Opinion Page 6

What the %@#$?A new approach to dealing with expressions of uncon-trollable anger

September 12, 2012

INSIDE52.1

News Page 2

The Finger ScannerThe school moves into the technological future with the new finger scanner

Feature Page 4Memoirs of a Criminal

Entertainment Page 3

What we’re reading“The Fault in Our Stars”Read about the coming of age of two teens learning to cope with cancer

Sports Page 8

Olympians in the makingAthletes look to Olympic athletes for inspiration and strive for greatness

courtesy of tagxedo.com

02news September 12, 2012

Cafeteria installs new finger scanners

Kuder, Inc. offers online portfolios and career tests

Students vote for Swift and music grant

By Alyssah PinitsakThis year the school introduced a new

fingerscan technology called IdentiMetrics that allows students to pay for their lunches in the place of ID cards in the cafeteria and at lunch carts. Students’ fingers were recorded in the system during registration in prepara-tion for the school year.

When the student reaches the front of the line, he or she places an index finger on a pad about the size of a car’s garage opener and a finger-print is scanned. The software identifies the finger’s unique points, which are encrypted and connected to the student’s identification number and the amount is charged onto the account. The student’s name, account balance, and an image of his or her face will appear on the computer screen in front of the cashier.

For students who would rather use their student ID cards, there is still one lunch line out of the five in the cafe-teria that still accepts ID cards. Kids with dirty or even sweaty fingers are advised to use their ID cards intead.

In 2010, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools had also planned

to install finger scanners in the lunch room. However, some parents were concerned with the new method because of iden-tity concerns. The controversial finger scanner ID system was eventually dropped

and banned in some states due to opposi-tion from parents sincerely worried about student privacy.

LAUSD originally promoted finger scanners because printing the yellow lunch

tickets costs LAUSD about $1million a year. The tickets also identified low-income students, which is against federal regulations for the meal program.

Nevertheless, the practice of scanning students’ fingers to identify them quickly in cafeterias has grown in popularity over the last decade. It is being used by school districts in a number of states, including California.

“Finger scanners are expected to reduce the risk of a student’s ID card getting stolen or lost and help eliminate cler-ical errors. The system prevents other students from using another student’s lunch card or number to purchase meals. This makes billing more accu-rate and saves parents time and money. We hope that lunch will be more convenient for both the students and parents this year,” cafeteria clerk Erica Avina said.

However, some students have mixed opinions in regards to the new finger scanners. “I

believe that the school installed finger scan-ners to avoid student fraud and possible lawsuits. However, I dislike the tradeoff because lunch lines are now longer and slower,” senior Jeric Yap said

By Neda SalamiThe school now provides an online

program, Kuder Navigation, that allows

students to plan for their careers and orga-nize their high school work in an online portfolio.

All of the students enrolled at the school receive an account for this online tool.

Through the tools on the Kuder site, students can organize their high school, college and career life all at once.

With the online portfolio, students are able to store and organize the assign-ments completed in high school as well as the grades they received. They are even able to keep track of the school activities in which they participated.

Throughout the year, teachers will be encouraging their students to upload assign-ments to this online portfolio in order for them to have a way to showcase what they have learned throughout their high school careers.

“The online portfolio is going to give students the state of the art tools to be successful,” Career Adviser and Work Expe-rience Coordinator Marc Munkres said.

Not only will the Kuder program help students in terms of organizing their work, but it will also help students financially with their higher education goals. Kuder Naviga-tion displays many opportunities for schol-arship.

The scholarships range from essay contests to random drawings. Many scholar-ships provide college bonds or money grants for students who need financial aid or have exceptional grade point averages (GPAs).

After activating their accounts, students can complete online career tests that help each student decide what field is best for him or her. The online tests provide students

with the knowledge that allows them to focus on future goals such as becoming lawyers, doctors, writer, and engineers.

Kuder Navigation helps students at a more financial level by offering a list of jobs that would best fit the student. The jobs are listed in categories, which would allow students to apply for jobs they would be most successful at.

Also, students are able to look at univer-sities and colleges across the United States, which will help them decide what school best fits with their future careers.

The website provides templates and online help for making resumés or completing job applications. Users can optimize the opportunities provided from the online portfolio due to its user -friendly interface and easy accessibility.

“These job opportunities and support are very helpful in today’s environment because, as the availability of jobs decreases, job applications and resumés need to be more impressive in order for someone to get the job,” Munkres said.

Every Thursday afternoon at the local Quiznos on Chatsworth and Zelzah from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m., volunteers across the community help the Obama presidential campaign through phone banks.

The volunteers task is to call households in different states in an effort to inform and persuade potential voters to support Obama. These calls are also referred to as phone banking.

Training begins at 4:30 p.m., when volunteers learn the script they will use during their calls. They are also told of the possible situations that might occur and how to react in those situations.

Along with the script, volunteers learn information about Obama regarding his policies and views on subjects such as reli-gion, government run programs, and tax issues.

Each week the script information changes according to the popularity of Obama in that state. The script includes a formal greeting, and a list of responses to common attacks.

Among these volunteers, senior Derek Dowd are present. Dowd enjoyed the phone banking and encouraged other students to volunteer if interested. Dowd has been to several of these phone banks and considered it a great opportunity for everyone.

“It’s not often one has the opportunity to take part in such crucial positions in a campaign, being able to win swing states is a victory.” Dowd said.

Being involved in politics is not a prereq-uisite to volunteer at the Obama phone bank. Another student from Pierce College, Jonathan Aroun, also participates in the phone banks. “The phone bank is a great experience because it makes me feel like a part of the campaign; I love Obama and will do anything to support him” Aroun said.

Phone banking for President Obama will continue for every Thursday at Quiznos from 4:30 to 7:00 p.m. until Election Day. Participants are not required to be eigh-teen, so all members of the community are invited. All Obama supporters are encour-aged to go.

All the information and details for the Obama event can be found online at http://my.barackobama.com. In order to partici-pate in the phone bank, volunteers are required to bring their personal cell phones and chargers as well laptops if they can connect to Wifi.

By Eiman Kazi and Nezia RahmanIn August, the Associated Student Body

(ASB) began supporting the Taylor Swift on Campus Promotion in an effort to both fundraise for the school’s music program and boost school spirit.

The contest is open to accredited colleges and schools throughout the United States (U.S) and will continue untill September 23.

The promotion will award one grand prize winning school a free concert with Swift and the top five schools a $10,000 grant for the school’s music departments.

Swift agreed to the project in order to give back to schools across America and help them expand their music programs.

The contest is held online and requires students of the school to first “like” Swift’s Facebook page, and then vote once a day. Students can additionally buy Swift’s new single on iTunes, enabling them to have five extra votes for their respective school.

The makers of the sweepstakes, Cheggs Online Textbook Company, have also created a system to make the competition fair due to some schools being larger than others.

The number of thousands of students at the school will divide the amount of votes a school receives. For example, Granada’s

population of 4200 would require that the votes be divided by four.

The project has received an enormous following and popularity due to Facebook and other social media sites. Currently, GHCHS stands at around 4,000 votes, with the hopes of receiving more as the month progresses. Many students have taken the initiative by posting statuses promoting the Taylor Swift on Campus event.

“Everyday I encourage students and family members to vote for the school by posting Facebook statuses with the event information, and updating our current amount of votes on Twitter. It would be an amazing opportunity for the school to have Swift come to our campus and receive the $10,000 for our music program,”senior Veena Subra said.

The school hopes to win this grant money in order to buy more equipment for the music department and expand the music program. Currently the music department consists of band, choir, After Hours Activi-ties (AHA) music, and other various music classes.

“If we win, the $10,000 grant money will go to our music department which will help us buy more guitars, instruments and music technology for music classes, equip-ment for band and choir, and any other

activities or clubs associated with the music department,” senior and ASB Delegate Majde Salebi said.

The top five schools and grand winner will be announced by October 5th.

“Be sure to continue voting every day and continue to encourage other family members and friends to vote until the dead-line. This is a perfect opportunity to expand school activities and boost school morale,” Salebi said.

By Jennifer Riley

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Alison Montenegro / The Plaid Press

FINGER SCANNING: To buy lunch, a student scans her finger on the new scanner in the cafeteria.

ONLINE PORTFOLIO: A student accesses his Kuder Navigator and explores his options.

Alison Montenegro / The Plaid Press

Local phone bank helps Obama inhis election

03entertainmentSeptember 12, 2012

Reboot of

By Alison MontenegroWe read about vampires, werewolves,

and magic because for some reason we believe these things are the only things that define interesting fiction. Fiction though, does not imply that a book has to have Edward, Jacob, or Bella. Instead it can be realistic centered around the most depressing tragedy facing our generation, cancer. One book which does this is “The Fault in Our Star.”

A romantic bittersweet comedy, “The Fault in our Stars” by John Green is about coming of age and adolescence.

The twist, however, is that the main char-acters, Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, have cancer. This book goes in depth with detailed experiences of cancer patients to the point where audiences can emotionally connect to the characters.

The book takes place in multiple loca-tions, from the home of Hazel, to the hospital, and even to Amsterdam. The changes in setting keep the readers hooked and help contribute to the uniqueness of this book which makes it so much more than just another cancer book.

Most of the time the result of a cancer book is emotionally devastating. After reading it, we think about how unapprecia-tive we are, or we could never imagine ourselves in that situation.

However in “The Fault in Our Stars,” the two main characters are surprisingly very relat-able; so relatable in fact, that instead of devasta-tion, this book is filled with sarcasm and irony, making it all the more enjoyable to read.

Hazel carryies an oxygen tank everywhere she goes and Augustus has an amputated leg.

Hazel considerers herself to be a “grenade” just waiting to go off and eliminate everyone who ever knew her. Overall, she seems to accept her situation

while revealing her true personality through sarcasm.

Augustus is the attractive boy with a fake leg and a bad sense of humor.

Throughout the book, he changes greatly as both char-acters grow together. They are each able to give the other some-thing they hadn’t had in a while. Augustus makes Hazel as normal as any teenage girl can be with her situation, while Hazel changes Augustus’ views of his existence.

This is an inter-esting read since it portrays cancer from a teenager perspective, which includes being inconsiderate, rude,

dejected, engulfing yourself in sarcasm, and

being a jerk about the whole thing.The characters’ personalities make the

story realistic and more approachable to teenage audiences. It’s a light read, from the first page you will be hooked, and time will go by in a flash.

From laughter to sadness to anger and finally tears, the book conveys a variety of emotions. It may be a romantic comedy, but this book is for all types of audiences. It is much more than your regular love story. It is filled with a greater purpose, and is much more captivating. It will give Edward and Bella a run for their money. The book deserves 5 stars!

“It’s not like regular cancer books that make you feel really depressed, but rather it inspires you somehow because it incor-porates comedy into the challenges in which these kids lives. It’s a light book. It doesn’t torture you like those other tragic books. The characters were easy to relate to. The way the main character, Hazel, treated her disease is probably how I would treat it. The author was able to incorporate that humorous perspective” junior Lilybeth Romero said.

By Kilee Splettstoesser‘Nananananananana Batman!’ ‘My

Spidey senses are tingling.’ ‘It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s Superman!’ Sound familiar? These superhero catch phrases definitely should. They were popular back when the comics first came out in the 1930’s through the 1960’s. Recently, classic comic super-hero movies have made hulk-smashing comebacks, including blockbuster reboots: “The Dark Night Rises” and “The Amazing Spiderman.”

Director Christopher Nolan’s remake of the Batman series met comic book fans’ expectations. His first two movies, “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” set the bar high. Nolan’s final installment, “The Dark Knight Rises,” was released in July of this year, featuring a terrorist called Bane, who attempts to overpower the city of Gotham, causing the Dark Knight to come out of hiding to help the city.

The actors executed their roles perfectly and made the movies come alive. Chris-tian Bale plays Bruce Wayne (Batman), and carries out a wonderful performance. His feelings come to life on the screen, so much that when he is in pain you feel pain for him, and when he is angry you feel angry with him.

Tom Hardy played the villain Bane, a

hard character to portray due to the fact that half of his face is covered throughout most of the movie. Hardy graciously took this job and delivered a phenomenal performance. Despite the restriction of facial expressions available to him because of his mask, he expressed his emotion solely through his eyes, something most cannot do. Of course, his body language and menacing voice also helped.

With a talented cast, “The Dark Knight Rises” overall was a perfect comic book adaptation, featuring an urban war, various fight scenes, deception, loss, and pain that left viewers hanging on to the edge of their seats. It was action-packed, and there was never a dull moment. On top of

this, there were some twists towards the end of the movie that left many people open-mouthed in the theater.

Of course, we have all come to expect great movies from Nolan, with his

expert directing skills, and he did not let us down one bit.

“The Amazing Spiderman,” was this

summer’s other much anticipated block-buster hit. Much of the excitement

was over the new Peter Parker, played

by attractive British actor Andrew Garfield. He brought charm and wit into the movie, which dominated his portrayal. He added just the right amount of harm-less humor when the scenes turned serious, something few actors are capable of doing.

Garflield’s co-star, 23 year old Emma Stone played Parker’s crush Gwen Stacy. She brought the plot to life with her school girl charm and suited the role of Parker’s

crush well. Despite some skepticism over her casting, she fulfilled her role and had excellent on screen chemistry with Garfield.

While this movie did have action scenes with Dr. Curt Connors, played by Rhys Ifans, it was a little too focused on Park-er’s love life. Most agree it was done too soon after Sam Raimi’s 2002 smash hit Spiderman trilogy, causing it to be unavoid-ably compared to that success. Critics are hard-hitting on the content of this adapta-tion, but do seem to have a soft spot for 28 year old Garfield.

These two reboots have brought a new spin to comics, but that’s not all Hollywood has in store for us regarding the super-hero department. A reboot of Superman is expected to be released in 2013, and another Fantastic Four movie will be released in mid to late 2013. On top of this, Marvel Studio plans to release a series of movies within the next couple of years. This includes “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” expected to be released in 2014, and “Thor: The Dark World,” coming out in November, both of which are new versions of original Marvel comic based films.

Let’s hope these remade superhero films live up to their standards, because after all, who doesn’t love a good old superhero movie!

By Tessa WeinbergThe ground vibrates underneath you, and

the screams of dedicated fans pierce your eardrums as the entire crowd sways and sings along to the hit single “We Are Young” by fun. Lead singer Nate Ruess dances across the stage getting the crowd even more excited and entralled by the catchy song. Confetti falls around you, showering the crowd and creating a curtain of white. Fun.’s concert at The Wiltern in Los Angeles was not only wild, but a ton of fun as well.

By now almost everyone has heard the lyrics, “Tonight, we are young. So let’s set the world on fire. We can burn brighter than the sun,” on the radio or sung along to those very lyrics with friends. This entire summer has been a whirlwind of concerts and appearances for the increasingly popular band. After their smash single, “We Are Young,” managed to remain No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks, the band has reached a new level of

success.Starting off small, fun. is made up of

lead singer, Nate Ruess, lead guitarist, Jack Antonoff, and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew Dost. The three came together from separate bands after Ruess’s former band, The Format, split up in 2008. Ruess, Antonoff, and Dost released their first album together as fun., titled Aim and Ignite. It was praised for memorable songs such as, “Walking the Dog” and “All the Pretty Girls,” but the band did not really gain popularity until recently.

Touring since February, fun. is currently on a world tour, visiting cities such as New York, London, Paris, Milan, and Los Angeles. Fun. played at the popular music venue, The Wiltern, in downtown LA in August and sold out all three nights.

Their show on Sunday night, August 19, was packed with tons of fans excited to see them perform. The line went around the block as eager fans waited to get in, sporting

their band t-shirts and pins. Fun. didn’t disappoint. With epic stage

sets, fun. gave it their all, putting everything they had into each song they performed. Ruess danced across the stage, urging the fans to sing along, as Antonoff jammed out on his guitar. Fans knew every word to every song as they sang along, and were showered with confetti, and later balloons, as the band performed.

Fun.’s music is just that, fun. Every song feels like a theatrical performance, and is always over the top with vocals and instru-mentals. Catchy choruses and beats lend a hand, as fun. engages listeners with their unique sound. Fans couldn’t help but sing along to “Some Nights” and bounce to the beat on Sunday night.

While some artists do not sound as good performing live as they do in the studio, this was not the case for fun. Their music was even more raw and passionate with every song they played. Fun.’s onstage persona is

mesmerizing, and they are able to connect with the fans on such a personal level. Ruess puts everything he has into performing for his fans, and was even sweating through his shirt by the end of the show.

“This will be a competition to see who has the wettest shirt tonight,” Ruess said between songs.

Fans left with ringing ears and hoarse voices, but with smiles on their faces as well. Currently, fun. is enjoying their huge success and touring to share their music with the people that made this all possible- the fans. No one knows what’s next for fun., but whatever it is, they’re definitely a band to keep an eye on, as they sure know how to have a fun time.

“It’s been a wild summer. I mean, the crazy thing is, the tour really started in February, and we haven’t been home since. So, everything’s felt unbelievable,” Reuss said in an interview with National Public Radio.

Fans spend “Some Nights” with the band fun.

wins new fans

What We’re reading“The Fault in Our Stars”

By Danielle BulanteI am generally a quiet per-

son that enjoys writing in journals, wearing girly dresses, and listening to Taylor Swift. I am also 4’10. So it is no sur-prise that I find myself having a panic attack in front of a judge as I wait to hear my ver-dict at a juvenile delinquency center.

How could I, a girl that strives to get straight A’s in school come face to face with the court of law?

I crossed the street. The intersection between

San Jose Street and Zelzah Av-enue to be exact.

For a long time, Granada students have classified these streets as being notorious for being crowded with traffic at the beginning and end of school hours. As a result, the surrounding streets around Granada contain stoplights

and crosswalks that aid students to ar-rive safely to school. But sometimes, when you hear the one-minute bell from across the street, all sense of “the law” is quickly thrown out the window as you race to your first period class.

Such rebellious acts land many students, as well as myself, behind barbed wire and fenced gates to pay a traffic ticket that costs about 273 dollars.

“The courthouse looked pretty intimidat-ing. I felt like I didn’t belong there because I’m not a bad kid. The only thing I did was cross the street,” fellow jaywalker and senior Moani Antone said.

An increase in jaywalking not only leaves students in debt after paying a hefty fine for their crime, but many are deprived of class time as they wait to hear the consequences of their crime in a formal court setting. If a student decides to appeal to the court, or argue against the ticket, the court requires that the minor skip school in order to attend his or her court date.

To avoid such punishments and to cre-ate a safer environment for the students at Granada, it is important to follow the traffic

signs outside of Granada. Yes, that means waiting for the “walk”

sign to light up even if it feels like each sec-ond is taking one year to pass.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 16-year-olds have higher crash rates than drivers of any age. There-fore, for the safety of yourself and others, it is vital that you share the road with pedestri-ans and drivers alike.

Whether you are roaming the streets around Granada or driving to school in your car, it is essential to remain patient around other students, parents, and faculty entering and exiting the school’s parking lots.

Never underestimate the power of self-control and how it affects others around you.

Remember, the courtroom is a far ways from the rainbows and sunshine that usually help us feel warm and happy on the inside.

By recalling my traumatic juvenile court experience and taking this crucial advice, I hope to save my fellow peers 273 dollars and a trip to a delinquency center: a place I wish remains unfamiliar to the vast majority of Granada’s population.

feature04 September 12, 2012

By Grace ParkFrom the tragedy of September 11 to the

election of the first Black president, from skinny jeans to flare jeans and back to skinny jeans, Granada Hills Charter High School (GHCHS) has experienced it all throughout its ten years as a charter school. This year is the tenth anniversary of Granada becoming a charter school.

Granada’s academic performance is among one of the changes that the school has undergone in the last ten years.

“Although Granada was still academically rigorous when I attended, it is now well-known for their academic achievements like winning the academic decathalon,” Grana-da alumnus John Jones said.

Before turning charter ten years ago, Granada’s API score was 761. Today, ten years later, Granada’s API score has jumped 115 points to 876. For the incoming stu-dents who don’t know about Granada’s tradi-

tion, that’s a free ice-cream every year (don’t worry, you’ll understand what I’m talking about when the time comes). Not only has the API score increased significantly, but the number of valedictorians has been steadily increasing (the graduating class of 2012 had over one hundred valedictorians—the most in the history of Granada, ever!) as well as the overall performance on standardized testing.

For better or for worse, Granada has changed throughout the years, and espe-cially in the ten years since it has become a charter school. Although today’s students rarely notice or even appreciate the changes that have made Granada the prosperous school it is today, the school that you attend, whether happily or miserably, it’s important to note these changes and the difference it’s made on Granada and on the students of Granada today, ten years after Granada be-came a charter school.

3 He was a high school English teacher be-fore becoming a police officer.

5He was a school resource officer at the following high schools: Jefferson, Sylmar, Reseda, and Kennedy. He was also a patrol

officer in East Valley, and South Los Angeles.

4 As a police officer, there is no normal day. With 4,300 kids, there are 4,300 dif-ferent things that can happen through-

out the day.

2He coached basketball at Reseda High School.

1 He’s been a police officer for nearly 13 years.

Comic by Stephanie Bulante

Ramanan Sivasundaram / The Plaid Press

05 featureSeptember 12, 2012

By Myra ShaikhA meal must be appetizing by appealing

to all five senses: it must smell, look, feel, taste, and even sound appetizing. Food is a tricky business. Looking yummy and tasting yummy is one thing, but if after digestion takes place, the gastric noises of food rum-bling around in your stomach do not settle down anytime soon, then you know you have more serious problems coming your way than just judging quality food.

Burritos are the most satisfying type of food, yet the most challenging type of food to please a customer. Before the new Free-birds store opened, Chipotle has been our burrito haven and it seemed to us that this would always be the case. Blinded by our obsession, our addiction, or even hatred, ignited by extra pounds; have we actually failed to acknowledge what makes a burrito unbeatable?

The making of a burrito requires preci-sion and accuracy in placement of its ingre-

dients, along with a proper wrapping tech-nique to hold those ingredients in place. Also, each ingredient has to be fresh with a balance of portion. Portion control is es-sential, because one could potentially wrap a burrito with a few basic ingredients at home by him or herself, instead of paying money at a restaurant for a burrito with an excess of rice and beans. Meat is what we came for- if anything is given in abundance, it should be that (speaking on behalf of non-vegetarians, of course).

Unfortunately, Chipotle has not been meeting its expectations lately. This opin-ion is not formed in accordance to the new “Freebirds” that opened up on Chatsworth, right across from school, but simply because my Chipotle burritos are not as satisfying as they used to be. I find myself eating rice and beans wrapped in a tortilla with the meat hiding in every few bites. However, I don’t have as much of a problem with this as one may suppose, because the meat is far from

tender, sometimes too chewy, other times tasting like three-days-old chicken.

I also find that my colossal burrito falls apart after just a few bites (although that may be because I don’t know how to eat a burrito). Still, Chipotle tortillas are way too thin to handle all the ingredients jam-packed in the burrito.

As a Mexican food restaurant, Chipo-tle should not only serve free chips, but at least chips that are a little less stale than Playdough. Overall, Chipotle succeeds in satisfying my hunger and taste buds with its massive size, but its overall quality is lack-ing.

My experience at Freebirds seemed to be a promising one. Similar to Chipotle, their burritos are also massive, but unlike Chipo-tle, the quality was great as well. This could be because it recently opened, whereas Chi-potle has many branches, all of which are busy and every expectation cannot be met.

The meat at Freebirds was not more

chewy than necessary, and the guacamole is a bit cheaper. A unique scooping machine was used for guacamole actually, and was pretty impressive.

I was furthermore impressed by the vari-ety at Freebirds. This may not necessarily be a good thing, because one can become quite indecisive when presented with too many options. The good thing is though, that one server starts and finishes your burrito, instead of the circus-like burrito-making assembly line at Chipotle, so you can take your time creating your burrito to fit your unique taste.

As a (former) Chipotle addict; it might come across as betrayal to belittle Chipotle in the face of its new competition, Freebirds. It just may be that when something better comes along, we begin finding flaws in that which we were previously attached to.

With all said and done, let these observa-tions be mine, but the choice be yours to decide which one is better.

By Derek UngA chemistry teacher from Granada

Hills Charter High School was found to be running a secret meth lab after school. Students who participated were promised a cut of the profits and partnership in the enterprise, earning in one week what the art department receives in one year. This didn’t really happen. See, if this article had started off with, “You don’t pay attention to anything anymore,” the odds are that you would protest informally in your head and ignore the rest of the article. Speak-ing of short attention spans, teens just can’t focus on anything anymore. The minute we start something is the same minute we try to start something else. The advent of electronics and the too-often-referred-to-phrase, “social media, has taken its toll on our lifestyles. Nothing ever seems to get done until it is a little too late.

Our attention spans are shrinking year by year. So much so in fact, that even TV advertisers have taken notice. Ever notice how there are shorter variations of one commercial? Ever notice how the shorter

ones are just as effective at reminding you that Febreze “eliminates” odors? Accord-ing to advertisement research company Nielsen, 15-second television commercials have become increasingly popular in the last five years, reaching 5.5 million total. The duration of ads has dropped from 60 to 30 and now 15 seconds. Sure, no one wants to watch commercials, but those that are genuinely engaged for the first few seconds lose interest before the 15 seconds are up. If it’s hard to watch a commercial that’s meant to engage our interest, how will we do the boring things that need to be done, like homework?

This article took me six hours to write, not including lunch. Why? Because it was homework. After I focus for one para-graph, I have to do some more research for the next paragraph. And by the time I’ve found a source and am ready to work again, 10 songs have played on Pandora, Gmail has been checked 15 times, and I now know what my cousin is doing to her cat thanks to Facebook. It’s a real addic-tion. One that’s affecting student work

habits around the world. In an article by Matt Richtel of the

New York Times, a case study of a spe-cific student noted how often he would be distracted from his school work for more interactive activities. The student, Vishal Singh, devotes much of his time to his hobby as a filmmaker, which he hopes will turn into a career. Rather than doing homework, he sees film projects as a more profitable use of his time. Yet, no matter what the justification, the result is that his grades have dropped considerably to a 2.3 GPA. When there is an alternative to homework, many just naturally take that alternative.

“[Students’] brains are rewarded not for staying on task, but for jumping to the next thing,” Michael Rich of Harvard Medical School said.

For some, Facebook always beats fac-ing a book, and Instagram beats instan-taneous rates of change. This preference will ultimately affect us in our adult life, leading to seriously hampered productiv-ity in the work place; we’ll choose what’s

“fun” instead of what needs to be done. If that doesn’t bother you, maybe the safety of your life does.

A study commissioned by Lloyds TSB Insurance found that our attention span has been reduced to a mere 5 minutes, when it was 12 just a decade ago. More importantly, the decline has only added to the number of ‘unforced’ accidents in the home, creating £1.6 (or $2.5) billion worth of damage in the UK. Okay, perhaps I exaggerated the “safety of your lives”, but still, that’s quite a bit of money and cause for concern. Somewhere along the way, at least for our insurance companies in the US, that’s money out of your pocket. (Or your parents, which then becomes money out of your allowance.) The point is, not being able to focus on homework doesn’t just affect your grade.

I could sum up this article with a bunch of tips for doing your homework, but I think you’ve identified what distracts you by this time. So have I, and as I type this last sentence at 12:06a.m. in the morning, all I can say is, “good luck with that.”

VS

06opinion September 12, 2012

By Maral MargossianIt seems as though these days you can-

not go anywhere without hearing somebody swear. Take for example the food court at a mall.

“Ugh, that girl is such a b****!” com-plains a cake-faced teenage girl to your right.

“S***! I forgot my wallet in my car!” ex-claims a frustrated man nearing his mid-life crisis behind you.

And of course, the mother of all curses, “F*** you man!! What the he** is wrong with you?!” bellows the obnoxious frater-nity-brother desperately trying to prove his manliness to the world (well, in his case, to the mall).

Though, personally, I am not usually a perpetrator of foul-mouthedness, I do not take offence when I hear others liberally utilizing their freedom of speech. Some ar-gue that those who excessively use profani-ties come off as less educated with a rather stunted vocabulary. While I do agree, I am

still unperturbed when I do encounter ob-scenities. Why? Because I have a solution that will appease both the prim and proper, and the dudes and homies.

I advocate replacing the socially unac-ceptable “bad” words with their formal dictionary definition. This way, we eradicate the vulgar words and perhaps even teach others a few definitions, all the while main-taining the satisfying force of the obscene. Allow me to demonstrate. If we were to all adopt my state-of-the-art proposal, the previously specified hypothetical situation would go something along these lines.

“Ugh, that girl is such a female dog!” complains a cake-faced teenage girl to your right.

“Fecal material! I forgot my wallet in my car!” exclaims a frustrated man nearing his mid-life crisis behind you.

“Sexual intercourse you man!! What the underworld is wrong with you?!” bellows the obnoxious fraternity-brother desper-

ately trying to prove his manliness to the world.

Now, in order for my proposition to be effective, we must unite and start a trend. Every time we want to cry out an exple-tive, we must pause and replace the swear word with its formal definition. Most im-portantly—and I cannot stress this enough—we must not hold back any of the force we would have otherwise employed if we actually used the swear word.

So if the word you are about to use re-quires three exclama-tion points after it if it were written, then you roar the for-mal defini-tion with that same

three exclamation point magnitude. I be-lieve that we, as a unified whole, can elimi-nate all foul mouthedness and prevent this nation from future potty-mouths.

Obscenities are nothing more than the boundaries set by their definition. You rec-ognize that, and curses will no longer have their vulgar power. After all, these profani-ties only mean something if you allow them to, right?

What the %@#$ is up with all the cussing?

By Victor WuRecently, Chick-fil-A has been pushed

into the center of gay marriage controversy. Dan T. Cathy, the company’s president, ex-pressed his desire to return to the traditional household and since then, Chick-fil-A has been assailed by many. Social platforms, in-dividual reports, city letters, and even Sarah Palin’s picture of her Chick-fil-A purchase has attracted enough discussion to turn Cathy’s opinion into a company risk.

Now exposed, the company’s public re-cord on donations to antigay organizations took form as the backbone to boycott the family-run business. Though illegal to de-fame a company’s name, self-entitled ac-tivists peck away Chick-fil-A’s reputation by publicizing how the money is being pri-vately spent. In this heated controversy over business and social politics, the stance of Chick-fil-A is lost and misinterpreted.

This burst of activity indicates an in-crease in gay marriage toleration—or more suitably, gay marriage conformity. The Chick-fil-A controversy marks an important social transformation where the tolerance of gay marriages is gradually changing from

an opinion of the minority to that of the majority.

Before, gay marriage activists were the victims of bitter attacks due to their opin-ions. From this struggle, equal rights activ-ists have steadily spread awareness of their cause and achieved the support they so longed for.

Now, it appears there is a reversal of this phenomena as the now dominant side—pro gay marriage—is bashing anti-gay busi-nesses such as Chick-fil-A. Of course, gay marriage has made great progress; however, it is taking a turn in the meaning and effort behind supporting these rights. Though un-wise to mix social politics with business in the first place, it seems that pride from gay marriage supporters is turning into preju-dice, demonstrated through their collective behavior towards the targeted restaurant business.

Not only have previous customers dis-continued eating at the restaurant but they have also gone so far as to persuade others to do the same. These gay marriage “advo-cates” are blindly challenging the company but, not necessarily addressing the real is-

sue—the president. Sure, Chick-fil-A does contribute to an-

tigay organizations through its financial rev-enue, but would these self-righteous and be-lief-obeying “activists” have stopped eating at Chick-fil-A had the company not been outspoken about their opinions? Though important to act from what we learn—on our Facebook newsfeeds, of course—how many will take the time to research and find what other antigay companies are out there? Has Chick-fil-A just become an exception because of the critical acclaim it has re-ceived in the news?

There are other companies such as Tar-get, Walmart, Urban Outfitters, and many more that contribute to the antigay marriage cause. These are just the companies that have a transparency to their private spend-ing as well; there are, undoubtedly, more companies that are share the same position. Have people truly shown a change of heart and sincerity in their actions, or are they pressured by the social transformation on gay tolerance?

It seems that individuals are changing their views, clique by clique. The people

flock to a new social stance that dominates the weaker, forcing out and doing away with all that is different. But to not give way to any inaccuracies, Target has recently changed their stance on gay marriage to pro equal rights, revealing a transformation from anti-gay to pro-gay. This transfromation is more apparent today than ever before. A variety of modern T.V. shows now have gay cou-ples, more gay couples are welcomed on talk shows, contests, etc. Large corporations such as Apple, Windows, Levis, Nike, and Google are for the equal rights cause as well. From an economic standpoint, the contri-butions from pro-gay marriage companies make the contributions from Chick-fil-A become extremely insignificant.

These words are not intended to force a once Chick-fil-A consumer to go back to buying chicken and go against his or her be-liefs, but rather to show that social politics are changing. There is a social transition that is evidently taking place. However, every voice adds to the attitude of the homosexu-al movement and it has gone through many fights and prideful demonstrations—let’s not throw that away.

Meaning of gay rights lost within Chick-Fil-A dispute

By Josh LavineAmerican diver David Boudia took

home the final gold medal in diving on the second-to-last day of the 2012 London Olympic Games, an upset to the Chinese divers, who had won six of the seven gold medals. His winning dive, a back two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists, edged out silver medalist Qui Bo performed the same final dive.

I would expect this is the sort of news story from a sporting event as huge as the summer Olympics, which come only once every four years. Such an article concerns itself only with the sports, not the ridicu-lous amounts of security, not the outra-geous cost of the opening and closing ceremonies, not the comments made by a presidential candidate concerning London’s preparedness, not the debacle weeks before the Olympics began about how the Ameri-can uniforms were made in China.

Politics and entertainment have invaded the Olympics in a way that we have never before seen.

The Chinese produced America’s Olym-pic uniforms, taking even more jobs away from honest Americans. Presidential nomi-nee Mitt Romney found London’s prepara-tions for the Games “disconcerting.” This comment prompted a backlash from British Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron said, they were holding the Olympics “in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cit-ies anywhere in the world.”

Bt the snsationalism does not stop at politics; our popular culture has also spread throughout the Olympics, which has so tra-ditionally been opposed to even television coverage, let alone advertisements and ex-travagant ceremonies.

The Coke and McDonald’s commercials that dominated the commercial breaks of this year’ s Olympics could not have clashed more with the original vision of Pierre de Coubertin, who revived the Olympics. Cou-bertin, a French Aristocrat who grew up when the Germans overran France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, blamed the defeat of France not on its poor military

skills but on the French soldiers’ lack of vigor. Sports and exercise were the answer.

People don’t just look up to the greatest athletes of the world; they try to emulate them. During the two weeks that the Olym-pics took place, I noticed a considerable increase in the number of people working out at my local YMCA. Sometimes it takes jealousy of the finely chiseled abs or incred-ible speeds of the Olympic athletes to com-pel us to start working out. As Coubertin originally planned, the Olympics are making some of us healthier, even if it is through a less-than-healthy emotion.

The Coke and McDonald’s commercials that pervaded the Olympics—the ones star-ring Olympic athletes David Oliver and Gabby Douglas—counteract this positive effect of inspiring us to work out. When we see Olympic track runner David Oliver drinking a Coke after winning a race, or hear of Olympic gymnast Gabby Doug-las “splurging” on an Egg McMuffin, we might think that so can we and still stay fit. In reality, Gabby Douglas ate at McDon-

ald’s only after the entire competition was over. A sound bite taken out of context or the always illusive commercial can send the wrong message.

I won’t even get into the costs of the se-curity and the opening and closing ceremo-nies, which, while entertaining and surely adrenaline-pumping for the competitors, seem overly extravagant when compared to even the 1948 Olympics. There, in post-war England, the host housed the athletes in army barracks and made them bring their own towels. The sports—not politics or en-tertainment—were clearly the focus.

The vision associated with the revived Olympics is an optimistic one that stresses the importance of exercise, or at the very least the fun of competition and sports themselves. Let’s not ruin that vision with the commercialism and politics and en-tertainment that have begun to invade the Olympic Games, a competition explicitly meant for the greatest athletes of the world and implicitly meant to encourage the rest of us to balance our lives with exercise.

Olympics scandals overshadows the sports themselves

07opinionSeptember 12, 2012

The Plaid PressThe Plaid Press is published by

the Advanced Journalism class at

Granada Hills Charter High School. 10535 Zelzah Ave.

Granada Hills, CA 91344 Phone: (818) 360-2361

The Plaid Press welcomes all letters and com-mentaries on all matters and reserves the right to edit as required. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Opinions expressed are those of the au-thor, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Plaid Press, its adviser, Granada Hills Charter High School faculty or student body.

Editors-in-Chief Eiman KaziNezia Rahman

News Editors Ramanan SivasundaramVictor Wu

Entertainment Editor Alyssah Pinitsak Opinion Editors Maral Margossian

Derek UngFeature Editors Danielle Bulante

Grace ParkSports Editor Tessa Weinberg Business Manager Marilyn RamirezPhotographers Alison Montenegro

Romina PizzaroStaff Reporters: Joshua Lavine

Alison Montenegro Romina Pizzaro

Lisa RamirezMarilyn Ramirez

Jennifer RileyNeda Salami

Humaira ShaikhKilee Splettstoesser

Cartoonist Jeremy Vargas

Adviser Melissa Mason

The Plaid Press is a proud member of National Scho-lastic Press Association.

Editors-in-Chief address new changes

Gutenberg gone viral: PDFs take over paper textbooks

By Ramanan Sivasundaram “Tonight you will watch a 10-minute

clip on opportunity cost, and tomorrow we will discuss it in class,” my economics teacher says. Disgruntled sighs immediately resonate throughout the classroom. If this scene seems familiar to you, then you are probably in a class that is being “flipped.” That is, teachers are asking their students to watch online videos on websites such as Khan Academy about the subject they will be learning the next day. This way, students will already have an idea of the topic, and the teacher can spend the next day answer-ing any questions or clarifying the subject.

Because there will be more time available to the teacher during class, hands-on activi-ties and more individual attention can be supplied. I believe this method is much bet-ter than the traditional method of teaching because students can get instant feedback and any questions can be immediately an-swered by the teacher.

Instructors have greater opportunities to detect errors in thinking when class time is devoted to the application of concepts, rath-er than just to teaching. Having a good bal-ance of both teaching a concept and show-ing how it is implemented is the best way to understand it.

Imagine playing basketball versus watch-ing it every day. Some level of interaction is required to get progressively better. Sim-ply watching it day after day may teach you strategy, but what is the use if you can’t even dribble a ball. It is only with a combination

of both knowledge and application that stu-dents can become successful.

A new element of student-to-student interaction is introduced with the flipping method. One of the best ways to fully un-derstand something is to teach it to another person. When students work in groups, they tend to help each other out, and those who understand a concept can present it to an-other in a different way than the teacher did. Besides, working with classmates can add greatly to in-class lectures.

One problem of this teaching strategy is the importance of homework. What if you are extremely busy that night or your dog ate your computer? If you do not learn the lesson at home, then you will be in really bad shape for the lesson in class the next day. If you don’t do the homework and watch the videos, then you will not have any idea of how to complete the in-class assignments. Thus, the successfulness of flipping the classroom relies on whether students will do their homework or not.

Some students feel as if the online lesson is a waste of time. Why should they waste their time at home if it is just going to be taught at school the following day?

“I come to class ready to learn; and if it’s just going to be a supplement to what I’m learning, I don’t think it’s fair for me to take more of my time at home to learn something that can be clearly taught during class,” senior Angela Fronda said.

Flipping the classroom is intended to help those who struggle most in the tra-

ditional classroom environment. By first learning the topic at home, the student can get a background on the topic and then add onto that knowledge in class. On paper, flipping the classroom seems to work, but in practical applications this is not always the case. Often, those who struggle the most are not doing their homework to begin with, so they probably are not going to watch the videos. Flipping the classroom is a method that seemingly only favors those who are willing to work hard and try learning on their own.

Another big detriment to the concept of flipping the classroom is that some students do not have Internet access and have a hard time finding it. Of course, the library is al-

ways an option, but how many computers are actually available at a time? In schools less privileged than ours, there are only a few computers open for student use during lunch, or after school. Some teachers even go so far as to burn DVD’s every day for each of their students, but the amount of time it takes to burn all of them makes the task unfeasible.

Despite its drawbacks, it is important to remember that flipping is still in its initial stages, and is only the beginning of technol-ogy integrating with education. As more and more teachers experiment with it, hope-fully a new method of teaching will emerge that is more beneficial to both students and teachers.

By Eiman Kazi & Nezia RahmanWhether it’s discussing the new revolu-

tionary technology that will change our lives forever or the upcoming zombie apocalypse (it’s 2012 you know!), the 2012-2013 Plaid Press hopes to present you all with exciting and captivating stories.

In this upcoming year, we have new goals and ideas that will bring a more exciting dy-namic to our articles, layouts, and newspa-per as a whole.

We hope to capture your attention and imaginations with eloquent stories from our inventive and curious journalists. They will keep you up to date with on goings around the school as well as world events that have an effect on you and society in general.

Our new staff hopes to find captivating stories that will feature articles on pertinent and worldly topics, starting with the extra Opinion page. The second Opinion page will contain today’s most relevant issues, expressing the views of the staff writers and a new two-page layout that will highlight stories.

Along with the original opinion page, the staff also hopes to expand this genera-

tion’s literary minds with the new “What We’re Reading” section on the Entertain-ment page that will feature popular books.

With these various changes in sections and layouts, our staff hopes to carry out more informative and intriguing articles that will impact you, the reader.

In order to ensure that each issue adheres

to all our goals and responsibilities, editors and staff writers will try to meet deadlines. Stricter deadlines will provide us ample time to adjust and tweak stories to perfection.

Supervising our editors and writers is our helpful advisor, English teacher Melissa Mason. Her insight guides us to produce a quality and polished newspaper.

Our primary goal is to create a resource full of interest for out readers, so we will al-ways be keeping an ear open to your sugges-tions and ideas. Feel free to approach our staff with your story ideas, and suggestions to improve our newspaper.

We’ve each discovered a love of writing and reporting and we hope to convey that to the student body, while simultaneously educating and informing. We’ll have stories that pique your interest, pictures that make you giggle, and articles that make you think, because as of late, thinking has become minimal and forced. We hope to inspire you to use your minds and consider both your environment and yourself. Writing is a means of self-discovery, and reading can be the same. If we can bring that interest and curiosity to your minds, our job is done.

By Maral MargossianThe rate at which technology advances

is unquestionably fast. We chase after it, desperately trying not to be left behind. Sometimes however, the pace is so fast that rather than embracing the latest technology, we hesitate to abandon the comfort of the old—even if this advancement may be more helpful.

The battle between online textbooks and traditional textbooks is a prime example of this apprehension. Traditional textbooks have served a noble term, but it is time for their retirement, and time for the introduc-tion of the online textbook.

There are two main types of online textbooks. One option is to download the E-textbook, which allows the user to have access to the textbook without Internet connection. The other option is accessible only while the user has Internet connection. While the second choice is more cumber-some, downloading E-textbooks is an op-tion for many students.

E-textbooks offer added benefits because of the interactive links within the pages of the book. For those who like to annotate and highlight in paper books, these E-

textbooks have the ability to electronically highlight passages and save notes. Addition-ally, many have links that open interactive diagrams, explain answers to questions, and summarize question-and-answer links throughout the reading.

“Online books are definitely more inter-active. There are all these tools like quizzes and matching games so it’s not as dry!,” se-nior Maha Kamel said.

In addition to the allure of interactive links, E-textbooks are just more convenient. Often times, students have back pain during the school year because they have to carry around their heavy textbooks. According to WebMD, “Charlotte Alexander, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon in Houston, conducted a survey of more than 100 doctors in Chi-cago and Wilmington, DE, in 1999. She found that almost 60% of the orthopedists reported seeing child patients with back and shoulder pain caused by heavy backpacks.” Having back pains due to numerous 7 to 10 pound textbooks in one’s backpack is more of a reality than one would think.

“I’ve definitely had some back pain in the beginning of the year when we had to carry around almost all of our textbooks,” senior

Neil Kapoor said. Converting to E-books would allow stu-

dents to have their books at home, and use the old traditional textbooks in the class-room. This way, there is a class set and a home set. And though E-textbooks can con-tribute to eyestrain, taking breaks decreases excessive eye stimulation.

One would think that because E-text-books do not use actual paper, it would be cheaper for students, but this is not always the case. Though these books are cheaper, the cost reduction is not by a significant amount.

This is especially true for many college textbooks where, in some cases, the cost of buying traditional textbooks can be hun-dreds of dollars. However, there are many organizations working to develop free on-line textbooks. Organizations such as Text-book Revolution and Boundless devote their efforts to making online textbooks and resources available to students for free.

[Boundless] makes textbooks available for free on-line by curating information from Wikipedia, government publications, Creative Commons licenses and other free sources, according to Forbes.com.

The popularity of E-textbooks is increas-ing, and rightfully so. The advantages of-fered by online textbooks far exceed those of traditional textbook, however it would not be sensible to abandon all traditional text-books. Schools should keep the traditional books available, but when it comes time to buy new books, they should opt for elec-tronic versions, which would allow there to be a class set of tangible textbooks.

Change can be intimidating; doubts will inevitably enter our minds. But understand-ing these benefits will further enhance our educational progress.

Flipping the Classroom: teaching heads home

AN UPSIDE-DOWN CLASSROOM: For some, the flipping technique seems about as efficient as literally turning the entire classroom upside down.

Alison Montenegro / The Plaid Press

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Nezia Rahman and Eiman Kazi (from top to bottom) will head this year’s staff.

Alison Montenegro / The Plaid Press

By Marilyn RamirezWith the start of the new fall sports

season, the school’s newly refurbished field has been played on for the first time since its renovation during the summer. Construction on the field began June 1, the day after the school’s graduation ceremony, and was completed on August 30.

The construction process occurred because, after its com-pletion only seven years ago, the turf was no longer in stable condition, and was in need of renovation.

“We expected to get ten years out of the field, however, it ended up lasting less than we had estimated,” Chief Operat-ing Officer Jennifer Avant Eu-stice said.

Hellas Construction, who completed the remodel, has re-done fields for other high schools such as Chaminade College Preparatory and Oak Park Christian School.

Hellas teamed up with the school to come up with a twenty-year solution to maintain the field. This new full-stone base

drainage field is estimated to last ten years. Rather than having to replace the whole base, the school will only need to replace turf after ten years.

“The artificial turf option is less expen-sive, easier to maintain, and, in the long run, will keep up much longer,” Eustice said.

The budget was set at $950,000, coming from the school’s operations finances, as well as permit revenue.

Since the field is rented out to other

schools and organizations for use, it pre-sented an even greater need to restore the field. School officials used this as an op-

portunity to change the field according to the latest turf de-signs available.

“We looked at fields of vari-ous types in Texas to make the best decision,” Eustice said.

While all this construction took place from June to August the school’s sport teams, such as football and soccer camps, held practices on the softball fields.

“Since the field has been under construction, the junior varsity (JV) team has been practicing on the softball fields since tryouts. The new field looks awesome; I can’t wait to play on it,” freshman JV foot-ball player Mathew Quintero said.

The field was put to use for the first home football game with a victory of 55-0 against Sun Valley High School, with many more victories to come.

08sports September 12, 2012

Olympians In The Making

The Olympics. It comes by every four years and in those two short weeks of summer the whole world watches as the dreams of athletes from around the world come true or even fall apart. This year, the 30th Olympiad took place in London, England. The world watched as the United States (U.S.) women’s water polo team, women’s basketball team, Nathan Adrian, and several others competed and won gold for themselves and their country. These athletes not only made their own dreams come true, but also inspired several young athletes from across the U.S. to strive for their own dreams. Some of these young athletes come from our school’s own sports teams. Here is how the 2012 London Olympics personally inspired them.

Day 13 of the Olympics brought a momentous accomplishment for the U.S. women’s water polo team as they earned the country’s first Olympic gold medal for water polo.

Since the team’s premiere at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the women’s water polo team has been improving over the years, with a bronze in Athens, to silver in Beijing, and finally gold in London. Similarly, the school’s water polo team has been improving and honing their skills since it first became a team in 2009.

“Our water polo team has definitely improved since 2009. The girls under-stand the game more. Year by year, we have been building and improving our skills,” senior and captain Angelica Pano-sian said.

The water polo team truly has shown significant improvement since it first be-gan three years ago. During its first year, it lost its first game at the city champion-ship, while last season, it came in fourth at city.

With last year’s fourth place finish at city, Panosian’s goal for the water polo team this year is to finally win the Los Angeles City Championships.

Being so close to a city championship last year is only one of the things which has inspired Panosian to win city this up-coming season. The U.S. women’s water polo team finally achieving their goal af-ter several years of learning and improv-ing has inspired her as well.

“Their gold shows how determined they were to win. This is just like my own team. We have the potential to win the city championship and if we win, this achievement will be our gold medal,” Panosian said.

Water PoloThe U.S. women’s basketball team

won its 5th straight Olympic gold medal in London, but even with its 5th consec-utive medal, the team still had a lot of competition, sportsmanship, and most importantly, teamwork.

One game that showcased the wom-en’s teamwork well was during the semi-final versus France. One great play was when Tamika Catchings stole the ball and passed it to Suzanne Bird, then to Maya Moore for a perfect finger roll lay-in down the lane. This was one of many moments that helped win the U.S. wom-en another gold medal.

This teamwork is what inspires senior point guard Kristi Nishida most, as she plays on the girls varsity basketball team.

“I look up to the team and the team-work the members had during the Olym-pics. All the women come from different parts of the country, go to different col-leges, and play for different women’s na-tional basketball teams. But in those two weeks of the Olympics, they put that all aside and worked together to accomplish one goal,” Nishida said.

This past season, Nishida and her team went to the quarter-finals of the City Championships and without their teamwork and dedication, they would not have gotten there.

On their way to the City Champion-ships, every girl had contributed in some way from their first game against Ver-dugo Hills High School all the way to the quarter-finals of city versus Roosevelt High School.

Even with every victory and defeat, the girls always have each other.

“It’s great seeing not only me succeed, but my teamates as well,” Nishida said.

Basketball

Granada athletes aspire to be like the Olympians who inspire themBy Lisa Ramirez and Romina Pizarro

The U.S. won several victories at the Olympics because of swimmers such as Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, and Nathan Adrian, who won gold for the U.S. and broke world records. Through hard work, dedication, skill, and perseverance, Olympic athletes were able to achieve their goals of Olympic glory.

Likewise, we also have incredible athletes that are encouraged by these Olympians. Junior Ben Tower is inspired by Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Nathan Adrian. The Olympic athlete has taken home three world titles since winning the 4x100m freestyle re-lay gold in Beijing. He won gold in the men’s 4x100m medley relay and 100m freestyle, and silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay in this year’s London Olympics.

Tower admires how Adrian balances swimming, education, training, and family, all at such a young age of twenty-three.

“I love how he is one of the fastest sim-mers in the world, but still a college kid,” Tower said.

Both Adrian and Tower are half Asian and started swimming at a young age, with Adrian beginning at five years old and Tower at six. Tower is motivated by great athletes like Adrian to do his best and hopes to at-tend a division one college that sponsors swim.

Athletics left their mark at the Olympics with a total of twenty-nine medals for the United States. The school also has great run-ners such as senior Michael Mrgudic, who looks up to Olympic runner, Galen Rupp, as inspiration to work harder. Rupp won silver for the men’s 10,000 meter run, which is ap-proximately 6.2 miles. He finished second with 27:30.90 to his training partner, Mo Farah of Great Britain, becoming the first American to win a medal in the event since 1964.

Mrgudic loves the various aspects of the sport including its competitiveness and its individual challenges, both physically and mentally. He not only admires Olympic run-ners, but also all the athletes competing in the Olympics, as they all share the same pas-sion for their sport. Mrgudic gets his deter-mination to win and competitiveness from Rupp.

“What I really like about all these athletes is their immense dedication to their sport in the Olympics and their amazing skills,” Mrgudic said.

Mrgudic first began track and field in his freshman year and cross country in his sophomore year. He has continued to steadi-ly improve in his speed and endurance, and hopes to be recruited for track in the future for college.

Track and FieldSwim

Granada’s new turf spruces up the playing field

Photos courtesy of Lisa Ramirez, Romina Pizarro (The Plaid Press), and GHCHS Athletics

FIELD IN THE MAKING: The field went through many stages such as removing the old turf, constructing a new base, placing a rock and stone layer, an E-layer, and on top of that the new turf.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Eustice