V2017 FundraiserIn this issue

Est. 1935azetteThe

March 24, 2016 Issue 15 Volume 81

Franklin

Flounder interview

Entertainment

Mock trial

little MerMaid

sGa MeetinG

coach aGent

Sports

lacrosse

track

ByGillian Borkoski; Contributing Writer

Thingamabobs; We Got Plenty

As once said by a trustworthy crab, “We got no troubles, life is the bubbles under da sea!” And that statement stands remarkably true after see-ing Franklin High’s pro-duction of The Little Mer-maid. The Little Mermaid is the classic fish out of water tale (badum tiss); young Princess Ariel longs to live in the world above and find love with Eric, a human prince who stole her heart one sailing trip. Evil, eight legged, Ursula (knowing Triton is her fa-ther) offers Ariel a spell that will give her a human body, but takes her voice. She must have the prince fall for her in three days or she will be imprisoned in Ursula’s lair for eter-nity. Ursula’s “selfless” plan is obviously a ruse

to steal Triton’s powers and to control the whole sea. This musical features multiple new songs not shown in the Disney Clas-sic, as well as impressive performances done by the cast. Obviously one of the most breathtaking

performances is done by our lead, Tatiana Royal (Ariel). Her impeccable vocals paired with the uniquely cute spin put on such a classic character is a perfect concoction for a very endearing lead. Performing alongside her is the equally talented

Kyree Sellman (Eric). Sellman’s performance shines a slightly differ-ent light on your “classic disney prince” in all the right ways (not to mention his absolutely soothing

Pretty little liars

Miracles FroM heaven

technoloGy

Model un

kesha

Fashion week

soFtball

With Opening Night fast approach-ing, the cast and crew of Franklin High School’s production of The Little Mermaid certainly have their hands, or fins in this case, full. The production is set to be one of the most ambitious undertakings yet for Franklin’s theater program, in stark contrast to the minimalist design of their previous pro-duction, Romeo and Ju-liet. Actors involved had

only a few short weeks to learn to dance and sing on “Heelys,” which serve as a form of strap-on roller skates, in order to give the illusion that they were gliding through the ocean as they moved across the stage. Nonethe-less, many members of the cast seem impressed with the progress that the show has made, and are ready to show us their stuff on stage. One such student,

sophomore Stephanie Walther, has been getting ready to play the role of Flounder, which is her first role as a main character in one of Franklin’s produc-tions. She was interviewed about her experience so far, and gave the following responses:

Q: I know you’ve been ex-ceedingly busy with get-ting ready for this show, but what are your feelings on how it’s been progress-

ing?A: We’ve done a lot, es-pecially in terms of how much time we’ve lost all the snow days and all, and even in terms of tech week we’ve just had a lot more than expected done, with the costumes, and making the props and set. It’s all gone by really quickly.

Q: So, during the prepa-ration for this show, what

Flounder Speaks on the Eve of Opening Night

By Sylvie Lass; Contributing Writer

colleGe Fair

best buddies

Zayn Malik

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Continued on Page 2

Poetry award

street FiGhter

2

FRANKLIN NEWS

voice). Stand out mem-bers of the supporting cast include Chloe Harvey (Ur-sula). While she played an absolutely sinister charac-ter with her power-house vocals, she also choreo-graphed the dancing for the entire show! Alongside her were her eel posey, played by Lexi Walls and Rosie Henderson. Walls and Henderson’s combi-

nation of dark and cryptic vocals made anyone in the audience want to follow them to Ursula’s lair. On the brighter side of things, Jacob Sanchez, who per-formed as Sebastian, was enchanting in his own way. An absolute master of comedic timing, he had the audience howling with each appearance. On the technical side of things, an impres-sive set (complete with proscenium arch) was all crafted from the mind of

Daniel Warfield, who ex-cellently used our massive stage’s size to his advan-tage. Lighting, done by Noah Heilveil, was calcu-lated and enhanced mo-ments in a very subtle way, which is the best review you can give to a Light Designer. Sarah Wolf, along with playing a hilarious Scuttle, had an impressive array of props to popu-late the grotto area where Ariel keeps her “human things”. Jordan Opher led

By Gillian Borkoski; Contributing Writer Thingamabobs; We Got Plenty

an intriguing publicity campaign by mixing both old and new images asso-ciated with this classic tail (pun absolutely intended). Alina Pargamanik crafted modern and thought out costumes, especially im-pressive in the area of the eels. Gillian Borkoski de-signed the makeup plots for the entirety of the cast, and really gave a fish-type feel to these characters. The group effort for this show is part of what made it so incred-

ible. The care that was ob-viously infused in every single second of the show is what gave it it’s heart, and that’s more valuable than any expensive tech-nical element. Franklin Theater did what it always does, put on something representative of the ex-act qualities of the amaz-ing people involved, and I have no doubt they’ll be able to do so in the years coming.

has your experience been with the rest of the cast and crew? What are your feelings about the commu-nity in Franklin’s theater group? A: Well, you really get to know a lot of the people there, especially when you have a bigger role, and since it’s such a well known show and all, a lot of new people besides the regulars auditioned this

Flounder Speaks on the Eve of Opening NightBy Sylvie Lass; Contributing Writer

time and joined our little family here, and it’s really

cool when that happens.

Q: I heard that you had to learn how to ride Heelys for the first time for this show. Did that present any special challenge for you while preparing to play your part?A: Personally, I don’t even ride a bike or pretty much anything with wheels, so it really took me a while to get the hang of it, es-pecially since I had a cheaper pair of Heelys at first, but I caught on even-

tually, and actually ended up just buying my own pair, which worked a lot better. Considering that now I can skate across the whole stage and do turns when at first I had to be dragged along, I guess you could say I’ve finally come along.

Q: Finally, I have one last question for you. Are you excited for opening night? Nervous? How do you feel? A: “I feel like it’s going

Being that this is the 21st century, we are able to use newer tech-nology than what our par-ents used at our age. The thing is that the technol-ogy continues to advance, so now kids younger than us are experienced to the new technology as well. This is why things are be-ing done at lot differently than when we were back in elementary school. The kids are starting to learn how to type and use a computer as younger ages. Some kids are able to work a tablet before they can even write their

letters. A lot of parents are concerned with this be-cause they fear that their children will not be able to live without the use of this newer technology. They don’t want writing with pencil and paper to seem foreign to their chil-dren. Many schools have stopped teaching children how to write in cursive which is one of the things that parents find sad as well. Baltimore County students have been ex-pecting to be giving out their own laptops for some time now, but whether that

actually will happen is a mystery. If it does happen to occur, then all students will be able to type their assignments rather than write them down. With the new features on BCPS one, the students do not even have to print their as-signments out if they are not able to. There is a sec-tion for assignments to be turned in, in every class. The benefit for this new technology is that it is saving a lot of paper. In this way, the environment will be better. Another benefit is that things will get done quicker. Teachers

can assign work or send reminders over snow days and students will be able to receive them. Some people argue that the use of technology makes it easier for stu-dents to cheat on assign-ments. People also argue that the technology being used in the class room is taking away from ver-bal communication. This would result in less social students. Also, some stu-dents don’t know which sources are reliable and which ones are not so re-liable. The teachers would have to go over which

websites that they do not want the students to use sometime during class. If technology wasn’t used at all then we wouldn’t have some of the classes that we have now which would be a down-side. Computers are used for some accounting class-es, music classes and more. There is software that al-lows students to complete their class work. The tablet laptops are easier to trans-port around than any other ones. That is another thing that makes growing tech-nology beneficial.

The Good and Bad of Technology in SchoolBy Anieyah Smith; Contributing Writer

to hit me once it’s actu-ally happening but once I come back to school for the show, I’ll probably be all excited and nervous. Until then, it’s just hard to believe it’s actually hap-pening already, with all the progress we’ve made this week.

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FRANKLIN NEWSFranklin Mock Trial Defeats Fallston

By Emily Dioguardo; Contributing Writer On February 25th, 2016, Franklin High School’s Mock Trial team participated in a match against Fallston High School at the Maryland Courthouse. Franklin played the defense in the match, while Fallston played the plaintiff. Frank-lin’s defense consists of three attorneys, Alex Tamayo, Sydney Gaskins, and Sydnie Caster, and three witnesses, Kyle Alp-erstein, Julie Lytwec, and Emily Dioguardo. The teams have been working on the same civil case regarding negli-gence and the assumption of risk. The case involves seventeen-year-old, Sarah Perez, a gifted lacrosse player with a bright future. During her senior year, she was running with the ball in a game and tripped over her own feet, falling to the ground and hitting her head. The fall caused a se-rious concussion and left

her substantially disabled. Casey Perez, Sarah’s mother, is filing a lawsuit against her daughter’s la-crosse league, the Spring-field County Lacrosse Club, or the SCLC. Perez believes that the SCLC was negligent in regard to her daughter’s health and safety. So, the plaintiffs, who are Sarah and her mother, hold the burden of proof in regard to the issue of negligence, while the defense holds the burden of proof in regard to the is-sue of assumption of risk. Assumption of risk is the issue concerning whether a player, participating in a sport, assumes all risks that are obvious and fore-seeable to the game. The match on the 25th was scored by two experienced attorneys and judged by a young law clerk at the courthouse. Each piece of the case, or character, is given a score out of five, five being the

best. The direct and cross examinations made by at-torneys on both sides are also scored on this scale. Franklin’s team scored all fours and fives on each as-pect of the performance. The team was also praised for its opening statement in court, which was given by attorney, and Franklin ju-nior, Sydney Gaskins. Her opening beautifully repre-sents the arguments that will be made and the evi-dence that will be shown throughout the upcoming case. It also perfectly de-fines Maryland law in re-gard to both issues of the case, assumption of risk and negligence. Prior to the match, Franklin’s team took prep-aration extremely serious-ly. Each attorney and wit-ness spent countless hours rehearing, practicing, and writing their arguments in order to be ready for the match. The team met almost every day after

school, as well as dur-ing the weekends at P.K. Law Firm, where one of the team’s coaches works. This intense and frequent preparation greatly as-sisted Franklin in winning the match and defeating Fallston, going on to the next round. The team had a second competition on March 7th, 2016 against Bel Air. The match had Franklin playing the plaintiff side yet again. Franklin defeated Bel Air and received strong feed-back from the lawyers and judges who work at the

courthouse. The FHS Mock Trial team traveled to the Baltimore County Court of Civil Appeals in Tow-son Maryland on Thurs-day March 17th to com-pete at the county finals. The team was in the top two out of many schools in the Baltimore County area. The Franklin team is made up of many talented and dedicated students, so there are high expectations for any upcoming meets, and hopefully the Franklin team will be able to ex-ecute their skills and bring home another win.

The Baltimore County Courthouse where Franklin defeated Fallston in their match.

On Friday, March 4th and Saturday, March 5th, select sophomore students from Franklin High School traveled to Towson University for the annual Model United Nations Conference with Baltimore County Public School (BCPS). During Model UN, two students from the same school are paired together prior to the conference and assigned a country to represent. Stu-dents conduct background research on their country so that they will be able to accurately represent the nation’s current issues. At the conference, stu-dents act as ambassadors of their country, which are all real United Nation member states, and debate about topics, which range from peace and security, human rights, hunger, and environmental concerns. At this year’s Model UN,

there were over 100 coun-tries represented, and stu-dents were trying to pass resolutions on the issue of terrorism. In today’s society, many countries face the threat of terrorism, wheth-er it is domestic or foreign. Students came to the con-ference with background knowledge on their specif-ic countries problems with terrorism. On the first day of the conference, country delegations sat around a room and presented their preliminary statements. These were about the country’s main concerns and main issues. During this time, countries passed around messages, trying to gain support for their reso-lution. The most enter-taining part of the two-day conference was the mes-saging system. When a country wanted to get in

touch with another, they had to hold up an offi-cial note, and the Towson University students came around to transport it across the room. The first day was a busy one with a lot of messages, because each country needed to gain the most support they could before the commit-tee meetings. Some stu-dents from Franklin went up front to speak about their resolution, which helped to improve their public speaking skills.

By Danielle Stein; Contributing Writer Towson University Hosts Model UN

They also explained and answered questions on the spot. On the second day of the conference, there were committee meetings where resolutions were passed. Out of many reso-lutions debated, only two were passed in the entire day. One of the resolu-tions passed was Austra-lia’s, which was written by Franklin students Cindy Strizak and Jake Carswell. The most difficult part of this conference was

that each ambassador had to have the point of view of their country, even if it contradicted his or her per-sonal beliefs. Each student did a great job of playing his or her part. Some coun-tries that Franklin students represented were Austra-lia, Chile, Japan, Estonia, Syria, Angola, Guinea, Nicuragua, and Cameroon.Not only did the Franklin High School students have a great time at the Model United Nations, but they also were very success-ful. Franklin’s students’ countries had at least five awards, some countries with more than one. Chile and Ausrtralia received position paper awards, and Angola received a negotia-tion award. Overall, the con-ference was great for the students. Their hard work preparing for it paid off.

Students hold awards won at the end of the conference.

FRANKLIN NEWS

4

Students Explore Possibilities at College Fair ByMica Gunby; Contributing Writer

March 9, was the College Fair Night held at CCBC’s Catonsville campus. This event pro-vided an opportunity for high school students to visit with over 100 differ-ent colleges from all over the nation. The colleges range from schools as lo-cal as Towson University to as far as Fashion Insti-tution of Design and Mer-chandising based in Los Angeles, CA. Upon arrival

students were given a bag and catalog listing all of the colleges present. Stu-dents were able to browse through the different ta-bles. Students and guardians were able to look at various types of in-stitutions at the fair. These schools were not limited to universities, because colleges, community col-leges, proprietary and military schools were rep-

resented as well. This experience is unarguably very helpful for learning about differ-ent opportunities, schools, and programs. Each school had its own table and space reserved for it, as well as an official from the school ready to answer questions. Each table had fliers and pamphlets that had information about ev-erything from majors to financial aid.

This fair was also a large wake up call for juniors that the decision of whether they wish to pursue further education after high school needs to be made soon. Even for those who had already set their plans on how to fur-ther their education the in-formation from the night could be invaluable. There was even a table dedicated to talk-ing about financial aid for

students. The representa-tives were prepared for just about any questions thrown at them and pro-vided excellent informa-tion about financial aid op-portunities that surely not everyone knew. They also handed out fliers as well as contact information. Overall, the night was a great idea in terms of informing students about educational opportunities and everything that comes

Two year ago, Franklin students orga-nized a chapter of the club Best Buddies to cre-ate relationships between students and students with disabilities. The goal of the program is to integrate children with disabilities into society and for them to be completely accepted in the school environment. Their goal essentially is to one day go out of business because then the program

wouldn’t be needed and people with disabilities would already be accepted in everyday society. The club attempts to achieve this goal by cre-ating one on one friend-ships, which means that each member is assigned a buddy. The buddy pair must talk and hang out twice a month and re-ally create a friendship that hopefully will last throughout each person’s

high school career. The buddy pair relationship becomes stronger during each meeting because they get to know each other and start to accept each other for who they are as people. Exposing the bud-dies to new and different people helps them to cre-ate relationships and make friends with people they never would have met on their own. There are many

By Cali Shelton ; Contributing Writer One Is Silver; The Other Gold

upcoming events for Best Buddies this year. This past meeting the entire chapter bonded and played a game of kick ball. Play-ing games and sports re-ally helps to create the friendships because in or-der to win it requires team work and cooperation. The club also fre-quently has out of school field trips to the roller-skating rink and to the bowling alleys. Out of

school field trips are im-portant because they cre-ate friendships outside of the school setting. Some upcom-ing events for the club are the Best Buddies 5k, the April group meeting,

By Yasmeen Ali; Contributing Writer

SGA Leads Workshop for First Time

On March 17th, Franklin’s Student Gov-ernment Association went to Goucher College in Towson for the third annu-al BCSC Student Council Meeting. Franklin High School, for the first time, organized a workshop for kids from all over the county. The board took

control of the workshop and were extremely spir-ited for St. Patrick’s day thanks to Mrs. McNeily. Ina Tuazon, secretary of Student Government of Franklin High said, “It was such an amazing ex-perience” The Student Coun-cil Meeting gathers all

schools that have a stu-dent governments and en-courages them to work to-gether to perform acts of leadership and of course, team building. Franklin High’s workshop exemplified this spirit of teamwork. The president would in-troduce the board and then let everyone intro-duce themselves by say-ing their name, the school they go to, and either a fun fact or say an animal they’d like to be. “This breaks the ice and makes everyone feel so much more com-fortable with each other. We have to realize most of these people don’t know each other and when put into a situation like this,

laughter will break the ice” Kristine Rodrigo, par-liamentarian of SGA says. After, groups were broken up and each group was passed a very festive bag with items in it. Rodri-go would read the instruc-tions. They must make the tallest tower by using any of the materials in the bag. The following items were spaghettis, strings, tape, and a marshmallow to be a balanced on the top. For most people, the beginning was a strug-gle because they didn’t know how to start. This struggle to come togeth-er as a group and decide where to begin a project can often be the hardest part of any task. Goups need to decide on a plan of

action and deal with dif-ferent egos and approach-es. “This workshop also teaches to be genu-inely happy for others success. The teams who won, got prizes, then we observe if people are clap-ping, cheering, and happy that they gave in all the ef-fort. That’s what counts.” Nicole Marfo, vice presi-dent of SGA said. Many in atten-dance thought the Frank-lin workshop was the most fun and the most productive of the meeting. Thanks to the SGA family, board, and Ms. Jordan and Mrs.Mcneily to making Franklin successful.

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Justin Doan, Ina Tuazon, Krstine Rodrigo , Nicole Marfo, Kayla Lee, Yasmeen Ali

Editorial

5

Gabby Douglas and Me-gan Lipo at one of the an-nual chapter events,

Lexi Walls, a senior at Franklin High School, was recently awarded and honored for her participa-tion in a literary contest. The Scholastic Arts and Writing contest is an elite and nationally acclaimed contest that awards gold and silver medals as well as honorable mentions for poetry, fiction, and nonfic-tion writing as well as vi-sual arts. This year, over 320,000 students submit-ted work and only 1% were honored with gold medals. Lexi is one of the national gold medal win-ners. Lexi submitted a set of two free-verse, slam

poems entitled “Black Girl Waking.” Her work encompassed the idea of the “racist and sexist lens in which black women are viewed.” Lexi has been writ-ing for as long as she can remember, but she didn’t begin writing poetry un-til fairly recently. Lexi is an active participant in theater arts at Franklin, involving herself in musi-cals and plays. Theater is actually the place where Lexi was hit with poetry inspiration. The theater teacher, Mr. Hughes gave her an assignment to write a slam poem. Lexi says this is where she began her poetry writing. Ever since that poem she had to write for class, she has contin-ued to write slam poetry and fine tune her perfor-mance skills.

Franklin Artist Wins with WordsBy Emily Dioguardo; Contributing Writer

I am on the internet,again,scrolling through pages of solid white women with fair hair on their arm pits and dread locks that they have chained to their scalpsThere is a girl in leggings long blonde hair streaming down her backwith a proclamation in bold white text outlining an undeniably afro-aesthetic figure it says“White girls be winning”I say “what else is new”You say “white girls be winning”I say you mean white girls been borrowing I say you mean white girls be parading the fat butts and thick thighs black chicks have had since we were swimming in primeval African soupI say you mean white girls be working hard on squats chugging protein shakes to achieve that Sara Baartman look we’ve had since they called us monkey women Fat lip

By Cali Shelton; Contributing Writer

One Is Silver; The Other Gold

and the award ceremony for the best chapters. The Best Buddies 5k is a race taking place at The Uni-versity of Maryland Col-lege Park in May and will raise money to fund the program and spread chap-ters to other schools. The April group meeting is one of the monthly meets for the buddy pairs. The buddy pairs normally play games and do crafts with each other. The ceremony for the best chapter is this April and lucky for Frank-lin we have been nomi-nated for the best chapter award. If our application gets accepted, some of our officers will attend the cer-emony to hopefully accept the award. The Best Bud-

dies club has only been at Franklin for a realtively short time, but already it has reached out to over forty different members and is continuing to grow. There aren’t as many buddy pairs as some oth-er schools, but the buddy pairs that we do have are strong friendships that will last for years.

Ugly high African rump Rats nest I say you mean white girls be winning in this Eurocentric culture Of course they’re winning They’ve always been in first place You say get that Kylie Jenner look those full lips that tan skin that Kylie Jenner look I say you mean look black but not too black Just steal the features and leave the culture I say go aheadWe will still have that black girl magicthose bendy yogi woke dark skinned mamas that twist their hair naturalwho smell like coconut and something spicyWe have that African voodoo swimming in our skin We got that melanin mystique We got blood made of goldYou say white girls winning I say there has never been a competitionI say why is there a competitionWhy is there a competitionfor who can wear my big lips betterfor who can sculpt their best imitation Africanfor who can put their hair in locks they don’t fit in for who can get that black girl lookWithout that black girl magic

Black Girl WalkingBy Lexi Walls

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ENTERTAINMENT

6

“Miracles from Heaven”By Mica Gunby; Contributing Writer

shadow Gardner’s perfor-mance. Gardner, who is an accomplished actress, failed to disappoint the audience with her role in the movie. Her motherly love could be felt through the screen, convincing the audience of her uncondi-tional love and devotion to her little girl. Her emo-tions were as strong as her pain and anger was de-picted so vividly in regard to the health of her daugh-ter. As usual, she nailed her role. One actress who unfor-tunately did not have as prominent role as the au-dience might have wanted was Queen Latifah. Her character, Angela, was a waitress at a local restau-rant in Boston where she happened to meet Anna and Christy. As she im-mediately befriended the mother-daughter duo, she showed them around

by Jennifer Garner, and the father, Kevin Beam, played by Martin Hender-son, have three daughters: thirteen year-old, Abbie, played by Brighton Shar-bino, six year-old, Ade-lynn, played by Courtney Fansler, and ten year-old, Anna, played by Kylie Rogers. The clan has a seemingly easy-going life until suddenly, Anna becomes very ill with an extremely rare digestive disorder called pseudo-ob-struction motility disorder, which makes it impossible for Anna to fully digest food. This disorder was so rare that it took a highly

trained and experienced pediatric doctor to finally identify the disease. Not only is this disease rare, but it is also incurable and very difficult to live with, as victims of this disorder feel endless pain. Christy and Anna go through a wild journey to try and get Anna to be as comfortable as possible. The acting in this movie was simply phe-nomenal. For Rogers to be only twelve years-old and be able to act to that caliber is admirable. Her tears and pain could be felt through the screen. It is still mind-boggling that her performance was just that, a performance. The level of talent possessed in this little girl is so extraor-dinary; it can truthfully be said she is already a better actress than some adults who have long been in the acting business. Rogers did not, however, over-

Boston and lightened the mood of the movie. She was spunky and funny, as usual, and was truly a great addition to the movie. Angela’s character could not have been casted any better. The cinematog-raphy of the movie was absolutely outstanding. A particular scene in which Anna was viewing a paint-ing that she felt strongly about was edited stun-ningly. Though that scene did not have dialogue, it still managed to express so much about how Anna was feeling and allowed the audience to reflect on the scene and gave it im-portance. The rest of the movie was also filmed and edited beautifully. There are no negative criticisms at all regarding the cin-ematography of this film.

The New drama, “Miracles from Heaven,” was released in theaters on Wednesday, March 16. Based on a true story, the story revolves around a young girl who is diag-nosed with a very rare, and medically incurable, digestive disorder. This movie is both heartwarm-ing and heartbreaking at the same time as it takes you through Anna Beam’s amazing story. The story revolves around the Beam fam-ily. This is your average Christian family from Cle-burne, Texas. The mother, Christy Beam, played

New Character Torments LiarsBy Mahima Chauhan; Contributing Writer

Fields comforted her and Alison was checked into a hospital for help. It was later revealed that Alison was not hallucinating, and what she was seeing was in fact real. Except the police officer was actu-ally Alison’s husband who was dressed in a mask and wasn’t so nice after all. On top of that, her moth-er, or so we thought, was revealed. It turns out that her mother had a twin sis-ter, and now she has come to found out many things alongside her accomplice. The finale overall had a surprising twist in

Marin, Shay Mitchell as Emily Fields, and Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings. Other additional characters include Sasha Piesterse as Alison Di-Laurentis, Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz, Keegan Allen as Toby Cavanaugh, Tyler Blackburn as Caleb Riv-ers, and Janel Parrish as Mona Vanderwaal. There are many, many more ad-ditional characters who have come and gone, and have reappeared. As for the finale itself, there were many shocking revelations that came to light Tues-day night. For one, there were hints as to what old couples were up to. Hanna and Caleb were old flames in high school and they united to come up with a risky plan to unmask their tormentor. Spencer Hast-ings and Toby Cavanaugh came together to uncover

details about their pos-sible tormentor’s reason for hiding out in an old hotel basement. Lastly, Aria Montgomery and Ezra Fitz worked together on a book and old feelings came to light as a result. Alison DiLauren-tis had quite a few prob-lems of her own, which included having frequent hallucinations and night-mares about seeing her dead mother and a police officer on the show who had died, but they both now seem to be haunting her. She began to think she was going insane so Emily

the plot. Now a new prob-lem and twist has come to light that the liars must figure out once again. One of the cast members who is Alison’s mother’s twin accomplice, Huw Collins, gave a hint about what is to come in season 7. He said, “I think that season 7 will definitely be the sea-son of answers.” Well, the fans sure hope so. It isn’t clear as to when season 7 will begin on Freeform, but fans hope it will be soon.

Pretty Little Li-ar’s season six finale pre-miered on Tuesday, March 15th, 2016. Pretty Little Liars is a show about four close teenage girls who had a leader of their group that suddenly went miss-ing and the girls received messages from a tormen-tor who was after the girls as well as their leader. They worked to unmask their tormentor because there was a new one each season. Unfortunately, even though the girls be-lieved they had uncovered their tormentor in season 5, a new tormentor has ar-rived yet again. The girls’ problems have occurred for six years now. The series stars four main characters who have been on the televi-sion show since the be-ginning, are Lucy Hale as Aria Montgomery, Ashley Benson as Hanna

ENTERTAINMENT

Kesha Fights for Her Music On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, Ke-sha released a statement thanking her fans for their loving support. Kesha fans have become exceedingly supportive during Kesha’s loss in court against Dr. Luke. She wrote on Insta-gram to express her feel-ings saying “Thank you is not enough but it is all I have. A million times over and forever thank you. The support that I have received has left my face swollen from tears. I love you all so much.” The pop singer stated that she will formally announce a statement soon. The social media post marks the first time Kesha has publicly addressed fans since last week’s legal setback. On February 19, 2016, a New York judge denied the singer’s re-quest for a preliminary injunction, which would have released her from

her contract with her pro-ducer and allowed her to record music elsewhere. The request followed an October 2014 lawsuit Ke-sha filed against Dr. Luke for alleged sexual and emotional abuse spanning nearly a decade. Dr. Luke has denied Kesha’s accu-sations by claiming them “horrendous and untrue.” Dr. Luke tweeted “Imag-ine if you or somebody you loved was publicly accused of rape you knew they did not do. Imag-ine that.” He later added, “When this is over the lies will be exposed and the truth will prevail. I want to thank all my friends and family who have support-ed me throughout this.” Dr. Luke’s lawyer, Christine Lepera, issued a statement to USA TODAY, which said, “the allega-tions towards Dr. Luke are false and outright lies that have been advanced to ex-

tort a contract renegotia-tion and money.” Lepera continued, “Kesha and her counsel have cavalierly subjected Dr. Luke and his family to trial by Twit-ter, using a vicious smear campaign to ruin his repu-tation for financial gain while failing to support their claims or obtaining beneficial evidence. “ Celebrities includ-ing Oscar winners Anne Hathaway and Reese Witherspoon are the lat-est Hollywood A-listers to join the #FreeKesha movement. Both stars took to their Instagram ac-counts and publicly sup-ported the singer after she lost her court case to mu-sic producer Dr. Luke last week. Anne Hathaway wrote on Instagram, “If you are unfamiliar with the case, Lena Dunham does a brilliant job in this week’s Lenny Letter explaining

the nightmare in which Kesha finds herself. Ke-sha’s situation is just one of all-too-many examples of how the legal system in this country fails to pro-tect victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, the vast majority of whom are women. Please regram and add your voice and support #FreeKesha.” Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato have been in a recent twitter battle with one another over Kesha’s situation. Lovato believes

By Meera Panikar; Contributing Writer

Kesha hears the judges decision and begins to sobb. She is supported by her loving family.

that Swift should have sup-ported Kesha earlier, since Swift is a self-proclaimed feminist. In the end, Swift donated $250,000 to help Kesha’s case. Franklin High School student, Anamarie Thilker, said “I cannot be-lieve that this situation is happening to Kesha. She deserves her rights! I hope that the judge reconsiders the case.”

Models Hit the Runway for 2016By Mahima Chauhan; Contributing Writer

2016-2017. The designers work extra hard and put a lot of time, dedication, and effort in order to make sure that their designs and clothing are perfect and prepared for the fashion show. The main goal of the fashion designers was to capture the eyes of the audience watching the show, which included edi-tors and buyers. The trends for the upcoming seasons that were incorporated into Paris Fashion Week’s fash-ion show included many designs that were full of color and a bit peculiar. However, it was clear that these designs captured the audiences’ attention. The major trends that stood out the most were black and white, punk, tribal, mili-tary, and eighties look-ing clothes. These trends have been shown through the many different designs

Paris Fashion Week went from March 1st to March 9th. The fashion show displayed all of Paris’s spring, summer, autumn and winter trends for 2016. Paris Fashion Week comes along twice

a year, once in February, where the spring and sum-mer season fashion trends are displayed and the sec-ond time in September, for all of the models to show off London’s autumn and winter season fashion

trends. Paris Fashion Week is a clothing trade show held biannually in Paris, France where seasonal trends such as spring and summer, and autumn and winter are displayed. Cur-rently, the fashion show is held in the Carrousel du Louvre, as well as other venues throughout the city. It is one of the “Big Four” fashion weeks, as it is called, along with New York, London, and Milan. Designers as well as mod-els come together to show the public the latest trends of the upcoming seasons. The models wore captivating outfits made by famous designers down the runway. Some of de-signers featured in the fashion show were Balen-ciaga, Celine,Valentin Yu-dashkin, and Luis Bochin-ho. All of these designers’ collections in the show were for fall and winter of

and clothing pieces seen on the models that were walking down the runway. Many celebrities visited Paris to view the fashion show. Some of these celebrities that visit-ed were Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Miranda Kerr, and Olivia Culpo. Overall, the designs and collections featured gave an inside look into the upcoming trends in Paris for the upcoming seasons of spring and summer, as well as fall and winter of 2016-2017. All of the clothing worn down the runway was pretty unique and interesting and it defi-nitely fascinated the audi-ence.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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Zayn Malik Goes in Separate DirectionBy Meera Panikar ; Contributing Writer

most notable as the female lead in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Peltz actual-ly confronted Gigi Hadid, Malik’s current girlfriend, about being Malik’s love interest in the music vid-eo. When the “It’s You” music video was released, Perrie Edwards said she was over Malik and was glad he finally found a way to end their relation-ship for good. Most One Di-rection fans have mixed emotions about Zayn’s solo career. Franklin High School student Anamarie Thilker said, “I cannot be-lieve Zayn Malik left One Direction, but his two sin-gles that he just released have honestly been my top two favorite songs to listen to”. Franklin student Stefany Zelaya said, “I literally am in love with

Zayn Malik’s sec-ond hit single, “It’s You,” dropped February 25, 2016 on Apple Music’s Beast 1. The singer has gained at-tention throughout the past few months since his split from the boy band One Di-rection and his fiancé, Per-rie Edwards. However, he has still managed to focus on a solo career and has gained number one rank-ings with his recent releas-es, “Pillowtalk” and “It’s You”. The “Pillowtalk” music video stars Malik’s current model girlfriend, Gigi Hadid. “Pillowtalk.” blew up on sales charts around the globe and en-joyed stints at number one in the U.S., U.K., and Australia; the “Pillowtalk” video has generated more than 134 million hits on YouTube. Malik presented “It’s You” live for the first

time when he appeared on The Tonight Show Star-ring Jimmy Fallon. The “It’s You” mu-sic video was directed by Ryan Hope and is the sec-ond released single from Malik’s forthcoming de-but album, Mind of Mine. The album is said to be re-leased on March 25, 2016,

The “It’s You” music vid-eo is a slow beat song with a black and white video appearance. The storyline behind the slow melodies and melancholy lyrics was Malik’s way of interpret-ing his split from Edwards. The girl that portrayed Ed-wards in the music video was actress, Nicola Peltz,

Zayn Malik. I listen to both of his songs on re-peat between every single class in school. His voice is a blessing in this world. I have waited for his new album, Mind of Mine, to be released, but I guess I have to wait a few more days.” Franklin sopho-more Scarlett Horn said, “I really enjoyed One Di-rection performing togeth-er and I think that it was wrong for him to leave his friends behind and create a solo career. His life seems to be going well, and I hope that he has a prosper-ous career.”

“Street Fighter V” Falls Short of Knock OutBy Ayinde Roberts; Contributing Writer

Just a few weeks ago, one of the most an-ticipated fighting games of the year came out: Street Fighter V, (SFV) the pro-verbial cash cow pub-lished and developed by Capcom. What started as a great and highly-anticipat-ed game faded a little bit with the releases of Mortal Kombat XL and Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. Now, after the release of SFV, is the wait worth it? Well… Well as previously said, the game was fight-ing an uphill battle. The release of Mortal Kombat XL took a lot of traffic away from the game with the announcement of new stage fatalities and new playable characters Leath-erface, Triborg, Bo’ Rai Cho and the Xenomorph from Alien. Then, just re-cently, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 was released on Play-station 4 and Xbox One and was met with critical praise. Now we have Street

Fighter V, which isn’t bad but isn’t good either. What is very great about the game is the graphics. The game is absolutely stunning, with beauti-fully rendered sprites and backgrounds and cleverly designed characters. Us-ing V-Triggers also added to the beauty of the game. The special moves are great and look fantastic. Capcom really took their time to create a beautiful game. The Super moves are even better, creating flashy and aesthetically pleasing Super combos. The characters are fairly good as well. You can tell that each character is dif-ferent and have their own personalities: characters like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Bison all remain the same as they were be-fore. However, new char-acters like R. Mika and Necalli all have different special moves and Super combos that differentiate themselves from the other

characters. Some charac-ters have lasting effects (F.A.N.G has a poison ef-fect) whilst Ken has burn-ing. However, by that, the gameplay is exactly the same as the more warmly received Street Fighter IV. That’s not good at all; with Mortal Kombat XL and Storm 4 reinventing from the games before them, SFV has to do the same. Instead, the gameplay is exactly the same as oth-er Street Fighter games. Again: not good. There is almost no substance in the game. Yes, multiplayer is a big part of fighting games and when it works, it’s great. How-ever the crux of the game shouldn’t be the multi-player. The single player should be interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, the game offers two single player options: Survival and Story. The story mode isn’t worth the time and effort to get invested in, so that only leaves survival.

Even so, it’s not like other survival modes. It’s more like an Arcade mode with “battle supplements” that the game offer in exchange for points. It’s fun for the first time playing, but then it gets stale and – for lack of a better term – boring.At the end of the day, Street Fighter V is dis-appointing on so many levels. While the graph-ics are appealing and the gameplay remains mostly unchanged, the lack of

content and too similar gameplay make the game so much more boring than it should be. The fact that Capcom is going to have DLC characters and modes just make the game much worse than it actually is. If you’re looking for a great fighting game, get Mortal Kombat or Ultimate Ninja Storm 4; you can skip out on Street Fighter V until Capcom comes out with a real game.

By Nina Durant; Contributing Writer

FRANKLIN SPORTS

Indoor Track Starts and Ends with a Bang

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The State Championship meet was held at Prince Georg-es Sports and Learning Complex.

On February 23, 2016, Franklin’s Track and Field team competed at the states championship, which was held at Prince Georges Sport and Learn-ing Complex. The girl’s team came in third place, while the boys team came in eighteenth place. Al-though they were not able to keep their team title as the overall state champi-ons, there were many in-dividual athletes that were champions in their own events. Sophomore Nyjari McNeil came in first place in the 500 and the 4x2. McNeil easily made it to states because of her hard work, dedication, and near perfect record. As a sopho-more, it is very impressive that McNeil was able to make it to States, let alone win them. Everyone was impressed with her speed and endurance during the

longer distance runs. Dur-ing the 4x4 McNeil got a late start due to complica-tions passing the baton, but was still able to catch up and lap all of the other runners.

Senior Amanda Murphy became a state champion shot put throw-er for the fourth year in a row. Murphy has come in first place for shot put at every county meet, re-

gional meet, and state meet for her entire high school career. This is ex-tremely impressive: There are many other strong, competitive throwers who can throw at a similar dis-tance. However, Murphy has worked extremely hard and used a personal trainer. Outside of practic-es, she gets help from pro-fessional throwers to help her improve her technique and go farther than just states. With the motiva-tion of her personal trainer on the side, Murphy was able to keep her winning streak at states. She threw a final distance of 40 feet and 6 inches. Despite all of the success, there were some minor mishaps. Unfortu-nately, there were some runners who were sup-posed to run but could not do so because of injuries. Because of this, less expe-

riences runners had to fill in these spots. Junior Fad-hili Maina was not used to running such long distanc-es and ended up getting sick. He was forced to sit out for the rest of the meet. “Everyone did great, it was absolutely phenomenal. I’m so proud of everyone. Even though we couldn’t win state champs for boys, every-one did an excellent job. I’m definitely impressed with Amanda Murphy be-cause she was able to keep the name of state champ for four years in a row and that’s one of the best records out there. It’s also great for her personally because she was offered many scholarships for var-ious colleges. Overall I’m super proud of everyone, from participating to just coming and supporting others,” said Coach Paul Hannsen

The Girls’ La-crosse program began in the middle of the winter with pre-season training inside, and now has al-ready had two scrimmag-es. The program was off to a rough starts with Junior Varsity only having one substitute. Within a week, the team accepted a few walk-ons and had plenty to field a team with subs too. The pre-season training, every Tuesday and Thursday night got everyone in shape for the season to come. Varsity head coach, Jan Rosen-thal, said his goal for the season is for Franklin High School to make it to regionals in the playoffs. Pre-season con-sisted of running, “taba-tas”, medicine ball work-outs, and some time in the weight room. Once tryouts began on March 1st, the season jumped into full

swing. In the first week, there was already a draw clinic led by two Johns Hopkins Womens’ La-crosse players. The girls’ teams have been practicing six days a week since March 1st and will continue to do so until their goal is reached. The first scrim-mage of the season was hosted at Franklin against Sparrows Point High School. For the first game of the season, both teams played well; Junior Var-sity lost, and Varsity won. Athough the JV game was cut short because of an in-jury on the opposing team, they still played extremely hard and showed the po-tential for a strong sea-son to come. Goals were scored by Rachel Silhavy, Danielle Stein, Katie Is-rael, and Anya Litofsky. In the varsity game, the team battled

back and forth with a tough Sparrow’s Point group. The score was up and down throughout the day, but Franklin’s Indians triumphed in the end, 10-6. Sophomore, Cali Platt contributed two goals to the final scored, but it was a team effort overall. The first official game of the season was played on Friday, March 18, against Loch Raven

High School. Danielle Stein had three goals, Rachel Silhavy had four, Katie Israel had two, Anya Litofsky had two, and Kylie Chisnell scored one, making the score 12-5. Silhavy had two as-sists and Stein had one. The goalie finished with a total of 16 saves. If JV keeps up this scoring clin-ic, they will surely reach their goal of the regional

finals. In the Varsity game, the score was 12-5 as well. Goals were scored by Lyla Robinson, Mia Alverez, Rachel Ridgley, Cali Platt, and Julian Lutz. Megan Lipo had a great interception that led to a goal too. Sophomore, Cali Platt says, “I am very ex-cited for the rest of the season.” Her mother Marci Platt says, “I am glad ev-eryone is playing like a team. Coach Jan seems very content and pleased with the gelling of the team.” The season looks very bright for both Frank-lin team. They moved down a division this sea-son, so they have a good chance of making it very far into the playoffs.

Girl’s Lacross Gets Jump on New SeasonBy Danielle Stein; Contributing Writer

Anya Litofsky and Katie Israel take the draw in practice to prepare for the upcoming North Carroll game.

Lyla Robinson and Olivia Adelman face off in the cold first practices.

As spring officially arrives, Franklin’s softball team is getting out on the field in order to practice for its challenging season coming up. This year, the softball team has big goals. The tryouts for the varsity softball team were very competitive this year compared to the previous years. Normally in the past, the softball team has not had as many or even any cuts, but this year the softball team had six cuts made from the varsity team. A senior at Frank-lin, Stephanie Canning, said, “The tryouts were very hard and competitive

for this season because the coach was looking for the best.” Since this season is so competitive, in order for a player to get playing time she needs to prove herself to show how good of a player she is in every practice and every part of the games she is put in. There are six practices a week and each practice is held for two hours. The pitcher of the varsity softball team is ju-nior Jamie Finnical. She is a great player and has al-ready committed to Elon university class of 2021. She had done very well in the past and hopefully will be a key factor in leading

the team to victories this season. Finnical loves this sport and practices year round in order to keep up with her skills and do well. There are so many

practices that the team will dedicate solely to condi-tioning in order to improve their strength and endur-ance. Canning said “I love the sport. This sport helps

me relive my stress and it helps to keep me in shape.” Canning plays second base and outfield and she enjoys it very much. Even though many players do not plan on continuing this sport after high school like Canning, they plan on giv-ing it their all while play-ing in high school. The daily practices help the players become better, faster, and stron-ger. The softball team will continue giving their full effort for the whole season and continue making the corrections that they need. This will lead the softball team to victory.

By Nina Durant; Contributing Writer

FRANKLIN SPORTS

Softball Swings into Spring

Franklin’s Not-So Secret Agent

By Emily Rubin; Contributing Writer

Coach Agent has been coaching football for twenty six years now and loves it more than any-thing. “I wouldn’t trade

football for anything in the world, it’s all I’ve had all my life and I absolutely love it. I love coaching it, I love playing it, and I defi-nitely love watching it.” While football is in season, Coach Agent is as strict as can be. “Coach Agent is fun to be around but when it’s time to work, we have to stick to the four rules. He has a great sense of humor and I’m grate-ful for having him in my life. Agent is definitely experienced and he treats us as if we’re in college to get us ready and pre-pared for the future.” says senior varsity lineman Luis Belmonntes. While

Coach Burgos is the head coach for varsity, Coach Agent has been the offen-sive line coach for nine years. During the off season of football, Coach Agent coaches women’s and men’s shot put and discus for both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Even though he enjoys the sport, it doesn’t com-pare to football to him. He started coaching track and field nine years ago when a track coach at Woodlawn High School found out that he was the Maryland Scholastic Athletic As-sociation state champion for shot put and discus

and asked Coach Agent to help his athletes, and has been coaching ever since. Coach Agent said,“It was never my plan to start coaching and I never actu-ally thought about coach-ing track ever but ever since that day the coach asked me to demonstrate, I guess it just stuck to me. I would still never trade it for football though.” Every coach has their own way of coach-ing, and on the field Coach Agent has four specific rules that ever player on the team knows by heart. These rules are: “Be on time, give 100%, be re-spectful, and have fun.”

Coach Agent thinks that “You don’t have to be a perfect angel, just know how to keep everything together and get what you need to get done, done.” Coach Agent’s favorite quote to encourage his ath-letes is “Activity does not equal productivity.” Coach Agent coaches football, shot put, and discus very differ-ently. He said that “During football I definitely agree that I am a total different person. Football I take as serious as a life. But with track it’s different. It’s much easier and doesn’t require as much discipline as football does.”

Franklin Gazette Staff

Bridget McNamaraRegan Fleischer

Ayinde Roberts

Mahima Chauhan

Emily Dioguardo

Yasmeen AliLuis Belmontes

Sydney GaskinsLyle Drescher

Gyselle Lopez

Haelle LitvakMeera PanikarMaiya RobinsonMary Shelton

Anieyah SmithEmily Rubin Josiah LindsayMackenzie Warfield

Nina DurantMicaela GunbyDevin Johnson

Sylvie Lass Danielle Stein

Megan Lipo

Editors

Staff Writers

Dario Toval

Savannah Ward Ashley Young 10