The HPCMS Chronicle

By Aleia Fernández and Ella Zak Just like our title says, some schools are separate but not equal. But before we dive in, let’s talk about what school segregation even is. School segregation divides people who are struggling financially from people who aren’t. As a result, people of color are the ones who might not have access to the best resources when it comes to their education. Starting in the late 1900s, segregation divided people not only by race but by their education too. In 1954, the Brown vs. Board of Education arose which provoked the government to make school segregation illegal. Now, you might be asking yourself, Why is school segregation still even a thing? According to the Hulu original, The Weekly , segregation didn’t quite end in 1954, and a lot of people rebelled against the new law. So here we are, with the most segregated school system in the country. The fact that it is still going on today is alarming. Here’s an example of some situations that are happe...

Matthew Sebastian Sports are very important to our lives. According to Practo , they “drastically improve your endurance, strength, stamina and help build lean muscles.” Also sports are a great way for entertainment. According to World Atlas , “It is estimated that more than half of the world's population consider themselves to be association football [soccer] fans. The sport enjoys an estimated 4.0 billion person following, and a global sphere of influence.” This may seem really cool, but unfortunately there is discimination in sports. For example, according to i-sight , there is racial discrimination, gender discrimination, religious discrimination, disability discrimination and LGBTQ discrimination. Racial Discrimination in Sports Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another. Colin Kaepernick is a black football player who continues to experience this kind of descrimination. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick refused to stand in a national anthem. According to The New...

By Theerada Kaewubon  Diversity with Representation There are a few stars and artists who are in the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ representation in the media is important because people need to see people who are like them on screen. It shows there are people like them who are being represented and seen. However, sadly it seems the most represented people seem to be white gay men. Now, that isn’t wrong but there is almost no diversity. Most shows have minuscule roles even though there are about 9 million people who identify as LGBTQIA. Despite all of that, the future is improving! According to The Verge , diversity in LGBTQ+ roles went up by 8.8%. But even if there is diversity, sometimes these characters are overlooked, made a background character, in only one episode and then thrown out. The Problem with Films & Shows Films actually have a bigger problem with LGBTQ+ media representation, not for the amount of screen time characters have, but because th...

By: Niove, Grace, Myah, Kimberly and Kara POV (point of view): You are my computer and I’m on the school blog. So, What Is It? Tiktok is an app where you can post 13-60 second videos. The videos can have music playing over them or you can make an original sound. People share their opinions and start trends. You make an account and you can follow creators that you find and watch their content. Where Did It Come From? TikTok originated in China where they called it Douyin meaning “vibrating sound.” The app originally started out as Musical.ly in April of 2014, but later changed to TikTok in August 2018. Many people were sad about Musical.ly’s change to TikTok, but now they (and by they we mean we) look back at it and often think their videos are embarrassing. Other Platforms How is TikTok different from other social media platforms like Vine and Musical.ly? Many people claim TikTok is ‘The new Vine.’ Vine was an app where you could record short six second videos played in a continu...

By Karen Perez Hello fellow readers! It’s me Karen, one of the fellow writers in the HPCMS Blog and this time instead of talking about Petra Kvitova this time let’s talk about a book review ! According to The New York Times, these are one of the 10 best books of 2019. Not only that but we will also include some of the students of HPCMS favorite books of 2019. Starting off with “Disappearing Earth” By Julia Phillips which talks about 2 sisters who each have different perspectives of life. One wants to venture deeper while the other one just wants to stay hidden. By the end of the first chapter, both of them get kidnapped and the story continues, showing inspiring women trying to get rid of the fear and loss between each other. The second book according to The New York Times is “The Topeka School” by Ben Lerner which is a third novel coming after “Leaving the Atocha Station” and “10:04” of a series and talks about American amplitude, ranging freely from parenthood to childhood, from tox...

Written by Malcolm Mungo When our country, America, claimed independence in 1776, as well as becoming a free country, we also became a capitalist country. Capitalism is the staple of our society, buying and selling goods and services - we couldn’t function without it. Capitalism is a very complex and interesting way of organizing society, with massive multi-billion dollar corporations, down to small family businesses. But what good is all this information? Well, since we live in a capitalistic society, it would make sense to understand what it is and how it works. One of the basic principles of capitalism is supply and demand. How does this work? If a product is in need, in other words, lots of people would benefit from it, then a retailer can come in and start selling this product. The seller will sell lots of this product since lots of people want it, which is demand. But if lots of people buy this product, the seller needs to have lots of that product, so they use their pro...

 By Penelope Mascia and Fiona Florsheim Should kids take standardized tests? We’ve been thinking about this question for a long time. Standardized testing stresses kids out, but it is still important. Not many people enjoy it. Maybe no one enjoys it. I’m not sure. But I do know that standardized tests stress a lot of people out. Some people study a lot, while other people don’t study at all. For example, last year I got stressed out and focused on the subjects that I typically didn't do well in, so I don't get as good of a grade on the subjects that I was usually better with. So we wanted to highlight some pros about standardized testing: It helps kids practice studying  It prepares us for other tests and could make those tests feel like their really easy compared to the state tests It lets the state see where you are in terms of skills In my opinion, the people who make the tests should make the tests shorter and not as important. They should make them last o...