Volume II Issue XI: April 7, 2017 |
OPINION |
Next Issue: April 21, 2017 |
Citrus Valley Moves Towards Traditional Schedule
By CV STAFF Recently the student body of Citrus Valley High School has been made aware of the upcoming schedule change for the 2017-2018 school year. Instead of maintaining the current block schedule with the inclusion of SOAR, CV will switch to a regular 1-6 day much like Redlands High School. While this has been a long time coming, many students were shocked and confused by the change either pleasantly or negatively. A poll was carried out directed at over 500 10th and 11th grade students as they will be the most effected by it. Ethic News has reached out to Citrus administrator Mrs. Bruce for comment on the news, with results of the survey below : “Change is inevitable in our lives. Look how much things have changed since our school opened…Instagram wasn’t created yet. Neither was Pinterest or Snapchat. Facebook was still new and didn’t have a Like button…now there are 1.3 BILLION Likes on Facebook every day. There was no such thing as an ipad, hoverboard, or Apple Watch. There were no self-driving cars or trucks and Uber was created a few months before our school opened. |
We are in a different time and our students’ futures have changed and will continue to change drastically. Our staff is dedicated to providing our students the very best education possible and to that end, we must continually reflect on our practice and decide if changes are necessary to keep up with the changes our students will encounter in their future. When our founding staff members planned for the opening of Citrus Valley High School, a Block Schedule was selected to best suit the needs of our students and the state accountability system at that time.
We looked at research, other successful schools, and many different schedules and identified a revised bell schedule. Beginning in the 2017-2018 school year, Citrus Valley will be changing to a bell schedule that allows for students to attend all six periods every day. We even dream for a time when our students can take more than six classes so they won’t have to make tough choices about what they can fit in their six period day.
It is our intent to prepare our students for life beyond high school and to thrive in their future endeavors. We will continue to assess this new schedule to ensure it meets the needs of our students and allow for their success.
Thank you for your dedication to your education as we work together to provide an outstanding high school experience for every student.”
Rhonda Bruce
Principal
Citrus Valley High School
Poll Results: Please note the results of this poll will not have any effect on new schedule.
We looked at research, other successful schools, and many different schedules and identified a revised bell schedule. Beginning in the 2017-2018 school year, Citrus Valley will be changing to a bell schedule that allows for students to attend all six periods every day. We even dream for a time when our students can take more than six classes so they won’t have to make tough choices about what they can fit in their six period day.
It is our intent to prepare our students for life beyond high school and to thrive in their future endeavors. We will continue to assess this new schedule to ensure it meets the needs of our students and allow for their success.
Thank you for your dedication to your education as we work together to provide an outstanding high school experience for every student.”
Rhonda Bruce
Principal
Citrus Valley High School
Poll Results: Please note the results of this poll will not have any effect on new schedule.
Column: Learning to Grow UpLove By JASMYN GONZALEZ
Love has always been something amazing. Something that is easy to see between two people who are deep into it, something that can be seen with the bond a family shares, something that everyone at one point needs in their life. People search for true love throughout their whole lives. It’s a natural desire for human beings; we want to feel wanted, we want to feel like enough. So, who’s to say you have to love a certain someone? “Gays, lesbians, bisexuals” have for the longest time been around...they have just never been so open and so supported as they are now. However, there are many who still haven’t had the chance to open up about it because of their own families or because of their own friends. How could someone want to keep another person from experiencing love like others? Although one may not agree with it or find it “disturbing”, they have no right to take that away from someone. There are many high school students, college students, and even adults, who are facing strong barriers and walls between them and someone they want, someone they love; and it just isn’t right. Love is something so strong, something so amazing. Shouldn’t everyone have a chance to experience that? No matter who it is with? America has always been about living your dream and striving to be better; to be someone you want, anyone you want. What if that dream includes someone you love? Should they really not be allowed to have them in their life because they are the same sex? Discrimination towards “gays, lesbians and bisexuals” is the same thing as racism towards African Americans or Latinos; because they are simply different and raised in a culture that is separate from the “norm”. And I believe there should be a stand against it, just as many others in history fought for justice and equality. Learn to grow up and accept people for who they are. Learn to be a loving person. They are people too; people just like you and me...they deserve a chance to have love. |
CV Students Connect Through SynergyBy JESSICA LOPEZ
On Thursday,March 31 Citrus Valley High School Link Crew hosted their fifth synergy which is a student run event, and a place where students have the chance talk to each other on a personal level. To get comfortable with each other, the morning started off by some ice breaker games which were later followed by four speakers telling their “balloon story”. A balloon story is when the speaker talks about an obstacle they had to face at some point in their lives, and how they overcame it. After the speakers told their balloon story, students got into their family groups and each told their own personal story. The last game that was played for the day was “cross the line”; this is where someone would read a statement and if it applied to you, you would cross the line. Towards the end of the day students and teachers had the opportunity to share their experience and how it made them feel. Synergy is a great place to give people a real chance to talk to someone face to face and listen to them. In today’s society it’s hard to actually have a decent conversation without someone being distracted on their phone. It allows us to come together as a big group talk to each without a screen hiding our faces. All the stories that were shared that day were important no matter how big or small they were. I walked in not thinking that it would have such a big impact on me but it did. Knowing that people have gone through what I did made me realize no one is alone, even if they think they are; everyone has gone through some hard things in their lives that can damage them completely. I learned that whatever you are going through, no matter how hard it may be in the moment there is always someone to talk to. This experience is something that will always have a huge impact on me because it showed me to always be kind to people even if you don’t know them. Everyone is going through something and we may not always know exactly what it is, just a simple smile in the hallway can make someone’s day. |
By CAMERON KROETZ
Nationalism is an idealism marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries and people. This ideology began to pick up steam in the early 19th century as Europe went through the unification of the German Kingdoms in Central Europe, and the Italian Kingdoms in Southern Europe. Fast forward to the early 20th century, and Europe and Asia are engulfed in a bloody struggle between nationalist regimes such as Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and more globalist-leaning nations such as Britain and the United States. Everyone knows the result of this war: the world we live in today. Recently, nationalism has made a resurgence in Europe in the form of far-right populist parties and these parties are taking part in most of the elections in the European Union this year. This political situation is alarming because when nationalism and populism are propagated by a political party, fear and hate can spread like wildfire. The Netherlands had a general election on the 15th of March in which Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) faced fierce opposition from the Dutch Nationalist Party for Freedom (PVV) led by Geert Wilders. The PVV had a late surge in the polls making the race neck and neck between them and the VVD. Many were afraid that if Wilders was able to become Prime Minister he would be able to persuade parliament to enact legislation to leave the European Union and make laws restricting the rights of Dutch Muslims. People all over the country and all over the European Union were anxiously awaiting the results as they saw it as an indicator of European political sentiment. When the results came in it was a sigh of relief for the leaders of the EU. PM Mark Rutte’s VVD emerged victorious, only losing a few seats while Geert Wilders’ PVV won enough seats to have come in a distant second place. Many analysts believe that most other elections will follow the same course. Now to look at France. This year is a presidential election year in France, and there are many parallels between the U.S. election. The front runner of the election up until mid February was Francois Fillon, but his hopes were dashed after a scandal involving him hiring his wife for unofficial jobs during his time in parliament. The new frontrunners are the nationalist Marine Le Pen of the National Front Party and centrist Emmanuel Macron, the leader of the En Marche party. Marine Le Pen is well known for her anti-Islam and anti-EU rhetoric. She is currently polling at around 30%, as is Macron, three weeks before the first round of voting on 23 April. Macron and Le Pen are expected to come out of the vote as the top two and will face a runoff on 7 May. The fact that Marine Le Pen, a politician once thought far too radical to run a winning campaign, is neck and neck with a centrist candidate is proving quite worrisome to most mainstream politicians in Europe. The National Front is proving that populist and nationalistic sentiment in France is appealing to at least 30% of the French population, a rather frightening statistic. Nationalism has a history of tearing Europe apart; it has brought two world wars and has killed millions of innocent people. The increasing popularity of far-right nationalist parties in Europe is rightfully disconcerting to anyone that believes in global cooperation and supranational organizations such as the European Union. The future of Western Democracy is at stake in these elections; voters will be forced to choose between continued progress and cooperation and isolation and xenophobia. This xenophobia, which is a fear of people of different nationalities than oneself, only deepens divides between people based on superficial categories such a as language or race. European nationalists thrive on xenophobic sentiments and electoral victories for them will only create more hatred and xenophobia. The outcome of the Dutch election may be a sliver of hope for those who wish to keep Europe open and free but the continent is not out of the woods yet. |
The Part Timer By LAURYN BEST
Being a student is a full time job in and of itself, but some students choose to take on the extra responsibility of working a part time job. I am one of those students. There are a multitude of reasons for why I felt the need to begin the job hunt, besides being able to buy whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Being apart of a family of five in a middle class family means you quickly learn that your wants are not the only things that matter. If my older brother needed a tooth fixed; we didn’t go to the movie theaters for a while. If Mom needed to take her car to the shop; say goodbye to desert in my lunchboxes for a month. When I was younger this seemed like the end of the world, and I was subjected to countless lectures on the importance of “gratefulness” until maturity set in. As I got older the number on the cash register after a trip to the grocery store made me cringe, and I regretted asking for those fruit roll-ups. My parents joking refrain of “do you have *insert item I wanted at the time* money?” no longer went through one ear out the other. For a while I ignored their suggestion of getting an actual job. But after declining invitations to go out with friends and more anxious trips to the grocery store I did something out of character: I took my parents advice. Soon afterwards I began to regret this brief moment of insanity, but there was no going back. The process of looking for a job was...discouraging to say the least. As someone used to instant gratification the 4 month search for part time hours was less than desirable. I wanted to give up multiple times, and 50 applications later I began wondering what the heck was so wrong with me. My hopes of a summer job were crushed with school starting in just a week, until I got an email for a place I had been eyeing since my job search began. It had yet to be opened when I inquired about the restaurant, and my constant emails and phone calls must’ve either really annoyed or impressed the owner. I’d like to go with the first option. So I went to the interview and the rest is history. Happily ever after...right? Not exactly. I think after months of looking, I lost sight of what it was I was looking for- a job aka physical/mental labor. I was suddenly thrust into the service industry where the customer is king and if they want ketchup on their funnel cake, I have to give it to them gosh darn it. As an introvert scrubbing the toilet at 11pm on a Saturday night is nothing, but constantly interacting with sometimes rude, demanding people for 6 hours at a time is downright exhausting. It is in this kind of environment where I really have to push myself to my limits. Yes, people are going to scream at me for forgetting to put extra ketchup on their hotdogs. Yes, my face hurts from smiling at people who refuse to smile back. Yes, it’s kind of impossible to listen to 3 managers tell me to do 3 different things in 3 different parts of the store at the same time. But I wouldn’t trade the feeling I get when an elderly lady thanks me for reading the menu aloud to her, when a little boys eyes light up at the sight of his food, or when my boss thanks me for staying past my shift for anything. You know why? Because I worked hard for it, and that’s one of the most gratifying feelings in the world. |
By DIDI MALVEAUX
Many teenagers have been in relationships that tend to shape the person they become after the relationship either in a positive or a negative way. After the breakup they usually ask themselves questions such as: “ What did I do wrong,” “What is wrong with me?”, “Where did it all go wrong”. Frankly they are focusing on the wrong thing. The first thing people want to do is question themselves trying to find something wrong with them instead of what was wrong within the relationship. The goal of this article was not to bash either the boy or the girl in the relationship, but to shed light to the matter at hand which is that there is nothing wrong with any individual within the relationship. Several students from Redlands East Valley were asked of their opinions and insight on this matter. They openly discussed their point of views on relationships. Question: “Do people really want to stay friends after the relationship or do they just say that to seem less of the bad person” Response: Boy A: Honestly you have to be a really strong person in order to stay friends with your ex.It is nothing towards them in anyway, however trying to move with them still being close is very hard because you still having feelings for them no matter how bad the breakup. Girl A: I would like to stay friends with my ex but it would just be weird. Like I would say “‘hi” or “how are you” every once in awhile,but it would just prolong some feelings that I would be better off not having. Boy B: After a relationship, well in my case, I always stay friends with my ex's. We all still talk, we enjoy being apart of each other's lives because we had so much in common, so why wouldn't we be friends. Q: “What are some thoughts you may have about yourself or any other aspect after being dumped” Response: Boy B: Well after someone has broken up with you, you can’t help but to examine yourself and find things wrong with you and maybe the reason why they left. Girl C: I ask myself what I did wrong honestly. After a breakup thinking what could I have done to make the relationship last longer and better... |
By MATTHEW KRISTOFFERSON
The flickering candle lights look like stars from a distance, joined in an unorderly constellation that stretches to heaven and back. The wind chills even the warmest of hearts; the tears don’t cease. It is August 21, 1985-- the day before DeAnza’s first day of her junior year in high school. The day my aunt died in a car crash. A green light, yet the turn never finished -- the only protection she had from the other driver was the door beside which she sat. Three teenagers lost their lives that night, and countless others lost the opportunity to ever see their daughter, sister, or friend again. Could this horrific event have been prevented by a left-turn light? 32 years and over 1 million road fatalities later, the same question remains etched into our psyche like the words on a tombstone. The site of thousands of last living moments are driven over each day, their mortal departure desecrated by the skid marks of another soon-to-be statistic. Intersections across America are reality’s Final Destination-- and very little is done to fix this. Redlands is not unique. Several locations throughout the city are hotbeds for car accidents, the majority due to the lack of a left-turn light, especially Judson St. and Lugonia Ave. Along with the streets’ long history comes a long list of casualties from said accidents, yet nothing has changed. “The cars on Lugonia go way too fast!” claims one Redlands resident “Redlands Buzz has an alert on that intersection basically once a week!” another resident exclaims. Citizens of Redlands agree: Judson & Lugonia needs an arrow. They are arguably the two busiest streets in the whole city, but are wholly neglected. The new road renovation program implemented in 2012 has no plans to operate on either street. Even if it did, nothing would change-- What good is a newly paved road if the driver is dead? In one study by the Federal Highway Administration claims that adding a left-turn light to an intersection would reduce accident-related fatalities by up to 84%, which can potentially lead to hundreds of lives saved over the lifespan of the roads themselves if implemented in Redlands. The intersections both preceding and following Judson and Lugonia both have said ticket to tomorrow. Why not include these arrows on intersections where they are needed most? For the time being, the answers to these questions remain in the dark, as is the City’s reasoning for them even to exist. The police department has neglected to respond to my inquiries. Source: x |