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Montgomery Blair High School
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND
chips
Paul serves up a storm
A little too friendly...
PAGE 30
PAGE 22
October 7, 2004
Ranked third in the nation at 2004 NSPA Best in Show competition
VOL 67 NO 1
BURSTING AT THE SEAMS
Here we
go again
Night School
adds to Blair
overuse
A SILVER CHIPS EDITORIAL
By SAMIR PAUL
Blair can’t afford another year of déjà
vu—but we’re about to have to.
For the sixth year running, MCPS has
failed to bring our dangerously overcrowded school down to size. Even as the
Downcounty Consortium (DCC) gets underway with the opening of a renovated
Northwood, Blair’s enrollment this year
still stands at 3,323 as of Sept. 30, according to Assistant Principal Linda Wanner.
Next year promises little relief: More will
come; they do every fall. If you think it’s
bad now though, get used to it—because
we have no idea when, if ever, it’s going
to stop.
The MCPS Adult Education Office and
the MCPS Division of School Plant Operations (DSPO) have given no extra support
to Blair Building Services staff to help
them absorb the additional responsibilities
that come with the 750 students who are
currently attending the newly-relocated
Night School program at Blair.
“We definitely need the manpower”
Principal Phillip Gainous requested
additional Building Services support after
see PACKED page 5
Empty promises
Buses too
crowded
MCPS’ response to Blair’s situation is
perfectly infuriating: “We’ve got to find
out: Where is the cap going to be? How
far can we go? How far is reasonable?”
Community Superintendent Stephen Bedford questions when asked about Blair’s
future population. “We’re never going to
get Blair down to a school of 2,000,” he
adds, apparently implying that Blair’s
see STUFFED page 3
Students ride packed bus route 5995
on Oct.1. Photo by Nathaniel Lichten
By KRISTINA HAMILTON
A
t least ten of Blair’s school buses
are overcrowded again this year,
with many students being forced
to stand or sit three to a seat, according to students and several bus drivers. Experts say overcrowded buses are
“extremely dangerous.”
“I think just about all of us are overloaded,” said Blair bus driver Alma Carpenter
of her school bus, route 6110, and the other
Blair school buses. “I’ve got kids standing
and sitting three to a seat and some of us
have some pretty big kids that don’t fit well.”
Students who stand on moving buses are
INSIDE
see JAMMED page 9
Blazers LiveStrong:
Are the popular
yellow bracelets a
passing craze or here
to stay?
see page 15
Blazers shuffle along a crowded Blair Blvd during the Sept. 10 Activity Fair. Blair
is 500 students over its planned capacity. Photo by Christopher Consolino
Welcome to Sardine City
By BRITTANY MOYER
Crammed corridors require shuffled
half-steps that cannot exceed the speed of
the crowd’s current. Long, winding food
lines frustrate their patrons, who know
their precious lunch minutes are ticking
away. Even long waits exist to use the toilet, with the next-closest restroom a mobladen trek away.
When a public high school resembles a
What Not To Wear:
For one Blazer, a
reality check on the
world’s worst reality
television show.
see page 23
packed pro-football stadium at halftime,
something is wrong.
Despite the launch of the Downcounty
Consortium (DCC) and the opening of
Northwood, arrangements designed to
ease Blair’s overcrowding, Blair will not
see a significant decrease in student population anytime soon. With evidence from
the National Education Association that
see CRAMMED page 14
Decision 2004:
Blair students
hitch a ride on the
campaign trail in
this election year.
see page 13
Mideast Turmoil:
Chips takes a closer
look at the war in
Iraq and its effects
on Blazers at home.
see Centerspread
2 EDITORIALS
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
Exploiting 9/11
Just after 9/11, America was saturated with sentiment. The sheer
volume of prayers and donations was a testament to the sincerity
of the American people. For a while, the media joined in on the
act, honoring the sacrifices made and reminding us of the victims’
families. We mourned with our newspapers, our televisions, our
President. But in the three-year wake of 9/11, the media has begun
to manipulate that mindset into a well-oiled machine for producing
Nielsen ratings, poll points and box-office bucks. Sept. 11 should still
be a sensitive subject, but that sensitivity has been compromised to
suit the needs of an impatient entertainment industry.
In the first few months after 9/11, Hollywood was quick to halt
all things terrorist-, Twin Tower- or airplane-related from hitting
theaters. Collateral Damage, a Schwarzenegger action flick about a
fireman whose family was killed in a terrorist bombing, originally
had an opening day a few months after 9/11 but was postponed
until 2002. A trailer for the first Spider-Man, in which Spidey spins a
giant web between the Twin Towers to net bank robbers in a helicopter, was retracted almost immediately.
But today, new shows like LAX and Threat Matrix are using airport security and national security as their respective ratings rousers.
The new F/X Network series Rescue Me chronicles the rough-edged
lives of FDNY firemen post-9/11. The list gets longer and the audacity even stronger. Television, our former medium of compassionate
unity, has now soothed us onto our sofas for the commercial break.
Take, for example, TNT’s summer miniseries The Grid, which
focused on a special taskforce dedicated to averting the efforts of an
international terrorist cell. One of the protagonists, Jane McCann,
lost her husband in the attack on the World Trade Center. Or take
F/X’s Meltdown, an original movie that plays on fear—maybe for
nostalgia’s sake—by asking what would happen if terrorists took
control of a U.S. nuclear facility. The title is especially appropriate,
considering what is happening to the ethics of entertainment.
Such blatant sensationalisms of 9/11 slithering out of the Hollywoodwork ignore the fact that, for many families, emotional repercussions are still raw.
For this reason, we still and always will owe remembrance to
those who died; the question is simply whether we should mind
who’s profiting from our remembrance. While we wait on that
answer, however, all signs of respectful restraint in the media seem to
be taking a nose dive... straight into the World Trade Center.
silverCHIPS
Montgomery Blair High School
51 University Boulevard East
Silver Spring, MD 20901
Chips Phone Number: (301) 649-2864
http://silverchips.mbhs.edu
Winner of the 2002 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker
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Submit your letter to John Mathwin’s mailbox in the main office, to room 158 or
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Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
Editors-in-Chief.................................................................................................Sherri Geng, Brittany Moyer
Managing News Editors..............................................................Kristina Hamilton, Renee Park, Samir Paul
Managing Features Editors........................................................Olivia Bevacqua, Julyssa Lopez, Julia Penn
Managing Opinions and Editorials Editors...................................................Rocky Hadadi, Ashley Jurinka
Managing Sports Editors....................................................................................Ellie Blalock, Lauren Finkel,
................................................................................................................................Dan Greene, Kristina Yang
Managing Entertainment Editors.......................................................................Eric Glover, John Visclosky
Managing Health Editor..........................................................................................................Karima Tawfik
Production Director.......................................................................................................................Renee Park
Managing Page Editors...................................................................................Yicong Liu, Stephanie Nguyen
Design Team.......................................................Arianna Herman, Julia Penn, Sheila Rajagopal, Kate Selby
Senior Editors..........................................................................................Alexa Gabriel, Melanie Thompson
Managing Photography Editors......................................................................Adam Schuyler, Charlie Woo
Managing Art Editors....................................................................................Lincoln Bostian, Rebecca Sugar
Managing Graphics Editor....................................................................................................Sheila Rajagopal
Public Relations Director............................................................................................................Betsy Costilo
Ombudsman..................................................................................................................................Dan Greene
Fact Check Supervisor....................................................................................................................Nora Onley
Online Coordinator............................................................................................................Stephanie Nguyen
Newsbriefs Editor..........................................................................................................................Ravi Umarji
Extras Editor............................................................................................................................Nora Boedecker
Executive Business Staff............................................Tiffany Chang, Yasmin Haghighi, Andrew Helgeson
Business Staff....................................................................Kiran Belani, Christopher Stavish, Yuning Zhang
Page Editors..............................................................Pria Anand, Kiran Bhat, Nora Boedecker, Clair Briggs,
..........................................................................Kristi Chakrabarti, Lucy Fromyer, Emily-Kate Hannapel,
...................................................Monica Huang, Katy Lafen, Sally Lanar, Amanda Lee, Camille Mackler,
.............................................................Sayoh Mansaray, Emily May, Damian Morden-Snipper, Sara Pierce,
..............................................................................Jody Pollock, Armin Rosen, John Silberholz, Ravi Umarji,
......................................................................................Avi Wolfman-Arent, Jozi Zwerdling, Chelsea Zhang
Spanish Page Editor..................................................................................................................Ria Richardson
Spanish Page Writers..................................................Jessica Bermudez, Veronica Ramirez, Ria Richardson
Editorial Writers.............................................................................Sherri Geng, Eric Glover, Ashley Jurinka
Graphics Team..................................................................................Tencia Lee, Sheila Rajagopal, Jessica Yen
Photographers.....................................................Christopher Consolino, Diana Frey, Nathaniel Lichten,
............................................................................Elena Pinsky, Hannah Rosen, Adam Schuyler, Charlie Woo
Artists............................................................Conor Casey, Robyn Haley, Max Wasserman, Jordan Williams
Sports Writers.......................................................................... Michael Bushnell, Nick Falgout, Jonah Gold,
.................................................................................Anthony Glynn, Erik Kojola, Adith Sekaran, Tiffany Yee
Professional Technical Advisor.........................................................................................Anne Wisniewski
Supervising Teachers.................................Elba Castro, Maureen Freeman, Dora Gonzalez, John Mathwin
Sponsor.......................................................................................................................................John Mathwin
When a failing grade can cut it
New policy discourages efforts of struggling students
Every failing high-school
student’s dream will come true
next fall:�Simply hand in a blank
piece of paper (or no paper at
all) for any assignment, and automatically get 50 percent credit.
While it may seem appealing,
this guideline of the new grading policy contradicts everything
MCPS is trying to achieve: It will
discourage student effort, inflate
grades and allow false promotion from one grade level to the
next.
MCPS Director of Curriculum
and Instruction Karen Harvey
says the policy ensures that all
grades have the same weight so
it will no longer be impossible
to recover from a bad grade. An
A and an E should theoretically
average to a C, she says, but currently, if a student receives a zero
on one test and then a 100 on the
next, his or her average would
be 50 percent, which is still a
failing grade. A zero through
59 percent will merit the same
E. To fix this inconsistency, the
new policy asks teachers to record letter grades as opposed to
percentages, as averaging letters
obtains the “right” results, while
averaging percentages do not.
Such reasoning is problematic
because simplifying a percentage
to a letter grade doesn’t take into
account the numeric range that
an E encompasses. If a student
receives a 50 percent on one test
and a 100 on another, that student would have the C average
Harvey stresses. But this should
only occur when a student actually masters half of the material.
Instead, MCPS says all Es are
equal and assumes that every
failing grade is a 50 percent, a
significant exaggeration. This
system simply gives every-
one the highest score possible
without surpassing an E. The
current grading system of using
percentages yields more accurate
grades, as it incorporates the different levels of mastery within a
failing grade. Someone who receives no points on a test shows
that they understand nothing,
while a student with 50 percent
understands half. If these two
students are graded equally, as
the new policy suggests, there
is no longer an incentive for the
student who tried (but failed) to
ever try again.
The bottom line is that
grades should be representative of knowledge mastered. If
students fail one test and ace the
other, they still only know half
of the total material covered,
and thus a 50 percent would be
representative of mastery. Why
is that too much to expect?
A more viable solution to help
students improve their grades
is to give more assignments and
thus progressively decrease the
effect one bad test day can have
on a quarter grade. This solution
(which is also suggested in the
new grading policy), combined
with the use of percentages,
accurately reflects mastery and
gives students more opportunities to fix their own grades.
The letter-grade aspect of the
new policy is inflating the grades
of students who might have
failed otherwise. This becomes
dangerous when students are
unrightfully promoted to the
next grade—probably for the
second, third or fourth time—
because their skewed grades
indicate they mastered material that they may have never
even glanced at. Too bad for
the teacher who has to help that
struggling student next year.
In addition, the class of
2009 now must pass the High
School Assessments to graduate. Unfortunately, those who
fly through school with no value
placed on their grades (as long
as they’re passing) are the ones
who will fail their standardized
tests simply because no one
declared that they weren‘t ready.
Nobody wants to tell a student
they cannot graduate because
they only have a ninth-grade understanding of math or English.
And nobody wants to explain to
that student’s parents where the
system went wrong.
If the County wants grades
to be accurate, they should use
a number system instead of
the traditional letter system.
No longer would an 89.5 merit
an A while an 89.4 earns a B. A
number system wouldn’t equate
both a 69.5 and a 79.4 as Cs, as
the traditional system does. In
addition, instead of students
deciding how little work they
have to do to get an A, they will
work harder knowing that colleges or employers will see how
high their A was.
MCPS has mandated most of
the guidelines to be implemented in secondary schools starting
this year but has allowed high
school leadership teams to decide which portions of the new
system will be required in high
school. Thankfully, there is time
to voice your complaints about
this confusing and counterproductive policy.
To voice your opinion, email
MCPS Director of Curriculum
and Instructional Programs
Betsy Brown at
[email protected]
silverCHIPS
OP/ED 3
October 7, 2004
Empty promises stretch Blair to the limit
Immediate action is necessary before Blair explodes
from STUFFED page 1
desire to have fewer students is
unreasonable.
But what is our cap, if not already established at 2,831? And
Bedford, by occupation, is Blair’s
community advocate—why isn’t
he pushing for our numbers to
go down, instead of asking how
far we can still go up before caving in?
Each year, MCPS promises
our population climb is going to
stop. “Next year, Blair will definitely be lower,” assured MCPS
Senior Planner Bruce Crispell
two weeks ago, adding half-jokingly, “I swear it will, I swear!”
Yet isn’t that what MCPS vowed
last year and the year before as
well? “This should be the worst
year for Blair,” Crispell offered
when interviewed on Sept. 8,
2003. Wrong. Blair’s enrollment “will drop each year ‘til
[2007-2008] as grades phase out
of its attendance area,” he added
then. Wrong again. Referring to
promises made in 2002 that Blair
would see relief in 2003, Crispell
claimed, “That might have been
a misquote.”
It is empty promises like
these that make it difficult for
the Blair community to have
faith in MCPS—and why should
we? The school opened its doors
near-capacity at 2,755 in 1998,
and our population has grown
consistently since then. Yet,
MCPS still treats us like a school
of 2,000—which, as Bedford
reminds us, we are not and will
never be.
Blair is allotted the same
resources as schools half its size:
Bethesda-Chevy Chase (B-CC)’s
student body of 1,608 could fold
twice into Blair’s halls, yet both
Blair and B-CC have one registrar and one Business Manager
each. For Blair, that’s twice as
much pressure on the same limited resources. Blair is also put
at an immediate disadvantage by
the per-student allocations that
do not account for students who
need special services: special
education, social workers, special
language services. Put simply,
Blair is capped for resources,
which MCPS does not distribute
proportional to size or need.
To mitigate the negative
effects built up from six years
of overcrowding, Blair needs additional support, like a monetary
backbone for the strained custodial and security staffs patrolling
Blair’s 18 exits and almost 3,400
students. Such support won’t
solve all our problems, but it’s a
good start—and a better one than
MCPS has shown so far.
The DCC is no solution
To appease the Blair community, MCPS has given us the
DCC. But, MCPS should know
that the DCC is neither a solution
now nor for the long-term future.
The “phasing in” effect of the
DCC guarantees that relief will
come too late for all of Blair’s
current students: MCPS reports
that Blair’s population will not
level off until this year’s freshman class graduates, by which
time no current Blair students
will be here to reap the benefits.
At present, the DCC has also
compromised its own effectiveness. Sold to the Blair community because it promised to bring
Blair’s numbers down, the DCC
declared that reducing Blair’s
population would be its top priority. However, unbeknownst to
the Blair community, the DCC’s
priority was shifted from relieving Blair to granting all students
their top-choice high school in
the Consortium, according to
Principal Phillip Gainous, Assistant Principal Linda Wolf and
Blair Cluster Representative Ray
Scannell.
DCC Coordinator Erick Lang
hotly denies the swap in priorities, claiming that he worked un-
der a cap given to him by Crispell that was sensitive to Blair’s
needs. But his explanation is
unlikely to be true: Clearly,
Crispell didn’t think there was a
cap, saying simply of his projections when asked, “I don’t know
if it is a cap; Erick Lang would
really be the better person to talk
this through with you.” Also, assuming this cap even existed (as
Crispell’s projection of 3,250), its
goal was not met.
To ensure that Blair’s needs
are not shelved again in the
future, the DCC as well as MCPS
must make several improvements. Beginning next year,
Lang’s office must create and
enforce a ceiling of 200 fewer
students than were admitted to
Blair the year before. For now,
they must allow immediate
transfers from the 600-studentovercapacity Blair to the 100-student-underenrolled Northwood,
an idea that Lang vetoed, recalls
Scannell. At the same time, the
DCC should increase visibility of
Northwood and other DCC high
schools and support a full-scale
renovation for Northwood that
would dramatically enhance its
appeal, thereby attracting more
students away from Blair.
These issues must be addressed immediately, and
Montgomery County needs to
reexamine the underlying issue
of why Blair is so overcrowded
in the first place: When MCPS
redrew boundary lines ten years
ago, discrimination against
Blair’s heavily minority population caused MCPS to give Blair
a student surplus. A redistricting proposal that would have
provided relief by adding more
minority students to schools like
B-CC drew “embarrassing and
ugly” reactions from members of
predominantly-white communities, says Gainous. Essentially,
no one wanted low-achieving
black, Hispanic, ESOL or Free
and Reduced Meal (FARM)
students—so they were all given
to Blair.
In this vein, the DCC was
born. The DCC, an institutional
walling-off of red-zone schools
(defined as those needing increased resource allocations) that
are sunk into problems the rest
of the County would rather not
touch, excluded all green-zone
schools like the predominantlywhite and also overcapacity
B-CC, located only six miles from
Blair and a school that could
have benefited from overcrowding relief itself. It is no coincidence that of the handful of
MCPS red-zone high schools,
four are in the DCC.
“It’s a system of racism,” says
frustrated PTSA Co-President
Betsy Scroggs. “People think
they’re going to protect their
high schools by not having poor
kids go to their schools.” Even
50 years after Brown vs. Board,
Montgomery County schools are
segregated by race and class—a
segregation not only creating
concentrated areas of lower-class,
heavily minority and immigrant
populations like the Downcounty, but also one to which
Montgomery County officials are
turning a blind eye.
We need to end these divisions. Only by acknowledging
past mistakes and redrawing
boundary lines can MCPS integrate race and class, alleviate the
suffocating pressure on Blair and
finally deliver on promises of relief to a powerless and frustrated
Blair community.
“I think it’s time,” says
Scroggs, and the Blair community agrees. MCPS, we need
fewer students, and now: Blair’s
situation is dangerous and outrageous, and MCPS’ responses
have thus far been shamefully
lacking.
Fight to lower Blair’s numbers: Call
MCPS Superintendent of Schools
Jerry Weast at (301) 279-3381 ext.
3106 or the Board of Education at
(301) 279-3617 to take a stand.
Hitting the streets on Halloween, dressed for action
By DAN GREENE
Humor
Look! There’s little Randall in his
Batman outfit! And Katy is just adorable
as Sleeping Beauty. But what’s Jimmy’s
outfit? That’s a nifty cane; he sure looks...
fly. And cute, little Janice looks just like...
oh no.
Oh yes. Thanks to those marketing
geniuses at the online store Brandsonsale.
com, we now have the privilege of seeing
the youngster trick-or-treaters of 2004
decked out in 1970s blaxploitation style
“pimp” and “ho” costumes. We have
another holiday scandal in the making,
perhaps on the scale of the gladiatorial
death-match style competitions for TickleMe Elmo.
Reactions to these racy outfits have
been mixed: There’s the liberal “C’mon,
it’s Halloween” side and its angry neighbor, “This filth will destroy our communities, same as that hipping-hop music.”
Despite this controversy, sales have shot
upwards, with many web sites selling out
their entire stock. Clearly, these costumes
not like that goody-two-shoes Arbor
Day—clearly, any event that encourages
threatening your neighbors for candy
will cause a little friction.
This latest Halloween costume fiasco is just another
He’s such a cute little
step in the holiday marketax-murderer!
ing evolution. What these
angry parents don’t realize
Halloween started,
is that they’ve been encourlike many other bizarre
aging bad Halloween role
traditions, in ancient Iremodels for years. I’m sure
land, where the natives
most mothers don’t see
dressed up in animal
“werewolf” or “ninja” as
skins to scare away evil
viable career choices for their
spirits. How this tradibabies.
tion evolved into some
“But it’s degrading!” you
punk in a cape TP’ing my
cry. “These sinful outfits are
car is beyond me, but I
debasing the childhood indo know two things: one,
nocence of Halloween.” Oh,
these spirits must be pretty
but it wasn’t degrading for me
weak if we’re scaring them
to be a pumpkin for three years
off with thousands of littlePhoto courtesy of
straight, after which I gradugirl fairy princesses; and
two, I’ll be waiting with the www.brandsonsale.com ated to bumble-bee. That
was traumatizing, but at least
hose this time, kid.
I was moving up the food chain—I got
Halloween has always been the most
some self-respect around kindergarten
risqué member of the holiday family,
won’t be going away until well after Oct.
31 or until the Brandsonsale.com headquarters are burned to the ground, whichever
comes first.
and have been a Cyborg Space Ninja ever
since.
And don’t talk to me about the spoiled
innocence of Halloween—or have you
missed the ever-popular “butcher knife in
the chest complete with realistic squishy
intestines” look or the charming “faux
screwdriver in the side of the head”? If
you ask me, we need to get our priorities
straight: I’d rather hang out with the guy
from Superfly than the one from Jason XXI:
The Disemboweling.
Calm down, have some
Milk Duds or something
Everyone involved in this debate
needs some perspective. On the one
hand, that $40 costume is designed to
make a fourth-grader look like a call girl,
and parents who buy it for their kids
should put at least a little thought into
the kind of example they’re setting. On
the other hand, I can confidently say that
this will not trigger the Apocalypse. Now,
Chicken-Dance Elmo—there’s something
you should worry about.
4 SOAPBOX
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
Blazers sound off on current issues
Do you still trick-or-treat? Why or why
not? see story, page 3
Do you play fantasy
I still love to trick-or-treat. No matter what age you are, you can
always dress up in a goofy costume and collect candy around the
block. The best part is going back to one house every year and
knowing that you’ll get a king-size Hershey chocolate bar.
-sophomore Lucia Sirota
I am a fantasy football fanatic. I’m in two
leagues, and I check my teams every day
to try and make a trade or pick up a player
to improve my team. I play fantasy
football to keep up-to-date with my
sports knowledge and to compete
and beat my friends. Fantasy
football is a fun way for me
to care even more about the
world of the NFL.
-sophomore Josh Zipin
I don’t trick-or-treat on Halloween. I am from Barbados, so I was
brought up by a mother who never celebrated Halloween. Since
my cousins do not celebrate Halloween, I am completely fine with
not celebrating it. I actually would not be
surprised if fewer and fewer children
trick-or-treat on Halloween.
-freshman Dawn Brimmer
I do not play fantasy
football. I can never find
a little group of people
that wants to participate
in that activity. I’m not
sure of all of the rules that
apply when you play. I’d
love to learn to play and
eventually make a minileague amongst friends
and family.
-senior Javier Gonzalez
For as long as I can remember, I’ve gone trick-ortreating in my neighborhood. Although
trick-or-treating is
for younger children,
I still trick-or-treat
because it’s a time
to relax and pretend
you’re someone else.
If people think that
teenagers shouldn’t
go trick-or-treating, they should try
to remember their
experiences as a child.
This year, I’m going as a pirate.
-sophomore Bridget Egan
I play fantasy football because it makes every
game more exciting, instead of just watching it and not caring who wins. I like competing against my friends, and we have fun teasing
each other about bad draft picks. It is also an incredible feeling when your quarterback
throws a game-winning touchdown pass that gives you more points than your opponent.
-freshman Aaron Sacks
Yes, I do play fantasy football. It makes me more knowledgeable about the game and the
different players in the NFL. Also, playing fantasy football gives me an opportunity to
compare different players and their statistics. Another reason why I play fantasy football is
because I have the opportunity to win prizes if I choose the right players.
-freshman Areeb Quasem
Do you have any relatives serving in Iraq? How
see Centerspread
does that make you feel?
Blair is overcrowded?
see stories, page 1
Blair is indeed overcrowded. When it’s time to go to your next class, the
hallways are ridiculously packed to the maximum with students. If you
can barely walk through your school hallway because of traffic, the school
needs to reconsider its student size.
-sophomore Keianna Dixon
I believe that Blair is overcrowded. Every day, I find it a chore to get to the
SAC, going against a current of people. Picture yourself in the middle of
an ocean, standing by yourself on an island, and now imagine the water as
people. That is what Blair is like—a never-ending sea of faces.
-sophomore Alex Ogiley
I don’t think that Blair is overcrowded because I can still get to classes well
within the eight-minute time period, and I always get a seat at lunch. Even
though this school has many students, there are plenty of classrooms, and it
is big enough to support all the people.
-freshman Jack Berry
212
25
Why or why not?
see story, page 28
No, I haven’t trick-or-treated in years. There’s no point in it anymore, seeing as how dressing up as ghosts and celebrities isn’t fun.
Besides, Halloween parties are so much better.
-sophomore Terence McPherson
Do you think
football?
My older brother joined the Marines two years ago. Last
February, he announced that he was going to Iraq
for six months. We didn’t hear from him for
two weeks. We were worried that something
might happen to him. We would watch
the news to see if anything happened
where he was. The day he came back
we thanked God he was safe. We just
hope that he will not be sent back.
-sophomore Maria Ayala
My cousin was serving in Iraq for a
few months. It was really scary and
sad, because he didn’t get to see his
wife for the nine months that she was
pregnant.
-freshman Brittany Smith
chipsINDEX
Blazers will be eligible to vote in the
upcoming election
Cokes is the highest number of caffeinateddrinks consumed by a Blazer in one day
1,231
36
people attended Blair’s first home
varsity football game on Sept. 10
teachers joined Blair’s faculty this school
year
36
84
367
937
percent of Blazers say that they plan to go trickor-treating this Halloween
percent of Blazers say that they ride on an overcrowded school bus
freshmen enrolled in Northwood High School
as of the month of September
freshmen enrolled in Blair as of the month
of Sept. 24
Information compiled by Nora Boedecker. Additional reporting by Lois Bangiolo, Joseph Bellino, Jon Berger, Martin Brown,
Olivia Buzek, David Hu, Alex Hzaer and Baijia Jiang. Informal surveys of 100 students taken during the week of Sept. 21.
Quote of the issue
”I’ve listened to the sound
of legs breaking. I’ve
watched goal keepers
knocked unconscious.”
see “Going too far on the
playing field,” page 29
silverCHIPS
NEWS 5
news
October 7, 2004
No custodial funds for Night School
County does not increase support for Building Services despite additional school usage
from PACKED page 1
learning that Blair would host
Night School, so the County allocated more money for Blair’s
custodial staff in order to pay
for the overtime hours needed to
get the school ready for its initial
opening this school year. That
was the last time Blair received
additional funding for Building
Services, said Gainous.
Many staff members say
that the custodial staff is thinly
stretched even without Night
School. “With Building Services,
there’s no downtime. They come
in [before school] running, and
they go home running,” Night
School Secretary Carrie Addison
said. “From Sunday to Sunday,
someone is here all the time.”
Blair needs more resources
to effectively manage the Night
School custodial situation, according to Building Service Manager Quentin Middleton. “We
definitely need the manpower,”
he said.
Currently, the custodial staff’s
last shift ends only one-and-a-half
hours after Night School students
leave the building. This late start
“Neglecting Blair’s
physical plant is
tantamount to
neglecting Blair’s
students.”
delays the cleaning of Blair’s most
labor-intensive areas, including
bathrooms, hallways and the
nearly 30 classrooms used by
Night School, too big a job for only
90 minutes of cleaning.
The administration asked that
some volunteers move their shifts
two hours later, according to
Middleton. But because many
of Blair’s Building Services employees work more than one job,
no one has volunteered to work
later, said Gainous, and without
any additional funds or employees from the County, it is difficult
to address the repercussions of
Blair’s overuse.
MCPS currently gives Blair $4
per Night School student each semester, an amount that PTSA CoPresident Fran Rothstein called
“woefully insufficient.”
Gainous spoke about the situation with Dianne Jones, MCPS
Director of School Plant Operations, who wrote in an e-mail to
Gainous that Blair is the “beststaffed” school in the county in
terms of Building Services workers per square foot. Custodians
say that such a claim is misleading: The number of people who
use a building should be a major
consideration when allocating
resources, they say, since people—
not space—leave the messes they
must clean.
Jones said that she would
“study the situation,” according to Gainous, who hopes the
study will be fast. “I don’t have a
problem with them studying the
situation, as long as they don’t
study it forever, because Night
School is going on now. We need
help,” he said.
After five calls to DSPO, Jones
was unavailable for comment.
Additionally, the PTSA has
pressured MCPS to further support the Night School initiative.
Rothstein presented testimony at
a July 29 Board of Education (BOE)
meeting stressing the need for
more traffic control, funding for
building maintenance and Night
School security.
Rothstein and the PTSA spoke
to Jones on Sept. 9 to request two
additional Building Services employees to work for four hours
each after Night School but received no response.
The Night School program has
historically been underfunded,
critics say. Due to an MCPS
spending freeze last year, all
Night School counselors were
By RAVI UMARJI
eliminated; this year, there will be
counselors for only three weeks of
each 20-week semester. Though
the problems have become less severe, Night School Principal James
Short said the program is “probably still under-resourced.”
“We have to stand up for
our system”
The County moved Night
School from Northwood High
School this year in an attempt
to relieve stress on Northwood’s
building, which is still under construction, Gainous said.
No representatives from the
administration or the Blair community were involved in last
July’s decision to move Night
School to Blair, according to Rothstein. Gainous said that because
of a miscommunication between
MCPS and Blair, representatives
from the Office of School Perfor-
Many applications which were supposed
to be sent to each computer did not run
on all computers. Some applications ran
perfectly one week, but malfunctioned the
next, said Wisniewski.
User Support Specialist Tim Hall said
that he and the other user support specialists cannot specifically target the problems
that are occurring, except for the simple
reason that installing a new computer
system is inherently difficult. “When you
upgrade in a large organization, it’s the
equivalent of a brain transplant,” said
Hall. “The entire roadmap that we once
knew has changed.”
Some Blair administrators have said that
there has been little technical support from
the County. However, the County has provided ample resources, and no one should
bear the blame, according to Wisniewski.
“It’s not fair to point fingers; we’ve had a
lot of people come from MCPS, but they
just can’t solve our problems,” she said.
“We’re all a little frustrated, and they’re
frustrated, too.”
mance believed that Gainous had
been consulted about the move.
“I was pretty upset over the way
I was notified—I was in a meeting,
and they called me on the phone
to tell me that Night School was
coming to Blair,” Gainous said.
The administration views
Night School as a permanent
fixture at Blair in the future and
will not try to change its location.
Rather, Short said that Blair will
take the new responsibilities in
stride. “When our number is
called, we have to stand up for
our system,” he said. “It’s here,
and we need to teach the kids.
We need to provide them [with]
the opportunity to earn the credits
they missed during the day.”
The PTSA has requested more
resources to mitigate the problems
that accompany Night School’s
move, including additional Building Services staff, funds to care for
Blair, more Night School security
Math teacher
David Fantegrossi: “Stuff
just doesn’t
work, but once
it’s working, it’s
going to be
awesome.”
English
teacher Phyllis
Fleischaker:
“[Technology
Modernization]
was not and is
not ready.”
and traffic control. “Neglecting
Blair ’s physical plant is tantamount to neglecting Blair’s students,” Rothstein told the BOE.
“A deteriorating facility tells Blair
students that MCPS doesn’t care
about them.”
Rothstein went on to ask why
so many students must attend
Night School, citing Blair’s overcrowding as a cause. “We don’t
have people catching them when
they first start to fall, and that’s
not Blair’s fault,” she said. “That’s
just what happens when your
school has too many people.”
Currently, classes take place
from 6:00 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. and
from 7:55 p.m. to 9:35 p.m. at Col.
Zadok Magruder High School and
Blair on Mondays and Wednesdays and at Wheaton High School
on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students may also attend four-hour
class sessions from 8:00 a.m. to
12:00 p.m. on Saturdays at Blair.
English teacher
Lucas Henry:
“They had a lot
of work to do
this summer,
but teachers
came in cold,
just not knowing how to
operate.”
History
teacher Rondai Ravilious:
“I think we’re
facing some
real problems—much
more than we
should’ve.”
Teachers sound off
Blair has experienced difficulties in implementing MCPS’s Technology Modernization Program (TechMod), an initiative to
keep technology current in County schools,
partially due to a lack of user support
specialists to oversee the installation of a
new computer system at Blair, said faculty
members. This was Blair’s first installment
of new equipment as part of the program.
TechMod, which started in 2001,
is projected to cost MCPS $15.3 million for fiscal year 2005. Each school receives new hardware and software every four years as part of the program.
This overhaul of technology is the root
of the problems that Blair has experienced,
according to User Support Specialist Anne
Wisniewski. She added that the problems
themselves are varied: The protocol for
rewriting passwords, which worked for
teachers, did not work for students, preventing students from logging on to the
network for the first two weeks of school.
Trash left for Building Services to clean up after 5B lunch on Sept. 30. Photos by Hannah Rosen
Information compiled by Ravi Umarji. Photos by Adam Schuyler
6
ADS
oct 11 2001
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
NEWS 7
October 7, 2004
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian comes to Blair’s backyard
By BETSY COSTILO
Three women sit outside on a stage, their
long, black hair flowing down the backs of
their intricately beaded and feathered ceremonial dresses. Drum in hand, one woman
begins beating a slow, steady rhythm, and
soon the other two join in, faster and louder.
Suddenly all three open their mouths and
cry out in a piercing chant that echoes
through the hearts of the audience.
The women, who form the American
Indian musical group Ulali, raise their
voices in song to honor the grand opening
of the National Museum of the American
Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., on
Sept. 21, 2004.
What will distinguish this museum from
all others is its rich cultural and interactive atmosphere. “We want to convey a
history of living cultures, instead of just
cultures from the past,” explains Design
and Fundraising Director Judy Kirpich.
“The museum will feature music, dancing,
storytelling and cooking, not just exhibitions behind glass cases.”
On the museum’s opening day, more
than 300 American Indian artists representing over 30 American Indian nations
performed directly after the Grand Opening Ceremony. Beginning at 8:00 a.m., the
six-day First Americans Festival featured
an explosion of culture, from the greasy,
right-off-the-griddle frybread of the Onondaga Nation in North America to the
calypso and jazz rhythms of the Caribbean
Kuna tribe.
“Seeing so many nations and tribes
together is a once-in-a-lifetime event that
I never thought I would live to see,” says
museum festival participant Quietwolf
Chin of the Cherokee Nation. “To see that
a scattered people can unite and come together for a common cause is unbelievably
powerful.”
Five stages and two pavilions, as well as
a marketplace, café and dance circle, housed
the day’s cultural events. The dance circle
featured groups that performed various
traditional dance styles and encouraged audience participation. Handmade American
Indian crafts, ranging from the intricately
woven baskets of the Amazon to the handcarved antlers of Alaska, were sold at over
20 booths at the First Americans Festival
Marketplace.
For most of the American Indians present at the celebration, the museum and
its opening festivities are more than just a
collection of art and a ceremony of heritage;
they symbolize a country’s awakening
awareness to the political and cultural
problems of the First People, according to
Karayani McDonald of the Taino nation.
“We are finally being honored as a people
and as a family,” explains McDonald. “The
time has come to let the world know that
we’re still here; we’ve never left and we
never will leave.”
Blair Cultural Anthropology teacher
David Whitacre plans to take his class on a
field trip to the NMAI on Friday, Oct. 8 after
the crowds from the initial festivities thin.
Senior Robert Duncan, who attended
the Grand Opening festivities, feels that the
museum heralds a new era for the American
Indians, both culturally and politically. “As
of now,” explains Duncan, “the American
Indian people are forced to live on reservations in third-world country conditions.
The NMAI will increase awareness and
shed new light on the mistreatment of the
American Indian people.”
The museum not only embodies the
An American Indian man in traditional dress celebrates the National American
Indian Museum’s Grand Opening festivities on Sept. 21. Photo by Bruce Moyer
whole of the American Indian people,
according to Dennis Redmoon of the
Cherokee nation, but also serves as a “long
overdue, beautiful event that reminds the
country of the ever-growing presence of the
Native American.”
The NMAI stands as a memorial to the
First People of America and a symbol of
their reconciliation with those who took
their land from them, according to the
NMAI web site, http://www.nmai.si.edu. The
museum itself, whose unique design suggests a natural rock formation, features collections the Smithsonian brought from the
original Museum of the American Indian in
New York, as well as pieces that until now
were in storage in the Bronx, according to
Kirpich. The artifacts include materials of
cultural, historical and aesthetic value, such
as painted hides from the North American
Plains and ceramics from Costa Rica, as well
as spiritual artifacts.
New reports show Blair SAT scores on the rise
Record SAT averages for class of 2004 rank Blair seventh among 23 MCPS high schools
By YICONG LIU
Blair ’s SAT average for the
class of 2004 increased 20 points
from 1128 in 2003 to 1148 in 2004,
placing Blair seventh among 23
MCPS high schools, according to
data released recently by the College Board.
Last school year’s results reflect Blair’s highest score in the
last five years. Blair is among 11
schools in the county with an average score above 1100 and among
only three schools where both
African American participation
and scores have gone up. At Blair,
African American scores rose from
902 to 922. On the County level,
white and Asian American scores
improved, while those of African
Americans and Hispanics showed
no increase.
The countywide average this
year reached both a record-breaking score of 1102 points and a
record-breaking total of 7,263 students who took the test. Both Blair
Graphic by
Tencia Lee
and MCPS averages are above the
2004 national average of 1026.
Principal Phillip Gainous commended Blair’s increasing scores
but stressed the importance of
breaking down score reports between the Magnet and Communication Arts Programs and those of
the general population. According to Gainous, the 2004 Magnet
SAT average was 1498. “I’d love
to be number one,” he said. “I’d
love it even more if our regular
program were number one.”
Average scores at Blair are African Americans 922, Hispanics 872,
whites 1301 and Asian Americans
1316. African American, white
and Asian American group scores
improved from last year, while
those of Hispanics did not.
MCPS Superintendent of
Schools Jerry Weast applauded
this year ’s outcome in his recent report on SATs as a reflection of initiatives implemented
by the school system over the
last five years. Such initiatives
include increasing rigor in the
curriculum, organizing greater
intra-county coordination and
increasing student enrollment in
Advanced Placement and honors
level courses.
Following Weast’s initiative, the
Blair administration has piloted
programs targeting students who
have scored around the 800 range
to personally encourage them
to retake the
SAT with additional support from the
school. These
students, explains Assistant Principal
and head of
the SAT committee Patricia Hurley, are
just shy of the
“threshold 1000,” a score that
could be a deciding factor in determining scholarship money and
admittance into college.
Both Gainous and Hurley
agree that it is too early to determine whether such efforts have
played a role in Blair’s overall SAT
average increase this year. “We
can’t draw that conclusion until
we’re three to four years down the
road,” said Hurley.
At the news conference held
at Blair on Sept. 1, MCPS officials
praised the rise in SAT scores as
proof of the efficacy of continuing
efforts and as an indication of poverty playing a less prominent role
in standardized tests in MCPS.
This year’s increase, according to
Weast, included gains in African
American students who receive
free and reduced meals
(FARMS). He
cited the 17point increase
in African
American
FARMS score
from last year.
The FARMS
average score
has also gone
up 16 points.
According to Statistics teacher
David Stein, however, the observed 16-point rise from last
year in FARMS average scores
shows no evidence of increase
when compared to the five year
trend. Similarly, the gap in scores
between FARMS and non-FARMS
groups shows no significant decrease within the last five years.
MCPS Director of Communications Kate Harrison acknowledges
the consistent fluctuation in scores
from year to year and the continuing achievement disparity in the
county. “There’s still a significant
gap, and we need to close this
gap,” she said.
“I’d love to be number one. I’d love
it even more if our
regular program
were number one.”
8
ADS
Dear Maura and Emma, we miss
your spitting of crackers and
your whining about dying. Love,
B-Lunch crew. Holla
Sydney is so friggin’ hot. I love
you, baby girl. You are beautiful
on the inside and out.
I don’t know what to say. =)
JOEL POPKIN IS HOT! I LOVE
SARAH, JULIE, ELENA, NOLAN, RAYA, JENNY, KATHERINE, PIERS, DIANA AND ALL
THEM 06 HEADS YO! 06 WILL
FOREVER BE REALLY COOL!
IF YOU WERE BORN IN THE
90’S YOU’RE WEIRD
I went to the park
I made my mark
Holler at Blair lacrosse!
Ooo a cookie.
What a waste of 50 cents
Hey BJP! May our friendship
and comradery last forever! Yellow stay cool. Pink, Keep doing
UR thing! Ankle CLAP!
Ellie! We’ll miss you next semester when you go to Italy. Have
a blast! Love you! Maddie and
Erica. We love you Clair!
I want to give this shout-out
to my main mans Ben & Chris.
Love you both.
see SHOUTOUTS page 10
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
NEWS 9
October 7, 2004
Packed buses leave students seatless
from JAMMED page 1
at an increased risk for injury,
according to experts. “It is extremely dangerous for students
to stand on the bus while the
bus is moving on any roadway,”
Charles Gauthier, Executive
Director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil
Transportation Services (NASDPTS), said in a Silver Chips article about overcrowded buses
last February. “In general, the
human body cannot survive the
sudden deceleration involved in
a motor-vehicle crash, even in
low-speed crashes, if the person
is standing up.”
Sitting three to a seat may
also be dangerous if students
are sitting partially in the aisle,
according to safety experts. Buscapacity estimates in Montgomery County and in the nation are
“I don’t know if
MCPS is
doing anything
about it.”
based on the assumption that
three students can fit in the larger bus seats. School bus-seating
guidelines are based on a 4-foot11-inch tall, 102-pound female
student, according to the NASDPTS web site.
MCPS Department of Transportation Planner Randolph
Thompson admits seating capacity guidelines are “outdated”
because they are not based on
high-school-sized students. “Depending on the size of the student, you can’t always fit three to
a seat,” said Ed Beck, Maryland
Department of Education Pupil
Transportation Director, to Silver
Chips in February.
The goal of the MCPS Department of Transportation is
to assure that no students have
to stand on any school buses,
according to Thompson, but at
Blair, the goal has not been met.
“About eight people stand in
the morning, and I don’t know
if MCPS is doing anything about
it,” said substitute bus driver
Jose Diaz of route 6103. Another
driver said she has 12 students
standing on her bus every day.
She also said that she reported
her bus overload and that MCPS
is trying to get two additional
buses for Blair. Thompson, however, claimed that Blair does not
need any additional school buses.
Junior Daniel Munson, who
rides bus 6116 in the morning,
claimed students are left without
a seat on a regular basis. “It’s
pretty crowded; I’d say there
are people standing every day,”
said Munson. “The driver tries
to pack three people where there
should be two. It seems to work
okay, but I don’t know about
when there’s an emergency.”
According to an informal Silver
Chips survey of 100 students conducted during the week of Sept.
20, 82 percent of Blazers either
ride a bus that has three students
in a seat and/or students standing in the aisle or know students
who are on such crowded buses.
Blair Academy Coordinator
Susan Ragan reasoned that it
would be logical to have additional school buses in order to
reduce congestion. There were
only about 46 buses purchased
for the entire county this year,
down almost 20 from the average in past years, according to
Thompson. He said there were
Students spill out of the SAC at 2:10 p.m. to board their buses on Sept. 28. Photo by Charlie Woo
no funds for more buses.
Sue Holliday, mother of junior Jeff Holliday, complained
to MCPS about overcrowding on
her son’s bus, number 6106, and
was told that the problem would
be fixed by Sept. 20, but after a
week, the issue was still not resolved.
Communication Arts Program sophomore Shoshona Gurian-Sherman and her parents
lobbied to decrease the number of students on her bus in
the morning and afternoon last
school year. “The bus is okay
in the afternoon,” said GurianSherman, but, “In the morning,
it’s still bad; every day, two or
three people are standing in the
aisle.”
Some Blair parents have
complained to the Montgomery
County Department of Transportation about overcrowded
buses, said Thompson, but there
have been no serious grievances.
“There are some parents with
concerns, and my job is to follow
through on any complaints,” said
Thompson.
Currently, Blair has 32 morning school buses and 27 afternoon
buses, with the highest student
capacity being 72 and the lowest
being 45. In addition, there are
22 eighth-period buses that transport Blair students.
Because of the geographic
spread of Blair students under the
Downcounty Consortium (DCC),
every Blair bus route had to be re-
mapped, said Thompson. After
receiving final student counts for
each stop from each bus driver,
Thompson reassigned stops to
certain buses during the week of
Sept. 28 in order to alleviate bus
overcrowding.
At the beginning of the school
year, busing issues usually take
about two weeks to resolve, said
Thompson, but due to the DCC,
the MCPS Department of Transportation has spent over a month
working on buses this year.
To report an overcrowded bus, contact Randolph Thompson, Blair’s
bus supervisor, at (301) 879-1060.
Additional reporting by Shewit
Woldu and Nora Onley
Blazers mourn two deaths Overcrowding persists
By SILVER CHIPS PRINT and ONLINE STAFF
Two
separate
automobile-related
deaths in Montgomery County over the
past two weeks have hit close to home for
many Blazers.
Blair graduate Carlos Brenes, class of
2002, was killed early Saturday, Oct. 2 after his Toyota sedan crashed at the intersection of University Boulevard East and
East Melbourne Avenue, according to a
police report. Sixteen-year-old Alicia Betancourt, a James Hubert Blake junior and
Eastern Magnet graduate, was involved in
a fatal accident the night of Sept. 24 when
the driver of the car she was in lost control
of the vehicle, according to an article in
The Washington Post.
Police believe Brenes, 21, may have
been drag racing when his vehicle crashed
into an overhead sign support pole around
1:39 a.m. Passengers in the car included
Nelly A. Mursal, 21, of Rockville and Elizabeth E. Balcazar, 21, another Blair graduate. Mursal was also killed in the crash,
and Balcazar was taken to Suburban Hospital in critical condition, police reports
said.
Brenes left behind a wife who is expecting a first child, his parents, two sisters
and a younger brother, currently a freshman at Blair, according to Assistant Principal Linda Wolf.
More than a week ago, Betancourt
was a passenger in Blake senior Hersh
Kapoor’s car when it crashed into a telephone utility pole along Norwood Road.
Kapoor, also 16, was driving his Volkswagen Jetta when he slipped onto the right
shoulder and overcompensated while trying to get back onto the road, sending the
vehicle spinning into the pole, according
to The Washington Post. Betancourt was
pronounced dead upon the scene, and
Kapoor was taken to the Maryland Shock
Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he has
been listed as in stable but critical condition as of Sept. 26.
Betancourt was one of five teenagers
killed in car accidents in Montgomery
County over the weekend, according to an
ABC 7 News report.
Students and teachers alike mourn the
death of both Brenes and Betancourt. English teacher Maureen Diodati especially
admired Brenes’ exuberance. “He was
very funny and energetic,” she said. “He
livened up the room.”
Both family and friends praised Betancourt as a budding artist. Her accomplishments include publications in Stone Soup,
a magazine of stories, poems and art by
children, according to The Washington Post
story.
Following the death of Betancourt and
the series of car accidents involving young
drivers, police pledged to “crack down on
reckless driving.”
Northwood does not alleviate problems
By STEPHANIE NGUYEN
Despite the reopening of Northwood and the launch of the Downcounty Consortium (DCC) this year, Blair is
overcrowded for the sixth consecutive
year and will continue to be overcrowded for several years, according to DCC
Senior Planner Bruce Crispell.
As of Sept. 30, 3,323 students were
enrolled at Blair, which is 492 over the
planned capacity of 2,831.
This year, Blair has a total of 937
freshmen, as of Sept. 24. MCPS predicted that 822 freshmen would attend
Blair last May. However, about nine
more students are expected to enroll at
Blair each day, according to Resource
Counselor Karen Hunt.
Additional portables were not requested because there is no more space
to add beyond the seven portable classrooms, according to Principal Phillip
Gainous. More portables would use
student parking or athletic fields, Gainous said. Also, juniors and seniors were
asked again to share lockers in order to
tackle the 339-locker shortage, according to Security Guard John Toombs.
Blair Cluster Representative Ray
Scannell identified additional safety
concerns related to overcrowding, such
as a greater potential for violent outbreaks. “There is always a possibility
of a fight flaring up with so many kids
in here,” he said.
Scannell also emphasized the increased difficulty for Blair to control
pedestrian safety, citing last year’s
school-wide evacuation during a power outage in which a Blair student was
struck by an SUV while crossing University Boulevard. “We’re a disaster
waiting to happen,” Scannell said.
Although Northwood was supposed to relieve 200 freshmen from
Blair’s population, according to PTSA
Co-President Fran Rothstein, it did not,
in part because incoming freshmen
were granted their first choices in the
DCC. According to Crispell, students
opted to go to Blair instead of Northwood because of Blair’s programs and
its strong academic reputation. Gainous agreed with Crispell, adding, “The
good news is everybody wants to come
to Blair. The bad news is everybody’s
coming to Blair.”
10 ADS
from SHOUTOUTS page 8
Jessica sweats Naco cuz she’s a
beast!
This is that game where we each
write a word. Shoutout to my
magnet homefries on all roofs all
above the party (not!) and run on
featherless chickens. It’s my life to
do so don’t tell him, ok? Swinging
in the trees with you is a dream
come undone I splattered.
GNC... that’s what I’m talking
about! You’re such a hater.
“05” Finally we made it, well
almost! I want to tell all my buddies that I love you guys so much!
Especially to my ladies Thaissa,
Karina, Elly, Julie, & my lovely
sister Deana! *Muah*
Aden, Will you go out with me?
Naco sweats Clair cuz she’s a
crazy beast! But not as much as
Janice!
Janice is a BEAST! Morgan & Doug
are slumming for not picking me
as a host on Rapid Fire.
Just wanted to give a shout out
to the seniors 05, especially FBI,
Raz, Rice, and Chauna. Happy
Birthday, Raz!
05!!! Holla @ all my people: Chris
Stavish I love you... and everybody else!!! Peace out, Thaissa
This is for Kiran Belani! YOU
ROCK!
Kiran Belani is the awesomest
ever!
Hey Nuhu and Nandini, you
know who you are. Thank you so
much for sticking by me and being
true friends. Love ya always
I wanna give a shout-out to the JV
football team and all my magnet
friends (you know who you are)
PAWEL, JESS, COLLIN, GEORGE,
SHAGEE & SAM!! YOU GUYS
ROCK MY LUNCH!! LOVE YOU
GUYS, CLASS OF ’07 W00T!
–Christine Kim
Jessie and Devon are the tightest
people I know
Dear everyone,
we can’t think of 20 words. We
love you all. Well, at least most of
you. LOLMAOROFL!!111
Shoutout to Girls’ Tennis—we are
an amazing team full of amazing
people. Way to go Blazers blue
chips!
see SHOUTOUTS page 12
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
NEWSBRIEFS 11
October 7, 2004
NEWSBRIEFS
Homecoming game will occur tomorrow
The homecoming football game will take place tomorrow, Oct. 8,
two weeks earlier than last year’s game, which was on Oct. 24. Blair’s
varsity football team will take on Wheaton at 6:30 p.m., and the game
will be followed by the Homecoming Dance on Oct. 9 from 7:30 p.m.
to 11:30 p.m.
SGA Sponsor Rondai Ravilious said that she is unconcerned about
the unusual scheduling of the events. “I have an incredibly efficient
SGA,” she said. “Would I have liked some more time? Sure. But
with the students I have this year, I think we’ll be fine.”
Downcounty Superintendent replaced
Stephen Bedford succeeded Walter Gibson as Downcounty Superintendent on Aug. 5, placing him in charge of the Blair, Albert Einstein,
John F. Kennedy, Northwood and Wheaton cluster. Bedford, former
Superintendent of the Col. Zadok Magruder, Damascus, Gaithersburg
and Watkins Mill cluster, was previously principal of Gaithersburg.
Principal Phillip Gainous said that Bedford will be an asset to Blair.
“Mr. Bedford is not too far out of principalism, so he still knows and
understands the job,” he said. “We think very highly of him.”
Gainous said that the primary difference between Bedford and
Gibson is that Bedford is more familiar with the area and is more detail-oriented in terms of student statistics. “Bedford understands the
County better,” Gainous said. “He’s more data-driven than Gibson.
Gibson is more research-driven.”
Blair MSA scores improve
Blair’s Maryland School Assessment scores jumped from the 2003 to
2004 school year, with 41.6 percent of students reading at an advanced
level, up from only 35.1 percent the previous year. The percentage of
Blazers who read at a basic level dropped from 41.6 percent to 35.5
percent. Blair students did not score as well as other students in Montgomery County—44.5 percent of Montgomery County students read
at an advanced level, and only 27.4 percent read at a basic level.
Principal Phillip Gainous said that he would like to attribute the
improved results to better instruction in the classroom. “I’m hoping
that we’re passing due to our own curriculum,” Gainous said. “I hope
that we’re doing a better job of teaching.”
Gainous pointed out that definite conclusions cannot be drawn
yet. “You can’t say anything until more results come in,” he says.
New teachers in English and math departments
About half of the 36 new teachers hired at Blair this year are filling
positions in the English and math departments, according to administration.
Both departments have struggled to overcome the loss of many
veteran teachers, many of who retired or transferred, said Blair officials. Each department had to hire approximately one-fourth of their
staff this year, reflecting the higher rate of MCPS teacher applicants.
The English department alone lost eight veteran staff members
out of a staff of 32 and had two new positions created for the ninthgrade Academies and Connections programs, said Vickie Adamson,
the English Resource Teacher. The math department lost five of its
28 teachers and also expanded, opening three new positions.
According to Assistant Principal Linda Wanner, most other departments gained only one or two new teachers this summer.
Newsbriefs compiled by Ravi Umarji
with additional reporting by Seema Kacker and Renee Park
GUIDANCE CORNER
Seniors interested in participating in the 2005 Student Page
Program for the Maryland General Assembly, a program in
which students distribute materials, run errands, answer the
phone and deliver messages to members of the Maryland
General Assembly should contact MCPS Student Affairs Coordinator Karen Crawford at (301) 279-4957.
Resource Counselor Karen Hunt reminds students of the following
upcoming deadlines:
•Oct. 9—SAT I and II administered
•Oct. 13—PSAT administered
•Oct. 15—No school: Maryland State Teachers Convention
•Oct. 23—ACT administered
•Oct. 29—End of first marking period
Registration deadline for Dec. 4 SAT I and II
•Nov. 1—No school: Professional Day
•Nov. 2—No school: Elections
•Nov. 5—Registration deadline for Dec. 11 ACT
•Nov. 6—SAT I and II administered
The Takoma Park Community Center (TPCC), at the corner of Philadelphia and Maple Avenues,
is currently under construction and will open in the spring of 2005. Photo by Nathaniel Lichten
Lack of funds delays Center
Takoma Park Community Center to open in spring 2005
By SALLY LANAR
The prospective opening for
the new Takoma Park Community Center (TPCC) has been
postponed from October 2004 to
late spring 2005 because of a lack
of funds and construction problems, according to Takoma Park
City officials.
The city still does not have
the necessary $430,000 for the
building to open in late spring
2005, said Ward 3 Council Member Bruce Williams. Additional
funds are essential to furnishing
the community center, but there
are no definite sources for the
necessary revenue to complete
construction, nor to furnish the
building, according to City Manager Barbara Matthews.
Because of the revenue shortage, construction cannot begin as
planned on a large modern gymnasium, a feature Takoma Park
citizens widely advocated, said
city officials. Due to the lack of
funds, the community center will
not have the highly-anticipated
section of the Victorian-style façade that would have wrapped
around the Takoma Park Library.
The loss of the gymnasium
disappointed junior Sam Morris
because the city’s church and
school gyms are usually in use, he
said, and he and his friends often
have trouble finding a place to
play sports.
The lack of funds arose in part
from the discovery of a 100-year
flood-plain, an area where there is
a chance of serious flooding once
every 100 years, on the site of construction at the corner of Philadelphia and Maple Avenues where
the current Municipal Building
is located, said city officials. The
city, forced to comply with Montgomery County regulations, spent
“There was absolutely no idea
whatsoever that
we’d have to
make a cutback.”
an unexpected $1 million to meet
flood-plain engineering requirements.
The previous City Council’s decision to build the TPCC without
all the necessary funds also contributed to the revenue shortage:
The Council made the decision in
2000, a time of relative economic
prosperity, explained Larry Rubin,
a former City Council member.
“There was absolutely no idea
whatsoever that we’d have to
make a cutback,” he said in reference to the gym.
Despite the loss of funds, the
TPCC will still include offices
for city officials; an art room
with a kiln; separate rooms for
teens and senior citizens with
tabletop games; general meeting
spaces; and a spacious, four-room
computer lab, according to Recreation Department Director Debra
Haiduven.
Although Blazers who live
in the Takoma Park area said
they would use the TPCC’s new
features, some of them were
discontent with the city’s efforts.
Senior Heather Baker expressed
frustration with the slow pace of
construction and its unattractive
appearance. “I’m glad that it’s
being fixed up, but I think it needs
to be done quicker,” she said.
Some Takoma Park Blazers,
however, remained unaware of
both the new features the TPCC
would include and of the postponed opening. Senior Sayda
Cruz-Abreu, who did not know
the TPCC was being built, worried
that the lack of information could
be a source of the fund shortage.
“When [the city government]
needs community support, the
community isn’t advised and can’t
say whether or not it wants certain
features,” she said.
HONORS
• Blair had 55 National Merit Semi-Finalists. Seniors
Douglas Adams, Suzanne Adjogah, Daniel Aisen,
Erica Anderson, Alan Bateman, Lydia Beasley,
Koyel Bhattacharyya, Lauren Briese, John Chai,
Vivek Chellappa, Martino Choi, Gregory Cox,
Max Czapanskiy, Patrick Detzner, Srikanth Divi,
Gregory Eden, Abigail Fraeman, Ilya Ganelin,
Bradford Gee, Sherri Geng, Daniel Hakim, Dan
Han, Matt Jordan, Gregory Jukes, Seema Kacker,
Anahita Karimi, Saul Kinter, Justin Kovac, Siwei
Kwok, Amanda Lee, Tencia Lee, Julia Leeman,
Kendra Leigh, Randolph Li, Xiaoke Li, Nathaniel
Lichten, Willington Lin, Eric Ma, Alexander Mont,
Renee Park, Sheila Rajagopal, Amelia Sagoff, Jo-
anna Skeath, Lauren Smith, Denis Sosnovtsev,
Albert Tsao, Prasanna Vasudevan, Jacqueline Villadsen, Robert Vlacich, Kathy Wang, Max Wasserman, Min Wu, Yichen Xing, Kristina Yang and
Lida You qualified based on their PSAT/NMSQT
scores.
• Senior David Crawford won third place in the
Ayn Rand Institute 2004 Essay Competition. Crawford is one of five third-place winners to receive
$1,000 for his essay based on Rand’s book, The
Fountainhead.
• Senior Sherri Geng won second place in the 2004
National Student Press Association Story of the
Year Award for features. See story online.
12 ADS
from SHOUTOUTS page 10
Hey to everyone who wished me a
happy B-day. I love you guys. Oh,
and thanks for my gift Oscar—I
got you next time, lol.Yasmin
GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL rocks our
(schoolgirl-knee) socks! #8 & 9 &
77
Dana, you rock my world! HAPPY
BIRTHDAY and I hope you got
everything you want and more!
Jane is stupid!!!
Congrats to Stephanie Lobos for
being single for about 7 months.
Dats a miracle girl FINALLY
If your man is bad for you, break
up with him. You know who you
are
WOOt Blair Frisbee is the awesome! Koalas and lizard rabbits
and apocalypse cows!!! OH SNAP.
ple! Come join us! Whee flying
discs...
Tommy Dugan- I love you. I stare
at you during AP Econ. <3
Silver Chips Online: The juice is
worth the squeeze
We love you, Wasserman! Not really... we’re just happy, bye
SUE, TRUC MAI, AMANDA, and
ANNIE SAY HI TO MICHAEL
UNG ~ I LOVE YOU MICHAEL,
from SUE
Hello Srikanth! U have a secret
admirer. It’s my last year at Blair,
marry me!! I LOVE YOU!!!
Happy sweet seventeenth, Yunizzle! Live this year up…come
next October. MC will be ILLEGAL
~wink~ TYVESTRONG forever!
Young Smith, Michelle A, Bob,
Lil shells Bim, Dayo Sheldon,
Jason M, A.B., ADB, Baby Jeff,
Sandman Heem, Mikey, The
football team.
see SHOUTOUTS page 18
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
FEATURES
October 7, 2004
Blazers in Politics
By EMILY-KATE HANNAPEL
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs
the security of all.”
-John F. Kennedy
SGA president calls for action
Junior Sebastian Johnson swaggers down Blair Boulevard.
He casually waves hello to a passing friend, gives a high five
to another. He walks on. From a bench, he hears, “Yo Sebastian, what’s up?” He goes over to talk and introduces himself to a boy sitting at the same bench. He sticks out his hand,
ready to shake. “Hi, I’m Sebastian Johnson, SGA president.
It’s nice to meet you.” This is Johnson’s domain. Johnson is
a model, and Blair Boulevard is his runway.
Although some consider the SGA to be insignificant, to
Johnson it is a way of allowing students to express their
opinions. He says the purpose of the SGA is to represent
all students at Blair. “We have 4,000 people with different
opinions. They all want something different, and I represent
them all,” he says as he continues walking.
Johnson encourages all teenagers to get involved in politics, either on a national level, a local level or even on a school
level. “Join a grass-roots campaign,” he says. “If you want a
stop light or a speed bump, start petitioning now.”
Johnson was involved in the Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
for Governor campaign in 2002 and says that his involvement taught him that being an “informed [voter]” is the most
important thing that any person can do. He says you can do
this by learning about candidates and taking an active role
in politics. “It’s a responsibility every citizen has,” he says,
“even teens.”
“The right of citizens of the United States, who are
18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied
or abridged...”
-26th Amendment
Blazer ACTs on his beliefs
“The ballot is stronger than bullets.”
-Joseph Schumpeter
VOICEBOX:
Who is a better presidential
candidate, Kerry or Bush?
SGR members follow campaign trail
She pounds on the door. No answer. With a yawn, she
knocks again. The door opens slowly. “Hi, my name is
Emma. Will you be voting in the upcoming election?” The
door slams shut. She is used to this sort of rejection, and she
quickly moves on to the next house. This morning, junior
Emma Hutchinson is in Pennsylvania canvassing for Lois
Murphy, a Democrat running for Congress.
Hutchinson, along with several members of Blair’s Students for Global Responsibility (SGR) and the non-partisan
group America Coming Together based in Washington, D.C.,
traveled to Pennsylvania to canvass, going door-to-door to
persuade people to vote for Murphy. While canvassing,
Hutchinson says she was surprised by the number of people
who didn’t know who Murphy was or, worse yet, didn’t
care. “Some people had no idea,” she says.
Even so, by the end of the day,
Hutchinson’s collection of
students
had
canvassed over
1,000
residences, and
she came to
the conclusion
that even if
teens can’t vote,
they can make
a difference in
other ways. “It’s
important, even
if you can’t vote,
to do other things
to ensure that those
who [vote] make informed decisions,”
she says. After she
had finished canvassing, Hutchinson left
with a sense of pride
and the hope that more
Junio
people would be voting
r Emm
home
a
because of her efforts.
while Hutchin
son
ca
It’s a Thursday night, and senior William Dreher
is interning at America Coming Together (ACT),
just as he has for the past four months. Tonight,
the building—just a block from the White House
and in the heart of D.C.’s political circle—is
nearly empty. Dreher sits in a small room, surrounded by what he refers to as “gear”—shirts,
bags and windbreakers that ACT sends out to
its state offices. Some days are more interesting than others, like when he compiles lists
of voters for people canvassing to visit, but
tonight he is counting windbreakers, dividing them
into stacks of 12 to be mailed out in the morning. Dreher
explains that he is one of the few high-school students who
intern at ACT, and he is one of his only peers who is involved
in a campaign.
Dreher argues that teens must start getting involved now.
“All the issues affect us now or will affect us in the future. For
example, college: The prices are going up. This is definitely a
factor for all students,” he says, placing another windbreaker
in the stack and finishing a box.
For Dreher, his volunteering experience is one that will
continue to affect him, and he encourages all teens to get politically involved. “Every time you knock on a door, you can
make a difference,” Dreher says. “If you register ten people to vote, you’ve created ten votes. Go volunteer, make a
change, and it will have a positive impact. You don’t have to
cast a ballot to do that.”
13
nvass
a
ing i pproache
s
n Pen
nsylv a
ania.
P
hoto b
y Nat
hanie
Junior Tinny Lee:
“I don’t really support
either of them. They’re
about the same. I don’t
think Kerry could do a better job [than Bush].”
Sophomore Beatrice
Medina:
“Kerry, because he’s
for the Spanish people,
and he’s in our category
money-wise.”
l Licht
en
Young Democrats involve students
It’s Thursday at 3:00 p.m., and sophomore Adam Yalowitz stands in front of the 60 students who have come to the
first meeting of Blair’s Young Democrats Club. The club was
formed after several Democratic students were upset that
they had no place to express their opinions. Yalowitz and
Co-President sophomore Eve Gleichman founded the club in
hopes of getting more students involved in politics.
Yalowitz tells the club that he hopes to bring Democratic
speakers to Blair, get students to volunteer for the Kerry campaign and go canvassing. A sign-up sheet is passed around
the classroom, and the same sheet is then sent around at
Blair’s Club Fair. By the end of both, the list has over 130
names on it.
Yalowitz believes that there are countless opportunities
for teens to get involved in the presidential election. “Volunteer on Election Day, go to the polls, go to events, canvass in
swing states,” he rattles off.
He reiterates what a significant difference volunteers can
make. “When it comes down to it, all the small things make
a big difference,” he says.
Freshman James F.
Jackson:
“Bush, because he isn’t a
liberal and because he’s
trying to fix the conflicts
that are happening in
Iraq.”
Information compiled and
photos by Hannah Rosen
14
FEATURES
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
Future Olympians
Blazers spend long hours training for the gold
By PRIA ANAND
Junior Michael Reives is pictured on the cover of the Amateur Athletic Union’s Summer 2002 issue. Image courtesy of Reives
Junior Michael Reives
was eight years old when
he first realized that he had
the potential to make a name
for himself running track.
He began running when a
friend noticed his speed,
and soon after, Reives qualified to compete in the Junior
Olympics in the 100- and
200-meter events. He started
commuting nightly to Washington, D.C., for three-hour
practices, and his expectations soared as his running
times dropped. Reives set
his sights on the 2012 Olympic Games.
During his middle-school
years, however, Reives began to question the sacrifices
he had made for his sport.
He quit once before rejoining
the team and soon stopped
training in the off-season. Finally, at the end of his freshman year, after seven years of
training, Reives put away his
running spikes to focus on
academics. For him, Olympic gold had lost its luster.
Especially after the hype
and coverage of the 2004
Athens Olympics, turning
“I played
against my
teammates, my
coaches, even
a robot.”
down such a chance at international acclaim seems unimaginable. For Reives and
others, however, the prospect of Olympic success isn’t
quite enough: According to
the Institute for the Study of
Youth Sports, 50 percent of
competitive student athletes
quit their sports by early adolescence in favor of school,
social life or after-school jobs.
Regardless, these students’
aspirations have left an indelible mark on their lives.
Olympic aspirations
Junior Yao Xu’s earliest
taste of Olympic dreams
came while competing in his
first table-tennis tournament.
Nervous and flustered, a
nine-year-old Xu arrived at
the Junior Olympic competition in Virginia with few
expectations and no paddle.
He played his best with a
borrowed paddle and, surprisingly, won his first two
events. It was then that Xu
knew that he had the makings of an Olympian.
Xu’s
serious
ambitions led him to a committed training program.
“If you have time, you practice: Friday afternoons, Saturday mornings, Sunday
nights,“ he says. “I played
against my teammates, my
coaches, even a robot.”
After successfully competing in the Junior Olympics,
Reives saw the Olympics
as the next logical step, but
the realization of his promise came later in his athletic
career. “My first year, all I
wanted was to quit, I did so
badly,” he says.
see OLYMPICS page 20
Still cramped in hallways and lunch lines
from CRAMMED page 1
crowded schools have been found to impair student achievement, diminish student discipline and compromise student
safety, Blazers are going into the school
year at a disadvantage with little hope of
relief.
Hallway congestion
The most apparent result of overcrowding inside Blair: hallways that look like
Costco’s a week before Christmas. “You
can’t really make a turn,” freshman Angelina Wong says, explaining the technicalities of Blair’s halls. “You can only go
where everyone else is going.”
Junior Yvonne Ellis, battling her way
out of the bustling SAC during 5B lunch,
is victim to the hallway’s stagnancy. “Excuse me! Excuse me,” she howls, and her
student-shaped obstacles hear and try to
move to the side. “I have to shove my way
through,” Ellis admits. “I was trying to be
nice about it.”
“I have to shove my
way through. I was
trying to be nice
about it.”
Although Principal Phillip Gainous
senses that this year’s student body is
“much more friendly” than years past,
being shoved by a fellow Blazer or clobbered by a large backpack in the hallways
can ignite the temper of even a normally
friendly Blazer. According to an informal
Silver Chips survey of 100 students on Sept.
23, 57 percent have felt short-tempered or
angry because of Blair’s hallways.
The majority of those Blazers who are
not irritated by crowded hallways say it’s
because they are accustomed to them. To
these students, hallway woes are a familiar and accepted part of Blair life.
Nothing to eat, nowhere to sit
Ellis and fellow junior Qadiyyah Harris, having just spent the past 20 minutes
in the lunch line only to find no seats in the
SAC area, now must perform a tightrope
walk down Blair Boulevard, balancing
their trays while avoiding the crowds and
staking out a picnic spot on the cold linoleum floor. “The cafeteria is so crowded
that we can’t sit there,” Ellis explains.
Their displacement from the lunchroom is called for by fire-code directives:
While each lunch period brings more than
1,650 students filing towards the cafeteria
for lunch, fire-safety standards mandate a
614-person capacity for the SAC. To meet
the code, students are required to disperse
down Blair Boulevard and to the outside
courtyards when weather permits.
Tucked away in a locker alcove across
from the Media Center is a group of freshmen who, like Ellis, Harris and countless
others, have been bumped out of the cafeteria and to the floor. Yet, they prefer this
nook to the noisy, crowded SAC. “Right
here is more peaceful,” says freshman
Jackie Julia. “There, everyone is pushing
people and being so loud. You can hardly
have a conversation,” she says.
They pass around a vending-machinesupplied pack of sandwich cookies to ease
their stomachs’ lunchtime grumbles. All
five students in the group have attempted
to buy lunch at various times this year but
were put off by their frustrating experiences. “I bought lunch once; it was such
a hassle. By the time you get your lunch,
the bell rings. It’s not worth it,” freshman
Stephanie Verduguez complains. Cookies
are better than no lunch at all.
There are days when, at the end of a
lunch period, students are still waiting in
line to receive food, according to Vice Principal Linda Wanner. “I hate lunch duty,
quite frankly,” she says. “[Students] come
up to me and say, ‘Ms. Wanner, I don’t
want to stand in line for 40 minutes.’ So
I say, ‘Well, go sit down for a minute.’ But
there’s nowhere for them to sit.”
“By the time you get
your lunch, the
bell rings.”
Last year’s figures indicate that 21.3
percent of Blair students received free
and reduced meal plans, and Counseling
Director Karen Hunt estimates this year’s
percentage is about the same. This means
that over one-fifth of Blazers have no
choice but endure the lines and occasionally go lunchless.
for the mirrors.
And when a student doesn’t have a
place to sit at lunch, isn’t able to walk freely
from one class to the next or can’t find an
open stall to use the bathroom, he or she is
at risk for alienation. “Anybody, student
or not, needs to operate in an environment
where they feel like they’re in control,”
says Kathy Cowan, spokesperson for the
National Association of School Psychologists. “And certainly, it’s important for a
student to feel comfortable in their school
environment. It does affect learning.”
Even as the school population grows,
Blair awaits additional students with open
arms. “We have never turned kids away.
We welcome them in. We’ll make them
feel at home here,” Vice Principal Linda
Wolf says emphatically. But a moment later, her optimistic remark is washed away
by Blair’s reality. “It’s gotten out of hand
though, and we just don’t have the physical room or staff for them.”
“It does affect learning”
On Sept. 19, The Washington Post ran a
story written by Post Staff Writer Rebecca
Dana spotlighting Blair’s overcrowding
debacle. Dana detailed the implications of
life in an overcrowded school, even those
involving the restroom. “You have to be
built like a linebacker to make it to the
girls’ room between classes,” she wrote.
Both male and female Blazers agree
with Dana’s observation. Already, freshman Marisol Salgado has resorted to running from the first to the third floor bathrooms to avoid lines. Freshman Olivia
Wondu reports that sometimes, there is
even a separate line in the girl’s restroom
The crowded SAC during 5B lunch on
Oct. 1. Photo by Charlie Woo
silverCHIPS
FEATURES 15
October 7, 2004
Paying the price for college advice
In the complex world of college admissions, some Blazers opt for professional counseling
By AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT
Walking into the office of Dr.
Lori Potts-Dupré is not like walking in for a checkup with your
family physician. Operating from
an office hidden in the heart of
downtown Takoma Park, PottsDupré offers visitors a piece of
candy and a contagious smile instead of a scale and a stethoscope.
That is because Potts-Dupré, a
private educational consultant,
does not check her clients’ heart
rates—she checks their highschool transcripts.
Potts-Dupré has been a private
educational consultant since 1996,
guiding clients through the often
nerve-wracking college admissions process. An increasing number of people agree that a private
consultant is worthwhile. USA
Today reported in April 2003 that
six percent of high-school graduates received professional help in
the college selection process, up
from one percent in 1990. That
number is expected to double in
the next ten years. Some experts,
however, say that parents and students are over-investing in college
counselors.
From obscurity to necessity
The services of a private college counselor are not cheap.
According to the 2005 edition of
Newsweek’s Kaplan College Guide,
consultants can cost between $300
and $7,500. Still, Potts-Dupré says
she has a waiting list of clients
willing to pay the $500 for the
first session and $200 for every
90-minute session thereafter.
These fees pay for a wide variety of services. College Bound, a
company in Rockville, provides a
typical menu of private counseling
services: evaluating students’ academic credentials, recommending
high-school course selections and
the best times to take standardized
tests, developing a list of college
choices and helping families with
college visits.
A fork in the college road
Some Blazers believe private
college counselors provide a vital
service. Senior Will Sprecher has
been visiting a private college
counselor for the last year. “[My
counselor] is solely devoted to
finding schools and is focused on
finding the right college for me,”
says Sprecher.
Other students resist their parents’ suggestions to see a college
counselor. Junior Sam Morris says
his parents have offered to pay for
a private college consultant, but he
would rather not visit a counselor.
“I just don’t want to take the time
to talk to a counselor…[College
is] too far away, and I don’t think
I need to do that right now.”
Big bucks do not guarantee
thick envelopes
Joyce Slayton Mitchell, author
of Winning the Heart of the College
Admissions Dean and Director of
College Advising at NightingaleBamford School in New York
City, believes that parents spend
too much money on consultants
who do not improve their child’s
chances of getting into the college of his or her choice. Mitchell
says parents are often scared into
thinking that their child cannot
compete against other applicants,
when in reality there are plenty of
good schools with relatively low
rejection rates. “Of the 350 top
colleges, 250 are not that competitive but are fabulous schools,”
Mitchell says.
Although Mitchell generally
discourages the use of private college counselors, she thinks they
are helpful to kids at large schools
like Blair, where school counselors cannot meet individual needs.
However, since school counselors
have direct input in the college selection process, Mitchell
believes private counselors can
jeopardize student relationships
with their school counselor. “The
[high-school] counselors write
the letters, and they talk to the
schools,” Mitchell says. “They are
the ones who recommend or don’t
recommend you.”
Mitchell believes an advantage
private-school students have is
that they often have multiple
meetings with representatives
from elite schools before applying.
“No one gets in cold to Harvard,
Penn and Yale. Connections are
everything,” she says.
The decision of a lifetime
Potts-Dupré argues that private college counselors are a
An array of college admission guides. Photo by Sherri Geng
smart investment because picking
the right college can be a lifechanging decision. “You’re going
to spend a lot of money to send
your kid to college; it’s going to
be four or five years of their life,”
reasons Potts-Dupré. “To spend
the time and money to make the
process as thorough as possible is
a good thing.”
Potts-Dupré contends that her
services are invaluable because
of the interaction she has with
her students. “More than any-
thing, [my job] is sitting down
one-on-one and talking about
everything.”
According to Mitchell’s book,
the college admissions business,
which includes SAT prep courses,
college advice books and private
consultants, has become a $500
million-a-year industry. And
although it is debatable whether
the services Potts-Dupré and
other private college counselors
offer are worth the bill, one thing
is certain: The doctor is in.
The LiveStrong band: fundraiser or fad?
Cross-country team members model LiveStrong bands on Sept.
23. The LiveStrong bracelets were created by the Lance Armstrong Foundation to raise money for cancer research. Because
of supporters like these Blazers, more than 12 million bands
have been purchased worldwide. Photo by Adam Schuyler
By KARIMA TAWFIK
AP World History teacher James Mogge wears
the bright yellow band around his wrist both to
support his brother and as inspiration to stay off
cigarettes; senior Kate Johnston wears it because
she saw it in People Magazine and decided to purchase one a few days later; and junior Anna Chiplis
decided not to buy the bracelet, even though her father recently passed away due to cancer.
Engraved with the words “LiveStrong,” these
yellow rubber bracelets can be spotted on students
and teachers alike on Blair Boulevard as part of the
Lance Armstrong Foundation’s campaign to raise
money for cancer research and education. They
have passed the $12 million mark in sales all over
the world. But with celebrities like Matt Damon,
Lindsay Lohan, Ashley Olson and even both President George W. Bush and Presidential candidate
John Kerry sporting the LiveStrong bracelet, these
yellow bands have become more than just a fundraiser—they are embedded into this fall’s fashion.
With their popularity growing, some Blazers fear
that the meaning of LiveStrong could turn from inspiration into a mere fad among consumers.
Behind the band
Lance Armstrong was 25 years old and emerging
as one of the world’s best cyclists when he joined
the 10 million Americans living with cancer today.
His testicular cancer, left untreated, spread to his
abdomen, lungs and brain. When finally treated,
Armstrong overcame his cancer and started his
own cancer foundation. The corporation, in alliance with Nike, began a project to sell five million
bands printed with “LiveStrong” for $1 to fund cancer research and awareness and to help prevent the
548,000 American deaths per year due to the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Besides being the color of Armstrong’s Tour de
France jersey, the yellow band is meant to evoke
“hope, courage, inspiration and perseverance,”
says Stefanie Samarripa, a Media and Public Relations intern at the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
A lost meaning
The publicity that has come with the LiveStrong
bands has irritated Chiplis, whose dad was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, a
cancer of the blood, five years ago. After dealing
with her father’s failed bone marrow transplant in
March, she turned to other sources of hope, among
them the Buddhist religion, where “nobody ever
really dies.” Instead of commemorating her father
through a LiveStrong band, Chiplis wears a heartshaped locket that features her father’s photo.
“Wear yellow, LiveStrong”
For Mogge, the original message of the LiveStrong
bracelet is integrated into aspects of his everyday
life. When Mogge’s brother was diagnosed with a
malignant tumor in his kidney this summer, Mogge’s sister-in-law bought some bracelets from the
hospital. Now, both Mogge and his brother wear
the bands in hopes that “whatever obstacles we
may face, we may overcome them,” Mogge says.
A few years ago, Mogge faced cancer himself;
after removing a melanoma on his face contracted
from overexposure to the sun, he now wears the
band as a reminder of health’s fragility. Now, when
given the chance to pick up a cigarette, instead of
see LIVESTRONG page 20
October 7, 2004
NO
Junior Katrina Emery’s brother Shannon shows off his room while stationed in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Katrina Emery
a big nightmare,” she whispers, faltering slightly. “You don’t know
whether or not he’s dead.” Emery describes the year of her brother’s
deployment in Iraq, her eyes welling up with tears. “The entire time
I was fairly unhappy,” she says. “My moods never changed, and I
was depressed.”
While Emery battled depression, Duncan found himself angered
by the deployment of his family friend. “He didn’t necessarily have
to go, but he decided he wanted to. I was a little ticked off, to be
honest,” he admits.
Friedman felt that since her father was not in Iraq on an actual
journalistic assignment, he was
putting himself in a risky position without reason. “I felt like
he didn’t have to be there, and he
had a lot to lose,” she says.
According to MacDermid, resentment and frustration are relatively common among teenagers
estranged from their relatives in
Iraq. She encourages teens to recognize and accept their reactions
instead of ignoring them. “Some
teens are angry, although they’re not comfortable expressing that.
They think it’s inappropriate,” MacDermid explains. “It’s okay to
feel angry. Then you can make decisions about how to deal with it.
Denying your feelings can make it worse.”
According to the American Psychological Association, teens can
have different mental and behavioral reactions during the period
of deployment of a family member. Haman and MacDermid both
reiterate that the responses to the situation depend on the teenager. Some teens may begin to misbehave and rebel, while others go
through periods of anxiety and depression, says MacDermid.
Haman adds that the deployment can impact all aspects of the
teenager’s life. “When a teen is living with long-term stress, their
“It was like hell, a big
nightmare. You don’t know
whether or not he’s dead.”
immune system is affected; their grades may dip,” she says. “They
may get sick more, sleep less, have less concentration and more trouble with impulse control.”
These responses can be exacerbated by a lack of communication.
Over 6,000 miles apart with few opportunities to communicate,
teens and their deployed relatives may suffer from damaged relationships. Mallick, who is currently serving in the army for a year
on his second tour of Iraq and eagerly awaiting his return in March
2005, regrets having to leave his wife and three young children without a husband and a father. He writes, “Hopefully, they will forgive
me for the years I have missed.”
Haman points out that another significant effect of a family member’s deployment on a teen is the change of the family dynamic.
“The authority structure of the family has to be renegotiated. There
are new expectations to do work and more responsibilities,” she
says. When the deployed family member returns from Iraq, the family must once again reorganize itself.
Restructuring the family responsibilities was the last thing on
Emery’s mind when her brother came back. “The first day I saw
him back was the best day of my life,” she says, grinning. “He was
finally home. He was finally safe.”
However, says Haman, “That’s just the beginning.” She argues
that during a separation, no matter the length, all parties in a relationship can change significantly. “You remember the person you
left, and now there’s a new person to get used to. They’re not going
to be the same, not when they’ve been in a war zone risking their
lives,” she says.
Having had a father in Iraq, I can no longer watch a television
report or read a newspaper article about Iraq without wondering:
How many families anxiously await the return of their loved ones?
How many have said their last goodbyes? The American citizens
and soldiers in Iraq are not faceless numbers and statistics. They
are real people with real families. For me, politics have become personal.
end IN sight
“Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of
the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the
birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there.”
On March 20, 2003, Lieutenant Tim Collins gave
this advice to his battle group, the 1st Battalion
of the Royal Irish at Fort Blair Mayne desert
camp, 20 miles from the Iraqi border. Collins’
words of advice to his troops could not be more
correct—our involvement in Iraq should have
been done with care, finesse and expertise.
Instead, we refused to “tread lightly” and have
tried to force our democratic ideals on a nation
that continues to staunchly refuse them. In fact,
the use of guerrilla warfare now by insurgents
threatens to turn Iraq into another Vietnam.
Since its creation in 1921 by Britain, its
colonial ruler, Iraq has been a cornucopia of
different ethnic and racial groups. Carved out
of various regions of Iran, Turkey and Kurdestan, Iraq is a nation whose borders spill into all
surrounding directions. In the north, the ethnic
Kurds spread into three different nations; Iraqi
Shiites blend into nearby Khuzestan, a region of
Persian Iran; and Bedouin Arabs mix into Saudi
Arabia. Various other groups like ethnic Iranians, Armenians and Sunni Muslims also crowd
into the country.
Since the early 1970s, civil unrest between
the various groups has been common; but
with the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime,
ethnic strife has reached new heights. In cities
like Daqouq, Kirkuk and Al-Ramadi, deadly
clashes between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds occur daily in the form of car explosions, mosque
bombings and armed civil clashes. According
to BBC World News, militant internal violence
has caused nearly 3,200 Iraqi deaths in the past
year alone.
With vastly different ethnic groups fighting
each other for dominance, the United States
never had a chance to create peace. Engaged
in a guerrilla war we can’t win, Americans are
consistently threatened by Iraqi insurgence,
which has divided into four main groups: Sunni
tribalists, former Saddam Hussein-regime loyalists, fighters loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada alSadr and foreign jihadists. Between these four
groups, the only common link is their hatred of
the United States, whom they view not as a “liberator” but as a foreign invader.
Our list of mounting casualties, skepticism
about going to the war in the first place and lack
of a clear plan for the future all point to the pos-
sibility that Iraq could become another Vietnam.
Most worrisome, however, is the attitude of the
Iraqi people. Their attempts to destabilize both
the interim Iraqi government and the U.S. presence in their nation have grown more frequent
and more lethal, causing over 1,000 American military casualties. In response, the U.S.
military has reverted to the same strategy used
during Vietnam: bombing operations. The Vietnam War was the largest air war in history, and
although the situation in Iraq has not escalated
yet to such a level, our repetitive bombings of
cities such as Fallujah and Kabul can only point
in that direction. Even the smart bombs that the
U.S. currently uses can kill the innocent, and in
fact, they have.
Each day we spend in Iraq as an invading,
assaulting power lowers our stance in the eyes
of the rest of the world, especially in those of
the Iraqis themselves. How many innocent
Iraqi civilians must we kill to “free” their nation? Instead of winning the hearts and minds
of the Iraqi people, uniting them under a representative democracy and completing a true
“mission accomplished,” we are only engaging
ourselves in a nation of fighting ethnic groups
that cannot make peace with each other, let
alone with us.
Until we realize the futility of our endeavors in a nation that does not want us there, we
are merely adding to the very real possibility
that our current situation in Iraq could quickly
become as devastating as the Vietnam War was
for us nearly 40 years ago.
an opinion by Rocky Hadadi
No one in my family saw him leave; he had driven away in a taxi
before we could really say goodbye. He had told us not to think
about it too much. It would be over soon enough. He had done this
before—in fact, he had spent the last 35 years of his life doing this.
A week later, he called and said not to worry about the bombs. But
how could we not worry? My father was in Iraq.
It has been almost a year since he came home. I can still remember spending every day he was gone silently wondering whether
my father was alive. I didn’t tell anyone about it. I didn’t think they
would understand. I thought I was alone.
I could not have been more wrong. Since March 2003, thousands
of families have been pulled apart by the war in Iraq. According to
the Military Family Research Institute, 42.6 percent of all active-duty
military members have children back in the U.S., and everyday, over
1.2 million minors are separated from their active-duty military parents. On top of that, numerous journalists and government officials
like my father have departed for Iraq, leaving their families and the
comforts of home behind for the perils of a war zone.
As the death toll of over 1,000 Americans continues to climb and
the media remains saturated with graphic images of the war, teenagers isolated from family members in Iraq struggle with the separation and the possibility that their relatives may never return.
Biting her lip, junior Katrina Emery leans back against the wall
during 5A lunch and remembers what it was like to find out her
brother was being deployed to Iraq in March of 2003. A sergeant in
an ordnance unit, he had received notification of deployment about
three months before he left. Despite anticipating the deployment,
Emery agonized over the departure of her brother. “Once we knew
for sure, a cloud settled over our family,” she says.
Even after 12 years of the military lifestyle, saying goodbye was
not easy for the family of 1991 Blair graduate Chief Warrant Officer
Rick Mallick of the 498th Medical Company. In an e-mail interview
from Iraq, he writes that even though his wife and three children
have gotten accustomed to frequent deployments, they still wept
when he left for Iraq for six months in February 2003 and then again
for a year in March 2004.
Senior Robert Duncan says expecting the deployment of his family friend, Army photojournalist Benjamin Cossel, did nothing to
make the actual departure easier. “We were kind of expecting it yet,
at the same time, hoping it wouldn’t happen,” he recounts. “The
words, ‘This could be the last time you see this man,’ were definitely
going through my mind,” he says.
As Iraq becomes increasingly dangerous for U.S. citizens, teens
often become preoccupied with the safety of their deployed relatives,
and not without reason. “The feelings they’re having of anxiety over
possible death are reality-based,” clinical social worker and therapist
Ann Haman acknowledges.
When Duncan’s family friend
first stepped off the plane in Iraq,
the man directly in front of him
was shot in the head. A week after
my father came home, the hotel in
which he had been staying, Al Rasheed, was bombed. While in Iraq
shortly after Sept. 11, 2003, junior
Natalie Friedman’s father, a columnist for The New York Times, was
robbed at gunpoint. “This guy put
a gun to his head on the main road. If you can’t even go down the
main road, where are you safe?” Friedman demands.
Shelley MacDermid, Director of the Center for Families and CoDirector of the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University, stresses the importance of mental and emotional preparation
for the departure of a family member. She suggests that teenagers
research the support groups dedicated specifically to families coping with deployment and evaluate all of their emotional reactions to
the separation. “Exploring yourself to understand and acknowledge
how you feel about it is important,” says MacDermid.
Emery, on the other hand, says that there was nothing she could
have done to prepare herself for what was to come. “It was like hell,
War in Iraq photos courtesy of the United States Army web site, http://www.army.mil
n
politics GET personal
silverCHIPS
CENTERSPREAD
Iraq graphic by Sheila Rajagopal
by Jody
Pollock
silverCHIPS
Information compiled from
CNN, USA Today and
Yahoo! News
18 ADS
from SHOUTOUTS page 12
BLAZE ON BLAZERS- R + P + V
+ N. Word to your mother!!
Happy Birthday Yuning!
Yo
Happy Anniversary to Stephanie and Nascar and to Yasmin
and Carlos! Also Happy B-day
Yasmin
Hey Yasminie! Happy Birthday!
We are graduating. GO Class of
2005! -Love Kelly and Elysia
50 cents for this shoutout? Giving it up to the golf team holding
it down. Bill is a slacker-golfer
Magnet Pride ’06 Come and
Get it!! Austin Fang is hot! Ravi
Joseph is sexy!!!
Let’s go BLAIR FIELD HOCKEY!! We rock!!!
Hi SHOUT OUT to Elena, F.
Carney, Danjamin, DJ, Poobah,
Rose, Christine, Morgano,
Russell, Harris, Natalie, Molly,
LUCY SAMUEL we miss you,
Sydney, Bess, Em-k, Dietrich,
Sam Sil, Douglass, Tyty, Peter,
Hayley, Monkey Boy, you are all
awesome!
GO AWAY STRESS!!!!!
see SHOUTOUTS page 26
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
FEATURES 19
October 7, 2004
The top three causes of illness-related deaths in El Salvador
are diarrhea, respiratory infections and parasites, according to
the Public Broadcasting Service. In Mazatepeque, we saw some
of these conditions on a daily basis.
Mazatepeque was created out of the 1992 Peace Accords that
marked the end of a bitter civil war in El Salvador. During the
war, peasants, students and blue-collar workers banded together as guerillas revolting against an oppressive government that
had been violating human rights for decades. Perceiving the
guerillas as Communists, the U.S. aided the Salvadoran government by equipping and training an army that kidnapped over
30,000 people and carried out large-scale massacres of women
and children, according to an article by Tom Gibb, a correspondent during the war.
Thousands of Salvadorans have left home to pursue a better life. Twenty percent of the Salvadoran population currently
lives abroad, mainly in America.
By OLIVIA BEVACQUA
H
e was so skinny you
could actually see his
heart beating hard
against his skin. A
tiny boy with jutting ribs and
toothpick arms, he looked more
like an eight-year-old than his
actual age of 13. His name was
Moises.
Moises is a victim of malnutrition and heart disease. He was
one of dozens of Salvadoran
children I met this summer when
I traveled with a group of doctors,
dentists and Blair teens to build a
medical clinic and school in two
rural villages of El Salvador. The
trip was a project of International
Partners, an organization that
supports local leaders who are
committed to developing selfsustaining communities in areas
of extreme poverty. For 17 days,
we lived in mud-brick houses
without running water or plumbing, building a medical clinic and
peering into a world that was both
foreign and familiar.
Chickens and roaches
In the village of Mazatepeque I
stayed in a two-room, mud-brick
house with two other delegates
and a family of six. Bits of dirt
from the walls and ceiling would
sometimes fall onto my face at
night. In the house where my
friends were staying, you could
see stars through the holes in the
roof.
Horses, cows, chickens and
pigs wandered freely through
the village, defecating all over the
roads and in people’s yards. We
almost died laughing the morning
our friend, yelling in horror, found
a chicken roosting in his hat.
Located outside the houses
were cement cylinder toilets
resting above a pit in the earth,
surrounded by a ramshackle
structure made out of anything
available—blankets, tree branches, strips of metal. At night, threeinch-long cockroaches would
crawl inside the rims.
All day, the children who were
too young to be in school would
play. I come from a middle-class
world of protective parents who
make their kids look both ways
before crossing the street, so it
was strange to see children having swordfights with rusty wires,
playing at construction sites or
walking around with machetes.
torn clothes that people wore for
days at a time. It was evident in
teens wearing flip-flops on their
hands as gloves during softball
games and women using cardboard as potholders while they
cooked.
Some differences were less
visible. It took me several days to
realize that Irene, the skinny, pale
ten-year-old who helped serve our
meals, wasn’t going to school. Her
mother wanted her to help in the
kitchen, she explained. Oscar, the
handsome 15-year-old in whose
house I was living, was skipping
school so that he could help his father in the fields. In Mazatepeque,
there are no formal consequences
for missing class.
For Blazers who have recently
emigrated from El Salvador, the
promise of getting a quality education justifies the sacrifice of leaving
their homeland. Sophomore Jose
Guevara-Garcia, who immigrated
five months ago, says that back in
his city of Anomoros, the schools
offer fewer programs, teachers
and computers, and school days
are only four hours long.
Freshman Tomasa Guevara
claims that she misses “everything” about El Salvador, and
plans to return. “But live there?”
she says. “No. I need to stay
where my future will be better.”
A broken heart
Despite the poverty, the people
have a richness of spirit evident in
the joy they experience with the
resources at hand. The children
spend hours making games with
A baby eats while a chicken wanders freely in Mazatepeque.
marbles, sticks—or in my case,
caterpillars.
I was swimming in the river
when the children attacked. The
boys had noticed my revulsion
toward Salvadoran caterpillars—
thick, squishy creatures that were
easily five inches long and stuck to
my shirt like Super Glue. A group
of kids, led by Moises, were tossing the dreaded things in my direction. They delighted in my fear
and chased me all the way home.
Despite this somewhat revolting
initiation, playing with Moises at
the river became a daily event for
the other delegates and me.
Later that week, our delegation
doctor was describing how day
after day, he saw children suffering from serious complications of
easily preventable diseases. He
The walls of poverty
Poverty surrounded us. I saw
it in the bony bodies of malnourished children, rotting teeth and
The author posing with Moises (left) and Yessenia (middle) in
the Mazatepeque village. Photo courtesy of Olivia Bevacqua
then explained that Moises had
contracted strep throat, which
developed into rheumatic fever
and caused a disease of the heart
valves because he never received
treatment. Now, if he doesn’t
receive open-heart surgery, he
will die.
In that moment, the poverty
became personal. I knew Moises
and his family—I was living in
their house. I felt like I’d been
slapped. I learned that Moises’
mother had raised the necessary
$4,000 for his surgery through
nongovernmental organizations,
but I also learned that in most
cases, poverty trumps any hope
rural people have in combating
such diseases.
Building a dream
The story of Moises gave us
a new sense of purpose in constructing the clinic. Every day,
we would mix and pour cement,
lay down cinder blocks and level
the ground. The walls of the clinic
grew taller and taller, and one day
we woke to find that the villagers
had begun building the roof. Prior
to our project, the nearest access
to medical supplies was several
miles away, accessible by horseback over dirt roads dotted with
craters and sometimes submerged
by six inches of water.
We stocked the medical clinic
with supplies, including the antibiotics Moises would have needed
to prevent his condition. After
two weeks of lifting, stacking
and sweating, the finished building looked surprisingly small.
It stood on a slight hill, its gray
cinderblocks standing out against
the morning sky. Behind it, in
the distance, stood the remains of
another clinic, bombed during the
war and covered in ivy that had
grown for 12 years.
20 FEATURES
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
Breaking it down
Blazers LiveStrong
from LIVESTRONG page 15
reaching out to take one, he tugs
on his bracelet. “It keeps me from
going back to smoking,” he says,
pursing his lips and pulling the
yellow band.
Yet the majority of people who
slip on their bracelets in the morning are not impacted personally
by cancer. Cross-country coach
Carl Lewin bought 60 bands for
every member of his sports team.
While he is aware that proceeds go
to support cancer patients, he has
also extended the meaning of the
band to inspire his runners to “run
better and to push themselves every day,” he says. “It’s more the
mental aspect.”
“Where can I get one?”
The symbolism of the bands
may have been lost in the craze to
find and buy what might now be
a new accessory. Senior Anleny
Beriguete sits in the courtyard
wearing her band as she eats
her lunch. Beriguete cashed in
her $1 for a bracelet after seeing
that “everyone else was wearing
one,” including her boss at work.
Her boss told her the meaning
behind the LiveStrong band only
after Beriguete asked where to
buy one.
Johnston thinks that the
LiveStrong band may add to one’s
image and reputation, especially
those of celebrities. She admits
the band’s appeal may be fashion;
its appearance in People magazine
prompted her to buy one.
Some of Chiplis’ friends have
offered to buy the bands from
one another for more than just
$1, allowing the seller to pocket
the profits. It is these people who
Chiplis feels are insensitive to
the bracelet’s underlying meaning and are numb to how cancer
impacts on a personal level, as it
has for Chiplis and her loved ones,
who spent the past year driving
to and from Baltimore to visit her
dad at Johns Hopkins Hospital
(JHH).
Chiplis explains that she supports cancer research through
other means, like joining in swima-thons and run-a-thons organized by JHH.
With demands for the bracelets
high, most stores have run out
of bands. Yet Mogge notes that
while people seem concerned over
where to buy the bracelets, they
are not so concerned about the
intent of the band. Says Mogge,
“They just ask, ‘Where can I get
one?’”
The Rumor around Blair
Preparations underway for the upcoming fall play
By KRISTI CHAKRABARTI
Senior Sanford Hesler practices a few of his moves, including an “airchair,” during the Sept. 15 meeting of the Breakdance Club. The club has been reinstated after controversy
over sponsorship last year. Photos by Hannah Rosen
English and Communication
Arts Program Journalism teacher
Anne Cullen will make her directorial debut in the upcoming
fall play, Rumors, by Neil Simon.
Cullen has taken the job of directing the play to challenge herself
but knows that it will be a lot of
fun. She chose Rumors because
she is very familiar with Simon’s
work and thinks that the play is
suspenseful and humorous.
The play is a fast-paced farce
about a high-society New York
couple (Charlie and Myra) that
invites eight of their best friends
to celebrate their tenth wedding
anniversary. However, things
become complicated when guests
arrive at the party and find Charlie’s dead body, a gun, a suicide
note and no Myra.
The ten-member cast of Rumors is relatively small compared
to that of previous Blair produc-
tions. According to sophomore
Josh Griner (Officer Welch), the
cast and crew of last year’s production of The Merry Widow totaled close to 100, and the cast
“There is really
good chemistry between all of us.”
itself was well over 30. However, because of Rumors’ smaller
size, the members have quickly
become acquainted with each
other’s dynamics. “There is really good chemistry between all
of us,” says senior Alex Gersh,
who plays Ken Gorman.
Assistant Director and senior
Elise Harvey says that having a
smaller cast with mostly veteran
actors fits Cullen well because
she can learn from them as much
as they can learn from her. Harvey says that Cullen plans to
have a larger ensemble cast for
the spring musical—which cannot be revealed—of around 60
people.
According to Harvey, a major
difference between Rumors and
other plays is that one set will
encompass the entire stage. The
large set, with stairs, opening
doors and a balcony, requires the
students to be aware of their surroundings. “The cast has to learn
how to use their space, they must
work with the props and not only
with each other,” says Harvey.
Written in 1988, Rumors is
one of Neil Simon’s later works,
which, according to sophomore
Anna Szapiro (Claire Ganz),
shows Cullen’s “more contemporary taste.” Even though the
play is relatively modern, Gersh
explains that many of the dated
jokes have been altered to relate
to today’s society.
Training for the ultimate test: the Olympics
from OLYMPICS page 14
But he kept running until he saw
improvement. “I just kept getting better. Then the third year, I
really started winning.”
Reives’ athletic ascension was
not without its repercussions. At
7:00 p.m., after his Junior Olympic teammates had thrown in
their towels for the night, Reives
tore up the track for an extra hour.
At the end of his first season of
rigorous competition, Reives
took up weight training to keep
in shape.
For senior Tencia Lee, this
sense of commitment drives her
to compete in wushu, a Chinese
martial art. In 2002, Lee was a
competitor in the International
Kuoshu (Wushu) Championships, where she placed sixth in
one event and third in two oth-
ers. After two years filled with
hours of weekly practice, Lee
returned to the competition in
2004 to receive a first and second
place. Fulfillment like this validates the six-day weeks Lee now
spends on her sport, she says.
Success and sacrifice
Training is complicated by the
fact that most competitive student
athletes have other serious pursuits in addition to their sports.
Beyond school and wushu, Lee
has a passion for acting and singing, but after one show, Blair theatre exited the picture because of
her commitment to wushu.
For Reives, the trade-off was
basketball. As training grew increasingly intense, Reives quit
his basketball team to concentrate his energies on track.
Senior Max Czapanskiy, a
fencer who hopes to qualify for
the Beijing Olympics, has faced
similar sacrifices and has found
they are a small price to pay for
an opportunity at the toughest
competition his sport has to offer.
“I can’t hold down a job during
the school year,” he says. ”I miss
a lot of parties, but the Olympics
are just a whole new level.”
Joe Madero, a coordinating
administrator for youth soccer’s
Olympic Developing Program,
sees the same dedicated spirit in
a lot of his athletes. “They have
a vision and a goal of reaching
the highest level of play they can
get to, and they’re motivated by
that,” he explains.
Initially, Reives, like Czapanskiy, committed to a hectic schedule of training and competition
with enthusiasm. “I was young,
and I knew I was fast enough,”
he explains. But as the years
wore on, Reives began to secondguess his choice. “I was getting
home at 10:00 p.m. every night,”
he recalls. “I needed to focus on
school.” Reives was not alone in
the strain he felt as he grappled
with school and increasingly demanding levels of competition;
in summer 2004, Xu also opted to
halt his training for academics.
In spite of it all
For Xu, however, the decision
to take a break from table tennis
came with its own share of trepidation. This, combined with the
enjoyment he derives from table
tennis, has led to the decision to
rejoin the sport in the near future.
Reives, too, will always have
a love of his sport, and for him,
reconciling a desire to run with
academic constraints may not
be impossible. Although he has
no intentions of rejoining the
District’s Junior Olympic team,
Reives hopes to resume his sport
on a less intense level.
Like Reives, Czapanskiy refuses to forsake his passion for
fencing. He rattles off the formidable list of fencing injuries
he’s sustained over the past two
years: pulled hamstring, pulled
back, broken shin; for him, they
pale in comparison to the thrill
of anticipation, a sentiment Lee
shares wholeheartedly. “It’s just
the prospect of participating in
something that is as meaningful
as the Olympics,” she says. “I
may never make it, but for me,
it’s an important thing to reach
for.”
silverCHIPS
FEATURES
October 7, 2004
21
Breaking through the color barrier
For multiracial Blazers, past prejudices fade as students learn to embrace their cultures
By CHELSEA ZHANG
When senior Saskia Alemar
visits her mother ’s relatives in
Singapore, her brown hair and
white skin single her out in a
wave of black-haired heads. She
has difficulty pronouncing Chinese inflections and overcoming
an American accent. Even her
walking style is American; her
Singaporean aunts tell her to put
her shoulders back, chest out and
stomach in. But despite appearing
white, Alemar is multiracial—Chinese, white and Hispanic.
Though Alemar’s background
may stand out in Singapore, she
has plenty of multiracial peers
in the U.S. Since the Supreme
Court overturned all laws against
interracial marriage in 1967, the
number of such couples has more
than quadrupled, as revealed by
the 2000 Census. Among seven
million multiracial individuals are
four million teens—a fast-growing, increasingly-accepted population, according to Silver Spring
psychologist William Shore. Despite facing scattered prejudice in
the outside world, mixed Blazers
are readily fitting into Blair’s diverse community.
An easy fit
In talks with Blair students,
Shore has detected no intolerance
of multiracial backgrounds, unlike
at other area schools. His students
describe Blair as a “melting pot
kind of place,” where they feel
comfortable with different races
and cultures.
Junior Zainub Aslam feels that
coming from Egyptian and Indian
families should not, and does not,
affect her social life. “I don’t feel
like I have to be in a specific race
to fit in,” she remarks. “I don’t feel
weird being unique.”
For junior Joanne Rogers, a
black and white background
means freckles, springy curls, a
skin tone sometimes mistaken
for Hispanic and a ticket past
Blair’s race-based color cliques.
“Just from looking around the
school, there are definitely different places where different races
“There’s still ...
people who kind
of look at them
funny and say,
‘pick one.’”
are, and that’s really sad. But I can
go around places without feeling
awkward,” says Rogers.
Today’s multiracial teens strike
freelance journalist John DiConsiglio, who has interviewed them
for a Scholastic Choices article, as
comfortable and confident. He
credits their acceptance to multiracial celebrities like actor Keanu
Reeves, singer Mariah Carey and
golf legend Tiger Woods. Climbing interracial marriage rates also
come into play, pushing multiracial families to define themselves,
grow and become models for
society, says Shore.
In fact, junior Josh Gist lives in
a disparate family able to resolve
its differences. The black Christians on his dad’s side and white
Jews on his mom’s get along, and
Gist celebrates both Christmas
and Chanukah.
The old stigma of mixed race
has faded enough that Gist says
his friends don’t even notice his
unique background. “Being biracial doesn’t make you stand out.
It just makes you know you’re
different,” he says.
However, English teacher Sandra Ivey believes Blair might be
a “pseudo-world” that tolerates
diversity and shields multiracial
teens from harsher realities outside, where the need to categorize
still exists. Growing up in the past,
Ivey felt denied of her multiple
heritages—Hispanic, European
and indigenous Caribbean—when
she attended a predominantlywhite school in New York. “You
lived in an either-or society. You
never fit in anywhere, and that’s
where some people wanted you
to be,” she says.
Reflection of the past
California State University
psychology professor Jean Phinney notes that while multiracial
young adults are more accepted
today, their appearances still present an issue. “Many people still
react negatively to anyone who
looks different from them or can’t
easily be placed in a category,”
Phinney says.
Away from the Blair community, Rogers has witnessed this
unease firsthand. Her light skin
color sometimes catches stares
when she goes out with her black
dad, as it did when she attended
her grandfather’s funeral in Farmville, Virginia, a city where some
black and white churches are still
separate.
Aslam faced similar discrimination as a member of a dance
team before attending Blair. Her
self-dubbed “coffee-colored” skin
tone set her apart from the mostly
black girls. They accepted black
newcomers over her, sometimes
making fun of her if she could not
learn a step or move, she says.
According to DiConsiglio, remnants of intolerance from decades
ago still linger, pressuring multiracial individuals to identify themselves as of one race. “There’s
still prejudice,” he observes, “still
people who kind of look at them
funny and say, ‘pick one.’”
Best of both worlds
Alemar’s unique family, however, mixes the perks of all of her
heritages. Her father tries to cook
Chinese dishes, but he usually resorts to making Hispanic chicken
Graphic by Sheila Rajagopal
and rice or American steak. She
celebrates Chinese New Year and
Puerto Rico’s Three Kings Day, a
day when she would find gifts in
her shoes. Her mother’s international work at the Singaporean
Embassy and the World Bank in
Washington, D.C., has inspired
her to pursue East Asian Studies.
Proud that his half-white,
half-Filipino background lets him
connect to multiracial students,
magnet computer science teacher
Dennis Heidler sees an optimistic
future in which widespread interracial marriages will blend all
racial lines. He predicts, quoting
comedian Paul Rodriguez, that everyone worldwide will eventually
look like a Filipino, with slightly
olive skin and dark hair.
And breaking racial rules of
old is what multiracial Blazers
do. “For people who are multiracial, you shouldn’t think of it as
a burden,” Alemar says. “You’re
in-between, but at the same time,
you’re extraordinary.”
Jazzing it up
Wearing an ugly
Halloween
costume
Winning loads
of money on
Jeopardy
Being a
senior
DCC helping
Blair
Being a freshman
Being ugly
without a Halloween
costume
Junior Maksym Morawski and seniors Peter Bullen, Anahita Karimi and Garret
Brown play in downtown Silver Spring on Sept. 11. Photo by Hannah Rosen
. . . Sike!
Being a senior
Wearing fish
citizen
Being a
little nerd from
Utah
silverCHIPS
22
Drowning in the language of learning
FEATURES
October 7, 2004
Endless buzzwords and catchphrases of edubabble get lost in the translation for students
Graphic by Sheila
Rajagopal
sistant Principal Patricia Hurley,
MCPS has worked with a private
firm based in Boston to reform
its staff development program.
MCPS also hired Ken O’Connor,
a private consultant and the author of How to Grade for Learning,
to develop a new grading and
reporting policy, according to the
MCPS web site.
Unfortunately, this free-market
method of progress lends itself to
redundancy. According to a California Higher Education Policy
Center article, university professors publishing new research are
rewarded with tenure, promotion
or a “merit increase” in salary,
thus creating a “publish or perish” mentality also found among
educational consultants; their livelihoods are even more dependent
on how many schools buy into
their latest, greatest theory.
Catchwords in class
By AMANDA LEE
B
lazers, be warned—before
your teacher administers
his next performance assessment to evaluate your
enduring understanding of the
previous unit’s content objectives,
make sure you can answer the
curriculum’s essential questions.
And don’t plan on writing an essay to demonstrate indicators of
core learning goals; ECRs are what
the HSA mandates.
First, however, you’ll have to
figure out what all of this obscure
language, also referred to as
“edubabble,” actually means.
According to http://www.wordspy.com, “edubabble” is a term
used to describe the many cryptic
buzzwords used in teaching. Although some educators have been
rolling their eyes at edubabble for
years, these catchphrases have
trickled into the classroom, creating a vast vocabulary of confusing
jargon that both students and
teachers must master.
Suspicious synonyms
Students usually encounter
edubabble when familiar classroom terms mysteriously morph
into mystifying vocabulary. Sud-
denly, next week’s test is now
a performance assessment or a
culminating exercise, as in senior
Austin Grasty’s Latin class. Those
questions he answered on his
scantron are not multiple choice
but rather selected response, and
his essays and paragraphs have
become Extended Constructed
Responses (ECRs) and Brief Constructed Responses (BCRs).
Such arbitrary changes come
from the way school systems
adopt reforms. After educational
experts at universities and private
consulting firms publish new research, they market their ideas to
school systems. According to As-
Although these terminology
changes are frequent for educators, students are only exposed
to a fraction of the edubabble
produced by undiscerning researchers. For example, a 2004
teacher resource booklet on the
new grading policy titled Learning, Grading, and Reporting Guidelines has a glossary of over 75
different educational buzzwords
like back mapping, effort-based
intelligence, Fundamental Life
Skills, norm-referenced test and
scaffolding.
Nowhere are annoying terms
more prevalent, however, than in
the endless parade of standard-
ized tests that march through
classrooms before fading into obscurity within a few years. When
the class of 2005 was in fourth
grade, they took a state-administered multiple choice test called
the CRT (Criterion Reference Test).
At the same time, the Maryland
Board of Education was phasing in a new state test called the
MSPAP (Maryland State Performance Assessment Program). By
the time current seniors reached
eighth grade in 2001, the HSA
(High School Assessment) was
piloted throughout Maryland
public schools. In 2003, the class
of 2005 also took the MSA (Maryland State Assessment), replacing
the MSPAP.
Buzzwords that find their ways
to the students may not precipitate
changes in teaching strategy. “In
ten years, [selected response] will
be called the quad-option decision, and an ECR will be a summative organized thought,” says
social studies teacher Glen O’Neil.
“The classroom environment is
what the students and teachers
make of it, and the teachers will
teach it and the students will learn
it no matter what it’s called.”
However, the terms sometimes
have the opposite effect. Students like senior Jorge Giron are
confused by the distinction some
teachers make between “a short
BCR” and “an extended BCR.”
As a result, he says, some students
are still unclear about how long a
BCR really is.
After they graduate, they
will probably never see the term
again.
When friends become benefit buddies
By ELIZABETH PACKER
Samantha Baker sits across from
her longtime crush Jake Ryan, their
faces lit by the candles glowing on
the birthday cake in-between them.
This scene from the classic 1980s
movie Sixteen Candles ends with
Jake asking Samantha out after
the two share a kiss.
Oh, the simple days, when romance ruled, and friends were just
friends. At Blair, where “going
out,” “hooking up” and “friends
with benefits” are common, the
dating lines have been blurred and
romance is no longer required for
physical intimacy. While many
Blazers still choose committed
relationships, friendships that include sexual hook-ups are becoming increasingly common.
“Friends with benefits” is a
rising trend not only at Blair, but
among teens nationwide. An informal Silver Chips poll of 100 Blair
students on Sept. 9 found that 58
percent of Blazers had been in a
friends-with-benefits relationship,
while a 2002 survey of 505 15- to
17-year-olds conducted by the
Kaiser Family Foundation found
that 34 percent of teens reported
having done “something sexual
in a casual relationship.” Though
simple in concept—friends who
hook up with each other but
who aren’t dating—friends-withbenefits relationships are not as
straightforward as they seem.
Junior Carletta Byrd, who has
experimented with friends-withbenefits before, describes a typical
set-up: “A guy will ask you, ‘Are
you looking for a friend?’”
Other Blazers have different
approaches when taking a friendship to the next level. “If there’s
a girl I’m interested in, I’ll say
something like, ‘Want to go see
a movie?’ Which actually means,
“It can be way too
much, too fast.”
‘We should hook up sometime,’”
junior Dan Donnelly says.
Dr. Charles Miron, a certified
sex therapist and clinical psychologist, explains the allure of
these relationships. “Some people
want the sexual experience without the emotional entanglement.
Friends with benefits allow teens
to explore their sexuality, a sort of
dress rehearsal for the real thing
later on,” he says.
Junior Joel Popkin enjoys the
independence and laid-back feel
of friends-with-benefits. “It’s
easier than actually going out with
someone. You don’t have to go on
dates; you don’t have to worry
about jealousy or cheating, so
there’s less emotional responsibility. There’s no worries,” he says.
Friends-with-benefits relationships don’t always work according
to plan, however. “There’s always
the possibility that one person
ends up wanting more, maybe
expecting it to turn into a romantic
relationship. People think they’re
in it just for physical attraction
but, subconsciously, they grow
attached,” explains Susan Yudt,
editor of the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America’s web site
for young people seeking information about sexual health.
Senior Phuson Hulamm’s experiences with friends-with-benefits confirm Yudt’s theory. “I’ve
been in a friends-with-benefits
relationship where I ended up
wanting more,” he says. “I was
holding my soul in the palm of my
hands, and what does she do? She
slaps my hand, and my heart and
soul fall to the ground. I felt like I
was used the whole time.”
Hulamm’s situation, in which
one-sided emotions develop,
is common, according to Amy
Miron, a certified sex therapist.
“People go into these relationships
thinking they’re on the same page,
while really they both want different things, which often causes
someone to feel used,” she says.
Another emotional risk:
friends-with-benefits often causes
remorse once the relationship
ends. “You’re more likely to
do something you might regret
later on than if you were in an actual relationship,” explains junior
Clare Marshall. “It’s a lot easier
to get caught up in the moment
in friends-with benefits; it can be
way too much, too fast.”
Friends-with-benefits also
complicates relationships once
the hooking up is over. “It truly
ruins friendships. Things get awkward and people are confused. It
pushes the line too much in between the territory of friends and
dating,” says senior Lisa Howe.
Acknowledging the complexity of these relationships, which
leave some satisfied and others
broken-hearted, Dr. Charles Miron
explains, “It’s like a two-sided
coin—on the one side, you’re getting sexual pleasure without any
commitment, but on the other
you’re not getting an emotional
connection. You’re missing the
benefit of the best friend you get
from a real relationship.”
Ever overheard something bizarre
while walking down the hall? This is
what Chips heard when we listened to
people making HALL TALK
“Speaking of good stories,
my ceiling caved in on my
face yesterday.”
-Sept. 17, 11:41 a.m.,
senior courtyard
“Because I’m a cowboy,
and that’s how I like to run
my range.”
-Sept. 8, 12:58 a.m.,
room 100
“I ran over a suicidal
squirrel.”
-Sept. 14, 12:06 p.m.,
150s hallway
“Okay Napoleon, time for
a bath!”
-Sept. 18, third period,
room 317
silverCHIPS
ENTERTAINMENT
October 7, 2004
23
Show destroys wardrobe, self-esteem
What Not to Watch: Two hosts let superficiality trample self-expression, individuality
By JULIA PENN
An opinion
When it comes to TV shows,
I’m no PBS-watching elitist.
I’ll be honest: I love the reality
shows. Survivor is my religion.
The Simple Life is like a car accident that I can’t help but watch.
The slob in My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiancé is so chauvinistic, he’s
endearing. And I’m always on
the lookout for a new, addictively trashy, voyeuristic experience.
But there’s one show that
makes me question my love of
all things “real”—TLC’s What
Not to Wear. Spewing forth
hackneyed and contrived jokes
and insults, this show’s two
fashionable hosts, Stacy London
and Clinton Kelly, tear apart
their victim’s wardrobe. Not
only does the show provide no
Fashion:
A matter of opinion
“The apparel oft proclaims the
man.”
—William Shakespeare
“Taste is the enemy of creativeness.”
—Pablo Picasso
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so
intolerable that we have to alter
it every six months.”
—Oscar Wilde
“When people are free to do as
they please, they usually imitate
each other.”
—Eric Hoffer
“Fashion ignores safety, comfort
and common sense. A guaranteed attractant for millions of
vacuous minds.”
—Duane Alan Hahn
“There is one other reason for
dressing well, namely that dogs
respect it, and will not attack you
in good clothes.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
entertainment value, but its message is all wrong, especially for
teenagers struggling to develop
their own senses of self.
Of course, I could just turn
a blind eye and instead watch
an episode of Newlyweds that
promises to be sublimely ditzy.
But What Not to Wear hit too
close to home this past year
when the hosts “went back to
school”—and to one high school
in particular: good old Montgomery Blair. Three lucky Blazers from the class of 2005 were
selected to have their senses of
style dumped into a trash can,
figuratively and literally.
What Not to Wear is based
on the false assumption that
wearing the hottest fashions will
improve your life. “The point of
the show is to tell people what
not to wear and make them
look better,” says senior Susan
Blythe-Goodman, one of the
Blazers chosen for a style makeover. “But that’s a stupid point,
because everyone has a different
idea about what looks good, so
why should the entire world
change for [London and Kelly]?”
In reality, London and Kelly
are just the messengers, so I
guess we shouldn’t necessarily
kill them. Rather, we had better
aim our darts at the show’s producers and big money backers,
who shamelessly perpetuate a
disturbing and damaging trend
in popular culture.
The way you dress is an extension of who you are, your individual likes and dislikes. But
What Not to Wear focuses instead
on a standard of beauty that its
producers try to impose on everyone. If Principal Phillip Gainous came on InfoFlow tomorrow
announcing a newly-mandated
school uniform policy, we would
go crazy, legitimately protesting
that a form of self-expression
had been taken away. In effect,
by dictating what clothes people
should wear—albeit not drab
uniforms—What Not to Wear
does the exact same thing: It of-
What Not to Wear hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly critique the wardrobe of senior Erinn
Johnson-Long, who participated in the program’s “Back-to-School Special.” Photo courtesy of TLC
fers us a prepackaged, one-sizefits-all notion of hipness.
When you walk down Blair
Boulevard, you see a salad bowl
of styles, all feeding into the
eclectic mix that makes Blair
diverse. But what if every Blazer
took London and Kelly’s wisdom to heart? What if, in some
nightmarish alternate universe,
every Blazer “built a wardrobe
with classic pieces, like a jacket”
and “learned how to layer for
different looks”? After all, as
London says so eloquently, “we
know that all teens want to fit
in.”
Watching the show, I was
sickened to see London and Kelly trounce on any unique form
of self-expression. They criticize
the mismatched socks of senior
Erinn Johnson-Long, another
Blazer selected for the show. But
Johnson-Long always wears mismatched socks—it’s her “thing,”
a miniscule act of rebellion that
makes her a little different from
the masses. (Don’t worry; even
after her fashion makeover
experience, Johnson-Long still
mismatches her socks.)
Like Johnson-Long, the rest
of Blair isn’t exactly on the fasttrack to conformity either. What
Not to Wear may claim to have
the best fashion sense around,
but Blythe-Goodman admits that
she rarely wears the clothes she
bought on the show. “Wearing
their clothes tells people what,
I was on the show? But the
clothes they picked out don’t
look like me,” she says.
From the brutal and inconsiderate way the hosts attack their
victims, I don’t understand why
anyone would want to be on the
show in the first place. London
called Blythe-Goodman a peaceloving, tree-hugging vegetarian
(Blythe-Goodman took it as a
compliment). Kelly questioned
Johnson-Long’s overalls, saying,
“Do you plan to study agriculture? Because that’s great for a
field trip through a cow patty.”
When Kelly voices his
concerns about one of JohnsonLong’s outfits, London quips
that if Johnson-Long wore those
clothes to school, she would get
stuffed in a locker. London and
Kelly can’t get it through their
thick, gel-stiffened heads that
you don’t have to look in vogue
to feel good. They assume everyone needs all-the-rage clothing to be socially accepted.
Sure, everyone likes to dress
up sometimes, but other times,
you just want to roll out of
bed, throw on the old grandma
sweater you found at your
favorite thrift store and mosey
on over to school. And, contrary
to London and Kelly’s mantra,
that’s completely acceptable.
BEYOND the Boulevard
Movies
Albums
Taxi (not yet rated)—Some remake of a foreign film with Jimmy Fallon, Queen Latifah
and a Speed Racer super-taxi? Oy. Fallon
plays a cop who loses his license and needs
the help of a ca-raaazy cab driver to help
him keep up with bank robbers. (Oct. 8)
Shall We Dance? (PG-13)—Oh, Hollywood,
how Lo can you go? Jennifer Lopez stars in
her newest chick flick as a dance instructor
teaching both the moves and the meaning
of life to Richard Gere. The more Gere gets
Gigli with it, the more he believes he can
save his failing marriage. (Oct. 15)
Ray (PG-13)—Jamie Foxx plays the late
Ray Charles, the blind musician who rose
above poverty to revolutionize jazz and
gospel music. Charles was even involved
in the filmmaking process, giving this
biographical drama the potential to be a
classic. (Oct. 29)
Duran Duran—Astronaut—The hit UK
band is looking to make a splash in New
Wave waters with an album that will hopefully surpass the less-than-stellar success of
2000’s Pop Trash. (Oct. 12)
Straylight Run—Straylight Run—Former
Taking Back Sunday vocalist John Nolan
strayed from his old group and ran off to do
his own punk thing, thus forming the new
group and the new album. (Oct. 12)
Los Calzones— Frequencia Extrema—Look
out for this Latin band to bring you ska
strings galore. (Oct. 26)
Concerts
Coheed and Cambria at 9:30 Club (Oct. 9)
Cee-Lo at Fur (Oct. 10)
Jurassic 5 at MCI Center (Oct. 11)
Godsmack at MCI Center (Oct. 17)
Switchfoot at DC101 Chili Cookoff
(Oct. 16)
Web Sites
http://www.comics2film.com—Angry you
didn’t know Spider-Man wouldn’t have
web shooters before seeing the first movie?
Delighted that Watchmen could actually
become a feature film? All you comic book
geeks who need your comic books done
right on the big screen should check out
http://www.comics2film.com for short articles
on panel-to-motion picture progress and
news. Flame on, fanboys.
Beyond the Boulevard compiled
by Eric Glover
To buy tickets, call (202) 423-SEAT or visit
http://www.ticketmaster.com
New stories are up on
Silver Chips Online
• Behind the blogs
by Jozi Zwerdling
• Empty-V battles Fuse
by John Visclosky
• Understanding the iPod
craze
by Clair Briggs
http://silverchips.mbhs.edu
24 ADS
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
ENTERTAINMENT
October 7, 2004
October Crossword
25
by Katherine Zhang
Across
Down
1.
9.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
23.
26.
28.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
29.
30.
32.
35.
36.
39.
40.
41.
43.
44.
47.
48.
49.
51.
53.
54.
56.
58.
59.
60.
62.
63.
66.
69.
72.
73.
acting/guessing game
healthy, potassium-rich fruit
to pause before doing
destroyed
dry and unfavorable for farming
extremely large
General Telephone & Electronics (abbr.)
ladies
a measure of land
“_____ and behold!”
Cordelia, Goneril and Regan are King
_____ daughters
agreement
comes in
to get rid of
a pig’s home
home of Cornell University
Greek nymph who fell in love with
Narcissus
calculator company (abbr.)
most creepy
Hindu meditation sound
Middle Eastern country whose capital is
Muscat
composer of Nikolai _____-Korsakov
old Fox reality show: _____ Millionaire
resembling a cloud
of or relating to an epode
what the mail comes through
a conductor’s tool
negative response
_____ Enchanted
in French, smooth
Baby-Sitters’ Club author: _____ M. Martin
“Oh give me a home, where the buffalo
_____...”
in French, to you (two words)
noisy cleaning device
an ocean barnacle (two words)
employees of the FBI, CIA, etc.
Halloween ritual: trick-or-_____
11.
12.
13.
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21.
22.
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25.
27.
31.
32.
33.
34.
37.
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dance popular in the 1920s
opposite of “him”
Advanced Studies Institute (abbr.)
Voldemort’s real last name
preposition
prosecutor (abbr.)
a flammable substance
Theodor Geisel’s pen name
Kansas: heart of the _____ of America
university located on Massachusetts Avenue
in D.C. (abbr.)
national income (abbr.)
innocent, beautiful
fish-catching device
largest port in Yemen
an eagle’s home
on a ship, the equivalent of a policeman
head of a company (abbr.)
a series of noises, usually relating to the
respiratory system
opposite of tardy (two words)
Beanie Babies’ company
passes with flying colors
something that’s sure to win
Oct. 8-9 events
high-resolution infrared radiometer (abbr.)
online chatting program
mistakes made while typing
lack of presence
empty
a law degree (abbr.)
an indication of laughter, while online
Thespians’ annual short play
volcano output
to pester verbally
in French, you
Ophthalmic Research Network (abbr.)
United Nations (abbr.)
the Beehive State (abbr.)
account executive (abbr.)
alcoholics support group (abbr.)
Submit completed crosswords to
room 158 by Oct. 18. The winner will
receive two free movie tickets to an AFI
movie of his/her choice.
Silicon High
by Conor Casey
-9
The SAC
by Alex May and Max Wasserman
26 ADS
from SHOUTOUTS page 18
This shoutout is dedicated to someone whose birthday comes just 3
days after today. Happy Birthday to
you, to youuuu
Hey Nolie, Well I had to waste
50¢ on this shout out to make
change for $5, but you know I still
would’ve done it 4 U, XOXO MCAT
Dear Helgeson,
You are the bomb! I wish I was as
big and cool as you are.
Your Secret Admirer
Ooh, ooh, Free Cookie!!
Holy Moses!!! This is a shoutout to
Mr. Ngbea the coolest all organic
coach ever! There is a net in front of
you my friend!
To all the pretty boys out dere.
HOLLA!
I LOVE YOU SKITTLES! You’re
amazing!
Hey baby, happy anniversary! I
love you very much, Thank you for
everything in the past year, it has
been great. Mmmuah! ~tu amor por
siempre
DAVID FLORES… I’M PREGNANT
WITH YOUR CHILD, SORRY I
DIDN’T TELL YOU PERSONALLY.
SH@! HAPPENS! Sike, just kidding
–SILVIA
Holler at our sexy ’06 girls Julie,
Ellie, Raya, Sarah, Gillian, Clair,
Nolan, Elena, Cate, Sara P. Jenny,
Sophie, Diana and Maddie! We love
you!
October 7, 2004
silverCHIPS
silverCHIPS
7 de octubre del 2004
Mes importante
para los hispanos
Por RIA RICHARDSON
Verónica Rosales, del undécimo grado está sentada con sus
amigos durante el almuerzo 5B.
Todos están riendo y hablando
pero Verónica se ve sorprendida
por lo que acabó de oír. Ella no
sabía que era el Mes de la Herencia
Hispana.
Rosales no es la única que no
sabia de la importancia que este
mes tiene para los hispanos en
este país. Muchos dentro de Blair
también están sorprendidos al
saber que la herencia hispana se
está celebrado entre septiembre
y octubre.
La costumbre de conmemorar
la herencia hispana nacionalmente
fue empezado en 1974 cuando el
Congreso declaró el 10 de septiembre hasta el 16 como la Semana de
la Herencia Hispana.
“Yo celebro todos
los días de mi
herencia”.
Esa semana creció a un mes cuando la decisión fue modificada,
el 17 de abril del 1988. Ahora se
celebra el Mes de la Herencia Hispana empezando el 15 de septiembre y se termina el 15 de octubre.
El día 15 de septiembre es además
la independencia de cinco países
latinoamericanos: Costa Rica, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras
y Nicaragua.
El Mes de la Herencia Hispana es una manera para unir a
hispanohablantes de diferentes
países y grupos étnicos y para
celebrar a todas las diferentes
culturas. Muchas celebraciones y
eventos se llevan a cabo por todo
el país para celebrar a este mes tan
importante para muchos.
Genesis Davison, del décimo
grado es de la opinión de que hay
una falta de representación de
parte de hispanos durante el y que
deben hacer más festividades.
Por esa falta, muchos no saben de la importancia de este
mes. “Nunca había oído eso y
nunca había celebrado eso en mi
familia. No ha sido tan público
para nosotros porque nos quedamos entre nosotros mismos, no
entramos en la comunidad”, dice
Rosales.
El mes que constituye la celebración no sólo está diseñado
como un tiempo de festividades,
es también un tiempo para reflexionar del pasado. “Estamos dando gracias a la gente que ayuda a
nuestra raza y que han luchado
para que nosotros estemos donde
estamos”, dice Jhony Bustos, del
grado doce.
Junto a Bustos, Rosales expresa
que el mes tiene un mayor significado. Es para educar y demostrar
a otros que “somos parte de la comunidad, que tenemos una voz y
para enseñarles de la cultura”.
Algunos quieren que este mes
se popularice como otras celebraciones. “Yo quisiera que este mes
fuera como el mes de los afroamericanos”, comenta Bustos.
Según muchos como Davison,
el mes tiene la capacidad de crecer
como el Mes de la Herencia AfroAmericano pero se falta una cosa.
Davison cree que los hispanos no
están unidos como otros grupos en
el país como los afro-americanos
son y por eso no pueden celebrar
ahora de la misma manera.
Para aliviar la falta de unidad
que ha sido creado, una conexión
tiene que ser construido en de la
comunidad. “Quisiera tener más
contacto con otras familias hispanas y con la de acá para ser más
reconocidos”, dice Rosales.
De cualquiera manera que lo
celebras, no es necesario celebrarlo
sólo durante el Mes de la Herencia
Hispana, debes tener orgullo de ti
mismo todo el tiempo. “Podemos
celebrar nuestra herencia todos los
días. Yo celebro todos los días mi
herencia porque no me gustaría
ser otra persona diferente a la
que soy”, expresa la maestra de
español, Elba Castro.
Maneras de celebrar al Mes de la Herencia Hispana
s
• Asiste a eventos celebrando la hispanidad en la comunidad.
• Aprende sobre la historia hispana y de países hispanos.
• Reflexiona lo que ser hispano significa para ti.
Blair aún está sobrepoblado
Aunque este año escolar Northwood
abrió, la población de estudiantes en Blair
subió. La capacidad de la escuela es de
2,830 estudiantes pero actualmente hay
3,369 estudiantes. Hay 49 estudiantes más
del noveno que el año pasado. Muchos estudiantes escogieron a Blair como su primera opción para los programas académicos
que la escuela tiene. Este incremento
ha causado problemas a la escuela. Ha
causado que muchos profesores veteranos
anden flotando de salón en salón. Hay
unos profesores que tienen que dar clases
en salones con pocas facilidades.
Un ejemplo es la profesora de psicología
Julia Smrek que da clases en un salón de
LA ESQUINA LATINA 27
Este altar está erecto cada año para recomemorar el Día de los Muertos. Foto por Elena Pinsky
Observando el Día de los Muertos
Hispanos mantienen tradiciones en un país diferente
Por VERÓNICA RAMIREZ
El 31 de octubre los norteamericanos celebran el día de Halloween. La alegría es de ir a pedir
dulces de casa en casa disfrazados.
Muchos decoran sus casas con
calabazas. Los hispanos le dan
otro sabor a su festejo. Aunque
viven en otro país muchos de los
hispanos de Centro y Sur América
mantienen la costumbre de celebrar el Día de los Muertos aunque
sean de diferentes países.
Celebran su festejo el primero
y el dos de noviembre. En estos
dos días ellos le rinden respeto a
todos sus seres queridos ya fallecidos. Muchos le llevan comida al
cementerio y le ponen un altar en
su tumba que se llama ofrenda
porque se lo están ofreciendo a
ellos.
Allí la familia come con ellos.
Ricardo Salvador de el artículo
“What do Mexicans Celebrate on
the Day of the Dead?” comenta
que la gente también les pone
artículos que recuerdan al muerto,
como fotografías, diplomas o ropa
de esa persona. Salvador dice que
tambiénse recuerda la vida así
como su muerte.
Judy King de Mexican Connect
comenta que ésta es una tradición
de los aztecas y los mayas que
empezó en el siglo XVIII cuando
la iglesia declaró el primero de
noviembre como el Día de los Santos. Después, la iglesia católica
declaró el segundo de noviembre
como el Día de las Almas.
La salvadoreña Teresa López
explica, “En mi país se les lleva
la comida favorita para que ellos miren que los recordamos”.
López explica que hoy que vive
aquí ella sólo le reza a los muertos
para que miren que ella no se ha
olvidado de ellos.
“El Día de los
Muertos es un
día para tener
respeto a los
antepasados”.
Algunos estudiantes todavía
participan de estos eventos. La
estudiante boliviana del grado
once Paola Encinas y sus familiares van a la tumba de su seres
queridos a poner flores y comida.
Encinas expresa, “La comida se
la llevamos para que coman una
vez al año”.
Dice que en el cementerio ellos
rezan y cantan música tradicional
de su país. Ella recuerda de cómo
el pueblo se disfrutaba ese día.
Sonriente Encinas explica, “Los
niños que rezaban, la gente les
daban pan de muerto”. Los que
viven en Centro o Sur América
pasan la tradición a sus hijos.
La estudiante salvadoreña del
grado doce Alba Meléndez explica
las diferencias entre Halloween y
el Día de los Muertos. Meléndez
expresa, “Halloween para todos
es sólo un día de pedir dulces y
divertirse, mientras el Día de los
Muertos es un día para tener respeto a los antepasados”.
Ella también explica que es
muy diferente celebrar un festejo
que no está en su cultura. En el
día de Halloween ellos van a pedir
dulces y el siguiente día van al
cementerio a ponerles flores en
las tumbas a los seres queridos
que están aquí. Con tristeza ella
expresa, “Me siento triste de no
poder ir a ponerles flores a mi
familiares que fallecieron en mi
país”. Después de ir a poner las
flores su familia tiene una cena con
comida típica.
Aunque a la distancia, muchos
hispanos aquí han podido mantener la costumbre de celebrar el
Día de los Muertos. López expresa, “Yo le enseñare a la siguientes
generaciones a recordar el Día de
los Muertos así sea diferente de un
país a otro”.
LAS NOTICIAS
arte. Los estudiantes de undécimo y del
duodécimo tendrán la opción de compartir
casilleros para aliviar la falta de casilleros
adicionales. Salones portátiles no fueron
ordenados para este año porque la escuela
fue notificada al último momento de cuántos estudiantes fueron matriculados. El
principal Phillip Gainous ha verificado que
no hay planes de ordenar más para este año
o el siguiente, porque esto sólo causara más
problemas para la escuela.
Nuevos profesores llegan a Blair
Aproximadamente 18 de los 36 profesores nuevos que fueron contratados por
Blair este año han llenado las posiciones
de profesores en los departamentos de
Inglés y Matemáticas. El departamento
de Inglés perdió ocho miembros de su
facultad, incluyendo profesores veteranos
como Norman Stant, quien llevaba más de
30 años enseñando en Blair. Después de
perder a cinco miembros de la facultad de
Matemáticas, tres nuevos miembros del
personal docente también tuvieron que
ser elegidos. Actualmente, Blair tiene el
departamento de Matemáticas más grande
del condado de Montgomery, según Shelly
Sherman, la nueva jefa del departamento.
La asistente del director Patricia Hurley,
quien ayudó en el proceso de entrevistar y
emplear a los nuevos profesores, dijo que
usualmente hay sólo que escoger tres o
cuatro nuevos empleados en total. Cuando
hablaba acerca de buscar y elegir candidatos para remplazar a los profesores, Vicky
Adamson, jefa del departamento de Inglés,
comentó que “Parecía una meta imposible.”
Hurley especuló que el estatus de Blair
como una escuela de “zona roja” (altos
riesgos) pudo haber sido la razón por lo
cual el proceso fue tan difícil.
Los dos departamentos dicen que están
satisfechos con los profesores nuevos.
Mientras tanto, los departamentos están
acomodándose y trabajando bien. Las
complicaciones son posibles porque las
oficinas nuevas están dispersas a través de
varios lugares de la escuela.
Por Jessica Bermudez y Verónica Ramirez
28 SPORTS
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
The NFL gridiron at your fingertips
Fantasy football’s competitive nature sparks interest in many sports-minded Blazers
football is an entertaining way to
keep in touch.
“Mental part of sports”
QB Peyton Manning, number 18, is a fantasy favorite. Photo courtesy of http://www.colts.com
By KIRAN BHAT
O
nce upon a time, fans
cheered and jeered as
22 burly musclemen
bumped helmets in
grainy black and white. Gridiron
devotees donated their Sundays
to football and then slept, hoping
next week would come soon.
But the dawn of the information age has ushered in a new
breed of football fans. Nowadays,
many aficionados play fantasy
football, an Internet-based game
in which fans pit their knowledge
of football statistics against each
other, often for money. According
to ESPN The Magazine, 15 million
Americans now play fantasy
football, and this growing national
trend is reflected here at Blair. According to an informal Silver Chips
survey of 100 students on Sept. 22,
32 percent of Blazers said that they
participate in a type of fantasy
football league.
Fantasy football is helping to
strengthen friendships, says Fantasy Football Index Magazine Editor
Bruce Taylor. Many Blair teachers
and students who participate in
fantasy football value the social
aspect of the game and compete in
leagues involving friends and acquaintances, finding that fantasy
When physical education
teacher Louis Hoelman explains
why he enjoys fantasy football,
his eyes sparkle. “Instead of
going out and playing sports,
[fantasy football] is a substitute,”
he says. “This is the mental part
of sports.”
Creating and maintaining a
fantasy football league is a threestep process. First, a group of
football fans who usually know
each other form a fantasy football
league, each gaining status as an
“owner” in their league. Then, a
draft takes place in which each
fantasy player selects 16 to 20
football stars to be on his or her
team. Each week of the NFL season, the statistics of these drafted
players are assessed to determine
each owner’s total fantasy points
for that week. Finally, owners
face each other one-on-one every
week, and the team with the most
fantasy points wins.
The allure of a fantasy
On fantasy football draft day,
junior Mac Kpadeh and four other
Blazers gather at the home of a
friend to select players and share
a day of NFL obsession. The tense
atmosphere is heightened by the
amount of money on the line,
but the competitive gambling
seems to draw Kpadeh closer to
his friends. “It’s like a rivalry
with your friends because of the
money,” he says.
Taylor believes that cutthroat
leagues spawn stronger friendships. “The more competitive
you are, the better friends you
become,” he says. Taylor also
notes that 98 percent of owners
are men. The most obvious aspect
of fantasy football, he believes,
is the masculine gratification it
provides.
Junior Peter Lopez derives
much of his fantasy football enjoyment from verbally sparring with
other owners over whose team
will be better come Sunday. “I
was number one for three weeks
running, so I would talk [trash],
until I lost miserably, and then it
was just over,” Lopez says with
a laugh.
For junior Sarah Rumbaugh,
the world of fantasy football is
new. Rumbaugh proved her novice status by mispronouncing the
name of star Indianapolis Colts
quarterback Peyton Manning at
her very first draft meeting.
But, says Rumbaugh, the game
has been a positive social experience, as fantasy football lets her
prove herself to her male counterparts. When a male friend questions her ability to play fantasy
football, Rumbaugh snaps, “Well,
I won my first week, didn’t I?”
Taylor believes that “as long as
people enjoy talking to each other
about it... fantasy will be there.”
Blair falls in Districts Vikings conquer Blazers
By ADITH SEKARAN and ELLIE BLALOCK
SEPT. 28, POOLESVILLE GOLF
COURSE—
The Blair golf team did not perform
to their expectations in the District
Championships. The competition, held
at the Poolesville Golf Course, was an
all-day, 18-hole event with 24 teams
from all over the county represented.
The Blazers were disappointed in finishing their season 8-9-1 and looked
forward to a strong showing at the
Districts. Instead, the team shot a 377,
putting them in 16th place out of 23 at
the tournament.
The Blazers could not match the success they had last year, when they shot a
combined 354 and finished ninth in the
county. Consistency was a challenge for
the team this season, according to Coach
James Schafer. “We never managed to
have everyone perform together,” said
Schafer.
Senior Neal Vasilak shot an 87, the
best score of all the Blazers. None of
the Blazers qualified for States, which
requires a score of no more than 80 this
year. The rest of the Blazers’ scores
ranged from the 90s to the 100s.
Districts were scheduled for Tuesday,
Sept. 27, but inclement weather caused
this critical match-up to be postponed.
The grass did not have a chance to dry
out completely overnight and remained
slicker than usual. “The course was wet
[and] the ground was a lot softer,” said
senior Neil Hofman.
This performance seemed to be an
appropriate finish to an already difficult
year. “In many ways, this was a fitting
end to a sub-par season,” said a disappointed Schafer.
The Blazers will play in several competitions in the coming weeks, including
the County Championship, which the
Blazers have consistently succeeded at
in the past. The team came in second
last year and is looking for another solid
performance, according to senior Bill
McManigle.
The Divisional Match Play Championship will take place today at Indian
Springs Golf Course and will pit Blair
against Paint Branch. On Tuesday Oct.
12 the Blair golf team will compete
against the lower half of the county in
the County Championship Scramble
Competition at Poolesville Golf Course.
Teams scoring in the bottom 12 of the
district competition qualify as part of
the bottom half, and will compete in the
same bracket at Counties.
GOLF
Coach: James Schafer
Key players: Bill McManigle, Neal Vasilak
Players lost: Ben Payes,
Jake Riley
Final record: 8-9-1
Senior Thaissa Souza serves in Blair’s
three set loss to Whitman on Sept.
28. Photo by Hannah Rosen
By NICK FALGOUT
Freshman Julie Zhu had several good
service runs, but Whitman’s lead never
dwindled below seven after going up to
10 early in the set.
The Blazers’ play improved dramatically in the second set. Blair won the first
point on an excellent kill by senior AJ Willis for their first lead of the match. Whitman scored several points in succession,
but the Blazers kept with them, evening
the set at 11. However, the Vikings once
again pulled away and won the set, 25-17.
Blair led off the third set quite competitively. They narrowed the gap to 13-11,
but that was as close as the Blazers would
get. Whitman capitalized on Blair’s lapses
in communication to win the third set decisively.
Despite the loss, Garrison remained optimistic with regard to future matches. She
believes that the Blazers’ troubles lie not
in the physical aspect of the game, but in
the mental. “Mentally, they’ve convinced
themselves that they aren’t supposed to
get more than 15 points,” said Garrison.
The Blazers next game is Oct. 12 at Walter Johnson.
SEPT. 28, NELSON H. KOBREN MEMORIAL GYMNASIUM—
T
he Whitman Vikings stormed
into Blair this afternoon and
handed the Blair girls’ volleyball
team its second consecutive loss,
winning in three straight sets, 25-14, 2517, and 25-17.
From the opening whistle the Blazers struggled against a talented Whitman squad, and the Vikings were quickly
up 16-6 after a flurry of hard-hit serves.
GIRLS’ VOLLEYBALL
Coach: Anne Garrison
Key players: Kate Selby,
Kristina Yang, Julie Zhu
Players lost: Carey
Bartlett, Amanda Hsiung
This year’s record: 1-5
silverCHIPS
SPORTS 29
October 7, 2004
Going too far on the playing field
Excessive sports aggression endangers student athletes and cheapens the game
By LAUREN FINKEL
W
hen halftime came for
senior Erica Nowak
in a club lacrosse
game two years ago,
her coach was mad. Two of their
starting players had been injured.
The refs didn’t seem to be calling a fair game. Their team was
down 3-1. And so, Nowak recalls,
instead of telling the girls to keep
their heads up, the coach pulled
them into a huddle and said what
he really thought was going to
help them win the game.
“If you’re going to go for a
check, don’t go for the stick,” he
told the dispirited girls.
To Nowak and her teammates,
the coach’s meaning was clear. In
the second half, a reinvigorated
and more aggressive team took
their coach’s advice to heart and
tried to win the game however
they could—and they did, 7-5.
Following her coach’s advice,
Nowak swung at her opponent’s
head with a check so hard that
she knocked the girl out, an action recognized as violent enough
to be penalized with a red card.
“It doesn’t matter where you
play; you’re trying to win.”
More than six million high
school students nationwide participate in school sports annually,
and two million of them sustain
some injury, according to the Journal of Athletic Training. Whether
it is a scraped knee, sprained
ankle or, in the case of Nowak’s
opponent, a blow to the head, the
sports field is the stage for a large
number of athletic injuries and increasingly violent sports.
Getting angry
In the world of competitive
high school sports, playing at the
varsity level means playing aggressively. A player has to go for
the ball, the block, the shot, the hit
or the rebound tenaciously. The
problem is that more athletes are
playing with aggression, which
is defined by the National Youth
Violence Prevention Center web
site as any act intended to do
harm.
In the realm of contact sports,
players get knocked around.
Body checks are legal in hockey
and boys’ lacrosse. Players use
slide tackles to win the ball in
soccer. Hits and tackles are part
of the game in football. The
question then becomes whether a
player will stop where the rules
require they do.
The department of Kinesiology and Physical Education at
Cal State L.A. teaches an entire
unit on “aggression and violence
in sport,” focusing on the theories behind what makes athletes
tick. One of these instigators is
called the frustration-aggression
hypothesis.
The idea behind this theory
is that some sort of stimulus
triggers aggression on the field,
whether it is faulty calls by officials, fouls by other players or
taunting from fans.
Recently, it has been hypothesized that players test a “threshold of tolerance” on the field, continually blurring the line between
what is and isn’t legitimate in the
world of contact sports, causing
more volatility and injuries on
the field.
Getting even
As Blair varsity girls’ soccer
and boys’ lacrosse coach Robert
Gibb points out, “Playing within
the rules of any contact sport,
there can be a good amount of
physical contact. It is a part of
the game when done correctly.”
When athletes manipulate the
rules of the game to injure another player, then an already physical game becomes too physical.
Blair social studies teacher
Lansing Freeman recalls a men’s
league soccer game where he
was roughly knocked down by
another player, resulting in a cut
near the corner of his eye. When
he looked to the player for an
apology, he didn’t get one; he got
laughed at instead.
So the next time the player had
the ball, Freeman says, he went
in for a slide tackle so forceful
that he kicked the ball “about 60
yards” and “took the guy down.”
The fall left the player with bruises and scrapes covering his face.
Freeman says that he worked
within the rules by making contact with the ball first, but admits
that he was not without hidden
intentions. “I knew what I was
doing. I wanted to knock him
down, to take him down for what
he did to me,” Freeman says.
As a coach and athlete, Gibb
has encountered a number of
overly aggressive incidents on
the field. “I’ve seen legs broken because of cheap shots. I’ve
listened to the sound of legs
breaking. I’ve seen goal keepers
knocked unconscious,” he says.
Sometimes players disregard
the rules of the game all together. An angry Sherwood player
kicked senior Chris Wilhelm,
goalie for Blair’s varsity boys’
soccer team, in the mouth during
a game last year after he stopped
the forward’s attempt on goal.
The kick was so forceful that it
knocked one of Wilhelm’s teeth
out of place, causing a deep cut in
his cheek. Even with blood running down Wilhelm’s face, the
player who injured him was not
carded. According to Wilhelm,
the play was so blatantly illegal
that when the player wasn’t pe-
nalized, the whole team reacted.
“After he kicked me, he just kept
standing over me, looking down
on me and kind of smirking. The
whole bench went crazy because
we wanted him to get more of a
punishment than he did. With a
kick like that, he should have,”
Wilhelm explains.
According to Blair Athletic Director Dale Miller, “There’s a line
between trying to hurt the person
and trying to intimidate them.” It
is a line that many student-athletes fail to see, and one that the
County is trying to make more
visible.
Safety first
In an effort to keep Montgomery County’s 22,000 athletes safe
on the field and on the court, the
County Athletics Department
has instituted a “major sportsmanship program” to reward fair
play, according to Dr. William G.
Beattie, Coordinator of Athletics
for Montgomery County.
The program, which is entering its third year, requires athletic
directors and game referees from
each County high school and
each high school contest, respectively, to fill out forms concerning the fairness of play on the
field and the level of hospitality
in the stands. It also requires that
the Sportsmanship Code be read
before each home contest to remind players and fans to be good
sports on and off the field. It is a
requirement that is rarely met at
Blair’s home athletic events.
Beattie thinks the program is a
success. “In a competition, when
the whistle blows, you’re competing hard. The lacrosse field,
soccer field, basketball court,
wrestling mat—it doesn’t matter
where you play; you’re trying
to win,” says Beattie. “But our
Sportsmanship Program adds to
the idea that maybe winning isn’t
everything.”
Students like Nowak and Wilhelm believe that aggression has
become a part of the game, and
that to be a successful athlete
today a player must know how
to fight, and fight back. Miller
agrees. “I think the general public likes sports involving aggression,” he says. “Fights bring in
the crowds.”
Gibb, however, believes that
the game should be about the
game and not about trying to calculate overly aggressive moves
to create an advantage. “You
can make a good block and win
the ball, and that’s being aggressive. But it’s when you come in
on someone from behind or go
behind the refs back to gain an
advantage, then that’s a cheap
shot,” he says. “To me, a cheap
shot is cowardly.”
Girls’ tennis serves an ace against Paint Branch
By AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT
SEPT. 30, BLAZER COURTS—
The Blair girls’ tennis team continued
its hot start today beating the Paint Branch
Panthers 6-1 and improving their record to
5-2. The Blazers breezed by their Division
II foes en route to their fourth victory in the
last five matches.
The Blazers’ most consistent squad all
season has been the first doubles team of
juniors Jahnavi Bhaskar and Dominique
Franson, and today was no exception.
Bhaskar and Franson used a solid ground
game to make quick work of their opponents in a 6-1, 6-0 rout.
Four more Blazer victories soon followed. Junior Kiran Belani and senior
Tiffany Chang won their third doubles
match with ease 6-2, 6-2 and freshman
substitute Priyanka Gokhale and junior
Margot Pass prevailed without difficulty
6-3, 6-2. Second singles player junior Pearl
Horng sealed a team victory with a 6-2, 6-0
triumph and senior captain Seema Kacker
added to the tally with a dominant 6-2, 6-2
win playing third singles.
In the latter stage of the afternoon Blair
had a split decision in a couple of hardfought singles matches. Fourth singles
player Janice No lost 7-6(7-4), 4-6, 6-3
while junior Stephanie Paul (see “Serving
up success,” page 30) bounced back from
the brink of elimination in the second set
to win a dramatic 3-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-4 victory
in first singles.
Coach David Ngbea said he was im-
pressed with the team’s consistency. “If
we don’t beat ourselves we’re fine. We’re
in every single match,” said Ngbea
Blair’s next home match will be held
Monday, Oct. 11 at 3:30 p.m. against
Wheaton.
GIRLS’ TENNIS
Coach: David Ngbea
Key returning players: Pearl Horng,
Seema Kacker, Stephanie
Paul
Key players lost: Aditi
Bhaskar, Katherine Epstein,
Emily Tsui
This year’s record: 5-2
Junior Dominique Franson in action versus Whitman. Photo by Adam Schuyler
30 SPORTS
silverCHIPS
October 7, 2004
Serving up success
Junior tennis star takes her game face to the court
player for the Blair girls’ tennis team.
Now ranked 66th in the Mid-Atlantic region, Paul represented the Blazers in both
the County and State Girls’ Tennis Championships last year, and has also placed
in the top ten at several regional tournaments this year alone, including the Baltimore Junior Open in July and the Sept. 11
McDonough Junior Open.
“[Paul] is the best player I know,” says
teammate junior Jahnavi Bhaskar. “She always helps out other team members, and
structor at the Bullis School for four years
and is a regular participant in what she
jokingly calls “tennis boot camp” at the
University of Virginia and the College of
William and Mary. “[Camp] is tennis all
day for two weeks,” Paul explains. “It’s
hard, but I really had so much improvement in everything.”
Ultimately, Paul hopes to improve
enough to continue playing competitive
tennis well beyond her high school years.
Though she’s unsure of the possibility of
going pro, Paul explains that she is “hoping to find a college with good academics and a decent tennis team. After that,
I can play until I’m really old,” she says,
laughing. “I want to play for fun with my
grandkids.”
Until then, however, Paul’s most pressing goal is to play her best and help keep
the Blazers in the highest division of Montgomery County girls’ tennis. “I hope we
can stay in Division I,” she says with determination. “I’m pretty competitive, and
I want to have fun and win!”
By KRISTINA YANG
U
ntil age 12, junior Stephanie
Paul had never taken tennis particularly seriously. Though she
enjoyed the casual games she
played with her father and two older siblings, she was just as interested in playing
recreational league basketball and softball,
and had little desire to focus her energies
on tennis.
It was not until Paul entered her first
Maryland State and Mid-Atlantic Regional Tennis Tournaments in sixth grade
and experienced the high-impact games
of the local tennis scene for the first time
that she realized how much she wanted to
play competitive tennis. Though devoting
herself to tennis meant dropping all of her
other athletic activities and subscribing
to a strenuous schedule of tournaments
and training sessions, Paul was willing to
make those sacrifices in order to play at
the competitive level.
Two years later, her hard work paid off:
By the time she entered high school, Paul
was the United States Tennis Association’s
78th-ranked player in the Mid-Atlantic
region and easily became the top singles
she cares a lot about the team.”
Blair tennis coach David Ngbea agrees
with Bhaskar, adding that Paul’s real
strength lies not only in her strong backhand approach shots but also in her positive attitude toward other players. “She
could be a college player, but she’s not one
to say, ‘I’m better than you,’” Ngbea says.
“I can put her with my lowest-playing
player, and she’ll be a good teacher—very
patient.”
While Paul sometimes helps Ngbea
work with younger players during Blair’s
tennis practices, she is also constantly
training to improve her own form. Paul
has trained on-and-off with a private in-
Junior Stephanie Paul slams a hard
serve against Whitman at home on
Sept. 10. Photos by Adam Schuyler
Play while
you work
By DAN GREENE
An opinion
It’s ok, you can sit down now.
And you there, stop clapping
already. We all know that baseball
was officially sent Washington’s
way a week ago after Selig, Angelos and the Expos family finally
came to an agreement after long
months—well, some of the faithful
have been waiting years—of handwringing and wheedling.
Baseball in Washington, D.C.,
can apparently do everything and
anything. The repackaged Expos
can sell out stadiums, cure urban
blight and create revenue out of
thin air. But I’m not entirely sold on
bringing the Expos to our nation’s
capital: We’re betting a lot—well
I’m not; I don’t pay taxes—on
something that’s not quite a sure
bet.
I’m not sure about the team
we’re bringing here. The Expos
made an impressive run last season,
but this year they’re dead last in
their division. I’m even less sure
about what the Expos are going
to bring to the table next year.
They’ve got a rag-tag core basically
centered around Tony Batista, who
has 110 RBIs and 23 homers so far
this season. This time next year,
D.C. will be seriously missing the
quality pitching and power hitting
of recently departed Expos Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon.
I’m not sure if a stadium on the
Anacostia is the magic potion we’re
looking for. And I’m seriously not
sure why $400 million plus is being
spent on a stadium in a neighborhood where schools are falling
apart, in a city with an infrastructure that also needs money. I’m not
sure if D.C. will see a return in its
investment until several years from
now (possibly not even until the
new stadium is ready in 2008), or
if the whole gamble is going to pay
off immediately (which is when we
need it to).
While there are a lot of uncertainties about bringing the Expos
to D.C., I know one thing at least: I
sure am glad to have baseball back
in my hometown.
jv JOURNAL
Boys’ Soccer
Girls’ Soccer
Girls’ Volleyball
Football
Field Hockey
By KRISTINA YANG
By KRISTINA YANG
By KRISTINA YANG
By ANTHONY GLYNN
By ANTHONY GLYNN
Building on a 15-game winning streak inherited from last
season, the boys’ JV soccer team
raised its record to 5-0 with
a 10-0 shutout over Blake on
Sept. 29. The Blazers were at a
clear advantage from the start,
playing with far more aggression and precision than Blake.
By halftime, goals from sophomores Matias Salina and cocaptain Jack Graul had given
Blair a 4-0 lead. The Blazers
then scored six more goals in
the second half, with five of the
six occurring in a span of just 11
minutes.
The Blazers’ next game is at
5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at
Gaithersburg.
After going to double overtime once already this season,
the girls’ JV soccer team defeated the Blake Bengals 1-0 on
Sept. 9 in yet another drawnout game, bringing its season
record up to 2-2-1.
After a shaky start, the Blazers pulled together during the
second half of the game, but
were unable to score. The same
scoring drought occurred in
overtime, but sophomore Allison Rubin sent a clean pass into
Blake’s goal midway through
double overtime, giving Blair
the victory.
The Blazers’ next game is at
home at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday,
Oct. 12 vs. Gaithersburg.
The girls’ JV volleyball team
fell 25-18, 25-10 to Whitman on
Sept. 28, breaking its three-game
winning streak and dropping its
season record to 3-3.
The loss was largely due to
the Blazers’ inability to respond
to Whitman’s offensive prowess,
and the Blazers’ defense had difficulty passing effective digs to
sophomore setter Christie Lin.
The Blazers could not set up an
organized offense, and continued
committing mistakes, including
missed hits, weak spikes and
poor serves, all of which contributed to Whitman’s victory.
The Blazers’ next game is at
6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at
Walter Johnson.
This season has not gone as
well as expected for the JV football team, according to Coach
Earl Lindsey, with a regular season record of 0-3. In their game
against Damascus on Sept. 22,
the Blazers demonstrated their
unpredictable performance as
they managed to both score on
a bomb and fumble twice inside
the ten-yard line.
The team recently lost star
runningback sophomore Terrence Stephens to an injury,
aggravating the already significant problem of most players
having transitional positions.
The Blazers’ next game is at
5:30 p.m. on Oct. 21 at Whitman.
The girls’ JV field hockey
team beat Springbrook 1-0 in
overtime on Sept. 27. With
five minutes left, Blair offense
knocked up the intensity level
and scored, making their season record 2-3-1.
The consistency and strength
of the defense have been key
in the last few games, but the
offense has been struggling,
crowding the ball, lacking team
unity and stalling plays. Coach
Brook Franceschini has introduced a new formation and corner plays to the team’s strategy
to improve these problems.
The Blazers’ next game is at
3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9 at
Paint Branch.
silverCHIPS
SPORTS 31
October 7, 2004
Special teams doom Blazers
Punting errors contribute to a disappointing loss at Blake, dropping year’s record to 0-5
By MICHAEL BUSHNELL
OCT. 1, BLAKE—
The Blazers started out hot
tonight, scoring a touchdown
on their first drive of the game.
Unfortunately, this was the best
Blair did all night. Special-teams
mistakes greatly contributed to
Blair’s 24-8 defeat at the hands
of the Blake Bengals, dropping
Blair’s record to 0-5.
The Blazers started sophomore
Ross Williams at quarterback, and
he looked solid out of the gate.
Williams hooked up with senior
FOOTBALL
Coach: Jeff Seals
Key players:
Femi
Elemoso,
Michael Wright
Key player lost:
Hansel Cedeno
Current record: 0-5
Michael Stewart on a beautifullythrown 40-yard touchdown pass
that gave Blair the lead, and a
two-point conversion made the
score 8-0 Blair.
But that was as bad as it would
get for the Blake Bengals, who
have serious playoff aspirations
after moving to 4-1 with tonight’s
win. A muffed punt was recovered by Blake junior John Kimble
at the Blazer 27 yard line.
Even though the Blair defense
held, Blake booted a 35-yard
field goal that cut the Blair lead
to five.
The Blazers continued to shoot
themselves in the foot with special-teams errors throughout the
game. Late in the first quarter,
junior Blazer punter Joel Popkin
had his punt blocked and recovered by Blake at the Blair 23 yard
line, leading to a ten-yard touchdown run that put the Bengals in
the lead for good.
Blake scored again prior to the
half with a six-yard touchdown
pass. The next Bengal touchdown
came 90 seconds after another
blocked Popkin punt.
Blair’s special-teams failures
were especially surprising to
Head Coach Jeff Seals, who said
the team worked on special teams
all week long in practice. “We ran
sets on how to not have a kick
blocked, and then we have this
happen,” Seals said, frustrated
with the loss.
Williams was replaced by
junior Aaron Simon in the third
quarter, who went one for three
in limited play. Seals expressed
disappointment with Williams’
The Blazers take on a tough Springbrook team on Sept. 18, losing 14-0. Photo by Elena Pinsky
performance, saying that “if Williams uses his head he can be the
starter, and he was the last two
games.”
Blair’s offense, with the exception of the first touchdown, was
dominated by the run. Senior
D’Andre Thomas carried the ball
21 times for 95 yards, including
strings of three or four plays in a
row. Senior Michael Wright got a
couple of early carries, getting 42
total yards for ten carries.
Seals took solace in the fact
that the team kept fighting until
the end of the game. “They never
gave up,” he said, but added,
“We need to be smart. We made
too many mistakes.”
Blair’s next game is the homecoming game on Friday, Oct. 8,
against Wheaton. The Blazers
won their homecoming game last
year, 43-0, against Watkins Mill.
Blair leaves game in dead heat XC splits its meets
Senior midfielder Lindsey Fowler-Marques challenges a Magruder
defender, on the way to a draw. Photo by Nathaniel Lichten
By ELLIE BLALOCK
SEPT. 22, BLAZER STADIUM—
F
rustrating was the only
word to describe the sentiment on the field, on the
bench and in the stands
as the varsity girls’ soccer team
repeatedly brought onlookers to
the edges of their seats tonight in a
tough battle against a very physical Magruder team, only to leave
play after play unfinished and
miss multiple chances to score.
Coach Robert Gibb believes his
team could have won the game
tonight if they had only been able
to capitalize on the opportunities
they set up for themselves. “I
thought we were the better team;
we created more chances. We just
didn’t quite get the shots on goal,”
he said.
The first half began quietly for
the Blazers, who had trouble getting past several strong Magruder
defenders and passing across the
field. Sophomore Danielle Peck
made the first and strongest attempt on goal for Blair, but was
thwarted by a leaping Colonel
goalie.
As a pumped-up Blair squad
took the field in the second half,
the pressure noticeably shifted to
Magruder as the Blazers began
orchestrating impressive set-up
plays. Junior Cate Rassman and
senior Lindsey Fowler-Marques
put together several solid lateral
passes that came close to scoring
but for Magruder’s ever-present
defense.
Both overtime periods were
much like the second half. Blair
played with a strong offense, but
just couldn’t score the goals. The
match-up drew to an unsatisfying
close as Magruder set up a final
charge on goal that was blocked
by senior goalie Julia SimonMishel.
Although they didn’t get the
decisive win they wanted, the
Blair girls were still happy with
what this game revealed about
their progress, according to senior
captain Vicky Dean. “We’re working so much harder,” she said,
adding, “We’re getting so much
closer.”
Blair’s next game is on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at Gaithersburg at
5:30 p.m.
GIRLS’ SOCCER
Coach: Robert Gibb
Key players: Vicky Dean,
Sarah Rumbaugh, Julia
Simon-Mishel
Key players
lost: Becca
Feiden, Erika
Pelz-Butler
Current record:
0-2-3
By JONAH GOLD
SEPT. 21, SMOKEY
GLENN—
The cross country teams
moved in opposite directions
today, as the girls won two
of three, while the boys’ team
lost to all three competitors.
The competition consisted of
Quince Orchard, BethesdaChevy Chase (B-CC) and Gaithersburg. The race was run near
Quince Orchard at Smokey
Glenn, one of the hardest courses in Montgomery County.
Despite the difficult course and
tough competitors, one Blazer
broke the course record and
claimed first place.
Sophomore Halsey Sinclair
set the girls’ course record with
a time of 20:10. Ashlyn Sinclair
was close behind at 20:16.
These times were almost two
minutes better than the sisters’
times last year. Sophomore
Josh Uzzell, the leading runner
for the Blair boys, ran a time
of 19:00, 2:49 better than his
course time last year.
The girls continued to shine,
beating B-CC and Gaithersburg
28-29 and 23-32 respectively,
but losing to Quince Orchard
25-35. The girls’ team is now on
top of their division at 5-1. The
girls were missing their third
fastest runner, junior Katherine
Lafen, who was visiting a phys-
ical therapist. “These girls have
been doing really well,” Coach
Carl Lewin said after the race.
“When Katy returns we should
be a very good team.”
The boys, who won two of
their first three matches earlier
in the season, lost all three of
their matches by significant
amounts. The Blazers lost to
Quince Orchard 10-40, B-CC
19-41 and Gaithersburg 16-45.
The young team is hoping to
improve its performance as the
season continues.
Coach Lewin thought both
teams could improve. Both
were tired from running three
meets in eight days. He said
later that “the team deserves a
rest after running so much in
the last few days. Their times
should definitely decrease if
they get more time before the
next meet.”
CROSS COUNTRY
Coach: Carl Lewin
Key players: Ashlyn
Sinclair, Halsey Sinclair,
Josh Uzzell
Key players lost:
Esey Kidane,
Matt Sheldon
Current record:
Girls 5-1,
Boys 2-4
CHIPS
October 7, 2004
silverchips.mbhs.edu/sports
Blazers pounce on Bengals
Victory over Blake sets offense-oriented tone for the rest of season
Beckford, were sidelined with
leg injuries.
The win bolstered the team’s
record to 2-2-1 and set them up
for what Baez believes will be
a pivotal couple of games next
week. “I’m very pleased,” he
said. “It’s like a turnaround. We
just equalized at 2-2-1, and we
are going into our games next
week with a high.”
Blair next takes on Sherwood
at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12
at home.
BOYS’ SOCCER
Coach: Adrian Baez
Key returning players:
Greg Breads, Jack EisenMarkowitz, Yenikah Fon
Key players lost: Papes
Ndiaye, Will
Whitney
This year’s
record: 2-2-1
Above, sophomore Josh Zipin fights for a header during Blair’s 4-1 win over Blake on Sept. 29.
Below right, senior Jack Eisen-Markowitz passes a Blake defender. Photos by Charlie Woo
By LAUREN FINKEL
SEPT. 29, BLAKE—
T
he Blazers came off the
field after 80 exhausting
minutes of play against
the Blake Bengals with
a 4-1 win, smiling faces and a
much-needed change of pace.
The Bengals were the first to
score when two offensive players took on senior goalie Chris
Wilhelm. Then, with just over
eight minutes left in the first half,
senior Justin Hoy headed the
ball past Blake’s goalie to tie the
game. With 14 minutes left in the
second half, senior co-captain
Jack Eisen-Markowitz kicked a
ball into the lower right-hand
corner of the net, putting the
Blazers up 2-1. One minute later,
sophomore Josh Zipin scored on
an assist from Eisen-Markowitz.
And then, with 57 seconds left
in the game, Eisen-Markowitz
struck again, this time on a penalty kick.
The Blazers’ four goals were a
welcome relief to Coach Adrian
Baez, who stressed the team’s inability to finish as a problem that
plagued the Blazers through the
insideSPORTS
Football lost to Blake on Oct. 1, making their record 0-5.
Sports aggression
see page 29
Competitive sports are becoming
increasingly aggressive, according to
Blair athletes and coaches.
Expos come to D.C.
see page 30
Columnist Dan Greene discusses
D.C.’s new baseball venture.
Football
10/8 vs. Wheaton, 6:30 p.m.
10/14 vs. Quince Orchard,
6:30 p.m.
10/22 at Watkins Mill, 6:30 p.m.
Boys’ Soccer
10/12 at Gaithersburg, 5:30 p.m.
10/15 vs. Sherwood, 5:30 p.m.
10/18 vs. Walter Johnson,
7:00 p.m.
Girls’ Soccer
10/12 at Gaithersburg, 3:30 p.m.
10/15 vs. Sherwood, 3:30 p.m.
10/18 at Walter Johnson,
7:00 p.m.
Girls’ Tennis
Girls’ Volleyball
10/12 at Walter Johnson,
7:00 p.m.
10/15 at Blake, 7:00 p.m.
10/19 vs. Gaithersburg, 7:00 p.m.
Field Hockey
10/9 at Paint Branch, 2:00 p.m.
10/12 vs. Kennedy, 3:30 p.m.
10/15 at Blake, 7:00 p.m.
Field hockey too hot for Knights
OCT. 2, WHEATON—
Football falls to Blake
see page 31
Home games are in bold.
10/7 at Walter Johnson, 3:30 p.m.
10/11 vs. Wheaton, 3:30 p.m.
10/13 at Bethesda-Chevy Chase,
3:30 p.m.
first half of play. “We had opportunity, and we just couldn’t
put it away. But, as you can see,
we’ve been working on that,” he
said of the team’s second-half
turnaround.
According to Baez, sophomore Michael Worden had a
standout game, helping to set the
tone in the midfield and to create
scoring opportunities. To Baez,
Worden was the “spark plug that
started our fire.”
Baez added that he was impressed with the team’s victory
because both starting forwards,
juniors Mac Kpadeh and Patrick
By ERIK KOJOLA
Photo by Elena Pinsky
Upcoming
Games
The varsity girls’ field hockey team
beat Wheaton 2-1, giving the Blazers their
first win of the season and improving their
record to 1-5.
The Blazers finally generated a consistent offensive attack while still maintaining an organized defense, a coordination
in play that the team has lacked thus far
this season.
The first half began with the Blazers
going out to an early one-goal lead, but the
Knights responded shortly after with one
of their own. Blair continued to generate
offensive chances, but play in the first half
was largely back and forth as both teams
were unable to capitalize on their offensive
opportunities.
In the second half, the Blazers shut down
the Wheaton attack and scored their second
goal of the game. Senior Christina Do put a
shot through the Wheaton defense off of a
pass from junior Sydney Valdez. The Blazers were never able to extend their one-goal
lead but were able to hang on for the win.
Senior co-captain Rachel Feely-Kohl felt
the team did better with their organization.
“We did a good job spreading out, keeping
our spacing and communicating,” said
Feely-Kohl.
Coach Julie Nation thinks the Blazers
could have beaten Wheaton more easily
and that the team will be more tested in
their upcoming games. “How they play on
Tuesday will determine how they play the
rest of the season. They need to come out
intense,” said Nation.
The Blazers’ next game will be at Paint
Branch on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 2:00 p.m.
FIELD HOCKEY
Coach: Julie Nation
Key returning players: Rachel
Feely-Kohl, Alexa
Gabriel, Julia Penn
Key players lost:
Anna Benfield,
Kamala Smith
This year’s record:
1-5
Senior Rachel Feely-Kohl passes a defender in Blair’s 8-2 loss to Damascus
on Sept. 7. Photo by Diana Frey