In this issue

Est. 1935azetteThe

December 16, 2015 Issue 9 Volume 81

Franklin

Himan GeoGrapHy

THe Tribe

Entertainment

mockinjay

black STudenT union

THankSGivinG break

ScHeduleS

jeSSica joneS

The Tribe Rallies for Great YearBy Haelle Litvak; Contributing Writer

The Tribe is trying to increase its involvement in major sporting events at Franklin High School. The fall sports season re-cently ended when Frank-lin’s two-time state cham-

pion football team lost their playoff game against Dundalk. Football games were one of the Tribe’s main focuses. As the winter sports season ap-proaches, the Tribe needs

Continued on Page 2in Franklin News

Franklin Enjoys Thanksgiving Break

Although Thanks-giving was a short break, it was well needed for many Franklin students and teachers. There are many Thanksgiving traditions that most of us share, such as eating turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes. Howev-er, you would be surprised at the different ways people do to cel-ebrate Thanks-giving. In the Puerto Rican cul-ture, dinner time is very early for some families. Din-ner is usually around 3 o’clock. Also, instead of eating mashed potatoes, Puerto Ricans eat rice and beans. Junior, Nidhi Rami, who is Hindi, does not eat turkey on Thanksgiving. She and her family are vegetarian, so they do not have any meat on Thanks-giving. Rami said, “we all went to my aunt’s house and we each brought a dif-ferent dish and we shared all together.” After the eating was over the fam-

ily then began to watch football, movies, and play cards for the re-m a i n -

der of the evening. On the flip side, ju-nior Fadhili Maina, had a variety of different meats at the table for Thanksgiv-ing, including some food he even made himself. He explains the menu as, “Thanksgiving food with a hint of Kenya.” His menu included goat meat,

turkey, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and a

Kenyan food called m a n d a z i

g e t h e i . H e

de-c i d e d

to start Black Friday

shopping early as well. After dinner, Fadhili and a friend went out to Hunt Valley and started shop-ping. He was not the only one who started shopping. Junior, Iulia Opran, also started her Black Friday shopping on Thursday. After helping her mother

prepare the meal and eat-ing with her parents and brother, she went out to shop a little bit. She then felt that it was officially Christmas season and be-gan to watch Christmas movies. Junior Patrick Regimbal traveled out of state to spend his Thanksgiving. He trav-eled to Quakertown, Pennsylvania to his aunt’s new house. “There were a lot of people there, and a lot of food,” he says about

his Thanksgiving. He was also able to reunite

with his sister and former Franklin student, Maddie Regimbal. He and his sis-ter are very close and he enjoys being able to see her when she visits from college. T r i g o n o m e t r y teacher Ms. Sullivan had a very special Thanksgiv-ing. She enjoyed a lovely dinner with her family, and then found out the gender of her first grand-baby! Her son is having a son, who will be named Nathan. Great for Ms.

By Mica Gunby; Contributing Writer

SaTap niGHT

bbyo

civil War

pobW

Sports

coacH HuGHeS

kobe bryanT

to find ways to stay active in all the athletic events.Basketball, indoor track, and wrestling are just some of the winter sports that Franklin participates in. While still popular, the-

ses sports do not attract the large fan base that football attracts. The Tribe wants

Fall SporTS banqueT

Black Student Union Welcomes All

FRANKLIN NEWS

A new student union joins Franklin High School, The Black Stu-dent Union. This union brings not just black people-but all races. This union would like to voice their opinions and con-cerns and have the ability to make a positive change in Franklin high school and even in our society. This is a group that is creating awareness and unity for every cul-ture in the student body. Meetings are held every Tuesday and every other Thursday at 2:30-3:30 in Mrs. Lucky’s room. Chauncey Roman, a very important figure in the Black Student Union, says, “Our primary focus is on minorities group in Franklin High School, but

we accept all. We are not here just to build together but change each other’s lives as we learn from one another.” Clubs typically aim to help others but this union would not only like aid others but them-selves as well. Their ideas are achievable and Black Student Union is grant-ing these ideas. Ashley Queen, another member of Black Student Union, says, “I’m really glad a club like Black Student Union started to come up in our school. A lot of times minority students feel underrepresented in certain organizations/clubs and I think Black Student Union will be a club that will bridge the gap between majority and

minority students.” There are many students who are very un-aware of this union and are surprised to hear that Franklin has finally made an effort to appreciate all. Kristine Rodrigo, unfamil-iar with the Black Student Union, says, “I wish all minorities in our school could join. This is the first I’ve heard of this. I would love to join Black Student Union because this is a

this to change. It would be great for large amounts of students to attend win-ter sporting events, just as they attended fall sport-ing events. The Tribe has painted posters, hung ban-ners, and made announce-ments to promote winter sports. It is important that FHS students have Franklin pride. This task takes both creativity and time. The energy cannot die down

The Tribe Rallies for Great Year

ByYasmeen Ali; Contributing Writer

By Megan Lipo; Contributing Writer

when the season transi-tions. The Tribe wants to keep the energy level

high by putting on half-time shows during basket-ball games. During these

way to appreciate and even understand other people. The minority.” Roman explains their future goals that they wish to fulfill, “we want to enhance the group for fur-ther first, create better at-tendance for every class, and have everyone build an error free resume, cre-ate Black History events, and have a night of honor for parents.” It is very lovely to see that students

are willing to spend their time after school to help their peers enhance. Nicole Marfo, also a very active member in Black Student Union and vice president of Student Government Association, would like Black Student Union to join with Student Government on the event that is being planned, Cultural Day. “With both clubs that are extremely diverse, this Cultural Day should be a wild success,” Marfo says. If you would like to be a part of a group that only wants the best for you and your peers, you should really consider joining this club, minority or not, “we accept all”, just like Ro-man stated.

Continued fromFront Page

Tribe members pose for picture after a meeting of the Tribe.

half time shows, audience members will be pulled on to the court and have free-throw shootouts and re-lay races. For sports other than basketball, the Tribe wants to develop a huge student section where ev-eryone where red and blue to express their pride. Teachers are essential to the goals of the Tribe be-ing met. If they promote the games and sporting events to their students during classes, students will start talking. If teach-ers get the conversation started, students continue

it, and soon, informa-tion about winter sporting events will spread around the school. Teacher sup-port is extremely valuable to the Tribe. The Tribe wants there to be the same amount of school spirit during every sports season. Hopefully students that are not mem-bers of the Tribe will be-gin to take part in sporting events, which will spread school spirit.

Students Work Hard to Succeed on SATBy Megan Lipo; Contributing Writer

There are many opportunities that Frank-lin High school offers to study for the SAT. One of the major methods used in order to study for the SAT is the class that students take during the school day. It is a forty minute session daily that is one semester which focuses

on math skills and the other semester focuses on reading skills. The teacher for the math skills at FHS is Mrs. Roth, who is also the teacher that has been at FHS for the longest. She is extremely knowledgeable on not only the content of the problems and topics on the SAT but also on aspects

of the test like strategies in order to be successful. She attends meetings with updates on the test and gives students techniques they can use to assist them with effective test taking. The reading teacher, Mr. Brown, is also a very thor-ough teacher and makes sure students get as much

knowledge as they can to help them be successful. Reading also goes along with the writing portion and the class provides in-formation on how to write essays that will score high on the SAT. Another opportu-nity offered at FHS is an after school session that

students attend to help them prepare. This ses-sion also contains a book, for students to work out of and practice. Junior, Lilly Warfield comments on the after school SAT practice

Continued on Page 3

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FRANKLIN NEWS

By Nina Durant; Contributing WriterStudents Register For Next Year’s Classes

As you should al-ready know, last week on Wednesday November 25th registration forms for next year’s schedules for the students were dis-tributed. Most students and teachers believe that these registrations were given out way too early because students have not even figured out if they are happy with their class-es so far this year. Both teachers and students have been complaining that the students should have more time to think about what classes they want to take next year. Teach-ers expect the students to challenge themselves, es-pecially if they are doing great in the classes that they are taking now, by taking AP classes or Hon-ors classes. Then again, the teachers would also

like the students to go at a pace that they are comfort-able with, so they believe students should pick class-es that they are comfort-able with. But there’s the problem, students don’t exactly know what they are comfortable taking for next year. Dr. Batarseh says, “I think it’s completely unfair to the students. I mean, it’s outrageous. You guys are just now finally getting comfortable in the classes you have now. Even then, you guys don’t even know what’s ahead of you towards the end of this year. Some students are struggling with the classes that they have right now and they expect you guys to know what you want to take next year? It’s ri-diculous. I think that they should definitely wait more

towards the end of the year so all students have time to think and see what sub-jects they have high poten-tial in and which ones that they should maybe avoid.”Multiple students have complained for the same reasons. Numerous stu-dents have already seen their guidance counselor about their schedules be-cause they’re not sure if they can handle it. Jake Carswell says, “I was pretty sure I could handle it but I’m not so sure anymore as I continue throughout this school year. There are so many different choices of courses that I could take that it’s almost completely overwhelming. Between some of my classes being double periods and having several AP classes, I might have to switch some of my

classes out. I feel as if we should’ve had more time to think about what class-es we wanted to take next year especially for current sophomores, considering that their junior year is their most important year and that is what colleges look at, so they definitely want to take classes that they know they will be able to pass.” Zoe Yarsky says, “I literally wanted to scream

when I saw my schedule. I know I could do it but it’s just going to be entirely too stressful, considering that I have all AP classes. I also agree that registration forms are coming out way too early because I’m not even sure if I want to take most of these AP classes, but I have a limited time to make my choice.”

An example of a registration form students are given and turn into their guidance counselors

sessions; “The after school SAT prep lessons are very useful. We receive many worksheets and helpful hints. Mr. Brown is so helpful throughout the les-son and makes us feel well prepared for the SAT.” Lilly is a very success-ful student academically

and with extracurricular activities and is working very hard to get ready for the SAT. The after school sessions has been a help to many other students at Franklin. With the new SAT being enacted early in 2016, the teachers of these courses are trying to learn the changes and make the transition from the old

to new SAT as smooth as possible. There are defi-nitely evident changes from the old to the new test but most studying methods remain the same. For the new SAT, the writing por-tion is optional, which is a very large change because on the old test, the writ-ing portion was required. Students still look to focus and study on having suc-

cess on the writing portion because it appeals to col-leges when students excel in writing. Also, the new SAT has a different grad-ing system then the past one. The SAT is ex-tremely important to not only study for, but do try your best on. Many col-leges have ranges of SAT scores that they expect for

admittance into the col-lege. The SAT also cov-ers many different areas of knowledge, so it is a lengthy study process to ensure a student is pre-pared for the test. That is why Franklin does such a great job at preparing their students for the SAT and also for the transition from the old SAT to the new SAT.

Continued fromPage 2

Students Work Hard to Succeed on SATBy Megan Lipo; Contributing Writer

It is finally De-cember which means it will start snowing soon. Last year in December, there were large amounts of snow that left the roads slippery and closed schools. The first official day of winter is not until Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015 which is known as the winter solstice Most people love December because it is the start of the holiday season, and it

Students Predict Snow this Seasonsnows. Franklin High School students are anx-ious for it to begin snow-ing. Junior Zoulfa Dam-bo was asked when she thought it would begin snowing. “I really hope it does soon! I love the win-ter season and I love the snow. Plus, we get out of school.” It is clear that students love getting out of school because of the

snow. Junior Camilla Ali-yev said, “ I want it to snow. I loved getting out of school early or having no school because of the snow. Hopefully it will be snowing around Christ-mas!” Junior Kailey Re-ese said, “I love Christ-mas, of course! But I also love when it snows out-side as well.” Students love both Christmas and the snow.

A lot of people en-joy the winter season be-cause of the clothes they get to wear. This consists of sweatpants, sweat-shirts, leggings, boots, and scarves. Junior Kirsten Carter said, “Well, I really love the fashion. I love wearing boots, long coats, and scarves. I love staying warm, especially on the really cold days.” Overall, it is clear

that many students at FHS want it to snow. Wheth-er they love the snowy weather, the fashion, or the holiday season, everyone seems to love the winter season. It really is a great time for everyone to get together and have a good time.

By Mahima Chauhan; Contributing Writer

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FRANKLIN NEWS

Franklin high’s an-nual AP night took place at 6:30, on November 18th. The event lasted about an hour and a half, and of-fered students attending Franklin high school and their parents to learn more about the AP, or “Ad-vanced Placement,” class-es and programs offered at Franklin high. This year’s AP night began in the school library, where the princi-pal gave an informational speech regarding student’s class choices, the impor-tance of taking AP courses in high school, and what AP classes are in the first

AP Information Night Guides Aspiring Studentsplace. He explained that AP courses are college level courses, and that many colleges will count a passing grade of a 3, 4, or 5 on an AP exam as ap-plicable in the form of ex-tra credits toward that stu-dent’s minor in college, or as an opportunity for the student to advance more quickly to higher level classes, once in college. A recent college graduate and alumni of Franklin then spoke about the im-portance of taking courses such as these before enter-ing college himself. He explained that due to tak-ing AP courses while at-

tending Franklin, he was able to graduate from col-lege a full semester early. This decision allowed him to catch a job open-ing that kick-started his career, which would not have been available to him had he taken any longer to earn his degree. In ad-dition, they explained that while the AP test does cost money and is difficult, it is a much less expensive way to get used to college-style learning than by trial and error once you have already entered college. After this, students and parents were able to choose two of the AP

classes taught at Franklin, and attend short seminars from the teachers of each one. These seminars of-fered basic information about the class, an over-view of what the student would be learning, and in some situations, even feedback about the class from students who had taken it already. Students and parents also learned about what future careers and opportunities the class would help students that took it to achieve. Finally, the teachers and former students took questions from those who attended their seminars.

Overall, this year’s AP night was a smashing success, with a high turn-out rate, and exception-ally useful information provided, especially given that students would soon be picking their schedules for the 2016-2017 school year. The only downside of attending was that due to the limited time span of the event, students did not have the opportunity to talk to all of the teachers about every single class. The night was still educa-tional and highly benefi-cial though, nonetheless.

BBYO is an inter-national youth-led orga-nization that gives Jewish teens social and leadership opportunities. Teens plan and participate in pro-grams and work with oth-ers to accomplish short and long term goals. Franklin High School student and BBYO participant, Emma Rosenfeld shared her feel-ings about the organiza-tions.

Q: Describe BBYO. A: BBYO stands for Bnai Brith Youth Organization. It is a teen led and adult advised organization in which Jewish teens are able to gain Judaic knowl-edge as well as leadership

skills.

Q: How is it broken down?A: In BBYO, there is a “board” of Jewish teens for both the men and the women groups for each region. There is an Inter-national Board, known as the “I Board”. This board nationally represents the organization as a whole. Next is Regional Boards. Each region has a board of individuals which repre-sents and helps things run smoothly. Under the Re-gional boards are Council Boards. Boards are mainly for regions, but our region was split up into three councils. So, rather than having a regional board,

Baltimore has a coun-cil board which helps to regulate the programs and events throughout Bal-timore BBYO. Last are chapter boards, which plan and lead their chap-ters throughout the terms.

Q: What has BBYO taught you?

A: BBYO has taught me many leadership skills that will benefit me in the fu-ture.

Q: How has BBYO im-pacted you as a Jewish person?A: I have been able to meet other Jewish teens across the world and BBYO has

Connections Made through BBYO

By Sylvie Lass; Contributing Writer

By Danielle Stein; Contributing Writer

helped me strengthen my bond with Judaism.

Q: Do you recommend it to other people? If so, why?A: Yes, I definitely recom-mend BBYO to other Jew-ish teens. It is super fun and helps you become a better leader. It also helps you connect with others in the Jewish community.

Q: How do you balance BBYO and school?A: It rarely interacts with my school life because I have learned how to bal-ance my school work along with my extra-cur-ricular activities.

Franklin students and BBYO participants, Cali Platt and Cammie Berman, bond at a chapter program.

Franklin Gazette Staff

Bridget McNamaraRegan FleischerAyinde Roberts

Mahima Chauhan

Emily Dioguardo

Yasmeen AliLuis Belmontes

Sydney GaskinsLyle Drescher

Gyselle Lopez

Haelle LitvakMeera PanikarMaiya RobinsonMary Shelton

Anieyah SmithEmily Rubin Josiah Lindsay

Mackenzie Warfield

Nina DurantMicaela GunbyDevin Johnson

Sylvie Lass Danielle Stein

Megan Lipo

Editors Staff Writers

Dario Toval

Savannah Ward Ashley Young

4

Haelle LitvakMeera PanikarMaiya RobinsonMary Shelton

Anieyah SmithDanielle Stein Dario Toval

Ashley Young

Netflix Features New Marvel Show

The latest Marvel Superhero show Jessica Jones is now streaming on Netflix. Jessica Jones is a hit and is on the now trending feed. The story surrounds a private inves-tigator, Jessica Jones, who is searching to find and kill a man who kidnapped her many years ago. Jessica Jones started just as an average teenage girl until a car accident that killed the rest of her family gave her powers of super hu-

man strength, the ability to jump/fly, and to be able to resist some forms of harm. Throughout the season, her main goal is to find her mind controlling kidnap-per, Killgrave, and stop him from hurting anyone else. The entire season leaves you on the edge of your seat, wanting to know what happens next. In one sitting, you can easily watch over five episodes because it is so

interesting. The lead char-acter, Jessica Jones, is so awesome. The character is portrayed as an emotion-ally detached girl who is not only gorgeous, but can also kick the crap out of anyone who crosses her. She isn’t afraid of anyone or anything and confronts every challenge presented to her. Her best friend, Trish, is a famous radio announcer and throughout the season becomes more and more awesome. In the beginning of the season, Trish needed to be protect-ed, but as the season pro-gressed she began to learn to fight and defend herself and could fight without needing the protection of Jessica. Another really in-

teresting character was Luke Cage, a bar owner. He was one of the only characters that had ac-tual super powers. His power was unbreakable skin - nothing could im-pale his skin. This made fighting easy; knives and bullets just bounce right off of him. Luke was an important ally to Jessica throughout the show and I like how much they were able to understand each other because they both had powers. The villain in the show was Killgrave, played by David Tennant. His mind control abilities allow him to do whatever he wants and people are forced to go along with it. These abilities had once trapped Jessica and forced

her to be with him, but he was clearly in love with her. Throughout the sea-son, I almost began to root for him because it seemed as if he was changing his ways, but everything all came tumbling down when Jessica took matters into her own hands. I al-most wish that instead of Jessica handling things the way she did, that she actu-ally helped him to change his ways and use his pow-ers for good. This show kept me on edge the entire time I was watching. Each epi-sode forces you to process how it fits into the story and what exactly is going on. Once the big picture is seen, however, the story is outstanding.

By Cali Shelton; Contributing Writer

ENTERTAINMENT

5

Mockinjay Ends Series StrongBy Danielle Stein; Contributing Writer

After a long and suspenseful year of wait-ing, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 came to theaters with tickets selling rapidly. Part 1 of the last movie ended with an intense cliffhanger, as (spoiler alert) protagonist Katniss Everdeen’s best friend and lover was try-ing to kill her as he was brainwashed by the en-emy. Ever since last No-vember, people wanted to see how things would play out and how the last movie of the series would be seeing that it was the last book and the movies are based off of the books.In Mocking Jay Part 2, Katniss and others try to

take over the Capitol and kill the leader President Snow, who plans and watches the annual Hun-ger Games between other districts of Panem for his entertainment. She goes through many obstacles to get there. There is no point in the movie that doesn’t have the viewer on the edge of their seat.Although this movie is the perfect combina-tion of romantic, intense, and attention keeping, it leaves many viewers with questions and concepts to think about. The first of which is the dramatic irony of the en-tire series and movie. The viewers obviously know

that the hero and protago-nist is going to live, so whenever there is a part where she is at risk, the viewers know she will at least live. But that isn’t a huge issue because the movie still makes it look like her life is at risk and it makes for a great plotline. Another part of Mocking Jay Part 2 that was inter-esting was an event in the chaos when the Capitol found out Katniss and her team were actually alive and coming through. Snow allowed all of the people come to his mansion for food, clothing, shelter, and protection. As they were bringing the children forward first at the gates

of their destination, mini parachutes were dropped as a distraction, but once contact was made, they turned to bombs. One attribute that made this film so great was the amount of foreshadowing present, especially is the end. When Katniss walked out of Snow’s mansion af-ter an incident happened, it was snowing and there was snow covering the ground. This is a very clever way to foreshadow what happenes later on in the movie. While the film was very well made, one of the big-gest drawbacks is that it is very confusing if you haven’t seen the previ-

ous films or read the book. Also, some of the movie was very choppy, with scenes cutting for no rea-son. In the end, Mockingjay – Part 2 ended the Hunger Games saga in a very sat-isfying way. It is definitely a great movie to watch this year.

If you are famil-iar with the Rocky series, then why not take a look at the new movie, Creed which resembles the Rocky movies in many ways. Actually, the movie includes the boxer Rocky

in it which is why it is typ-ically referred to as a 2015 version of Rocky. The only thing is, the movie isn’t centered around him this time. The movie is about a boy named Adonis instead which would make the

claim about Creed being a newer version of Rocky is kind of misleading. Apollo Creed, another famous boxer/heavyweight champ, is the father of the main charac-ter Adonis and although

he never had the chance to meet him face to face, he still wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps. With the passion of box-ing present throughout his whole life, Adonis decides that he wants to be trained

by the world famous and well known boxer, Rocky Balboa. Balboa however,

Creed Brings Rocky to a New GenerationBy Anieyah Smith; Contributing Writer

Continued on Page 6

Entertainment

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Heroes Divide in New Civil War TrailerBy Ayinde Roberts; Editor

If it wasn’t already obvious already, Marvel Studios is one of the big-gest movie companies in the world. It’s sitting as the highest grossing mov-ie franchise of all time at $9.08 billion worldwide, and it plans to get even bigger. On Wednesday, November 25th, Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Ev-ans went on Jimmy Kim-mel Live and not only revealed the official one-sheet, but also the very first teaser trailer for the upcoming Captain Amer-

ica: Civil War. For the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the recogniz-able and colorful cast of The Avengers and other heroes will be split apart. From the trailer and the official synopsis, it seems that Captain America’s old friend Bucky Barnes, who moviegoers will easi-ly recognize as the Winter Soldier, will play a huge part of the split. The film is based off arguably the most popular comic series in Marvel history, Civil War, but the trailer doesn’t really seem like it follows the story perfectly. What we do get is some really great scenes of action and intensity, with a little hint of emotion. One noteworthy scene in the trailer is at the very beginning, with Steve and Sam Wilson, a.k.a the Falcon, talking to a trapped Bucky in a

vise. It’s very interesting because it is a mild spoiler for those who have not seen Marvel’s Ant-Man, as the scene was at the very end credits of the movie. Also, one of the two most talked about scenes hap-pen at the very end, one right after the other. At the end of the trailer, Captain America says to Tony: “Sorry, Tony. You know I wouldn’t do this if I had another choice. But he’s my friend.” Tony’s re-sponse to him was: “…so was I.” Even for a teaser, this one little line hits the heart in a very sad way. Steve and Tony were not just teammates, but bud-dies. Tony’s choice of words displays that a very deep, almost irreversible line has been drawn be-tween the two heroes. At that moment, Tony Stark lost a friend. However, the biggest highlight of the trailer was at the tail end,

where Captain America and Bucky Barnes double team and beat the mess out of Iron Man, Cap throw-ing his shield off Tony and Bucky catching it, hitting Tony with it and throwing the shield back to Cap. It’s hard to describe the scene – it has to be seen to be-lieve. Captain America: Civil War looks to be one of, if not the biggest movie of 2016, which says a lot given the stacked line-up. In the same year that Bat-man V. Superman: Dawn of Justice and X-Men: Apocalypse come out, there has to be something to make Civil War stand out, and there are a few. For starters, the effects of this movie will have ex-treme ramifications in the rest of the Marvel Cin-ematic Universe, as the Avengers are torn apart and turned against each other. Also, the addition

of Black Panther is a huge leg up. In a cinematic uni-verse almost completely dominated by white actors, it’s great to see that the Prince of Wakanda make an appearance. From the promotional art, it seems he’s on Tony’s side, but actor Chadwick Boseman hasn’t said much about the character. But more importantly, this movie’s biggest trump card is the fact that it was confirmed that Spider-Man will ap-pear in the film, played by Tom Holland. This is the web-slinger’s first outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this is quite the entrance. The Civil War trailer was everything that a Civil War trailer needed to be. It looks to be a big game-changer in the vast Marvel Universe. Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6th, 2016 in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D.

Perks of Being a Wallflower Gains PopularityBy Emily Dioguardo; Contributing Writer

Perks of Being A Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, is an extremely popular novel. First published in 1999, the novel follows the un-popular and quiet Char-lie, who is just beginning his freshman year of high school. The novel con-sists of a number of let-ters that Charlie writes to an anonymous reader known as “Friend”. Char-

lie writes his thoughts, feelings, loves, hates, and even more to “Friend.” He began writing the letters soon after his best friend, Michael, committed sui-cide. Charlie, a wall-flower who constantly sits back and watches every-thing happen in front of him, strives to participate in his own world. Char-lie, however, is mentally

unstable. He has an ex-tremely powerful love for his Aunt Helen, who died when he was a little boy. He has since blamed him-self, because she was buy-ing him a birthday present when she was killed. The novel has be-come increasingly popu-lar and was made into a film in 2012. The novel is extremely well written and filled with an incred-

ible plot line. The story of Charlie allows the reader to better understand men-tal instability and is unex-ceptionally surreal, with its involvement with the subject of suicide. Ch-bosky’s realistic and as-tounding writing make this novel a must-read, and allows the reader to feel a connection with each of the characters. This novel is beau-

tifully upsetting and amaz-ingly uplifting. It also contains many relatable topics, such as the begin-ning a new school and the fears of making new friends. Themes will reso-nate with young reader. The novel draws the read-er in and makes it impos-sible to put it down once opened.

Creed Brings Rocky to a New GenerationBy Anieyah Smith; Contributing Writer

has retired from box-ing but is willing to help Adonis and that’s the how the movie kicks off. The movie ap-peared in theaters on No-vember 27th 2015, and the role of Adonis is played by Michael B. Jordan, who is

a very well known actor from his appearances in numerous movies since a young age. In this movie, Jordan did an amazing job at playing a believ-able boxer with the right amount of infatuation as well as determination to be the best boxer that he can be. Credit can also go to Sylvester Stallone, who

played the part of Rocky Balboa. They both did an amazing job with display-ing genuine emotion even though they were acting. Throughout the movie, they face some of the most troubling situations but Balboa was always ready for whatever came their way whether it was facing a match that was twice the size of Adonis or if he just

needed a friend. Many of those who viewed the movie decided that they didn’t have one bad thing to say about it. Most if not all the feed-back was positive. The film is defiantly one that will touch the hearts of those who watch it.

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Wednesday, No-vember 18, 2015 was Coach Hughes’ last day as a staff member of Franklin High School. He was of-fered a new job at Owings Mills Elementary School as a peer coordinator and he said about the offer, “I just had to accept the job.” Not only does the staff have to say goodbye to him but so do some ath-letes as well. Coach Hughes was not only a member of the Franklin High staff, but was also a coach for Franklin’s Football, In-door Track, and Outdoor

Track & Field teams. He is a coach loved by many at the school and none of his athletes want to see him go. He has grown to become both a mentor and a friend to the students and athletes at Franklin, and will always remain one.Hughes stayed at the school until the end of the football season. Unfortu-nately, he will not be able to coach Indoor Track this season, which is an enor-mous let down for the team. “I’m going to miss him. I don’t want him to leave,” says Junior, Alina

Moore who is a member of the track team. Hughes is very upset that he will not be able to be here for the season. However, not all hope is lost for the track team. Coach Hughes also shared that he is doing everything in his might to make sure he is back as a coach for the Outdoor Track & Field season. He says about the team, “I love helping to develop you guys to be great. The best part of that is to then watch you all succeed.” He promised some ath-letes that he will definitely be back, even if it is not to

coach and just to visit. When asked if he will miss Franklin, he re-plies, “Oh yeah. I’m go-ing to miss this so much. I honestly don’t want to leave. I love the closeness and the love here. It’s a family environment.” Coach Hughes shares that he never ex-pected that he would be back in the school sys-tem. For those who do not know, Coach Hughes was previously an NFL foot-ball player for the football team, Miami Dolphins. However, he says he loves what he does and enjoys

creating relationships with different students he inter-acts with.

Franklin Says Farewell to Coach HughesBy Mica Gunby; Contributing Writer

Kobe Bryant had joined the NBA right af-ter high school. He was selected as the 13th over-all pick in the NBA draft. He is the son of Joe Bry-ant “Jellybean.” The pro

basketball player has re-ceived 5 NBA champion-

ships with the Los Angeles Lakers, while also being one of the greatest scorers in the league. He has also earned two Olympic Gold medals. His biggest rivals while playing in the NBA was Shaquille O’Neal. Throughout Ko-be’s career, he had to deal with some rough patches along the way. He suf-fered a torn ACL, which is already hard to play with after. But he worked hard to return to the 2013-2014 season in the league. But then again, he got injured and sustained torn cuff in January 2015. Even though he worked hard, he still struggled and playing

skills had changed. Another rough patch was when he was accused in 2003 of sexual assault, but eventually the charges were dropped. Afterwards, he had been given the nickname “Black Mam-ba.” This name was given because it was a way of coping of the fact he al-most lost his whole NBA career. But recently he gave Ben McGrath a new name called “kill bill.” He wrote on The Players’ Tribune Website saying, “My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind but my body knows it’s time to say goodbye”.

He had accomplished be-ing in the NBA All Star games from 1998 to 2015, NBA most valuable player in 2008 and NBA champion (2000-2002, 2009-2010). In 2000; he had become a member of the USA’s national team (FIBA). People will always know Kobe Bryant for his “ver-tical leap, tough defense, and ability to score win-ning baskets at the end of the game.”After Kobe had wrote a poem of him retiring from the NBA, the other Lak-ers teammates responded accordingly. Lakers guard Nick Young said, “it was

Legendary Kobe Bryant Decides to RetireBy Savannah Ward; Contributing Writer

7

Kobe Bryant announced to ESPN news that this will be his last season.

Coach Hughes says a final goodbye to some of the athletes before he heads off to his orientation.

sad. Sat here in the room, and you all make it a little more sad when you watch the Kobe ‘fro and the transform, and its tough to see him go like that, be-cause it’s no more Kobe. And that’s like the face of the Lakers.” Another big bas-ketball player LeBron James tells media on Tues-day responding, “It was kind of sad, actually. You know, just, obviously it was going to happen to ev-eryone at some point, but to know that this is Kobe’s last year. It’s just sad man, and the guy had a hell of a career.”

Sports

Monday Novem-ber 23 at 6:00 pm Franklin held its annual fall sports banquet. This Franklin tradition recognizes the hard working female and male athletes who com-peted during the fall sea-son. Tryouts started back in August for these teams and all the seasons came to an end in November. Franklin fall sports teams had great seasons and are already preparing for next

year. The teams rec-ognized at the banquet included Coed Varsity Badminton, Coed Varsity Cheerleading, Boys Var-sity Cross Country, Girls Varsity Cross Country, Girls JV Field Hockey, Girls Varsity Field Hock-ey, Boys JV Football, Boys Varsity Golf, Girls Varsity Golf, Boys JV Soccer, Boys Varsity Soc-cer, Coed Allied Soccer,

Girls JV Soccer, Girls Varsity Soccer, Girls JV Volleyball, and Girls Var-sity Volleyball.

The names of each of the athletes were said as the team walked on the stage. The coaches of each team presented a spe-cial athlete with a coach’s award and another athlete with the most valuable player (MVP) award. Spe-cial recognitions for indi-vidual achievements were also made for some teams. Following the rec-ognition ceremony par-ents, coaches, and athletes

were welcomed in the cafeteria to enjoy refresh-ments and desert provided by the Athletic Boosters Club. Congratulations to all the fall athletes for a fantastic and enjoyable season and we look for-ward to seeing you next year.

Fall Sports Banquet Recognizes Hard WorkBy Sydney Gaskins; Contributing Writer