Category: Centerspread

By David Shih

There has been a gradual increase in the abuse of drugs (other than vaping on campus and off campus) by high school students the past few years. The increase of drug abuse in students is a direct effect of modern entertainment and the marketing campaign of JUULS in 2017 and 2018.

Teenagers began to interact with JUULS due to celebrity propaganda. The, “I already smoke, I wonder what other drugs feel like” mindset will take over and push people to try other types of drugs.

Some drugs that are commonly abused by high school students include Ecstasy, Lean, Cocaine, Xanax and marijuana. All of these drugs have an profound negative effect on the developing brain (in which develops until the age of 25), and can cause permanent and everlasting damage to the body.

According to statistics of “The Recovery Village,” 35.1% of high school seniors have shown an intake of marijuana at least once and an increase of 3.7% overall when compared to the previous year. The new increase can be due to the introduction of waxing and the wax pen to high schools.

Waxing is a “new” type of drug that takes marijuana extracts and oils. The substances are then put them in a vaping device in which can be inhaled. These devices are easier to hide and conceal in which leads to the problem of smoking in the students bathrooms.

The legalization of marijuana in California started in November of 2016, causing the public to have a more twisted and irrational view of “since it’s legal, it shouldn’t be that bad” perspective.

The other drugs such as Ecstasy, Lean, Cocaine and Xanax are more abused at home and at concerts rather than at school. These substances are easily bought off of students on campus or from people on the streets if you have the “connection”.

Xanax and Lean in particular are easily accessible as they can be prescribed from the doctor through “anxiety attacks” and “coughing excessively”.

In order to combat this problem however schools should crack down harder on the students who are doing drugs. There should also be more severe consequences for those that sell drugs, rather than those who abuse it. Schools should also include videos during the morning announcements talking about the downsides of taking drugs for the body.

By Victor Xie

The new buildings have been the talk of the school for the past month, as it took nearly two years to build. With the new buildings finally open to students and staff, there have been contrasting opinions going around regarding these buildings.

In a recent survey put on Schoolloop where 72 students answered, more than 80% of students rated the buildings a 4-5 out of 5.

“Being in the new building is good because our old (portable) classroom was pretty cramped but with the new building we feel more open,” says junior Maggie Nguyen.

Because this building has been anticipated for a lengthy five years, teachers were also quick to point out the positives of the new buildings.

“(The buildings are) awesome and beautiful. They’re spacious and new, and they have enough cabinets, finally, for us hoarding science teachers,” says biology teacher Jason Dries.

Personally, I think the second-floor view is the most interesting part of the new buildings. All of the buildings at our school are one story, which is why the new building is able to give everyone a unique perspective of the student parking lot.

In addition, because the area is finally open again, students may now go through the D-Building walk-way again and not hear construction work while taking their already devastating math test.

Even if the buildings took almost two years to build, the general feedback is still exceptional. Rooms are larger, the swirly ramp is great, and of course, the bathrooms are clean.

“We’ve had a previous problem of weed-invaded bathrooms, and now with the new buildings we have a clean one where it’s a safe environment where we can (go) peacefully,” comments junior Joanne Vu.

Some people may say the buildings aren’t as great as they expected, but I honestly don’t think it is possible to satisfy everyone. However, what is satisfying is the final product: a great addition to Piedmont Hills.

By Terry Tang and Trisha Trinh

 

The new buildings have just opened at the start of the second semester, bringing with it new bathrooms. There are shiny new toilets, glistening sicks, and glossy new hand dryers. There are no more nasty stenches disturbing the air and no more waste on the floor.

“The new bathrooms look much cleaner, and they have a Dyson hand dryer so that’s pretty cool,” said junior Frank Yeung.

The new bathrooms aren’t just nice and clean, they are different colors than the hallway bathrooms. Instead of the usual maroon stalls and white walls, they are a deep rich stone gray. Many students agree with Frank that the new bathrooms are so much better than the hallway bathrooms. The new bathrooms may be smaller, but have a bunch of new updates. For example, in the boy’s bathroom has dividers between the urinals and the girl’s bathroom has a different color for the stalls.

“It looks the same as the bathrooms in the halls, but just with a newer and fresher feeling with a scent of disinfectant,” said senior Christine Vu.

However, there are also some concerns that the new and shiny bathrooms will turn disgusting like the old bathrooms in the hallway overtime.

“More people vape now and have worse aim, so pee and trash are tossed everywhere in the old bathrooms,” said Frank.

Senior Thinh Le proposed an idea on how to keep the bathrooms well maintained and clean so that future students can still use the bathroom and not be disgusted by it.

“I think one way the admins can maintain the new bathroom is to clean the new bathroom daily and remove and replace graffiti that may occur during the school year,” said Thinh.

The old hallway bathrooms still have graffiti all over the stalls not appropriate for school, as stall doors often have sexual content and curse words decorating their interior.

“The bathrooms would always have graffiti about people hating others, and it’s sad to see what is left behind on the stalls,” said senior Tammy Ngo.

Students should also do their part to help clean the bathrooms as the administration cannot do everything by themselves.

“I think the students could be more mindful about maintaining the school property by cleaning up after themselves and causing damage upon the new equipment,” said Thinh.

There are also some questions about the convenience about the new bathroom locations.

“I think that the new bathrooms would be overcrowded since they’re brand new, whereas the hallway bathrooms will continue to be trashed until someone does something to change it,” said Tammy.

Overall, the new bathrooms are a great addition to Piedmont and hopefully students and staff will help keep it clean!

By Alana Valdez

It’s that time of year again. A season of joy, laughter, giving, and winter fun but it’s not all it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. People can get so wrapped up in the winter holiday season they don’t stop to consider that with this season comes, greed, holiday grievances, accidents, crime rate, finals, and to top it all off terrible weather.

The first thing people think about when it comes to winter is the holidays like Christmas and New Years. Holidays are great and all, but people are way too obsessed with them. People seem to think that the holidays are all about getting and receiving gifts, decorating, and caroling. A lot of it has to do with commercial franchises over glorifying these activities and making us think we need to spend more money to get the best gifts. They enforce the idea that if you do not get people expensive gifts they think they are not important enough to you. So people search high and low and do whatever it takes for the best and most expensive gifts, which includes fighting an old lady for a pair of diamond earrings because they are the last pair, they are on sale, and your girlfriend just has to have those specific pair of earrings but that is just an example. People are just so greedy this time of year. There are people out in the world who have no home, no food, and no warm clothes and many are worried about getting an expensive pair of earring when their money would be best spent elsewhere.

Lets not forget those annoying quirks that come with the holidays. Those Christmas songs are the same songs every year and once you are heard them in every store, on every radio station and everywhere you go, it gets pretty old really quick. Not to mention everywhere you look people are already selling Christmas stuff and even before Thanksgiving has arrived. It is like the marketing franchises are trying to shove Christmas down our throats. Then the tragedy of incoming generations is losing our older and wiser generations and the traditions and true meaning of the holidays die with them. That leaves our upcoming generations with no costumes passed down to them so the true meaning of the holidays gets lost.

The thing with this time of year too is the crime rate. “Christmas seems to bring out the worst in everybody, even criminals.  Burglary, home invasions, murders, and suicides increase around Christmas.  Drug overdoses also see an minor uptick.” says author Hadena James. “Crime rates may change in winter because it gets darker earlier and people are more likely to commit crimes at night as opposed to during daylight hours.” according to Atlantic Crime Stoppers.

Winter is of course cold, rainy, windy, and that can also bring huge storms. This weather causes accidents on the road. People don’t always drive the speed limit when it rains and since the roads are wet and slippery so if drivers are not careful they can crash into other cars. With the rain and wet roads drivers have to drive slower which means more traffic so it take longer to arrive to places.. It’s just a hassle and it can get really annoying.

There are plenty of reason not to be so jolly this time of year. The greed takes over, the holiday spirit is over promoted, widespread crime, and weather the is terrible.

By Vincent Hoang

 

Winter will officially begin on this Friday, but the science behind this chilly season is far more interesting than just snow and the cold.

Being the coldest season, winter starts when the hemisphere is oriented away from the sun. The day that winter begins is also the Winter Solstice, an astronomical phenomenon that marks the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night. This is also when the sun is farthest away from the North Pole and to the Northern Hemisphere.

As the season continues, the day slowly increases while the night slowly decreases. This happens when the Earth’s North Pole has its maximum tilt away from the Sun, being a full 23.5 degrees away from the Sun. This tilt relates to the formation of the weather due to the axis of the Earth being facing directly towards the sun as it orbits in the Southern Hemisphere.

Once the Earth is in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s now being positioned away from the Sun, making the Earth face away from the sun, making it colder. Vice versa, when winter starts in the Northern Hemisphere, it is also the beginning of summer for people in the Southern Hemisphere. That is called Summer Solstice.

Even though both Hemispheres experience winter, the countries in the Northern Hemisphere tend to be much colder than the countries in the Southern Hemisphere. One major factor is because water can conduct and store heat, keeping temperatures warmer and stable. Countries such as Australia, all the countries in South America, parts of Africa and Asia are covered by 81 percent of the ocean water in the Southern Hemisphere compared to 61 percent in the Northern Hemisphere.

Not only this, countries in the Southern Hemisphere are closer to the equator than the countries in the Northern Hemisphere. The Earth’s equator tends to be much hotter than because simply the sun is above the equator, making sunlight hit directly in those areas while sunlight is slanted in the Northern and Southern areas.

But how does winter affect humans? For the most part, humans are very sensitive to the cold and other factors that come along with winter. The first being the temperature. Humans need to keep a stable body temperature, being 99 Fahrenheit, anything below 95 is when hypothermia kicks in. Hypothermia causes the heart, nervous system, and many major organs have trouble functioning and begins to shut down, leaving the body to die.

By Andrew Wong

 

Every Christmas season brings joy and laughter to millions of families. To most, Christmas is considered to be the best holiday of the year. During this season, the most iconic figure children always look up to is none other than Santa Claus himself.

Santa Claus is a mythical figure that is said to give presents to nice and behaving children every year. But as all of us modern adults and teenagers know, Santa Claus isn’t real. Of course, many children do not believe this until their parents tell them otherwise. Depending on the child, the case of learning the harsh truth may emotionally traumatize them. The real question is, would it be a good idea if kids were to learn about the truth early or have them believe on a legend for a long time?

If parents were to shift into the position of lying to their kids about Santa’s existence being real, the positive and negative effects will vary. For the positives, the children will tend to become a lot more acquisitive about the holiday and become more excited about presents. Believing in Santa Claus can also help children to enjoy the holiday better, by encouraging children to participate in activities such as sending letters to the North Pole for Santa to read and going to the mall to sit on his lap to ask for presents.
Another positive effect of lying about Santa’s existence is that it helps parents to condition the children into behaving properly and being considerate towards others. The children believe that if they misbehave, they won’t be receiving presents for the following year. Overall, lying to children about Santa helps bring the children to enjoy the Christmas spirit and increased holiday participation.

Although some families like to enjoy Christmas through the spirit and the legend of Santa Claus, there are definitely families out there who do not want to follow the myths. Because of that, they will tend to tell their children the harsh truth of Santa’s existence. At first this might seem like the worst thing a parent could ever do to their child, however positives still lie within this decision.

For starters, parents who tell the truth early won’t have to deal with their children’s big disappointment upon realizing the truth. Children learn that Santa is a myth early on will just brush it off like its nothing. In contrast, telling the truth to other children who believed in Santa for a long time may wound their spirit. Their vision of Christmas would be torn apart dramatically that their magic of Christmas would simply disappear.

Regardless of what parents decide what to do with their children, it necessarily isn’t a good or bad idea to tell kids about the truth of Santa’s existence. It is most certain that the parents should decide how they want to spend their Christmas, and Santa Claus isn’t always the way to properly celebrate Christmas.

Remembering Toys, how they changed and what they say about us

By Justin Wang

Final Draft

The toy   it can just be something given to children on Christmas time, something wanted or unwanted. Or it can be a reflection of the root desires of the human mind: the desire to be entertained. The significant nature of how we fill that desire is shown quite clearly in how we play or remember toys.

With new advancements in technology like the internet leading to easy access to media designed for children, the toys children play with has changed and there we see a part of human psychology that has wide-reaching implications.

Toys have come in a variety of forms and throughout history there have been toys that require less imagination than others, ones that are more games or media than toys, and kids may be gravitating more towards the less imaginative side of the spectrum when it comes to toys.

These days, the trend is for a child to have a focused interest on a few specific brand of toys, but not a lot of a variety of different random toys; the reason being the recent ease of access to entertainment on demand.

This trend has a lot of implications and shows how people, at the root level, often desire convenience over quality.

To try to see if that patterns holds true for students here at PHHS, I conducted interviews, asking people what toys they played with or did own, and I found recurring elements and patterns in the type of toys they had.

“I had a freaking Buzz Lightyear, bro,” said junior Matthew Cruz, started off an interview.

“I have no idea,” Matthew responded when I asked about what other toys he remembered.

“I think it was purely Legos and stuffed animals,” said Matthew after a few moments of recollection.

“No, I did not.” said Matthew after I pressed him for any other toys he may have had like the Furby, Tamagotchi, slinky, or a pop-up flipping frog toy.

“Yes I did, but I primarily used Legos. For all cases I used Legos.” said Matthew after I decided to ask if he had an Etch A Sketch.

Near the conclusion of our interview, I asked about Beyblades and Matthew said “Beyblade, yes, I had a lot of. A lot of Beyblade.”

Beyblade being a spinning top toy played with various types of tops, usually metal and plastic.

For the most part Matthew exemplified picture of children having a lot of toys specifically from franchises like Lego or Beyblade, but had little interest elsewhere.

It was not just a one-time case either.

“I played with Beyblades, B-Daman, Bakugan. I’ve had a slinky, I wouldn’t really consider it a toy, really; I just kind of tangled it and like left it alone.” said junior Justin Hong, Bakugan being a toy and card game.

“I did not have a Rubix Cube, I did not have a kendama. I did not have a Buzz Lightyear. I did not have a Thomas,” said Justin responding to my questions.

Here too I saw specific areas of interest in game like toys like Beyblade or Bakugan with little interest elsewhere.

Beyblade, Bakugan, Legos   all toys which don’t often involve imagining or interacting with a character.

For me at least, I watched a lot of Youtube and played a lot of games so I went with the more convenient form of play, one that takes less imagination and effort, available with minimal movement.

Convenience dominates our lives, and even now it is harming us, most people know they have insecure passwords, they know that they probably should have read all those terms of service, yet they don’t do anything about it.

We risk and sacrifice security, privacy and safety for small conveniences.

But that’s just now, we must think of what happens when technology advances to the point where what we can be sacrificing is liberty, individuality or free thought, whether that be by A.I. robots, the ability to read thoughts, change thoughts or what else.

I’m not saying that such a grim future is guaranteed, what I am saying is that we must tread carefully and we must not lose sight of the downfalls and benefits of convenience, else we might be end up being more observers than controllers of our own lives.

But people didn’t always value things like freedom or privacy, there is evidence that modern privacy is a relatively recent concept; perhaps everything that we value is just a product of our specific time.

I have doubts that we’ll maintain even a sense of value in being well-fed, some today people will forego meals if they find it inconvenient, much like sleep.

So perhaps sacrificing what we value isn’t such a bad thing because we’ll just change our values.

Maybe we should all just get over it and move away from toys, keep that password, let your thoughts be controlled or get rid of emotions; after all, emotions can be rather bothersome, thinking is rather inconvenient, a password can be hard to remember and it’s easier to watch than to play.