News

Why do we smoke at a young age?

by Jahfon Maddox

I think when kids and teens see adults, especially their parents or other will be more likely to smoke because they will perceive smoking as normal behavior and something that is grownup and mature. These kids learn from the adults in their lives that to cope with stress they can smoke. We should talk to teens about smoking to find out what we can do to help stop teen smoking, educate them on how it ruins their bodies, behaviors and social lives.

Moot Trial a Success

by Mr. Craighead

Since October, Mr. Craighead’s civics classes have been working with students from Penn Law preparing to take part in a moot trial in the spring.  They are given a case that trains them how to argue in court at Penn Law. The case is between Philadelphia Eagles High School and student Timothy Savage who is suspended for posting threatening raps on Facebook.  The case centers on the 1st amendment of free speech.

On Thursday April 12th Mr. Craighead took students from his 4 civics classes to Penn Law to take part in annual Moot Trial competition. Moot Trial is where the case is being appealed after initial verdict was rendered. There were five high schools at the moot trial competition, Overbrook was the only comprehensive high school to take part in the competition and not only did they hold their own they did very well.  There were 42 students who took the role of lawyers for either side of the case, 9 of which came from Overbrook which was the largest of the group.

Overbrook’s contingent was made up by Ronnora Pierce, Oluwaseyi Ogundana, Lashay Clark, Zafir Elo-Dockery, Deanna Pool, Khlaf Washington, Jose Jimenez-Perez and Quadir Wiggins-Lynn.  They all did an outstanding job even with one of them getting into the final match.

In the second round, Lashay Clark was marking a case in the court, when a wayward bird hit the court window which did not faze her case. Zafir Elo-Dockery who got peppered with questions with an appropriate response. Deanna Poole was able to bring in current issues of gun violence with her argument. The main thing they all did was to stand up in court and argue their side of a case. The biggest event was when Seyi Ogundana was picked to be one of the finalist. He did an outstanding job and he was the only competitor to have his case memorized. Though we felt he did the best of the finalist he did not place in the top 4, even the head of the Penn law students thought he would finish 1st. Next year Mr. Craighead plans to partner with Penn law again and hopes to build on this year’s accomplishment.

New School Website

by Seyi Ogundana

Congratulations to our very own Overbrook high School for creating a new website for the school. The website is not its own entity; but is accessible through the school district’s website. It provides access to the resources, given an overview introduction to the school. The brilliant minds behind this idea are Mr. Verlin and Mr. Fred.  They can be reached in room 304 & 321 respectively; they told the newspaper that they started this project to engage students with knowledge and involve them in other activities the website currently contains:

• The school’s vision
• The school’s mission
• Prospective students
• Information on teachers
• Update on sporting activities
• Academic departments
• Student Newspaper
• Promise Corps info

According to them, the work was accomplished mostly by students; and I want to take the time to appreciate the students involved, and those who contributed to the success of this project.

• Bryant Johnson
• Allycia Devine
• Lashay Clark
• Antoinette Cleaves
• Ameenah McMillan
• Autumn Peterkin
• Glenn Davis
• Mianna Carter
• Ziera Gay
• Karron Robinson-Lynch