Change my mind: Friday nights are the worst day of the week
Lexie Lukacik, Photo Editor
September 25, 2020
I remember my first ever DGS football game as a freshman. It definitely wasn’t much considering I sat with a bunch of parents. Once I realized that the big seniors weren’t as scary as they looked, I took the chance to sit far away from the angry parents with screaming toddlers who were forced to come. Eve...
Glorifying weight loss isn’t cute, it’s toxic: Changing the way we let the internet affect our body image
Gwendolynne Royle, Opinions Editor
September 18, 2020
Body shaming— an idea that is far from being a new phenomenon. Throughout history, the media has bombarded the public with images of the ideal body. Models with hourglass figures parade on TV screens and all over our socials, but in the past few months the whole world has had to spend time with ourselves...
How College Board will disappoint students with AP testing… again
Annie Le, Head Copy Editor
September 17, 2020
Last May, College Board administered over four million at-home AP exams, disappointing thousands of students with server crashes and thousands more with inconsistent difficulty levels across test forms. The 2020 AP testing season was a period of heartbreak and anger for many students. Most of us now...
Falling asleep or staying ‘woke?’: Performative activism on Instagram
Alexis Pragides, Graphics Director
September 16, 2020
Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Black Lives Matter movement has been at the forefront of activism across all age groups. Particularly among the younger generations, a new kind of activism is being embraced on social media with the making of posts centered around social issues....
District 99 spent months planning remote learning; is this really the best we can do?
Luc Alvarez, Editor-in-Chief
September 14, 2020
Last spring, District 99 was forced into remote learning by the COVID-19 pandemic and Illinois School Board of Education (ISBE) guidelines. The strict guidelines and steep learning curves lead to much of the learning being done asynchronously and all without grades. As guidelines have changed and time has gone on, it seems as if District 99 has committed...
Zoom bombing: Classroom distractions reach another level
Teagan Smith, Features Editor
August 27, 2020
As students across the country attend school remotely, many of the normal in-person classroom disruptions -- such as talking to your neighbor or sneaking off to the bathroom for half the class period -- no longer occur during online school. So naturally, people have taken it upon themselves to create...
Thanks and peace out
Jacob Casella, Social Media Director
May 12, 2020
Hi. Here I am, sitting at my computer drinking a Diet Coke, being all dramatic with one singular tear running down my face, writing my last column. The end of my Blueprint career was not how I thought it would end. I haven’t been in room A310 in two months, and haven’t seen any of my fellow staff...
Missing my last day of high school and what I learned
Alison Goulding, Print News Editor
May 12, 2020
On the first day of my senior year I wrote the date “May 22” on a hot pink post-it note and stuck it to my mirror. Everyday since, I glanced at it as I was getting ready as a reminder of what I was going to school for: graduation. This hot pink post-it reminded me to persevere through every day...
Living a life under COVID-19
Vincent Llanes, Copy Editor
May 8, 2020
Am I sad that I am losing half of my senior year? Certainly, there is no doubt that I greatly value the comforting presence of my peers and the wonderful set of teachers I’ve had this year. Am I that sad though? Not at all. After grinding through college applications and standardized tests, I...
TikTok turns toxic: App drives waves of insecurity among teens
Ariel Oh, Print Features Editor
May 4, 2020
TikTok -- a social media that has gone viral over the past couple of years. Ranging from infants to the elderly, TikTok has space for everyone to post and share video content anyone in the world can see. While this comes with laughs and giggles, there has also recently been a darker side of TikTok arising. I’ve...
The positives we gained from COVID-19
Ariel Oh, Print Features Editor
May 4, 2020
As the school year (or lack thereof) comes to a close, we could all say the coronavirus has taken something from us. Whether it be a job, seeing friends, your sports season or even school COVID-19 has proved to the entire U.S. population that this pandemic is no joke. In my opinion, the media’s...
Dear Blueprint seniors, I’ll miss you
Ariel Oh, Print Features Editor
May 3, 2020
Dear Blueprint Class of 2020 Seniors (I don’t know what to call you), I know that the year has been cut short and that basically ruins your entire high school experience, and we never got to say goodbye to any of you, because I never thought I’d have to say goodbye until the ACTUAL end of the...
