Lee’s new principal Deidre Lavery set up new policies and changes for this school year that include car-rying bathroom passes, being tardy, and two transitions instead of three during Lancer Time. “I met with multiple groups of teachers. I met with parents, I met with students to know what’s working at Lee, what doesn’t work at Lee, what we need to change and what we need to keep.” Lavery said.

There have been positive remarks about the new changes. One of the new changes is the tardy passes. Once the bell rings, teachers shut their door and lock it. Late students will have to go to the at-tendance office to get a pass before he or she can enter the classroom.

“It makes people more organized and go to class on time.” said sophomore Garrett Cox.

Not only students have been recogniz-ing the positive effects, but the teachers have been, too.

“You have fewer people skipping class and the halls are under control” said Michael Newbold, a biology teacher who has been at Lee for four years.

However, there have been negative outcomes, too. The bathroom policy says if a student wants to use the bathroom, he or she has to sign out on a sheet of paper and take a wooden block.

Iqra Gesey, a senior at Lee, thinks that

the bathroom passes are very unsanitary. “People are getting sick now,” Gesey said, speaking

about how the passes have germs on them.“Some of the rules are going to do more bad than

good,” Noel Klippenstein, one of the new freshmen physical education and health teachers, said. “I think if it’s limited to four bathroom passes (per quarter), that makes the difference of it being crazy and not crazy.”

Another new policy that has caused a stir is the change in Lancer Time. Many of the older students like Gesey and Cox want to bring back the three transitions during Lancer Time.

Last year, students would go to their Lancer for 30 minutes. Then, they would switch to any other class they wanted, but mainly if they were requested. Now, students have Lancer Time for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, they

get switch to first period. Then the next Lancer Time they will go to second period, and so on.

“The reason for that (Lancer Time) is to give additional time in any class. While we develop a program of those 2 chunks of time, my plan is to develop it during this first semester and have that program ready to go for second semester.” Lavery said.

Bad or good, there’s definitely an effect to these changes.

“I think anytime there’s a change, it af-fects people and some people are fine and some people it bothers. But when they get used to it, it will have an improved impact on students,” Klippenstein said.

Newbold, however, feels like the new changes shouldn’t be something that stu-dents worry about too much.

“There’s been a change every year. It’s never been a consistent process. I don’t see it as a big change, I don’t see it as a small change and I don’t see it being an issue,”

Newbold said. HARD AT WORK Mrs. Lavery working hard to create an efficient environment in her new building.

New Principal, New PolicesJeSSICA DeMeSA Staff Writer

On Tuesday, September 23, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Karen Garza, sat down with high school journalists from around the county and answered an abundancy of questions regarding FCPS’s stance on different issues.

Two representatives from 22 high schools were present at the meeting, making for a wide range of questions and concerns.

The main topics at the meeting included the new bell schedule, teen stress and depression, and incorporating technology into schools.

Other topics that were mentioned included the influx of immigrants into FCPS, the addition of more academy classes, high stakes testings such as the SOLs, and the reduction of out of school suspensions.

The new bell schedule for the 2015-2016, which will result in high schools starting at 8:00-8:10 and ending at 2:45-2:55, is likely to get passed at the next board meeting, which will be held on October 23.

Dr. Garza Talks ChangeA significant amount of research has gone into the

study of a later start time for school and the school board has taken these factors into account when deciding what is best for students.

However some students do not agree with this. Junior Jackie Best is against the idea of a late start because it would be an inconvenience to her schedule.

“Last year I even started a petition that got over 500 signatures. If these changes were implemented I would have no time to be doing what I need to get done. I would be doing homework until 10pm, and that’s just not good for me,” Best said.

Research has proven that teens are incapable of going to bed earlier because their minds simply do not work that way.

There also may be a correlation between an early start time and grades, depression, and attendance.

“DR. GARZA TALKS CHANGE” CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

BASMA HUMADI

Entertanimnet Editor

This year, Lee High School welcomed two new Student Government Association (SGA) sponsors, Ms. Clouse and Ms. Soos, to help lead our entire student body government. SGA is a leadership class run by sponsors, a handful of officers, and students around our school to organize a variety of school events.

Soos is a gourmet foods teacher who applied for this position in order to have a positive impact on working with the student body.

“My goals for this year’s SGA are to help develop leadership skills in each of our students as well as take their ideas to execute them and make events run as seamlessly as possible,” Soos said.

Soos would like to see her students be dedicated and respectful role models as well.

“I hope to see the SGA students be compassion-ate members of our school who make everybody feel welcomed and encourage them to take part in student events,” Soos said.

New Sponsors, New Excitement For SGA

TheLance

Robert E. Lee High School, 6540 Franconia Road, Springfield, VA

October 7, 2014, Vol. LIX No. 1

DANII DOANStaff Writer

“NEW SPONSORS, NEW EXCITEMENT FOR SGA” CONTINUES ON PAGE 2

SCOTT GILBERT

Custodian Appreciation, Page 10

Fashionable Lancers, Page 13

Lancer Sports, Pages 14-16Class of 2018 Elections, Page 2

Hannah Bynum and Lancer Field Hockey, Page 14

2 NEWS October 7, 2014LanceThe

Many school systems across the country have also begun to change their start times.

The American Pediatric Association recently took a posi-tion on the later start time and agreed that school should not be starting so early.

For these reasons the board believes that a later start time for high school students will be beneficial.

“The thing I think is good is that we’ll have almost a cal-endar year to get ready for the change. Our athletic director and those who work said that there will be minimal impact in our afterschool programming, so don’t just assume that because there’s an hour shift that all after school activities will shift an hour later, because it won’t,” Garza said.

When it comes to change Garza believes that in order to better develop our school systems we need change.

“everyone wants things to get better but not to change,” Garza said.

The board is also very concerned about the rising rate of teen stress and depression.

“The stress, mental health, and overall being of students is now a national issue. This isn’t a problem we [FCPS] can solve ourselves. It’s going to take students, parents, and people working with us. We don’t have one solution,” Gar-za said.

The board is trying to look at the issue from every angle they possibly can and are working with psychologists and social workers to figure out ways to address the issue.

Best thinks that in order to ease teen stress teachers could help by lessening the workload.

“I think that teachers need to realize we have other class-es. I also think that Lancer Time should be a free period because I use that time to do homework,” Best said.

Senior Neoclis Soteriou thinks that there is no way to ease stress on teens because stress itself is inevitable.

“I don’t think they can help with stress. Teens have that

already put upon themselves and there isn’t anything people can really do about it,” Soteriou said.

FCPS has also set up a 24/7 hotline, where students can download a “textline” app onto their phones or text them at 703-997-5444 if they are in need of help.

When addressing technology, Garza believes that the use

of it in schools will definitely be incorporated. Currently the challenge is answering what is the one device that meets all of a students needs and making

sure that students have access to technology at their homes. “At minimum we should be issue each student

some kind of learning device. The challenge right now is which is that one device that meets all of our needs. I think the iPad is too limiting and a laptop is too bulky,” Garza said.

Garza also believes that online textbooks will soon replace regular hard copy textbooks.

mark on the school and the class of 2018. “I feel like I have a connection with the student body

and I can really motivate us to do better academically and be more involved socially,” Degulian said.

Similar to Digiulian, Vice President Tsega Fisseha is de-termined to make sure all the freshman have a fun year and

hopes that his organization and original ideas will result in a year the class of 2018 will never forget.

“I am really organized and I will do my best to plan fun things at our pep rallies,” Fisseha said.

Treasurer Jessica escoabar won lots of people over with her personality and great ideas. Her slogan ‘If you ain’t talkin’ money, I don’t want to talk’ intrigued many students. Although becoming treasurer involved escobar putting herself in an uncomfortable situation, she still plans to help the other class officers with good ideas to make the school year fun.

“It really helped me step outside my comfort zone to speak in front of everyone and it seemed like a really fun thing to do,” escobar said. “I really enjoy helping out and having a say in what our class does.”

Although freshman John Paul Spinelli’s candidate didn’t win, he still thinks the chosen officers will do well leading the class. “I’m hoping that the class officers will help us have fun and not be too busy with homework and school,” Spinelli said.

Overall, the class of 2018 seems to be in good hands as the turnout for the voting was strong and the candidates continue to look forward to the future.

“Down the road I think that we’ll have to use text-books. Many of our textbooks are 15 years old, and it just costs to much money to go through adoptions and replenish the textbooks, and they get outdated and antiquated.They’re much more efficient and much more effective to have elec-tronic options,” Garza said.

Though there is an understanding that the text-books aren’t pleasant to use, she believes that the publishers of the textbooks need to reformat their books to align with the way students would actually read the textbook.

Garza and the school board believe that there needs to be a better method of testing a student’s knowl-edge rather than high stakes testing, such as SOLs.

“The question is how do we create omissions where we reduce the amount of high stakes testing. I think we’re seeing progress. At least at the elementary and middle school level there has been a reduction of five tests. There’s more and more conversation about what does appropriate testing and assessments look like,” Garza said.

Garza also believes the variety of academy classes should absolutely be increased in order to give more op-portunities to students.

“There’s more than one pathway to a high school diploma. We hope to develop full portfolio schools. We do need to add more options for students,” Garza said.

Access to other schools isn’t an issue and FCPS is currently researching the popularity of different workforces in the area in order to get an idea of what else FCPS should add.

However Soteriou thinks that there should be more academy classes at a student’s home school.

“I’d like to see academy classes at Lee. That way people don’t have to move and get their whole schedule messed up,” Soteriou said.

A new policy that has been added this year which will reduce the number of out of school suspensions.

FCPS noted that requiring students to stay at home while suspended was counterproductive and detrimental to

“PRESS CONFRENCE WITH DR. GARZA” FROM PAGE 1

“NEW SPONSORS, NEW EXCITEMENT” FROM PAGE 1

Soos wants to make sure that every SGA member feels important with such a big class.

“We set up the class in the way that every-body feels like they are unique, accepted, and that we really care for each one of them,” Soos said.

Soos knows that it may be chaotic dealing with two huge classes but she is thankful for her co-sponsor.

“I am trying to keep all the balls in the air and stay sane. Ms. Clouse is a life-saver,” Soos said.

SGA Vice President, Calkie Fisseha, is a senior at Lee who has been an SGA mem-ber for three years. Fisseha believes the other SGA positions are very helpful when coordinating and planning school events. She hopes that SGA will stay well-organized.

“I hope that we would just continue to work hard and be cohesive,” Fisseha said.

Fisseha has worked with the past SGA

sponsors, Melissa Scott and Meredith Schiebel, who both offered strong leadership skills and ideas. Fisseha noticed

GARZA SPEAKS Students surround Superintendent Dr. Karen Garza as she explains the new FCPS polices

SCOTT GILBERT

SGA TALKS IT OUT SGA members join together to talk about upcoming events for the school year. SCOTT GILBERT

Clouse and Soos have similar work ethic and traits.“I really like them both. They are very organized which

helps SGA a whole lot,” Fisseha said.A current member, Junior Alex Cornbrooks,

wants SGA to enforce the expectations of their officers and members to do their job respon-sibly.

“People always talk about how there is a hierarchy. It shouldn’t be equal for the members and officers. The officers work hard for their position and title,” Cornbrooks said.

Cornbrooks finds SGA to be a fun experi-ence but time-consuming. He looks forward to working with other members to sort the logis-tics and details of the homecoming dance.

“We have to come up with the decorations, make decorations, set up for the dance, get the DJ, and get things approved. It’s a lot of work,” Cornbrooks said.

These changes strengthen the members’ leadership skills to help collaborate and brain-storm what decisions need to be made. SGA is a respected organization because of all the work, time and effort that is invested to make school events.

On Wednesday, September 17, the freshman class of 2018 gathered in the auditorium to listen to the speeches presented by the candidates running for class office.

After each individual was done giving their speech, fresh-men were invited to the front of the auditorium to cast in their votes for president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, historian, and senator.

After a few days, the Student Government Association (SGA) announced the winners that will now represent the class of 2018. The new president is Jacko Degiulian. The vice president is Tsega Fisseha. For treasure, the freshmen elected Jessica escoabar. Laura elliot is the new secretatary. For historian, Lauryn elliot was elected. Finally, the two sen-ators are Antonia Barr and Geraldine Dockery.

As the new class officers start their preparation for the new school year, they began to gather an understanding of their requirements to help the class of 2018 become suc-cessful.

For President Jacko Degulian, being president is much more than just leading the class. As Degulian figures the leadership role he is about to take on, he hopes to leave a

Class Of 2018 Elects New Officers For The New Year

NEW FUTURE LEADERS The Class of 2018 candidates are all smiles after winning the latest election

BROOKe HIGGISONStaff Writer

SCOTT GILBERT

NEWS 3October 7, 2014 LanceThe

New Town Center To Open This FallAfter two long years of tearing up, breaking down, and

disassembling, the wait is finally over. Springfield Town Cen-ter will finally be re-opening.

ever since the property was bought by the company Vornado Realty Trust in 2012, Springfield Mall has taken a huge turn. This change has captured the attention of many in the Springfield area..

Many people can’t wait for the two level shopping mall to open because it’s going to provide many jobs to the community.

This means that many students from Lee are going to be taking the opportunity of working there.

Senior Stephanie Vera, can’t wait for the grand open-ing on October 17.

“I’m so excited that the mall is opening because I’m planning on working there to save up for my college ex-penses,” Vera says.

Springfield Town Center will surely be making its mark in Northern Virginia due to the variety of new stores that are going to be opening for the first time on the east coast, including Topshop, the British fashion re-tail store, and Suite Blanco, a Spanish retailer making its first U.S. debut at the mall.

The mall will also be including familiar stores such as American Eagle Outfitters, H&M, Michael Kors and many more.

Many people believed that Tysons Corner was getting

over crowded due to the renovation. Freshmen Tatiana Vasquez was one student getting frus-

trated at all the long lines. “I can’t wait for the mall opening, because once it opens I

can go to Springfield mall and shop in peace,” Vasquez says.Change is better, that’s why Vornado is making a lot of

new and efficient changes, that will increase the outlook that people have on the mall.

Springfield Mall has been around for a very long time

and students remember growing up with Springfield mall in their childhood.

Senior Victoria Valdivla can’t wait for something from her childhood to transform after so many years.

“I’m really excited for the mall opening because when I was a kid I would go to the movie theaters but ever since the theater was taken away its like my favorite part of my childhood was taken away, but know that’s going to be opening I cant wait to see the renovation thats going to transform something from my child-hood,” Valdivla says.

Some of the changes include a 12-screen movie the-ater with reclining seats, a glass-enclosed fireplace that separates the indoor-outdoor food court, and two chil-dren’s’ play areas, among many others.

Retail stores around the construction site such as Macy’s, Jcpenney and Target, have stayed open during the renovation but they are still expecting to receive a lot of competition from the new stores that are going to be opening.

Target employee Doris Alvarez expects new changes around the store.

“I think that once the mall opens, Target is going to re-ceive a lot of attention, which is going to raise our profits and our competition,” Alvarez says.

Springfield Town Center is going to introduce a lot of new things and will improve the profile of Northern Vir-ginia, especially here in Springfield.

YOCELYN VASqUEz-BONILLA News Editor

THE WAIT IS OVER Construction workers putting final touches on the new and improved Springfield Town Center that will open on October 17.

In 2016 Robert e. Lee High School is planning on be-coming an authorized International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program school. This program will begin students in sixth grade on a more rigorous academic learning cur-riculum and continues this curriculum until their second year of high school thru tenth grade. After sophomore year students can choose to continue in the International Bac-calaureate Diploma Program or choose a different diploma program offered in school such as the standard diploma or an advanced diploma .

The IB MYP coordinator at Lee, Stephanie Bilimoria, believes this program is a great step towards helping all stu-dents who would like to strive for an IB diploma to learn what it will take and be ready for it.“The idea is that the Middle Years Programme is for the whole school; it is not just for a select group of students in school, it will be for all ninth and tenth graders because you’ll experience it in all classes” Bilimoria said.

However in Fairfax County middle school begins in the seventh grade instead of sixth grade so the Middle Years Programme will run from then in Fairfax County Schools.

The hope is to prepare students for their junior and se-nior years of high school where they can choose to do the

Lee Implements MYP As A Head Start To IBLIzzY RAMOSStaff Writer

In efforts to save money, Lee High School, in accordance with a directive from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has made some budget cuts around the building starting with the air conditioning and heating systems. One of superintendent Dr. Karen Garza’s projects this year was incorporating a new energy management system in FCPS.The new company, Cenergistic, saved public schools in Dallas, Texas lots of money so it was hoped that the same could happen here in FCPS.Cenergistic, an energy conservation company, controls the temperature, air conditioning, and when the system turns on and off throughout the day. Scheduling for temperatures is decided depending on what activities are going on the building. Over time the company hopes to save millions for the county.Lee’s building operating engineer Wayne Johnson, engineer explains how the strange temperature during the first days of school were caused by planning mistakes.“From what I understand they messed up on the schedul-ing, not realizing that the system had been off for three to four days, which had let heat bottle up and they didn’t cut it

on until around 6 a.m. Some parts of the school didn’t get turned on at all,” Johnson said.Normally when there are long holidays, the school would cut the A/C on at around four or five in the morning to allow the system time to regulate. Blen Kidanemariam, sophomore at Lee High school felt very strongly about the heat interfering with her work.“It was very hot and it affected my studies because I was paying more attention to how hot it was rather than the syl-labuses that I had to sign”, Kidanemariam said.For senior Gifty Provencal, the heat was unjust for all in the school.“It’s really hot in this school. I hate the fact that they turn the A/C off at 3 and back on in the morning because it’s not fair to the students and the teachers,” Provencal said. The company and school district hope to eliminate some classroom’s temperatures to be higher or lower than others over a period of time. Johnson sees the positives from the new changes but ad-mits it makes a challenge to uphold his position.“I think the new changes are okay because it’s trying to save money, which is good but at the same time it makes my job harder. They took some power away from me,” Johnson said.

SCOTT GILBERT

INTRO TO IB The IB MYP Unit is going to be very helpful to the younger students that want to be introducted into IB.

Budget Cuts Causing A Lot Of Heat In Fairfax County

IB diploma program or not.The Middle Years Programme does not replace students regular classes but it is a part of every students curriculum in their academic courses.

Bilimoria explained that the programme is a set of ideas

that teachers will follow. “It’s a philosophy, like the teaching aspect of it is a phi-

losophy, so it’s a different way of teaching in a sense so even if you are in a standard level class you will still be getting a higher level of teaching,” Bilimoria said.

In the past Johnson was able to change temperatures around the school to accommodate activities and more .Now all power and control is not from the school itself but from the power system.He is now only able to watch over and see to it that the systems in the building are all in order.“Basically all I can do is monitor the building see the temperature. My job is to make sure it’s running how it’s designed to run,” Johnson said.Provencal understands the need to salvage funds for the school, but doesn’t see the matter to be more important than students comfortability.“I think they did this to save money which makes sense but we shouldn’t have to struggle just to save money,” Proven-cal said.For the future, Provencal suggests the company cater to each individual type of weather throughout the year. “I think they should turn the A/C or heat on, depend-ing on the season, and leave it on through the night so when we get to school it’s comfortable in the classrooms,” Provencal said. Through patience and trial and error, the school hopes to save lots money through this new system and have money to spend for other necessities in the building.

ReBeCCA ALeMU Staff Writer

Other aspects of the Middle Years Program include ser-vice learning and a personal project similar to the IB di-ploma programs required creative, action and service hours and extended essay. These extra aspects are to help students in preparation for the IB diploma programs requirements in the last two years of high school.

emily Hidle is a IB diploma candidate for the year of 2016. She believes that the IB MYP program may not have helped her much.

“I think I was pretty well prepared for my IB courses be-cause I already took honors classes and I just braced myself for all the stuff that came with the IB program such as CAS hours and the extended essay,” Hidle said.

However IB MYP is being put in place to further prepare all students for the factors of the IB diploma.

Other students like Sarah Lachman wish this program had been around earlier to have better prepared them for IB courses.

“This program probably would have helped me a lot be-cause it starts so early in middle school so I probably would have learned what my IB teachers would want earlier,” Lach-man said.

Although students have differing thoughts on the new program schools still have to wait two years to see how the new program IB MYP will work out .

SCOTT GILBERT

4 COMMENTARY October 7, 2014LanceThe

Is The New Attendance Policy Hurting Or Helping Students?

Does it seem like everyone around Lee is sick? Have you heard sniffles

and sneezes in class? There is one answer for why this is happening and it is the new bath-room blocks. One new change made this year was the new bathroom pass system. every student must carry around a wooden block found in each classroom. In the past few years at Lee, students used their own planners when going to the bathroom. That system never failed us, so it is a mystery for why it had to change.

I believe these passes are exhausting and plainly unhy-gienic. The bathroom block system should be taken away and put back to the way it used to be. Infections and dis-eases can be passed by merely touching these blocks.

We shouldn’t use these passes because they are unsani-tary. Flu season is just around the corner and these blocks aren’t helping. Just being in school leaves endless opportu-nities to spread the flu. Now adding the bathroom block that every single sniffling student touches makes it worse.

Germs left on surfaces can stay alive for up to 8 hours. According the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website, “about 2.2 million chil-dren under the age of five die each year from diarrheal diseases and pneumonia, the top two killers of young chil-dren around the world.” Although students in high school are way over the age of five, germs can be taken home. Bringing home foreign germs can cause disease and kill younger siblings. Its allowing students a free pass to pass along to each other germs. Junior at Lee High school, Makeda Haile isn’t too fond of the idea of her brothers and sisters getting infected.

“I wouldn’t want my younger siblings catching a disease,” Haile said. If every student and their friend is getting sick it will make students miss out on valuable

class time and miss school as well. For sophomore Ibra Kargbo, the new passes fill her with uncertainty and seeing one of them inappropriately used in a stall in a picture online made

it worse. “They make me feel unsettled because people misuse them. The other day I saw one in

the toilet on social media. It’s unhygienic and that’s how diseases are spread,” Kargbo said. Also it is tedious to have sign out and bring that block around everywhere. Senior Jeydi

Brazo feels the system is unproductive. “It’s time consuming filling out the sign out sheets,” Brazo said.

The new changes were made to prevent students from misconduct between going to the bathroom. However, there’s nothing stopping someone from lying about where they are going with a pass in a agenda and with bathroom block pass in their hand. Haile feels the new system causes negative feelings between students and staff.

“Having to sign in and out every time you leave a room makes me feel like the teachers don’t trust us,” Haile said.

Having a block of wood for every single classroom in the building, not including replacements, also doesn’t seem cost-effective. The supplies needed to paint and cre-ate these blocks were practically used for no reason. These resources could’ve been used for multiple other projects around the building.

Haile believes the school should return the old system. “I don’t like the bathroom blocks. I think the changes

were made to keep fewer kids in the halls. I think the school should go back to using passes from their agenda,” Haile said.

Germs and so much more can be stopped by simply going back to the old way of bathroom passes. Kargbo

believes this way of passes is unorganized and was put in place to burden students. “We should do what we used to do because right now its just a mess. I think they made

the rule to oppress us,” Kargbo said. With the help of informed students standing together, a change can be made to better the

student population in terms of these bathroom blocks.

Useful Or Useless: Are The New Lancertime Changes Necessary

The new attendance policy put in place here at Lee has caused a lot of controversy. The routine is, if a student is late to class, they are required to go down to the office and get a blue pass before they are let back into class. The new policy was put in place because in previous years attendance has been a schoolwide issue.

The new attendance policy is a good way to ensure students get to class on time but some aspects of it should be reevaluated.

This new way of recording unexcused absences is difficult and time consuming for both the teachers and the students. If a student is already late to class they should be able to come in and quickly make up their work. The new policy requires students to miss even more of a class then they normally would by going all the way down to the office and back to their classroom. Several teachers give out quizzes in the first few minutes of class and I don’t think that students should miss a quiz because they were a few seconds late to class. If a student is already late then why should they miss even more of class than is already nec-essary? The policy has a lot of students questioning the intentions of the administration’s implementation of the rules.

Some students are very opposed to the idea of having to get passes everywhere they go. Junior Karina Funes believes that the new policy is encouraging but some things should be fixed about it.

“I think that the policy is good because it encourages students to get to class on time but it’s not fair to make us go all the way down to the attendance office and get a pass and then be even later to class than they would have been in the first place,” said Funes.

Funes is right in the fact that students should be encouraged to get to class on time in-stead of being punished for being late.

Though the policy should be changed, there are some positive aspects to it. Since the new policy has been put in place there have been students rushing to get to class on time. Sami Khan, a senior at Lee High School, has been actively trying to get to class on time.

“Last year I didn’t really worry about if I was late to class or not, it wasn’t that big of a deal. This year I try and walk faster so I can get to class and not have to go all the way down to the office,” said Khan.

The policy is beneficial in the way that students are hurrying to get to class on time and taking attendance more seriously than they have in the past.

Some students at Lee feel very strongly about the policy and think it should be gotten rid of immediately. Junior Maria Emilia Vela-Ceballos is strongly opposed to the at-tendance system this year.

“Why should I be forced to go all the way down to the office to get a pass? Why can’t I just walk into class and catch up on what I’ve missed instead of being even farther behind in class. The whole thing needs to be reconsidered because its so unproductive. It’s also an-noying that they’re allowed to take away your parking permits and give you detention if you get a lot of tardies,” said Vela.

Vela is correct that the time students spend walking to the office and back isn’t produc-tive. However,the same consequences should be in place for being tardy or there would be no incentive to get to class on time.

The attendance policy has been causing a lot of controversy but it has all the right intentions. There should be consequences for being late to class but there should be an im-proved way to mark tardies without having to arrive even later to class.

students for the past couple years. It is a time in our hectic schedule where we can use time to make up work, finish assignments and work in groups.Starting September fifteenth Lee started a new Lancer Time schedule. Which was a sur-prise to hear for many. Change is always scary but this change in our schedule seems sort of unnecessary. The new schedule will be make students spend half of the time with their regular Lancer Time teacher and then the other half with one of their other class period teachers where attendance will be taken a second time. This tactic is seemingly being used to cut down on the number of students in the hallways during Lancer Time however this procedure isn’t necessary for the simple fact that taking attendance a second time really won’t really matter. Cywann eaton Gdilo is a sophomore this year and he believes that this new Lancer Time schedule will not make a big change in our school, “ A lot of kids will skip class again just like they always have ,” Gdilo said.Students are definitely doing better at staying out of the halls this year but can we really change how many people play in the halls just by changing a schedule? Junior Hamdiya qaiser believes there are bigger issues to consider with the new schedule not just if there are student in the hallways during Lancer Time or not.

“I think it will take time to adjust to the new Lancer Time and by the time I do I will probably be falling behind in all my classes and this year it is important for me to do well because I’m starting IB classes and I have a bigger workload then I did before,” qaiser said. Lancer Time has been nothing but a meaningful work time for students. Many students have so much to do once school lets out. On top of sports, work and religious obligations sometimes there just isn’t enough time to do everything and this is when Lancer Time re-ally has been helpful to students when they need extra time to finish work and is especially essential when assigned to group projects. During the second half of Lancer Time teachers are allowed to make students do more work for review in their class or allow them to do work for other classes which is a big deal for students. On the other side of the debate, social studies teacher Corey Illes believes this change will benefit teachers and students alike. “It’s good because it gives me the opportunity, if I need to, to review, for kids to finish up projects in my class since you know the kids and you can make sure they get their work done,” Illes said. So the new Lancer Time could continue to help us but on a stricter schedule. While the old schedule seems to be a better use of our time, students are hopeful that this change is a good one.

ANNIe MeDDING

Features Editor

ReBeCCA ALeMU Staff Writer

eMILY RAMOSCommentary Editor Lancer Time has been beneficial for Lee High School

Pass On The Sniffles: Are The New Bathroom Passes Making Eveyone Sick?

SCOTT GILBERT

SCOTT GILBERT

NEED ONE BEFORE GETTING INTO CLASS If you are late to class you must walk To the office to get one of these blue passes before a teacher allows you into their classroom.

BLUE TO FLU The new bathroom passes are one for all in every classroom

COMMENTARY 5October 7, 2014 LanceThe

Freshmen Do’s And Don’ts: A Few Tips For Freshmen

Are School Rules Giving People The Chance To Demean Women?

Coming into a new school freshman year can be scary. Many fresh-men try to act like someone they are not. As many upperclassmen may say,

there are a few rules for freshman to remember their first year of high school.First, you are not “too cool for school.” Freshmen year is extremely important and gives

most students a strong base for a good GPA. Many upperclassmen say that they wish they could go back to their freshmen year because they did not follow this rule. Do your home-work, study for tests and do not skip class. It’s not cool to slack off in school. If anything, you’re just hurting yourself.

Senior Tyler Griffin agrees that it is important to stay focused your freshmen year and not start bad habits so early in high school.

“If you don’t do your homework or don’t go to class it’s going to not only kill your GPA, but also start bad habits, and once you start bad habits, it’s really hard to break,” Grif-fin said.

Another thing to remember is to be yourself. everyone knows that being a freshmen can be intimidating when walking around the halls with juniors and seniors who are older and bigger than you. Don’t try to be someone you are not, to impress the upperclassmen. Being yourself makes you stand out in a positive way. If you try to be someone you’re not, people notice.

Senior Joe Spinelli believes that being yourself is extremely important, especially in high school.

“It’s really important that you be yourself when you come into high school because people really do notice if you are trying to be someone you are not. Your true friends will like you for who you really are,” Spinelli said.

Third, have school spirit. One thing at Lee that everyone partakes in is spirit days. For football games, the student section usually chooses a color that everyone wears. Take part in school spirit. At pep rallies, stand up, be loud and support your class. It makes you look worse when you sit and don’t cheer. Don’t think that because you take part in school spirit it makes you uncool. It is an event that Lee High School as a community can share and have fun with together.

“Having school spirit is one of the best parts of high school. It’s something your friends and classmates can take part in together. You are only here for four years so make the best out of it and have fun,” said senior Keller Collins.

One of the most annoying things about in between periods is when people stand in the middle of the hallway and create more traffic. Do not stand in the middle of the hallways. The hallways are already crowded enough, they don’t need to be blocked by groups of stu-dents. Get to class and especially be on time. If you want to talk to your friends, go to a place

across the nation. Dress code has been a very controversial topic, as it’s become stricter and seemingly more demeaning towards women. even in the news, the stories are full of girls being ridiculed for what they wore to school.

In the Washington Post, there was story published on September 5 about a student named Miranda Larkin who was new to Clay County, FA. On her third day of school she had to go to school in an oversized neon shirt and red sweatpants with “DRESS CODE VIOLA-TION” largely printed across the chest and down the leg. It was only her third day at her new school that she was forced to wear the ‘shame suit’ for wear-ing a skirt that had been “too short.”

Larkin said she felt humiliated, and her mother was angry for the way that her daughter was publicly shamed as well. Larkin’s mother stated in defense of her daughter that she was not a bad, unruly child and she is also a mother who disciplines her children appropriately. Unfortunately, Larkin is not the only case of dress code violation gone wrong. There are many girls who share similar stories of being embar-rassed and demeaned at school for having violated dress code.

Nationwide, the dress code discussion is almost entirely the same, even here at our own high school. Alesha Armstrong, currently a junior here at Lee, speaks out on the dress code and the underlying meanings it may have towards girls.

“It’s very demeaning towards women. Telling girls that they shouldn’t wear spaghetti straps so that guys won’t look at them or be distracted is unfair, and instead we should teach boys to control them-selves rather than teaching girls that it’s their job to cover up,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong makes a good point on how society may be a bit distorted towards gender roles and how women are viewed in the world. Armstrong has in fact been in violation of the dress code and finds the enforcement inconsistent.

“I got dress coded for wearing shorts, and it’s understandable that they might have been inappropriate, but it isn’t understandable when there are still other girls in the school wear-ing even more inappropriately short shorts, but aren’t in trouble because they might not be the same shape as I am. It makes me feel as if maybe I’m inferior to those girls who don’t have the same body as I do,” Armstrong said.

Another junior girl, Ami Nguyen, also voiced her opinion on the dress code. “I think that getting rid of the dress code completely is too drastic, but we need some

limitations on how you can dress at school. You can’t just have it all out there, but it should

be looser because it’s way too strict now,” said Nguyen. Whether girls like it or not, there is always going to be at least some sort of dress code

(ie; the general no inappropriate slogans, hats, etc) so that students do not go past the limits of what is appropriate or not. However, many students are still well aware of what is going past the limits of respectable to wear to school, and there are also many parents who do not allow their child to dress inappropriately anyways.

Nguyen continued, saying “basically, the dress code tells girls that they have to dress more conservatively so that people don’t get ‘distracted.’ That implies that guys can’t control them-

selves, so girls have to take care of that. We have to make sure not to show too much skin so guys won’t be tempted, but personally I don’t think that’s our job to do that.”

Mariam Khan, a senior who has been here for all four years, has the same mindset as Armstrong and Nguyen. Khan argues that “yes, I think we should have a dress code, but to an extent. everyone should have the freedom to express themselves by the way they dress.” The common opinion is that the dress code should exist to keep some order in the school, but it shouldn’t be too restrictive.

You don’t have to be an outspoken feminist to think that dress code is demeaning towards the fe-male gender, and Khan, who is just a regular high school student agrees that it is. “I believe the dress code is demeaning towards women because people think women deserve what they get into by the way they dress, which I believe is totally blown out of proportion. Because of that biased opinion, women have different perspectives of themselves.” Khan has never been dress coded, but if she were to ever have been she says that “I would feel pretty offended, be-cause the way I dress shouldn’t bother them.. who told them to judge me off my clothing? Nobody.”

The controversial opinion is that the dress code is in fact very sexist and demeaning towards women, say-ing that females should cover up just so that people do not get distracted by their midriffs or legs. Shouldn’t it be that women get viewed with equal respect and not

just as a pretty little object to look at? The fact of the matter is, the dress code is a small ne-cessity, but there are lines that should not be crossed. Telling a girl to cover her shoulders just so that guys will not drool over it is ridiculous, and not only does that demean women, but it implies that boys are too dumb and irresponsible to control themselves as well. Women should not be guilty for the way that men act or feel.

We are surrounded by a culture that shifts the blame from malesto female victims. These things like overly enforcing dress code and publicly humiliating girls for it only leads to the increase of low self-esteem, humiliation, and the viewing of women with little respect.

It’s back to school season in America, which also means another year of often infuriating and overzealous dress code enforcements in schools all

that is not very crowded but make sure it doesn’t interfere with your time getting to class. Lastly, be respectful to your teachers. They are all trying to set you up on a path of suc-

cess. If they tell you to do something, do it. The time and effort that the teachers provide is extremely valuable. Take advantage of the help that teachers are trying to offer. The tran-sition from middle school to high school is very challenging so it is important to take the advice that teachers offer you and not disrespect them.

Freshmen year can be unbelievably fun as you meet new friends, experience new high school activities, sit in the student section at games and even experience your first pep rally. Although freshmen year is a year to begin to figure out who you really are, remember these things and you will reach great success throughout high school.

TAYLOR HIGGISON

Editor-in-Chief

SCOTT GILBERT

A TIME FOR GUIDANCE Emanuel Feleke and Joseph Motbainar give freshman Jacko Dejulian some sound advice for this upcoming schoool year

WOULD YOU BE STOPPED? A Lee junipr demonstrates how some schools would stop a girl to check if their shorts are pas their fingertips.

KAYLee ANH Staff Writer

COMMENTARY 6 October 7, 2014LanceThe

Teacher Responsibilities: How Much Is Too Much?Starting this school year our staff has one

new job to perform and that new job is hall duty.

Teachers already have many other im- p o r t a n t things to do during the day. They have to grade papers, plan lessons and most im-portantly teach their students. At first I thought making teachers take time out of their planning periods to do hall duty was probably somewhat stressful and a waste of time. However many teachers seem to un-derstand that they play an important role in students everyday lives and that they have to do their part to help maintain order dur-ing the school day.

Math teacher Pam Ihle is one of the teachers who now has the responsibility of hall duty and she is happy to do it.

“It is 20 minutes that I lose but I’m willing to sacrifice that 20 minutes doing hall duty to make sure people are getting to class,” said Ihle.

So far hall duty is seemingly working very well. Since students are being encour-aged by teachers on hall duty to get to class on time, students are making an effort to make it to class on time more often.

However this is not the only duty teach-ers can perform during the school day. Other teachers have to do lunch duty in-

stead of hall duty. During lunch duty a teacher has to sit at a desk in the intersection between the cafeteria and hallways around it. They may ask students for a pass or where they are going to be sure they aren’t lost or goofing around.

Mike Cecere has been teaching here at Lee for 22 years and he really believes lunch duty and hall duty is something teach-ers should do happily and willingly.

”Somebody has to help out, we can’t expect our admin-istrators and security to do everything, the teachers have to help out too,” said Cecere.

This seems to be a reasonable reaction. It is a wonderful thing that teachers are willing to help and keep us on track. However one issue with the duties is when it impacts some d e p a r t - ments who meet during lunch because it

may add extra stress during those times to those teachers.

english teacher Julie Phelps has to do lunch duty and says the only stress that comes with lunch duty for some people is to remember to go to it.

“If you are not organized it may add a lot of stress because you have to remem-ber to stop what you’re doing and go to that lunch duty,” said Phelps, “which is one of the only downsides to lunch duty.”

Overall teachers think these new responsibilities will really benefit the school in the long run which seems to be the case so far.

“Teachers have to do their share,” Ce-cere says.

We should be proud that the teachers in our school are willing to do these extra jobs to keep people out of the halls be-cause it really is necessary. Having a few teachers out in the hall really can make a big change in encouraging students to arrive to class on time and keep them on track in the halls.

Getting Ready In School: Do What You Have To Do Running late for school? It’s okay, just pack up your hair straightner and

make-up supplies and get ready at your local school bathroom. The school bathrooms have conveniently placed outlets in the bathroom so anyone can

just come in and fix their hair with their straightening or curling iron. But what's the fine line between fixing your shirt in the mirror and bringing your whole make-up supplies to school and applying your mascara, foundation, etc, at school?

The bathrooms at school are open to all people and therefore if they choose to fix their hair or do their makeup at school, that’s entirely their decision and we should respect that.

It’s hard enough getting up in the morning, and with endless responsibilities to attend to such as brushing your teeth, straightening your hair, eating breakfast, attempting to pick out an outfit, all combined with the fatigue of waking up in the morning, this can be a struggle and we do slip up from time to time.

Senior Daniela Gil, definitely relates to this struggle. “Sometimes we run out of time in the morning at home so we have to do it once we get to school,” Gil said.

That being said it is strange to walk into the bathroom and find someone sitting on the bathroom floor with their hair straightener in their hand and their makeup supplies right next to them.

Senior Tahreem Chaudhry finds it strange and thinks it should stop.

BASMA HUMADI Entertainment Editor “It’s better to just get up and get everything you need to done at home than it is to do

it at school. It’s inconvenient walking into the bathroom and finding girls fixing their hair when I just want to check how I look in the mirror,” Chaudhry said.

We should cut each other some slack though, because sometimes we realize that we don’t look as good as we thought when we stepped out of our house.

“Sometimes we think we look good in the morning but then realize we don’t really,” Gil said. So rather than walking around school feeling insecure for the rest of the day about if your outfit is correctly matched or if anyone can notice that one strand of hair it’s easier to walk into the bathroom and readjust yourself.

Usama Khan, a student at Lee also agrees with the fact that girls should be able to get ready in the bathrooms.

“It’s fine if you want to look good. Doesn’t bother me,” Khan said.Although Khan does not mind if girls get ready at school, he would prefer it if they did

not care as much.“Most women can do what they want but personally I think you should love who you

are. It’d be more attractive if they didn’t care as much about how they look,” Khan said. As long as people don’t mess up the bathroom, fully clean up after themselves, and get

to class on time I believe that we should respect others who do decide to fix themselves up in the bathrooms.

The New Cookies Are Healthy And A MonstrositySchool lunches are not always the best, and

a majority of students would rather go to the snack line to buy their food instead. The snack

line provides an assortment of snacks for students and one of the most popular snacks of the snack line was the chocolate chip cookies. As a senior, I have had these cook-ies for three years now. I really can’t get enough of them and they’re really the only thing I would consistently buy from the lunch or snack lines. It has all changed this school year though.

The beloved chocolate chip cookies of the snack line are now being replaced. They are still sell-ing chocolate chip cookies but they have changed up the recipe a bit. They have now changed it to chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.

Freshman Alexander Saleh thinks that this new recipe is fine and he likes it.

“I like the new chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I think that they taste good, so I have no problem with them,” Saleh said.

Some may argue that this change of recipe is healthier for us students, which is a good thing, but it has been met with some negative responses by the students, myself including. Sophomore Walid

Sarwary is one of the many students who believes that these new cookies are not the same as before.

“This change in recipe is not good and they just don’t taste the same as last year’s cookies,” Saraway said.

These new oatmeal chocolate chip cookies simply do not taste the same as last years. I remember the cookies last year would just melt in my mouth. especially right after they were made. This years cookies have a more hardening taste to them. You can’t just sink your teeth into them like you did last year.

Not only have they taken away these delicious choco-late chip cookies, but they have tweaked the price and how they sell them. Last year they sold cookies for $.50 apiece, which is a fair deal. Then they would sell packs of cook-ies for $1.25 which basically saved students $.25. This year though, cookies are no longer being sold in packs of three and if you were to buy three cookies, it costs $1.50. So they are charging us more to eat healthier? They should at least make it $.25 a cookie now, because in my opinion, $.50 for these new cookies is not worth it all.

Senior Asay Haile who is a cookie fanatic and enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies more than anything else in the cafeteria, is saddened by this news.

“Lunch isn’t the same anymore for me and it actually saddens me that they changed the cook-ies. They tasted so good and I wish they could bring them back,” Haile said.

Being healthy doesn’t just come from what you eat. There are people who eat an extremely large amounts of food, but they don’t become unhealthy. These cookies didn’t make much of a difference in our health. It was something us students enjoyed and loved and I think we could all agree that we would prefer to have them over these new ones.

eMILY RAMOSCommentary Editor

SCOTT GILBERT

SCOTT GIL-

ON THE MOVE DON’T TRY TO BE SMOOTH Mrs.Phelps stops a student in the hall without a pass and asked them where they are going. Because the girl did not have a pass she was sent to

YUM? The new chocolate chip oatmeal cookie is an abomination to the taste buds.

KEVIN NGOSports Editor

LanceThe FEATURES 7October 7, 2014

When I Was17Mr. Erik Giblin

Language Department

system in Virginia and in Fairfax County.“Florida is a little off, trying to get things

together when it comes to standardized test-ing so here it is a little bit nicer. I really like that about our county. It is more organized and a little stricter and [the administration] knows what they are doing and how they want to run things,” Perez said.

Lancers know everyone in the school comes together as one into a big family and Mrs. Perez appreciates that about Lee.

“What I love about Lee is that everyone here is a community. We have people living in houses that are walking distance from Lee and are so close and it’s nice knowing that everyone here gets along as one,” Perez said.

Perez is teaching biology to her freshmen and also teaches IB Biology 2 and says it is kind of a big jump from what she taught at West Springfield.

“I love the population of my students, ev-eryone is welcoming and all get along so well. Going from regular to IB was a big jump on my part because it is a lot of more work but I enjoy teaching it to the kids here,” Perez said.

She is determined to stay here for a while and is hoping for a bright future at Lee.

Lee also has some new faces outside of the classroom. Richelle Henry is one of the new counselors. Not only is she brand new to our school, she is also new to the state of Virginia. She is originally from a small town in Florida.

She moved to Tampa, Florida to get her bachelor’s degree. After that she applied to grad school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland and was accepted.

She switched majors from business man-agement to psychology. After a year at Hop-kins, she got her first job as a counselor here at Lee.

Henry talked about how going from graduate school to being a counselor was a big jump for her.

“It’s a huge learning curve, graduate school prepares you within the counseling field for the social and emotional issues that comes with the job. But when you are actu-ally in a school as a counselor with a caseload like graduate requirements for students it’s a huge learning curve because you are not in graduate school anymore,” Henry said.

The newcomers so far have felt welcomed and love the environment. Lee is looking forward to keeping these teachers as long as possible so bonds can be formed, and rela-tionships can be established.

Say Hello To Our New LancersEMILY RAMOS AND ANNIE HAFEEzCommentary Editor and Web Editor

The beginning of a new school year brings many new chances, work and, most importantly, new people.

This year Robert e. Lee High School wel-comes two new counselors, 17 new teachers, over 500 new students, and one new princi-pal to our school.

It is a fresh start for many and this new school year has them filled both with excite-ment and fear.

This year over 490 freshman students were enrolled at Lee High.

Many of the students are excited about upcoming challenges and experiences that they will face this school year. Starting at a new school can be quite nerve-wrecking, but entering a whole new country is a huge jump for foreign exchange student Tobias Schnei-der, known to his friends as Toby.

Schneider, a 16 year old foreign exchange student, came from Bavaria, Germany and is currently living with a host family for his junior year. To him, Lee is completely op-posite from the school that he attended in Germany.

“everyone here has lockers but back in Germany, only some students received lock-ers and they were about half the size they are here,” Schneider said.

Students at Lee would love to go out dur-ing lunch and get lunches from different res-taurants and then come back to Lee but that is not allowed here. Schneider had a different experience in Germany.

“Many students bring their own lunch in Germany we just have a little booth near school where people can go to get snacks or some sort of lunch,” Schneider said.

Schneider mentioned a few things that he is excited about in the upcoming year.

“I want to play baseball this year because I hear the coaches like Mr. MacDonald are really nice and I played baseball back in Ger-many,” Schneider said.

Along with new students, like Schneider, Lee has added 17 new teachers in10 different departments.

One newcomer is science teacher Om-aira Perez, who is spending her second year in Virginia and is coming from Lee’s rival school, West Springfield.

Perez left her eight year teaching career in Florida to continue it in Virginia due to the decision her daughter made when it came to schools. Mrs. Perez so far likes the school

Where did you attend high school?Mountain View High School in Mesa, Arizona

What sports/clubs were you a part of ?Theater and forensics and debate

What was your favorite memory from high school?When they started an arts club for all theater and “artsy-fartsy” joined together in one club.

What were your favorite and least favorite subjects in school? My favorite classes were Theater, History, Spanish, and english. My least favorite were science and math because they were hard for me.

What did you and your friends do for fun?We acted, competed in forensics, hung out in coffee shops, and danced on the week-ends.

If you could use one word to describe yourself at 17, what word would you use?Searching

What did you like most about being a teenager?It was a sense that we could remake ourselves and the world

If you could relive one moment from high school what would it be? In 9th grade I was caught vandalizing with my friends. Luckily, no charges were pressed against us, but if there were charges pressed my career would have been ruined. I was an angry kid, but my Spanish and Latin teacher saved me along with drama. If I could relive those moments I would have chosen my friends differently.

If you had a chance to change your career path, what path would you choose?I wouldn’t change my career path because I’ve already changed it once. I started out in the immigration rights work and in church work as a way to help improve our world. I find that God chose me to be a teacher and I am where I’m supposed to be.

COUrTESY OF Mr. GIBLIn

BLAST FROM THE PAST Mr. Giblin poses for his All-State Poetry interpertation award ceremony during his high school years.

Mr. erik Giblin is a Spanish teacher at Lee. He teaches Spanish 2 as well as Spanish for fluent speakers 1&2. All around, he is a hard-working teacher and loves to help you grow further in your Spanish-speaking works. Since he was seventeen, he has evolved into the teacher and friend we all know and love.

Compiled by Laura EdwardsNOTHING BUT SMILES new student Toby Schneider shows off his cooking skills in gourmet foods. He is still adapting to the new school but is looking forward to all the oppertunities Lee has to offer.

SCOTT GILBERT

LanceThe 10 FEATURES October 7, 2014

Appreciate Your Custodians

Lancers Welcome New PrincipalShe is the leader, the top dog, our principal, but who is she, and what does she plan on doing

with her time here at Lee? Starting this school year, 2014-2015, Mrs. Deirdre Lavery has taken over the position of principal at our school. Already she has done her best to talk with all of the staff, and all of the students she possibly can to get the word out about whom she is and what she plans on doing here.

Lavery has spent her entire educational career with the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). “I’ve been with Fairfax County for 28 years. I’ve been a teacher, I’ve worked in the central of-

fice twice, I was a principal for four years for a school for students with emotional disabilities, and then I left there and became the principal of Glasgow middle school for about 8.5 years, and in between there was an assistant principal at Groveton elementary school. My most recent position was director of cluster three,” Lavery said.

Lavery started her career as a student teacher at the middle school level.“I actually student taught at Frost Middle School and they had a position open for the following

fall and I applied and got that job,” said Lavery. She is really excited to get started at Lee

and see what she can do for us over the next school year, but the real question is, how excited are the students?

Remy Thompson, a freshman at Lee is happy about the change.

“I’m excited to have Mrs. Lavery as the principal because I think she is going to do great things for this school and she’s really nice and a great person,” Thompson said.

Some students love Lavery, others think she is going to change too much in our school, but all hope that she makes Lee a great place to learn. Lavery is mak-ing some instructional changes for the school that may or may not help out Lee for the greater good.

”One group is where we are with the instructional program and are we sure, and we need to be sure, that every kid gets a rigorous instructional program that challenges them at the level that they are at while simultaneously pushing them to go to that next level; to challenge kids enough to where they achieve that challenge and feel good about what they have done and what they have accomplished. That [is] overall goal for each and every student.”

Aside from the instructional program, she is also trying to focus on the cultural side of things. “The other piece that I’m looking at closely is what our culture is. The kids have heard me talk

about the tardy system, and getting to class on time, and the pass system. Those are the struc-tures that need to be put in place so that everybody is clear at what the expectations are and we are consistent as adults and how we implement those expectations. I think once you create those structures, then you can go from there to create a better sense of community,” Lavery said.

Not only is Lavery working on the structure of the rules, but also the teachers and how they work with the students and how well they teach. Lavery is working on both the staff and the stu-dents, because not all the students are to blame. The teachers have the responsibility to teach the students, but the students also have the responsibility to pay attention and follow the rules that are set in place for them.

The rules and responsibilities tie into Lavery’s short term goals for this school, which she de-scribes as the order of things and the willingness for kids to get to class on time.

“I think the biggest short term goal really was around the hallways. What I told the staff when we opened up was that we have one goal to open up the school year and that is to bring some semblance of order to the hallways, to bring some understanding and an expectation that we are

here for a purpose. That purpose is that students need to be in class on time every day and every class so that they can get and learn everything that they need to in the time that they are there,” Lavery said.

A lot of kids are complaining about how unfair it is for the kids that follow the rules and Lavery understands that. Lavery is really working on establishing the structures to fix those problems.

“A lot of kids said ‘it’s just not fair to those of us kids that get to class on time’ and my goal was you know we probably have 10% of our students that don’t always follow the rules the way they need to be followed. If we put those structures in place then we hold kids accountable that don’t follow those structures, then that will bring in some of that order back into the building. Overall what I hear about kids at Lee is that they want to do the right thing, so we are really focusing on the hallways,” Lavery said.

From a student’s perspective, this year has brought a lot of changes. Many rules have been modified to be better and the process kids have to go through to get out of trouble when breaking the rules is so unbearable that it’s forcing kids to follow the rules. This is shown mostly through the tardy system and how much work it is to

get the right pass back to class instead of just being able to walk right in whenever. This is allowing the kids to learn what it is like to be accountable for their mistakes.

However, according to Lavery, this is a minor plan with a more comprehensive plan looking at discipline and student success.

“On the support side of things we are re-ally looking at restructuring what we look at as our system of support, it’s not just about con-sequence but there is an accountability piece that students have to step up to. The other side is, we have kids that are constantly doing the same things over and over again and not getting that they should change their behavior through the consequence,” Lavery said.

Aside from the academic side of school, there are other important

aspects that make a school great. The ma-jor aspect that Lee is struggling with

is its reputation. Lavery is working more on getting the math

scores to increase to a reasonably high level. “We are credited with warning in math, and we need to fix that and there will be

some things that we put into place to support teachers and students so that we can get those test scores up,” Lavery said.

Other than the math scores, Lavery is really working hard on trying to reestablish the reputation of Lee.

“What I know about Lee is that we are far better than the undeserved reputation that is out there. My long-term goal is between really getting the kids to dig in on the instructional program or academics while simultaneously creating that culture that Lee becomes a school that people say ‘I want to go there,’ not ‘How can I get out of there.’ I think that’s hard for those of us that work here and for the kids that attend here, but I think what I can assure folks of is that is my overall commitment, is that we take Lee and put it on the map, and that we get the good news out there,” Lavery said.

Lavery is working hard on getting Lee back up to the point where people are always hearing good things about what is going on.

“There is a lot of great stuff that goes on at Lee; we just aren’t getting the word out there. There are some things that we have to fix internally, but the other piece is how you market what we are already doing really well. For long term I want people to turn around and go remember Lee. So that’s what I want, for kids to be saying I want

MIRANDA EVEKERStaff Writer

Dirty halls. Nasty smelly bathrooms. Rats and bugs would be everywhere if it weren't for the custodial team at Lee High School.

When people hear the word “custodian” they overlook what a custodian does, they think of cleaning and that’s about it. In truth a custodian’s job is so much more than just cleaning. Just ask the head of cafeteria custodial staff Rhina Rauda Merino.

“Custodians have a lot on their hands, like clean-ing the bathrooms and hallways everyday, cleaning the cafeteria and supervising students also. Caring for stu-dents and staff is also a big part of custodial work. Overall a custodian must make the building clean and safe. Every part of a custodian's duties is super impor-tant,” Merino said.

Interacting with students is a big part of a custodi-ans work. There are positive and negative interactions.

“Students make the job nice when they are being respectful but when a problem starts I give a warning and if the warning doesn’t work I have to call security,” Merino said.

Students make messes everywhere especially in the cafeteria, and after they finish their lunch most times they leave their food behind making it so the janitors have to throw away all of the food. This is not always the case, however.

Custodian Frehiwot Gelgay says, “Most students do make the job easier by cleaning up after themselves.”

There are many reasons for why a custodian chooses their job. Merino chose to be a custodian at Lee HS because “it’s close to her home and she likes the location.”

Being a custodian is fun at times. They get to know the school and the students very well. Me-rino is extremely involved with students, she talks to them about their day and how they’re doing in school. She’s very well liked by the students at Lee. One student in particular, Ivar espinoza, appreciates the work Merino and all of the staff does.

“There have been many times where the custodians have cleaned really gross things, especially in the bathroom, that I wouldn't even think of touching,” espinoza said.

Teachers also play a big role in the duty of a custodian depend-ing on how neat or messy they leave their room at the end of the day.

eSOL teacher Hannah Yun says, “As a teacher I always try to clean up and keep my room neat because I set the example for my students.”

Although most teachers clean up like Yun, custodians always have to come into the room and vacuum all the left behind trash and empty the trash can for all of the classrooms. Teachers and custodi-ans get along well and are always kind with each other.

“I always greet custodians with a simple ‘hi’ or ‘how are you’ to let them know that I appreciate their work and what they do for me,” Yun said.

Custodians get a lot of appreciation for their bravery, hard work, and generosity towards the school population. Although custodians

have many hard things to do like clean nasty messes and deal with the negativity some people bring, their job is extremely important to the school. Next time you see one of these hardworking Lancers in the hall, say thank you. Without custodians, Lee would not be the comfortable, clean, safe learning environment that it is.

LIzzY RAMOSStaff Writer

SCOTT GILBERT

HARD AT WORK Ms.Lavery sits at her desk and prepares to improve the school in order to be more beneficial for our student body. She is iooking forward to learning more about us and our school .

SCOTT GILBERT

CLEAN AND TIDY The custodians at Lee work hard to keep the lunch room clean for the students to enjoy.

LanceThe

FEATURES 11October 7, 2014

There are electives that Lee offers to students where they can learn various things from cooking with Ms. Soos to cosmetology with Ms. Baggot; but there is also a course that teaches students in depth about gruesome court cases and bizarre laws, Law in Action.

Taught by Steven Hirsch, Law in Ac-tion gives students the ability to dive into unbelievable laws that exist and ex-amine different court cases from mur-ders to burglaries.

Students are given the opportunity to gain skills to problem solve and to take and support different sides and po-sitions.

Students in the class also have the opportunity to defend positions that they are siding with and learn new strat-egies in debate and analysis.

Hirsch talked about how there are many different types of laws that will be covered throughout the course. “Dur-ing the year we will be analyzing envi-ronmental laws, criminal laws, econom-ic laws, immigration laws, and any other law you can think of,” Hirsch said.

So far the class has discussed a cou-ple of cases, one that involves a young lady nicknamed “Kitty.” Her body was found with multiple wounds and 38 people, her own neighbors, watched the half an hour freak show and just lis-tened to her helpless cries for help.

In Law in Action, students will dis-cover that the 38 people were all affect-ed by the Bystander effect and will dis-cuss in-depth about what exactly that is.

Students in Law in Action also have watched multiple videos and had a thorough discussion on the case of O.J

Bachelorette of the Month: Makeda Haile Junior Makeda Haile is an eligible bach-elorette who knows her way around a field and a joke but is also down to earth. She has been a part of the varsity field hockey team for three years now. Haile also loves to be with her friends, make people laugh, but also spend time focusing on her grades. If you see Makeda in the hallway, make sure to introduce yourself or say hello, because she loves meeting new people.

1. What do you look for in a guy?I look for a guy that is funny and smart

2. What is the most unattractive thing in a guy?I think being too emotional is really un-attractive.

3. What is your favorite quality about yourself ? I think my favorite thing about myself is my sense of humor. I think I’m very funny.

4. . Describe yourself in 3 words. Funny. Smart. Athletic

5. If a person is _______________ I will not date them. If a person is cocky I won’t date them. I think that is extremely unattractive.

6. Would you rather stay in or go out with your partner? I would rather stay in and watch a movie because I feel a little more comfortable.

Compiled by Taylor Higgison

Club Spotlight: Environmental ClubA blast from the past that may interest some Lancers around the building is the new and

improved environmental Club, co-sponsored by ninth grade biology teachers, Rachel Clau-sen and Peter Bakke.

In previous years there was an ecology Club which was a small, tight-knit group of schol-ars and sponsor driven with lots of passion but not enough manpower to survive.

“The ecology Club with about 10 or so people were very dedicated, but with that many people they only recycled monthly and without recycling weekly all recycled material goes directly to the trash,” Clau-sen said.

As a result Clausen swooped in and took over with the blessing of former sponsor, english teach-er Marguerite Knickmeyer.

“Mrs. Knickmeyer said I was welcome to re-boot the club so we rebranded it, renamed it, and got more people excited and thinking about how we could educate Lee about recycling,” Clausen said.

She admits she has strong desire for letting stu-dents take action in helping the world.

“Between me and Mr. Bakke, my cosponsor, we’re really passionate about giving kids the ex-perience of making a difference in school and in the community and letting them see that the small things they do matter and that they can make a strong impact in bettering the planet,” Clausen said.

For sophomore and Vice-President William Escobar, the Environmental Club is about “raising awareness for the environment, and making a change in the school,” escobar said.

The club will raise the needed awareness to help the planet. For new club member, Lee senior Melanie esteban, the environmental Club is “where kids that are interested in, want to learn about, or even want to help the environment can be,” esteban said.

The club kicked off the year with a whopping 65 students at their interest meeting last week, showing the potential for growth and development in the club.

“Getting people aware will make a big impact in the whole school,” esteban said. At the meeting, students learned about what the club is about and what goes on in the

club. Recycling at Lee doesn’t exist without the help of dedicated students actually doing it. “Every other Wednesday, meetings are run by officers, where either crafting or decorating

with reusable and recycled items will take place,” Clausen said. At each meeting, students can sign up to help with recycling for the following week. each

ReBeCCA ALeMUStaff Writer

Wednesday, students will be going classroom to classroom to collect the recycled materi-als from the recycling bin. With a small time commitment, the club appeals to students with busy schedules.

“There’s a bit of a commitment but a good one to somewhat regularly help recycle after school,” Clausen said.

Compared to other clubs at Lee, the environmental Club is very hands on. “I think this club is quite different from the others because we really focus on com-

munity service and we want to help the whole school and the world change and just the aspect that we’ll be able to do a lot of outside activities makes this club so great,” esteban said.

Many students this year will allow more projects to be done around the school.

“We plan to do projects from making reusable water bottles to recycled notebooks and gardens around the school,” Clausen said.

Clausen believes with passionate and excited students this year, the club with help make the school and environ-ment better.

“Kids should care about joining because its a great opportunity, to get to know the school and other kids,” Clausen said. “We also offer students students great ser-vice hours.”

Many students have difficulty in finding volunteer op-portunities, but will have all their service hour fears put to ease by recycling in the club. Also, if students rack up

50 service hours they get a service seal in their senior year when they graduate. For escobar, it was an easy choice being in the club.

“I decided to join because I love being outdoors and helping our school and environ-ment,” escobar said.

The club has lots of opportunity for students to be outside through gardening around the school. Taking environmental Systems with Clausen helped esteban make her decision to join the club easier.

“I decided to join this club because I really care about the environment and I want to help make a change and also because Ms. Clausen and Mr.Bakke are the best,” esteban said.

Over time she believes the club make a big impact. “Although it might take some time, which is okay, this will truly make a difference,

and at least we have taken the biggest step, which is starting up the environmental Club,” esteban said.

Clausen says that the club has lots of potential to grow throughout the semester. “Hopefully by the end of the year, the club will get a strong system of recycling for the school and share out their knowhow about recycling.”

Simpson and took a side in whether he was not guilty or just had a good lawyer.

Senior Tori Shelton wants to go into the criminal justice field later on her life and en-joys taking the class with Hirsch. “It helps me learn more about criminal justice and it also helps me know how good lawyers have their minds set.“

Although the class itself is very interest-ing, Shelton says that Hirsch is the reason why the class keeps students awake and eager to learn more.

“I love Mr. Hirsch and his teaching style. He is full of enthusiasm and he actually helps us understand everything there is to be a good critical thinker and lawyer,” Shelton said.

Senior Kevin Nguyen, who also is in the class, likes the way that Hirsch keeps students in suspense.

“Mr. Hirsch always keeps us on the edge of our seats. He doesn’t reveal the court de-cision of cases after we come back from B lunch and has all sorts of cool videos and cases lined up,” Nguyen said.

Hirsch, for his part, believes that class has great real-world applications for students who take it.

“If you ever get caught in a sticky situa-tion and you’ve taken Law in Action, you’ll know everything you need to know to get out of trouble. That’s how much you can learn in this class,” Hirsch said.

Law in Action is a class that gives students that want to go into the criminal justice field a great opportunity to be informed about things they need to know. It is also the per-fect class for students that enjoy being on the edge of their seats and love mysterious cases. Although no changes can be made currently to student’s schedules, make sure to keep Law in Action in mind for the upcoming year.

7. What is the first thing you notice about a guy? The first thing I notice about a guy is prob-ably his smile.

8. What would be your dream date?Probably a Lakers game. I think that would be really fun!

SCOTT GILBERT

Class Spotlight: Law In ActionANNIE HAFEEzWeb Editor

SCOTT GILBERT SAVE THE PLANET The Environmental Club encourages students to recycle using the blue and green cans shown above.

12 ENTERTAINMENT October 7, 2014LanceThe

Monthly Book Review: Cinder Musician Of The Month

Madrigals’s Mad MelodiesThey sing for us at football games and give us

extra entertainment during concerts. That’s right, it’s Robert e. Lee High School’s very own Madrigals group.

The Madrigals is a mixed choral group made up of both male and female students who play differ-ent voice parts and are especially talented chorus students.

These boys and girls have to audition for a voice part in the Madrigals every school year making it a very special occasion if they get accepted into the group. This group of sixteen singers has gained major recognition for their performances both in and around Lee High School.

The Madrigals chorus group performs at our home football games and performs at fall, winter, and spring concerts throughout the school year.

Not only that but they also perform in the annual Broadway Desserts shows during the spring. The Madrigals also show generosity by performing for senior citizens at the Sunrise Senior Living center across from Springfield Town Center.

Senior Daisy Bouharb has seen countless perfor-mances by the Madrigals in the past four years and she thinks that they have done a great job performing so far and that they really help get her into the school spirit at football games.

“I think their performances are really good and they do such an amazing job every time, they even make me want to sing along with them,” Bouharb said.

This praise is very well deserved. The Madrigals practice singing in school and some of them even get extra practice outside of school in various different events.

ellie Milewski is an alto singer in the Madrigals group and participates in many different musical activities outside of the Madrigals for extra vocal practice.

“I sing in district chorus for school and I’m in the

music honors society and I also take voice lessons outside of school for even more practice,” Milewski said.

Although the Madrigals participate mainly in various vocal activities many of the Madrigals admit that their pas-sion for music and singing began early in their lives and also includes theatre.

emiley Trowbridge is an alto singer in the Madrigals group and says she has been singing and performing from a very young age.

“ever since I was little, I would sing and perform shows for my parents I would sing and dance so I obviously en-joyed performing from then on,” Trowbridge said.

On top of their main duties, most of the Madrigals par-ticipate in musical theatre as well. Many of the Madrigals plan on acting and singing in the schools musical produc-tion during the springtime.

“I have been in every musical since my freshman year of high school so of course now as a junior I am going to do it again in the spring and I will also do it next year as a senior,” said Milewski.

With talent in abundance the Madrigals really are a spec-tacle to see so when you’re at our next home football game be sure to look out for the Madrigals.

What would you do if you were saved from a deadly fire and was made into a cyborg?

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is about a girl named Linh Cinder. She was a normal human being until she got into a house fire accident and was found nearly dead. Doctors and scientists wanted to keep her alive, so they decided to create her new body out of metal but it appears like she was a normal human being.

Cinder works as a mechanic in New Beijing and is named one of the best mechan-ics there is in their time.

One day, the prince of New Beijing, Kai, visits her shop to fix his android, Nainsi. Cinder agrees, and Kai starts to visit her regularly to see how Nainsi’s doing.

Kai and Cinder start to get along and eventually they become friends. But Cinder hasn’t told him yet that she is a freak made out of metal and she’s afraid to tell him.

She thinks that he will judge her and not want to hang out with her anymore since he is the prince of the city.

Then, Kai’s father dies from blue fever; a fever breaking out in their city. While the whole city is mourning, queen Levana from Luna comes and visits to talk about a marriage alliance.

Everyone is afraid of queen Levana. She’s a lunar, which means she is from the moon and has powers no one born on earth can have. She thinks that the world should be under her power. No one in New

Beijing or even earth wants her as their ruler.When Cinder finally fixes Nainsi with the help of

her own android, Iko, Nainsi suddenly starts talk-ing about Princess Selene who is the niece of queen Levana and the lost princess that everyone believes is still alive.

Cinder figures out that Kai thinks that Princess Selene can outrun queen Levana and save Earth from her bad plans.

Before Cinder can question Kai, her sister, Peony, dies suddenly and Cinder is in for the shock. What is the shock? Will Kai agree to the marriage alliance? Will Cinder ever tell Kai she’s a cyborg? Read the book to find out.

I loved this book because it is page turner. The chapters switch from Cinder’s point of view to Kai’s point of view which I think is clever because you will know what’s hap-pening on both sides of the story and not just one side.

I feel like Cinder has a lot in common with girls these days like insecu-rity and anxiety. But the book shows how she gets through them and it can get real girls through them too.

There’s tragedy, when Kai loses his father and Cinder loses her sister; love

between Kai and Cinder; drama between queen Levana and Kai and more.

There’s action and adventure and everyone seems to be losing their minds. This books shows how a girl who thinks she’s a freak and not good enough can change the world. Read this book and you will get sucked into the crazy world of Cinder and Kai.

Raina Payne, a senior at Lee High School plays trumpet for the marching band. She was born right here in Springfield Virginia and grew up with music all around her. She enjoys playing music very much, as it is a huge part of her life. She’s played for eight years and is the conductor in the marching band. She takes Advanced Band and IB Music HL 2 and plans to pursue music all her life.

What instrument do you play and why did you choose it? RP: I play the trumpet. My dad actually told me to, he played in his band in middle and high school and dropped freshman year and I thought the trumpet was a cool instrument to try.

How long have you played this instrument? What kept you playing it? RP: I’ve been playing for eight years, since I was in fifth grade. My love for music and being able to create that kind of music with my instrument pushed me through the years.

Describe the difficulty in learning the instrument? RP: It’s not as difficult as instruments like the clarinet or the flute because there’s no buttons. You use more of the muscles in your face for toning to make a buzz and create vibrations to make the sound.

What inspires you to play music? RP: What inspires me is knowing that I can make something different, that I can take it and interpret it to make it original and more emotional.

What was your memorable moment with music? “RP: When I was freshman, I was still in freshman shock of be-ing in high school and I had a Rudolph solo in tiny tots and so I started to play the first note and played a wrong and it was my first time so it was an experience.

As a child were you interested in music? Why do you think that is? RP: I grew up with music around me, I would wake up to my dad playing Bob Marley or Jimmy Buffett. Music had always been around me and I didn’t really have to think about how much I like music I thought it was assumed how that people liked music as much as I did.

What artists/musicians do you look up to? Why? RP: I look up to a lot of Broadway singers like Sierra Boggess because of her vocals, and the way she can take music and make is so filled with emotion is just beautiful. Most of the people I look up to are composers like Andrew Lloyd Webber, who is a big inspiration for me.

What would you say to people who are interested in playing your instrument but weary to try it? RP: Try it and see if you like it. With trumpet you just have to be willing to try it unlike other instruments and if it doesn’t work I would suggest them to try another instrument that suits them better.

Do you wish to pursue this instrument in college and your future? Why? RP: I wish to, however I would like to be a band teacher. My teachers inspired me to always go for it and get it done. I want to be that inspiration for someone else or even help someone with their instrument and improve themselves.

IF THE SHOE FITS Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a science fiction/dys-topian novel that’s loosely based off of the classic Cinderella fairy tale.

LETSrEADITTOGETHEr.BLOGSPOT.COM

MOVED BY MUSIC raina Payne believes that music is an important part of her life and wishes to pursue music as a career.

SING YOUR HEART OUT The Madigrals all come together to practice their latest tunes in Mrs. Johnson’s chorus room.

LIzzY RAMOSStaff Writer

ReBeCCA ALeMU

Staff Writer JeSSICA De MeSA Staff Writer

SCOTT GILBERT

SCOTT GILBERT

ENTERTAINMENT 13October 7, 2014 LanceThe

Fall In Love With Fall Fashion

Most Popular Video Games At Lee High School

With the cold front breezing in, fashion is changing just like the season. Grab your warm sweaters and put on your boots because autumn is here. While new fashion statements take their place, some clothes are timeless. Three students know what’s fashionable here at Lee.

Some students at Lee seem to have someone they look up to for inspiration, wheth-er for how to dress or how to act. Senior Saizer “Shabbaz” Abdulwasi is inspired by Will Smith’s character “The Fresh Prince” because he has a very creative sense of style. “I look up to Will Smith. I think he has a very different style and I respect that,” Abdulwasi said.

Naomi Soquar, a sopho-more, gets her fashion ideas from Youtubers. “I get my in-spiration from watching Jenn Im ‘clothesencounters’ and Meghan from ‘MissMeghan-Makeup.’ They inspire me because they are versatile and original,” Soquar said.

Another sophomore, eizel Tran, looks up to a celebrity who gives her confidence to dress herself the way she wants. “I look up to Nicole Richie, she inspires me to wear whatever I feel comfort-able in.” Tran said.

Most people have that one person which whom they look up to.

There is great diversity in the way that people dress around Lee. Some feel like bumming while others dress their best for school because that’s what they feel most comfortable in.

The most important thing is to wear whatever you feel great in and not care what others think because you’re the one wearing it.

Abdulwasi believes that his style is rare and out of the ordinary when compared to others. “I like to stand out. I describe myself as unique and a different sense of style,” Abdulwasi said.

Soquar also loves to get unique with her choice of clothing. “I try and attempt to be original and dress myself. I like to be creative,” Soquar said.

Tran describes herself as being more relaxed and wearing some fashion statements that are trending but won’t wear anything she doesn’t feel right in.

“I’m very laid back. I wear pieces that are in but I have to feel comfortable in it,” Tran said. Abdulwasi feels that you shouldn’t have to go out of the way to be formal

because who are you trying to look good for? It’s just school. “You don’t have to dress up because you have no one to impress and the clothes you wear

don’t make you more superior than others,” Abdulwasi said. Soquar has a different point of view on this topic.

She thinks it’s a good thing to dress up for school and be presentable. “It is important to dress your best for school in order to look professional, however you should dress for suc-

cess,” Soquar said. Tran believes your mood should

dictate what you wear each day. “People should dress up when they’re in the mood, but dress down when they’re depressed. everyone should feel comfortable,” Tran said.

Sometimes the way people dress describes who they are or it may not. If someone wears, say, Sperry’s, may-be they are a casual person but some-one who wears Vans may not like to skateboard, they just like the look of the shoe.

Abdulwasi believes shoes can show and bring out a person’s personality.

“Shoes can determine a lot about someone’s character and who they are in what they wear,” Abdulwasi said.

Soquar agrees that how one dress-es can bring out their inner self. “How you dress is your core of creativity. Your sense of style is matched by your interest,” Soquar said.

Tran believes that dressing in your clothes doesn’t just reflect personality but also how you’re feeling.

“Sometimes, to me, people dress based on their mood but obviously having a hint of their personality,” Tran said.

So the big question is, what is new this fall for Fall 2014? Abdulwasi sees that guys are starting to dress warm getting ready for the colder season. “All guys are trying to wear joggers and a lot of old school sneakers. ev-eryone is trying to get back in that winter season,” Abdulwasi said.

Soquar sees old trends coming back for this fall. “Definitely joggers, 80’s trends like retro bright colored jackets, and tons of leather has been in,” Soquar said. Tran also sees some new trends coming in that seem to be popular. “Joggers and ankle boots. I

like it, very swag,” Tran said. This fall, students are taking advan-

tage of layering up for the cold weather by expressing themselves with boots, sweaters, and joggers. Look out for these new trends throughout this autumn.

SCOTT GILBERT

SCOTT GILBERT

BLACK IS BACK naomi Soquar brings trendy back to Lee High School as she wears her edgy black boots.

CUTE, CHIC, AND CLASSIC Teresa Hodges gives a classic fall look as she wears an oversized caradigan, denim jeans, and black combat boots.

BACK TO BLACK naomi Soquar flashes a friendly smile for the camera wearing her latest fall clothes.

SCOTT GILBERTFRESH PRINCE OF LEE HIGH Saizer Abdulwasi shows off his stylish new clothes with a smile.

SCOTT GILBERT

MeGAN LUANGPINITHStaff Writer

ADRIAN qUIROzStaff Writer

FUTBALL BY FIFA FIFA 14 is a very popular game that was released in late September 2013 by EA Canada.

A lot of the students at Lee, mainly the guys, like play-ing video games. The most popular video games at Lee High School are Grand Theft Auto 5, Madden NFL 15, and FIFA 14.

Grand Theft Auto 5, made by Rockstar North, is an action video game. The setting of the game is in Southern California, and allows you to do whatever you want when-ever you want. The story mode consists of three main characters: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. You are allowed to switch into their world whenever you’d like in order to select what missions you’re interested in doing.

Similar to the story mode is the multiplayer. The mul-tiplayer mode allows you to engage in difficult missions with about 30 of your friends. It also allows you to ex-plore the San Andreas world with your friends giving you the opportunity to do whatever you want. “I like doing illegal stuff in the game, I can do whatever I want with my friends,” said senior Nate Ayele.

FIFA 14 is a soccer game made by eA Sports in Can-ada. The game is well known for its multiplayer gameplay. The multiplayer, known as FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) al-lows you to create your own teams with real soccer players which you can then use to play against other teams online. In order to improve your team you need to earn coins

so that you can purchase players on the transfer market. You’re given certain amount of coins depending on whether you’ve won, lost, or tied. You can also purchase coins by buying them with actual money off of certain websites.

FIFA 14 also offers a career mode thats similar to FUT but does not allow you to play with the entire team, you are limited to a single player the entire match. Career mode also allows you to choose what team you'd like to manage, and recruit play-ers. even though FIFA 14 is a soccer game, it has an amazing soundtrack that the players enjoy. “I like playing ultimate team with my friends,” said junior Jimmy Canales.Madden NFL 15 is an eA Sports football game. Madden offers the usual 1v1 quick match which basically lets you choose what team you’d like to play against your friend’s team.

There’s also multiplayer where you pick a team to play with against someone online. “I like playing the multiplayer against my friends” said sophomore Hebron Yohannes .

Madden also offers franchise mode in the game. Franchise mode allows players to play seasons, have draft picks, and trade players. When in franchise mode you’re technically a manager because you get to sign contracts, hire and fire coaches, and get agents. even though you’re a football manager you get to play with the team, call formations, and decide which players start.

All three of these games offer online multiplayer which is exciting to play with your friends, so check them out and see why everyone is playing.

MODDInGwAY.COM

14 SPORTS October 7, 2014LanceThe

Students this year will not only come to support your Lancers but will be able to experience all of the new im-provements that have been made in the gym. There have been several renovations including new bleachers, new lights, electronic basketball hoops, and, most importantly, a new scoreboard.

The scoreboard that is currently at Lee is one of the oldest scoreboards in all of Fairfax County. The board Lee currently has, runs on light bulbs and is hardwired to the scorer’s table.

The new scoreboard that is being put in is a huge up-grade compared to what we have now. The scoreboard will be wireless and will have a light up display that reads off the players names as well as their numbers.

Lori Barb, Lee’s director of student activities, is looking forward to getting a new scoreboard to benefit our athletes.

“I think the students are going to be really excited about it because it’ll be completely renovated. The bleachers now go all the way across which gives us more seating for the student body and it’s breathing a new life into our facility just like the turf did,” Barb said.

The new improvements will make a big difference for the look of our gym. Almost all the other schools’ gyms in the county have been better looking than Lee’s for years. A lot of the students are looking forward to seeing these changes being made in Lee.

Senior Irving Kelley is one of the students looking forward to the renovations in the gym.

“I’m really excited about the new changes. I always go to other schools and really admire their gyms. I can’t wait to be able to play in our brand new main gym,” said Kelley.

These new attractions in the gym will also hopefully at-

tract more students to attend sporting events at home and will be very beneficial to the look of our school.

Barb plans on putting in a new nicer scoreboard on the turf field as well once the current one dies. She thinks that we deserve what all the other school in the county have.

“I think we should have all the new and nicer gadgets for our school. Lee is a great school and we deserve the best equipment for our athletes. We can have the same scoreboards as all the other schools do, we have been sav-ing up so we can eventually afford them for our school. Basically we deserve just as much as everyone else and I think the student body will really like all the new things that were getting,” Barb said.

Several other students in the school are also looking forward to playing in the new renovated gym.

Senior AJ Randall really likes the new seating and is anxiously awaiting the rest of the improvements.

“I really like the new bleachers they are really clean and the color is a lot better. I also am looking forward to the new scoreboard because the old one was really outdated,” said Randall

These new renovations at Lee will change the whole outlook of our school. It’s time that Lee finally measures up to all the other schools when it comes to facilities and Barb and her team are making sure that we do.

SCOTT GILBERT

ALL BRAND NEW Ms. Barb and her team have worked hard to install the new bleachers and wireless scoreboard inside our gym. Up next on their agenda is the replacing the old scoreboard out on our turf field.

New Year, New Lee: Lancers Sports Going Through Major Improvements To The Gym And Scoreboard

Lancers Field Hockey On The RiseTAYLOR HIGGISON

Editor-in-Chief

ANNIe MeDDING

Features Editor

and this year we were competing in overtime,” Reyes said. Following the Bruins, the Lancers played the Woodson

Cavaliers at home. This game, similar to Lake Braddock, was a 2-1 defeat after the Lancers lost in double overtime. The goal from sophomore Viki Baez kept the Lancers in the game until the second period of overtime where the Cava-liers scored in the final remaining minutes.

On October 2, the Lancers played at Annandale High School. The exciting back and forth game resulted in a 4-3 win for the Atoms in overtime. This game was not a victory for the Lancers, but the players still were proud of their performance and planned to continue to move forward and prepare for conferences.

Although the Lancers have been unlucky in their out-comes of games, the improvements from last year are what keep the team moving forward. Last year the varsity field hockey team was mercy ruled by Lake Braddock, West springfield and Woodson. Being able to compete with all

The Lee field hockey team got off to a hot start in the 2014 season when they competed in the Under the Lights tournament held here at Lee. The Lancers mercied ruled both Wakefield and Hylton and beat Woodbridge 5-1, ad-vancing the Lancers to the championship where they lost 1-0 to Stone Bridge.

As the tournament came to an end, the Lancers hoped to continue their success into the regular season. They kicked off their season at home against the Hayfield Hawks. Af-ter an exciting match, the Lancers defeated the Hawks 4-0. Senior Michelle Heinitz, and juniors Lexi Hewitt-Park and Makeda Haile scored for the Lancers, and senior goalie Grace Okonoboh led the Lancers with a shutout.

As the season continued, the Lancers played at Thomas Jefferson High School where they fell in a close game 1-0. Although the Lancers did not defeat the Colonials, the team continued to work hard for the future games coming up.

“TJ was good competition and now we know what we have to expect for playoffs. Now we just need to work hard and keep moving forward,” sophomore Hannah Bynum said.

As the season continued, the Lancers prepared for the West Springfield Spartans. This close match resulted in a 1-0 win for the Spartans leaving the Lancers with a 4-3 re-cord. Although this match was not a victory for the Lancers, players were still happy with their performance throughout the game.

“I think we played our hardest and I’m really proud of the improvements we’ve made since last year. The past years I’ve been here the West Springfield game, like many others, hasn’t even been a competition, but now this year we are giving 6A schools a good game,” Heinitz said.

Following the Spartans, the Lancers played the Lake Braddock Bruins at home. At halftime, the Lancers were up 1-0 before the bruins tied the game 1-1 after a penalty stroke in the circle. As the game ended with a score of 1-1, the Lancers went into a sudden death 7v7 overtime where the Bruins scored first, defeating the Lancers 2-1.

The Lancers did not come out with the win, but senior Alexis Reyes believes that the Lake Braddock game specifi-cally shows how much the team has grown.

“I think this game shows how much we have improved from last year. Last year we got mercy ruled by Braddock,

of the big schools have left many coaches concerned about playing Lee.

“Other coaches and members of the community have recognized all the hard work the team has put in. They have made comments about our skill level, passing ability and overall improvement,” varsity head coach Lindsey Conrad said.

Conrad hopes to keep moving the team forward and help all of them realize their potential.

“I think it is important for the team to realize that people recognize Lee as a serious contender. We are not a pushover and any team we play is going to get a competitive game,” Conrad said.

The Lancers plan to keep working hard so they can start to get the results they want for the rest of the season and playoffs. The next game for the Lancers will be on October 7 at home so make sure you come out and support your Lady Lancers!

ALAn BYnUMALAn BYnUM

TEAM LEADERS Senior Michelle Heinitz (left), a forward for the Lady Lancers, leads the improved offense, while senior Grace Oko-noboh (right) is the leader of the defense, acting as a wall in the goal.

SPORTS 15Ocotber 7, 2014 LanceThe

Student Athlete Of The Month: Cammy OtersonCameron “Cammy” Otersen is currently a junior who plays sports year-round.

She is involved in field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer. She was born in Springfield, and has loved playing sports ever since she can remember. When Cammy is not on the field playing field hockey, lacrosse, or soccer, or on the court playing basketball, you can find her training hard in the off-season working to be a better athlete.

What started your passion and love for sports? “I come from a family full of athletes, and my mother encouraged me to begin

playing at the age of eight. ever since, my life has been all about sports.”What sports are you involved in? Why? “I play field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer for the school because I feel

that playing sports has plenty of benefits.” What benefits do playing sports have? “ I am able to make plenty of friends, it teaches me teamwork, and leadership, it

helps me stay in shape allowing me to eat all the McChickens I want.”Out of all the sports you are involved in, which do you have the biggest

passion for? Why? “Definitely basketball because I feel that it has the best team and family environ-

ment, and I value Coach Lee’s hard work and commitment to the team.”How are you able to balance your school work with sports? “My goal is to do homework whenever I have free time so that I will not end up

procrastinating in the middle of the night.”Do you plan on playing sports in college? Why? Where?

Out of all the sports at Lee, cross country is one of the only ones that doesn’t require a ball or any other type of equipment. This unique sport involves simply running.

This year, there are 23 boys and 17 girls on the team, bringing the total to 40.

Students join cross country for different reasons. Some hope to build new friendships and others want to get exercise, or specifically like to run.

“I joined cross country because I wanted to make new friends and I kind of enjoy run-ning,” sophomore Viola zhao said.

Junior Afreen Khoja says, “I wanted to get good cardio health.”

“I wanted to challenge myself,” sopho-more Roya Sabri said.

Cross country started in early August when the team began attending 8 a.m. practices ev-ery week day through the end of the summer. After-school practices began the first day of school from 3 p.m. to approximately 4:30 p.m. The season ends in late October. The district and higher level competitions will continue through November.

Practices typically began with a warm up of a mile or a half mile and stretching. Then, runners complete their workout for the day. Workouts range range from long distance runs, hill repeats, or a rotation of exercises such as push ups and curl ups. Practice usually closes with stretching. The intensity level of practice varies according to the meet sched-

Lancers Cross Country Preparing For Season With Positive Outlook

ule. Practices take place on the school track, the school back field, at Franconia Park, or in the neighborhood surrounding Lee.

In addition to increasing each runner’s endurance and speed, cross country members also learn running various techniques such as proper form and tips

“Playing sports is my biggest interest and passion. I would love to play basketball, but field hockey as my back-up in college. I want to play D1 at either Maryland or UConn.”

Who is your athletic role model? “Coach Lee. I admire her coaching abilities and her values in not only basketball, but also

in life. Her coaching style pushes me to be the best person I can be. Not only is she a great role model on the basketball court, but also in our everyday lives.”

A KEY COMPONENT Junior Cammy Oterson is a huge key to success for the Lady Lancers field hockey team, as she has contributed a lot to their improvement so far.

COUrTESY OF CAMMY OTErSOn

No Summer Camp For The Lancer CheerleadersThe annual tradition for the varsity cheerleaders to go to Pine Forest, Pennsylvania

for team camp over the summer was broken this year due to miscommunication be-tween the coaches and the bus company.

each year the squad members look forward to learning new skills and bonding with each other over the period of time spent at camp. Receiving news that they wouldn’t be going only 12 hours before their departure disappointed many of them. The athletes were unsure as to why they weren’t going, if they would get the money back, and if any other “camp-like” experiences would be offered during the season.

The main issue was the miscommunication between the coaches and the chosen bus company. Head coach Courtney edmonds did not know that Fairfax County cre-ated an approved bus list for when sports or classes wished to use a charter bus to go on a field trip. Due to this oversight, she tried to find a company that met all of the team’s needs including the budget and amount of seats needed.

As there are only 22 cheerleaders on the team, edmonds found the bus with the lowest capacity of 29 seats. Unfortunately, she didn’t know that to use a charter bus, the bus needed at least 47 seats. After long hours of discussion with the bus company, the only bus available with the amount of seats needed was unavailable. Left in an impossible situation, the coaches along with school authorities made the executive decision to cancel the trip.

Lee’s Direct of Student Activities Lori Barb stated that no one could have done

much, as the bus company just couldn’t offer what the school needed.“The bus company had a large bus, but it was broken down. They assigned us a

smaller bus, but it does not pass the county’s regulations. If the company had been approved and had a large bus available, they would have been fine going. It was noth-ing more than that,” said Barb.

The seniors on the team felt especially upset, because it was their last lear to spend time with the new team. Lancer varsity captains Jessica Hindle and Devin Harding both felt sad about not going, because they wanted to experience it once more.

“It’s upsetting because I was looking forward to doing the senior dance and being recognized as a senior and I really wanted to try out for All-American cheer, but it’s ok,” Hindle said.

“Of course it was upsetting since it was our senior year, but not going to camp allowed us to do a lot of stuff in the school and close to home so I just had mixed feelings,” said Harding.

The total cost for the cheerleaders to go to camp was $362, but due to the lack of fundraising and the last minute cancellation, the team was only refunded $262. Part of the starting cost was to pay for the choreographer, who came from the University of Mississippi. Since they didn’t go to camp, $100 out of $362 was used to pay for the choreographer and the left over $262 was given back to the team.

Hopefully the situation will resolve soon and the cheerleaders will be back in Penn-sylvania next season.

SCOTT GILBERT

IT’S ALL MENTAL The Lancer Cross Country team starts off their practice by taking on difficult workouts to prepare for their upcoming races.

NATALIe KeeNANStaff Writer

LAURA eDWARDS Staff Writer

LYKA ANTe Staff Writer

on running up hills. Runners strive to improve their race times throughout the season.

“[My goal for cross country] is to be the best I can be,” Sabri said.

Sophomore Sarah Runner says, “[I want] to get better at running.”

While the physical part of cross country is im-portant, having a positive outlook can have a signifi-cant impact.

“It’s all mental mindset and you need to tell yourself that you can do it and if you do, you can,” Khoja said.

When members of the team are not running in a race, they cheer on those who are.

“I like that everyone is so encouraging to each other and even though it’s an individual sport, we all work as a team,” Khoja said.

“I like how we are kind of like a family,” zhao added.

every cross country race is three or three point one miles long. The course is on a wooded trail, rather than on a track. The terrain is often made up of grass, rocks, hills, and sometimes creeks.

“I feel accomplished when I finish the race,” Runner said.

Frequent race locations are Burke Lake Park and Franconia Park.

Several cross country team members continue running when cross country ends through Winter and Spring Track.

After approximately three months of training, cross country leaves runners with new friends, the ability to run a three mile race, and an appreciation for running.

SCOTT GILBERT

16 SPORTS October 7, 2014

Lancer Hypesquad: We BeLEEieve

“We try our best to attend all games, but Friday nights are the easiest for people to attend,” said Carlisle.

Sophomore Madison Lear hopes to get more people to attend other sporting events, such as lacrosse.

“Seeing people in the stands gives me a reason to play better,” said Lear. When people are in the stands cheering the athletes on, it helps motivate and encourage the players. Although it is difficult to attend other sporting events on school nights, it is nice to know that the school also sup-ports the other athletes at Lee

LANCER HYPE Lee students participate in a “gold rush” to support their varsity football team by banging trashcans, waving flags and yelling chants to show their school spirit and encourage the football team in their game against South County.

Student sections define who the students are at their school, especially Lee. In order to have a strong student sec-tions, Ante suggests that there should be a big crowd.

“We need students who are able to provide plenty of energy, and support for the teams,” said Ante.

Attending sports events, and being part of the student section at Lee will bring memories that could last a lifetime. The students are able to come together and become a school community. It is a great time to cheer for the teams playing, hang out with friends, and to have pride being a Lee Lancer.

Despite Disappointing Start, Lancers Continue To Hope For Bright Future

It is a new year and a new season for the Lancer football team and they are hungry for success. Their season has not started off the way they have wanted it to start, but in each game, they have shown a fighting spirit and played every snap until the final whistle.

The Lancers started their season off against the Robin-son Rams before the school year started. That game was a disappointing one for the Lancers as they fell to the Rams by a score of 31-6, with the lone touchdown scored by senior Jonathan Walters.

The next game started off a lot better for the Lancers as they faced off against Chantilly. This game started off close, as the first quarter ended with the Lancers and Chargers tied at 7-7, but the second quarter was when it slipped away from the Lancers. The Chargers took a 24-7 lead to end the half. The Lancers came back to score, though, making it 24-15, but in the end, the Lancers fell again, with the final score being 38-15.

Next was the Battle of Franconia. The Lancers traveled down the road to edison High School and this game was an absolute nail biter. It was low scoring throughout and in the final minutes, down 13-17, the Lancers stormed down the field to cap off a perfect drive. Sophomore Walker Venable threw a game winning touchdown to senior Rav Bhinder in the back of the endzone to take a 20-17 lead. The defense then made a great stand and forced a turnover on downs to win the game.

Sophomore Walker Venable says that the Edison game was the best moment of the season so far.

“My most memorable moment of the season was the edison game when I threw the game winning touchdown to Rav,” Venable said.

After a great win, the Lancers took on their long time ri-vals, the West Springfield Spartans. This game was extreme-ly disappointing for the Lancers as they could never really

get anything going. The game ended with the final score of 34-13, with the Spartans taking the win.

Following that disappointing loss, the Lancers faced the South County Stallions on their home field. The game was close all throughout the first quarter. The Stallions drew first blood as they scored towards the end of the first and by the end of the half, the score was 21-6 Stallions. The Stallions then held the Lancers scorless for the rest of the second half and ended up winning 55-6.

Despite a rough start, junior JJ Cho believes that the Lancers can turn it around.

“Obviously, according to our record, we haven’t been do-ing very well, but as long as we continue to work hard and

IN THE TRENCHES Senior Jhony Islam and the O-line prepare for a long night in a tough battle against the Spartans’ defense.

LYKA ANTe

Staff Writer

SCOTT GILBERT

LanceThe

“I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!” This is a chant often performed by the student section here at Lee High School.

The student section, also known as “The Hype Squad”, helps support the athletic teams, especially the football team.

Senior Christian Ante feels that the excitement in the stands cannot compare to the schools in our area.

“I believe that we have one of the best student sections in the county,” said Ante. “Win or lose, the students come to support the athletes.”

There are various cheers that are chanted to help get the players, and spectators pumped for the game.

elizabeth Carlisle, a senior, tries her best to get people to come out to all the games and support our athletes .

“Going to the football games are really exciting because everyone is committed to doing the chants and cheers, and when more people come to games, we are able to bond as a school family,” said Carlisle.

The student section allows the athletes to know that the students support our teams. Many times, Lee is the under-dog when it comes to athletics. Having a hype squad in the stands shows that the students care about our school. Not only are there a lot of students in the student section during home games, but for away games as well.

Many students attended the past away games at West Springfield and Edison. Because of the noise and loud sup-port they were giving to the football team, the football team was able to finish with a victory during the Edison game.

Lee junior and varsity football player Matt Merid, enjoys having students come and cheer him and his team on.

“Knowing they are watching makes me want to play bet-ter and give them a W,” said Merid.

Although the student section supports all the sports, the football team gets the most participation. Many athletes who are not on the football team would like to see more people in their stands during their games but Carlisle feels that going to the football games are more convenient.

believe in ourselves we are going to get far. I believe we have a good team,” Cho said.

With only five games left in the season, seniorJhony Is-lam reflected on what playing football has meant to him.

“What I will miss most about playing football is being able to compete with my team whom I consider my fam-ily. I’ll really miss it once it is gone because I know that I won’t be able to play it again with this team. The hype of the games and playing with my team is the greatest feeling in the world and I wouldn’t trade that for anything,” Islam said.

A disappointing start for the Lancers has not brought down the spirits of the team. They still believe that it is their year to shine and, with five games left, they can still prove it.

KEVIN NGOSports Editor