March 23, 2012 1401 Artesia Blvd. Manhattan Beach, California 90266 Vol. LXII Issue 7 www.lavistamchs.com Sports Mira Costa announces ve nominees for 2011-12 Student of the Year FIVE GUYS: Principal Ben Dale announced the five nominations for the 2011-12 Student of the Year award over the school’s public address system on March 6. (From left) Michael DeVirgilio, Blake Reback, Noel Castellanos, Richard Wedeen and Eli Rivas received this year’s nominations. CARINA GLASSER/LA VISTA BY ARI HOWORTH STAFF WRITER Mira Costa nominated seniors Noel Cas- tellanos, Blake Reback, Eli Rivas, Michael DeVirgilio and Richard Wedeen on March 6 as candidates for the 2011-12 Mira Costa High School Student of the Year award. To be eligible for nomination, the nomi- nees had to have a GPA in the tenth per- centile of the senior class. Certicated staff members vote to determine the ve nomi- nees. The 11 departments then vote to se- lect the Student of the Year. Last year, former La Vista Editor-in- Chief Leo Shaw won the award. “I want the student of the year to be a quality student,” Principal Ben Dale said. “I also like to see someone who’s a good Mustang. I want them to be well-rounded, because to me, the Student of the Year em- bodies what a Costa student is.” The nominees are all involved in a wide range of activities in and outside of school. “It is an absolute honor to be nominated for Student of the Year at Mira Costa,” Castel- lanos said. “It truly means a lot to me.” Social Science Department Chair Bill Fauver has led the Student of the Year se- lection process for the past two years. He makes sure teachers know what criteria to use when voting and conducts the nal se- lection meeting. “The Student of the Year should be the student who gets the most out of their high school experience,” Dale said. The school will announce the winner at the All Awards Assembly, which the administration will hold at the end of the school year. “My teachers and classmates have all helped shape me into the person I am to- day,” Reback said. “I seriously applaud Eli, Ricky, Michael and Noel for their body of work and wish them the very best of luck in the future.” e Great Negotiators PLAYING THE BOARD GAME: Costa teachers Adam Geczi (top right) and Bill Fauver (bottom right), along with the four other members of the teachers’ union negotiating team, began discussions with the negotiation team for the district on teacher contracts yesterday. The negotiations are complicated by the potential passage of a state tax initiative that would increase district funding. (Above from right) Deputy Superintendent Rick Bagley, next to Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews and Board member Ida Vanderpoorte, has expressed skepticism as to whether the district has the funding to increase certificated staff salaries. BY ALEX WHITE STAFF WRITER Labor negotiations between the Manhattan Beach Unied Teach- ers Association and the Manhat- tan Beach Unied School District began yesterday in Torrance at the South Bay UTA headquarters. MBUTA and the district be- gan the “sunshining” process, in which they received each other’s proposals for the negotiations, at the March 7 board meeting. The March 7 meeting began with speeches from members of MBUTA and its supporters, in- cluding MBUTA president and Costa science teacher Karl Kurz. The speakers advocated for a market-rate adjustment for the certicated staff members. The district last raised certicated staff salaries in 2007, but it hasn’t made a cost-of-living adjustment toward the salaries since 2002. “It’s time a rstclass district offer its teachers rstclass com- pensation,” Kurz said. As a symbol of unication and protest, nearly 150 MBUTA mem- bers attended the March 7 meet- ing to support their union leaders and make the district aware of the scope of the issue. “I speak with pride when I say that I am an MBUSD teacher,” Manhattan Beach Middle School science teacher Rebecca Allen said. “I am not proud, however, of the fact that I am facing difcult nancial times.” Both MBUTA and the district have presented their initial bar- gaining proposals. Negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement continued in detail yesterday, but the specics of the negotiations were unknown at the time of publication. MBUTA has assembled a ne- gotiation team that consists of ve certicated staff members: Costa social science teachers Bill Fauver and Adam Geczi, Costa English teacher Wendy Thornton, MBMS social science teacher Jed Rucker and Pennekamp Elemen- tary School teacher Linda Hunt. “The teachers are highly valu- able to the district,” Geczi said. Although the nancial situation within the state has not seen much improvement in recent years, the district has not been forced to release teachers for the last two years. With nowhere else to turn for additional funds, the board decided year after year to keep MBUTA compensation constant. Some MBUTA members sug- gest funding salaries increases through the district surplus re- serve that has accumulated over the past years. “Three years from now the reserves will be gone,” Board member Penny Bordokas said. “A raise is an ongoing increase, and we cannot sustain that.” Much of the district’s future funding hinges on the passage of a proposed California tax initia- tive in November. If passed, the measure would give additional funding toward districts across the state, including MBUSD. Al- though Deputy Superintendent Rick Bagley hears the teachers’ requests, he believes that in all likelihood, there simply will not be enough money. “They’re going to say what they want,” Bagley said. “Then we’re going to say, ‘let’s talk about this and come to a conclusion.’” eme Teachers make case for rst salary increase since 2007 in negotiations with Dis- trict, advocate market-rate adjustment as benchmark for contract discussions It’s just a matter of my kids being a prior- ity. They need to come first. I need to be there for them. Opinion Baseball has put together four straight wins, culminating with a sweep of El Segundo on Wednesday. >>> Page A12 News Vice Principal Paula Hart discuss- es her resignation. >>> Page A4 “ ” Principal Dale announced Student of the Year nomina- tions last week, but vague bal- lots and poor criteria have us wondering - are they doing it right? >>> Page A8 Invisible Children has cap- tured the attention and sym- pathy of many Costa students, but the integrity of the organi- zation is ques- tionable at best. >>> Pages A6-A7 RICK ALVES /LA VISTA
Transcript
March 23, 20121401 Artesia Blvd.Manhattan Beach, California 90266Vol. LXII Issue 7www.lavistamchs.com
Sports
Mira Costa announces !ve nominees for 2011-12 Student of the Year
FIVE GUYS: Principal Ben Dale announced the five nominations for the 2011-12 Student of the Year award over the school’s public address system on March 6. (From left) Michael DeVirgilio, Blake Reback, Noel Castellanos, Richard Wedeen and Eli Rivas received this year’s nominations.
CARINA GLASSER/LA VISTA
BY ARI HOWORTH
STAFF WRITER
Mira Costa nominated seniors Noel Cas-
tellanos, Blake Reback, Eli Rivas, Michael
DeVirgilio and Richard Wedeen on March
6 as candidates for the 2011-12 Mira Costa
High School Student of the Year award.
To be eligible for nomination, the nomi-
nees had to have a GPA in the tenth per-
centile of the senior class. Certificated staff members vote to determine the five nomi-nees. The 11 departments then vote to se-
lect the Student of the Year.
Last year, former La Vista Editor-in-
Chief Leo Shaw won the award.
“I want the student of the year to be a
quality student,” Principal Ben Dale said.
“I also like to see someone who’s a good
Mustang. I want them to be well-rounded,
because to me, the Student of the Year em-
bodies what a Costa student is.”
The nominees are all involved in a wide
range of activities in and outside of school.
“It is an absolute honor to be nominated for
Student of the Year at Mira Costa,” Castel-
lanos said. “It truly means a lot to me.”
Social Science Department Chair Bill
Fauver has led the Student of the Year se-
lection process for the past two years. He
makes sure teachers know what criteria to
use when voting and conducts the final se-lection meeting.
“The Student of the Year should be the
student who gets the most out of their high
school experience,” Dale said.
The school will announce the winner
at the All Awards Assembly, which the
administration will hold at the end of the
school year.
“My teachers and classmates have all
helped shape me into the person I am to-
day,” Reback said. “I seriously applaud Eli,
Ricky, Michael and Noel for their body of
work and wish them the very best of luck
in the future.”
"e Great NegotiatorsPLAYING THE BOARD GAME: Costa teachers Adam Geczi (top right) and Bill Fauver (bottom right), along with the four other members of the teachers’ union negotiating team, began discussions with the negotiation team for the district on teacher contracts yesterday. The negotiations are complicated by the potential passage of a state tax initiative that would increase district funding. (Above from right) Deputy Superintendent Rick Bagley, next to Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews and Board member Ida Vanderpoorte, has expressed skepticism as to whether the district has the funding to increase certificated staff salaries.
BY ALEX WHITE
STAFF WRITER
Labor negotiations between the
Manhattan Beach Unified Teach-
ers Association and the Manhat-
tan Beach Unified School District began yesterday in Torrance at
the South Bay UTA headquarters.
MBUTA and the district be-
gan the “sunshining” process, in
which they received each other’s
proposals for the negotiations, at
the March 7 board meeting.
The March 7 meeting began
with speeches from members of
MBUTA and its supporters, in-
cluding MBUTA president and
Costa science teacher Karl Kurz.
The speakers advocated for a
market-rate adjustment for the
certificated staff members. The district last raised certificated staff salaries in 2007, but it hasn’t
made a cost-of-living adjustment
toward the salaries since 2002.
“It’s time a first-class district offer its teachers first-class com-
pensation,” Kurz said.
As a symbol of unification and protest, nearly 150 MBUTA mem-
bers attended the March 7 meet-
ing to support their union leaders
and make the district aware of the
scope of the issue.
“I speak with pride when I say
that I am an MBUSD teacher,”
Manhattan Beach Middle School
science teacher Rebecca Allen
said. “I am not proud, however, of
the fact that I am facing difficult financial times.”
Both MBUTA and the district
have presented their initial bar-
gaining proposals. Negotiations
over the collective bargaining
agreement continued in detail
yesterday, but the specifics of the
negotiations were unknown at the
time of publication.
MBUTA has assembled a ne-
gotiation team that consists of
five certificated staff members: Costa social science teachers Bill
Fauver and Adam Geczi, Costa
English teacher Wendy Thornton,
MBMS social science teacher Jed
Rucker and Pennekamp Elemen-
tary School teacher Linda Hunt.
“The teachers are highly valu-
able to the district,” Geczi said.
Although the financial situation within the state has not seen much
improvement in recent years, the
district has not been forced to
release teachers for the last two
years. With nowhere else to turn
for additional funds, the board
decided year after year to keep
MBUTA compensation constant.
Some MBUTA members sug-
gest funding salaries increases
through the district surplus re-
serve that has accumulated over
the past years.
“Three years from now the
reserves will be gone,” Board
member Penny Bordokas said. “A
raise is an ongoing increase, and
we cannot sustain that.”
Much of the district’s future
funding hinges on the passage of
a proposed California tax initia-
tive in November. If passed, the
measure would give additional
funding toward districts across
the state, including MBUSD. Al-
though Deputy Superintendent
Rick Bagley hears the teachers’
requests, he believes that in all
likelihood, there simply will not
be enough money.
“They’re going to say what they
want,” Bagley said. “Then we’re
going to say, ‘let’s talk about this
and come to a conclusion.’”
!eme
Teachers make case for !rst salary increase since 2007 in negotiations with Dis-trict, advocate market-rate adjustment as benchmark for contract discussions
It’s just a matter of my kids being a prior-ity. They need to come first. I need to be there for them.
Opinion
Baseball has put together four
straight wins, culminating
with a sweep of El Segundo
on Wednesday. >>> Page A12
News
Vice Principal Paula Hart discuss-
es her resignation. >>> Page A4
“ ”
Principal Dale announced
Student of the Year nomina-
tions last week, but vague bal-
lots and poor criteria have us
wondering - are they doing it right? >>> Page A8
Invisible Children has cap-
tured the attention and sym-
pathy of many Costa students,
but the integrity
of the organi-
zation is ques-
tionable at
best.
>>> Pages A6-A7
RICK ALVES /LA VISTA
CALENDARCOMMUNITYMARCH
23 The School of Dance and Music presents “Circus, Cir-cus” at 6:30 p.m. at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
24-25 The Los Angeles International Flamenco Festival comes to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. on the 24th and 8 p.m. on the 25th.
APRIL
3 KFWB Presents “An Evening on Family and Money” starring Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze at the Redondo Beach Playhouse at 8 p.m.
13 The MBMS musical takes place in the multi-purpose room from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
14 There is an Earth Day celebration taking place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Sanitations Districts’ Administrative Office Parking Lot in Whittier encouraging all residents
from the South Bay to attend.
14 The Advanced English Placement Test for incoming 9th graders takes place today from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Stu-dents meet at the Administrative Office.
26-29 The Springfest Family Carnival returns to the Re-dondo Beach Performing Arts Center at 5 p.m. on the 26th and 27th and 11 a.m. on the 28th and 29th. Come enjoy rides, food, and carnival games.
S!"#$%
CAMPUS
ON THE WEB
www.lavistamchs.com
MARCH
23 Applications for senior graduation speakers are due today in the administration building.
23 The School of Dance and Music presents “Circus, Cir-cus” at 6:30 p.m. at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
26 MCHS 9th Grade Parent Night takes place in the audi-torium from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
26-30 Educational advisors meet with 10th graders for sophomore scheduling this week.
APRIL
2-6 There is no school this week due to Spring Break.
9-13 Educational advisors meet with 9th graders for
23 Boys lacrosse travels to Palos Verdes for a game at 4 p.m.
23 Girls lacrosse competes against Palos Verdes at Costa at 7 p.m.
24 Boys baseball competes against Santa Monica at Costa at 11 a.m.
27 Boys golf competes at Los Verdes against Redondo at 2 p.m.
27 Boys lacrosse competes against Castle Hill at Costa at 7:30 p.m.
29 Boys golf competes against Redondo at Chester Washington at 2:30 p.m.
29 Boys tennis travels to West Torrance to compete at 3 p.m.
29 Boys volleyball competes at West Tor-rance at 4:30 p.m.
30 Boys volleyball plays Loyola at LMU. Times to be announced.
3:15 p.m.19 Boys golf competes against Chadwick at the the Rolling Hills Country Club at 2:30 p.m.
19 Boys lacrosse competes against Palos Verdes at 8 p.m. at Costa.
20 Boys baseball plays Leuzinger at Costa at 3:15 p.m.
20 Softball plays Redondo Union at 3:15 p.m. at Costa.
24 Boys volleyball competes against West Torrance at Costa at 3:15 p.m.
25 Boys baseball competes against Penin-sula at Costa at 3:15 p.m.
25 Girls lacrosse plays Culver City at 7 p.m. at Costa.
26 Boys volleyball competes against Re-dondo at 7 p.m. at Costa.
27 Boys lacrosse travels to Peninsula for a game at 4 p.m.
6 Boys volleyball travels to Punahou High School in Oahu to compete against Hawaii Baptist at 5 p.m.
7 Softball travels to Temple City to com-pete at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.
7 Boys volleyball competes against Puna-hou in Punahou, Hawaii at 7 p.m.
11 Badminton competes against San Ma-rino at 2:30 p.m. at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club.
11 Boys baseball plays West Torrance at 3:15 p.m. at Costa.
12 Boys volleyball travels to Palos Verdes for a Bay League match-up. Varsity plays at 5:30 p.m.
16 Boys lacrosse plays against Beverly Hills at 7 p.m. at Costa.
17 Boys volleyball travels to Peninsula for the game at 4:30 p.m.
18 Boys baseball competes at Leuzinger at
O&'#(')#*
freshman scheduling this week.
11 ASB Election packets are due in the ASB room.
16-20 ASB Campaigning takes place during school this week, culminating in the election.
17 Scholar Breakfast takes place in the cafeteria from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
20 The Mira Costa Drama Department presents “Fiddler on the Roof” in the auditorium from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
24 Honor Roll Lunch takes place today during lunch time. The In-N-Out truck will be at the front of the school by the main office for students that received at 3.5 GPA or
higher last semester.
“
Over Spring Break I’ll probably hang out at home with my new puppy.
”-Senior Taylor Zech onher Spring Break plans
La Vista takes an inside look at Manhattan Beach’s Party Patrol. Check out the video online.
SPIKE IT: Senior Keith Waddel helps Costa de-
feat Redondo Union High School on Thursday
March 16.
March 23, 2012
CLUB DAY: Student clubs sell food and drinks during lunch on March 15 to raise money for their club’s cause. Club Day was held in the main hallway due to a chance of rain.
CONNOR WRIGHT /LA VISTA
CONNOR WRIGHT/ LA VISTA
LELAND LESNEVER/ LA VISTA
MARCH 23-APRIL 6 APRIL 19-27APRIL 6-18
BY ARI HOWORTH
STAFF WRITER
Starting next year, students will be able to participate in a new Introduction to Law class.
The semester-long class will be available to sophomores, juniors, and seniors and will be taught by CP government teacher Andy Caine (pictured below).The course was last offered five years
ago by Matt Harris, who is no longer teach-ing at Costa. Due to a lack of convenience and budget cuts, the class was elim-inated from Costa’s curriculum. However, Caine has decided to teach it next year. He has a back-ground in law and still practices it part-time.
“I think that it is going to be a lot of fun,” Caine said. “For someone who’s been a law-yer all his professional life, to be able to teach a class solely on law I think will be a lot of fun. I’m really excited.”
The class will focus on constitutional law issues, like freedom of speech and other civil rights. It also will focus on practical legal skills such as speak-ing and mock trials.
“Taking intro to law will be a great oppor-tunity to learn more about a subject that I’m interested in pur-suing,” junior Braden Casady said. “It will NICOLE FISCHER/ LA VISTA
Mira Costa reintroduces new classes to 2012-13 school schedule
Skalkottas will teach in southern Turkey
also be exciting to experience how the law works, especially from the mock trials.”
According to Vice Principal Jaime Man-cilla, the number of students who sign up for introduction to law would ideally take up two full class periods because many have expressed an interest in the class.
“We are hoping that a lot of kids are in-terested,” Mancilla said. “To fill one class
for each semester we would need about 60 kids. If we have more kids sign up than we have spots for, we will have to use prefer-ential treatment.”
Students will receive elective credit for taking this class. According to Mancilla, it was designed as an op-tion for students who must take a semester course and need to fill
up their year, as this often com-plicates scheduling. However, Mancilla believes the majority of students signed up seem to have a
genuine interest in the class. “The class focuses on a
profession that seriously interests a lot of students at this school,” junior Jack Rosenberg said. “It is also applicable in the real world.”
Caine looks for-ward to teaching the class next year. All Costa juniors have already scheduled for their senior year,
and students have ex-pressed interest in tak-
ing the class.“I’m really looking
forward to seeing how the class runs next year,” Mancilla said. “I want to see if the class garners interest so we
can provide even more classes like it in the future.”SEKI SHIWOKU/ LA VISTA
CONNOR WRIGHT/ LA VISTA
NEWS A3La VistaMarch 23, 2012
SEKI SHIWOKU/ LA VISTA
SHE’S COASTIN’ ON A DREAM: Zamira Skalkottas grades papers for her
sophomore English class. Starting next year, she will be teaching high school
English internationally in Tarsus in southern Turkey .
BY NICK BLOCK
STAFF WRITER
English teacher David Piorek (pictured below) will be teaching a new Biblical lit-erature senior seminar next year.
Former English teacher Paula Boze-man previously taught the class, but it was dropped this year. The course is being made available for next year.
“We’re excited about bringing the course back,” English teacher Pam Jenning said.
Because of his fascination with the sto-ries of the Bible, Piorek believes that he is qualified for the new teaching job. He
thinks the course will help students to un-derstand Biblical references that are seen in other literary works.
“My dad was a preacher, and I grew up with Bible literacy,” Piorek said. “This course is important for analyzing western civilization and to take a look at the Biblical allusions used in our soci-ety.”
The Bible is not the only literary work that will be explored during the class. Other works by John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway will also be studied for Biblical allusions.
Steinbeck’s classic novel “East of Eden” is one of the many books that Pi-orek plans to cover in the course.
“ T h e r e is a com-mon miscon-ception that the
Cain to teach new introduction to law class Piorek brings back Biblical literature seminarcourse only covers the Bible,” Piorek said. “The fact is that many films and books al-lude to stories in the Bible, so we will actu-ally be focusing a lot on those works.”Some believe it may be difficult to avoid
mixing education and religion in the course. Piorek, however, believes it is possible to focus on the Bible as a literary document with the right instruction. “I want to find out how to make it ac-
cessible for people of all religions,” Pi-orek said. “One way to do this is to look at symbols from other works and literature besides the Bible.”
This year’s seniors that signed up for Biblical literature as juniors are displeased the class wasn’t available this year. Some students are disappointed that the seminar is coming back when they will already be i n college.
“I was disappointed to learn that the course wouldn’t be
offered last year,” senior Devin Gold said.
Several juniors are ex-cited about taking the course next year. They feel confident that the skills
they can learn in the course will
help them to u n d e r s t a n d
and analyze Biblical al-lusions.
“I have heard so many re-ally great things about
Mr. Piorek, and also the subject mat-ter interests me,” junior B r a n d o n
Seidel said.
BY JOANI GILLAM
NEWS EDITOR
English teacher Zamira Ska-lkottas will leave at the end of the 2011-12 school year to teach in Tarsus, a city located in the south coast of Turkey.
The opportunity to teach abroad arose when Skalkottas attended a Search Associates job fair in San Francisco.
“I’ve always wanted to teach internationally,” Skalkottas said. “I thought of this dream when I was staying in Europe, but I had to get my credentials and class-room experience before I could continue with my plan.”
In Turkey, Skalkottas will con-tinue teaching high school Eng-lish, but will take Turkish lan-guage lessons to help her adapt to the culture.
“I have Ms. Skalkottas this year, and she always talks about other cultures,” sophomore Mad-dy Vogel said. “I think this will be a great opportunity for her, espe-cially because it involves teach-ing in a different country.”
In addition to adapting to the Turkish culture, Skalkottas be-lieves that the lenient discipline policy in Turkish high schools may be a challenge.
“One thing I am worried about is the discipline policy in Turkey,” Skalkottas said. “There is no such thing as detention, and the only way to keep a class under control is by being a good person and a role model.”
Skalkottas believes that her Greek heritage will help her get the most out of her experience teaching abroad.
“Because Turkish and Greek heritage are so intermixed, I hope to learn more about history and myself through my travels,” Ska-lkottas said. “I also heard that the
country is beautiful.”As of now, there is no full-time
replacement for Skalkottas.“We will hire a replacement,
but that person will be temporary for the first year,” Principal Ben
Dale said. “Ms. Skalkottas will be missed. Her students love her.”
Skalkottas plans to teach for one year in Turkey before decid-ing whether or not to return to the United States.“I am very happy that I finally
get to fulfill my goal, which is
teaching internationally,” Ska-lkottas said.
All Eyes on !emVictor Rivers (top) visited Mira Costa on March 9 to host an assembly
warning about the dangers of domestic abuse. His son, senior Eli Rivas
(above left), introduced him, and senior Taylor Zech also spoke about her
personal experiences with abusive relationships.
NEWSA4 La Vista March 23, 2012
BY ANGELINA VOLUCCI
STAFF WRITER
Mira Costa Model United Na-tions members competed and re-ceived the Best Delegation award at the 60th annual session of the Berkeley Model United Nations conference March 9-11 at Univer-sity of California, Berkeley.
Forty Mira Costa MUN stu-dents attended the conference, with the majority of them being sophomores and seniors. The conference featured 14 commit-tees covering topics such as bio-energy and food security.
“My partner, [senior] Caitlin McGough, and I dissected each aspect of our topic, drug traf-ficking, and crafted solutions for each,” junior Nick Jones said.
Mira Costa delegates received six Best Delegate awards (“gav-els”), 10 Outstanding awards
Mira Costa choir performs at Carnegie Hall
Hart announces resignation, plans to return as science teacher in fall
NORTH STARS: Fourth period Model United Nations prepares for the Berkeley Model United Nations Conference that took place on March 9-11.
EMMA SALZMAN/LA VISTA
MUN triumphs at Berkeley and six Commendation awards. Jones and McGough received one of the six gavels. Costa’s MUN team received the Best Delega-tion Award, alongside Huntington Beach and Cerritos High School.
“A MUN advisor told me the west coast is above the east coast in terms of MUN,” Costa MUN co-advisor Wayne Knutson said. “This reflects not only our team’s strength, but also our achieve-ments.”
This was the last conference for many of the 37 MUN seniors. Co-advisor Bob Timberlake be-lieves those who competed at Berkeley were valuable resources to the younger peers they coached and guided.
“My experiences with MUN have been such a big part of my four years of high school,” McGough said. “Finishing my last conference was emotional.”
BY AVA KLEIN
NEWS EDITOR
Mira Costa choir members per-formed at New York City’s Carn-egie Hall, where they were recog-nized as the “Featured Choir” on the weekend of March 3-4.This was the first time that Mira
Costa’s choir has performed at the historic music hall. According to choir members, performing at Carnegie was life-changing.“Singing at Carnegie was defi-
nitely one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and I will truly never forget it,” junior Ra-chel Azafrani said.
Costa choir participants of all levels were invited to Carnegie. Over one hundred choralists par-ticipated in the Carnegie concert. According to choir members, the experience of being in New York, was a memorable one.
“I had a really great time,” ju-nior Molly Curtis said. “ Being in New York with some of my best friends and performing with kids from all over the country was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Choir performed many songs including “Machet die Tore weit,” “O vos omnes,” “Richte mich Gott” and “March of the Tore-adors from Carmen.” According
to choir director Michael Hayden, the performance was a success.
“They were brilliant, poised and professional,” Hayden said. “I am more than proud; I am ab-solutely elated. They were noth-ing short of amazing.”
Carnegie Hall is one of the most recognized music halls in the na-tion, and Costa choir performers felt honored to be involved in such a prestigious event.
“The opportunity to perform in such a respected hall as Car-negie was a once-in-a-life time experience,” junior Matt Phillips said. “I am sure that I, along with everyone else who attended, will never forget this performance or this experience.”
Parents of choir students and Costa faculty members, including Principal Ben Dale and Manhat-tan Beach Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Mat-thews, chaperoned choir’s trip.
“They [choir members] were awesome,” Dale said. “I fought back the tears as they sang, sa-vored every moment and did not want it all to end.”
Costa choir members practiced every day in preparation for their performance at Carnegie Hall.
“Every day in the classroom our choirs strive for choral ex-cellence,” Hayden said. “We all share this daily dedication to be-ing the best choirs we can possi-bly be.”
BY ALEX WYCKOFF
STAFF WRITER
Mira Costa Vice Principal Paula Hart an-nounced on March 8 that she will resign from her position at the end of the school year and hopes to return to Costa as a biol-ogy teacher in the 2012-13 school year.
Hart says she ultimately came to her de-cision to leave her current position because of her strenuous work schedule that con-flicted with all of her responsibilities as a single parent.
“I know that she felt extremely over-worked because she’s doing the jobs of three people,” Vice Principal Jen-nie Wright said. “I do not know how long she’s been con-sidering stepping down, but I know that the job that she has done for us in these last couple of years has been phenomenal.”
Hart sent an email to the entire Costa staff on March 8 to inform the staff of her decision to step down as vice principal.
“I’ve been thinking about doing this for a really long time,” Hart said. “But I only submitted my decision a short while ago. I still have to run it through the board, and it had to be submitted by March 15.”
Hart’s career at MBUSD started in 2007 as a vice principal at Manhattan Beach Middle School. She moved to Mira Costa a year later, in 2008, and has been a vice principal for the school since.
“She [Hart] has worked tirelessly and thanklessly as a school leader, especially in athletics and facilities,” Principal Ben Dale said. “She will still be a valued Mustang
and [also a valued] resource for students in the future.”
Of the duties that are shared amongst the vice principals, Hart has been in charge of many jobs around Mira Costa campus, in-cluding security, construction management and athletics.
“I do three full-time jobs here,” Hart said. “And I’m a single parent. It’s not be-ing overworked. It’s just a matter of my kids being a priority. They need to come first. I need to be there for them.”
The administration has yet to choose Hart’s replacement. Wright thinks that finding a replacement for Hart could potentially be a difficult process.
“She has such a wealth of experi-ence and knowledge,” Wright said. “Anyone that comes in to replace her will have a lot to fill
for;; it’ll be very difficult for a replacement. I hope they bring in more than one person for this.”
Hart is optimistic about becoming a biol-ogy teacher. She brings over a decade of previous teaching experience to the Costa campus. Although she has no tenure as a Costa certificated staff member, Dale con-firmed that she has permanent employment rights due to her extensive time in the dis-trict as an administrator.
“I’m really looking forward to hopefully working with the people in the Science De-partment here,” Hart said. “They’re really great professionals. I have been teaching for 16 years. I have taught everywhere from the elementary school level to the college level, and teaching is just like getting back onto a bike again after a while.”
COURTESY ALISON GERBER
TONING IT UP: Mira Costa choir received the opportunity to sing as a “Featured Choir” at Carnegie Hall in New York City during the first weekend in March.
“She has such a wealth of expe-rience and knowledge. Anyone that comes in will have a lot to !ll for; it’ll be very di"cult for a replacement. I hope they bring in more than one person
for this.”
Jennie WrightVice Principal
Restrictive policy may lead to booster over-regulation
Smoking ban will improve city conditions
Voter identi!cation laws make voting di"cult for poor, minority votersBY MICHAEL POWELL
OPINION EDITOR
Recent attempts by state legis-
latures around the nation to imple-
ment voter identification laws do very little to combat the problem
of voter fraud. As a result, these
laws “throw the baby out with the bath water” and make it harder for citizens to vote.
Many of these laws require photo IDs like drivers licenses. Although it may seem logical to
require such forms of identifica-tion at the voting booth, the real-
ity is that acquiring such forms of identification is costly to voters. In fact, proponents of these laws point to the state of Wisconsin
as riddled with voter fraud. This claim is baseless; out of three mil-
lion votes cast in 2004, there was found to be a fraud rate of .0002
percent, according to the Brennan
Center.
Why are Republicans pushing
these voter ID laws? Many liberal analysts will say that Republicans aim to suppress poor voters,
who tend to vote Democrat-ic.
According to the Wash-
ington Institute for the Study
of Ethnicity and Race, Indiana’s
photo ID laws, which are of the strictest in the nation, affect
one-fifth of Indiana residents by requiring such forms of ID. Fur-thermore, the study showed that
African-Americans were dispro-
portionately affected.
These laws do not fix the prob-
lem of voter fraud and only per-
petuate the trend of voter sup-
pression. If someone is willing to commit voter fraud, forging an ID
won’t be difficult. States should be stopping criminals, not voters.
Instead of trying to stop people
from voting with red tape, state governments should make voting easier for all citizens of voting
age. Weekend voting should be maintained in states like Florida
where Republican law makers are hard at work trying make it harder for working people to vote.If lawmakers wish to promote
accountability in the electoral
system, they should look toward stopping election fraud, not voter
fraud. Laws should thus be imple-mented that promote transparen-
cy with electronic voting machines.
Proponents of voter ID
laws, like Alabama Con-
gressman Artur Davis,
claim that voting is no different
from cashing checks or using a public library; all are activities
that do and should require ID. Congressman Davis ignores that
voting is a fundamental consti-
tutional right. One doesn’t need
an ID when practicing freedom of speech;; why is the freedom to vote any different?States like Texas that are chal-
lenging the Justice Department
suspension of their laws are more concerned with politics than lib-
erty. Texas could not prove to the Justice Department that its law did not violate Section 5 of the
Voting Rights Act, which requires all changes in voting practices to
be neutral in their affect on mi-
norities.
It is thus clear that voter ID
laws exacerbate the nearly non-existent problem of voter fraud, make voting difficult and discour-age voter participation.
10. The alleged appearance of narcs on campus. Wait, who said anything about narcs?
9. The bomb threat’s anonymous tipster on Mustang Morning News;; it looks like Hernandez got a new wig.
8. The first weekend of MBYB playoffs. Nothing says Manhat-tan Beach like short white kids trying to play basketball.
7. Another sophomore was probably arrested.
6. Casino Night, but you didn’t need March Madness to miss it.
5. Mr. Fish’s return. He’s not getting pushed around this time.
4. The Fullerton drama festival. Nothing beats a “Fiddler on the Roof” bus orgy.
3. Kony’s viral explosion. Nothing will show up the LRA more than a couple hundred million Youtube views and white guilt.
2. Jason Russell’s viral public explosion. Ha. Get it.
1. The release of Kloes’ Ace the AP Exam tutoring video. It’s not Love Story Weddings, but it’s pretty damn good.
ALEC LAUTANEN, MICHAEL POWELL AND MAGGIE ROBAK/OPINION EDITORS
DANNY KELLEHER/EXECUTIVE NEWS EDITOR
BY MICHELLE MCKENNA
STAFF WRITER
A recent Hermosa Beach or-dinance banned smoking on its pier, in public parks, outdoor din-
ing areas in its restaurants and in
the Pier Plaza. This ordinance is a positive step toward improving life in the city.
The anti-smoking ordinance went into effect March 8. Those in violation of the code will face a $100 to $500 fine, as well as a criminal misdemeanor charge issued
by the city after the third ticket. California anti-smoking laws have already banned smoking in any public place of employment,
such as bars, restaurants and ca-
fes. Smoking on the beach was banned in 2006 by the Hermosa Beach City Council.
This new law will further en-
sure the safety and cleanliness of
Hermosa Beach by increasing re-strictions on smokers.This new, stricter law, first pro-
posed in 2010, is based on smok-
ing regulations initiated in Santa
Monica and Calabasas. Accord-
ing to Hermosa Beach City Man-
ager Steve Burrell, about $19,500 has been spent on “Healthy Air Hermosa,” a public outreach pro-
gram which hopes to educate lo-
cal businesses on the new smok-
ing ordinance.
This program will have posi-tive outcomes as it will work to educate businesses and the public
to the dangers of exposure to sec-ondhand smoke.
Organizations such as the
Beach Cities Health District, Surfrider Foundation and Ameri-can Cancer Society have praised
Hermosa Beach city leaders for taking charge and curbing expo-
sure to secondhand smoke.The ordinance will also reduce
litter and attract more nonsmok-
ers to local restaurants.
Some residents and businesses,
however, believe the ordinance is too strict and has the potential to
hurt commerce, especially in bars
and restaurants that line the Her-mosa Beach Pier Plaza.
However, the benefits certainly
outweigh these potential draw-
backs. By prohibiting smoking in these public places, nonsmok-
ing citizens will be less-exposed to secondhand smoke and its consequences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, secondhand smoke contains at least 250 known toxic chemicals. Nonsmokers should not be exposed to such dangers.
Their experiences in public places shouldn’t
be hampered by cigarette
smoke and litter. The ban also will dis-
courage smoking all together by excluding smokers from smok-
ing in bars and restaurants, while eliminating the litter commonly
left behind by smokers. By get-ting rid of this litter, Hermosa Beach will be a cleaner city for tourists and residents.
Ultimately, the ordinance has
the potential to bring in even
more business by making Her-mosa Beach family-friendly. Her-mosa Beach and the entire South
Bay are largely family-dominated
areas;; this ordinance reaffirms the healthy lifestyle encouraged
throughout the area.
BY SHAYLYN AUSTIN
STAFF WRITER
Board Policy 1230, passed on
March 21, will require all school-connected organizations’ budgets
and financial statements to be ap-
proved by the district through the
Manhattan Beach Athletic Foun-
dation. Increasing regulations on
booster clubs will ultimately con-
strict these organizations’ fund-
raising abilities.
According to the disctrict,
these revisions reflect concerns proposed in California Assembly
Bill 165, which Governor Jerry Brown vetoed last fall. AB165 would have enforced already exis-tent California legislation that re-
quires all aspects of public school be free of charge to students.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought this issue to the
state government and is re-filing a lawsuit against the state for re-quiring students to pay money for school organizations. In light
of this dispute, the board has de-
cided to take regulatory measures to ensure that all school-connect-
ed organizations are operating in
ways that are completely compli-ant with policy and law.Though the impact of these
regulations is not yet known, the policy grants vague authority to
the district and leaves too much
room for interpretation. Boosters
are concerned that in the future,
the district will use this lack of clarity as a means to ex-
pand its rules and regula-
tions.
For example, the revi-sions state that the district
has the ability to decline
the authorization of dona-
tions for specific expenses. Boosters will no longer have the freedom to submit
money to their accounts without the prior approval of the district
due to BP 1230.
Boosters cannot afford to be
told how they are allowed to raise
money. The over-regulation of fundraising activities and dona-
tions of school-connected organi-
zations will impede the financial success of these groups.
According to girls basketball Booster President Debbie Mar-
tucci, money raised by boosters is
vital to program’s survival.
The revisions further state that school-connected organizations
are responsible for additional
expenses such as the salaries of teachers or coaches and trans-
portation. These overhead costs are mutually agreed
upon between the organiza-tion and the district, and if
they are not paid, the district
will not approve donations for any other expenses.
If they could not meet
the pre-determined ex-
penses, boosters would be expected to make unneces-
sary cuts. In this situation, the
district over-steps its jurisdiction
in determining what organiza-tions are allowed to spend their money on.
Financial reliability and re-sponsibility should be valued at
Mira Costa. However, this should not lead to over-regulation, which could drain funds and ultimately
lead to more cuts within programs on campus.
One benefit to the policy is the district’s right to audit the finan-
cial records of school-connected
organizations, such as sports
boosters, at any time. This revi-sion would ensure the reliability of organizations and verify that
they are following the Education Code. The district should focus on less intrusive supervision that
still holds organizations account-
able but do not disrupt their abil-
ity to raise funds.
Organizations should simply be
required to provide annual bud-
get reports to the district, which would include their intended ex-
penses and fund-raising projects,
in order to prove their compliance
with the legislation. Although greater management
and oversight of finances would aid consistency with the law ex-
pressed in AB165, it would ulti-mately hamper school-connected
organizations’ abilities to make purchases and hold fund-raising
activities for their programs.
Top Ten things you missed during March Madness
!ese laws do not "x the problem of voter fraud and only perpetuate the trend of voter suppression.
A5OPINIONMarch 23, 2012 La Vista
By prohibiting smoking, non-smoking citizens will not be exposed to second-hand smoke and its consequences.
JACKSON CASSIDY/ LA VISTA
Non-profit organization Invisible Children has already proven itself a social media juggernaut, but less-than-rep-utable financial practices and unreasonable program goals have raised questions about the group’s credibility.
Kony 2012: An exercise in mass-activism
BY JACK ALLEN
STAFF WRITER
AND MACKENZIE AUSTIN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Despite the recent excitement surrounding the organization, Invisible Children has an unrealistic goal and very questionable transparency. Mira Cos-ta students and charity donors all over the nation must reconsider before they place more confidence and funding into this national organization.
Invisible Children is a national organization that aims to ease the suffering of the child soldiers in Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony’s “Lord’s Resis-tance Army” and neutralize his impact in the region. The organization has recently gained repute from its viral video about Kony.
The finances of Invisible Children are flawed, especially in its monetary appropriation. In 2011, the Invisible Children organization put forth only 23.9% of its total revenue toward its Central Afri-can programs. Typically, a non-profit organization directs 30% of its funds toward its overhead costs which partially include officer salaries. Clearly, In-visible Children’s fiscal priorities are backwards.
As for the rest of the allocation of Invisible Chil-dren’s funds, about 20% goes to salaries and the re-maining percentage goes to its awareness programs, which urges American teens to make Kony famous
Program Expenses
Administrative Expenses Fundraising Expenses
Program Expense Breakdown:
Total Program Expenses for 2010-11 Fiscal Year: $7,163,384
= $100,000
Direct Aid Services
= $10,000
$2,949,444
Program Communication and Supplies$179,013
Film Costs$1,244,881
Office Costs $385,045
Professional Services $205,395
Travel and Transportation$852,820
$7.16M
80.5%
16.2%
Compensation Costs$1,074,725
3.3%
Invisible Children goes Viral:
Insurance$74,225
Depreciation$197,836
350%: Increase in “kony 2012” searches *
82,282,426: Youtube views
3,146,971: Facebook page likes
420,408: Twitter followers
250%: Increase in “invisible children” searches *
How aware are you of the Kony 2012 campaign, and what do you think about it?
through a nation-wide campaign. A large proportion of funding also goes to employee travel and film promotion.
Invisible Children’s goal is “to promote the ar-rest of Joseph Kony and Top LRA Leadership.” Not only is this goal ill-advised in itself, but the plan that Invisible Children has created to achieve its goal is hardly effective.
The charity has created the “Action Kit,” for which $30 gives people “official campaign” memo-rabilia. Buying this kit will not make people think that you are a supporter of the cam-paign, but an “advo-cate of awesome” as stated on the Kony 2012 website. Con-sidering that stopping LRA violence is its goal, Invisible Chil-dren should spend more of its time and resources doing exactly that, instead of portraying itself as an “awesome” program selling souvenirs.
Invisible Children’s most significant project has been its series of 11 30-minute videos, the last of which has gone viral with over 32 million views within the first two weeks of its launch. Although this video has been well received within the United
“I just found out about it by see-ing posters and stickers support-ing the movement. I think the
way they have been campaiging it is wrong.”
Savannah WoodJunior
“I’m pretty aware of the cam-paign. I think it’s good but there
are more important issues the U.S. should be focusing on.”
Matt LargeFreshman
Brian MartinSophomore
“They should be putting their money toward rehabilitation
and sustainability rather than a political campaign they don’t
know anything about.”
Lisa ClaypooleActivities Director
“As a follower of the move-ment, I believe Kony is a
terrible person, though I know there is controversy with the
funding of the club.”
Facts and Figures
Organizations with similar causes:
States, a public screening within Uganda funded by African Youth Initiative Network left those most affected by the Ugandan Crisis feeling offended, belittled and commercialized, according to the Al Jazeera news network
Invisible Children’s focus on Kony misleads the public about a very complex and volatile issue; the Ugandan Crisis is much more intricate than the cap-ture of just one person. The Ugandan government and the LRA are engaged in a 26-year, religious-
ly-based civil war, and capturing Kony does not get rid of the deep-seeded hatred that each side feels for one another.
Although awareness is an active goal of the orga-nization, American rec-ognition of Joseph Kony will not solve the Ugan-dan Crisis.
This charity’s key method of action is to
pressure the United States government into using direct military intervention to capture Kony. This is despite the fact that he is no longer active within Uganda and has not been since 2006, something In-visible Children openly admits.
In addition, Invisible Children supports and urg-es the United States government to aid the Uganda
People’s Defence Force, the governmental opposi-tion to the LRA. However, the UPDF has been tried by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, the same crimes Invisible Children claims Kony has commit-ted. This army has also admitted to allowing and using the very same children abducted by the LRA to fight for their own side within the conflict.
Furthermore, the Acholi People, whom Invisible Children attempts to aid, suffer from fundamental illnesses and societal inadequacies that can be con-sidered even more threatening than Kony’s army of child soldiers. Some of these afflictions include un-dernourishment, Nodding Disease and HIV/AIDS, all of which Invisible Children could effectively target but does not.
Although Invisible Children attempts to solve an issue that has long-affected Central Africa, the in-tricate circumstances that surround Kony cannot be solved through posters, short films and creative use of the Facebook Timeline.
Clearly, activism is an important tool to a effect change and solving the Ugandan crisis is of para-mount urgency. Political activism is welcomed and encouraged among Mira Costa students. However, it would be prudent to aim Costa’s activist spirit to-ward a program that is actually effective, and act-ing on a concrete and well-informed strategy, rather than emotion, is the only way that real change will be enacted.
Analysis
Invisible Children has right intentions, wrong focus
Child Soldiers International campaigns for the im-mediate demobilization of all children currently being used as soldiers in armed conflict and their reintegration into their communities. Child Soldiers International asks that you write letters to your local representatives, or you can donate to the organiza-tion by simply going to http://www.everyclick.com/childsoldiersinternational.
Project (Red)http://www.joinred.com
(Red) has the goal of delivering an AIDS-free gen-eration to the world. Red gets retail companies such as Gap clothing, American Express, Beats by Dre, Apple and Nike to make certain (RED) products. When a customer buys one of these (RED) prod-ucts, 50% of the profits go straight to The Global Fund, which gives medicine and supplies to people suffering from AIDS and HIV.
Samburuhttp://www.thesamburuproject.org/
The Samburu Project´s initiative is to provide easy access to clean drinking water to communi-ties throughout Kenya’s Samburu District. This is a community where women and children walk up to 12 miles every day in search of water that is often contaminated. Clean water can help to impact oth-er aspects of the community including education, healthcare and women´s empowerment.
COURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.BEALMIGHTY.COMCOURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.HTTP://EN.CYBERDODO.COM COURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.CLEANWATERSUMMIT.ORG
PAGE COMPILED BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD WITH JACK ALLEN/ STAFF WRITER AND MACKENZIE AUSTIN/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER, PHOTOS BY CARINA GLASSER/ LA VISTA
* Since the release of the viral “Kony 2012” video
All finances taken from Invisible Children’s self-published finance report at http://invisiblechildren.com/finances.html
Mira Costa’s Invisible Children Club is a small part of a much larger community of volunteers and supporters trying to raise awareness for child sol-diers in Uganda.
The long-term goal of the organization is to help an entire generation of children to finally live in peace and to have a brighter future. The Invisible Children Club has been on campus for several years and currently has 25 active members.
As part of the nation-wide “Kony 2012” cam-paign, the club has been putting up a variety of awareness-driven posters around Manhattan Beach, including the downtown area and the pier.
“We feel we’ve done a good job in our first phase by making Kony famous,” Mira Costa Invisible Children Club President senior Riley O’Connell. “As a group we can’t actually catch him, but we hope to raise as much awareness as possible.
The national organization has been under scru-
tiny recently due to new criticism of the organiza-tion’s financials and the recent arrest of Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell.
“I have known Jason for five years and have al-ways been in good communication with him, and I
Costa’s Invisible Children Club
Roving Reporter:
VISIBLE CAUSE: Invisible Children Club President Riley O’Connell (middle) leads a meeting of the Invisible Children Club. The club aims to raise money for the national organization and raise awareness.
NICOLE FISHER/ LA VISTA
Invisible Children has labeled itself as an “advocacy and aware-ness program, not an aid orga-nization,” and with a failed plan based on poor logic, the mere achievement of its goal is far-fetched.
A6 A7
can’t believe he did that,” O’Connell said. “He just must have had a breakdown. He has been under a lot of pressure lately, and I can’t believe it happened.”
The Invisible Children Club meets on Thursdays in room 46 and welcomes new members.
Non-profit organization Invisible Children has already proven itself a social media juggernaut, but less-than-rep-utable financial practices and unreasonable program goals have raised questions about the group’s credibility.
Kony 2012: An exercise in mass-activism
BY JACK ALLEN
STAFF WRITER
AND MACKENZIE AUSTIN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Despite the recent excitement surrounding the organization, Invisible Children has an unrealistic goal and very questionable transparency. Mira Cos-ta students and charity donors all over the nation must reconsider before they place more confidence and funding into this national organization.
Invisible Children is a national organization that aims to ease the suffering of the child soldiers in Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony’s “Lord’s Resis-tance Army” and neutralize his impact in the region. The organization has recently gained repute from its viral video about Kony.
The finances of Invisible Children are flawed, especially in its monetary appropriation. In 2011, the Invisible Children organization put forth only 23.9% of its total revenue toward its Central Afri-can programs. Typically, a non-profit organization directs 30% of its funds toward its overhead costs which partially include officer salaries. Clearly, In-visible Children’s fiscal priorities are backwards.
As for the rest of the allocation of Invisible Chil-dren’s funds, about 20% goes to salaries and the re-maining percentage goes to its awareness programs, which urges American teens to make Kony famous
Program Expenses
Administrative Expenses Fundraising Expenses
Program Expense Breakdown:
Total Program Expenses for 2010-11 Fiscal Year: $7,163,384
= $100,000
Direct Aid Services
= $10,000
$2,949,444
Program Communication and Supplies$179,013
Film Costs$1,244,881
Office Costs $385,045
Professional Services $205,395
Travel and Transportation$852,820
$7.16M
80.5%
16.2%
Compensation Costs$1,074,725
3.3%
Invisible Children goes Viral:
Insurance$74,225
Depreciation$197,836
350%: Increase in “kony 2012” searches *
82,282,426: Youtube views
3,146,971: Facebook page likes
420,408: Twitter followers
250%: Increase in “invisible children” searches *
How aware are you of the Kony 2012 campaign, and what do you think about it?
through a nation-wide campaign. A large proportion of funding also goes to employee travel and film promotion.
Invisible Children’s goal is “to promote the ar-rest of Joseph Kony and Top LRA Leadership.” Not only is this goal ill-advised in itself, but the plan that Invisible Children has created to achieve its goal is hardly effective.
The charity has created the “Action Kit,” for which $30 gives people “official campaign” memo-rabilia. Buying this kit will not make people think that you are a supporter of the cam-paign, but an “advo-cate of awesome” as stated on the Kony 2012 website. Con-sidering that stopping LRA violence is its goal, Invisible Chil-dren should spend more of its time and resources doing exactly that, instead of portraying itself as an “awesome” program selling souvenirs.
Invisible Children’s most significant project has been its series of 11 30-minute videos, the last of which has gone viral with over 32 million views within the first two weeks of its launch. Although this video has been well received within the United
“I just found out about it by see-ing posters and stickers support-ing the movement. I think the
way they have been campaiging it is wrong.”
Savannah WoodJunior
“I’m pretty aware of the cam-paign. I think it’s good but there
are more important issues the U.S. should be focusing on.”
Matt LargeFreshman
Brian MartinSophomore
“They should be putting their money toward rehabilitation
and sustainability rather than a political campaign they don’t
know anything about.”
Lisa ClaypooleActivities Director
“As a follower of the move-ment, I believe Kony is a
terrible person, though I know there is controversy with the
funding of the club.”
Facts and Figures
Organizations with similar causes:
States, a public screening within Uganda funded by African Youth Initiative Network left those most affected by the Ugandan Crisis feeling offended, belittled and commercialized, according to the Al Jazeera news network
Invisible Children’s focus on Kony misleads the public about a very complex and volatile issue; the Ugandan Crisis is much more intricate than the cap-ture of just one person. The Ugandan government and the LRA are engaged in a 26-year, religious-
ly-based civil war, and capturing Kony does not get rid of the deep-seeded hatred that each side feels for one another.
Although awareness is an active goal of the orga-nization, American rec-ognition of Joseph Kony will not solve the Ugan-dan Crisis.
This charity’s key method of action is to
pressure the United States government into using direct military intervention to capture Kony. This is despite the fact that he is no longer active within Uganda and has not been since 2006, something In-visible Children openly admits.
In addition, Invisible Children supports and urg-es the United States government to aid the Uganda
People’s Defence Force, the governmental opposi-tion to the LRA. However, the UPDF has been tried by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, the same crimes Invisible Children claims Kony has commit-ted. This army has also admitted to allowing and using the very same children abducted by the LRA to fight for their own side within the conflict.
Furthermore, the Acholi People, whom Invisible Children attempts to aid, suffer from fundamental illnesses and societal inadequacies that can be con-sidered even more threatening than Kony’s army of child soldiers. Some of these afflictions include un-dernourishment, Nodding Disease and HIV/AIDS, all of which Invisible Children could effectively target but does not.
Although Invisible Children attempts to solve an issue that has long-affected Central Africa, the in-tricate circumstances that surround Kony cannot be solved through posters, short films and creative use of the Facebook Timeline.
Clearly, activism is an important tool to a effect change and solving the Ugandan crisis is of para-mount urgency. Political activism is welcomed and encouraged among Mira Costa students. However, it would be prudent to aim Costa’s activist spirit to-ward a program that is actually effective, and act-ing on a concrete and well-informed strategy, rather than emotion, is the only way that real change will be enacted.
Analysis
Invisible Children has right intentions, wrong focus
Child Soldiers International campaigns for the im-mediate demobilization of all children currently being used as soldiers in armed conflict and their reintegration into their communities. Child Soldiers International asks that you write letters to your local representatives, or you can donate to the organiza-tion by simply going to http://www.everyclick.com/childsoldiersinternational.
Project (Red)http://www.joinred.com
(Red) has the goal of delivering an AIDS-free gen-eration to the world. Red gets retail companies such as Gap clothing, American Express, Beats by Dre, Apple and Nike to make certain (RED) products. When a customer buys one of these (RED) prod-ucts, 50% of the profits go straight to The Global Fund, which gives medicine and supplies to people suffering from AIDS and HIV.
Samburuhttp://www.thesamburuproject.org/
The Samburu Project´s initiative is to provide easy access to clean drinking water to communi-ties throughout Kenya’s Samburu District. This is a community where women and children walk up to 12 miles every day in search of water that is often contaminated. Clean water can help to impact oth-er aspects of the community including education, healthcare and women´s empowerment.
COURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.BEALMIGHTY.COMCOURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.HTTP://EN.CYBERDODO.COM COURTESY OF HTTP://WWW.CLEANWATERSUMMIT.ORG
PAGE COMPILED BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD WITH JACK ALLEN/ STAFF WRITER AND MACKENZIE AUSTIN/ CONTRIBUTING WRITER, PHOTOS BY CARINA GLASSER/ LA VISTA
* Since the release of the viral “Kony 2012” video
All finances taken from Invisible Children’s self-published finance report at http://invisiblechildren.com/finances.html
Mira Costa’s Invisible Children Club is a small part of a much larger community of volunteers and supporters trying to raise awareness for child sol-diers in Uganda.
The long-term goal of the organization is to help an entire generation of children to finally live in peace and to have a brighter future. The Invisible Children Club has been on campus for several years and currently has 25 active members.
As part of the nation-wide “Kony 2012” cam-paign, the club has been putting up a variety of awareness-driven posters around Manhattan Beach, including the downtown area and the pier.
“We feel we’ve done a good job in our first phase by making Kony famous,” Mira Costa Invisible Children Club President senior Riley O’Connell. “As a group we can’t actually catch him, but we hope to raise as much awareness as possible.
The national organization has been under scru-
tiny recently due to new criticism of the organiza-tion’s financials and the recent arrest of Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell.
“I have known Jason for five years and have al-ways been in good communication with him, and I
Costa’s Invisible Children Club
Roving Reporter:
VISIBLE CAUSE: Invisible Children Club President Riley O’Connell (middle) leads a meeting of the Invisible Children Club. The club aims to raise money for the national organization and raise awareness.
NICOLE FISHER/ LA VISTA
Invisible Children has labeled itself as an “advocacy and aware-ness program, not an aid orga-nization,” and with a failed plan based on poor logic, the mere achievement of its goal is far-fetched.
A6 A7
can’t believe he did that,” O’Connell said. “He just must have had a breakdown. He has been under a lot of pressure lately, and I can’t believe it happened.”
The Invisible Children Club meets on Thursdays in room 46 and welcomes new members.
ment in athletics, extracurricular activities
and community service related to the Mira
Costa community should be the defining factors.
According to history Department Chair Bill Fauver, voters are currently told to
weigh a potential nominee’s academic strengths as 60% of the decision, and co-curricular activities and citizenship as 20% of the overall decision each.
The current nomination system does
not adequately allow for outside factors
like extracurriculars to be considered. In
fact, many voters simply vote by name-
EDITOR’S NOTE
STAFF EDITORIALS
BY KYLE ALLEN
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
After four years of incredible experienc-es at Mira Costa, it’s clear we have some-thing special on this campus. Few other schools can match what this eclectic mix
of students brings to the table. Costa’s greatest strength is that it is not
sheltered from the hard realities of the real
world. Freshmen are forced from the first day of school to fend for themselves and
figure out how to make the school suit them. Hands aren’t held, and students quickly learn the importance of self-reliance.Costa students are taught to never take
anything for granted. We have to advocate for ourselves in the classroom, with the ad-ministration and on the field. Guidance Counselors help us pick our
classes, but it’s up to the student to deter-mine how he wants to spend his high school career. In a free market system of choos-ing electives, sports and rigor of schedule,
Costa students are taught to live and die with the consequences of their decisions. A
plethora of opportunities are presented, but it is up to the students how to take advan-tage of them.
This philosophy isn’t always popular, and the administration could certainly ease
some of its more Draconian policies like commitment forms and the short windows
of time to change or drop classes. Yet, a school that causes its students to
survive on their own results in students
who are incredibly self-sufficient. Private schools can’t boast the same Darwinist ef-fect, because they are designed to hold a student’s hand every step of the way. We at La Vista are often known for our
tendency to dig up the less-than-admirable aspects of Mira Costa, to the chagrin of the people who work so hard to keep it great.
That we are even able, and rarely dis-couraged, from criticizing the school
speaks volumes about the freedom Mira Costa gives its students. Few other schools would provide
an environment that allows something like La Vista to thrive. The culture of independence and self-responsibility enables us to listen, observe, analyze
and come to conclusions.
As a public school with labor disputes, funding shortages, and the occasional criminal-student, attending Mira Costa provides an exercise in surviving in the real-world.
Costa students who choose to take advan-tage of this freedom and embrace responsi-bility graduate with far more life skills than their counterparts at other, more protective schools who aren’t given the same freedom to both succeed and fail.
Costa’s sink or swim attitude embraces self-reliance
Every year, Mira Costa’s faculty and staff vote to determine the nominees for
Student of the Year. While the final selec-tion process usually results in the right stu-dent being chosen, lack of clarity and student input and a misguided emphasis on perfect grades bring the nomination process down.Certificated staff members vote
to determine the nominees. Voters are given ballots which contain the members of the senior class with the
top 10% of unweighted GPAs. Once the ballots are tallied, the five (and six in case of a tie) highest vote-get-ters are nominated. Representatives from each of the 11 departments on campus then vote on the nominees. The nominee with a majority of
votes is named Student of the Year.
The primary problem with the Student of the Year nomination process is the con-fusion about the award itself. The Student
of the Year should be the best all-around citizen the senior class has to offer. The
graduating class’s valedictorians already celebrate the students with the best grades. While strong academic performance is
certainly an implied prerequisite, involve-
Student of the Year nomination process needs review
MIRA COSTA HIGH SCHOOL
1401 ARTESIA BOULEVARD
MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIFORNIA
(310) 318-7330
MARCH 23, 2012VOLUME LXII, ISSUE 7
LAVISTAMCHS.COM
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
KYLE ALLEN
ZACK ROSENFELD
MANAGING WEB EDITOR
KATIE BARGER
MANAGING EDITOR
ROBIN JANOTTA
COPY EDITOR
ERIC ZHENG
NEWS EDITORS
DANNY KELLEHER, EXECUTIVE
JOANI GILLAM
AVA KLEIN
OPINION EDITORS
ALEC LAUTANEN, EXECUTIVE
MICHAEL POWELL
MAGGIE ROBAK
ARTS EDITORS
HANNA MCGUIRE, EXECUTIVE
DYLAN FAIR
ZACK GILL
LIFE EDITORS
ALEX PARDUCCI, EXECUTIVE
CARLY MONTAN
ERICA SCHNEIDER
THEME EDITORS
DUNCAN GREGORY, EXECUTIVE
JAKE MAHR
EMMA ROSENBAUM
SPORTS EDITORS
ZANE FRANKLIN, EXECUTIVE
RYAN ERICKSON
REGAN ESTES
RYAN FRANKLIN
CALENDAR EDITOR
LOGAN SCHLOSSBERG
PHOTO MANAGER
CONNOR WRIGHT
PHOTO EDITOR
LELAND LESNEVER
BUSINESS MANAGER
JEROME REDMAN
ASSISTANT BUSINESS MANAGERS
NICK BLOCK
SYMPHANIE ROSARIO
CIRCULATION EDITOR
JESSICA WU
ARTISTS
JACKSON CASADY
RAMIE LANDIS
ASSISTANT CIRCULATION EDITOR
ANGELINA VOLLUCCI
ADVISER
MICHAEL MCAVIN
STAFF WRITERS
JACK ALLEN, SHAYLYN AUSTIN, KATIE BROWN, SKYLAR CAPUTO, ARIANA GEVOV, REBECCA HEXT, JULIANA HOFT, ARI HOWORTH, CAMILLE JUTON, KYLE KHATCHADOURIAN, ELIZABETH KNEISLEY,
EMILY LOCKWOOD, ALEX LOSSON, ALEC MARCHANT, MICHELLE MCKENNA, AMANDA NEWELL, HANNAH PROCTOR, ISAAC SIEGEMUND-BROKA, CASEY SUBLETTE, LUKE TRIMBLE,
KYLE ALLEN, JOANI GILLAM, ROBIN JANOTTA, DANNY KELLE-HER, AVA KLEIN, ALEC LAUTANEN, MICHAEL POWELL, MAGGIE
ROBAK, ZACK ROSENFELD, ALEX WHITE, ERIC ZHENG
DISCLAIMER: LA VISTA IS THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MIRA COSTA HIGH SCHOOL, SERVING 2,700 STUDENTS IN GRADES 9-12. CONTENT, WHICH IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LA VIS-TA STAFF, IS NOT SUBJECT TO ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVAL. UN-SIGNED EDITORIALS REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE NEWSPAPER, WHILE OPINION COLUMNS REPRESENT ONLY THE WRITER’S VIEWS. ADVERTISEMENTS DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF LA VISTA. LA VISTA PUBLISHES 11 ISSUES THROUGHOUT THE SCHOOL YEAR ON A TRI-WEEKLY BASIS AND DISTRIBUTES 3,000 COPIES TO BOTH MIRA COSTA CLASSROOMS AND SUBSCRIBERS. LA VISTA IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE COLUMBIA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION AND WELCOMES SIGNED LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ON TOPICAL ISSUES FROM THE MCHS COMMUNITY. THEY MAY BE MAILED TO MICHAEL MCAVIN IN THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING MAILBOX OR SENT TO [email protected]. LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY. PLEASE CONTACT LAVISTA-
MISSION STATEMENT: LA VISTA IS COMMITTED TO PROVIDING ONLY THE HIGHEST QUALITY REPORTING WHILE MAINTAINING A STRICT STANDARD OF JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY
AND PROVIDING ITS READERS WITH RELEVANT CONTENT.
In a free market system of choosing electives, sports and schedules, Costa students are taught to live and die with the consequences of their decisions.
recognition, as the ballot contains only the student’s name and grade point aver-age. Community involvement isn’t openly considered until the nominees have been
selected and have put together an extensive portfolio of essays and accomplishments that demonstrate their time at Mira Costa.
To improve the merit of all nomi-nees, alterations to the nomination
process must be made. An origi-nal ballot of the top students with the highest 10% of weighted GPAs should be provided to voters. In or-der to encourage teachers to vote for students they may have never taught, they would be able select 10 students each to advance to the second round
of voting. The second round of voting would fea-
ture the top-25 vote-getters from the first round, and students would be able to pro-vide a short biography describing their time at Costa to go along with their name on the ballot. Voters would then each select five students to be the final nominees and ad-vance to the final selection of the Student of the Year. The award should represent the best all-around student Costa has to offer.
With nationwide economic uncertainty, organizations everywhere are being forced to make cutbacks. The Manhattan Beach
Unified School District is no exception. Certificated staff employees have not re-ceived a market-rate adjustment since 2002, and a Manhattan Beach city parcel tax would provide for this increase. It’s no question that the 331 members of
MBUSD’s certificated staff form a uniquely talented educational body. Although Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association members suggest using district reserves, this method isn’t the most responsible as reserves represent a fixed amount of money, whereas pay increases are an annual cost.
According to Deputy Superintendent Rick Bagley, MBUSD’s staff benefits pack-age already makes employment desirable, salary aside. However, a recent study by
the California Teachers Association ranked
MBUSD 10th out of 13 neighboring dis-tricts for benefits packages. Employment competitiveness significantly depends on both of these factors, and a market rate
adjustment would do well in attracting tal-ented teachers to MBUSD.Union members claim that allocating
reserve funding toward salary increases is a logical option. However, MBUSD has been in a process of deficit spending for several years now. If Gov. Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase Initiative fails, these reserves
will be depleted by 2014, according to dis-trict projections.
The most prudent course of action to fund a market rate adjustment would be a parcel tax for the city of Manhattan Beach. A $75 annual tax for the city’s roughly 15,000 par-cels would net $1,125,000 per year. Such initiatives require a two-thirds majority to pass, but given the community’s previous support of school improvement programs, it is not unreasonable to expect approval of
a similar proposal, especially once tangible results from Measure BB are witnessed.
According to MBUTA figures, a 3% salary raise for MBUSD certificated staff would cost less than $1 million annually. With this extra revenue specifically direct-ed to teacher salaries, staff could see indi-vidual yearly increases in the thousands of
dollars, putting MBUSD salaries on par with neighboring districts.
Negotiations are largely depen-dent on the passage of several tax initiatives this fall, though. If Gov. Jerry Brown’s Tax Increase Initia-tive fails, MBUSD projections show drastic revenue reductions. Negotia-tions passed in the near future should
leave room for contract adjustment after
the passage or failure of these upcoming initiatives.
Financial times may be difficult, but this should be all the more incentive for
MBUSD to increase teacher salaries. New revenue streams could be responsibly used to adequately provide for current staff while simultaneously attracting future talent.
Teacher contract negotiations must see salary increases
Employment competitiveness signi!cantly depends on salary and bene!ts, and a mar-ket rate adjustment would do well in attract-ing talented teachers to MBUSD.
OPINION March 23, 2012A8 La Vista
JACKSON CASADY/ LA VISTA
BY ALEC LAUTANEN
EXECUTIVE OPINION EDITOR
Every May, hundreds of Mira Costa stu-dents participate in Advanced Placement testing over a wide variety of subjects. Stu-dents should not feel restricted from taking an AP test in a class they’re not enrolled in, nor should the AP test be the required
end to coursework.Although most test-tak-
ers are prepped by a full year of class, some study on their
own without the aid of a formal teacher. These students should be
lauded for their personal initiative and given the opportunity to test
how they want to exhibit their knowledge.
On the opposite side of the equation, students enrolled in
AP classes should not be man-dated to take the Advanced Placement test at the end of the year. If students wish to
take more challenging classes for the col-lege experience, they should not be pun-ished, sometimes by nullifying all course credit, for not taking one exam.
With strict commitment forms and two semesters of heavy coursework, many students are dis-couraged from taking rigorous AP classes during the school year.
Those students may be legitimately in-terested in the material the course provides and still want to demonstrate that knowl-edge to prospective colleges through AP exams.
OPINIONMarch 23, 2012 A9La Vista
PRO/CON
Should AP testing be restricted based on class?
Does it make sense for CP students to attempt AP exams?ROVING REPORTER
PRO: CON:
Additionally, those who already have full schedules and not enough room to take the course may feel that a few months of preparation time is adequate for the exam. There should be nothing prohibiting them from taking the test, and they are totally justified in their efforts.
Furthermore, students who take normal college preparatory courses during the year should be encouraged to take the cor-responding AP test if they feel they have mastered the material.
Critics argue that having CP students take an exam meant for an AP class isn’t logical, as CP material doesn’t cover the depth of its AP counterpart. However, if students feel they have mastered the origi-nal curriculum, simply supplementing it with further AP review will be enough in most cases.
Students, especially advanced ones, should easily be able to pass an AP test with adequate prep, even though they may lack in-class experience.
Some teachers also claim that having CP students take the AP test will decrease pass rates and tarnish reputations. However, this attitude ignores the fact that non-AP students who take AP tests are likely well versed in the material and confident enough to take a non-required exam.
On the other end of the spectrum, AP students should not be required to take the AP exam at the end of the school year. Al-though many class outlines mandate tak-ing this test, it should ultimately be the student’s decision whether or not he or she proceeds with the exam.
By having an entire year of coursework dependent on participation in one three-hour exam, teachers sometimes marginal-ize previous work by students in the class.
The ideal situation for all involved would be to place no restrictions on which students can take which AP test. By hav-ing a system in which students can take
additional tests if they wish (such is the cur-rent program), but not mandating that every-one take the exam, the
learning environment can be enriched for all. Students will be able to demonstrate AP class knowledge to universities, and those seeking only the challenge of classes will be fulfilled as well.
BY BRADEN CURREY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
With an increasingly-competitive col-lege admissions atmosphere, some stu-dents seek to pad their resume by taking Advanced Placement tests without taking the corresponding AP class. This often means trying to cram an entire year’s cur-riculum into, at best, a few months of work and is not a sufficient strategy for success in coursework and exams.
Students have every right to take AP ex-ams without taking the class. But they will miss major benefits of AP classes: prepar-ing for college life by taking college-level courses and mastering core subject matter that will enable success in collegiate-level courses in the same subject.
The AP program was designed to give high-achieving students a chance to enrich their curriculum and pursue college-level courses, and the AP test was intended to be a quality-assurance measure to ensure that students actually mastered the material presented in the course.
The AP system has expanded over the last 50 years from a small initiative at elite private schools to a nationwide program; more than one million American students took an AP test last year according to the College Board.
At Mira Costa and other historically high-achieving schools, there is no need to take an AP test without taking the class. Unlike some schools, which offer few or no APs, Mira Costa students have the luxury of choosing from 18 different AP classes.
And as students who take the most popu-lar AP courses can attest, few people are-turned away for lack of space.
Ultimately, these students who take the AP test with-out taking the class are doing so to game the system, at-tempting to pad their resume without doing the work required for an AP class.
Students most commonly take a class like CP United States history, which focus-es primarily on modern American history, and then try to take the AP United States history test, which draws from a much
Classes should be taken prior to testing Students should take the AP tests they want
“No, because AP tests cover what students learn in AP class
so it would be unfair for students in CP classes.”
Jessie Franco
Freshman
“Yes, students should be able to challenge themselves. If they think they’ve prepared then go
for it.”
Dan Debevec
Math Teacher
“No, there is more information in AP classes about the subject than in CP, so it would be a big
disadvantage.’
Melina Cohen
Junior
PHOTOS BY SEKINAT SHIWOKU/ LA VISTA
“No, because an AP student has the whole year to prepare and they go into way more depth
than a kid in a CP class.”
Kate DiRado
Senior
Olivia Waldarf
Sophomore
“Yes, because CP students should be able to have the same
opportunity as AP students.”
larger knowledge base. The majority of students who go this route earn a score of a three or lower on the AP Test, according to history teacher William Fauver.
These scores are not high enough to pro-vide college credit at higher-tier universi-ties. After all, one of the major purposes of the AP test is to waive out of college course prerequisites and distribution re-
quirements, some-thing that can’t usually be done with a low score.
In an era where college admissions officers stress the need for students to pur-sue their high school’s most rigorous cur-riculum, those tak-ing the short cut are only hurting their application. For col-lege admissions, it isn’t the AP test that matters; it is the rigorous AP course.
And for college suc-cess, there is no substi-tute for mastering the curriculum before mov-ing on to higher-level college courses. Success in AP classes gives col-leges evidence of poten-
tial student success.There’s no rule or policy stopping stu-
dents from taking AP tests without taking the course. However, taking them to pad resumes and artificially augment college applications is at best a waste of money and at worst a path for failure at the col-legiate level.
For college admissions, it isn’t the AP test that matters; it is the rig-orous AP course. And for college success, there is no substitute for mastering the curriculum.
!e ideal situation for all involved would be to place no restrictions on which students can take which AP examiniation.
JACKSON CASADY/ LA VISTA
A10 March 23, 2012SPORTSLa Vista
Boys tennis defeats Chadwick High School despite a tough road to pull out the victory
In the Mustangs’ eighth regular-
season game at home on Wednes-
day, the Costa boys tennis team
beat the Chadwick Dolphins,
10-8, in a match decided by the
final game. Number-one singles player ju-
nior Michael Carella lost his first match to the number-one Chad-
wick player, junior Maximilian
Hawkins, by a score of 6-2. De-spite his initial loss to Hawkins,
Carella bounced back and won
his next two games, 6-1 and 6-4. “Michael was solid,” Hawkins
said. “He had good volleys and was a good competitor.”
Doubles players freshman Ja-
son Wu and junior Kyvan Elep
swept all three of their games
with scores of 6-2, 6-2 and 6-1. The two were originally singles
players but have only lost one match since the coaches paired
them together.“We didn’t think we were
doubles players,” Wu said. “But we’ve been doing really well. It is strangely working.”The first round of matches was
not great for Costa. Elep and Wu were the only ones to win a game. Freshman Evan Han came up
short to junior Matt Suman, a for-
BY CASEY SUBLETTE
STAFF WRITER
mer Costa tennis player. “They were a pretty tough
team,” Han said. “We have been a pretty good team, and it’s going
to be a tough season.”The second round fared better
for the Mustangs, who won four
of their six matches. Junior Tom
Wissel and senior Brian Broth-
ers won their game, 6-1, nearly
shutting out the Dolphins.For the final round, the Mus-
tangs won four of six games again. Han shut out his opponent, 6-0, in
his final game of the day. Elep and Wu won their third match of
the day to help the Mustangs get
closer to a win. In the final match of the day to
Girls lacrosse dominates Downey
CROSSE THE PLANE: Junior Kira Hagaman (right) readies a shot against a Downey defender Wednesday. Costa ran away with the win, 20-4.
decide the winner of the game,
the win was in Carella’s hands. Suman played him very tough, but Carella came up with the win
by a score of 6-4.“I thought we competed well,”
coach Joe Ciasulli said. “We went in knowing two tough singles and
a tough double team. We had to have no margin of error, and we came up with the win.”
The Mustangs played Penin-
sula yesterday at home in their
second Bay League game of the season, but results were unavail-able due to time of publication. Costa’s next game will be on
Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Santa Monica at home.
SPORTS BRIEFS
Mustang swimming starts with wins from both boys and girls
The Mira Costa boys and girls swim teams competed in their first competition of the season against El Segundo at home on March 13. The boys and girls won with scores of 89-81 and 118-39, respectively.
For the boys, senior Ryan Reede finished with a time of 52.27 sec-onds in the 100-meter free. For girls, junior Mariel Mitsakos won
both the 200-meter free and 500-meter free with times of 2:01.87 and 5:26.40, respectively.The boys team will swim again in the South Bay Invitational Prelims
on Tuesday and the girls will compete the following day.
COMPILED BY RYAN FRANKLIN/ SPORTS EDITOR AND ZANE FRANKLIN/ SPORTS EDITOR
CARINA GLASSER/ LA VISTA
HANG TEN: Freshman Evan Han performs an overhand serve in a loss against Chadwick High School at home on March 21. The Mustangs beat the Chad-wick Dolphins with a final score of 10-8 after a close finale.
BY AMANDA NEWELL
STAFF WRITER
The Mira Costa girls lacrosse team con-
tinued its undefeated Bay League record with its win over Downey High School, 20-4, at Costa Wednesday. The team’s record now stands at 7-2-0 and its Bay League record stands at 5-0.
The team maintained a major lead
throughout the entire game, as well as an
aggressive pace.“We played well together as a team
tonight,” junior defensive player No-
elle Claycomb said. “We moved the ball quickly, especially during transitions.”
The Mustangs held Downey to four goals
throughout the game, using their rebound-
ing abilities on shots that deflected off the goal posts. Many of Downey’s offensive breakaways were stopped by Costa’s de-
fense, including junior Susanna Sieke’s
stop of a breakaway in the first quarter. “Our defense played very well tonight,”
junior Carly McGuire said. “They talked a lot, which prevented a lot of goals. We’ve become a lot stronger and improved im-
ensely since the OC Tournament.”Along with the girls’ strong defense,
Costa’s offense has improved since the beginning of the season. Besides scor-ing goals, the offense moved the ball and passed to each other throughout the entire
game. Both junior Taylor Pool and sopho-
more Lia Sepanek contributed offensively, scoring the majority of Costa’s goals. “Overall, our offense has been playing
really well,” junior Kim Koltun said. “The only thing we need to continue to improve on is charging in and making smart plays. Besides that, we’ve been really aggressive and have passed well.”
Although the girls are undefeated in their
Bay League season, they plan on continu-
ing to improve their skills and grow as a
LELAND LESNEVER/ LA VISTA
team in general. On their list of improve-ments are setting up more offensive plays and picking up ground balls quickly.
“We need to execute the plays we make
on offense,” Claycomb said. “We also need to continue to talk and communicate like
we did tonight and be aware of what’s go-
ing on on the field around us.”Coming off of the confidence boost from
defeating Redondo Union High, one of
their biggest threats and rivals, the girls plan to beat Palos Verdes High School in
their Bay League matchup tonight at 7 p.m. in Waller Stadium.
“We need to play just like we did against
Redondo, with high intensity from the be-
ginning and large amounts of emotion,”
McGuire said. “If we all play like it’s our last game, we’ll definitely bring our A game on Friday.”
Boys golf suffers second loss of season on road against Edison
The Mira Costa boys golf team traveled to Seacliffs golf course to take on Edison High School on Tuesday. The Mustangs suffered their second loss of the season, moving their overall record to 8-2 with a Bay League record of 3-1.
Senior David Kim led the boys with a score of 38 in the Mustangs’
201-199 loss against Edison High. Senior Evan Westerberg added a
score of 40 and freshman C.J. Coleman shot a 39.The boys will look to bounce back with a Bay League match on
Tuesday against Redondo Union High at Los Verdes Country Club.
Track and field dominates PV, sets multiple course records
The Mira Costa boys and girls track and field squads defeated Palos Verdes with scores of 100-36 and 75-61, respectively on Tuesday.
Senior Kyle Hubbard placed first in the 300-meter dash and 100-meter dash with times of 38.63 and 15.52 seconds. Senior Dylan Gates
set a record in the 800-meter dash with 1 minute, 57 seconds. Juniors Shawn Griffin and Reed Scale also set records in pole vaulting with 14 feet.
In girls, senior Acacia Moore was first in 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles with times of 15.82 and 48.31 seconds. Senior Ashley Dotson
had times of 12.30 and 25.56 seconds in the 100-meter and 200-meter, setting a record in the 200-meter.Select individuals will compete in the Cal Relays at Cerritos College
today, and the Mustang Relays will take place on March 31 at Mira
Costa’s Waller Stadium.
March 23, 2012 SPORTS A11La Vista
TEAM RECORDS
Brooks Varni (Senior)Boys Volleyball
Varni had eight digs in Costa’s win at Redondo on March 15.
Katie Saunders (Senior)Softball
Saunders ripped a base hit in the girls’ away win on March 20.
Anthony Lombardo (Senior)Baseball
Lombardo drove in 3 RBI’s in the Mustangs’ win on March 14.
David Kim (Senior)Boys Golf
Kim led the boys with a total score of 38 in golf ’s loss on March 20.
Kyle Hubbard (Senior)Track and Field
Hubbard had 38.63 seconds in 300-meter hurdles on March 20.
Chris O’Brien (Senior)Boys Lacrosse
O’Brien scored six goals in Cos-ta’s win at home on March 14.
Mira Costa so!ball wins big on road, 16-0, against Buena Park for fourth win of season
TOP PERFORMERS
SOFTBALL SISTERS: (From left to right) seniors Meghan Von Behren, Katie Saunders, and junior Nikki Gialketsis have led the Mustangs softball team to a 4-3 start. The girls beat Buena Park High, 16-0, on March 20 on the road.
SEKI SHIWOKU/ LA VISTA
Sometimes, genetics hold us back from greatness. La Vista is one of the nerdiest, whitest, least-coordinated organizations on campus, and while the MBYB playoffs rage on, we are forced to watch from the bench.
But please, don’t worry. What we lack in skill and athleticism we make up for in intellectual ar-rogance, so we didn’t hesitate to create a list of the things we’re good at.
Please, don’t freak out. We know that it’s not normal for us to be so antagonistic and patron-izing toward all of the lesser orga-nizations on campus, but you’re just going to have to act like it’s a recurring tendency.
First, angering ASB. Is there anything more fun for us than enjoying events Student Govern-ment puts on and then talking
about how lame they are? It’s what makes us tick.
Mark our words, Claypoole; we have no intention of stopping. Not only will we continue to act like we hate everything ASB does (it makes us feel cool), we’ll also make sure to beef up our roster for next year’s ASB vs. La Vista Win-ter Games. Don’t be surprised if some fully pubescent “Assistant Business Managers” start show-ing up around room six.
Second, using real sources in our stories. The cutting down on anonymous sources recently has been a good start (it was also nice to see Salvation’s Army new wig collection), but seriously, all you guys do is tell students about the bad stuff they do. Apparently, energy drinks aren’t healthy, and teenagers like to illegally down-load music! If you don’t believe
them, just listen to any of their wide variety of psychologists!
Third, pushing safety regula-tions to the limit. We La Vista kids are always disappointed when the white layer of floor re-appears from beneath the grime, and the vermin living under our various couches have become our brothers.
Fourth, spreading propaganda. Now that we have enthusiasti-cally decided to endorse Michael Whinfrey for ASB President, La Vista’s political machine will stop at nothing to reach its goal. Expect to see “Whinfrey or Die Hard” posters new around campus.
Lastly, offending almost every-one at Mira Costa. For the record, if we had a baby in our access that we could have addressed this col-umn to, we would have done it. Such a shame.
BY RYAN ERICKSON
SPORTS EDITOR
With a winning percentage of .500, the Mira Costa softball team traveled to Buena Park on March 20 feeling that it had something to prove. The Mustangs did just that by shutting out Buena Park with a score of 16-0 and improving their record to 4-3.
“We came out swinging today, and we started pounding the ball from the first through the sixth in-ning,” coach Dick Amberik said. “Overall, solid all around effort from the girls today.”
Senior captain Katie Saunders started at catcher for her 30th- consecutive game and had a sin-gle in her only plate appearance against Buena Park, but, she left the game in the second inning due to exhaustion from running the L.A. Marathon.
Her backup, junior Nikki Gi-alketsis, filled in admirably for the three-year starter. By going three for three with five runs bat-ted in, two runs scored, a triple and a grand slam in the third in-ning. Gialketsis’s performance broke the game open for the Mus-tangs in the third inning when the score was still close at 1-0.
“It was a really awesome expe-rience hitting my first home run as a varsity player,” Gialketsis said. “The whole team felt really good today when we came out to the field and our confidence showed in the box score.”
Senior shortstop Meghan von Behren also had a good day at the plate, matching Gialketsis’ five runs batted in and adding three hits of her own to the scor-ing barrage that Mira Costa piled on Buena Park.
“Today was really needed for us as a team because we wanted to
go out and prove to ourselves and everyone else that we are a great team,” Von Behren said. “We are really happy with this win.”
Senior pitcher Breanna Kelly led the team on defense by throw-ing six shutout innings, which was her third shutout of the year and helped bring her overall re-cord to 4-1 for the season. She credits her success this season to the stellar defense of the fielders behind her.
“I’m hoping that the game we played today is a sign of good things to come for the rest of the year; we have a ton of returning starters, and we all love playing together,” Kelly said.
Amberik said his team is ready for the upcoming Katella Tour-nament, in which the Mustangs placed third last year, starting on March 25 against a team that has
not been determined yet. “We’re only 13 days away
from starting Bay League play, so we’re trying to determine the nine players who will be out there playing. We’re trying to give ev-eryone an equal opportunity to go out there and win a starting spot in the lineup. We want to see what everyone’s got on this squad,” Amberik said.
Amberik also feels that with the schedule that he has compiled for his team that it will prepare them for the tougher games to come later in the year and the playoffs.
“We play great defense, the competition we’re facing is very good and the girls have good chemistry when they’re out there on the field,” Amberik said. “My predictions are that we are go-ing to be a very successful team throughout this season.”
Sport Overall Bay LeagueWin Loss Tie LossWin Tie
Boys Volleyball Baseball
So!ballBoys Lacrosse
Girls LacrosseBoys Tennis
7 5 - - - - -
COMPILED BY RYAN ERICKSON, REGAN ESTES, RYAN AND ZANE FRANKLIN/SPORTS EDITORS
PHOTOS TAKEN BY EMMA SALZMAN/LA VISTA
La Vista needs a con"dence boost
DIGITS
birdies by senior David Kim on March 19 at Victoria.
spring sports, three more than any other season.
runs scored by softball on March 20 at Buena Park.
GET OUT BALL: Junior Kevin Lopez drives the ball to right field in game one of the Mustangs’ annual El Segundo double-
header on Wednesday. Mira Costa won the first game, 2-1, and finished off the sweep in the second with a 9-0 victory.
four pitches and junior Trent Hammond drove in a run with a fielder’s choice to second base. “This was the best team chem-
istry we’ve had all year, and we had a great attitude. It was a great team effort, and everybody did their part,” senior Anthony Lom-bardo said.
Junior Chris Alcala pitched a complete game and only allowed one earned run from an RBI dou-ble in the third inning.
“Going up against a good Di-vision I college pitcher like that, I just needed to keep my team in the game. I knew their wouldn’t be a ton of runs scored today, so it was my job to keep us competi-tive.” Alcala said.Key defensive plays kept the
Mustangs ahead for the entire game thanks to Conrad, Erickson, and Hammond.“The defensive plays gave us
momentum and helped out our pitcher Chris. It feels great to win against our rivals, especially when they threw their ace,” Con-rad said. Costa sent Lombardo to the
mound to pitch the second game,
and the Mustangs again jumped out to an early lead with an RBI single by junior Jack Hadley. The Mustangs later scored off
of an RBI single by Hammond in the fifth. Neither of the teams scored until the top of the seventh inning, when Costa scored seven runs. The runs came from walks, hits, and hit batters, while the Ea-gles had no answer. “I was really excited to get my
first varsity start, and I was just focused on putting it in play,” Hadley said. “I felt like we were really able to get the job done as a team.” The Eagles, now down by nine
runs at the bottom of the seventh inning, had no answer for the Mustangs. The Mustangs finished the second game, 9-0, sweeping the double-header. The Mustangs’ next game is
Saturday at 11 a.m. against Santa Monica at home. “We’ve had a great attitude.
The balls started bouncing our way and we worked well together as a team which led us in both wins today,” coach Cassidy Ol-son said.
Putting an end to a three-game losing streak, the Mira Costa base-ball team has won four games in a row, sweeping El Segundo in a double-header on Wednesday on the road at Stevenson Park. Cos-ta’s record improved to 7-5. The Mustangs jumped out to an
early 2-0 lead in the first game, and they went on to win 2-1. Cos-ta faced off against El Segundo’s top pitcher, senior Josh Bornstein, who is committed to Division I UC Irvine.
Senior shortstop Ryan Erick-son led off the first inning with a double to right field, followed by a bunt single by senior Turner Conrad, advancing Erickson to third base.“It was very important to get
runners in scoring position early on in the first inning, especially in a game where we knew runs would be limited,” Conrad said.A balk from Bornstein allowed
Erickson to score the Mustangs’ first run of the game. Senior Ryan Franklin was walked on
EMMA SALZMAN/ LA VISTA
BY REGAN ESTES
SPORTS EDITOR
good team.”The team has started slowly
throughout the season and has called upon big waves of scoring to get itself back into games.
“We thought we were going to crush them, but Downey brought a good game and we had to make a lot of in-game adjustments on offense and defense that allowed us to cooperate as a team,” Fran-cis said. Senior mid-fielder and captain
Christopher O’Brien led the team with five goals, followed by Randall with four. “We need to be able to move the
ball around on offense and score some more goals,” O’Brien said. “I really like what lies ahead for this team going forward through-out the season.”With only six games played so
far in the regular season, Costa has plenty of time to focus on fine-tuning its offense for the playoffs. The Mustangs won CIF’s L.A. County division in 2011 before losing to Foothill High in the Southern California title game.
“We needed to tighten up and play better defense,” Jewett said. “We needed to run the ball on of-fense. Once we did, it got better.”
BY HANNAH PROCTOR
STAFF WRITER
Mira Costa boys lacrosse de-feated Downey High School on Wednesday on Downey’s home turf, maintaining its undefeated Bay League record of 5-0. The fi-nal score of the game was 13-9.The Mustangs got off to a slow
start offensively and defensive-ly, falling behind 4-1 in the first quarter. After a speech by coach Christopher Jewett at the end of the quarter that rejuvenated the team, Costa came roaring back with five unanswered goals to fin-ish the half with the lead.“We started off pretty slowly,
but after coach talked to us a cou-ple times we got our heads in the right spot and we really stepped it up,” senior forward Dakota Ran-dall said.During the second half, Costa
gained a strong lead with patient offense. The Mustangs scored seven goals in the second half held Downey to only four goals. “We’re always together, even
when we make mistakes;; we’re always bringing each other up,” junior defenseman Marcus Fran-cis said. “I think we’re a pretty
CLAIRE KEIFER/ LA VISTA
FACE-OFF: Junior Alec Hoag (right) faces off at midfield to start the Mustangs’
18-10 win over Redondo on March 14 at Waller Stadium. The Mustangs beat
Downey High for the second time this season Wednesday on the road, 13-9.
LELAND LESNEVER/ LA VISTA
ORANGE CRUSH: Senior Keith Waddell (center) spikes the ball for a point in a league game against
Redondo Union High School on March 15. The Mustangs swept the Seahawks in three games.
BY REBECCA HEXT
STAFF WRITER
The Mira Costa boys volleyball team beat out Newport Harbor High School on Tuesday after a slow start in the first game of the match. Costa swept the Sailors in three games on Newport’s home court.“[Newport Harbor] won the Orange
County Championship, so we knew they were a good team,” senior middle blocker Michael Debevec said. “But we came out with good energy and that allowed us to control the games.”After the first match started off with a
lot of back-and-forth play, the Costa boys picked up their game and got back to the dominant style they usually play. Junior outside hitter Riley Mallon stepped up and gathered eight kills during the game and helped bring the final score of the first match to a 25-18 win for Costa. “We started off a little rough,” Mallon
said. “But once we started communicating, we were able to work better as a team.”Going into the second match, the boys
knew that they needed to pull out a win to keep their momentum. With the game tied 11-11, senior middle blocker/opposite Keith Waddell scored a point to gain the
Boys volleyball sweeps Newport Harbor in 3 games on the roadlead. With the combination of Waddell’s kill and two critical errors by Newport, Costa was able to finish the match by a score of 25-16.“We played really well as a team,” senior
captain Brooks Varni said. “Our hitters hit very well and carried our team throughout the game.” After Costa won the second game, coach
Mike Ninnis and the boys were confident that the second-string could pull out a win in the third match. While starters such as senior setter Jackson Carr and Varni took a break, second string players such as ju-nior outside hitter Casey White and senior setter Chris Griebenow got a chance to show their skills on the court.“Our team has lots of depth this year,”
senior outside hitter Kevin Inlow said. “I was very excited to see that the second string got to get in there and play.”The second-string boys kept the intensi-
ty up and finished the match with the final win of 25-19, ending the match in a Mira Costa victory. Carr ended the match with 26 assists while Waddell and junior middle blocker Ryan Kaseff had eight kills each. “Our second-string players are all good
and constantly challenge the starters in practice,” junior opposite Grant Chalm-
Boys lacrosse beats Downey for second time this season
ers said. “It was nice to see Casey and Chris act as leaders in our last match.”The boys have a record of 6-1 and plan
on improving as their season continues. The boys’ next game will take place on March 29 on the road against West Tor-rance High School. The Mustangs played
Peninsula High at home yesterday but stats and scores were unavailable due to time of publication “We played with a lot of fire today,” Carr
said. “It looked like the boys were having a lot of fun, and that is the key to our success for our team.”
In this SectionEnglish teacher John Heideman !ghts cancer with his trademark humor
Editors’ Picks: Music Festival season looms around the corner
Photo by Ryan Reede/ La Vista
Manhattan Beach celebrates 100 years
1912-2012 B5
B4
B11
Arts&LifeMarch 23, 2012 1401 Artesia Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA, 90266 Vol. LXII Issue 7 www.lavistamchs.com
SEE HOW D
RUGS AFFECT MIR
A
COSTA’S STUDENT BODY
PAGE B6"7
LIFEB2 La Vista March 23, 2012
9 SCORE AND 10 YEARS AGO: (Top) The Manhattan Beach pier during the
summer of the 1984 Olympics is contrasted with the present day pier.
COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER
“I think it’s interest-ing, and indeed excit-ing, to think that this little city by the bay has been around for so long. Manhattan Beach is a place that has seen a lot in 100 years, and it clearly
re!ects that.”
Lynn WangSophomore
BY SYMPHANIE ROSARIO STAFF WRITER
In December, 1912, the city of Manhattan Beach was incor-porated in the state by George Peck and John Merrill. Through-out the year of 2012, the city of Manhattan Beach and its resi-dents will celebrate the city’s 100th birthday by throwing events that showcase the city’s history throughout the year.
In celebration of the centen-nial, the head of Parks and Rec-reation of Manhattan Beach, Richard Gill, along with other organizations such as the Neptu-nian’s Women Club, have been coordinating events such as the Manhattan Beach School Art Contest and the upcoming event, “Taste of Manhattan Beach.”
The Manhattan Beach School Art Contest was held throughout February and March by the Nep-tunian’s Women Club and was open to Manhattan students of all grade levels.
There were about 60 entries in the contest, and the winners’ pieces will be displayed at the “Taste of Manhattan Beach” event held on March 25 in down-town Manhattan.
“It’s rare to live in a town with so much history,” Mira Costa junior Robin Paris said. “Even if you live in an old town, most people don’t celebrate it like we do in Manhat-tan Beach.”
Featured in the “Taste of Manhat-tan Beach” event is cuisine from 23 select local restaurants such as Petros and Simmzy’s. There will be live music and entertainment, chef demonstrations and a farmers’ market which is open to the pub-lic at the event.
“I’m excited to go to the ‘Taste of Manhattan Beach’,” junior Gabrielle Liddy said. “It should be a fun way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our city.”
The bands to perform at the event have not yet been an-nounced. Tickets to attend are
Manhattan Beach celebrates 100 years of history$15 each or $25 for two.
“I’m excited to try all of the different cuisines and listen to the bands that will be performing,” Liddy said.
The Manhattan Beach Downtown Business Owners Association and other local busi-nesses will come together to cel-ebrate the city’s centennial on July 7 at the Centennial Festival. At the Festival, there will be a car show fea-turing vintage cars that symbolize life in Southern Cali-fornia, such as the Woodie.
“I think it’s interesting, and in-deed exciting, to think that this little city by the bay has been around for so long,” sophomore Lynn Wang said.
Historic photos depicting Man-hattan’s humble beginnings will also be placed around town and in store fronts.
“Manhattan Beach is a place that has seen a lot in 100 years, and the celebration clearly re-flects that.” Wang said.
One of the many other excit-ing events being organized to cel-ebrate the centen-nial is a parade on May 19.
“I worked for the City of Man-hattan Beach over the summer and learned about the city’s long histo-ry,” senior Char-
ley Binkow said.In the parade there will be
floats from various community
organizations, marching groups such as the Mira Costa Marching Band and a dignitary. The parade will end in Polliwog Park with a picnic including a historic photo display, food and entertainment.
“I am very excited to celebrate the city’s existence and growth over time,” Binkow said.
Residents of Manhattan Beach can participate in the celebratory events throughout the year and
volunteer in the Centennial Com-mittee. So far there have been over 150 volunteers helping to raise funds, market, work events
and organize. High school stu-dents are encour-aged to volunteer and will be given service credits.
“I think it’s re-ally interesting that Manhattan Beach has its own commemorative medallion,” junior Logan Tonder said. “There are a lot of little towns throughout the country, and I
think it’s really unique that ours has its very own coin to represent its history.”
One resident of Manhattan Beach is celebrating the centenni-al in his own unique way. James Gill, a Manhattan Beach resident since birth, has designed the com-memorative medallion to repre-sent the occasion.
“I have been collecting coins for most of my life,” Gill said. “I also own the 75th anniversary edition. I wanted to improve upon the design of the 75th me-dallion and thought that this was the perfect occasion to do so.”
Gill, who has been design-ing the coin since 2008, created it with the city pier on one side. Opposite the pier side of the coin, a surfer and volleyball player are pictured along with the Man-hattan Beach seal. Gill chose a volleyball player and a surfer to symbolize two of Manhattan’s fa-vorite pastimes.
The commemorative medallion was minted at the Northwest Ter-ritory Mint center and is available in silver and brass.
So far, 59 silver and 34 brass coins have been sold to the pub-lic. The coins are available for purchase at mb100coin.com.
“I think it’s important to cel-ebrate Manhattan Beach’s birth-day,” Manhattan Beach resident, Emmee Sarmiento said. “Buying the coin is the perfect way to cel-ebrate. It’s a interesting keepsake to have, and it will remind my kids of the history of the city.”
“It’s rare to live in a town with so much history. Even if you live in an old town, most people don’t cel-ebrate it like we do in Manhattan Beach.”
Robin ParisJunior
COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER
1920s: Developers in the Hawai-ian Islands begin to look for sand to fill the many beaches of Ha-waii. They found the sand from the dunes in Manhattan Beach. In July 5 of 1920, the pier was com-pleted and dedicated.
1930s: Beach terrain beings to change. Residents start to see the development of the “tree section” and “hill section” inland from the wavy coast of downtown Manhat-tan Beach. Manhattan Village and Liberty Village were established.
1950s: Due to the increased pop-ulation of the city, a 7.5-million gallon reservoir is constructed. In the 1950s, the water service was the most expensive item in the city’s annual budget. The annual paddle-board race begins.
February 9, 1971: A moderate earthquake hit Manhattan Beach. Most buildings, except for the City Hall, weren’t damaged. Unfortu-nately, the damage to the hall was so severe that it was condemned and vacated Aug. 2, 1971.
COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER COURTESY OF STEVE MEISENHOLDER
1940s: The pier of Manhattan Beach attracts beach goers town wide. The public works depart-ment started a huge storm drain project to significantly reduce
the flooding of city streets during
stormy weather seasons.
The oceanside city of Manhattan Beach through the years
Stroh demonstrates his physical, mental strength through yoga
The goal of yoga is to put the
mind, body, and soul into balance.
Achieving this goal is not easy.
Teaching others to reach this goal
requires commitment and great
love for the practice of yoga.
Sophomore Tyler Stroh main-
tains that balance and commit-
ment as a qualified yoga teacher. Stroh is certified as a yoga teach-
er, which allows him to teach at
studios and gyms. He remains ex-
tremely passionate about deepen-
ing his knowledge.
“I first began practicing yoga regularly in a studio when I was
11 years old,” Stroh said. “I was
introduced to yoga when my
mom started practicing mommy-
and-me yoga with my younger
brother several years ago.”
After finding a passion in yoga, Stroh enrolled in the Mukti Yoga
School—a yoga school that is
known for certifying hundreds of
yoga teachers.
The classes Stroh took included
how to teach yoga, the anatomy
of the human body, sequencing a
class and giving adjustments to
potential students. Stroh started
the training in the fall of 2010
and became a certified teacher in April 2011.
“Tyler’s achievements are sim-
ply a pure product of the yoga he
has found to have a strong pas-
sion for,” P.E. teacher and yoga
BY JULIANA HOFT STAFF WRITER
instructor Teresa Tower said. “We
don’t see that many young people
in the community pursuing such a
passion at such a young age.”
To expand his understanding
of yoga, Stroh decided to become
involved in yoga teacher Julie
Rader’s 500-hour training class
for graduates.
In this extensive class, Stroh
learns how to instruct more ad-
vanced yoga poses while inten-
sifying his comprehension of the
spiritual side of yoga. He started
graduate training in January of
2012, and he will complete the
course in April.
“I leave a class with what the
yogis, or anyone who does yoga,
call a yoga brain— you are in a
Organized chaos skates through Costa sophomore’s !lm
BY ALEC MARCHANT STAFF WRITER
Andrew Freeman, a sophomore
at Mira Costa, has taken his first steps to stardom with the success
of his feature-film debut “Disor-ganized Fun.”
Freeman, along with three oth-
er current Costa students, partici-
pated in the creation of a feature-
film-length documentation of the lifestyle of teenage skateboard-
ing.
“It is refreshing to see high
schoolers be so passionate about
a sport that isn’t necessarily con-
ventional,” senior Laurel Shi-
mamura said
Titled “Disorganized Fun,” the film went through a two-year-long filming and editing process. Coming to a polished end in late
February, it debuted at the Her-
mosa Beach Playhouse April 9.
“We would just film at first,” Freeman said. “Soon, we saw
that there was a decent amount of
footage, so we thought we should
start making a film.”Shot through a handfull of
clips with a to-
tal of 10 skaters
participating, the
film focuses on the urban element
of skateboarding.
Grinding ledges
and jumping gaps
in the hills of Hol-
lywood, in the
streets of down-
town Los Angeles
and in the quiet
ne ighborhoods
around the South Bay, Freeman
and his team attempted to bring
back the gritty aspect of skate
culture.
“It seemed as if they put some
state of bliss and are almost in
your own world,”
Stroh said.
Stroh is also
actively involved
in the Manhattan
Beach studio, the
Green Yogi.
There, he
works as a teach-
er’s assistant. At
the studio, Stroh
helps out while
gaining hands-on
experience with
alignment cues
and adjusting the
poses of the participants.
“Most of the yogis that I have
met are the nicest people and have
EMMA SALZMAN/LA VISTA
YOGI BEAR: Sophomore Tyler Stroh has been stretching his arms, legs and mind through a daily yoga routine for five years. After attending a 200-hour training
program from the fall of 2010 to the spring of 2011, Stroh became a certified yoga teacher. For more practice, he also joined the 500-hour graduate training.
extremely positive outlooks in
life,” Stroh said.
Stroh also par-
ticipates in yoga
classes at the
Green Yogi and
The Yoga Loft,
also in Manhattan
Beach.
“Yoga is a great
activity, not only
for the exercise
aspect but also the
mental aspect of
it,” Stroh said.
In a few weeks,
Stroh is going to
begin teaching yoga classes at
Mira Costa at least once a week.
In the future, he wishes to be a
substitute for yoga classes at local
studios, and he would also like to
teach his own classes.
In college, Stroh hopes to teach
his fellow peers and people of all
ages. He hopes to give others the
mental and physical benefits of yoga that he has experienced in
his own life.
After graduating from college,
Stroh would like to pursue teach-
ing yoga part time.
“There are many aspects to
yoga,” Stroh said. “There is the
physical exercise, there is mental
calmness and there is the aspect
which leads me to live with a
positive outlook on life. Without
the three aspects of yoga, my life
would not be the way it is.”
“Yoga is a great activ-ity, not only for the exercise aspect but also the mental aspect of it. All yogis that I know are the nicest people and have the most positive outlook
on life.”
Tyler StrohSophomore
effort into locating the filming spots,” freshman Jeremy Trimble
said. “They looked well hidden
and fun to skate on.”
After the completion of a dif-
ficult month of editing and final touches, the team
had a new goal to
achieve: setting
a premiere date.
Finding a loca-
tion was a difficult process as a first-time film maker;; however, Free-
man found help
with his surf shop
friend Mark Cole.
The “Disorga-nized Fun” team
became affiliated with Cole while explaining its project to workers
at local surf shop Spyder Surf.
“Mark made things way easier
for me, which was nice, since it
was my first experience with the industry,” Freeman said.
Cole was crucial in getting the
skating film’s recent debut at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse.
“I have known Mark for a long
time,” Freeman said. “Ever since
I’ve been going to Spyder Surf-
boards, he was always really
interested in the film and wanted to help me put the pre-
miere together.”
Senior Wyatt Boyd
is a featured skater in
the film, gracing the silver screen with a
hilarious blooper
reel and skating
with impeccable
technical skills.
Junior Jared
Cleland has also
been filming with Freeman
and Boyd since
the beginning of
“D i s o rg a n i z e d Fun.” Mason Sil-
va, a freshman and
sure-to-be star of
the skateboarding
world, graced the
screen for “Disorga-nized Fun.”
Silva is one of the
youngest skaters that
Freeman shoots.
“They have been
working so hard,” said Lauren
Freeman, Mira Costa alumni and
sister of Andrew. “Two years in
the making and the movie is fi-
nally complete and opening to the
public. It is exciting to watch him
actually finish something.”
The premiere was a mere weeks
away when Freeman finally put the last touches on the film.
Spending hours researching
effects and browsing song selec-
tions became Freeman’s reality in
the last days.
“I wasn’t looking for anything
specific,” Freeman said. “We were just going out and doing
what we would always do;; however, sometimes there
was style or the cleanli-
ness of a trick that really
grabbed my attention,
so I would end up us-
ing those clips.”
By using what is
left of the small profit from the premiere, the
crew is in the midst
of making a DVD ver-sion of the film that will be going up for
sale in a few weeks on
the website www.Big-
Cartel.com.
They will be selling
items from their line
of merchandise like t-
shirts and stickers.
As for the future of
“Disorganized Fun” Freeman and his band
of skaters hope to get
enough footage to elab-
orate further on what
they love so much
about the sport of skateboarding.
“It was a really great experi-
ence being a first time indepen-
dent film maker;; it was a long and difficult process, but it was fun and rewarding in the end too,”
Freeman said.
KATIE BELKNAP/LA VISTA
SK8TR BOY: Sophomore Andrew Freeman’s (opposite right) feature film documenting teenage skateboarding debuted
at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse on March 9. Freeman and his friends spent two years creating the film.
“We would just !lm at !rst. Soon we saw that there was a de-cent amount of foot-age and that we had something going. So we thought we should start making a !lm.”
Andrew FreemanSophomore
LIFE B3La VistaMarch 23, 2012
KATIE BELKNAP/ LA VISTA
LIFEB4 La Vista March 23, 2012
Costa’s Heideman remains positive in light of his illness
CELEBRATING LIFE: English teacher John Heideman has been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He is currently
receiving radiation treatment and is keeping a positive outlook on life and in the classroom where he tells his story.
lova said. “My class was shocked when we found this out, but all of us wish Mr. Heideman the best. He will beat cancer and continue to make future students more aware about life. He taught our class to live in the moment and celebrate life.”
Last September, Heideman found out that he had an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by cells of the prostate gland.
Heideman had a biopsy done in December, and the results came back positive for cancer. “When I first
found out that I had cancer, I did all the typical things that any human would do yelling, crying, screaming - but I believe that you
are never given something that you’re not able to handle,” Heide-man said.
One side of the prostate had stage one cancer, while the other side was on the verge of stage two.
“My doctor told me I could probably do nothing about my cancer and still live a full, rich life, but I wanted to get treat-ment,” Heideman said.
Heideman talked to his urolo-
gist about what treatment meth-ods would be the best for his type of cancer. Because prostate can-cer is one of the slowest-growing cancers, surgery wasn’t necessary for stage one prostate cancer, so Heidman decided to have the ra-diation treatment.“The first time I had the radia-
tion treatment I said to myself, ‘I have Hiroshima and Nagasaki go-ing on inside of me!’” Heideman said. “But I could feel nothing at all. No heat, no pain, nothing.”
His treatment involves 42 ses-sions of radiation and will be completed at the end of April.
“I look at my diagnosis of can-
cer as a speed bump in my life,” Heideman said. “I know friends who have cancer and people who have died from it, and I am very fortunate to get this type of cancer and still be able to come to work and live my life.”
Heideman feels very lucky that his cancer was detected early and that he chose radiation as his method of treatment.
“You must live every moment of your life,” Heideman said.
So far he is very pleased with how the process is going and is happy that he has few side effects from the radiation.
“Think about the people who
aren’t as fortunate, and then start appreciating how good your own life is. When I go into the hospital to get my radiation treatment, I see a lady who gets treatment for having breast cancer for a second time. In my eyes, she is a hero,” Heideman said.
Heideman shares his story to make everyone in the Mira Costa High School community aware of and more comfortable with pros-tate cancer.
“Everyone should be aware of the different types of cancer,” Heideman said. “I openly talk about it because it’s something that anyone can get at any time.”
Even in the face of serious ill-ness, English teacher John Heide-man spreads laughter and joy among Mira Costa students.
Recently diagnosed with pros-tate cancer, Heideman has started treatment to rid himself of the disease.
Heideman has been teaching for 32 years, and he refuses to let cancer take away what he loves: :his career. With a background in comedy and lit-erature, he teaches English 1-2 and the thanatology and humor in lit-erature seminars.
“I openly talk to everyone about my prostate can-cer, especially to young men, be-cause talking about the prostate is a taboo,” Heideman said.
During his classes, he openly talks about his diagnosis and treatments with his students so that they become more aware of prostate cancer.
“Mr. Heideman has person-ally opened up to our thanatology class, not only about some of his funny and embarrassing stories, but also about being diagnosed with cancer,” senior Anna Pav-
NICOLE FISCHER/LA VISTA
BY ELIZABETH KNEISLEY
STAFF WRITER
BY ALEC LAUTANEN
EXECUTIVE OPINION EDITOR
Travelling abroad is an exciting event for any student, but Mira Costa junior Adam Gerard took his travel a step further. Gerard recently flew to South Korea to
participate in the Korea Council of Over-seas Schools’ annual International Educa-tion Conference from March 5-10.At the conference, Gerard served as the
lead of three keynote speakers and spent seven days talking to international students about youth leadership and his environ-mental organization, El Segundo-based Tree Musketeers.
“It went way beyond Tree Musketeers because I wanted to give the students the chance to make their own organization,” Gerard said. Gerard attended the KORCOS confer-
ence which was held in Incheon, South Korea. During the conference week, he travelled around the country, speaking to local Korean students about youth leader-ship and about the environment-friendly Tree Musketeers.Along with his speech at KORCOS’s
conference, Gerard has also served as a panelist for Los Angeles’ Environmental Youth Conference.
“Whether it was something similar and environmental or not, we just wanted to
Gerard leaves mark on Koreagive them the chance to become leaders and make their own types of organiza-tions,” Gerard said.
Gerard also recieved the once-in-a-life-time opportunity to have dinner and speak with Incheon Mayor Song Young-gil and introduce him to Tree Musketeers.
“[Tree Musketeers] has never been to Korea, but we’ve communicated with stu-dents there, so it was great to meet in per-son,” Gerard said.
The Chadwick International School Director of Admissions, Soleiman Dias, invited Gerard to participate in the confer-ence. Dias met Gerard when he attended an International Affairs summer course at Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Talented Youth class that Dias taught.
“Dias is working on translating the Tree Musketeers’ book, ‘Marcy the Marvelous Tree,’ into Portuguese, so I may be going to Brazil to speak to schools,” Gerard said. At Mira Costa, Gerard is president of
Tree Musketeer’s Partners for the Planet Club as well as an officer in Young Demo-crats Club. He is also an active member of Costa’s Model United Nations program, where he serves as chief of staff.“Having Adam discuss leadership to this
group of select Korean students showed them how kids can serve in a leadership position at any age,” Adam’s father Marc Gerard said.
COURTESY OF ADAM GERARD
TAKING ROOT: Costa’s Adam Gerard with Korean students spread environmental awareness.
“You must live ev-ery moment of your life. !ink about the people who aren’t as fortunate and then start appreciating how good your own
life is.”
English TeacherJohn Heideman
Drama Department !nds success again at Fullerton Festival
A BLUE-RIBBON TEAM: (Left) Seniors Delaney Charney, Maggie Ginoza and Rachel Perlot along with sophomores Alex Waxler and Dina Rain read and do school work as they wait to go on stage. (Right) Members of the improv teams Team on the Roof and Team Haha... celebrate their first and second-place trophies.
COURTESY OF ELISSA WELLS
BY ISAAC SIEGEMUND-BROKA
STAFF WRITER
The competitive success of Mira Costa’s dramatists is no act.
Every year, the Mira Costa Drama Department attends the Fullerton College Theatre Festi-val, a competitive drama festival open to all Southern California drama departments.
More than 50 high schools competed in this festival, which took place on March 16 and 17 and featured many of Mira Costa’s budding actors, singers and comedic improvisers. Costa students took home numerous awards at the festival.
“The Fullerton festival is such a great experience, and it’s an event that our department looks forward to every year,” senior Drama Department President Kendall Busby said.
This year at the festival, the Mira Costa Drama Department performed a 10-minute-long scene from the spring musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” as well as many individual monologues and student-directed scenes. The tech-nical theater crew competed in the “Tech Olympics”a series of timed and scored activities revolving around light-hanging, knot-tying and set changes.
“I was really excited to perform in the show number because I’ve never been in a Mira Costa musi-cal, and they’re so prestigious, so
its exciting to get to be a part of such a rich cultural experience,” senior Christina Buckley said. “I was also excited to be in my own scene because I get to be the lead and command the audience’s at-tention and emotions.”
Two of Mira Costa’s improv teams also performed at Fuller-ton: Team Haha… and Team On The Roof. The Team Haha… has a long history of success at the festival and had won first place the previous three years. This year, Team Haha… took second while Team On The Roof re-ceived first place.
“Team Haha… is so fun to work with, and Team On The Roof has such a great dynamic,” senior
Comedy Sportz Manager Duncan Gregory said. “Both teams were exceptional to work with.”
Mira Costa was judged very highly at the festival. Both im-prov teams were awarded and the scene from “Fiddler On the Roof” received 2nd place in the category of Musical Scenes.
In addition, senior Matt McEl-roy was awarded 3rd place in Graphic Design for his designs for the fall production “You Can’t Take it With You.”
“I am so proud that Mira Costa proved itself in these competi-tions,” junior Elissa Wells said. “I feel like we really showed what we as a random public school in the South Bay area can do.”
Students enjoy the Fullerton College Theatre Festival not only as a way to showcase talent, but also as a social experience. Due to the similar drama interests of all attendees, Fullerton partici-pants often make new friends.
“Fullerton is a chance to meet people from other high schools that are interested in the same things that we Costa kids are,” ju-nior Kathleen Yates said. “Every year I come home from the festi-val with more friends than when I arrived.”
Mira Costa students also uti-lize the festival to strengthen their friendships within the Drama De-partment and to encourage team-work between the department’s
many members.“It’s such a supportive envi-
ronment,” junior Sawyer Fuller said. “I always come home with a renewed sense of how people can work together in order to cre-ate good art or theater, instead of being competitive to create some-thing where only some people get to shine.”
After its tremendous success this year, the Drama department is sure to return to the festival with sucess in years to come.
“The Fullerton festival is so much fun,” senior Stephanie Ner-heim said. “I’ve gone every year since my freshman year, and it’s been one of the highlights of my high school experience.”
LIFE B5La VistaMarch 23, 2012
Over the course of the school year, numerous arrests of Costa students for possession of illegal drugs and the pres-ence of drug dogs on campus have made the issue of Costa students’ drug use noticeable.
After surveying 350 students, La Vista discovered that 61% claimed that they have been affected negatively by the pres-ence of drugs on campus. These statistics, combined with the recent arrests, raise public awareness about Costa students’ drug usage.
“The drug community at Mira Costa has grown tremen-dously,” junior Natalie Pratt said. “Drugs have become part of many students’ everyday lives, and that is really unhealthy.”
Because teenagers’ have yet to realize their full potential, illegal substances can cause uniquely powerful damage to them. Students may choose to use drugs to cope with stress and external pressure.
“Drug use is a very unhealthy way for students to escape the problems in their lives; I wish more people would choose to use a more healthy alternative,” school psychologist Janet Allen said.
While using drugs may seem like an easy way to escape the pressures of everyday life, it also comes with many short and long-term affects on the teenage body.
“The most prevalent affects with drug use are probably re-action time and emotional states; those are key” Allen said.
Students who do contribute to the drug problem at Costa should be wary of the repercussions put forth by the disci-pline matrix. Unlawful possession, use or sale of drugs can lead to a five-day suspension, expulsion or an arrest.
“When we need to deal with an issue on campus, we al-ways take into account the aspects of the situation and pos-sible consequences,” Vice Principal Paula Hart said.
One of the most common drugs used by students is alco-hol. Many students who use and abuse alcohol do not realize that it is a drug and often don’t associate it with the effects that drugs can have on teens.
“I have a friend who just doesn’t realize how far she goes when she is trying to have fun,” junior Kelsey McIntire said, “There is a difference between having fun and going crazy.”
Caffeine is another substance with negative effects that many students do not consider a drug. Too much caffeine has been known to cause muscle pain and spasms, restless leg
syndrome and irritability.“I drink coffee a lot, and it helps me get my homework
done after school,” junior Megan Riordan said. “But some-times I have it really late at night and it makes me jittery and it is hard to go to sleep.”
While caffeine is known to be ubiquitous among students, there are several more harmful drugs circulating through the Mira Costa campus.“I think that if you wanted to find drugs on campus, it
wouldn’t be that difficult,” junior Abha Nath said, “I also think that kids at Costa tend to experiment and try a variety of different substances.”
A La Vista survey also found that prescription medication has a larger community on campus than expected, whether because of the ease with which they can be found or for their effects on the body.
“I know a lot of people that are in the market for Vicodin and Ritalin here,” senior Jake Quattlebaum said.
Some of the other drugs found to be prevalent on Costa’s
- Alcohol-related car crashes are the number-one cause of death for teenagers in the United States.- Alcohol loosens one’s inhibitions; people make bad judgments that can result in car crashes, vio-lence, unwanted pregnancy, sexual transmission of diseases, or rape.- Using alcohol can cost one’s freedom. A teenager can be grounded by parents, lose driver’s licenses, or end up in jail.- One can get sick or die from alcohol poisoning.- Poor grades may be a result of increased use of alcohol.- Alcohol has plenty of calories and little nutrition-al value.- Drinking alcohol causes dehydration.- Alcohol interferes with the nervous system.
- Under the influence of drugs, people age faster, looking up to 10-15 years older than their age.- Lung cancer- Rotten teeth, hair loss, dilated pupils- Physical dependence and addiction- Insomnia- Loss of appetite- Can cause irreparable damage to brain cells. Con-sequently, one experiences memory loss.- Dementia- Irrational decision making- Suicidal depression- Nightmares and hallucinations- Impaired depth and time perception impairment- Withdrawal from the family activities and family members- Sets bad example for younger siblings
La Vista: Why do students feel the need to take drugs?
Allen: A lot of students feel like they need to should because it is an easy way to escape and a very unhealthy way to escape problems and tough situations in their lives. It is also an unhealthy way to calm anxiety and de-pression. Students unfortunately tend to avoid a healthier escape, such as prescription medicine from a doctor.
La Vista: What are the effects on the teenage brain that students can suffer from due to drugs?
Allen: Well, it is different for each drug, but they defi-nitely affect brain chemistry, no doubt. They affect reac-tion time and emotional states; those are the biggest and most prevalent issues. It’s a touchy subject because, hon-estly, to get the same affect, I wish more people would do the healthier methods; exercising, having outlets and talking out their problems are just much healthier ways to resolve what’s going on in their lives.
Ask the Students
Roving Reporter:
Do you think Costa has a drug problem amongst its students?Illegal-substance arrests shine a light on Costa drug usage
B6
La Vista: What happens when a student is caught with drugs on campus?Hart: The subsections of the education code call for suspendable offenses. Within our discipline matrix, which is our board-approved discipline policy, there are different options for us, in terms of discipline. The consequences and situation are taken into account and the number of offenses is also looked at.
La Vista: What is the first step taken if drugs are found on campus?Hart: Being caught [with drugs] always leads to a five-day suspension. If it’s enough that law enforcement classifies it as “intent to sell,” we will most likely push for expulsion because those are the folks that we don’t want around the campus. It is not that those are bad people, and that is the thing most kids misunderstand. We are not saying that you are a bad person; we are saying that you are making deci-sions that make it not safe for you to be here on campus with the 2,400 other students.
B7
campus by the survey included inhalants (hydrocarbons con-taining materials such as those found in cleaning materials), cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
The dangers of illegal substances are widely known and are now more relevant than ever. Costa administrators en-courage students to make intelligent decisions as the neces-sity for them grows.
“We hope that the messages we are sending here at school are being transferred to students’ lives outside of school lives.” Hart said.
Although almost every student is confronted with stress and tough situations, there are many other healthier solutions besides using drugs. Physical exercise and talking out one’s issues have similar psychological effects as drug use without the danger.“I find that if I exercise frequently and eat healthy foods,
I begin to forget all of my problems and worries, and I don’t feel so bad,” junior Carolyn Massey said.
COURTESY OF WWW.ECCPASA.INFO
“There is a population of people on campus that are influenced by school and stress to do
drugs.”
Kirsten GustavsonSophomore
“I think that it’s not as big an issue as some people think it is, but we still have a drug
problem at Costa.”
Brian WellsJunior
“There’s a huge drug problem on campus. It’s not a problem with hard drugs, but there
is a big issue with weed and alcohol.”
Phil WongSenior
“We have a pretty big drug problem at our school because most people are living young,
wild and free.”
Ask the Vice Principal: Paula Hart
Ask the Psychologist: Janet Allen
Maddie Horn Freshman
18 YEARS OR SMOLDER: Both cigarettes and alcohol are legal over a certain age, but many students use them illegally. Both have damaging effects on under-developed bodies and should be used with caution.
Have you ever done illegal drugs?Yes- 42% No- 58%
Do You know someone that regularly uses illegal drugs?Yes- 77% No- 23%
Have drugs had a negative effect on one of your friends or family members?
Yes- 61% No- 39%
What drugs do you think are the most prevalent on campus?
1) Alcohol2) Marijuana
3) Cocaine4) Cigarettes
5) Heroine
at Costa* From a La Vista survey of over 350 from March 19 -21
Dangers of Alcohol
Dangers of Drugs
DRUGSCOMPILED BY DUNCAN GREGORY, JAKE MAHR. EMMA ROSENBAUM/THEME EDITORS
PHOTOS BY LELAND LESNEVER, CARINA GLASSER
ACCORDING TO SACSHERIFF.COM
ACCORDING TO DRUGFACTS4YOUNGPEOPLE.COM
CURIOSITYStudents hear about
“highs” and want to find out for themselves.
PEER PRESSUREIt becomes the “in” thing to do and students believe it is a way
to become popular, to join a clique,
ESCAPEFrom seemingly insurmount-able or painful problems at
home, in school, etc.
AFFLUENCE & PERMISSIVENESS Being able to have al-most everything one
wants because of over-indulgence; or failure of the home, school or society to provide fair
and understanding limits of behavior.
LACK OF SUCCESS Every person needs to know some success. Frequent failure can rob a person of confidence, self-esteem
and self-respect.
Why Kids Do Drugs
Over the course of the school year, numerous arrests of Costa students for possession of illegal drugs and the pres-ence of drug dogs on campus have made the issue of Costa students’ drug use noticeable.
After surveying 350 students, La Vista discovered that 61% claimed that they have been affected negatively by the pres-ence of drugs on campus. These statistics, combined with the recent arrests, raise public awareness about Costa students’ drug usage.
“The drug community at Mira Costa has grown tremen-dously,” junior Natalie Pratt said. “Drugs have become part of many students’ everyday lives, and that is really unhealthy.”
Because teenagers’ have yet to realize their full potential, illegal substances can cause uniquely powerful damage to them. Students may choose to use drugs to cope with stress and external pressure.
“Drug use is a very unhealthy way for students to escape the problems in their lives; I wish more people would choose to use a more healthy alternative,” school psychologist Janet Allen said.
While using drugs may seem like an easy way to escape the pressures of everyday life, it also comes with many short and long-term affects on the teenage body.
“The most prevalent affects with drug use are probably re-action time and emotional states; those are key” Allen said.
Students who do contribute to the drug problem at Costa should be wary of the repercussions put forth by the disci-pline matrix. Unlawful possession, use or sale of drugs can lead to a five-day suspension, expulsion or an arrest.
“When we need to deal with an issue on campus, we al-ways take into account the aspects of the situation and pos-sible consequences,” Vice Principal Paula Hart said.
One of the most common drugs used by students is alco-hol. Many students who use and abuse alcohol do not realize that it is a drug and often don’t associate it with the effects that drugs can have on teens.
“I have a friend who just doesn’t realize how far she goes when she is trying to have fun,” junior Kelsey McIntire said, “There is a difference between having fun and going crazy.”
Caffeine is another substance with negative effects that many students do not consider a drug. Too much caffeine has been known to cause muscle pain and spasms, restless leg
syndrome and irritability.“I drink coffee a lot, and it helps me get my homework
done after school,” junior Megan Riordan said. “But some-times I have it really late at night and it makes me jittery and it is hard to go to sleep.”
While caffeine is known to be ubiquitous among students, there are several more harmful drugs circulating through the Mira Costa campus.“I think that if you wanted to find drugs on campus, it
wouldn’t be that difficult,” junior Abha Nath said, “I also think that kids at Costa tend to experiment and try a variety of different substances.”
A La Vista survey also found that prescription medication has a larger community on campus than expected, whether because of the ease with which they can be found or for their effects on the body.
“I know a lot of people that are in the market for Vicodin and Ritalin here,” senior Jake Quattlebaum said.
Some of the other drugs found to be prevalent on Costa’s
- Alcohol-related car crashes are the number-one cause of death for teenagers in the United States.- Alcohol loosens one’s inhibitions; people make bad judgments that can result in car crashes, vio-lence, unwanted pregnancy, sexual transmission of diseases, or rape.- Using alcohol can cost one’s freedom. A teenager can be grounded by parents, lose driver’s licenses, or end up in jail.- One can get sick or die from alcohol poisoning.- Poor grades may be a result of increased use of alcohol.- Alcohol has plenty of calories and little nutrition-al value.- Drinking alcohol causes dehydration.- Alcohol interferes with the nervous system.
- Under the influence of drugs, people age faster, looking up to 10-15 years older than their age.- Lung cancer- Rotten teeth, hair loss, dilated pupils- Physical dependence and addiction- Insomnia- Loss of appetite- Can cause irreparable damage to brain cells. Con-sequently, one experiences memory loss.- Dementia- Irrational decision making- Suicidal depression- Nightmares and hallucinations- Impaired depth and time perception impairment- Withdrawal from the family activities and family members- Sets bad example for younger siblings
La Vista: Why do students feel the need to take drugs?
Allen: A lot of students feel like they need to should because it is an easy way to escape and a very unhealthy way to escape problems and tough situations in their lives. It is also an unhealthy way to calm anxiety and de-pression. Students unfortunately tend to avoid a healthier escape, such as prescription medicine from a doctor.
La Vista: What are the effects on the teenage brain that students can suffer from due to drugs?
Allen: Well, it is different for each drug, but they defi-nitely affect brain chemistry, no doubt. They affect reac-tion time and emotional states; those are the biggest and most prevalent issues. It’s a touchy subject because, hon-estly, to get the same affect, I wish more people would do the healthier methods; exercising, having outlets and talking out their problems are just much healthier ways to resolve what’s going on in their lives.
Ask the Students
Roving Reporter:
Do you think Costa has a drug problem amongst its students?Illegal-substance arrests shine a light on Costa drug usage
B6
La Vista: What happens when a student is caught with drugs on campus?Hart: The subsections of the education code call for suspendable offenses. Within our discipline matrix, which is our board-approved discipline policy, there are different options for us, in terms of discipline. The consequences and situation are taken into account and the number of offenses is also looked at.
La Vista: What is the first step taken if drugs are found on campus?Hart: Being caught [with drugs] always leads to a five-day suspension. If it’s enough that law enforcement classifies it as “intent to sell,” we will most likely push for expulsion because those are the folks that we don’t want around the campus. It is not that those are bad people, and that is the thing most kids misunderstand. We are not saying that you are a bad person; we are saying that you are making deci-sions that make it not safe for you to be here on campus with the 2,400 other students.
B7
campus by the survey included inhalants (hydrocarbons con-taining materials such as those found in cleaning materials), cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
The dangers of illegal substances are widely known and are now more relevant than ever. Costa administrators en-courage students to make intelligent decisions as the neces-sity for them grows.
“We hope that the messages we are sending here at school are being transferred to students’ lives outside of school lives.” Hart said.
Although almost every student is confronted with stress and tough situations, there are many other healthier solutions besides using drugs. Physical exercise and talking out one’s issues have similar psychological effects as drug use without the danger.“I find that if I exercise frequently and eat healthy foods,
I begin to forget all of my problems and worries, and I don’t feel so bad,” junior Carolyn Massey said.
COURTESY OF WWW.ECCPASA.INFO
“There is a population of people on campus that are influenced by school and stress to do
drugs.”
Kirsten GustavsonSophomore
“I think that it’s not as big an issue as some people think it is, but we still have a drug
problem at Costa.”
Brian WellsJunior
“There’s a huge drug problem on campus. It’s not a problem with hard drugs, but there
is a big issue with weed and alcohol.”
Phil WongSenior
“We have a pretty big drug problem at our school because most people are living young,
wild and free.”
Ask the Vice Principal: Paula Hart
Ask the Psychologist: Janet Allen
Maddie Horn Freshman
18 YEARS OR SMOLDER: Both cigarettes and alcohol are legal over a certain age, but many students use them illegally. Both have damaging effects on under-developed bodies and should be used with caution.
Have you ever done illegal drugs?Yes- 42% No- 58%
Do You know someone that regularly uses illegal drugs?Yes- 77% No- 23%
Have drugs had a negative effect on one of your friends or family members?
Yes- 61% No- 39%
What drugs do you think are the most prevalent on campus?
1) Alcohol2) Marijuana
3) Cocaine4) Cigarettes
5) Heroine
at Costa* From a La Vista survey of over 350 from March 19 -21
Dangers of Alcohol
Dangers of Drugs
DRUGSCOMPILED BY DUNCAN GREGORY, JAKE MAHR. EMMA ROSENBAUM/THEME EDITORS
PHOTOS BY LELAND LESNEVER, CARINA GLASSER
ACCORDING TO SACSHERIFF.COM
ACCORDING TO DRUGFACTS4YOUNGPEOPLE.COM
CURIOSITYStudents hear about
“highs” and want to find out for themselves.
PEER PRESSUREIt becomes the “in” thing to do and students believe it is a way
to become popular, to join a clique,
ESCAPEFrom seemingly insurmount-able or painful problems at
home, in school, etc.
AFFLUENCE & PERMISSIVENESS Being able to have al-most everything one
wants because of over-indulgence; or failure of the home, school or society to provide fair
and understanding limits of behavior.
LACK OF SUCCESS Every person needs to know some success. Frequent failure can rob a person of confidence, self-esteem
and self-respect.
Why Kids Do Drugs
March 23, 2012B8 La Vista
Hill and Tatum bring creative spin to “21 Jump Street”BY ALEC LAUTANEN
EXECUTIVE OPINION EDITOR
Perhaps no genres of film are as cliché as 1980s television se-ries remakes or the mismatched buddy-cop movie. However, “21 Jump Street” bucks the trend of mediocrity and delivers a consis-tently hilarious and entertaining cinema experience. “21 Jump Street” is a film that
will satisfy any crowd. From the innumerable action film tropes to the inane yet funny dialogue and character interactions, this movie proves one of the best action com-edy films of the last few years.Loosely based on the crime
drama show of the same name, “21 Jump Street” is a far cry from the original series. The film follows two police
officers, Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum), and their exploits through an undercover program known as “Jump Street.”Schmidt and Jenko, after prov-
ing themselves incompetent at routine police work, are reas-signed to go back to their old high school to gather information and report on a narcotics ring selling a new synthetic drug, “HFS.”The film succeeds in the sense
that it makes a complete mockery of the action comedy genre it be-
longs to. Punch-line jokes aren’t just
thrown in every now and then;; they comprise the entire movie. “21 Jump Street” is over-the-top but so much so that it’s hilarious.One of the strongest traits of
“21 Jump Street” is its ability to
adapt the old high school narcot-ics officer plotline to the modern world. On his first day of school, Jenko is shocked to find that his old macho attitude doesn’t cut it and is ridiculed for his gas-guz-zling muscle car and aggressive attitude toward nerds.
Also benefitting the film is the camaraderie between Schmidt and Jenko. It’s obvious that the two are an unlikely pair, but they complement each other well. Schmidt shines as the awkward intellect, and Jenko fills in the gaps as the meat-head bad boy.
COURTESY RIGHTEOUSFILM.COM
SCHOOL FOR NARCS: (From left) Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star in the tongue-in-cheek film reboot of the 1980s
television show, “21 Jump Street.” The film properly utilizes hilarious and unique dialogue as well as vibrant action
scenes to create a satisfying piece of cinema.
What makes the pair unique and the film entertaining, though, is the role the characters play while undercover. Jenko switches their student aliases to make him the nerdy chemistry geek and Schmidt the outgoing sports star. The rest of the film shows them
attempting to portray the other’s stereotype and results in many funny moments.Another strength of “21 Jump
Street” is its plethora of film ste-reotypes. There’s the authorita-tive police captain played by a short-tempered Ice Cube, the un-realistic and insane high school party (though not quite as far as “Project X”) and a fair share of explosive car chases. All of these elements are delib-
erately combined to create a mov-ie that fits somewhere in between “Hot Fuzz” and a 21st-century “Police Academy.” The movie even features John-
ny Depp reprising his break-out role as Officer Tom Hanson from the original “21 Jump Street.” “21 Jump Street” isn’t a movie
that should be taken seriously. However, This film will more than satisfy audiences who go into the movie theater expecting a ridiculous and crudely entertain-ing comedy.“21 Jump Street” is rated R and
is playing in theaters nationwide.
“John Carter” disappoints despite record-breaking budget BY ARI HOWORTH
STAFF WRITER
After 100 years in the making, Disney’s “John Carter” was released on March 9, much to the dismay of its anticipators. The film is a disappointing, poorly-acted sci-ence fiction tale that utilizes engaging spe-cial effects and vivid 3D.Though appealing to look at, “John Cart-
er” is a confusing and frustrating film with cheesy, unrelatable dialogue and a poorly thought out story. With a massive budget of almost $300
million a higher-caliber film was expect-ed, yet even this and extensive marketing could not save the disappointment that is “John Carter.” The character of John Carter was origi-
nally imagined by “Tarzan” creator Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912. Since then, it has had somewhat of a cult following, and fans
have long awaited a film. Various stories and novels have been
written about Carter, yet filmmakers have struggled to successfully make a movie dedicated to the character.“John Carter” tells the story of Carter
(Taylor Kitsh), a former confederate sol-dier who is transported to Mars, or Baroom as it is called in the film. Due to the gravity change, he can leap great distances and at-tains extreme strength. He finds himself in the middle of an alien war between two cit-ies, one of which feels that he is its savior.Even though he has received moderate
fame for his role in NBC’s “Friday Night Lights,” Kitsch is uncomfortable in “John Carter.” He switches from lighthearted and annoyingly cocky to introverted and seri-ous many times, making the development of his character childish and silly. Though the rest of the cast had top-notch
potential, consisting of Thomas Hayden
Church and Willem Dafoe, their perfor-mances are also unimpressive. The romance between Carter and war-
rior-princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Col-lins) is unbelievable as the two are either overly-emotional or disappointingly flat throughout the film.The only positive of the film comes from
its visual effects. All action sequences, however unimportant to the plot, look stunningly real. All of the monsters and unique machinery used by the aliens were intriguing in design and, with the help of the marvelous Disney Digital 3D, made for engaging sequences.The plot of “John Carter” is difficult to
follow and suffers from villain overload. The motives of the villains are never made clear;; the importance of the struggle be-tween cities is convoluted and the sudden disappearance of Carter’s desire to return home is nonsensical. The dialogue is cheesy at best and uses
catchphrases in an obvious attempt to cre-
ate a franchise. “John Carter” provides a false sense of emotion that is poorly de-livered by the flat ensemble. This makes it difficult to take the important scenes in the movie seriously. Also, the climax of the movie is unclear.
There are multiple scenes that could be the “turning point,” but when strung together none seem to be. The main villains are three stupidly-
powerful bald men who act as gods on Mars. Their motives are silly and difficult to comprehend, and they add almost noth-ing to the story. This creates an overuse of villains in an unnecessary subplot. “John Carter” is a sub-par waste of time
that shames the name of Burroughs’ tales that fans have grown to love. The movie disappoints the viewer because, despite heavy marketing and high anticipation, the final product is simply uninspired, unen-joyable, and consistently boring. “John Carter” is rated PG-13 and is play-
ing in theaters nationwide.
COURTESY BEYONDHOLLYWOOD.COM
MARS NEEDS JOHNS: “John Carter” fails to live up to the popular novel created by Edgar Rice Bur-roughs. Carter, played by Taylor Kitsh, is transported to Mars and is thrown into an alien war. The
only somewhat enjoyable aspect of the film is its special effects, which makes aliens realistic.
ARTS
“Je!, Who Lives at Home” entertains, surprises with small ensemble
For years, the Duplass broth-
ers have made acclaimed films on their own terms and outside of the Hollywood system, using largely improvised dialogue and incred-
ibly lo-fi film making techniques. However, their latest film, “Jeff,
Who Lives at Home,” marks the
Odd Future strikes back with new mix tapeBY DYLAN FAIR
ARTS EDITOR
The rapid rise to pop-culture dominance of the savage and original rap group Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, more commonly abridged to Odd Future, culmi-nated with Tyler, The Creator being award-
ed “Best New Artist” at the 2011 MTV Music Awards. Odd Future has success-fully capitalized on this success in their newest release. Since the awards ceremony, the group
has been relatively quiet until the release of “The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2.” The group has tuned down its obnoxious vulgarity in exchange for more well-constructed lyr-ics and complex production. However, Odd Future still manages to maintain an adequate level of vulgarity and attitude to satisfy old fans. “The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2” begins
with rapper Hodgy Beats rhyming over a metronomic beat. Strangely enough, the first track does not begin with his allusions to murdering Taylor Swift and other celeb-
rities. Instead, Hodgy covers more stan-
dard topics such as smoking weed and the group’s new-found success. However, the next track, “NY,” reverts
March 23, 2012
back to the grotesque lyrics that originally brought attention to the group. Tyler darkly delivers verses about “Dancing with Jerry Sandusky and the Pope at the club.” The most noticeable difference between
“The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2” and previous releases are the sophisticated beats Tyler
creates. Tyler experiments from beats re-sembling the simple, in-your-face attitude of a Waka Flaka Flame track to slower, more calculated rhythms featuring violin and piano accompaniment. Like previous Odd Future albums, not
every track attempts to please listeners. However, the track “Rella” proves to be not only clever but very catchy. Tyler, Domo Genesis and Hodgy all shamelessly weave SAT vocabulary words into boisterous and occasionally ignorant song lyrics.The rise of Hodgy Beats and Domo
Genesis has created a new dynamic for Odd Future. It seems the group has now expanded from the prominent twosome of Earl and Tyler. The development of Hodgy and Domo has added a new laid-back, re-laxing vibe to Odd Future.“The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2” was re-
leased on March 16. The album can be purchased on iTunes for $14.99 and is also free on Odd Future’s Tumblr.
second time after 2010’s “Cyrus” that the Duplass brothers have
opted to use bankable Hollywood stars, such as Jason Segel and Susan Sarandon, in place of their usual use of amateur actors. “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” is
an offbeat and somewhat off-put-ting film with unlikeable and of-ten annoying characters, elusive zen machinations and a continu-
ation of the Duplass’ rudimentary technical style. Still, the small en-
semble gives stellar performances that make the often-dramatic film bizarrely thought-provoking. As hinted by the film’s title,
Jeff (Segel) is 30 years old, un-
employed and lives at home in his mother’s basement. He spends his days smoking cannabis, watching television and looking for a sign
from the universe about his pur-pose in life. Jeff’s brother Pat (Ed Helms),
who is in a failing marriage with Linda (Judy Greer), thinks Jeff is a loser. Jeff’s moth-
er (Suran-
dan) is equally fed up with Jeff when she sends him on a quest to purchase wood glue and fix a bro-
ken shingle.On his quest to the hardware
store, Jeff runs into Pat after fol-lowing what he believes are more signs from the universe. Pat and Jeff witness Linda lurking about with another man and decide to confront her while their mother deals with a secret admirer. “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” is
brave enough to have unlikable characters. The audience receives very little back-story about Jeff and, therefore, doesn’t really place much sympathy with him. Pat is petty and inconsiderate, and their mother is whiny. Most films want the audience
to identify with their characters right away, but “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” isn’t most films. The audience’s inherent dislilke for the characters adds a realistic di-
mension to the film and makes it more devastating when the char-acters learn about their flaws and try to improve themselves.
For the most part, Sarandon’s secret-admirer subplot is form-
less and stagnant. It only serves to break the pace between segments with Jeff and Pat often bring-
ing the film’s speed to a
s c r e e c h i n g halt.
H o w e v e r,
the plot argu-
ably builds to the most interesting conclusion of any of the film’s many tangents. The Duplasses have managed to make a film that is simultaneously surprising and conventional. Likewise, the film comes to an unlikely conclusion that surprises audiences. Segel is completely convinc-
ing and occasionally devastating as the loser Jeff. Helms embodies his character’s extreme despera-tion and Sarandon utilizes the best of her mostly weak mate-rial. Greer once again proves she is swift and able in roles that call equally for comedic timing and dramatic ability. “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” is
a conflicted, ambitious and even a somewhat mildly pretentious film. It’s a comedy that eventual-ly aspires to become a drama and isn’t entirely sure if it succeeds. Still, it’s interesting to watch throughout the entire run. “Jeff who lives at home” is
rated R and is now playing in lim-
ited release.
HOMEBODY: Jeff (Jason Segel) is an unemployed 30-year-old living with his mother. “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” pro-duced by the Duplass brothers, successfully utilizes a small cast to create a worthwhile movie. The Duplass brothers went against their norm by opting to use a star-studded cast including Segel, Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer.
BY ZACK GILL
ARTS EDITOR
COURTESY BUZZBOX.COM
GANG’S HERE: (From left) Tyler, The Creator, Jasper, Taco, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis, Syd The Kid and Mike G make up the rap group Odd Future, which just released “Odd Future Tape Vol. 2”
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Most !lms want the audience to identify with their characters right away, but “Je", Who Lives at Home” isn’t most !lms.
La Vista B9
BY KYLE KHATCHADOURIAN
STAFF WRITER
For fans of horror and spine-chilling movies, “Silent House” will do nothing but disappoint with its uninteresting and less- than-thrilling plot line. With a rather unconventional filming ap-
proach, directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau aspire to make the movie seem as if it was filmed in one continuous shot. Kentis and Lau attempted to create a more life-like thriller, but “Silent House” falls very short of enjoyable.The story opens with a young girl named
Sarah (Elizabeth Olson), Sarah’s father John (Adam Trese) and her uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens), all trying to repair their old family lake house. Before the trio even has time to unpack its bags, things start to t ake a drastic turn for the strange and inexplicable. Like any cliche scary movie, Sarah soon
finds herself as the medium through which a series of inexplicable events occurs. Sarah’s every decision and random hallu-
cinations become the misguided focus of the film.Blurry backgrounds and shaky camera
movements are enough to cause audiences to feel nauseous and exhausted by the end of the 88-minute technical turbulence.
“Silent House,” loosely based on the 2010 Uruguayan film “La Casa Muda,” has a similar feel to its Latin American coun-
terpart. Both movies use first-person filming,
where the audience is forced to view the movie through the eyes of the character holding the camera. The filming style seemed like an inter-
esting approach for a movie that was trying to make the scenario seem more realistic. Ultimately, however, the home-video style becomes tiring to watch. The constant shakiness of the camera
in combination with characters running through the house becomes obnoxious and confusing. Although the unusual filming technique contributed to the film’s scari-ness, it could not make up for the monoto-
ny of the movie’s premise.Along with the unconventional filming,
the acting was flat and not convincing. Ol-son showed promise after her role in “Mar-tha Marcy May Marlene,” but she failed to relay this talent in “Silent House.”Overall, “Silent House” was poorly put
together. With its combination of random scenes with weird objects and people who appear randomly without explanation, the film is a sorry excuse for a thriller.“Silent House” opened on March 9 and
is playing in theaters nationwide.
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SILENT AUDIENCE: Eilzabeth Olson plays Sarah in the boring and cliche thriller “Silent House.” She, her father and her uncle are haunted while cleaning out their lake house.
“Silent House” fails to thrill audiences
ARTS
Digital Darkroom exhibit proves how technology has changed the arts
It’s no secret that flourishing technological advancements have greatly changed the industrial world. The Annenberg Space for Photography has isolated 17 art-ists that cross the boundaries of photography by experimenting with digital manipulation.
The current exhibit, Digital Darkroom, is worthwhile for any photography fan. Photographs occupy an intersection of art and technology and are usually edited with Adobe Photoshop. Some art-ists emphasize features while oth-ers create surreal images.
The first photos are by photog-rapher Pierre Beteille. His pho-tography centralizes around witty and wry societal commentary, and he uses technology to high-light light and dark contrasts.
Some of his works are dark and relay a depressed theme. In one photo, he captures himself as a businessman getting ready to go to work, but instead of a tying a tie around his neck, he is tighten-ing a noose.
However, others focus on get-ting the spectator to laugh. For example, one photograph shows Beteille holding a razor and star-
March 23, 2012La VistaB10
ing at a cactus that he has put shaving cream on. Beteille’s cre-ations brilliantly capture society’s faults and ironies and are abso-lutely hysterical.
Jean-Francois Rauzier is an-other featured artist. His approach to digital photography is some-thing he likes to call “hyperpho-tography.” Each image has stun-ning resolution and complexity.
Rauzier describes his work as an attempt to reveal every el-ement of a place. He created a hyperphotograph of Versailles to give the illusion that the palace went on for miles and miles.
In comparison to the works of Beteille and Rauzier, the images from Martine Roch are uninspired and amateur. She takes pictures of dogs’ faces and pastes them onto human bodies. The conceptual and thoughtful process of inte-grating technology and photogra-phy is lost in her work.
Brooke Shaden is the young-est artist displayed in the space. She completes her photographs like images from a movie: full of character and tension. She lay-ers pictures on top of each other to capture multiple moments in a single photograph, absorbing the ideas of cinematography.
There is one picture where she
is floating above a riverbank, and it shows her in each position lay-ered over each other as she travels over it. Her youthful perspective and stunning artistry do a remark-able job of communicating emo-tion to those who view her work.
Jerry Uelsmann is a revolu-tionary artist when it comes to digitalizing photographs. He was the first person to experiment with the manipulation of images through darkroom techniques.
He started layering photo-graphs in the 1950s when it was an unaccepted form of art. In one
photograph, Uelsmann molds the top of a battered house with the roots of a tree.
His pieces are undoubtedly the highlight of the exhibit. It is un-believable that Uelsmann created such figmented works 40 years before Photoshop was developed, making him the father of photo-graphic manipulation.
Visiting The Annenberg Space for Photography’s Digital Dark-room exhibit is an incredible ex-perience. The photographic-tech-nological hybrid that has emerged from these 17 artists takes visitors
out of a world they know. These images have never been
seen by the world before this technology existed. Seeing the astonishing gallery is definitely recommended;; there will not be many opportunities to view such outstanding and transcending art.
The Digital Darkroom closes on May 28 and is located in Cen-tury Park at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. Admission to the Photography Space is free. For more information on the ex-hibit visit www.annenbergspace-forphotography.org.
MIND BLOWING: The Annenberg Space for Photography’s Digital Darkness displays photography edited with Photo-shop, including art (above) from Jean-Francois Rauzier. Rauzier is one of 17 photographer’s whose art is displayed.
BY DUNCAN GREGORY
EXECUTIVE THEME EDITOR
COURTESY BILLBOARD.COM
X-FACTOR: After competing on Britain’s “X-Factor,” One Direction (from left Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan) released the popular album “Up All Night.”
One Direction’s “Up All Night” impresses
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BY REBECCA HEXT
STAFF WRITER
One Direction’s debut album, “Up All Night,” has quickly launched the band into the American music industry and is taking the states by storm with its relatable lyrics and unique “boy-band” sound.After auditioning as solo artists for the
popular television show “X Factor,” Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, and Liam Payne were put together by producer Simon Cowell to compete in the show as a group. Cowell felt that as as individuals they
boys were not as strong, but together they worked as a cohesive unit. Even though One Direction placed third in the show’s finale, Cowell ended up giving them a re-cord deal after the season had ended.“Up All Night” starts off with hit single
“What Makes You Beautiful,” an upbeat and guitar-driven track in which the boys sing to a girl about how beautiful she is. Tracks such as “One Thing,” “Everything About You,” and “Stole My Heart” also ex-press this similar theme of young love. Songs “I Want” and “Up All Night”
contain catchy lyrics with an interesting electronic flare. These pop songs keep the album flowing and give it variety from the
expected songs about chasing after girls.However, in contrast to these typical
“boy band” songs, “Up All Night” also in-cludes slower love ballads such as “More Than This,” “Taken” and “Same Mistakes.” These songs focus on lost love and were co-written by the boys themselves. These tracks add depth and credibility to the al-bum, making it enjoyable for all ages. In addition to the original album, the
“Up All Night Deluxe Version” includes two extra songs: “Moments” and “Stand Up.” “Moments” was written by another popular upcoming British artist, Ed Sheer-an. This emotional song tells the story of a young man committing suicide after his girlfriend has died. Although a little deep for a group of
teenage boys, they do the track justice. The song showcases solos from all five of the boys which add an extra genuine qual-ity that sends this album to the next level. On the surface, “Up All Night” may
seem like another typical “boy band” al-bum, but many of the songs contain com-pelling lyrics and almost all tell an interest-ing story that listeners can relate to. The variety in message and sound makes
this album enjoyable for listeners of all musical interests. “Up All Night” is avail-able on iTunes for $8.
ARTS
B11ARTSMarch 23, 2012 La Vista
Music festivals have taken over from Chicago to Indio
Every year, thousands of music
lovers flock to places like Indio, Manchester and Chicago to see
a plethora of bands ranging from local favorites to the most ac-
claimed acts in music.
With over 2,000 music acts per-forming at this year’s South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the
2012 spring festival season has officially begun.
Since the founding of Chicago’s
Lollapalooza in 1991, large music festivals have become a part of American culture. Year-by-year these festivals have expanded in length as well as attendance.
Of all United States festivals,
Coachella best embodies the mu-
sical experience.One of the selling points of
these festivals, especially for the California-based Coachella, is the anticipation of seeing top bands. Coachella’s headliners include
The Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. Artists similar in popularity perform at festivals across the country.
Despite high ticket costs, usual-ly upwards of $300, most attend-
ees see these festivals as a worthy
investment. A typical festival-go-
er can see anywhere from 30 to 40 bands perform throughout the weekend, bringing the cost per band to around $10. Tickets are also a prized pos-
session. After an initial pre-sale in June 2011, Coachella sold out
in about three hours when the re-
maining tickets went on sale.Another key aspect that has
brought popularity to festivals is the lively and interactive atmo-
sphere. The Coachella Music and Arts Festival focuses as much on
art as it does on music, with is
light-emitting trees, a huge Ferris
wheel and modern art.
Production company Golden Voice works to make the festival musically pleasing and aestheti-cally enjoyable. The incredible time and effort
that goes into making these fes-tivals unforgettable experiences only increases people’s anticipa-tion and desire to attend. People fight to obtain a Coachella wrist-
INDIE-O, CA: The Coachella Music Festival has expanded from two days to two
weekends over its tenure in the Indio Valley. This year the festival reached im-
pressive new heights by selling out completely in less than 24 hours.
1. Coachella
2. South by Southwest
3. Lollapalooza
4. Bonnaroo
5. Pitchfork
6. Stagecoach
Since 1999, Coachella has set the bar of what a music festival should be. Every year, Golden Voice puts together an original line-up. Coachella has always been evolving to provide the most satisfying experience including vast food improvements to free water for recycling. Coachel-la is the first U.S. festival to duplicate its lineup for two consecutive weekends, with hopes to even further the Coachella experience.
Lollapalooza can boast the best location of any festival in the United States: Grant Park, Chicago. The festival gives a gorgeous view of the city skyline. In addition to the ideal location, Lollapalooza was also the first major music festival established in the United States. After a brief hiatus from 1997-2003, the festival has come back to national promi-nence. Lollapalooza has consistently provided fans with great artists and an original experience.
Like Lollapalooza, Pitchfork is located in the metropolitan area of Chicago. The festival is organized and sponsored by the prominent English music magazine, Pitchfork. The Pitchfork festival was created in 2006 and has since been known as one of the best-run festivals in the country. The prominence of Pitchfork Magazine guarantees a respected line up. In 2012, Vampire Weekend, Feist and Hot Chip will all perform at Pitchfork.
Located in Manchester, Tennessee, Bonnaroo has become one of the most wild festivals in the world. What creates such a party atmosphere is the lack of noise regulation;; there are no rules on when a band has to play. Set times at Bonaroo range from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. However, the extreme southern heat has caused countless heat-related injuries, mak-
ing Bonnaroo more dangerous than other festivals.
Stagecoach has rapidly evolved into one of the most notable country music festivals in the nation. Coachel-la's "younger brother" has developed and created its own identity. Despite lasting only three days, Stage-coach brings in rowdy, fun-loving country fans from all over the world. Stagecoach’s production company, Golden Voice, successfully brings together a plethora of country bands and individuals every year.
After growing in popularity in recent years, South by Southwest (SXSW) has blossomed into the most original music experience in the country. This festival is unlike any other, with over 2,000 bands per-forming over 10 days. The city of Austin, Texas goes all out in support of SXSW. Many residential houses are rented out for performances, and almost every bar in Austin becomes another stage.
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band that is mailed in large, elab-
orate packing. For the most part, the sheer
diversity of lineups brings about all music lovers. Bands spanning genres from hip-hop to folk to world all perform. This year Bon Iver, Afrojack and David Guetta represent Coachella’s variety. Coachella is the premier festival
in the United States compared to other concerts. It is rare that bands play at Coachella more than once, making the event prestigious for both attendees and bands. Unlike many other festivals
around the nation, Coachella of-
fers something for everyone with
its setting and variety of music.
COMPLIED BY HANNA MCGUIRE AND DYLAN FAIR ARTS EDITORS
People from all over the world come to festivals to enjoy the exciting atmosphere and, most importantly, the music
Editors’ Pick: Top United States festivals
Instead of relaxing at the beach or vacationing with their families, some Mira Costa students participate in vari-ous activity programs throughout the summer.
These stimulating programs explore students’ interest in leadership roles, internships, the arts, and reward com-munity service. Through these enrich-ing experiences, students gain knowl-edge to prepare for their roles in the collegiate and professional worlds.
More students have been applying to participate in such activities in past years. Certain programs might stimu-late student interest outside of regular academic intern-ships.
“Students should get a job because it is good to have an income,” College and Career Center counselor Kather-ine Folkman said. “Whether it’s volun-teering, Junior Guards or other activi-ties, it really helps students develop as human beings.”
Students who join such programs go into them with different goals. Many find that both volunteer work and participation in classes or intern-ships can help bulk up one’s resume, as the presence of any summer program on college applications can help better reveal a student’s passion for learning and experience to college admissions officers.
Hours spent working at summer camps can be recorded as valuable community service hours, and intern-ships indicate that the participating student has already taken steps into collegiate-level work.
“When apply-ing to different colleges, it could help them if they do an internship regarding what they would like to major in,” Folkman said. “For example, if
a student wants to practice medicine, then perhaps doing an internship that involves math or science could benefit
SHALOM: Seniors Shelby Brand (left) and Sarah Schugel spent three weeks of their 2011 summer sight-seeing and doing community service in Israel. During their time in Israel, they met Israeli legislators and were able to enjoy the sights.
Costa students participate in summer programs
“Working at City of Hope over the summer gave me an
opportunity to see if research is something I want to do with my
life.”
Students looking for a “real world” experience can participate in summer internships or take up a paid summer job. Internships, such as those offered at the City Of Hope Helford Clinical Research Hospital and the Boeing Company, provide intensive opportu-nities to experience specialized work in a professional atmosphere.
Others looking for a less academi-cally rigorous summer sometimes find paid jobs at local restaurants and stores such as Beehive, Ocean Diner or Pag-es. With today’s competitive college admissions, good job experiences can help paint a better picture of the ap-plicant, as it indicates responsibility, diligence and, depending on the job, strong leadership qualities.
Applying for summer jobs and in-ternships can be competitive, but stu-dents involved receive both experience in the professional world and enjoy the benefits of their pay.
Internships and Jobs
Junior Braden Currey
THEMEB12 La Vista March 23, 2012
“I enjoy working with the kids so much. They are very
fun to be around, which makes the summer enjoyable.”
If a student is not ready to take on an office job and if he/she would like to give back to the community, there are numerous volunteer opportunities.
Some Costa students volunteer at the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and Aquarium, supervising the Round-house’s popular summer camp. These camp counselors not only get commu-nity service hours but also the benefit of a relaxing summer on the beach.
Students passionate about Jewish culture can work at Camp Menorah, a K-5 camp which includes field trips to places like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.
For those not interested in working as a camp counselor, community service hours can be acquired through other volunteer options at organizations such as Tree Musketeers and Reading Part-ners. Students who participate in these activities not only have the opportu-nity to give back to their community, but also to experience the satisfaction of helping others.
Community Service Projects
Senior Elizabeth Bundy
“National Youth Leadership Forum was a good way for
me to learn about the medical experience. We even witnessed
a live surgery.”
Many Mira Costa students take ad-vantage of their summer vacation by training to become leaders in certain areas of study. For example, the Na-tional Youth Leadership Forum offers leadership-oriented classes based on pre-medical studies, law and crime and national security. For students looking for a wider array of classes, the Na-tional Student Leadership Conference offers courses ranging from sports and entertainment management to culinary arts.
Most leadership programs include not only comprehensive introductions to professional and practical fields of study but also feature guest speakers and trips to local tourist attractions.
Leadership programs often blend academics with hands-on group ac-tivities, giving participants both ap-plicable knowledge and an enjoyable social outlet.
Leadership Programs
Sophomore Ashley Goussak
“The music classes were intense, but I found myself
really improving over the two weeks I was there.”
Students interested in creative fields can attend art-oriented programs to re-fine a craft or learn a new medium.
The Idyllwild Arts Summer Program offers two-week-long classes focused on a variety of creative fields includ-ing jewelry construction, computer animation and poetry writing. The Otis College of Arts and Design offers an intensive four-week Summer of Art studio art program available for those hoping to follow art as a profession.
Those less committed to the arts can take classes through Otis or the Man-hattan Beach Parks and Recreation Department, both of which offer sum-mer arts programs for all ages.
At these classes and programs, stu-dents have the opportunity to improve their existing artistic skills or adopt a new art medium and expand their cre-ative horizons. Both general introduc-tory classes and specialized seminars are offered, giving both art amateurs and practiced artists a chance to en-hance their creative ability.
Art Programs
Junior Emma Bedford
them.” Conversely, others participate in
programs purely for their desire to spend their summer actively. Those students use summer programs as a means of gaining applicable knowl-edge or know-how to be used in a later occupation. Music-oriented classes aid students on the track to becoming pro-fessional students; leadership classes teach students to manage and collabo-rate with peers-- both important skills in any “real world” jobs.
“I think students should have fun; summer is a time to unwind, regroup,” Folkman said. “It is up to them to pur-sue an academic program. Students should pursue their interests.”
Regardless of the program the stu-dent pursues, every program has the potential to expose and enrich students’ knowledge and experience in real-life situations. This can help students suc-ceed in future goals, education, and oc-cupations.
“Colleges would like to see students do something they enjoy and working on one of their interests, whatever that may be,” Folkman said.
“Colleges would like to see stu-dents do something they enjoy and working on one of their inter-
ests, whatever that may be.”
Katherine FolkmanCCC Counselor
COMPILED BY ISAAC SIEGEMUND-BROKA, MICHELLE MCKENNA AND ARIANA GEVOV/STAFF WRITERS AND EMMA SALZMAN/PHOTOGRAPHER
