Homecoming Dance

Throughout my four years at Deerfield High school, I have not been to the actual homecoming dance for longer than an hour. This year, I didn’t go at all. Unlike most schools around here, Deerfield’s homecoming dance has a presence where it was never fun to go to and only underclassman attend the dance. Personally, I think this is wrong and even though we made an attempt to improve the dance this year, there are still more steps to get all students to the dance.

What makes a Stevenson dance so much fun? Or a New Trier dance? I have friends that go to different schools around the North Shore and when we talk about homecoming plans, I tell them that our group and most of the senior class doesn’t attend the dance. They would shake their head in disbelief and ask me why this happens. All I would say is that our dance is boring and nobody ever goes. Instead I would tell them that we would go downtown for dinner and come back to somebody’s house. I mean yeah, that’s fun but we can do that some other night. What makes homecoming the night to do that? My friends that go to the different schools talk about how much fun the dance is at their school. How crazy it is and EVERYBODY from the school goes. They have good music and always look forward to this event. After the dance, then they would go to somebody’s house for the night and the after party would be there.

The issue here is how does Deerfield High School makes their dance “fun”. I know they want all their students to attend the dance so they would most likely do whatever it takes get students there. This year they did make a change and hired a well-known DJ, catered from Stoches, and the lights were actually off this year. I did not attend the dance, but this is what I heard from others. I also heard that the dance was just “okay” but not great. We need to get students to the dance, not just because we want to fit in with other schools, but we need to do what is right. Deerfield has been itching to increase the attendance at the homecoming dance and the administration has to figure out a way to get all the students there. A possible way to do that is communicate with other schools and how they run their homecoming dance. The biggest problem we have though is the dance’s reputation. I think this year the dance gained a little reputation but there still needs to be a large improvement in the future.

FIRE speech code

After reading the article and seeing those horrifying pictures, there is no doubt in my mind that what happened that night should be banned on campus.  Obviously the people at the party thought it was a funny idea at the time and didn’t realize what they were actually doing. I would be embarrassed to see myself in one of those pictures. I think these actions should be outlawed because it is going overboard on one’s first amendment. These actions could potentially cause violence and could have consequences.  University policy forbids "any form of discrimination or harassment related to a student's race." The policy defines harassment broadly, including "slurs, jokes or other graphic or physical conduct related to a student's race." This situation that happened at the Halloween party violated the speech code and should be outlawed.

I chose Miami of Ohio. Their harassment policy pretty much states that any harassment that can lead to harm or health of another person is banned. Any intentional or reckless acts that cause or could cause physical or mental harm are prohibited. The student life section describes how the university strongly opposes and will not tolerate harassment of discrimination on the basis of age, color, disability, race, etc. As a prospective student, this makes me feel pretty comfortable at this school. I know that if anybody harassed me about my religion or race, I have the school to back me up. It makes the school seem like a pretty safe environment. When researching this school, I never really thought about this aspect until now. After reading the speech codes, it makes my interest in the school a lot stronger. I think their speech codes are definitely legal. The codes talk about harassment and how it could cause harm or health issues. That should definitely be protected by the first amendment. Hate crimes at school should be protected because of the school environment.  Your freedom of speech is limited while on school grounds and I believe it should stay that way.

I totally agree with FIRE. They are trying to protect students as much as possible they give good information about what speech codes are and how they work. The database with all the colleges is a really cool aspect because it allows students who are potentially going to that school; understand what the speech codes are there. That can be a deciding factor for some students and can be an aspect to think about before applying to a school. The restrictions and codes that they point out are all for the students best interest. They are doing whatever they can to protect students and they put a lot of pride and work to making this country’s colleges safe for students.

As a senior in high school, I am really happy to find this website. I will use it to my best advantage when applying to schools.  I now know what FIRE thinks about the speech codes and how they are differ from school to school.

NHL 12 review

For my next blog post, I decided to review the new EA sports NHL 2012 hockey game.

I have always been a loyal fan to the EA sports NHL series and always been very judgmental and critical about every new game. To start off, I would give NHL 12 a 8.5/10. The NHL series has always been my favorite (possibly biased because I play hockey) and every year I have seen a significant improvement in games. This year was different.

EA sports has improved the gameplay tremendously from 09-11 and the step from 11’ to 12’ was somewhat low. This really disappointed me because the gameplay tends to be my main focus.  Most of the time I am playing Xbox live against other people or just playing my friends. NHL 12 tended to improve the out of gameplay modes a lot more. For example, they fixed up the Be a Pro mode and added Be a Legend. A new feature in Be a pro allows you to simulate to your next shift instead of watching the computer play. I really liked this improvement because watching the CPU play got boring.  Be a Legend is pretty cool but something that I probably won’t play. This mode brings back old hockey legends back into the game such as Wayne Gretzky and Bobby Orr. There are many more legends in the game that if you keep paying Be a Pro, you can unlock. Another cool feature added was “Winter Classic Mode” which was created really well but it could easily get old over time. This feature allows users to play with any team in last year’s Winter Classic at Heinz field in Pittsburgh. The graphics and presentation of this mode are absolutely unbelievable and this mode ads a little different touch to the game.

The game play improvement is not as good as I would have liked, but there are many little things that show some cool improvement. My favorite new feature would have to be the new physics engine added to the game. This physics engine creates realistic like bounces and hits like we have never seen before in the NHL series. You can now break the glass with a hit, knock a player into the bench, or knock off his helmet. Another thing they changed is that now every player plays like they would in real life. For example, Patrick Kane, who is a very small guy, will not be able to throw bone-crushing hits on bigger guys such as Chris Pronger. Also, everything is live. The goalies can get taken down, the nets can be knocked off, and the glass can be broken. It makes the game more realistic and shows a nice touch. Also, players can now battle in front of the net to get good position weather you are on offense or defense. If you’re on offense, this is a good feature to screen the goalie and get shots from the point. If you’re on defense, you can clear guys out of the front and let your goalie see the puck. Another fun feature is that they now added goalie fights. The goalies can skate up to center ice, and fight with the other one, just how it can happen in real life.

Overall, NHL 12 improved all aspects of the game. Personally, I like when they focus on the game play improvements and there was not as much as I would have liked for this year. The game is still significantly improved when it comes to game play and I would highly recommend it to anybody who enjoys playing the NHL series.

9/11

Just like every other person in America, I will never forget 9/11. As young as I was, I still have vivid memories of the news reports, that day at school, and my parent’s reactions to the greatest tragedy that ever happened to America. The video that we watched in class was extremely mind-boggling. There were points in the film that sent shivers down my spine, and brought back memories of that day. The reason why I really enjoyed that film was because its detail was astonishing. I have seen lots of footage of 9/11 and seeing this documented, footage inside the building was crazy. The stress and panic everybody was under was crazy and to see it in a firefighters prospective was very neat.  Having seen this film from what the fire fighters had to go through really shows how our country is made of many heroes. These people were willing to put their lives on the line to save other peoples’ lives. The amount of work these firefighters did on that day is unheard of. What really caught my attention was when all of the firefighters came back to the station and were talking about what they had gone through. The captain came and told everybody that they need volunteers to go help rescue anybody that could have been trapped after the towers fell. Every firefighter wanted to go back to work and save as many people as possible. These men could have gone home to their families but they felt their job was not over yet. This shows the dedication if these men and the sacrifices they made to this country.

The article I chose to read about is called, “In Manhattan, Children Still Battle 9/11- Related Illnesses.” This article caught my eye because it proves that 9/11 doesn’t just affect us mentally but physically as well. I had no idea that people still suffer from problems from the amount of dust that day around the World Trade Center. This article talks about a Mariama James’ three kids who suffered illness from the attacks. Two years after the attack, her daughter suffered from chronic sinus infections caused by the access amount of dust on 9/11. Shortly after that all three of James’ children had a host of health conditions including asthma, chronic bronchitis, and acid reflux. It got to be very bad and all three kids were missing a lot of school and at one point, each kid was on at least seven different medications.  A quote from the article states, “ A study based on the Dept of Health and Mental Hygeine's WTC Health Registry cites that 25,000 children were either living or attending school in Lower Manhattan the day of the attacks, and projects that tens of thousands more "were in the path of the plume of building debris and smoke, close enough to inhale particulates and toxic substances.” This many kids possibly having respiratory problems is insane. This article was quite shocking to me because I never even knew about these effects on children. I had no idea that kids were suffering from respiratory problems due to the attacks. After reading this article, I realized that 9/11 is still with us today both physically and mentally. 

If somebody asked me what I took away from 9/11, I would respond by saying, “ live your life to the fullest day every day and don’t take anything for granted.” Over 3,000 people lost their lives due to the terrorist attacks. These people had no idea that they were going to die that day. They figured it was just another day at work, or another day dealing with this or that. Imagine what these people would of done if they knew they were going to die a month earlier. I’m pretty sure they would have tried to enjoy every second they had remaining on this earth. They would have spent as much time with their loved ones as possible. The point I am trying to make is that life can be taken from you at any point unexpectedly. That is just the way it is. By living life to the fullest, you wont have any regrets. Live and enjoy life to the best of your ability because one day it will be over.

This is just something that I have realized during my time in high school. Looking back on 9/11 today, I really connected this idea. Another thing I picked up on from 9/11 is the amount of patriotism our country showed during this time of crises. It didn’t matter what color your skin was, what religion you practiced, or what your beliefs were. We as a country came together as one and that was a key element to getting through this horrible tragedy. We all supported one another and provide hope for the country.

Freedom of Speech In Schools

After discussing students’ freedom of speech the last few days, I really started to think about how students are treated at DHS when it comes to freedom of speech. Personally I think Deerfield does a great job at monitoring students when it comes to expressing themselves. Yeah, at some points the administration can be pretty strict, but usually they have the right to be. From symbolic speech, to actually talking, the administration at Deerfield high school cracks down when they need to, but also are very understanding of the student’s first amendment.

In my opinion, speech at school should limited like it is. We are not at home and should not be allowed to express what we want all the time. Like the Des Moines school board argued in the Tinker v. Des Moines case, “Free speech is not an absolute right. The government, at all levels, must balance the rights of individuals to free speech with other values the society holds dear. These other values may include public safety and protecting the rights of other individuals.” I personally agree with this statement, but by no means agree with the school board on this case. Speech should be limited how it is, but not to the extent it went to in this case. Tinker had every right to express what they thought as long as they weren’t disrupting school. That brings us to the question: What must a school prove in order to justify a rule prohibiting its student’s rights to free speech? In the Tinker v. Des Moines case, the court ruled, “ In order for the state in the person of school officials to justify prohibition of a particular expression of opinion, it must be able to show that its action was caused by something more than a mere desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness that always accompany an unpopular viewpoint.” I really agree with this statement when it comes to political views. People should be able to express them at school in a verbal or symbolic matter as long as they don’t disruptive the classroom setting.

At Deerfield, I think speech is regulated in a right manner. Teenagers are going to swear, it is inevitable. Swearing in class is one thing, but in the hallways, courtyard, or lunchroom, it really is not that big of a deal. I can’t count how many times I have heard kids swear and teachers heard them and either did nothing about it or told them to watch their language. I have even heard kids swear in conversations with teachers and it is no big deal. Swearing at Deerfield doesn’t seem to be such a big concern as to the administration cracking down on kids wearing shirts or other articles of clothing that present a drug reference.  I personally think it is inappropriate to wear something to school with a drug reference on it and that is where I go against what the court said in Tinker v. Des Moines. Just because it might not cause a disturbance, it is still has a drug reference in it. That can bring us to the Morse v. Frederick case. Frederick should have had is banner ripped down because he crossed the boundaries of freedom of speech at school. Drug references at school are an absolute no. This is proved by what the court said in the Frederick case, “school officials can prohibit students from displaying messages that promote illegal drug use.” Do you really need to wear a t-shirt to school with a Bud Light logo on it? Just wear it on the weekends. This does go against ones freedom of speech, but it just crosses the line at a school.