Cheating and plagiarizing seems almost commonplace in a High School environment. Should athletes have different punishments for the same offense?  Perhaps their extracurricular activities should be limited upon academic misconduct.

            “What does one have to do with the other?” asked Juan Duran, senior and member of the wrestling team.

            Charles Ortiz, senior, was of a different opinion, “Definitely, I mean, cheating in school means they’d be willing to cheat in their sport.”

            During the cheating scandal at FSU in 2007-2008, athletes who were found to be guilty of cheating were suspended from sports. Were the higher-ups correct in their decision to suspend those student athletes from games?

            “Athletes are kind of like role models,” says sophomore, Kevin Martinez, “Even in High School, they are held to a higher standard.”

            Policies vary between districts and schools, but often the rule of thumb is to suspend them from school or extracurricular activities. While this may seem unfair, one must ponder on the morals of those who would cheat.

            Often, the decision is left to the coaches’ discretion for the more minor offenses. But, in most cases, it does not really equal a deterrent. Those who get away with a warning will, more often than not, end up cheating again unless a stricter policy is enforced.

Remember Hi-tides, no one likes a cheater.

            Cheating and plagiarizing seems almost commonplace in a High School environment. Should athletes have different punishments for the same offense as in, should their extracurricular activities be limited for their academic misconduct?

            “What does one have to do with the other?” asked Juan Duran, senior and member of the wrestling team.

            Charles Ortiz, senior, was of a different opinion, “Definitely, I mean, cheating in school means they’d be willing to cheat in their sport.”

            During the cheating scandal at FSU in 2007-2008, athletes who were found to be guilty of cheating were suspended from sports. Were the higher-ups correct in their decision to suspend those student athletes from games?

            “Athletes are kind of like role models,” says sophomore, Kevin Martinez, “Even in High School, they are held to a higher standard.”

            Policies vary between districts and schools, but often the rule of thumb is to suspend them from school or extracurricular activities. While this may seem unfair, one must ponder on the morals of those who would cheat.

            Cheating and plagiarizing seems almost commonplace in a High School environment. In such an environment, should athletes have different punishments for the same offense? Should their extracurricular activities be limited for their academic misconduct?

            “What does one have to do with the other?” asked Juan Duran, senior and member of the wrestling team.

            Charles Ortiz, senior, was of a different opinion, “Definitely, I mean, cheating in school means they’d be willing to cheat in their sport.”

            During the cheating scandal at FSU in 2007-2008, athletes who were found to be guilty of cheating were suspended from sports. Were the higher-ups correct in their decision to suspend those student athletes from games?

            “Athletes are kind of like role models,” says sophomore, Kevin Martinez, “Even in High School, they are held to a higher standard.”

Deadline: N/A

Sport: All sports

Teams: FSU, Beach High teams.

Coverage for games played between blank

Overall team record:  N/A

Summary of recent games:

N/A

Athletes/coaches/fans to be interviewed:                                                        When?

1. Several coaches

2. Several Athletes

3. Students with varying opinions

Questions I’ll Need to Ask:

Who?

Who has been caught cheating?

Who sets up the academic rules for sports?

What?

What exactly is the difference in punishment for athletes?

Where?

Where is this a big issue right now?

When?

How often does this problem occur?

Why?

Why are there different punishments for athletes?

How?

How does this affect the sports teams?

Upcoming games:

            This year’s baseball team is looking good so far. This year is already starting off with a bang, with three wins and only one loss. They triumphed over North Miami Beach, Central, and Northwestern. Their only loss was West Hialeah in a practice game.

With an impressive line-up and some promising talent, Beach High can expect great things of their Baseball team. There are eighteen players in total and six are freshmen. Those freshmen are only allowed to play in games where the team is up at least 8 runs. This allows them to improve without changing the outcome of a game.

 The baseball team does not usually appear to garner the same kind of attention as some of Beach High’s other sports teams, but that may change this year as this team has a good chance to have an even better season than last year’s team. According to Coach Mart, the team’s “pitching is better” among other improvements.

In fact, Pedro Boissalier, Marcell Machado, Manuel Szulnik, Taylor Calibo, and Martim Iglesia are all doing exceptionally this year according to Coach Mart. With this kind of a start for a season, one can expect big things from Beach High’s baseball team.

Go Hi-Tides!

            This year’s baseball team is looking good so far. This year is already starting off with a bang, with two wins and only one loss. With an impressive line-up and some promising talent, Beach High can expect great things of their Baseball team. The baseball team does not usually appear to garner the same kind of attention as some of Beach High’s other sports teams, but that may change this year as this team has a good chance to have an even better season than last year’s team. among other improvements. With this kind of a start for a season, one can expect big things from Beach High’s baseball team.

            This year’s baseball team is looking good so far. With one win and one loss, they are starting the season off on a good note. With a new line-up and some promising talent, Beach High can expect great things of their new Baseball team. The baseball team does not usually appear to garner the same kind of attention as some of Beach High’s other sports teams, but that may change this year as this team has a good chance to have an even better season than last year’s team.

            Most people are aware of Beach High’s football teams, basketball teams, volleyball and water polo teams. Even the cross-country team has garnered a chunk of popularity. However, many students don’t even appear to be aware of the fact that Beach High even HAS a wrestling team.  This is a grave injustice. The wrestling team accomplished in the previous season, with a record that really reflects that. Last year their record was an impressive 10-7.  This season, the team has grown even bigger. Last season the team had 14 members, with the number growing to 18 this year.

————————————————————————-

(Sorry about the lack of facts)

Bizarre: A word commonly applied to people defined as Goths, but is it fitting? Those labeled as “Goth” have long been given a bad reputation, and are a frequent target of negative stereotypes. Many people call them “weird,” or “scary.” The question is: Have they earned such comments? They are often misjudged by others. Often, they are avoided just based on their appearance.

Feature: Second Draft

Goth

Bizarre: A word commonly applied to people defined as Goths, but is it fitting? Those labeled as “Goth” have long been given a bad reputation, and are a frequent target of negative stereotypes. Many people call them “weird,” or “scary.” The question is: Have they earned such comments? They are often misjudged by others. Often, they are avoided just based on their appearance.  The students of Beach High seem far more understanding.

In a recent poll at Beach High, not a single person defined themselves as belonging to the goth subculture.   However, most of the respondents stated that they approved of that particular subculture. Lately, this once thriving subculture has not been seen in Beach High. The clothing that characterizes the goth subculture, however has been adopted by others. This includes “scene” and “emo.” Not just goth, but other subcultures such as punk are not represented by the students of Beach High.

Feature: Final version

Goth

Bizarre: A word commonly applied to people defined as Goths, but is it fitting? Those labeled as “Goth” have long been given a bad reputation, and are a frequent target of negative stereotypes. Many people call them “weird,” or “scary.” The question is: Have they earned such comments? They are often misjudged by others. Often, they are avoided just based on their appearance.  The students of Beach High seem far more understanding.

In a recent poll at Beach High, not a single person defined themselves as belonging to the goth subculture.   However, most of the respondents stated that they approved of that particular subculture. Lately, this once thriving subculture has not been seen in Beach High. The clothing that characterizes the goth subculture, however has been adopted by others. This includes “scene” and “emo.” Not just goth, but other subcultures such as punk are not represented by the students of Beach High.

Many students can be seen wearing clothing that could be characterized as goth(despite uniform policies) yet they do not define themselves as such. It seems that this fading(at Beach High) subculture persists in style if not in form. In short, this subculture has been accepted as a definitive clothing style.

Feature Reflection

Through my feature article I learned how to truly be flexible. My poll results were completely different than what I had been expecting and as such I was forced to rework my article. Not only the general idea but the entire content was changed to match the results. Features are easier than news stories for me, but still are difficult for me.

——————————————————————————————

Opinion: First Draft

School ID’s: Necessary?

            ID’s: Why do we need them? We all know the old excuses for why we have to wear them. They exist for security reasons, so outsiders cannot simply enter as they do not have an ID. However, I have seen friends who don’t go to this school enter without problem. If they do not accomplish what they were made for, the simple question is: Why? Why must students be punished for not wearing their ID’s? The answer is equally simple: They should not be required and students should not be punished.

Opinion: Second Draft

School ID’s: Necessary?

            ID’s: Why do we need them? We all know the old excuses for why we have to wear them. They exist for security reasons, so outsiders cannot simply enter as they do not have an ID. However, I have seen friends who don’t go to this school enter without problem. If they do not accomplish what they were made for, the simple question is: Why? Why must students be punished for not wearing their ID’s? The answer is equally simple: They should not be required and students should not be punished.

            A student being taken out of class or even prevented from going to class for not having his or her ID is a terrible policy and only serves to inhibit education. Imagine: A student forgets his or her ID at home and lacks the money to buy a new one. Is it fair that they are punished? Picture the same situation, but this time the ID was stolen instead of forgotten. Should they be put in S.C.S.I.?

Opinion: Final version

School ID’s: Necessary?

            ID’s: Why do we need them? We all know the old excuses for why we have to wear them. They exist for security reasons, so outsiders cannot simply enter as they do not have an ID. However, I have seen friends who don’t go to this school enter without problem. If they do not accomplish what they were made for, the simple question is: Why? Why must students be punished for not wearing their ID’s? The answer is equally simple: They should not be required and students should not be punished.

            A student being taken out of class or even prevented from going to class for not having his or her ID is a terrible policy and only serves to inhibit education. Imagine: A student forgets his or her ID at home and lacks the money to buy a new one. Is it fair that they are punished? Picture the same situation, but this time the ID was stolen instead of forgotten. Should they be put in S.C.S.I.?

            To be honest, the policy is overly harsh and the ID’s themselves do so very little to actually solve the problems that they are intended to. It seems almost comical, then, that they exist at all. They are a precaution, yet they are used to incite punishment. I do not know if the person who made these policies knows this, but positive reinforcement works far better than negative. If the insist on making us wear these, then they should reward us in some way. They give raffle tickets for knowledge, so why not for following rules?

Opinion Reflection

            My opinion article was yet another failed experiment. The article I specified on my planner was uninteresting and not very coherent. I reworked it with a more general topic and I feel the Final product was a lot more interesting to read. I feel as though opinions are what I’m really suited to write. My thoughts are more organized and coherent.