Back to Artwork Who Am I Back to Sections Dilraj Singh - Who Am I? By Dilraj Singh November 19, 2021 Volume 2 Issue 2

Back to Articles Entertainment & Media Back to Sections A Comparison of Mean Girls (2004) and Mean Girls (2024) Mya Hans Volume 4 Issue 4 May 29, 2024 Image Provided by Elaine Ching Mean Girls is a 2000s classic that has been turned into a modern musical movie. The original is loved by many; there’s an entire fandom behind it. But regarding the new version, people have had some positive and negative opinions. As someone who has seen both more than once, I picked up on a few things that distinguish the productions from each other. One major change I noticed was the fashion. The fashion in the newer Mean Girls isn’t true to the characters’ personalities or even to what they would normally wear. Especially near the end of the movie, the girls started to wear blue which is something that is extremely out of character because they always wear pink. In fact, one of the movie’s most popular lines is, “On Wednesdays we wear pink.” Also, the outfits were very ordinary in the new movie, similar to outfits people would wear today. But the whole idea of the movie is that the “mean girls”—Regina, Gretchen, and Karen are “better” than everyone else. Therefore, I think that the girls should stand out fashion-wise and wear more expensive and luxury brands. I personally prefer the vintage, girly 2000s fashion from the original, but some may appreciate that the newer version encapsulates today’s fashion trends. Another obvious difference between the 2004 and 2024 versions is the musical aspect. The original Mean Girls movie is not a musical while the other one is; this is a key element to the story. The new version of Mean Girls tells the story through the songs, so there are a lot of songs in the movie, specifically 14 tracks in only 1 hour and 52 minutes. I personally thought the music was an interesting addition to the movie, but when I was in the theaters and a song came on, everyone seemed annoyed. If you aren’t someone who enjoys movie musicals like Grease , Mamma Mia , or La La Land , you may not like this version of Mean Girls . Overall, the plot was pretty much the same. The actors playing the characters in the new version are also obviously very different (although some from the original made appearances in the new movie). The actors in the original version at the time were well-known compared to the actors in the new version. In the original, the most popular actors in that movie during the time were Tina Fey, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, and Rachel McAdams. But in the new movie, the only actors with familiar faces would probably be Reneé Rapp for her music, and Christopher Briney from The Summer I Turned Pretty . Besides them, all the actors are not too well known which might cause hesitation amongst people to see the movie. I think both movies are worth seeing. One is a classic, and the other is a newer and modified take on the characters, fashion, and more. I think the new movie is proof that nothing is better than the original. Despite this, I still like the new movie, but the original takes the cake in my opinion. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Perspective Back to Sections Victoria Scarpa - Perspective - 1 By Victoria Scarpa December 16, 2020 Digital Art Volume 1 Issue 3

Back to Artwork Perspective Back to Sections Isabella Somma - Perspective By Isabella Somma December 16, 2020 Acrylic Volume 1 Issue 3

Back to Artwork Pop Art Back to Sections Anonymous - Pop Art By Anonymous January 14, 2022 Acrylic Volume 2 Issue 3

Back to Articles Editorial Back to Sections The Failures of Smartpass Isabel Barrett Volume 5 Issue 2 November 25, 2024 Image Provided by Google Play I think I’m not alone when I say that my opinion on SmartPass is negative. Since the software, intended to act as a virtual hall pass, was implemented in our school last year, it has proven itself to be, for the sake of simplicity, problematic. Inconvenience, impractical time limits, and a lack of enforcement born from the frustration of both teachers and students alike show that SmartPass is less of the modern, intelligent alternative to hall passes that its name suggests, and more of a nuisance, in my experience. While many classrooms have integrated the usage of students’ laptops into their lessons, there are still a considerable amount that prefer to use paper and pencil most of the time. If a student in one of these classes, or any student who doesn’t have their laptop at that very moment, needs to use the bathroom, they can no longer just take a pass and go if SmartPass is enforced—instead, they need to go through the trouble of taking out their laptop, turning it on, and logging into Classlink before they can even click on the SmartPass website. Those few seconds or minutes add up, especially when you need to go, and why do we have to endure this when a paper pass is hanging on the wall next to you? And what do you do when your laptop is dead or broken? If the inefficiency of getting onto the SmartPass website wasn’t problematic enough, then the maddening limits on when someone can make a pass should be discussed as well. While the bathrooms are unlocked for most of the day, you are unable to make a pass during the first or last ten minutes of a period. The problem is, those are usually the most optimal times to use the bathroom, since teachers are setting up or wrapping up their lessons. By only being able to leave in the middle of class, students are forced to miss potentially crucial content being taught and material that can help them in the long run. Often during the times outside the “No Fly Zone,” the pass limit for the bathroom you’re closes to has been reached already. On the topic of time limits, let’s also take a look at the timer SmartPass sets up, and the fact that it can only be set to a maximum of 5 minutes. This maximum fails to consider not only the time it takes for a student to get to the bathroom, but also the fact that it’s barely enough time to cover using the bathroom in general. I’m certain that many students have come back to their SmartPass timer a couple minutes late nearly every time they’ve gone to the bathroom. At this point, you may be thinking that these issues with SmartPass aren’t that bad, even if you’ve experienced them yourself. After all, have you ever been punished for a bathroom visit taking more than 5 minutes? Don’t most teachers relent when you need to go within the 10 minutes after class started and let you use the bathroom anyway? Yes, many teachers don’t fully enforce SmartPass—but I’d argue that is another sign that its implementation has been not that successful. I have overheard teachers complaining about SmartPass many times since last year, going on about how it’s complicated a system that used to be as easy as grabbing a piece of paper and leaving. If students and teachers alike are unhappy with it or are finding it impractical, isn’t it time to do something about it? To summarize, I cannot see why SmartPass is used at our school. If the point was to have a system for logging bathroom trips to try to fix graffiti and other issues, we already had a more practical option: sign-in sheets. And last time I checked, those weren’t far more inconvenient for what they were worth. BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Black American Artists Back to Sections The Good Shepard By Henry Ossawa Tanner February 12, 2021 Volume 1 Issue 5 Medium: Oil on Canvas on Particle Board, Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Back to Artwork Portfolio Back to Sections Portfolio - Francheska Martin-Quesada By Francheska Martin-Quesada June 13, 2022 Sharpie Volume 2 Issue 7

Back to Artwork The Memory Project Back to Sections Anonymous - Memory Project - 1 By Anonymous March 18, 2021 Volume 1 Issue 6

Back to Artwork Beauty in Nature Back to Sections Corner By Quinn O'Connor February 10, 2022 Photography Volume 2 Issue 4