Founded by Steve Huffman and Alex Ohanian in 2005, Reddit is a website that allows users to submit original content, content found elsewhere on the Internet or simple text for review by their peers. Everything considered important such as recent news or a viral video is voted to the front page of the website where it can be immediately accessed by anyone. Reddit content is organized into different topics called “sub-reddits” that can vary from “r/funny” which aggregates humorous pictures and videos, to “r/worldnews,” which serves as a forum for current events news and articles. The “r” symbol is used to get to the link of specific subreddits. A web address for a subreddit would be reddit.com/r/worldnews for example.

“You can ask a question and have it almost immediately answered, in a very detailed and accurate format,” senior Denise Li said. “Relevant news articles get posted and shoot up to the front page far faster than I could hear about them on Facebook or somewhere else. If you can sort past the rubble, you learn a lot of interesting things.”

In early October 2010, neighbors bullied 7-year-old Kathleen Edward because she was recently diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Within hours, a description of her situation was voted to the front page of Reddit and users raised over $17,000 to give the girl money for a shopping spree at her local toy store.

“I think [Reddit] is different because of the general attitude of most of the people on Reddit,” senior Richard Sage said. “For the most part the people are very helpful and almost always have a kind word or a piece of advice.”

Reddit is the organizer of the largest secret Santa gift exchange in the world, an operation including 12,179 different people as of 2010 and more than 60 countries. One popular sub-reddit is “r/nonprofit” which raised over $10,000 for the Haiti earthquake victims. Another cause Reddit users supported with donations over $500,000 was the “Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear” which was held last fall in front of the capitol. As a number of users are politically active, a variety of specific sub-reddits dedicated to the Occupy movements sprung up this year.

According to general manager Erik Martin, Reddit is a community of communities with sub-reddits, or, categories. These can range from sub-reddits for specific video games or movies, to every kind of political flavor, to every hobby as well as more abstract categories based around rhetorical frameworks like “I am a,” “Today I Learned…” or “Ask Science.”

Students find that the sub-reddit system is appealing because it allows users to pick and choose which topics to read about, and the varied content of Reddit can educate students on a large number of topics.

“I mostly use Reddit for entertainment and news, and [to] see what’s going viral on the Internet,” junior Constantine Koehler said. “It’s easy to go on Reddit, click a link or two and get completely addicted to Reddit’s content.”

According to the Reddit blog, a website that documents updates and Reddit-related news, Reddit’s popularity has tripled in size over the previous 15 months and grown beyond its original user base.

“When it really started, it came out of programming communities, engineers, geeks, that sort of thing, and had a very strong geek culture to it but it’s expanded beyond that,” Martin said. “Reddit is probably 70 percent US, 30 percent international.”

At CHS, students find that Reddit users have also increased as students learn about Reddit from friends and in classes. A Reddit app is now available for smartphones.

“My friend talked about all he does at work is go on Reddit,” Koehler said. “I went to Reddit on my smartphone and spent countless hours on it thereafter.”

A downside of this vast array of information is that it can distract students and easily become addicting.

“The longest time I ever spent on it at one time was probably 6 hours,” Sage said. “It can suck away hours of your life, but I still love going on Reddit whenever I have free time.”

Although it may seem like a source of distraction for teens, the website can provide benefits. Students can find specialized communities on Reddit to learn more about a particular interest.

“For young people, one of the nice things about using Reddit is that it has communities for every different interest out there,” Martin said. “Whether you’re trying to learn a new programming language, looking to get into a certain career, looking for particular information on a college, or if you’re just looking for people who like the same TV or movie that you like, you’re going to be able to find other people that have shared interests. I think that’s really important when you’re in high school or trying to figure out what to do.”

Top 11 Most Memorable Moments:
1. 11:11 on 11/11/11
2. 10th Anniversary of 9/11
3. Royal Wedding
4. Osama Bin Laden Assassinated
5. D.C Area Earthquake
6. Steve Jobs’ Death
7. Occupy Wall Street
8. CHS Football Regional Finals
9. CHS Wins State Hockey Champ
pionship
10. Kim Kardashian’s 72 Day Marriage
11. Casey Anthony Trial

Top 11 Celebrities:
1. Charlie Sheen
2. Kim Kardashian
3. Katy Perry
4. Rebecca Black
5. Justin Bieber
6. Lady GaGa
7. Bradley Cooper
8. Drake
9. Beyonce
10. Emma Stone
11. Kate Middleton

Top 11 Movies:
1. Harry Potter
7, Part 2
2. The Help
3. Limitless
4. Transformers 3
5. Twilight 4: Break
ing Dawn Part 1
Top 11 Movies:
6. Crazy, Stupid, Love
7. Hangover 2
8. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
9. Super 8
10. Paranormal Activity 3
11. Moneyball

Top 11 Trends:
1. Raving/ Neon
2. Planking
3. Hashtagging/Twitter
4. Touch Screen (iPhone, iPad,
Droid etc.)
5. Hair Feathers
6. Dubstep/House Music
7. Coning/ Cupping
8. Leather Boots
9. Google+ and Google Chrome
10. Facebook Changes
11. Tebowing

Top 11 Songs:
1. “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO
2. “Levels” by Avicii
3. “We Found Love” by Rihanna
4. “Rolling In the Deep” by Adele
5. “Friday” by Rebecca Black
6. “LastFridayNight(T.G.I.F)” byKaty Perry
7. “Look at Me Now” by Chris Brown
ft. Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes
8. “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco
9. “Forget You” by Cee Lo Green
10. “Good Life” by OneRepublic
11. “Firework” by Katy Perry

According to the Ohio Sleep
Medicine Institute, sleep
texting is when someone
texts while sleeping, most
likely during the non-rapid
eye movement cycle. Sleep
texting could be considered a
parasomnia, an abnormal or
unwanted sleep behavior like
sleep talking or sleepwalking.
However, it is not officially
categorized yet.

“I believe that this is a
problem that we will see more
of as we are living in a 24/7
society and many are sleep
restricted,” said Dr. Helene
Emsellem who works for the
Center for Sleep and Wake
Disorders in Chevy Chase,
MD. “This, in combination with
our unhealthy dependence
on being connected, sets us
up for increased probability
of using our phones to send
messages when we are half
awake and half asleep.”

Dr. Marcus Schmidt,
sleep expert at Ohio Sleep
Medicine Institute, has also
seen more cases of sleep
texting. According to a Nov.
16 MSNBC article, Schmidt
observed that four out of five
kids who have a cell phone will
sleep with their phone in their
bedroom next to their bed.
Only one in ten will actually
turn the cell phone off.

“I think kids are texting
since that is now a major
form of communication, and
many sleep with their phones
charging and on at their
bedsides,” Emsellem said.

Some students will shut off
their phones and leave them
downstairs, but sophomore
Breanna Boggan chooses to
keep her phone on and close to her.

“I keep it on and plug it in
to the outlet right by my bed,”
Boggan said. “I have my alarm
on [my phone] so it wakes me up
in the morning.”

According to the MSNBC
article, being deprived of sleep
can lead to uncommon sleep
behaviors, including reaching
for one’s phone when it goes off.
In addition to more people giving
up landlines and only using
cell phones, sleep texting may
become more common.

“The average teenager
is severely sleep restricted,
needing 8.5 to 9.25 hours of
sleep per night and often getting
seven hours or less per night,”
Emsellem said. “Having the
phone available so that texting
behavior can occur is yet another
factor interfering with sleep.”

It can be humiliating for
someone to text something
accidently, but it is even worse
when he or she doesn’t even
know he or she is doing it.

“Unfortunately, not being fully
awake when you engage in this
behavior can lead to bizarre
messages and a fair probability
that you may say something
inappropriate to someone and
not have the ‘superego’ available
that we have during wakefulness
to monitor what we do and
stop us from embarrassing
ourselves,” Emsellem said.

Some, like Dr. Peter Robbins
a child, adolescent and adult
psychiatrist in Fairfax, VA,
argue that sleep texting will
never be a huge problem
because it will happen to only
a minority of people.

“I think that the likelihood
of this happening is only in a
setting where parents are afraid
to set limits with their children
about cell phone access,” Robbins said.

THE ADDICTION
A function MRI study
conducted earlier this year
by best-selling author and
consumer advocate Martin
Lindstrom proves that the
feelings someone has for a
loved one, such as a boyfriend
or girlfriend, are the same
as he experiences when he
hears his phone ring, making
the argument that people
are actually in love with their
phones.

According to a Sept. 30
New York Times article
written by Lindstrom, some
psychologists have found
that using smartphones like
iPhones and Blackberries
signal the same associative
learning paths in one’s
brain that cause other
obsessive behaviors like
gambling. The chemical
that causes these feelings
is the neurotransmitter
dopamine, which makes
someone feel good.

“I think what draws us to
our electronic gadgets, in all
their forms, is the anticipation
of what might be waiting on
the other end of that ding that
alerts us that a text message
is waiting or that beep that tells
us someone just left a voice
message,” said psychologist
Sherrie Bourg Carter, who
specializes in stress.

According to Lindstrom’s
article, only 16 people
between the ages of 16 and
25 were tested in the study,
and they were tested with the
audio and video of an iPhone
with the volume on and with it
on vibrate.

The study found that the
clients’ visual and audio
cortices were stimulated when
the phone went off, meaning
that the same part of the brain
lit up as it would if they were
talking to a friend.

CHS IN LOVE
Many CHS students can
relate to this.
According to junior Paige
Brody, she is addicted to
her cell phone and uses it
whenever she can. If she ever
loses it, she freaks out.

According to Carter’s Oct.
2. Psychology Today article,
rather than being in love with
the cell phone device itself,
people are more in love with
the anticipation of waiting
for a text message to arrive.

This anticipation creates
the excitement people feel,
causing them to pick up their
phones immediately. Now, it is
more common for couples on
dates to interrupt each other
to answer a text or phone call.

“I also think this kind of
‘addiction’ can be harmful,
such as in cases of driving
while texting or being so
consumed with checking or
writing texts, emails, etc. that it
interferes in our relationships
with others, which of course
may lead to psychological
problems such as traumatic
stress reactions, anxiety, and
depression,” Carter said.

Many people are starting
to take texting to another
level by constantly having
their phones on and feeling
incomplete without them.

“It is a problem because you
lose touch with reality, and time
is wasted rather than used
appropriately,” junior Chris
Rahimi said. “I use my phone
on an occasional basis but not
every minute of the day.”

Some students believe
that some phones are more
addicting than others.

“The more high tech the
phones are makes the kids
more addicted because there
is more to do on them with all
the applications,” Brody said.

THE GENETICS
Another factor in addiction
is parental involvement.
According to freshman
Evangeline Pergantis, she
believes parents have an
effect on their kids’ addiction if
they do not spend enough time
with their kids, communicate
with them enough or teach
them about self-control.

“My level of technology
dependency completely affects
my children in a good way,”
CHS parent Patty Silber said. “It
makes them completely more
aware of the world and of their
surroundings. They keep up
on current events and school
activities. Also, if we are apart
they always have the capability
of contacting me for any reason
whether it be a pick up location,
‘I forgot my lunch,’ or just to say
‘I love you.’”

Using technology may not
always be a bad thing, but
extreme usage of it may lead
to the inability to perform
basic actions like talking to
someone in person without
being awkward or being able
to handwrite papers.

“It’s a problem if a person
has little or no self-control and
regularly, or in some extreme
cases, constantly is distracted
from their work or what they
should be attending to, in order
to text, call, or check messages
or emails,” Carter said.

THE FUTURE OF
SOCIETY
Phone addiction has
caused a huge change in the
way humans interact socially,
and if the trend continues,
one wonders whether people
will lose the ability or desire
to communicate with other
people in person.

“I understand with
technology advancing phones
are really important to people,
but I don’t think we should let
old methods of communication
die out,” sophomore Sonja
Judkins said. “Texting shouldn’t
become the main form of
communication over calling
someone or just going to talk
to someone face to face.”
Society, however, is now
very technology based.

“Children nowadays are
completely dependent on
technology mainly because
of their environment,” Silber
said. “They need cell phones in
today’s world to communicate
whether it be through voice or
text, and a lot of homes don’t
even have landlines anymore,
just multiple cell phones.”

MAKING IT BETTER
According to Carter, people
can fix their addiction problem
through discipline.
“Addiction to an electronic
gadget is a bad habit, and like
all bad habits can be altered by
consistent self-monitoring and
self-regulation,” Carter said.

School districts around the nation are looking for new ways to reduce spending, and according to a Oct. 28 Washington Post article, at least 292 school districts nationwide have implemented a four-day school week for the current school year to reduce costs to their school systems after massive budget cuts.

“We felt it would save us about $250,000 per year, which essentially saves five teaching positions at the base salary,” said Phil Minkkinen, superintendent of the Lake Superior School District in Minnesota, a school district that began implementing a four-day school week in the 2010-2011 school year. “The change would also assure that classes that we felt were valuable and important would be preserved.”

Other school districts have announced that they will be moving to a shortened school week for the 2012-2013 school year.

According to a Oct. 31 article from School Transportation News, a website about public school transportation, Marion County, FL will introduce a four-day school week for the 2012-2013 school year, but to compensate for the lost time, each school day will be 75 minutes longer.

MCPS is not considering moving to an abbreviated week as a means of saving money.

“Given the expectations and demands of our schools, less instruction time would be a short-sighted solution,” said Dana Tofig, director of the Dept. of Public Information and Web Services for MCPS. “The move internationally is for students to spend more days in school, not less.”

According to Principal Joan Benz, a shortened school week would directly and negatively affect parents and students.

“It would be a burden for parents because they would have to find childcare for their younger children,” Benz said. “Since the day is longer it would upset after-school activities, student jobs and SSL opportunities.”

Some students however believe that a four-day school week could be beneficial.

“Most of us are already sleep deprived during the week, and sometimes two-day weekends just aren’t enough to recharge the batteries,” sophomore Parsa Moayeri said.

According to a November 2010 article from the National Conference of State Legislatures, many supporters of the four-day school week believe that it has helped improve staff and student motivation and attendance.

According to Minkkinen, the Lake Superior district’s ACT and other standardized test scores went up last year, which Minkkinen feels is an indication that the four-day school week is working well.

“We also saw less absenteeism, fewer discipline referrals, and the teachers have reported that they felt students were more engaged in learning and more focused on their work,” Minkkinen said.

Although MCPS has not needed to adopt a condensed school week, they have made major cuts to the budget.

“There is an impact when you are spending about $1,500 less per student this year than we did just three years ago, but our outstanding staff has done an incredible job maintaining the quality of our schools despite fewer resources,” Tofig said.

Do you know where China is? Can you name the capital of Russia? OK, that one may seem easy, but CHS students would be surprised how little some students know about geography. How about the capital of India, the world’s second largest country? (It’s New Delhi). And if you knew that answer, could you find India on a map?

Geography is defined as the science that describes the surface of the earth and its political characteristics. Simply put, geography is knowing where places are in the world. Here at CHS, we think of ourselves as sophisticated, well-educated individuals, but one area of education where students seem to be lacking is geography. It is not entirely our fault—we can blame MCPS for our ignorance.

According to MCPS social studies PreK-12 program supervisor Maria Tarasuk, geography is embedded into the curriculum in all grade levels, but there is not a unit when all students stop and specifically study geography.

A recent Observer geography quiz on key facts such as capitals and locations of the world’s 15 most populous countries taken by 40 students—ten from each grade level—yielded average scores of 55 percent for freshmen, 55 percent for sophomores, 63 percent for juniors and 78 percent for seniors. While this quiz was small and may not be perfectly reflective of the true data, it illustrates the larger point that the CHS student body has weak knowledge of basic geography.

The quiz also showed both the best and the worst of students’ geographic knowledge. Zero percent of freshmen and sophomores knew the capital of Nigeria (It’s Abuja). Other mistakes included placing Nigeria in Latin America, Brazil in Europe, Pakistan in Eastern Europe, and the Philippines in Europe and Baja California. Only 50 percent of students polled knew the capital of India, the second most populated country in the world.

The good news is that every student polled knew where the US was and its capital. One student got 100 percent: senior Kamran Partovi.

“I’ve been interested in geography ever since I was a young child,” Partovi said. “If MCPS does not want to offer geography, they should at least further integrate it into existing social studies courses.”

According to AP Human Geography teacher Adam Field, to some extent, students are not completely to blame because the current MCPS curriculum emphasizes math and reading at the expense of social studies. This change has taken place at the state level.

“The state of Maryland adopted standards for social studies in 2000,” Tarasuk said. “These established what content was the most important to be taught.”

In a globalized world, geographic knowledge has become more important.

“As our world is becoming more and more globalized we need to begin to understand the role each country plays and how that’s affected by their geography,” junior and former AP Human Geography student Michelle Ahn said.

Students from this generation seem to be less knowledgeable than previous generations about geography. Since MCPS students have not systematically learned the locations of the world’s nations, never mind their capital cities.

“Students know the basics,” senior Casey Fitzgerald said. “Like where the United States, Europe, and Africa are, but some people only know that and nothing further.”

According to a 2006 Geographic Literacy study, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 could not find Iraq on a map.

While it may be uncertain how important knowing geography is today, it is clear CHS students need more practice.

“When I was in school, they made me memorized the states,” Field said. “This was before the Internet. It may have been more important back then; the information isn’t at your fingertips.

CHS classrooms are filled with technology for teachers to use in their daily lessons. The TV hangs in the corner with the VCR below, the overhead projector is shoved in the other corner, and the Promethean board is front and center. Is all of this really necessary?

After surveying four CHS teachers, who asked to remain anonymous, three said that out of all of the available technology in their classrooms, they only use the Promethean board and computers. The fourth said that she uses the overhead and VCR sometimes, but mostly uses the Promethean board and computer.

“If we get rid of the technology, what happens when we need it?” media services technician Scott Selman said. “We always have a back-up plan. We do not want instruction to stop because every 45-minute class is important.”

Information technology systems specialist Robert Jones feels similarly to Selman in that CHS cannot get rid of the old technology just yet.

“On one hand we are putting new technology in, but that does not mean old technology and supplies are not viable or needed,” Jones said.

Although a lot of CHS’ technology is not normally replaced, the computers are replaced every four to five years depending on the budget. Last year, CHS replaced all of its computers with new ones, and the old ones were collected by MCPS. Steve Silvious, who is the supervisor of the MCPS field installation unit, is in charge of the collections.

According to Silvious, the collected computers are used for library catalogs and for visitor management; they are provided to computer repair classes and donated to Project Reboot, a non-profit organization that provides families referred by social services with refurbished computers.

Project Reboot is located in Rockville, and collects donations of both new and old computers, equipment and software. According to their website, an estimated 16 tons of media equipment is thrown into landfills each week. Project Reboot’s mission is to refurbish the donated equipment, and provide it to non-profit, educational, religious and charitable organizations.

“We have about 400 partner organizations that refer clients to us, such as Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County,” Project Reboot Technician Warren Hall said.

Not only can big organizations like MCPS donate their computer equipment to Project Reboot, but families can donate too.

“Anyone who has a piece of computer equipment that is reasonably recent can donate,” Hall said. “We are very happy to get laptops because we do not receive many.”

As for new CHS technology, the wireless internet was installed last year, and Selman is eager for all of the new technology opportunities.

“We would love to have more technology such as iPads, but it is all a matter of funding,” Selman said.

My friend and I were skeptics. Ghosts were not supposed to be real, and as we expected, nothing appeared, moved, or caught our attention—until we went back and looked at the pictures. What we saw was something we would never forget. We went to a narrow, wooded road with an old 19th century railroad bridge on Game Preserve Lane in Gaithersburg that we had heard rumors about.

Although ghost hunting may not be a common pastime at CHS, many kids claim to have been exposed to the supernatural from a very young age. This increasingly popular activity is something people of all ages can participate in.

Junior Alex, who asked that his real name not be used, remembers when he first heard a rumor three years ago about apparitions, which are ghosts or ghostlike images of people in a burned down, abandoned houses.

“At first, I didn’t believe it and thought it was a joke,” Alex said. “But one night me and a friend decided to investigate the house. This experience changed my view on ghosts forever.”

After Alex and his friend went inside the house, they heard moaning noises coming from upstairs. They were welcomed by something they had not expected.

“The room was all messed up and burnt down,” Alex said. “We looked around the room and found nothing so we left. As soon as we left the room, we heard a little girl inside the room. We opened up the door and then found a doll in the middle of the room. The doll was not there the first time we looked. We decided not to touch it and left the room.”

However, their journey did not end with that.

“By this point, we were pretty scared because it was our first time ghost hunting,” Alex said. “We then started looking around the basement of the house. All of a sudden the door leading to the basement closed shut and we heard a little girl laughing. As we ran up the stairs we found the same doll at the top of the stairs.”

According to Alex, there are numerous other spots nearby that he and his friends have visited including the Madison House in Brookeville, MD and the remains of a closed gold mine off MacArthur Boulevard and Falls Road in Potomac.

However, for Michael Nokes, an avid professional ghost hunter, going to places like California, Michigan and Ohio is nothing out of the ordinary. He has also been to over 300 sites in the D.C. area alone.

Nokes created the East Ghost Community, which is situated in Potomac, MD, after a routine drag racing competition through Route 214 in 2004 with his brother Chris Nokes and 50 other curious individuals. The website eastghost.com, features pictures, lists of haunts and meeting places for people interested in ghost hunting. The group both hosts and promotes ghost hunting activities all throughout the nation and holds weekly meetings. Nokes has expanded his website and though his team is still small, he hopes it will grow bigger in the coming years.

“While it’s at this moment not nearly where I want it to be on the outside, on the inside the core has tremendously improved,” Nokes said. It uses lots of cutting edge technologies.”

Nokes feels that everyone has a natural instinct to find ghosts.

“Ghost hunters are you and me and everyone else,” said Nokes.” It’s just a question of how much they open their minds and pursue their curiosity.”

Unlike Nokes, sophomore David, who also asked that his real name not be used, had an early start with knowledge about the paranormal. His mother had multiple experiences as a teenager, and her stories sparked his interest.

“My mom lived in a haunted house while growing up,” David said. “She still tells me some really spooky stories that happened to her and her sister at the house, including a man sticking his hand through the mail slot to try to break in and a lightening flash cutting off the power to the house right as she blew out the candles on her thirteenth birthday party.”

According to David, his mother would also see apparitions of an old man who was a mad scientist and tortured animals when he had lived in the same house.

“At first I didn’t believe it and thought it was a joke. But one night me and a friend decided to investigate the house,” Alex said. “This experience changed my view on ghosts forever.”

Experiences like these may have simple explanations, however the thrill that comes with it seems worth it.

“A lot of people consider us crazy,” David said. “Ghosts may not really exist, but it is entertaining to search for spooky and supernatural things nonetheless.”

However, they may not necessarily be crazy.

“There are hundreds documented, thousands around the area, and probably millions of stories, right in everyone’s backyard,” Nokes said. ”The ‘paranormal’ aspect touches on everything about this country—every place, every ‘conspiracy’, every endeavor, practically every relationship.  The occult and esoterica are everywhere.”

*Production Manager John Ishikawa contributed to this story.

The accounts brighten many tweeters’ days with witty relatable tweets that have given the users internet stardom. All of them have a loyal following, starting with a few clique groups.

Account Name: @Lord_Voldemort7
Description: First person commentaries on pop culture from the dark lord himself. Most tweets are extremely cynical views of pop culture with Harry Potter references.
Sample Tweet: “If you play a Nickelback song backwards you’ll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forwards you’ll hear Nickelback.”
Target Audience: Cynical Harry Potter fans
CHS Reaction: “My favorite would probably be Lord Voldemort because I can relate to Harry Potter, and it’s kind of funny how dark his humor is,” sophomore tweeter Francesca Patterson said.
Account Name: @Whitegrlproblems
Description: Daily thoughts coming straight from an insecure and irrational Caucasian female who shares her troubles with the world. Her tweets usually consist of boy troubles, weight troubles and a serious alcohol problem, rarely disappointing.
Sample Tweet: “If I’m not freezing I’m fat,” and “Nothing makes me want to go to the gym more than being proposed to.”
Target Audience: Females of any race.
CHS Reaction: “I love White Girl Problems because I can relate to all the random problems and facts of life” junior tweeter Rebecca Wolf said. “I’ll be scrolling through my timeline and think, ‘Hey! That’s me’!”

Account Name: @F1rstwrldprblms
Description: This user takes us through the pains and problems of those poor souls living in a first world country. The tweets are simple grievances that hit close to home for Potomac residents that when compared to any real problem, like poverty, are jokes.
Sample Tweet: “I put too much stuff on my sandwich, and now it’s hard to eat,” and “I cracked my straw taking it out of the wrapper. Now I have to suck twice as hard.”
Target Audience: Anyone who likes making fun of rich kids.
CHS Reaction: According to senior tweeter Lucy Mangan @f1rstwrldprblms seems spoiled and conceited.
Account Name: @Trolleycat
Description: Boasting the likeness of a drunken gazelle, this D.C. resident amuses tweeters through her random and borderline psychotic sense of humor. Tweets often hint at her love of violence and her unique mindset.
Sample Tweet: “People can be real jerks after I hit them with my car like once.”
Target Audience: Violent individuals.
CHS Reaction: “Trolleycat can be very violent but in a unique way,” Mangan said. “She also can be very harsh and comes out and speaks her mind.”

Account Name: @Lamebook
Description: This account offers commentaries on a fellow social networking site and pokes fun at typical Facebook behaviors. The tweets are either what people hate to see on their Facebook news feed or a link to Lamebook.com where there are screenshots of humorous Facebook activity.
Sample Tweet: “Nothing makes me want to throw up more than a couple who has the exact same Facebook picture. It ranks up there with same-side-sitters.”
Target Audience: Anyone with a Facebook or anyone who hates Facebook.
CHS Reaction: “Most of their tweets are original and funny, but when they tweet links I almost never look,” Wolf said. “ Usually I use twitter through my iPod Touch, and I’m not about to sit there and wait for a link to load as I’m scrolling through my timeline.”

Many students are either in training to
become EMTs or are already volunteering
as ones here in Montgomery County. Being
an EMT is not just about the rush that comes
from saving lives, but also about the hard
work and dedication behind the scenes.

“The official job of an EMT is to be
the middle man,” said senior Sophia
Tapper, who is an EMT in training. “We
take patients from the place of emergency
to the hospital and administer
the appropriate treatments on the way.”

An EMT is placed in situations that
would be difficult for many people to
handle. The young EMTs of CHS are
exposed to scenes that may change their
perspective on life.

“The most important thing I have
learned throughout this whole process
is to live life to the fullest,” said
senior Ashley Farhat-Sabet, who
is an EMT on the Bethesda-Chevy
Chase rescue squad. “Seeing how
easily and fast life can be demolished
definitely makes me value my life a
lot greater.”

Jim Vagonis, the first Deputy Chief
of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department,
acknowledges the lifelong impact
of being an EMT.

“[Trainees] come out of the class
with the skills that will change their
life,” chief Vagonis said. “They have
learned how to deal with life and death
situations in a calm, cool and calculated
manner. These are skills that can be
used in everyday life.”

Having a serious job as an EMT
can be a thrill, but it can also take a
toll on one’s social life.

“The training class you have to take in
order to become certified is 150 hours of lecture and hands-on class,” said EMT senior
Christine Vagonis, chief Vagonis’s daughter.

“I also have a 14-hour shift every week
on Fridays, and every six weeks I have
another overnight shift on Saturdays.”

According to Tapper, becoming
an EMT was a positive, life-changing
experience. Despite the crazy
schedule and the amount of pressure
she is under, she loves saving
lives and is dedicated to her work.

“I decided to become an EMT
because I wanted to do something
where I could get exposure but also
have the power to do something and
get hands-on experience,” Tapper
said. “It is definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made.”

EMT Personal Stories

One of the scariest calls I went on was
dispatched as an injured person from a fall.
When we got on scene, the apartment door
was locked. The neighbors who had called
were outside, and the woman inside was
screaming at the top of her lungs. There
was no way to get in, so we had to knock
down her door. We later learned that she
had a disease called Multiple Sclerosis (MS),
and she had recently had brain surgery.
The woman was in the bathroom screaming
and would only let women in the room. She
was paranoid about skin showing and was
murmuring and yelling things that made
no sense. She was kicking, and we could not
seem to calm her down. It took a long time
to get her on the cot and out of the building.
While on the ambulance, she continued to
scream, and although she was wrapped in
blankets, she felt naked. We had about five
people holding her down, and we couldn’t
sedate her because we couldn’t reveal her
skin. She was having a psychotic episode
because she had not taken her meds. At the
hospital we stayed to help the nurses restrain
her as she was being sedated. As time progressed,
her hallucinations got worse. I had
never seen anything like it.
-Senior Sophia Tapper

The most memorable call I ever went
on was a drunk driving accident. It was
about 4:30 in the morning when the
tones went off. When we got to the accident
there were two cars, one completely
totaled, and another upside down. We
helped cut someone out of the totaled car
and back-boarded her because she had a
spinal injury. We started on our way
when the two girls we were transporting
both broke down in tears. As a standard
precaution we have to ask our patients
if they have any alcohol or drugs in
their system; the girl driving told us she
consumed quite a bit of alcohol. Once
we were at the hospital, the driver kept
asking me if everyone else was okay; she
kept saying if anyone died her life would
be ruined and she would never be able to
forgive herself. A few hours later I was
back at the same hospital and I checked
her bed, but she wasn’t there. I asked a
nurse where she went and she told me the
driver of the other car died, so the police
arrested my patient and took her away.
-Senior Christine Vagonis