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Showing school spirit was not a popular thing at Estancia High School. Of course there were always a handful of people, but it wasn’t too popular to participate. Most of the time, students didn’t even know about most events. However, this year has changed. Estancia students have been showing more school spirit and participate more than the previous few years. As there has now been more people showing up for events and dressing up than the previous 2 years.
It seems that most school spirit, such as going to sporting events, dressing up for spirit week, and participating in general, has gone up especially in the upperclassmen. When one goes to a sporting event, such as football, the stands are filled with juniors and especially seniors. “There’s been a lot more people at the footballs than ever before like last year it was just band and some parents,” said Daisy Salinas, an Estancia senior. They’re usually dressed in whatever color the spirit day is or are wearing school colors. During the homecoming assembly, on October 11th, there was lots of cheering and lots of people dressed in their blue and white. School spirit has become much more popular at Estancia because students are more involved. Many people in ASB, clubs, and sports are always posting online about, not only their events, but other events happening related to the school. The club instagram accounts post a wide variety of events such as sports, spirit day themes, and events related to the arts department. Since more people are joining clubs because their friends are in it or started it, those accounts have a pretty good following. This trend seems to make many people aware of things, which causes them to participate more. Social media and communication between the students sparked the beginning of high school spirit at Estancia, and it will hopefully stay throughout the school year. Reporter: Viviana Arroyo
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Everyone tends to hate or at least strongly dislike school food so people complaining about the food is not new, but people not liking the drinks is becoming a regular complaint. People tend to be okay with the juices Estancia gives because it usually tastes like the juice they’re supposed to be but recently, the juice has been tasting weird.
People say the juice tastes gross and weird, almost like it’s expired. Some say the apple juice tastes too sweet, or watered down. “Sometimes the apple juice is too sweet and other times it taste like nasty water,” said Kenia Rocha, an Estancia senior. The orange juice usually tastes sour and sometimes expired, same with the berry juice. “The juice always tastes bad like it tastes bitter and spoiled even if it isn’t expired,” said Athena Nova. So when students get a juice, it’s usually a shot in the dark. One never really knows if one will get a normal juice or a box filled with gross liquid. There are a few theories on why the juice tastes the way it is. Maybe they are just using expired juice without them knowing. Maybe they just left them in the fridge and containers for too long until they started absorbing the boxy tastes of its container. Whatever it is, it will hopefully stop soon because students are tired of not knowing if their juice will taste sour or normal. “It happens all the time. It has come to the point where every time I get juice I have to throw it away,” said Athena Nova. School food disappoint people and now, even the juices are disappointing. Reporter: Viviana Arroyo On Monday, October 7, 2019, the campus of Cal State University Long Beach (CSULB) was on lockdown. At around 2:10 P.M. on Monday, Campus Police received an email containing violent threats to both the campus and students of CSULB. At 3:50 P.M., Campus Police released a tweet advising students who are not on campus to stay away from campus, and the ones on campus to stay inside, lock their doors, and stay safe. University Police Chief Fernando Solorzano said that the threat did not involve weapons. Shortly after 4:20 P.M., campus police released an updated tweet saying the situation was clear and the campus was safe once again.
During the lockdown, many students took to social media to not only show their distress, but to also show the people a major campus problem with the ineffective door locks. Millie Nguyen, a student at CSULB said, “Our classroom is really old so they actually couldn't lock so we had to like prop a chair against the door.” Numerous videos on social media were posted showing classrooms with desks shoved up against doors. By early evening, many students started a petition to have the university update its classroom door locks to provide a safer environment for the students. A university spokesperson said that they will be investing roughly $500,000 into the university to retrofit the classrooms so they will be able to lock and protect students. After the suspect was found and arrested, Campus Police believe that the suspect was working alone. The name of the suspect has not yet been released. Reporter: Myles Witte On Tuesday, September 24, 2019, the dangers of vaping nabbed another victim. The second vaping related death in Kansas has increased the nationwide number to 9 deaths this year, with the first happening on August 23, 2019. Each day, more and more information has been found on the dangers of vaping, and why it could be even more dangerous than traditional cigarettes.
The use of tobacco products has been around for hundreds of years, but until recently, the tobacco industry has been changing. The first design for the electronic cigarette (e-cig) came in 1963 with Herbert A. Gilbert patenting a design for an electronic vaporizer to replace the commonly used tobacco plant and paper. It was not until 2003 when Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik created the first modern e-cig. Since 2003, e-cigs have become more and more popular over the years with them being easier to use and more readily available, as well as the abundance of different “juice” flavors that appeal to the consumer, and especially minors. More than 90% of e-cigs and e-cig products are made in China, and in China there are no regulations on these e-cig products. Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said that, “E-cigarettes are unregulated, which means that we don't know what's in them.” The ingredients in the juice is causing many different health problems, and since they are not regulated, it is harder to trace the ingredients. The main ingredient found by researchers in over 500 vaping related cases is Vitamin E acetate. Vitamin E acetate produces toxic vapors that can coat the lungs, damage lung cells and trigger immune responses that can be deadly as time continues. On September 10, 2019, it was announced that the Trump administration would soon ban flavored e-cig juice. With this ban also comes an investigation into one of the biggest e-cig companies in the world, Juul. It is only a matter of time before there e-cig companies will be investigated. Although this has only been a problem for a few decades now, this is just the beginning of a battle in the e-cig world. Reporter: Myles Witte Estancia High School will be undergoing some changes this upcoming school year. Estancia’s current pool will be updated to a brand new Olympic size pool. According to Mr. Tolzda, Estancia’s vice principal, the new facility will be named Estancia’s Aquatic Center. Additionally, the girls and boys locker room will be remodeled along with the pool. The construction of this project began Friday, May 3rd, 2019 and will finalize February of 2020 just in time for the upcoming water polo season. The new pool will be built on the blacktop area right in front of Jim Harryman gym. The area where the anterior pool was located will be remodeled into an outdoor lunch area that will also be used for future dances and assemblies. New mobile lunch tables will be purchased so that it will be easy to remove them for other future activities, such as outdoor dances, banquets, etc. The locker rooms will be remodeled by small sections so that physical education students can still make use of the locker rooms to change. Both projects and construction will be safe for students to be around. The fencing around the construction area will remain to keep people safe until the project is completed. Tolzda informed, “They have a safety inspector on sight, his main job is to walk around the area making sure that it’s safe not only for the workers, but for the students as well.'' Currently the project is on track to meet the completion date. Reporter: Jeraldy Gomez
Estancia's 2019 prom was held at The Mansion nightclub on Saturday night June 1. The dance started at 7 pm and ended at 10:30 pm. At the start of the dance it was a bit slow but it didn't take long for people to get their groove on. There was a game room where you could play Super Smash Bros as well as Billiards but was not accessible to students because the cues could be used as weapons. There were sacks like strawberries and bananas that you could dip into a chocolate fountain. There was also salted chips, rice krispie treats, cookies and small sandwiches. The whole time people were dancing and singing along to songs. An Estancia High School senior, John Mojica said, “Prom was really fun, I enjoyed my night.” Throughout the night, multiple mosh pits were going off, but was later stopped by a teacher. Towards the end of the dance the Prom king and queen were being announced. Raul Gonzalez was chosen as Prom King and Mackenzie Mcintyre for Prom Queen. After the announcement the dancing kept going. It wasn't only students dancing at this point but some teachers as well. An Estancia High School senior, Georgina Gonzalez said, “Prom was fun with my friends and so was the photo booth.” Reporter: Brian Luna
A new pop singer has surged in popularity and is taking over the industry. Billie EiIlish, a 17 year old girl from Los Angeles is challenging the norms of society. At 13 years old she uploaded her song “Ocean Eyes” which went viral overnight. The song now has over 19 million plays. Since uploading “Ocean Eyes” in 2015 she now has several songs with bold messages and influence. Amy Romero says, “I love her song Ocean Eyes, it’s so peaceful and I listen to it on repeat.” Today artists flash a lot of skin and perform provocative shows but not Eilish. She’s always sporting baggy clothes, explaining in a Calvin Klein ad that she dresses the way she does because she doesn’t want the world to know everything about her. Therefore she uses fashion to protect herself. Eilish says, “Nobody can have an opinion because they haven’t seen what’s underneath.” Her second album titled “Don’t Smile at Me” is gloomy and catchy with sad lyrics. It’s eerie at best. She explains in an interview one of the reasons for the title of her album saying, “Girls are. ‘Look happy, look like you're having fun!’ I'm not gonna look like anybody except what I am. I want to impress myself.” She has also said before, “ I hate smiling, it makes me feel weak and powerless.” In her song “Xanny” she sings, “In their secondhand smoke still just drinking canned coke.” Billie Eilish admits she doesn’t do drugs despite them being everywhere around her at her convenience. She says,”It used to be like, ‘Oh my god, you smoke?’ And now it's like, ‘Oh my god, you don't smoke?’ It's stupid.” Billie Eilish is in the minority of celebrities that choose to be sober. Estancia student Nancy Serrano said, “She is so inspirational, it makes me feel like can do anything cause she’s so young.” Eilish is typically seen with electric blue hair, sometimes deep purple and other times silky silver. Meanwhile her expression is intimidating. Her eyes say, “don’t look at me” with her lips parted just barely as if she’ll spit on you if you came any closer. She doesn’t appear to wear any makeup besides lip gloss. Her outfits are carefree and vibrant to stand apart from the crowd. Eilish is not a “one hit wonder” she is talented and unique and produces catchy songs with addicting choruses. She is on her tour “When We All Fall Asleep” traveling the U.S. through May 29 to mid July. Reporter: Claudia Arce
On June 1, 2019 students were lined up to enter the Prom venue The Mansion, formerly known as Shark Club, and were greeted by a red carpet and tons of security. As students entered the venue they were given the option of voting for their prom King and Queens. The prom court for the boys included Victor Jacinto, Miguel Pena, and Raul Gonzalez. The prom court for the girls included Mackenzie McIntyre, Leticia Mondragon, and Jennifer Neri. The Mansion had an open space to walk, there was no way of being cramped: except on the dance floor, Junior, Wendy Galvan said, “The venue was very nice and suited the theme.” The dance floor was full of students and the line for the photo booth was almost reaching the dance floor and because of that, very few students were playing in the game room or eating, everyone was enjoying the presence of the soon to be leaving seniors, and just having a good time, the only downfall once again, the music. There was a sea of students that filled the dance floor and as soon as a song came on that the crowd wasn’t a fan of, there were waves of students leaving the dance floor. The DJ, who came with the venue, was loved for his Spanish music. Senior, Brandon Cordero said he didn't enjoy the music and said, “We’re not in school so we should just let the cuss words play in the music.” Besides the music, there was a good vibe from everyone and tons of photos taken at the photo booth. Students were asked to leave the venue at 10:30pm as the venue was a nightclub, and students weren’t given a chance to slow dance with their dates, but before the night ended, seniors Raul Gonzalez and Mackenzie McIntyre were crowned Prom 2019 King and Queen. Reporter: Nessa Osso
Jennifer Neri a senior at Estancia High school was awarded the Superintendent's 2019 Character Trait Award for citizenship. A total of six students from six different high schools were awarded the Superintendent's 2019 Character Trait Award, with each student representing a different trait. Jennifer Neri will be given a banner with her picture and her trait of citizenship which will hang in front of the attendance office at Estancia forever. It's also being hung in the NMUSD office for a year. Jennifer Neri is the fourth student from Estancia High School to be awarded the Superintendent’s 2019 Character Trait Award. A few other students from Estancia High School who have received the award are Emily Kubisty, James Brown, and Yvonne Padilla. Emily was awarded fairness, James was awarded Citizenship, and Yvonne was awarded responsibility in 2018, 2018 and 2017 respectively. Neri received the award while she was in class and said, “I got nervous because I don't like being the center of attention and having 30 students as well as staff staring, and being talked about is not really my suit. I’d rather do things than just be like recognized in front of so many people, but it did feel awkward to have the cameras. I didn't know if I should keep smiling or look to my feet or my peers.” Neri's club, Acts of random kindness (A.R.K.) contributed to her receiving the award. Her club does events around school like putting sticky notes on lockers with nice comments. Neri said, "sometimes we wake up on the bad side and seeing a nice comment can make someone's day and change their decision for the day or life in general." She's also the Senior Class President meaning she sets up events and speaks with the administration and the PTSA. Neri claims this could have contributed to her receiving the award as well. Reporter: Brian Luna
The demand for plant based products is rapidly growing. According to Veganuary, a charity in the UK that encourages people to try a vegan diet in January as a form of a healthier lifestyle and new beginnings, reached ground breaking numbers this past January, with an astonishing 250,310 people in 190 countries pledging to go vegan this year. “Beyond Meat”, a plant-based meat alternative is poised to exceed Tyson Foods, the largest meat distributor in the U.S. With a lot of people becoming vegan on a whim, a lot of misconceptions are arising. Many people are shocked at hearing their friends are trying out a vegan diet calling it “restrictive” and “crazy” or even “extreme”. But the truth is, today there are alternative foods for anything a vegan heart desires. Sushi, cheese, butter, mochi, ice cream, deserts and burgers can all be made vegan. Another misconception about vegans is that they are malnourished due to a “lack of sufficient proteins and essential fatty acids for the developing brain”. But in fact, vegans’ protein comes from several places. There is protein in legumes (nuts and seeds, beans, lentils, etc..), fruits and vegetables, there is also protein in plant based milks such as oat, rice, hemp, almond, cashew, and more. All of which are essential in a vegan diet. Plenty of natural plant based protein powders are available on the market as well. As for fatty acids, they can be found in flaxseeds, chia seeds, and hemp seeds which make for great additions to smoothies and overnight oats, walnuts, edamame, and soybeans. If those considering a vegan diet, educate themselves on the basic needs of your body and whether or not they think they need any supplements to get sufficient nutrients their body requires. Most vegans eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables but if they’re the type of person that doesn’t eat very much then it’s recommended they take a b12 supplement, omega 3, an iodine supplement especially if pregnant is crucial (seaweed is high in iodine), calcium (found in oranges), vitamin D (met by getting in the sun or found in mushrooms). As it is with most new things, thorough research and education is essential before erratically changing your dietary habits. Reporter: Claudia Arce
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