—and that one person matters. Whether those people are robbers, murderers, police officers or even young students, someone will always be on the other end of the bullet.

There are at least 300 million fire-arms in the United States. That’s a lot of guns. Even if we do put stricter gun control in place, firearms will always be accessible, they argue. But even if that goal seems unattainable, it would be wrong not to try.

Some insist that stricter gun con-trol equates to stripping people of their rights provided by the Second Amendment. But, gun control ad-vocates are not seeking to take away anyone’s hunting rifle, or a handgun kept for personal protection or tar-get practice. They seek only to keep guns away from the mentally ill or the criminal, and to limit the avail-ability of assault weapons and high capacity magazines designed only to

kill a large amount of people quickly. James Madison drafted the Second

Amendment with the protection of democracy in mind, not protection of the right to fight fire with fire. It’s hard to believe that Madison’s desire to protect the Republic from an in-vading army had anything to do with making sure that anyone who wants an assault weapon can have one.

O n Jan. 19, 15-year-old Nehemi- ah Griego was arrested for fatally shooting both his parents and three younger siblings in their home in Albuquerque, N.M. Accord-ing to the Associated Press, Griego had never been in trouble with the law before. He used several guns in the shooting, including one described by investigators as a semiautomatic as-sault-type rifle. Griego took the guns from a closet in his parents’ room. Ac-cording to ABC News, the teenager told police that he had been planning to shoot up a Walmart, as well.

Nehemiah Griego’s story is only one of many related to gun tragedy. The guns Adam Lanza used to shoot up Sandy Hook Elementary belonged to his mother, whom he shot and killed, as well. On Jan. 28, the Huff-ington Post reported that six people were injured at multiple gun shows meant to honor the first annual Gun Appreciation Day. The irony is obvi-ous, but it is far from funny.

The issue of guns in the U.S. is not about Democrats versus Republicans, or the NRA versus the world. It’s a topic of national discussion because lives are being lost unnecessarily.

We may not be able to get rid of firearms entirely, but more guns is not the answer. If we can prevent even one death with stricter gun control, it is worth it. We owe it to those who are gone—and to those still here—to make a change.

By HANNA BOLAÑOS Editor-in-Chief

way from Congress all the way to the White House.

According to the New York Times, an idealistic 2008-Obama banned corpo-rate sponsors. But this year’s festivities included several in-cluding AT&T, Genentech, and many more. There is a strong chance that these do-nors are expecting some return on their investment. However, according to spokesperson Addie Whisenant, the change in policy was “to help cover the cost of the public events.” That’s a particularly interesting alibi, considering the inaugu-ral committee actually cut the number of balls from 10 to just two.

According to Robert Lee, a sociology professor at Cañada College, the president’s own eroding stance against “busi-ness as usual” politics is not surprising.

A gun in your hand is better than the police on the phone.

“Since the 1980s there has been a shift in America towards more market-oriented poli-cies. With fewer rules you have the ability for money to flow around,” Lee said.

The increased exchange of money has slowly seeped into our politics.

Young peo-ple are showing more and more of an interest in this issue, especially in this last campaign. Many classes spent time discussing Proposition 37, a bill that would have re-quired food companies to label genetically modified foods in California. Catherine Lemmi, who teaches Freshman Biology and IB Environmental Systems classes, held discussions on the issue in class.

“We talked about how we knew that it was probably not going to pass, and I think stu-

dents were aware that because food companies just poured so much money against that prop-osition so it wouldn’t pass,” Lemmi said.

Companies like Monsanto, the largest major donor fighting Prop 37, invested more money

against the bill than the entire Yes on 37 camp a i g n ,

ensuring its failure. But this isn’t new. Proposition 86 was also dominated by donations of amounts like 66 million dol-lars. What is new is that people are noticing—especially young people. According to a recent Gallup poll, 87 percent of Americans say reducing cor-ruption in politics is “extremely important.”

But it’s not enough. G.I. Joe once said that “knowing is half the battle.” That’s a wonderful

piece of wisdom, but half-fought battles are not going to defend our democracy. We live in a system that has grown more corrupt than ever, and it is only going to get worse. It is important that people know what is go-ing on, but more important is that we do something about it. If older white gentleman can arrange, organize, and elect officials under a name as ridiculous as “Tea Party” then we, tech savvy kids can do the same. What good is it if we rest on our laurels? Yes the office of the presidency is a stressful position, but it is our job to hold our officials accountable—and that in-cludes Mr. Obama.

Half-fought battles are not going to defend our democracy.

or threat of force,” is roughly four times higher than in the U.S., with crimes being reported at 2,000 per 100,000 people according to “The Telegraph.” An example of a violent crime without a gun could be a criminal stabbing a civil-ian and stealing his wallet. Crime was so bad in the U.K. that, in 2007, there were enough crimes for there to be 10 crimes per minute.

Switzerland has the highest gun per capita in Europe and has a homicide rate of 1.2 per 100,000 people, accord-ing to Stephen Halbrook, an author and attorney. Despite the argument that guns cause violence, these statistics suggest that more guns create less vio-lent crime in Switzerland. I believe that when law-abiding citizens have weapons to fulfill their natural right of defending themselves, their country is safer. Who would want to rob a house when people are armed and have military training? The citizens protect themselves. Police come to a crime scene after it is over, not when it is happening. Having a gun may not be a guarantee that you are safe, but

it is certainly bet-ter than not hav-ing anything to protect yourself

with. I think a gun in your hand is better than the police on the phone.

I believe that the right to keep and bear arms is sacrosanct, and our Found-ing Fathers wrote in our Bill of Rights: “A well-regulated militia, being neces-sary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” As Benja-min Franklin said, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

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6 Opinion

Sequoia High School

Raven Report2012-2013

Editor-in-Chief Hanna BolañosOnline Editor Caroline Lempert Sports Editor Laurel Dearborn

Feature Editors Lily Hartzell Araceli EfigenioNews Editor Anna Dagum

Page Editors Erick Castro Jarrett Crowell Ty Dewes

Staff ReportersAngie Calderón Becca Melmon Brianna Escobedo Cam Rebosio

Carlos Garcia Carmen Vescia Claire Bugos Dalia Jude Glenn Billman Hagop Narkizian Jenna Paliughi

Kyle Shea Lorna Wake Matvari Maharaj Paul Kiraly Sabrina Villanueva-Avalos Simon Greenhill

AdviserKim Vinh

Mission StatementThe Raven Report strives to provide Sequoia High School

with informative, engaging and relevant news. The staff will exercise integrity and adaptability while promoting justice

and transparency through professional reporting about the school, the community and the world.

Letters to the EditorThe Raven Report welcomes letters to the editor from students,

parents, or community members, sent to Room 308 or by email to ravenreport09@gmail.com. Letters must include the writer’s

full name and ID number, and the staff reserves the right to edit for space and style.

Find us on Twitter and Facebook.Facebook: www.facebook.com/ravenreportTwitter: @ravenreport

Staff EditorialCaution: apples rolling

You’re rammed into the stairwell while campus aides remind you at the top of their lungs that you have four minutes to get to class. You try hard to avoid the football player below you and in the process you step on some-thing round, trip and look down to see an apple rolling down the hallway about to cause more damage. Getting to class is hard enough without hav-ing to dodge the remnants of peoples’ lunches.

Cliff Kranz has been working as a grounds worker at Sequoia for 12 years, and he is one of the people who picks up the trash you leave after lunch.

“About a quarter [of the trash] is packages of carrots, bananas, oranges, apples,” Kranz said.

The majority of waste leftover from cafeteria lunches is fresh fruit and vegetables. The Expressway makes an effort to buy fruit from the Cen-tral Valley, and they try to include healthy options in every lunch. If we

have access to fresh, locally grown or-anges, why do we find orange pulp on the bottom of our shoes every other week?

“The health stuff started to pick up when they got rid of soda cans. [The trash] is mostly fruit, but every so often there’s a sandwich or a half eaten one,” Kranz said.

We understand that sometimes you’re having a bad day and carrots aren’t going to make it any better, but that doesn’t mean you have to drop them on the floor. Stick them in your bag for later or share them with a friend.

Our district spends about $1 mil-lion on school lunches every year, and every penny of that goes to mak-ing sure that we have the healthiest, tastiest lunches possible, but we waste them. So next time you get a banana in your lunch, eat it. Your body, and the 2,039 people who don’t do a face-plant trying to get to class, will thank you.

We have all been through it. Shameless sucking of face, perpetual butt grabbing, and endless fondling haunts every one of us. The days of putting our heads down and walking quickly away are finally over. It ends now.

Around every dark corner at Sequoia seems to loom a

Love is beautiful until PDA turns it disgustingBy TY DEWES and ARACELI EFIGENIOPage Editor and Feature Editor

couple expressing their undying love for one another just a wee bit too graphi-cally.

“Before I was in a relationship I thought it was obnoxious and gross, but I’m kinda obsessed with my boy-friend so I can’t get my hands off of him,” senior Paige Bonwood said.

All must suffer the awkward conse-quences of intimate moments between blossoming love, even some teach-ers, who may have nightmares about tongue spelunking.

“The line is where they are kissing for like 5 minutes,” junior Galdino Bravo said. “Kissing and hugging isn’t bad though.”

What’s so romantic about staircases anyway? Believe it or not, people have

The official scale of PDA

1. Buy a chinchilla. You know you want to. 2. Make a new friend. You can never have too many friends. 3. Give someone a high five. It will brighten someone’s day. 4. Google something. Let’s keep this one PG. 5. Floss. Practice good hygiene.

places to go and do not want to have to crawl over you to get there.

“If they’re gonna go at it hard, they should get a room,” sophomore Carson Demiroz said.

We do not think that having stu-dents watching you make out makes the moment any more romantic; in fact, we think it should make it much less romantic. Just tone it down at school. Keep it to a quick kiss or a hug. Short. Simple. Sweet. Not awkward.

“Butt grabbing and thrusting, [you] don’t need that, it’s very unnecessary,” said Bonwood.

PDA should stand for, Please Don’t Ass-grab. Enough is enough. You can’t spell making out from the word school. Coincidence? I think not.

Tongue enters the building, and by building we mean the mouth

Awkwardly gazing into each other’s eyes

Just right: Short kiss and hug

Too touchy, too feely

Mounting

physical and mental health.” Improving the lunch culture con-

sists of speedier lunch lines and more staff supervision to create a safer lunch experience.

In recent years, similar meetings have been held with student volun-teers involved in taste testings where they are able to sample new cafeteria menu items such as various fruits and new vegetarian pizza options.

Students are encouraged to join Healthy Sequoia and the Food Ad-visory Committee to suggest ideas. With more student input, Sequoia can create a better environment for future students with new lunch items and an ultimately healthier atmo-sphere.

Healthy(Continued from page 3)

6. Run a lap. Because everyone loves to run. 7. Call your mom. Show her you care.8. Tell some jokes. Keep it punny. 9. Dance. Twerk it out. 10. Try not to think about leprechauns. They’re after your Lucky Charms.

10 things to do in 5 minutes instead of inappropriate macking

I’m not going to lie. I’m among the majority of the student body that says that teachers make school too stressful and should cut back on the work they

give us. But how many of us think about it from the other side? Teachers have to grade every paper they assign; that’s over a hundred different assignments on their hands.

It may have taken me awhile but I appreciate every teacher I’ve had at Sequoia. I’m the girl who always had a hard time inside and out of the class-room. Going to a middle school where I didn’t feel comfortable around those who were teaching me made it difficult to learn because I didn’t feel like I be-longed there. At Sequoia it’s different. Teachers here care for their students and put so much effort into their jobs to make sure their students are getting the best education.

It’s easy to forget that these are the people who are raising the next gen-eration. Without our teachers, where would we be? I know Ms. Korman will be in her room during lunch when I need a place to eat and get myself to-gether. I know Mr. Lee will be in the library after school to help me with any math problem I’m struggling with. I

So Mary m a r r i e d Ma t th e w, who is her c o u s i n , whom she at first hat-

ed because he was the one who would inherit her fa-ther’s estate, even though she was the eldest child of the Crawley family and had lived there all of her life, all while taking an en-tire World War to figure out that they actually loved each other? Basically.

Downton Abbey is a worthwhile obsession. It has rightfully won awards at the recent Emmys, SAG, and Golden Globes. And unlike the reality TV shows that display the lives of real housewives and toddler beauty queens, watching Downton is ac-tually beneficial to my life.

My obsession was born during a visit to my grandparents’ house. We were talking about school and the latest of our lives when pop culture became the topic of conversation.

OPINION 7British drama captivates crowdBy LAUREL DEARBORN Sports Editor

Student performers

For teachers, school doesn’t end when the bell rings

They told us how they had gotten hooked on this PBS show documenting the lives of a wealthy family in the early twentieth century and the relationships they have with their butlers and maids. My grandpa told us how he had spent an entire day watching the whole first season.

I don’t know of another show that can easily bring three generations of a fam-ily together. Yes, my grand-ma also watches Dancing With The Stars, but that is an exception. I don’t talk to my friend’s parents about what color Nicki Minaj’s hair was last night on “American Idol” and

By MATVARI MAHARAJ Staff Reporter

know Ms. Yeager will make the time to help me figure out how I can improve my performance.

If teachers didn’t care, all doors would be closed when class isn’t in ses-sion. All communication would be cut off. Class time would be strictly for business. Thankfully, that’s not the case .

I never realized how much energy teachers put into their careers outside of school until I started to help Ms. Kor-man with grading last year. It wasn’t I saw the dedication and passion she had for her job and her students. She wants these students to succeed and make a difference. But everyday I still see stu-dents sit in classrooms and fiddle with their pens because they think school is a waste of time.

School may not be for everyone and school may not even be for me. I’ve al-ways had a hard time being at school in general but seeing the effort that teach-ers give, makes me want to return the fa-vor and let them know there are people who recognize all the energy they put into their career as a teacher.

Here’s to every single teacher at Se-quoia, whether it’s your first year or twentieth year. I know what you put into your job. I know the passion you hold for this position. I know the ef-fort and energy you put into every les-son you teach. And I want to thank you for giving me the privilege to learn from you.

Besides attending school, Sequoia students are focusing on further-ing their careers in the performing arts. Dancers, singers and rappers are found throughout Sequoia hallways, and everyday they are working towards a future in the performing industry.

“Sequoia students are smart, professional and driven!” said Stacey Morell, Sequoia dance teacher and cheer coach.

For these students, music and dancing is their passion. They are all aiming for some kind of career, whether it is full or part time.

“If the interest is there, I always encourage my students to go for it.” said Taylor White, Sequoia dance teacher.

Jordan began singing lessons in 7th grade. She believes it is a great way to channel emotions. She has an album coming out this summer, and she hopes to continue her career as a pop sing-er. “I feel like becoming famous is more luck than skill. Your tal-ent isn’t defined by how known you are, it’s what you can do.”

YouTube page: jordanhurwitz

Keilani has been singing since before she can remember. Music runs in her family, and it is her pas-sion. She hopes to get into the mu-sic business, or become an actress.

“I get really nervous. I just psych myself out really eas-ily. I tell myself I can’t do it.”

The third installment of a feature series starring student entrepreneurs

Antoni started to rap since he learned to talk. In the future, he wants to be on a worldwide tour in Japan, just like Taylor Swift.

“I just kept doing it no matter what anyone said.”

YouTube page: chocsk8998

Marijke joined her middle school’s hip-hop dance team in 8th grade, and has been dancing ever since. She views danc-ing as beautiful, yet also very physically demanding. Silberman enjoys musical theatre as well, and she hopes to become a choreographer for off broadway shows.

“I might end up in a cardboard box on the corner, but I like to think I won’t.”

Edgar first started dancing in 3rd grade. He started a hip-hop dance team at his middle school in 8th grade. He hopes to have a part time career in dance, and start a dance crew at his church.

“If dance is your priority be-fore school work, then you’re obviously gonna do excellent in dance but then everything else drops, so you have to learn how to maintain the balance.”

we don’t recite the lines of “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conver-sation With At A Party” from Seth Myers’ “Week-end Updates” together.

My dad likes it. My mom likes it. My brother pretends not to like it, but I think he just doesn’t want to give in like the rest of us. For once there is a show that appeals to multiple age ranges, multiple genders, and multiple interests.

Scandals? Check. Ro-mance? Check. Court cases? Check. Death sen-tences? Check. Comedy? Maggie Smith is a cast member. That is all that needs to be said.

Keilani Lowenstein

Jordan Hurwitz

Antoni Klopotowski

Marijke Silberman

Edgar Aguirre

Photo by Sabrina Villanueva

Photo courtesy of Shirley Kraus

Photo by Lorna Wake

Photo courtesy of Samantha Oneill

Photo courtesy of Silvana Valle

Maggie Smith is most famous for her role as Mi-nerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series.

—Compiled by Sabrina Villanueva and Lorna Wake

Sports8

Bright lights make your head hurt. Watching TV makes it hurt. Scrolling down Facebook makes it hurt. Even tex-ting makes it hurt. More than 62,000 concussions are sustained each year in high-school contact sports across the nation, and Sequoia is no exception.

Missing school during the whole month of December may sound great to most students, but for four students who received serious concussions this year, it was the opposite. While the students were at home recovering, they were unable to do many activities and see their friends.

“Having to go from being an active person to not being able to do anything and sitting at home all day was really re-ally tough,” said sophomore Nani Fried-man, who received a concussion during a basketball practice Dec. 6 when she was hit in the head with a ball. She did not realize she had a concussion at first, and did not go to the doctor until Dec. 10. Friedman missed dead week, finals and returned to school after winter break.

“The school days are so exhausting physically and mentally. They just wipe me out, I get home and can’t do any-thing,” Friedman said.

Recent studies have found that high school athletes take longer to recover from concussions and have more severe

symptoms than professional or college athletes. People who have had a con-cussion before are more likely to get another than someone who has never had one. Friedman and sophomore Sarah Gilbert both received their sec-ond concussions this year.

Research has shown that females are more likely to sustain a concussion and tend to have more symptoms and a longer recovery time than males.

With a serious concussion, things as simple as going out-side or walking through the halls can trigger massive headaches that can last hours.

“My mom had to turn the Christmas tree lights off because they hurt my head so

bad,” freshman Kate Heller said.

Heller received her concussion during

soccer practice Dec. 6 after heading a ball during a drill. She did not miss any school days because she didn’t want to

Did you know...

Don’t let the sport get to your head:

By DALIA JUDE andBECCA MELMONStaff Reporters

“It’s really hard to function at the rate that were all used to functioning as high schoolers”

—Sophomore Nani Friedman

risk falling behind. However, she only returned to playing soccer a month after her injury.

Sophomore cheerleaders Kaitlyn Schmidt and Kaitlyn Gilbert were in-jured in the middle of November while cheering.

During a stunt at practice, a team-mate fell and landed on Gilbert’s head. Schmidt’s injury occurred during a half-time dance at a football game when she was elbowed in the head. Neither of them knew they were concussed at the moment and continued to cheer until the pain became unbearable.

Students find more and more ob-stacles in their way as they attempt to return to school.

“Being back at school and trying to focus on my schoolwork is hard enough and being in the loud hallways with all the people just makes it that much worse,” Gilbert said.

Although their headaches are not as constant as they were towards the be-ginning of the recovery stage, they still experience headaches that last a couple of hours.

All of the students have found that focusing too hard for a long period of time on anything that challenges their b r a i n such as homework causes strong headaches.

Schmidt said, “It’s hard to have a con-cussion in high school because we have more homework and we have finals and the tests are harder and everything is more intense.”

Multiple sports concussions hit students hard Football is the most

common sport in which males get concussions:

Soccer is the most common sport

in which females get

concussions : 50% chance

78% of concussions occur

during games, as opposed to practices

Females are 2x more likely to get a concussion than males are

Estimated 47% of athletes do not report feeling any symptoms after getting a concussion

53% of high school athletes sustain a concussion before participating in high school sports

Standing, not sitting, teacher gets best seat in houseBy JARRETT CROWELL Page Editor

Chemistry teacher Jaime Beacom works the sidelines at 49er home games, and has seen decades of players grow such as legends Steve Young and Frank Gore.

In 1988, Beacom’s family friend, who worked on the chain crew, asked him to fill in for a game.Members of the chain crew work with NFL officials, move the first down chains, and occasionally run onto the field for a mea-surement.

When the crew need-ed an extra hand, Bea-com was hired full time. Be-cause the crew stands on the sidelines, they get to watch the games from a unique angle.

“The speed and the size of the players from that angle is so fast,” Beacom said. “I’ve got to see a little evolution about the size and speed of the game.”

As a referee, Beacom and fellow crew members are sup-posed to be impartial towards

the game’s results, but even Beacom admits that sometimes he cheers for the 49ers.

“When we are on the 49ers side we can yell because no one will hear us the crowd is so loud. It gets very loud down there,” Beacom said

While Beacom’s job requires him to focus on the game, he occasionally has the opportu-nity to congratulate a player or greet a famous broadcaster.

“Usually it’s just small talk and if a guy is next to me I can say something. It’s not like I know anyone, but we are famil-

iar strangers. A lot of them are really nice guys,” Bea-com said.

B e a c o m enjoys sharing his experiences at Candlestick Park with his students, and loves when they tell him that they saw him on TV.

Sophomore Chris Bene has randomly seen Beacom on TV more than once.

“I was watching the game against the Packers, and Crab-tree caught a pass and I see Mr. Beacom with his chain stand-

ing next to his son,” Bene said. “I pointed him out to my friend and we both recognized him, it was pretty surprising.”

Ever since he was young, Beacom was surrounded by sports and knew that his life would always be close to them.

“Sports has been the cen-ter of my life for a long long time,” Beacom said. “My dad coached three sports, I played three sports in high school and played rugby in college. The first thing I learned to read was

the sporting green.”Not only is this job an op-

portunity for Beacom to cheer on his favorite team, the games also serve as a bonding experi-ence for Beacom and his son.

After some years on the crew, Beacom was able to get his son a job on the sidelines.

“We drive up together and talk about the game, it is really fun,” Beacom said.

Additionally, Beacom has developed a strong bond with the people at Candlestick.

“There is a whole network of people who work on the side-lines: people who help the cam-eramen, hold the microphones; it is like a family,” Beacom said.

Most Mondays, Beacom shows his classes pictures that he was in from the last game.

Whether they are a 49er fan or not, most people are envious of Beacom’s job.

“It’s fun to do and I'm very lucky. Everyone I meet is like, ‘Aw man, how do I get that job?’” Beacom said.

“The first thing I learned to read was the sporting green.”

–Teacher Jamie Beacom

Teacher Jamie Beacom holds the first down chains as 49er Michael Crabtree catches a pass.Photo courtesy of Jamie Beacom

75% chance