This week our student’s thoughts are turning to spring, sports and learning. Spring is definitely in the air.

The Best Season

By SHELBY FERRY

Spring is the best time of the year. Everything thaws and the flowers start to come out. It is the time when our Island is at its most beautiful. You really see that beauty in the spring. Everything comes to life and people start to come out of their houses. Kids start sports and everyone starts walking around. Spring is the time of life and happiness. The air is warm and the grass is green.

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Summer Plans

By CARLOS GUZMAN

I have plans for the summer and what is on my mind for a summer day. Some days I will be in the mood to play basketball, skateboard or go to the beach. Having a better summer than last summer is what I try to work on. For the most part, I am glad that you don’t have to be in bed at a certain time in the summer so that you can get up for school. This is what I do in the summer — just wake up to a new day.

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History Matters

By ANA NASCIMENTO

Is Brazilian history important? Do Brazilian kids have the need to learn more about their own country? Should American kids know a little more about the country where some of their friends come from? Should Brazilian history be taught in school property, instead of only being taught at home? In my opinion, we need Brazilian history because it’s a good way to learn about new cultures, and about their governments.

I was only 12 years old when I moved to the United States and since then I haven’t learned anything about my country. To tell you the truth, I don’t even remember things about Brazil, besides the obvious. I just can’t remember most things that I’ve learned while I was there. I always thought it would be great if we had the opportunity to learn more about Brazil, especially because there are many students here who came to the United States really early and never had a chance to learn anything about Brazil. Most Brazilian students at the high school speak Portuguese but don’t really know anything about where they came from. There are also some students that were born here in the U.S. who don’t even speak English well because their parents never really care.

I think that these students have the right to know more about where their parents came from, and where they will have to go visit one day. Everyone has seen Brazil in movies and how beautiful it is, but most of the time the movies show more the “favela” slum. They show that Brazil is a dangerous place, and that its conditions aren’t good.

But they are missing the point; the reality is that there is no safe place to live anymore, and, yes, Brazil has its ups and downs. Brazil has people from the government who steal money from the poor people, but tell me which place is so perfect that none of those things exist? I don’t think there is any place like that.

Next year the school is giving us a great opportunity. They are giving us the chance of knowing more about Brazil and its history.

Mrs. Weintraub agreed that we have to know more about it, and she will be teaching whomever wants to know a little something about Brazil. It will be a great opportunity for some of the students who don’t know anything about it, either because of their parents or

because they never had the chance. And I’m sure of one thing: I will be taking the Brazilian history class this coming year.

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Why We Should Learn Black History

By DENVER MACIEL

I think we should study black history because we need to know the horrific history of racism and how it happened. Dr. Martin Luther King was a pastor who fought for equal rights for all people and shocked the world with his speech “I Have A Dream.” This was one of the most powerful speeches that the world ever heard. Many people did not believe in the idea of equality but when Dr. King was assassinated, the country was in shock. With Dr. King’s passing, America finally came together and made peace with each other after 100 years.

Although groups like the KKK still exist, they are minor, and now that Barack Obama has been elected president we are finally putting an end to the years of hate. If there was doubt that an African American could ever be elected as our president then that question has been answered. It is important that we learn how far we have come.

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Happy to See Brazilian History

By RAFAEL MACIEL

Next year our school is offering a new class called Brazilian History and Culture.   Many people have already signed up to learn about the history of Brazil, and it looks like the class will be a success. I am very happy to see the school offering this class. In the 10 years that I have been in this country, I have never learned anything about Brazil. I feel that school in the U SA teaches a lot about the USA, but very little about other countries. I believe that schools should teach us just as much about the rest of the world. If we don’t learn about other countries, we won’t get very far and the world is becoming more and more connected. Learning about other countries will be essential for all of our futures. I am really happy to see the high school offering this class, and I hope many people join it.  This class, like Irish History and Culture, will be a certain success.

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What About Women?

By MADISON HUGHES

Since the mid-1800s, women have gained many rights. One was the right to play sports. As a girl who is athletic and plays sports, I feel women athletes get little respect.  A lot of people make fun of girls sports and they say, “Girls sports are a joke.” That’s really unfair

to the women athletes. I believe women in sports should be respected and be given more credit. I know if we could play some of guy’s sports we would, but we aren’t allowed to do that. Most people don’t realize that there is more fairness in girl’s sports; it is not all about beating the other guy; there is lots of thinking involved. I am not saying that men’s sports don’t deserve credit, they do! I just think it’s unfair to make fun of women who put their heart and soul into sports.

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Women Who Kill

By PHILIP JORDAN

Russian investigators on Friday identified one of the female suicide bombers in the Moscow metro attacks that killed dozens of people as teenager Dzhennet Abdullayeva.

The committee’s press office said that Abdullayeva was the suicide bomber at the Park Kultury metro station on Monday. She was born in 1992, the office said, but there were no further details as to her age. The investigators established her identity “after a series of forensic and genetic examinations as well as identification procedures,” the committee said. It said the identity of the second female bomber is under investigation.

Russian newspapers reported Friday that Abdullayeva, whose last name has also been cited as Abdurakhmanova, was the widow of a prominent Dagestani rebel militant leader who was killed by federal forces in late December. Monday’s blasts tore through the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in central Moscow, the female bombers detonating their explosives about 40 minutes apart, beginning just before 8 a.m.

An estimated 500,000 people were riding trains in the capital at the time of the attacks. The death toll stood at 39 and rose to 40 when a 51-year old man died Friday morning in a Moscow hospital, according to Russian state television.