The Triton Times
Hello Triton Community,
This is our second digital version of our school newspaper The Triton Times. Our hope is that while you wait for the yearbook to be published at the end of the year, we can provide you with other engaging stories of our activities and amazing students and staff here at Eastlake Middle School. This second edition has our new yearbook staff with a few old members from last year! We would like to congratulate all Tritons and their families for showing our Triton traits and pride in everything you do. Go Tritons!!
-The Triton Times Staff
Principal's Message
Tritons,
We are so close to finishing out our first full year back on campus. And while it has been challenging, it has also been a pleasure to see many of you grow emotionally and develop academically. I encourage all of you to stay focused and remain strong. These next 24 days will go by really fast. If you have grades of C or higher, maintain your grades so that there are no surprises. If you have to raise your grades, then work diligently these next two weeks and improve your grades. It may not be a grade that you like but as long as you continue improving, that is all that matters. Know that as we end the year, I want to wish my eighth graders a fond farewell. I hope to see you all at promotion on June 2. Please make sure that you remember to read my weekly newsletter for more information. I hope that you will find time to come and back and let us know how you are doing in high school. Tritons, remember to be kind, be awesome and make the right choices.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Finley, Principal Eastlake Middle School
Are Dress Codes Necessary?
By Ava Ellorin, Editor in Chief
Many students enjoy wearing new clothes and wearing the latest fashion. But sometimes some clothes may be too revealing or not school appropriate. That’s why schools include dress codes. Dress codes are for all students who aren’t allowed to wear certain clothing. For example, most schools don’t allow spaghetti straps, pajamas, high skirts or shorts, vulgarity, crop tops, and tube tops. I believe that schools should keep dress codes.
Many students worldwide believe that schools shouldn’t acquire so many dress code restrictions. But, it prevents distractions, deters gang activity, and creates a workplace environment. It will also influence a safer and more professional environment around others. According to San Dieguito Academy “While dress codes are supposed to foster a better learning environment, it often forces students to waste time being checked for rule conformance, taken out of class, and serving detention or suspension.” This is important because it shows why schools should keep dress codes and how it can affect students' learning environment.
Others believe that schools should not have dress codes because they think it’s a dumb rule and not necessary at all. Most girls think it’s unfair because it sounds like the dress code restrictions are only towards them and not boys. It also sounds like it’s favoring boys over girls because the boys don’t have as many dress codes unlike how much the girls do. Articles have shown that girls are told that their clothes are distracting boys and girls do not find how distracting it is to boys during class time.
In conclusion, I believe that school dress codes should still be enforced to all school districts. While many others think that it should not be a rule to schools it should still be enforced because of distractions and need a more professional environment of learning. So, dress codes would be very necessary.
OPED Piece: Why should we stand for the pledge?
By Nahla Freeman, Staff Writer
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America” But what about those who prefer to not align themselves with a county that has been built off the suffering of racial groups? A country established on stolen land? Not all people who live in America are completely patriotic or even consider themselves Americans. So, why after so many years are we still forcing children in the public school system to stand for the pledge of allegiance?
Here at ELM our students stand for the pledge every morning at 8:15am. Of course a few students will sit out as they're either not a fan of the pledge or just not a fan of standing outright.
An interview with 8th grade student Sophia Aruil gave a small insight into how a few students feel about standing for the pledge. “I see it as an inconvenience. I’ve been late before and we’re told to stop and face the front of the school while the pledge is being said which only puts me even more behind,” she said when asked about her personal opinion on the morning pledge.
So what about marginalized groups that have been disregarded for centuries? Why should they pledge allegiance to a country that has kept them in a bad position even before their time?
“I think we shouldn’t have to stand at all” Aruil answers. Now of course since there’s a “no way” there’s a “yes way”, there will always be and always has been those students who tell others to stand up and ‘respect those who died for us, but those soldiers never died for the marginalized groups. They never fought for those they’ve oppressed so why should anybody respect those who haven’t respected those similar to you? Those who came before you were never shown such respect we’re expected to show to them.
To conclude, nobody should have to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I’m not saying that we should remove it from the morning announcements completely, but nobody should have to be required to stand to salute those who never had oppressed communities in their hearts. Yes, we are all equal regardless of differences, but it’s been made abundantly clear who and what those soldiers were fighting for.
Behind the Scenes of Triton Times
By Layla White, Staff Writer
Every year during spring the yearbook staff works hard to get the Triton Times Newspaper out to students, teachers, parents, and the community by working together, interviewing people, writing stories, and many more. Take a look at the behind the scenes of what you read on your Ipad to see the new updates on school, trends, etc.
How do we make the newspaper and get all the stories out you may ask? Well it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. We first gather topics to write about that interests the community, then we assign them to the staff and get to writing! Lastly, we put them on the website in their category and post them! The whole first semester we work on the yearbook and get that ready to print so you may ask, what do we do the second semester? Well at this point we do not work on the yearbook anymore, but try and get as many issues of the triton times newspaper as we can so we can let the community and students see it!
A fellow staff member, Gabriella Lozano, said a little bit of her thoughts while writing on the newspaper, “I enjoy working on the newspaper since we just finished our yearbook so we are kept occupied. Although, it’s hard to think of an article topic”. These are some of her thoughts on being part of writing the school's newspaper! As you can tell from evidence of an actual writer in the newspaper, she enjoys it, yet it is still extremely hard to come up with headlines, get quotes, take pictures, and just write the stories.
Archived Issues of The Triton Times are linked Below.