“The Globe” Launches Multimedia Team

The Globe has introduced a new multimedia team to improve the paper’s online presence. Hanna Young, Leah Roffman, and Chloe Stafford, along with Ms. Dombroff, are working to create a team of students to film videos related to the articles in each Globe issue. This is something new and different that has never been done before. It is a unique concept that will hopefully grow to be something bigger in years to come. This month, videos are being released about the new murals that are being put up in Larchmont and cheating at MHS. They are looking for new members and anyone is welcome to help out. Be sure to stay tuned for more information about this exciting new program!

By Sela Breen

Artists Paint Larchmont Murals

During the last week of October, spray painted murals will be created in Larchmont to celebrate the village’s vibrant, pioneer, abolitionist, and creative history. Hosted by Street Art for Mankind, six murals will be painted by prominent street artists to form a walk, which will be supplemented by an app called “Behind the Wall.” The walk will shed a positive light upon aspects of Larchmont’s history that many people may be unaware of.

The murals will be painted by talented street artists BTOY, Iljin, Jo Di Bona, Kathrina Rupit, Kinmx, Victor Ash and Loic Ercolessi Art. Street Art for Mankind is a non-profit organization “uniting prominent street artists from all around the world to raise awareness on child labor & trafficking.” The non-profit works with over 40 prominent street artists and major organizations to fight against child slavery through street art. Some of their most notable projects include the United Nations exhibit, the Miami Festival in Little River and FIAF in New York City. Street art classes and workshops are also offered.

The company raises money through donations, art sales and street art exhibitions, such as the one in Larchmont. All of the funds go to awareness child slavery campaigns, “especially the raid and rescue programs operated by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi and its KSCF Foundation.” To find out how to contribute to their cause, go to Street Art for Mankind’s website.

The event opens November 4th at 2pm, and will include speeches, music, and a chance to use the new app designed by these street artists. You won’t want to miss the incredible opportunity to experience this combination of art and technology, and a chance to learn about the rich history our town has to offer. If you can’t get enough, the following week, the same artists will begin working on projects in Manhattan.

Please see our Multimedia’s coverage of this event for an insider perspective!

By Julia Shapiro and Lindsey Randall

Ralph’s Reopens in Mamaroneck

This spring, Ralph’s Italian Ices and Ice Cream will be reopening in Mamaroneck. The village Zoning Board of Directors recently approved an application by owner Scott Rosenberg to open a new location on Mamaroneck Avenue, over a year after the popular dessert shop was forced to close over a zoning dispute with the village government.

Since its opening in May 2016, Ralph’s contended with zoning issues caused by the Building Department’s classification of the shop as ‘retail’ instead of ‘food’. When the village realized that it had made an error, it offered Rosenberg the opportunity to continue operating under a special permit. Last year, however, it determined that Ralph’s had not met the standards for such a permit and ordered it to close.

Rosenberg filed a lawsuit against the village shortly after closing, claiming that the village’s decision was “improperly and maliciously motivated.” He contended that modifications were made to the shop’s layout, including the areas where customers stand and the parking lot, in order to meet the requirements for the permit.

However, the case was ultimately dismissed and Ralph’s remained closed for over a year. Although Rosenberg has also opened another location in White Plains, he is glad to be able to return to Mamaroneck.

“Although I was unfairly treated before, I’m happy to put it behind us,” Rosenberg said.

The new location will be at 407 Mamaroneck Avenue, formerly the site of a Payless Shoe Source, and will include a small snack bar alongside the ice cream shop. The snack bar will be open year-round, and the ice cream shop—unlike its previous, seasonal iteration—may be as well.

By Caleb Arzt

Hurricanes Worsen Due to Climate Change

The United States is currently in the midst of 2018’s hurricane season and its climax is

approaching. Two major storms—hurricanes Michael and Florence—recently devastated the East coast and caused widespread, deadly flooding.

Over the last few years, many have begun to notice that such powerful hurricanes seem to be increasingly common. Scientists have warned for a long time that with the progression of climate change, we will see more catastrophic storms much more often, which have the ability to debilitate entire states and regions. Hurricane Irma of late 2017, for example, left Puerto Rico without electricity nor available food and these problems still persist.

Shakespeare: “To Be or Not to Be?”

The Bard is back! The newly dubbed Mamaroneck Shakespeare Troupe (MST) is the club that will be carrying the legacy of a 45 year old program. Some students had thought the program was shut down permanently after the discovery of a “scavenger hunt” list that the administration interpreted as hazing during the production of “As You Like It” in the Spring of last year.

Several New Clubs Founded This Year

MHS offers a variety of student run organizations and clubs. Club Fair has just recently passed, but it’s not too late to try and join some clubs you may have missed! Included below are some fun, art or music based clubs the school offers.

Calliope, our school’s literary journal, is always open to new members who want to write poetry. Even if you don’t want to join in on clubs, you can always submit any short stories, poetry, photography or art to calliope.mhs@gmail.com. Funkapella and The Sound are two student-run co-ed a cappella groups that perform at the Martin Luther King Day Assembly in January. If you love singing or just being part of a group, joining one of these two groups is fun and low-commitment. Music Discussion Club and Movie Club are two fun groups that meet every week or two weeks to talk about different albums, artists, songs, or movies. They’re very casual but allow you to have a group of people to talk about your passions with. As always, The Globe welcomes new writers with interest in writing for our paper. If you’re interested, come to the writer’s meetings that take place before the release of every new issue!

By Gigi Ciulla

The Freedom of Choice

No one is completely the same as anyone else. No one holds the exact same values. No one has the same moral standards. No one should decide for anyone else what to do with their body. How can there be one decision, one answer, to a question that every woman may have a different opinion on? Abortions should be legal and accessible for all women, and the decision of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy should lie solely upon the woman involved.

Ever since the Roe v. Wade case “recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions,” abortions have been legalized in every state in the United States. Nevertheless, every day women’s rights are under attack as some politicians strive to limit reproductive rights. Each individual state has the ability to limit the specific regulations. Some of the more recent attempts include: trying to defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides safe, affordable abortions and information regarding women’s health; proposing bills that eliminate non-surgical abortions, which can be a more comforting method to some; and many attempts to restrict abortions after a certain time frame.

Some people may argue that abortions should be illegal because no matter how early the stage of pregnancy, the life of a baby begins long before he or she is born would be killing a living human. While this pro-life mindset is not uncommon, in some circumstances abortions are necessary to save the life of the impregnated woman, according to a study done by Rewire. Is it more important to save the life of an unborn, undeveloped child, or a woman, a fully grown living being?

No matter the circumstances, women should always have the right to decide what to do with their body. If a pregnancy is not wanted for any reason, the woman should be permitted to safely terminate it, especially if the woman was subjected to rape. There are cases of young girls who were raped, already suffering from the emotional aftermath, who find out they are pregnant with the rapist’s child. For example, a 12 year old girl in Alabama was recently raped and forced with the decision of whether or not to keep the baby. Her parents were not very involved, and therefore she went to court to get permission to abort the child. The final decision was that she was not “mature enough” to make a decision about life and death. Now this girl, who is just a child herself, has to give birth to her rapist’s child against her will. It is painfully disturbing and depressing that a young girl who has already been put through so much agony is forced to give birth to a child that she doesn’t want.

As stated earlier, some people argue that terminating a pregnancy is like killing a person, and that it is important to preserve their life. But what kind of life would this child have if her own mother doesn’t want her to exist? Alison Lapper, born without arms and treated without affection as a young child, has found what kind of effect that has on children. She reflects, “So, what do I think makes us human? Four needs: to love; to be loved; to be accepted; and to be respected.” If a woman is forced to give birth to her child, most likely the child will not have these crucial needs met, and therefore will have a life thinking about how their mother wished they were never born.

Overall, what we need to remember is that each woman is and should be responsible for their own body. To make the decision that is best for them. To make the decision that only they will have to accept and live with. Safe and legal abortions for all women need to be protected, now and forever.

By Sarah Larsen

Considering Race in College Admissions: Where Should We Draw the Line?

It’s often claimed that certain minority groups have advantages or disadvantages when it comes to getting into highly selective colleges. With today’s level of competition and value for diversity in the college process, these claims don’t seem so far-fetched, and in some cases, they’re undeniably true. In terms of advantages, we know that affirmative action policies from the Obama administration allow universities and colleges to consider race in admissions, and that these decisions have been held up in the Supreme Court. As for disadvantages, current information has begun to confirm people’s worst suspicions.

A recent lawsuit against Harvard University claims that the institution holds a quota on the number of Asian-American students accepted, and holds them to a higher standard than other applicants. We know that there are high numbers of Asian-American students that are qualified for spots in top schools, and that selective institutions that implement race-blind admissions processes may end up with disproportionately Asian-American student bodies. For example, the 2018 freshman class of UC Berkeley (a race-blind school) was 27.6% Asian-American, while Asian-Americans make up only 5.6% percent of the entire national population. To some, this statistic is not ideal because it does not reflect the racial balance of the population. This conflict raises the question: as appealing as a racially balanced student body may be to colleges, is it worth the possible accusation of discrimination?

Similar questions have been brought up in light of the lawsuit against Harvard, and the Obama-era affirmative action policies (that could potentially change during the Trump administration): should colleges be able to make decisions based upon an applicant’s race? If so what restrictions, if any, should be placed on the decisions colleges can make?

These are tough questions, and they don’t have immediate answers. However, some insight can be shed on the nature of these policies, and what they mean for the nation’s top colleges. Affirmative action is a crucial aspect of racial representation in America’s top colleges. When California banned affirmative action in 1998, the percentages of Hispanic and black freshmen dropped by 5 and 4, respectively. These statistics would most likely hold true today, as a New York Times study in 2017 found that the representation of black and Hispanic students at the nation’s top colleges have not increased in the past 35 years. Ultimately, banning affirmative action would drastically decrease black and Hispanic representation at selective colleges, and considering this level of representation has not changed in decades, that is not the direction the nation should be going in.

The question of whether colleges should be able to reject students based upon race is entirely different. There are many socioeconomic and historical justifications for affirmative action, but quotas and higher standards for Asian-American applicants do not have the same rationalization or (more importantly) legal status as affirmative action. Before delving into this situation, though, it’s important to acknowledge that any quota, or higher standard is claimed—  not proven. Currently, Harvard claims that the number of qualified Asian-American applicants rejected can be traced back to lower personality scores. It is possible, however, that these claims are a weak justification for an attempt at a more racially balanced class, in which case the question may be asked: is it acceptable to limit the numbers of a certain race in order to create a more racially balanced student body?

The responses to this question, when posed to the Globe staff, varied much more than the generally positive opinions on affirmative action. On one hand, the rejection of an Asian-American student in favor of a less-qualified student of another race (that does not benefit from affirmative action) could be considered discrimination. The opposing stance justifies this action because it contributes to a more racially balanced student body. Although this may be appealing, there is really no way to justify this to the individual. This matter really boils down to a simple question: what’s more important, the desires of the institution, or the rights of the individual?
It’s quite hard, and maybe even impossible, to justify racial quotas or higher standards for applicants of a certain race. Affirmative action, however, is much more easily justifiable, in part because it gives certain minorities advantages rather than disadvantages. Discrimination has no place in the college process, and although a racially balanced campuses seems attractive, there’s only so much institutions can do to perpetuate that dream without infringing on the rights of individuals.

Varsity Girls’ Swim and Dive Finishes Strong

The Mamaroneck Swim and Dive team is one of the best teams in the school that is often overlooked. They train at the Hommocks pool with Coach Ferguson and Coach Mernica every day. With eight practices a week, (four mornings and four afternoons) the team is definitely the most tired, cold, and hungry at the school. This year in their dual meets they went four and five in the top conference in Section 1. At the Conference championships they came in 6th out of the ten teams attending.

Students Teach Lacrosse in Harlem

After Club Fair last month, many kids are excited to attend clubs’ first meetings and events. One of the new clubs at MHS this fall is St. Ann’s Harlem Lacrosse. This club will help students who attend St. Ann’s the Personal School in Harlem, NY. With little money in the St. Ann school budget for sports or extracurriculars, MHS students, led by junior presidents Cole Lovejoy and Robby Lundberg, have decided to run a lacrosse clinic in the city every Saturday morning. The club was made in an attempt to pass on the athletic opportunities they were given as children.

Senior Excels In Science Research

 

Original Science Research, better known as OSR, is a three year elective during which students undertake original research projects in various areas of their interests. The objective is to pursue an area of science that engages you and present at different science competitions with the hope of winning a title. Typically, students complete their project over the course of two summers with a mentor who guides them through the process. There are two research teachers: Mr. Garbarino and Mr. Victoria, whose purpose is to aid the students in multiple portions of their project, such as writing mentor emails, creating their project, writing their research paper and practicing presenting for competitions.

The NBA is Back

 

As the NBA tipped off on October 16, we can expect an action-packed season.

The action started in the off-season, with the Phoenix Suns selecting DeAndre Ayton with the first overall pick in what was considered a draft class loaded with talent. Ayton, and many other top rookies in the 2018 draft class, hope to turn their respective franchises around.

Football Finishes with a 7-2 Record

Before school even starts, the lights turn on and the football season kicks off. It is what connects summer to fall. Students wear T-Shirts during the first week and jackets during the last. And this season, Mamaroneck football gave us something to remember. A 6-1 record during the regular season resulted in a playoff game under the lights at Memorial Field for the first time in school history. Unfortunately, after a hard-fought battle, Mamaroneck lost to Carmel with a score of 27-20. In an interview with Coach Vitti, when asked about the season he said;  “We had a very good regular season and we played well and been up to the challenge.” and “The sky is the limit, and there are no more sure things and we need to work as hard as we have all season”

Girls’ Tennis Completes Last Season with a Notable Senior Class

Girls’ Tennis matches at Flint Park are hard to miss, given the success the team has been having in the past years.

Girls Tennis have quietly found their way to the State Championships these past four seasons, with strong results from every player no matter their grade level.

Coach Timothy Hooker is excited about what his team has to offer; “I think this may be one of the best teams I have had the privilege of coaching here in Mamaroneck High School in my 22 years.”

Music World Sees Young Up-and-Coming Artists

2018 has brought countless albums from established stars such as Kanye West, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and more. Although these have led to concerts, special appearances, and social media stardom, some up-and-coming artists have been on the radar as well.

Learning to Change: How BROCKHAMPTON’s “Iridescence” and “All American Trash” Compare

“Anyone want to make a band?”

Eight years ago, Kevin Abstract jumpstarted his music career with these words on the forum KanyeToThe. As a result, Kevin Abstract, Ameer Vann, Dom McLennon, and Rodney Tenor would go on create the band AliveSinceForever.

Six years later, after going through a name change, adding members, and releasing a few singles, BROCKHAMPTON have released their debut mixtape All American Trash. They experimented with many different sounds, ranging from the bass-heavy production of Ben Carson, to the melodic vocals of Palace, to the soothing guitar strumming of Contacts. Following All American Trash, BROCKHAMPTON built upon their experimentation, releasing the highly successful albums Saturation, Saturation II, and Saturation III. Everything was trending upward for the group. Then Ameer Vann was accused of sexual misconduct.

Health Apps for a Healthy Year!

The school year is now in full swing, and as the weather gets colder and the afternoons get darker, it’s important to keep considering our health as a priority. There are many ways to do this- if you need a little help to stay motivated, there are many apps available to keep you on the right path.

One app that will help you see if you are choosing and eating healthy foods is Fooducate. Fooducate lets you scan the barcodes of over 250,000 food items, and lets you know how good for you it is. You could also start by entering in a category of food such as granola bars, and it will tell you the calorie count, fiber, sugar content, vitamins, and more of the highest rated products. This is a great way to ensure that you are actually buying healthy items, and not just ones that look healthy!

Stay Focused: Eat Well

Now that school is back in full swing, it feels as if we are all drowning in tests, essays, and responsibilities in general. As highschool students, a lot is expected from us. So, we must make sure we are fueling our tanks, just as one would for an expensive car.

Recent studies have shown that eating nutritiously dense foods not only helps our bodies, but our minds too! Felice Jacka, president of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research, says, “A very large body of evidence now exists that suggests diet is as important to mental health as it is to physical health. A healthy diet is protective and an unhealthy diet is a risk factor for depression and anxiety.” As teenagers, we can’t risk mental disorders; They are serious illnesses that nobody should have to struggle through, or take lightly. Eating foods high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, will keep us going throughout the day and the night, allowing us to productively complete our work. With our work done, and our bodies feeling good, we have our choice in food to thank.

A Growing Fortnite Addiction

Fortnite: the game taking the world by storm. Ask any boy between the ages of ten and twenty and it is almost certain they will not only know what the game is, but will play for multiple hours a day. The game begins with one hundred players, all dropped in the field with the tasks of scavenging for weapons and other resources, building defensive structures, and vanquishing opponents in order to be the last player standing. There are many different ways to play, either mobily, online or on a tv. In addition, it can be played with multiple other players. Kids use headsets to share information and communicate how they are going to try to kill others while surviving themselves. All the parts come together and make the game the most addicting of its time. A sophomore at Fordham prep admitted that at the height of his addiction he was playing close to 20 hours a week! “It is very addicting because there is always new stuff, such as skins and challenges, and I always want to try them,” he said. He also talked about how being able to play with other would make him stay on for longer and often late into the night.

Teachers Begin Third Year Without a Contract

For the third consecutive year, the Mamaroneck Teachers’ Association (MTA) and the district administration have been unable to settle on a contract. The last contract, which lasted four years, terminated in June 2016.