The Foothill Dragon Press

If Foothill were a night sky, Dana Eaton, Foothill’s long-time campus supervisor, would be the North Star. Since the establishment of Foothill in 2000, and up until his retirement in Dec. 2017, Eaton has been brightening students’ days with his charisma, humor and presence on campus.

The 68,000-acre Thomas Fire has caused a considerable amount of devastation to Ventura County families, as tens of thousands have been evacuated and over 150 structures have been burnt down. The fire started on the night of Dec. 4 in Santa Paula and quickly moved towards Ventura and Ojai.

Going into her sixth year of working in the office as the attendance secretary, Jennifer Ellison will be leaving Foothill to continue her journey in administration at Loma Vista Elementary School, as the Office Manager. When the opportunity to move up arose on Oct. 2, Ellison took the job right away.

Tragedy shakes a nation, it brings us together in mourning, in moments of silence, in remembrance. Tragedy opens our eyes to dilemmas, but keeping silence for the losses is not enough. Change is the key to prevention of gun related catastrophes. Real legislative change is the way the United States needs to rebound from the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Events like these leave Americans wondering: why do we have such calamitous acts unfold on our own soil? Why are innocent lives taken at the hands of a gun?

Eight hundred thousand students, military personnel and civil servants will be affected by the latest and cruelest decision by President Donald Trump. Eight hundred thousand people who just so happened to be unlucky in their situation, but took the initiative to better it. Beginning in 2012, former President Barack Obama made the executive decision to grant young, undocumented immigrants opportunities through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially known as DACA. Since its beginning, DACA has helped almost 800,000 teenagers and young adults who unwillingly entered the United States illegally with their family.

The college admissions scandal that was uncovered in mid-March of 2019 highlights the one major injustice in the process of college admissions: the fact that fraud, bribery and cheating give the wealthy an advantage. The method that wealthy parents used to guarantee their child’s admittance into elite colleges includes the bribing of college coaches with tens of thousands of dollars to have the students admitted as a college athlete一even if they had not participated in the sport before一and cheating on standardized tests (e.g. the SAT and ACT).

With BioScience, Buena cheerleading, PAAC, Youth and Government, and still having time for friends, Emily Rath could be considered a busy teenager. Rath is a Foothill alumna who graduated in 2012. She experienced the change from Myspace to Facebook, the Lady Gaga phase, and the disastrous Foothill senior prank.

Taekwondo, Bryant Nguyen’s (‘19) first martial art, has consumed his life since the age of five. His 10-year involvement in martial arts started “due to my parents’ involvement in believing that I should defend myself if the occasion ever arises,” Nguyen said.

Half a year ago, junior Sebastian Bails started off with only a couple followers on social media. Six months later, Bails has over 400,000 fans on Musical.ly, 4,000 subscribers on Youtube, and 17,600 followers on Instagram. He considers this one of his proudest accomplishments.

Sunday, the day of rest, was not a restful day for Lucas Reed or his family and friends. On September 25, 2016, Reed took the flight of his dreams, solo, for the first time.

The stereotypical family model of a mom, dad, 2.5 kids, and a white picket fence is becoming more of a picture of the past than an accurate description of the typical American family. The structures of families in the United States have been evolving and changing over the past 50 years. They are more culturally, religiously, racially, and stylistically diverse than they have ever been before, and Foothill’s families are no exception.

Sam Marsh may be 86 years old, but he has no plans to retire from teaching anytime soon. Known by most as the ‘Train Whistle Substitute,’ this is his sixtieth year of teaching. “Some people may wonder why I still want to teach; why not just retire? I still teach because you students keep me young,” Marsh said. “Some people think you teenagers are going to the dogs. I think you are the hope for the future.”

While most high school students are still hitting the snooze button at 6:15 a.m., freshman Olivia Cate is already up and singing Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” at rehearsal.

More and more Americans are switching out meat for tofu and becoming vegetarian, especially younger generations. There are 7.3 million people in the United States who are vegetarian, and another 22.8 million who follow a “vegetarian-inclined diet.”

Speaking two languages doesn’t just provide the opportunity for broader skills and communication; bilingualism has also been proven to have positive effects on the brain in its adaptability and aging. Recent studies have shown that the brains of bilingual people tend to be better than the monolingual at focusing and task-switching because of their ability to navigate between multiple languages. Bilingual children are also better at adapting to new environments, but people who learn another language at any point in their life still experience the other positive effects, including the delaying Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Whether they’re directed at Miley Cyrus or a classmate, words like “slut” and “whore” are not uncommon terms among high school students. Foothill junior Paris Dosch believes they are used more often now than they were in previous generations. “Back when our parents were our age, it wasn’t okay to be calling people that right and left. Nowadays I hear it all the time,” Dosch said. The Foothill Dragon Press surveyed 232 students Nov. 4 about their views on “slut-shaming.” Several 9-12th grade English classes took part in the paper survey. Students were allowed to respond anonymously or to use their name if they chose to. While the dictionary defines a slut as a “promiscuous woman,” the definitions provided by Foothill survey respondents were varied. 38 percent defined it by the way someone dresses 47 percent defined it by how sexually promiscuous someone is 16 percent defined it by how many people someone dates

Titles like “cream milkshake,” “cherry crush,” and “peppermint party” are no longer just creative names for candies, but flavors of electronic cigarettes, contributing to growing concerns that the products are marketed towards young people and are becoming gateways to regular cigarettes.

All throughout high school, students are taught the “formula” for getting into their dream school: good grades, challenging classes, extracurriculars, community service, stellar essays and test scores. But another less-advertised factor is starting to play more of a role: a student’s digital footprint. In recent years, many schools across the United States have begun googling their applicants. Kaplan Test Prep’s survey – released in fall of 2012 – found that the number of schools doing this has risen to 20 percent of colleges, 27 percent of business schools, and 41 percent of law schools. “What you’re doing online paints a picture of who you are,” said vice principal Carlos Cohen. “Your thoughts, your actions, your values…it’s almost like your resume, in a way.”

Brittany Richardson navigates through the crowded school hallway using just a cane and her hearing to guide her. Being legally blind, she can only distinguish shapes and colors, not details. She has to rely on her other senses. Though there are many difficulties — sometimes others don’t move out of her way as she walks through the halls — she has adjusted well to attending a public high school.

Twenty “living dead” students walked somberly into the quad today dressed in solemn black clothing holding two caskets that symbolized the “deaths” of senior Marnie Vaughan and junior Carly Camarillo. The service began with junior Paige Schouten and senior Annabelle Warren reading aloud letters they had written to their friends, Camarillo and Vaughan, who were both “killed” in yesterday’s crash simulation.

A new school, no friends, unable to speak a word of English; life was not easy for Foothill sophomore Jenny Castillo when she moved to the United States in third grade. “I had to learn everything from scratch because the English that they teach you [in Mexico] is not good. It is very formal… I wouldn’t do anything that the other kids would do. I would be on a computer learning English the entire day,” Castillo said.