For drivers under the age of 18 years old it is illegal to use a cell phone while you drive, whether hand-held or hands-free — except to call 911 in an emergency. Some think that you should only be allowed to use hands free devices while you drive,even if you’re over 18. Meaning, Bluetooth, Voice Assistant, etc…, is the only way to contact someone through your phone.

Although that method is more safe, many people don’t agree. In May of 2018, a bill requiring drivers to use cell phones hands-free passed in committee Thursday and is heading to the House floor for a vote. Rep. Frank Hornstein, co-founder of the bill, says “This is the fastest growing source of death and injury on our highways,”

We asked two students from Buffalo High School to talk about their opinions on distracted driving. Both students stated that distracted driving is not a smart idea and that it can be hard to look away at times.

“I have friends who are not the best drivers and I don’t think that it’s because they’re physically unable to drive, I think that they just get distracted too much while they are driving,” Senior Joe Triden explains. “One of my good friends will be on his phone and be completely in the other lane.”

Senior Bailey Braccini says, “I think it is a very common trend in high schoolers and pretty much all my friends will snapchat or reply to my texts while driving.”

Both can agree that Snapchat, texting, and changing music on phones all contribute to distracted driving the most.

Ninety-four percent of teens recognize that distracted driving is dangerous. That means that even the people who agree with it being dangerous, commit the act themselves. A simple task to keep yourself safe and other safe while driving would be to put it down; it’s that easy.

Two years ago, Buffalo High School went through a change that they thought was best for students. They pushed the start time of school an hour back. Although this caused a big controversy at first, the school had good reasoning. The reasoning behind pushing back the school time, is that it would help the students’ brains be more active, and it was more healthy for their bodies; but what does this mean for their attendance?

Parking Lot Attendant Aaron Starry usually checks in students late in the morning.

“At the begging of the year, it’s not too bad, and at the middle of the year it gets bad, really bad,” said Starry. “It gets better towards the end of the year because seniors are trying to get their senior privileges.”

Since the change in start time, Starry said, “It’s gotten better, there’s still a lot to improve on, but it has gotten better.”

Principal Mark Mischke explained that, since the time change, tardies have gone down by 17%

If the later start isn’t the main problem, then maybe it’s the student mentality.

“There are more important things to be done,”

said Senior Carley Zumbusch. “I need more time in my day than school allows me to have to get free time.” Zumbusch accrued 112 periods missed total and 8 tardies. “When I’m tardy, it is typically because I sleep in, but sometimes I have appointments… on a very rare occasion.”

Stepping it up a little, Senior Ryan Armstrong, had a total of 225 total missed periods this school year. Rather than needing more time for other things, Armstrong said, “Usually it’s because I don’t want to do something in the class. For example in first or second block I would skip because I don’t want to take a test.” He also explains ” I just don’t think I need to come in everyday when I could be sleeping. It’s not that important.”

Armstrong also pointed out that he was not able to get his senior pass due to his tardies and missed periods.

Although students are missing a lot of school, does it mean that their grades are dropping?

“I personally do not believe attendance has any correlation to grades as I have missed half of this quarters class periods and I’m standing with my lowest grade percentage at 96%” Carley Zumbush says.

It’s hard to tell whether other students agree or not. In a survey conducted with 100 students, 53% of respondents said it has no correlation and the other 47% said it did, when they were asked if attendance correlated to GPA.

The main character is a father who is desperately trying to protect his family in a post apocalyptic scenario, where any sound they make can get them killed. Along with his two children and his pregnant wife, they’re forced to adapt to their conditions in order to survive. You can feel the tension and the constant fear of death through this nameless family of four.

Over time, the family learns how their predators work, along with how they can manipulate them in order to survive longer. For the family to survive they need to face all their challenges making no noise, including giving birth and raising a family. The struggles may be hard, but the father does a good job at raising a responsible, obedient family who has a system of survival.

Although the movie may be intense at times, it brings a new experience to all viewers watching. People are so used to constant noise that a lot of them don’t even know what it’s like to be in a room without any. “A Quiet Place” does an amazing job at giving you that experience and we reccomend that you try it.

One hundred student responded to a Hoofprint survey on Prom. Of those, 77 percent were female and 23 percent of the responders were male.

Attire

The first series of questions were based off of what they prefer in their attire and who they are going to the dance with. Typically, women buy their dresses and men rent their tuxes. But surprisingly, we found that 85 percent of the respondents actually bought their prom outfit compared to renting it. In relation to the students attire, the results highlighted that matching colors are important to their attire.

Getting to Prom as friends or as a couple?

Usually, most students travel to the dance in one of two ways: They take a party bus or they drive themselves. The students decision was probably based off of who they are going to the dance with. Are they going with their boyfriend or girlfriend? Or are they just going in a group of friends? It turns out that the answer was, both.

A lot of people seem to be going with their significant other and a group friends. Senior Eathan Soeffker enjoys going to prom with his classmates.

“It’s a cool experience everyone gets to have in high school,” said Soeffker. “I think it’s a something cool to do with your classmates.”

Music

After last years dance, there has been a lot of talk about the music selection that was played during the dance. Comments like ,”They need to play more recent songs” or “Stop playing music from a wedding reception” were left on the survey. Overall, the students never really loved the music played but, about half of them thought it was “OK.” The other half hated it. On the survey, an overwhelming amount of students commented that the students should be the ones picking out the music at prom.

Cost

Prom is also not cheap. Forty percent of people said they were spending anywhere from $150 to $250. The second highest voted option was spending $350+  for prom. The money that’s being spent is covering things like attire, food, transportation, and any other things that you might pay for on your all-day adventure. Is all that money really worth it? It’s up to interpretation, as almost half of the students said maybe,on the survey and another quarter of students said no.

Senior, Joe Triden, talked about how he wishes he saved his money last year.

“This year, I don’t plan on going,” said Triden. “It’s kind of a waste of money and it wasn’t all that fun last year.”

All of the things discussed above are things that students must take into consideration before the big day comes. This could take weeks or months of preparation. For some, it’s well worth it, and for the others, they regret deciding to go in the first place.