New to Mayfair, Mrs. Slaughter has just joined us as a new counselor for the high schoolers. She is temporarily here to take Mrs. Walker’s place as Mrs. Walker is out on medical leave. Mrs. Slaughter is in her third year of counseling; she spent two years counseling for a middle school and now one year here at Mayfair High School. She attended UC Davis as an undergrad for four years and UCLA for two years before she started her counseling career. While in college, she spent t

Turnstile is a hardcore punk/rock band that is signed under Roadrunner Records. With that, Turnstile has been nominated for nine Grammys across their career. They won their first two Grammys with their wins for “Best Rock Album” and “Best Metal Performance”. Now with these wins there has been a public outroar online with the metal community. This started because Turnstile is mainly punk and rock, but they won best metal album. This gets even more outrageous when they won ove

A few months after the record-breaking government shutdown, a partial government shutdown has now unfortunately surfaced due to funding over immigration enforcement, with Trump taking action in hopes of putting an end to the shutdown ASAP. He urged the House to vote; however, both political parties have not been the most eager to approve of the funding, and have their own demands towards immigration forces after the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis (Alex Pretti and Ren

On February 6th, 2026, the Olympic games officially started in the host city of Milan, Italy. They had the opening ceremony breaking the record for most viewership with 21.4 million viewers which is a 34% increase from the Beijing Olympics in 2022. This year's opening ceremonies had many performances from singers like Mariah Carey and famous Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli who headlined the whole event. Then with the Olympic flame being lit that starts the beginning of 8

With the release of the film Wuthering Heights releasing on February 13th, 2026, many online have been criticizing as to how the film is nowhere near accurate to the novel. Stating as to how Heathcliff (one of the main characters in the novel) is said to be of a darker complexion in the book but is played by Jacob Elordi in the film who is not of a dark complexion. There are many other criticisms between what is and isn’t book accurate but Heathcliff not being portrayed by so

A small tradition that was started in 1886 soon blossomed into a legend. Punxsutawney Phil is a ground hog that is supposedly over 140 years old. He is kept alive with a secret elixir that grants “immortality.” Phil is known for his famous act, predicting the weather. Now his predictions aren’t true at all, in fact scientists found out his accuracy up to 40%-50% correct. That’s the same as flipping a coin! There were a couple of times where his predictions were true and all o

All around California and Hawaii, there are nurses from Kaiser Permanente that are going on strike. The reason for this strike were for issues revolving around better compensation, safety, and overall respect for these healthcare workers that do a tremendous amount for our communities. Many workers have been complaining that they are not getting paid enough and that the safety in their work places are decreasing due to the fact that many of them are overworked. This issue wil

Dear Margot, “How do you build strong friendships and relationships?” Numerous people, especially nowadays, struggle with keeping or finding friendships and relationships. Even if someone starts to develop friendships or relationships, it can feel fake and overwhelming at times. Obviously, that isn’t always the case. There are many ways to build strong friendships and relationships. It’s always best to communicate and share opinions honestly, this can always help with becom

Dear Margot, “What electives do I choose?” Finding an elective is one of the many very important things that you need during your high school years. Whether you want to try something fun or learn something on the more educational side, both middle school and high school are places to find them. The electives you pick can help with finding future career paths and new hobbies. Plus, you can find people to connect with and work with academically when you’re in these classes. Ma

On Tuesday, January 27, it was announced the Buffalo Bills have now promoted their offensive coordinator Joe Brady to head coach on a five-year deal. Joe Brady is replacing Sean McDermott after he was fired right after the Bills got eliminated by the Denver Broncos in the AFC round of the playoffs. In 2022, he joined the Bills team as the quarterback’s coach. Joe Brady was then promoted with the offensive coordinator position in 2023 and has served as the youngest of his po

With the current political and social climate of the world right now, some could argue that the United States has lost its title of being ‘the greatest country in the world’ and could be considered the black sheep of countries in the world right now. Across the nation right now, families are being torn apart, innocent civilians are being murdered in broad daylight and detained by I.C.E; many have even been comparing the U.S to Nazi Germany. However, according to James Whitman

Last week, on February 2nd through the 6th, it was our counselor appreciation week! Our counselors are always here for the students to provide us with guidance, support, and different skills needed to achieve academic success and readiness for the future. In case you aren’t aware, Mayfair High school has five counselors that cover grades 9-12. This includes Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Montes, Mrs. McIntosh, Mr. Hairston and Ms. Contreras. For the middle school counselors there is Ms. L

Singing Valentines is an event in which both middle and high school students perform for our school community by going from classroom to classroom singing a song from a group of their choosing to a friend or sweetheart. This has been a practice at Mayfair for almost 60 years. When students buy a Singing Valentine, they can choose between a song ($3), a song with a balloon ($5), a song with a flower ($5), or a song with a bouquet and balloon ($10). Additionally, when a studen

It is with no surprise that ICE has been facing severe backlash from many and it has now made its way onto court. Although this has happened in the past, they now seem to be in quite a rough spot, getting called out by a Minnesota judge for violating nearly 100 court orders. Honestly, it’s hard to see ICE maneuvering their way out of this one, with the amount of footage where they’ve recorded using immense amounts of force during arrests, even while the one in custody is alr

The speech Billie Eilish gave at the Grammy’s was a very important and powerful speech. Before I get into that, I wanted to congratulate Billie Eilish for winning her Grammy for song of the year Wildflower. Back to her speech, it was very important to speak up about the ICE situation in our political climate. Billie Eilish quoted, “No one is stolen on legal land.” I felt like there wasn't any better way to say it. If we are being completely honest here, we are all immigrants

The Writing Center is having a “Valentine’s Day Poetry Contest” where you can write a poem about something that you love, care, or are grateful for, whether it’s a person, pet, music, or food. If you enter and win the contest, you have the opportunity to win a $25 giftcard and your poem will be published in The Quill . What is The Writing Center? The Writing Center is a place on campus where students can get help with their written assignments whether it be an essay or lab

Ever since Trump was elected for president quite some time ago, it is safe to say that there’s been a notable decline in democracy. It depends on one's viewpoints on his presidency, with some believing he acts as a dictator and others refusing to buy into that. Though, it can be argued that it’s been a nationwide thing in the US, given the charts in The world has recently become less democratic - Our World in Data , as well as Trump’s previous attacks towards democracy, espec

Kiara Owens is a 12th grader here at our Mayfair campus. She is a dedicated student with great Monsoon pride. She started cheer because her brother was in football. They made a team just for fun since they had to be at all the games anyway. Cheer wasn’t something she chose to do, but she ended up loving it. She has taken breaks away from it but she has always come back to it. The competitions and being able to be with a team is what she has loved most. Kiara has been in cheer

As we all know, we are halfway through the school year, and we, the Senior Class of 2026, have a lot of things ahead to look forward to. But first, we must not get Senioritis! I get it, you may be so over school, and it's like, “we are already near the end, so why keep showing up?” Well, it is important that we finish strong, completely commit to these last months, and fully lock in. One event I know a lot of Seniors have been anticipating is definitely Prom! I am very excit

Opening night for Beetlejuice: The Musical. The Musical. The Musical. from Monsoon Theatre and Performing Arts premiered on January 23rd and it has been an overall success. I had the great opportunity to watch the opening night of the musical. The production was great, the music, the acting, all of it came together for one great show. Beetlejuice himself lit up the whole crowd with his hilarious lines and improv with the crowd. We had the opportunity to interview families