Comment – Page 7 – the Southerner Online

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: The Justice Department revealed on Mar. 4 a bribery scandal involving the alteration of test score and false reports of athletic recruitment in order to gain college admission. The incident demonstrates the deep economic disparity between students as well as the culture of college prestige in the admissions system.

College bribery scandal reveals economic inequality

March 12, 2019

The revelation of a multi-million dollar bribery scheme, enabling students from wealthy and celebrity families to attend prestigious universities, which was unveiled by the Justice Department on Mar. 13 shows the nation more than just the disproportions betwee...

International Women’s Day ought to be widely celebrated

March 7, 2019

There’s an obscure holiday every day of the year, some as foolish as National Kite Flying Day. Most Americans don’t take these holidays seriously a...

Declaration of National Emergency abuses executive powers

George Lefkowicz, News Section Editor

February 25, 2019

On Feb. 15, President Donald Trump did two completely different things. First, he signed a bipartisan stopgap spending bill to fund the government and avert another government shutdown. The second action by President Trump was to declare a National Emergency in order to divert funds to build a wall on the southern U.S. border after Congress didn’t give them to him. There are...

A DUSTY PLAIN: The infamous dirt lot houses student cars as well as the occasional swamp pit and dust bowl.

Grady’s outback: the dirt lot

February 15, 2019

It is 8 a.m. in Grady’s unpaved student parking area. Drivers begin pulling in to the dusty gates of the dirt lot, awaiting the 8:30 a.m. bell to welcome t...

News outlets covered stories about Grady High School without having the full picture.

News media needs more facts before covering Grady

February 11, 2019

In light of recent events concerning girl's varsity cheerleading team at Grady, several outside news organizations hastily took the lead and published th...

Proposed budget limits flexibility of funds

Abby Peters, Comment section editor

February 8, 2019

Any Grady high school student can attest to the fact that the bathrooms are poorly maintained, whether it be a lack of paper towels or toilet paper, a broken stall lock, a clogged toilet or a missing bathroom sink. Although this problem is widely recognized, little can be done given Grady’s annual operating budget. For the 2019-2020 school year, the proposed budget for...

Corporal punishment is unethical and disproportionately targets disadvantaged students.

Georgia should eliminate corporal punishment in schools

February 1, 2019

Corporal punishment in schools is inhumane, discriminatory, and ineffective. When most people think of corporal punishment, a form of discipline involving ...

Gap years helps students thrive before and during college

Joe Earles, Writer

January 31, 2019

In just four months, Grady’s seniors will step onto the graduation stage and out of high school. For the first time in the lives of the class of 2019, we’ll be let free to pursue higher education and careers. Leaving high school is a thrilling time, but this isn’t a transition that comes without fear. Ironic as it may seem, the fear of failure always comes with this ability to fi...

Gap years: unproductive, costly, and unworthy of time

Kiki Soto, Comment Managing Editor

January 31, 2019

Only about 1.2 percent of college freshmen chose to take a gap year before college, according to a 2012 study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. This means that almost 99 percent of graduating seniors pursuing higher education decided to start their higher education directly after graduating high school. The financial burden, loss of educational momentum, ...

Should students take a gap year after high school?

Kiki Soto, Joe Earles

January 31, 2019

Gap years taken after graduating high school provide advantages and disadvantages for students.

Bilingualism should be a priority in the United States

Annie Laster

January 25, 2019

The United States is not well known for its language diversity. Even though many high schools and universities require languages to be taught, there is no national law mandating foreign languages be taught in schools. This seems like a disadvantage, as one in five Americans speaks a second language at home. The US is also linguistically diverse through immigration, and over 3...

SLEEP FOR SUCCESS: Senior Josh Wolfe works hard at completing his work during his second semester. Wolfe is living by the second semester senior motto,

Day in a life of a second semester senior

January 25, 2019

My previous years at school were a struggle, but nothing compared to the daily grind of the first semester of senior year. College applications piled up, ...