Glass Corridors What’s Inside? - Feelin’ Groovy? p. 9 - Censored Technology p. 4 - Gay Rights p. 8 - What Is Your Worst Fear? p. 19 - Look Alikes p. 16 - First Date Faux Pas p. 12 Relationship Check p. 14 Spring 2014 Glass Corridors BYOD (BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE) By Emily Washburn Many students have asked the question, when their students as well. will Westhill allow its students to use the Wi-Fi for Although implementing programs that allow their own devices at school? Recently in Mrs. Cor- these new types of educational devices sound useful, nell’s SUPA Forensics class, BOCES conducted an ex- extensive planning is required to make them possible. periment to see whether technological devices would Bandwidth, the capacity to process and use data, must be useful in a classroom setting. Each student select- be taken into consideration. It costs money to purchase ed one of various devices including iPads, “Windows a specific amount of bandwidth. This keeps the technol- Cromebooks” and Nexus 7. These were brought to and ogy operating at a rapid pace and avoids the “spinning from school and used to take notes, conduct conver- wheel of death.” The bandwidth needs to be increased sations and share materials with the to keep up with the amount of teacher and other students. This ex- When asked how he technology being used at school. periment will be used to help deter-liked having this device This becomes a problem with mine how BYOD could work in the BYOD (bring your own device) future. Pat Farrell, who selectedbecause the school will be using Mrs. Cornell says, “Mostan iPad said, an increased amount bandwidth kids are going to be using them and therefore must spend more in college.” Using these devices in money. Also, it takes time to “Yeah! It’s school will help prepare students purchase and add the bandwidth for the future. Students have the sick!” to the system, resulting in prob- opportunity to take notes on their lems in accessing the Internet in device helping them to have more a timely fashion. The forensics organized and easy to read materials. class had difficulties with bandwidth when they began, It helped enhance learning inside and outside but the problem has sinced been fixed the classroom. For example, a program called Edmodo The students seem satisfied with the program so allows students and teachers to interact online. They far. Mary Kate Lee expresses her enjoyment, “I love it!” can conduct discussions about articles and share infor- Pat Farrell expressed his enthusiamum for his iPad with mation and research easily. This ultimately enhances the phrase, “Yeah! It’s sick!” They found the increased the learning process. Mrs. Cornell found this to be very access to their teacher and classmates useful and educa- useful, safe and easy way to communicate with students tionally beneficial, especially outside of the classroom. at home. This program has been compared to Face- If used correctly, having this technology available in book in its set up and the way it works. Other teachers school would bring forth a whole new level of interac- in the building have begun to use this program with tive learning at Westhill. GC News 2 Spring Glass Corridors “I took notes much faster.” -Liz Klink “You have access to the Internet anywhere in school and you don’t have to go to the library to look something up.” -Erin Christensen PROS “Most kids are going to be using them [devices] in college” -Mrs. Cornell “I can’t watch all 30 of them [students] in class.” -Mrs Cornell “Laptops would work better than the other devices.” -Alex Mrozek CONS “The devices do not have certain useful programs that students need for school. For example, Powerpoint.” -Chandler Loyd Glass Corridors Staff Journalists: Kayla Wild Ashley Rocker Emily Kessler Samantha Peebles Amanda Morrissey Bianca Surrey Emily Washburn Advisor: Ms. Brown Editor: Elizabeth Klink 4.2014 3 GC News Glass Corridors Censored Technology By Emily Washburn Looking into any of the computer labs, students can be found pecking away at their keyboards. But when trying to complete assignments and research, they often run into the Westhill Warrior symbol followed by this phrase (or something like it). This means that they were denied access to this site. Every day students and staff are denied ac- cess to various Internet sites and images. But who actually censors the technology? Before anyone goes blaming anyone in particular, it is important to be informed. To begin, Westhill’s Internet Filter is controlled by acts made by the United States government. The government made specific regulations to keep children from accessing potentially dangerous and crude sites by means of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Schools must follow the regula- tions created under this act and use it to help manage their community’s Internet access. D e r - ric Tallman, the head of technology at Westhill, uses questions such as, “Is the content prohibited by law? Is the content appropriate? If yes, for whom? Can the content be provided to children and teachers to better ensure that the educational benefits can be had while also eliminating or reducing the risk of inappropriate exposure in the filtering process?” When going about answering these, he must keep in mind that our web encompasses all the schools, Walberta Park and up. Schools in the area often look to The Central New York Information Center for guidance when making decisions about what to filter. Regarding to other school districts Tallman says, “Each school district is bound by laws in terms of filtering access to sites, yet, there are allowances whereby each district can make some decisions pertain- ing to some access to sites. For example, some districts may choose to allow the use of social web sites, while other districts have decided to not use such sites.” Due to an update in the Internet Filter System, teachers can now override the system. Tallman says, “The new system has the ability to see the user name of the requester to a web site. It then checks the name against a database to determine the permissions to allow or deny access to the web site, such as YOUTUBE.” As of right now, teachers can override for 15 minutes. The Technology Department is working on extending this and will hopefully get it changed soon. With an ever-changing world, keeping up with technology is becoming more and more difficult. Westhill continues to and will continue to install the latest technologies to keep our systems up-to-date. GC News 4 Spring Glass Corridors Marijuana Medicinal? Decriminalized? Legalized? By Kayla Wild During the Governor’s State of the State speech, Andrew Cuomo confirmed that he will bypass leg- islature, where medical marijuana measures have stalled for years, and take executive action. New York is on its way to legalizing medical marijuana. Cuomo said, “We will establish a program allowing up to 20 hospitals to prescribe medical marijuana.” He also stated, “ We will monitor the program to evaluate effectiveness in the feasibility of a medical marijuana system.” New York will initially allow some hospitals to dispense the drug to patients with life-threatening illnesses. With the order, New York will join 20 other states with the legalization of med- ical marijuana. There is an issue with marijuana and the classification of it. There is a pressure to change the drug’s classification as a Schedule 1 controlled sub- stance to a medicinal substance. Two compounds found in marijuana, including THC, have been ap- proved by federal regulators and are available by prescription. Even the American Cancer Society proved that cannabis derivatives can help soothe pain and nausea associated with chemotherapy. However the American Medical Association stands by their statements saying that marijuana is “a dangerous drug” that should remain illegal. New York voters are calling medical marijuana a “no-brainer” according to a new poll that found 10-1 for allowing doctors to prescribe the drug. Cuomo is responding to unprecedented marijuana reform across the country. A coordinated campaign from patients and their physicians is urging the governor to help New York change it laws. States that are on the way to legalizing are Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Rhode Island, and Ver- mont. Facts and Polls!!! • A Quinnipiac University poll found that New York voters support legalization of marijuana 88.9 %. •Over fifty percent of New Yorkers support the legalization of small amounts of mar- ijuana for personal use. •Support for recreational marijuana is strongest among 18-29 year-olds, with 83 per- cent in favor of legalization. 4.2014 5 GC News Glass Corridors WESTHILL BUDGET BY EMILY KESSLER Around this time every year, schools across the state are eager to get news about Last year (2013-2014), Westhill High school received $12,602,948 in state aid.This their state year Westhill will be recieving $12,290,146. Currently state aid is down from last year by aid. Gover- $312,802. The Board of Education’s (2014-2015) proposed budget is 34,062,769 which is $733,635 less than the Board of Education’s budget for the 2013-2014 school year. State nor Cuomo aid this year, as the superintendent Mr. Barduhn stated, is “challenging and diminishing.” proposes the state aid to schools. The Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) has been in place since 2009 and is a sys- Every pub- tem where each school’s state aid money is deducted to fulfill the state’s needs. The Gap lic school Elimination Adjustment has a huge impact on the district.