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Cleveland Pep

Assemblies:

An Intellectual Analysis By Marius Bodmin

No, It’s Not An

Anti-Clarion By Luna Tachyon

The Warrior Voice is not a juvenile attempt to defy the system or otherwise ‘stick it to the man’. It’s not an anti-Clarion: anything that provides a method for students to express themselves has my full support. It’s not against school spirit—all opinions expressed are those of the individuals expressing them and not the newspaper as a whole.

And it has not been set up as a rival publication of the Clarion or the Literary Magazine. Rather, it is a way for students who may not be directly connected to either of those projects to share their ideas. The Warrior Voice, which released its first issue in January 2010, is a quarterly student-run newspaper. Discussion about the possibility of creating such a newspaper began a year ago. The original authors decided to use pen-names, not because they were afraid to claim responsibility for their ideas, but for the benefit of the reader. In such a large school, we have the privilege of getting to know only a few of our fellow

students on a personal level. The rest we know only on an acquaintance basis and impressions from occasional encounters. The decision to use pen-names was made with the intention of allowing the reader to appreciate the newspaper free from any presuppositions they may have about the authors and solely for the quality of the articles and ideas expressed.

The reasons for creating such a newspaper are numerous. It provides yet another way for students to share their ideas. It is student-run, which means that it provides writing, editing, and organizing experience, as well as those rare and fantastic moments of eating pizza with a group of friends around a table piled high with folded papers and realizing that you have created a finished product. Lastly and most importantly, it is our hope and goal that from time to time our readers will be meaningfully affected by an article in The Warrior Voice.

College-itis

By Luna Tachyon

Take hard classes. Get perfect grades. Play a sport—no, two. Play an instrument. Get a job; volunteer. It looks good on your transcript. One of the most difficult components of high school is college. Parents, counselors, teachers, neighbors, and sometimes complete strangers all have ideas about what you should do to get into what they consider the ideal school. The multitude of advice and expectations is enough to overwhelm anyone.

Shirley Levin, a college-admissions consultant for twenty-three years, says "Never have stress levels for high school students been so high about where they get in, or about the idea that if you don't get into a glamour college, your life is somehow ruined” (theatlantic.com). There are entire books written about how to build the perfect transcript. And yet, is it good to encourage students to mold themselves into what admissions officers at high-ranked colleges want to see? The job of a college admissions officer is to match students and schools, to select

The Warrior Voice Published by an ‘Anonymous’ Press

Issue 2 - March 2010

Have a different perspective?

Send questions, comments, and article proposals to warriorvoice@gmail.com or visit the blog: chswarriorvoice.wordpress.com

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students with the highest potential of thriving at a given college. If you live your high school years based on what will look good on your transcript, instead of your interests, you interfere with the accuracy of this process. Your goal should be to get into the school that fits your interests and strengths, not the expectations of your parents. If playing mind games with admissions officers is tying your brain in a knot, save yourself the stress, because what college admissions officers want most of all is for your transcript to be an accurate representation of yourself. Take challenging classes, play sports, and volunteer because it makes for a well rounded life, not a well rounded transcript.

From the Editor in Chief: I want to thank all of our new readers for the feedback, both good and bad, for The Warrior Voice’s first issue. It has been exhilarating to watch the paper grow from an idea to a tangible and vivid reality. I am grateful for our new writers, motivated press, and the new frontier The Warrior Voice is creating at Cleveland High.

As we published our paper, I began to question and compare ourselves with the media around us and wondered how newspapers or advertising transitioned into the propaganda and the conditioning we see today. The media plays an important role in society. Through television, radio, newspapers, and the internet, our media has adapted to reach the entire country. We complain about the lies our media tells us, but rarely

take action to change it. We often forget that the media is not omnipotent; the type of media we accept is up to us. We may be misinformed or not informed at all about our wars, economy, and politics, but we still have the prerogative to seek the truth and spread it. As Dan Attoe, local artist, would say, “You have more freedom than you’re using”.

So, use your freedom, voice your opinions, don’t be afraid, and remember that the world is full of choices. Nous sommes l’avenir

(we are the future), Darcy McKnight

Caged Creativity By Darcy McKnight

Art for people around the world has always provided a creative outlet for self-expression. Art in public schools has always been an elective, something to take up the period or an “easy A”. At Cleveland, students have the opportunity to improve their art skills by taking IB Art. You can spot IB Art students throughout the school, all sporting the same black sketchbook filled with an interesting combination of art and writing. No matter how beautiful these books may be inside, they are a constant reminder of the unnecessary time required to complete them.

As many IB Art students know, art is no walk in the park when it comes to IB. Students are required to produce six pages of written and drawn brain storms, five pages of complete research

on history or culture, two media experiments which must contain the gravity of a subject, neither ‘too cute’ nor ‘too much’. All of this is collected every other week. It is expected to have taken you at least an hour a day. In addition to this heavy workload, students must complete at least nine studio pieces during the year, which must relate to a single theme. While this type of curriculum is said to prepare students for art in college, it is universal that IB art students are disappointed and overworked.

The critique from IB Art teachers is problematic. Art teachers in this setting are given the power to pick what is considered “good art” and “bad art”. Of course, because art in school is a class, it must be graded, but it should be graded on the principles of design or basic elements of art that are included in the piece, not the teacher’s personal taste.

As an art student, your content is controlled via strict guidelines regarding the color, meaning, and theme of your work. No art pieces are to be made without the five-page brainstorm process. When spontaneity is disallowed in art, something is wrong. IB Art takes creativity and freedom of expression from art by warping it into a step-by-step process. An ideal way to grade the art process would be to allow students to create at their own will, and simply reflect afterwards on their thoughts and processes. This would give IB evaluators more content on the actual pieces rather than on brainstorms that will mostly be unused.

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Let IB Art realize that art is still meant to be a free expression, something that cannot be committed to a set of guidelines on how to make it. Warhol, Polluck, Vangogh, etc, could tell you following the rules in art never gets you anywhere.

Silent Noise By Luna Tachyon

The Day of Silence is a national event that calls attention to the discrimination faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. It began in 1996 at the University of Virginia. This year on April 16th, the nation will celebrate the fourteenth annual Day of Silence. Students who wish to show support for making school a safe and respectful place for everyone refrain from speaking to echo the silence faced by members of the queer community. Students may carry ‘speaking cards’, which contain a brief description of the purpose of the Day of Silence, followed by, “I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today. What are you going to do to end the silence?" I fully believe that all students regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity deserve a welcoming school environment. However, I have mixed feelings about the Day of Silence. It is successful in raising awareness, but it also presents a contradiction. How can you break the silence by practicing it? Additionally, silence can interfere with the necessary flow of communications that takes place during a school day. This

frustration can lead to negative experiences that may deter people who support diversity from participating in the Day of Silence.

Creating a welcoming environment is worth the minor inconveniences of the Day of Silence, but there are other ways to work toward this goal. I propose an additional, or perhaps simultaneous, event: the Day of Rainbow. This combination of colors symbolizes diversity, with particular regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. Historically, colors have often been used as a way to show support for a group or movement. Pink is used to call attention to breast cancer. Red is the color for heart disease. In the early 1900s, yellow was used to show support for the women’s suffrage movement. On April 16th, I will wear rainbow to show my support for creating a respectful and welcoming environment for all students.

Visual symbols can send a powerful message. You have the ability to reach out to a fellow student and tell him or her that they are accepted. You have the power to take a stand against discrimination, to tell the world that everyone deserves to be treated with respect. What message will you send?

Behind the Silence

By Nancy Quick Why walk out of school for health reform? Why are riots started in the name of peace? And if you follow this same kind of logic, why stay silent for gay rights? However, in that case, the comparison cannot be made. Every year in April there is one day set aside where a vow of silence is made. The first Day of Silence was organized by GLSEN in 1996. To raise awareness and promote equality. Unfortunately, it’s almost constantly under fire. These days, in a progressive town like Portland, the majority doesn't have too big of a tiff with the gay kids.

Our misfortune is that the Day of Silence is one of those things that you can claim to be supporting while really just shirking your studently duties. I have been told that the Day of Silence is counterproductive to any of my particular causes (gay rights, marriage, etc). I have had people specifically tell me that it is moving any hope of equal rights and awareness backwards. I spend 364 out of 365 days talking about awareness and rights. I am open 364 days of the year to talking with anyone who wants to, anyone willing to climb the wall that mysteriously appears when you mention that you like girls too. The only times that a stranger has honestly wanted to talk about gay rights have been Days of

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Silence. The only day of the year that I stay utterly quiet is when people notice, and are willing to talk. The sudden appearance of silent peers and ally stickers creates much more of a ruckus than I ever could in my 364 days. I'm going to reiterate that once more: three HUNDRED and SIXTY FOUR days organizing marches, attending rallies, and giving out my phone number to stressed and questioning teens. The only disruption to a classroom that a group of quiet kids could cause would be the inevitable 'I'm going to goad you into talking' bully, but usually they just don't understand what is going on. Day of Silence doesn't happen because you are at school, just most of the time you are at school when it happens. We would be equally reticent to speaking on a weekend if the Day were to happen to fall there.

This is disregarding all of the symbolism that pervades the Day. It's like shoving most of your adolescence into a 24 hour period. During the day, you mimic your time in the closet in remembrance of yourself and in honor of the people who aren't ready to come out yet. Then, those of us who are out imitate it in the Night of Noise party that takes place that same day after dark. It's like a little festival, something to be celebrated, and one of the first ways that I was able to show my support. I want gay to be as normal as Black History Month, and if writing notes and then going to a party helps, then I'm game.

Clean up Your Act,

Cleveland By Marius Bodmin

It’s something one starts to take for granted after a while. Maybe it disgusted me the first time I walked through Cleveland halls, but as is a tendency with so many unpleasant, distasteful, and revolting things, I soon learned to dismiss the unacceptable as the norm, turn my head (and in some cases cover my nose) and continue on my way.

Our hallways, bathrooms, and practice rooms are often so trash-strewn that they seem entirely unfit for human occupation. Junior hall is a nightmare after lunchtime—everything from splintered goldfish to sandwich halves litters the ground. While some students make attempts at cleanliness, others abandon their cafeteria lunch trays entirely—leaving them on the ground for someone else to take care of, and simultaneously reaffirming my regretful conclusions that many treat the hallways as personal trashcans.

The bathrooms provide fouler atrocities. Though they trail a distant second to the abominations evident within the freshman restroom, I have seen everything from racial slurs to feces smeared on the walls of the “safest” bathrooms in the school. Such things make me want to abandon any remaining faith in humanity I possess and spend the

rest of my life in sorrowful reclusion.

The most inexcusable of these animalistic behaviors occur in the practice rooms. As a result of a lack in funding and undoubtedly of heinous misuse, the majority of Cleveland pianos are decrepit and horribly out of tune. Yet this cannot excuse the primal abandon with which debris is scattered throughout the rooms. I have developed the habit of sweeping my music folder across the pianos to rid the instruments of the countless wrappers, congealing plastic bags, and yes, once even an entire untouched burger that have accumulated there. On the worst days, I have observed ants crawling from between the keys themselves—the product of a tasty morsel shoved into the instrument itself. Who is responsible? I have no idea. It’s hard to imagine even the meanest of Cleveland’s bottom-crawlers discarding entire Burgerville lunches within practice rooms and departing with any scrap of self-worth intact. Maybe it’s a small contingency;

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at the Music In The Schools

March Showcase :

Friday March 12th 8:30-11:55 at Backspace (115 NW 5th Ave )

$3 students $6 adults

Proceeds go to Music In The Schools.

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maybe it’s most of the student population. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that, ultimately, everyone is responsible for the cleanliness and interior image of our school. Perhaps it’s shallow to place so much stock in appearances, but these appearances are direct testaments to our character and school spirit. So please, show some school spirit and do your part to keep our halls, bathrooms, and practice rooms clean. I won’t complain about the occasional dropped wrapper, but there really aren’t any excuses for the abandoned cafeteria lunches left for custodians or the occasional philanthropic student to sweep away. And please—for my own mental health, if nothing else—keep the burgers away from the pianos.

Help for Haiti By Luna Tachyon

& Darcy McKnight

The earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, 2010 was the worst Haiti has had in 240 years. It was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake centered offshore of the nation’s densely populated capital. The damage left 3,000,000 people in need of emergency aid, buildings and homes crushed, and a death toll of over 230,000 that continues to rise. All over the world, countries are working together to raise money and send aid to the damaged country. Cleveland organized Cleveland-Haitian Support, a group made up of various Cleveland clubs and

student unions. They will be holding a variety of fundraisers from texting to kickball and donating the proceeds to Mercy Corps.

The Mercy Corps Action Center recently opened in downtown Portland and will be home through April to Design For The Other 90%, an educational exhibit about technologies that benefit people in poor or unstable countries. These technologies must be durable, simple, and efficient and address areas like food, water, shelter, and energy. The displayed items include long-lasting mosquito nets and tools for building sanitary latrines as well as water filtration systems and corncob fuel. These technologies and programs like Comfort for Kids (which provides education for caregivers about dealing with children’s trauma and activities like art and sports for kids) will be fundamental in rebuilding Haiti.

It is fantastic to see our school’s groups and organizations work together to become a part of this global unity to help Haiti. Cleveland fundraised over $1400 dollars to donate to Mercy Corps for Haiti!

The Other 85% by Luna Tachyon

I remember that my grandma smoked, but I never saw her do it. Grandma was part of the generation that became addicted to cigarettes before the negative health effects were discovered. She was ashamed of it, and she

did as much as she could to limit the affect on her loved ones. She would not smoke indoors or even within a block of the house in which she knew her grandchildren would be playing. When I was eight, my baby brother was born with childhood asthma. Within his first two years of life he was hospitalized four times, sometimes for several days. On midnight drives to ER it was my job to hold up his head in the back seat and make sure he kept breathing.

When I was ten, Grandma died of lung cancer. She was proud to have successfully quit smoking before her death. Given these experiences I am continually astounded and angered by the number of people who choose to smoke. The generation that became addicted to cigarettes without knowing of their toxicity has largely passed, yet cigarette consumption has remained relatively steady. Whether or not to smoke is a personal decision, but it is important to remember that the effects are widespread. Only 15% of the smoke from a cigarette is inhaled by the smoker. The other 85%, composed largely of known carcinogens, remains in the air to be inhaled as secondhand smoke. It contains twice as much tar and nicotine, three times as much carcinogenic benzpyrene, five times as much carbon monoxide, and fifty times as much ammonia per unit volume as the smoke inhaled by the smoker. 70-90% of nonsmokers in the U.S. are exposed to it. Every year in the U.S. secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 deaths by lung cancer, 46,000 deaths by

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heart disease, and up to 15,000 infant hospitalizations. It can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths if inhaled by pregnant women. The other day at the bus stop I saw a group of people smoking. A stream of smoke from one of their cigarettes drifted over a young woman inhaling deeply from an inhaler. I wanted to knock the cigarettes out of their hands and demand to know what right they had to risk someone else’s health for their own pleasure. The effects of secondhand smoke are rarely this obvious, but they are present. You don’t know who will breathe the toxins in the smoke of your cigarette. Think before you make that choice for them. Think before you put known poisons into the air my brother and other children breathe every day. If you do not smoke and know someone who wants to quit, offer them your fullest support. Quitting is difficult, but it can be done. If you smoke, consider: smoking is a personal decision, but it doesn’t affect just you. We all breathe from the same air. It’s up to you what you put into it.

School Grading Systems:

Students or Potential

Factory Workers? By Pavlo Underwood

Do you understand all of the concepts in class, get good grades on tests, and yet still manage to get B’s and C’s in classes you should be getting A’s in? First of all, you are not alone, and secondly, it might not be

completely your fault. It is my personal belief that the vast majority of problems students have with their grades are the true fault of the school grading system. Public schools as we know them today did not exist until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was a time when industry was taking hold of the American economy and when people like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were becoming the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world. During this time, the majority of the population was very poor, living in slums and working in factories for less than livable wages. Andrew Carnegie, the godfather of philanthropy, provided a large amount of funding for modern public services, including public schools. At the time, public schools were designed on the grounds that a student would graduate and be ready to start a job as a factory worker. Of course, people would not be working in factories for long. It was not only the age of industry, but also the age of innovation. Not long after the factories had begun producing at top output, many of the jobs previously occupied by humans would be performed by machines. In today’s economy, we have little need for factory workers, but the school system remains much the same. We are all familiar with the grading system: tests, participation, and homework. A large part of your grade is made up of homework, based not on how much you learn, but how much work you put in. For some, this is a blessing. Some people get better grades because of their diligence, even if they

have limited understanding, whereas some people with deep knowledge on a given subject suffer due to failing to crank out daily work. In fact, some students have attended ‘High School Re-design’ meetings here at Cleveland. The point of these meetings is for students and parents to meet with the administration and give their input or ask questions about the pending changes. Unfortunately, many of the students who have attended the meetings have said that largely, they are a waste of time. When ideas are presented, the administrator will say that it is a good idea, and also why it won’t work. The administrator has stated that this design will not be taken into effect for the next two years, and questions are always answered with “we don’t have an answer at this time”. It is easy to wonder if the point of these meetings is merely to inform you that the change will be made and to provide you with the illusion of having a say in it.

http://www.myspace.com/drloomis

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Drug Use:

What Happened, Guys? By Marius Bodmin

Every day, I walk past Burgerville and experience a moment of confusion. I’ve learned to dismiss the hanging odor of cigarette smoke as an element of the quintessential south-east Portland grit. I’ve learned to turn a deaf ear, a blind eye, and a plugged nose to the junkies lighting up—some part of me even appreciates them as an element of the sought-after (and sadly overrated) “real world.” My only complaint is this: why is it so obvious?

The factors just don’t seem to add up. Pot is illegal. Underage possession of tobacco is illegal. As far as I know, dealing drugs within a two hundred foot parameter of a high school is a felony. Cleveland is equipped with both resident hall monitors and an installed police officer. If I were a hall monitor, or a police officer unfortunate enough to be stationed at a high school, bringing the good old fist of justice down would provide a satisfactory and exciting episode in an otherwise boring and uneventful shift. Surely the campus security is desirous of activities more stimulating than the doling out of detentions, or the discovery of “BNC” scrawled across yet another bathroom wall. It’s not tough detective work. There is nothing covert about the

dealing or smoking going on across the street—you can see the hanging clouds of cigarette smoke and the clustered crowds of flannel-clad stoners from the front office. I don’t understand the complexity or difficulty of marching across the street and making it clear that drug dealing will not be abided. Will a few arrests solve Cleveland drug problems? Of course not. Will they instigate further feelings of animosity for the police? Probably. But the

point simply must be made. The alternate message would be that drug usage and dealing is not only possible, but tolerable— influential to such a pervasive extent that even the police have given up. We want an environment better than that. Just because drug use in high school is inevitable doesn’t mean it should not be fought. We have the resources, we have the reasons. Let’s take action.

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS:

Readers rave, rant, and review

Dear editors of The Warrior Voice, I am not a writer. I have NO idea who any of these writers are. But I don't care. For the first time in my high school career, I felt connected to people at my school. I felt that maybe I wasn't such a screw up. I wasn't fucked in the head. There were other people out there. When I first got the Warrior Voice, I was ecstatic. I read you (it?) out loud to a friend, and I realized that this was intelligent writing. I was proud of Cleveland. And I took it for granted. I figured everyone agreed with it, or just didn't give a crap. Until I got the Clarion. I agree that some of the articles in the Voice were negative. But you sparked intelligent conversation, other than “Oh wow, some dude won some honor thing”. But they went out of line. I felt insulted. They made me feel inferior. I am sorry that the Warrior Voice made you feel like a mindless drone, my certain friend, but maybe you are. The Clarion staff was insulted by the Warrior Voice, but I get insulted everyday. I feel inferior, because I don't have this “school spirit”. I wanted to say thank you. I feel like the Warrior Voice editors would be the only people to understand me. Please do a 2nd edition. Thank you for helping me regain my faith in this school community. ~An Anonymous Reader

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Revolutionary Writers & Books Follow Up: After reading the article about pep assemblies in the last issue of The Warrior Voice, students at Franklin High School approached their vice principal with the same concerns and were given a place to work during their school’s assemblies as an alternative to attending pep assemblies. They have a choice now. This kind of influence makes The Warrior Voice worthwhile. It is the fundamental truth of published writing that bring about change - it allows your voice and spirit to be heard, agreed with, disagreed with, appreciated or rejected in places as far afield as another local high school. So, write on, and let your own voice be heard!

~Marius Bodmin

William Lloyd Garrison Harriet Beecher Stowe Mary Wolstencraft Shakespeare Thomas Paine The Liberator Common Sense Uncle Tom’s Cabin Charles Darwin George Orwell Karl Marx Das Kapital Rachel Carson Silent Spring Leo Tolstoy War and Peace Adam Smith Henry David Thoreau

THE WARRIOR VOICE STAFF

Publisher DARCY MCKNIGHT

Associate Publisher MARIUS BODMIN

Editor in Chief DARCY MCKNIGHT

Executive Editor ARIETTA FUGUE-ROBINSON

Layout & Design DARCY MCKNIGHT

Production Director LUNA TACHYON

Communications Director NANCY QUICK

Want To Write For

The Warrior Voice? Send a first draft to the group email (warriorvoice@gmail.com). The Warrior Voice publishing staff will see it there and have the opportunity to edit it using track changes. This means you retain control of your article; you decide which edits to keep and when your article is a final draft. We will contact you with more information once you have completed your first article. Welcome to the Warrior Voice!