Veteran tips for survival

Will LeHardy, Editor-in-Chief

September 12, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

To the freshman class: Welcome to high school! These next four years will either be the best or the worst years of your life: you decide whether you want to look back on high school with a smile or a frown. Speaking from experience, I can say that freshman year was easily the best year of high school s...

Debate over year-round school

Abby Presson

July 3, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

When faced with the issue of overcrowding, many school systems and even individual institutions, such as Barcroft Elementary School in Arlington County, have turned to a year-round or modified academic schedule. Arlington Public Schools (APS) has been considering all options, including year-round schedules,...

The problem with palm oil

Caroline Cunningham, Guest reporter

June 9, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Palm oil can seem to be in almost everything (food, makeup, even shampoo), but what exactly is it? Palm oil is oil extracted from palm trees, and is most commonly harvested in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the many unsustainable palm oil plantations have disastrous consequences for our environment; specifically,...

Tips for Senior Experience

Alice Naland, Co-Editor-in-Chief

May 14, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Starting on May 20, hundreds of seniors will leave the confines of the classroom and venture off into the real world to work, intern or volunteer during Senior Experience. Senior Experience is an annual program that allows 12th graders the opportunity to make money and gain skills in lieu of going to...

Yooka-Laylee: Worth the hype?

Myles Rodriguez, Staff Reporter

May 8, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

The game Yooka-Laylee, developed by Playtonic Studios, is doing its fair share of dividing audiences across the Internet. Reviewers everywhere like to express wildly different opinions, as is the case with video game journalism, but with Yooka-Laylee, the reception is either referring to it as a true c...

Restriction of high school journalists

Holland Forsythe

May 5, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Journalism plays an imperative role in maintaining a well informed society and has done so for hundreds of years. Despite their impressive impact, journalists are continually restricted and ridiculed. Today only 10 out of the 50 states include laws to protect high school journalists, Virginia is not on...

Corruption or just business?

Fiona Turner, Opinion Editor

April 18, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

In the process of writing his novel, Virginia Politics & Government in a New Century: The Price of Power, author Jeff Thomas used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain records of past admissions decisions and unknowingly exposed a secret about the University of Virginia (UVA) admissions proces...

The man behind Donald Trump

March 30, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Donald Trump may not be the person with the most control in the United States. Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist and former Trump campaign executive, has an unprecedented sway over the president and a dangerous worldview that could threaten America as we know it. Bannon has been a lot of...

Letter to Donald Trump

Anika Bahl, Staff Reporter

March 6, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Dear President Trump, I could drown you in statistics and facts in an attempt to explain to you why many of your policies are unethical, impractical and abusive, because, honestly, those figures are everywhere. Out of the seven countries whose citizens you had banned, not even one person had c...

Standardized testing leads to student stress

Holland Forsythe

February 23, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

The stakes are high at the school when it comes to standardized testing. According to the 2016 rankings by U.S. News, Washington-Lee is ranked 17th in the state and was awarded the gold medal for being one of the best high schools in the country. Teachers and administrators have high expectations for their ...

The danger schools face

Sam Bender-Prouty, Staff writer

February 9, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

On February 7, Betsy DeVos was confirmed for the position of Secretary of Education by one vote. This could have negative effects for students everywhere. DeVos is an advocate for school vouchers, which are state-sponsored scholarships that allow students to attend private school instead of public school....

What could ‘alternative facts’ mean for Kellyanne Conway?

Anika Bahl, Staff Reporter

February 7, 2017

Filed under Opinion, Showcase

Donald Trump truly has had an eventful first few weeks in office with the Women’s March on Washington on January 21 as well as some widely debunked remarks about the crowd size of the inauguration from Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary. However, after her defense of Spicer, someone who is sudde...