Vol. 22 No. 3
Lenape Valley Regional High School, 28 Sparta Rd., Stanhope, NJ 07874
Fall
Scoreboard
Bowling:
JV:
Varsity:
7-8
6-10
Boys Basketball:
Freshmen: 14-7
JV:
10-9
Varsity:
8-14
Girls Basketball:
JV:
Varsity:
13-7
10-14
Wrestling:
Varsity:
14-10
N/A
N/A
Swimming:
Boys:
Girls:
12-1
7-5
Upcoming
Events
March 25—April 3:
Spring Break
April 11—13:
PARCC Testing
April 14:
Faculty Follies
How well are NJ students prepared for PARCC?
By. Kelsey Claesson
whereas high school students appeared fell way below the middle
mark (a score of a 3 out of 5).
Soundaram Ramaswami, an
assistant education professor and
expert in testing and assessment
at Keane University, claims that
high schools should have expected these low results because
the younger students in elementary and middle schools had been
taught under Common Core
Standard since they first entered
school.
Others have chalked NJ high
schools poor scores up to the idea
that the students just truly did not
try. They were aware the test being distributed was purely for
experimental purposes and would
have no bearing on their gradua-
The time for students, freshman through juniors, who will
be participating in the PARCC
test is coming closer. Based on
last year’s score statewide, New
Jersey did not finish with the
high-performance that was expected. With about only 25% of
students meeting "proficient” in
mathematics and 22.6% proficient in English Language Arts/
Literacy, schools were disappointed upon receiving their
final scores.
However, it is unclear as to
why NJ schools performed so
poorly. In general, students in
elementary and middle schools
throughout the state obtained
much higher scores on the test,
tion requirements or grades in classes. Many of these students were
also given small incentives for not
opting out of the test, such as halfdays, breakfasts, and exemptions
from finals.
This poor outcome for last year's
testing circuit, combined with the
lack of knowledge as to why the
results were what they were, leaves
schools to ponder what the outcome
of the 2016 tests will be.
However, David Hespe, an
education commissioner in NJ, stated, “The first year’s results show
there is still much work to be done
in ensuring all of our students are
fully prepared for the 21st Century
demands of college and career.”
“Sister-to-Sister” prom shop is in need of dresses
By: Sarah Halma
Ice Hockey:
JV:
Varsity:
March 2016
Project Self-Sufficiency in
Newton, will be opening up
“Sister-to-Sister,” a thrift shop for
prom dresses. They will take new
or used prom dresses to give to
those who are in need of such a
thing. The shop will also take
accessories, shoes and bags.
The prom shop was conceived
by teenagers, Isabella and Sophie
Ilaria, who saw an opportunity to
help other teens less fortunate
than themselves. They marshalled
a group of friends and managed to
collect 100 dresses to stock the
initial Sister-to-Sister Prom Shop
in 2008.
Donations will be accepted
Monday through Thursday, 9:00
a.m. – 8:00 p.m., and Friday,
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Those who
are unable to make a donation
during these hours are encouraged to call the office to make
special arrangements.
Donations are requested by
March 25, so that the items can
be properly arranged for display.
Old problems
resurface in new
guises
Page 2
Helpful tips for
passing upcoming exams
Page 3
The newest in
food contamination — GMOs
Page 4
Page 2
The Patriot Press
Times change, but certain issues, not so much!
By: Lindsey Wright
Let’s do a throwback to March 1998 and revisit an
article written by a former student, Kelli Kohl. The article
headline was: “LVR all choked up over smoking.” Does the
topic sound the least bit familiar?
Although smoking cigarettes on school grounds and
within the bathrooms does not seem to be as big an issue as it
once was, students attending LVR today have acquired a new
habit that may be just as harmful as a regular cigarette. Ecigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, are a new form of technology introduced in 2007 that are supposedly a “safer” alternative to smoking cigarettes.
A small study by Wolfgang Schober of the Bavarian
Health and Food Safety Authority published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health said
that, “Vaping worsened indoor air quality by increasing the
concentration of nicotine, PAHs and aluminum - compounds
that have been linked to lung and cardiovascular disease.”
Now, this brings us back to the issue of smoking/
vaping in the bathrooms at school. Not only is the user himself/herself breathing in harmful, addictive chemicals such as
The Patriot Press is a public forum. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views
of the advisors or the administration. The staff encourages readers to respond to The Patriot Press.
All submissions must be signed.
Editor-in-chief
Kelsey Claesson
Reporters
Ella Azeri
Yesenia Perez
Mary Ernst
Sarah Halma
Abby Henderson
Katherine Lyman
Yesenia Perez
Antoinette Simonetti
Lindsey Wright
Advisor
Patricia L. Ingram
nicotine, but these chemicals are in the air for other students to
breathe.
Also, it must be acknowledged that although smoking
cigarettes in the school bathroom is not much of an issue, it still
occurs here and there.
The simple fact of the matter is, vaping and smoking
in the bathroom are both still problematic today. The students
of Lenape Valley, as well as the administration, need to work
together to keep the bathrooms cloudless and our lungs clean.
“How has smoking/vaping become
problematic in Lenape Valley?”
“Students are more concentrated on trying to seem cool by smoking and vaping, and are not focused on their studies”.
-Alexis Simpson (12)
“Kids skip class just to smoke/vape in the bathroom, which is
dumb.”
-Danielle Casey (10)
“Smoking and vaping has become (some) students’ main concern,
when it should be their work and activities. It is taking over their
lives.”
-Tara Byrne (11)
“Every day wjem the cars pull out of the student parking lot, cars
are full of vape smoke! If I can’t see your face, how can you see
the road?”
Allyson Isherwood (10)
“I heard vaping grows mold in your lungs. That’s disgusting!”
Richie Fritzki (12)
“Students actually leave class to go to the bathrooms and vape,
which makes no sense to me. I feel that some people participate
in it because others do it and to appear cool.”
-Nora Gallagher (12)
Page 3
The Patriot Press
Teen Arts festival shows off students’ accomplishments
By: Abby Henderson
you can do as well. I look forward to it
every year!”
The exhibit was open from
March 11 to March 18, Monday-Friday
from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m, It was
closed on Sunday. The festival itself
took place on Tuesday, March 15, from
8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
The event consisted of creative
writing, dance, music, theatre, video,
visual art, vocal, workshops, “Stop’n
Go” art stations, and critiques. Pieces
of artwork selected by professional artists will make their way to the Teen
Arts Select Art Exhibit, where the art
will be displayed both at the SCCC Art
Gallery in the C Building and the Performing Arts Center.
In the middle of March, the
annual Sussex County Teen Arts Festival was held at Sussex County Community College. The festival’s purpose is
to celebrate the diverse artistic accomplishments of the students throughout
New Jersey.
A large number of schools attended the festival, all coming together
to share their artistic abilities. The festival also consisted of critiques by professional artists, allowing students to receive feedback and gain a learning experience.
One student that attended Teen
Arts was Marissa Cardena. She stated
that, “Teen arts is a great experience. You get to show everyone your
creativity and witness what those around
The exhibit will take place
from March 24 to April 13 and has
the same hours as the exhibit from
March 11-18.
Hints that will help you ace your AP exams
By: Kate Lyman
As the weeks of school fly by,
the AP students are beginning to think
about the quickly approaching May exams. Although these tests may appear
stressful and costly at first, the advantages to taking the test far outweigh
the cons. If the student passes a test, the
$100 fee will be refunded, and they will
be awarded college credits for that class.
There are many different resources online that can aid in the student’s preparation for the test. Some tips
provided by apexlearningvs.com include:
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Start taking practice tests at least 4-6
weeks before the exam date
To improve your memory, try playing
memory games or making acronyms
Bring all of your materials: pencils,
blue or black pens, and/or batteries for
your calculator, if needed
Look over the multiple choice questions before reading the text or essay
When answering multiple choice
questions, try to think of what the answer may be before looking at the
choices
Leave the more difficult questions for
the end; make sure you answer all of
the questions that you know
In addition to the practice tests
being taken in class, students can find
sample tests at apexlearningvs.com and
apstudent.collegeboard.org. These sites
also contain subject specific tips for the
different types of tests including loreign language, science, English, and
math.
Information on the exam,
along with test dates, can be found on
the guidance section of the Lenape
website and in the guidance office. For
any further questions concerning the
test, please contact Ms. Kochan.
New SAT tests are on the horizon
By: Yesenia Perez
In March 2016, students are
being introduced to “The New SAT.”
The content in the SAT will be different.
For example, it is going to be
made up four parts: reading, writing
and language, math, and the optional
essay component. Not all colleges will
require the essay. The difference with the
essay is that students no longer have to write
anything personal, such as an opinion about
a topic.
It will relate more to responding to
a passage. The 50 minutes allowed to complete it is 25 minutes more than what given
on SAT essays taken before March.
According to the College board, the
changes made to the SAT are going to
make it appear more like the ACT.
With these new changes, the test is
expected to be easier to take because
there will be less “testing tricks.”
The new SATs are meant to
be related more to the material that is
learned throughout the school year.
The Patriot Press
Extracurricular
Page 4
LVRahs soar to semis in Florida competitions
By: Mary Ernst
In February, the cheerleaders, or the
LVRahs as they call themselves, traveled to
Orlando, Florida, to compete against teams
from across the country in the National
High School Cheerleading Championships.
The girls worked extremely hard to
get to Nationals and they were all very excited. Tryouts for the team were in May,
practices began in June, and competitions
started in early October.
The LVRahs had competed in about
six competitions earlier this season, placing
1st in three of them, including the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament. Even
when the team had a rough day, Coach
Lynsie LaBell would try to help the girls
enhance their performances by showing
Swim team
triumphs at meets
By: Abby Henderson
This season was a memorable one for
the Newton/Lenape Valley swim team. At
the Sussex County Championships, the team
won their second straight 1st place finish.
The championship took place on Saturday, January 30. Newton/Lenape Valley
finished their first round of states and
moved up to the second round.
The team scores at the first round
of states were:
1-Newton/Lenape Valley 354.
2-Pope John 221.
3-Kittatinny 189.
4-Jefferson 144.
5-High Point 107.
6-Sparta 95.
7-Vernon 89.
8-Wallkill 42.
9-Hackettstown 19.
Not only did the Newton/Lenape Valley team win the first round of states, but
the boys’ team ended with a record of 12-1,
finishing first place in the 2015-2016 North
1 - Group B standings.
They advanced all the way to the
semifinal meet, where the team lost to Randolph High School 88-82. It was been a
remarkable season and definitely one to
remember.
them videos of their routines and telling the
team areas where they could improve.
There were about 50 teams from all over
the country in the LVRahs division at Nationals. There were three rounds in the
competition: preliminaries, semi-finals, and
finals.
Coach LaBell explained the process.
“About half the teams move from prelims
to semis, and then half the teams from semis move on to finals.”
This year, the LVRahs placed 4th in
their group of 22 teams in prelims and
moved on to semis. “We competed in semi
-finals, but just fell short of finals. However, the team placed better than they have in
many years,” Coach LaBell stated.
All of the girls had worked their
hardest to make it to Florida, and their hard
work paid off. Some of the girls had
waited years to compete at this level, and
their dedication showed. “Performing at
Nationals was exhilarating, and it was a
dream come true. Everyone on the team
put in all of their effort and even with
small mistakes, the performance was one
of our best and personally, my favorite,”
said senior Mackenzie Hickey.
Coach LaBell was very proud of
the girls’ performance. Although it was
tough, they competed well. “We had
some injuries and sicknesses prior to Nationals. “The girls fought through these
complications and did their best.”
As for next year, Coach LaBell
hopes that the team will continue to improve and learn from their mistakes.
Do you know what is in your food?
By: Ella Azeri
“Like it or not, genetically modified
foods are almost impossible to avoid,” says
Sheldon Krimsky, PhD, an adjunct professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts Medical School in Boston.
The only way to escape GMO’s are by consuming only fresh, unprocessed foods that
are marked as non-GMO, which is hard to
find nowadays, considering only 20% of
foods in North America are certified nonGMO/organic.
So what really is a GMO? Basically,
scientists transfer DNA from one plant to
another, giving the recipient enhanced
qualities.
Over 60 countries around the world
have restrictions against GMOs. However,
the U.S. does not. The U.S. government has
approved GMOs because the studies that
were conducted were by the same corporations that created them and profited (and
still continue to profit) from their sales.
The first commercial sale for GMOs
was only twenty years ago. There is no
possible way that our health authorities can
test all of the possible combinations on a
large enough population and be able to say
with absolute certitude that they are harmless.
“We have not fed a group of
humans GMO foods for their whole lives,
and another group non-GMO foods for
their whole lives, with sufficient numbers
to determine statistically whether the two
groups are different in their health status
or development of illness,” says Martha
Grout, M.D., President-Elect of the
American Academy of Environmental
Medicine.
Followers of this way of thinking believe that GMOs are a serious
problem, and a GMO-free diet can
change people's’ lives dramatically.