Avonte Oquendo was a special needs student who died in October 2013 because he wandered outside of school through a side door that had been left open. Although this was quite a sad event for all of New York, there is now a new law enacted to avert similar incidents in the future. Avonte’s law was officially put into effect on August 7, 2014 and because of it, all but 34 schools in New York City will receive alarms so that students cannot leave undetected. Alarms must be installed on doors that do not have a guard which is why they are generally installed on the back/side doors and not on the main doors of school buildings. The installation of all 21,000 alarms in New York City cost approximately $5.55 million.
Category: by Annie C ’18
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Comic Con 2015!
The race to get tickets for Comic Con 2015 commenced on September 20th. People lined the streets of Downtown Manhattan just to have the chance to get a ticket. According to the NYCC Twitter account, the first people arrived at the store at 3:56pm the previous day as the tickets were being sold at 10am. People showed up in everything from unique cosplay outfits to pajamas. The anticipation was raving. By the end of the day, 4 day and Saturday tickets were completely sold out. All that was left was Sunday and Thursday tickets that sold out around Friday of the next week. With that, all the tickets to Comic Con were sold out and the fates of poor souls who had not had the chance to get tickets were sealed. The only hope left would be scalpers who this year in particular, were being cracked down on. (This year and the previous year, a new type of Comic Con tickets that require a check-in system were implemented. They are magnetic and are able to be scanned by the staff even without a bar code. They ensure that counterfeit tickets are be rejected.)
Brightly colored hair has been a trending look amongst BSGE students. Luckily in our school, hair dye is greatly accepted both by our peers and the staff. In many other schools, “unnatural hair colors” is considered to be distracting and inappropriate. In schools such as ours, dyeing one’s hair is considered to just be another way of expressing yourself. Gabi Prostko ’18 finds it “unfair” that some schools band dyeing hair because “its a form of self-expression and its not fair to stop kids from expressing themselves.”
As fun as dyeing hair may be, it takes a good amount of thinking about whether or not you should do it and if you will, what would be the best way to go about doing it. Some people dye their hair to express their uniqueness and individuality while others do it purely for fun. There are definitely many pros and cons to dyeing your hair, but it really depends on the specific head of hair. For example, some may be afraid to dye their hair because of the damage it could do their natural locks. Others may not care as much because their hair will continually grow, so it is not a big deal to cut off the damaged parts. It is recommended that you weigh your pros and cons and figure out if dyeing is really for you.
If you are definitely sure that you want to dye your hair, you must discover the most efficient and least damaging way of doing so. It is known that bleach can be harmful to your hair, but if it is done right, the effects can be limited. “As someone who has bleached there hair, I really don’t see it as damaging. As long as you take care of your hair, you can keep it just as healthy as the rest of you hair,” says Portia V. 18’.
If you could replace confetti with any object, but still have it function as confetti, what would it be and why?
Mr. Laskowski
Sour Patch Kids, but only if I could catch them with my mouth and eat them as they fell so they wouldn’t hit the floor or other people.
Max Musashi Fischman – 2015
Chocolate, so I could eat it.
Muhib Khan and Rafailo Dokic – 2019
Money, so we could be rich.
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Time Magazine’s Person of the Year
Time Magazine’s annual “Person of the Year” article awards and recognizes the most influential person from the previous year. It began in 1927, and there have been many people nominated for this award since then. There have been some controversies in the past over who won. For example, in 1938, Adolf Hitler won the title.
The important thing to remember is that the title is for the most influential person, which means this influence could be for good or bad. There have also been other interesting winners, like in 2006. Time Magazine stated that everyone was person of the year, for contributing to internet websites, such as Wikipedia, YouTube, or Facebook.
This year, the Ebola fighters were the winners of Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year.” Many are familiar with the epidemic from the news, but these people have experienced it first hand. The Ebola fighters have risked their lives to save others, even when there was no cure. Many nurses,
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BSGE’s Lack of a Physics Class
BSGE is known for being one of the best high schools in New York City. With only 478 students from 7th to 12th grade, many students would agree that it is good to have a smaller, more intimate school environment where everyone knows, well, everyone. However, there are some drawbacks, for example, having such a small school building makes it difficult to walk in the hallways in between periods and having lockers that are accessible throughout the day. Many of us would agree, though, that one of the biggest problems is a lack of variety of classes.
One very important subject that our school is missing is a high school Physics class. There are two major reasons why we lack Physics at BSGE. First, we don’t have a Physics certified teacher working at the school.
Secondly, and perhaps a more difficult to solve reason, is a scheduling problem. Because of the structure of the IB program, the only year students could take Physics at BSGE would be in the 9th grade, whereas most other high schools offer physics to students in the 11th grade. At BSGE, students take Regents Chemistry in 10th grade, either IB SL Biology or SL Chemistry in 11th grade, and no science class in 12th grade. There is no room in students’ schedules for a science class in 12th grade because of IB requirements such as Theory of Knowledge. The problem BSGE has encountered in the past is that by 9th grade students generally have not learned enough math to grasp Physics in the 9th grade. Despite this, school like Stuyvesant have a
Name: Nicholas Tan
Year of Graduation: 2015
Date of Completion: Sept 2, 2014
Title of the Artwork: Disintegration
1) What is this piece depicting? What was your inspiration?
My artwork is a sculpture comprised of two parts. The first section depicts a human skeleton on bare
soil, having its bones chomped apart by a series of three centipedes. The longest of the trio has a man-
like head. Behind the skeleton’s skull lies the second portion, which consists of a looming vulture
standing in a nest of overflowing flora. I came to this bizarre idea by linking human concepts to
animalistic, disgusting imagery. Being that my IB Art theme is “The
On February 5, 2014, CVS made a big move by deciding to stop selling tobacco products as soon as October 1, 2014. The main product that everyone is fussing about is cigarettes. Being a large chain of retail stores, CVS is taking away the supply of cigarettes for many individuals. For some smokers, this means that it is time to find a new source for cigarettes. For other smokers, it means that it is time to quit.
By taking away cigarettes, CVS is encouraging Americans to end their addictions to smoking. More than 480,000 deaths in America are caused by smoking every year. The reduced amount of cigarettes being sold could lead to a great decrease in the amount of smokers. By making this big move, CVS is also encouraging other retailers to stop selling tobacco products to help save lives. Little by little, if retailers stopped selling cigarettes, smoking-related deaths would decrease, permanently.
Recently, there have been advertisements suggesting that other drugstore chains should follow suit. None have announced any changes in their sales yet besides CVS, but this is sure to affect the sales of cigarettes greatly. This step forward could not only encourage other retailers from selling tobacco products, but also discourage smokers from smoking.
BSGE’s 2014-15 school year began at a surprising note when news went around that there was no more 8th period. For the first time in the school’s history, students must leave the building by 2:20 p.m. on Mondays AND Tuesdays. However, students are still free to engage in after school activities on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, in which the school closes at 4 p.m. The reason behind this schedule change is the UFT contractual agreement, otherwise known as the Teacher’s Contract. The Contract is based on the agreement that from now on, Monday and Tuesday’s 8th period will be swapped for teacher training and parent engagement, rather than last year’s student homework help that was offered.
Starting this year, on Mondays professional development and group meetings will be held in which only teachers are allowed to remain in the building. Then on Tuesdays, the school will be open until 4:00 pm for teachers either to work independently or with select students that need one-on-one training. Following this from Wednesdays to Fridays, the school will be open for after school activities such as Zumba, Yoga, Mouse Squad, the Bacc Rag and other clubs. (With the exception of Helping Hands which will continue to hold meetings on Mondays)
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BSGE’s Rubik’s Cube Sensation
In 1974, Erno Rubiks created the first Rubiks Cube. Born on July 13, 1944 in Hungary, Erno became a professor in the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest. His passion for 3-D objects led him to envision a three dimensional cube that would have moving pieces on each face. In 1974, he constructed the first wooden Rubiks Cube.
In a twist of irony, the creator realized that he couldn’t “fix” the cube. He puzzled over the cube for many days, but could never return the cube to its solved state. It took him more than a month before his first solve. Enthralled by his creation, he shared it with the students, his town, and eventually the world. No one could figure it out. In 1975, Rubiks established a deal that would mass produce his Rubiks cubes, and in 1977, they began to appear in stores in Budapest. It wasn’t until 1980, that the first rubiks cubes appeared in the western markets. By 1982, over 100 million rubiks cubes were sold, making it one of the most popular toys to date. People worldwide went wild over this new product, and were completely awestruck when they realized they couldn’t solve the rubiks cube.
The rubiks cube has exactly 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different configurations. In the mid 1980s, several books were published showing people how to solve the rubiks cube. The first official rubiks cube tournament was held in Budapest in 1982. People were drawn into the world of speed solving. Today, the rubiks cube is no longer a secret, as people have figured out multiple methods of solving the cube.
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The Hunger Games: Book vs. Movie
In case you don’t know already know, The Hunger Games is about Katniss Everdeen, a girl who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem. Panem is split into 12 districts and the Capitol. Katniss is from District 12, and volunteers to fight to the death in the annual Hunger Games to save her sister. The story is told from her point of view. It describes her relationships with other characters, her thoughts, and her surroundings, which is important in the constantly life-threatening Hunger Games arena. The book was extremely captivating, and hard to put down.
The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth, told much the same tale as the books. Jennifer portrays Katniss as the brave, and selfless soul she is, and Josh perfectly plays the part of the lovesick school boy staring from afar. The first installment of The Hunger Games film franchise had smaller budget than the sequel, Catching Fire.
Although both the book and movie tell the story well, the book was definitely
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BSGE’s New Parent Coordinator
BSGE recently hired a new parent coordinator named Margaret Pasach who is also BSGE parent. Pasach graduated from Queens College and Fordham University with an MA in Elementary Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Studio Art. Before coming to BSGE, Pasach was working as an elementary school art teacher for grades 1-6 in and a substitute teacher. Pasach has also worked as a director of Arts and Crafts in Crane Lake Camp in Massachusetts.
Pasach is excited to jump right into the school community. The main duty of the parent coordinator is to facilitate and coordinate interactions between parents and guardians with the school’s staff. Pasach’s job also includes getting parents and guardians to be more involved in their children’s learning along. Pasach also
The BACC Rag 