Every end of the school year, during graduation, there is always that special moment where one student, the nominated valedictorian, gets up and makes a speech to the graduating class. They speak of many things like the memories he or she shared over their past high school years, and what they and others should look forward to in the years to come. It’s the speech that a lot of people will remember and use for inspiration for their future life.

So what is a valedictorian? It is the highest ranked student in the graduating class of the school that also holds the highest GPA and community service hours for school. To be a valedictorian, a person must have a passion for their future, and for academics. There is also the salutatorian, which is also based on the students GPA, and the number of credits received. Both students get to make their own personally written speeches at the ceremony for others to listen and learn from, yet the valedictorian in a sense, is known most. It’s at that very moment when the graduating students realize that they are grown up, and it is time to face the real world, but at the same time they look back on the good times they shared with each other.

To become valedictorian, or salutatorian, students must retain a GPA of a 4.0 or higher for all his or her high school years. MVHS has elected three of our students for this years voting. Every person that is in the run has a fair chance to win.

Being valedictorian and salutatorian for your graduating class is a privilege to speak for all those who are parting high school. And those who are chosen will be remembered for their inspiring speech to their classmates making their way into their future.

It’s nothing like that in China.  Public Security minister Zhu Entao passed the first censorship law in December 1997. Fines up to 15,000 Yuan (about 2200$) could be given for ‘defaming government agencies,’ ’splitting the nation,’ and leaking ‘state secrets’.

Also no sexual or violent materials are allowed. No “injuring the reputation of state organs” is allowed either. That basically means no Chinese person can say anything against the government or give their opinion.

The Chinese government blocks web pages like the Chinese Wikepedia, BBC News, Facebook and Twitter and the censorship influences the people in China everyday.

Not only the Internet but also most radio and television stations are under governmental control. No unfiltered information reaches the Chinese people.

We often rely on information from the media. Different newspapers and news channels give us information from different viewpoints. Therefore we are able to process the information given to us and build our own opinion from it.

This is what the government in China tries to prevent. Information is given from one viewpoint and doesn’t allow critical thinking.

Article 6 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders says

“Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others [...] freely to publish, impart to disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms [as well as] to study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and appropriate means, to draw attention to those matters.”

Amnesty International, a worldwide human rights organization, reports on many incidents in which people have been arrested for apparent “anti-governmental” activities.

A 36-year-old shopkeeper, Lou Yongzhong, was sentenced to three years in prison because he published his own opinion on the Internet. He wrote that “Human rights and democracy aren’t something that the government would like everybody to discuss because it is thought to be anti-government, unpatriotic. But I believe that a patriot must first of all try to uphold human rights and democracy.”

Not only the people in China are influenced by the governmental censorship but also business all over the world. In the past, Google had a conflict with the Chinese government because a third party accessed Gmail accounts of advocates of human rights in China. On their blog, Google states that they launched Google.com in January 2006 to give the people in China the opportunity to get information in a more open Internet. With ongoing debates Google now stated that they would reconsider the provided Google service in China, even if that means to remove Google completely.

The Chinese government, however, not only tries to censor the Chinese people, but also holds back information from getting outside. Journalists often need permission to visit China. Often they are watched by governmental workers and are harassed if they want to cover a delicate topic.

The webpage of The Council on Foreign Relationships reported that “180 foreign correspondents were detained, harassed, or attacked in China in 2007 despite the nominally relaxed regulations.”

China now is the winner in the category of the most imprisoned journalists for the ninth time in a row. If you want more information on the censorship in China or even decide to take action you can visit http://www.amnestyusa.org .

DECA is an international association of high school and college students studying marketing, management, and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality and marketing sales and service. DECA used to be an acronym for Distributive Educational Clubs of America, but now the term DECA is just associated with students in marketing. DECA is a club/program that offers a place where one can take a further look into career choices. In DECA, you choose a career that you are interested in and you get a skit to role play for that particular career. Usually you work with at least two or three other DECA members. Each person gets a different role to act out. For instance, say you chose clothes merchandizing, you would receive a skit to play out with other DECA members, and it would teach you how to react in that scenario. You learn what to do if you came into contact with an upset customer or with any type of customer for that matter. If you wanted a career in auto mechanics, you would be given a scenario where you would pretend that you were actually an auto mechanic and you would have to decide how you would handle that situation.

“DECA puts me in situations which I have to use business skills, so it prepares me for real life business situations,” said Dominique Relei

DECA meets every Wednesday after school in B4. Mr. Davis is the DECA advisor. Senior,  Jackie  Ngyuen is the President of the DECA club and Dominique Relei is the Vice resident of DECA this year.  Very many people at MVHS even know what DECA is, but they should if they wish to partake in a program that can give them the tools for a certain career. The DECA program helps students develop skills for successful business careers, build self-esteem, experience leadership and practice community service.

This year the DECA program is striving to go to competition. In order to go to competition you need to take a one hundred question test on the topic you have been studying and preparing for. If you are one of the top three contesters you get to go to regionals, and then state. If at State you place in the top three, then you move on to nationals. At competition you go in front of one or more judges, the judge gives you a scenario to act out and gives you fifteen minutes to prepare. For instance, you’re given a situation where you work at a hotel, and you have to work with a displeased customer. After you prepare for your skit you go in front of the judge and role play.  You pretend that you actually were treating a displeased customer and you would have to be helpful and be able to contain yourself in order to satisfy your customer. If you act the situation out in a respectful, desirable manner, you may have a chance to go to nationals.

“My goal this year is to go to state. My main goal for DECA is to have it more known here at Mountain View,” said Ngyuen.

DECA teaches you the people skills necessary for the future and gives you beneficial tools to succeed in the real world. Plus, DECA looks great on college applications, which helps any high school student planning on going to college.

Ahhh reading, some hate it, and some love to just curl up by a fireplace and read a 500-page novel. For all freshmen, the Mountain View reading strategies class is for students who need improvements in reading.

Many students do not find reading a fun “outside of school” activity. So why add it if many students do not enjoy reading? Well, the district is trying to raise reading scores. Some students seem to have reading troubles, and to help fix that, the board created a class to increase reading abilities. Without the passing score on the state reading test, students cannot graduate. This years reading class teachers are Matt Fox and Beth Zilk.

In this class, students have discussions with other classmates and the teacher about the book they are currently reading. Sitting on the couches doing independent reading is also found in the classroom. When students aren’t doing these things, some are sitting on the computers reading into microphones using software to guide them through their reading.

Freshman Sean Paul says, “I do have problems reading and I would like to change that. I haven’t taken a reading class before, and it’s okay, but not that fun. I would have to say that reading into microphones is a little uncomfortable and awkward. It is a year long class, but the environment is very good and the teacher is great.”

It seems that with this class, there are positive outcomes on the students. More kids are actually excited to read and want to pick up their books. Getting to choose the book they want to read does have a better influence on them. Rather than reading books the teacher may choose, they’re free to decide for themselves on the genres they like and pick books from the classroom library.

“The class has helped me improve how many words I can read in one minute. I do like that we get to choose our own books because it’s better to get to read what you want to read.” Said Freshman Anne Gamber.

If you are someone who already enjoys reading, then the class is still a good way to improve your skills. Being in a reading strategies class does not mean you have special difficulties or that you’re not a good reader, it’s just a class to help make reading easier for you and work to make you a stronger reader.

We all know and love Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and all the other sites in between. Right now these socially networking sites are in a tough race to be the new “thing”.

According to Experian Hitwise, a site that provides insight on how many users use each and every site, each and everyday. As of now, Facebook and Twitter are “IN”, and sadly, Myspace is out.

According to companies that monitor Internet traffic Facebook is the Number One social network in the U.S. with a whooping total of more than 300 million users on Facebook. 50% of those users log in everyday, that’s 150 million people on Facebook. The average facebook user has 130 friends, more than 600 million minutes are spent on Facebook world wide, more than 40 million status updates each day, and more than 2 billion photos are uploaded each month.

Right now Twitter’s hotness isn’t so hot. It now ranks at a low 4^th place on the top list. Twitter is the newest site to join the social network. It lets users send and receive messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters and much like facebook, is displayed on the user’s profile. But those tweets aren’t just posted, they are sent to all your friends, which are called “followers”. Since it’s creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has become noticeably popular worldwide. In February 2009 Twitter has a monthly growth of 1,382 percent.  Twitter has not given out any direct information about how many users they currently have so it’s hard to know. But it’s averaged any where between 4 to 10 million users.

Myspace is doing all it can to keep itself  “cool” in they eyes of the media. They in a rush to develop more compelling music and video services. They need something to catch people’s attention, something good and something quick.

It’s still managing to hang on to its spot at Number Two on the list. Myspace used to be the biggest thing in social networking. According to Hitwise, Myspace still has a hold on 30% of the social networking market. But that is still less than the 60% it held at this time last year. Myspace had 106 million users in November of 2006 and has been growing by about 230,000 users a day.  Currently Myspace has about 257 million users.

Most people who are active on social networking sites have a profile on both Myspace and Facebook, maybe even more. Despite being on both sites, each user almost always has a preference for one site over the other.  “I prefer Myspace because of the music” says Junior Josie Smith Hudson. While others think differently, “I like Facebook more, it just seems more, clean, I guess. The atmospheres are just so different.” Says Ellie Sullivan, a junior here at Mountain View. And some people could truly care less, “they’re close enough to the same thing that it doesn’t really matter to me,” says Sophmore Miryssa Espinoza. Then fellow SophmoreTori McGee pitched in “yeah, they’re pretty much the same, I don’t see the big deal”.

They are some significant differences between these two sites, and that’s mainly why people choose one over another.

There are the basic differences between these rivals, Myspace has music while Facebook does not, at least not yet. But Facebook has more Applications, which to some are too confusing. Facebook isn’t unique; you can’t design your own profile like you can on Myspace. The way you like to have your profile set up and the applications you’d want to use, all play a major part in what sites attracts certain users. Then there are some differences us users don’t really see much. Many people don’t know but there’s been an interesting shift in who uses what site. Myspace began as a place for teenagers to hang out and chat. And Facebook was originally created for college students (when it first started, you actually needed a college email to sign up). As the two sites have grown, their users have changed. These days teens and college students can be found on both sites.

According to Nation Public Radio or NPR, overall social networking in the U.S increased 62% from Sept. 2008 to Sept. 2009. If you talk to any student at any school and you’ll probably find that many kids used to use Myspace, but Facebook is where it’s at now. Facebook is taking over more and more of the social networking space in the U.S. it had an estimated 95.5 million U.S visitors in September alone. Keep in mind that is only the U.S. Myspace is still right behind them with 65.7 million U.S visits in September. However, numbers don’t explain it all, the story becomes more complicated when you hear different teens point of views.

“I only use Myspace so I guess I prefer that one.” Said Stephen Langberg, Senior at MVHS. Another Senior, Chelsea Gibson says “ I don’t have a facebook and I barley ever check my Myspace, so I could really care less about what one is cool-er”

Ultimately, which social networking site your prefer really depends on what your actually looking for in a site. In addition to Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, there are numerous other sites. It is important to remember that the popularity of these kind of sites will wax and wane over time. If you’re just looking for the latest trend, then you might as well just jump from site to site, but if you’re looking for a place where you can really connect to, then just find one you like and stick to it.

For those of you who just slide by with a passing grade of D, you might just want to re-think your ways, no more slacking off.

Our English department has a new grading policy for the 2009/2010 school year. The D policy means that in any English classes at Mountain View for 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th graders, you must pass with a C or higher. Anyone with a grade below a C will receive an F for the class on your transcript and have to re-take the class to receive credits for graduation. With this new policy, teachers are looking to bring down the number of failing students and bring them up with better grades.

“I think this policy is fair. I’m smart enough to pass with more than a D.” Says Freshman Finn Leahy. But what about the students who do have trouble in school?

“ I am stressed about this new policy because for other kids, these classes are simple, but for me it’s hard. Maybe it will give me the motivation to work harder though.” Said Junior Michael Richard.

The English department has put fail safes into place. Teachers will be available to help the student if their grade does start slipping to keep them on track. Students can receive help on early release Wednesday’s, and students will have resources to make lists of missing assignments .

The department has been discussing the issue for several months and they even tested the policy in several classes. In tests, teachers found that the number of failing students actually decreased rather than increased in most classes. This policy should be paid attention to if you are an athlete at MVHS. A failing grade could lead to not being able to participate or play for a sports team. Parents should be aware of the change and help their child when needed.

If you have no problems passing classes then there is no need to worry. Although, this policy is a good way to keep your grade above the radar, so don’t let your grade slip and get your work turned in.

The Who, What, Why and When of the H1N1 Vaccine. Essential information you may need.

According to http://www.newsweek.com, Federal Officials are planning for a H1N1 pandemic that could effect 30% to 50% of the population this flu season. With the first cases possibly starting these next few months . A vaccine will be crucial for protecting people. But will it be too late? Who should get the shot? How safe and effective will it be?

Fortunately, the new H1N1 virus has been mild so far. It has affected a million Americans so far and only 556 deaths have been recorded. This compared to the 36,000 a year for the normal flu. But it also arrived very late in the last flu season and didn’t spread through the whole country. This year the vulnerable population will be much larger.

The H1N1 virus is even affecting Mountain View “Not many people are out of school sick yet, but I’m sure in the next month we will defiantly see an increase. Right now there are a few students out sick, but we are still not sure whether its H1N1 or the normal flu.” Said Sandy Young, Attendance Secretary here at Mountain View.

Federal Officials  do not want to discourage  anyone from getting the shot. But The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as The CDC, is only recommending the vaccination for people in the high risk groups, these include Health Care and Emergency workers, Children and young adults (6 months to 24 years old), Parents and care takers of babies under the age of 6 months (since infants under 6 months have a poor vaccine response, the best defense is having parents who are flu-free), and last but not least, adults ages 25-64 with other underlying health conditions including diabetes, asthma, and chromic lung disease and heart disease.

The government has ordered 195 million doses of vaccine, 45 million of which will be delivered by mid to late October. The vaccination will take 5 weeks to fully develop immunity. Some people are worried about that. Even if they get it now, they won’t be immune until late November and the flu season is supposed to peak in mid- October. The CDC has no idea how the H1N1 virus will behave this year. Officials suspect that flu season will strike early this year because in contrast to the seasonal flu, the H1N1 virus continued to circulate throughout the summer. The fact that school is now back in session will likely fuel the spreading.

If you get the H1N1 shot, you still need to get the normal flu shot. The Swine flu shot will not protect you from both. The H1N1 vaccine is suspected to be very accurate unlike the normal flu shot which is just the best guess at what will vaccinate you. The H1N1 virus is very stable, unlike the seasonal flu which mutates and makes it hard to protect against.  The H1N1 vaccine should match the strain, therefore be highly effective.

Many people are wondering how to best avoid the virus if they aren’t getting the vaccine. To protect yourself wash your hands frequently and well; 20 seconds with soap and warm water will do. Avoid touching your eyes and nose. Alcohol based hand gels are also effective. Second, avoid spreading germs by covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze, preferably using a tissue or your sleeve. And third, if you’re sick or your children are sick, stay home until the fever has gone away for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications.

For those interested in getting vaccinated the H1N1 vaccine will be available at MVHS on October 29^th, throughout the day. It will be the nasal mist version. It is still unsure where the vaccination will be located, so stay tuned, talk to your teachers, counselors, or the staff in the main office to find more information.

This year the administration has decided to start the year fresh by enforcing some rules that were not enforced previously. The two big changes are the tardy sweeps and only eating in the cafeteria and commons. Both are quite a big deal to some.
The tardy sweeps have been an idea for quite some time but haven’t been actually enforced till this year. The goal is to have students getting to class on time

“ We have seen a tremendous reduction of tardies so far this year”, said principal Mrs. Legacy.
The reason for the new lunch rule is because of fire hazards and the huge mess that was usually left behind by the students eating in the halls. However, the new lunch rules seem to be worrying students and staff alike. At this moment, a lot of students eat outside while the weather is still warm, but what happens when it gets colder? Because of the upcoming cold weather, the school is soon going to be overflowing with students but with no place to eat. According to the administration, they are trying to buy more tables so students do not have to sit on the floor.
So what can you as a student do to help with these changes? Try taking a different way to your class. By doing so you are helping the halls not get congested and students can get along faster. As for lunch, try to not make a mess and to pick up and trash you see lying around. By doing so you are helping create more space and you’ll be keeping the school clean.

Sometimes it’s hard to think of sweet and creative ways to think of how to ask your date so here are the top 5 ways:

1. Ask with flowers
2. Ask with a cake
3. Ask with a big sign that says “homecoming with me?”
4. Ask with chocolates
5. Hide in a cardboard box and then pop out and ask your date

If none of these ideas interest you then make sure to think of your own way soon. The dance is just right around the corner. Homecoming is a fun way to socialize with friends and have a good time so be sure to attend!

By: Kassi Walker

Mr. Yeatman, the Foods teacher here at MVHS, teaches a Foods 1 class, with a ridiculous 38 students. The ideal number of students in a foods 1 class should be 28 students, four to each of the seven kitchen stations in his classroom. Right now there are 5, if not more in each of the kitchens. This is a safety hazard having the kitchens jammed back, which leaves Mr. Yeatman worried about his class. There is no way he would be able to choose which kids to boot and which ones to keep, so there is really nothing to do about it.

Teachers like Mr. Vallarga say their class average is now about 40 students compared to the 28 that it was last year. He says “having almost twice the students I had last year is definitely difficult, but not as bad as you’d imagine “it’s just more students for me to pick on”  he says as he starts laughing “ no, but really it’s not that hard. Maybe I just got lucky and my classes are easy to teach to a large group..”

The teachers aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed these increased class sizes. Some students had a few words of their own on this topic. Chelsea Gibson, a Senior here at Mtn. View said, “ it makes it really hard to concentrate when you have like 40 kids in your class. There is always something going on around me and it catches my attention, then I end up spacing off.”

So is there anything we can do about these super big class sizes? Or do we just have to suck it up and learn how to work around it? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

By: Hayle Hudson