Bearcats Strike for Climate
More than a million people have participated in climate strikes in 2200 events and 125 countries worldwide over the span of the past two years. This widespread movement was all started by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old dedicated to climate change activism. Ever since she declared that she would not attend school until the 2018 Swedish general election and began striking every Friday until Sweden joined the Paris Agreement, she has inspired millions around the globe to join her in taking action to defend the planet. Thunberg created the slogan FridaysForFuture, which gained global attention. Since then, school strikes began to…
A Personal Account On Vaping
WEATHERFORD, T.X.- Tryston Zohfeld, 17, is recovering after nearly three weeks of being in the Intensive Care Unit due to vaping, doctors conclude. On July 26, the 17 year old was fighting for his life as his seemingly healthy and athletic lungs suddenly failed. Tryston told ABC News, “When I woke up I was throwing up everywhere, and my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest going 100 miles per hour.” Tryston was rushed to Cook Children’s hospital and was immediately admitted to the ICU where he was put into a medically induced coma as his condition…
Girls Water Polo Resumes Winning Ways
On any given weekday after school, cascading whistles, shouts and splashes can be heard from the San Mateo High pool. Oftentimes, those sounds just mean that the girl’s water polo team is taking yet another dub. The team makes their victories seem easy; but in reality, girl’s water polo is one of the most stressful, physical sports at the high school varsity level. Below the surface, suits are pulled, legs are kicked, and punches are even thrown. Despite all this, the lady bearcats have managed not only to hold their own but thrive under the pressure. The San Mateo girls…
Running into the 2019 season
For San Mateo’s varsity runners, they are looking optimistic about the upcoming season. When asked how he picks the runs for practices, coach Ed Riley, who has been coaching San Mateo runners for 15 years, had this to say, “I always have what I want to do for the practices in mind but, I change and adjust based on what I saw the night before. It just depends on the condition of my athletes and how they looked the night before.” While varsity teams have a maximum roster size of 7 runners, junior varsity squads can hold many more runners….
How Media Affects The Mind
The media is an almost all encompassing word that describes a massive variety of things that we as a society are exposed to everyday. Social media and televised news connects us all in a way that lets us see and interact with each other all around the globe. Video games and movies give us a temporary escape from reality, placing us in someone else’s shoes and allowing us to experience another person’s life vicariously through a screen. However, when does constant exposure to different kinds of media begin to change a person and shape the way they think? In a…
Matilda Provides Hope
From the outside, Matilda the Musical is just another fun story made into an even more entertaining show. Running from October 17 to October 20, it includes all the classic elements—show-stopping numbers, incredible sets and protagonists you can root for—but this year, SMHS’ fall musical has much more to it than that. Underlying the fun hijinx are empowering messages that are equally important for the high schoolers at SMHS as they are for the primary schoolers at Crunchem Hall. At the beginning of the show, we meet Matilda Wormwood, a little girl who’s known her parents hate her since the…
Mock Trial: Murder Trials, New Captains, and Autonomous Vehicle Accidents
Mock Trial has kicked off with the release of the new case packet, a murder trial, in September. This year’s case, People v. Matsumoto, centers around Bailey Matsumoto and the death of their spouse, Taylor. Bailey and Taylor ran a startup for self-driving trucks, which was a point of conflict for the two of them. Taylor’s 16-year-old son, Michael, died due to a self-driving scooter accident, and Taylor’s grudge against the startup was unrelenting. After Taylor’s participation in a new bill against autonomous vehicles incited a fight between Bailey and Taylor, Taylor was found dead in a bathtub in their…
SMHS Starts the Year Cellphone Free
As we approach the end of the first six weeks of school, many students have begun to accept the new anti-cellphone policies. Despite not accepting the new policies at first, many people have changed their minds and begun to appreciate the new approach to having students pay more attention in class. Kai Ando had a lot to say about the new system. “At first it was weird seeing people with their eyes not glued to their phones, but now it’s nice to see people actually speaking to each other. It also seems like people are paying more attention in class,…
SMHS’ Boomwhacker Club
The xylophone can produce about 40 different pitches; the piano, a whopping 88. The boomwhacker? One. A boomwhacker is a hollow plastic tube that produces a sound when hit against a surface. The length of the tube determines the pitch, with longer tubes producing lower pitches. Crucially, this means that each boomwhacker can only make one sound. Combine this with the fact that you can only play one or two boomwhackers at a time, and you have a recipe for monotony. But with several people working together, entire octaves can be spanned –– and, with practice, music can be created….
Questioning the Ethics of Unconventional Childbearing
As technology has taken over so much of modern society, it has also taken over the way humans come into the world. What was once a natural process is now a highly clinical one. While innovations in the ways children are conceived and born seem to be great alternatives for couples who struggle with infertility or are otherwise unable to conceive naturally, these innovations have created a series of ethical issues. In vitro fertilization, or IVF, is a process where an egg is fertilized outside of the body. Eggs are extracted from the mother and sperm from the father, which…
