News

Superstar SZA Inducted into Columbia High School Hall of Fame

By Teddy Higer-Paris

News / Sza / 240/200

On Monday, June 4th, SZA, born Solana Imani Rowe, was honored at the high school she graduated from and got the change to speak to current Columbia High School (CHS) students. "When I went to this school things were very different, we had free ninth periods, and a lot of room to make bad decisions that low-key turned us into great people”, said SZA,’08. During her speech, SZA encouraged daydreaming saying, “You find the details and the inner workings of yourself and what you actually want to do… daydreaming is actually where this whole thing starts.”

Credit - Village Green

SZA gave special shutouts to her art teacher Ms. Schwartz, her mom Audrey Rowe, and Kandice Point du Jour of CHS Special Dance. During the second hall of fame assembly, despite saying last month her voice had been “permanently injured” sang her hit ‘The Weekend’ for the audience. Many CHS students sang along. “No one thought she was going to sing”, said Jonah Measles, ‘20, “It was really cool, really inspiring too.” After the two assembly periods, SSZ meet with the CHS Special Dance Company in the East Gym. 

Other CHS Hall of Fame inductees include Lauryn Hill, ‘93, who was inducted in 1999 and Elisabeth Shue, ‘81, who was inducted in 1994. There is a Hall of Fame Committee that goes through an extensive process each year when choosing who to honor.

Trumps Twitter Blocking Days are Over

By Jack O'Connell

News / Twitterblock / 420/400

Photo Via TruePundit

On wednesday, May 23rd, a federal district court judge ruled that President Donald Trump is not able to block users on Twitter over their political views and opinions. Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that the President’s Twitter is a public forum and him blocking people for their opinions violated the First Amendment through viewpoint discrimination. The lawsuit was brought forth by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of seven people who had been blocked by President Trump for expressing their opinions through replying to his tweets.


In her opinion released after the verdict, Buchwald says that by blocking citizens, President Trump was violating the first amendment because it not only prevented the user from replying to the tweets, but it prevented them from seeing them all together. Buchwald suggested that the President should just ignore the tweets instead saying, “a person’s right to speak is not infringed when government simply ignores that person while listening to others,' or when the government ‘amplifies’ the voice of one speaker over those of others.” She also suggested that the President muted the accounts instead saying, “Muting preserves the muted account’s ability to reply to a tweet sent by the muting account, blocking precludes the blocked user from ‘seeing or replying to the blocking user’s tweets’ entirely.” In her opinion Buchwald also references White House social media director and presidential assistant, Daniel Scavino. She said that the ruling also applied to him as a high ranking government official. Buchwald however didn’t order President Trump or Scavino to unblock anyone. Instead she suggested they should do so by saying, “Because no government official is above the law and because all government officials are presumed to follow the law once the judiciary has said what the law is, we must assume that the President and Scavino will remedy the blocking we have held to be unconstitutional.”


In response to this ruling the a Justice Department spokesperson said, “We respectfully disagree with the court's decision and are considering our next steps." The justice department has a deadline of 60 days to appeal the ruling. Neither Trump or Scavino have released a statement on the ruling. Trump is a constant user of twitter and is constantly putting his opinions and giving updates on the ongoings of American and world politics and news on his personal Twitter account. It will have to be seen later whether or not he will take any action on the matter.





#AGAIN - Another School Slaughter


Teddy Higer-Paris

News / #AGAIN - Another School Slaughter / 294/300


Sante Fe, Texas - May 18th, a gunman walked into Sante Fe High School and started shooting. Ten people were murdered and at least ten were injured. The shooting comes just over three months after another mass shooting in a high school in Parkland Florida. When asked after the event by a local news crew if she questioned what was happening was real, Sante Fe High School student Paige Curry, said, “No, It’s been happening everywhere, I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.”






Credit - David Hogg Twitter, @davidhogg111


After a gunman who was a former student opened fire inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people, Parkland student survivors have lead a movement to stop this kind of gun violence. Shortly after the February 14th shooting, two students who starting speaking out and quickly become nationally known. Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg almost immediately started giving television interviews organizing events and pushing members of Congress to vote for common sense gun safety measures, such as universal background checks. Both teens have been active on Twitter. The hashtag #enough spread and a march, March for our Lives, was organized by mostly students who survived the Parkland shooting. While Hogg has been encouraging politicians to act, he has also made clear that if they do not, they will be voted out. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to be our current politicians that change this only voting can. Register young Americans to vote at your high school here. Together we vote, together we win”, Hogg wrote on Twitter