At this crucial moment in history, when the Supreme Court is poised to rule on gay marriage, LGBTQ groups nationwide require our support. Yet instead of strengthening its ties to the liberal, straight community, Samo’s GSALOGO is, in fact, driving us away.

You awake to an incredibly sunny afternoon. You stumble downstairs for some OJ, rubbing your eyes vigorously. After spending some quality time stalking your friends on Instagram and Facebook, you sprawl on the couch to play Call of Duty for the remaining hours of the day. You figure, “It’s summer, why should I do anything?”

With Samo’s current principal and four of its five house principals leaving their posts, there is no question that our school is headed for change. The only question is, what exactly is that change?

Tahreem Hassan is a sophomore foreign exchange student who comes from Pakistan. She has been attending Samo since the beginning of the school year.

Emma Gardner is a junior who is involved in Academic Decathlon, Mock Trial, tennis, choir and Site Governance. She is a frequent contributor to The Samohi.

Justin Sardo is a junior and the founder of Samo’s on-campus, student-led, charity organization, Pocket Change.

In restaurants and cafés across the nation there is a quiet murmur of people of all ages, politely turning down offerings of chicken as they smile and proudly say, “I’m a vegetarian.” With a dignified superiority, they continue to grin as they digest their leafy meals — leaving me staring down at my plate piled high with carcasses of adorable animals.

We accept the fact that homework is an essential element of the learning process. However, we refute the claim that all assigned homework is beneficial. A line must be drawn between homework that helps students learn new concepts and homework that simply bombards students with the same concept over and over.

Although the Samo tardy policy has not technically changed, many students have witnessed a more strict enforcement of it this semester now that teachers are marking tardies themselves instead of sending students to house offices. For many students last year, consequences for tardies were, relative to this year, scarce. But despite the disciplinary policy remaining the same for this year, detentions and Saturday schools have been much more frequent for many students.

Perhaps technology has given us a superiority complex towards nature, or maybe we’re just too young to realize the dangers, but no matter the reason, many people treat earthquake preparation as a time-wasting joke. Throughout my years at Samo, I’ve noticed that earthquake drills seem to be one of the most ineffective tools of preparation I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve taken online driving school.