Throughout the year, especially during the presidential election season, Bothell students have either engaged in a plethora of heated debates with friends and acquaintances or avoided them at all cost. Arguing about social issues such as Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, the US presidential election, and so much more, tensions have been at an undeniable high this year. To close out this mind-numbingly repetitive yet chaotic and unpredictable year, I have compiled a controversial list of Bothell’s hottest takes for your dissatisfaction and entertainment.

Note: a hot take is an unpopular, provocative, and/or controversial opinion or commentary that is almost always polarizing and based on limited research.

Hot take: “We shouldn’t have homework [because] if we can’t sleep at school, why should we work at home? I don’t think school should give us homework after school hours and especially not on weekends. As a student, school is already hard, sitting down in zooms for 5 hours a day. When we have to add the time sitting on our computer just to get homework done, we don’t have anytime to do anything else like go outside or stuff like that. It’s not good for students’ mental health to be sitting all day and we also shouldn’t have to do school, AFTER school. It just doesn’t make sense. If we aren’t allowed to sleep at school or do stuff at school that we do at home, then we shouldn’t have to do school at home.”  -Anna Wilson (‘23)

Hot take: “While Black culture is important, just teaching it and not other cultures is not enough. I think there’s a push to learn about Black culture, and I absolutely think that’s correct and I think Black culture is super interesting, but I wish that same energy existed for other minorities because I feel like I’m learning a lot of culture but it’s a lot less likely that people are learning about mine!” -Akemi Ozoa (‘22)

Hot take: “Draco Malfoy was not that interesting of a character. I personally think he was kinda racist, sexist and classist but everyone lets him get away with it [because] they see him as broken! But I think he was still really mean.” -Akemi Ozoa (‘22)

Hot take: “Cringe culture is dying as it should. Making fun of furries was never funny. Cringe culture is (a) not funny at all and (b) inherently ableist. For years we’ve seen people like furries, cosplayers, ‘emo’ kids, the horse girl, the band kid, etc. getting made fun of both in-person but especially online. These tropes are honestly just excuses to make fun of neurodivergent kids with special interests without doing so directly. I’ve noticed, especially due to Tik Tok, that traditionally “weird” interests are starting to get made fun of less, and I’ve actually seen people calling out the ways that cringe culture is ableist. We have a long way to go but in my circles I’ve started to see the conversation shifting, which is a step in the right direction. Don’t let people make fun of your interests and don’t make fun of other people’s interests because if people are happy and not hurting anyone you can kindly stay quiet 🙂” -Phia Endicott (‘21)

Hot take: “People should be able to celebrate Christmas no matter how early! If an aspect of Christmas brings joy and happiness to a person, they should be allowed to celebrate it before and/or after the holiday season. Why does it have to only be during the holidays? People should have the freedom of celebrating/showing off Christmas vibes no matter how late or early the holiday season is. P.s. this isn’t meant to discriminate against people who don’t celebrate Christmas. Please respect others beliefs!” -Nathan Catapang (‘23)

Hot take: “Cancel culture is toxic. Holding people accountable for being problematic makes sense but cancelling people completely because of their mistakes doesn’t. Cancel culture doesn’t allow people to grow and educate themselves; many celebrities and people get “cancelled” for something they weren’t aware they did wrong or problematic things they did in their youth. Even though people need to be called out for problematic behavior, we should still allow them to grow and change.” -Valeria Fierro (‘22)

Hot take: “Students should be involved in politics because it shapes our future. Educating the students of Bothell more about the racial differences and having that conversation to help educate others and I just think it’s important for everyone to understand the situation for others and here from minorities the differences they face.” -Hannah Thorsheim (‘23)

Hot take: “Anyone can have their own opinions but when those opinions are hateful or against basic human rights, a friendship ain’t gonna work for me. I believe everyone has a right to their own opinions, but when those opinions are against the rights of human beings that’s crossing the line for me. When those opinions are against POC, or people in the LGBTQ+ community, or immigrants, or people with disabilities, or any minority really, and you’re openly hating on/against anyone for being different, you’re not just talking about your opinion you’re just being an [explicit]. If it’s not happening to you personally, you don’t know what it’s like and you should try your best to keep your opinion to yourself.” -Yarely Perez (‘22)

Hot take: “High school sports do not outweigh people’s wellbeing in a pandemic :)). Honestly, as an athlete, I understand how important it is to be able to play the sport you love. However, having people play against each other, crowds gather, and overall a ton of people in one space, is not worth the overall health and well being of our community!” -Ella Dierks (‘21)

Hot take: “Homework should be optional. I think that homework is important for extra practice, but for some students it’s unnecessary and takes up time. Students should be able to decide on their own if they need it or not. If they don’t do it and aren’t prepared for the test then that’s on them. They should still have the resources to study if they need to though.” -Aniston Mctyre (‘22)

Hot take: “Black liquorice is amazing. A lot of people hate it but I like it. I haven’t always loved licorice, but I started to feel a deep attachment to it in 5th grade. The attachment started with my taste buds that send electric signals to my brain that triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin leading to a happy mood and euphoric feeling for a limited timeRed licorice is alright but not the same.” -Adit Gupta (‘21)

Hot take: “If you don’t accept late work then you just don’t care about your students and you are a lazy teacher. Especially with online school, many students find it difficult to get their work in on-time. A lot of this is not due to laziness or the student not doing the assignment because they don’t want to. Many students take extra time for mental health, sleep, or just because they forget. Teachers need to be mindful of these possibilities during online school and physical school. If a teacher makes the assignment worth way less to turn in late, or makes them not able to be turned in at all, the student is simply not learning anything. To me, a teacher who does not accept late work with full or near-full credit is doing it out of laziness of not wanting to grade it, or being “strict” when it is really just insensitive.” -Kaya Suraci (‘22)

Hot take: “The two-party system is dumb, more people should vote third party. The reason I said the 2 party system sucks is because it does 2 horrible things. 1) it creates radical political division among people and creates major tension that we see now. 2) It suffocates ideas and restricts people to have to conform to one of the two parties even if they don’t agree with all of what that party stands for. If more people registered for 3rd parties and voted with a party or candidate that they even 80% agreed with we wouldn’t have such a division among people and there would be more of an opportunity for a actually good candidate to get in office.” -Aiden Weis (‘22)

Hot take: “Any type of nuts on desserts is really gross… (that includes pecan pie). To me, nuts just taste like crunchy air and add no flavor to desserts. When people add them to desserts it’s usually only for texture.” -Ella Anderson (‘22)

Hot take: “Life isn’t real and there’s no way to prove how we got here! I just think that religion is a way to make people feel comfortable and boxed in when really, if you think about it, there is no logical explanation as to how the human race began. I find comfort in knowing that nobody truly knows how we’re here and it allows me to live freely without questioning it.” -Tyler Huston (‘21)

Hot take: “Spirituality and manifestation is just whitewashed Hinduism/Buddhism. The trends on social media of meditation, manifestation, and general spirituality are great and I think it’s awesome that people are learning about them but I find that they fail to acknowledge its roots. Hinduism and Buddhism have been around for thousands of years and POC cultures have historically been ignored and represented badly. Now that it’s trendy, people have switched up and think manifestation is a new ideology and many have started profiting off of a culture they don’t come from. My culture and religion are not a fun trend and I’d like for POC culture to receive more respect. I’ve had experiences where people that aren’t Indian/Hindu tell me what I know is wrong, even though what I have learned comes from deep cultural roots and traditions of passing down knowledge. It’s just insulting is all.” -Malavika Santhosh (‘22)

Hot take: “Privileged white people and privileged colored people ruin BLM. I feel that a lot of white people of privilege and colored people of privilege don’t fully understand the main goal of BLM which then ruins the whole movement. These people are the ones that have these riots and protests in urban communities and then end up destroying the community that they are not a part of. When George Floyd was killed by the police officer, people went and completely destroyed his community and no one would do that if they were from there. The people that do this are the people who are outside of the community. Doing this completely invalidates the BLM movement.” -Ayush Singh (‘22)

Hot take: “Mushrooms are the worst… Nutella is gross… Pie is gross.  To me, mushrooms don’t really have a taste, it’s just a texture which is very similar to what I think rubber would feel like if you tried to eat it. I have never been a huge fan of Nutella, there is just something about the taste that I don’t like. The same goes for pie, I have never been a huge fan but there are some kinds that I like. Usually, pie is just too sweet for me.” -Gracie Booker (‘23)

Hot take: “Stop making fun of allergies. This might seem dumb and an overreaction, but I have a peanut allergy (among other allergies) and I’ve seen lately people making fun of it as a weakness or a funny thing that a peanut could kill someone like me. I understand that it is kind of funny, but I’ve had peanuts shoved in my face all throughout school and people saying things like ‘I could kill you right now with this’ or acting like I am faking. I have had both family and friends think that I am faking my allergy and try to force me to eat it. I have almost died from them, and that isn’t funny. People with allergies have to go through a lot more than you think- knowing that you can die from something that people are shoving in your face from the age of 3 is terrifying.” -Kaya Suraci (‘22)

Thank you to all the BHS students who submitted their takes!! Y’all are brave!