Khmer Girls in Action is sponsoring Poly’s fourth annual Wellness Week from February 27 to March 3. On Monday, February 27, the Wellness Week starts off with the Women’s Self Defense at the teacher’s’ lounge from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. Tuesday will be featuring a de-stress and healing also at the teacher’s’ lounge from 3 P.M to 4:30 P.M. At the library on Wednesday there will be a Soul Session from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. On Thursday there will be a Healthy Cooking presentation in room 514 in Mrs. Sawyer’s class from 3 P.M. to 4:30 P.M. The final day will be the Health and Wellness Resource Fair at the quad from 11:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M.
Category: News
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Cool Kids at Poly
On Saturday, February 11, ABC7 held a luncheon honoring about twenty-seven students for its Cool Kids segment. They were gathered together to be awarded for being helpful and inspirational in their communities. Among these students was Poly sophomore Heinglee Va, who was nominated by his aunt.
For the past year and a half, Va spent every other weekend avidly taking part in making the beach a safer place for the community and, more importantly, for the marine life. He volunteers with the Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit environmental organization that gets students of various ages together to clean the beach. Va says that when he moved to Long Beach three years ago he had a rather inactive social life and joining the Foundation is one of the things that has helped him fit in. He joined when his uncle introduced the idea and he figured that “it beats sitting at home watching TV.
Va’s English teacher, Daryl Holmlund, said, “Heinglee always has a positive attitude, works hard, and is a deserving recipient.”
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Auditorium Using Hofstadter Approach
More than half of Poly’s students go completely unaware of one of Poly’s most distinctive features: the auditorium, which has been closed for so long now that it goes completely unnoticed by the student body.
Rumors seem to crop up every few months about when it will be finished, though according to principle Quentin Brown, construction should conclude at the end of March.
Despite the ever-migrating end date, Brown claims that there has been no actual setbacks beyond those that regularly accompany large renovations. The weather has been only a slight issue: work is rarely put on pause during heat waves or rain storms. Construction continues during the school year and the summer, but as Brown says, major renovations tend to run longer than anticipated.
Nevertheless, the project’s ever-lengthening run time should not cause any issues. Before the district decided to start the project, they thought thoroughly about what it would mean only in terms of cost and environmental impact.
Unfortunately, they seem not to have considered the effect on students and teachers. German teacher Maria Bezeredy, whose classroom has windows facing the auditorium, says “It’s awful. The noise is just awful. There’s an issue with the windows: it’s either noise or air.” And it is not only Bezeredy as the majority of classrooms on the south side of the Language Annex have to choose between stifling heat or blaring noise.
Brown believes it will be worth it in the end. When he became principal he was shown the new designs for the auditorium. His initial reaction was, “Wow, awesome!” Coming from the former principal of a theatre and performing arts school, that should mean quite something.
The auditorium will be used for drama productions, musical performances, and dance shows, not to mention school assemblies (which have been put on pause since construction began). The District Facilities Department mandated that both Poly and Wilson would receive updates to their auditoriums’ electrical and sound systems, seats, stages, and auxiliary rooms. Many students with music classes have expressed in no uncertain terms how much they would like to get out of the temporary bungalows and back into practice rooms with decent acoustics.
The acoustics in the bungalows is not the only issue facing the music students. It has been a huge inconvenience for them to haul their instruments to and from far-away auditoriums such as Millikan’s. With heavy equipment like tubas or drums, this is a significant struggle.
The project has run long, as so many similar construction projects before it have. Hopefully, the negative externalities that students and staff alike have endured since construction began will be worth it when the “awesome” new auditorium is opened.
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International News Tidbits
Trump to Remove Protections for Transgender Students
President Trump could issue new guidelines as early as Wednesday to rescind anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, overruling his education secretary who had pushed to keep them in place.
“I would expect further guidance to come out on that today,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said, declining to provide specifics. Mr. Trump, he added, is “a firm believer in states’ rights.”
Mr. Spicer declined to discuss details of a rift on the issue between Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education, and Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, who was adamant that the administration move quickly to reverse an order from the Obama administration that allowed transgender students to use the restroom of their gender identity.
But Mr. Spicer said during a White House news conference that Ms. DeVos was “100 percent” supportive of the president’s decision.
Mr. Sessions, who strongly opposes expanding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, fought Ms. DeVos on the issue and pressed her to relent because he could not go forward without her consent. The order must come from the Justice and Education Departments.
Chinese Feminist Group’s Social Media Account Suspended
The main social media account of a leading feminist organization in China has been taken down for 30 days, and Chinese feminists are bracing for another wave of repression before major political meetings this year.
The closing of the account for the organization, Feminist Voices, may have been linked to an article it posted about a women’s strike planned in the United States on March 8, International Women’s Day, feminists said on Wednesday. The strike, which is being coordinated by the organizers of the Women’s March on Washington last month, is called “A Day Without a Woman.”
Feminist Voices (Nuquan Zhisheng) was founded in 2009 and has operated on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, since 2010. It said it had received notice that it was being shut down late Monday from its host, the media giant Sina.com.
“Hello, because content you recently posted violates national laws and regulations, your account will be banned for 30 days,” the notice said, according to a message Feminist Voice circulated on another social media account.
This Years Carpet-Baggers at the Oscars
And the Oscar this year doesn’t go to: Andre Royo, for his lead role as a melancholic ex-con in “Hunter Gatherer”; Alan Rickman, posthumously, for playing a thoughtful general in the drone warfare thriller “Eye in the Sky”; Margo Martindale, who stole scenes as the matriarch in “The Hollars”; John Goodman, for his performance as a survivalist in “10 Cloverfield Lane”; Susan Sarandon, who played a garrulous widow in “The Meddler.”
Each received an awards push, or at least an awards nudge, from publicists, distributors, studios or some combination thereof. Yet for myriad reasons — timing, competition, dearth of funds, off-the-mark campaigns, lack of je ne sais quoi — none of those performances managed to gin up much interest, though some arguably were deserving.
Crucial to understanding the machinations of the Academy Awards is knowing that the nominees, and winners, aren’t necessarily the year’s best but rather the most popular. So, in the week before Hollywood turns its gaze to the winners’ circle on Sunday at the Dolby Theater, the Bagger is looking instead to the could-have-beens, whose dashed dreams join the other ghosts of seasons past.
7 Earth-Size Planets Orbit Dwarf Star, NASA and European Astronomers Say
Not just one, but seven Earth-size planets that could potentially harbor life have been identified orbiting a tiny star not too far away, offering the first realistic opportunity to search for signs of alien life outside of the solar system.
The planets orbit a dwarf star named Trappist-1, about 40 light-years, or 235 trillion miles, from Earth. That is quite close in cosmic terms, and by happy accident, the orientation of the orbits of the seven planets allows them to be studied in great detail.
One or more of the exoplanets in this new system could be at the right temperature to be awash in oceans of water, astronomers said, based on the distance of the planets from the dwarf star.
“This is the first time so many planets of this kind are found around the same star,” Michael Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium and the leader of an international team that has been observing Trappist-1, said during a telephone news conference organized by the journal Nature, which published the findings on Wednesday.
Hispanic Leaders Plan Fight Against Trump’s Agenda
As President Trump is giving his first address to a joint session of Congress next week, Hispanic political leaders plan to meet in Washington to draft a strategy to counter his agenda, particularly his immigration crackdown.
The Latino Victory Fund, a political action committee that works to elect progressive Hispanic leaders, will meet on Tuesday, as Mr. Trump speaks to Congress, to begin recruiting candidates at the federal, state and local levels who can push back against the president’s policies, including in cities and municipalities where they are having immediate impact.
Those include in so-called sanctuary cities, which are jurisdictions that limit their cooperation with federal authorities seeking to detain unauthorized immigrants.
“As the president is outlining his plans to break up families, roll back civil rights protections and gut the environment, we are going to be finalizing our strategy to defeat him,” said Cristóbal Alex, the president of the Latino Victory Project, a civic group affiliated with the Latino Victory Fund.
Mr. Trump, he added, “literally started his campaign on Day 1 by attacking us, and his policies have reflected that, so we need to build up our power and fight back.”
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Child Prostitution Is Still A No
Many news articles have come out recently stating that child prostitution has been legalized in California. This is because Governor Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown, Jr. signed into law SB-1322 (Senate Bill No. 1322) on September 26, 2016. This bill changed the way prostitution would be treated for minors. The existing laws were that it was a “crime to solicit or engage in any act of prostitution” or to “loiter in any public place with the intent to commit prostitution.” SB-1322 made the existing laws about prostitution in California inapplicable for those under the age of 18. This bill allows children who are trafficked into prostitution to no longer be tried as criminals, but instead as victims. So instead of having to serve prison time, Child Protective Services will be called.
Many of those against this new legislation claim that it will cause an increase in prostitution because now more children will want to prostitute because there will be almost no consequences. They also claim that more pimps will target children knowing that they don’t have to worry about the prostitutes getting caught and going to prison. This could be true in a minute minority of instances, but in the majority this will make it much easier for those victims of human trafficking to seek help. -
No Environmental Justice, No Peace
My fellow People of Color are going through a struggle everyday, either it’s discrimination for the pigment of our skin, our culture, or our simple morals in life. When I think of the definition of environmental injustice, I automatically think of low income, impoverished communities, a variety of ethnicities, toxic dirty air, pollution all around, and nobody enforcing a law, regulations, or policies.
My name is Michelle Casian. I am here coming to you as a Youth Organizer with Communities for a Better Environment. I am here as a Woman of Color and a front line community member saying that I stand against these unjust oil refineries that are a part of the breaking of treaties like No DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline). I am living proof as someone who is fighting for my community against the oppressive powers that threaten to take the rights that everyone should be receiving. At the end
of the day, it shouldn’t matter about the color of your skin, your income, or anything you identify as. You have the human right to clean air, water, and soil.One thing I witness everyday is having to carry a burden that our communities have to deal with. We live next to a very industrial city that is heavily oil influenced. We’re next to one of the largest oil refineries on the West Coast (Tesoro) and the largest oil drilling site west of the Mississippi River. We deal with our air being so polluted that it puts us at a higher risk of getting cancer, asthma, and other diseases. You’ll never see an oil refinery located in the backyard of someone’s home in Beverly Hills, but we have to deal with a whole block of oil refineries in the very backyard of residents in Wilmington, CA, and we have to assume that that’s totally normal? Either way, if these oil companies actually tried to go put a refinery in a community like Malibu, everyone would lose their mind. That community would demand to get that refinery covered up or gone for good, and based off of their income, they’ll get their wishes granted, which has happened in the past. What I’m trying to say is, why is it acceptable that a local community like Wilmington has to deal with this, but other folks don’t?
This is an example of environmental racism. Some people can’t seem to get the hint that the environment is a serious problem, and especially for lower income communities. People have grown so used to getting treated badly that they think these situations are totally normal. We have a requirement to inform those who are not aware of this injustice and to fight for our right to clean air, water, and soil.
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Kake Hashi Exchange Program at Poly
From February 2 through the 4, some of Poly’s own got a chance to host students from Akita, Japan, and got the opportunity to expose the exchange students to the campus and southern California. During their journey, they got a glimpse into the best, and the worst, of American culture, experiencing everything from Hollywood to Disneyland. A whopping twenty-three Japanese students, along with two chaperones, accompanied a select handful of Poly students around.
During this past summer, Poly students went to Japan, along with Christine Tram and Susan Watson, to visit the same students at their high school, Akita Minami. This unique exchange program is made possible by Kake Hashi (Japanese for building bridges), an organization that is aiming to form a bond between Japan and the United States by allowing youth of both nations to better understand each other’s culture. “Well, taking my students to Japan benefits my class because they get to actually use their Japanese in a real life situation, and they got to see all the stuff they learned in class. I wasn’t making up Japanese, I was teaching them real words,” said Watson with a reminiscent smile.
Can you imagine going to school for six days a week in a suit and tie, or a blazer and pleated skirt? That’s what daily life is like for a high school student in Japan. They uphold a professional appearance to keep up with their world renowned academic reputation. But, can you imagine not being able to show public displays of affection to your significant other? These sort of regulations are commonplace in a Japanese high school, so you can imagine their surprise when they came to Poly with couples snogging at every corner and fashion choices from ponchos and bell bottoms to flip flops and crop tops. Akita is covered in nearly three feet of snow right now, adding to the cultural distinction.
However, there are a few aspects of the culture that American students can relate to. Around this time of year, Japanese students are anxiously going through the process of pursuing a higher education in college. In America, we have numerous chances of getting a good enough SAT score to impress the colleges of our choice. In Japan, however, they have one shot. They go to said institution, take the test, and wait at the edge of their seats for results. Though this may seem inconceivable, Japanese students grew up with this healthy, competitive attitude towards their education, and consider anything else to be foreign. “It inspires me to just work hard and be grateful that I live in America, a country where, just like college, you have multiple opportunities to be successful,” said senior Tatiana Tate, as she recalls the difficulties Japanese students have to face.
Both Japanese and American students alike got an enriching experience from the exchange. Exposing the exchange students to American culture may have been rewarding by way of freedom of expression through clothing and physical contact with other humans, but could also remind them of their academic advantage from being in such a cultivating environment. American students, on the other hand, would jubilantly return to their five-day school weeks and multiple opportunities to achieve success in their scholastic endeavours. However, the slight division between the two is the very foundation of the bridges being built through the Kake Hashi program. The experiences it provide to students from both sides of the world are unforgettable, and emphasize the importance of blending cultures in order to improve global relationships. “No matter where you are from around the word, you typically have similar morals and similar hobbies,” said senior Kayla Sanders.
Future exchange opportunities in the Poly Japanese language department include partnerships with Long Beach’s sister city, Yokkaichi, that extend beyond surface level explorations. On July 20, 2017, two students and one teacher from each city will be sent on a three week trip to Japan to act as goodwill ambassadors. On July 31, four students and one teacher will embark on an eight day environmental summit, learning about innovative ways Yokkaichi is helping the planet become more environmentally friendly. Application deadline for both of these opportunities are on Friday, February 24.
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Holocaust Remembrance Project
January 30 marked the eighty-fourth year since Adolf Hitler was “elected” chancellor of Germany. What followed in the years after his rise to power was destruction on a massive scale, both in the form of a world war and in the slaughter of millions of innocent Jews.
Wars have always been a part of history, but genocide on this scale was unprecedented. Millions were complicit, complacent, or directly involved in the systematic extermination of Jewish, Roma, Slavic, Black, homosexual and disabled people. So many were targeted, and so many were comfortable turning a blind eye like the thousands of Germans who ignored the death camps practically in their own backyards. Chapman University in the City of Orange is one of many modern organizations that seeks to honor those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and shed light upon how such a tragedy could occur.
Every year, they host a contest in which they challenge American students to watch survivor testimonies and then connect the survivor’s stories to their own lives. The students then create an art piece based on this connection.
Joylyn Souter, the English teacher who hosts this contest at Poly, has seen many terrific and moving projects come out of the contest. One can never really underestimate the connections that can come from watching these testimonials. It is a common mistake to view Holocaust survivors as a type of war hero or valorous figure. They are human beings, just like the rest of us, and that is the most important thing to remember.
There is power in these connections, these stories, such as that of former contest winner Danielle Spriggs. She sat down and opened her backpack to eat her lunch, and discovered that a pear her mother had packed for her was crushed and smeared all over the other food, rendering much of it inedible. She ate what she could and when the bell rang for class she went to class disappointed and still a little hungry.
Soon after, Spriggs would hear the story of Ilse Diament, who was freed from Bergen-Belsen by British Soldiers near the end of the war. After she was released from the camp, a doctor gave her a can of pears. The taste, even after years away from the hell that was Bergen-Belsen, was a sign of freedom to Diament.
Something as ordinary as a pear can connect people in two different situations and backgrounds, almost a hundred years apart. Unfortunately, the contest closed on Monday, February 6. Interested students are encouraged to see Ms. Souter in room 203 to partake in next year’s contest.
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Port of Long Beach Internship
Are you afraid of being pathetically broke this summer? Yes? Well fear no longer because the Port of Long Beach is offering a paid internship to high schoolers like yourself! For eight weeks students interested in international trade and other related fields will experience a real work environment and mentoring from professionals. Interns will be paid $10.50 an hour and work thirty hours a week. The program starts on June 26 and ends on August 17; however, the application period starts on February 6 and ends on March 6. To apply, students must meet certain requirements. You must be a junior or senior in high school in LBUSD; you must have a 2.5 GPA or higher; you need reliable transportation; you must be available for the entire eight weeks; you will have to attend the Port’s World Trade Week, Celebrating Education; and you must submit your application by 6:00 P.M. on March 6. Once the application is completed and signed by both you and your parent/guardian, it will be submitted, in person, to Pacific Gateway. You can download the application by visiting http://academy.polb.com/scholarships-internships/internship-info/high-school-information/ and clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.
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Senior Information Night a Success
This past Tuesday, February 7, Poly hosted Senior Parent Night from 6:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. All 12th grade students were expected to attend, along with a parent; students and parents were provided with the information that as a senior is necessary, like getting a cap and gown, a class ring, graduation DVD’s, graduation photos, graduation announcements, graduation leis/flowers, spirit wear, graduate night at Disneyland, yearbook, and most importantly, the senior packet, which includes the form required for graduating, free graduation tickets, and a senior picnic ticket. Senior packets were distributed until 6:30 P.M. in the Activity Office. The Senior Assembly began right away at the big gym with the head counselor Gayle Mashburn, who talked about the requirements for graduating. Sylvia Womack, a College and Career Center specialist, provided information on scholarships available for seniors. This was the perfect opportunity for seniors and their parents to get well informed about all the upcoming events. Then, from 7:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. all the vendors gathered around Hare Square for Poly’s class of 2017 to purchase graduation items. Ngoc Nguyen, the Activities Director, was available that night for any questions parents had.
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Remembering Reverend Smiles Eugene Walker
On Monday, February 6, 2017, Poly lost a beloved member of its family. Smiles Eugene Walker, known by all as “Rev,” may be gone in body, but the lasting imprint he has made on this school will stay longer after.
Born on November 21, 1929, in Toledo, Ohio, Rev lived to 87 years old and shared 47 of those years with Poly. During his time in Ohio, Rev claimed a state title in table tennis.
Graduating from high school in 1947, Rev moved on to receive his Bachelors of Science from UCLA in 1951 before enlisting in the army. Rev served in the military until 1956 after being released with honorable discharge. During his time in the army, Rev played on various basketball and track-and-field teams, as well as coached U.S. track teams.In addition to table tennis and military sports, Rev also played semi-pro basketball, a huge source of pride for him. But nothing brought Rev more pride than being a VIP at Poly. While working at Poly, Rev coached girls basketball to twenty-three championships and the track and field team to ten championships.
He worked in the P.E. department, as a staff assistant, a book room assistant, and a locker room assistant. He also used to be in charge of transportation for staff of the basketball and track and field teams.From the time Rev settled into the Poly family, he was awarded recognition by the Poly P.T.A. and the Long Beach Press Telegram, and was awarded the Moore League Gold Pass in 1979. He also had the honor to be called “Mr. Poly” throughout the state.
Nearly every day for 47 years, Rev walked without fail to Poly to volunteer as a Campus Security Officer (CSO). Up until the day he passed, he happily gave up his time to break up fights, end make-out sessions, and control the general bedlam outside the Student Store.
Rev’s signature move when students misbehaved, CSO Ray Porter remembered, was to blow the whistle around his neck and yell, “Boy, I’m sending you to Jordan!”
Two years ago, the High Life featured Rev in an extended Humans of Poly article. Rev spoke of how proud he was of the school that had become his home. “Poly has the top academics, the top sports, and the top music in the country,” he stated.He spoke about memories of when he first came to Poly and the sexism that he worked to combat. “When I was in high school, girls were ignored in class… I want girls to make something of themselves.”
He remembered a specific time when the girls track team didn’t have any shoes: “I raised money to buy every single girl in track shoes. When I didn’t have the money, I’d call Nike and tell them they needed to donate money so these girls could run. It was the first time a company sponsored Poly sports.”
Rev was more than dedicated to Poly, and he was a loved member of the Poly community. So many students knew him as just the friendly old man, and he was just fine with that. “People talk about love,” explained Porter, “but this man showed love.”
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Song Squad gets a Big Break
On January 22, the Long Beach Poly Varsity Song team and Mascots competed in the USA Regional Competition in order to qualify for Nationals. The Varsity Song squad is a small but powerful force, consisting of sophomore Kennedy Cofield and returning juniors Lily Brossus, Becca Gutierrez, and Megan Villaverde. The mascots were sophomores Coco Sanabria and Sandra Rosas.
In order to prepare, Song’s Gutierrez said, “We practice almost every day throughout the week in order to prepare. These practices range from practices dedicated to conditioning in order to improve our stamina in the dance, or to working on our technique.”Mascot Sanabria added, “My partner Sandra and I worked with Coach Cynthia on choreography and made up the ending on our own.”
The theme for the Song portion was “Teamwork,” so the song mix for the routine had to reflect that. High School Musical, “Everything is Awesome,” and Lorde’s “Team” were included. The routine was choreographed by Cynthia Negrete and her daughter Marissa Negrete. Their fast-paced dance and cheerful facial expressions kept the audience intrigued.
The girls were happy with their performance, but Villaverde said, “There is always room for improvement.”Cofield, first-year Songleader, said, “I feel that I did great for my first competition, but there is always something I can improve on for the next competition.” Cofield has been working on her aerial since summer and she executed it perfectly at the competition which made her and her team proud.
The mascot routine has to have a storyline that is conveyed to the audience and gets the audience participating in supporting their team. The theme was “Create a Lover,” and Jonathan Rabbit was a mad scientist who decided to make his own perfect lover. It had songs including “Somebody to Love” by Queen.Song and Mascot both placed second overall in their divisions. Their scores were high enough to qualify for Nationals, which will take place March 24-26 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Cynthia Negrete commented, “I am proud of the girls. The goal of the day was to beat the score in order to qualify for Nationals and we did.”