Two High Profile Deaths; Who Knew? Written By: Sarina Phoung
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OuRCity News Issue 2, Volume 5 Two High Profile Deaths; Who Knew? Written By: Sarina Phoung Percentage of River City students who were able to identify these two individuals when shown a photo. 46% 84% In recent weeks, two famous figures December 5th. have passed away – one being a well- Paul Walker, an American actor students were asked to identify the name of known political figure and the other being a known for his role as Brian O’Connor in the person in the photo. marginal Hollywood actor. The Fast and the Furious series, passed We were curious to know which Nelson Mandela was a South away at the age of 40 in a fatal car accident type of news River City students expose African anti-apartheid revolutionary on November 30th. themselves to. and politician, who led his country into A few weeks after both died, Mr. Out of 61 students, 84% knew democracy, spent 27 years in prison, and Hoermann’s World History students were who Paul Walker was and only 46% were became the first black president. He passed presented two images – one of Nelson familiar with Nelson Mandela. away at the age of 95 in his home, on Mandela and the other of Paul Walker. The Continued on pg. 2 Issue 1 Ou[RC]ity|December 2013 2 Editorial Policy OuRCity News is a student publication and public forum. In accordance with state education Letters to code, the editorial staff of OuRCity News shall be responsible for assigning and editing the news, the editor. editorial and feature content of this publication. 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Nadia Benafghoul [email protected] Views of the editors and staff, as well Sarina Phoung as letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect Tommy Rickard those of the administration and/or staff of River City High School. doing business. Advertising accepted by OuRCity News shall not be construed as an endorsement Advertising by the school staff, adviser administration or OuRCity staff has the right to accept, reject, Board of Education. OuRCity News makes no edit or cancel any advertisement. The staff of guarantees as to the quality of a particular service OuRCity News will not accept advertising that or product. incites or encourages illegal activity or is libelous or obscene in the opinion of the editorial board. Photography Policy Advertising must offer merchandise or service Published photographs will not be and must refrain from attacking competitors or altered except as necessary in professionally disparaging their products, services or methods of accepted darkroom and cropping procedures. Two High Profile Deaths; continued.. Sophomore Rebecca Schwartz was one of the students surveyed. She was able to identify Nelson Mandela but not Paul Walker. “I try to keep up on world events, my grandmother and I often speak about what is going on in the world. I remember one of those conversations a while ago and she had told me about Mandela and why he was important,” said Schwartz. Unlike Schwartz, sophomore Breanna Hernandez was able to identify Paul Walker but was unaware of who Nelson Mandela was. She knew of Walker from his Fast and Furious 6 film and was notified of his passing by her aunt, who found out on social media sites. “I think it’s interesting that youth culture focuses so much on celebrity news,” said Mr. Hoermann. He hopes to expose his world history students to news beyond Hollywood. Issue 1 Ou[RC]ity|December 2013 3 Asperger’s in the Media Written By: Joseph Rodriguez At a local supermarket in Clay, New English speaking doctor named Lorna Wing rare nowadays for someone to NOT York on November 12 according to Good published a series of cases of similar case be connected to an individual who has Morning America, Chris Tuttle, a 28 year finds. Asperger’s…whether it’s someone that they old man who has Asperger’s, was given Wing decided to publish the cases under know at school, someone in their family, or numerous complaints by a customer for the name of “Asperger’s syndrome,” which someone who’s related to a friend of theirs.” being “too slow” and the customer loudly the findings of Asperger and Wing led to Hernandez also gives details on complained to his manager as well. Asperger’s being officially considered a her experiences as well; “Most individuals His sister, Jamie Virkler found out from disease in 1992. that I’ve seen with an Asperger’s diagnoses her depressed brother, which then she Asperger’s portrayal in the media have different levels of social cognition,” posted the story on her bed-and-breakfast’s has been both criticized and praised on which Hernandez states the issues, such as Facebook page the next morning. By the different forms of shows or movies, such as difficulty planning, verbal problems, and time she checked the page in the afternoon, the film Rain Man or sitcom The Big Bang abnormal patterns of behavior. the post had 15,000 comments and 92,000 Theory. The questions that come up when likes dedicated to expressing their own Yasmin Hernandez, a Psychologist with talking about how people interact with stories and praising Tuttle. experience working with people with people that have Asperger’s syndrome is Asperger’s syndrome is an autism Asperger’s, explains that examples such as do they even understand enough what the spectrum disorder that is shown through Dr. Brennan from Bones or Sheldon from syndrome is exactly. features such as social impairment, lack of Big Bang Theory show Asperger’s in a Hernandez explains in detail that her understanding in certain subjects, trouble positive way and help people understand belief is “I don’t think anyone knows maintaining relationships, and more. People Asperger’s more. enough about Asperger’s, but the more diagnosed with Asperger’s usually find out People’s awareness with Asperger’s that can be found out and in turn taught they have it during the development period is much more common than previously to the public will only help those that in their lives, which means childhood or in thought, with organizations such as the US do have the disorder.” Ahern also agrees the person’s teenage years. Autism & Asperger Association and Autism with the sentiment of the public will in Asperger’s was first discovered Speaks informing the public of the dyslexia. the future understand Asperger’s more, in 1944 by an Australian pediatrician by Recent studies by the London SNAP Project declaring that “My hope is that with more the name Hans Asperger by him observing show that 1 in 92 people are diagnosed with public exposure, individuals on the autism 4 children who had trouble trying to be Asperger’s. spectrum will be treated with tolerance, social with others. His observations were Michelle Ahern, the River City understanding, and acceptance.” published in German and were not known Psychologist, explained her experience to the rest of the world until 1981, when an with the syndrome, stating that “It’s River City Mathletes Have No Limits Written By: Austin Miller The Mathletes program here at he attributes his abilities to his love of math that everyone was having a good time; River City is on its way up through its and to his teacher Ms. Tan, “it [math] comes we were huddled together like a team competition rankings. This last Thursday, naturally to me; it’s fun.” trying to help each other understand each the Mathletes team, while going to the Ms. Tan, AP Calculus teacher, is problem we were given. tournament without a full team, placed 12th the teacher who resides over the River Our mathletes may have room to out of 23 teams in November’s competition. City Mathletes Club. Concerning the improve, but we are on a steady path to These tournaments pit mathletes competition, she said she was “totally happy bringing the Mathletes program to new from numerous high schools against for this team; we are on track to making top heights. Both Ms. Tan and the mathlete each other by testing them on multiple 10 again.” members are looking to improve on this math subjects. Each mathlete receives She explained that while we did week’s results and are excited for the rest an individual score for every problem pretty well for a new and incomplete team, of the season. they solve correctly, and a team score is there are still topics to work on. “Our Group calculated by finding the sum of a club’s and Algebra tests need improvement but our individual scores. The team that scores the Arithmetic, Trigonometry, and Geometry most points wins. tests are good.” All of our Mathletes were able to Other Mathletes at the competition score points. Two, in fact, almost scored also felt that there was room for perfect scores.