The Echo Volume XI, no. 5

Westfall High School

January 2012

A Tribute to Joe Paterno

By Paul Jenkins

Joe Paterno, former longtime Penn State coach, died on Sunday, January 22, 2012. He coached the Nittany Lions for 46 years. Last November Paterno was fired because of the Penn State scandal involving Jerry Sandusky. Paterno had a lot history in the NCAA which includes several Big Ten Championships.Joe Paterno was in a road rage crash in 2007. In that same year Paterno was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He was later offered a head coaching job at the University of Michigand and another head coaching position for the New England Patriots.Joe Paterno was born on December 21, 1926. E was a beloved football coach who gave back to the school with money, with time, and with love of the game and the people who played it. Joe Paterno died of complications of lung cancer. Joe Paterno will always be remembered as the legendary coach of Penn State Nittany Lions.

Westfall Welcomes Mrs. Hook By Sara Flint

Mrs. Heather Hook teaches C.P. English 9. Although she is only a part time teacher, Mrs. Hook enjoys being part of a small community school. She has found the support and encouragement of the staff, students and community of Westfall to be heartening. Having been involved in cheerleading and track at London High School and track also at Wright State, Mrs. Hook was more than happy to be a cheerleader advisor at Westfall. Mrs. Hook was a well-rounded student who always strove to be the best she could both academically and athletically. For fun Mrs. Hook enjoys running, shopping, reading, hunting and fishing. She has a hot pink bow for hunting deer. She and her husband fish quite frequently at pay lake fishing and at local lakes too. Her favorite book is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. She also loves Jodi Picoult books. Two people who greatly influenced her professional life are two ILA professors at Wright State University. They gave her a true passion for wanting to be a teacher because “they taught with such conviction and inspiration.” Although Mrs. Hook’s immediate family now consists of her husband, a pet dog named Dixie, and two hunting beagles named Blitz and Mitzy, she and her husband are expecting their first child in July. Welcome to Westfall, Mrs. Hook.

Bullying

By S Why am I talking about bullying? Because no one and I mean no one wants to admit that we actually do have a problem with bullies at Westfall. Yeah, I said it. Anyway right now you’re probably thinking that you don’t need to read this well but you do because whether you want to admit it or not, you have probably been bullied by someone or one of your friends has been or could be bullied by someone. So I’m asking nicely, please read this.

Bullying Statistics 2010 reveal that bullying is a crime that is not going away anytime soon. There are about 160,000 children who miss school every day out of fear of being bullied. Bullying Statistics 2010 also report an increase in cyber bullying activities.

School bullying statistics in the United States show that about one in four students in the U.S. are bullied on a regular basis. Between cyber bullying and bullying at school, the school bullying statistics illustrate a huge problem with bullying and the American school system. In a recent SAFE survey, students in grades six through 10 are the most likely to be involved in activities related to bullying. About thirty percent of students in the United States are involved in bullying on a regular basis either as a victim, bully or both. These school bullying statistics show what a problem bullying of all kinds in the United States has become. The recent school bullying statistics show that cyber bullying is becoming increasingly prevalent on school property as well as involving students even when they are not at school. Because of this growing number of students affected by bullying, more and more schools throughout the country are cracking down with measures taken to stop bullying.

I’ve been going to this school for a while now and in one of my classes I witnessed one of my friends getting bullied while every one else was laughing. The reason she was being bullied wasn’t because she ran her mouth but because her tormentor didn’t like her strong will and personality. Her tormentor taunted her about her hair color HELLO!!!!! If you know anything about hair dye you can’t keep it from fading it just doesn’t happen.

What to do for bullied students

1. If your friends are being bullied and you don’t want to tell the teachers or any of the staff, tell a friend.

Don’t Take This Next Article Too Seriously

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility:

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Living with Dyslexia

Continued from page 2 Bullying

2. 2. If your friend doesn’t want his or her tormentor to know that they told just leave a note in the guidance office or vice principal’s office.

Those are just a few things you could do to help stop the bullying. Anyone who sees someone being bullied has choices. Just a little message for the bullies STOP!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s not fair that you pick on others just to make yourself feel better. It just proves how weak minded you are that you have to pick on others just to make yourself smile. That’s indeed weak.

By Zoey

Many of you know me or a teen like me but few people know the real me. I have dyslexia. It’s a reading and comprehension disorder. I have always had this condition but it was just diagnosed. When a person is dyslexic, it is really hard to dance, cheer, multiply, read out loud, say the months, and sometimes even recognizing the letters of the alphabet. Some wonder why dancing and cheering can be difficult if dyslexia is a reading disorder. It is because doing those things means following directions and recognizing left and right. I can never tell which is which so I sometimes put an R on my right hand and an L on my left to help me determine which is which. Knowing the months is hard because I can never remember in which order they go. The hardest is reading out loud because I am decoding as I read and it causes me to go much slower than other readers my age. I have to sound out each word and keep my finger on the word so that I don’t lose my place. Reading a chapter book by myself with no help at all is really hard. The alphabet itself is hard to decipher. I have the most trouble with B.D. E. F. e. c. w. m. n. u. v. a, o. Those letters are in the form that is hard for me. I also mix up numbers like 9 and 6, 8 and 6. It is also very hard to take a test when people talk or make noise. It is hard to comprehend what I am reading or learning because it s very hard to concentrate on work.

In 1968, the World Federation of Neurologists defined dyslexia as "a disorder in children who, despite conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the language skills of reading, writing, and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities." According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person's ability to read, write, spell, and sometimes speak. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in children and persists throughout life. The severity of dyslexia can vary from mild to severe. The sooner dyslexia is treated, the more favorable the outcome; however, it is never too late for people with dyslexia to learn to improve their language skills.

Children with dyslexia have difficulty in learning to read despite traditional instruction, at least average intelligence, and an adequate opportunity to learn. It is caused by an impairment in the brain's ability to translate images received from the eyes or ears into understandable language. It does not result from vision or hearing problems. It is not due to mental retardation, brain damage, or a lack of intelligence.

Dyslexia can go undetected in the early grades of schooling. The child can become frustrated by the difficulty in learning to read, and other problems can arise that disguise dyslexia. The child may show signs of depression and low self-esteem. Behavior problems at home as well as at school are frequently seen. The child may become unmotivated and develop a dislike for school. The child's success in school may be jeopardized if the problem remains untreated.

The Already Known Election

By: Matt Koehler

With only ten months left until the next presidential election it seems like we already know who the two opposing candidates will be. With all of the debates and pre-election voting such as the Iowa caucus and the primary in New Hampshire and South Carolina, it seems to be that we already know that Newt Gingrich will probably be the one running against current President Obama. It seems to be that with all the mass media all of the surprise is taken away from the average citizen.

Now is this good? Some people will argue either way, but it always was nice staying up late, sitting on the edge of the seat waiting for the votes to roll in.

There is always those few unexpected votes that quickly sway the outcome of the election. But is seems as if we already know the outcomes of the pre-election and inevitably the outcome of the actual presidential election.

World as we knew it

By Sadie Collins

Many people have consumed themselves in the stories and legends of the upcoming

apocalypse of December 21, 2012. The legends have swarmed the internet, the theaters and

the storybooks. What was once an urban legend of the Mayan civilianization now has the

public consumed in fear or ambition. The different stories of how we are all predicted to disappear

are an example of human creativity at best, solar flares, zombie invasion, fracking, nuclear explosion,

although some could have scientific backup it’s still hard to imagine such a developed nation crumbling

due to some prediction made thousands of years ago. So we consume ourselves in research, articles,

and news stories when if this prediction is true, we should actually be spending time with our family. So

at the end of the day we say, “December 21, 2012…are YOU ready?”.

Mustang Wrestling

By Derek Thomas

Edited by Aaron Huffman

This year the wrestling team is in a year of rebuilding. Without a single senior, the team is very young. With only being able to fill eight weight classes with many wrestlers out due to injuries, it is very hard for them to win as a team.

Recently, they had a tri meet against Southeastern. Every match the mMustangs wrestled, they won. Because of the great number of wrestlers on other teams, Westfall fell short of the victory losing to forfeits. As David Green (Head wrestling coach) said, “It’s like starting into a basketball game 36 points down.”

The season is rounding its last corner now. With Sectional just a few weeks away, the Mustangs are training hard to succeed. There are many hopefuls who can make it to Districts, and even a few to make it to State.

Making it to State is not an easy task though. First a wrestler has to fight his way out of Sectionals. The top four places move on to Districts. Then the top four places from one Sectional go against the top four from three other Sectionals at Districts. The wrestlers fight their hearts out to claim the title of, “State Qualifier” by reaching top four in Districts.

This year there are two returning District qualifiers to the team, Aaron Huffman (Junior) and Derek Thomas (Junior). These two have a great potential to make it to the State Tournament this year along with four sophomores, Jeremiah Koah, Josh Green, Schuyler Miller, and Ethan Allen who are all more than capable to become District qualifiers. With two freshman, Sierra Vulgamore, and Daniel Dinkins the team is building to become strong contenders in the battle to make it to the top.

113: Derek Thomas

120: Aaron Huffman

126: Sierra Vulgamore

138: Ethan Allen

145: Josh Green

195: Daniel Dinkins

220: Schuyler Miller

285: Jeremiah Koah

Chihuly inspired sculptures made from Recycled Materials

By: Logan Pancake and Tessa Hodge

Dale Chihuly, glass blower and glass designer, is the inspiration for the second semester sculpture class. He studied at the University of Washington in Seattle, the University of Wisconsin, the Rhode Island of School of Design and in Venice, Italy. Unfortunately a car accident left him unable to blow glass. Assistants helped create installations that were choreographed by Chihuly. After seeing the installations of colorful glass forms which look like plants, flower arrangements, glass fishing floats and chandeliers, the students are making their own version of brightly colored chandeliers using recycled material instead of glass. The students are collecting empty plastic bottles of all sizes and types and need you to bring them to Ms. Long’s room. Colored or clear plastic containers are acceptable.

The following website includes a biography and pictures of current exhibits and artwork:

www.chihuly.com/

Enjoy!

113: Derek Thomas

120: Aaron Huffman

126: Sierra Vulgamore

138: Ethan Allen

145: Josh Green

195: Daniel Dinkins

220: Schuyler Miller

285: Jeremiah Koah

ARTISTIC SECTION

Falling for you

By. Sara Flint

I wish he did not walk out of the locker room with you. I get butterflies when I am around you. I lose my breath when you’re around. I can’t stop looking at you when I see you. When you play, you’re the only one my eyes are on. I only cheer for you I like you. Please

notice me; even my friend told you that I thought you were cute. If only we were

not so shy, I would talk to you!

Artwork

Comics/ Other