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ETHNIC STUDIES CLASS’ FINAL TO REFLECT ON GUN VIOLENCE

By: Krystal Liu

Artworks which created by Ethnic Studies Students.

  Gun violence is quite often discussed in America. Everyone has their own thoughts, and opinions for this issue. Connie So, Ethnic Studies teacher, led her students to make something that reflects on gun violence as their final project of last semester. In her classes, many students shared their concerns, frustration, and grief over the senseless deaths caused by gun violence. As teenagers, and a part of this society,  they want to shout out their voices and express their thoughts.

       “After multiple mass shootings that took place in October, many of my students wanted to do something beyond spending a single class period just talking, so the final project was a way for students to learn about the social, economic, and political implications of gun violence in the United States. The students created art projects that discussed specific topics around gun violence with the intention of generating conversation among their community members,” said So. Each student’s artwork was different because they were telling  different stories about gun violence. Some of them mentioned their family, some of them asked what to do, and some of them showed how people felt confused and helpless.

        Chaina Chonlada, a senior who participated in the final, said, “We wanted to make the art pieces because we wanted our school or our friends to know about this problem, and we didn't want anyone to die because of gun shootings that happen all the time, for example, school and public shootings. We believe that to stop the gun violence, we all have to help spread the messages to the world to stop the hate and spread the love.” The Ethnic Studies class invited Sunshine Roque’s third period class to visit students final in auditorium.

      The outcome of this final inspired many students at Lincoln. “I have never seen any final touch me like that, and the most impressive art work in my mind was a painting. That painting had a boy who was kneeling, and his eyes looked like he needs help,  and he was afraid,” said Chloe Kwan, a student who participated in the evaluation of this final project. “And I am really asking myself, what should we do?”

      Chonlada said,  “Before I did my research, I thought that police are the people who will protect us from danger, but what I thought was somewhat wrong. After my research, I clearly see that police kill black people almost every day. I also can't believe that racism still happens today, and it should be stopped.”

     The occurrence of these things are shocking, angry, and sad. People who have experienced will be scared, people who are experiencing will feel helpless, and people who watch the news will be disappointed.

      These students used their actions to inspire more teenagers. This final exam hanged the minds of many people and also made students see the harm of the issue.

      “It changed my thoughts after seeing the number of people who died. I feel very sad that gun violence still happens in our society today. This taught me to stop hating people and see the beautiful side of them,” said Chonlada.

LINCOLN’S JROTC STUDENT TAKES 3RD IN ANNUAL FALL COMPETITION.

By: Savinie Lin

The ALHS’ Color Guard presented the colors for the 2018 Fall Competition as a part of the competition’s procedure.

 

 

  A breath of silence was held as Lincoln JROTC cadets watch, hoping that the winner for the LET 3 Individual Drill Down would be Joshua Chang as it was down to him and another. The judge quickly tapped the other cadet’s shoulder, signifying that Chang is the automatic winner.

  The fall competition consists of different events such as drill platoon, color guard, the individual drill down between different cadets according to the years they’ve been in JROTC, guidon competition, and squad drill. Chang, a junior cadet, brought home the trophy with Lincoln also placing for guidon competition with sophomore cadet Nicholas Gaylord and Squad Drill led by sophomore Lani Lam.

  “Our teams bonded and during the competition, ROTC managed to get through all the hardships [with members quitting and the date being changed] we had this season,” Chang says. “Our strong point was that no matter what happened we were able to move on and still compete with a good mindset.”

  Chang competed in the Individual Drill Down which is separated by different LET levels that are determined through the number of years the cadets are in the JROTC program.

  The annual fall competition was moved from November 15 to December 15 due to the smoke from the wildfires. The extra month gave the teams more time to practice, but a majority of the teams struggled with team members quitting the team before the competition and the stress of placing in the competition settling in.

  Members of the Drill Platoon and Color Guard teams both had a teammate quit before the competition, making Drill Platoon automatically disqualified and Color Guard needing to find a new person as soon as possible.

  Ashley Liao, a senior who’s been in JROTC for four years, was a quick replacement for the missing spot in Color Guard. Though she never participated in this form of drilling, she spent late hours after school  rehearsing and learning the routine.

  “It was fun, I had a good time,” says Liao. “It was a team I never thought I’d join, but I really enjoyed it. Even if it was stressful in the end.”

  Although Color Guard did not place, the team is more than satisfied with their work, especially with their last-minute replacement.

  “They worked really hard, and, whenever I ask them to fix something they do it immediately,” Color Guard commander Michelle Choi says.

  “I really wanted to focus my attention on the newest member so she could learn the drill. I mean, we were lucky to have her because she’s been drilling for three years now, but getting used to the drill was definitely a struggle because she’s not used to it, and she had to be in sync with the other [flag] guard,” explains Choi, deciding to do so instead of stressing.

  However, Drill Platoon commander Anna Yan was unable to find a cadet to fill the empty spot. The team was able to compete but disqualified due to not having the number of required members.

  “It was devastating and stressful. Especially since I was in a position of leadership,” comments Yan. After the Drill Platoon event, Yan remembers feeling down and unsure on their performance.

  “The bond is there and we seemed closer after everything that happened,” Yan says.  “Although I was disappointed in myself, it’s a chance for me to learn from my failures.”

  Washington High School won a majority of the competition leaving them First Overall in the competition. Besides Lincoln and Washington, Burton was another school who had brought back a trophy.

  Lincoln’s JROTC cadets now hope for the best with the 2019 Spring Competition coming around in late April.

LEAVE THE FUN CHALLENGES FUN AND NOT A RISK

By; Laila Boston

Man egts creative and uses a construction truck in place of a bucket while doing the Ice Bucket Challenge.    Photo by: Floodllama

  Internet challenges are a popular type of activity mostly influenced by millennials, but are done by tons of people and different age groups. Challenges are usually done as just a fun activity or to go viral and gain fame, which in the case of some people, can be life changing. This is all reasonable, but its seems as though all too often people change these once playful and fun challenges into “Gone Wrong” situations. In some cases the participants feel like they have to up the ante and take it up a notch for more recognition while, for others, it’s just for the hell of it.

  These once wholesome, fun challenges often get ruined and become very dangerous. For example, the “KeKe challenge” was a popular dance challenge created by the Instagram social lite, TheShiggyShow, using the song “In my feelings” by Drake. The dance challenge became very popular during the summer of 2018 with people dancing everywhere from at work, in their bedrooms, even restaurants until the location got escalated to people jumping out of their cars into the middle of the street to do the dance and of course the challenge became a “gone wrong” situation. As a result, some challengers began getting hurt as they jumped out of the car too fast and car accidents began happening because the car had gotten out of control or the passenger got hit because they jump out on moving traffic.

  Another fun challenge “gone wrong” was the Ice bucket challenge done in late 2015 to support and promote awareness of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). The challenge is where the participant gets a bucket of ice-cold water poured on them, which was a cool challenge until some challengers began putting the emphasis on the ice and totally started cancelling out the bucket as an object used for pouring the water. Challengers later on started putting actual ice cubes in the water which hurt more than you would think. The amount of ice cubes left them with bumps and bruises. That’s not even the end of it as the “water” that was poured out of was actually different liquids. Challengers took it to the extreme and got the water poured on them from construction trucks and even being close to that type of machinery can be dangerous so, only imagine getting tons of water poured on you and in lots of cases with people using construction trucks as their “bucket” the participants were too close to and were getting hit in the head by them.

  Most of the challenges I’ve brought up were fun activities that turned bad for some people, but the “Boiling Water Challenge” wasn’t even close to fun especially for the people who had the “challenge” done to them. This was more of a prank with the title name “challenge” labeled onto it. The challenge is where someone boils a pot of water and throws it on a person while they’re sleep as a joke, which is not funny as it leaves the people who the water was thrown on in the hospital in critical condition. For example, there was a case in the Bronx where a little girl was at a sleepover with her friends and while she was asleep, the girl who she believed was her friend boiled a pot of water and threw it on her waking her up in shock and leaving her with burns all over her body and in the hospital.

  In conclusion, the participants give into what the world/their viewers “want” doing these crazy things. All though some challenges come out very successful with thousands of views and lots of positive recognition, others may seem to get the same amount of views with their challenges, but the challengers aren’t so lucky, as their cravings for popularity isn’t fulfilled if they had failed the challenge. There is no problem with having fun and getting a little wild, but when there are risks and dangers there should be another way to have fun.