Walking through the halls at Saratoga High, one can’t help but see students talking about the last impossibly hard AP Biology test or stressing over an upcoming in-class essay. With an average of 98 percent of its students bound for college, the school is a breeding ground for academic stress. The last thing students need is additional pressure.

People usually do not change unless an event is significant enough to have a real impact on their daily lifestyle. Eventually, as students journey through life, they will receive some sort of wake-up call that will change and shape their habits for their entire lives. People tend to miss the obvious; the conundrum here is how in-your-face the epiphany has to be before they actually see it.

Junior Maggy Liu woke up with a sore throat and a bad cough on a dreary Tuesday morning. Her nose was running, and she dragged herself out of bed to get a tissue. But Liu could not afford the luxury of taking a day off to recover, so she reluctantly got ready for a long day at school.

Thinking about texting your friend during a history lecture or cutting math to avoid a test? Give it a second thought.
Saturday School is going to become stricter this year, according to assistant principal Kevin Mount.

New school psychologist Michael Slone joined the administrative team at the start of this school year after former school psychologist Mark Atkinson accepted a position as the director of special education at the district office.

The pressure that high school students in certain areas, mostly high income ones like Saratoga and Palo Alto, are under is unprecedented. They have to compete with their high-achieving peers by lining their resumes with high GPA and SAT/ACT scores. On top of that, parents enroll their children in numerous extra-curricular activities in hopes of impressing the best colleges. The documentary “Race to Nowhere” examines this dangerous level of stress.

Lawyer, writer, software engineer, caterer. Living in Sweden, Italy, Mexico, or Southern California. Walking into a high school reunion is overwhelming, yet undeniably exciting to see the diverse paths former friends and peers have taken after graduating.

Students are generally feeling more positive about their well-being at school, at home, and in their community, according to recently released Project Cornerstone results from last September’s survey.

I had always thought of Los Gatos High as uncharted enemy territory with a superior sports program and a rowdy student body. I envisioned it as a place where people were better looking and academics ran second to athletics and the social scene.