The HPCMS Chronicle

By Dash Fisher Hunters Point Community Middle School - It’s your neighbourly and friendly friend here, Dash! In the show Andi Mack, a character comes out as gay to his friend. Here are my thoughts and feelings about it. Andi Mack is a Disney Channel show about tweens going through middle school. Starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Andi Mack, Andi Mack is turning 13 when her older sister Bex returns home. Andi goes through her teenage life, with the help of her family and her friends Cyrus and Buffy, on top of coping with the discovery that Bex is actually her mother and that her mother Celia “Cece” is actually her grandmother, and managing her crush on classmate Jonah Beck. While another one of Andi’s friends, Cyrus, also has a crush on Jonah. So, in the show Cyrus comes out as gay. Gay is the G in LGBTQ+. LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and the plus stands for other sexualities/genders including but not limited to Pensexual, Asexual, and Intersex.

By Cara Giardina and Vanessa Ramos  Long Island CityWhat does the tax reform bill mean? What will it do? These are some questions that people - including middle schoolers at HPCMS - have had over the past few months since the tax reform bill passed in December of 2017. In November of 2017, congress passed the tax reform bill. The thing about tax reforms is that all our families except kids pay taxes, so it affects all of us. In our opinion it is very important to talk about these things. So you know our parents, and adults pay for rent, bills, and taxes every month. The money they pay in taxes goes to many places. In addition to paying the salaries of government workers, our tax dollars also help to support common resources, such as police officers firefighters and public school teachers Tax money also helps to ensure the roads you travel on are safe and well-maintained and that older people are taken care of when they can no longer work This is what basically happens when th

By Nicholas Lentini and Tsheyang Lhamo 8th Graders in Times Square on their way to go bowling. Credit Mr. Brezina Long Island City - Hunters Point Community Middle School has been on a diverse amount of trips this year which include the 7th grade overnight Ramapo trip, the 6th and 7th grade American Museum of Natural History visit, The Met, the trip to see the movie Wonder, and last but not least the Quartz (news blog ) trip our school blog went to. Hopefully, there are more trips to come throughout the year! The purpose of these excursions are usually for observation, non-experimental research, educational purposes, or to provide students with experiences outside their everyday activities, such as going camping with teachers and their classmates. Also, the NEA (National Education Association) surveyed 400 adults and 89% of them said that “educational trips had a positive impact on their education and career because the trips made them more engaged, intellectually curious and inte

By Jordan Robinson, Ruan Sherpa, and Adam Hemenes Long Island City - Whether you love them or hate them, this year’s Winter Olympics , which is going to be held in PyeongChang County, South Korea, will not be the same without Russia because of how dominant they were in the past. The reason why Russia is banned from this year’s Winter Olympics is because they were caught doping again, according to CBS News and the Anti-Doping Agency. Russia has had doping problems before, and they lost 51 olympic medals because of it, which is the most medals stripped from a team because of doping scandals.  Doping is another word for taking talent-enhancement drugs in order to “improve” your strength in sports. One of the talent-enhancement drugs that Russia has confirmed of using steroids. Steroids are a drug that make a person’s muscles bigger and stronger, but they have consequences. If you use overdose (when you use them too much), you can get acne, violent and aggre

By Kylie Williams DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival), is an American immigration policy for individuals who entered the United States illegally, to protect them from deportation. DACA also allows kids (referred to as “dreamers”) to receive a work permit in order for them to get a job. Also, keep in mind that DACA has been going on for so long that some of these kids who entered the U.S as children are now adults who have jobs and lives. So why is there such a buzz around DACA and the dreamers right now? Well, it all started in June 2012 when Obama announced this new immigration policy to protect young illegal immigrants. However, on September 5th, 2017, the Trump administration attempted to revoke the law but the full operation was delayed for six months leaving congress time to discuss the situation. So that means that congress only has until early March to decide whether to keep DACA or to take it away. This is not a lot of time, but a lot can happen. In fact,

By Cara Giardina Long Island City - Later in the evening, Natalie Portman had an amazing burn pointing out that the “Best Director Award” nominees were all male. Natalie is an oscar winning actress who has been in several movies such as Jackie, V for Vendetta, Thor, Black Swan, Thor: The Dark World, Jane got a Gun, Goya’s Ghosts, New York I Love You, and several others This year’s Golden Globe awards were unique and amazing. Oprah Winfrey was the first black woman to win the Cecil B. deMille Award and she gave a speech that truly touched us all ( NBC ). Oprah starred in The Color Purple as Sofia, Before Women Had Wings as Zora Williams, and most recently, Mrs. Which in the upcoming film A Wrinkle in Time.She is most famous for hosting, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah talked about the “#metoo” and “Times Up” movements. Her speech was really powerful because she talked about sexual misconduct and said that women who have gone through this should stand up and say something. A

By Alexa Perez, Tsheyang Lhamo, Nicholas Lentini, Nairi Nakhapetian Long Island City, New York- We had a winter dance the twentieth of December. There was food, music, drinks, and a whole bunch of fun. Everyone had a great time. At one point we all danced and it was so much fun to see so much joy on everyone’s faces. It was a memorable night that no one will forget. Natalia Taylor from 601 said, “I think that the dance was a great night to catch up with friends and dance the night away with so much joy on others’ faces.” By this single sentence I can tell that Natalia had lots of fun at the Winter Dance, and I think almost everyone could agree with her. Kylie Williams from 603 said, “The dance was very fun and I got to know other people better because during that time we only had three months of school, I knew everyone in my grade but in the dance there were also seventh and eighth graders. I also got to know what song everybody likes and got to know more about people. I danced, my fr

By Alexa Perez and Nairi Nakhapetian Long Island City, HPCMS - For a traveler’s eyes, the Manhattan skyline is a wondrous sight, but some New Yorkers know the truth; sometimes it can be quite depressing. Think about why we like nature, why we retreat to it when money and time cooperates, and face the truth: All these buildings, with thousands of people working, can be very stressful, and nature helps with that stress. We all know that stress can be a rather common but dangerous feeling, and almost every single person in the whole world has a double dose of it. Only people at the very top of the economical pyramid who own whole companies worth billions of dollars have it easy on their lives and their kin. People like us believe that we have too much city which causes pollution. There is less greenery than there is city and development. Think about it: wherever you go in New York there are buildings. You barely see any green parks or a field with plants and trees or any o