Media Academy senior Karen Tachiquin recently counted 33 fries on her plate of fries and chicken strips. She did not consider the fries as vegetables – but the government does.

The Fremont Federation caf-eteria frequently serves students two to three portions of fries because, according to federal guidelines, fries are a vegetable.

Katie Riemer, the Tiger Clinic health educator, recogniz-es that the cafeteria is following federal guidelines because fries are considered a vegetable, but says it’s still not a balanced diet for teens to eat so many.

Another student agrees that fries are not a vegetable.

Feds say fries = veggies,so triple portions 'okay'

If you are on a high school or middle school campus in the Oak-land Unified School District, you are being watched.

That's because the district is put-ting 750 new video cameras at 25 middle and high schools across the city, under $3 million security up-grade program. You will be watched by people on your campus, the police and people at the downtown district offices. You might even be watched on computer monitors at district officials' homes.

The U.S. Department of Justice gave $1.5 million for the cameras and the district is using moderniza-tion funds for the other half.

February 2010 Volume 49, Issue 4

insideToo mUch informaTion?Students react to government's full-body scans at airports put in place after Nigerian tries to bomb airplane on Christmas

– page 2

fifa ToUrnamenT oakland?Find out if enough people supported Oakland as a host for 2018 or 2022 World Cup soccer matches

Teachers okay one-day sTrikeUnion frustrated with district's offer of zero salary change,so members prepare themselves for possible work stoppage

– page 8 – page 3

Oakland will throw a new weapon at members of one of its most notori-ous gangs — an

injunction to stop them from engaging in gang activity in a 100-block “safety zone.”

City Attorney John Russo filed a lawsuit for the injunction last week against the North Side Oakland gang, which police blame for seven homicides in 2008 and another seven in 2009, including the murder of Oakland Technical High School student Desiree Davis in September.

“This gang has terrorized our community, intimidated wit-nesses and recruited children to their criminal enterprise,” Russo wrote in a press release. “They

Gang injunctioncould start soon

candid cameras At top are two new cameras that watch over the Fremont Federation of High Schools campus. At bottom are some views of what the cameras can record.

see CAFETERIA page 3

see GANG page 3

Juan ramosAssistant News Editor

fuey saechaoSports Editor

carolyn saephan

You're being watched

are part of a malevolent force that has crippled our city for decades and continues to hold Oakland back today.”

If granted by a judge, the injunction will declare North Side Oakland a public nuisance and prohibit certain activities within the safety zone — about 100 blocks between I-580, Emeryville, Berkeley, and Tele-graph Avenue, according to the press release.

The zone includes Oakland Technical High School.

Under the proposed injunc-tion, 19 identified members of the gang would no longer be able to hang out with each other in the zone. They also will be unable to possess guns or other dangerous weapons or tools for graffiti or vandalism.

The injunction would also ban them from recruiting new members in the zone, trespass-ing and intimidating witnesses. They would have to follow all

“I don't think fries are vegetables, and the fact that the government considers them as vegetables makes me think that the government needs to take a nutrition class," said Media sophomore Laura Delpino.

Joyce Peters, the district dietician, stated that the federal government doesn't mandate that students take all the food displayed during lunch, but the cafeteria must offer enough for them to get full.

Many students who get their lunch from the cafeteria agree with Delpino and Tachiquin about fries not being healthy.

Jeanette Vargas and Kimberly Guzman, juniors at Mandela Law Academy, said that giving students fries in order to make up for vegetables isn't all that healthy.

“Students need real fresh veg-

City attorney files lawsuit against gang in north oakland

oUsd dietician says better to serve fries than nothing to teens

“it's not an invasion of privacy. in school, you do not expect to have privacy.”

– emiliano sanchezassistant Principal

architecture academy

Media College Preparatory High School, Oakland, California

GETTINGHEALTHY

Veggie Club begins; Fremont students plan big health campaign

– page 5

Health Editor

see CAMERAS page 3

OUSD puts up $3 million in cameras

The idea behind putting more cameras on campus is to reduce vandalism and other crimes. A school can lose tens of thousands of dollars each year when comput-ers and equipment are stolen and walls are tagged.

photo by Violet Souksavath

photo by Violet Souksavath photo by Fuey Saechao

photo by Lester Finney

2 News February 20, 2010Green & Gold

Students generally are glad the government is starting to do full-body scans of airline passengers after a Christmas Day bomb scare, but say they

would not like to have their own bodies scanned.

"It's private – [it's] my body," said Yesenia Tabarez, a sophomore at Media Academy.

She was one of 47 Fremont Federa-tion students polled by the Green & Gold newspaper in January about heightened security measures in American airports. Sixty-eight percent of the students questioned said they were okay with the government doing the scans and the same number said the scans would make America safer.

However, almost 75 percent said they would not want to have their own body shown on screen at airport security.

Full-body scans are becoming more common in airports because of what happened on Dec. 25 during a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Passenger Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from Nigeria al-legedly tried to blow up the plane with explosives he had packed into his un-derwear. He made it through the regular metal detector and onto the plane.

Other passengers and the airline crew tackled him and all 278 passengers got off the plane safely, but the incident changed the way Americans will fly in the future.

Security experts believe that machines that can scan through the clothes of air-

line passengers could prevent this kind of danger. But others call such screening an invasion of privacy.

Usually, security guards sit in another room and watch a screen that shows the passenger's whole body, but not the face, to make sure the passenger is not trying to sneak anything hazardous or explosive onto the plane.

According to Time magazine, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) already has 40 full-body scanners at 19 airports but plans to have nearly 900 by 2014.

TSA is a federal agency started in 2001 to protect the United States trans-portation systems and to make sure air travel is safe.

Students at Fremont Federation have varying opinions on whether the body scans are worth the extra security they may provide.

“I’m not at the airport every day, so if I get the body scan when I go to the airport, it’s okay,” said sophomore Laura Delpino.

Many survey respondents said they would feel nervous about having their body parts shown on a screen for airport protection.

An anonymous sophomore at Media

Full-body scans at airports okay – for othersLester Finney

News Editor

Academy stated, “That’s so uncomfort-able and unnecessary.”

Many argue that the full body scan is a violation of Americans rights.

“People who were born as U.S. citizens shouldn’t have to go through the process of a full body scan," said Brittany Jackson, a junior at Media Academy.

Others think that Americans must accept being scanned themselves if they want people from other countries to un-dergo the security screening.

"I shouldn’t get special treatment and not get scanned if everyone else is, because then the airport is accused of ra-cial profiling when they're only targeting some people,” stated Kim Mejia, a Media Academy sophomore.

Media Case Manager Eric DuBois

disagrees with Mejia's opinion and be-lieves not everyone should be treated the same with the scans.

“I just don’t know why they feel like a 90-year-old woman in a wheelchair should be scanned when it’s obvious who’s motivated to doing the killings," said DuBois.

DuBois has made several trips re-cently to Costa Rica and said he does not personally have a problem with getting checked at the airports.

But Edwin Librado, a junior at Media Academy who returned from Mexico on a plane after the holidays, will think twice before flying again because of the new scans. “I hate having my personal space invaded, so I don’t plan on travel-ing anytime soon,” he said.

Image from www.TSA.

TOO MUCH INFORMATION? This is an official full-body scan image of a male from the Transportation Safety Authority. TSA is adding scanners at airports in reaction to a

an attempted bombing on Dec. 25, when a man allegedly put explosives in his underwear.

“I hate having my personal space invaded, so I don't plan on travelling anytime soon.”

– edwin LibradoMedia Academy junior

3 news February 2010Green & Gold

News in Brief

Teachers in the Oakland Unified School District are ready to go on a one-day strike if they feel they need to.

On Jan. 20, members of the teachers union met at Oakland Technical High, where they voted 729-45 to authorize a one-day strike.

Although the Oakland Education Association (OEA) approved the work action, no strike has been established, and it may take weeks or months before the leadership of the organization receives authorization to do so. No strike can legally be called until the current stage of "fact-finding" is declared officially over. This is likely to be some time this spring.

The district and teachers union have been trying to reach an agreement for more than a year. The last offer the dis-trict made to teachers was to give them a zero percent raise; the union rejected it.

The district must cut $30 million from its 2010-2011 budget and says it has no

money to pay teachers more. The union says the district just needs to change the way it spends the money it has.

Some students are okay with the idea of teachers going on strike.

"They should, because [teachers and staff] have rights," said Media Acad-emy senior Breanna Johnson.

Mandela Academy junior Deziana Torres agreed.

"I would feel both proud and inspired to see hard working teachers protesting and fighting for what they believe is right," Torres said.

But Rahshawn Allen, a Mandela sophomore, limits his support.

"I would enjoy the day off, but if it went for more than one day, I would

miss out on my education," he said.According to district spokesperson

Troy Flint, the district is confident it will eventually reach a settlement.

"We don't want a strike, but we're realistic about the [one-day strike] deci-sion," said Flint. "We know that a work stoppage is the main form of leverage that any labor union has, so we wouldn't expect OEA to eliminate that option at this stage."

Some teachers pointed to the irony of the situation.

"It's incredible to me that were one of the most improved schools in California, and were one of the most underpaid in the Oakland School District," said Media Academy teacher Howard Ruffner..

Teachers okay one-day strike "It's incredible to me that we're one of the most improved school distiricts in California, and we're one of the most underpaid in the state."

– Howard Ruffner, Media Academy teacher

Makender Jean-PhilippeOpinion Editor

etables [to] come with the food,” said Vargas.

“I don’t think fries are vegetables; yeah they might taste good, but fries arent't as healthy,” said Guzman.

Despite the lack of vegetables being consumed by students, Peters explained that the cafeteria serves healthier food than restaurants.

“All the toppings are lower in fat, we cut out many sweets and trans-fats, and the crust on the pizza is whole wheat,” said Peters.

Another issue that Peters pointed out was students not making the right choices during lunch.

“We provide several foods on the menu, some which are fresh fruit and vegetables, but not all students take

outside the school have been increasing, causing students to want more at school.

“Students get used to some of the larger portions that they eat in places like McDonald’s, causing them to want more at school. Our portions are more, but we can’t offer less,” said Peters. “We must please our customer.”

Peters said that the cafeteria staff' never intended to hurt students by giving them extra portions of fries.

Riemer and Peters agree that students must be educated on developing healthier eating habits.

Riemer even started a Youth Wellness Committee program to make a healthier community and help students at Fremont learn to make healthier decisions. [See page 5 for a full story.]

To join the wellness committee, see Riemer at the Tiger Clinic.

CAFETERIA: Students make the choicethem,” said Peters.

Riemer also agrees that because students don’t vary their eating habits outside of school they don’t choose to eat healthier at school.

“The cafeteria offers a wide variety of foods; students just choose the un-healthier choices opposed to the healthier options,” said Riemer.

According to Peters, the Fremont caf-eteria has to serve food that students will eat – if the cafeteria gives too little food that students are willing to eat, students won’t get full, causing families to worry about their child not getting one third of their nutrition at school.

“We give students what is going to fill them up, and some students do make their school lunch their only meal,” said Peters.

Peters pointed out that the portions

from page 1

from page 1

from page 1

GANGS: Violators could face $1,000 fine and jail

CAMERAS: Cost of security program is $3 million

These cameras are watching for people who might do harm to you or your personal belongings.

Fremont Federation of High Schools is one of the campuses getting about 17 cameras will be added. Already, there are 32 working cameras on campus, ac-cording to School Safety Officer Tiffany Couch.

Couch is very happy that more cam-eras are being installed. "It was a big request of mine," she said.

The supervisor of Fremont Federa-tion's school safety officers, Al Rhodes, agreed with Couch. When asked if the

cameras were a good idea, he answered: “Yes, yes, yes!”

Couch said there are six officers on campus and the cameras will be “more eyes" to keep the campus safe.

One concern that Couch has is that the district will be cutting 17 positions.

Although, there will be more cameras installed in public areas, there will not be any cameras placed in bathrooms, class-rooms or offices.

Some think that the cameras won't change anything and that the money spent on the cameras should be used for more important things.

“I don't think it's going to stop any-thing from happening," said Seng So, the site organizer for Youth Together at Fre-

mont. “I don't think they need to put more money on cameras ... we should be put-ting it into classes, like books and [youth] resources and after school programs.”

Bunthea Em, an Architecture Acad-emy senior, is also doubtful the cameras will make a difference.

“People are still going to get robbed,” he said.

“We are going to feel watched every-where we go,” he added.

While many students think that more cameras are an invasion of privacy, many teachers and principals think differently.

“It's not an invasion of privacy,” said Architecture Academy Assistant Principal Emiliano Sanchez. "In school, you do not expect to have privacy.”

laws, including those on curfews and drugs.

If the gang members violate any part of the injunction, they would face a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.

Injunctions are already in place in many other cities, including San Francis-co and Los Angeles. Not everyone thinks

they are effective.Some people have criticized gang in-

junctions for encouraging racial profiling by police officers. By naming 19 spe-cific people who have been involved in criminal activity, the city attorney hopes to avoid these accusations.

Still, some Fremont students who heard of the injunction were skeptical that it would do much good.

“If they focus on one gang, it will work, but how are they going to stop all the other gangs?” asked Media Academy junior Brittany Jackson.

However, Miguel De Luna, an Oak-land police officer assigned to Fremont Federation, thinks differently.

“It will help the gang violence,” he said. “I don’t think it will stop every-thing, but it will slow it down.”

Students from Fremont Federa-tion of High Schools made their way to California's state capitol and ran the government – a mock one, at least.

The students were part of the YMCA's Youth and Government 63rd Model Legislature and Court held in Sacramento from Feb. 1-15.

During the program, more than 2,000 students from around California proposed bills, elected a governor and cabinet and learned about the U.S. government, among other things.

Marisol Rodriguez, Youth and Government adviser, said the program helps youth stand up for what they believe in and develop their voice.

Kimberly Guzman, a partici-pant from Mandela Academy, said that the program showed her real life stituations, as well as helped her strengthen her advocacy skills.

To join this program next year, see Rodriquez in the library.

– Juan Ramos

Principals at Fremont Federation are busy figuring out ways they will trim their budgets after the Oakland Unified School District told them the district must cut 12.4 percent of its spending next year.

"We'll be very squeezed for sup-plies and materials," said Daniel Hurst, principal of College Prepa-ratory & Architecture Academy. "We will have to do fundraising for special events like field trips."

The school district must cut $30 million next year in unrestricted funds because of lower revenue from taxes in the weak economy.

There is a probability of staff leaving some of the schools, includ-ing Mandela and Media, officials said.

Paul Robeson School of the Vi-sual & Performing Arts is the hard-est hit of the four Fremont schools. It learned in December that it would be shut down two years earlier than planned because of budget problems.

– Christian Olivares & Juan Grimaldo

Youth hold mock government

Save Me a Spot deadline nears

Budget crisis hits Fremont

The Save Me a Spot in College scholarship contest is accepting en-tries through midnight on March 15.

Students can win up to $2,500 in scholarships by designing a poster, creating a television ad or writing an essay or poem showing why they should be given a chance to be one in a million college graduates that California will need by 2025.

Students at Media Academy entered the contest last year as a schoolwide project and two students won cash prizes. Ronald Johnson, now a freshman at Chico State Uni-versity, won $1,500 for his poster, while Leo Jerald, now a junior at Media Academy, won $500 for his essay. Honorable Mentions went to Media Academy students Chantha-vara Seng, Sal Sainz and Alejandro Vasquez.

For more information on the scholarship, go to www.collegecam-paign.org.

4 FeaturesFebruary 2010

Green & Gold

Years may have passed but some people seem to have fallen asleep in the time ma-

chine – they’re stuck in the 80s. Security officer Carlton Johnson

sees some similarities between what his classmates wore at Fremont High in the 80s and what students wear today.

”Back then we wore the skinny jeans and shirts with paint,” ex-plained Johnson. “I like the fashion now because you guys were too young to know about our style and now you are imitating us.”

Alex Broughton, a Mandela Academy senior, is an '80s fan. "I just tried it out one day and it fit my style. The '80s go," said Broughton. "I tried the style one day and it fit me, so I stuck with it."

Looking at the 1987 Fremont year-

book, “The Flame,” tells you that quite a few fashions have indeed come back.

Fremont students are wearing large frame eyeglasses, leg warmers and leather jackets in the yearbook.

But there are differences in this comeback. Athletes in the 80s wore short shorts. Jheri curls haven't re-turned. And acrylic sweaters with busy patterns are still in the closet.

“The students [today] represent the streets more, and the ones that don’t represent the streets stand out,” said Media Academy Case Manager Eric DuBois, who graduated from Mt. Dia-blo High School in 1983.

Michael Jackson taught at Fremont in the 1980s and still teaches at Media Academy.

“Back then, men wore belts and didn’t show their underwear and the girls had puffy hair,” said Jackson.

Jackson still wears his famous leather jacket that he wore in the 80s. It's just a lot more faded now.

Leo Jerald & Fuey saechaoStaff Writers

teaCHers aIDs A human mannequin, acquired through Donors Choose, helps Kerry Sullivan teach physiology at College Preparatory & Architecture Academy. Her students also are able to use new microscopes and science posters thanks to the online donation center. Donors Choose has funded more than 9,000 projects worth more than $4 million in Northern California.

JHERI CURLS Whack

BIG FRAMES Back

SHORT SHORTS Whack

SKINNY JEANS Back

Felipe,Homeboy! Too bad

you broke leg. We could've used you.

Spirit Week was a blast! We started up on Monday with Dress-Up Day, but that doesn't apply to you – you live in raggedy Levis! ...Wednesday was International Day. Man, all that food – you would have had a field day!

On Thursday, every-body came in green and gold. There was a rally in the gym – as usual – the seniors won.

You should have seen all those crazy cos-tumes on Friday! It was Halloween and people came as everything from punkers to Pee Wee Herman! It was a trip! ...See ya!

Letter in the 1987 'Flame,'Fremont High's yearbook.

80's: Back or Whack?

Donors choose to help Fremont

Microscopes, science posters and a human mannequin now enhance Kerry Sullivan's physiology classroom at College Preparatory & Architecture Academy – thanks to an organization called Donors Choose.

Donors Choose helps teachers around the country raise money for projects, classroom supplies and even trips. Donors Choose has raised almost $4 million in Northern California for 9,632 projects, according to the organization's Web site.

“I love this program because it has helped me a lot,” said Sullivan “Science materials cost a lot of money and Donors Choose is necessary because it helps schools [get] the materials they need."

Sullivan, who recommends the program to other teachers, had her lat-est project funded on Jan .7. She received dissection materials, including animal hearts and brains.

To get help through Donors Choose, teachers must write a proposal and answer questions about how the materials will help their students.

The proposal, if approved, then gets posted on www.donorschoose.org. People all over the world who want to help public schools can see the proposal and make a tax-deductible donation.

Once enough people donate to the proposal, Donors Choose buys the materials and sends them to the teacher. Teachers then must take photo-graphs of students using the materials and get them to write thank you letters. If the teachers meets deadlines for these requirements, they can earn points that let them make other proposal on Donors Choose.

Sarah Mazzotta, a math and chemistry teacher at Media Academy, earned a class set of small dry-erase boards and markers as well as a set of calculators through Donors Choose.

“This is a great tool for teachers," said Mazzotta. "This also helps the community get more involved with education."

Perhaps the Fremont Federation teacher who has benefited from Do-nors Choose the most is Media Academy journalism teacher Lisa Shafer

Shafer received classroom sets of two books, a couple of cameras, a printer cartridge, press passes and copy paper in the last four years.

But she also has raised money to take students on field trips. Last year, she took Makender Jean-Philippe and Violet Souksavath to Phoenix for a national journalism convention with Donors Choose money.

"Donors Choose program has help me tremendously. It let me explore more about journalism [and] make a lot of friends; I had a lot of fun traveling to a state I've never stepped foot in," said Jean-Philippe.

This year, Shafer raised $20,000 through Donors Choose to produce the Oaktown Teen Times, a newspaper that goes out for 10,000 students six times a year. The school district does not fund the paper, so she needed to find another way to pay for editors, scholarships and trips.

"The OTT might have died without Donors Choose," said Shafer. "Donors Choose has allowed teens all over Oakland to continue to pub-lish their opinions and to write about issues that are important to them."

Jose alvarengaStaff Writer

photos by Jose Alvarenga

5HealtHFebruary 2010Green & Gold

Veggie club offers healthy food

Being a vegetarian may not be the most popular thing right now, but it sure is catching more eyes and taste buds at Fremont with a

brand new Veggie Club. English teacher Candice Valenzuela,

started the Veggie Club, which meets every Friday during lunch in her room, 1204 in Media Academy.

The Veggie Club started with Valen-zuela's students always questioning her about her vegan eating habits. A vegan is a vegetarian that also decided not to consume any food or beverage that con-tains animal products, such as eggs and dairy. After receiving a lot of questions about being vegan,Valenzuela realized her students were really interested in her healthy lifestyle.

In the Veggie Club, Fremont students can learn all about living a healthy life.

The veggie interest is not just at Fre-mont High. According to a recent Harris poll, three percent of American teens are vegetarians, up from one percent in 1997.

Veggie Club meetings are a time where vegetarians, wannabes and sup-porters can come together and get edu-cated on food, health and commitment. The meetings usually include a check-in with members, food tastings and Valenzu-ela answering members' questions about ways to eat better.

"We bring out new facts on health, fitness and diet; it's all about health and knowledge," said Valenzuela.

More than just club members are happy about the Veggie Club; Fremont

Fremont starts campaignfor healthy food choices

Students try hummus, pita bread at meetings, learn more about vegetarian diet and lifestyle

Brooklyn Payton

photo by Violet Souksavath

Paulina Rodriguez

vegetarian Jack Mejia explained her feel-ings about the new club.

"I think that it is great to have a Veg-gie Club at school to offer support," said Mejia, a sophomore.

Members get the opportunity to learn things that they probably never would anywhere else. At a recent meeting stu-dents learned to substitute all white foods with brown. For example, they were encouraged to choose wheat bread over white and brown rice over white rice. The majority of Veggie Club members were surprised to hear that white foods were bad for the body because of the bleached flour.

"I think it's bad because it's bleached. Bleached foods aren't good," said Man-ouchka Pierre, a senior at Media Acad-emy.

Veggie Club members also get the opportunity to see and taste differ-ent foods that cater to vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. The food samplings give vegetarians different ideas of food options to expand their daily menu and non-vegetarians a chance to taste food that they might enjoy if they turned to a no-meat diet.

Hummus, pita bread and blue corn chips are just some of the things the Veg-gie Club has tried.

Food samples in meetings are not the only way that the Veggie Club is educat-ing members on ways to eat. Valenzuela also plans to take the group out to dif-ferent vegetarian restaurants in the area. This way members can know how to eat vegetarian outside of the home and out-side of the Veggie Club meetings.

Health and exercise is also an issue that the Veggie Club addresses. The club members and adviser plan to take walks around Lake Merritt, to develop better

physical health.Valenzuela and other Veggie Club

members welcome those who are vegetarian, those who want to become vegetarian and those who just want to support the cause.

The Veggie Club has way more to of-fer than a scoop of hummus.

"I want members to think about health as the ticket to a good life and to think about health in new ways. Health is wealth," said Valenzuela.

For more information on becoming a vegetarian, attend a Veggie Club meeting or visit vrg.org/family/kidsindex.htm.

Media Academy

Carrots – not candy. Salad – not hot chips. Water – not soda.

These are the types of healthy choic-es three Fremont Federation students hope their classmates will start making.

The three students – Violet Souksa-vath of Media Academy, and Lilli Davis and Elona Everett of Mandela Academy – are part of a new campaign called Health Wellness, led by the Policy Leadership Program of School Health.

The three students, along with Tiger Clinic Health Educator Katie Riemer, joined groups from about seven high schools at a retreat at Oakland’s Pres-ervation Park on Jan. 9 to share their ideas about what should be done to get students to make better food choices and to have healthier communities.

Riemer said she wanted to have a healthier community but she needs stu-dents' opinions on how to create it.

"Students have the voice, not only adults," said Everett, who really wants to include student opinions on having a healthy community.

Architecture Academy senior Kenia Venegas said that she hadn’t heard about the campaign but thinks that it is a great idea to help students make good choices when it comes to food.

Vanegas, who has family members who are overweight, is concerned about how students are making bad choices by eating junk food every day.

“People should make [healthier] deci-sions on what they should eat to improve their health,” said Vanegas.

This program is “under construction” and the three youths are getting their ideas together to come up with a success-ful and fun program, said Riemer.

The next steps for the group of young health activists are to recruit students from all the schools at Fremont Federa-tion to be a part of the committee.

Staff writer

Three students and a Tiger Clinic educator form committee to make changes on campus

"We bring out new facts on health, fitness and diet; it's all about health and knowledge."

– Candice Valenzuela Veggie Club adviser

CHOOSING WISELy Veggie Club members Manouchka Pierre and Tazjanaee Brown find some of the healthiest food around at Mi Pueblo grocery store.

Number of calories in a venti Caramel Brulee Frappuccino Blended Creme at Starbucks. source: starbucks.com

560

6 OpiniOns February 2010Green & Gold

"Martin Luther King because he inspired a lot of people."

"Barack Obama because he made it all the way."

"Rosa parks because she made people stop sitting in the back of the bus."

Robert CollinsFremont Custodian

ShOUT OUTIt's Black History Month. Which African American do you most admire and why?

green & goldthe

The Green & Gold is a vehicle of student freedom of expression and a public forum for the Fremont Federation of High schools community.

it is produced monthly dur-ing the academic year by the Media Academy newspaper class.

We welcome feedback about our content and would also like to hear ideas you have for future coverage. signed letters on topics of concern to the Fremont com-munity are welcomed.

staff reserve the right to edit for language and space. Letters or guest opinion col-umns may be dropped off to B-3 or to Lisa shafer's mailbox in the Media Academy office.

signed articles or opinion pieces reflect the viewpoints of the author only. Unsigned edi-torials represent the consensus opinion of the newspaper staff.

STAFF

EDiTOR-in-CHiEFViolet souksavath

nEWs EDiTORsLester FinneyJuan Ramos

HEALTH EDiTORCarolyn saephan

spORTs EDiTORFuey saechao

pHOTO EDiTORJose Alvarenga

WRiTERsJuan GrimaldoMakender Jean-philippeLeo JeraldMichelle JiangJack MejiaKim MejiaChristian Olivarespaulina RodriguezBrandon sneed

COpY EDiTORsKim MejiaJack Mejia

EDiTORiAL AssisTAnTMonserrat Chavez

ADVisERLisa shafer

My mom and dad be-cause they have taught me well, and also made me a better person."

Tiffany CouchSchool Safety Officer

Jennifer LopezSophomore, Media

Darlene Miller Phyiscal Education Teacher

"Martin Luther King because he was trying to (set) African Americans free."

Anthony Hernandez Senior, Architecture

Quake in my country wakes me up

I was completely and utterly devastated the day I found out an earthquake had rocked Haiti.

The irony of the situa-tion was that I was in a li-brary begrudgingly looking for books about Haiti, and I honestly wasn’t interested in the information that I was seeking.

It’s not like I was care-less, but I was being am-bivalent about the country where I was born. I don’t believe I was the only one though, because Haiti is near the United States, and many of my peers never knew where it was located.

It was around 6 p.m. when I arrived home from the library to see the screen of my living room television filled with im-ages of broken homes, debris in the air and on children’s faces, and the bodies of the Haitian people laying on the poorly constructed sidewalks. I couldn’t believe that Haiti went through this kind of devastation.

As soon as I found out about it, everything that I was researching took on a new meaning. Haiti wasn’t only a country I was researching; now I realized that it was a part of me.

Looking at the images on the screen, I realized that if I had never come to

the U.S., those kids on that screen could have been me. I remember that night I wanted to cry, because my mother was crying, and I thought real hard about the situation and the things that the Haitian people have to deal with.

My mother was so wor-ried about her family and the country that she cried for many nights. When I asked her what she was crying about, she told me that there was no commu-nication at the time be-tween Haiti and the U.S.

I remember telling my mother that everything was going to be alright, even though there wasn’t any guarantee, because of the lack of communication with the country.

There were a million of thoughts and question going through my head. Was my family alright? Were the buildings and homes my family owns in that country okay? Will my family be able to survive the devastation?

Many of my Haitian friends across the nation were shocked about the situation as well.

Friends that I have on Facebook started groups to help people to cope the losses of family in Haiti, and they also tried to help people find their missing family members through photos and names.

When I found out that most of the people in my family who lived in Haiti were alright, I was surprised to find out that my sorrow for what had happened to the country did not die. Maybe it was because of the deepened knowledge that I acquired

about Haiti’s past, or maybe it was because I thought about my individu-al past, and the fact that I was born there. Still to this day, my sorrow does not wither.

Sometimes I sit and I question why, why did my country deserve to go through an earthquake? In my mind, a devastating earthquake was the last thing I thought could have happened.

What I have truly been happy about is seeing the help that the people of this nation have been giving to Haiti. For example the American people donating to the International Red Cross specifically for Haiti. Doctors Without Borders received so much money for Haiti, the group asked for peopel to start mak-ing donations to the other countries the medical teams serve.

Many people have been sending money through text messages and the Internet, and I believe it is a big help.

Also, the students who attend school and do fund-raisers for Haiti have also helped a lot. A good example of this is when students at Fremont Federation sold pastries and different treats in the

courtyard to raise money for Haiti.

What I advise people to do is to look out for fakers – those who try to make money from this horrible event. Although we would like to think that every fundraiser for Haiti is honest and truthful, we need to look out for people who are just “in it for the money."

Everyone notices that the Caribbean country is poor, and that it would be hard to restore and advance Haiti without the help of its neighbors. People need to continue to try to donate money to Haiti for the advancement of the country.

As soon as I found out about [the earthquake in Haiti], everything that I was researching took on a new meaning. Haiti wasn’t only a country I was researching; now I realized that it was a part of me.

WHERE TO DONATE:

The American Red Cross' primary focus dur-ing the initial response of an emergency is food, shelter and meeting other basic needs. To donate: Go to RedCross.org, hit "donate now" button at top and then choose Inter-national Response Fund. You also can text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the International Response Fund. The money will go directly to relief efforts in Haiti. Or call 1-800-Red-Cross. – info from cnn.com

Makender Jean-philippe

7February 2010

Green & Gold

Last summer, I flew to Austin, Texas, on a debate scholarship through the Bay Area Urban Debate League. It was the first time I had been on an airplane,

and, quite frankly, I was afraid at first, but I eventually got over it.

I arrived on the University of Texas campus for debate camp. After the dorm attendant gave me my room keys, I walked through the halls and noticed every individ-ual in the debate camp had in their posses-sion a laptop. Everyone except me and other debaters from our league.

It wasn't the last time I would feel under-privileged. Ironically, the whole camp was studying for the national debate topic of the year – poverty.

In one of my debate courses, the teacher asked why I did not bring a laptop. I lied, “I left it at home” just to save myself from the embarrassment.

As the class continued, the teacher taught as if we were required to have a laptop by passing around a flashdrive to give us debate evidence. Again, I was at a disadvantage

During our research, I had to study epis-temology, which is the study of knowing. Many debaters knew what epistemology and many other political topics meant. I did not; however, I wasn't completely at a loss.

I did research on my own time about our governmental structure. During study time, I was sent to the lab where I researched and printed some evidence while other campers already had the necessary tools right in the classroom. I might have not have the same resources as the wealthier participants, but I didn't let that stop me.

I came back to Oakland and debated the topic of poverty with students more like me in my own debate league. It was a more even playing field.

But just this month, I again experienced debating against students with more resourc-es at a national tournament at the Univer-sity of California, Berkeley. People from all over the United States came to debate poverty.

In the debate rounds, I saw a guy with a portable printer that folds up. I did not even know they existed. Many students read evidence from their laptops and even researched political events happening at the moment to help them gain an edge over me and my partner.

Again, we debated about poverty and at one point I got angry, almost screaming “You don’t know anything about poverty, you're wealthy!”

I asked my opponents whether they were wealthy before the debate started hoping to gain an advantage. It did not work.

The technological tools they had – and their stronger educational background – were too much for me and my partner. We lost many rounds.

Nevertheless, debating on poverty, es-pecially with students from much wealthier communities, has taught me a lot. It has taught me never to give up even when it seems pointless to carry on; it's made me strive harder in order to succeed, not only in debate but in life in general.

More cameras on campus may mean privacy issues, fewer security officers

Brandon Sneed

Four Corners

Dealing with the kids [and] seeing kids graduate to be productive in society. Al Rhodes, head supervisor of security

Meeting nice, respectable kids

Claudette Ziegler, security officer

Getting along with kids and teachers. Also having a good day, no students getting out of hand.

Gregory Pickens, security officer

Getting kids to go to class. Also watching kids getting their diploma.

Carlton Johnson, security officer

We asked four of Fremont's security officers what is the best part of their job Here's what they had to say:

opinionS

I believe that for a brief moment, it may help with the school’s budget, but in the long run, it’ll only hurt our school system. I mean, what can cam-eras do except record what happens?

I understand that could be helpful to have evidence of what goes around school campus but what about the safety of others?

With SSOs patrolling the halls, they are physically there to make sure the halls are safe and students are in their classes.

Yes, there would still be lingering students, but it wouldn't be as bad as when there aren't any SSOs.

I believe that if there are fewer secu-

rity officers, students are more likely to rebel or act up since there are fewer authority figures around to tell them what they can and cannot do.

Cameras do catch people on tape and not all security officers are getting cut, but will there be enough of them on campus?

Sure there are teachers, principals and other adult authority on campus, but their job is not to patrol the halls of their school; they are there to teach and administer student education.

There will possibly be more chaos after they finalize who they’re going to be firing.

Although more chaos means more stories for the newspaper, it would also mean the campus would most likely be

By Juan Grimaldo

I don’t believe having cameras at school is an invasion of privacy – which is what some people say when they hear that the school has installed 17 new

surveillance cameras that will be moni-tored by police and security officials on and off campus. The cameras are part of a $3 million security upgrade in which 750 cameras will be placed at 25 middle and high schools in the district.

Emiliano Sanchez, vice principal of Architecture Academy, made a good point when he said, "There is no invasion of privacy. You don't expect privacy at school."

School is not our home, and, there-fore, there’s no invasion of privacy.

I’d also disagree if cameras were put in the bathrooms and dress-ing rooms, but that’s not where the cameras are being put. It would be a whole different story if that’s where they would be placed.

I mean, is it re-ally invading your privacy if you have nothing to hide? If that's the case, then there shouldn’t be any problem.

The school already has our schedules, our home addresses and our phone numbers; they already know that about you, what else is there to know? I don’t fully understand why people believe it’s an invasion of privacy.

On the other hand, I feel it's a shame to hear that these new cameras may be helping the district justify cut-ting school safety officers.

Does the district really believe cut-ting a large group of SSOs will help the district’s budget deficit? I understand the district has to make tough deci-sions, but I don’t think it would help improve our schools.

And even if it does help the budget deficit, what are the consequences to this action going to be?

more dangerous. I know there are some students who

don’t get in trouble and mind their own business, but all students are not like that.

Students who are misbehaving dur-ing school hours may interrupt classes.

I’m not saying all students would do such a thing, but the majority of those students who roam around campus ei-ther don’t have a class or don’t want to go to class. Some of them are produc-tive while out of class while others are not.

I can’t blame them for being restless or tired of class since we go to class five days a week from early morning to late afternoon. I feel the same way almost every day; I definite-ly caught the “ITIS,” meaning seniori-tis.

I'm pretty sure a lot of seniors can relate to me. And to those underclass-men who believe they caught the "ITIS," you guys need to prioritize sooner than later before you'll regret it.

The reason why I say that is because you have so many deadlines in your se-nior year, including your senior project and college applications, that you don't want to take several classes to make sure you're going to graduate on top of all that.

For my own personal experience, I didn't slack freshman or sophomore year, but I began to slack junior year and now I'm making up for it by taking Cyber High to make sure I get enough credits and the grades I want so I can get accepted into all the colleges of my choices.

Over the years, I’ve had my share of different environments from being in a predominantly Caucasian and Latin to a diverse, yet predominantly African-American area. Either way, they both have the same system with having school security officers and cameras on campus.

The school district should have cut other programs or funds in order to fix the budget, not the school safety of-ficers. We need them.

Violet Souksavath

Students are more likely to rebel or act up since there are fewer authority figures around to tell them what they can and cannot do.

Some students and parents may believe that being recorded during school hours is an invasion of privacy. There have been cameras installed on our high school campus without some of us knowing.

Debating topicrich with lessons

8SportSFebruary 2010Green & Gold

What motivates you to play baseball?What motivates me is that my brothers played baseball. I play because it's my choice and I'm good at it.

What motivates you to be one of the top baseball players at Fremont High School?After being on the baseball team for two years, it moti-vates me to not see my team lose.

How often do you practice?I practice every day after school, weekends if possible.

How do you think playing baseball benefits you?It looks good on college ap-plications and motivates me to keep my grades up.

What position do you play?I play catcher in the baseball team.

What's the most interesting thing you've seen or done on the field?The weirdest thing I've seen is collisions,

Why choose baseball over all other sports?Because I enjoy baseball, It's my favorite sport.

Have you gotten angry on the field?I almost fought somebody because they were talking smack.

Sadly, Oakland won't host FIFA World Cup in '18 or '22

tIGErS MAKE rUN For oAL

The Fremont boys soc-cer team will have to wait until 2011 to win its 25th Oakland Athletic League Championship.

The boys came in second this year to Skyline High as the Tigers ranked two points below the Titans in league play. The OAL champion is decided in a combination of wins and goals.

Fremont Federation has won more OAL championships than any other league team with 24 titles out of the last 30 years, including last year.

The Tigers soccer team finished 7-2-1 in the league. It won two games each against Castlemont and Oakland Tech and split the two games against Oakland High. The team tied Skyline once and lost the other game to the eventual OAL champs.

McClymonds High School does

photo by Fuey Saechao

SEttING GoALS Tiger Julio Cervantes tries to center the ball to Mario Jimenez during a game against Oakland High. The Tigers won the game.

Christian olivares & Juan Grimaldo

Soccer fans at Fremont were disappointed to learn that Oakland was one of

nine cities eliminated in January from a competition to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup – the most popular sporting event in the world.

To some, the elimination means a lost opportunity to give their hometown a better image.

"When [people] think of Oak-land, they think about 'ghetto,'"

said Genesis Rodriguez, a junior at Architecture Academy. "They don't see the good side of Oak-land."

Rodriguez feels that Oakland hosting the World Cup would have changed that impression and would have given residents a reason to be proud of their city, among other positive things.

"It would have bumped/in-creased the [tourism] in Oak-land," he added, and it would have encouraged people to "come visit more often to see something they would have never seen before."

"At the same time, it would have been a major hit if it would have taken place in Oakland," he said. "Just the fact that they would have probably made a new stadium here."

He said hosting the World Cup might have motivated some young people in Oakland to "become something in life."

Despite the disappointment of their city losing its bid to host the World Cup, soccer fans in Oakland still are excited about seeing the 2010 games in South Africa on their televisions starting on June 11.

Jorge SanchezBaseball

What made you want to start playing soccer?My cousin encouraged me to play.

What motivates you to play soccer?My dedication motivates me.

Do you have anyone you look up to? If so who and why?I really look up to an old team-mate, Roxy, because she was always trying her best to play.

How do you prepare for a game?I practice every day.

What is the most intrest-ing thing you've done or seen while on the field?I have seen my teammates try their hardest, never giving up.

Who is your favorite soc-cer player?I don't have a favorite soccer player.

Do you ever get angry on the field? If so, What do you do to calm down?Yes, I just think of conse-quences and it relives my anger.

How do you stay focused on school and sports?I turn in all my work and on game days I miss a period, I go to that class and make up the work.

How do you think playing soccer benefits you?It will allow me become more athletic and keep me in shape.

Deziana torresGirls Soccer

About 1.1 billion people around the globe watch the World Cup every day for the 30-day competition, according to wikianswers.com. In total, about 26.20 billion people watch some part of the World Cup, according to fifa.com.

The other eight cities elimi-nated were Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Jacksonville, Orlando, St. Louis and San Francisco.

The committee looked at po-tential soccer stadiums including Stanford Stadium and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Another reason for Oakland's elimination may have been poor performance on an online com-petition in which people voted for certain cities to host the soccer matches. The top cities demonstrated more local support for the games.

The Bay Area is out, but two California cities are still in the hunt for hosting the World Cup – Los Angeles and San Diego.

Julio Cervantes, a junior at Architecture Academy, says he may end up going to the World Cup games in LA if the United States gets to host.

not have a soccer team so the Tigers won two more games by forfeit.

Even with some nice wins through the season, the Tiger players were less than satisfied with how the sea-son ended.

“I’m not happy with the season because we didn’t win the champion-ship,” said defensive midfield Juan Grimaldo, a junior at Media Academy.

Others on the team voiced more optimism about the season.

"It was a good season counting that we were the youngest team in the league," said Gerardo Mujica, who served as captain, last man sweeper and right defense. "We managed to win five games."

Although Grimaldo wasn’t excited about the loss in the OAL, he still found things about the season that were positive.

“It was a great experience playing high school soccer,” he said. “There were good times and bad times of all the games, but at the end if you don’t win the championship, it feels like you didn’t accomplish anything."

Chances are good for the Tigers to recapture the OAL championship next year because the whole team should be coming back except for the two seniors, Gerardo Mujica and Mario Jimenez.

"It's going to be cool," said Andy Cabrera, a junior who plays defense. "Everybody knows how each other plays." This Q&A was compiled

by Sergio Alvarado, Joaquin Hernandez and Cesar Sanchez.

This Q&A was compiled by former Green & Gold staffer Monisha Campbell.

Tigers end 7-2-1

Soccer team unable to clinch 25th OAL title

Fuey SaechaoSports Editor

Sports Editor