25 Reasons Why You Should Apply for The Chronicle

1. You’ll look forward to fifth bell every day

2. Journalism Camp

In the summertime, the staff goes to a week-long journalism camp. Last summer, we went to Ohio University and the previous summer we went to Indiana University. It’s a great way to learn from the best and get to know the other members on staff.

3. You can cover what you want.

You decide if you want to write sports, news, feature, or opinion. You don’t have to just to stick to one.

4. Chronding

Hands down, some of the best memories of your high school career will be from Chronicle bonding, or chronding. We’ve done things like Salsa on the Square in Downtown Cincinnati, ice-skating, and canoeing.

5. Avoid the chaos of the cafeteria

Most Chronicle members stay in C103 and eat lunch. It’s a nice and calm setting to eat, plus we have a microwave. #soup

6. See your name in print

7. Mr. Conner

Our adviser, Mr. Conner, is an amazing teacher and person. It’s nice to have a teacher you can count on throughout your high school career.

8. The traditions

Some of the best traditions include:

• Secret Santa
• Candy Drawer: After Halloween, we all bring in candy and put in a drawer that you’re allowed to access throughout class. We try to get it to last until Thanksgiving, but it’s always a struggle.
• Food Friday: Every Distribution Day, we get food ordered from somewhere like Chipotle, Olive Garden, or Papa John’s.
• Sundae Thursday: We’ll bring in ice cream sundae supplies and pig out.
  
  

9. You’ll still having time for extracurricular activities and sports

Since this is a class during school, you have time to do your work. All Chronicle members are super involved outside of school, but still have time to get it done.

10. Allow someone's story to be heard

It’s great to be able to shed light on an issue or allow somebody to get their name and quotes in print.

11. The power of the press pass

Not only are our press passes super legit, but when you’re covering a game or school event, you can get in for free.

12. You're not in the typical classroom setting

13. Grade and age don’t matter

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors all work closely together without any problems.

14. Chron Family

These are the people you can count on to cheer you up when you have a bad day. We have too many inside jokes to count. Our GroupMe chat can get out of control—in a good way.

15. Improve your writing abilities

16. Independence

Coming up with story ideas and visuals is on you. It’s good practice for the real world.

17. Distribution Day is marvelous

There is Food Friday, getting to see people’s reactions to the paper, and the monthly PowerPoint where every Chronicle member gets assigned from a certain theme, for example, celebrity look-alike.

18. Cool spirit wear

19. High quality technology

Macs, Canon cameras, Adobe programs all at your fingertips.

20. Get out of your comfort zone 

You'll be challenged with strict deadlines. Talking to people you don’t know can be uncomfortable sometimes. The more you do it though, the better you can handle it.

21. Chronsgiving

One of the best traditions we have. Before Thanksgiving break, we have a full on feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, and the works.

22. Practice running a professional social media account

Running the Chronicle Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook is great practice and forces you to be creative and pay attention to what your audience likes.

23. The skills you learn help in a variety of careers, not just journalism

A lot of the people on staff might not necessarily major in journalism in college, and that’s okay. The people skills and writing skills you gain are still very valuable and applicable.

24. Tweet-to-the-Editor

 It’s always fun to read your peers’ replies to the Tweets.

25.There are a lot of positions available: staff writer, business/marketing manager, photographer, graphic designer

http://thecspn.com/?attachment_id=34554

 Applications are due January 20th at 2:15 PM in room C103.

Paddling students harshly remembered at MHS

Illustration by Visual Editor Madison Krell

Every 30 seconds, a child is hit in a public school somewhere in the United States.

While corporal punishment may not seem like a common practice, a federal data analysis reported this statistic. Corporal punishment is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behavior. This can take place in different forms, such as spanking, caning, or paddling. Ohio banned corporal punishment in 2009, but it’s currently legal in 19 states, although not every school implements it.

Senior Aminah Baig attended a school that enforced corporal punishment when she lived in Thailand. Baig said that Thai culture had a huge emphasis on teaching discipline to kids.

“In Thailand, a big philosophy is respect and discipline,” Baig said. “So if kids did things like not doing their homework or disrespecting a teacher, they would use thick wooden erasers to hit us.  You would have to put out your palm and you would get a smack.”

Although the punishment didn’t cause severe bodily harm, Baig said that it instilled a fearful relationship between the student and teacher.

“I definitely don’t think it was an effective way to punish kids, especially the younger ones,” Baig said. “I felt like it really scared a lot of my classmates from even wanting to speak to the teacher.  It made it very uncomfortable and I would think, ‘Well, I don’t want to ask her for help if I don’t understand something because she is just going to get mad and hit me.’”

Baig said that having an open and friendly relationship with teachers is critical for success in school.

“I feel comfortable speaking to teachers at Mason,” Baig said. “As you get older, you want to be more open with your teachers.  You want to be able to talk to them and share things that are happening in your life.”

According to The Washington Post, corporal punishment is most prevalent in Texas and least prevalent in Wyoming. Out of the 19 states that still allow it, two border Ohio: Kentucky and Indiana.

American History teacher Joe Hammond said he grew up in a time when paddling, caning, and hitting were prevalent practices at home and in school.

“I received my first swat as a second grader and that was around 1963,” Hammond said. “In seventh grade I took a fist to the mouth from the principal. I also took another direct shot in the back of the head with a giant book by the same principal in eighth grade.”

Hammond said he feels that physical discipline can be an effective method of communication to a child, as long as it’s not used excessively.

“In my day I would get a swat from my parents, but it was never meant to hurt or injure,” Hammond said. “It was just meant as a way of saying that you were out of line. When I think back, I found it pretty effective. I think it’s a form of communication as opposed to a form of violence. If it’s used as a form of violence then I think it’s wrong.”

According to the The American Psychological Association, the use of corporal punishment to discipline children may create an impression in a child that they are “undesirable”, lowering their self-esteem. The APA opposes the use of corporal punishment to discipline children.

Advanced Placement Psychology teacher Angie Johnston said physical punishment can have adverse long term effects.

“From what research studies have shown, if you use spanking as punishment, it might work initially,” Johnston said. “It might stop the behavior for a short period of time and maybe even up to a year. But it just represses the behavior and the behavior can come back. It can even make the child more aggressive later on in life.”

Johnston said that corporal punishment can mess with the parent and child or teacher and child dynamic.

“If the child is fearing the spanking, the child might fear the parent or whoever it is delivering the spank,” Johnston said. “Research shows that this can really mess up a relationship with a child and the parent.”

From her experience as a psychology teacher and mother, Johnston said she finds positive reinforcement to be the most effective in shaping behavior.

“I am more on the positive kind of  reinforcement and trying to be positive with the child,” Johnston said. “Just from the research I have seen with teaching this class and even with my own children that is definitely how I am. But I don’t look at the other side and say, ‘Oh, you’re a terrible parent’ because everyone has their own way of handling things.”

See the Full Story: http://thecspn.com/?p=34614 

Digital Image Design Projects

 This past semester I had the opportunity to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop in Digital Image Design class.

In our first project, we learned the art of logo making by studying well known logos in our society. Then I began sketching a series of logos to try and represent myself. Ultimately, the one I chose to create was an elephant made out of my initials--JD. I thought this would be a nice way to add a personal piece of myself to the animal. Elephants represent serenity and strength. Once I had decided what I wanted to make, I had to use French Curve tools to draw two; one drawn in in black and white and one in color. Then I scanned it and made it digitally on Adobe Illustrator. Since I liked the final project, I decided to make it the icon for this blog page.

Next, we explored Adobe Photoshop by creating silhouette collages to represent ourselves. My silhouette collage has a lot of symbolism within it. The fire in my head represents the passion I bring to life. The bird and sky represent how I'm still trying to find myself and who I am. The wall depicting Mason High School shows how I'm passionate about my high school and where I live. The flower and sunset symbolize my positive attitude. My boxer, Comet, shows my love of all creatures.

The next two mini projects we had tested our Photoshop abilities. I decided to do a pig for my animal photoshop extravaganza mainly because there is a breed of small pigs called Juliana pigs. (If you don't believe me, Google it) So in homage to the Juliana pig, I made the Juliana/pig hybrid.

 This mini project embodies one of my favorite hobbies--soccer. Initially, when I was brainstorming what image to photoshop, I thought I could do a photo showing my love for journalism, But ultimately I decided an action shot would be better, so my mom and I had a photo shoot in our front yard in order to achieve the perfect action shot. Then I followed the 'Show Me the Light' tutorial to create it on Adobe Photoshop.

The final project of the semester tested our ability to create packaging for a product of our choice, designed for a specific audience. The intended audience of our sunglasses, Bright Eyes™, is female teenagers to young adults. We wanted to create a product that would be girly, but not overly done. We achieved this by not using stereotypical girl colors--like pink and purple--but instead we used a muted blue color. We tried to clearly show what our product was and the style of it by making our logo a cute pair of sunglasses. We used a common girly pattern, chevron, as a background behind the title. The font we selected is twisty cursive, which gives it a girly vibe. Our slogan “Be the best you can be, See the best you can see” really suits our audience. Teenage girls often struggle with finding who they are, so this little motivational message is fitting. Overall, all of the choices we made were suited for a teenage to twenty-something year old girl.

If you would like to check out the creative process behind these works, please visit my Behance profile: https://www.behance.net/discherj 

Ohio pet stores accused of mistreating animals

Juliana Discher I Staff Writer

Buying a puppy is like adding a new member to the family. So when that adorable, $1,000 dog dies within weeks, it’s a huge emotional and financial loss.

Petland and other pet stores have been under scrutiny lately for selling sick puppies, many near death. It all began two years ago when Ohio legislators passed a law meant to ensure that puppies bred in the state were raised in appropriate conditions. An investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer revealed, however, that wording was stripped, causing the law to apply only to puppy mills, not pet stores. This allows for pet stores to get away with selling seemingly healthy dogs, that are actually very sick.

Junior Reilly Bogan said she used to frequently visit Petland, until she realized most of the puppies seemed ill.

“I used to go there a lot to look at dogs, but they always looked so sick and their eyes were always red,” Bogan said. “My mom wouldn’t let us get a dog from there because she didn’t think they were healthy enough and they were way too expensive.”

Petland isn’t the only pet store in Ohio facing such allegations, but significantly more complaints have been filed against it than competing pet stores. According to Mason veterinarian Ruthann Carr, the problem with pet stores is that a customer doesn’t get to know the history of the dog.

“You don’t know what environment a puppy came from,” Carr said. “In general, no matter how good a store is, it’s just those kind of unknowns that lead to issues.”

Ohio legislation needs to revise its laws regarding the treatment of dogs being sold, according to Carr.

“It is pretty disappointing that they couldn’t have put something further in the bill to raise the standards of pet stores,” Carr said. “They need to add something regarding the source of puppies that come into stores as well.”

Freshman Nicole Kaldas said she’s getting a dog soon, but she’s cautious of making sure it’s healthy. She said she is looking into the dog’s history before purchasing.

“I wouldn’t buy a dog from Petland because a lot of their dogs are sick and when people take them to a veterinarian, there are a lot of things wrong with them, but Petland won’t refund them,” Kaldas said. “That’s what happened with my other dog because the breeder said she was perfectly healthy, but was actually really sick.”

An article published by the Cincinnati Enquirer in November 2015 said that several customers have accused Petland of providing puppies with medication to mask an illness, such as a cough suppressant to disguise pneumonia. For 2014 Sycamore graduate Angela Phillips, her puppy purchase ended in peril. Phillips said she spent over $1,300 on a Dachshund from Petland that died within two days.

“I took her to the vet and I thought it was just going to be a regular appointment, but then they found out she had multiple things wrong with her,” Phillips said. “She had pneumonia, parasites, fluid in her stomach, and she had an eye infection on top of it. When I took her back to Petland, they literally took her out of my hands, put her in a cage and she died right as we were in the store.”

Petland wasn’t initially going to refund her, Phillips said, even though she followed the store’s protocol for having a sick dog.

“It became a huge scene because they didn’t want to give me my refund even though I had taken her to the vet within the first 48 hours,” Phillips said. “We were almost at the point of having to get a lawyer involved because they said they were not giving back anything but half the money.”

Phillips said she doesn’t want her situation to happen to other people.

“I don’t want any other family to go through the same thing,” Phillips said. “Especially if they have little kids. I know when a dog dies, to the little child, it’s like the end of the world. I don’t think Petland stands by their word. I don’t think pet stores should be able to sell dogs just because so many of them are so sick. I think it’s awful.”

See the Full Story: http://thecspn.com/?p=34474

No Longer a Bystander

Occasionally, on Twitter and Instagram, I'll see a post that alerts me--a melancholy caption or a tweet that screams "I'm lost". Or I'll notice somebody is acting differently than they they normally do. A little alarm goes off in my head that says this person needs help.

But oftentimes I'll just ignore it. I'll let that alarm beep on, until it slowly fades as I resume my daily activities. I'll choose to believe that the person is actually fine. Or that I don't know them well enough, so I'd make things weird by attempting to talk to them.

And that person may be fine. They could just be having a rough day, as we all do.

Or it could be a cry for help. Their signal that they need somebody to talk to.

Suicide has been on my mind lately. Recently, a member of an organization I'm very passionate about, OASC, made the decision to take his own life. While I can't say I knew him personally, or had even met him before, it still broke my heart to hear. A life lost way too early.

It's not always obvious that a person is suffering and experiencing pain, that's why it's so important to be cognizant of what's going on around you. If you see any signs that a person may be depressed or suicidal, it's imperative to attempt to help them. Or put them in contact with somebody who can.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1(800)273-8255 

I don't want to be a bystander anymore. From now on, if I see something wrong, I'm going to step in. If I think somebody needs help, I'm going to talk to them.

Whatever the case, I vow to reach out to that person. To acknowledge their good qualities. To let them know that they can make it through the school day. To just remind them that somebody cares.

I encourage you to do the same.

And remember,

• You're not annoying for checking on a person.

• You're not weird for wanting to help.

• You're not nosy for asking about their life.

• You just care.

Potential threat results in attendance drop

Juliana Discher I Staff Writer

October 20 was not a designated skip day, yet 20 percent of the student body still didn’t show up.

After a threatening note was left anonymously in a Mason High School classroom, administration felt the need to alert parents on the matter. Principal David Hyatt said, when it comes to addressing threats, the definitive information regarding the incident won’t be revealed, as it’s safer for students, but the community is still given the necessary ground knowledge.

“With any investigation, we don’t get into the specific details,” Hyatt said. “It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything, we just don’t get into what we do in an investigation. We sent an email to parents about the note to keep people informed and educated on what’s going on. We feel our staff, our families, and our community have the right to know where we’re at and what we’re doing.”

A thorough investigation was conducted to ensure the safety of students and staff at school on October 20, Hyatt said.

“We reached out to a number of people,” Hyatt said. “The last thing we want is to walk into this building and not have the assurance that everyone is completely safe. After talking to the Mason Police Department, the chief of police, central office, superintendents, we came together and made the decision that it was a concern, but we were 100 percent positive it was safe.”

On the date the note alluded to, Hyatt said that the appropriate measures were taken.

“Our staff was very vigilant, as they always are,” Hyatt said. “It’s pretty well know that Mason Police Department had a larger presence during that school day. There was an additional police officer cruising the parking lot. We also had three plain clothed officers in the hallways because they’re trained to identify things that look suspicious or concerning. Since that day was specifically pointed out, we felt that we should have additional support.”

There was a significant increase in absences on October 20. Hyatt said he understands why parents allowed their children to stay home that day, which is why all the absences were excused.

“It’s certainly a parent’s right to judge if they feel comfortable having their child go to school,” Hyatt said. “We obviously want every student here, but there are other things in life that we have to respect. The bottom line is that we’re gonna go back and pick up where we left off.”

According to Fox19, five separate schools across the Tri-State were targeted with bomb threats on October 7. Hyatt said these events were unrelated to the incident that happened at Mason.

“I don’t think there was any correlation,” Hyatt said. “Those were verbal threats and ours was just a concern based on a note found.”

According to assistant principal Dan Distel, safety threats have seemed to be more prevalent recently.

“It feels like this is more on our front burner of concerns when it comes to threats in the region,” Distel said. “Although, building safety is always our number one priority, some of those trends do make it feel like it’s more of a fad or if there are copy cats.”

Distel said some of the blame for increased threats can be attributed to social media usage, but it’s mostly unknown as to why they’re being seen more frequently.

“We saw a little bit of students making threats on social media last year,” Distel said. “I think kids understand more the consequences that can come out of irresponsible social media usage. In this day and age, with how quick communication can happen, people definitely say things through social media that they immediately regret.”

Hyatt said it was coincidental that this incident occurred during ‘Say Something Week’—an initiative established after Sandy Hook. The basis of the week is to encourage any person who finds something that doesn’t seem right or is concerning, to alert an administrator or law enforcement officer.

“Our best measure of safety is our students, staff, and community talking and letting us know if they hear or see things,” Hyatt said. “We’re fortunate that we have people who take that very seriously. This (incident) was identified through a staff member who felt the need to say something and I commend that person. I only hope that students feel the same need to report things because ultimately, that’s what keeps us safe.”

See the Full Story: http://thecspn.com/?p=34179

THEOPHILUS NORTH APPEALS TO HIGH SCHOOLERS, SELLS OUT ON OPENING NIGHT

Juliana Discher I Staff Writer

Photo by Lance Moody

Finding your place in life--a battle that Theophilus North and most high school students face.

Theophilus North is a play adapted from a 1973 autobiographical novel by Thornton Wilder. Main director Allen Young said the underlying themes in it are very applicable to high school students.

“It ties in really well with where kids are at this point in their lives,” Young said. “Theophilus North is supposed to be a writer, but he doesn’t want that. He wants to live life, not just observe it.”

Sophomore and lead actor Matt Berman said it tells the tale of a man struggling to find himself.

“I play Theophilus North, and he is a teacher in New Jersey who quits his job,” Berman said. “He buys a really old car and gets as far as about Newport, Rhode Island and starts having adventures there.”

Senior student director and actor Anthony Rought said the play has come a long way.

“I’ve had to attend every rehearsal and seeing how it’s come together from the very beginning to how performances are laid out is really cool,” Rought said. “”The progress is amazing.”

Berman said his favorite scene as Theophilus involves some kooky antics.

“Collin Aldrich, another sophomore, and I do a scene entirely in French,” Berman said. “It’s a bit nerve wracking because neither of us knew French, so we had to learn. It’s very big in the acting and very fun.”

Rought said he has high expectations for the performances this coming weekend.

“I expect us to sell out because we sold out on opening night,” Rought said. “Last weekend was amazing. During our matinee, the Cappies group came in, which is the high school review group, and they really enjoyed the play.”

Theophilus North has a lot to offer emotionally for viewers, Rought said, which is why people should come see it.

“Tickets are $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults,” Rought said. “I think people should come see this play because it’s really well written, and the themes in it are very pointed and relatable. The themes are: isolation, societal pressures, getting help when it is not asked for, and going off and finding your own adventure.”

Theophilus North is two hours of entertainment worth seeing, Young said.

“When you go, there are a couple things you’re going to take away,” Young said. “It’s very funny and witty. The characters are intriguing and interesting, and you can get wrapped up in them. Everyone who comes out is going to really enjoy their evening.”

See the Full Story: http://thecspn.com/?p=34327