The Patriot News

Across the country, most students can agree that school is probably one of their least favorite places to be. Though school isn’t my least favorite place, I can state without hesitation that school has caused me to have constant thoughts of smashing my face into a wall -- repeatedly. These thoughts caused me to wonder why school has this strong negative impact on my life and what should change about school to make it more enjoyable (or just bearable). I asked around to my peers what they would change about school to find out their opinions on what would make their experience at school better.  When asking classmates about one thing they would change about school, I received many answers that varied from the smell of the hallways to how teachers handled the workload given to students. The first classmate I asked, Shaily, stated that she would like the smell of the hallways in school to be improved. She claimed that the hallways constantly smell like the bathroom, and walking i...

The first question that occurred to me when I gained the opportunity to interview the President of our Science Olympiad team, Karthik L., was “Can we steal your brain for next year?” Although he said that he would probably need to keep it for college, he did have some advice for future Science Olympians as well as other tidbits about his experience in the club.  What advice would you give incoming Science Olympians, and what methods of studying have you found most effective? “My biggest advice is to not procrastinate. If a student succeeds at tryouts, they have the aptitude for Science Olympiad. However, whether building or studying, they need to get stuff done ahead of time so that they are beyond prepared for competitions. As for how I study, the amazing teachers at our school along with the Internet are probably the most valuable resources.”  What challenges have you faced this year as President? As President, I struggled with creating a cohesive team and ...

Black Americans have been treated unfairly and unjustly for years throughout American history. Even today, black people still are being treated unfairly even with the justice system that is supposed to be equal for all. Over the course of many years, black Americans have been targeted by police officers in a series of shootings. This sparked racial tension between blacks and whites over the years, especially within the last five years. The hostility between both races originally sparked back in the 1980s was known as the “War on Drugs”: the United States government’s prohibition of drugs. During the era, black Americans were thought to make up about half of those incarcerated out of the 2.3 million that were arrested during the drug epidemic. Another statistic calculated that blacks were incarcerated six times the rate of white people. 14 million whites were reported to have used illicit drugs versus 2.6 million black people reported to have used an illicit drug. These stats st...

Students from the John Jay Big Band Perform at the Spaghetti Dinner At night, John Jay tends to be a quiet place, inhabited solely by janitors and the music they use to keep awake, echoing through the empty cinderblock halls. But if you were present on March 9th, a steady swing chart, orchestral ballad, or Broadway show tune may have led you to the cafeteria -- a vibrant atmosphere filled with twinkling Christmas lights, buzzing students preparing for their sets, and, most importantly, the omnipotent aroma of spaghetti sauce and meatballs. This is the Spaghetti Dinner, an annual event held by the John Jay Music Boosters (JJMB) to raise funds, bring the community together, and celebrate music. For a small ticket fee, people of all ages and backgrounds are invited to come to school, serve themselves at a donated all-you-can-eat buffet, and listen to music performed by our own students. Any John Jay student is allowed to put together an ensemble or perform a solo in front of ...

The Robotic Arm event at Science Olympiad. On the night of March 9th, a group of eighteen students and three teachers left John Jay earlier than planned for Syracuse in a successful maneuver to escape the onslaught of snow. They were headed for the New York State competition of Science Olympiad for which they had previously qualified by placing in the top four teams at the Regionals competition. At the competition, they battled other teams from all around New York in their knowledge in scientific topics ranging from biology to physics. Beyond the knowledge events, the team also competed in engineering events with builds that they had painstakingly designed and built in the previous weeks and months. These included events such as Robot Arm, Electric Vehicle, Hovercraft, and Towers. A final adversary would prove to be the weather as the students often had to sacrifice the comfort of their limbs to the freezing cold and snow as they traveled back and forth from building to buildi...

High school baseball has always had an issue regarding pitchers’ safety. Certain schools allow their players to throw upwards of 100 pitches every game without adequate rest. Overuse has resulted in different injuries for these young arms such as torn rotator cuffs and ligament tears in the elbow. Recently, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) voted on a pitch count that would limit the amount of pitches thrown per day. While the rule is a step in the right direction, it has many flaws that need changing. The new pitching rules allow for an athlete to throw 105 pitches in a game total. If a player throws between 96 and 105 pitches, they must rest for four days until they may pitch again. 66-95 pitches requires three days rest, 31-65 requires two days rest, and 30 pitches requires one night of rest. In the playoffs, the total number of pitches in a game rises to 125. At first glance, these numbers may seem fair and appear to keep young athletes s...

Imagine shopping for a product that you know was tested on animals. Would you still buy it? Besides politics, a national issue often discussed in the United States is animal testing -- the testing of new and potentially harmful products by businesses on animals before the product is made available to consumers. This long-practiced method of testing is also called animal experimentation or animal research. Despite the sugar-coated names, a hundred million animals, including mice, dogs, frogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, and monkeys, experience some form of this horrific testing -- which can also be called animal torture. Animal testing is disturbingly inhumane and cruel. In 2010, about 97,123 animals suffered excruciating pain from being tested with no anesthesia whatsoever. This included 48,015 hamsters, 33,652 guinea pigs, 5,996 rabbits, and 1,395 primates. Tests such as Draize eye testing featured rabbits having their eyelids clamped opened, preventing the product from being bl...

If you’re a Harry Potter fan and you haven’t already, you should definitely hop onto Pottermore.com and take the quiz to discover the animal that represents you. There are about 150 animal choices ranging from the fuzzy rabbit to the ominous thestral. For those who aren’t Harry Potter fans, it’s still enjoyable to discover your inner beast. A patronus is a spell that contains pure happiness and takes the form of the animal that embodies you. It’s one of the most important spells in the series and has revealed the obsessions and personal traits of many of the characters. For example, in the case of Severus Snape, a patronus revealed just how deep his obsession for Lily (his childhood crush) was when his patronus turned out to be a doe -- the same as Lily’s. They’re used to protect oneself from dark beings known as dementors and also to communicate with others. The entire Pottermore site was carefully handcrafted by the author of the series: J.K. Rowling. Thus, the quality o...

Made from morphine, heroin is an opioid drug derived from the opium poppy plant. Users either smoke, snort, or inject heroin into their bodies, where it binds to receptors in the brain. The drug stimulates the release of dopamine, resulting in a surge of euphoria. Depressing the user's central nervous system, the drug causes crucial bodily functions such as respiration to cease. The use of heroin has also resulted in the proliferation of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. As a community, it is crucial that citizens are made aware of the dangers of heroin as the lethal drug shrouds Dutchess County and other corners of the United States. Heroin has claimed its spot as a deadly drug over the decades. Today, heroin targets teens and young adults from a variety of backgrounds. Heroin has jeopardized members of the middle class, including educated students and prestigious professionals. In high schools, the sum of students using heroin increased by four percent from...

Quite a while ago, it was announced that we pushed atmospheric carbon levels past 400 parts per million. You might ask how this may affect you or why you should care. But this announcement will indefinitely change the earth that we hold so dear. Carbon dioxide is actually a naturally-occurring gas. Many people today deem this infamous gas bad for the environment due to its association with global warming. Carbon dioxide is needed by plants in order to carry out photosynthesis, a process that produces the oxygen we need, among other things. In decent amounts, this gas warms our atmosphere and sustains life. But in copious amounts, this gas can destroy our planet. This September, scientists noticed that the carbon levels hovered around 401 parts per million. Normally, carbon levels would reach a low point at that time. This newly found information shows us that immediate action needs to be taken. Following this discovery, 195 countries gathered at a convention—the Paris Agre...