Grace Ma

This year, and especially in recent weeks, the school has seen a dramatic increase in drug citations — some leading to suspensions or possible expulsions, assistant principal Kevin Mount said.

I still remember the first time I wore sweatpants to school. I had been sick that one fateful week in junior year, with a nose that rivaled Rudolph’s and a headache that felt as if an angry child was taking a cast-iron skillet to my brain. Too tired to mull over my outfit that morning, I donned my favorite ash-grey sweatpants and went to school.

Then a first-grader, current junior Calvin Shih thought the lump on the right side of his neck was a candy he had accidentally swallowed whole. But one day during dinner, his parents noticed, and they feared it was something else. 

We live in a society full of abundance. The United States’ resources are in such great excess that dumpsters are flowing with fresh produce, and bonfires are no longer made of wood: They are made of thousand-dollar handbags.

As students enter into their last few weeks of school, several groups on campus have begun to establish their new leaders for the coming year. So far, the new editor-in-chiefs of the Saratoga Falcon and drum majors for the marching band have been announced.

In 2011, novelist Amy Chua shocked the nation in “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” with her list of activities her two Asian-American daughters were forbidden to participate in: sleepovers, playdates, choosing their own extracurricular activities, playing any instrument other than the piano or violin, and watching TV. Although critics criticized Chua both for her book and her parenting techniques, some SHS students found some parallels between Chua’s parenting style and that of their parents at home.

In 1979, a San Diego teenage girl shot 11 people at Grover Cleveland Elementary School because she “[did] not like Mondays.”

The Academy Awards — also known as the Oscars — have without a doubt set a precedent for other award shows.

There were only four days left until freedom, and current junior Annelise Nussbacher was just six tests away from the end of her sophomore year.

While standing on the podium and receiving a diploma marks the end of high school for most students at SHS, for many seniors in the special education program, their high school careers have yet to end.  

In classrooms where finger painting and building blocks are integral parts of the school day, kindergarteners across the country are now sitting down and circling the “answer choice that best answers the question.”

On Dec. 2, an Arizona principal punished two high school students who had fought in the courtyard Westwood High School.

While students drive and walk in and out of the parking lot every day, it is campus supervisor Jeanine Sevilla who knows the parking lot best.

The Art Reach Club hosted an art exhibition that displayed student-produced oil paintings, graphite sketches, photography and other mediums on Nov. 14. The newly formed club aims to spread the importance of art to the Saratoga Community.

On Oct. 27, 68-year-old Charlie Thomas saw his high school for the first time in 50 years.

When a curriculum includes the words “test free” and “no homework,” and applying to college only involves the click of a button, 10 years of school suddenly doesn’t seem so exhausting. In Sweden, a country where the “must-perform-better-than-neighbor” syndrome is essentially obsolete in comparison to the U.S., education focuses almost entirely on individual improvement.

Top 10 celebrity tweets of the year

Thousands of protesters. Riots all over the Middle East. The death of a U.S. ambassador.   The cause? A low-quality, amateurish YouTube video.

We remember images of the terrorizing bully on the playground, right? The kid who kicked others off the swings, teased the first graders and the kid who, instead of playing tag, just pushed everyone over?

In one hour, less than the span of one block period, you can drive to Oakland, the sixth most dangerous city in the U.S according to 24/7 Wall Street. In a mere 25 minutes, the time it takes to drive to Chipotle and back, you reach East Palo Alto, which once had the highest homicide rate in the country. 

Trying to imagine the school without longtime assistant principal Karen Hyde seems almost impossible to most students and teachers. But a hiring committee recently decided to select English teacher Kerry Mohnike out of over 100 applicants to fill the job following Hyde’s retirement. 

After 19 years of dedication to the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High school district, world history teacher Mike Davey has been named the district Teacher of the Year for 2012-2013. 

Ending their season with a 20-10 loss to Milpitas on May 8, the Falcons finished fourth in their league with a 6-6 record.

Both motivated and experienced, the new ASB officers are ready to tackle the 2012-2013 school year. Next year’s ASB members include junior Sasan Saadat, who ran unopposed for president, junior David Zarrin as vice president, junior Benedict Chiu as treasurer and sophomore Nikhil Goel as secretary.

When was the last time you chose to go out with your family over your friends?

Losing to Gunn 16-14 on April 26 and Monta Vista 20-10 at home on April 24, the Falcons have lost their chances of tying with Cupertino as league champions. With three games left in the season, the Falcons are hanging on to their current third-place position in the De Anza league.  

Sirens scream as police cars and ambulances pull into the lot. Two cars smashed, totaled. Three injured, one pronounced dead.  


It costs $49 per student to take the SAT. Now take that and multiply it by 3, the average number of times a student will take this test. Take that number and multiply it by two million, the number of students who took the SAT during the 2010-2011 school yea

One of the most difficult parts of writing and creating poetry, according to senior Sanjana Chetia, is trying to think of the perfect word to illustrate her works but failing to find it. With time and effort, though, she managed to overcome the difficult process and create outstanding poetry. 

With only three years of badminton experience, sophomore Bryan Chow has already gone from a novice to the best of the best.

Digging dandelions from her lawn at her parents’ request, freshman Yvonne Ye cautiously holds each tuft of seeds.

Proposition 209, passed by ballot in California in 1996, amended the state’s constitution to bar public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity in any publicly funded activity, including employment and education.

When the first scheduled Word for the Heard dance was rescheduled last fall, some students were disappointed. Now the cancellation of the dance has disappointed many more students who were planning to attend.

“I’m fat. I don’t eat … I hate myself … I want to die.”

“Al’ right class, you have 30 minutes. Time starts now!”

Walking through groups of iMacs and shelves of professional filming equipment during his Media Arts class one day, sophomore Ehrland Hollingsworth imagined all the possibilities that the Media Arts Program building had to offer.

A multitude of Chinese calligraphy scrolls and drawings line the walls of the Saratoga Community Center building as countless children and their parents walk to different stations, each with a Chinese activity relating to the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon.

Let me first tell you that I did not plan on going to the Caribbean as a self-humbling experience. I basically agreed to attend the cruise last winter break for the food. I would say I’m fairly well informed about what goes on in the world—I read Yahoo News and occasionally sit down and watch CNN when I’m bored (like, extremely bored). I tell my friends to think about the starving children in Africa when they throw away their half-eaten lunch. But that could never have prepared me for what I saw in a red trolley ride around Belize City, Belize, a small island just south of Mexico.

When springtime comes, current sophomores will be faced with the dilemma of choosing which U.S. History class to take. Although the extra grade point given to students taking AP U.S. History (APUSH) may seem tempting, APUSH requires students to be very proactive and organized, according to APUSH teacher Kim Anzalone.

With jet-black hair perfectly matching her grand piano, sophomore Vivian Wang smiles at the camera, albeit a bit awkwardly. Her demeanor is playful, perhaps simple, and it shows in her music. Listening to her gives a sense of simple, even childish, happiness. She’s anything but flashy.

Just seven years after founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced the site to his fellow Harvard classmates to study and share notes for an art history final, Facebook has now expanded into an international website with more than 800 million active users. With the average Facebook user connected to at least 80 groups, community pages and events, Facebook has become the largest social media network in the world.

For new student junior Kristen Zung, capturing the beauty of the world in a still image with her Canon camera is nothing new. Now, she is making her mark on the school with her talent.

He participates in the school Robotics team, Application Developers Club and the Zero Robots Programming team all for one purpose: to program. Versed in a number of higher-level computer languages, junior Eugene Che communicates with others in ways that transcend 0s and 1s.

In the midst of the bustling city of New York and less than a mile away from Times Square, the students of Columbia University have the privilege to enjoy the fast-paced experience of living in New York City while attending one of the most distinguished schools in the nation. “Since it's NYC and [our dorm building] is 13 stories, some people have really pretty views of the city, [some students] can see the Empire State and a lot of the NYC skyline,” says Emily Hsia, a Saratoga High alumna who graduated in 2011.

Stanford University is commonly known for its outstanding engineering, medical and science programs. Though this may give the prestigious school the image of having an intense learning atmosphere, other aspects of the university also contribute to its individuality. David Wang, who graduated last year, originally decided to attend Stanford due to its reputation for having a vast variety of resources offered to students. That, and the fact that Stanford is home to the nation’s best football player, quarterback Andrew Luck.

Students brought in more than 700 children’s storybooks for the book drive during Homecoming week, according to assistant principal Karen Hyde.

Americans would like to think of themselves as a people who value equality. As of Sept. 20, the country is one leap closer toward that goal. The repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy shows that America is learning to accept differences in others and is working to eliminate discrimination in our country. The Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy

When music department head Michael Boitz came to Saratoga High in 1997, there were only 11 students in the entire orchestra program. Fourteen years later, the department has expanded to hundreds of students. With the construction of the McAfee Center in 2005, music performances are no longer held in a gym decorated with blue tarp and poinsettias.

Science teachers Jenny Garcia and Kelly Nicholson were among the thousands of people who donned pink tutus and face paint to participate in the 60-mile Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day for the Cure walk from Sept. 9 to Sept. 11. The walk started off in San Francisco, went to Berkeley, and on the last day, concluded through the Golden Gate Bridge.

Walk into the office of room 202, and instead of the paintings students would typically expect in an art teacher’s office, one’s eyes immediately notice the photographs of Cher, an American pop music artist, all over the walls.

Amy Keys stands enveloped by the humid heat of Indonesia, where street markets line the roads and common folk wash their clothes in rivers. It is 1990, and when classes resume later in the afternoon, she will teach English to Javanese students intent on learning the language in order to qualify for higher-level education.

I was shocked when I walked into Saratoga High for the first time in months on Schedule Pick Up day.

Patrick Huynh was inspired to start competitive Ping-Pong four years ago by his father, who was the champion of his town as a child in Vietnam. His dad played to win money to support his family. Huynh attended a rigorous Ping-Pong camp in San Jose this June and was coached by various professionals such as Stefan Feth, the 2004 U.S world champion. Additionally, Huynh appeared in a KTSF Channel 26 interview about the high profile camp.