It feels as though an overwhelming number of the restrooms—toilets, sinks, and urinals—at Harriton are always broken. And to top it off, when one is broken, it remains out of order for quite some time. This inconvenience is an aggravation that every student shares. It seems that Moaning Myrtle has left Hogwarts and found herself some new bathrooms to haunt at our school.

Everyone has had that moment when they cursed the sink that wasn’t turning on. Adjoa Mante, grade 11, says of Harriton bathrooms, “They are a blessing and a curse. The automatic sinks and toilets are convenient, but there is at least one sink in every girl’s bathroom that never works.” Her feelings are shared by a majority of the students at Harriton.
There are several sinks throughout the school that just do not work at all. You find yourself walking up to a sink and waiting there wondering why no water is flowing out until you finally realize that it is never going to turn on. For some, this has happened so many times that it is just an accepted fact—“Oh, that’s one of the sinks that doesn’t work.” There is one sink in the first floor girl’s restroom near the cafeteria that has been broken since the new school opened in 2009. It is now 2012, and not a single drop of water has left that faucet for 3 years.

There are many other sinks spread out across each floor that are in a similar condition, boys’ and girls’ bathrooms alike. This can be very annoying at times. There are three other sinks in the bathroom, but why shouldn’t you be able to use the fourth? Why should a new sink in a school that is barely three years old be broken? And why for so long has it not come to the attention of administration? Similarly, one of the toilets in the girl’s locker room was broken for a long time (about 2 years). This was highly inconvenient during sport seasons; the locker room can get hectic. When there are a lot of girls in there, the toilets are in high demand. So when one of the four toilets broke, the long line of girls waiting for a bathroom was made even longer.

It took two years for this toilet to get fixed. Until that time, a dirty orange cone sat on top of it, a depressing sign to a girl opening the door with hope, telling her, “Forget it, this toilet is useless, it’s a lost cause.” Why did it take so long for this toilet to get fixed?

The cause could be from inappropriate use by the students of Harriton. This is not an unreasonable assumption to make, since Harriton students as a group have proven to be less than proficient at taking care of facilities (e.g. the JSL with cleanup and the cafeteria with getting food from the plate to the mouth). The paper towel dispenser could easily be broken by rough treatment, but automatic sinks would appear to be more difficult and less prone to break. If it is the case, then Harriton administration could notify the student body in general and let the chips fall where they may, but leaving signs of decay around the school helps no one.

This is the looming question that, along with many others such ones about broken facilities, we all want an answer. However, what we want even more than an answer is for our bathrooms to be fixed and hopefully stay that way. The unusable sink, toilet, and urinal annoyance is getting old. A school barely three years old should be able to hold up. Although we may enjoy her company at Harriton, someone needs to send Myrtle back to Hogwarts for good so we can get our bathrooms working again and keep them in working order!

The tax cut was initially proposed and adopted in 2011 to bolster our flagging economy; under the new policy, workers would have to pay 4.2% on their first $106,800 to the government for social security, compared to the 6.2% that is customary. According to NBC, the measure was expected to save each household about $1,000, money the government hoped would be spent freely, helping the economy to get back on its feet. The recovery from the 2008 financial crisis has been slow, however, and it became obvious that the tax break, initially intended only to be a year long, would need to be extended.

When I say that the issue was obvious, I mean that both Republicans and Democrats had openly acknowledged the problem and were working to come up with a solution. Though both sides threw around different versions of an extension bill, one solution that was absolutely not on the table was to let the new year roll around with no new plan in place; the cut was scheduled to expire on January 1, and a jump back to 6.2% would cause a still lethargic economy to potentially go into another recession, warned the pundits.

Though negotiations were under way, deciding on how to fund the tax break was a major sticking point (if the government lowers the tax rate, they make less money. They still have to be able to meet their various expenditures, and someone has to pay for that). Though Democrats were in favor of simply extending the 2011 measures for two months to give more time to debate, Republicans, especially Tea Partyers, were insisting on a year-long solution, or no solution at all.

If any of you remember the debt-ceiling crisis from the summer, that and the payroll tax cut seem to have some uncanny parallels. Both involved a fast-approaching deadline, and disagreement within Congress. Both were resolved with a haphazard deal thrown together at the last second to buy the US more time. And in both conflicts, the Republicans were criticized, sometimes sharply, by the public.

Regarding the debt ceiling, they were accused of deliberately refusing to compromise with the Democrats; they were allegedly sticking to their own political agendas, refusing to compromise if Obama would look good. In the payroll tax debate, House Republicans were once again negotiating unyieldingly, refusing to pass the bill from the Senate that would extend the tax cut for two months in order to obtain a more long-term solution. Republicans eventually acquiesced to the 2-month extension, and Congress has resumed debate over whether and how to pass a tax cut for 2012.

The extension of the tax cut bill extends several other components of the bill as well, as reported by CNNMoney. In addition to maintaining the 4.2% tax rate, the bill extends emergency unemployment benefits programs. This is welcome news to some 1.8 million people in America who qualify for emergency federal unemployment benefits, and they will now receive weekly checks of about $300 through February 29.

An interesting point to note here is that failure by Congress to extend these benefits would not have meant the end of unemployment benefits in the US; unemployed people would normally go through the state for benefits programs. Federal benefits are actually a recent development; they were approved in June 2008, and supplement the state benefits so that cumulatively, the recipient gets 99 weeks of assistance.

Additionally, the bill temporarily deals with the impending Medicare crisis; doctors who treat patients on Medicare were scheduled to take a 27% reimbursement cut, which is delayed until at least the end of February. This would be a significant payment cut, and CNNMoney reports that this is actually causing many doctors in private practice to consider moving to environments with fewer patients on Medicare (and not out of greed either. Many doctors are facing severe solvency problems, as they have to be able to pay overhead costs and their employees on a potentially lower budget).

Obviously, reducing the amount of money taken by the government through taxes and giving the same amount of money to doctors where the numbers were supposed to decrease can wreak havoc on a budget. All in all, the two-month extension is projected to cost around $33 billion. To pay for it, the government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be charging a higher rate to banks when they underwrite loans (think of it like insurance. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are essentially insurance companies for loans. When a bank gives a loan, Fannie and Freddie buy the loans from the banks. Banks have to pay a small fee to the organizations, but in return, the two mortgage financing giants are the ones that would take the loss on a default on a mortgage). This is expected to generate just about the same amount of money that would be lost with the tax cuts, maybe a little more.

If Congress doesn’t come to an agreement in two months’ time, then we will be back to square one. The growing disunity between Democrats and Republicans has been well documented in news outlets like TIME Magazine and NPR. Democrat and Republican hard-liners are finding compromise difficult: Republicans are in favor of draconian spending cuts in order to combat our national debt, and Democrats are in love with social benefits programs that, while making America a better place to live, put a severe drain on the budget. In order to figure out a permanent solution (or at least a solution that will get us through the Recession), compromise will definitely have to be made. But long-term solutions to an economic crisis while in an awful economic situation are definitely not easy. I’d take the math homework and Christmas parties any day.

While last year’s theme was Hollywood, this year, the contestants will be traveling around the nation for Mr. Harriton Roadtrip.

The journey is well on its way to success as auditions were held in December before winter break. After a long audition process and many interesting candidates, ten outstanding contestants were chosen from the bunch. Some of the familiar faces that will be seen include juniors, Matt Brown, Robby Latoff, Mohin Banker, Brendan Scanlon, and Louie Colella, and seniors, Ilias Storti, Stephen Klein, Austin Wortley, Zak Kivitz, and Jordin Metz.
After finding out that they were the chosen few, things kicked into high gear. When winter break ended and the students returned to school, the gentlemen started learning dances taught by junior choreographers, Caroline Dooney, Natalie Wasserman, and myself.

Having the dances be one of the major components of Mr. Harriton, there is a lot to get done. Luckily, the ten contestants have proven to be incredibly fast learners. The dances will be sure to please the crowd with the wide variety in genres ranging from Jay Z and Alicia Key’s hit single, “Empire State of Mind” to Elvis Presley’s famous “Viva Las Vegas.” With their enthusiasm and energy, the boys have already given a glimpse to just how great the turnout of Mr. Harriton 2012 should be.

But what else does Student Council plan on doing with this year’s theme? It is safe to say that the levels of creativity with this year’s event have soared. The audience should be prepared to see some of the more traditional Mr. Harriton components such as the individual talents and the question-answer portion of the night. However, that’s not all.

Each contestant has picked a city to represent. The cities range everywhere from our very own Philadelphia, to New Orleans, and even to Los Angeles. With these cities, the boys will pride themselves on what their cities are best known for.

Bringing back traditions from previous Mr. Harritons, each contestant will participate in a catwalk where they are responsible for picking an ensemble to represents his city.

Efforts begin in early February, and I have no doubt that the process will only get better with the ten unique contestants. The show will be far from a disappointment, and I hope that all of the students and their families come out for what is typically considered the event of the year at Harriton.

Roshan, a man of high importance at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant is one of four nuclear scientists that have suffered from assassination attempts in the past two years. Only one of the four scientists have survived from these vicious attacks, and Roshan was not that lucky one. Similar to previous attacks, the bomb in Roshan’s assassination was magnetic. According to BBC, Tehran governor Safarli Baratloo says the bomb was “the work of the Zionists.”

With the patterns seen between the various assassination attempts, officials are wondering who did this? why did they do it? and how can they stop it?

CNN reports that Iranian officials were quick to point the finger at Israel and the United States for the blame of this crisis.

Many believe that a country such as Israel or the US are motivated to kill these scientists because they fear the power that they hold if they are successful in their nuclear creations.
USA Today reports that just days before the most recent assassination took place, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran started enriching uranium to higher concentrations than before.

Despite suspicions from the United States and Israel, Iran has denied attempts to make nuclear weapons. They have explained the uranium enrichment program as a means of peacefulness geared toward generating electricity.

Allies of the United States have stood with the US in attempting to persuade Iran to end their intensive uranium enrichment, a process that produces atomic weapons and nuclear fuel.
Officials in Iran explain the assassination as “part of the efforts to disrupt Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, under the false assumption that diplomacy alone would not be enough for that purpose.”

However, the US has denied any ties to the assassination that took place in early January. According to USA Today, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton “denied any US role in the slaying and the Obama administration condemned the attacks.”

Contrastingly, officials in Israel have show suspicions of covert campaigns against Iran. However, Israel has not fully admitted to being involved.

So what does this mean for the future? Will this assassination be the one to put an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment program? According to Vice President Mohamma Reza Rahimi, the answer to this question is no. BCC reports that Rahimi says that the attack “would not stop ‘progress’ in the country’s nuclear programme.”

So what does this mean for the future? Will Iran halt its uranium enrichment, or will the chaos continue? Only time will tell. As it stands today, it seems as though neither Israel nor the US have admitted to being the criminals. With that said, nothing is stopping Iran from continuing the program.

These caucuses attract much media attention during the U.S. presidential election years. They have been the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States since 1972. The Iowa State Convention chooses approximately one percent of the nation’s representatives, but they have created an early indication of which candidate for president might win the nomination.

According to ABC News, Iowa Caucuses are significant for two reasons: timing and tradition. The presidential vote comes first. Candidates or their representatives deliver their speeches, followed by ballots, handed out by caucuses. They are typically a blank slip of paper where the voter can write down a candidate’s name. After votes are tallied, the caucus chair announces the winner at that precinct. After the presidential vote, the delegate selection begins.

This years candidates for the Iowa Republican Caucus were Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry. The final candidate was determined on January 3, 2012. Mitt Romney won by a mere eight votes, with Rich Santorum coming in second. January 10 was the New Hampshire primary that Mitt Romney took part in. He won once again, but this time, by a wider margin. He overtook Ron Paul by approximately 40,000 votes.

As a result of President Obama running unopposed for the democratic nomination, the Iowa democrats used this opportunity to meet and attempt to build excitement for the campaign. Far fewer voters had participated in this primary versus the GOP, or the republican primary.
There were thirteen other candidates on the democratic ballot on January 3. Due to the lack of any major challengers, Obama was able to dominate at the New Hampshire primary. Obama had approximately 82 percent of the vote. There were initially 14 candidates in the election, yet none of the other 13 had greater than two percent, automatically allowing Obama to win the primary. The South Carolina primary will take place on January 21 where candidates will compete to be the next republican and democratic candidate for the 2012 presidential election.

To some, he was a hero and leader. To others, he was seen as a cruel villain. Kim Jong Il was the supreme leader of North Korea for 17 years (1994-2011). He was known for many of the major roles that he played in all of North Korea, such as General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, and the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, the fourth-largest standing army in the world.
When Kim Jong Il’s father Kim Il-Sung died in early July 1984 (age 82) from a heart attack, Kim Jong Il did not immediately take over his father’s powers. It took Jong roughly three years to entirely and officially inherit the role of supreme leader from his father, at age 56.

Originally there were three main leaders in what was known as a triumvirate. The leaders included Kim Jong-II, along with Premier Choe Yong-rim and parliament chairman Kim Yong-nam. With this form of government, they would usually each have an equal say in what was happening and all hold equal power. It would be as if they had 3 presidents except each would have the say of one third of a president, not an entire one.

This was normally a successful way to run the government, however Kim Jong-Il decided to take absolute power and basically ruled out the other two leaders. A large part about Kim Jong-Il’s persona as a whole is that it was extremely boosted by the Korean government, media, and public. In North Korea, there is something known as the “Personality Cult.” This is intense and excessive public admiration and/or devotion towards a political leader more or less. The personality cult existed during the ruling of Kim Jong-Il’s father Kim Il-Sung, however with Kim Jong-Il himself, the personality cult rose to new levels.

In all North-Korean records, he is portrayed as a fearless leader when it came to his life, character, and actions. This of course, is a direct result of the Personality Cult. However, in reality, he was said to be self-centered and arrogant in policy decisions, quickly rejecting criticism and opinions that differed from his own.

Overall, Jong made a significant impact on North Korea. His country was important from its possession of nuclear weapons and it’s precarious economical position. Because of these traits, many other countries around the world were skeptical about his health in his final few years when he began to show up for less and less important events.

On December 17, 2011, Kim Jong-Il suffered a heart attack while traveling on a train (he was known to take an armored train everywhere he traveled because of his immense fear of flying). When he passed away, he left behind three wives, three sons, two daughters, and a nation in sadness.

From the start kids are taught that Kim Jong-Il is “our father” and the “dear leader” so they took it very hard when Kim died. Once the news was broadcasted, North Koreans marched on the capital weeping hysterically and mourning their truly loved one. As for the future, this means that Kim Jong-Un, the son of Kim Jong-Il, is going to take control of North Korea as the next supreme leader. The Korean military and government have pledged to support Kim Jong-Un’s succession.

I started off by asking about his experience as a Harriton gym tryer. He told me that dodgeball was his favorite sport, though he always enjoyed a good game of Tchoukball. “Mr. Papsin was my role model, so since 6th grade I wanted to put in as much effort as I could in positively everything I did.”

However, his efforts became a disadvantage and it backfired on him in 2006 in his first office position. “So, I was in the office,” he said, “and I saw one of my coworkers handing a cup of coffee to the boss. Something came over me; I don’t know what it was, but I before I knew it, the coffee was on the ground and I was shouting “INTERCEPTION!”

I asked what had sparked this incident, and he responded, “I don’t know! I just had this sensation sweep over me. It was like a euphoria that drove me to display my athletic talents in an inappropriate time and place. I saw our boss about to get the coffee and I just thought, I must stop this or we’ll lose the game! I don’t even know what game we were going to lose; I just knew it was important!” Luckily, his boss was a former gym tryer as well and understood the situation.

However, his hyper competitive spirit broke through in an unfortunate way a few months later.
He explained, “I was getting ready for bed a few weeks ago when my wife jokingly threw a pillow at me because she wanted to sleep and I was being slow. Soon, a small joking pillow fight ensued. Of course it was all meant to be fun, and no harm was meant. I went to hit her again but this time there was no joke. She now has a concussion. Of course I had no intention of hurting her, it was all cute and flirty, until I got into the heat of the moment. I just felt like it was becoming a competition and if I didn’t go hard I would have to go home.”
He continued, “I feel like I need to win at everything! Even things I’m not supposed to win at! Like Jumping or Waving! And Yelling! I need to WIN AT YELLING.”
“But don’t you think that’s irrational?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he responded, “It seems rational to me. Here’s another example. So a few years ago I started working for a pharmaceutical company as a researcher. I was working on a project I’ve been involved with for a while and I noticed my co-worker Jim was taking pipettes from the wrong box. His box was on the other side of the room, and I knew it didn’t make much of a difference, but rules were rules.”

I asked how this made him feel. He replied, “I felt like he was getting an unfair advantage because I was following the rules and getting pipettes from the other side of the room. So I told him so. He told me to ‘Chill Out.’ That snapped something in me, and I just lost it. I felt like I was being reasonable, following the rules, keeping everything fair. Then he told ME to chill, and it just made me so furious that someone could not care about the rules like I do.”

He concluded the interview saying, “I love competition. It drives me to do better, and so it gets out of hand sometimes. So what? Still… I hope my wife will talk to me again.”

The victim chose to come forward because she felt the courage of others, according to Fox Sports. Conlin has not responded directly to these allegations, but he is, however, denying them threw his lawyer. According to the lawyer of the three accusers, Slade McLaughlin, there would be no trials because his clients had no interest in Conlin’s money. McLaughlin stated his client’s stories as highly believable and nothing about their stories appeared feigned.
When Conlin heard news of The Inquirer wanting to publish a story, he contacted editor A.J. Daulerio. Fox Sports says Conlin “refered to his accuser as late middle-aged women who wanted their Sandusky time.” Conlin refused to make comments in his defense to Daulerio.

Conlin—a man who was becoming the best writer for the Phillies, holding a job as a commentator on the ESPN program “The Sports Reporters” and writing for the newspaper for more than four decades—has greatly disappointed several people with these allegations. According to Daily News editor, Larry Platt, he experienced an “overwhelming sense of shock, a sense of outrage and a sense of sadness” in the newsroom when the news went out about Bill Conlin.

According to Pentagon statistics, the war claimed 4,487 American lives in over eight years. 32,226 Americans were wounded in action. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died, as the U.S. overthrew Saddam’s regime and ended an uprising backed by al-Qaeda terrorists and prejudiced revenge killings that threatened to destroy the country.

Families were reunited this holiday season, as the majority of troops arrived home in time for Christmas. Although thrilled to be home, many servicemen and women will find it difficult to get jobs in today’s market. A large number of these veterans will face difficult economic times in the near future.

Obama’s decision to completely withdraw United States soldiers from Iraq surprised many. By some, his decision is thought to be “premature” and is sure to be a hot topic in the upcoming elections.

The American withdrawal marks the beginning of a new period for Iraq. The nation was born less than a century ago by British colonialists and has been tortured by rebellions and cruel dictatorship ever since. The country lies between the Persian and Arab empires and continues its struggle to balance Iran’s ambitions. Iran’s nuclear program has become a concern to the United States as well its allies.

On December 15, a ceremony was held to commemorate the end of the war in Iraq. It was a difficult moment of closure for many, with no clear perspective on what has been won and what has been lost.

A few hundred military personnel and Pentagon civilians will remain in Iraq. They will work with the American Embassy as part of an Office of Security Cooperation to assist in arms sales and training to the Iraqis.

Next year, debates may resume on whether additional American military personnel can return to further assist the Iraqis. Iraq’s military has weaknesses in their air defenses as well as initiating basic tasks such as moving fuel and food.

General Lloyd H. Austin III commented in an interview following the ceremony, “From a standpoint of being able to defend against an external threat, they have very limited to little capability, quite frankly.”

When closing the military bases in Iraq, it was done so discreetly. At first, “We were having ceremonies and announcing it publicly and having a little formal process, but a couple of days before the base was to close, we would start to receive significant indirect fire attacks on the location. We were suffering attacks, so we stopped,” Col. Barry Johnson told the New York Times.

At the closing ceremony, General Dempsey assured the Iraqis, “We will stand with you against terrorists and others that threaten to undo what we have accomplished together. We will work with you to secure our common interests in a more peaceful and prosperous region.”

The war in question germinated one November day in the Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) classes who are under the tutelage of Ms. Murray. Although it is unclear who specifically thought up the idea for this competition, the general idea from the APUSH students was to have both Ms. Murray’s APUSH classes and the International Baccalaureate
juniors create videos to satirize the various stereotypes of the opposing side. Once completed, the videos would be showcased to the sophomores so that they could vote on the best
video.

The APUSH students designed an inflammatory missive intending to prompt the IB students into
engaging in friendly combat. On November 18, 2011, Ms. Murray’s set 8 students slipped the offending letter under Dr. McKenna’s door. Minutes later, the IB students were seen emerging
from their classroom and marching around to the courtyard that Ms. Murray’s room faces. They proceeded to tape these words onto the windows of room 106: “IT’S ON.”

On January 11, 2012, the AP class showcased their video during Advisory to the sophomores and any upperclassmen that wished to see the finished product. Portraying the IB students as members of a cult who dress preppy and the AP students as hardcore partiers, the video was written, choreographed, and edited completely by the juniors in Ms. Murray’s APUSH
classes.

All who have seen it agree on at least one aspect: it is an impressive video. As Adjoa Mante, IB junior, says, “I respect the amount of time and effort that the AP kids put into the video and genuinely enjoyed watching it.”

Everything else seems to be a muddle of controversy. “While the video itself is very
well done and clever, I can’t see the real point,” says IB junior Julia Carp. “It portrayed the AP program as cool and not much else.”

In addition, many students and staff have deplored the APUSH students for an inaccurate portrayal of the IB program, who do not actually dress any more preppy or act more cultish
than the average Harriton student. And others shake their heads at how such a “war” was even deemed necessary by the APUSH students, calling it petty and bad sportsmanship, the reasoning being that both are equally good routes to take for motivated learners and that creating conflict is immature.

However, the IB students did not in fact fulfill the challenge, many citing the inanity of the task and the lack of time available to create a video due to an overload of work. The students in APUSH also received extra credit for their efforts, a boon that may or may not have been granted to the IBers had they participated in the challenge.

“IB never really cared for the ‘war’ anyway, and the whole vibe felt like ‘AP reassurance’ or something,” says Jordan Rosenthal-Kay, another junior enrolled in the International
Baccalaureat program.

Perhaps, as one anonymous APUSH student says, “I think we wouldn’t have looked like such big
jerks who were coming unnecessarily at the IB program if they had responded with a satire of their own, instead of leaving us hanging at the last second.”

While the IB students do have an inordinate amount of work, many students enrolled in AP courses would like to state that they too have work coming out of their ears, but found the
time to create the video regardless.

I had to put a lot of my other extra curricular commitments on hold in order to contribute to the video,” says Liza Atillasoy, “and I definitely had no free time whatsoever during the process, but the quality of the end product was worth it.” Mrs. Celebre, coordinator of CAS and Extended Essay portion of the IB program at Harriton, even went so far as to write the IB juniors a script, which would have no doubt eased the time commitment required of the project.
Many of the APUSH students themselves are divided on the topic. Another student wishing to remain anonymous says, “I didn’t like creating so much ‘conflict’ between APUSH and IB. At first it was fun, but I think once IB was hesitant about creating their own video we should have dropped out. When I heard that Sra. Celebre had to write them a script, I felt like we were going too far.”

It may be brought to light that the majority of students at Harriton were not even involved in the production of the video or included in its plot. Juniors in AP classes other than APUSH were indeed alienated from making this video, a point that caused some rancor from non-APUSH students. Not to mention that the video in question didn’t address the very viable option of taking College Preparatory or Honors classes, which was seen by several students as elitist. But it must be stated that the students making the video intended it as a reminder that “IB is not the only course of study for people who wish to take on a more rigorous course-load their junior and senior years, and did not mean for the resulting message to be a negative one,” to quote Julia James, a junior currently enrolled in AP United States History as well as other AP courses.

The sophomores for whom viewing of the video was mandatory seem to be of the opinion that the video was vastly entertaining, although it will not play a big role in the end decision to apply to IB or not. “I thought it was funny, but it honestly didn’t affect my decision to do IB next year,” says sophomore Rochitha Nathan. “I’ve done research on both AP and IB courses, and the IB curriculum is more suited to the way I learn.”

Not to mention the freshman class hasn’t been negatively impacted by it at all. “All I can say is, it was awesome and probably the most hilarious school related thing I’ve ever seen,” muses Ben Seltzer, Harriton class of 2015.

And perhaps hilarity is the point, when all is said and done. Although alternately heralded as “stupid” and “awesome,” the video in question does exist and it is around for good.

Following the school-wide release of the video Ms. Murray and her students received a gracious letter from Tom Obrien, coordinator of IB at Harriton, congratulating them on their work, which shows that in the end the amount of passion put into the creation is all that really matters. The controversy will be remembered, yes, but so will the admirable effort and school spirit the APUSH class put into their video.