volume 32 number 5

8/6/2019 Volume 32 Number 5

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7ak a e o o & at. ..Page 3Hanging withM r. Hooper.

17,2003

Board approves new academic policiesChristine NelsonAssistant editor

Three new academic polici " were approved bythe school board Dec. 16 . The new final exam exemp-tion and semester averaging policies will go into ef-feet ror thi seme te r and a policy creating newcour e will begin in the fall.

Principal Mike Cargill made the proposals to theboard.

"The board was very supportive," Cargill said."They were really interested in the welfare of thestudents."

The final exam exemption policy changed so thatf reshmen and sophomore will each have two ex-emption in the spring eme ter in tead of one. Jun-ior wi ll n w have two exempt ions in the fal l semes-ter and three in the spring ernester. Seniors wi ll beable to exempt two exams in the fall erne ter and allseven final in the spring semester .

Students must meet certain cri teria to exemptexams.

The number of absences a student may have toqualify for exemption has changed f rom one ab-ence to two for students wi th an average of 80-90;tudcnt with an average of 90-1 00 may have up (0three absences instead of two. TAA score and thenumber of tardies a student has. which were formerlyused to determine if a student was able to exempttheir final exams, will no longer be a dctermi ning fac-tor for final exemptions."I'm hoping thb new exemption pol icy wi 1 1 en-courage students to make etter grade and haveIe s absences," Cargill said.

The board al 0 pa sed a erne ter averagingpolicy U13\ al lows a tudent who fai l. the fir t ernes-

ter of a two-semester course to receive credit forboth semesters. The semester ave rag i ng wiUbe usedto determine if a student will receive credit for thefir t semester in which they failed. Semester aver-aging wil l only be used when the student fai ls thefirst serne rer,passes the second erne ter , and theaverage of the two grades is a 70 or above.

"Seme ter averaging offer tudent a secondchance," said Cargill. "It's up to the tudent to workharder during the sec-ond semester to beable to receive a highenough average topass both ernesters."

Cargill alsopushed for everal newcourse to b added tothe choo l For the up-coming year. The newcourse include Lat in IlPre-AP, Spanish IIIPre-AP for Native Speak-ers. Technology Appli-cation rndependentStudy, Web-Ma tery ,H n r U.S. Hi toryand Honor English III. The tw Honor cia ewere de igned to provide a median between .S.Hi tory AP and regular U.S. History an d English Inregular and AP. Students who take the Honorscourses will receive Pre-AP cred it, which is gradedon a 5.0 scale instead of 6.0 for AP and 4.0 for regu-lar.

"These new pol icies put anempha ion learn-ing." aid Cargill , "It was the right thing to do forthe tudents."

"These newpolicies put anemphasis onlearning. It wasthe right thingto do for thestudents."PrincipalMike Cargill

Grade Fall Semester Spring Semester

9th o exemptions 2 exemptions10th o exemptions 2 exemptions11th 2 exemptions 3 exemptions

12th 2 exemptions 7 exemptions

INSIDENewsFeaturesOpinionsSportsIn-DepthEntertainment

Page 2Pages 3Pages 4-5Pages 6Page 7Pages 8

L31,NO.5Blood Drive

Kenton Harris donates blood for the National Honor Society blooddrive on Feb. 5. The Red Cross collec ted almost 250 units ofblood fromthe annual event sponsored byNHS. photo.by ChancesJones

Teen mothers write for successElisa ValadezStaff writer

The Options Program for teenparents at Bryan High is submit-ting essays for possible publica-tion in You DOI1'/ Look OldEnough to be a Mother: TeenMoms onLove. Learning and Suc-cess.

Thi anthology was the ideaof Deborah Davis, author of twonovels for young people.Parent Education teacherAngela McCorkle assigned herstudents, who are teen mothers ,an cs ay to write about a ignifi-cant moment a teen mothers .

The teen moms had a week inclass time to write their essay.Davi , the edi tor of the book, hadprevious experience. wi th teen

mothers in a weekly writing clas .McCorkle described the as-signment as a wonderful experi -ence.

"This is the first assignmenttudent came back with threedrafts to read." McCorkle said.

The tudents were enthusias-tic about the assignment

"The teen book is a go didea:' said teen mother MandyKarn. "It would be a good way torelate toother teen moms ..,Davis wil l go through manyessays and then choose the sto-rie that wil l be included in the an-thology.

The purpose of the anthol-ogy i. toencourage teen mom. tocontinue their education and toshow them that success is pos-ible.

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NEWS 2Seniors w in Powder Puff gam eDesiree KelsoStaff writer

Ooce again the senior girlsdefeated thejuniors ina rival flagfootball game, Powder Puff2003.enior took a 3-1 victory at SFAstadium Jan, 23, one of the cold-est ni j1 ts of the winter season.Practices began before the

Christmas break, with the play-ers working hard in preparationfor the big game.

"We had a lot ofpractice andwork to do, but I believed wewould do well ," said senior de-fen ive end Adrienne Jewell."The team wa definitely pre-pared."Tempers flared during the

come t, with orne player be-ing ejected for unsportsmanlikeconduct.Junior Kristyle Crawford andsenior Allie Grossman were

ejected f rom the game, alongwith Audrey Dowling andLauren Garrett.Junior Amanda Walker ran 60

yard. for the the first touchdownof the game within the fir t twominutes. Walker boosted themorale of the junior team.

enior Shay Newman scoredtwo touchdowns, whileGro sman scored the third forthe seniors.The game proved to be en-

joyable for the players and thefans.

Signing Day Final p erformance of Pinocchio tonight

"It' rough and lots of fun,"physics teacher and Powder Puffponsor Cindy Wilson said.Some students were sad toee the final seconds tick off the

clock as their play Limecame toan end and they knew theywould have towail until next yearto have an opportunity to takethe win.

"I th ink i twa fun," a idjun-ior and defensive line playeratalie Chavez. "I would like to

have more games, such as play-iog against Con 01 . There is a l-ways next year."The Powder Puff game endedwith the seniors taking a victoryand having the pride of accom-plishing a goal.

Sheilah BehrensEditor

c


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FEATURES 3Hangin' with Mr. ooperTea cher hold s world , p ro fe ss io na l w eig htliftin g title sJon VickAssi . \ / (1I71 editor

of 165 lbs, he squatted 773 Ibs. He alsos et a record by benching S O D lbs,

With these competitions comesmany exciting and interc ting opportuni-ties.

"Meeting Arnold Schwarzencggcrlast year at the World Professional Orga-nizat ion Finals was probably one of themost in terest ing things that has hap-pened L O me," I l o op e r said.

A teacher competing i n t he se eventsmay. cern strange. but apparently manycoaches 3. well as teachers are involvedin weight lifting competition.

These competitions take place allover the world and sometimes call forparticipants to stay extended period.

"My biggest conflict i f inding l imetocompete, becau e myjob comes first:'Hooper aid.

Hooper's next big competition istheU.S. Men' Nationa l Championship inRapid City, S.D. inJuly.

Many students probably know al -gebra teacher, Wade Hooper, but whatmight come as a surprise isthat this mathin tructor regularly competes in Men 'sWorld Power . ting Championships.

Hoopcr usually competes in theseevents two or three limes a year. bothnationally and intemationally.

Regular workouts are routine forHooper.

"I work out four times a week, 2- 3hours each lime." Hooper said.At the competitions. Hooper partici-pates in both bench and squat li ft ing.

Hooper has done extremely well withtwo world lil ies, two professional lil ies.and a few world records under h i bell .

He set the records in squat and inbench. With a body wei gh r of 1 48 l bs . hesquatted 672 lbs., and with a body weight

Wade Hooper squats 7331bs. a lthe U.S. Men's National Championship in Omaha,Neb. in July 2002. He wi ll compete again at the U.S. Men's Nat ional Championshipon July 18-20 in Rapid C ity, S.D.

Senioritis needs a cure Nintendo to release new Gameboyp cket-size edition with a f Id-able flip-top screen that enablesan even more compact size.

Itwill contain an integratedself-contained LCD screen light,which will allow tbeplayer moreviewing easethan previoussystem which hadno built-in light.This is sure tplease all tho e whbroke their systemstrying to instal Ian After-burner backl ight.

Also featured will be

new built-in rechargeableLithium T n b at te ry t ha i enableapproximately 10 hours of con-tinuous game play with the lighton and 18 hours without . Therechargeable batteries will takethree hours to recharge.

The Gameboy Ad-vance SP'. dimensionsare 82mm W x 8 4.6 H x24.3 D and it weighapproximately]43grams (1/3 of apound). The dis-pJay size is 40.8

mmx61.2mm.

heilah BehrensEditororena RangelStaff writer

the curriculum from pre-kinder-garten.

Th e plans about this prob-lem include encouraging stu-dents to take advanced place-ment and "dual-credit" coursesand t a ki n g i n re rn s hi p s duringhigh school tobe better preparedfor college a nd th e work force.

Although the tougher planisavailable now, not a ll d is triersrequire students totake it. Evenunder the state law passed dur-ing the last session parentscould even opt 10 have thei r childremoved from the more rigorousplan. Although students whograduate under the more rigor-(lU, plan meet the requirementfor a TEXAS Grant to help payfor college.

Do you pend hour. aloneat night t rying to hold a flash-Ight upto your Gameboy so thatyou can finish playingCastlevania'l Do you becomefrustrated when you cannot seeth e screen?

For Gameboy enthu ia tswhoju t can't put the toy down.intendo will be releasing a new

game system inthe United Stateson March 23, the Gameboy Ad-vance SP.

The system will be a new

Yo u have made it throughtwo-thi rds of your high schoolcareer. It i~now lime for you tolake it easy, right '? W e ll, th at isnot what the educators and busi-ness leaders of America think .They have been working on a"cure' for the disease commonlyknown as "senioritis." Senioritisisa mix of restlessness and leth-orgy Lhal. hits most students theirsenior year.

I n the past several years aneffort has surfaced to make stu-dents more productive duringtheir senior year. The , laiC ofTexus i:. the leader in t ry ing 10encourage students to attendcollege and also in beef ing up

Li'J Abner brings success for choirRebekkah Hemade:Staff writer

"The mu ical exceeded ourexpecta tions and we've heardwonderful reviews [rom thecommunity and the staff atBryan High," assistant directorAlex Medlock said.

The choir traditionally per-form two musical. every threeyears, with a trip to ew YorkCity. cheduled every third year.The New Yorktripwill takeplacein 2004. highlighted by Broad-way shows and sightseeing forchorale memb rs and chaper-ones.

the annual dance. It's the oneand only day that guy and girlscan hook up.

The ca. t wasmade upofLi' IAbner (Josh Kirby). his sweet-heart Daisy Mae (double cast byHelen Koennig and BrittanyGreen). Marryin' am (Sc trJones), Pappy Yokum (AdamAnthony), Mammy Yokum(Alison Marlin), EarthquakeMcGoon (Jerry olson), SenatorPhogb und (BrandenRobinson), General Bull Moose(Da rrin Barton). andAppassionata (Jenni Ellis).

What you said...Is "Senioritis" re ally a se rio us iss ue ?31% said: Definitely .. somethingmust be done about it

The halls ofBHS lilled withwhispers about Sadie Hawkinsand everything that wentwithit.The choir room contributed Lathe buzz wi th their pr parationfor the mu ical, Li'l Abner.

Comp sed o r sophomore.junior and. enior choir students.UIAbner was the story behindthe personalities that one typi-cally sees at adie. Set inDogpatch, USA, the charactersp laced ext reme importance on

68% said: It's not a problem at aI/ ..give the kids a break!Tota/ Votes: 417


4/8

'--- ~ ,,~~INIONSLED~~~-RIAL 4Epidemic spreads across the worldchool lunches need helptunch ladies doing best they

can with what they're givenFeeding 50007 No, it's notthe n ame of a band. but a task. A

task which the lunch ladies at B ry an H igh Sc hool must endureevery da y of the school y ea r. It is c ertain ly n ot easy to preparelunch for this many s tu de nts a nd staff members. but quantityan d quality should no t be spared.

Every day studen ts go to the lun chroom a nd pay $2 for aIlllldR that il l not satisfactory. It does not matter ifwe a re e at in ga greasy piece of cardboard with a Pizza Hut label stuck to i t ora hamburger with hard purple chunks in the patties. Th e factsti ll remains: lunch at Bryan High is not what it should be.

Elementary students receive close to the same amount offood at tbeir lun ches as we do inour lunches. but at a smal lerprice. We a re n ea rl y twice their size and we should get a muchl ar ge r p or ti on o f food.There are growing boys and girls going to school here, andwe need good food that we want to eat, Students resort tobuying candy, Little Debbie snacks, chips and sodas instead ofgett ing a meal . This should be proof enough that the lunchescould be better.

Also, there are some students buying multiple lunches be-cause (he portions are no t enough for them. This means theycould be spending well over $4 a da y on school lunch.

It is not the lunch ladies' cooking that is bad; it is thematerials which they arc provided with.T he y d o the best they can with what they ar e given. Ifonlythey were given a chance to show their full potential with higherquality food products.

We have observed other schools which actually have fastfood restaurants in the school building in which the studentsar e allowed to purchase a delicious lunch.

It's not like the food in the lunchroom is the worst, buteating it every day for years can make one never want to standin a school cafeteria again. =Norseman Editorial Board

BR AN HIGH SCHOOL3401 E. 29TH, BR AN, TX 77802

Volume 31, o. 5Editor

Sheilah BehrensStaff

Rcbckkah Hernandca, Keitb Hudacko, Constancejohnson, Desiree K Iso, hrisrine I elson, LorenaRangel, Robert Rarkc, Elisa Valadez, Jon Vick

Adviserarris

The Norseman is II publication produced b} the Advanced Journal ism Newspa-per Product ion class al Bryan High School . The opi ni on ' exp re ssed a re t hoseor the author and do nOI represent the opnion of t he facul ty . s ta ff or admin -i st ra tor o f Bryan High Schoo l.

Letters to t he edit or a re we lcome ami may be deli ver ed 10 Rm, 6160 or theBlue Campti .

Iember- II. Interscholastic League Pre onterence (lLP )Winnt'f of the ILP


5/8

5 DITORIALS; W ar, Huh! W hat is it good for? Absolutely noth ing!oo As a di claimer, Idon't know if it's really fair to write thrived throughout history. that' what's really important. But then there ithe mat-Nn editorial about an i sue that Idon't have an opinion Now with our "brilliance," we've developed even ter of defen e.t-'" about. Except that' s not total ly more genius ways to destroy humani ty. Unfortunate ly, Should we real ly wait unti l our popula tion tarts fal l-~ true: I have plenty of opinion; war is a part of reality, and it's nor going away anytime ing dead from biological warfare? Or, have a repeat of9-

the problem is that they' re a bit soon. Therefore, it's best to u e the power we have to 1 J? Maybe if we don' l provoke them we won' t have to~ conflicting. promote justice and I iber ty , right? worry about it.- < The concept of war is in- America is a superlative country and it's a good pos- The only t rouble is that there's no way of knowing~ sane. Soldiers are cnt to foreign ib il ity that I would omeday fight or die [or i t. But kil l? for sure. I gue what I'm trying to say i , don 1 be soI= Q lands by bureaucrats they 've Idon't think r know of acause or ideology which would sure that you have all the answers. Don It judge Bushr~ never met, to accompli h ome- justify that, And I'm not so sure President Bu hand t 0harshly. He i not in a ea y po ilion. And eriously~ thing they're not exactly sure of, company are doing the best thing in sending millions to fry to think before you speak. all the while trying to avoid be- kill and be killed. Sending a bomb to blow up the whole country is not

Rebekka~ Hernandez ing shot by total strangers who Maybe we should just say that what happens over exactly the morally upright thing to do. Look at the~ Staff writer want to kill them. Isn't that a bit there is their business, America houldn't try to police issue from all ides. Closed minds hurt America more:: @ ironic? And this psychotic behavior has existed and the world, eLc.After al l, the economy isn' t so great and than anyth ing .

~Thor's absence provides a plan for a bright world futureZ I'm sure that you've all gotten wordof our "beloved" tatue, Thor 's , d isap-

pearance. How-ever. though Thorhas been recov-ered , his pede ta lremains vacant.

Thi iwhyI devised a planthat would allowfor Bryan High'rno t dev tedstudents (0fill hisshoes during hiab ence. This

Kiebel" RadackoStaff writerplan lets students volunteer to stand inhi place for four hours at a time.

While mo t of the day positionswere filled rather quickly, there are nu-merous graveyard shifts (10 p.m.-2 a.m.

and2a.m.-6

...before thesea.m.) sri Itopen.lofty dreams A

can become a con ic r-glorious real- able numberof benefitity, we must are offeredtake the initia- for tho ebra v etive and enough tohandle matters stand in forThor. Thesehere first ... include

mea 1 s ,transportation to and from Lhcp dium,Iul] coverage dental and medical. and apodiat ris t on duty 24 hours a day.

1believe this program will create agreater sense of community among thestudents f Bryan High. tudents willwant to rally behind their school andimprove the condition of our choolspirit, which is. as James Irick pointedout, what we arc lacking.

Furthermore, Ipropose that chol-arship opportuni tic and ca h benefitbe offered to tho e who stand in themost for our mis ing mascot . This is inaddition to absences being waved forhours on the podium.

Also, think of how good this wouldlook on a resume' or col lege applica-tion. This would count as volunteerwork. Univer ities look for thi whenconsidering prospective students.What about tho e of you with as-pirations of being in the Queen ofEngland's Royal Guard? This would bean excellent opportunity to practice yourskill of standing still for hours.

I've also considered going corpo-rate wi th this idea . Think of i t. I couldcal l it Standing Room Only, Inc. I canee it now. I could have my own sky-scraper with a massive penthouse onthe top floor. I t would have a flashingneon sign out in front. Oh, the possibili-ties.

You would even be able to buystock in the company. Itwould have itown little Lickersymbol and everything.I would, of course offer opportunitiefor select students and faculty to get inon the ground floor. I mean the bus i -ne is sure to . kyrocket wi thin no time.

I would even sell merchandi e . T-shirts. coffee mugs and mouse padwould fill every hop window. Think ofthe excitement on Chri t rnas morningwhen little Billy opens uphi S.R.O. Inc.action figure.

Oh, and I could even go iruerna-tional with thi thing. The Thinker. Ve-nus Dc Milo, and the sta tue o r Davidcould all take much-needed breaks.

It doesn't end there. Department51 rcmannequins would become a thingof'the past. We would save untold mil-lions of pounds inpreciou plastics and

create thousand of new jobs all at theametime.The new "1ive manneq uins" would be

much more poseable and would even beable to change positions to better satisfythe con umer, This would do wondersfor the dragging U.S. economy.Also, a ll of this landing would more

than likely create health problems in theI wer body which would improve the de-velopment of cures for these types ofai1-rnents. The elderly would end up in thehospital less for broken hips and kneeproblem.So, now you realize the importance of

being among the few respected tudentwho stand in for the statue whichbrought u o much joy and will hope-

fully return to us soon. You can see thatbefore these lof ty dream can become aglorious reality, we must take the iniiia-tivc and handle matter here rust.We arc the future of this country. IT

we don'! do ornething now about theproblems of the future, weare doomed toan eternity of chaos and torment,This is why i t' s imperat ive to get this

program off the ground. orne may thinkitquixotic, but 1see noother way of avoid-ing looming anarchy.

I foresee nothing but death, diseaseand pestilence if we will not stand andtake the place of one 700-pound bronzeta tt le from a relat ively unknown highschool in a town which thrives off of i tssister city's college n toriety.


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6 SPORTS V iking basketball sw eeps district titlesc


7/8

IN-DEPTH 7Reality TVA plague tinvades Atelevision sDating, game o f lo ve, p rop osing marriageElisa ValadezStaff writer

Arranged marriages wereonce very common, but sincesocie ty has changed ent irely,arranged marriages have diedOuL However, it seem athough the dating haws ontelevision aim tobring back thisidea.

One of the first haws wasLove Connection. which had acontestant who would choo efr m three dates by a king themquestion ,

After the date, they bothdescrib d how it went. romthat, the audience voted onwhich of the origina Ithree dalesthey thought the contestanthould choose.

If the contestant and the

audience cho e the amepe r on, the next date would bepaid for by the show.

To update this show thereare now shows like The 5thWheel. Blind Date. ElimiDATE,Temptation island, Change o fHeart, Dismissed, and JoeMillionaire.

All these snows. just likeLove Connection, are lookingfor a compat ib le partner; theyjust have different rules.

The 5th Wheel begins withfour contestants going on a dateand alternating partners. Just athings are going smoothly, a "5thWhe I" enters to divide andconquer.

At the end, each personch osc the partner they wouldlike to continue a relationshipwi th. ln order for the

relationship to continue, thecontestants must choo e oneanother, thus leaving at least oneper on alone.

Unlike the re t of the datingshows, Change of Heart andTemptation Island consist ofcouples who are having doubtsabout their relationship.

In Change of Heart, thecontestant are accompanied bycameras as they go on a date. Inthe end, each contestant decideswhether they would liketo "StayTogether" or have a "Change ofHeart."

Dating shows give peoplethe ability to experience avariety of people right at home.They might even be bringingback the idea of arrangedmarriages. Or mayb not!

'A day in the life of' show s; a popular choiceConstance JohnsonStaff writer

Scripted television sitcoms with glamorousactors soaked in gallons of makeup i a thing ofthe past. Reali ty te levision seems to be the newcraze to hit America. Real li fe telev ision showsconnect wi th the audience ina deeper way than aregular television how would.

.A day in [he life or' reality televis ion rutthe cicu ilin 1992 when MTV ai red thephenomenal Real Wor/d. It i a world composedof seven stranger whose lives are taped as theylive together. New York was its first location.

Thirteen more Real World seasons have airedince then, The occupants w rk on buildingrelationship and getting along while dealing withcontroversial issues that come up.

Another show about everyday lives andexperiences of "young people" iAmerican High.This television show chooses students to be

documented throughout their senior year of highchool.

Other program take farni lic back inhistorythrough a "time machine" and tape their journeys.These throw viewer into a whirlwind ofknowledge.

J 9 00 H o u se and F r o n ti er H o u se are two verysimilar real ity show. The 1 90 0 H o u se sends anEnglish family back to the very early twent ie thcentury to force them toadapt to that time period.

Frontier House puts a family in a situat ionwhere they live in l883 out in the country. Theymust struggle to survive the unbearable coldwinters and burning hot summers.

Television that shows a day in the life ofsomeone else or how others learn to live inanother era has proven to be vcry enterta ining.They have prompted new show of this genre topop upeverywhere. Learning new things and beingrequi red to overcome a certain ituation are ea yFor viewers (0relate with.

Overcom ing fears , cha llengesChristine NelsonAssistant editor

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volume 32 number 5

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