All posts by Griffin Caruso, Correspondent

Opinion

Gender diversity

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Gender, more specifically the expression, rights, and “definition” of it has been one of the biggest civil and social debates, more specifically in the United States of America, for the past dozen or so years.

For the general masses usually, there isn’t much to explore, you are born as a specific sex and that reflects your gender, this is often referred to as “Cisgender.”

For a small portion of the population this is not the way it is, instead the sex they are born as conflicts with the gender they identify. Someone who experiences this would typically identify as Transgender, and the confliction is labelled as gender dysphoria.

Now some people who identify as Transgender may be born as a male and identify as a female or be born as a female and identify as a male. In both cases said individual will usually undergo treatment which includes hormone therapy, gender reassignment surgery, and therapy.

The rights of Transgender individuals has been under much scrutinization for years, with dozens of groups looking to either fight or advocate for the rights of those struggling with such issues, or those who are against it claiming it is unnatural and supporting such actions promotes a myriad of awful actions.

Obviously, the people against the rights of Transgender individuals are, not in the right. There is one “third” route in being Transgender, and that is those who identify as Non-Binary.

Not necessarily identifying as either male or female, but instead identifying as something outside the gender binary. Now these people may seek gender reassignment surgeries or hormones, often to reduce breast size, change their voice, or to just appear more in line with how they feel there gender is.

Non-Binary individuals are talked about often, but more in the sense of pronouns and gender-neutral terms, but it is a lot more than that.

Representation in media of said individuals is almost non-existent with a lot of people who identify as Non-Binary, including myself, often finding themselves identifying with more alien like creatures in fiction.

This shouldn’t be the standard though, a huge issue amongst the Transgender community is the suicide due to the extreme challenges they face on a daily basis, with sources stating that 48% of Transgender adults having made one or more attempts in their lifetime.

As a community, and the voices of America, we have to start changing this number, as an individual offering an ear, support, or even help to those who do experience gender dysphoria can make such a big difference in their life.

Opinion, Slider

How I didn’t handle burnout this fall, and why you should

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I got burnt out mid November, from school, juggling three schools has not been the easiest the whole semester but I was managing for two months until my father started making me practice driving again.

I hate driving with a burning passion and the amount of energy and time that took out per day became a little too much for me to handle along with school.

We stopped after a week because my dog got sick, and I needed to take care of him during recovery, this is where the issues began.

Instead of taking care of myself and my dog for a few days I ignored the fatigue completely, I pushed myself to do work, everything I was churning out was just as bad as it could be, I wasn’t proud of it but I knew it’s not going to matter much.

Skip ahead a month to the first week of December and I have done two weeks worth of missing math assignments in two days, and I shut down after that. I didn’t touch anything school related for three days, I ignored all my math work for two weeks, focused on college and my other high school, and it blew up in my face.

I couldn’t, and have not gotten any motivation back since then. Every time I do work I spend at least 20 minutes forcing myself to do the work, before I even press a key.

That feeling, like glue on my brain has been one of the worst feelings I have felt in my life, and I just started accepting zeros because I knew the more I push myself, the more zeros I will have to take.

Burn out is terrible, when you start to feel drained especially with how everyone is home right now, take a day or two off.

Contact who you need to in order to do that and take a break, breathe for a few days and just let yourself enjoy something else besides work.

Cause I don’t know when and if I can fully recover from how much I took on mentally, but I wouldn’t wish this feeling on anyone else.

I baked pumpkin bread the other day, trying to take a break for myself, me not realizing I’m taking a break churned out a whole essay in the hour it took to bake, I could have taken that time to read one of the books I have been wanting to get to.

Instead I got sucked back into my work, that’s something people need to realize right now.

Motivation and willpower are so limited, there is only so much one can do before their body starts to give out, before the days start to warp together and turn into one mangled mess.

Time stops moving properly when you get like this, time starts to feel irrelevant like the only thing that matters is getting whatever you are avoiding out of your life, but you can’t because there is no coal in the train. No warmth for a cold house, it’s just empty, that train was retired a while ago, and that house has been left vacant.

Note: IN fall 2020, Griffin Caruso was a duel enrolled Early College student.

 

News, Slider

NECC’s police chief has eye on future as college seeks to improve, adapt security

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Safety, one of the most important traits that the modern human deserves, has become an increasing concern in educational facilities across America. The rise in school shootings, attacks on college campuses, among other things has caused numerous educational facilities across the U.S to start implementing better security and in higher education implementing a police force in response to this issue.

Northern Essex Community College has started an initiative to create a police force and Deborah Crafts, the college’s Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety has been at the helm of this initiative.

In this initiative one of the biggest factors was the technology and improving it on campus. Chief Deborah Crafts has been a pivotal figure in these changes.

“When Northern Essex went from security to wanting to get into the 21st century they were looking for someone with a variety of campus experiences,” said Crafts. She has had a variety of campus experiences and this was important for the success of the initiative.

“Campus law enforcement is all about the community but a lot of it is about the technology,” she said.

These new technologies will be crucial in improving the structure of the campus, one of these technologies is an improved security monitoring system. “Since I started there’s at least 20 new cameras. And each camera does not have one view, so some of them might have two views, some of them might have 5 views, so we’ve got 50 more views,” she said.

The hope in improving the security visibility throughout campus is that incidents like theft, trespassing, damages, and attacks will be prevented, and hopefully through this they can improve safety.

Chief Crafts highlighted the importance of safety on campus but also noted on the pandemic and how the campus has had to respond to COVID-19.

“….I had the emergency planning background so I was able to convene a group of emergency planners,” she said.

Chief Crafts was able to draft a concrete plan with her team to help adjust the college’s policies to fit the COVID-19 guidelines. Her response to the pandemic is a reflection on her ability to successfully run the police force on campus. She is quick thinking and values transparency, something that was noted heavily on by her in a recent interview and you can see this in how the college handles COVID-19. When a case is reported the community knows quickly, there are so many resources available to one to deal with the current pandemic. Chief Crafts understands how difficult the current situation is currently, and her current goal in integrating new technologies into the campus shows that while she can handle today, she can make the future better.

Opinion

Dual enrollment is a win-win for high school students during the pandemic

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March 11 of this year the World Health Organization would declare COVID-19 a pandemic, two days later the U.S. declared a state of emergency, closing schools and changing education forever.

Change is not a weak power, change is the driving force of tragedy, hope, disaster, and success, it is a power we as people barely understand despite it being our greatest strength.

While elementary and middle schools were not changed as much, high school and college education was changed drastically. High schools across the state struggled to change, most of them were already overpopulated and poorly integrated with technology. Colleges while integrated with college technology and in control of the population, had the issue of running as a business during a time when money was becoming less common.

Gabriella Castro-Rovira, a high school student at Andover High School commented on the issue of online work for high schools. “High schools started outsourcing classes to online education institutes, like Virtual High School,” she said.  “While these classes where good for students who wanted 1 or 2 classes to be a challenge, they aren’t effective for most kids and quickly become overwhelming.”

Some students were able to dual enroll, where they can enroll in a local college at the same time they are enrolled in high school.

“Dual enrollment gave students a chance to transition into college early, while saving money and getting ahead.”

Dual enrollment saves the families of students a good deal of money that can be put into other life expenses, and it allows students to gain an opportunity to get college credits.

Money is a huge factor in a lot of the motivations that drive the school. While colleges make a lot of money off tuition, housing, and food services, and these services are things that either cannot happen during the pandemic. Ursula Furi-Perry, an attorney and higher education professional commented on the financial situation. “Money is crucial to families nowadays; the pandemic has made so many families lose jobs and money has overall become less frequent. Colleges are scrambling to get students into their campuses and this causing a lot of smaller colleges to close.”

Money was also a motivating factor in the high school’s decision, Virtual High School was a huge expense to a lot of schools with a lot of classes costing $500-$1,000, forcing schools to spend thousands on students in order to avoid drafting a new plan to support remote learning.

Dual enrollment seems to be a perfect medley for students and families, it saves money for the high schools and families, it allows for colleges to get students into their programs, it allows high school students to meet college students and to get college credits, and most importantly it allows high school students to get ahead in a time when everyone seems to be behind.