One student spoke out against what they see as bias in our school and local community, “All of the injustice that I’ve seen over the entirety of my life, from my family even, it’s frankly disgusting and I want to do whatever I can to help the people around me.” Another student expressed their perspective, “Saying that a person’s life matters shouldn’t be a political statement, it’s ridiculous that it has to be a hashtag.” Some speakers were more vulgar in their speech, one student saying “I’m tired of this police system that kills people. All cops are b******* and f*** the police.”

One of the primary speakers was BHS sophomore El-Sara Duopu. When asked how it felt to see her peers there in support of the movement, Duopu said, “It was really moving because even though not even half the school was there, at least some people had the courage to decide to go.” As for those who didn’t choose to attend the walkout, Duopu said “It depends on your reason but if you didn’t go just because your friends didn’t go or just because you’re close-minded, you should re-evaluate your values and what you actually think being a good citizen of the United States. A lot of people who didn’t go see themselves as patriots, but fighting for your fellow citizens rights shouldn’t be something that is made fun of or ignored.” 

Although Duopu found the support of the movement in our community inspiring, she believes we still have a long way to go. Duopu encouraged her fellow students to stand up against bias. “Basically just not having any tolerance for it.” Duopu said “The more lenient you are with people the more they think it’s okay. If someone is ashamed of behaving that way, they’re not gonna do it. When you cast it aside – that goes for staff and students too – being silent is the equivalent of partaking in whatever someone’s doing that is negative.”

Some students within the school hold contrasting opinions but respect the cause of the protest. Sophomore Malaki Cabanting made a widely viewed snapchat post with a photograph of the walkout entitled “What bull s***” When later asked to elaborate on his feelings towards the protest he stated “I am not saying it was pointless, but I feel like it [police brutality] doesn’t really affect us in Buffalo, so I don’t think it [the walkout] was necessary here”. Elaborating on his controversial post, Cabanting said “I wanted to state my opinion. I thought that people would agree with me, and sometimes people are too afraid to say stuff that they believe in.”

There has been further talk of other potential walkouts for various causes but plans have not been finalized.

Facilitators from youth activism organization Minnesota Teen Activists met participants near the student parking lot and encouraged some to go in front of the group to share anecdotes of experiences of racism and prejudice in the school and in the wider community. The crowd cheered and applauded with each new speaker.

Many of the speakers touched on the subjects of violent police confrontations, but also spoke about of bullying, homophobia, and general discrimination toward minority groups. Several of the speeches were punctuated with explicit language. As they spoke, some community members looked on from outside of the group. Teachers and staff members did not participate in the walkout, though some school personnel and the school resource officer were on-site for supervision and safety reasons.

A small contingency of counter-demonstrators briefly drove back-and-forth around The Rock, some with messages like “Back the Blue” painted on their vehicles while playing music loudly. Shortly after they began, the counter-demonstrators seemed to disappear, either heading back to the school or leaving the grounds entirely.

The walkout ended in a moment of silence at 1:47, a symbolic time commemorating the death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, who was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop, days before in Brooklyn Center. Afterward, students returned to their fourth block classes. Teachers were told that students were accountable for any missed work and class time.

Prom this year will be Grand March only and you must sign up to attend. Meaning, there will be no dance or other activities. When asked what the Grand March will look like this year, Mr. Mischke said that “the Grand March should be pretty typical.” It should be easy to follow social distancing regulations and stay safe with the normal Grand March layout. This Grand-March-only Prom will only allow seniors who sign up to attend. Each senior participating may bring one guest and that guest must be a BHS student.

Homecoming Coronation is going to happen directly after Prom and the audience will consist of the seniors who went to Prom.

“After the Grand March, we’re going to offer up the opportunity to go into the [Main Gym] stands… and then we’ll announce the King and Queen, and then the following week will be Homecoming week,” said Mischke.

Homecoming week will still have activities for all students to participate in.

“We are targeting different activities throughout the week with student councils working on Homecoming Week, dress-up days, things like that,” Mischke said. “And then we’ll have a ton of spring activities at home that week.”

One of the activities planned for Homecoming Week is a lacrosse game rather than the normal Homecoming football game, but there will be no homecoming dance this year due to space and social distancing restrictions.

The plan for the graduation ceremony this year is still somewhat unknown because the district can’t know what the restrictions and state mandates will be by then. The district is planning for several possible scenarios in order to be prepared to make graduation happen. It is possible that the restrictions will not allow the whole graduating class to be together. If this is the case, graduation will be split into two separate ceremonies, one for the first half of the alphabet, and the other for the second half. Each graduate will be able to invite two people.

“So as far as what the graduation will look like, ceremonies [will take place] on the field, probably with two guests, probably sitting in…like a little pod of three, and then that spread out throughout the field,” Mischke said.

The plan is to hold the ceremony outside on the football field. However, in case of inclement weather, the school also has a plan for an indoor ceremony.

As the events get closer, plans will be finalized and more information will be announced. For now, expect a Grand March/Homecoming Coronation event, a lacrosse Homecoming game, and possibly two graduation ceremonies happening on Bison Field West.

Photos by Matthew Scherber

In February of 2021, a study was conducted about if adults in the U.S. are planning on getting a COVID-19 vaccine. A majority of 69% said that they will, and 30% said that they will not. But the opinions of the young adults in our community may be different.

BHS seniors are divided on whether or not they think it’s safe. According to a survey sent to randomly selected BHS seniors, almost half of the eligible high school students do not think that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe. A reason for this may be the reported side effects of the vaccine. According to the CDC, the common possible side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine include tiredness, headaches, muscle pain, chills, fever, and nausea.

Many Americans also hold unconfirmed theories spread on social media about other potential long-term side effects such as infertility. Some other more extreme conspiracies include that the vaccine contains a microchip, the vaccine will alter your DNA, etc. Although none of these theories have been proven, many Americans still fear that the vaccine is unsafe, including half of the students who took our survey, saying that they don’t think the side effects of the vaccine are worth it.

Although the vaccine will be available to all American adults on May 1, not everyone is planning on getting it right away. According to our survey, 43% of BHS seniors don’t plan on getting the vaccine as soon as possible. Some saying that they plan on waiting for other adults to get it first, and others saying that they don’t plan on ever getting it.

“I want to see how it plays out before I trust it,” senior Clare Vander Kooi said.

She doesn’t plan on getting the vaccine immediately and although she thinks that it is okay for her peers to get vaccinated, she also thinks that healthy high school students shouldn’t be the top priority.

Students under the age of 18 who want to be vaccinated might also be able to do so as soon as September 2021 according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. He hopes to be able to vaccine kids as young as first grade at the beginning of next school year.

Many seem to agree with that sentiment. Fifty-four percent of 50 randomly-selected students who took a survey have found in-person advisory was not a worthwhile use of time.

Two years ago, BHS replaced AAA, a type of study hall for high school students, with a new program called ‘Advisory’. Advisory is designed to be a team and community-building class with other students in the same grade. The school provides advisory teachers with lessons/activities that are meant to improve their students’ mental health and relationship with their peers. The school administration had good intentions when they designed this program, however, some students feel that the class was poorly executed.

“The kids don’t like [Advisory], and neither do the teachers. The students don’t like it because we can’t be working on our homework/assignments during it, and instead, have to do weird activities together,” said a BHS student who took the survey.

“The curriculum is weird,” said another.

Many students don’t feel comfortable with the curriculum as it required them to talk about personal things that they might not be comfortable sharing with a group. Another common reason students gave for not enjoying Advisory’s curriculum is because of the arguably strange activities that students have to do in class.

“I think advisory needs to feel more our age instead of feeling and doing activities we did as a child,” said an anonymous BHS student.

An example of one of these activities was a ‘game’ played last school year where one student was blindfolded and told that they had to try to make their way out of a maze that their peers would make for them. Secretly, the other students were told to make the maze impossible to escape, so that the only way to get out was to ask for help. This was meant to teach high schoolers that it is okay to ask for help. However, it turned into a student trapped in a “maze” and trying to escape while some of their peers laughed at them.

While half of the students who took our survey said that in-person advisory was not worthwhile, 84% of those same students felt that the Advisory class during Distance Learning 2.0 was not useful, and 62% admitted to not attending the Google Meet every Friday. Not only did students say they did not understand the expectations of DL Advisory, but some teachers seemed to neglect their Advisory class as well.

As stated earlier, Advisory is the school’s replacement for AAA. Junior Hailey Pageau said she strongly prefers AAA to Advisory.

“Oh, definitely AAA,” Pageau said. “I liked that you had more freedom and could work on your homework.”

The surveyed students agreed, some of them saying that they would like Advisory much more if students were allowed to work on homework.

Although Advisory is not currently satisfactory for most people involved, with some revising, students believe it could better serve its purpose.

“I believe there is room for improvement in Advisory. An example of this is how we are always told to keep track of our grades, but we are hardly ever given a chance to try to work on schoolwork during advisory,” said an anonymous student.

Based on our other responses, a majority of students agree. Some students say that the only reason they enjoy Advisory is when their teacher goes against the lesson plans and allows them to work on school assignments. Most BHS students agree that Advisory has room for improvement, but with a few adjustments, it could be a positive and useful experience at school.