Venturing into the year, I didn’t really know what to expect from my last year of high school. I can now say that first semester was not what i had anticipated, from the detentions/suspensions to the new relationships I built. One of the many things that made this semester so memorable was News Production. I don’t really like writing of any sorts, i prefer to get my point across verbally however this class opened me up to documenting my opinions and my voice.  As i developed these past few months i have seen growth in my writing, which went from your typical essay for english to a more opinionated type of writing. The piece i am most proud of is the review on Thor,  it  contains the most effort i have ever put into any written assignment and though it might not be perfect i enjoyed every second of writing it.

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God of Thunder booms box office

This fall, Taika Waititi provides the Marvel fanbase with a more down to Earth portrayal of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), showing the viewer a comedic version of the character in Thor: Ragnarok. As a fan of the Marvel franchise, I was very satisfied walking out of the theater. The last thing I expected was being able to relate with Thor and his awkwardness. Despite being a god, the movie shows Hemsworth making innocent mistakes and playful comments allowing the audience to see him more as a person or human being. While Hemsworth creates a comedic atmosphere, he is also able to bring the intensity and seriousness back when trouble strikes his home-place.

When the movie begins, Asgard is being threatened by two different forces. First, a prophesied apocalypse told by the fire demon Surtur. Second, by Hela (Cate Blanchett) also known as the first child of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and long lost sister of Thor and Loki. After escaping from her banishment by Odin from years ago, she returns to Asgard as an intimidatingly powerful figure in hopes of taking over. With benevolence, Thor makes it his mission to save his home and his people. He teams up with an unlikely, yet formidable group of three characters. Tom Hiddleston returns as the charming, yet coy Loki who puts aside his schemes to support his brother on his mission. Hulk also makes a comeback, yet as a reigning champion of a planet called Sakaar. Last but not least, Valkyrie appears for the first time on screen. She stands her ground against everyone else and is perfectly capable of surviving on her own. The four of them join together to defeat Hela and her army.

I like that the movie was a premise for Thor to discover himself. Throughout the whole movie, he struggles to find his strength and often forgets what he’s fighting for. Hemsworth remarkably portrays Thor as charismatic and compassionate even through such an action packed series, allowing us to still get a sense of Thor apart from him being the god of Thunder.

One of the most appealing ideas that I got from the movie was that all of the characters are very different. They all start out with different lives and serve for different purposes, but director Taika Waititi does a great job of putting them together. Thor fights for good, Loki fights for the bad, Hulk fought under the Grand Master (Jeff Goldblum), and Valkyrie worked under the Grand Master as well. Together, they had very good chemistry, making it fun and exciting for the audience as well. As a viewer you see the development of these characters and how they break the traditional superhero stereotype

Waititi was able to cleverly use Thor: Ragnarok to set in motion the anticipated movie Infinity Wars. He did this by showing snippets of Doctor Strange. He also seems to use the space setting to hint at Guardians of the Galaxy. In spite of having a more humorous movie, fans everywhere are still able to make connections between the movies in the franchise, which makes it all the more fun.

Thor: Ragnarok provides audience members everywhere a lively experience, one I highly encourage for all ages.

The ABCs of BAC

The main purpose of the BAC is to create discipline and act as a consequence for students in order to avoid trouble in the future and having them come back frequently. The Behavioral Adjustment Center (BAC) is a disciplinary consequence issued to students, where students are kept in school instead of suspending them and having them stay out of school. Students are given the opportunity to catch up on any work in class with the access of teachers and other help in the school. 

However, there has been a lot discussion. In order to get an opinion about this, it was best to go directly to one of the teachers that is in charge of BACs, Mr. Park. He says, “For some students who are repeatedly in BAC, they treat it like a day off. They refuse to do work, they go to sleep, and they just do whatever they want. There’s only so much you as a teacher could do, in terms of getting them to do work. ” The problem is that some students don’t take it as seriously as others do, so they don’t learn how to make up for their mistakes. Without any sort of compliance, it is hard for the teacher to reach out to the student and help them.

After interviewing Dean Brown, BAC is much more efficient than the alternative. He says, “If we remove BAC and you do something, like, slap a kid in the face, throw a chair across the room, or steal something. If we didn’t have BAC, we’d have to suspend every single one of those students. At the very least, we keep them in school, they’re not out of school”.  Without it, the deans in our school would have to suspend the students no matter how grave the issue. This would be unfair if two students were both suspended even though one of them may have done something less severe than the other.

The point of having an in school suspension is to keep the students in line and remind them that their consequences could be worse. In fact, according to the school-to-prison pipeline, if a student is suspended two or more times, they are more likely to end up in a prison system. This teaches students the mentality that, in the real world, there isn’t going to be any sort of warning. So, it’s important for the school to help students avoid trouble now in order for them to avoid it later on in the future as well.

Mr. Park believes that having some sort of restorative justice such as community service could go a long way, but there are also many other problems that come with that, like, if a student were to get hurt, it would be under the school’s responsibility. Admittedly, there are a few things that students and deans both believe need to be added to the BAC system to enforce its purpose and illustrate that they shouldn’t nor have to make bad choices, but in the end, it is in the control of the student and how they choose to take that message. In my opinion, having a BAC is much better and it gives students the option to think about their decisions and where it could take them or if they are willing to deal with those consequences, if there are any.