In today’s consumer culture, most things can be bought with money. This rule affords no exceptions and even the justice in America seems to fall under this reality. Granted, ever since the Supreme Court’s 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright ruling, every felony defendant has enjoyed the right to a lawyer regardless of his or her ability to pay. However, this apparent equality has its limits, because case after case has shown that the quality in defense can and does vary greatly, depending on the size of a client’s checkbook.

The 1995 O.J. Simpson trial is a paragon of this reality. Former NFL football star O.J. Simpson was arrested in 1994 as a suspect in the violent murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and Brown’s male friend, Ronald Goldman. To defend his case, Simpson retained an impressive defense team of lawyers, investigators, and experts who all came with big price tags. In a 1994 article by The New York Times, Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley predicted the hefty cost of the defense: $5 million.

The trial captivated the attention of viewers worldwide and became known as the legal case of the century, mainly due to the amounts of incriminating evidence that the Prosecution piled against Simpson, and the strategic skills with which the Defense effectively countered and maintained its position. Evidence, including DNA and blood samples linking Simpson to the scene of the crime, was presented at trial, including a matching shoe mark and a pair of bloodied gloves found at both the Brown and Simpson residences. A compelling timeline of events was also among the evidence presented. Nonetheless, the high-profile Defense lawyers put on a believable argument pointing towards reasonable doubt, summed up by Simpson’s lead lawyer Johnnie Cochran; “if it [the glove] don’t fit, you must acquit.” After Simpson was acquitted, he published a book regarding the murder in 2007 titled If I Did It, which was viewed as a blatant confession of the crime. Simpsons wealth essentially bought his freedom from a superb defense team that exonerated its client when most of the world was convinced of his guilt. The jury may also have been affected differently by Simpson’s wealth.

Mills law and Society teacher Ms. Campbell commented on the Simpson trial, “I’ve heard that the jurors may even have been compelled to vote in favor of the defense because they already held a bias that Simpson’s lawyers were more right simply because Simpson could afford them, which indicated simply that they were the best.”

Unfortunately, not all defendants have $5 million ready at disposal. In most cases concerning poor defendants, public defenders or court-appointed attorneys, who are notoriously over-worked and under-paid, are appointed clients to defend. While this may not necessarily characterize all public defenders as bad lawyers, it does mean that these lawyers have less time to work with their clients and are financially rewarded less for their work. Despite all the good faith and trust that we have in our justice system to carry out justice without prejudice, Simpson’s case epitomizes the fact that when it comes to obtaining favorable “justice,” the wealthy will always reign supreme.

Wealth can often tip the scales of justice in favor of the beholder.

After helping out at registration for incoming freshmen, I could not help but feel bothered. I was appalled by numerous parents who forced their children to sign-up for several advanced classes despite light protests from both the counseling department and the student themselves. Some parents who already began making “action plans” for their young eighth graders dismayed me as well; one mother even went so far as to ask me if her son could borrow a Spanish textbook over the summer in preparation for his upcoming Spanish class. Her son’s nervous countenance did little to alleviate my shock from hearing her request as I politely answered that a Spanish textbook would not be available for checkout over the summer. Please, do not misconstrue me: I fully understand that parents only want the best for their children, but pressuring and applying excessive stress to incoming and current freshmen—mere youngsters—is not at all beneficial; rather, it is detrimental.

Freshman year is a difficult transitional year. It marks a time of new beginnings and new opportunities. Unfortunately, it also marks a time of newfound stress. Freshmen are unfamiliar with the competitive environment (especially at Mills where seventy percent of students experience exhaustion, headaches, and sleeping problems from academic stress, according to the Stanford School Climate Survey of 2011) and intimidated by much more adjusted upperclassmen. They also face a whole new set of expectations, both social and academic. All these factors may contribute in making the first year of high school challenging.

“Freshman year is a very stressful year for many. It’s very hard to transition from middle school [to high school]. You’re expected to do much better in high school since you are earning a diploma. Making new friends in a new environment is also especially difficult,” Ms. Hauth, a Mills counselor notes.

Excessive pressure and additional stress from helicopter parents—parents who hover over their children and scrutinize their every move—only make freshman year much more taxing. Too much stress can lead to frustrated and unhappy students with negative perceptions of high school.

“A student’s first year usually predicts their success in high school. This is why the school tries hard to make freshman year as enjoyable and as easy as possible, often holding assemblies that can teach them how the school works and such,” Ms. Hauth adds.

And it is true that Mills tries very hard to accommodate its students with a positive and fun “school climate.” But none of that matters if parents continue to burden their children. Attending school may be fun, but when a student goes home to an unrealistic list of expectations, whatever happiness they felt at school will simply diminish.

Even though nearly forty-five percent of students believe that their mother’s expectations of them are too high, I am not, in any way, implying that parents are the sole cause of stress.  Students themselves create their own stress by taking too many strenuous AP classes and by solely seeking admittance to “brand-name universities.” As Mills’ counselors have reiterated several times, there are over 5,000 colleges in the United States. That piece of data goes out to parents too. Motivating students to do well in school in their first year is certainly essential, but hovering and pressuring them like helicopter parents is not. In fact, that may only lead to a disastrous crash.

If Facebook, with its 845 million users, were a country, it would be the third largest in the world, but how much does it really care for its citizens? Besides being the bane of student productivity around the globe, there are a number of other problems with the social media platform that suggest an attitude of exploitation and apathy towards its subscribers.

Our information is the honey for Facebook’s multi-billion dollar hive and it is no wonder they are so relentless in its acquisition. Facebook sells data from our “likes” and posts to advertisers that then send us advertisements for specific products. Surprisingly, it is legal because according to the company’s “Terms of Service,” all the information on their website is owned by them—how Orwellian. Facebook’s greediness for our data is even more apparent from their account policy. Call me crazy, but I once tried to do the unthinkable: delete my Facebook account. Relax, I did not actually do it, I just wanted to see if it was possible. I figured out that from your account settings you can only deactivate your account, not delete it. Your friends can still tag you in posts or add you to events and Facebook still owns all of your data. You are still making money for Facebook unknowingly. This sort of chicanery should not be allowed; people should not be misled into thinking their information is deleted when it really is not.  If you want to delete your account along with all your information, there is a more complicated series of steps and a visit to the Facebook help website.

If Facebook insists upon owning all our information, it could at least use it for good—like saving people’s lives. In recent years, a number of people have been posting goodbye messages to friends and family just before taking their own lives. What has Facebook done about it? Well, not much. The current protocol for reporting suicidal content is also buried in the website and wholly ineffective. Here are the steps, and hopefully you will never have to use them:

1.Click the little down arrow in the top right hand corner of the page
2.Click Go to Help Center at the bottom of the drop-down box
3.Click “REPORT ABUSE OR POLICY VIOLATIONS”
4.In the center of the new page you will see “SURFACE SAFETY AND PRIVACY CONCERNS”, click on it.
5. Here you can opt to report the post to Facebook or obtain contact information for local suicide prevention agencies.
If you choose to report the message to Facebook, all it will do is send a quaint little email to the author of the message telling them not to kill them self. I would think Facebook’s priority would be to alert the authorities, not the author of the note. Facebook’s current policy only shows its desire to save itself in the event of a lawsuit, not the lives of its suicidal subscribers.
I am not bashing Facebook for using our information to make record profits–in fact, I think it is rather ingenious and that the service Facebook offers in return is worth it. I just do not agree with how their contract contains such a controlling clause that people do not know about. The company lacks transparency in its motives and has done a poor job of responding to the suicide issue. I believe that a company’s honesty towards its customers shows respect and I do not think Facebook has shown such respect yet. I hope at this point in the game, with hundreds of millions of subscribers, Facebook pulls it together and shows that it actually cares about its subscribers.

I had been sitting with my friend, listening to her regale me with stories of her everyday life, when she began ranting about the fact that she could not tell whether she had been complimented or insulted. She had been told, “You’re pretty… for an Indian.”

After we had parted ways, I began reflecting over what she had said. On the surface, this is a compliment. After all, she had been told she is good looking. But when you take into consideration the condition placed at the end, it is like saying that you are not being measured on the same scale as people of other races. This is essentially looking down on someone based on stereotypes created by society that state different races should not be set to the same standards, or looked at objectively. But what makes it necessary to add a conditional to anyone that does not fit the typical stereotype of beauty?

This belief that people of minority races are not as attractive is perpetuated by the images people see in the media. Flipping through any given women’s magazine, you find pages and pages of beautiful women. Women in 2,000-dollar dresses, women in fancy jewelry, women with perfectly accented features. They wear a wide variety of outfits and are photographed in various settings but one thing is generally the same—their race. The girls we see are blond haired, blue eyed, Arian beauties.

We believe all people of European heritage are attractive, because we are overwhelmed with images of them in the media. Our society is so focused on race and the typical idea of western beauty that we do not look at other races on the same scale.

For a Latina to be beautiful, she must be curvy, with full lips and voluptuous hair. But a Latina woman generally does not look like a white person, and there lies the problem. An Asian person must follow very specific guidelines to be beautiful. They must be slim and delicate—doll-like essentially. The more caucasian they appear, the better they look. Black people are generally featured in magazines as “white washed.” Magazines chose to portray African women as fair skinned, relax haired, thin beauties.

Each race is given a specific mold they must fit into to be considered worthy of magazine status. And even then, we do not see much of an ethnic diversity in magazines, TV shows, or movies. The predominant race has remained white, which forces us to base our perceptions of attractive features on what we are exposed to.

The fact that we cannot look at other races’ attractiveness without taking into account the color of their skin reveals how society has not progressed as much as we would like to think. Sure, we do not have segregated bathrooms anymore or separate sections on the buses, but in our minds, each race is still compartmentalized into their respective sectors.

Mills dress code will be enforced next year. (photo credit: groups.roiworld.com)

Mills staff recently discussed requiring Mills students to wear a school uniform to eliminate inappropriate fashion and promote proper clothing.

In this generation, the media’s and Internet’s influence have taken a toll on teenagers’ sense of fashion. Girls have been wearing low-cut tank tops, crop tops, short shorts and skirts. In addition, many girls abuse make-up. Boys have been wearing over-sized shirts with logos promoting vulgar material and baggy pants with their undergarment showing.

Principal Belzer said, “This inappropriate fashion has distracted students from their learning environment. Each year, what our students wear has changed dramatically and for the worse.”

If the San Mateo High Union School District and Mills staff approve the new dress code, it will come into effect beginning in 2012.

The new dress code will require Mills students to wear formal red and gold clothes with Mills logos on them while at school. Both girls and boys will have to wear button-up shirts that are buttoned to the top. For bottoms, girls will have to wear Mills’ red and gold skirts and boys will have to wear khaki or slacks. Only solid black or white colored closed-toe shoes will be permitted.

If a student does not follow the rules, then he or she will have to attend after school detention. If a student is frequently caught not adhering to Mills’ dress code, then the student’s parents will be contacted.

If Mills’ new dress code is to be put into effect, the announcement and official rules will be released in April.*

* = This is an April Fools article.

Sira Casper's tattoo is dedicated to his family and placed strategically on his chest, over his heart. Photo credit: Sira Casper

“Young, Wild & Free”—not only a popular mainstream song at the moment that describes the antics of young people but also three words that best describe the teenagers of today. No matter the race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background, all teens will undoubtedly make dumb mistakes; some minor while some worse than others. These mistakes could have been prevented by a thorough process of weighing the pros and cons, but more often than not, the decisions were made on a whim because the teen lived a little too much for the moment.

Although studies have shown that teens’ brains are not developed enough for teens to make completely rational decisions, I believe this argument is only legitimate to a certain extent. While it is in our nature to make decisions sporadically, we do have a significant amount of common sense by fourteen or fifteen, yet we continue to ignore the consequences of our actions into our late teen years. It seems that in our minds, doing what we want to when and how we want to is the most important thing in life.

A lack of real world experience and sense of self-identity plagues many of us and we jump on the bandwagon far too quickly. Recently, more and more teens have been getting inked. It seems like it is almost a rite of passage, that once you turn eighteen, you do something that you could not do as a minor. Some choose to buy a lotto ticket, while some go to the other end of the spectrum and get a tattoo. While I have no problem with tattoos, I see the idea of getting a tattoo at eighteen simply because you are able to do so without parental permission to be immature. Basing your decision off of that will leave you with your favorite line from Drake’s latest single etched into your flesh forever. Again, it is not tattoos that I cannot stand. What I cannot stand is the frivolous inking and the recklessness in the deciding of something that stays with you forever.

Sira Casper, a senior who recently got a tattoo dedicated to his family, said, “People don’t realize that it’s a really heavy commitment…They don’t just slap it on you and you’re done—mine took, like, three hours. You sit there and they’re literally cutting your skin open and putting ink under it. If you’re not committed to it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

Too often, teens rush into circumstances. They make decisions based on how they feel at the moment and there lies the problem. Too many of us are living with the “Because I can” mindset. Turning eighteen is definitely something to celebrate, but it is not an invitation to go wild. While it is perfectly okay to enjoy the freedoms of being young, living for the moment is dangerous. There is so much more to life than high school and being young. It is too easy to forget that every single one of us has a future ahead of us, a future filled with amazing adventures, peoples, and places to encounter. That future is something that we should not lose sight of.

We should also be aware that there is pressure out there telling us to “just go with it.” Songs like “Young, Wild & Free” encourage young people to kick back and do as they please, regardless of what others think. Do yourself a favor and do not allow peer pressure or what you see or hear on television, YouTube, or any other form of media influence your judgment. Decisions should be made on principle. Do not get caught up in the hype of youthfulness because who you are now and who you will be in the future could possibly and will very well be two different people. It is easy to forget that the decisions we make today will affect us tomorrow and beyond.

Social science teacher Ms. Dove said, “…You want to be conscious of [the decisions you’re making] because you don’t want to limit yourself to opportunities because of a decision you made in the past.”

If you do decide to get a tattoo, I urge you to think it through first. Better yet, wait until you are in college or have an established career before getting the tattoo. If you want a tattoo for the right reasons at seventeen or eighteen, you will most likely still want the tattoo when you are in your twenties or thirties.

Tattooed History teacher Ms. Conlin said, “It’s really important to consider where you want to be in five years, where you want to be in ten years, where you want to be in fifteen years, and then ask yourself if maybe that decision that you’re making is going to impact any of those choices.”

Go forth and prosper, enjoy the blissful teenage years, think decisions through, and of course, think before you ink.

With the use of social media to spread global issues and events in recent years, media has become the newest medium of worldwide communication. Yet, with these new methods of connecting people from different parts of the world comes the ability for people to negatively judge recent social awakening.
The Arab Spring of 2011 was one of the first emergences of the use of social media to spread global awareness. Revolutionaries used Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites to spread their cause and voice their opinions to the entire world. The use of social media was so extensive that many people refer to the Arab Spring as the “social media revolution.”
KONY 2012, a thirty-minute video created by Invisible Children Inc., has recently spread across the internet, quickly becoming one of the most viewed videos on the internet. With the intent of educating the public about the atrocities being committed by Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, the thirty-minute narrative has received harsh criticism from many viewers, attacking supporters of the KONY 2012 movement for being ignorant of other problems around the world. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: comments and photos praising the video are surrounded by condemning comments, blaming supporters for following so-called ephemeral, bandwagon movements, forgetting about them after their popularity has waned.
Movements publicized through social media should not be criticized for attracting supporters. Similar to a regular teenage kid updating their relationship status on Facebook, people all over the globe use social media to expose their problems, desires, and pleas of help. Many movements may be transitory, but they are still a social awakening for people all over the globe, an emergence from ignorance. Their interest in something may be fleeting, but the overall impact of global movements through social media on people’s lives will be positive. Social media makes helping people on the other side of the globe easy with a click of button, allowing people at home to help others.

In today’s society, people are expected to look a certain way in order to fit the norm. Those who try to express their personal identities are often suppressed by peer pressure, causing people to hide instead of facing humiliation. Without getting to know a person, people assume the morality of a person or sexuality through his or her appearance.

One of the most common judgments people make towards others is their size. People often condemn others of being “fat”, lowering the self-esteem of an individual. Those who judge need to realize that criticizing someone’s weight can be offensive and cause a person to feel extremely self conscious about their appearance. By nature, people are self conscious already of their looks and often hide true beauty behind makeup and surgical operations in order for people to accept them for who they are. People who feel threatened by those who judge their size often resort to unhealthy diets and plastic surgeries to obtain the title of “beautiful.” Those who judge may be having fun and enjoying themselves while mocking and laughing at others, but those being judged hide behind a mask of misery and shame.

Throughout the music industry, people have continuously discouraged talented song artists for their looks, weight, and voice. For instance, Adele Adkins, a world-wide phenomenon who won six Grammys, is often judged by people for her weight. People often look at the image in front of their eyes instead of looking into the heart and voices of a true singer. Adele is beautiful in her voice, soul, and looks and does not deserve criticism from people who think pessimistically towards her.

People are all different, which makes life beautiful and diverse. Everyone should have the same rights to express themselves without being judged for their personality. No one can achieve a perfect physical appearance, for beauty comes from both the inside and out.

The typical appearance that is often misinterpreted are images of people who are covered in tattoos and piercings; people assume those covered in tattoos to be from low society and most likely committed a crime before. Tattoos are not just permanent paint stained on a person’s skin to express bravery and toughness, but a symbolic meaning that could have potentially changed and impacted that person.  Without knowing a person, you should never trust your eyes to tell you the personality and well being of someone. How would you feel if your tattoos are being stared at by others, even if they are an important part of who you are?

“It is so easy to pick on others and say unkind words instead of giving people the opportunity to share who they are,” says Ms. Lighty, a peer helping and freshmen heath teacher.

A new, yet often judged subject is the sexuality of a person. When two women or two men are seen buying groceries together at a supermarket, people in line stare at them, whispering “I think they are gay.” People automatically assume two people of the same gender, walking on the streets together as a gay couple. Just because gay people have a different preference in their love life does not signify that those who are gay are any different from heterosexual people.

We tend to stare at people who are different looking, and giggle when someone dresses differently while walking down the street. We have this reaction towards others who are different because society has always had a biased view towards people who dress differently or act a certain way. Because society follows the common trends, new phenomenons, such as different appearances, are looked upon as unusual and eccentric. People should have the rights to dress under their own discretion and not be judged; what may seem like a weird outfit may express a person’s personality.

“We are blinded by our own vulnerabilities. It is a mindset and attitude as well. It would be wonderful if we could have the attitude that different is exciting
and be joyful in learning what makes us unique,” says Lighty.

A factor that drives people to judge others is their fear of getting less attention and inability to be part of the crowd. People are naturally inclined to maintaining a prestigious reputation, and by doing so, try to humiliate others in order to
lower their status. People who are judged often feel like the laughing stock of
the entire room, and shield their true identity from the crowd.

“I believe we judge people negatively because of fear. We only like or accept people who are the same as us and anyone else that is different we fear out of our own insecurities,” says Lighty.

Overall, people are continuously assuming false ideas about others who look different. Those who are judged may seem to ignore the fact that people are being unkind, by deep inside, they feel pain and sadness for being hated upon. Someone’s looks represents his or her pride, and people should not be taking someone’s dignity away from them. We are all surrounded by unkind words that degrade others and cause people to hide their identity and individualism from the public. Getting to know a person before stating your opinion about someone is the key to creating new friendships and cordial relationships, but judging others is the key to a dead end.

Walking down the path near the math hall one morning, I find myself behind a kid casually walking down the ramp. Halfway through my frustration with this sloth-like walker, I see the kid look left, then right. He proceeds to casually drop a glittery gumwrapper on the ground. Nice try, but I saw that buddy!
Littering has always been an issue here at Mills. Trash cans and recycling bins are literally in every class room and found somewhere every twenty feet in center court, but we here at Mills still revert to the Middle Age habit of throwing our trash on the floor. It is a fact that our carelessness toward our lunch materials is disgusting.
We hate being attacked and getting pooped on by seagulls. Yet, none of us seem to clean up after ourselves. We finish lunch, leaving plastic bags and food containers on the floor, and assume that a janitor will pick it up.
I am not trying to be prude or didactic by asking students here to pick up after themselves, but honestly, is it really that hard to walk a couple more steps to dump our trash in the proper receptacle? We always complain about the birds and their fecal matter, raise our binders and books as makeshift shields, and flee in terror at the sight of a flock of seagulls, but have we ever bothered to realize that we are the cause of our misfortunes? No! Instead, we lure these creatures back to us every day by leaving dainty treats of our leftover mystery meats and tomato splattered napkins. And we still have the audacity to curse those annoying birds?
Our everlasting war with the birds has gone nowhere, and at the moment, the birds are winning. We need to strike at the heart of the issue and cast away our indifference towards trash. We swept the basketball courts several Fridays ago, but can we please start sweeping our dirty grounds after lunch?

Facebook knows a lot more about its users than they may think. (Photo Credit: www.pcmag.com)

Facebook is addictive; most students would agree. There is no doubt that the popular online social networking site allows its users to experience virtual socializing at its best. But what many people fail to realize, is that Facebook is not just all fun and games. It is a business that has become, among companies, perhaps one of the most effective at soliciting information from its users. Facebook has built up a multi-billion dollar company based on its advertisements and the free information that users willingly reveal about their personal lives—both intentionally, and unconsciously.

In February, The New York Times reported on the story of Austrian law student Mark Schrems who requested his Facebook data. Nothing could have prepared him for the 1,222 pages of information that Facebook released about him–all of which the social network had been collecting on Schrems since he first began using its services in 2008. The information included private conversations, and posts that he thought he had deleted.

The advertising business of Facebook may not be breaking news to many. But when Facebook can accurately recall 1,222 pages of your four-year biography, things do start looking a little serious. The reality is that Facebook has methods of collecting information on users whether they are logged in, or logged off. Logged in, users’ privacy falls victim to Facebook apps that allow the site to meticulously record the activities and preferences of users. The newest “Timeline” feature is a paragon of Facebook’s policy on privacy. Timeline, which will one day become compulsory, consolidates all of a user’s posts into years displayed on a single page.

Rather than the original rolling-screen format that displayed only the most recent posts, Timeline essentially allows you to, in Mr. Zuckerberg’s own terms, “tell the whole story of your life on a single page.”

In other words, bygones will no longer be bygones. The camp counselor who became your “friend” on Facebook in fifth grade, can easily access any and all secrets that you once revealed on Facebook. That college interviewer can befriend you, and recall all the childish posts that you submitted when you were in middle school with a simple click of a button. Indeed, Facebook does not miss a thing. In addition to “Family and Relationships,” Facebook now has a place for “Work & Education,” “Home & Living,” “Health & Wellness,” and “Travel and Experiences” within its “Life Event” section.

The “Maps” feature within the Timeline is another unnerving innovation of Facebook. Not only does it utilize “check-ins” which is already a preference-detecting app on its own, “Maps” incorporates life events and geo-tagged photos to display a physical recollection of everywhere and anywhere you once were, or currently are. Even without personally announcing your whereabouts, Facebook surreptitiously finds a way to find out:

According to its published privacy policy, Facebook states, “We receive data from the computer, mobile phone or other device you use to access Facebook. This may include your IP address, location, the type of browser you use, or the pages you visit.”

Facebook’s tracking cookies can also learn much about the tuned in user through other more direct means. Clicking “Like” buttons automatically turns the user into a salesman for the company or group that sponsored the “liked” product or event. This action is announced on news feed in hopes of soliciting information from your friends.  Both logged-off, and logged-in, Plug-ins, or Facebook sharing apps on other sites, are other mechanisms for information consolidation. All of these features together give Facebook a comprehensive compendium of all the web sites you have visited in the past ninety-days.

So remember to be cautious, Facebook-holics, next time you go online. That next innocuous post may not only bring Facebook billions in revenue, but may also go to the detriment of your privacy, too. Sharing may be caring, but too much of it can get a little troubling.