In 1998, Zimbabwe gifted a 26 month-old male African elephant to India as a diplomatic gift. They named him Shankar after India's 9th president. Shankar is now 24 years old and has lived his entire life in the Delhi zoo. Shankar has been living in solitary confinement ever since his companion, Bombai, passed away in 2005. Shankar is chained for 17 hours a day; when he is let out, he barely has enough space to move around. Elephants are social creatures and suffer from neurol

A long weekend. MAP testing. Rotating Wednesdays. All resulting in confused students. The schedules have been changing a lot recently, ending in uncertainty, students not knowing where to go. After a five-day weekend, ASA’s were on, then off, and then on again. No one knew if it was blocks 1-4 or 5-8, or if Wednesday was short. Everything was changing, contradicting statements being made by teachers. With the other two MAP tests coming up, students are still confused about th

Twenty years ago, the world changed forever. On September 11, 2001, the world trade centers in NYC were hit by two out of four planes hijacked by Islamic extremist group al Qaeda. The other one struck the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C, and the fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks caused 2996 deaths and over 6000 injuries. The attacks not only changed the way that people value their families but changed airport security rules and caused h

Most middle schoolers didn’t hesitate to get out of bed last Friday. Everyone was excited for a special day — shortened classes, the weekend just a day away, and of course, Fort Frenzy. Bags were frantically packed the night before, stuffed with bathing suits, extra masks, and for some reason, a hat; everyone was anticipating the Fort Frenzy activities. But as students began to arrive at school and open the student bulletin, they were met with a shock: “Sadly, we have decided