Before March 20th, a whirlwind of loudspeaker announcements and ubiquitous posters let students know that Congressman Hakeem Jeffries was coming to Beacon. Excitement soon followed as people prepared to listen to what the Representative from New York’s 8th Congressional District had to say. The Congressmen’s budding leadership role in the Democratic caucus has catapulted him…
Category: Politics/Current Events
16 Beacon Students on Family Politics, Values, Social Media Activism, and the College Admissions Scandal: A “Beacon Beat Roundtable”
The Beacon Beat has formally decided to begin hosting “roundtable discussions” between members of both the newspaper staff and the public on specific topical issues. Below is a transcription of a conversation that occurred on March 13th. The transcription has been edited for clarity and grammar. Initially, the topic of discussion was “Family Politics vs….
America to Me: A New Docuseries About Race in American Public Schools
by Mollie Butler “America to Me” is a ten episode documentary series on the Starz network which takes places at Oak Park High School in the suburbs of Chicago that follows students from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds at each grade level within the school. The documentary exposes the social, political, and administrative aspects of…
Sexism 2020: Presidential Candidate Amy Klobuchar Faces Misogynistic Press
By Jude Messler On February 10th 2019, engulfed by the fury of a rust belt blizzard, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced she was a candidate for President of the United States. Klobuchar joins a large –and diverse– group of Democrats hoping to to win the nomination. Among the frontrunners are four other female politicians:…
A Call to Caution
By Adrian Flynn In the past few months, many Beacon students have freely shared their opinions on two major political incidents: the Covington confrontation and the Jussie Smollett episode. Similar sentiments of outrage were expressed by many liberals across the nation in response to these two events. As we have now learned, both of these…
Brett Kavanaugh: What’s Changed in High Schools and What Has Not
by Tali Lebowitsch Earlier this month, Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court. His confirmation followed an intense, highly-publicized emotional rollercoaster that has made him one of the most controversial figures talked about right now. It is no doubt that his appointment was received with immense outrage especially from the left side of the…
Bridging the Gap: The Fight for Equal Pay in American Women’s Soccer (and Why it Matters)
by Mira-Rose Kingsbury Lee In 2015, the US women’s soccer team won their third FIFA World Cup, scoring 5 goals against Germany in the final for a decisive victory. The game broke records- it was watched by 26.7 million viewers, becoming the most-viewed soccer game in US history. But it was a celebration marked by…
The Simplification of Social Media
By Esme Laster Have you ever spent unintentionally long spans of time browsing through social media? It goes as follows: You find that spot on your couch after an entire day of lugging around your 50 pound backpack and immediately slip into your usual collapsed hunch that starts off comfortable and becomes progressively crippling. Your…
A Modern Tale: Why Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” Feels More Relatable Than Ever
by Sophie Steinberg The show opens with a couple speeding away from the authorities, with their daughter in tow. The car crashes along the side of the road, leaving the family with no choice but to run into the surrounding forrest. Questions immediately fill the viewer’s head– where are they going? Why? Based on the…
Getting Involved: A NYC High School Student’s Guide to the Midterms
By Adrian Flynn It’s no secret that the midterm elections just under a month away will be enormously consequential for the future of the country and this administration. Democrats seem to be in a good position to win a majority in the House of Representatives, as many Republican representatives are in vulnerable positions and the…
