Activties Spotlight: Polar Prints

North Takes a Stand in the Marriage Debate

North Takes a Stand in the Marriage Debate

By Ricky Nelson

            The vote on an amendment to ban gay marriage in November is putting immense pressure on the citizens of Minnesota, and it trickles down, even to the high school level.

            Here at North high we enjoy a great diversity in terms of race, wealth and even sexual orientation, but such diversities are not without conflicts.

 In an informal survey ten people were asked their opinion on the subject, 7 said they were pro-gay marriage, 2 said they were neutral and 1 said they were against. The results indicate that nearly 70 percent of the group was for gay marriage and against the amendment.

Hanna Thompson (sophomore) said “I don’t understand why people aren’t allowed to love who they love.” She also said on the topic of gay adoption rights, “I see so many kids neglected by straight parents, when gay couples adopt they are making the decision because they are prepared to raise a child.”

North high has a Gay and Lesbian alliance club which promotes the tolerance of different sexual orientations and the acceptance of all people. The club has operated for several years and has been met with general optimism by the student body.

The sentiment at North high is generally in favor of gay marriage with only a small opposition. This could be due to the fact that North is located in an urban area in a northern state, or it could be a reflection of the changing times and opinions of a new generation of Americans.

Future fashion reporter at North high!

 

Miss Sandra Lomotey is one of the hundreds of seniors this year, but one of the only future fashion publisher icon! In her last months of school, she’ll be in journalism and creative writing class; creating her foundation to accomplish her future goal. What is this goal of her? It is none the less, to write about high fashion in a spread of a magazine, on her own blog, or even on her very own website. This New York Bronx born girl is always at the right place at the right time!

One of the right places for her used to be the track field when she ran and competed for school. She is now focusing on the most important things to her; HER GOALS!!!To live her dream is what Sandra is driven to accomplish in life. She’s just a social laid back person that loves to be around the most important people to her; such as her best friend, older cousin, and cousin that just had a baby boy! All in all, Sandra is one excited person to look out for in future blogs, websites, and magazine spreads. Either way, you will soon be hearing from miss Sandra!

The 49ers were the favorites to win against the Vikings on Sunday but things didn’t go as planned for the 49ers on Sunday at the metrodome the started well in the game and never looked back.

The Vikings had a nice opening drive ending it with a nice touchdown Christian ponder on a play action bootleg to Kyle Rudolph 7 nothing Vikings.

On defense they played really good Chad Greenway had two

sacks In the game on Alex smith the 49ers QB, it was a frustrating game for the 49ers they thought this would be a easy game.

The Vikings got three turnovers on defense one on Frank Gore’s fumble second an intercepted pass by Josh Robinson third was a strip fumble sack by whom else? Jared Allen.

The Vikings offense was really good only four penalties gave up only one sack, the offensive line held up very good against that great 49er pass rush.

Christian Ponder was 27/35 198 yards passing and a 34 yard touchdown run he was near perfect no interceptions thrown but came close to throwing one to SS donate whiter but he couldn’t hang on.

The 49ers where wondering too themselves what happen out there why the break down? "We just weren’t playing good out there", says Dashon goldson.

The Vikings did good on offense and defense never say never they did something that no one say coming in beating the 49ers.

The Vikings next game is at Detroit so let’s see if they can carry that momentum from Sunday to next Sunday against the lions

North high has a well-balanced meal plan junk food for some and a salad bar for others. We also have a alla cart which provides snacks for many. Many students like school lunch but others despise it Eben Robideaux has been quoted saying "I hate school lunch they don’t give you enough and the food isn’t really that good." His views on school lunch are the same as many other students at north high.

      A lot of student’s favorite lunches are subs, nachos, tacos and big daddy’s pizza on those days the lines in the main line are longer than usual which also upset a lot of students, Christian Medrano has said "on days like sub day I hate waiting in those long lines they should just have every line be subs instead of one being something else.

       Plenty of students enjoy eating at the alla cart because it provides a verity of foods, frank Wilber a junior at north high said "I only eat at the alla cart and I usually get hot Cheetos with cheese and a pretzel, but one time they didn’t have hot Cheetos and that day sucked." Another problem at lunch is were to sit many students complain that people take there sets at lunch and they have to sit by people that they didn’t know. Nikki leingang a junior at north high has said "one time in freshman year one of my friends took my spot which made me sit at a table where I didn’t know any one and that really sucked."

 

 

 

       

Obama or Romney?

   Emily Bonan says Romney, but Jack Bonko says Obama. Some students have opinions on this upcoming election, and others, such as Derod Cook who said, “I don’t really care.” Don’t have much interest in it. Kaitlyn Wann said “Not Obama.” When asked why she simply said “I’m republican.”

   Mr.Halderson, who plans on voting says, “I’m going to flip a coin when I get in there and see what happens.” Nick Beisang agrees with obamacare, so if he could he would vote for Obama, although he says “I don’t really like America, Canada man.” Sandira Lomotey, a senior here at North says she’s voting for Obama. When asked why she said “Because Romney doesn’t seem like he has his stuff straight and with Obama we at least have a chance, he hasn’t reached his full potential but he’s getting there.”

   Josh Tuckner says “Josh Tuckner for president ya’ll” Nezhoni Sanquist says “Obama’ because Romney is a Mormon and a republican.” Others on the other hand, such as Jordan Holt who says “Mr.Longtin, hands down.” Don’t really want either candidate.

   Along with that there are people like Rachel Sanquist who says, “I’d vote for Obamney.” Can’t choose between the two. Tony Boyer said “Obama, because Romney wants to cut taxes for the rich people, yes.” While Colin Cassin and Brendan Herold say “I vote Romney, because he isn’t Obama.”

   Bobby Erickson would also vote for Romney, when asked why he said “I feel that Obama hasn’t done enough in four years to be re-elected and Romney just has more to offer. “

   So as you’ve heard, and most likely already know, the presidential election is a very controversial subject, even with highschoolers and that some students have more or less of an opinion than others.

Homework: Helping or Hurting?

by: Natalie Klasinski, Journalism I

Homework is given to students of all ages throughout their school life but is it really helping us?  Many studies have been conducted on if homework can give a child that “step” ahead but many have found mixed results. Although homework does help define; study habits, self-discipline and time management skills in students. Some studies show that there is some benefits to doing homework. Others show that there is either no benefits or even negative effects. 

A few people and their works that have studied or researched homework affects are Alfie Kohn with his “The Homework Myth”, Time Magazine’s Claudia Wallis with her “The Myth About Homework”, and Dr. Harris Cooper’s research on homework. “According to a 2004 national survey of 2,900 American children conducted by the university of Michigan, the amount of time spent on homework is up 51% since 1981”(Claudia Wallis). In dozens of Cooper’s analyses he found that homework did help improve student’s scores on standardized tests but in high school doing more than 2 hours could actually lower scores. Jada Simmons said that she does “on average 3 hours of homework a night while getting home from school at about 5 o’clock”. She believes that homework can be helpful but “too much can hurt rather than help”. Cooper created a rule of thumb: 10 minutes of homework a night per grade level. 

Teachers were asked what there views on homework were. Mr. Simms the journalism teacher said that “homework enhances and gives experience to the students”. Ms. Niederkorn said that “only things that are necessary should be assigned”. 

After asked about their views, the teachers were asked if they consider how much homework their students are getting besides what they get from that class. Majority of the teachers said that they didn’t really think about it too much they just assigned what is necessary for their class. 

So is homework actually benefiting us or are we just shedding blood, sweat, and tears over scrape paper? This question has puzzled many for years and may puzzle them for many more to come. 

 

Girls Hockey, New season

 

Journalism 1

Jessica Folkerts

 

Hockey season is starting soon! Hopefully this season goes better for the girls than last year. For the past three years they had a coach from Summerset Wi. This year there is a new coach who is a former North high graduate. Also she played hockey for North Varsity and was Ms. hockey. Her name is Allie Thunstrom.

The players hope to have a better, more improved year this year. Now that there is a new coach they think it will be much better. They think that she will coach them better plays of the game of hockey.

Because Allie is a girl, they think everything will be better being that she was in their shoes just a few years ago. She will know just how to coach a group of girls, just how she used to be. The players are so happy for the new change of the team. Carli Langevin say’s "Im so excited for the season to start with our new coach." Haley Shanks say’s "we’re going to do good this year! Allie is going to be a good coach for us."
The team is so excited to come in to their new year with a fresh start. They are going to do good.But most of all they just want to have fun playing hockey.

What do you think about the Viking this week?

Johnny Lee

There is a friend of my name Derod Cook in North High School think that they going to suck this weekend but we’ll see how this go. So this weekend Viking are going against the 49ers (San Francisco) and Derod think Viking is losing this weekend because of their running back Frank Gore.

                What Derod said is “I think the Viking defense is not going to stop the 49ers offense because of their running back Frank Gore.” Frank Gore is one of the top running back in NFL and Derod think Gore is going to kill the Viking’s defense.

                He thinks this weekend Percy Harvin, Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen is going to be good this week. He thinks that Jared Allen is going to get 2 sacks; Harvin is going to get about 60 to 80 receiving yards and a 1 touchdown and Peterson is going to get about 80 to 100 rushing yards and 1 or 2 touchdown.

He thinks Viking is going to get about 3 sacks and some little yards and their offense is going down because San Francisco is one of the best defense in NFL and he think Viking can’t do anything to them. Viking is probably going to try their best to stop them too.

Derod said Jared Allen is going to pro bowl this year and Adrian Peterson is going too because of how good they are. He think even though Viking is going to suck this weekend but maybe this year Viking is going to be a little better than last year.