Contact Email: jenna.mensen@stpaul.k12.mn.us
Thursday, March 3, 2022
March 2022: Women's History Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.
About Women's History Month
Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week.” Throughout the next five years, Congress continued to pass joint resolutions designating a week in March as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the President to proclaim March of each year as Women’s History Month. Since 1995, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.
Other Dedicated Web Sites
It's bad enough we don't really celebrate Black History Month at our school...
Francesca V. - Senior Editorial Columnist
It's bad enough we don't really celebrate Black History Month at our school. Being a Black student is troublesome here, and it must be more critical for the three Black teachers in our school, one Black male. I don't think Black students are the focus of anything here, and it bothers me that when you mention Black, Black power, or Black education, some teachers take it as a sign of revolt or anger. We have no protections like other castes of students that are catered to, coddled, and celebrated on their cultural holidays. To make matters worse, our principal, the first Somali principal, and a major St. Paul Public High School resigned last week citing 'family challenges,' that we can respect and honor, but now Humboldt High School and its Black students don't have an example of Black Excellence.
I notice that there are barely black teachers working at Humboldt, plus when it was Christmas all the teachers put up decorations on their door but when it came to black history month none of the teachers besides the two put up decorations but took them down quick. At Humboldt some people don’t understand that what they're wearing on their head is inappropriate because it’s someone's culture which is called keffiyeh which is something that they wear for culture day, every-time I walk in the hallways I see people wear them but people don’t stand up for their culture and tell them that’s inappropriate to wear.
When it was black history month the school only did three stories about three black people and stopped for nothing but I think they should've done it every day so people can learn about what happened to the people we call heroes today, for me, I think we should’ve talked about the people that were killed this year and last year. At least have like a group of all black people and try and see if they can change the rules around Humboldt for Black History Month every year instead of doing nothing.
Black and Hispanic graduates also generally have attended institutions that have less money to spend on offering quality education. And they are significantly underrepresented in important fields such as engineering and education, mathematics and statistics, and the physical sciences. Black students are two times more likely to be suspended without education services compared to their white peers.
Let’s talk about the first three people that went to college, in 1850 Harvard Medical School accepts its first three black students, one of whom was Martin Delany. But Harvard later rescinds the invitations due to pressure from white students.1845 Ashmun Institute (now Lincoln University) is founded as the first institute of higher education for black men. But the list goes on and on if you guys want to look at the website about all the black people that got accepted to college visit https://www.jbhe.com › chronology.
So the next time we have Black History Month think about what you guys wanna do for black history month like actually do something exciting and talk about new things about black people and what you think we should do about it.
Lavon's Top 5 Songs and Music Videos of 2022
By LaVon W. - Entertainment Columnist
For the #1 spot, we have Meek Mill and his single and also the intro to his album hate on me this song saw at least 8,671,815 YouTube views
Second, on the list we have Kanye West's "Off the Grid; this song saw 13,625,887 views at the end of august 2021
For the third spot on our top five list, we have Kodiak Black "Super Gremlin." This track peaks at 108,944,814 views on YouTube the song was uploaded by Kodiak at the beginning of November.
For our fourth pick on the list, we have a joint album with rapper Lil Baby and Lil Durk the track "Voice of the Heroes Landed" at 30,409,006 views on YouTube and was uploaded May 31.
For our last and final track on the list, we have Youngboy never broke again with his single "Heart and Soul." This was one of the first songs he dropped since his release this track was uploaded December 2 2021 and peeked at 40,249,722 YouTube views
Ms. Mensen's 10th grade Journalism Project: Poetry 101
Poetry submission: One of them is using “The Shovel Method” (where you take a line of a poem and write your own based on how the line inspired you). We read “Like an Eagle” by Nikki Grimes so this first submission is based on inspiration from that, though it is an original piece. The second poem is a free-verse poem about the pressure of always following the rules. Both of these were submitted by 10th graders.
“Proud to be Me”
By Elizabeth T.
I’m proud I got this colored skin.
I’m proud my eyes have a brown tint.
I’m proud my hair is dark and runs
long to tell my story.
I’m proud it’s my father’s blood I carry.
I’m proud to be in my shoes.
I wouldn’t trade my melanin skin
for any other hue.
I’m proud to me.
“Clean and Smooth”
By Than S.
I try to be.
I slowly figure out I
can’t be seen.
I start to fade into
the dark.
So smooth.
So clean…
I couldn’t be seen.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
The Humboldt Race War: What's the Issue when the issue is not Education?
by Francesca V. - Senior Editorial Columnist
Volume II - Issue 4 (February 2022)
What’s going on between the people at Humboldt?. I wanna know personally why all this race war thing is going on between the Black people and Karen people, but it's not all about what I think it’s about what the teachers and students think about this stuff like is it just childish stuff? Or is it something that is really serious so the police and parents are involved?. I wanna get the people’s perspective on what they think about this whole situation, to see if it's a bigger problem than we think, But first I wanna hear from the teachers and see how they really feel about this situation and what they think they should do about it.
I interviewed Dulce Meza, and I think it's important to listen to what people have to say about the situation at Humboldt. Dulce had some things about the whole race war that’s going on, “ As a staff member it’s disturbing because at the end of the day it is our job to keep you safe, so when it’s of the largest groups which are both majority groups it’s hard for us to see aside or to think one group is in the wrong or not that we would protect one kid over another, but as two very large majority groups we want you guys as students to see that you guys are really on the same side. Like you students are facing the same issues as majorities and your safety in general not just during the pandemic but like different things it’s important for us to help you guys and if you as students are at war it infects us and cultures with the school”.
The second teacher is Karen Lacher the history teacher and she said what she thinks about the race war, she said “ And I do think a lot of the race war that is going here at Humboldt has a lot to do with lack of information, unknowing between the two groups I also believe that because these younger people were not as socially and emotionally developed do to quarantine and covid. They were not allowed to grow mature at the right rate along with people who are different than them, so there is a huge misunderstanding between these two groups and I think that you know suspension is part of it but its the education we need to sit down and educate the two groups about why they feel the way they do and what's happening, because the ignorance is what's leading to these fights, I honestly believe that's has something to do with it, even mediation, the mediation didn’t work the parents and kids came in one morning and the following morning and the same kids got into another fight and were suspended, so it’s not about agreeing and to disagree it’s not about “okay we promise not to fight” because without the background knowledge and the information behind the two groups and why their fighting its gonna continue, I got a lot more to say but that's the adjust of it”.
I decided to talk to one of the security guards hope that was helping break up the two groups and she had a lot to say and about what she thought of it, the security guard's name is Hope and this is what she said “ As far as the race war I feel like I don't know if they really know why they fighting for and I don't know if they really know what the race war is because we both been fighting our own war so for them to be fighting each other it's ignorant, and I feel like if they just sat down they actually are the same people.
Their equally the same, we both been fighting a war It’s senseless and I feel like at the end of the day if they sit down and honestly shook hands with each other they would know they shouldn't be each other enemy, we should be uplifting each other and it’s a bigger world out there then what’s going on in the school, and I feel like at the end of the day it was like a snowball fake war so it got small and then it got bigger and then it was he said she said and things like that but I wish some of the teacher and staff would actually say “why are you guys fighting for?” like why are you guys fighting each other for?, and actually heard that there were 10 different stories that happened to occur in this war and it became a title until the fight started, so it wasn't a war until this fight started”. According to some teacher they were saying that they should sit down and have a chat and ask “why they are fighting each other?”, but is that what all teachers say, I've decided to keep on investigating what actually happened and how it actually started and how teachers and students would wanna finish it once and for all, or it may not actually stop once and for all? We might not know.
I went to go interview one of the ISS staff members Mr.Mckinley and I think what he said is an actually good point I think about everyone says about it and it really doesn’t make sense about why they are fighting for because technically there are no reasons because hope said there were 10 different stories so we might not know what the real reason is. Mr.Mckinley had some words that he would like to say about this whole situation that's going on with the kids at Humboldt.
“Honestly how I feel about the situation is we need to find a way to get to the core piece with it because I feel like the kids that are starting it are not the kids that are getting hurt and fighting. There is a lot of kids that are starting stuff up and just stirring it up for no reason and then you got kids that and don't want to fight but they fight because they are trying to protect whatever friend that’s involved or the rumor of something how saying that all these kids jumped the 6th grader and everyone feels moral like they need to be the protector or they need to jump in because that's not right but at the same time there are people stirring it up for no reason. How I feel I don’t think either side has the room to be playing around or to be fighting because both of them need help, so at the end of it all I don’t see anybody winning even if they suck off thinking they won this fight there is no winner of this fight at all”.
Honestly, it’s sad because they keep fighting and don’t want to talk to each other so they can work it out because if this keeps happening it will probably end up something bad which just maybe might shut down schools. The next teacher I will be interviewing is my advisory teacher Mr. Allen, he wasn't busy doing anything because I wanted to know what he would say about the situation.
In quotes, he said, “It’s not necessarily a race war it’s a misunderstanding war and good leadership eliminates all of that, there is no building in the world, in the school district that could go to positive unless the leadership is very talented."
I wanted to interview some of the people were at the fights or were fighting, I interviewed Mario, Mario was in one of the fights that happened and this is what he had to say about it “ I feel like you have to think first before you do something like before doing it, say like you thinking about hitting her and you thinking about not hitting her like you go a devil side and you got a god side so you gotta choose one so like you gotta choose one if you a devil you a devil and if you choose a god you choose a god and you are a nice person, I think we should treat people better.”
I think what he is trying to say is to treat people the way you want to be treated even if they do something bad to you, try to be their friend, or sort it out because violence isn't always the answer.
To be continued…
Sunday, October 24, 2021
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