By Paul Menke
​Is it fair to punish a student for an entire school year for one mistake?

At my old school in Shelby County, Tennessee, if a student was caught doing or having drugs or alcohol, they would be sentenced to 180 days, the equivalent to an entire school year, of In-School Suspension and a mandatory drug counseling program for repeat offenders. At Mashpee, the typical punishment for this offense is a few days of suspension, depending on the student’s history. Which strategy is more effective, and should Mashpee adopt Shelby County’s drug policy?

For those who are not familiar with “in-school suspension,” it is a punishment wherein one would report to a room at the beginning of each school day. The room would have a proctor in it, and one would be brought any work that needed to be done to their designated cubicle-like workspace. The student would be given online or written lessons to learn, and the only two reasons the student would be able to leave would be for an escorted bathroom visit and, possibly, for lunch. Lunch was brought to the student either way, so there was no starvation involved. Finally, there would be no virtually no communication whatsoever for the 7-hour school day, and multiple drug offenses would lead to expulsion.

By Tia Ladd
​Summer is getting closer by each week. The hotter the temperature gets, the less we are able to comfortably wear. But is there a point where less can be too little?

Lately many middle and high schoolers have been wearing very little clothing around school. It seems that there isn't anyone enforcing the dress code. Girls wear very short booty shorts and guys continue to have their pants sagging so their underwear shows. Maybe it’s time for the dress code to be re-established throughout the district.

By Aldona Casey
​From cigars to cigarettes to vaporizers, the world of smoking is always evolving. Making new products with different gimmicks is one way the nicotine and the tobacco industries have been able to make billions of dollars.

The latest products, vaporizers or electronic-cigarettes, are battery powered devices that have cartridges filled with a nicotine infused liquid. E-cigarettes try to create the sensation of smoking tobacco, with “smoke” (which is actually water vapor) and a design similar to that of an actual cigarette.

By Paul Menke
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” - The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

With the recent events of the Parkland school shooting, it is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to ban all guns, and it is easy to forget the sheer importance of the Second Amendment and the plethora of positive effects it has on American society.

The Second Amendment is perhaps the most important amendment the Founding Fathers added to the Constitution. The Second Amendment allows citizens of legal age (and in most states with proper permission and licensing) to defend themselves, their property, their family, and their neighbors from criminals. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans rely on hunting to put food on their table, and/or rely on hunting as an occupation to put money in the bank. Why do people need firearms? Why not? It’s a citizen’s right. Since when did an American citizen need a reason to exercise our constitutional rights?

By Letícia Medeiros
The shooting in Parkland brought back the country's huge, important, complex discussion about gun control and mental health. There are 2 general point of views: the first one is that mentally ill people are the problem, and the other one is that guns are the problem. In my opinion, these two things walk hand in hand. 

Yes, I believe America should have stricter gun control, but mentally ill people still need to be helped regardless of whether or not they can get a gun. Especially, mentally ill men, who not so coincidentally, are more prone to be the offender in school shootings than women. Like many people, until recently I believed the problem was simple and banning guns was the solution, but an article from The New York Times written by Michael Ian Black opened my eyes to the terrifying reality of men's mental health. 

By Stella Bold and Peyton Dauley
On March 14 Mashpee Middle-High School will be joining over 2,000 other high schools nationwide by participating in a 17-minute walkout, dedicated to the memory of the Parkland shooting victims. Just a month after this horrific event, organizers known for creating the Women’s March in Washington D.C. last year planned for the #Enough! Walkout, to raise attention to the issues students find most pressing, such as mental health awareness, school security, and preventing future school shootings.

*The organizers of the #Enough event hope to let students be heard in a way unlike any other. “We need action,” they write on their website. “We believe that the single most powerful act we can do is prepare young people with the skills and commitments to take action around causes that matter to them."

And action is what students have demanded. From walkouts, to assemblies, to protests, students have let their voices be heard in a way unlike any other. “What we must do now is enact change because that is what we do to things that fail: We change them,” said Parkland survivor Lorenzo Prado. As sophomores here at Mashpee Middle-High School, we hope to bring his words to reality.

By Adam Henschel
​Upon the first day of Mashpee Middle High School, I entered Mr. Looney's room not knowing what to expect from Marketing and Entrepreneurship Honors. This was a class that was notorious for varying from year to year, both in curriculum and popularity. However, the second I was acquainted with Mr. Looney and the intimate crew that stood before me I knew I was in the midst of something great.

For the first time in school history, the Marketing class was taking on the lofty task of opening the school store, appropriately dubbed the “Falcons Nest.” This was a job that had been attempted but not mastered by various organizations before us. However, this time around, our mindset was different. Rather than simply accumulating funds, there were greater goals in mind.

By Paul Menke
On November 8, 2016, after a long and brutal battle between Democratic nominee Hillary R. Clinton and Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, the people of the United States elected the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, who lost the national popular vote but won the electoral college by a significant margin.

In the year since Trump’s election, political tensions have been higher than ever between liberals and conservatives, with radical groups like BLM, Antifa, Neo-Nazis and white nationalists stirring the pot, along with many biased news organizations. In many cases, friendships have been tainted, ruined and prevented simply on the basis of opposing political opinions.

By Lilly Rogers
When our founding fathers created the Second Amendment, they didn’t think guns would advance in the way they have. Now in the twenty-first century, guns are much too easy to access and even more deadly.

The debate on whether to change our gun laws has gone on for years. On one hand, many see that making guns harder to access is the best way to prevent mass shootings; others have deemed this as unconstitutional. But the ones who have done this seem to think that the goal is to completely take guns away, when really it’s just to make them harder to access.