Three students on The Warrior Record school newspaper staff submitted articles to SNO (which stands for School Newspapers Online) and were awarded for their writing. “The best of SNO awards are given out for excellence in journalism in categories such as opinion writing, news writing, feature writing and others,” said Jason Zappulla, 10^th grade. Jason submitted an article about the death of Eric Garner and how the failure to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who shot Garner, is an overall failure of grand juries of the United States of America, in Jason’s opinion. “My opinion article about the Eric Garner story is the best story that I’ve written and I loved inserting my opinion into this controversial case,” said Jason.

Christian Mathis, 10^th grade, also won the SNO award with his opinion story about Stuart Scott. “The story was about a long and very successful ESPN anchor that had recently passed and my opinion on his success and his role in ESPN,” said Mathis. Stuart Scott knew Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal and he was known for “his unique presenting style and his famous catch phrases such as ‘boo-ya’” said Mathis. Both these students who submitted their piece of writing were happily surprised to win this award.

“I think I won this SNO award because the people who graded my writing piece thought my arguments over this controversy were relevant and stated in a well-organized article; I am thrilled and surprised that I got this award,” said Jason. Mathis also believes he won this award because of his strong arguments. “My piece was written in a well-organized essay with  strong vocabulary words and filled with facts that could not be argued,” he said.

This writer also received an award for her piece on student Kristina Zakaraite who won honorable mention for her ‘Mutation’ piece at the Congressional District Art Show.