Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I thought your readers would enjoy this poem I wrote.

Free With the Sun

By Lily Donahue

With the windows open,

The re-appearing sun drifts in on the back of the wind.

Clouds make way for the blue that is spreading so rapidly.

Our eyes are glued outside,

Longing for an escape to the world filled with warmth.

A silent breath blows my hair back with the beating sun welcoming us once again. Color shines through the grass,

Through the flowers,

Through our smiles and skin.

But behind the fresh saturation,

Fear still holds us by the shoulder.

Will we slip back into the sands of isolation with distrust of the outside world restored? Will the sweet summer air be stolen from us once more?

Or will we rise?

I wish for us to emerge from the sickness that has nearly been escaped.

Here we will grow with the trees,

Reach your arms to the limitless sky and feel it return the touch.

The invitation to a new time has been delivered.

Autumn brought crimson leaves,

Winter gave us snow,

With Spring came showers,

But in summer,

In this fresh, infinite summer,

We are one with the sun,

Here we are free.

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to you today to give you my thoughts on the current state of the school newspaper and possible ways to improve. As a former student at David Douglas, I would occasionally indulge in the school newspaper. It was a great way for me to keep updated on current events relating to school, learn something new, and gain an overall sense of connection with my community. With that being said, I’ve always found myself wanting to find something that made me feel accepted.

Being a minority, I quickly learned from the trials and tribulations our minds play on us each day. It just seemed like we had to be stronger than everybody else. This is around the time where I learned about the power of self esteem and how it has the potential of being the driving force on your well-being.

With that being said, I believe that the newspaper should put an emphasis on boosting the schools overall self esteem by using simple practices that acknowledge students more and put down students less. Maybe it’s time to discontinue the “Student of the Month” section? I’ve always felt like it's done more harm than good because it’s always the same people and the majority of the school doesn’t have a chance. Instead, include a “Talent” section (something everyone has) where students display their talents, big or small. Whatever you do going forward, just please keep the students mental health in mind. It’s more important now than ever.

With Love,

Ahmed

Dear Editor,

Many courses at DDHS are only available for certain grade levels and with certain prerequisites. While this seems like a good plan at first, some students may have studied the course material at home or with a tutor, and have obtained the knowledge already. For such cases, being able to take a test to demonstrate proficiency in courses to figure out what level class they can enter would strongly benefit learners at DDHS.

Regardless of grade level students should be able to pursue accelerated learning. For example, Advanced Biology is not offered to freshmen. However, in the interest of acquiring higher academic achievement, 9th graders should have the ability to take this class as long as they can demonstrate that they understand the required concepts for it.

In the case that prerequisites cannot be waived, students could be offered the chance to take the advanced course and the prerequisite concurrently.

Some students would rather learn more challenging topics at high school rather than rehash information that they have already assimilated from previous experiences. Offering students the ability to learn at their level will help them grow, and give them more opportunities outside of high school.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Sam

Member of the Four Day School Week Campaign

Dear Editor,

The article “Biden wants half of all new cars to be electric by 2030” by Nellie Shevtsov is inclusive of the pros and cons to the brought back tailpipe emissions regulations from the Obama era to under President Biden. The idea is great for our environment and relieves the dangerous global warming issues we have today. By converting half of all cars to electric in the U.S. we as humans can lessen our carbon footprint by about 1/3, which is 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide. This is very costly and time consuming to make a huge change in a decade. However, I agree with the author believing it’s not impossible and can happen with strong trust between Americans.

Senior Mei Taw

Dear Editor,

The story that stuck out to me the most [in print edition, Vol. 67 No. 1] was the story about hats and hoods. I think that hats and hoods should be allowed because its not like you can't see our faces. I think it's more of the fact that you can't tell who has headphones on and who doesn't. That's why I think we can't have hats and hoods, but if strangers really are coming onto our campus and able to just walk inside, then the hats and hoods aren't the problem. It's the security. If random people can just walk right in, then how are any of our student body safe? We have all this security focused on skippers and students that are late that we are letting in a possible threat to our school where our student body, who is there to learn, is being disrupted, and if they really are coming in, why haven't parents been told that our school is unsafe? In my opinion, it just seems like a poor excuse to make sure students aren't listening to music. I think our safety should be first, not the fact that hats and hoods are such a big issue.

Sophomore Robert Skillings-Alexander