Friday, May 27, 2016

Panhandling: Telling the Difference by Joshua Stamer

It has happened to everyone at one point or another. Walking down a Staten Island street you see a man who appears less fortunate. He then either has a sign saying he needs help, or he may even just ask for ask for money. Awareness has been raised on these situations, since in the news there has been multiple documents of panhandlers who are scamming people, and made a lot of money from their actions. So the concern for Staten Island people has now become, do we cold-heartedly turn down people who seemingly need help ? or do we provide our hard earned money (even if it's loose change) to people who could be scamming us ? A Port Richmond senior named Ryan said “ The Fakers are spoiling it for the people who actually need help. If I see someone who needs help I would give them the money. If they are faking, then they have to live with that. “ Perhaps the most difficult part of this entire situation is telling the difference between people who actually need help, and the posers. Another student named Amanda stated, “ I ignore the panhandlers, I don't want to waste my money that I work for.” Since there is no real accurate way of telling the phony  from the genuine, I have come up with a new solution. Whenever, a panhandler, asks for help, you could provide him with food instead of money. While money is an important part of anyone's life, it is not edible, and the homeless people cannot eat money.  “ I am always considerate to panhandlers since I know that sometimes people really need help. But there are times where people use children to beg for money or use the money for drugs so I try to supply food instead.” Said Mrs. Baptiste a tenured Port Richmond Trigonometry teacher.   If you are one of the people who wants to help the needy, providing a protein or granola bar would be a big help. They usually cost around 50 cents and you wouldn’t have to feel any guilt of not helping someone in need. If more people were to do this, scammers would be really upset at the end of the day when they end up with 50 granola bars, instead of 50 dollars.  

After School App Goes Viral by Noashmie Bosa


The new app,  After School,  has gone viral. The app is a way to anonymously communicate with people from your school . This app has taken over the social media accounts of people who subscribe to it. Many people think that it’s a horrible idea and is just another way to bully people. There are no restrictions on the app. It is just an easy way to talk about people. “It’s a very dumb app just for people to talk about other kids,” said Jada. The app is crashing on some phones. When it crashes it does not let people post or see what others had posted or what they are posting currently. “ I hate that app it’s so annoying,  people talking about other people, but can’t say it there face,” said Pablo. While some people highly dislike After School, others are indifferent about it. “ I don’t really care about the app; it’s useless,” said Justin. There are others who have positive thoughts on After School. “It’s a fun loving app.  It’s some of the people who use it that make the app bad.” stated Josh.  “ I think the After School app is entertaining,” said Matthew. There are many differing opinions on After School, but everyone has to remember it’s just an app.