By Monica Koene​

Chaos erupted in room 19 as the school’s biology teachers Mistie Dickenson and Getulio Brasil broke into a fight, leaving fourth period biology students astonished.
The conflict began during a friendly meeting where they discussed their next lab. It was all going according to plan until Brasil claimed that octopuses were the most intelligent animals on Earth, and Dickenson, known as a bird lover, fired back, arguing that the smartest animals were crows.
What started as a respectful debate quickly escalated to a full scale argument while the teachers resorted to extreme measures to prove their points.
Brasil drew an octopus on the whiteboard in an attempt to highlight its complex nervous system, to which Dickenson fired back by playing a video of crows solving puzzles. After realizing their methods weren’t working, they moved on to rapid-fire trivia questions. They tried to involve students in some of their questions, but none of them wanted to get involved.
A witness claimed that a beaker was raised in a threatening manner at some point, but it was later confirmed that it was only harmless distilled water.
The competition was at its peak when the bell rang, leaving the discussion unfinished. They shook hands, and made a peace agreement, but there have already been rumors about a new fight about which is better, photosynthesis or cellular respiration.

By Dara Daninger ‘27


When North Cross teachers are confronted with mental abuse claims from students, they deny everything. 
“Everynight I have at least 20 hours of homework,” reported an anonymous student. “This is torture!!” 
Another student claims that “the extreme amounts of unnecessary work is physically taxing too; last week I almost sprained my wrist from carrying all of my enormous textbooks!” 
There seems to be a common theme shared between many students attending NCS Upper School, that is the shared idea that high schoolers are overworked in school. Each of the students interviewed mentioned sleep loss due to the amount of assignments given in a single day, which then affects their attention span in class throughout the next day. Due to the excess amount of complaints from students, I decided to interview their teachers as well to get both perspectives. One of the teachers interviewed stated “ As a highschool teacher I have signed up to deal with plenty of students’ shenanigans, though I did not sign up with the idea that I would be attacked with claims of abuse from my students. I have done none of the sorts and all of these claims are completely untrue.” Of course the responses from students to teachers denying these claims was not handled lightly. In fact, it was quite the opposite with the students planning the demise of their teachers who assigned them excess amounts of work. So, the following week after the news got out about the teachers’ responses a student-led protest took place where the majority of the student body refused to attend school for the next week. Though this peaceful protest brought nothing but peace. Instead, it resulted in the students who refused to protest and attend school to be bullied into staying home from school as well as the GPA’s of the protesting students to plummet. 
After a week of protest, the school board decided that something needed to be done. So, all of the students that had been staying home from school protesting homework had been threatened by expulsion for any student that continued to protest and not attend school. While this solved the problem of chronic absences, students were still enraged with the amounts of school work that their teachers continued to give them.
So, when peaceful protesting doesn’t work, these students decided to use aggressive tactics. This student recalled an encounter with a teacher where they got into a physical altercation over excess amounts of homework. One of these students involved in these protests decided to stand up for themselves in class one day by telling the teacher that, “I didn’t finish my homework because you assigned me too much work!”, after the teacher continued to deny claims of too much homework assigned the student became enraged. “I don’t know what happened in that moment… one minute they [the teacher and the student] were having a conversation and the next they were in a full on fist fight!” This quote was taken from a bystander to the physical altercation that took place that day. According to the student that started the fight “I only started the fight be
cause of all my homework, I just got so fed up. I couldn’t take it anymore!” While some may point fingers at either involved, both the student and teacher both had a part in perpetuating the altercation. After this incident the protest fizzled out as students realized that there was really nothing that they could do any more extreme that would catch the attention of the administration that may change something. 
 This article is meant to bring awareness to teachers about the way students  suffer from the work that they assign. Many high school students will attest to the fact that they are overworked in school, and when they attempt to reason with their teachers and educators they are often shut down and ignored because they are merely students.

By Akali Koeda 
Due to recent events and at the request of many faculty members, Director of the Upper School, Allie Kier, has decided to bring back the use and installation of GoGuardian on all devices. 
Many students who have just recently graduated from Middle School may remember the use of this software, which is made to monitor and filter student activity online. 
To monitor the use of devices and electronics within Willis Hall, the executive decision has been made to renew the installation of GoGuardian on all school-related devices. 
As one of the advocates for the return of GoGuardian, Morgan Kemp, Yearbook and Graphic Design teacher voiced her reason. “Due to the increased use of computer games in class, focus is down and attitude is up. Students are losing their minds over it, there is constant fighting over who’s doing poorly and making their in-game teams lose.” 
Peers and classmates have all been asking when Roblox will be able for use on the computers again and to the dismay of many students, the answer may be nowhere in the near future. It is clear that we can expect all school related devices to be monitored within the next few weeks. “Games benefit my mental health,” said Charlie Zhao ‘26, “because sometimes class can be boring after finishing my work, and it gives me a fun distraction.”
Another teacher who advocated for this program is Chinese and 9th Grade English teacher Nicki Dabney. “I am thrilled about this! Privacy is totally overrated,” She said with absolute excitement, “That being said, I don’t need software to know exactly what my students are doing. I can track eye movements, facial expressions, and keyboard patterns like nobody’s business. Just ask my World Lit students. I am pretty sure I could convince students that I have cameras in my room, but it’s really just my excellent op skills. Still, I gladly welcome an accomplice in keeping my students on their toes!”
Over 30 million students use Chromebooks or school-related devices on a daily basis, and according to The Derek Bok Center For Teaching And Learning, “They enable students who are prone to distraction to indulge in the illusion that they can multitask at no cost to their learning.” Additionally, according to a Cornell University study conducted in 2003, students who multi-tasked during a lecture scored lower on a test compared to students who did not multitask. As stated by The Churchill Observer, “It is imperative that website access on Chromebooks is restricted to ensure that students are not distracted during class.”
“We’re clearly dealing with an epidemic of seismic proportions with student misuse of technology,” said Kier, “and Go Guardian seems to be the only real deterrent to prevent students from spending their valuable learning hours glued to online shopping, gaming, and chatting. Empowering the teachers to immediately shut down and control what goes on each individual student computer is only one small step in my larger plan to completely eliminate technology usage in the school setting. Paper and pencils are making a comeback!” 

By Margaret Bass 
Dean of Students Belderes stands by the bench of the Muscaro Gym court, stretching his arms and preparing for the Student vs. Faculty volleyball game. He agreed to participate in this annual event for the fun of it, but nobody was expecting what he was about to do. TWEET. Head of School Armistead Lemon blows her whistle to announce the start of the game. The ball is served by senior Julia Corliss over the net onto the faculty’s side of the net. Latin teacher Dr. Finney receives the ball and sends it out of bounds. The students in the stands cheer for their peers and the faculty on the court huddle up to discuss their plans. 
“I have an idea,” says Belderes. He whispers his plan to his team and they reposition themselves on the court. Corliss serves again, but this time the ball is received by volleyball coach Emily Gaston. She sends the ball to Mrs. Sprouse who sets it high into the air. The cheers in the room seem to go silent as Belderes approaches the ball. He launches into the air with an unmatched vertical jump of three feet and slams the ball on the 10 foot line on the senior’s side of the court.
For a moment everything is quiet. Everyone is taking in what they have just witnessed. Then, every single person in the room, faculty, staff, students and referees cheer for Belderes and his incredible attack. The game continues and the game begins to become a real competition. Neither team ever gains a big lead over the other, and the game ends with a score of 25-17 with faculty taking the win. 
After the game, the senior team walks over to Belderes with looks of awe on their faces. They tell him, “Mr. B we didn’t know you were so good at volleyball!” He smiles and shrugs his shoulders. 
“I haven’t always been a teacher you know,” he responds and then walks out of the gym like nothing had happened. The students are shocked. What was he before he was a teacher? They all wonder. Later that night Corliss is thinking about what Belderes had said. She decides to do some research. For hours she scrolls on her laptop through photos and articles about men’s volleyball teams from the years before Belderes began teaching. Finally, she sees something that catches her eye. She opens an article posted by U.S. Volleyball’s official page on Instagram and sees a picture of the men’s team from 2000. Standing front row center is Stephen Belderes holding a volleyball. The caption reads - “U.S. Men’s Volleyball team wins Gold at Sydney 2000 Olympic Games with the final point earned by Stephen Belderes #21 with incredible attack as Outside Hitter.”