Art Show This Thursday 4:30-7pm
Please join us for a celebration of student photography, studio art and graphic design this Thursday from 4:30-7pm! The show takes place in three locations: the Art Building, the atrium of the Main Building and the first floor hallway.
Students taking AP Exams:
Look for an email with exam day details (exam, date, time, location) for each of the AP exams you are taking. These emails were sent to your PERSONAL email accounts registered with the College Board, not your school email. Check there and your spam folder please.
If you can't find the email, see Ms. Cajina (room 302) directly or email her (jcajina@ausdk12.org)
The Wide-Reaching Impact of SB8
by Abby Cohen
Last fall, America’s most restrictive abortion law, known as Senate Bill 8 or SB 8, went into effect in Texas. Over the past six months there have been nation-wide protests, people seeking abortions out of state, and the Supreme Court hearing two cases, one of them challenging the law. With the Supreme Court having a 6–3 conservative majority, the stakes for Roe v. Wade couldn’t be higher.
SB 8 prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, only making an exception for medical emergencies which do not specifically include rape, sexual abuse, incest, or the fetus having an untreatable and fatal condition. The law doesn’t define what would constitute a “medical emergency” during pregnancy, a gray area that can result in a wide variety of interpretations and ways it is enforced.
For the full story, see The Cougar on Medium.
"Black Love": Past, Present, & Future
In the spirit of Black-Asian-Allies solidarity, join us on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 3:00pm for a talk, “Black Love": Past, Present, & Future, co-hosted by the Asian Pacific Islander Parent Engagement Group (API-PEG) and Black Parent Advisory Group (BPAG). Before the talk, listen to part or all of the free Masterclass on Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love. Then, world-renowned writer Camille Parker will unpack these issues during our local event. Register for the event with Ms. Parker here.
Promising Basketball Season Interrupted by COVID Outbreak
By Nicolas Davalos and Daniel Peterson
The Albany High boys basketball team’s season had its share of success and struggle, and as playoffs begin, the Cougars ended the regular season playing, on average, an exhausting three games a week.
This number has increased exceptionally because of a coronavirus outbreak among the varsity team. The outbreak postponed games, practices, and all other team activities for about a month, and the team had to hustle to make all those games up.
Players note that COVID has impacted the team’s morale, playstyle, and conditioning among other things, and it plays an important role in the team’s late-season performance.
For the full article, see The Cougar on Medium.
Mask Up, Vax Up
Editorial and infographic by Natalia Toledo
While the holiday season has come to a close, the COVID surge has not. Cases are spiking, and due to omicron’s contagious design, the risk of contracting the virus has only increased. Like it or not, the world we live in now is our “new normal”. That is, a world where precautions must be adopted, and upheld, to protect the vulnerable. The coronavirus will not go away because we close our eyes and wish it to be. That’s just not how nature works.
There is a consensus among many experts that COVID-19 will come and go in seasons, just as we experience with the flu. That is why it is important that we learn how to manage it. So let’s emphasize the things that are working and debunk the myths around the obscurities. Say hello to the masks and the vaxes.
For the full editorial, see The Cougar on Medium.
Give the Gift of Books
The AHS Library appreciates the support of our whole community. Below are new books our students are asking for. Please, we would love a gift of one or more of these books. It would mean the world to us.
Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney
Black Food, by Bryant Terry
A Court of Silver Flames, by Sarah Maas
Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
The Hawthorne Legacy, by Jennifer Barnes
Himawari House, by Harmony Becker
The Korean Vegan Cookbook, by Joanne Lee Molinaro
The Nobleman's Guide To Scandal And Shipwrecks, by Mackenzi Lee
Our Violent Ends, by Chloe Gong
Revolution In Our Time, by Kekla Magoon
Roxy, by Neal Shusterman
Sanctuary, by Paola Mendoza
Squad, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Albany High School Offers Free School Lunch for All Students
Students wait in line to receive lunch at the new serving location in the gym lobby. This location currently provides breakfast foods during break and sandwiches and salads during lunch.
By Xinxin Duan
Following a new law passed in the spring of 2021, Albany High School has begun to provide free meals to all of its students.
According to Executive Chef Sabina Feinberg, the USDA requires that free meals be provided to students of all schools in the nation during the 2021-2022 school year due to the special conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, but schools in California will continue to do this in future school years. Mr. McNally explained that the new school meal program is a self-funded program, meaning that there is no extra cost for the Food Services department.
The implementation of the free meal program has caused the number of students getting school meals to rise significantly. According to Ms. Feinberg, the daily average of AHS students receiving school lunches increased from 139 students in the 2019-20 school year to 317 students this school year.
The main difficulty is “getting all students through,” said Mr. McNally. Ms. Feinberg said, “We are feeding more students than ever in the same space, with the same amount of staff, and with the same amount of storage space we had before.”
For the full story, see The Cougar on Medium.
Toxic TikTok Trends
By Izzy Smith, Devon Luce, and Swastik Siwakoti
You open TikTok and start scrolling through your “For You Page.” All you see are perfect girls with flawless hair, faces, and bodies. Before you know it, your thoughts are flooded with self-hatred and anxiety. These girls fit perfectly into the westernized idea of beauty, and you can’t help but compare yourself to how they look. This is something that many students experience on a daily basis, and they are slowly starting to realize how addictive and harmful TikTok can really be.
“There’s a lot of body checking on TikTok,” said senior Iman Khan. Body checking is the obsessive urge to seek information on your appearance, weight, size, often done through videos or images. Another user, senior Sophia Vitek, said, “Once you’re on TikTok, it’s really hard to get off of it, which is really toxic.”
With TikTok becoming more and more popular, there has been a prevalent rise in toxic trends, specifically ones that touch on fatphobia and eating disorders.
For the full story, see The Cougar on Medium.