10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School

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Fall out of summer PAGE 11 

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Winner of the 2004 National Scholastic Press Association Pacemaker VOL 68 NO 1 

lair meets state math standards 

By KATHY JEE 

Blair math scores on state standardized 

tests last spring fulfi lled 

passing requirements for the fi rst 

time in three years. If reading 

scores follow suit, Blair may be 

removed from a Maryland testing 

watch list. 

Blair has failed to meet state 

standards for the past two years 

and consequently entered the 

fi rst step of the state-mandated 

improvement process for failing 

schools last year. The passing math 

INSIDE 

Taking to the streets 

scores bring Blair one step closer to 

reversing its failing trend, according 

to Principal Phillip Gainous. 

The No Child Left Behind Act 

(NCLB) requires schools to annually 

meet Adequate Yearly Progress 

(AYP), a measure of improvement 

and profi ciency in math and reading. 

Each of the 37 racial and special 

service subgroups determined 

by the state must achieve annual 

objectives on the math and reading 

Maryland School Assessments 

(MSAs) for the school to meet AYP. 

Blair satisfi ed the 2005 math stan- 

Montgomery Blair High School 

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND 

Blazers in the Students for Global Responsibility joined the Sept. 24 march to protest the Bush 

administration’s foreign policies (see story and photo gallery online). Photo by Hannah Rosen 

Reading scores to determine whether Blair meets AYP 

Construction of new countdown signals 

t the intersection of University Boulevard 

nd Colesville Road is scheduled to begin in 

id-October as part of a larger pedestrian 

afety initiative throughout the county. 

Countdown signals are also proposed 

or the intersection at University Boulevard 

nd Lexington Drive. While no specifi c start 

ate has been identifi ed yet, installation is 

xpected to begin towards the middle of 

ctober, said Stephanie Yanovitz, the State 

ighway Administration (SHA) district 

hree pedestrian safety coordinator. 

The placement of countdown signals at 

rosswalks is one of several projects Blair 

dards of 40.7 percent profi ciency 

for all of these groups on the Geometry 

MSA. Next year, the minimum 

standard will increase to 47.3 

percent. 

Hispanic males, the one group 

that did not meet the math standards 

during the 2003-2004 school 

year and prevented Blair from 

making AYP, were 48.4 percent 

profi cient, more than three times 

the previous year’s performance of 

15.8 percent. English for Speakers 

see AYP page 8 

October 6, 2005 

U.S. Supreme 

Court hears 

MCPS lawsuit 

By ADAM YALOWITZ 

The U.S. Supreme Court was 

scheduled to hear oral arguments 

yesterday in “Schaffer v. Weast,” a 

dispute between MCPS and a family 

advocating for a student’s special 

education rights. 

The case questions whether 

parents or the school system bears 

the burden of proof in establishing 

that an Individual Education Program 

(IEP) is adequate. Under the 

Individuals with Disabilities Education 

Act (IDEA), school systems 

are required to create IEPs to ensure 

that students with disabilities 

Weathering the storm 

Katrina victim starts over at Blair 

By EVE GLEICHMAN 

“New Orleans is no more.” Senior 

Carl Fortenberry recalls the 

words his mother spoke the morning 

of Aug. 28 when category-fi ve 

storm Hurricane Katrina hit Algiers 

Point, New Orleans, washing 

away the only home he had known 

for the past 18 years. By the time 

Katrina struck, Fortenberry had 

already left behind his extended 

family, his friends and his life to 

drive with his mother to Little 

Rock, Arkansas. Now, he is a student 

at Blair struggling to begin a 

new life. 

Fortenberry is one of approximately 

70 New Orleans evacuees 

enrolled in MCPS, according to 

Kate Harrison, assistant director of 

MCPS Public Information. 

Ten days after the fact, Fortenberry 

sits in the back of Kevin 

Shindel’s fi fth period NSL Government 

class. He drove to Silver 

Spring from Little Rock and has 

since moved into an apartment 

on East West Highway. While the 

receive suffi cient resources from 

schools. 

Jocelyn and Martin Schaffer 

were not satisfi ed with the IEP that 

MCPS developed for their son, Brian, 

in 1998. They placed him in a 

private school, the McLean School 

of Maryland, and fi led to receive 

reimbursement from MCPS for the 

private school tuition. 

The Schaffers paid for private 

testing that showed that Brian 

Schaffer should be in classes with 

six or seven students, said Jocelyn 

Schaffer. They said MCPS failed 

see SCHAFFER page 6 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency (FEMA) gets him situated 

in his apartment, Fortenberry’s 

mother is searching for a job in 

New York City. She hopes to earn 

enough money to buy back land 

in New Orleans while it is still inexpensive 

and to move home in 

about a year. 

Although leaving everything 

behind was one of the toughest decisions 

Fortenberry has ever made, 

see KATRINA page 13 

ountdown timers approved for Four Corners crosswalks 

By KRISTI CHAKRABARTI has been pursuing in order to increase pe- 

Hoop it up: 

BSA starts basketball 

league to expand 

gang prevention 

efforts. 

see page 6 

destrian safety around the school. Awareness 

of the issue of pedestrian safety has 

heightened throughout the county and especially 

at Blair due to recent accidents and 

the dangers of the intersections surrounding 

the building. 

This week, the PTSA has been running 

daily Public Service Announcements on 

Info-Flow for Pedestrian Safety Week. The 

announcements inform students of pedestrian 

fatality statistics and laws governing 

passengers exiting Metrobuses. They also 

urge students to use the crosswalks and 

heed walking walking signals signals when crossing streets streets 

see SAFETY page 8 

Proud to serve: 

Teacher veterans 

refl ect on their 

careers, past and 

present. 

see page 18 

New countdown countdown timers timers are intended to to make crossing streets safer for students, who 

frequently jaywalk on University University Blvd. and Colesville Rd. 

Photo by Brandon Herbst 

Making the cut: 

Student athletes 

try to balance 

health, school 

and sports. 

see Centerspread 

Shaken, not stirred: 

Blazers recall their 

experiences during 

last summer’s London 

terrorist attacks. 

see page 21

EDITORIALS 

Board of Ed, don’t 

break Connections 

The Class of 2008 started this year riding an unprecedented wave 

of success. Freshman GPA reached a 10-year high last year and according 

to a December 2004 Silver Chips article, the freshman ineligibility 

rate was cut in half compared to the year before. 

In the same article, Kathi Yu, former PTSA vice-president of 

academic achievement, attributed these successes largely to Connections, 

a ninth-grade course that teaches skills needed for a smooth 

transition to high school. At Blair, the class is offered to freshmen not 

in the Magnet or Communication Arts Program. 

The success of the course makes the Board of Education’s June decision 

to drop the mandatory designation on all MCPS Connections 

classes rather perplexing. 

In a Jun. 30 memorandum to the principals of MCPS schools requiring 

Connections classes for graduation, chief school performance 

offi cer Donald H. Kress wrote that “while schools can strongly 

encourage expected enrollment of all Grade 9 students in this course, 

it cannot be a requirement.” 

Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Social Organization of 

Schools recommended last January that public high schools institute 

Connections-style courses. This confi rms last year’s statistics: Connections 

delivers results. 

And while the option to drop Connections trivializes a successful 

class, it may also facilitate the unintentional isolation of on-level and 

less affl uent students from the rest of the Blair community. 

Studies show that wealthier parents tend to become more involved 

in and aware of the school lives of their children. According 

to a 2003 survey by ChildTrends, an education think-tank, 90 percent 

of well-to-do parents reported attending a PTSA meeting in the past 

year, while only 79 percent of poorer parents did so. Wealthier parents 

tend to be more aware of school policies and are more likely to 

know about the option to drop Connections. 

This contrast is amplifi ed at Blair, where students span the economic 

spectrum. Over 21 percent of Blair students are on the Free 

and Reduced Meals program according to MCPS, yet many students 

are also drawn from Silver Spring’s prosperous areas. The fear is 

that more affl uent parents may choose to opt their children out for 

more challenging but perhaps less useful academic electives. Only 

14 students have decided to opt out of Connections so far — a resounding 

victory for the Connections team — but their cross-section 

prompts some serious questions. 

Of the 14 who have dropped the course so far, 13 are white and 13 

are honors students, according to resource counselor Marcia Johnson. 

Although this sample is not statistically signifi cant, it raises the 

alarming possibility of an exodus of white and honors Blazers from 

Connections, which would decimate one of the last remaining bonds 

between racial and socioeconomic groups at Blair. 

Proponents of the opt-out argue that honors students do not 

need Connections because they already possess the skills it teaches. 

While this may be true to some extent, Connections provides honors 

students with something that high-level classes do not: an opportunity 

to interact with elements of the diverse student population that 

they would not otherwise have had contact with. 

The Board of Education deserves praise for deeming Connections 

“the cornerstone course” in an effort to transition middle-schoolers 

into high school, but words amount to nothing without a requirement 

steering students in the course’s direction. 

Connections has been a great success, but dropping its mandatory 

status will create more problems than it will solve. This is one 

Pandora’s Box the Board of Education must close before it’s too late. 

silverCHIPS 

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51 University Boulevard East 

Silver Spring, MD 20901 

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silverCHIPS 

Stop ignoring our special-ed students 

Department deserves funds withheld by school system 

Every year, barely one in three 

special-education students passes 

each of the three Maryland High 

School Assessments (HSAs) now 

required for graduation, according 

to the Maryland Report Card web 

site. 

In contrast, close to threefourths 

of on-level students pass. 

Last year, instead of recognizing 

that many special-education students 

were going to fail to graduate 

and increasing funding to prevent 

this, MCPS policy-makers and 

Superintendent Jerry Weast denied 

the county’s Special Education 

Department $5.4 million that was 

allotted to it. 

This denial would have been 

misguided if passing the HSAs 

was not a graduation requirement. 

But at a time when unreasonable 

testing standards are a reality for 

all high-school students, MCPS’s 

decision to deprive county Special 

Education departments of muchneeded 

money is simply callous. 

Lost dollars 

The $5.4 million fi gure is divided 

into two categories: unexpected 

additional special education 

revenue and budgeted funds that 

were not spent. 

The fi rst includes $726,000 in additional 

funding from the Regional 

Institute for Children and Adolescents, 

$523,000 of reimbursements 

for private school tuition of specialeducation 

students and $618,000 

due to higher-than-expected 

funding from the Individuals with 

Disabilities Education Act. 

The second is comprised of $3.2 

million MCPS budgeted but did 

not spend on special-education students 

who were referred to private 

schools and $1.9 million budgeted 

and not spent on replacing retiring 

staff and covering for absent staff 

members. 

An additional $1.6 million spent 

on contracting staff positions to 

private companies puts the total 

amount of funds that were allocated 

to special education but not 

spent at $5.4 million. This funding 

debacle was detailed in June 

14 and July 27 Board of Education 

minutes. 

Limited resources 

The loss of this money was more 

painful to other county schools 

than to Blair, because according to 

Principal Phillip Gainous, Blair’s 

Special Education Department has 

more resources than those of most 

other schools. 

Last year, a large and vocal 

group of Blair parents and teachers, 

including Gainous himself, lobbied 

for and received extra funds to 

address concerns about the lack of 

special-education staff. 

The county met their demands, 

but, as Gainous said, the special 

education funding “pot” is limited. 

He and others were informed that 

the “extra” money Blair struggled 

to acquire came straight out of 

other county high schools’ special 

education departments. “If we 

had that extra $5 million, we might 

have not needed to rob Peter to pay 

Paul,” he said. 

Funding shortfalls 

Jerry Weast and MCPS must 

look for every opportunity to increase 

special education funding in 

order to prepare special-education 

students for the HSAs instead of 

denying the departments money. 

This school year, according 

to MCPS, the county’s special 

education budget only increased 

7.2 percent compared to a rise of 

“Flat out 

discrimination.” 

-Blair special education 

resource teacher 

Lisa Davisson 

13.2 percent the year before. Yet in 

this year’s annual budget address, 

Weast said that “improving special 

education achievement continues 

to be our priority.” 

Adding $5.4 million to this 

year’s budget would have demonstrated 

how much of a concern 

special education is to Weast and 

MCPS, in addition to making the 

budget increase a more respectable 

9.1 percent. 

Instead of distorting MCPS’s efforts 

on behalf of special-education 

students, Weast must admit that 

MCPS denied the Special Education 

Department much-needed 

funding and commit to increasing 

funding more next year. 

Special-education students 

require more money than other 

students to learn the same material. 

Special education resource teacher 

Lisa Davisson emphasized that 

many of her students are struggling 

to read at even an elementary 

school level. 

Disabled students already have 

enough diffi culty passing HSAs 

for subjects in which they have 

learning disabilities without trying 

to understand material in a classroom 

with a 20:1 student teacher 

ratio, which Davisson says occurs 

regularly in Blair special-education 

classes. 

These students urgently need 

smaller class sizes so that teachers 

can spend more time providing 

individual attention. The county’s 

special education departments 

need more staff and technology to 

enable students to achieve and to 

prepare them to take the HSAs. 

Davisson and Gainous are 

having diffi culty comprehending 

why HSAs are required for special 

education students. Davisson 

called HSAs “fl at out discrimination,” 

and Gainous declared that 

the Special Education Department 

“absolutely should have extra 

funding” to help prepare struggling 

students for the HSAs. 

Our responsibility 

It is not MCPS’s fault that special-education 

students must pass 

the HSAs to graduate, but it is the 

county’s responsibility to provide 

the resources necessary to even 

begin to solve the problem. 

Instead, money has been allocated 

to less urgent endeavors. Bob 

Astrove, budget analyst and parent 

of two MCPS special-education 

students, found that $300,000 of the 

allotted special education funds 

may have gone to pay for palm pilots 

for elementary school teachers 

who wanted to have information 

on their students close at hand. 

It is our duty to make sure all 

students, regardless of disability, 

receive a quality education and the 

tools necessary for success. 

These are high-school students 

who cannot read, write or do basic 

arithmetic due to disabilities and 

who could fail to graduate from 

high school under the new HSA 

requirement. 

Such wasteful spending is an 

affront to the county’s special-education 

students. These resources 

should go toward preparing our 

students for the tests they need to 

pass in order to graduate. These 

resources cannot be withheld. 

Our county’s disgraceful treatment 

of special-education students 

is an embarassing stain on our 

school system’s stellar reputation. 

Weast and MCPS must be committed 

to helping special-education 

students succeed, and realize that 

we owe them the funding they are 

due.

silverCHIPS 

Dubbed the leader of the new 

nti-war movement, Cindy Sheean, 

the mother of a marine killed 

n Iraq last April, had attracted a 

warm of media to her roadside 

itch in Crawford, Texas, and now 

o her new nationwide bus tour. 

ut by calling for an immediate 

nd to the U.S. military presence 

n Iraq, Sheehan has offered peace 

dvocates a rallying cry and little 

lse. Hers is a simple solution to 

complicated problem, and this 

iberal has no qualms with admiting 

that Sheehan’s judgment is 

atally flawed. 

Diplomacy in decay 

Instead of removing Americans 

from harm’s way, Sheehan’s 

strategy puts us at risk. Although 

the immediate result, the ensured 

safety of approximately 140,000 

merican soldiers, is a comforting 

hought, the aftermath of such an 

ction could be devastating for 

merica’s international relations 

nd national security. 

While many Middle Eastern 

nations are at odds with our 

current occupation of Iraq, our already-strained 

relationships with 

hese countries would worsen 

f Iraq turns into a destabilizing 

orce in the region. A premature 

eparture from Iraq could cause a 

ivil war that would increase general 

discord in the area. To risk 

his sort of instability would be 

o compromise the U.S.’s international 

reputation and, as a result, 

ur nation’s well-being. 

We have seen Iraq become a 

reeding ground for terrorism 

as a result of the U.S. invasion. 

We cannot reverse this reality by 

pulling out. Rather, Iraq would 

become even more susceptible 

to terrorist recruiting if a strong 

government is not in place to fight 

it. A complete withdrawal would 

undoubtedly leave America more 

vulnerable to terrorism than before 

the invasion. 

The risk we run 

The current situation in Iraq 

is fragile. On Sept. 14, al-Qaeda 

executed a coordinated attack on 

Baghdad, killing 160 in a series 

of suicide explosions and executions. 

Unfortunately, daily death 

in Iraq isn’t even front-page news 

anymore. In addition to their 

battle against a thriving insurgency 

in the cities, U.S. forces are still 

struggling to control all of Iraq’s 

outer regions, most notably the 

Anbar province. 

With coalition forces still 

fighting for control, it would be 

irresponsible to hand over all security 

duties to the Iraqi national 

army, which has been criticized as 

under-staffed and under-trained. 

For example, in response to Iraqi 

president Jalal Talabani’s claim 

that U.S. troops could safely complete 

a pullout in two years, an 

anonymous senior Army official 

said in a Sept. 13 article in “The 

Washington Post” that setting 

a time table for withdrawal is 

unrealistic. 

In addition to leaving the Iraqi 

government defenseless, a pullout 

would raise already heightened 

tensions between various ethnic 

groups. In a pessimistic, but realistic, 

prediction printed on Sept. 

6 in “The Post,” Senator Joseph 


Biden (D-Delaware), a member of 

the Senate Committee on Foreign 

Relations, commented on Iraq’s 

domestic conflicts. “Sectarian 

violence might escalate into a 

full-blown civil war, drawing in 

Syria, Iran and Turkey... Iraqi Sunnis 

could forge stronger alliances 

with foreign jihadists, turning a 

swath of Iraq into a pre-Sept. 11 

Afghanistan for a new generation 

of terrorists,” he wrote. His 

forecast is certainly gloomy, but 

with so much internal strife, it is 

abundantly clear that an immediate 

pullout wouldn’t make Iraqi 

citizens any safer. 

Essentially, Sheehan’s proposal 

places a higher value on the lives 

of the approximately 140,000 U.S. 

troops stationed in Iraq than on 

those of the 26 million people who 

live there. While it is horrible that 

more mothers like Sheehan will 

lose their sons and daughters, we 

must also consider the legions of 

Iraqi parents who will experience 

the same anguish if we leave Iraq 

in flames. 

Peace with a plan 

Still, Cindy Sheehan does 

deserve some credit. She has the 

gall to stand up to the world’s 

most powerful man and demand 

answers, and she has given a 

human face to the suffering and 

agony this war has caused. But in 

the end, her argument lacks substance. 

Over the past two-and-ahalf 

years, we’ve made a mess in 

Iraq, and now it’s time to clean it 

up. Our energies need to be focused 

on giving Iraq the ability to 

rule and defend itself. If we leave 

before both are accomplished, we 

will create problems, both for Iraq 

and for ourselves. 

It is easy to lament our past decisions 

and second-guess our motives. 

It is much harder to create a 

feasible and effective solution that 

limits the loss of life in Iraq while 

creating an independent and selfsustaining 

state. Cindy Sheehan 

presents us with the former. We 

need the latter. 

I was there in January 2003 

when liberals rallied on the Na- 

OP/ED 3 

eace at a price: a liberal’s confession 

Her story is heartbreaking, but Cindy Sheehan’s proposal is driven by emotion, not logic 

By AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT 

An opinion 

Skins 

starting 3-0 

“Being Bobby 

Brown” 

Wu-Tang 

Clan 

Roger Federer 

Hall passes 

13 more to go 

Being married 

to Bobby Brown 

Ku Klux Klan 

Kevin Federline 

Bladder failure 

tional Mall, and I heard the warnings 

of the carnage Americans 

would face in Iraq. I threw up my 

hands and hollered in vain when 

the President told us our army 

would need to kill in the name 

of peace and freedom. But now, 

with the fate of a foreign nation in 

our control, we cannot afford to 

support a reaction on the basis of 

regret. We cannot live with even 

more blood on our hands. 

A renewed plea for grading reform 

By JOHN SILBERHOLZ 

An opinion 

Last year, the Montgomery County 

Board of Education (BOE) implemented 

a new grading policy in all middle and 

elementary schools allowing students 

to retake assignments that were not 

tests or projects and forbidding teachers 

from grading work for completion. 

An improved version of this policy has 

been employed in high schools countywide 

this year, fixing many of last year’s 

problems. Still, the BOE must continue 

with reforms. 

Two years ago, there were no restrictions 

preventing MCPS teachers from 

basing grades on work assessed for 

completion, meaning that a student who 

turned in, but failed, every assignment 

could still pass the course. MCPS was 

forced to intervene to fix this problem. 

Last year’s policy provided the 

county with much-needed consistency. 

Previously, grading varied not only by 

school, but also by teacher within each 

school. By standardizing assessment 

procedures, the county has worked to 

diminish discrepancies between schools 

and individual teachers. 

This year’s revised policy also 

addresses criticisms of last year’s 

implementation. The most prominent 

arguments against the earlier policy 

concerned homework assessment. Last 

year’s plan to make homework fair was 

to remove all possible credit for assignments 

that did not test mastery. 

However, this plan had a major flaw: 

Students had no incentive to complete 

ungraded work. When students do not 

complete homework, teachers are either 

forced to waste time re-teaching material, 

penalizing those who did their work, or 

continue class, hurting those who didn’t. 

By counting work assessed for completion 

as 10 percent of the class grade, 

this year’s guidelines compel students to 

Cindy Sheehan speaks at the Sept. 24 anti-war rally in Washington, 

D.C. Her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq. Photo by Hannah Rosen 

do their assigned homework and show 

understanding of objectives on tests and 

quizzes, improving both student participation 

and performance. 

This year’s new grading policy also 

demonstrates an improved grade reporting 

system. Last year, many students 

received either a four, three, two, one 

or zero for an individual assignment, 

corresponding to an A, B, C, D or E. 

This plan allowed for “grade compression,” 

wherein a large range of scores are 

collapsed into one single notation. The 

difference between an 89 percent and 

80 percent is vast; the former is almost 

an A, while the latter nearly qualifies as 

a C. Under last year’s grading policy, 

both would have been regarded as the 

exact same grade for an assignment. The 

revised policy calls for all assignments to 

be graded with points, a more accurate 

representation of student performance. 

While the BOE has greatly improved 

last year’s grading policy, it must 

implement still more changes to further 

develop the plan. First, the BOE must 

remove the rule guaranteeing students at 

least a 50 percent on any assignment on 

which they meet a “minimum standard” 

as defined by the teacher. No student 

deserves credit for work not done, and 

giving a pupil unearned points conflicts 

with the policy’s basic idea that grades 

should reflect mastery of a subject. 

The BOE needs to change grading 

procedures as well. Complaints have 

arisen across academic departments that 

students have abused the system by 

reassessing assignments on which they 

received nearly perfect grades. This 

defeats the purpose of retesting; already 

qualified students don’t need reteaching. 

A policy in which only assignments 

under a certain cutoff would qualify for 

reassessment could avoid this nuisance. 

Finally, to continue combating grade 

compression, the county must convert 

report card grades from letter grades to 

percentages. While this change may at 

first seem radical, almost 10 percent of 

schools nationwide have adopted unconventional 

grading systems, according 

to a College Board survey. Percentage 

grades reflect a student’s performance 

better than letter grades and motivate 

pupils to try their hardest in all classes, 

as even the smallest improvement in 

performance causes a visible increase in 

a student’s final grade. 

Though the county has done well 

with its improvements to the old grading 

policy, much more work is needed 

until MCPS can truly realize its goal of 

creating a completely consistent grading 

policy that is reasonable for students. 

Tell MCPS what you think about the 

revised grading policy. E-mail MCPS 

Director of Curriculum Betsy Brown at 

Betsy_Brown@mcpsmd.org. 

Grading policy fast facts 

• Seventy-three and a half percent 

of high schools have a grading 

system standardized for their 

entire district 

• Eight percent of schools use 

non-standard grading systems 

• Eighty-five percent of school 

systems nationwide leave grading 

distributions entirely up to 

the teachers 

• Seven percent of schools are 

considering changing their 

grading system in the next one 

to three years 

Information gathered from a May 

1998 College Board Office of Research 

and Development survey.

4 

SOAPBOX 

Do you listen to reggaeton? 

What do you like about it? 

see story, page 26 

“I am a big fan of reggae. But I think reggaeton is terrible 

and shouldn’t even be a musical genre because it’s a disgrace 

to real reggae.” 

-sophomore Gus May 

“I love reggae and the message it sends. It’s like the black 

version of hippy music.” 

-senior Dawnia Richards 

“I listen to reggae music and I think it’s very good music. I 

don’t really like English reggae, but I love reggaeton. The 

lyrics just flow together with the 

beat and it makes you want 

to move. I don’t know 

why some people hate it 

so much.” 

-freshman Tatiana 

Lopez 

“Yes, I listen to reggae 

music because it 

sounds good and it’s 

fun to dance to. I like 

to listen to Spanish 

and English reggae.” 

-senior Susana 

Sagastizado 

“I like to listen and 

dance to reggae music. 

It’s fun because sometimes there are festivals and they play 

reggaeton, and I just love listening to it. Plus it’s in my 

blood because I’m Caribbean.” 

-freshman Aisha Michael 

What is your favorite summer memory? 


“My favorite summer memory was celebrating my birthday 

in July. When I woke up that morning, I began to 

scream, ‘It’s my birthday!’ Everyone I knew called me 

that day, and at night my family, along with two of 

my best friends, came over to eat, give me gifts 

and just have fun.” 

-sophomore Taylor Green 

“My favorite summer memory was the 

day after school let out. I remember 

waking up at five like I usually did, 

but since there wasn’t any school, I 

was able to go back to sleep. I was 

able to do whatever I wanted, which 

was a great relief after a long year.” 

-freshman Nicholas Garrin 

“My favorite summer memories are the 

times I spend back home in the Philippines. I get a sense of comfort visiting my old 

street and house where my cousins now live.” 

-sophomore Jenimae Granados 

“My favorite summer memory was working at the National Institute on Drug 

Abuse. I conducted an independent project at the lab, where I gave cocaine injections 

to rats and ran behavioral tests everyday. Although I worked seven days a 

week, the experience was fun and educational.” 

-senior Yiran Xia 

50 

247.3 

3:00 

26 

percent of Blazers say they have fallen asleep in 

class 

pounds is the average weight of an offensive 

lineman on the Blair football team 

a.m. is the earliest a Blazer wakes up in the 

morning to go to school 

percent of Blazers agree with the new grading 

policy 


Do you think the morning-after pill should be sold 

over the counter? 


“I do not think that the morning-after pill should be sold over the counter because 

it will affect different people in different ways. If you’re sick, you don’t 

know if the morning-after pill will make your symptoms worse.” 

-sophomore Chenelle Morrow 

“Although I believe in using condoms, accidents do happen. Making the 

morning-after pill available over the counter could help limit the number of 

abortions each year, as well as reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.” 

-sophomore Elissa Fischel 

“The morning-after pill should be sold over the counter because if a person is 

sexually active, they should have the opportunity to prevent pregnancy.” 

-senior Miguel Noel Nosbaum 

silverCHIPS 

What have you done in response to Hurricane Katrina? 


“I haven’t done anything for Hurricane Katrina. I question how responsible the government, evacuees and 

organizations are with the money being donated. It seems like there has been little organization in the use of 

donations and gifts of supplies. For example, when D.C. sent buses down to New Orleans, they were turned 

away. People rush into things without completely thinking them out.” 

-senior Philip Hoyle 

“For Hurricane Katrina, some of my teammates and I stood at Four Corners collecting money for a family who 

lost everything. It felt good being able to help someone in need.” 

-junior Braulio Salas 

“Personally, I have not made any donations to the Hurricane Katrina fund because I believe that most of the 

money we donate goes to things that have nothing to do with helping the victims. Besides, America is a very 

rich country, and a lot of our money is given to the government through taxes, and that is why we pay them.” 

-freshman Sana Mirza 

“Fall is a great season because the weather is so crisp and cool, and all the leaves are 

beautiful colors. To me, fall means football, caramel apples, Halloween, 

Homecoming and chilling outside with friends. The only downside to fall is that it’s 

a sign that winter is coming.” 

-senior Rose Feinberg 

“My favorite thing about fall is eating 

warm apple pie. The crisp fall air 

makes the sweet pie even better. 

The flaky crust, juicy apples and 

cinammon zing are accentuated by the 

season.” 

-sophomore Andrew Kung 

“My favorite thing about fall is the 

weather. It’s cool, crisp and breezy. 

You’re never covered in sweat or 

freezing to death in the fall. Fall is 

also nice because it leads up to the 

holiday season.” 

-sophomore Michael Curl 

“There’s something about fall that makes me want to go back in time and just think 

about my life; what I’ve done and what I’m going to do. It’s something about the 

leaves changing colors and getting dressed up in all my different coats and hats and 

gloves. All the best memories I’ve had have been in fall.” 

-freshman Deepthi Thummalapalli 

chipsINDEX 

students tried out for a fall sports team in 

August 

494 

2.38 

352 

82,000 

inches is the average height difference 

between a senior and a freshman 

days as of Sept. 5 that President Bush has 

spent at his Texas ranch 

dollars were owed in financial 

obligations, as of Sept. 13 

Compiled by Nora Boedecker. Additional reporting by Soraya Chanyasubkit, Wenbo Dou, Priyanka Gokhale, Dilsia Menjivar, 

Jasleen Salwan, Boris Vassilev, Jenny Wang and Cynthia Xu. Informal surveys of 100 students taken during the week of Sept. 12. 

What is your favorite thing about fall? 


Quote of the issue 

“Survival tactics mean bustin’ 

gatts to prove you’re hard/ 

Your firearms are too short to 

box with God.” 

-rapper Talib Kweli, “Black Star” 

see “Chips picks: back to basics,” 

page 24


ilverCHIPS ADS 

5

NEWS 


CPS case goes to Supreme Court 

chaffer lawsuit to determine how special education is administered in Montgomery County 

from SCHAFFER page 1 

to provide an appropriate public 

education mandated by the IDEA. 

Under MCPS’s proposed IEP, Brian 

Schaffer would have been in classes 

with over 20 students and a trained 

special educator, according to the 

Schaffers. They believe the school 

system has the responsibility to 

prove that an IEP is adequate. 

MCPS maintained that special 

education litigation should follow 

legal precedent, where the plaintiff 

bears the burden of proof. This 

is part of the “traditional rules of 

the court,” according to Brian Edwards, 

communications director 

for MCPS. 

Plaintiffs have the burden of 

proof in most legal cases, but there 

are exceptions, said Miguel Mén- 

dez, a professor at Stanford University 

Law School. “The general rule 

is that the plaintiff bears the proof,” 

said Méndez. “The courts can 

change this. When defendants have 

more evidence, sometimes courts 

put burden of proof on them.” 

Making the plan 

In Montgomery County, IEPs 

are developed in conjunction with 

parents, said Edwards, who believes 

that MCPS provides excellent 

special education services. “MCPS 

has extremely dedicated special 

education teachers and staff,” said 

Edwards. “We are known for our 

excellent special education programs.” 

Some parents of special-education 

students disagree with 

Edwards’s analysis. Bob Astrove, 

a parent of two MCPS specialeducation 

students and a longtime 

education activist, said MCPS 

should have to prove that IEPs are 

sufficient. “They’re the ones proposing 

the plans; they’re the ones 

who implement the services. The 

school system has all the experts; 

they control all of the research,” 

said Astrove. “It’s not a level playing 

field.” 

According to Astrove, MCPS 

uses litigation as a way to avoid improving 

special education services. 

“[MCPS] would rather litigate than 

educate,” he said. 

Diana Lautenberger, the mother 

of a special-education student, 

agrees that MCPS uses legal power 

to avoid enriching IEPs. Lautenberger 

is unsatisfied with how 

silverCHIPS 

SA forms basketball league to prevent gang activity 

Following soccer league precedent, sports academy hopes to attract new demographic of students 

By BAIJIA JIANG 

The Blair Sports Academy (BSA) exanded 

its gang prevention and academic 

upport initiatives to the formation of a basetball 

league that began Tuesday, according 

o Security Assistant and BSA Director Jose 

egura. 

After the implementation of last year’s inoor 

soccer league, organizers hope to reach 

different demographic with the same goal 

n mind: “to get kids off the street [and proide] 

a structured environment where they 

an come, stay out of trouble and have fun 

ith a focus on academics,” said Segura. 

The basketball league will follow the same 

ormat as the indoor soccer league. Students 

ring their own teams of eight to the small 

ym after school on Tuesdays, Thursdays 

nd Fridays. Although they can no longer 

ring new teams into the league, students 

ay still join existing teams. Guidelines 

or participating will also remain the same, 

ncluding the requirement that all players 

ith a GPA of 2.0 or below attend academic 

upport. 

Last spring, the indoor soccer league atracted 

389 students, more than 10 percent 

f the school’s population, according to Seura. 

The BSA hopes to eventually expand into 

four-part program that will run throughut 

the year: a basketball league in the fall, a 

restling team in the winter, an indoor socer 

league in the spring and a camp in the 

ummer, according to Blair Gang Task Force 

eader Susan Gardiner. “Our goal is to serve 

he maximum amount that will come out,” 

he said. 

Battling gangs 

A surge of gang activity last summer, 

including five knife attacks at Springbrook 

and at a Target store in Wheaton — thought 

by police to be the work of prominent Salvadoran 

gang Mara Salvatrucha — has intensified 

gang prevention efforts throughout the 

community. 

In 2004, the Joint County Gang Prevention 

Gang Task Force, a council between 

Montgomery County and Prince George’s 

County officials, was formed to recommend 

strategies to counter gangs in response to 

rising gang activity in the D.C.-metropolitan 

area. The Task Force stressed a threepronged 

effort: prevention, suppression and 

intervention. 

To further curb gang activity, it is imperative 

to sponsor prevention programs 

and structured after-school activities like 

the indoor soccer and basketball leagues, 

according to Luis Hurtado, Community 

Relations Specialist and Hispanic Liaison 

Officer for the Montgomery County Police 

Department. “A gang person has no 

relations to communities, no relations to 

schools,” he said. “When you have a program 

at Blair, [the students] develop positive 

relationships where they can depend on 

others. It’s outstanding.” 

Junior William Soriano, who played in 

the indoor soccer league last spring, said 

that participating in the league fostered communication 

between players. In addition to 

making new friends, Soriano improved relations 

with team members he did not initially 

like. “We had to talk to each other and became 

friends,” he said. 

“It’d be good for the kids” 

Graphic by Camille Mackler 

Integrating academic support with the 

sports programs is another priority for the 

BSA. According to Physical Education 

teacher Emanuel Charles, who volunteered 

as a referee and security guard during 

games, the league motivated players last 

year to get help with schoolwork if they 

were failing. “They love sports, so they’re 

MCPS has administered special 

education programs for her son. 

“[MCPS] didn’t want him; that was 

very clear. They made it very difficult 

for him. They didn’t give him 

the support he needed to be successful. 

He began to deteriorate,” said 

Lautenberger. “When I said, ‘You’re 

not meeting my son’s needs,’ they 

said, ‘Prove it.’” 

Most of the parents whom Board 

of Education member Sharon Cox 

has met have been satisfied with 

their children’s special education 

programs. “I have spoken 

with many parents who say that 

their experiences with the school 

system have been terrific,” said 

Cox. “MCPS makes every effort 

to provide the services that a child 

needs.” 

Blair’s 250 special education 

students are among the 17,000 of 

MCPS’s 140,000 students who need 

such programs. 

Meetings to design IEPs involve 

school psychologists, teachers, 

speech pathologists, counselors, 

parents and the student being evaluated, 

said Lisa Davisson, Blair’s 

special education resource teacher. 

She added that a Supreme Court 

ruling in favor of Schaffer would 

make it harder to help design IEPs 

and administer special education 

programs because of extra legal 

precautions. 

When school officials decide 

MCPS cannot provide quality services 

to a special-education student, 

the county pays for the student to 

attend a private school. Currently, 

650 MCPS special-education students 

are in private schools, costing 

the county $32 million per year, 

according to Edwards. This expenditure 

constitutes over 10 percent of 

MCPS’s $310.7 million special education 

budget. At Blair, Davisson 

going to do anything to play,” he said. 

Before standardized tests such as the 

High School Assessments and the Geometry 

Maryland State Assessments (MSA) 

this year, the BSA required 23 players who 

were failing their Geometry classes to attend 

review sessions. This year, Blair met federal 

standardized testing requirements for the 

Geometry MSA in the category of Hispanic 

males, which was the demographic that 

had caused Blair to fail to meet the testing 

standards the year before. BSA organizers 

attribute this achievement to the hard work 

and collaboration between many teachers 

and students through the soccer league. “It 

was a team effort between the [English for 

annually refers about one student 

for placement at another public 

school or in a private school. 

In Schaffer’s case, a decision 

was not reached in an IEP meeting 

to place Schaffer in a private 

school. Schaffer’s parents decided 

on their own to enroll their son in a 

private school, and they sued MCPS 

for reimbursement, said Jocelyn 

Schaffer. 

In 1998, a judge ruled in favor of 

MCPS, according to Wrightslaw, a 

special education research group. 

Since then, a series of appeals from 

both the Schaffers and MCPS led 

the case through the U.S. Court of 

Appeals, which decided in favor of 

MCPS, to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

MCPS special 

education statistics 

• MCPS spent $974,132 on 

special education legal 

expenses in the 2005 fiscal 

year. 

• Six hundred fifty MCPS 

students with IEPs are 

currently enrolled in 

private schools, costing 

MCPS $32 million per 

year. 

• In the 2005 fiscal year, 

42.85 percent of MCPS 

legal expenses were special 

education legal costs. 

Special education is 19.42 

percent of MCPS’s total 

budget. 

Information courtesy of the 

MCPS web site. 

Speakers of Other Languages] ESOL department, 

staff development, the math department 

[and others],” Segura said. “All these 

played a crucial part in the kids’ performance.” 

Even though the BSA will have enough 

money to run the basketball league, it is 

still waiting for additional funds to finance 

the entire program for the year, Gardiner 

said. The $25,000 County Council grant 

that went to the YMCA last year will also be 

transferred to the BSA throughout the year. 

With funds in place, organizers look 

forward to a successful new season and 

league. “I would like to see it happen,” said 

Charles. “It’d be good for the kids.” 

Graphic by Camille Mackler



7

NEWS 


chool efforts increase math scores 

Blair results satisfy math requirements; reading scores could remove school from state watch list 

from AYP page 1 

f Other Languages (ESOL) stuents 

also made a similar improveent 

with 45.5 percent proficiency, 

p from 15.2 percent. Blair’s overll 

passing rate was 54.9 percent, 

ccording to the 2005 Maryland 

eport Card. 

The Maryland State Department 

f Education is still setting the stanards 

for the reading MSA, which 

as given to sophomores for the 

rst time last year. Scores should 

e released around November, acording 

to department spokesman 

ill Reinhard. 

Schools that continually miss 

YP will ultimately be faced with 

estructuring by the state after five 

years, during which time the state 

could replace all staff, privatize the 

school with a contractor or turn it 

into a charter school. With each 

year Blair does not make AYP, restructuring 

becomes an increasing 

threat. 

Redemption for Blair 

Gainous remains optimistic that 

Blair’s performance on the reading 

MSA could avert this stage. “Restructuring 

is out of the picture for 

six years or so, assuming that we 

make [AYP] for two years,” said 

Gainous. “I’ve got all my fingers 

and toes crossed.” 

If Blair fails to make AYP for the 

third straight time, it will remain on 

the watch list and could advance to 

Corrective Action, the next stage in 

the improvement process. 

In the meantime, the higher 

math scores have helped to improve 

Blair’s image throughout 

the country. “Blair was famous in 

the U.S. for being a failing school,” 

explained ESOL resource teacher 

and data manager Joseph Bellino. 

The discrepancy between MSA 

scores and successful Blair math 

and science programs contributed 

to this exposure, according to Bellino. 

“[Now], pressure is off,” he 

said. “We can breathe easier.” 

A team effort 

The collaboration between students 

and teachers last year made 

the difference in the math scores, 

according to Gainous. “There was 

a lot of effort explaining to students 

that their scores counted for the 

school and that we needed them to 

do their best, and they responded,” 

he said. “In the past, I don’t think 

we did as good a job explaining.” 

The math department prepared 

extensively for the Geometry MSA. 

Geometry teachers had several staff 

development days with MCPS 

specialists to focus on student 

needs. During each Geometry 

class, students were given past test 

questions as warm-ups. Teachers 

also provided academic support 

for students during lunch and after 

school from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., 

which attracted large crowds. “In 

the afternoon, we must have had 40 

to 50 people, a full house. We went 

through boxes of Capri Suns and 

granola bars,” said math resource 

teacher Rochelle Sherman. Teachers 

from other departments and 

silverCHIPS 

ew safety initiatives increase awareness 

from SAFETY page 1 

around the Blair campus. 

Countdown to the signals 

For the past three years, PTSA member 

Debbie Reed-Gillette has regularly contacted 

the SHA about improving the intersections 

around Blair for pedestrians. She notified 

the SHA again after her son, senior James 

Gillette, was struck by a car while crossing 

the street with the Blair wrestling team in 

October 2004. Last May, the intersections 

were approved for countdown signals by 

he SHA. 

Blair has received yearly upgrades in signs 

nd pavement markings, and the width of 

he sidewalk on the bridge on Route 29 over 

he Beltway was increased, according to Yaovitz. 

She said that the countdown signals 

re a relatively new technology in Maryland 

nd that many of the older intersections do 

ot have the necessary equipment to change 

o the new system. The SHA has given priorty 

to schools and central business districts, 

ccording to Yanovitz. 

The lights were approved for Blair priarily 

through the efforts of Reed-Gillette 

nd the PTSA, which has been meeting with 

he administration to increase awareness of 

he pedestrian safety problem and to find 

ays to address it. 

Hazards of walking 

Parents who have been working to make 

the Four Corners area safer said the speed 

limits near the school are dangerously high. 

“The 40 miles per hour is an insane stanard. 

It’s an insult to the safety of the kids,” 

aid PTSA Cluster Coordinator Peter Lafen, 

ho has been working on pedestrian safety 

or more than seven years. 

The SHA has made it clear that a legal 

peed reduction will not be possible on 

he roads surrounding Blair because of the 

hreat of increased traffic and congestion, 


said Reed-Gillette. Furthermore, the SHA 

has determined that “everything that can be 

done has been done” to make the intersections 

safer without risking added confusion, 

according to Reed-Gillette. 

Aggressive motorists also increase the 

dangers of crossing many of the busy intersections 

in the county, including Four 

Corners, according to Montgomery County 

Pedestrian Safety Coordinator Christy Huddle. 

“I feel safer flying a hang glider than 

walking across the state roads in Montgomery 

County, because I don’t trust the drivers,” 

she said. 

The high volume of traffic and the wide 

streets make it difficult for pedestrians to 

cross University Boulevard and Colesville 

Road. “You can’t cross all six lanes in one 

cycle. You must stop at the middle island,” 

said Reed-Gillette. She explained that her 

son’s accident took place because the light 

changed while he was still crossing the 

road. 

By displaying the number of seconds left 

until the traffic light changes, the countdown 

signals alert pedestrians to how much time 

they have to cross the street safely. “Even if 

you’re on the track team, you’ll know you 

can’t make it in two seconds,” said Pam 

Miller, the chair of the Pedestrian Safety Advisory 

Committee of Montgomery County. 

Gillette, who regularly crosses the street 

at Four Corners, highlighted the need for 

pedestrians to be responsible, cautious and 

adhere to the signals. Since the accident, he 

has tried to wait longer to make sure he has 

ample time before he proceeds through the 

intersection. Gillette also agreed that, had 

he known how much time he had left to 

cross, he might have avoided his accident. 

Countdown advantages 

After a 2003 study of the effectiveness of 

the countdown signals, Montgomery County 

concluded that the lights are more effective 

than the flashing hands, said Huddle. Additionally, 

the countdown signals have a more 

students from AP Calculus classes 

offered their help at the tutoring 

sessions as well. 

Sherman credits the teachers 

and administrators for creating a 

sense of urgency for the students, 

while providing a constant amount 

of support. “There was a good 

relationship between students and 

teachers. [The students] started to 

feel a sense of responsibility,” she 

said. “They gave more than 100 

percent effort.” 

The Blair Sports Academy (BSA) 

was also involved in the schoolwide 

effort to increase MSA scores. 

BSA Director Jose Segura required 

indoor soccer players who were 

failing their Geometry classes to 

attend academic support at least 

once a week. 

Segura was not surprised at the 

math scores. “We put a lot into it. 

The kids bought into it, and they 

scored well. They were capable 

of doing it; it was just a matter of 

convincing them,” he said. 

Many of the soccer players 

were Hispanic or ESOL students. 

According to Bellino, Blair missed 

AYP during the 2003-2004 school 

year because of 15 Hispanic students’ 

scores on the Geometry 

MSA. “Who knows? Maybe it was 

the sports academy that made the 

difference,” he said. 

Plans for this year 

The administration plans to 

continue last year’s approach to the 

MSAs for the students taking the 

tests this year. “We’re going to do 

similar things, talk to the students 

and other schools to try to make it 

this year,” said Gainous. 

Instead of the Geometry MSA, 

universal meaning, according to Miller, because 

the symbols of the flashing hands and 

the walking man have different meanings 

for people from different cultures. 

The effectiveness of the signals depends 

primarily on whether or not students choose 

to heed them. “If [the students] ignore the 

crosswalks, it won’t help them any,” said 

Reed-Gillette. The PTSA has discussed 

installing a fence along the dividers to decrease 

the number of jaywalkers by forcing 

students to cross only at the crosswalks and 

obey the crossing signals. 

Walking through the problems 

Recent accidents have brought the issue 

of pedestrian safety to the forefront at Blair 

even though both the Blair community and 

Montgomery County have been working to 

increase awareness for the past few years. 

“It has probably been a problem for a long 

time, but it’s starting to come home to a 

lot of us that we could lose someone,” said 

PTSA member and parent Sally Stokes. 

To increase awareness in the county, Delegate 

William Bronrott (D-Bethesda), approached 

County Executive Doug Duncan 

regarding pedestrian safety concerns in 2000, 

after former Police Chief Charles Moose said 

the Maryland State Department of 

Education has decided to use the 

Algebra High School Assessment 

to measure AYP this year, according 

to Reinhard. Although only 

34 percent of students passed the 

test last year, Gainous has been 

reassured by the actions taken by 

the math department. “As soon 

as that decision was made, they 

were already changing their approach 

to algebra,” he said. “A lot 

“Blair was 

famous in the 

U.S. for being a 

failing school. 

[Now] we can 

breathe easier.” 

-ESOL resource teacher 

Joseph Bellino 

of schools, in fact, were modeling 

our program.” 

Each year gets more difficult 

as the standards increase towards 

NCLB’s overall goal of 100 percent 

proficiency in math and reading 

by 2014. “We don’t have any more 

wiggle room,” Gainous said. 

Looking back, Gainous was 

pleased with the amount of effort 

put forth by the students last year. 

“The kids really came through,” 

he said. “I’m really proud of the 

students.” 

that there were more pedestrian deaths in 

the county than homicides between 1997 

and 1999. 

Shortly afterward, Bronrott was appointed 

to chair a Blue Ribbon Panel that 

spent about two years examining pedestrian 

safety problems in the county. One of the 

committee’s 54 recommendations was the 

installation of countdown signals. Currently, 

the county must use countdown lights 

when it either replaces old signals or installs 

new ones. 

Countdown lights are part of a threefold 

initiative to increase pedestrian safety, 

which includes engineering, education and 

enforcement of laws, according to Miller. 

Educating students is now the main priority 

at Blair; faculty and parents are discussing 

ways to inform students about the hazards 

of crossing the street without caution. 

“The biggest thrust at Blair is trying to get 

students aware of their surroundings,” said 

Stokes, who attended a meeting with English 

teacher Lauren Nestuk, SGA sponsor 

Rondai Ravilious and Health teacher Susan 

Soulé on Sept. 20. At the meeting, numerous 

ideas were proposed to increase awareness, 

including the possibility of incorporating 

pedestrian safety into the Health curriculum 

or Connections classes. 

Cars and trucks rush across the Four Corners intersection at high speeds, creating 

hazardous situations for students walking to school. Photo by Brandon Herbst


silverCHIPS NEWSBRIEFS 

NEWSBRIEFS 

Two deaths occur at MCPS football games 

Kanisha Neal, a Rockville freshman, was stabbed at a James H. Blake 

football game by a 15-year-old Sherwood student on Sept. 23. The inident 

was the second fatality in one week at an MCPS football game, 

ccording to “The Washington Post.” Stephone Wiggins, a 23-year-old 

ermantown resident, died of injuries received on Sept. 16, when he was 

eaten with a baseball bat at a football game between Seneca Valley and 

orthwest. In response to the deaths, MCPS is considering adding more 

ecurity guards and police officers to supervise football games. 

Blake evacuated after bomb threat 

James H. Blake was evacuated as the result of the second bomb threat 

n two weeks last Friday, according to Blake Security Assistant Arlene 

eckel. Blake security took the most recent threat more seriously than 

hey took the Sept. 23 threat because of the information the call contained, 

aid Seckel. “It was more specific than, ‘There’s a bomb in the building,’” 

he said, but she did not know what made the second call unique. 

After security ensured that the football stadium was safe, students 

ere evacuated there by 10:30 a.m. and dismissed at 1 p.m. Blake’s 

n-house police officer called a bomb squad, which determined that the 

uilding was clear. The school reopened at 3 p.m., and students were 

llowed to return to the building. 

Graduation site changed 

The graduation site for the class of 2006 has been changed from Jericho 

City of Praise, a 10,000-seat church, to the 4,500-seat Show Place Arena 

Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro. The move followed complaints 

filed in June by concerned parents with the advocacy group Americans 

United for the Separation of Church and State. 

MCPS parents publicize opt-out form 

In response to the publicity and popularity of anti-recruitment efforts, 

a group of Blair parents distributed opt-out forms that allow parents to 

prevent military recruiters from obtaining a student’s contact information 

during Back to School Night on Sept. 8. 

The booth was organized by Madeleine Fletcher, a parent and memer 

of the Committee on Recruitment Issues at Blair. Fletcher informed 

arents about the form and its recent revisions. “A lot of parents are 

ot aware of this opt-out form. Most parents I’ve talked to have no idea 

chools are required to give out [a student’s] information,” she said. 

Vending profits drop 

Blair could lose money on its current 10-year vending contract with 

epsi when the contract expires in 2007. The vending machines have lost 

ne-third of their sales since the county mandated new nutrition poliies 

last year. Since the policy was implemented, sales have decreased 

n all vending machines except for the milk and ice cream machines on 

lair Boulevard. 

Blair students attend anti-war protests 

Blair’s Students for Global Responsibility attended a series of protests 

rganized by United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), Act Now to Stop War 

nd End Racism and other groups against the war in Iraq the weekend 

f Sept. 23 in Washington, D.C. The events included a march and rally 

gainst the war in Iraq, a “Peace and Justice Festival,” interfaith services, 

ounter-recruitment training and lobbying. 

The weekend also showcased a free anti-war concert, “Operation 

easefire,” which featured several musicians, including Joan Baez, LeTigre, 

Thievery Corporation and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. Hundreds of 

thousands of protesters from around the country traveled to Washington, 

D.C., to attend the demonstrations, according to UFPJ. 

MCPS SAT scores remain the same 

MCPS seniors scored an average of 1101 on the 2005 SAT, a decrease of 

one point from last year’s score, the Office of the Superintendent said in 

a Sept. 1 report. Despite the slight decline, the score represents marked 

progress for county education, said Kate Harrison, assistant director of 

the MCPS Public Information Office. “Once again this year the average 

score was over 1100, which is really quite an accomplishment, especially 

since there’s been such an increase in the number of people taking the 

test this year,” she said. 

County council passes defecation ban 

The Montgomery County Council passed a bill banning public 

urination and defecation on Sept. 20. The measure was prompted by 

complaints from business owners and residents in Wheaton, Bethesda 

and Silver Spring who say that the urination devalues their property, 

according to an article in “The Gazette.” 

Violators will be charged with a misdemeanor and will face incareration, 

a fine or both. The issue was first publicized when County 

xecutive Doug Duncan cited urination and defecation as two elements 

ontributing to Wheaton’s unsafe image in a March study. 

Newsbriefs compiled by Ravi Umarji with additional reporting by Olivia 

Buzek, Alexander Gold, Allie O’Hora, Christine Kim, Adam Yalowitz and 

Emma Zachurski. 

GUIDANCE CORNER 

Resource counselor Marcia Johnson reminds seniors that representatives 

of various colleges will visit the Career Center throughout 

October. 

Important Dates: 

•Oct. 8 — SAT I and II administered 

•Oct. 10 — Open house for parents 

•Oct. 12 — Late registration deadline for Nov. 5 SAT 

•Oct. 13 — No school for students and teachers; Yom Kippur 

•Oct. 21 — No school for students and teachers; MSTA Convention 

•Oct. 29 — Homecoming game, 2 p.m.; Homecoming dance, 7:30 p.m. 

•Oct. 31 — First marking period ends 

•Nov. 1 — No school for students; report card preparation 

•Nov. 5 — SAT I and II administered 

HONORS 

•Silver Quill, Blair’s literary magazine, received the 

Gold Circle Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press 

Association last month. The magazine was judged on 

design, layout, content and art. 

•The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced 

the names of 16,000 semifinalists of the 

50th annual National Merit Scholarship Program last 

month. The following 40 Blair seniors qualified: Elizabeth 

Albert, Alexander Alm, Michael Arbit, Jacob 

Asbell, Rachel Bell, Jahnavi Bhaskar, Kiran Bhat, 

Hoops for hope 

Social studies teacher Lansing Freeman drives to the hoop at a Sept. 29 staff versus police 

basketball game, an SGA-sponsored hurricane relief fundraiser. Photo by Hannah Rosen 

Group protests GT designation 

Coalition seeks end to Gifted and Talented screening 

By MONICA HUANG 

The newly formed Equity in 

Education Coalition (EEC), an alliance 

of community organizations 

and activists in the Maryland area, 

and the Montgomery County Education 

Forum (MCEF) officially 

demanded an end to the secondgrade 

global screening process for 

Gifted and Talented (GT) designation 

at the Sept. 26 Board of Education 

meeting. 

Formed in June 2005, the EEC 

includes the MCEF, Progressive 

Maryland, the National Association 

for the Advancement of 

Colored People Parent Council 

and African-American Parents of 

Montgomery County. 

The EEC aims to end the second-grade 

global screening process. 

“The goal of the Coalition is 

to get the county to reevaluate the 

whole idea of tracking because it’s 

a disservice to the students both in 

GT and non-GT,” said George Vlasits, 

a social studies teacher and 

sponsor of Students for Global Responsibility 

(SGR). 

Denise Young, co-founder of 

MCEF, declined to comment on the 

EEC and its current actions. 

The EEC’s main concern is the 

global screening test, which is given 

to students in the second grade 

to assist schools in determining the 

appropriate instruction for each 

student. After that year, students 

who are in grades three through 

five, new to MCPS or recommended 

to be re-screened can be tested 

once each year. According to the 

MCPS web site, “All students have 

an equal opportunity to be considered 

for identification regardless of 

special needs, linguistic or cultural 

differences.” 

But Mark Adelman, treasurer of 

the MCEF, said that this MCPS policy 

does not hold true. Although 

MCPS claims that the county’s GT 

system is flexible, “many parents 

with children in lower socioeconomic 

factions don’t have the resources 

to advocate for their chil- 

dren to teachers and schools,” he 

said. 

The EEC’s mission has gained 

the support of Diversity Workshop 

and SGR, which joined forces with 

the Coalition, according to an EEC 

press release. On Sept. 8, SGR 

hosted an after-school program to 

discuss potential inequities in the 

MCPS educational system with 

speakers Evie Frankl, who cofounded 

MCEF, and Board of Education 

member Valerie Ervin. “We 

have created a system of haves and 

have-nots,” Ervin told students. 

On Sept. 17, the EEC, MCEF, 

SGR and other organizations cosponsored 

an event that featured 

education writer and critic Jonathan 

Kozol. He discussed his recent 

book and the growing achievement 

gap in American schools. 

“We have created 

a system 

of haves and 

have-nots.” 

-Board of Education 

member Valerie Ervin 

To help close this gap, rather 

than using a test to group students 

into GT and non-GT, Adelman suggested 

that teachers use test results 

to provide individual instruction. 

GT education is a component of 

racial discrimination, according to 

Frankl. “Institutionalized racism 

means that there are institutions, 

systems and rules that hold racism 

in place,” she said. “Second-grade 

global screening is a part of that. 

Undoing [the screening process] is 

undoing a piece of racism.” 

Both Frankl and Ervin stressed 

that they are not arguing to eliminate 

GT programs. Instead, they 

9 

want MCPS to expand the programs 

to include all students. 

“People should have high expectations 

for every child,” Frankl 

said. “We want everybody to be 

stretched.” 

Frankl and Ervin suggested 

that this could be accomplished 

by eliminating remedial programs 

and adding an extra period to the 

day for students who need extra 

assistance. 

Although labels can be harmful 

if they are misunderstood, “there 

needs to be some differentiation,” 

said Magnet Coordinator Eileen 

Steinkraus. Otherwise, she said, 

challenging each student properly 

would be difficult, because some 

children mature academically earlier 

than others. 

If all students were placed in 

GT-level classes, some would fail 

because of the difficult course 

loads, said Jane Clarenbach, the 

director of public education for 

the National Association for Gifted 

Children, an organization that 

supports “ability grouping” rather 

than tracking. Ability grouping 

clusters students by subjects, she 

said. 

In response to the EEC’s call to 

stop categorizing students as GT 

or non-GT, Clarenbach stated that 

“labeling is a fact of life. [MCPS 

has] to figure out a way to sort its 

students somehow.” 

She added that it is not the label 

that is a problem; rather, it is when 

the label stops a student from 

learning and being challenged in 

school. 

The EEC is planning a conference 

in early December to discuss 

inequalities in Montgomery 

County’s educational system. The 

group will present a panel of GT 

and non-GT students who will 

describe their educational experiences 

and establish focus groups 

on different topics led by the EEC’s 

affiliated organizations. Afterwards, 

the EEC plans to produce a 

symposium publication with their 

findings for the community. 

Lu Chen, Abhishek Dhar, Greg Donaldson, Katrina 

Emery, Eric Esch, Rose Feinberg, Daniel Gillen, Alexander 

Gold, Jordan Goldstein, Jeremy Goodman, 

Robert Hendryx, Gregory Howard, Ravi Joseph, 

Mitchell Katz, John Kim, Rachel Kirsch, Erik Li, Alice 

Li, Joseph Lorenz, Max Morawski, Sean O’Brien, 

Samir Paul, John Silberholz, Will Tao, Andreas 

Voellmer, Eddie Wang, David White, Avi Wolfman- 

Arent, Sarah Wolk, Nina Yang, Chelsea Zhang and 

Yuning Zhang.

10 

ADS 


silverCHIPS


silverCHIPS FEATURES 

HIPSTRIP: 

ENDING POINT: Poolesville, Maryland 

HOW FAR FROM BLAIR: 30 miles or about 45 minutes 

WHY: Fun, foliage and fresh air 

ENJOY FALL 

By Emily-Kate Hannapel 

If fall brings to mind the dreaded return to school and the exchange of your favorite fl ip-fl ops for sneakers, think 

again. Fall is a time for drinking apple cider, playing in leaves and frolicking in the fresh air. 

Why not toss aside your textbooks, put away your planner and take a day trip? To help you out, Silver Chips has 

decided to highlight a few fall activities. The route starts at Blair, and all of the destinations are along River Road. 

First stop: a serene sit by the C&O Canal, followed by some apple picking, a hayride and some roadside stands. So 

grab your car keys and your best hiking boots and let’s go! 

3 

2. The C&O Canal 

1. The Farmer's Market 

From Blair, get on the Beltway and head west towards Potomac. Take the River Road exit and make a left onto 

River Road. It’s not long before you’ll spot the fi rst stop: The Farmer’s Market, located at the intersection of River 

Road and Congressional Parkway (right after the red tractor). 

The market sits in an open fi eld, and two small structures shelter its fruits and vegetables. If you’re looking for 

some quality local produce, this is the place to go. The Farmer’s Market, open daily through October, has ripe fruit, 

fresh vegetables and a friendly staff. It also sells fl owers, as well as squash and pumpkins. The peaches are a hit, 

juicy and ideal for a Sunday afternoon snack. 

The next destination is Swain’s Lock on the C&O Canal. 

To get to the Lock, make a left onto Swain’s Lock Road from 

River Road. It’s a small sign, so pay attention. Parking is 

available down the narrow beaten road. 

The canal, built during the 1820s, provides the perfect 

background for a bike ride or a walk in the shade. Although 

the canal is no longer used to ship supplies, it remains a 

popular and well-maintained attraction. The Lock concession 

stand offers bike rentals for $13 a day and the trails are 

fun, easy rides. Riders of all ages can bike along the 184-mile 

canal trail, but be sure to wear a helmet. 

For those who wish to enjoy the scenery from the water, 

boat rentals are available for $10.50 an hour. From the water, 

you’re able to view the wildlife and paddle through an 

area that was once accessible only to tug-boats and colonial 

travelers. 

Walk along the gravel path and make your way down a 

slight hill towards the Potomac River. Enjoy the beautiful 

view of the river beneath the trees and bring a snack or picnic 

to munch on. 

For more information about the C&O Canal, check out 

“http://www.nps.gov/choh” or call (301) 739-4200. 

2 

1 

Start 

at 

Blair 

3. Homestead Farm 

11 

The fi nal stop on this fall extravaganza 

is Homestead Farm. From Swain’s Lock, 

continue on River Road, make a right onto 

Montevideo Road and then bear right onto 

Sugarland Road in Poolesville. The 230-acre 

farm, run by Ben and Maureen Allnutt, grows 

fruit year-round; apples are currently in season. 

Grab a bucket and make your way to the 

trees. It’s recommended to come during the 

week, when the farm is less crowded, and to 

bring sunscreen and bug spray. 

The farm offers pumpkins and hayrides 

in the fall and Christmas trees in the winter 

months. The farm also has chickens, pigs and 

a turkey. 

On the way out, make sure to pick up a 

caramel apple, honey stick, milkshake or another 

tasty treat for the ride home. 

To fi nd out more about Homestead Farm, visit 

“http://www.homestead-farm.net” or call 

(301) 977-3761. The farm is located at 

15600 Sugarland Road. 

Photos from top right: The Farmer’s Market 

is the fi rst stop on the trip. The next spot 

is Swain’s Lock, where you can rent canoes 

or bikes. End the day with some apple picking 

at Homestead Farm. Below: A few stops 

along the way. Photos by Nic Lukehart

12 

ADS 

Francesca Kerby is really hott. 

Good times hanging out over 

the summer. Thanks for giving 

blood babe! Adios princesa! 

’007! 

Hey everybody! It’s the brothers 

ick! We are the American Monty 

Python! –H. ICK 

Happy Birthday, Samantha! 

I’M HOLLERING BECAUSE I 

LOVE BLAIR TENNIS! 

Lucia and Gaby, I will forever 

love you two! hugs n kisses. 

Lulu I love your haircut! 

Shout out to team Gasolina 

and team SF- we completely 

dominate everyone- long live 

the prank war. Love, Sean and 

Hayley 

Shout to Lucy, Joey, Umpa 

Lumpa, Mayra, Natalie, Dadee, 

Sindy, Maria, Jocelyn, Dory, 

Dania, Eddy, Juan, Johnny, 

Yendil, Brian, Patrick, Peter, 

Christian B, Christian P, Susy 

and Class of 06!! 

Holler at Lucia who is amazing 

at selling these shout-outs! Oh 

sevennnn. 

For my Lucia, now you no 

longer have a reason to hate me. 

Love, your favorite senior, EH. 

Hey, man! This one goes out to 

my afro! 

We miss Business ‘05 because 

Chris Stavish was amazing! and 

cool. and Tiffany and Yasmin 

were hot. 

ʼ06 Holler Back! Happy birthday 

to Sophia and Johnathan, 

and Yasmin the part from what 

I remember was FUN! Luv 

~Stephanie 

HOLLER AT THE INDIAN 

M! and Ms. Thomas- WOOT! 

Alright, Sarah too. 

POLYGAMY 

For K-los, Victor, Brian, Rita, 

Noah, Rodolfo, Michael Jackson, 

Walter, Chicken Wings, jesus, 

god, south park. Oh my noodles. 

Coconuts! 

Shout-outs to the Blair Girls’ 

Volleyball Team! Dig it, set it, 

SPIKE IT! 

For K-los, Sam, Vicky, Brian, 

Emily, Victor, Inez, Walter. I 

LOVE YOU GUYS! SIKE, but I 

do care about you. 

Shout out to Brian, Kenny, Jet 

Li, Walter, Rodolfo, Victor and 

Sammy. Also to my brother 

Noah. Arf arf. oo! 

Francois! Stop being so violent! 

Haha! Just kidding! We heart 

you!...by the way you have a big 

head. 

Hey Andre Bruto give me my 

$20. Now. UHH yeah. Thanks 

ANDRE! 

Yo Lu, this is Gu. Shout! 

Silver Chips rocks my socks, 

dude! 

We’re finally seniors! Time to 

party! 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANA! Megan, 

Rosa, Jessie n Dana lunch 

buddies 4ever! Shout out to 

varsity girls soccer 07 run it 

Mariel, the love of my life...I 

took a dump yesterday...Lucinda 

is sexy! Ashley owes me & 

Sammy some chicken 

Happy Birthday to my “little sister” 

and Stephanie L. and JonJon 

Love yah PARTY TIME! Ciao 

I’d like to give a shoutout to all 

the members of the Wu-Tang 

Clan. Ol’ Dirty, we’ll miss you. 

Hey to my girls ’06 can’t believe 

it. All the crazy things we go 

through. I love you guys. Lets 

party! Ciao Bellas 

I

ilverCHIPS 


FEATURES 13 

ringing home the message of God 

In search of answers, inspired Blazers from nonreligious families commit themselves to faith 

By CHELSEA ZHANG 

For senior Joe Lorenz, the first stirrings of 

passion came years ago. He toyed with the idea, 

researched his crush and prayed every night 

before going to bed. Then, last January, curious 

flirting escalated into infatuation. As he asked 

his friends for answers, he sensed an emerging 

intimacy and felt his fears fade away. 

Lorenz was in love with God, and he was 

sure that God loved him back. He experienced 

God’s love in the Bible and breathed it in 

everyday subtleties, like an uncollected homework 

assignment that 

he had never started. 

Lorenz’s conversion to 

Christianity relied on 

a self-described, selfdiscovered 

“highly 

irrational” belief — he 

comes from a nonreliious 

family. 

Lorenz belongs to 

he 80 percent of teens 

oday who follow one 

f the world’s major religions, according to 

he ongoing National Study of Youth and Religion 

(NSYR). The study reported that teens’ 

religious choices tend to follow those of their 

parents. But first-generation religious Blazers 

like Lorenz stand apart from the rest in their 

personal need for faith and their pioneering 

relationships with God. 

The light in the distance 

One Sunday six months ago, God reached 

down and found a convert to Christianity in 

junior Andres Recinos. Recinos, whose father 

was nonreligious, was reluctant to go to church, 

but on that morning, he succumbed to his 

mother and sister’s insistence. At church, he 

remembers, the preacher spoke about sin and 

asked the congregation to feel the Holy Spirit. 

Recinos fell to the ground. He felt a hand pressing 

down on his face, keeping him flat — except 

it wasn’t a hand, he says. It was God. 

For Recinos, that moment held a revelation. 

“It was like a cleansing. It was insane,” Recinos 

says, recalling the tears he cried. “I felt like I 

was missing something, and then God touched 

my life.” 

Spirituality revealed itself more gradually 

to junior Jordan Turner. Jordan had contemplated 

conversion ever since the summer of 

2004 when, out of curiosity, he started reading 

an English translation of the Qur’an and brows- 

he recognized the urgency of the 

situation. “People thought they 

would ride this one out,” he says. 

“We knew we had to leave.” 

Now, Fortenberry reminisces 

about the pieces of his hometown 

that he feels Silver Spring can nevr 

replace. “I miss everything,” 

e says. “I miss the people, the 

ood — oh my God, the food. I 

iss Bourbon Street. They always 

ad something going on Bourbon 

treet.” 

Back home 

In Algiers Point, phone lines 

are down, and flooding has detroyed 

mobile phone towers. 

ortenberry cannot get in touch 

ith his uncle, who decided to reain 

home, hoping to ride out the 

torm. Fortenberry’s five-year-old 

win god-sisters are missing, and 

is extended family back home is 

till reeling from the disaster. “My 

randmother doesn’t want to eat,” 

ortenberry says, staring at the 

oor. “My whole family is complaining 

about starving.” 

Fortenberry has just begun conacting 

his friends back home, anicipating 

the tragic news that has 

onstantly plagued his last five 

eeks. “Three of my friends are 

one for sure,” he affirms, gazing 

cross the room. “One was shot by 

ing through pamphlets about Islam. He began 

to pray regularly in February. By July, he had 

made up his mind. 

Jordan took his shahada, the declaration of 

belief required of all converts to Islam, in an 

office at the Muslim Community Center in 

Silver Spring, the mosque he now attends several 

times a week. He stood in front of a few 

other Muslims and the imam, the leader of the 

mosque. “I bear witness that there is no god but 

God; I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger 

of God,” Jordan recited after the imam, 

first in Arabic and then in English. Minutes 

later, his certificate of 

conversion bore four 

signatures: his own, 

the imam’s and those 

of two witnesses. 

As the witnesses 

shook Jordan’s hand 

and one gave him a 

hug, he felt grateful 

for his new sense of 

belonging. “It wasn’t 

like I had totally become 

a new person, but it was a great feeling 

that I was being welcomed into a new community,” 

he says. 

Adil Khan, the imam, whose home, work 

and cell phone numbers are all stored in 

Jordan’s cell phone, has taught Jordan prayers 

and customs over the past few months. Khan 

describes Jordan as enthusiastic and mature, 

pointing out that his conversion was a voluntary 

and well-informed decision. “The most 

important thing is to understand what he’s 

doing and not to have any false notions,” Khan 

says. “That’s what we teach. We don’t force 

people [to convert].” 

Breaking with tradition 

Clergy usually carry less weight than family 

when teens make religious choices, according 

to Christian Smith, a lead investigator for the 

NSYR. In his book “Soul Searching: The Religious 

and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers,” 

he writes that “the single most important 

social influence on the religious and spiritual 

lives of adolescents is their parents.” 

But Jordan comes from a family of “casual 

Christians”; his parents have not gone to church 

in years. The void of religious influences in his 

family allowed him to research Islam with an 

open mind. He realized that Islam resonated 

with his developing philosophy — his disapproval 

of smoking and alcohol, for example 

tify those who need housing the 

most. “They give you a hard time; 

if you make a single mistake, they 

won’t let you through,” he says of 

the survey. “I’m lucky I answered 

half the questions right.” 

While Fortenberry reiterates his 

appreciation for FEMA’s efforts 

to house the thousands Katrina 

left homeless, he blames the Bush 

administration for its delayed re- 

— and that the true religion reflected none 

of its violent portrayal in the media. 

His mother, Roma Turner, was less confident 

in his choice. She had reservations 

about Islam’s treatment of women and 

Jordan’s speedy submission to the faith 

at age 16. Still, she accepted the invisible 

newcomer to the family that came in the 

shape of the Qur’an and the language of 

Jordan’s prayers. As the metaphysical pres- 

or Katrina refugee, a new address means a new life 

from KATRINA page 1 

“I felt like I was missing 

something, and then God 

touched my life.” 

-junior Andres Recinos 

a man who wanted something he 

had on. The other two drowned.” 

Too little, too late 

Fortenberry commends both 

FEMA and MCPS for providing 

him with a safe place to live in 

this time of disarray, though he is 

amazed at FEMA’s scrutiny with 

questionnaires intended to iden- 

Junior Jordan Turner browses a bookshelf at his mosque, the Muslim Community 

Center in Silver Spring, on Sept. 14. Photo courtesy of Leah Turner 

Senior Carl Fortenberry, a Katrina evacuee, makes a fresh start at Blair. Photo by Hannah Rosen 

action. “They took too long,” he 

says. “Before you make long-term 

plans, you need to feed people.” 

Even with warnings in the days 

before the hurricane, many New 

Orleans residents did not take the 

evacuation advisory seriously. 

“I really think people thought it 

would pass over us,” Fortenberry 

says. “New Orleans never sleeps 

— there were people partying on 

ence taught her more about the global reach 

of Islam and about her son, she gradually 

made peace with his decision. 

While his parents had qualms about his 

conversion, Jordan believes it was right for 

him. “My parents and relatives said that 

I should have done more research before 

converting, but I can’t picture myself as 

see RELIGION page 15 

Bourbon Street right before the 

hurricane came.” 

In addition to his criticism of 

the government’s response to Katrina, 

Fortenberry suggests the 

city was lax in its evacuation efforts. 

“New Orleans wasn’t trying 

to get people out,” he says. “A lot 

of people were just stubborn, but 

some people just couldn’t leave.” 

Just hours before Katrina hit, 

the sheriff of Algiers Point came 

on local television stations for his 

annual birthday appearance. Traditionally, 

people from the area 

would visit the sheriff on his birthday 

and hold festivities throughout 

the day. This time, though, 

his announcement was not one of 

celebration but of urgency. “No 

one come out to see me today,” 

Fortenberry remembers the sheriff 

saying. “Get your families out of 

town.” 

A new life 

Fortenberry estimates that another 

10 to 12 months will pass 

before he can return to a fully restored 

New Orleans. Until then, 

he is looking at months of support 

from his new school, his new 

neighborhood and his new friends. 

“Everyone has been great,” he says 

of the Blair community. “Right 

now, you need people to comfort 

you, and that’s what I’ve been getting 

here.”

14 

ADS 


silverCHIPS

silverCHIPS October 6, 2005 

FEATURES 15 

When Plan A falters, Plan B steps in 

exually active teens find a safeguard from pregnancy with controversial contraception pills 

By CAMILLE MACKLER 

Where only first names appear, names have 

een changed to protect the identities of sources. 

Things don’t always go as planned. Last 

ear, despite regularly using contraceptives 

o prevent pregnancy, one missed pill and 

ne broken condom left Jessica, a senior, in 

eed of a backup. “It was unsettling,” she 

ays. It was a Friday night and the clinics 

ere closed for the weekend, leaving Jessica 

errified for the next three days. 

That Monday, she made a trip to the local 

ealth clinic, where a brief exchange with the 

octor left her with two small pills. “All it 

ook was five minutes of conversation, but I 

elt significantly relieved,” she says. 

Jessica was prescribed Emergency Contraeptive 

Pills (ECPs). This treatment is given 

n a series of pills and is most effective the 

ooner it begins. At the Teen Connection 

linic in Takoma Park and at Planned Parentoods 

across the state of Maryland, ECPs are 

reely available to all women under the age of 

8. In fact, more than 80 percent of Planned 

arenthood health care clients receive serices 

to prevent unintended pregnancy, and 

n estimated 594,000 unintended pregnancies 

re averted by Planned Parenthood contraeptive 

services each year. 

While ECPs are most frequently used 

n cases of unprotected sex, a handful of 

exually active Blazers are taking the extra 

recaution to prevent pregnancy when their 

rimary, or even secondary, form of contraception 

fails. 

“The thought was terrifying” 

Last winter, Amy, a senior, found herself 

n a situation similar to Jessica’s. She had 

een taking birth control irregularly, and 

he condom she and her boyfriend used 

roke. Although the odds were in her favor, 

he decided she could not afford the risk of 

regnancy. “The thought was terrifying,” 

ays Amy. “There’s no way I’d have a child 

ow.” She, too, went to her local clinic, where 

he was immediately prescribed Plan B. 

In other cases, bad judgment and a lack 

f protection can leave teenagers vulnerable 

o and worried about pregnancy. The sumer 

after 10th grade, Susan, a senior, had 

nprotected sex with her boyfriend after 

eturning home from vacation. Immediately 

fterwards, she realized the possible conseuences 

of her actions and called Planned 

arenthood to get a Plan B prescription. “I 

know it was irresponsible and 

it sounds stupid, but sex is 

something you get caught up 

in,” explains Susan. 

Like most other teenagers, 

she decided not to involve 

her parents. “If I’m responsible 

enough to have sex, I’m 

responsible enough to take 

care of myself,” she says. 

Although Jessica, Susan 

and Amy have all used Plan 

B a second time as a backup 

to other contraceptives, they 

agree that the experience 

gave them a reality check. 

“There’s so much sexual activity 

in high school, and in some 

ways it seems so casual,” says 

Susan. “This made me realize 

sex is serious.” 

Time for Plan B 

When Susan arrived at 

Planned Parenthood, she was 

still in a state of shock. “I sat 

there looking at other people 

and I didn’t understand how 

I got myself in that situation,” she explains. 

Although she felt uncomfortable in such an 

unfamiliar environment, Susan realized she 

wasn’t alone. “Everyone is represented. Old, 

young and people of all races,” she says. “Sex 

affects everyone.” 

John Nugent, the CEO and president 

of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, says 

the organization has been providing reproductive 

health care for women and men of 

all ages for 75 years. “We provide valueneutral 

counseling, which means we don’t 

inflict our values on someone. We try and 

determine what solution is best for them,” 

says Nugent. 

He emphasizes that women do not have to 

come into the clinic to receive Plan B and that 

no physical exam is necessary. “Because of 

the short period of time to prevent pregnancy, 

time is crucial,” insists Nugent. 

Instead, women can call a toll-free number, 

which is available on a 24-hour basis. 

The phone representatives will call in a 

prescription and refer callers to a pharmacy 

that offers Plan B. “It’s a matter of picking 

up the medication,” says Nugent. 

After her experiences with ECPs, Jessica 

encourages all girls to ask for Plan B if they 

have any doubts. “Don’t be afraid of the 

stigma associated with the pill,” she says. 

“Don’t be afraid of being judged.” 

Plan B politics 

While oral contraceptives have been used 

for the past four decades and ECPs have been 

used safely since 1999, the FDA is still debating 

whether to make Plan B over-the-counter 

(OTC). Most recently, the FDA postponed a 

final decision for the second time this year, 

sparking a heated debate among Plan B 

advocates and within the FDA itself. Plan B 

supporters are outraged because they believe 

the FDA’s verdict was politically based. According 

to Nugent, “All the scientific data 

indicates that this is a safe product — the 

FDA turned it down, not because of science, 

but because of politics.” 

Most critics, however, fear that not only 

will women misuse the drug, but that it will 

also increase sexual activity among teenage 

girls. Considering that more than 30 percent 

of American women do not know enough 

about ECPs to effectively use them, according 

to Planned Parenthood, the misuse and 

abuse of the drug is inevitable. 

For this reason, Amy believes going to a 

clinic is an important part of obtaining ECPs. 

Talking to a doctor first is a good way to 

prevent people from taking advantage of its 

availability and using it too often, she says. 

Although Jessica strongly supports making 

Plan B available OTC, she also admits that 

there are benefits to going to a clinic. “I think 

it would have been more nerve-wrenching 

if I had to buy it from a pharmacist,” she 

says. “I think going to a clinic and talking 

to someone makes the situation a lot more 

comfortable.” 

Hannah Klaus, the executive director of 

Teen STAR, a sexual education program for 

adolescents, discourages the use of contraceptives 

like Plan B because she feels that 

they are too unreliable. “Sexual relations are 

very precious, and contraceptives are giving 

people a false sense of security,” says Klaus. 

“It’s not a cure-all.” 

Critics also believe that availability of 

Plan B might result in increased promiscuity. 

But according to Planned Parenthood, new 

studies negate this claim, finding that, while 

increased access to ECPs does increase the 

likelihood of use, this access does not alter 

sexual behavior or the risk for contracting 

STDs. 

Ultimately, Susan, Jessica and Amy feel no 

remorse over being sexually active and still 

choose to use contraception. “I don’t regret 

my choice to have sex,” says Susan. “I regret 

my choice to be irresponsible.” 

evout teens defy tradition to follow beliefs 

from RELIGION page 13 tend to convert when they face that used to take him 20 to 30 min- off his shoes and joined the men 

traumatic situations — a death in utes now take five to 10 minutes. sitting on the floor in silence, their 

anyone else. You don’t have to try the family, an accident, a divorce He has not missed a single prayer ears tuned in to the imam’s voice. 

on all the shoes at the store before — that make them reflect on why since taking his shahada. 

After the half-hour sermon, he and 

you know that what you’re buy- events happen or whether a God His commitment to Islam was the other men stood in lines facing 

ing is the right one,” he says. exists, Pearce says. 

put to the test when he visited his the same direction, their feet and 

Coming from a liberal and non- 

relatives in Boston. Religious law shoulders touching, in preparaeligious 

family, Lorenz can tes- Embarking on the journey holds that devout Muslims cantion for prayer. 

ify to a similar ideological divide 

not shake hands with people of Jordan cherishes the unity at 

etween himself and his parents. That question no longer trou- the opposite sex. Jordan refused the mosque, where people wish 

My family is united in being bles Jordan, who believes that Is- handshakes from several of his each other “as-salaamu alaikum,” or 

affled by faith,” he remarks, exlam has shown him a new direction uncle’s friends, and his uncle took “peace be upon you,” in greeting. 

laining that 

for his life. offense, not knowing that Jordan’s “When I go to the mosque, every- 

eligion tends 

“As a non- new religion forbade the gesture. one treats me as an equal. They 

o attract negtive 

stigma in “My family is 

r e l i g i o u s 

person, it The search for truth 

say hello as if we’ve been friends 

forever,” Jordan says. 

olitically libral 

areas. This 

ocial pressure 

akes some 

eople afraid 

united in being 

baffled by faith.” 

didn’t feel 

like there 

was a purpose, 

just 

living day 

Back in Maryland on a Friday 

afternoon, these teens depart from 

their daily lives into their separate 

worlds of faith. Lorenz goes to 

Lorenz believes that at the 

core of Christianity lies a very 

similar feeling: love. Reading the 

Bible moved him to admire God’s 

compassion and capacity for for- 

o associate 

ith Christi- 

- senior Joe Lorenz 

by day. As 

a Muslim, 

a Bible study group at the Marvin 

Memorial Methodist Church, 

giveness. God shows this forgiving 

attitude, Lorenz says, in that 

nity, he says. 

the purpose across the street from Blair, while Christianity has no strict moral or 

Most teens 

is to serve Jordan attends the Friday prayer behavioral code. “All you have 

ith nonreligious parents adopt Allah,” he says. 

at the Muslim Students’ Associa- to do is believe,” he says. “The 

faith because their friends prac- Every morning, Jordan wakes tion’s weekly meeting. 

desire to become a better person 

ice it, says Lisa Pearce, another up at 5:30 a.m. to say the first of five For Jordan, this is the most im- comes naturally.” 

ead investigator for the NSYR. prayers required of Muslims daily. portant prayer of the week. He As a result of converting, Re- 

ccording to Pearce, only a small Although he is “not at all fluent” went to the Friday prayer at his cinos curses less, puts more effort 

ercentage of teens actively seek a in Arabic, he has memorized the mosque during the summer, when into school and does not skip class 

eligion to help themselves under- basic parts of each prayer so he school did not intervene. Every anymore, he says. He now goes 

tand life. Teens in this subgroup can recite them faster. Prayers time he entered the doors, he took to church from Friday through 


Blazers from nonreligious families try to balance their adopted faiths with their daily lives 

Sunday, attends a Christian teen 

group on Wednesdays and plans 

on starting a Bible study group on 

Saturdays with a friend. 

Most of all, Recinos feels a true 

personal connection with God. 

“What’s the point of life without 

God? You live, you procreate, you 

die,” he says. “There’s a truth out 

there with God.” 

Teen believers 

• Seventy-one percent of 

teens said that they feel 

“extremely,” “very” or 

“somewhat close” to 

God. 

• At least 80 percent identify 

themselves as followers 

of a major religion. 

• Sixty-five percent said 

that they prayed alone at 

least a few times a week. 

Information compiled from 

the National Study of 

Youth and Religion

silverCHIPS 

SPORTS 

CHIPS 

Making the grade 

Snively is, by all accounts, a basketball 

fanatic; outside of school, he plays for a 

Division I league on weekends, occasionally 

drills with a private coach and devotes 

most of his free time to practicing. He 

spends his summers playing at elite invitational 

camps. But despite his extensive 

skill and experience, Snively has never 

played basketball for Blair. Because his 

GPA is below 2.0, he is not eligible to try 

out for school sports teams. 

As one of many athletic Blazers barred 

from playing Blair sports because of academic 

prerequisites, Snively’s story is 

hardly unusual. Current Montgomery 

County policy stipulates that students 

must have a 2.0 GPA and no more than 

one failing grade before they can participate 

in extracurricular activities. Based on 

these requirements, as many as 845 Blazers 

— approximately 25 percent of the student 

body — currently do not qualify to participate 

in the sports program. Ineligibility is 

an increasingly serious problem among 

those talented would-be athletes who, like 

Snively, fail to meet the academic requirements 

of the policy. 

The athletic achievement gap 

Blair has recently pioneered the use of 

an eligibility database to prevent ineligible 

students, like Snively, from even trying 

out for a school sports team. During tryouts, 

coaches can input the identifi cation 

numbers of all 

prospective players 

into a schoolwide 

database 

that records the 

GPA of each student 

for each 

quarter of the 

academic year, 

enabling coaches 

to cut any ineligible 

athlete. According 

to Joseph 

Bellino, the Blair 

teacher who authored 

the database 

program, 

Blair is currently the only Montgomery 

County high school with this capability. 

This same program is also used by the 

school staff to track the eligibility of current 

and past athletes throughout the 

school year. Despite coaches’ best efforts 

to monitor and prevent ineligibility, however, 

many student athletes still struggle to 

maintain their grades once the season has 

ended. According to the database, of the 

525 Blair students who participated in a 

school-sponsored sport last year, 86 — 17 

percent — were ineligible during one or 

Junior Quentin Snively squints towards the sun, his 

eyes following the basketball as it leaves his outstretched 

palms in a graceful arc. It sinks into 

the net with a satisfying swish. Snively spends 

most of his lunch periods the same way he has since he was 

in second grade — out on the school basketball courts with 

friends, engaged in a casual game of four-on-four. 

“The least I can do 

is to help them where 

they’re struggling.” 

more quarters of the offseason. 

MCPS policy dictates that any student 

who becomes ineligible during the season 

must be removed immediately from 

the team. The rigid consequences are designed 

to prevent recurrence of academic 

failure, according to Blair athletic director 

Dale Miller. “[Students] who become 

ineligible...[are] encouraged to get to study 

halls and academic support so it doesn’t 

happen again,” he says. 

Junior Sarah Curcio-Rudy was barred 

from the JV softball team when her GPA 

fell after the fi rst semester of her freshman 

year. She acknowledges that the extensive 

time commitment required of athletes may 

have contributed to her poor grades, but 

she questions whether her removal was justifi 

ed. “School and sports are separate, and 

the policy keeps people who don’t achieve 

academically from being able to achieve in 

other areas,” she says. “[The rule] is a bad 

idea. It just made problems worse.” 

Despite the rigidity of the academic requirements, 

not all Blazers are opposed to 

the policy. Junior Deandrey Woodward, 

an avid football player, chooses instead 

to compete in several leagues outside of 

Blair because his grades prevent him from 

participating in school sports. Still, Woodward 

believes that the policy provides 

positive motivation and an objective for 

would-be athletes to strive for. “When you 

play a sport, you know your [grades are 

passable],” he says. “So I guess it’s good in 

a way.” 

However, there 

is a signifi cant 

drawback to the 

policy: by prohibiting 

students 

with low GPAs 

from participating, 

it dramatically 

decreases 

the athletic talent 

pool at Blair, 

since some gifted 

players do not 

meet the eligibility 

requirements. 

“At Blair, we 

have a hard time keeping students eligible 

from one year to the next. It’s the reason 

we can’t compete with other schools,” says 

JV football coach Earl Lindsey. 

-basketball coach 

Orlando Larracuente 

School fi rst, sports second 

To combat their players’ slipping grades, 

many Blair coaches have initiated afterschool 

study hall programs for athletes. 

Although by law, school offi cials may not 

make attendance mandatory, coaches say 

that even without complete participation, 

By Allie O’Hora 

such programs are an effective approach to 

the ineligibility issue. 

Basketball coach Orlando Larracuente 

proctors such a program for his own players, 

giving them an opportunity to get their 

schoolwork done before they ever get on 

the court. “I try to provide an environment 

where they can succeed,” he says. “These 

kids are busting their tails to represent 

Blair. The least I can do is to help them 

where they’re struggling.” Despite his role 

as a coach, Larracuente says he maintains a 

focus on academics at all times. “The goal 

is to make sure no kid is ineligible, on-season 

or off,” he says. 

Lindsey recently instituted a similar 

study hall policy for the football team, 

which has been historically plagued by 

ineligibility issues. Lindsey says the effort 

has already produced signifi cant improvement. 

Both coaches affi rm their conviction 

that school, not sports, should remain the 

priority for student athletes. “School is 

fi rst,” says Lindsey. “I’m a teacher fi rst 

and a coach second.” Larracuente echoes 

his sentiments: “It’s about education,” he 

says. “The NBA is not the goal. College, 

university — that’s what I want to be the 

goal.” 

Indeed, today’s college athletes are held 

to increasingly exacting educational standards 

as universities strive for comprehensive 

academic achievement. The University 

of Maryland, for example, gives substantial 

consideration to grades when weighing the 

merits of prospective recruits. Zina Evans, 

director of undergraduate admissions for 

the University of Maryland at College 

Park, explains that their admissions policy 

is derived from the belief that a strong academic 

foundation is the most essential element 

in any successful college athlete. “I’ve 

seen kids who’ve...had coaches and teachers 

who just let the grades slide over the 

years, banking on an athletic scholarship,” 

she says. “But they’re not doing them any 

favors if they end up failing out of college 

because they can’t keep up with advanced 

coursework.” Because of this problem, she 

says, she supports high-school ineligibility 

policies, since they require participants to 

demonstrate an ability to balance athletics 

and academics. 

This kind of balancing act is diffi cult for 

many of Blair’s student athletes, but Snively 

is hopeful — he says he plans to split his 

time between schoolwork and sports this 

quarter. He hopes to improve his grades 

enough to be able to try out for the basketball 

team this winter. Perhaps, he says, the 

very policy that restricted him will serve 

as a means of motivation. “It’d be nice to 

be on the team,” he says wistfully. “I don’t 

know...maybe this year.” 

CENTERSPREAD 


Thomas Herrion was a player 

looking to fulfi ll his NFL dream. 

A former University of Utah offensive 

lineman, Herrion joined 

the San Francisco 49ers in December. But 

on the night of Aug. 20, Herrion’s life took 

a turn for the worse. 

The 6’3”, 330-pounder threw a key block 

on the fi nal play of a scoring drive, walked 

off the fi eld for coach Mike Nolan’s postgame 

address, knelt for the Lord’s Prayer 

and collapsed on the locker room fl oor. 

Herrion died hours later from heart failure, 

setting off a controversy about how 

obesity affects football players from high 

school to the pros. 

Herrion was just one of the quarter of 

all NFL players who are considered morbidly 

obese, according to Joyce Harp of 

the University of North Carolina at Chapel 

Hill. Obesity is especially prevalent along 

starting offensive lines, where 30 of 32 NFL 

teams average over 300 pounds per player. 

Linemen maintain heavy weights in order 

to better block for other offensive players. 

While the emphasis on large-scale weight 

gain has long been important to success in 

professional football, Blazers are also fi nding 

that weight can be an issue that makes 

or breaks their chances. 

Shouldering the load 

For senior David Ufford, a 5’10”, 220pound 

starter on Blair’s varsity offensive 

line, there was intense pressure to add 

bulk throughout the offseason. Ufford’s 

silverCHIPS 

Packing the Line 

Obesity in linemen raises questions about coaching pressure 

coaches said he needed to add weight if 

he wanted to play well. “They told me I 

looked too small,” Ufford recalls. 

Another key starting lineman, junior 

Scott Lavon, says that his natural bulk 

stopped coaches from demanding that he 

eat more. “I’ve always been one of the bigger 

guys, 

so they’ve 

n e v e r 

pressured 

me to 

get way 

b i g g e r, ” 

L a v o n 

says. In 

order for 

L a v o n 

to maintain 

his 

size advantage, 

c o a c h e s 

r e c o m - 

mended that he consistently use the bench 

press. 

Weight training is all the Blair coaching 

staff recommends in building mass, 

according to head varsity coach Jeff Seals. 

“Kids go to the weight room; that’s all I 

need out of them,” he says. 

Seals says he would feel better about 

the varsity linemen’s sizes if they spent 

more time in the weight room. Lavon, for 

instance, is unable to lift as often during 

the winter and spring, when he is playing 

ice hockey and lacrosse, respectively. 

Multiple sports cease to be an issue for 

college athletes, according to former Blair 

lineman Martin Brown, who plays football 

for Salisbury University. At Salisbury, 

Brown says, the football team’s weight 

training is more effective because it is required. 

“Everyday that’s not a game day 

is time for 

l i f t i n g , ” 

he says. 

E v e n 

with daily 

weight 

l i f t i n g 

and more 

i n t e n s e 

training, 

S a l i s - 

bury’s Division 

III 

f o o t b a l l 

team focuses 

less 

on weight 

than most top football programs. “They 

don’t care about your weight as long as 

you can play,” Brown says. 

Too much of a bad thing 

Steven Horwitz, a certifi ed sports 

physician in Silver Spring, affi rms that, 

although unhealthy weight fl uctuation 

among football players is an issue at major 

universities, the pressures can affect players 

at all levels. Horwitz recalls cases of 

athletes as young as nine years old with 

Top left: Junior Quentin Snively plays basketball at lunch. Top right: 

Blair football player sets up for the next play. Bottom right: Football 

practice on Oct. 3. Photos by Hannah Rosen and Nic Lukehart 

coronary blockages caused by obesity. 

Besides the long-term health risks, like 

diabetes and heart disease, associated with 

being overweight, Horwitz says that athletes 

can lose in-game skills. “They tend to 

lose speed and have more chance of hurting 

their lower extremities,” he says. Horwitz 

fi nds it counterintuitive that linemen 

are told to gain weight when they should 

build muscle and reduce bulk. 

Brown thinks that the Blair team could 

deal with weight issues more effi ciently if 

they solicited nutrition advice. “[The Salisbury] 

trainer talks to the team about what 

to eat. He makes sure we have healthy diets 

and can play our best,” Brown says. 

Last year, Collin Reed, a junior starter 

alongside Lavon and Ufford, was instructed 

to lose 20 pounds. Reed believes that 

the coaching staff sent confl icting messages 

about his size when they infl ated his 

height and weight on the roster, a practice 

used to intimidate opposing teams. 

Seals denies that his coaches deliberately 

pad the statistics. “We might give a kid 

like 10 pounds if he’s really, really light,” 

he says. Reed estimates his weight to be 

235 pounds, but he is listed at 260. 

“Massive” proportions 

With the issue of weight so ingrained in 

the high-school football culture, Horwitz 

says that athletes are unlikely to recognize 

health risks unless they compare their 

weight to their height. The accepted comparison 

system, known as Body Mass In- 

By Jason Meer 

dex (BMI), is a relatively accurate gauge of 

a person’s risk for disease. A BMI reading 

between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal, 

and readings between 25.0 and 29.9 

identify overweight individuals. Anything 

higher signifi es obesity and high risk 

for related health problems. 

Lavon, Reed and Ufford’s BMI scale 

readings are 31.2, 34.7 and 31.6, respectively. 

However, Horwitz says that BMI measurements 

are unreliable for most athletes 

who weight train because they tend to 

have higher muscle mass. Though lighter 

individuals are always at lower risk for 

disease, Horwitz says that a disease risk 

evaluator like BMI “doesn’t apply if the 

guy is in good shape and lean.” 

Conversely, checking Herrion’s BMI 

might have been useful in saving his life. 

At the time of his death, Herrion’s BMI 

reading was 41.2, well over the threshold 

that indicates risk. Horwitz hopes that 

linemen and coaches at all levels can learn 

from the Herrion tragedy. “Stronger and 

faster is always better than just big. Unfortunately, 

at those line positions, you will 

get pressured to put on weight,” he says. 

Seals does not think that Herrion’s 

death will change the way he coaches the 

team, because none of his players are morbidly 

obese. “If you’re strong and small, it 

doesn’t matter in high school,” he says. 

Lavon says that Blair’s line, considered 

to be average in size compared to the rest 

of the county, will be able to do the job. 

“We’re not the biggest, but we can still be 

successful,” he says.

18 

FEATURES 

uns and explosions. 

Marching drills in perfectly 

straight lines. Orders, 

yells and more explosions. 

These are the images the 

word “military” usually conjures. 

But it isn’t that simple. 

The experiences five Blair teachers 

had while in the armed services 

show that the military is far more 

than that. Far more than what recruiting 

officers may tell students 

or what the press reports back from 

Iraq. The teachers’ stories — from 

exotic foreign countries to Orlando 

boot camp, from treating injured 

veterans to interpreting enemy 

codes — serve as proof that, while 

the military may be about fighting, 

it’s also about learning. 

From learning often comes the 

When Caroline Kuttner, a 2004 Blair graduate 

and current sophomore at Tulane University, 

grabbed a backpack full of clothes and road-tripped 

to Houston with a few friends on her school’s orders, 

she thought it was just a precautionary measure 

for Hurricane Katrina. “We get evacuated at 

least every other year because of threats from hurricanes,” 

she explains. “No one thought that this 

was any different.” 

But it was. According to the National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration, Katrina was the 

most destructive storm ever to strike the United 

States. Winds of up to 175 mph left behind ruined 

houses, flooded streets and floating corpses. Now, 

weeks later, Kuttner is back in Maryland, shocked 

at the television images of debris where her old 

dorm room and city once were. 

Instead of just watching the devastation, 

Kuttner and her mother created the web site “Renew 

Orleans” to inform people of ways to help the 

relief effort. Many Blair students have responded 

to the call for help; according to an informal Silver 

Chips survey of 100 students conducted on 

Sept. 13, 62 percent of students have contributed 

to the relief efforts in some way. These students 

have opened everything from their wallets to their 

homes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. 

One dollar at a time 

While Kuttner’s firsthand experience with the 

hurricane’s destruction motivated her to action, 

others help simply because of the horrors they’ve 

seen on the news. For senior Scott Rathbone, Huricane 

Katrina’s impact is too devastating to grasp. 

ll he can comprehend about the tragedy is numbers: 

1,000 confirmed deaths, according to CNN, 

and 372,000 students who cannot return to school, 


silverCHIPS 

ut of uniform, still in the nation’s service 

Five Blair teachers reflect on lessons they learned during their years in the military’s ranks 

After boot camp, Magnet secretary Margie Berardi entered the Navy and served on the L.Y. Spear. 

Here, she takes a re-enlistment oath in front of the captain of the ship. Photo courtesy of Berardi 

By SALLY LANAR 

By CLAIR BRIGGS and JUSTIN VLASITS 

passion for teaching, an interest 

these five teachers share with over 

9,000 U.S. armed-service veterans 

who have chosen teaching as 

their second career, according to 

an Aug. 31 report by the National 

Center for Education Information 

(NCEI). NCEI’s report examined 

Troops to Teachers, a Department 

of Education program that helps 

retired military personnel make 

a transition from the battlefield 

to the classroom. Although none 

of the five Blair teachers acquired 

their jobs through the program, 

they all share its participants’ dedication 

to students. 

But before they made the commitment 

to their students, they 

made one to the military. Whether 

by choice or by draft card, they 

entered its ranks and marched forward 

into an experience that would 

according to U.S. Education Secretary Margaret 

Spellings. 

The enormity of the situation compels Rathbone 

to help in any way that he can. As the secretary of 

student organizations for the Student Government 

Association (SGA), Rathbone has spent his lunch 

periods walking around the SAC with other SGA 

members, collecting donations for the Red Cross. 

As of Sept. 22, the SGA had raised over $1,645. 

Like the SGA, the Blair chapter of the National 

Honor Society (NHS) has collected contributions 

from Blair students. NHS members asked 

students to donate to Project Backpack, an organization 

started at Walt Whitman that gathers 

backpacks and fills them with supplies for children 

displaced by the storm. Over the past several 

weeks, 43 backpacks full of items from stuffed 

animals to crayons to binders were collected from 

Blair students for the hurricane victims, says NHS 

President Natasha Coleman. According to the 

MCPS web site, more than 6,000 backpacks were 

collected in Montgomery County. 

Coleman believes Project Backpack is also beneficial 

because it sheds light on an often overlooked 

group of victims. “It was something started by 

kids for kids,” she explains. “A lot of people forget 

that there are kids out there suffering, too.” 

Taking matters into their own hands 

Still, Rathbone wishes that he could do more for 

the hurricane victims than just donating to relief 

efforts. He would like to follow in the footsteps 

of his brother, 2000 Blair graduate Allan Rathbone, 

who will travel to New Orleans to help cleanup 

efforts later this month. “It makes me wish school 

hadn’t started so I could go with him,” Rathbone 

says. “I want to be there, helping. I want to take 

see VOLUNTEERS page 21 

influence the rest of their lives. 

Donning the uniform 

Magnet secretary Margie Berardi 

wasn’t thinking about the 

long-term effects of the military 

on her life when she woke up 

one morning in 1978 and decided 

to put college on hold in order to 

enlist. The process was simple: 

On Feb. 28, she signed the papers 

as snow blanketed the ground of 

her Minnesota hometown, and on 

March 1, she stepped off the plane 

into tropical Orlando, Florida, for 

boot camp. 

User support specialist Anne 

Wisniewski enlisted for different 

reasons. In 1964, Wisniewski 

chose to take advantage of a military-run 

nursing school at George 

Washington University to help fi- 

nance her education. The program 

was far from a free ride, though 

— Wisniewski had to pay back her 

education with three years in the 

service. 

Unlike Wisniewski and Berardi, 

Magnet Physics teacher Ralph 

Bunday did not have a choice 

when the draft card appeared in 

his mail in 1955. It was a summons 

that he had to obey and one 

that took him to post-World War 

II Okinawa. There, he worked to 

decode not only the secret signals 

of the enemy, but those of a foreign 

culture, as well. 

A friendly enemy 

As a communications technician 

at the height of the Cold War, 

Bunday was stationed in Okinawa, 

where the military’s presence was 

minimal; only 50 or so personnel 

were positioned on the island, he 

says. 

Bunday remembers how encounters 

with the Okinawans 

would frequently make him realize 

his cultural ignorance. He recalls 

one time when, on his way home 

from duty, he circled a farmer’s 

entire farm, watching the man methodically 

plant potatoes, until the 

two crossed paths. “He looked up 

at me and, in perfect English, said, 

‘It’s very interesting, isn’t it?’” remembers 

Bunday, laughing. The 

farmer had attended the University 

of California and was forced 

to return to Okinawa at the outset 

of World War II, when suspicion 

mounted against those of Japanese 

origin. 

Social studies teacher Kevin 

Moose’s experience in the military 

would also repay him with a 

cultural education. From 1985 to 

1988, he was the only American 

in a small Italian town near the 

nuclear missile site where he was 

stationed. All of the townspeople 

there treated him with trust and attention, 

he feels. “I never locked 

my door, never cooked a meal in 

three years,” he says. 

After work, he would go to a 

local bar and keep his uniform 

on into the night to serve the Italians 

drinks, conversing with the 

customers in their own language. 

Sometimes, Moose says, he would 

teach the town’s children English; 

they grew to call him “big brother” 

and “uncle.” 

Learning to walk in step 

In contrast to Moose, the warm 

temperature in Orlando was one of 

the few things Berardi shared with 

the tourists who usually flock to 

the city as a vacation spot. Orlando 

was far from a leisure destination 

for her — it was a boot camp 

where she spent the first eight 

weeks of her training. 

Berardi began her training by 

filing through an assembly line 

in which she picked up her new 

clothing and received the required 

haircut. Women could let their 

hair touch the bottoms of their collars, 

whereas men were required to 

have the customary military buzz, 

she says. Next were immunizations; 

Berardi received three shots 

in each arm. In an adjacent room, 

the men did push-ups to get their 

blood circulating after the shots, 

but the women didn’t. “The next 

day, the girls were all like ‘Oh, my 

arms!’” says Berardi, laughing. 

That was not the last time Berardi 

dealt with pain during boot 

camp. Often, if one member of her 

squad made a mistake, the entire 

squad would be forced to run with 

their arms lifted perpendicular in 

front of them as punishment, she 

says. 

Wisniewski also attended boot 

camp, but only for a short while 

before she left to become a nurse 

at Bethesda Navy Hospital, where 

she encountered the compelling 

see VETERANS page 19 

ighting devastation with open wallets and open arms 

Jeri Crist and daughter Erica, 2, bring items to the dropoff site for Project 

Backpack in the Sodexho Building in Gaithersburg, which holds backpacks 

donated by students countywide. Photo by Hannah Thresher

silverCHIPS October 6, 2005 

FEATURES 19 

eens on a mission to spread faith 

Blazers bond with people of different cultures and reaffirm their own relationships with God 

By KATY LAFEN 

Freshman David Cano remembers 

seeing Hakim emerge from the 

bustling crowds of the Indonesian 

marketplace and timidly approach 

the outskirts of the tent. His shorts 

were ragged and his shirt was dusty 

from clouds of dirt kicked up by a 

passing cattle herd. Nervous and 

hot, Cano wiped a bead of sweat 

from his brow and approached the 

boy with a flyer from his church 

in hand. 

“Hello,” he began. “My name 

is David, and I am from a church 

in the United States. I would like to 

talk to you about some life changes 

you might want to make in your 

religion.” 

Hakim was the first of many 

Indonesians Cano would greet 

with pamphlets and messages of 

Christianity during his month in 

Jayapura, the capital of the Indonesian 

province of Papua. For all of 

July, Cano and a youth group from 

his Pentecostal church traveled 

through Jayapura and offered the 

“In the real 

world, it’s hard 

to just go up to 

someone and 

start hugging 

them, but there it 

was okay.” 

-senior 

Synthia Mariadhas 

people there both food and faith. 

Traveling so far from home to 

spread religion can be a faith-building 

experience, as several Blazers 

know from their time spent as missionaries 

abroad. As these Blazers 

bonded with people of different 

cultures, they also reaffirmed their 

own faiths and strengthened their 

relationships with God. 

The decision 

Before traveling to Indonesia, 

Cano was a quiet and withdrawn 

member of his church. While he 

regularly attended Sunday school, 

he rarely participated in discussions 

and knew less about his religion 

than he should have, he says. The 

youth pastor of his church suggested 

the mission trip to Cano’s 

parents as a way to get their son 

more involved. At first, Cano was 

intimidated by the idea of living in 

a completely foreign environment 

for an entire month. But his parents 

persisted, and Cano began to see the 

trip as an opportunity to learn more 

about his faith. 

Unlike many of his friends 

from church, Cano was not born a 

Pentecostal. Originally from Peru, 

Cano joined the church with his 

family shortly after moving to the 

U.S. Soon, he grew to love his faith 

and developed a desire to share it 

with others. 

Math teacher Karen Brandt’s 

urge to take part in missionary work 

stems from the significant changes 

her faith has made in her life. Ten 

years ago, Brandt was struggling 

to recover from the physical and 

emotional effects of a car accident. 

She believes that, without her faith, 

she would not have been able to 

pull through those challenging 

times. Though she was in great 

pain and could not attend church 

easily, she read the Bible and found 

great hope in its words. “One of 

the passages that helped me the 

most said basically, ‘God is always 

there. If you pray, He will answer,’” 

Brandt says. 

Brandt signed up to join her 

church’s trip to Puebla, Mexico this 

February to share the peace that 

her belief in God has brought her. 

“With all the impact God has had on 

my life, this mission trip is the least 

I could do. I know this trip will be 

life-changing,” she explains. 

The mission 

As Cano stepped off the plane in 

Jayapura, he, too, knew the month 

ahead of him would be like noth- 

support system.” 

Wisniewski witnessed how much that 

support system was needed as she treated 

the men and women who came back battered 

and broken from the rice paddies of 

Vietnam. “I wasn’t there on the battlefields, 

and I can’t pretend 

to know, but 

I saw firsthand 

the effects of war. 

Knowing that, 

I can’t imagine 

declaring war on 

another country,” 

she says. 

Under fire 

A l t h o u g h 

p h o t o g r a p h y 

teacher Frank 

Stallings served 

in Vietnam, he 

never had to walk 

through the doors 

of a military hospital 

like Wisniewski’s; he never received 

any major injuries while on duty. But that 

doesn’t mean that the year he spent there 

didn’t leave its mark. 

Three months after he received his draft 

card in October 1966, Stallings was on a 

plane to Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam. Once 

ing he had ever 

experienced. 

Although he 

had occasiona 

l l y h e l p e d 

distribute religious 

flyers to 

mailboxes in 

the U.S., he had 

never directly 

a p p r o a c h e d 

anyone about 

converting to 

Christianity. 

During the 

four weeks in 

Indonesia, his 

group split its 

time between 

delivering food 

and clothing 

to nearby orphanages 

and 

a p p ro a c h i n g 

people in the 

street with pamphletsdescribing 

Christianity. Hakim’s receptive 

attitude helped Cano become accustomed 

to approaching strangers. 

Hakim’s family was Hindu, but 

he no longer believed in his religion; 

he did not understand the need for 

so many strict rules and rituals. 

After discussing the Gospel for an 

hour in the marketplace, Hakim and 

Cano became friends. Hakim was 

intensely curious about Christianity; 

he had seen other missionaries 

in the streets before, but none 

had approached him as Cano had. 

Whenever Cano’s youth group was 

at the market, Hakim would take 

a break from selling his mother’s 

herbs to ask a new question about 

Cano’s religion. By the end of the 

trip, Hakim was determined to 

become a Christian. 

Senior Synthia Mariadhas experienced 

a similar connection 

with the people of El Oasis, a Seventh 

Day Adventist orphanage in 

Mexico, when she traveled there 

with her youth group last summer. 

“Right after I got there, two girls 

ran up to me and hugged my legs 

and wouldn’t stop talking. It was 

because of us all being Christians 

that we could easily talk and be 

happy,” she says. “In the real world, 

it’s hard to just go up to someone 

and start hugging them, but there 

it was okay.” 

The memories 

Establishing meaningful relationships 

like the ones Mariadhas 

and Cano made is important to the 

overall experience of a mission trip, 

says John Hevey, a pastor and mission 

trip organizer from the Friendship 

Baptist Church in Sykesville, 

Maryland. “When people live together, 

they get to know each other 

as neighbors. This atmosphere 

makes it easier for people to reach 

out and get to know God better,” 

he says. 

Since her return from Mexico, 

Mariadhas has become extremely 

close with the members of her 

youth group and makes time to 

attend more church activities than 

she did before. She assigns herself 

“projects” every day to improve 

herself, such as giving up rap music 

and praying every morning. “I just 

can’t get enough of that feeling I 

had in Mexico, where everything is 

perfect, where I don’t have to think 

about the problems. It’s just God 

and nothing else. I have started 

viewing the world so differently,” 

she says. 

rom bombs and bullets to blackboards and books 

eachers make the transition from taking orders on the battlefield to giving orders in the classroom 

from VETERANS page 18 

tories of injured soldiers returning from 

ietnam. What drew her in, Wisniewski 

xplains, was the sense of camaraderie that 

eveloped among the patients. Once, she 

ecounts, two 

atients made 

t their mission 

o help anther 

patient 

ecover from 

is injuries, 

ven though 

he doctors 

ad said he 

ould never 

e able to walk 

gain. Every 

ay, they suported 

him as 

e struggled 

round the 

o u r t y a r d , 

is arms 

tretched over 

heir shoulders. After two weeks, he could 

upport himself, and by the end of the year, 

e could walk and talk. Such empathy and 

ompassion are unique to the armed forces, 

isniewski says. “At that time in a civilian 

ospital, that never would have happened,” 

he explains. “They didn’t have that kind of 

User support specialist Anne Wisniewski worked 

as a Navy nurse. Photo courtesy of Wisniewski 

Children from the orphanage in El Oasis, Mexico harvest potatoes with some help 

from senior Synthia Mariadhas’s church youth group. Photo courtesy of Mariadhas 

there, he served in the First Cavalry Division, 

which followed directly behind the 

troops on the front lines and acted as a fuel 

station for choppers. 

Stallings’s role, like others in Vietnam, 

had its dangers. His division’s weak defenses 

were vulnerable even away from the front 

lines of attack. “We were sitting ducks,” he 

explains. “We received sniper fire all the 

time.” 

Stallings soon stopped thinking when the 

bullets flew. “After you’ve been there for a 

certain period of time, you become a vegetable. 

I don’t know of anyone who was with 

us who had any sense after 90 days. Everyone 

was nuts,” he says. 

The one time he was wounded, by a 

round of shrapnel in his hand, Stallings 

didn’t notice it until later, and even then, 

he didn’t think much of it. He soon became 

desensitized to seeing others get injured as 

well. “After a few months in — I hate to say 

the word — it became routine. You just became 

numb,” he says. 

Stallings’s tour in Vietnam ended shortly 

after the 1968 Tet Offensive. The last 50 days 

were the most harrowing ones for him, because 

the fighting quickly escalated. But he 

made it home safely, and although he suffered 

from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder 

for eight years, he managed to overcome the 

impact of Vietnam. Part of what helped him 

do that was to set his sights on a new goal: 

teaching. 

Three days after she returned 

home, Mariadhas wrote a letter 

to one of the girls in El Oasis 

thanking her for the kindness her 

village extended to Mariadhas’s 

church group. “I told her that we 

may have impacted their lives, but 

after seeing how accepting they 

were of us, that place was the closest 

thing to heaven I’ve ever been. 

They completely changed my life,” 

she says. 

Cano returned home with a 

new understanding of his religion. 

He feels that his missionary work 

has brought him “one step closer 

to Christ” and that his friendship 

with Hakim has broadened his understanding 

of his faith. “It really 

helped me understand that being 

religious is not just going to church 

and singing,” Cano says. “It’s more 

about helping others so they can follow 

in your footsteps to pass on the 

kindness to someone else.” 

Cano knew Hakim for just under 

one month and will probably never 

hear from him again — the rural 

area where Hakim lives rarely receives 

mail. Years from now, Cano 

may forget Hakim’s skinny legs or 

toothy grin, but he will never forget 

the bond of faith the two shared in 

the marketplace. 

From battlefield to classroom 

According to Dr. John Gantz, the director 

of Troops to Teachers, former military personnel 

can bring valuable skills to the classroom, 

especially leadership and sensitivity 

to diversity. They can also add a personal 

perspective to history lessons, he says. 

Moose agrees, explaining that when he 

teaches the Cold War in class, he shows his 

students the certificate he received for his 

service. He also uses the time he spent in 

Europe to make more effective lesson plans, 

such as discussions on other countries’ 

health care plans that tie in his experiences 

in Italy. 

Thanks to his time in the Navy, Bunday 

improved his interpersonal skills. “Prior to 

joining the military, I had this vision of buying 

myself a private island and living on it 

by myself like a hermit,” he says. But when 

he taught at a rural high school in Indiana 

with a high dropout rate, Bunday couldn’t 

just ignore the problems of his students. The 

military gave him the know-how to help 

them work through their difficulties. 

From rural Indiana, Bunday made his 

way to Blair, where he has found teaching to 

be his passion. Now, he stands as the officer 

without a uniform, with the students as his 

troops.

20 

ADS 


silverCHIPS


ilverCHIPS FEATURES 

21 

ace-to-face with terrorism in the U.K. 

Blazers reflect on their time in London during this summer’s terrorist tube bombings 

By AUDREY KUBETIN 

It was Blair graduate Danielle 

Prados’s broken alarm clock that 

saved her life. Had it rung as 

planned on the morning of July 7, 

she might have become a statistic, 

another casualty of the summer’s 

London subway attacks. 

Instead, she overslept. “My 

alarm clock didn’t go off. Otherwise, 

I would’ve been in the tube 

station,” says Prados, who was 

in London studying with a group 

from New York University. 

That morning, three suicide 

bombings on the London subway 

and one on a double-decker bus 

killed 52 people and injured at 

least 700 more. Besides Prados, 

at least four Blair students were in 

or near London when the terrorists 

struck. Although their time 

in a country under siege revived 

memories of the Sept. 11 terrorist 

attacks in the U.S., witnessing the 

British response to terrorism left 

the five students with a newfound 

respect for the people of London. 

“Under siege” 

At 8:50 a.m., Prados had been 

sleeping in her dorm around the 

corner from Russell Square when 

the first of what would be four 

deadly bombs exploded with 

enough force to shake the building 

in which she slept. 

At first, Prados didn’t know 

what had happened. One of her 

roommates returned to the apartment 

to say that she had tried 

to enter the Russell Square tube 

station but was met with a 

stampede of panicked commuters 

fleeing the station. “We 

thought it was one of those 

London transportation issues,” 

explains Prados, a 2002 Blair graduate, 

in a telephone interview from 

London. “London transportation 

is famous for its breakdowns.” 

Half an hour later, Prados ventured 

outside and realized what 

had happened. Before her in Russell 

Square, ambulances, police 

cars and other rescue vehicles attended 

to the victims of the day’s 

first bombing. 

The other Blair travelers had a 

less intimate view of the attacks. 

Senior Clare Marshall was in summer 

school at the British American 

Where in Blair? 

Drama Academy in London when 

the bombs detonated. The dean 

of the academy called for an allschool 

meeting to break the news 

to the students and told them, 

“London is under siege.” 

Marshall was shocked and 

saddened by the tragic news. “I 

couldn’t believe it,” she says. “It 

was the last thing I was expecting 

to hear.” 

Meanwhile, news of the attacks 

was spreading across the country 

like wildfire. At the time of the 

bombings, sophomore Julia Mazerov 

and her family were driving 

out of London. After passing 

an electric sign along the highway 

that read, “Turn the radio on,” they 

tuned their car radio to the news 

and were immediately transfixed 

by the unfolding story. “[Coverage 

of the attacks] was on every 

single station,” she remembers. 

“We were on a five-hour drive, 

and we listened the whole way.” 

At first, they were told only that 

there had been an explosion on the 

London Underground. When the 

news broke that terrorists were 

responsible for the blast, Mazerov 

realized how lucky she and her 

family had been. “We were supposed 

to take the tube that morning, 

but we changed our plans,” 

she says. 

Miles away in Cheltenham, a 

borough about two hours south 

of London, senior Amelyne 

Major and her family went into 

a pharmacy and were told by a 

clerk that there had been at least 

one bombing in London. At first, 

“we had no idea how huge it 

was,” remembers Major. Still, she 

was afraid that more terrorist attacks 

were planned throughout 

England. 

For Major, the bombings 

brought back the fear and uncertainty 

she had felt during the Sept. 

11 attacks in the U.S. “It was just, 

like, ‘Oh God, now this is happening 

here,’” she says. 

Déjà vu 

For these Americans in London, 

witnessing the London bombings 

revived unpleasant memories 

of the Sept. 11 attacks. When 

he heard the news of the London 

bombings, junior Nick Wolf 

couldn’t help but compare them 

Photo by Rayna Andrews 

The photo above was taken on the Blair campus. Identify the location 

and object in the picture to win the mildly coveted Silver Chips shirt. 

Submit entries with your name, grade level, phone number and student 

ID number to room 158 by Oct. 14. 

to Sept. 11. Safe inside the thick 

ramparts of the Tower of London 

at the time, the bombings “didn’t 

leave a fear, a nervousness,” he 

remembers. “The whole shock of 

Sept. 11 wasn’t there.” 

Mazerov agrees that being in the 

U.S. on Sept. 11 affected her more 

than being in England during the 

bombings. Although she admits 

the news of the London bombings 

was unexpected and troubling, 

Mazerov feels the experience left 

her emotionally and mentally unchanged 

in the long run. “I don’t 

want to say... I was used to it because 

of 9/11, but it really didn’t 

affect me,” she says. 

Remembering how she felt 

when her own country was under 

attack, Major sympathized 

with Londoners. “I felt it was bad 

enough for the U.S. to have to deal 

with [terrorism], and it was horrible 

that England had to deal with 

it now,” she says. 

While terrorism may be new 

to Americans, Londoners have 

had decades of experience with 

it. Prados notes that, while Londoners 

were shaken by the July 

from VOLUNTEERS page 18 

attacks, “they’re more hardened 

to these types of situations because 

of the IRA,” referring to the 

Irish Republican Army, a terrorist 

group infamous for bombing British 

pubs, tube stations and other 

civilian targets. The British “had 

dealt with bombings before. This 

wasn’t new,” explains Prados. 

Grace under fire 

During the early years of World 

War II, London was barraged almost 

nightly by Nazi bombers in 

what became known as the London 

Blitz, after “blitzkrieg,” the 

German word for “lightning war.” 

Although hundreds of people lost 

their lives in these attacks and 

thousands more were forced to 

seek shelter each night in tube stations, 

Londoners tried to live their 

lives as usual. Ever since, they 

have had a reputation for being 

able to sweep up the rubble and 

move on with their lives after any 

disaster. The Blair students who 

were in London during the tube 

bombings witnessed this quality 

firsthand. 

matters into my own hands.” 

Senior Gillian Couchman realized that, 

even though many of the victims of the hurricane 

are getting immediate resources and 

care, they have an enormous long-term problem: 

beginning a new life with almost nothing. 

Couchman and her family decided to 

open their home to a family in need. “Right 

after we saw all the terrible stories of people 

on the news, my mom just decided that we 

had the space, so it was something we needed 

to do,” explains Couchman. “My mom 

called the Red Cross the next day.” 

For now, the Couchman household shows 

only small signs of change. The basement 

has been cleared out, and extra beds have 

been set up downstairs. A lock was put on 

the basement door to give the new family 

some added privacy. Still, Couchman knows 

the change will be dramatic. “It’s weird, because 

it’s almost like my whole life is about 

to change — I’m practically adding to my 

family!” exclaims Couchman. 

As new families settle into the Washington, 

D.C., area, Couchman’s life will not be 

the only one to change. More than 70 new 

students from the Gulf Coast have enrolled 

in MCPS since the hurricane, according to 

the MCPS web site. Senior Sebastian Johnson, 

the Student Member on the Board of 


Wolf, for example, wasn’t worried 

when he heard the news of 

the attacks. “I honestly trusted the 

British police and what was going 

on. I felt safe,” he says. 

Likewise, Major commends the 

Londoners for their determination 

and strength. “The British people 

were really supportive of each other 

and knew they had to keep going,” 

she says. “If they didn’t, the 

bombers would win.” 

Despite the terrorist attacks, 

Major’s view on London has 

stayed the same, and she wouldn’t 

hesitate to go back. “I didn’t feel 

like this was any reason for me to 

stay away,” says Major. 

Prados, who has not been back 

to the U.S. since the attacks, agrees. 

If anything, watching the Londoners 

manage the attacks has improved 

her impression of the city. 

In the aftermath of the bombings, 

she notes that Londoners were 

helpful to one another, composed 

about the situation and considerate 

of those injured or affected by 

the bombings. “It gave me a little 

more confidence in the future of 

humanity,” says Prados. 

Blazers aid Katrina relief 

Education, applauds MCPS students for 

taking the initiative to “reach out to these 

students and make them feel welcome.” On 

Sept. 26, Johnson took a day-long tour of 

two of the schools the new students are now 

attending in order to greet these students as 

members of MCPS. Johnson hopes his trip 

will help ease the trauma of displacement 

for the students and help pave the way for 

recovery. 

Shane Perrault, a psychologist for the 

Adolescent and Adult Behavioral Consultation, 

says in a phone interview that displaced 

children and adolescents could show 

symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, 

such as anxiety and depression, for years to 

come. 

Still, Kuttner belives that those who are 

not directly affected by a tragedy often continue 

with their lives and forget about what 

has happened. “I look back at how I reacted 

to the tsunami, and I felt bad, but it was 

easy to move on,” she says. 

But this time, Kuttner will not move 

on: She is already planning on returning 

to New Orleans next summer to work for 

Habitat For Humanity with her friends, 

confident that New Orleans will return to 

the vibrant city she once knew. “I know it’s 

not going to be the same for awhile, but it’s 

just that kind of city people love too much 

to let it die,” she says.

2 

HEALTH 

n the face of death 

he funeral industry is booming in 

South Africa. In fact, South Africans 

spend more time going to funerals 

than getting haircuts or going shoping, 

according to a 2004 study by the South 

frican Advertising Research Foundation. 

This is a troubling reminder of the panemic 

sweeping the nation, dooming milions 

to a lifelong disease that has no cure 

nd only one foreseeable outcome: death. 

South Africa officially has the fifth highst 

incidence of HIV in the world, but given 

he more than 5.6 million people infected 

n 2004 and the alarming rate at which the 

isease spreads, the country is considered 

o have the worst epidemic in the world, 

ccording to AIDS Foundation South Africa 

AFSA). “It’s almost like one in three people 

s infected,” says Debbie Mathew, the execuive 

director of AFSA, in a phone interview 

rom AFSA headquarters in Durban, South 

frica. She says that about 330,000 peole 

die from AIDS every year — “healthy, 

prime-age people that shouldn’t be dying.” 

The numbers are staggering, but for five 

Blair students who traveled to South Africa 

this summer, statistics mean nothing comared 

to the actual faces of the AIDS crisis. 

“Intoxicated Barbie” 

Even so, it was a shocking statistic that 

took seniors Ajolique Jude and Soulyana 

Lakew, sophomore Marc Smith and freshen 

Nesreen Butler and Esaite Lakew to 

outh Africa in the first place. 

They learned that the rate of HIV and 

IDS in the Washington, D.C., metropolian 

area is equivalent per capita to that of 

outh Africa, says Dr. Yvette Butler, Neseen’s 

mother and the executive director 

f the GapBuster Learning Center (GBLC), 

Montgomery County program working 

o close the achieveent 

gap between 

lack and Latino stuents 

and their white 

nd Asian peers. 

A year ago, Dr. 

utler recognized the 

eed for local HIV/ 

IDS awareness edcation 

and decided 

o incorporate it into 

BLC. She initiated 

six-month HIV/ 

IDS program for a select group of students 

hat culminates in a two-week trip to South 

frica, during which students act as HIV/ 

IDS peer educators. Jude, Smith, Nesreen 

nd sisters Soulyana and Esaite were seected 

through the GBLC Leaders In Trainng 

program to join several students from 

cross Montgomery County on the trip to 

South Africa this past June and July. 

While there, they visited a series of South 

African schools, where they led hands-on 

demonstrations and interactive games to 

simulate the effects of HIV/AIDS and to explain 

proper methods of prevention. One 

demonstration, named “Intoxicated Barbie,” 

shows the effects of alcohol on judgment, 

especially when it comes to safe sex 

and the transmission of HIV, while another 

uses a dildo to explain the proper procedure 

for putting on a condom. 

Garlic and oranges 

Although the demonstrations themselves 

may elicit awkward giggles and outright 

shock, this peer education is important 

because of the misinformation and, in some 

cases, complete lack of information on HIV 

and AIDS, explains Esaite. 

Myths and misconceptions about HIV 

and AIDS abound in South Africa, often 

with disastrous results. Esaite and Nesreen 

list several common rumors, like the erroneous 

beliefs that oranges and condoms contain 

the virus, that have only aided in the 

spread of the epidemic. 

One of the most horrifying myths is that 

sex with a virgin can cure HIV/AIDS, says 

Nesreen. Partly as a result of this misconception, 

South Africa has the highest incidence 

of rape and infant rape in the world, 

with 37,000 adult rapes and 21,000 child 

rapes reported in 2001, according to “Science 

in Africa,” an online magazine. However, 

according to the same magazine, only 

one in 35 rapes is reported, meaning the 

actual number of rapes might be in the millions. 

Even the South African government contributes 

to these misconceptions, laments 

social studies teacher Patricia Anderson, 

who spent a month 

touring South Africa 

this summer as part 

of the Fulbright-Hays 

Seminar Abroad program. 

“The health 

administration was 

recommending traditional 

remedies, 

like, ‘Eat garlic, and 

you’ll be fine,’ and 

meanwhile, millions 

of people are dying,” 

she says. “A lot of times, the government is 

at odds with the crisis.” 

This misinformation stigmatizes the 

HIV/AIDS-infected population. Misconceptions, 

such as that the disease can be 

transmitted through any physical contact 

with an infected person, contribute to the 

social isolation and rejection that frequently 

accompany open 

disclosure of HIV 

status, says Nesreen. 

Fearing 

ostracism, many 

people refuse to 

get tested, explains 

Dr. Butler. 

“If you are HIVpositive, 

you are 

abandoned,” she 

says. 

In an extreme 

case, an HIV-positive 

woman was 

famously stoned 

to death in 1998 

by a mob of her 

own neighbors, 

says Mathew. 

Jude believes 

this stigma is partially 

due to the 

role South African 

society plays in 

the crisis. “They 

don’t talk about 

it because the 

spread of the disease 

has so much 

to do with their 

own culture,” she 

says. For example, 

the popular 

practice of polygamy 

in South 

Africa compounds 

the problem, since polygamous men who 

do not practice safe sex can easily transmit 

the disease to their multiple sexual partners, 

explains Jude. 

Furthermore, because of the stigma associated 

with HIV/AIDS, older generations 

often refuse to discuss the disease at all, says 

Nesreen. “They don’t want it to exist. They 

think if they don’t talk about it, it doesn’t 

exist,” she explains. 

The silence is taking its toll. 

The students of GapBuster Learning Center were greeted on their first day in South Africa by these chilren 

at Bovet Secondary School in the township of Alexandria on June 21. Photo courtesy of Marc Smith 

“They were 

dying right before our 

eyes.” 

-freshman 

Nesreen Butler 


Not just numbers 

Even six months of training and education 

with GBLC could 

not prepare Esaite for a 

visit to an AIDS hospice 

in South Africa. “Regardless 

of how many 

statistics and numbers 

you see, it’s not the 

same as seeing it yourself,” 

she says. “It was 

unreal.” 

The patients in the 

hospice were in the last 

stages of AIDS, on the 

verge of death. They 

lay in hospital beds in 

the cramped quarters 

of the hospice huts, 

their covers pulled tight 

around their gaunt faces. 

They were emaci- 

ated and weakened by 

the disease: Their eyes 

drooped, their hair 

thinned and fell out 

and their skin hung in 

folds off the frames of their frail skeletons. 

“They were withering away,” says Nesreen. 

“It just hit me and made me feel there’s so 

much suffering from AIDS. They were dying 

right before our eyes.” 

Jude was hesitant to approach the patients 

because she didn’t want to take whatever 

time they had left. “Any minute, any 

day, they were going to die. I’ve never seen 

anyone that sick,” she says. “It made AIDS 

more real.” 

Dr. Butler planned the trip with that very 

purpose in mind. “You got to see the face of 

HIV in its last stages, getting ready to die,” 

she explains. “It was painful to see, but I 

wanted the kids to see that.” 

The “lost generation” 

The effects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa 

are pervasive, ranging far beyond 

the actual death count. From a faltering 

economy — due in part to the dwindling 

workforce — to an exponential increase in 

silverCHIPS 

Battling the HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa By Jody Pollock 

An HIV/AIDS patient sits in Kagisong, 

a South African hospice. 

Photo courtesy of Marc Smith 

# 

the number of orphaned children, the pandemic 

affects all of South Africa. 

Hundreds of thousands of children are 

orphaned every year by the deadly disease. 

About 1.2 million children have lost a mother, 

says Mathew. She calls them the “lost 

generation.” 

On a visit to an orphanage and daycare 

center, the students of GBLC spent time 

with several South African children, many 

of who were orphaned by the HIV/AIDS 

pandemic. Nesreen was particularly struck 

by their apparent optimism in spite of their 

circumstances. 

However, as soon as the orphans started 

sharing the stories of their pasts, “their 

smiles faded away, and their eyes got 

wet,” says Nesreen. The orphans told the 

students of GBLC their tragic stories with 

tears streaming down their cheeks, clutching 

small mementos of the parents they had 

lost to AIDS. One little girl held tightly to a 

bottle of cleaning spray that her mother had 

once used to clean the television. It was the 

only thing of her mother’s that she had left. 

As she told her story, she began sobbing so 

furiously that she was unable to continue. 

Since the trip, Nesreen and Dr. Butler have 

been considering adopting an AIDS orphan 

from South Africa. 

Mathew’s biggest concern is the future 

of these orphans. In a country where the 

unemployment rate is about 41 percent, and 

61 percent of the 18 million children live in 

poverty, according to AFSA, the millions of 

AIDS orphans only compound the situation. 

Without support, many of these children 

become “dysfunctional, drop out of school, 

become unemployed” and contribute to the 

high crime rate, she explains. “Many of 

them cannot find jobs because there are no 

jobs.” 

As a result, poverty is one of the biggest 

concerns with regard to HIV/AIDS, not 

only because the disease disproportionately 

affects the impoverished, but also because 

without money, there is no clothing, no 

housing, no food and certainly no medication. 

Disturbingly, because the government 

offers financial support to some HIV/AIDS 

patients, some people willingly contract the 

disease. “People feel 

being HIV-positive has 

advantages because 

they get government 

checks so they can feed 

their children, have a 

house over their heads, 

have water to drink,” 

says Dr. Butler. “That 

was most alarming.” 

By the year 2012 

According to AFSA, 

the total number of 

H I V / A I D S - r e l a t e d 

deaths in South Africa 

is still seven years away 

from peaking. “If HIV/ 

AIDS isn’t stopped, it’s 

going to claim more 

lives until there are no 

more lives to claim,” 

says Smith. 

The first thing to be 

done in the fight against HIV and AIDS, 

says Anderson, is to increase overall awareness. 

“Once you know what’s happening, 

you can’t ignore it anymore,” she insists. 

“It’s the responsibility of every person on 

the planet to fight the epidemic.” 

Dr. Butler is confident that the peer educators 

of GBLC are making a difference. Already, 

as a result of this year’s trip, GBLC 

has “formalized a partnership” with a South 

African peer education program, with both 

groups eager to educate each other in a longterm 

cross-cultural exchange. “It makes me 

feel like I have a purpose,” says Nesreen. 

“I can teach people, and I can learn from 

them.” 

While hopeful about the prospect of 

change and the efforts being made by 

groups like GBLC, Mathew emphasizes 

the enormity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

“We’ve got a long way to go,” she says. 

Because if nothing is done, South Africa 

may become awash in an endless sea of the 

faces of AIDS.

ilverCHIPS 

By PRIA ANAND 

Every day, juniors Ngaheteh and 

Maheteh Ngombi arrive home to a 

living room rife with culture. On 

one wall, three elephants stampede 

out of an enormous copper clock in 

the shape of Africa. Against another 

are rows of wood carvings from 

Sierra Leone, where the Ngombis 

lived until 2000. Across the room 

is a bookshelf weighed down by a 

television, a DVD player and an assortment 

of silver-and-blue African 

sculptures: hippos in suits, men 

thinking, women nursing. 

But just a few feet away, atop a 

carved wooden coffee table supported 

by two elephant trunks and 

next to a row of leering Nile crocodiles, 

lies a stack of movies whose 

titles don’t fit with the Ngombis’ 

African decor: “Yeh Hai Jalwa.” 

“Rishtey.” “Planet Bollywood.” 

Since their time in Sierra Leone, 

the Ngombis have been devotees of 

the “Bollywood” culture spawned 

by the prolific Indian film industry 

based in the city of Mumbai, 

formerly Bombay. According to 

“Bollywood Premiere” magazine, 

“Bombay Hollywood” currently 

sells more tickets and produces 

more films than any other film 

industry in the world, and its influence 

is on the rise: Beyond South 

Asia and the South Asian diaspora, 

Bollywood films have generated a 

wide following in the Middle East, 

parts of Africa and even in the 

United States. The singing, dancing, 

formulaic plots and wholesome 

escapism that have long been the 

hallmarks of Bollywood films have 

found a way to resonate across 

oceans — and across cultures. 

“One movie...lots of entertainment” 

For the Ngombis, a large part 

of Bollywood’s attraction lies in its 

song-and-dance sequences. No film 

is complete without at least 10, and 

the Ngombis have amassed many of 

them on an impressive collection of 

DVD compilations. 

It’s 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 13, and 

Ngaheteh is furiously forwarding 

through the early scenes of 

“Kuch Kuch Hota Hai,” the first 

Bollywood movie the Ngombis 

rented in the United States. “Let 

me show you my favorite song!” 

she exclaims, flipping through shots 

of colorful saris and impromptu 

choreography. 

Although Ngaheteh doesn’t 

speak Hindi, the language the 

movie is in, she’s picked up enough 

to sing along with the familiar refrain. 

Sometimes, she says, she’ll 

accidentally start singing Hindi 

songs while sitting in class. “I just 

like the language, the way it sounds 

when they sing,” she explains. Still, 

the Ngombis don’t own many Bollywood 

CDs: They prefer seeing the 

elaborate group dance numbers and 

continuous costume changes that 

accompany every song. 

Senior Rachel Martin, who first 

became interested in Bollywood 

through an Indian dance class, has 

always been drawn to Bollywood 

dancing. “I love the dancing; it’s 

so artistic,” she says. “It’s like that’s 

what’s going on in their heads.” 

Martin, who sometimes performs 

Bollywood numbers for 

campers at a local YMCA and at 

events like Blair Fair, has toyed with 

the idea of a future in Bollywood. 

“They’re like musicals, except you 

don’t have to sing!” she laughs, alluding 

to most Bollywood actors’ 

obvious lip-syncing. “Sometimes 

I think that would be exactly what 

I would want to do, except for the 

part that I’m not Indian and I don’t 

speak Hindi.” 

This amalgam of music and 

movement is a driving force behind 


Bollywood’s magnetism, says Blair 

tennis coach David Ngbea, who 

grew up watching Hindi movies 

in Nigeria. “In one movie, you get 

lots of entertainment,” he explains. 

“There is romance and music and 

plenty of dancing, and all of the actors 

and actresses are pretty, except 

for the bad guys.” 

And, adds Ngbea, some of these 

features are able to bridge the gap 

between South Asian culture and 

his own. “The beat of Indian music 

is very deep,” he says. “It’s almost 

like the beat of African music.” 

A family affair 

Perhaps for this reason, in Nigeria, 

Ngbea found himself constantly 

exposed to Bollywood culture. 

“Indian movies in Nigeria were 

advertised on billboards, in papers, 

even shown to us in high school,” 

he says. Fridays and Saturdays 

were “movie days” at Ngbea’s 

school, where the entire student 

body would watch a movie together 

— always a Bollywood film or an 

American cowboy movie. 

For Ngbea, there was no contest 

between the genres: The simple 

ENTERTAINMENT 23 

olling out the red carpet for Indian films 

Bollywood movies breach cultural barriers and reach wide audiences with common appeal 

The beat of Indian 

music is very 

deep. It’s almost 

like the beat of 

African music.” 

predictability of Bollywood films 

appealed to him far more than 

Hollywood gore. “Cowboy movies 

always ended up with someone 

being killed,” he recalls. “In Indian 

movies, what you expected would 

happen: The bad guys would end 

up empty handed, the lady would 

end up with the man she was in 

love with. It ended in an amicable 

manner — there was fighting, but 

no killing.” 

But it’s not just the nature of 

Bollywood fighting that allows the 

Ngombis to watch Hindi films with 

their mother and sisters. Ngaheteh 

explains that she simply feels more 

comfortable watching Bollywood 

films. “Bollywood films have more 

love and no lust,” she says. 

Ngaheteh says that this reserve 

is something her culture has in 

common with Bollywood films, a 

sentiment senior Ramatu Ibrahim 

has also found to be true. Ibrahim 

grew up in Sierra Leone, where 

Hindi movies pervaded the entertainment 

industry. Now, Ibrahim 

actively seeks out Bollywood 

films to watch with her family 

because she finds them more modest 

than their western counterparts. 

Graphic by 

Camille 

Mackler 

“They’re more appropriate for my 

family,” she explains. “There’s no 

kissing and no sex; they’re mostly 

about love.” 

Cultural notions of what’s appropriate 

are part of what makes 

Bollywood films so adept at bridging 

geographic barriers, according 

to Jigna Desai, author of the book 

“Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural 

Politics of South Asian Diasporic 

Film.” “For a lot of people, culture 

is not about where you are,” she 

explains in a phone interview. “It’s 

about what values you have.” 

And, adds Desai, these values 

are distinct from those of western 

films. “They’re about being modern 

in a particular way, but still 

holding on to whatever traditions 

appeal to you,” she says. “They’re 

about holding on to a notion of ethnicity 

or difference or culture that 

they distinguish from the west.” 

Differences aside, it’s Bollywood’s 

ability to transcend national 

boundaries that has kept Ibrahim 

coming back for more. She explains, 

“Even if you don’t know the 

language, when you see the stars, 

you can understand what they’re 

talking about.” 

ublishing dream comes true for English teacher 

By JEFF GUO 

-tennis coach 

David Ngbea 

On May 17, 1974, a swarm of 400 police 

officers and FBI agents converged on a little 

bungalow in south-central Los Angeles. 

Their target: the Symbionese Liberation 

Army (SLA), an anarchist group infamous 

for the kidnapping and brainwashing of 

newspaper heiress Patty Hearst. 

The police gave the SLA members 15 

minutes to leave the house, but no one did. 

Someone started shooting. In the ensuing 

gunfight, the house erupted into flames. 

Everyone inside died. 

English resource teacher Vickie Adamson 

remembers being shocked. She recognized 

the address: 1466 East 54th Street. It had 

been her family’s home two years prior. 

This unsettling coincidence is one of the 

many experiences that Adamson drew on 

to write her upcoming novel, “The Color of 

Love: A Romance in Black and White,” expected 

to be released later this year by online 

publisher IUniverse.com. While Adamson 

is hesitant to reveal details, she admits 

that the book, though fictional, is structured 

around her own life. “If I started generally 

describing the premise of the book, people 

would say, ‘Well that’s you, isn’t it!’” she 

says, laughing. And there is no doubt that 

the roots of the book run deep. 

A lifetime in the making 

Adamson has always loved to write, even 

as a little girl. “Every 

day, I would go home 

and I would stick paper 

in the typewriter 

and type,” she says. 

At nine, she finished 

her first play, “The 

Surprise Present.” 

She still keeps a copy 

of it tucked away in a 

drawer at home. 

This love of writing 

followed Adamson 

through college, 

where she received 

a bachelor’s degree 

in English and a 

master’s in African- 

American Literature, 

both at the University 

of California, Los 

Angeles. 

Then, she jumped into the hectic world of 

teaching. Adamson was suddenly too busy 

to write, or even read, for pleasure. The 

problem has followed her to this day. “I find 

I am so bogged down in papers, paperwork 

and just the bureaucracy of being a teacher,” 

she says. “Unless I’m very deliberate about 

making time for [writing], it doesn’t happen.” 

But at the same time, Adamson began to 

tinker with the idea of a novel that explored 

the issues of race, gender and class — issues 

that had followed her from her child- 

Vickie Adamson leads a lively class 

discussion. Photo by Hannah Rosen 

hood in Los Angeles. 

She finally sat down 

and began writing 

the book in 1993. Because 

her busy school 

life forced her to work 

mostly during the 

summer or while on 

maternity leave, it 

took Adamson nine 

years to complete the 

novel. 

She shared the finished 

manuscript with 

her friends and family. 

They all loved it, but 

Adamson was reluctant 

when they urged 

her to publish. The 

novel, after all, was 

a personal endeavor. 

She had written it 

with just her close friends in mind. And she 

was wary of publishing companies, which 

she knew to be reluctant about printing the 

works of first-time authors. “Breaking into 

the publishing world would take a lot of 

time, energy and commitment,” she says. 

IUniverse to the rescue 

Adamson began to change her mind this 

past April, when she came across an article 

in “The New York Times” describing online 

companies, such as IUniverse.com and Xli- 

bris.com, that will, for a fee, publish manuscripts 

and make them available on online 

bookshops. 

This system of publishing appealed to 

Adamson: She didn’t want to spend months 

on end pitching to reluctant editors at com- 

“It just seemed so 

easy and so inviting.” 

-English resource teacher 

Vickie Adamson 

panies like Random House or Scholastic. 

The online companies offered to publish her 

novel hassle-free. “It just seemed so easy 

and so inviting,” she says. “They are presenting 

an opportunity for you to publish 

and then determine whether or not you have 

readership.” 

Adamson is now in the final steps of publishing 

her book with IUniverse.com. She 

can’t wait to finally hold the finished copy 

of her book in her hands. “There’s a feeling 

of excitement, of thinking that my book will 

actually arrive and that people can have it 

and read it and respond to it,” she says, smiling. 

“Whether or not they like it, just the fact 

that it can happen is a wonderful thing. I’m 

thrilled.”

4 

ENTERTAINMENT 

Nobody saw Kanye coming. 

When rapper-producer Kanye 

West released his breakthrough 

album “The College Dropout” last 

year, no one could have predicted 

the tidal wave of commercial success 

and critical acclaim it met. 

West brought a fresh perspective 

to a genre dominated by music that 

glorified violence and degraded 

women, and people started 

to consider his criticisms 

of hip-hop 

culture’s materialism. 

N o w t h a t 

West’s sophomore 

showing, “Late Regstration” 

(2005), is 

limbing the charts, 

ainstream consumers 

are finally getting 

another taste of hip-hop 

outside crunk and gangsta 

rap. With fans looking to West for 

his insightful, socially conscious 

lyrics, the market is ripe for a resurgence 

of alternative rap. Chips 

presents three alternative hip-hop 

albums every fan should own: 

“3 Feet High and Rising” 

(1989) - De La Soul 

What you’ll love: Creative sampling; 

catchy hooks; playful lyrics 

that make you laugh and think at 

the same time. De La Soul is the 

Charlie Parker of alternative hiphop. 

What you won’t: The 1980s-style 

flow gets old after a while. Run 

D.M.C. does it better. 

Sample lyrics: 

“Do people really wish when they 

blow 

Out the cake candles, and if so, 

Is it for the sunken truth which could 

arise 

From out of the characters in which the 

ghetto hides?” 

-“Ghetto Thang” 

Start with the classics. De La 

Soul’s three members are the godfathers 

of alternative hip-hop. 

Released at the height of gangsta 

rap’s advent, their most influential 

record, “3 Feet High and Rising,” 

is the quintessential alternative 

rap album. The group’s positive, 

New stories are up on 

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• Student drivers cope with 

Katrina’s and Rita’s onetwo 

punch to gas prices 

by Keianna Dixon 

• Engaging in the disengagement: 

Blazers get a firsthand 

view of tension in 

Israel over the summer 

by Alex Abels 

• Read more; learn more; 

change the globe: Blair 

teacher uses hip-hop to 

reach students 

by Robert Feasley 

Look under “Print Edition” at 

“http://silverchips.mbhs.edu” 

witty lyrics set the stage for every 

alt-rap artist in the next decade. De 

La Soul has constantly taken risks 

in experimenting with its sound 

and pushing boundaries in underground 

hip-hop. 

And it’s clear that De La does as 

De La pleases. The group embodies 

the creativity and exploratory 

spirit alternative hiphop 

prides itself on. The 

album’s quirky samples 

come from a wide variety 

of musical genres, 

ranging from yodeling 

to “Schoolhouse 

Rock” to a French 

language learning 

tape. 

Still, the album 

lacks the modern 

flow most hip-hop fans are 

accustomed to. De La’s rhymes 

are simplistic, and the album is peppered 

with couplets pairing “heart” 

and “part” and “cool” and “fool.” 

They sound more like unsophisticated 

Run D.M.C. than the skilled 

post-West-coast rappers whose 

timing and rhythm took on new 

dimensions. 

But try to look past the 

flow to examine their message 

— De La Soul is all 

about uplifting fans 

with positive lyrics 

and a feel-good 

vibe. De La’s “3 

Feet High and Rising” 

is the perfect starting point 

for a hip-hop fan looking to take 

a trip back to the old school. 

“Power in Numbers” (2002) 

- Jurassic 5 

What you’ll love: J5 boasts hiphop’s 

best DJs, and their MCs’ 

inventive flow is a pleasure to 

listen to. 

What you won’t: The tracks don’t 

flow into each other as naturally as 

Kanye West fans may be used to. 

“Numbers” lacks that satisfying 

beginning-to-end feel. 


“We tight like dreadlocks and red fox 

and ripple. 

We pass participles and smash the artist 

in you. 

The saga continues, but this I won’t 

Movies 

“In Her Shoes” (PG-13) - Another corny chick 

flick about family relationships and love — 

and shoes? Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette 

talk about shoes and cry about their problems. 

Watch out guys: This one’s bound to be a real 

hit with the girlfriends of America...and not 

so much with anyone else. (Oct. 7) 

“Elizabethtown” (PG-13) - Yes, this film stars 

Orlando Bloom. No, that does not mean 

it will be good. In this blatant copy of the 

highly successful “Garden State,” Bloom 

plays a depressed man who reunites with 

his estranged extended family for his father’s 

funeral, only to find love and a new purpose 

in life. (Oct. 14) 

“Good Night and Good Luck” (PG) - Few 

historical films can boast a deceased figure 

playing himself. Thanks to the wonders 

of modern technology, “Good Night” is a 

movie about McCarthyism featuring actual 

appearances by Senator Joe McCarthy. Using 

archived footage and an all-star cast, including 

George Clooney, the film tells the story 

of newsman Edward Murrow and his fight 

against McCarthyism. (Oct. 14) 

“Doom” (R) - Video games do not make good 

movies, not even when they star the Rock. 

They have their own gaming arena, one which 

doesn’t involve any kind of plot or character 


get into 

‘Cause there ain’t enough bars to hold 

the drama that we’ve been through.” 

-“What’s Golden” 

Sheer bravado is the only way to 

describe Jurassic 5, America’s most 

talented rap group. And here’s the 

thing: J5’s MCs have every right to 

be as cocky as they are. “Power in 

Numbers” mixes an old-school lyrical 

sentiment with a typical turn-ofthe-century 

flow and sound, and 

the result is one of the decade’s most 

innovative hip-hop records. 

“Numbers” is a ride on an emotional 

roller coaster. The CD starts 

out philosophically. “Freedom,” is 

a soulful cry for equality in a cruel 

world, and “Remember His Name” 

is an anti-violence track in the classic 

alt-hip-hop tradition. The lyrics 

are compelling and reflect a sincere 

yearning for justice. 

The next section of “Numbers” 

is a demonstration of pure lyrical 

might and verbal versatility. J5 has 

the sharpest, tightest wordplay in 

modern rap music, and boy, 

do they know it. Much of 

the rest of “Power in 

Numbers” is simply 

the MCs 

r a p p i n g 

about how 

skilled they 

are, but their 

rhymes are so 

charming that it’s 

hard to fault them 

for their arrogance. 

Underneath J5’s 

lyrical prowess, DJs Cut 

Chemist and Nu-Mark 

flaunt their chops on the turntables 

— they’re two of the most skilled 

DJs in American hip-hop. “Numbers” 

has catchy riffs throughout, 

but the DJs really open the floodgates 

during the last few tracks, culminating 

in “Acetate Prophets,” an 

instrumental ode to turntables. Cut 

Chemist’s production work on the 

album is superb, adding the perfect 

finishing touches to the record. 

“Power in Numbers” is a mature, 

reflective album that manages 

to mix elements of thoughtful social 

commentary with new-school lyrical 

artistry and attitude. J5’s sound 

is both distinctive enough to attract 

seasoned hip-hop fans and catchy 

enough to bring in mainstream lis- 

teners looking to get their feet wet 

in alternative rap. 

“Black Star” (2002) - Mos’ Def 

and Talib Kweli 

What you’ll love: Mos’ Def and 

Kweli speak with more passion 

and conviction than any 

other rappers on 

the alternative 

scene. 

W h a t y o u 

won’t: This album’s 

distinctly 

alternative-style 

hooks are an acquired 

taste. 


“Caught up in conversations 

of our personal worth, 

Brought up through endangered species 

status on the planet Earth. 

Survival tactics mean bustin’ gatts to 

prove you’re hard; 

Your firearms are too short to box with 

God.” 

-“Thieves in the Night” 

Kweli and Mos’ Def are the most 

politically vocal rappers on the 

alternative hip-hop scene. “Black 

Star” is all about a message of empowerment 

and pride in the face of 

an oppressive establishment. While 

the album was met with widespread 

critical acclaim, neither of the pair 

has been able to top its success in the 

BEYOND the Boulevard 

development, for a reason. (Oct. 21) 

“North Country” (R) - In this gritty new 

drama, Charlize Theron plays a woman suing 

the mining company where she works for 

sexual harassment. This is the quintessential 

average woman against all odds type of film, 

and it’s certain to ooze “girl power.” However, 

with Theron at the helm, it’s hard to see 

how this movie can go wrong. (Oct. 21) 

DVDs 

“Kingdom of Heaven” (R) - This film was 

terrible in theaters, so there’s absolutely no 

reason to see it on DVD. Yes, Orlando Bloom 

is hot. But this movie about warring for 

eternal salvation feels more like an eternal 

bore. (Oct. 11) 

“Arrested Development: Season Two” 

(TV-PG) - “Arrested Development” fans can 

rejoice in the fact that this hilarious Fox show 

has returned from the brink of cancellation for 

a third season. For everyone else who hasn’t 

been watching the show — which, judging 

by the ratings, is quite a few people — this 

release is a chance to see what all the fuss is 

about. (Oct. 11) 

“Bewitched” (PG-13) - Will Ferrell may be a 

funny guy and Nicole Kidman may be a very 

talented actress, but don’t waste your time 

with this film. If you really need to see “Be- 

silverCHIPS 


years since each went solo. 

Which isn’t surprising, since 

topping “Black Star” would be 

like topping Beethoven’s Fifth 

or the Beatles’ “White Album.” 

“Star” may never make nightclub 

rotations, but it is heartfelt, 

sincere and spiritual; every 

couplet on the record is well 

thought-out and imbued 

with deep meaning. Jazzy 

hooks and riffs underlie 

the mature, thoughtful 

tone of the album, 

which features some 

of the boldest, most 

cerebral rap ever 

recorded. 

Even the most unsuspecting 

tracks contain 

some of the smartest rap around. 

In the battle rhyme “B Boys Will B 

Boys,” Kweli and Mos’ Def imitate 

the style of the Cold Crush Crew, 

an early rap group that pioneered 

the genre three decades ago. The 

song is an homage to hip-hop’s 

schoolyard, grassroots origins and 

is a subtle jab at rap’s commercialization. 

Intelligent songs like that are 

what make “Black Star” a work 

of art. Each element is carefully 

weighed, and the final product 

speaks eloquently to the urban experience 

in a hostile society. “Black 

Star” pleases the ear and stirs the 

conscience, and it’s exactly what the 

doctor ordered for a genre that’s lost 

sight of its roots. 

witched,” watch the old TV show and save 

yourself 102 minutes of pain. (Oct. 25) 

“Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” (PG) 

There is only one occasion that could possibly 

warrant seeing this DVD — a pre-teen 

slumber party. The story of four best friends 

and the special pair of jeans they pass around 

during their summer apart, “Traveling Pants” 

is a sugarcoated tear-fest. (Oct. 11) 

Concerts 

Foo Fighters and Weezer will be playing at 

the Patriot Center; price of admission is $45. 

(Oct. 10) 

Liz Phair will be playing at the 9:30 Club; 

price of admission is $25. (Oct. 12) 

Matt Nathanson will be playing at the 9:30 

Club; price of admission is $15. (Oct. 14) 

Mothertongue will be playing at the Black 

Cat; price of admission is $7. (Oct. 19) 

Kanye West will be playing at the Patriot 

Center; price of admission is $48. (Oct. 30) 

To buy tickets, call (202) 423-SEAT or visit 

“http://www.ticketmaster.com” 

Beyond the Boulevard compiled 

by Nora Boedecker



25

6 

ENTERTAINMENT 


influence on reggaeton music after 

Puerto Rico, it is no wonder that 

Peña dreams of becoming a reggaeton 

artist. His father, a prominent 

merengue musician and 

composer, provided the support 

and inspiration that Peña needed 

to get involved in the music business. 

Though music had always 

played an important role in his 

life, it wasn’t until last year, when 

Peña came to America, that his 

dreams of becoming a reggaeton 

silverCHIPS 

inding fame in a reggaetonation 

Blazer artist rides the wave of new music genre’s national appeal and rising popularity 

enior Miguel Peña, a local reggaeton artist known as L‘ Migue, performs. Reggaeton, a fusion of 

ip-hop and Latin beats, is steadily gaining popularity across the nation. Photo by Brandon Herbst 

By SARON YITBAREK 

enior Miguel Peña stands 

in the hallway, facing the 

wooden doors of the Blair 

auditorium and buttoning 

up his black blazer. The flag of the 

Dominican Republic is stamped 

proudly on his back as he waits to 

perform for the Hispanic Festival 

at Blair last May. He pulls off his 

black dress shoes and hastily laces 

up his Jordans. Adjusting his 

curly black hair, he holds a sleek 

microphone tight as he waits for 

the beat of the reggaeton music 

to begin playing. He draws in a 

deep breath. “This is the night,” 

he whispers to himself. Smoothing 

out his blazer, Peña is ready 

to present himself to Blair as L’ 

Migue, a rising star on the local 

reggaeton scene. 

Born and raised in the Dominican 

Republic, which is often 

considered the second greatest 

performer seemed within reach. 

On the rise 

Peña’s music career started with 

a simple pen and paper. “One 

day, my computer broke and there 

was nothing to do,” he says. “So 

I got out my pen and paper and 

started writing a song.” After that 

first song seven months ago, Peña 

joined three other Blazers to form 

a reggaeton group called Desafio. 

The group, which performed 

at last November’s evening pep 

rally, was featured on the cover of 

“Fiesta D.C.,” a local Latino magazine. 

Although they had only 

been together for a few months, 

Peña felt that it was time to leave 

Desafio and go solo early in September. 

“We split up,” he says. “I 

wasn’t feeling the group...We still 

perform together. They’re doing 

their own thing, I’m doing my 

own thing.” 

Even though the group split up, 

Peña will never forget the day they 

met their manager, Blair graduate 

Eddie Narin, and officially broke 

into the reggaeton scene. On a 

Sunday at the Chirilaguas Festival 

in Alexandria, Virginia, Peña describes 

how the group snuck backstage 

and asked the manager present 

for a chance to perform. “We 

got to perform for 8,000 people,” 

he says. 

Not quite there yet 

Peña is modest about his accomplishments, 

though he has 

good reason to brag. After only 

seven months in the music business 

and a year in the United 

States, he has already performed 

with such hit reggaeton artists as 

Baby Ranks and Ivy Queen. He 

performed last week with Daddy 

Yankee at the Patriot Center 

in Fairfax, Virginia, and he has 

scheduled several other concerts 

in New York and Pennsylvania 

for later this year. Still, Peña has 

a long way to go before becoming 

a reggaeton star. The first step is 

releasing a demo. 

Currently, Peña has a working 

demo from recording sessions last 

spring consisting of six songs, including 

his first song, “Mi Hembria,” 

or “My Baby.” Peña hopes 

to get back to the studio and rerecord 

his demo in better quality. 

He also plans on adding several 

new songs for a fuller product. 

From now until the release of his 

demo, Peña must arrange as many 

performances and promotions as 

possible, which is why his manager 

is focused on booking shows 

at different festivals and concerts. 

“Any job is getting him exposure. 

He has to keep it consistent and 

make sure he connects with all his 

fans,” says Narin. 

Even with successful performances 

like those at Blair and other 

Hispanic festivals in the area, 

Peña is neither overwhelmed nor 

comforted. “I don’t think I’m better 

than other people. It’s from 

them that I learned how to rap, 

how to sing,” he says. “I don’t like 

to say I’m going to make it. I like 

to say that I believe in myself. The 

people are the judge. If they like 

me, that’s good. If they don’t like 

me, I’ll try harder.” 

He shrugs. “I just like music,” 

he says. “Music is what I do.”


silverCHIPS ENTERTAINMENT 27 

October Crossword 

by John and Christopher Silberholz 

Across Down 

1. A little shut-eye 

4. A cyclops has only one 

7. The whole enchilada 

10. Sunshine state 

11. One of the only sure things 

in life 

12. Paul Bunyan’s tool of choice 

13. Disney princess who longs to 

be “part of our world” 

18. AIDS’s predecessor 

19. Possible Kennedy assassins 

20. Stamp of ownership 

22. “You _____ dog, you” 

24. Many 

27. “You’ll _____ the day” 

29. To look at longingly 

32. “He said _____ said” 

34. Sickly 

35. “Yes,” to Noah 

36. “Put your left _____ in, put 

your left _____ out” 

37. To talk incessantly 

38. _____ of love 

39. Deep sleep 

40. Parents’ first present 

42. Child’s spinning toy 

45. Bluegrass state 

46. Enjoys apples just a little too 

much 

48. A letter, in Morse Code 

50. Movie series with a depressed 

donkey and wise owl 

57. “You’re _____ in a million” 

58. “Let sleeping dogs _____” 

59. Ginger _____ 

60. Compass direction 

61. To keep an eye on 

62. Popular dancing game, abbreviated 

Submit completed crosswords to 

room 158 by Oct. 14. The winner will 

receive a bag of candy of his or her choice. 

1. Professional football assn. 

2. Boxer who floated like a butterfly 

but stung like a bee 

3. The _____ to enlightenment 

4. Pierre’s summer 

5. Sweet potato 

6. A business leader, for short 

7. Driver’s aid 

8. Sixty-one in Roman 

9. Showed the way, long ago 

14. Poet’s “it is” 

15. Popular clothes store, _____ X 

16. To agitate 

17. Communist leader 

20. Hated math subject, for short 

21. Flick starring Shang, Ping and 

Mushu 

23. Toy you walk the dog with 

25. Father of Anastasia, for one 

26. Movie featuring a princess, 

ogre and diminutive prince 

28. Napoleon’s exile isle 

30. Straight from the _____-go 

31. _____ but not least 

33. Prestigious TV award 

38. _____ Strauss jeans 

41. “It’s raining _____” 

43. Song of tribute 

44. Seuss’s “Hop on _____” 

47. Shocking wrigglers 

49. Frog’s look-alike 

50. Triumphed 

51. Marriott, for instance 

52. “Something old, something 

_____, something borrowed...” 

53. Waiter’s bonus 

54. Exclamation of surprise 

55. “This _____ man” 

56. An endless “herb” 

ig Fat Blair by Lincoln Bostian 

ontext Optional 

by Nathan Yaffe

28 

LA ESQUINA LATINA 

LAS NOTICIAS 

La comunidad de Blair responde a Katrina 

La Asociación Estudiantil Gubernamental de Blair (SGA) y 

la Sociedad Nacional de Honores (NHS) han comenzado un 

proyecto para recaudar dinero y así colectar abastecimientos 

para las victimas del Huracán Katrina. SGA recauda donaciones 

durante el almuerzo 5A y 5B. También se celebró un partido 

de basketball, el 29 de septiembre, en el cual se recaudaron fondos. 

Se han reportado donaciones individuales hasta de cien 

dólares. 

NHS está contribuyendo al proyecto llamado “Backpack”, 

un programa en el cual los estudiantes donan material escolar 

y juguetes a los niños que ahora se refugian en el Astrodome de 

Houston. 

La instalación de un letrero nuevo 

A mediados del mes de junio el letrero manual localizado 

en la esquina de University Boulevard y la calle Colesville, fue 

sustituido por uno digital. El letrero nuevo se compró con fondos 

escolares con un propósito estético, siguen la directora de 

negocios, Laurie Checco. El letrero en sí costo $31,000 sin contar 

los $4,000 que costó su instalación este verano. El letrero 

es programado y controlado en el interior de la escuela por el 

especialista en computadoras, el Peter Hammond. 

Protestas del 23 al 26 de septiembre 

Unidos Por La Paz y Justicia (UFPJ) y Actúa Ahora Para Detener 

La Guerra y Eliminar El Racismo (ANSWER) se han unido 

con otras organizaciones que también están contra la guerra 

para planear una serie de protestas en Washington, D.C., del 

23 al 26 de septiembre. Los eventos incluirán una marcha y la 

congregación de individuos contra la guerra en Irak, un festival 

de paz y justicia, servicios de fe, entrenamiento para no 

ser reclutado, información sobre el tema y desobediencia civil 

no-violenta. Este fin de semana también se llevará a cabo un 

concierto gratis en contra de la guerra. Varios grupos musicales 

estarán presente, como LeTigre, Thievery Corporation y Ted 

Leo & the Pharmacists. Se anticipa que llegarán a Washington, 

D.C., cientos de miles de protestantes de todas partes del país, 

de acuerdo a la UFPJ. En representación de los Estudiantes de 

Responsabilidad Global de Blair (SGR), estará presente el estudiante 

de segundo año, Noah Robinson y quien es miembro de 

la organización. Él asistirá a la protesta y a el concierto porque 

cree que “esta guerra no tiene sentido,” el dijo. 

MCPS da a conocer el resultado de los SAT 2005 

Los estudiantes del grado doce de las escuelas públicas del 

Condado de Montgomery han obtenido un promedio de 1,101 

en los SAT del 2005, dijo la oficina del Superintendente en un 

reporte oficial que se dio a conocer el primero de septiembre. La 

Directora Asistente de la Oficina de Información Pública MCPS, 

Kate Harrison, dijo que estos resultados demostraban un progreso 

para la educación a nivel del condado. En una en-trevista 

telefónica dijo: “De nuevo este año el promedio fue más de alto 

de 1,100, lo que demuestra un éxito...ya que ha habido un aumento 

en el número de personas que han tomado el examen 

este año,” Harrison dijo que el número de estudiantes del grado 

doce tomando el examen ha aumentado por un 21 porciento 

desde el 2001, especialmente entre los grupos minoritarios. La 

administradora de Blair, Linda Wanner, refiriéndose al año en 

cuestión, dijo que la participación de las minorías es un triunfo 

significante, aunque el promedio de 1,104 solo aumentó un punto 

en comparación con el año anterior. “En conjunto estuvimos 

conformes con los resultados. Estamos tratando de motivar a 

los estudiantes a tomar el SAT y a tomar clases avanzadas -- eso 

es lo que es importante, no tanto el aumento en los resultados.” 

dijo ella. Las calificaciones a nivel local se pueden encontrar en 

la página web del Condado de Montgomery. 

Traducciones hechas por Kathie Arana 

6 de octubre del 2005 

Sin marido y sin trabajo, Reyes 

quedó en una posición riesgosa y 

ella no tenía como ganarse la vida. 

Nadie la podía ayudar. Así fue como 

ella emigró a los Estados Unidos y 

comenzó una vida nueva. 

El sueldo no está garantizado 

En muchos países hispanoamericanos 

y en El Salvador en particular, 

los trabajos son muy escasos y a las 

familias se les hace duro sobrevivir. 

Según la CIA, en el 2000, la tasa de 

desempleo en El Salvador era de 10 

porciento con el 48 porciento de la 

población que vive en El Salvador 

bajo los niveles de pobreza. Los 

Estados Unidos proporcionan una 

ventana de esperanza para muchos 

inmigrantes hispanohablantes que 

vienen a este país en busca del 

trabajo y libertad. En el 2000, el 

Censo informó que 655.165 personas 

salvadoreñas viven en los Estados 

Unidos, siendo el grupo más grande 

de personas de Centro y Sur América 

que inmigran continuamente a los 

Estados Unidos. 

Para muchas personas como 

Reyes, es difícil encontrar trabajos 

buenos a causa del conocimiento limitado 

del inglés. Zulema Zelaja, de 43 

años y nacida en Honduras ha estado 

en los Estados Unidos durante los 

últimos 14 años. Ella, a diferencia de 

Reyes, vino aquí ilegalmente, “con la 

ayuda de Dios,” según ella. Zelaja 

inmigró a los Estados Unidos a causa 

de la pobreza y la falta de trabajos en 

su país. Ella trabaja de 10 a.m. a 9 

p.m. cada día de la semana. Se gana 

entre $40 y $60 al día, pero ella dice, 

“a veces gano, a veces no.” 

La cantidad de dinero que estas 

mujeres vendedoras ambulantes 

ganan no es suficiente para vivir 

decentemente, dice Santos Sarmientos, 

que vende los mangos. Lo más 

que ella ha hecho en un día fue $125, 

silverCHIPS 

La esperanza latina florece 

Vendedoras ambulantes tratan de vivir en Langley Park 

Por MEAGHAN MALLARI 

Las pastas de coco, el mango 

cortado y las rajas de pepino están 

todos en bolsas plásticas de Ziploc. 

Los plasticos cubren los carritos con 

soportes en donde compras las frutas 

que son peladas y cortadas periódicamente. 

Aquí hay un grupo de 

mujeres que sobreviven a través de 

la venta de comida y frutas de su país 

nativo para tratar de ganar dinero 

cada día en los cuatro rincones de 

Merrimac Maneja y la avenida 14ta. 

Anairis Reyes, 43, se relaja cuando 

se sienta encima de un carrito motriz 

que acciona su máquina de hacer 

hielo dulce. Ella lleva una camiseta 

y pantalones vaqueros, 

y el pelo corto. Sus ojos 

son agudos, pero amistosos. 

Su vocabulario es 

extenso y su gramática es 

excelente. Sin embargo, 

estas cualidades son sólo 

notables en el idioma español 

porque Reyes no 

sabe hablar inglés. Como 

muchas otras mujeres salvadoreñas 

, ella inmigró 

a los Estados Unidos con 

la esperanza de encontrar 

un trabajo y encontró uno 

como vendedora ambulante. 

Como las cuatro otras 

vendedoras en el barrio, 

todas son mujeres. Ellas venden 

frutas y verduras en los rincones de 

la calle. Reyes provee comida a la 

mayor parte de la población hispana 

de su vecindario, trabajando de lunes 

a viernes desde las cinco a nueve de 

la noche. 

El pasado y el presente 

Reyes ha estado en los Estados 

Unidos durante dos años y tiene 

cuatro primos, una tía y dos sobrinos 

que viven cerca de ella. Trabajando 

para hacer esto su nuevo hogar, 

ella todavía lleva las memorias y 

los cuentos de su país nativo, El 

Salvador. 

En El Salvador Reyes y su esposo 

trabajaban para el gobierno. Ella 

era policía y su esposo estaba en el 

ejército. Al final de los años 70 y al 

comienzo de los años 90, fue cuando 

El Salvador estaba en medio de una 

guerra civil. La muerte y la destrucción 

dejaron a muchos salvadoreños 

sin sus hogares, sus familias, sin 

trabajos y planes para el futuro. 

Miles fueron asesinados, y los pobres 

quedaron aún más pobres. Reyes 

también quedó afectada. Ella perdió 

su trabajo y su marido fue asesinado. 

Zulema Zelaja pela un mango, una de las frutas más 

populares que vende. Photo por Meaghan Mallari 

pero sus ingresos diarios usuales son 

alrededor de $50. 

Angela Flores tiene 30 años, tiene 

cinco niños y no tiene esposo. Ella 

tampoco habla inglés. Ella trabaja 

cinco días a la semana y gana sólo 

cerca de $50 al día. “Es difícil porque 

tengo muchos hijos,” ella explica. 

Flores vende frutas, hierbas, verduras 

y cabezas de ajo. 

La cantidad de dinero que ellas 

ganan no les da para vivir bien aquí, 

aún así muchas mujeres trabajdoras 

mandan dinero a su país, donde 

el valor del dólar rinde más que 

en los Estados Unidos. Zelaja dice 

que extraña su familia mucho, pero 

cuando manda dinero les hace feliz. 

El dinero que reciben los 

miembros de su familia 

ayuda a los que han decidido 

permanecer allá. 

Es ilegal para Flores 

y para las otros mujeres 

establecer sus tienditas en 

los rincones de la calle. La 

policía se les ha acercado 

muchas veces, Flores dice. 

La policía les ha dicho que 

debían moverse y venían 

casi cada semana. Sin 

embargo, recientemente 

ellos han parado de pa- 

trullar el área donde los 

mujeres trabajan, según 

Flores con un cierto alivio 

en su voz. 

Esperando un futuro mejor 

Estas vendedoras mujeres han 

aprendido a adaptarse a este estilo de 

vida nuevo, trabajando duramente 

como ellas puedan para ganarse la 

vida. Reyes está tomando clases 

de inglés en el Centro Católico localizado 

cerca de su tiendita. Ella 

dice que las clases son muy duras 

porque en inglés, hay palabras que 

tienen tres significados diferentes y 

se confunde mucho. De acuerdo a 

Reyes tiene que aclimatarse a la vida 

de aquí y aspira algún día ser policía 

en los Estados Unidos. 

Zelaja sabe que tiene que trabajar 

muy duro en los Estados Unidos 

especialmente para alguien que 

no sabe inglés. Sin embargo, ella 

tiene un consejo para las personas 

que están comenzando la vida dura 

como inmigrante, algo que ella vive 

a diario: “Anda por un buen camino, 

y estás bien aquí.” 

Cuando su día de trabajo finaliza, 

Reyes prende su motor halando duro 

de la cuerda para echarlo a andar y 

preparar un hielo de azúcar de fresa 

para un cliente. Son otros $2 más 

ganados ese día. 

a ADB comienza la liga de baloncesto en Blair 

Por BAIJIA JIANG para cada temporada: baloncesto en el 

Con la implementación de la liga de 

baloncesto y las iniciativas académicas, la 

Academia de Deportes en Blair (ADB) ha 

aumentado sus esfuerzos en contra de las 

pandillas dijo el asistente de seguridad y 

director de la ADB Jose Segura. 

Después del éxito que tuvo el año pasado 

la liga de fútbol intramural, los directores 

quieren incluir diferentes estudiantes con la 

misma meta: “sacar a los estudiantes de la 

calle y [darles] un ambiente donde puedan ir, 

sin meterse en problemas y divertirse concentrándose 

en lo académico,” dijo Segura. 

La liga nueva tiene el mismo formato de la 

liga de fútbol. Los estudiantes traen sus equipos 

de ocho jugadores al gimnasio pequeño 

después de la escuela todos los martes, jueves 

y viernes. No puede añadir equipos nuevos 

a la liga ahora pero los estudiantes pueden 

unirse a los equipos actuales. Las reglas 

para participar van a seguir, incluyendo el 

mandato de que todos los jugadores con 

promedio general de 2.0 o menos necesitan 

asistir al apoyo académico. 

La primavera pasada la liga de fútbol tuvo 

389 participantes, más de un 10 por ciento de 

la población de la escuela según Segura. 

La ADB quiere aumentar un programa 

otoño, lucha libre en el invierno, fútbol en la 

primavera y un campamento en el verano, 

dijo el líder del Blair Gang Task Force, Susan 

Gardiner. “Nosotros estamos tratando de 

servir al mayor número de estudiantes que 

vienen,” dijo ella. 

La lucha 

El aumento ocurre en parte porque hubo 

más movimiento de pandillas durante el 

verano pasado, incluyendo cinco ataques 

con puñales en la Escuela de Springbrook y 

“Fue un esfuerzo 

colectivo.” 

-asistente de seguridad 

Jose Segura 

en Target de Wheaton. La policía cree que es 

el trabajo de la pandilla salvadoreña Mara 

Salvatrucha o MS-13. Estas situaciones han 

aumentado la necesidad de los programas 

contra pandillas en la comunidad. 

En 2004 el Joint County Gang Prevention 

Task Force, un concilio de oficiales de Montgomery 

County y Prince George’s County fue 

instituido para recomendar estrategias para 

luchar contra las pandillas en el área. 

En otro esfuerzo para desalentar las actividades 

de pandillas, Luis Hurtado, el specialista 

de relaciones con la comunidad y oficial 

de conexión latina para el Montgo-mery 

County Police Department dice que “Los que 

participan en pandillas no mantienen relaciones 

con la comunidad o con las escuelas. 

Al tener un programa en Blair, [los chicos] 

crearán relaciones positivas y dependerán los 

unos en los otros. Es maravilloso.” 

William Soriano del undécimo grado, 

quien jugó en la liga de fútbol intramural 

la primavera pasada dijo que participando 

en la liga le permitió la comunicación entre 

los jugadores. Ahora, Soriano tiene nuevos 

amigos y ha mejorado su relación con los 

jugadores en su equipo con quienes antes no 

le gustaba compartir cuando la liga comenzó. 

“Necesito hablar con mis compañeros y somos 

amigos,” él dijo. 

“A” por esfuerzo 

La integración del apoyo académico a los 

programas de deportes es una prioridad para 

la ABD. Emanuel Charles, un maestro de 

educacion fisica, comenta que el año pasado 

la liga ha motivado a los jugadores a obtener 

apoyo con el trabajo de escuela si están fracasando. 

“Adoran los deportes y van a hacer 

cualquier cosa para jugar,” el dijo. 

Antes de los High School Assesments y los 

Maryland State Assessments de matemáticas, 

el ADP obligó a 23 jugadores a asistir al apoyo 

académico, aquellos estudiantes que estaban 

fracasando en geometría. El año pasado Blair 

alcanzó los niveles federales de geometría 

en la categoría de hombres latinos, el área 

demográfica que Blair había fracasado el año 

pasado. Los oficiales de la liga atribuyeron 

esto a el arduo trabajo y a la colaboración 

entre los maestros y los estudiantes que han 

participado en la liga de fútbol intramural. 

“Fue un esfuerzo colectivo entre el Departamento 

de Inglés para Hablantes de Otros 

Idiomas, el Departamento del Desarrollo 

Personal y el Departamento de Matemáticas 

[y otros],” dijo Segura. “Todos ellos fueron 

un elemento necesario en el desempeño de 

los estudiantes.” 

Los oficiales piensan que la liga va a 

tener éxito. “Quiero ver que va a pasar,” 

dijo Charles. “Va a ser algo positivo para los 

estudiantes.”

ilverCHIPS 


SPORTS 29 

haracter must meet athleticism 

Athletic department’s emphasis on preventing drug use is right way to start the season 

By ARMIN ROSEN 

An opinion 

The “amateur ideal” is 

ndeniably in decline. The onceevered 

concept of the amateur 

thlete as a moral and physial 

exemplar, a well-rounded 

cholar-athlete in the mold of 

oger Bannister, who ran the fi rst 

our-minute mile while studying 

edicine at Oxford, is not just 

ntiquated, but gone. 

This isn’t to say that there are 

o longer athletes who can rake 

n fantastic grades while domiating 

their respective sports. 

here are several such athletes 

ere at Blair. But the idea of 

mateur sports as a test of charcter 

is outdated enough to seem 

uaint, and the days of idealzing 

and romanticizing amateur 

thletes have been replaced by 

rug use, public intoxication and 

ampant academic ineligibility. 

At least at Blair, the amaeur 

ideal is, to borrow a sports 

hrase, making a comeback. 

fter drug- and alcohol-related 

ncidents involving Blair athletes 

ast year, the athletic department 

as implemented a stricter drug 

olicy under which violators will 

eceive a year-long suspension 

or a fi rst offense and a ban from 

lair sports for a second. 

In a recent Silver Chips 

nline article, Principal Philip 

Gainous was quoted saying, 

We have really ratcheted up the 

onsequences of involvement in 

llegal substances.” And there 

re a couple of unambiguous 

entences thrown into the policy 

or the benefi t of whoever hasn’t 

ealized it yet: “This is a non-neotiable 

policy. Zero tolerance 

ill be applied.” 

And as far as the safety and 

the behavior of athletes go, there 

houldn’t be any negotiations 

r equivocations. Athletes have 

Girls tennis fl attens QO 

Blazers seal win despite blustery weather 

By MERLYN DENG 

SEPT. 29, MONTGOMERY BLAIR— 

The girls tennis team won a crucial divisional 

match last Thursday, beating the 

Quince Orchard Cougars 6-1. 

While the Blazers (4-4) expected strong 

Cougar opposition, the court’s windy 

weather produced some unforeseen diffi - 

culties. 

Even though strong winds prevailed 

throughout the game and diverted many 

balls, the girls were able to adapt to the unfavorable 

conditions. “It is defi nitely diffi - 

cult to adjust to the wind, but it all worked 

out in the end,” said senior team captain 

Stephanie Paul. 

Senior Stephanie Paul hits a ball in Blair’s 

victory over QO. Photo by Merlyn Deng 

undeniably higher profi les than 

other students. Their letter jackets 

and jerseys set them apart, 

and they are frequently written 

about in “The Washington Post” 

and “The Gazette.” They are the 

face and the character of Blair 

for coaches, athletes and fans 

throughout the county. 

Blair is, of course, represented 

by numerous academic 

competitors as well, but none 

have the visibility or infl uence of 

student athletes, who, according 

to athletic director Dale Miller, 

are looked up to by the rest of 

the student body. “We want 

our athletes to be leaders of this 

school community,” says Miller. 

“Nothing other than that.” 

Not every athlete can embody 

the dignity, spirit and rectitude of 

honest competition as, say, Lance 

Armstrong can. But it isn’t so 

much to ask that athletes avoid 

the opposite extreme: embodying 

a lack of self-respect and basic 

responsibility, like Ricky Williams 

has. 

It is because this has to be 

asked of athletes, in meetings 

similar to the one held for Blair’s 

fall competitors on Aug. 20 that 

explained the new policy, that 

the “amateur ideal” now seems 

so naïve. This isn’t something 

that should have to be reiterated. 

Athletes shouldn’t have to be reminded 

that they have to respect 

themselves, their community and 

their school. 

But studies and past incidents 

show such reminders to be necessary. 

A Boston University case 

study concluded that recreational 

drug use is as prevalent among 

high school athletes as nonathletes, 

while a study conducted 

by “Prevention” magazine 

suggested that alcohol use is signifi 

cantly higher among athletes 

than nonathletes. Past studies of 

college amateurs also reveal an 

equal level of alcohol use among 

competitors and nonathletes. 

Meanwhile, Blair athletes were 

caught for alcohol use at both the 

homecoming dance and a home 

football game last year. 

The athletic department 

has recognized that there is a 

problem and is doing what it 

can to keep its athletes clean. 

They have received no prodding 

from the county, as the offi cial 

policy for drug use by athletes 

mandates nothing more than a 

minimum 10-day suspension, 

regardless of previous offenses. 

As is so rare nowadays with 

anything involving sports, the 

athletic department acted purely 

and thoroughly on conscience. 

“We’re very concerned about 

our kids. This doesn’t have to 

do with them being athletes,” 

said Assistant Principal James 

Short, who helped coordinate the 

change in policy. 

Although Short says that this 

policy was formulated with the 

safety of students in mind more 

so than student-athletes specifi - 

cally, the reality is that this policy 

and others like it are important 

steps towards reversing the 

downward trend in expectations 

for amateurs. 

He clarifi ed that competition 

is a privilege and that anyone 

who puts on a Blair uniform 

shoulders the responsibilities 

that go along with wearing it 

— responsibilities to the community 

being represented, to 

coaches and teammates and most 

of all, to one’s self. 

Short has the right attitude. 

Perhaps the clarifi cation of this 

policy and the tremendous 

consequences for breaking it will 

succeed in reminding athletes 

of their responsibilities and in 

bringing back the dignity and 

character that amateur competition 

so sorely lacks. 

Third doubles players senior Margot 

Pass and sophomore Priyanka Gokhale 

were the fi rst to leave the courts with a 

6-1, 6-1 victory. Soon after, senior Kristi 

Chakrabarti and sophomore Bonnie Ding 

contributed to the Blazers’ lead after 

trouncing their second doubles opponents 

6-1, 6-1. 

Paul fi nished soon and continued the 

string of victories for the Blazers. Paul did 

not relent during her match, with a combination 

of some of her best serves and 

approach shots, eventually winning in 

straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. 

Later, second singles player Pearl Horng 

solidifi ed Blair’s lead when she cruised 

past her opponent with a 6-4, 6-3 win. 

Sophomore Jasleen Salwan, seeded 11th, 

fended off her higher-seeded opponent to 

fi nish the match. Salwan played the rockiest 

match of the day, starting off 2-5 against 

her opponent. However, she was able to 

rally and won 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. 

Blair’s exceptionally strong performance 

in the match has renewed the 

team’s confi dence. Paul was especially excited 

about the performance and believes 

the girls improved since their previous 

match. “I think the team played very well 

today. We were defi nitely making a lot less 

errors,” she said. 

Coach David Ngbea also noted an improvement 

in the squad’s performance, citing 

the players’ stronger baseline shots and 

volleying skills as evidence. Above all, he 

was happy that this victory gave the girls 

a chance to remain in Division I for next 

year. “It was imperative that we had this 

win, and I’m glad most of our players came 

through. It’s a big win for us,” he said. 

Blazers break Cavaliers 

Field hockey gets fi rst win in tense overtime 

By JON BERGER 

SEPT. 29, KENNEDY— 

New Blair drug policy in effect for athletes in 2005-2006 school year 

• Montgomery County drug policy: “Any MCPS student-athlete 

with verifi ed use, distribution or possession of alcohol, tobacco, 

illegal drugs and/or controlled substances on school property or at 

a school-sanctioned event, shall receive a minimum 10 consecutive 

school day suspension from all athletic activities.” 

• Blair’s drug policy: “First offense...will result in removal from athletic 

participation for the rest of the school year. Second offense... 

will result in a ban from athletics for the remainder of that student’s 

time...at Blair.” 

• Case studies conducted by both Boston University and “Prevention” 

magazine suggest that alcohol use is disproportionately high 

among athletes and that the use of certain drugs by athletes is 

roughly similar to the levels of use among non-athletes. 

Blair fi eld hockey rallied in the second 

half to send the game into sudden death 

overtime. The team then scored a goal early 

in extra time to beat the Kennedy Cavaliers 

2-1 in their fi rst victory of the season. 

The Blazers (1-5) were able to generate 

consistent offensive pressure and maintain 

a solid defense. Blair displayed its superior 

conditioning and improved as the 

game progressed, leading to a quick fi nish 

in overtime. 

While the team improved from previous 

games, it still struggled in the fi rst half. 

The Blazers had trouble smoothly moving 

the ball up the fi eld due to a lack of effi cient 

communication and spacing. Blair players 

often bunched up around the ball, generating 

penalties on themselves and making it 

diffi cult to avoid opposing players. Blair’s 

defense was more organized, with senior 

Jenny Jones aggressively rushing balls 

and clearing them to the sidelines. 

The game was scoreless deep into 

the fi rst half, when a Cavalier made a 

fast break towards the goal with several 

teammates. The Blazers failed to recover 

quickly enough, and the swarm of Kennedy 

attackers overwhelmed Blair’s defense, 

scoring the fi rst goal of the game. The 

breakdown frustrated and disheartened 

the Blazers, but they managed to fi nish off 

the half without further damage. 

The Blazers entered the second half 

revitalized and with renewed vigor. 

“[Blair’s] whole demeanor was different,” 

said coach Brook Franceschini. “They 

were more offensive than defensive, and 

they attacked the ball.” The Blair offense 


dominated the rest of the game and kept 

the ball in Kennedy’s territory for most of 

the half. The Blazers’ attack was helped by 

strong play at midfi eld from junior Jessica 

Hallberlin, whose aggressive play consistently 

disrupted Cavalier attacks. 

Despite a persistent offensive attack and 

numerous scoring opportunities, the Blazers 

didn’t score until the last 10 minutes of 

regulation. A throng of Blazers swarmed 

the net, taking several shots at the goal until 

junior Christine Kim snuck the ball past 

the Cavalier goalkeeper to tie the game 1- 

1. The players battled back and forth for 

the remaining time without scoring, leading 

to sudden death overtime. 

The Blazers dominated the fi eld in 

overtime, scoring the winning goal in under 

two minutes. Kim and fellow attackers 

senior captain Julie Spatz and sophomore 

Iliya Smithka brought the ball up together, 

allowing Kim to score the winning goal on 

an assist from Smithka. 

The team was excited for its fi rst win 

of the year. “It feels so good to be out of 

a slump. We’re ecstatic!” said Spatz. She 

was proud of the team’s improvement in 

the second half after the slow start. “We 

started off slow, but in the second half we 

were communicating better and our passing 

was sharp,” she said. 

Franceschini agreed but said the Blazers 

can do better if they play hard from the 

start of each game. Nevertheless, she was 

encouraged by the team’s progress this 

year and was optimistic about the rest of 

season. “We’re focusing so much on improving, 

and we just need to keep concentrating 

on little things,” she said. 

The fi eld hockey team will play its next 

match at home today against Gaithersburg 

at 3:30 p.m.

0 

SPORTS 

October 6, 2005 silverCHIPS 

he true heavyweight championship 

ompetitive eaters gorge for glory, knowing that fame is little more than a hot dog away 

By MICHAEL BUSHNELL biyashi, who ate 50 Nathan’s hot 

umor 

ood is supposed to provide 

sustenance. It replenishes 

your body with vitamins, 

nutrients and 11 of the Colonel’s 

original herbs and spices. 

Even better, what we eat provides 

entertainment for many and a livelihood 

for the chosen few. 

Of all the sports covered in these 

back pages of Silver Chips, none are 

as fun to watch as my new favorite 

sport: competitive eating. The only 

thing I like more than eating is 

watching other people do it. And 

hat’s saying something. 

You may know about the Japanese 

eating champion Takeru Ko- 

lair rebounds from tie, dominates Springbrook 

By SARA PIERCE 

EPT. 28, BLAZER STADIUM— 

The girls varsity soccer team established 

heir superiority over Springbrook in a 5-0 

lowout. Despite having to recover from 

he previous day’s frustrating tie with Blake, 

lair came out strong against a weaker oponent 

and dominated. Contributions from 

tar senior Sophie Esparza as well rising 

reshman forward Annie Worden helped 

lair take control of the game almost from 

he very start. 

The two teams seemed evenly matched 

or the first few minutes of the game, until 

he Blazers stepped up their ball control and 

tarted attacking more aggressively. Esparza 

cored the first goal for Blair by capitalizing 

n a Blue Devils foul on Worden. She took 

direct kick from the 18-yard line and neted 

the ball near the far post. Several mintes 

later, Worden dribbled around several 

pringbrook defenders and secured another 

oal for Blair as her left-footed shot snuck 

ast the goalie. 

Springbrook could not counter Blair’s 

ffensive production because of the Blazrs’ 

solid defense, led by sweeper Esparza. 

lair’s defense continually cleared the ball 

efore the Blue Devils had the chance to take 

shot at the goal. Freshman Molly Brune 

nd junior Becca Vogel both refused to let 

p on defense and challenged nearly every 

pringbrook attempt to drive the ball into 

lair territory. 

Towards the end of the first half, Worden 

ontributed her second goal by weaving 

hrough Springbrook’s defense and pocketng 

the ball with a swift shot past the keeper. 

orden’s outstanding performance proved 

hat she deserves her spot on the varsity team 

s a freshman. Prior to this game, said coach 

obert Gibb, Worden seemed physically in- 

dogs in 12 minutes at last July’s 

competition in Brooklyn. He ate 

54 the year before that, and he’s 

the number one ranked competitive 

eater in the world. Yes, they have 

rankings. 

But the Nathan’s hot dog eating 

contest is not the end of the trough 

for competitive gorgers. The International 

Federation of Competitive 

Eating (IFOCE) has a web site full 

of news, stats and other information 

for those who need to be informed 

and up-to-date in the world of 

eating. 

The web site contains eater profiles, 

similar to players’ statistics on 

a sports web site. Whereas ESPN 

might list noteworthy games for 

timidated by the size of the upperclassmen 

she faced in games. However, Worden “is 

getting used to playing around big bodies,” 

Gibb said. In addition to the contributions 

of the other two freshmen on varsity, Gibb 

predicts that Worden’s talent will be an asset 

to Blair once the team can adjust to having 

such a quick and perceptive player. “She’s 

very creative, and the offense needs to be 

there to support her,” he said. 

Worden explained how she took the initiative, 

saying, “The more I took people on, 

the more my confidence grew and the more 

I was in the game.” Gibb also recognized 

freshman Anna Rassman for her effort in 

midfield, describing her as “very fast and 

very dangerous.” 

Blair entered the second half with a 3-0 

lead, and although Springbrook regained 

some control, their aggression soon faded 

without any tangible results. 

In hopes of generating more offensive 

backbone later in the game, Gibb shifted 

Esparza to center midfield, leaving Blair’s 

defense a little shaky at first. But Brune sufficiently 

filled Esparza’s place, and the position 

change freed up Esparza to orchestrate 

more risky plays and to boost Blair’s offensive 

conviction. Gibb justified his decision to 

move Esparza, who is an asset on defense, to 

midfield by expressing his confidence in her 

substitute. “When I throw Sophie forward, 

I feel very comfortable putting [Brune] in 

Sophie’s position,” he said. “She is a very 

versatile player.” 

Midway through the second half, Springbrook’s 

goalie misjudged a cross from junior 

Devon Madison, allowing Liebman to volley 

the ball into the net. With a solid 4-0 lead, 

the Blazers became more relaxed as the Blue 

Devils became increasingly frustrated by 

their poor offense. Gibb used this opportunity 

to keep some of his starters fresh and to 

give the second string more play time with 

Gilbert Arenas, IFOCE lists amounts 

of the most ridiculous foods people 

have ever eaten. Kobiyashi’s major 

accomplishments are listed as eating 

17.7 pounds of cow brains in just 

15 minutes and 20 pounds of rice in 

half an hour. 

I don’t want to say that competitive 

eating encourages obesity, but 

in one event, Sonya Thomas of Alexandria, 

Virginia, ate 40 crab cakes 

in 12 minutes. The way I look at it 

is, if having a colon or two good 

kidneys is important to you, don’t 

be a competitive eater. 

The best obese eater is Eric 

Booker, a 420-pound hulk who cut 

a rap album titled “Hungry and 

Focused.” He also ate 50 hamentashen 

(a Jewish cookie filled with 

fruit) in six minutes and 57 Krystal 

mini-hamburgers in eight. I guess 

he and Notorious B.I.G. used to 

have the same caterer. 

Not only is he the reigning king 

of hamentashen, but he was also recently 

named champion of a matzo 

ball eating contest by consuming 

30 in just over five minutes. If he 

can eat 40 gefilte fish and still sit 

through Yom Kippur dinner next 

week with my family, then I’ll be 

impressed. 

Like my Bar Mitzvah, or wherever 

else gorging on hamentashen 

is encouraged, the IFOCE prides 

itself on its “safety standards.” Its 

site asserts that it will not under 

any circumstances sanction an 

event without “the highest safety 

regulations in place.” Either that 

or a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. 

But just like there are fat hockey 

players, white basketball players 

and pro-golfers who aren’t jerks, 

there are skinny eaters. In fact, 

the top three eaters in the IFOCE 

rankings all weigh less than 150 

pounds. 

Thomas weighs just 105 pounds 

but is the best female eater in the 

world. She’s eaten six pounds of 

fried asparagus and 35 bratwürst 

in 10 minutes each. 

Her nickname is “The Black 

Widow,” although she bears no 

resemblance to the world’s most 

poisonous insect. However, the 

smell of her after eating 552 oysters 

in 10 minutes and nine pounds of 

crawfish jambalaya probably makes 

death by spider-bite seem almost 

pleasurable by comparison. 

I would’ve thought that there’d 

be more obese people at the top. After 

all, if you’ve been slowly eating 

your way to an early grave for the 

last 30 years, what’s another slice of 

cheesecake? 

And for all that cake, the prizes 

aren’t that impressive. For all the 

damage you’re likely doing to your 

periodic substitutions. In the final minutes 

of the game, Esparza scored a left-footed 

shot that sailed right under the crossbar, 

bringing the final score to 5-0. 

Gibb compared tonight’s outcome to 

Blair’s struggle against Blake last night. 

“Yesterday, we couldn’t get it through where 

it counted, and we went into double overtime 

even though we kept swarming their 

offensive end.” The Blazers set the tone of 

the game with an early goal, and they kept 

up their offensive momentum throughout. 

Gibb noted that Blair’s victory over 

Springbrook was not their best, partly be- 

organs, the average prize for the 

winner is about $1,500. The most 

valuable prize was from one contest 

that gave $5,000 and “historic pottery” 

to the winner. Yeah, pottery’s 

the first thing I want after I eat 10 

sticks of butter. 

Last month, 409-pound Ed 

“Cookie” Jarvis ate a “buffalo 

wing buffet” of wings, pierogies, 

roast beef and other pieces of salty 

goodness. All for 500 bucks. When 

the prize is worth less than the 

food that you ate, that’s certainly a 

bad sign. And why the nickname 

“cookie”? How about “celery” Jarvis? 

I guess it just didn’t have the 

same ring to it. 

The buffets are popular with 

more than just Cookie. A guy 

named “Crazy Legs” Conti ate 12 

pounds of “buffet food” in five minutes. 

I bet his legs are crazy because 

he can’t lift them up anymore. 

The only thing I don’t get is how 

they declare a winner in each event. 

It could be speed: The person who 

eats the most food in a given time 

wins, or least time to eat a certain 

amount of food. 

Or maybe the winner is the only 

one who isn’t convulsing from eating 

8.31 pounds of sausage in 10 

minutes. 

For me, the most fascinating part 

of the IFOCE site is in the “records” 

department, which lists all sorts 

of different foods and their world 

records. 

Thomas ate 8.4 pounds of baked 

beans in two minutes and 47 seconds. 

She also had 48 tacos in 11 

minutes, setting another world record. 

For her sake, I hope that she 

can power-drink Listerine, too. 

So as you sit down to watch the 

baseball playoffs, where sluggers 

will hit 99 mph pitches 500 feet, take 

their skills with a grain of salt. 

After all, have any of them 

eaten 274 dumplings in six minutes? 

That’s what I thought. 

Senior Sophie Esparza dribbles around several opponents on her way towards the 

Springbrook goal on Sept. 28. The Blazers won, 5-0. Photo by Brandon Herbst 

cause it’s “hard to play well against a not 

particularly talented team.” Senior captain 

Sarah Rumbaugh, who is out for the season 

due to a torn ACL, added that the Blazers 

did not play very cohesively — instead, they 

simply took advantage of Springbrook’s 

weaknesses. 

Gibb said that although the team has 

made it through “a tough patch,” the girls 

need to play with consistent intensity and 

continue to dominate on offense if they 

want to “come up on the right side of the 

score.” The Blazers next take on the Damascus 

Hornets tomorrow at 7 p.m.

ilverCHIPS 

Excitement was brewing as the varsity 

girls volleyball team made its way towards 

Bethesda-Chevy Chase (B-CC). The Blazers 

hoped to end their losing streak and gain 

some momentum for the rest of the season 

with a win against the talented Barons. Unortunately, 

Blair was unable to overcome 

ifficulties in communication and focus, 

nd lost in three sets, 14-25, 22-25 and 14-25, 

ringing their record to 2-5. 

The Blazers looked lost on the court from 

he very start of the first set. Teammates did 

ot help each other make plays, giving the 

arons extra confidence and easy points. 

It took us a while to warm up,” explained 

ophomore Julie Brice. The entire first set appeared 

to be a warm-up for Blair, as the team 

failed to find any rhythm or consistency due 

to poor serving. Many serves went straight 

into the net, and Blair did not have a single 

ce during the set. 

By the middle of the first set, Blair was 

osing 13-21 and desperate to raise the score. 

irst, Brice blocked a Baron return to provide 

lair with a quick boost. On one of the next 

lays, sophomore Julie Zhu made a diving 

ave, setting up junior Alice Fan for a spike. 

nfortunately, Blair could not capitalize on 

he brief spurt of momentum and lost the 

et 14-25. 

The Blazers reversed their play early in 

he second set and started strong, staying 

ven with Barons until a 6-6 tie. While Blair 

revented a large deficit from building, the 

arons were able to slowly pull away due to 

oor Blair communication. Too often, no one 

alled for the ball, and Blazers ran into each 

ther, tripped over each other or waited too 

ong for someone else to hit the ball. “We’re 

ot playing as a team,” summarized junior 

elicia Olawuni after the game. 

Blair’s lack of teamwork and communication 

reached its climax when Zhu and Olawuni 

each attempted to return the same Baron 

volley. Both of the players kept their eyes 

on the descending ball, and as Zhu stopped 

and crouched to hit the ball, Olawuni kept 

Football 

By ABE SCHWADRON 

The JV football team opened 

the 2005 season with an exciting 

7-6 victory over the Richard 

Montgomery Rockets, a game in 

which sophomore running back 

Clifford Gossin solidified himself 

as the team’s offensive leader. 

Gossin rushed for more than 

130 yards and one touchdown 

on 30 carries against the Rockets. 

The Blazers sealed their first 

victory with an interception by 

freshman Terrance Kelly, Jr., in 

the waning seconds of the fourth 

quarter. 

The Blazers continued their 

winning ways in a 13-2 home 

win over the Springbrook Blue 

Devils. The play of the game 

was a 45-yard touchdown reception 

by sophomore Girard Boulware, 

who also filled in for the 

injured Kelly at cornerback. The 

defense, led by freshman Andy 

Holmes with eight tackles, held 

the Blue Devils out of the end 

zone, including an impressive 

goal-line stand in the second 

quarter. 

Coach Adrian Kelly and the 

JV squad, now 2-1, will look to 

build on their success. “[The 

team’s] hard work made our first 

[win] pay off, but we’ve got nine 

games to go,” said Kelly after the 

Blazers’ opening victory. 

Blair’s next game is at Wheaton 

on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 10 

a.m. 

Girls Soccer 

By NATASHA PRADOS 

The JV girls soccer team (3- 

3-2) is off to a solid start despite 

initial concerns. The Blazers 

have been forced to find a new 

team dynamic after losing experienced 

players to varsity. 

Though Blair has been shutout 

several times, the girls have 

persevered and improved over 

the course of the season. The 

offense, led by freshman Susan 

Branson and sophomore Kathryn 

Scott, has displayed excellent 

fluidity. Branson and Scott 

each scored a goal against Blake 

in the 2-0 win on Sept. 26. 

Blair’s goalie, freshman Xenia 

Oroxom, helped make the win 

possible with over 10 saves, several 

of which were extremely difficult. 

Freshman center defender 

Anne Holt has anchored the defense 

throughout the season and 

taken some of the pressure off of 

Oroxom. 

Coach Summer Roark is 

proud of the chemistry that has 

developed between her players. 

“We’re a young team, [but] everybody 

[has] played really well. 

We’re getting better and better,” 

Roark said. 

Roark feels the team has 

made admirable progress and is 

optimistic about the remainder 

of the season. 

The girls’ next game is at 

home on Saturday at 10 a.m. 

against Damascus. 

Boys Soccer 

By JOSH ZIPIN 


The JV boys soccer team 

started off the season with a win 

against a weak Kennedy team 

and hasn’t looked back. The 

Blazers have dominated their 

competition thus far, producing 

a 5-1-1 record. The team’s only 

loss came against area powerhouse 

Churchill. 

Led by a strong defense anchored 

by sophomore co-captain 

Tim Visclosky and freshman 

goalkeeper Jonathan Fortuna, 

the Blazers have kept the ball out 

of their net. Thanks to the play 

of freshman Michael Funes and 

sophomore co-captain Sergio 

Quisquinay, the Blazers have 

won matches convincingly, averaging 

about two goals a game. 

This year was projected to be 

a rebuilding year for a squad that 

lost coach John Haigh to Springbrook’s 

varsity team. Haigh 

compiled a 20-1 record over 

the past two seasons. Despite 

the loss, coaches Marc Grossman 

and Howard Kohn have 

maintained the Blair program’s 

strength. 

Said Grossman regarding his 

team’s chances: “What’s going 

to make or break our season is 

how smart our players play, because 

if we make mistakes it will 

be hard to rebound from that.” 

The Blazers’ next match is 

at home on Saturday at 12 p.m. 

against Damascus. 

SPORTS 31 

irls volleyball gets served by Barons 

-CC capitalizes on unforced errors, poor communication to down Blazers in three sets 

y MORGAN ARONSON 

EPT. 29, BETHESDA-CHEVY CHASE— 

The girls volleyball team prepares to return a volley in its match against Quince Orchard on Sept. 15. The Blazers kept the 

contest close but could not hold off the Cougars, who won in four sets, 25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 26-24. Photo by Rayna Andrews 

moving and tripped over her. Zhu managed 

to hit the ball, but the contact with Olawuni 

made it impossible for Zhu to lift the ball 

over the net. The rest of the set followed a 

similar pattern; Blair stayed close behind the 

Barons, but simple errors led the Blazers to 

a 22-25 loss. 

The third set was Blair’s best of the afternoon, 

even though the score at the end did 

not suggest it. The Blazers started out strong 

as they did in the second set, taking the lead 

at 9-8. This time, Blair kept the score equal 

until the mid-set, but the Barons were able 

to take control again, quickly changing the 

12-12 tie into an 18-13 lead. One of Blair’s 

pitfalls during B-CC’s scoring spree was the 

Blazers’ inability to block the Barons’ serves. 

“We needed to put up our blocks,” said Zhu 

bluntly. 

jvJOURNAL 

Towards the end of the third set, desperation 

set in and Blair began diving extensively, 

attempting to save the balls that the Barons 

continued to pour over the net. “Everyone 

was diving all over the place. I think we 

tried really hard,” said Zhu, highlighting the 

good effort at the end. It was too little, too 

late for an overmatched Blair squad. With 

the Barons holding a 13-24 lead, the Blazers 

put up their final fight of the afternoon. They 

earned a point by returning a B-CC serve, 

but were unable to piece any more points 

together. The Barons scored one last time, 

clinching the set and the match with a third 

set score of 14-25. 

Blair’s squad was demoralized after its 

loss. Senior Katarina Farah voiced her frustration, 

saying, “I think we played terribly.” 

Farah felt there were several key areas in 

which Blair needed to improve quickly in 

order to play well against Whitman, the 

team’s next opponent. “We need to work on 

our calling skills and be angrier,” she said. 

According to Farah, a complacency accounted 

largely for the team’s poor showing. 

The consensus among the team was 

clear by the end of the third set. “We need 

to practice more,” said junior Wendolyn 

Quintanilla. 

Coach Heather Amell, however, remained 

positive after the game, saying that her team 

“really played well.” At the same time, 

Amell agreed with Quintanilla and Farah, 

saying that Blair needs work in almost every 

area, most notably blocking, covering and 

passing. 

The Blazers’ next game is against Whitman 

on Monday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. 

Mixed results for XC 

By ANNA COUGHLAN 

SEPT. 28, MARTIN LUTHER 

KING RECREATION PARK— 

The girls cross country team defeated 

Springbrook with the lower 

total score of 18 points to Springbrook’s 

43. The boys lost 31-24 despite 

one first-place finish. 

Juniors Halsey and Ashlyn 

Sinclair and sophomore Johanna 

Gretschel came in first, second and 

third place respectively. Junior 

Joshua Uzzell won the boys competition, 

finishing with a course 

record of 17:28. 

Assistant coach Angelique Bosse 

was pleased with the girls’ victory. 

“Overall, I was really impressed 

with the girls. A lot of them ran 

their best times,” she said. 

Bosse said she did not know 

what to expect from the Springbrook 

boys team and believes the 

Blazers were caught off guard. 

“It’s disappointing to lose to them, 

but they ended up being good 

competition, “ she said. 

Coach Carl Lewin was pleased 

with the scores and emphasized 

that the runners are starting to see 

the benefits of workouts. He said 

the incorporation of weight training 

and hill exercises contributed 

towards today’s achievements. 

“This is just the start of positive 

times that kids are going to experience 

throughout the season,” he 

said. 

Many Blazers attributed personal 

and team success to a running 

technique called “pack 

running”. In pack running, teammates 

with similar times run together 

in order to encourage each 

other to run faster than they would 

individually. “The team came together 

and worked on our group 

running,” said senior Joshua Gist, 

“We kicked it in the clutch.” 

The Blazers hope to keep improving 

when they square off 

against Sherwood and Paint 

Branch. The meet will be at 3:30 

p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at Blake. 

Senior Joshua Gist and freshman Colin Schmidt lead the pack in a 

cross country meet against Springbrook. Photo by Elena Pinsky


silverchips.mbhs.edu/sports 

lair stumbles past Springbrook 

Boys varsity soccer gives a lackluster effort, barely scraping by in 2-0 win 

Above, senior Sam Morris leaps through the air during Blair’s 3-2 win against Quince Orchard on Sept. 

22. Right, senior captain Mac Kpadeh jumps up to fi ght for a header. Photos by Hannah Rosen 

y JONAH GOLD 

SEPT. 28, BLAZER STADIUM— 

he boys varsity soccer team 

has been mired by inconsistency 

so far this year. 

Before tonight, Blair won 

two games 7-0 and 3-2 and lost one 

game 0-6. The Blazers were able 

to pull off a 2-0 victory, but it was 

against the much weaker Springbrook 

Blue Devils, a team that Blair 

should have easily routed. Blair’s 

Upcoming 

games 

Home games are in bold. 

insideSPORTS 

Athletes: just say no! 

see page 29 

Columnist Armin Rosen discusses 

the recent changes in the Drug and 

Alcohol Policy and their implications 

for student athletes. 

A bite out of the competition 

see page 30 

Food enthusiasts compete in timed 

eating contests, gobbling anything 

from apple pies to cow brains. 

offense was inefficient, lacking 

good passes and quick touches, but 

the defense was able to keep Blair 

in the game by shutting out the opponent 

for the third time this year. 

Blair’s record now stands at 4-2. 

Throughout this season, Blair 

has been sluggish in the fi rst half, 

scoring very few goals even while 

dominating play. Blair continually 

forced balls up the fi eld to guarded 

forwards, only to be immediately 

stripped by a defender. 

Coach Adrian Baez thought that 

Football Boys Soccer Girls Soccer 

10/7 vs. Watkins 

Mill, 6:30 p.m. 

CHIPS 

10/7 at 

Damascus, 7 p.m. 

Football blown out at Sherwood 

The last two weeks of Blair football prove 

that there are two types of losses to be had. 

Last Friday, head coach Jeffrey Seals had his 

team applaud itself for staying tough until 

the end in an 11-point loss. This week, he 

had the team march quietly out of Sherwood 

Field and on to the buses, where he told them 

to keep the windows up. 

And while the Sherwood Warriors are 

ranked as the second best team in Montgomery 

County, that didn’t seem to provide much 

solace for a Blair squad that lost 48-7. 

The Warriors (4-0) fl exed their offensive 

muscle quickly tonight, scoring on their 

fi rst fi ve possessions. Senior Tyrel Flowers- 

Jackson’s fi rst punt was almost blocked and 

went 24 yards, making it easy for Sherwood to 

take possession of the ball. They needed just 

three plays to score a touchdown — the drive 

capped by a 12-yard rush from Sherwood 

running back Brian Gunderman finished 

the job. 

Just nine minutes into the game, Blair 

was down 17-0. The Blazers continued to 

make mistakes, repeatedly fumbling the ball 

and missing passes, as the Warriors scored 

touchdown after touchdown. By halftime, 

the Blazers trailed 41-0. 

Sherwood was strong on offense and didn’t 

turn the ball over once. Assistant coach Bryan 

Nance said Sherwood’s offensive advantage 

exacerbated the Blazers’ woes and kept them 

there were two root causes for the 

game’s slow start. “People were 

holding onto the ball too long. They 

were keeping the ball for three or 

four touches when it should have 

been one or two,” he said. Because 

of this, Springbrook defenders were 

able to get into position and limit 

open shots for the Blair squad. 

Junior Yendoukoa Lamboni felt 

other factors led to the scoreless fi rst 

half. “We just weren’t prepared,” 

said Yendoukoa after the game. 

Blair was unable to seriously 

10/7 at Damascus, 

5 p.m. 

10/10 at 

Whitman, 7 p.m. 

threaten the Springbrook goalie, 

because the Blazers rarely advanced 

the ball within shooting distance, 

even with a rotating lineup that 

kept the team fresh. 

Baez felt that Blair was not getting 

shots off because the players 

were waiting for 

a clearer shot at 

the goal. “We 

have to take 

shots when we 

see them,” said 

Baez. 

W h e n t h e 

two teams took 

the field again 

after halftime, 

Blair displayed 

little improvem 

e n t — t h e 

match seemed 

destined to be 

a 0-0 tie. A lack 

of offensive aggression kept most 

of the play near the center of the 

fi eld. 

Luckily, the Blazers capitalized 

on the opportunities they were afforded. 

With 17 minutes left in the 

game, junior Alex Asare-Wassow 

shot a corner kick towards a huddle 

of Blair players in the inside box. To 

the fans’ disbelief, the ball curved 

inward into the net. The stands 

remained in shocked silence for 

almost 15 seconds before Asare- 

Wassow raised his fi st triumphantly 

and jogged back towards midfi eld, 

triggering a wave of applause. 

Blair scored again four minutes 

later, when Yendoukoa lured the 

Springbrook goalie away from the 

net and shot into the empty goal, 

bringing the score to 2-0. 

While Blair’s offense sputtered 

throughout the game, its defense 

was solid, halting Springbrook advances 

into Blair territory. In fact, 

junior goalie Matt McClain faced 

The Blazers attempt to block a Sherwood 

fi eld goal. Photo by Jeff Lautenberger 

only one serious shot in the entire 

game, when Springbrook lofted a 

high ball from over 30 yards away. 

After the game, it became clear 

that unless the team made changes, 

Blair would fall quickly in this 

week’s match against Damascus, 

one of the 

best teams in 

M o n t g o m e r y 

County. 

Baez hopes 

to limit Damascus 

shots by 

keeping the ball 

out of range. 

Increased coverage 

in the 

middle of the 

fi eld could also 

lead to more offensiveopportunities 

for the 

Blazers. 

Yendoukoa thought that there 

were several other changes that 

Blair could make to ensure a win 

against Damascus. “We need to 

be physical and we need to come 

prepared to play,” he said. “Today 

we did not.” 

Girls Volleyball Field Hockey Cross Country Girls Tennis 

10/8 vs. Watkins 

Mill, 2 p.m. 

BOYS’ SOCCER 

Coach: Adrian Baez 

Key returning players: players 

Mac Kpadeh, 

Josh Zipin 

Key players 

lost: Greg 

Breads, Jack 

Eisen- 

Markowitz 

This year’s record: 4-2 

10/11 at Blake, 

3:30 p.m. 

10/7 vs. 

Whitman, 3:30 

Girls soccer bashes Blue Devils 

see page 30 By MIKE BUSHNELL 

from mounting any sort of rally. “When you 

The varsity girls soccer team dominated 

on offense and defeated rival 

Springbrook in a decisive 5-0 victory, 

bringing their record to 2-3-1. 

SEPT. 30, SHERWOOD— 

play a team that makes no mistakes, the game 

winds up lopsided,” he said. 

Sherwood quarterback Deontay Twyman 

had three passing touchdowns. His longest 

touchdown pass was a 31-yard strike, which 

put Sherwood ahead 34-0 in the second 

quarter. 

The lone glimmer of hope for the Blazers 

came on the fi nal drive of the game, when 

senior backup quarterback Aaron Simon led 

the team 60 yards for a touchdown on the 

match’s fi nal play. On a fourth down and 11, 

Simon improvised on a broken passing play 

and scrambled for 12 yards to keep the drive 

alive. He scored on a one-yard sneak. 

Nance said that Blair has to forget the loss 

and focus on the rest of the season. “We can 

move on from this week and get ready for 

Photo by Brandon Herbst 

next week [against Watkins Mill] and a game 

we should win,” he said. 

FOOTBALL 

Coach: Jeffrey Seals 

Key returning players: 

Ross Williams, Jacob 

Wade, Rodney DeRose, 

Ian Proctor 

Key players lost: 

Michael Stewart, Michael 

Wright, Jason Maryman 

This year’s record: 1-3

10/06/05 - Silver Chips Online - Montgomery Blair High School

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