 Last weekend the LRHS drama club did a performance of The Addams Family, a musical comedy. The main cast of characters is the Addams, a family of gothic eccentrics. Tension bubbles up within the family when the oldest daughter, Wednesday, falls in love with Lucas Beineke… a normal boy. This results in conflict between the starkly different families. The play is very entertaining and has many great musical numbers that make it an unforgettable experience. If you missed last weekend's show then do not fear, another set of performances is this weekend. The time for Friday and Saturday’s performances is 7:00 pm and a Sunday matinee is at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for students and senior citizens. Food and drinks will also be available during intermission. You can also make donations to the local food pantry. Make sure to go see the play and support all the drama clubs' hard work. Below is the cast list for the performances:  - Greg
 Last year marked the beginning of a super fun school wide activity; the Easter Egg Hunt. Student council will begin hiding paper easter eggs next Wednesday, April 13th. Students are to find the eggs and write their names on them and submit them to a box for a drawing later on in the week. Last year's prizes included Dunkin gift cards. Please remember not to disrupt any classes that are in session and to play fairly. Enjoy your egg hunting!
-Leah  Love: a concept that everyone perceives differently
But no matter how it is perceived I don't think I will ever understand it All I know is that I love things like playing the guitar and looking at the sky when the stars shine their brightest I know I love listening to music, and running because it's the closest thing to flying. Love is a constant state of not knowing I don't feel the fuzzy feelings you’re supposed to feel in the movies it's more desperate and lonely It’s like how an untuned piano sounds, every bit eerie It's the feeling of overthinking and sweating even when it's cold outside It has no designated definition it's messy but it’s beautiful like the paintings in museums the ones with the slashed canvas and splattered colors It's scary It’s chaotic And you can't help but look at it longer I strive for love to be like the sun and the moon their love is 93 million miles apart and yet its described with such bliss But I think the love I know is more like the clouds and the sky they share the same space but are never talked about with such confidence We can rely on the sun and the moon for they will never leave They go hand in hand with each other But the clouds only sometimes visit the sky Then carry on elsewhere The clouds can never compare to the moon Because what the clouds bring is provisional Temporary company with gray skies and rainy days The clouds cover the skies beauty It's a conditional love But I understand it now So never settle for love that comes from the clouds Settle for a love that would be more like the sun and the moon One that doesnt cover your beauty with rainy days - Izabell  Insanity
It might seem far away Or unrealistic But where do the ideas you’ve been having stem from? The idea that everything is out to get you and nothing is safe Surely it can’t all be imagined A place where all of our worst fears come true, Might not be as far away as you think Think of your worst fears Maybe a fear of the dark Fear of heights or spiders From the prison that is your mind, these ideas have time- Too much time. They fester And grow Trying to escape, Realizing they cannot fit through the cell bars… They shift And melt Down to the floor where the gap is just big enough for them to fit through. As these ideas escape, Fear and paranoia make their appearance Fear cloaked in a dark mask, one that you cannot see the truth through. Paranoia is like a rabbit endlessly trying to escape its ultimate fate of being eaten. Not far along the road, Anxiety creeps in too with its teeth bared and a shaking, aching body Not much time is left before these things consume you. But maybe these ideas of being abandoned, lied to, tricked, Have been a part of you all along How can you be sure? Sure you are not the problem? Are you crazy? Or just paranoid? It’s too hard to tell. Do you run? Or stay and fight? Either way, your future begins to not look so bright And as you question everything and anything, something new pops up in your sights: Mistrust. Its black oozing tentacles reach out to grab you But pull you under by surprise Under the crashing waves of doubt and confusion Pulling you deeper and deeper below the surface until you reach the pit of your fears Death. It looks much more beautiful than you could imagine Like a butterfly with a torn wing Or a night sky without the moon As you get lost in this beauty, You begin to wonder, Is it a trick? Suddenly, everyone is out to get you And nothing is real. You look in the mirror to find reality The place where everything is exactly as it seems. It’s face is plain and simple, without the hint of a lie The truth is on the surface, not deep below. But where is the reality in a reflection? It is the exact opposite of everything you see, Yet there is nowhere else to look to find yourself So you look in the mirror again And see a stranger’s face staring back. The longer you look, the more it begins to change. The face turns into a grin, the grin into a grimace The grimace into a scream The face makes you angry and as it changes it begins to move Closer to the mirror It beats and pounds from the other side And when you look down at your hands, the blood and glass around the floor surely cannot be your own And the scream that comes out of your mouth cannot be your own It's theirs The idea that anything that can go wrong will go wrong And the idea that the process has already begun And the fear that it is too late to return It’s too much So you succumb to the pressure And let it consume you The only place of escape from the deception of the mirror is the dark But the dark is where everything began Is it not? - Susie  I could sit for hours in the darkness
Only to follow your light in the distance For you give me hope of a new existence Possessed by your power For it’s truly enchanting Captivated by your presence Sirius the night star Could this be love? Who could ever imagine, Who could ever imagine that I met a star. Looking on a infinite shining stars, For you are the brightest among them all. Who could ever imagine my love, That you, my star, would shine for me. Just like how stars give light in dark skies, You just lighten up my world. Could this be love? As I explore at the darkness in the lonely night, Your light was always there to guide me. My eyes wide open looking above at the sky light The mind and heart began to wonder, Could this be love? Two lost souls, Met each other at darkness Moon dust creeps into my lungs Breathe in the lost soul of yours. Little do thy I know, There was love growing inside. Love was pure and magical Even the other stars envied Could this be love? I’m deeply in awe of your spark, The night sky reminds me of you. As all the other stars continue to blink Could this be love? Sirius for you have fallen But you don’t leave me For you can’t be lost at all From the whole galaxy of shining stars The existence of all that can be From it’s not the asteroids primarily fault You may rain into the sea And still in the sea is salt Was this love? The almighty Sirius For you shall not perish You will come back to Orion's greatest warrior You will shine down upon Earth once again With thy unparalleled excellence Until we meet again my brightness star The almighty Sirius This was love! After my late betta fish Sirius Rise if possibly - Lauren Berge (student guest poet)  Over the history of the United States of America there have been 46 presidents. You can probably name at least a few of them. One person you probably couldn't name is Norton I, the United States' only emperor. You might wonder how such a thing happened, sit back and relax as I tell you the bizarre tale of Emperor Norton.
Our story starts in Deptford, England sometime in the 1810s. This is the place and time that Joshua Abraham Norton was born. Despite being born in England, Norton spent most of his youth in South Africa due to a colonization program the British government was doing. Some time in late 1845 Norton left South Africa and moved to Boston. Then in 1849 he moved to San Francisco. What Norton did those 3 and half years is not known. For the first couple years living in San Francisco, Norton was one of the city's wealthiest citizens due to his success as a trader and real estate speculator. Of course this period of wealth could not last forever. For some quick context, at this time China was dealing with a bad famine. Because of this, the country banned the export of rice. This naturally made rice prices go up. Now Norton thought he was being smart by buying a shipment of rice from Peru for 12 cents a pound, hoping to corner the market and make lots of money. Unfortunately for Norton he was not the only person who had this idea and exports of rice started flooding out of Peru. This made the price of rice go down dramatically to 4 cents a pound. This meant that Norton was out a large amount of money. After this and a failed legal battle with his supplier Norton was completely penniless and completely disappeared from public life. For many years this was the end of Joshua Abraham Norton. He was destined to be forgotten from the pages of history. This was until September of 1859 when Norton wrote to the San Francisco Bulletin and demanded they publish the following proclamation in their paper: “At the peremptory request of a majority of citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton formerly of Alga Bay, Cape of Good Hope and for the past nine years of San Francisco, California declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States.” Now, in most cases you would expect that a newspaper wouldn’t take the ramblings of a washed up commodities trader very seriously, but for whatever reason the paper decided to go along with it and published Norton’s declaration in full. The people of San Francisco probably laughed at the proclamation and went about their day, not knowing that Norton’s rise had begun. Joshua Norton started walking around San Francisco in a fancy suit that looked like a combination of the Union and Confederate Civil War uniforms. He also wore a large hat with a peacock feather on it and carried a sword around at all times. It wasn't just an outfit, Norton actually went around inspecting parts of the city and even made some decrees. Some of these decrees included abolishing Congress, demanding the Catholic and Protestant churches acknowledge his emperorship, abolishing the political parties and a 25$ fine for anyone who called San Francisco ‘Frisco’. A few of Norton’s decrees were actually pretty forward thinking, for example one of his decrees was that a suspension bridge be built between San Francisco and Oakland, this ended up happening in 1937 when the Golden Gate Bridge was built. Another one of Norton’s decrees was that a League of Nations be formed between all the Earth's countries. This also happened in 1920 after the first World War. Another weird thing Norton did was send letters to the Queen of England saying they should marry to strengthen ties between the US and United Kingdom. This naturally didn’t happen. Despite what you might think Norton was actually not treated as a complete joke by the citizens of San Francisco, people paid for his meals, accepted his currency (creatively called Norton Bucks), and had shops make dolls of him. In 1867 a police officer named Armand (or Armond, sources differ) Barbier arrested Norton for lunacy. When local papers heard this they went berserk, writing scathing pieces about the police department in the paper. Outraged citizens poured into the courthouse to protest, leading the police chief to release Norton and issue a public apology. After this police officers saluted Norton when he walked by. Our story comes to an end in 1880 when Norton I collapsed on a street corner and died. 30,000 people showed up for his funeral. That’s the end of the story. I thought this would be a good story to tell and I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! - Greg Works Cited
 Hello my name is Greg and this is my book review article. In this one I will be talking about Stormbreaker, the first book in the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. This is a book from the school library.
The book's basic premise is that a 14 year old named Alex Rider one day learns that his Uncle Ian has died in a car accident. Shortly after, he learns that his Uncle was actually a spy for Britain's top spy agency and that his Uncle was actually assassinated. Alex then is recruited into the agency to find his Uncle's assassins. Some basic info about this book:
Getting to my actual thoughts on the book I thought it was a very good and entertaining read. There were a large amount of cool action scenes that kept the book interesting throughout. Overall I would recommend this book if you like action, adventure or spy stories. If you found this book interesting you can find it at our school library or local bookstores. Thanks for reading!  Child labor laws have been in place in one way or another since 1847 and have continued to be put in place to make the laws into what they are today. Attached to this report is an image of the current poster that employers must keep visible in the workplace regarding child labor laws. With that being said, many employers in the Lake Region area take advantage of having younger employees. They do this through things like overworking employees, not providing lunch breaks, not paying employees for extra time worked, and threatening to fire employees if they complain about working too many hours. My personal experience at my current job has not necessarily been bad in terms of following the child labor rules, but my employers have broken the law multiple times. I have worked during online school days, over the legal limit and hours, and have not been provided lunch breaks in the past. Now that I’m 16, the laws have changed so some of those things have become legal. However, because I worked hours illegally, I had to change the numbers on my timesheet. Overall, it just feels wrong to do. I love my job a lot though, so I feel that if I had issues with the job itself, my coworkers, or employers, I would be upset, but I’m not. To gather some more evidence, I sent out an email to the entire student body containing a survey asking questions about how they have been treated at work in terms of their employees violating or following Maine’s Child Labor Laws. Of the 104 students who answered the survey, 71.8% or 74 students have or had a job during the school year or summer. Of these students that were/are employed, 26.5% percent or 27 students said that their employers have or do violate child labor laws. One student said, “I was scheduled to work above 50 hours in one week and was forced to work those hours, my employer then threatened to fire me if I complained”. Another student said, “When I was 14 I worked 8-hour shifts with no breaks in a 90° kitchen. Someone also threw a frying pan at me.” A student also said, “I would work later than I was supposed to and they would have me check off my time card so I wasn’t getting paid for over hours.” When asked whether or not the people surveyed thought that taking advantage of minors in the workplace is an issue in the area, 35.2 percent of the participants said yes and 40 percent said maybe. When interviewing a student at Lake Region, she said, “I never get breaks and my manager made me do her job. We also never clean and we eat while we work.” When interviewing another student, she said, “Tony would have me stay after hours and wouldn’t pay me, she just had me fill out a little sheet.” Both of these are examples of exploiting child labor laws. So as you can see from the survey, my own experiences, and my classmates' experiences, taking advantage of younger employees in the workplace is an issue within our community. With around 75 percent of the students surveyed either acknowledging or agreeing that there is an issue with following child labor laws in the area, it’s clear that this must be addressed either person to person or at large. I think the best way to tackle this issue may be uncomfortable for some. If you’re a minor, talk to your employer about violations you have experienced to bring it to their attention and stick up for yourself. - Student Writer Work Cited Child Labor Laws - Maine. https://www.maine.gov/labor/posters/childlabor.pdf.   As many of you may know, the practice of spirituality and magic has taken the world by storm. While this all may seem new and exciting, we as a community need to watch out for how this newfound popularity in witchcraft has caused the spread of misinformation, whitewashing, and cultural appropriation. When getting into witchcraft, it is necessary that you do the research, put in the time, and most importantly, support and LISTEN to people of color when they speak on these issues. While this is a very broad subject, here are a few things to know to start you off.
Closed practices are closed practices this is not up for negotiation. Avoid cultural appropriation at all costs. For example, White Sage and Palo Santo. Native peoples for centuries were not allowed to practice their religion, this includes the practice of smudging, which is an important cleaning and purifying ritual used by Northern American Natives tribes for centuries before the so-called “witchtok” became trendy. Before it became this, it was illegal for Natives to practice their religion until 1978 (Hopkins). Today, these people are still fighting for their rights and to be able to practice their culture. Using this as a tool to be trendy minimizes the cultural significance of this practice. Not to mention how these plants are not being harvested correctly either. “When using medicinal plants, it’s important that the plant is used sustainably. When we pick sage, we always leave the root and say a prayer of thanks for our harvest. This is as much a part of smudging (or sagging) as burning the plant is,” (Hopkins). The plants have not been harvested correctly, meaning the White Sage is now considered an endangered plant, the same goes for Palo Santo as well. The last point I will make before going into my instructions is to EDUCATE YOURSELF. All of this helpful information about respecting cultures and avoiding cultural appropriation is all on the wide world of the internet. DO NOT burden your BIPOC friends or community members to educate you. When getting into witchcraft of any kind, it is integral that you put in the time to know what you are doing and be respectful of BIPOC and other cultures. Now, let's get into it! One of the easier ways to get into the wide world of witchcraft is to make moon water! Moonwater is water charged by the moon and it has many spiritual properties. You can make moon water during any phase of the moon, but it is most powerful made under the full moon. Moon water can be used for many many things. Advanced people will use it for rituals and cleanse their altars but it can be used for many simple things too. It can be used to cleanse and refresh your space of bad energies. It can be used to water your plants. It can be used to cleanse your crystals. You can incorporate it into your face-washing routine to enhance your confidence and glow. You can also put it in your bathwater. It can also be used as a releasing and manifestation technique for those who practice that. Also, you can just drink if you wish! Moonwater has endless possibilities for use. FULL Moon Water What you’ll need:
Directions:
Works Cited Leopold, Susan. “What Is Going on with White Sage?” United Plant Savers, 18 Aug. 2021, https://unitedplantsavers.org/what-is-going-on-with-white-sage/. Burton, Nylah, and Jay Polish. “The Ethics of Burning Sage, Explained.” Bustle, Bustle, 12 Feb. 2021, https://www.bustle.com/wellness/is-burning-sage-cultural-appropriation-heres-how-to-smoke-cleanse-in-sensitive-ways-18208360. Herstik, Gabriela. “Here's How to Make Moon Water-and What to Do with It.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 1 Nov. 2021, https://www.cosmopolitan.com/lifestyle/a34415032/full-moon-water/. Joho, Jess. “How to Be a Witch without Stealing Other People's Cultures.” Mashable, Mashable, 29 Oct. 2021, https://mashable.com/article/witchtok-problematic-witch-cultural-appropriation. Stokes, Victoria. “Imbibe of Lunar Energies with This DIY Moon Water Recipe.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 30 July 2021, https://www.healthline.com/health/moon-water. - Annie |
