The PawPRINT

I ssue 6

Vol ume 2

December 20, 2016

White Swan High School Newspaper

621 Signal Peak Rd., White Swan, WA 98952The Paw Pr int Staff :

Ms. Trease, Ashley Anderson, Madison Anderson, Jordan Ashue, Jesus Cer vantes, Drusandra Char ley, Jessica Cheney, Chr istopher Cowapoo, Fatima Gomez, Khaylena Lew is, Mar ia Or tiz, Diana Ramos, Karen Reyes, Shane Rodr iquez, Trumaine Sampson, Gabr iela Sanchez, Damian Tor res, Francisco Tzintzun, Jose Vasquez, Miranda Yale, Kai tyn Zagelow

By Francisco Tzintzun

What?s the Paw Print? The Paw Print is White Swan High School?s newspaper that was init iated by Kristin Trease, an English teacher at White Swan High School. The school?s newspaper is composed of articles written by the journalism class that consistently works hard every two weeks writ ing articles for the Paw Print.

The Paw Print has been published for about three semesters now, but what do people think about it? I asked several students at WSHS questions on what they thought about the Paw Print. The majority of feedback were negative comments. For this reason they wished to be declared as anonymous when I mention their answers throughout the article.

The f irst question I asked students was if they read the Paw Print, and if so what was their reason for doing so. An anonymous student said he does not read the Paw Print because he, ?didn?t even know our school had a newspaper.?

I asked several students the same question including a senior at White Swan High School and she replied, ?No, because I don?t know where they are selling them. ?

A freshman also said, ?I don?t even know where they sell it.? Many students seemed to agree that advertising was a problem. From the students that were interviewed they also stated that if there were posters that had information over topics and where the newspapers are sold would increase their interest in buying the newspaper.

It was also stated that interesting topics that occur outside of school such as trends should be included in the school?s newspaper rather than just basketball and sports at White Swan High School. Another anonymous student said that the Paw Print

should include ?more wrestling instead of basketball because like not much people really care about wrestling for White Swan.? It seems that students that are a part of the wrestling team feel that they are unimportant to the Paw Print because they are not mentioned enough.

Another suggestion was that there should be more pictures included and keep it simple rather than ?crowded? as an anonymous student stated.

?I remember that it was a trend (to buy the paper) for the f irst couple of [issues], but you don?t even see it anymore,? stated a student. It seems that from the beginning the Paw Print was off to a great start and gradually lost student interest due to ?boring topics? as a student stated. ?Just make it good!?

I asked students what they thought about the price of the Paw Print. One student in particular said, ?I want it to be free!? I then asked him if he would pay 25 cents to read it? He replied, ?Yeah, there we go?.

I f inally asked WSHS students to rate the Paw Print on a scale of 1-5. 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Out of the 7 people I interviewed one person rated the Paw Print a 1, three people rated it a 2, one person rated it a 3 and two people rated it a 4.

So what do you think about the Paw Print? How can we improve? How would you rate us? Most of these issues that students have with the Paw Print are fairly small and can easily be adjusted!

Feedback is always welcome from staff or students. Help us improve by contacting Mrs.Trease or any students in Journalism! There will be a suggestion box on the table where the Paw Print is sold for any ideas that you may have!

What 's t he Paw Pr int ?

By Karen Reyes

?Twas the season to f il l hungry tummies. All the students were discussing what and how much to donate, hoping that their class would be in the lead to win the prize for donating the most. The morning announcements fulf il led the students wonders by reporting who was in the lead and by how much they were leading. Following suit were the teachers encouraging their students to donate towards the great cause that would be appreciated by many families, senior cit izens, and other individuals throughout the community.

Our school consistently holds a few food drives throughout the school year, the most recent being the Christmas Food Drive which accepts money and food donations. These food drives are held for the purpose of trying to make a dif ference in our community by donating and advocating.

Respectively, not everyone can donate every time a food drive is being held, but they should be made more interesting for the students. One of the ways it is made more interesting/engaging to the students is through competit ion. As Miranda Yale stated, ?Even if it may be just to win a competit ion, it is one of great purpose.? I asked the two students, Miranda Yale and Diana Guzman, what prizes might interest the students other than the usual pizza or root beer f loat parties. Diana suggested something that the students would enjoy, l ike movie tickets. On the other hand, Miranda suggested pieing teachers in the face as a prize, something that would be litt le more ?competit ive and fun for both teachers and students alike.?

Donating not only gives the satisfaction of incorporating such a service into one?s life and making a dif ference in their country, but it also impacts the

community and other students surrounding the event. Diana pointed out that one way the community benefits from donations is through the families receiving the donations. Miranda added to that saying ?being able to have a good meal or a warm coat can make anyone?s day, week, or even month better.? The students who donate to food drives benefit by having a ?better mindset of the importance of helping others? and ?become more mature in a way,? according to Diana.

In the words of Miranda Yale, ?it makes the world a better place.? People shouldn?t ever feel forced to donate if they can?t, but they should be educated in the subject so that when the occasion arises, they can make an informed decision. This makes it ?better for everyone involved? because to those who need it most, ?any donation is very important."

Food Dr ives

By Jose Vasquez

It?s 12:05 and it 's t ime for lunch. Some people run to the lunchroom to eat while others head to the Cougar Den. In about 15 minutes or so, many students are in the hallway or outside in the courtyard relaxing when you soon hear it. Music bumping from someone?s backpack and it begins to distract and irritate anyone in the area. Usually it?s some outdated explicit song that you like, but not at the moment since it ruined the rest of your lunch.

For a few years it 's been a daily thing, and after a while you get t ired of it. Finally, just a few weeks ago, it was announced that loud speakers were not allowed to play during 10 minute break and lunch, and many were glad to hear the news. But l ike before, when a teacher told one of them to stop playing their music, they continued.

I spoke to many about the situation about the speakers, and many were against having them. When I interviewed Kaige Zagelow about his opinion, he told me, ?They?re annoying and maybe if they played more appropriate music, I?d be ok, but

it 's all screaming and explicit language and its just annoying.? On the subject of what should happen if they continue to play their music, he told me that the speakers should be taken away after a few fair warning, which have been given for quite a while.

The same feelings came up when I interviewed Justin Stach and asked him the same question. He had the same answer and to me, ?They?re really annoying to hear all the time during break and lunch...from one to ten there a eleven.? He even told me when I asked him what they should when people are caught, he told me the same thing as Kaige, to confiscate them from the students. Even though these are two people, they represent a vast majority of students that are tired of music being played out loud during lunch and break.

To make the long story short, speakers are just a disturbance of the peace to all around. for the ones that actually do this and are reading this start to wonder if I'm calling them out, well I am because it annoys everyone else and if you're wondering how you?re gonna listen to your music now well, be like the rest and use some earbuds.

Just Turn Of f t he Music Already

By Socorro Ortiz

As Americans we have come a long way from the days of segregation, but today racism and inequality stil l plague our society. Though racism may be less palpable now, many continue to experience such limitations with racial discriminations.

Some of our White Swan High School students who have been victims of racial discrimination were brave enough to share their stories with me in hopes of bringing awareness to this problem that usually goes unaddressed.

Jason Grajales, a sophomore at White Swan High School, was at a grocery store when he saw f irst hand the wretchedness of discrimination. He and his mother were paying for groceries when the cashier said very racially demeaning comments to his mother because of her inability to speak English. ?I told [the cashier] ?Why are you treating my mom like that? You have no right to do that.??

Jason's awareness towards the

idea that many do not understand the struggles dome minorit ies go through grew after his experience. ?Sometimes people don't want to understand other people?s culture or race, so seeing other perspectives or struggles is much harder. That's why I try to see everyone's perspective and their justif ications for doing things the way they do.? Racial discrimination happens everyday whether we see it or not. It is something many of our peers go through because of who they are and what they look like.

Sonny Dittentholer, a junior, was just a kid when he f irst experienced racial discrimination. ?I laugh at it now,? Sonny says as he shares his story with me. As a child, Sonny lived in a predominately white town and in his classroom he was the only person of color.

It all began when Sonny?s best friend at the time invited everyone but him to his birthday party. The reason as to why Sonny did not receive an invitation is quite unnerving. ?He told me his mom didn't let him

invite me because I was Native.? Discrimination has always proven to be an ongoing problem in this country that never seems to go away or minimize. ?I think everyone should be valued by their character rather than their race or the color of their skin,? Sonny states. It 's true, the discrimination of people because of their race is completely wrong. It doesn't matter what race does the discrimination, it is just wrong.

Racism and discrimination is stil l alive, many just conceal and keep quiet about it. It is important today more than ever to continue Martin Luther King?s dream of ending racial discrimination because his dream has not yet been fully realized. We can pursue and help accomplish this dream by measuring the things we say and how we say them or speak up when we are in a situation where someone or yourself is being racially discriminated. As Martin Luther King once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

Now You Know

By Gabriela Sanchez

On December 2nd, the Washington Huskies stood on the trophy presentation stage to receive their f irst PAC-12 Championship trophy. This was their f irst conference championship since they topped the PAC-10 in 2000.They had just demolished the Colorado Buffaloes 41-10.

The Dawgs have a 12-1 record so far. A lot of students and staff members at White Swan High School have been following the team for months and preparing themselves for the playoffs. This is the f irst year that the Huskies have made the College Football Playoffs since the format of having four teams play in a playoff was introduced three years ago.

One student who is rooting for the Huskies is freshman Christian Ceballos. He said he roots for them because ?they?re a good football team and I l ike their school and the education they have to offer.?

Dawgs Ont o Playof fs

The Washington Huskies celebrate their victory over the Colorado Buffaloes in the PAC-12 Championship game on December 2nd. The Dawgs will advance and play in the 2016 College Football Playoff. (Continued on next page)

By Fatima Gomez

Our school assemblies are usually upbeat, or ?lit?, as many students say. But the last one that the ASB team hosted, was not so much ?us.?

Was it because we were so tired from f inals, that we just didn?t have the energy? Or were the activit ies not appealing to the students? Junior Wendy Ceballos says, ?I thought that it was alright, because at f irst everyone was bored out of their minds. It was pretty cool when the Vice Principal had to call them out so they could actually get hyped.?

Mr. Espindola not only called out those students, but made us get up and do a crowd cheer a couple of t imes, until we were loud enough. Another student said, ?It was very boring, l ike there were activit ies that just didn?t make sense, they were random.?

A dif ferent Junior Alejandra Adame said that ?the planning took about, two weeks of ASB planning, well two meetings, l ike an hour and a half total to make the assembly, and time out of our own day to get the stuff for it.?

Did anyone ever think that the students would rebel, by making them be enthusiastic? Mr.Castil leja said, ?If I micro manage [the teachers] and I tell them this is what I want, you have to do this, they don?t l ike it because nobody likes to be told what to do, nobody, it doesn't feel good. Here's the trick that I've learned. If there's a problem that I have to solve as a staff , I might even have a really good idea of how I want it solved, usually it?s, ?Hey here's the problem do you all agree it 's the issue? What are we going to

do?? and you can almost step away and just watch it come to life and it almost always lands right where we all agree it should land. The solution starts to bubble up, and the reason why that is because everyone has input, and they all had some ownership in it, and they were heard. It?s kind of the teachers or principals or whoever facil itating, it?s their role to make sure everyone has a voice and is heard. So when we talk about you know, the idea of trying to ?pep up? our pep assemblies, really where that?s going to come from is the leadership of the students, maybe a litt le bit of poking from Mr. Espindola or whoever it may be [to say] let's spark this up. But ult imately the kids kind of looked around, it 's gotta be the students to say, ?Yeah, you know what, they were right how are we going to do this and come up with the idea??.

Finally I asked the same students what it means to them to have school spirit. Ceballos said, ?I l ike my school, and that I take pride for going there, that it 's fun and it 's not always boring.?

?It means to cheer, and wear school colors,? said a freshman.

Lastly, Adame said, ?It means to be a leader even when you have a bad day, to just smile.?

So f inding the problem, and having our voices heard, are hopefully two concepts that can be used for upcoming assemblies. Having student input shows that not only ASB has a say in activit ies, but so do the other students. We might even have more fun if we open that up for students to share their ideas.

Can Spir it Be Forced?

Another Husky fan at White Swan is sophomore Kyle Edgar. ?They?re the best football team in the state,? he said. ?My brother went to school there, that?s the reason why I l ike them too.? On any given day, you will see Kyle sporting a Washington tee shirt, hat or sweatshirt.

The College Football Playoff includes four of the nation?s top teams who play in a single elimination tournament. The teams this year include Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington. The teams involved are selected by thirteen people. ?I think more teams should be let in. It would just be more interesting because I think a lot more teams deserve the chance to play for the tit le,? said sophomore Kaityn Zagelow.

On New Year?s Eve, the Huskies will face top-ranked Alabama in the f irst round, who is an annual contender for the championship and last year won the national t it le. ?I think they?ll be a tough matchup, but I feel l ike (Washington) can pull it off if they play at a high level,? Edgar said. ?Defense is going to have to execute and stop (Alabama?s) quarterback.?

?They will have to try their hardest and use their teamwork skil ls.? Ceballos said.

The game will air on December 31st at 11am on ESPN. Be sure to watch to catch all the action and excitement. Anything can happen during postseason, so don?t count the Huskies out of hoisting the National Championship trophy in January.

(Continued from last page)

By Jessica Cheney

The f irst Kitt itas game last year was a rough one for both teams for dif ferent reasons. The girls played a good game, but it was rough because 2 of our starting players were hurt and not playing, then at the beginning of 3rd quarter, Jess got hurt and couldn't go back in the game. We ended up losing by about 7 points. The boys had trouble guarding the main scoring player, who scored about 32 points that game, and WS just couldn't pull away with the win.

But this year, the Kitt itas game Tuesday is going to be a good and intense game, due to the boys are really hungry to beat them and shut down Brock Ravet. The girls will have all starting players this year and have improved a lot and have more experience girls on the team.

Both teams really improved this year and have a good chance

to beat them. ?We will do really good, we are older and more experienced, so hopefully if it 's a close game, we can pull it out at the end,? say Wes Abrams, one of the starting players for the boys.

The boys are now 3-1 right now and the girls are 2-2. The plan for the boys are to get the ball out of the main scoring players hands. ?Movement around the offensive end and help side, and get to the ball out of Brock's hands?, says Wes.

The girls game will be a battle because both teams are experienced and good. ?I think it will be a battle between the bigs and the countdown of determination to win,? says Tanika, a returning junior from last year?s team.

So come on out Tuesday night and support the Cougars basketball teams at White Swan High School, the student section will be lit, l ike always!

St ay Hungry!

(Top) Shane Rodriquez takes the ball down court with Wes Abrams and Ray Cheney ready to assist.

(Bottom) Lexi Heglar in Saturday's game against Tri Cities Prep

By Kaityn Zagelow

With the cold weather comes along winter sports. That includes both basketball and wrestling. This years wrestling team includes two seniors, f ive juniors, seven freshmen, and two freshmen managers. Half the team is experienced and older, while the other half is fresh and ready to learn. White Swan has a chance to

Blood, Sweat , and Braw l

Freshman Gilberto Palma winning his match during our home meet.

do something big if they work hard and are determined. To get an inside scoop I sat down and interviewed senior Antonio Lopez. The seasoned veteran wanted to join wrestling because, ?Gladdys Palma inspired and convinced me to join, and so did my family as well.? Tony wrestled his entire middle school and high school career. ?I want to accomplish a sense of hard workmanship and apply it to the real world. Yes, I want to go to State.? Tony is a hard worker and goes to the extremes for the sport he loves. According to senior Jose Vasquez, he even went on an orange peel diet. The last two years White Swan has had a state champion wrestler, Gladdys Palma, who won back to back tit les. She has graduated and there are some big shoes to f il l, so who better than her younger

brother, Gilberto Palma? The young buck rookie freshman shared that he wanted to join because of his sister, ?Her success was inspirational...I feel l ike I'm ready [for my next match] because my teammates are pushing me harder and harder everyday.? He answered proudly to my f inal question by saying, ?Yeah it would be pretty amazing to go [to state].? Gladdys I mean Gil is a great dedicated athlete and even joined Cross Country this past fall to get ready for wrestling. Hopefully he will be wrestling at State in February.

Wrestling is known to be one of the hardest sports due to its physical and mental toll. Also, it 's probably hard to stay in a certain weight class with all the sweets around due to the holidays. Come out and support the cougars at their next match on January 6th at 6:00p.m.

By Miranda Yale

The American education system is very accomplished compared to many in the world and it has provided many opportunities for the youth of today for a better future. However, there are many ways that it can be improved. In order to truly be able to solve the problems at hand and see how the system can be improved, we must examine the crit icisms to see how they hold true, and see the improvements made so far so that we can go onto the correct track. In order to get an inside perspective on these issues, a principal, long-time teacher and a student for their opinions.

One of the main crit icisms that the education system received is that what is being taught is not of value and is non-applicable in the real world. This is a crit icism mostly given by parents and students such as sophomore Jason Grajales who states, ?I don?t believe that we are going to be able to use all the the things we learn.?

However, others say that there lays a more important lesson than the one in the book, Mr. Sheppard, a long time teacher at White Swan, who says, ?the thinking analysis skil ls will help students learn for themselves... intell igence now is based off of how well you can retain that information and analyze it,? rather than just knowing facts.

Something important to remember though is that schools and teachers do not have all the power in what they teach. When asked about how much power the school had, Mr.Castil leja, the principal, said that though the Common Core State Standards come into play, ?the district gets to choose the curriculum we get, so this gives us a lot of freedom.?

However, when asked about how much power the teachers have on what they teach to students, Mr. Sheppard responded by saying that it just really depends on what kind of system they have associated with their teaching, ?for instance, they have to teach a book, or teach according to a test.?

Another major crit icism that the education receives is that there is overload, misuse, and poor execution of standardized testing. Even those who see benefits to standardized testing can see faults as well. For example, Mr. Castil leja says, ?it helps us to know how we stand against the rest of our peers, and this is important because my hope is that White Swan graduates are competit ive when they go out into the world ? it helps teachers to know how they are doing.? However, ?there are times that I feel l ike the testing system has taken over the education in the country which can take away experience of what school is about.?

The main problem some people see in standardized testing is that it does not ref lect true intell igence or learning capability, therefore rendering it partially useless. As Jason Grajales states, ?I don?t think that standardized test ref lect improvement of all students, because many students are not good at tests. They may be very smart, but the pressure that is associated with the test makes it harder to do than just doing work in classrooms.? As for what Mr. Sheppard thinks, they are ?a ref lection of how well they can answer questions on a test, which may or may not be relevant in [a student?s] l ife.? And with the new pressure that is being added, students are even more stressed out by the idea of standardized testing. As Jason Grajales says, ?I feel that standardized tests now are used to pressure students.? However, these tests are stil l important, and they do evaluate important skil ls,and the premise of these tests is good for the future of education, but the execution needs work.

Improvements are of great need, and there are many suggestions that could greatly help. One of the many things that we can improve on is not treating students as a single entity and create more personalized learning, as Jason Grajales states, ?we have to use multiple dif ferent types of grading scores or teaching methods to be able to teach this variety of people who might fall behind or feel l ike this is too easy.? Also, we need to make sure we integrate equal opportunity for student?s success, and ?focusing on equity is probably the thing we should focus on the most. Equity to me means that students get everything they need to be successful. I think that students from any school are worthy of success and capable of it,? as said by Mr. Castil leja. We should also, according to Mr. Sheppard, be ?making sure we teach students higher thinking skil ls because just knowing information is not enough anymore? and they need to be taught to establish better thinking skil ls, also ?we need to help students engage in their learning so they can see why they are learning it?

In order to implement these improvements and more that may go unrealized, we must focus on how we have improved thus far so that we can get on the track of success. There have been great strides in the American education system thus far. For example, as stated by Mr. Castil leja, ?our teachers are better teachers than ever, they collaborate as teams, and they are very passionate about their students.? In Mr. Sheppard?s opinion, ?education has never been more valuable than it is today. If students are not prepared for the real world there are gonna get left behind real quick?. One important thing to remember is that, as Mr. Castil leja states, zip code does not predict student?s success, and everyone can succeed, no matter the circumstance.

The Present and Fut ure of t he Educat ion Syst em