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Bravo Presents: Lion King Jr.!

Written by: Emma Perisho

You’ve all seen the movie “The Lion King”, but have you seen it on the stage? That's where BRAVO comes in! Ever since February, there have been close to 130+ students and adults putting in tons of time and effort into bringing this show to the stage. A couple of students were interviewed about the show and their opinions on the characters, and the overall show. 8th grade student Emma Biddle is working on makeup in this show, and she claims “It's a really amazing show, no matter where it’s performed, all the aspects are so beautiful.”

A couple members of the cast were interviewed on the topic of the show. 7th grader Indigo Gordon plays Scar in the Cheetah cast, and she said, “You should see Lion King because it's a really beautiful show, everything: the sets, the costumes, the makeup, it’s all beautiful.” Another 7th grader, Sydney Germany, plays Faca and a lioness dancer, and she adds “Everyone has worked so hard on this show, and it’s going to be so worth it!”

There are 10 shows during this run, beginning this weekend, April 28 and 29, starting at 7pm. Shows will continue on the weekend of May 5th at 7pm, May 6th with shows at both 2pm and 7pm, and May 7th at 2pm and 7pm. The final shows will be performed the weekend of May 12-14. Show times will be at 7pm on May 12, 2pm and 7pm on May 13, and ending out with a 2 o'clock matinee on May 14.

Make sure to see the show! You don’t want to miss this!

Posted on April 28th, 2017

School Shootings: U.S. Schools Struggle to Cope

By: Athanasios Pantazopoulos

Throughout the world, humans experience many difficulties when attempting to receive schooling, some of which include sexism, racism, and even an inability to attend or afford an education/school. While these issues might not be as prevalent within the United States as they are throughout third world nations, Americans have begun to face a problem of their own: school shootings. The most recent of these events occurred on April 10, 2017, and involved a gunman entering an elementary school located in San Bernardino County, who proceeded to murder his former wife, a student of hers, and finally commit suicide.

North Park Elementary School of San Bernardino, CA considers the spouses of their employees entering the building with the intent of delivering something to their partner normal, and this is precisely how Cedric Anderson, the perpetrator of the crime, was allowed access to his estranged wife's (Karen Smith) classroom. Despite having acquired a criminal record for various transgressions such as domestic violence and the unlawful possession of both drugs and arms, Anderson was not searched for any weapons prior to making his way to room B1, where Smith operated a classroom dedicated to teaching those with mental disabilities. As Anderson silently passed through the curtain that took the place of a door, he caught those inside by surprise who had been focusing on their desks and began to shoot, firing 10 rounds from a large caliber revolver. This resulted in the death of 53 year-old Karen Smith, and the wounding of two of her students: 8 year-old John Martinez and 9 year-old Nolan Brandy, with John's life ending during the trip to a nearby hospital. The remainder of the class, 13 students along with two teacher assistants, were fortunate enough to escape the undesirable situation during the time that it took for Cedric to reload his gun, whereupon they alerted the office of the crisis, and Anderson decided to commit suicide. As a safety precaution, the entire school was evacuated and students were brought to nearby Cajon High School, where they would meet their parents.

However, the fact of the matter is is that schools should be a safe and peaceful environment devoted to providing an education to children and students of all ages. One shouldn't have to worry that their lives are in jeopardy while receiving instruction from teachers, and although the city of San Bernardino does plan to amp up security measures throughout its school districts, another factor that contributed to this attack, along with many others such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Virginia Tech, is the ability for the mentally ill and those with a criminal background to bear arms. People who suffer from ailments or reputations such as these should not be permitted to purchase weaponry of any kind, for it poses a danger to both the public and themselves. It might not seem fair, but it is definitely the solution to reducing the number of innocent humans who lose their lives to school shootings.

Posted on May 1, 2017

Upcoming Dodgeball Tournament

By: Sam Shafiro

You might have heard of the garden at Brooks. This staple project has been contributed to by many members of the Brooks community. However, running and maintaining a garden is not free; that’s why Ms. Stamps 8th grade W.I.N. class are hosting a dodgeball tournament. The $2 per player entrance fee, the $1 fee to watch the tournament, t-shirt money, and concessions profits will all go toward supporting the garden. The money will be used to buy seeds and other things necessary for a garden. However, all is not that simple.

Due to the difficulty of organizing a 10 player team, less teams have signed up than the class had hoped. In response, those in the class advertising the event began using more aggressive tactics. They gave away permission slips even to those who did not ask for one. However, this was not for nothing, as the tactic appeared to be effective.

In case this is not enough, the class does have a backup plan if they don’t have enough teams. They think it might be possible to recruit a second teacher team to participate in the game. And even if that fails, the class plans to run the tournament with whatever teams they have. When asked what would happen if there weren't enough teams, Quinn Flemming, an 8th grader working on the project responded, “We’ll run it, no matter what.”

Now all that’s left to do is watch the tournament. The tournament will take place on Thursday, April 27th. It will begin shortly after the school day ends and is expected to run until 4:30. There will be a concession stand, and Mr.Barnard, the band teacher, has pulled together a volunteer pep band which will play at the event. To quote another key member of the project, Adam Raducha: “[I hope that] a ton of people are in it, and a ton of people come, and it’ll be awesome!”

Posted on April 26th, 2017

Tax Raise Referendum

By: Emma Biddle

Voters on April 4th will be asked to approve a 1 percent increase in the property tax adding an additional $13.3 million in tax revenue. According to a district presentation, property owners with an annual $10,000 property tax bill would see an increase of $740, or $74 per every $1,000 they currently pay. These property tax raises are estimated to be spent on typical maintenance to keep Oak Park’s school buildings operational, which includes ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) work and upgrading fire alarms, lighting systems, power distribution, plumbing and roof repairs. This would cost approximately $37,588,500 between 2019 and 2021. A second batch of improvements, which will come later, includes enhanced learning spaces, capacity expansions at some schools and air conditioning, are estimated to cost an additional $19,963,702.

Also, if this referendum does not pass, a lot of cuts would be made and would affect life changing after school theater programs. BRAVO and CAST are two after school programs that kids have been involved in for years. Kids dedicate usually about three years and all the time during those three years to these programs. Two weeks prior to voting day, BRAVO and CAST students took the streets of Oak Park telling their stories and convincing others to vote yes on April 4th. The hashtag #SAVEBRAVO speculated around Instagram and other social media platforms spreading the word to help keep these programs at the middle schools.

UPDATE:

The tax increase was approved by a slim margin of just 54.13%. Oak Park residents were especially vocal about the drawbacks of increasing classroom sizes and expressed a desire to preserve funding for arts programs, something these increased taxes are likely to ensure.

Posted on April 7th, 2017

GBMS' "Wall of Respect"

By: Kianna Gill and Danielle Guralnick

On June 7, 2017 our namesake, Gwendolyn Brooks, would have turned 100 years old. To celebrate this occasion Ms. Murray’s 8th grade art class along with others will be designing a mosaic. It will be put on the outside of the school on the corner of Washington and Clinton.

Trump's First Month in Office

By: Nora Brooks-Slauter

It's been just over a month since President Trump took office on January 20th. He's done many things since he's been in office. Here are the highlights so far, according to United Press International (UPI).

On his first day he took the first steps towards getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, and he froze all unfinalised regulations. He also suspended an insurance rate cut created by the Obama administration.
On January 23rd, he signed a memorandum that gets rid of funds directed to health care charities that involve abortion.
He signed another memorandum taking the US out of a trade deal in Asia.
Trump ordered a federal freeze in hiring for all federal workers except for the military.
On January 25th, he signed an executive action getting federal agencies ready for incident construction on his proposed wall to be built on the US/Mexican border. He also signed an executive order stripping sanctuary cities of federal grants.
On January 27th, he signed an executive order that wants more intense security checks for people coming to America trying to get visas, a promise he made in his compaign.
On January 28th, Trump added Steve Bannon to the National Security Council.
On January 30th, Trump signed an executive order that when a new business regulation is added two ones must be removed.
On January 31st, Trump nominated federal appellate Judge Neil McGill Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
On February 3rd, Trump ordered that the labor department review a rule that requires financial management to act in their client's best interest when handling retirement accounts set by former President Obama.
February 9th, the President signed an order to review an law that produces legislation that helps protect all forms of law enforcement.

President Trump's Inauguration

By: Giacomo Rizzo

Trump’s inauguration is set to be today, January 20th, though Donald Trump will meet with the electoral college to officially become president shortly before. Some pop singers are refusing to perform at the inauguration because of their personal dislike for Donald Trump. As John Legend said to the BBC, “creative people tend to reject bigotry and hate.” Though most singers reject the offer, classic crossover singer Jackie Evancho agreed to sing at the inauguration. “I’m so excited, it’s gonna be so awesome,” says Evancho. However tension is growing, with Jackie’s family. Jackie’s transgender sister is not to excited about her singing there.

Posted on January 20th, 2017

OPRF Freshman Placement Testing

By: Raghav Opal

In June over 1,000 8th grade students from Brooks, Julian, and Roosevelt Middle Schools will graduate and become students of Oak Park River Forest High School. Recently students have taken STAR Mathematics and Reading Testing as long as with Explore ACT Testing. For the first time ever, OPRF made the test completed only on computers this year, using . STAR testing in place of the former Explore placement test. Although the new testing system is using brand new technology that is the future of education, glitches and errors made test information unresponsive. Many students had to take the test multiple times and have complained of these technical difficulties.

Posted on January 20th, 2017

Pool Referendum Re-Vote?

By: Connor Sorg

On November eighth as you may know, the Oak Park River Forest High School pool/performing arts referendum was voted a no by a mere thirty votes! Out of 34,650 voters, 30 votes turned out to be the margin between "Vote No", and "Vote Yes".

Read more>> Pool Referendum Re-Vote?

Posted on January 11th, 2017