By Betselot Wondimu ‘15 The growing involvement of money in the American political system is indisputable and startling. In the last five years alone, the Supreme Court has ruled in two landmark cases—Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) and McCutcheon v. FEC—to dramatically loosen restrictions in campaign finance policies in a myriad of ways. While the authorization of unlimited … Read More
By Haley Whitt ‘15 I recently saw the new comedy “Neighbors” that is based around the shenanigans and tensions that occur when a rambunctious frat house becomes the new neighbor of a married couple. Let’s just say that the movie was rated R for a reason. It includes scenes with violence, excessive drug and alcohol usage and vulgar language. In … Read More
By Samantha Schwartz ’16 Five seconds is the minimum amount of time a driver’s attention is taken away from the road when sending a text message while driving. When driving 55 mph, those five seconds are equivalent to driving the length of a football field without looking at the road. Distracted driving is an incredibly dangerous activity. According to the … Read More
By Connor Loughran ‘15 MCPS is continuing to receive feedback from the public in regard to the decision to change the school start times for the 2015-2016 school year. The proposed start times would push back high school start times by 50 minutes (from 7:25am to 8:15am). Additionally, middle schools would start 10 minutes earlier (from 7:55 a.m. to 7:45 … Read More
By Marie Moeller ‘15 After witnessing a confrontation between two girls, I started thinking about crazy, psycho girlfriends who are overly possessive of their boyfriends. Like many others, I thought such events were only plausible in a movie or book setting; I was rather unpleasantly proven wrong. Just like the movies, the girlfriend was verbally attacking another girl, targeting her … Read More
By Ankur Kayastha ’15 The University of Maryland at College Park became a target of a cyber-security threat on February 19 and nearly 300,000 personal student and faculty records were compromised. The records that had been breached by a sophisticated computer virus contained names, social security numbers, dates of birth and university identification numbers. To compensate for the data breach, … Read More
By Marie Moeller ‘15 As of next school year, advisory periods for all students will be implemented specifically within Sherwood. These advisory periods will be every Tuesday in between third and forth period for 27 minutes, shortening lunch and other class periods. In each period, students will watch the announcements and participate in discussions on “thematic content,” including topics such as … Read More
By Betselot Wondimu ‘15 Sometimes, moral sentiments get taken too far. Shortly before Memorial Day weekend, Ocean City Councilwoman Mary Knight organized the posting of signs reading “No Profanity Please” along the beach’s boardwalk. Although she may feel righteous, Knight’s decision was misguided, as many individuals disobeyed the message. Knight did not consider that swearing has been embedded within American … Read More
By Kaleigh Homer ’15 On an average day in the United States, more than one million people tan in tanning salons. 35 percent of American adults, 59 percent of college students and seventeen percent of teens have reported using a tanning bed in their lifetime. Tanning indoors and outdoors are both dangerous. About 76,100 new cases of melanomas will be … Read More
By Lauren Cosca ’15 To the disappointment of some and to the relief of others, the plan to have AP testing in the Ertzman Theatre for almost every class was canceled days before the May 5-16 testing began. One purpose of testing in the Ertzman was to prepare students for college testing and exams; accordingly, the school ordered 150 large … Read More