When Cassie Spelbring, 14, went to a banquet at a Chinese restaurant, she was pleasantly surprised to see several students from her school there. That's because Cassie is a komencanto, a person who studies and speaks Esperanto, and this banquet was a gathering of Esperanto speakers. Cassie, who lives in Aurora, Ill., was delighted to see so many people shared her interest in the international lang

Almost everyone plays games -- from Chutes and Ladders as a preschooler to Monopoly and chess as an adult. But according to the Toy Industry Association, board game sales declined by 10 percent in 2001, while video game sales rose 43 percent. To find out what kinds of games kids appreciate, and if they still play board games, Y-Press recently interviewed a group from IPS School 84's after-school p

"We're wearing masks not because we are afraid, but kind of for precaution and protection of other people," said Koren Sin. Koren, a senior at Sacred Heart Canossian College, an all-girls school in Pokfulam, Hong Kong, shared this sentiment during a recent videoconference with Y-Press. Many of her fellow students, all sporting white surgical masks, were eager to talk about how SARS has affected th

At least once a year, many Indiana high school students are herded into the gym or auditorium. Over the loudspeakers, they are warned not to stop at their locker or the restroom on the way. This is not a fire drill -- it is a drug search. While students are in the gym, police and drug-sniffing dogs search the school premises, checking cars, lockers, backpacks and purses. Such searches are common i

Some teens who shop at health food stores aren't looking for typical items such as soy milk, whole-wheat flour or multivitamins. They come for products such as Stat and Naturally Klean, shelling out $10 to $30 a bottle to join the thousands of people who purchase drug cleansers each year. Drug cleansers are supplements that claim to allow a drug user to pass a drug test, usually within a four- to