Editorials and Opinion

Karim Benallel : Free Press Staff  

Marissa Sliney: Free Press Staff

When the town is in a situation like the one it is in now there are two options. We either make more money or we spend less. The cuts are not limited to the school system. Fire, police, and DWP will being seeing heavy cuts as well. Everyone in town, kids or no kids, has reason to be concerned.

Imagine this website, the one you are reading right now… being cut.  That’s another breakdown of communication within Weymouth High School. Imagine losing your favorite sport or your favorite teacher. Imagine losing art, chorus, band, drama, and the Variety Show. Imagine losing the classes that are essential to YOUR future plans. Are you outraged yet because I can keep going?

What does Trash or Tomorrows mean? “Raising trash fees by $23 a month would raise over $3.4 million for the town’s schools and services.” For a more detailed look you can visit the group on facebook or watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyzmx-HI1EQ&feature=player_embedded

Another solution? An override of Proposition 2 ½

Proposition 2 ½, “Limits the amount of revenue a city or town may raise, or levy, from local property taxes each year to fund municipal¹ operation” this was approved by voters in 1980². Basically this limits how much money the state can get from property taxes by limiting how much it is allowed to raise these taxes each year.

         An override “Increases the amount of property tax revenue a community may raise in the year specified…” The override would allow our town to collect more money from property taxes. “The purpose of an override is to provide funding for municipal expenses likely to recur or continue into the future…”

         “An override of Proposition 2 ½ would only increase the average tax bill less than $17 dollars a month and net over $7 million dollars for the town.”

All that we the students can do is everything. The best class I took in three years of Weymouth High education so far was political affairs. In this I learned the term public opinion. Public opinion is those attitudes held by a significant number of people on matters like government and politics. The expression of an opinion or attitude can be in any action a person makes publically. I’m saying get offended; your opinion means nothing if you do nothing.

So on Monday May seventienth, do something for yourself. Use your own personal political power and get active. We can all show our unity and make an attention commanding statement by wearing a black shirt with the words, “Trash or Tomorrows” written in white letters. Take the action to understand your community and what is going on around you. As a student of Weymouth High School this DOES affect you.

More information:

Town Council Public Meeting

Time: Monday, May 17^th 2010   From 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Place: Auditorium, Abigail Adams Intermediate School, 89 Middle street  

Other: Please if you can, wear a black t-shirt with “Trash or Tomorrows” written in bold white writing. 

Sources and locations for more information:

10 things to know about Weymouth School spending problems: 

Schools Strain to Hit Target for Budget Cuts: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2010/04/22/weymouth_school_officials_juggling_figures_to_meet_target_for_budget_cuts/

Weymouth: http://www.allbusiness.com/education-training/teaching-teachers-primary/14392504-1.html

Proposition 2 ½ Resource Area: http://www.mma.org/index.php?

option=com_content&task=view&id=2179&Itemid=2 

Trash for Tomorrows facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/trashortomorrows?v=app_2352149512#!/trashortomorrows?v=wall

Trash for Tomorrows video:

http://www.facebook.com/trashortomorrows?v=app_2352149512#!/trashortomorrows?v=wall

1 Municipal – of or relating to a city or town or its governing body

2 Proposition 2 ½ was approved in 1980 and went into effect in fiscal 1982

Karim Benallel: Free Press Staff

The real thought I’m processing here is; could I really write an article about social hierarchy and its frightening prevalence in my own beloved Weymouth High? Should I even write about it, and try to find out if the various behaviors and actions of High School Students have the age old “Social Ladder” to blame ? And more importantly, could I write it, and correctly pinpoint what it is that makes us kids do what we do, and even possibly trace a relationship between the behavior of kids in High School and world issues, while not being biased? Could I possibly be overdoing the italics? Well, I can and frankly, I will. The article, not the italics.

Give or take for a few thousand years, society, and its various orders, have remained the same. Let people tell you time after time that, especially in the last couple of decades, things have gotten worse. More specifically in high schools, among the onslaught of drug abuse, school shootings, suicides, and complexes. In fact, high school is more relatable to society then you might think. Now let’s review: There is a social ladder. You know it, I know it; don’t even try to deny it. The various cliques and stereotypes that walk through the high school are vast, and follow, some examples: jocks, preppies, the “academically gifted”, as not to sound too cliché, disheveled young metal fans, and various other school cliques. Don’t fool yourself, it’s in every teen movie, book, and art of fiction this side of Zimbabwe.

Wrapping up my sophomore year, I’ve had a chance to view the interactions of these delightfully biased groups of people in my very own school, and sadly, it is no exception. But this is more of a generality then a finger pointing exercise. These interactions are fresh in my mind, and they raise many questions. How are the cliques divided? How do you join one? What is it in our young impressionable minds that cause us to divide like this? Or rather, a darker truth, is there something that nobody sees, an especially elusive factor that makes those stereotypes so relevant, so that when you enter the high school, your place is chosen from the start? A factor that may explain why some teens actually take their own lives from the scathing remarks of their peers and why their peers made those remarks, or why kids do drugs, and the reason they start?

Well, not quite yet. The actual relations between the cliques are quite humorous in their predictability. You know quite well, don’t you? The jocks or athletes messing with the nerds or academically gifted. The popular this, disliking the unpopular that. Students downright hating people they have never even met. The delightfully indifferent students, who cause no trouble. There is no need to dive into detail about these cliques, many already know the social divisions and aspects of how they work. But the inner workings are where they get interesting

Why do they do that? Why did you and your high school alumni do that? Why are all high schools forever trapped in a seemingly endless bad teen movie, with all of us acting out the same roles? Well, here’s a thought. The basic idea of social hierarchy has always been the same. People, all of them, are different. Some are drastically different and some only have small differences. Different people have different perceptions of each other, and vastly different ways of handling that. Some people are vastly more sensitive then others. And they may resort to desperate measures to escape deadly social situations. Some even resort to drugs to numb the pain of many issues and things going on in their lives. Numbing the pain is something many, if not all can relate too.

Try to remember when you were in kindergarten, preschool even. Everybody was a friend, weren't they? You didn’t care that your little buddy was little different, because that’s not how your mind perceived it. You just saw another human child, reacted indifferently, and had fun. And in some cases, these interactions gave way for lifelong friendships. But everyone grows up, and everyone begins to judge eventually. Everyone had a friend back in those young days that they say they drifted apart from eventually. Happens to everyone, you become different, “human nature”, you might say. Kind of sad, huh? You might have been at you’re most respectable before you could pronounce “this article will go over many people’s heads”. Even the worst of us were at one time a naïve little kid, judging nothing and nobody. Even when you walk through those doors of this high school, you’re a little different from the next guy, and that’s what sets you up. Eventually, nobody can tolerate each other’s differences, and cliques are formed. People actually fight over small things, like race, and money, or even something as trivial as your basic interests.

This sound familiar, by the way? These little differences actually bar people from great friendships or just being able to co exist. Just think about it, there was an instance in your life, when you could have gotten to know someone, but you didn’t, maybe because they were a little different, they wore all black or they looked “drugged up”, or we’re simply a type of person you had pre-conceived notions about, or even, you just felt you wouldn’t like them. So that raises the ultimate question, if we all ignored minor differences between each other, and stopped judging, could everyone be friends, or even maintain neutral relationships with each other? Could that logic stop worldwide conflict? Religious groups with common ancestors from warring over minor differences? Racial conflict? Could we all just be a bit hypocritical, in our criticisms of other cultures? Looks like our species is a bit of a one-trick pony. Well, for one thing, I know I’m going to stop judging people on inconsequential pre- conceived notions, because everyone being different, now that’s a fact I can live with. What about you?

Karim Benallel : Free Press Staff

If you’ve walked through the halls of Weymouth High in the last month, it’s probably all you’ve heard about. Among the oceans of confused and easily slighted teens rippling throughout the many halls of the massive school, it’s simply impossible to miss. The “It” in question happens to be Weymouth High’s latest revelation: Academies. Most would shiver and break down at the very mention of the word, and their appearances in conversation will likely illicit reactions like: “Complex”, “Annoying”, and my personal favorite, “Mad Dumb”. I know.

Though the faculty has shown various presentations thoroughly explaining the situation to soothe students’ rampant fears, many are still left puzzled, confused, and even angry over their fate transitioning into the new system next year. But, despite popular belief, and even to my own surprise, the Academy system is in fact designed to help students, as well as bring excitement to an otherwise redundant school cycle. I know, baffling isn’t it? Academies themselves, though they appear to be a stranglehold of complex traps designed  to place you in classes with no escape, actually happen to be “umbrellas” of classes, or groups of classes, if that works better, all pertaining to a basic overall interest of a student. Confused? Basically, a student who enjoys math and science would enter the “Math and Science Academy”, which, besides the core classes involving those subjects, would include other classes, or electives structured into that student’s schedule, having to do with those subjects. A student who enjoys art? They would go into the “Fine Arts Academy”, and they would find electives and various classes that they would enjoy there. In addition to that there are a plethora of other academies, including, but not limited to, “Business and Entrepreneurship”, “Global Language”, and “Humanities”.

Each of these academies have various paths to choose, and different focuses regarding what you wish to learn more about, such as taking the commercial art or fine art schedules from the “Fine Arts Academy”, or the computer programming or medical ones from the “Math and Science Academy”. The school is encouraging students to take classes they like, and group these classes together? And people are complaining about this! Where’s the love, people? Besides, Academies are the new tomorrow and soon to be a standard for Massachusetts High Schools. How psyched would a college be to see that an applying student has already participated in this strange revolution? Very. The school is currently issuing out course selection books and sheets with the intent of students choosing their academy for next year, and, wait? What? The promise that a student can change their academy when they wish.  

  Wow. I’d almost believe the school was making things blissfully convenient for us. Now, no doubt students will suck it up, and maybe even get used to it in time, as they did the 2009-2010 schedule change helmed by Dr. Pope that stirred similar reactions. Don’t you just love impressionable youths getting frustrated over nothing? So do I. Well, the point is, Academies are here to help, and hopefully make things more exciting. So the next time you hear that winner call Academies “Mad Dumb”, do have yourself a good laugh, and please, oh god, please ask him to stop using the word “mad” out of context. I think I speak for everyone on that one.

Billy Kelly: Free Press Staff

When I was younger, adults always used to tell me that the United States of America was country based on the principles of freedom, independence, and liberty, among other things of the nature. I was told that our political system was just and that we the people of the United States had the power to elect whoever we thought was fit to do the job of whatever position we were electing them for. I was told that it was always the politicians’ best interests to serve the country the way they saw fit, which would in turn be echoing the voices of the people that voted him or her into office. If I had only known how hypocritical some of those adults had been. 

 We all know about Senator Scott Brown’s surprising upset in the Massachusetts election over Martha Coakley. Brown was now the poster child and savior of the Republican Party, largely for his role in shooting down the massive tax that is President Obama’s health care bill. But how the tables have turned. Recently, Brown voted for a bill largely supported by Democrats that was related to taxes in Massachusetts. Brown was instantly under fire from Republicans and Republican supporters from Massachusetts, many going so far as to calling him a traitor. And this leads to the main point. My issue is not with Scott Brown, Democrats, or Republicans; my issue is with the thousands of voiceless citizens who blindly follow one political party like a herd of sheep follows a shepherd.Brown claims that he is an independent politician that does what he thinks is right for the people of Massachusetts without catering to one party. If he is telling the truth, then I respect that. However, the backlash against him for voting for that bill is extremely concerning; when did we begin to focus on being loyal to a party rather than paying attention to the issues at hand and what the candidate stands for? For whatever reason, people stick to one party or another, and when things start going wrong, it becomes one giant, immature finger pointing game.

Nobody believes in anything anymore, they just lean on whatever party they feel they relate to. It is no secret that things are not perfect right now, with the country’s massive trillion plus dollar deficit and the only ever-so-slightly raising unemployment rate, among other things. This is precisely why the general public should be voting for people who acknowledge these crises and offer viable solutions to the problems. Instead we get people voting for puppets controlled by the rich, fat cats controlling the Democratic and Republican Parties. Why do you think the Independent candidates never have a chance at being elected President?The people that stick to one party are hindering the United States’ progress in moving out of this economic downturn and solving the other problems we have. Therefore, I propose a solution to this mess. I suggest that we “fix” these people and force them to wear blindfolds for the rest of their lives, as they are no better than blind dogs following an abusive master. Let’s leave the voting to the independent, responsible, thinkers of America.

I am by no means saying that everyone who votes does this. But it is a disturbing trend that needs to be curbed. Let’s go back to the principles that this great country was founded on and stay away from the political machines that are the Democratic and Republican Parties. It truly is a paradox that by definition we are a Republican nation, yet limit the success to two parties alone. I am not legal to vote yet, but when I do gain that right on my eighteenth birthday, I know I will not participate in this march of the dogs.

Free Press Staff:

          When It comes to the IPad I’m not going to pretend that I am not slightly impressed. Email, videos, photos, notes, internet, and more all on this 9.7 inch touch screen. I’m sure the next generation, probably coming out in a month or so, will fill just another manufactured niche. Everything you probably don’t need in one, almost like two in one shampoo, this is simplicity at it’s fullest, right? I can see Thoreau thumbing through a good book on his Ipad right now, paper cut free. 

            The IPad blurs the lines between simple and compact. Apple, the company destine to take over the world, has invented a device with unknown potential. As the years drift on people will mutate new wants and Ipad will be the cause of it. 

            I believe one day, one company said to the other, “I bet you can’t fit hundreds of applications in one device.” 

            The other company replies, “You wanna bet!” Thus the bombardment of frequently updated phones, blackberries, iPods, and so on hits us consumers. And we love it.

            Someday we’ll be able to say, “My phone cooks me breakfast.” Because compact is the new black. This technology, however, is NOT simple. No, I don’t mean it is too complicated for the technologically impaired, though it may be. I mean in an attempt to simplify your life the iPad and other witless devices have widened the horizons of desires that need fulfillment.

            What more can I say? This is capitalism, it’s business as usual, it’s an out right conspiracy to keep us buying! I totally gotta get one.

 Keith Murray: Free Press Staff

In today’s world, it is easy to complain about many things, major, or little in life. Even with the new policies, (such as the “ten minute bathroom ban”) there is still a lot to be happy with at Weymouth High School. Some people reading this right now may be confused and say “What?” but the answer is pretty simple. We have a lot of remarkable things at our school. First off, look at how huge our high school is. If you have been to towns close to Weymouth, you’ll notice that our school is significantly bigger than others. Not trying to brag at all, I’m just saying that this is something we should be proud of. Next, the projectors that are in almost every single room in both buildings. Teachers don’t have to use those “old school” projectors or any other means to view something on the board. I mean, we don’t have run-down classroom equipment. And, how many schools around here have a planetarium as nice as we do? Even though many of us don’t see it that much, and it is more for Astrology and other Science-related class, it is still a great thing we have at our high school. Look at all the opportunities for sports we have; Soccer, Lacrosse, Basketball, Baseball, Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, etc.

Look at all the opportunities for electives we have: Guitar, Piano, Web-Design, Java Programming, Astrology, Mythology, Semantics, Music Theory, etc.  It seems to me as if we take too much for granted. As we all know, there was a series of earthquakes that decimated the landscape in Haiti. Entire buildings, torn to rubble. And still today in developing countries, there is poverty, disease, and rapid population growth. There are orphan children wandering through the streets, searching for food or anything to get by for the day. They don’t even have school, or any opportunities to be someone, to make a lot of money, to have a house, someday. Yet everyday as we walk into our high school we still find things to complain about. The point I am trying to make is, be grateful for what you have, especially Weymouth High.

Marissa Sliney: Free Press Editorials & Opinion editor

Oral sex n : oral stimulation of the genitals. 

             All kidding aside here are the facts. A young student went to look up a word in this dictionary, when they stumbled upon the term oral sex. A mother contacted the school board and asked for this edition to be removed. The school board quickly complied with this mother’s outrage, and pulled the Merriam-Webster dictionary off of the shelves. To make sure that no other indecent words are exposed to students the dictionary is being sifted through for “Graphic nature.” This is a fourth and fifth grade classroom and there are versions of the dictionary that are specifically for elementary students, that do not include sexual terms, yet for some reason every edition of this dictionary was pulled from that school district. 

             Now I could point out the obvious first amendment violation, the ridicules over reaction, the unacceptable banning of a book, and so on. If it was not blatantly clear then let it be known; we are a society that reacts poorly to ANYTHING racy.  

             Parent concern for their nine to ten year old children in school is understandable and it is a personal choice of what material they would like to shield their child from. The problem with a situation like this is where does it end? “It’s hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we’ll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature.” Betti Cadmus, a district spokesperson told the area's local paper. I find it concerning that people are literally sitting in a room and decided what is too obscene for another person.  

    Should this turn into a first amendment battle or an everyday casual book banning? 

             I bite my lip in vexation, wondering about school boards thoughtlessly prohibiting out of context words. In some strange alternate reality I can comprehend the argument for censoring something like a book, an essay, persuasive paper, salacious photo, or any collaboration of words working in harmony to detail the authors thoughts. A dictionary contains none of this. 

             Censorship is usually more about control than protection. It is asserting control over a person’s behavior through filtering what that person comes into contact with. More simply put, If violent material is forbidden, it’s because of the belief that the viewer will in turn reenact this violent material. I find this interesting because coverage of the floor debate in the House of Representatives will be on ‘til eight tonight and there probably won’t be too many reckless kids reenacting this.  

             Is the school board in California trying to physically protect theses students state of mind from seeing a word or are they preventing the actions that the recognition of this word might entail? If that is the case what proceeds this? Next will they ban the words murder, rape, and suicide? Not just the advertisement of these acts but the words out of context, like they don’t exist. “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored,” Aldous Huxley, Proper Studies. I believe this school is doing something worse than censorship, they are choosing to close their eyes to facts. 

Janey Ames: Free Press Staff