Thinking about the future can be scary, and high school is usually the time when thinking becomes serious and dreams turn into plans. For most of us, it’s expected that our high school years are spent preparing for college and buffing up our resumes before we apply. 

It’s been a stressful adjustment for some, a relaxing break for others, and everything in between. The start of the 2020-2021 school year came with endless questions about the future of school at Liberty and the issues we’ve encountered with online learning. This system was created to benefit students during the pandemic, but how much is it really?

In recent years, rising student activism in our district and surrounding area has seen the results of incredible change. Last year, we fought to keep our 8-period schedule with student involvement and parent encouragement; nationally, in 2018, we walked out in solidarity with students across the nation after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. In the last month, students of Kennedy Catholic High School protested the firing of two teachers on account of their sexual orientation. But is this activism worth it? Are our voices actually heard?

We’ve seen it on Reddit. We’ve heard it on TikTok. Gee, we’ve even heard it from government officials. “OK, Boomer”, a minimalist clapback increasingly used by millennials and Gen Z-ers to dismiss baby boomers as old-fashioned and out of touch with current issues, seems to have conquered the internet. It’s a trendy thing to say, but that’s the problem. When did we become okay with reducing intergenerational dialogue to a mere catchphrase?

As procrastinators, we don’t feel like doing a lot of things. And by we, I mean everyone, at one point or another. It could even be that straight-A student or teacher who has every lesson in the semester planned out. There is no doubt that procrastination is a productivity disaster, but few procrastinators are speaking up about the fact that laziness is not always the reason. Even fewer of us are willing to admit that procrastination takes away so much more than just our time.

In the wake of college admission scandals, questions about academic integrity have come up over and over again: why do students cheat? What can they gain from such dishonest actions, and are there honest alternatives to cheating that help students get ahead? Because what may seem like a few little shortcuts can impact students for months to come.

They’re screaming. The room’s dark, chairs circled. Your best friend’s sobbing. The mob is shouting curses, throwing objects, hating a faceless figure. For now, you stand alone, observing. The urge to join in is almost uncontrollable, but you’re fearing something greater. We might not be in Orwell’s 1984, and this isn’t sophomore English class. But when the Two Minutes Hate comes on, will you resist its pull?

I was sitting in the library one day, the sun streaming through a wide, high window across my high-tech school computer, when I noticed a small, vulgar doodle in the wall: “f*** liberty,” it said. I paused, considering, and decided this bothered me. I know the library cost over $5,000,000 to make, and in light of this, the graffiti seemed ignorant; I grabbed a Sharpie and crossed it out. I know Liberty is a nice school: our hallways are wide and clean; our textbooks glossy; our teachers generally happy to teach. It got me thinking: how much money is actually pumped into this place, day-to-day? Aside from our expensive library, how much did the building cost? This, my final feature article, is all I could find out about the cost of Liberty High School.

Journalism has been one of the foremost ways of exercising the right to free speech for centuries, and for good reason. But now, even though the Internet allows us to share and access news with unprecedented speed, there is no denying the fact that trusted, fact-checked news is on the decline. With newspaper after newspaper filing for bankruptcy, how can we ensure that the true value of journalism is not lost amidst the condemnations of fake news, clickbait, and—perhaps worst of all—irrelevancy?

Art: if you have ever lived on Earth, chances are you have consumed some form of it. Books, music, drawings, and films are just a few categories of art, which is defined as “the expression of human creative skill.” Here at Liberty, student artists share their creative talents in many ways, both in and out of school. But why did they become artists, and why is art such a big part of many people’s lives?

In response to a new district levy granting the Issaquah School District an extra 40 million dollars a year, a high school scheduling committee was chartered in February 2018. The committee aims to place Issaquah, Skyline, and Liberty High School on a common schedule while simultaneously adding at least one period to the six period school days of Issaquah and Skyline.