1Volume 63, Issue 5Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007

IndexIndexIndexIndexIndexEntertainment. . . . . . . . 2-3Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7News.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1, 4Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Sports.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9Student Life. . . . . . . . 10-11Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

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Picture this. You just got a newbike for Christmas. You want toride it to school. You’re runninglate. By the time you get there, youhave to rush inside to get to class.

However, there’s no bike rack.You’re going to have to leave it andhope nothing happens to it.

School’s over now, and you raceto your bike, your beautiful, brandnew bike. What’s that? It’s gone?How did that happen? Maybe be-cause there wasn’t a bike rack tosecure your precious new bike.Fortunately SHS won’t be havingany problems like that, becauseSHS has gotten a new bike rack.

“I feel better now that I don’thave to worry about my bike,”said senior Nick Magrino, who

By DJ PageStaff Writer

November brought changes tothe junior class officers. AngelaBryant, the former vice presidentbecame the class president onThursday, Nov. 8.

Existing positions of the juniorclass have also been moved up.Ashley Laurence is the vice presi-dent and Josh Pharris is the secre-tary. Ben Howard was chosen tobe the new treasurer.

“It’s unfortunate he [the presi-dent] was removed, but we don’thave time to mope over it. We haveto move on,” said Angela Bryant.“We have more important thingsto focus on.”

The officers plan to start a cam-

By Nathan Carden and Jenny PanStaff Writers

relies on his bike to get to schoolon weekends and occasionallyduring the week when there’s goodweather.

What made the administrationdecide to get a new bike rack? Whynow, and not last year, or the yearbefore?

“We are just trying to improvethe school little by little, with ev-erything from a new bike rack toaccommodate the bike riders, newbenches, and tables,” said Mrs.Delois Allen, secretary to Princi-pal Cynthia Holder. “We’re evenlooking to get some flowers for theoutside areas.”

Reputation and appearancesare important in any building,school, or business. SHS seems torealize that, and is making an ef-fort to provide an upgrade on the

Photo by Nathan Carden

New bike rack ready

In response to student requests, a bike rack was installed outside theschool’s main entrance in late October. It has room for four bikes andis drilled into the concrete to prevent theft.

paign to encourage juniors to paytheir $40 dues.

Plans for the junior class willremain the same. The officers willmeet before winter break to dis-cuss prom plans. This year theprom will take on a masqueradetheme.

The Student Council Associa-tion (SCA) follows specific policiesand regulations to remain in goodstanding with the faculty andstaff. The SCA has a student whorepresents each class. Theseelected students are the voices forthe student population.

“The decision to replace […] thepresident was based on policiesset forth by our Student CouncilAssociation,” said junior classsponsor Mrs. Valerie Wick.

New junior classpresident selected

Underclassmen disregardsenior rules, privilegesBy Nick MagrinoEditor in Chief

By Jaqueline StoutStaff Writer

Students supportfood drive to helpfamilies in need

SEE FOOD DRIVE, PAGE 4

Stephanie Horii from theRappahannock Council on Do-mestic Violence visited Mrs.Sherri Pierce’s psychology andsociology classes on Thursday,Nov. 15.

The RCDV provides confi-dential assistance and infor-mation, 24 hours a day, sevendays a week. Their hotline isopen on all nights and holidays,too. “We had one caller at fourin the morning on ChristmasEve one year,” said Horii. “Ihave a client who calls everyday just to vent, and that’s fine.I like it.”

Information is not dis-cussed with anyone else, in-cluding other employees andvolunteers, and no police re-ports are made. “We can’t callthe police for you,” said Horii.

By Jaqueline StoutStaff Writer

The office is connected to TheHaven, an emergency shelterfor women and children whoare being abused in the home.The Haven provides a safe andsecret location for food, shelter,and basic living needs for up totwo months. One-half of thepopulation is children. TheRCDV also has a place for men.

There are many basic ser-vices provided by The RCDV.There are four types of educa-tional support programs. TheVictim Support Groups is a cur-riculum-based program forwomen who are in an abusiverelationship. There are openand closed groups available.

The Batterer Intervention isa program for men and womenwho have been abusive. TheChildren’s Groups are offeredfor kids aged five to twelve whohave violence in their home. The

SEE RCDV, PAGE 2

Speaker educates studentsabout domestic violence

Teen Groups are non co-edgroups for teenagers experi-encing domestic or dating vio-lence.

“I would help volunteer atshelters if I could,” said sopho-more Katharine Navarro.

Horii focused on teen dat-ing and the importance ofhealthy teenage relationshipsin her presentation. “I knowhow to help you,” said Horii.“One in four girls will experi-ence dating violence in theirlife. Only 30 percent gets re-ported.”

Students participated inthe presentation, and a smalltest proved that teenage vio-lence is not uncommon, anddefinitely is not a secret. Horiihad everyone put their heads

Photo by Nathan CardenRCDV representative Stephanie Horii speaks to Sherri Pierce’s psychology class Nov. 15.

A lot of changes can be seenwith the technology resources thathave been introduced throughoutthe school. These are helpingteachers integrate technology intotheir classes.

Ms. Julie Kelsey is the newtechnology resource teacher. Shegave up her science job when theposition opened up. She is here tohelp teachers and students usetheir new resources.

“My job is to help train teach-ers on how to use new technologyadvancements,” said Kelsey. “Forexample, I did summer trainingwith the teachers on using School

Fusion, and I continue to workwith teachers on their websites,”

Kelsey also works closely withother tech resource teachers in thecounty. As the school strives toimprove, a five year plan for inte-grating technology will be imple-mented. Part of this plan is thenew interactive website.

School Fusion is a new pro-gram that helps teachers and stu-dents stay in contact, even afterone has left the building.

“This is a great resource thatwas put into every school in thecounty,” said Kelsey. “We haveneeded an interactive website foryears, and it’s just going to get bet-ter and better.”

Kelsey does not only help withthe new programs, but older onesas well. “I aid teachers in usingGroupWise, and Integrade Pro, theelectronic grade book, as well,”said Kelsey. “It can include olderthings like the Internet and PowerPoint to newer things, like the Fu-sion website and theActivBoards.”

There are often complaintsabout how Stafford High School isnot equal to the other high schoolsin the county. One thing that mustbe taken into consideration is thatmany of the

By Justin GravesOpinion Editor

SEE TECHNOLOGY, PAGE 4

Technology changes to bring SHSup to par with other county schools

As part of the new privilegesgranted to seniors this year, 12thgraders are permitted to leavetheir last class following the after-noon announcements.

However, since this policy wasimplemented in late October, therehas been a persistant problemwith non-seniors leaving theirclassrooms early and loitering inthe halls.

“I go outside and monitor thehalls at the end of seventh period,and there are plenty of kids whoaren’t seniors out of class,” saidgovernment teacher Mr. Jeff Coo-per.

Several weeks after the seniorprivileges were put into place,emails were sent out to teachersstating that only seniors were to

be dismissed from their classesearly, and the SCA started to stateexplicitly on the afternoon an-nouncements repeating the mes-sage.

“It’s disappointing that somany non-seniors are out in thehalls when they aren’t supposedto be,” said senior Ashley Pittman.“It really makes me mad becausethen the juniors help congest theparking lot when school gets out.”

In addition to having theirearly dismissal privileges diluted,the so-called “senior line” at lunchhas not worked according to howmany had hoped.

“I hate that there areunderclassen in the senior line atlunch,” said senior AmyCunningham. “It makes it point-less for us.”

This season, many people arein need of food for the holidays.There are many ways studentscan contribute. Some churcheshave a food bank, which meansanyone can donate food all yearround. Many organizationshold annual FoodDrives for the sea-son. Studentscan startnow bydonatingc a n n e dgoods andother neces-sities to differ-ent places.

Some families who aren’t home-less still can’t afford the traditionalmeal for Christmas. Without thebig turkey, ham, or chicken, theside dishes, and a nice dessert, it’seasy for families to lose their holi-day spirit. Students who are morefortunate can easily help others,

especially if they know how, when,and where.

Fredericksburg United Meth-odist Church accepts food all yearlong to donate to anyone whocomes to the church during certainhours to have a meal. The churchis often low on food. “The food goes

out to thew h o l e

c o m -m u -

nity,n o tjustt othe

church,”said Mrs.

Pierce.Students don’t have to worry

about not having time to donate,because the church is open all day,so there is always someone avail-able to accept food. Pierce, a teacherhere and a member of the parish,will allow

Lopez signs for VMI

See pages 8-9 Sports

Body Image

What do you see in the mirror?See page 7

Play it again!Hockey beats rivals. See page 11

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 224052

Beowulf good, straysfrom original storyBy Ben DunbarOpinion Editor

The majority of movies madeusing computer generated imagesare for kids. There’s no doubt aboutit. From the original “Toy Story”to the more recent “Bee Movie,” allare marketed towards children.

But Robert Zemeckis has dar-ingly, or perhaps foolishly, decidedto use an advanced form of CGI tobring the epic poem “Beowulf” tothe big screen.

Apparently audiences don’tseem to be bothered by the strangelook of the film as since its Nov. 16release “Beowulf” has been thehighest grossing film in America,grabbing the top spot at the boxoffice.

As any of the seniors at Staffordcan attest, “Beowulf” tells thestory of Geat prince of the samename. A Geat is something like aViking. Blonde hair, big muscles,and really into looting and pillag-ing.

But not Beowulf; he isn’t intothe whole looting and pillaging ofpoor British villages thing.Beowulf is a superhumanly strongwarrior who seeks glory above allelse. Beowulf isn’t shallow though;it’s just the Geat way.

After hearing that KingHrothgar and his mead hall (that’sjust an old Viking term for sportsbar) are under attack from the ter-rible monster Grendel, Beowulfdecides to go kill him.

Screenwriter Neil Gaimantakes some serious liberties withthe original poem though. Some ofthe changes help the poem makemore sense. Hrothgar beingGrendel’s father, for example,helps to explain why Grendelraids Herot nightly. But otherslessen the heroic quality of Beowulfhimself. Not to give too muchaway, but apparently if Beowulfand a water demon that happens

to be related to Grendel decide tomake babies, their offspring wouldbe a giant fire breathing dragon.

The actual acting is top notch.Well-respected actors like An-thony Hopkins and JohnMalkovich lend their expertise aswell as their animated likenessesto the movie.

Ray Winstone, who is a betterknown actor in England, turns inan interesting portrayal ofBeowulf. Unlike the poem, Beowulfis more than just the one dimen-sional warrior hero. Winstoneshows a much more humanBeowulf, one with the same flawsas every other man.

The one performance that ispainful to watch is delivered byAngelina Jolie who portrays themonster Grendel’s mother. Sheuses her terrible English accent, thesame one she uses in the movie“Alexander.”

Dreamwork’s most recent pro-duction, “Bee Movie,” is a moviethat people of all ages will enjoy.

The main character in “BeeMovie” is a bee named Barry B.Benson, voiced by Jerry Seinfield,who has recently graduated from“bee college” along with his bestfriend Adam Flayman, voiced byMatthew Broderick.

After “bee college,” Barry isrequired to choose a career butlater finds out that the career hechooses will be the one that hesticks to for the rest of his life; Thisdoes not sit well with Barry at all.

After a series of events, Barryfinds himself out in the “realworld” of New York City wherehe meets a human, namedVanessa, voiced by ReneeZellweger who saved his life.

The two become close friendsand Vanessa shows Barry theworld of New York City, in whichthe main plot of the story unfolds.

It is from here on that Barryand Vanessa fight together forsomething they believe instrongly and stick togetherthroughout the whole movie;

By Nicole ClydeStaff Writer

‘Bee Movie’ touches inner kidthrough thick and thin.

The animated characters,talking bees, and wild plot makesthis the perfect movie for those

who are still in touch with their“inner child.”

On the plus side, the animationof the movie is relatively good asthe movement of the bees is mod-

erately lifelike.“Bee Movie” also

includes a few comedicparts during themovie, but not to theextent that it becomesa “knee-slapper.”

For those whoare not very tolerant ofchildish movies, this isnot a movie to see. Theplot becomes com-pletely fiction fromabout 30 minutes intothe movie itself.

“Bee Movie” wasdirected by StephanHickner and runs andhour and a half long. Itis now playing in a the-ater locally; check thelocal listings.

“A dark and compellingworld. Rose is sassy, dangerous-my kind of girl.” That’s whatfirst meets the readers’ eyeswhen they pick up “VampireAcademy” by Richelle Mead.

If that quote doesn’t interestthe reader, a glance down thepage will. A large, dark castle,and a dangerous looking girlwith deep red hair, sealed in byhigh iron work gates with the

academy’s symbol. The novel itself is excellent.

Mead creates such detailed char-acters it feels like the readercould’ve known each characterfor their whole life.

The story centers on Rose, adhampir vampire. This meansshe has both human and vam-pire genes. As a dhampir, she isin training to protect the Moroi,mortal vampires, or more spe-cifically her Moroi best friend,

‘Vampire Academy’-dark, mysterious,romantic, must read

Book Review

By Juli BerenottoEditor-in-Chief

Princess Lissa.For those who like action,

there is never a shortage of that.From running away from insis-tent, well-trained school guard-ians, to confrontations with ob-noxious peers, to clashes withthe Strigoi, the dangerous im-mortal vampires who are basi-cally bloodthirsty murderers.

Not only is there action,there’s romance. In fact, it’s oneof the best kinds of romance: the

forbidden kind.Rose falls for her

seven years olderguardian trainerand Lissa falls for am i s u n d e r s t o o dclassmate whoseparents turnedStrigoi (by commit-ting murder) and ex-pect him to turnStrigoi as well.

Ultimately, thenovel focuses onRose’s life and herstrange bond withLissa. Rose alsospends her time pro-tecting Lissawhether they’re in afight or not.

It’s a story offriendship and sacri-fice as both girls giveup things they loveto make each other

safe and happy.The novel is probably more

interesting to girls than it is toguys; however, it is in no spe-cific category. It is literally acan’t-put-it-down-till-I’m-donekind of book.

And when the reader finallyturns that last page, they forgettheir sadness that the story’sover and instead glance at thepage that advertises the sequel,“Frostbite” to be released inApril.

While she may not be doingwonders for herself in the publicarena, Britney Spears managed toput out one heck of an album with“Blackout,” released Oct. 30 afterletting the hit single “GimmeMore” simmer on the airwaves forabout a month.

Spears has obviously longsince shed the innocent little girlimage she maintained at the be-ginning of her career, and goesright for the jugular with somefairly provocative lyrics.

Some listeners may dislike thenew sound the album has, whichborders on techno or electronicaat points and is quite clearly a de-parture from her more pop-ori-ented songs.

And her voice does soundfairly synthesized, but that’s notnecessarily a bad thing.

Highlights are “Piece of Me,”which was released as a singleNov. 30, “Heaven on Earth,” and“Why Should I Be Sad.”

While all 12 songs on the al-bum have the same general sound,it doesn’t go so far as to “all sound

the same,” a common compliantabout pop albums.

A few of the tracks are prettyclearly influenced by the eventsdefining Spears’ life as of late, suchas her highly-publicized divorcewith Kevin Federline and conse-quent denial of custody of her chil-dren.

The song “Piece of Me” talksabout how much the public de-mands ofher, andit’s safe toa s s u m e“ W h yShould IBe Sad”refers tot h eb r e a k u pw i t hFederline.

D e s p i t ew h a t ’ shappenedto Spears’r e p u t a -t i o n ,“ B l a c k -out” is ac-tually a

‘Blackout’ suprisingly listenableBy Nick MagrinoEditor-in-Chief

ntertainment

It’s also difficult to feel any realconnection to characters that looklike wax dummies come to life.

Overall “Beowulf” will enter-

tain people who have read thepoem or not. It is a good way tospend two hours.

fairly decent album and will prob-ably be providing hit singles forthe next few months.

At the very least, rememberthat some of the money listenerspay for the album will go towardshelping her kids.

Hopefully listeners will assaulttheir ears and just keep in mindthat this is all for the kids.

Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405 3Dec. 12, 2007

Remaking classic songs be-loved by many generations is ahard thing to do. Possibly one ofthe most difficult bands to recre-ate is the Beatles. The “Across theUniverse” soundtrack manages topresent the music of the Beatles ina fun and new way without beingblasphemous to their roots.

The soundtrack features theactors doing all of the vocal workfor their characters. The lead partsare sung by Jim Sturgess, EvanRachel Wood, Joe Anderson, DanaFuchs, Martin Luther and T.V.Carpio. There also some guest vo-calists such as Bono from U2, JoeCocker and comedian EddieIzzard.

In May 2005, CarrieUnderwood was announcedAmerican Idol Season Four win-ner, and from there on she hitthe top. So far, Underwoodhas had two albums “SomeHearts” (2005) and her new-est one “Carnival Ride.”

Underwood’s “SomeHearts” has been the best-sell-ing female country album of2005, 2006 and 2007. SomeHearts has also been the best-selling CD by an AmericanIdol winner, selling over sixmillion in the U.S. alone.Underwood has won twoGrammys as well as a host oftrophies from the AMA, ACM,CMA, Peopleâ•™s Choice andBillboard, and many others.

“Carnival Ride” and“Some Hearts” have two to-tally different beats, themes,and vocal strengths. “CarnivalRide” is more grown up, moremature and there is a wide-rangetheme. “Some Hearts” was a moreteenage heartbreak theme, more ofa coming to age album.

“Last time,” Underwood said,“I didn’t set out to talk about a spe-cific thing. I just picked songs that

The new sensation through outthe school is now Soulja Boy. The17-year-old rapper has one of themost popular songs out there rightnow which has been moving upon several charts. From MTV toVH1, “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”has been the song that everyonehas come to know about, butSoulja boy is not everything theyseem to most students.

“The new Soulja Boy is hor-rible,” said sophomore Chris Carr.“ I can’t believe this is what musicis coming to, but hopefully this isjust a bad fad that will eventuallyfade.”

Soulja Boy has already begunto tour the country. At the sametime, he gives live performanceson late night talk shows such as“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and hav-ing an article in XXL Magazine.

“It’s a type of mind control,”

By Lexi MorelloFeature Editor

‘Across the Universe’ musicdoesn’t ruin Beatles’ tunes

Two versions of thesoundtrack are on the market. Oneonly has 16 of the songs from themovie while the other has 31. Thedeluxe version of the soundtrackis by far the better of the two.Some of the best songs, such as “AllYou Need is Love” and “With aLittle Help From My Friends”, arenot on the regular version of thesoundtrack.

All of the songs are updatedversions of their Beatle counter-parts. Many of the songs soundcompletely different from theoriginals, but that isn’t always abad thing. The artists turn “IWanna Hold Your Hand” from anupbeat rock song to a slow whineyballad. “Let it Be” transforms froma ballad into an almost gospel

sounding song. Some of thechanges work while others fall flat.

The music is a great mix ofrock, pop, slow love songs and psy-chedelic songs. There are songswhich are similar to songs of theearly ‘60s and the Beatles’ first fewalbums. Songs like “All My Lov-ing”, “Hold Me Tight” and “ItWon’t Be Long” capture the es-sence of early ‘60s rock.

There are also many slowlove songs. “Something”, “If I Fell”and “All You Need is Love” areprime examples of the softer sideof the soundtrack. The emotion inthe songs is conveyed perfectly.

Some of the best songs onthe soundtrack are “StrawberryFields Forever”, “Across the Uni-verse” and “With a Little Help

By Hailey EutslerStaff Writer

Underwood’s hits high charts with‘Some Hearts’, ‘Carnival Ride’

reminded me of home and mademe think, ‘Wow! I can relate tothat,’ and by the end, there was atheme.”

After high school Underwoodgave up on her singing career af-

ter no luck and decided to focusmore the “real world”.Underwood attended Northeast-ern State University in Tahlequah,in Oklahoma where one of herSigma Sigma Sigma sorority sis-ters made her change her opinionon her career.

Underwood majored in jour-nalism in hopes of becoming abroadcaster, but news aboutAmerican Idol try-outs quicklymade her sign up and brought herto what she now is. After winning

American Idol,Underwood per-formed over 150shows on tour withBrad Paisley andKenney Chesney in2006.

Underwood grewup on her parents’farm in ruralChecotah, Oklahoma.She attended Free WillBaptist Church whereshe sang in the choir.Underwood also sangin several events in herhome town includingbeauty pageants.

“This part of mylife has been abso-lutely crazy,” she said,

“and to think it all started fromone little decision I made to get onthat ride. That’s why Carnival Rideworks as my album title, becauseit describes the wonderful crazi-ness I’ve been through over thepast couple of years.”

By Connor DunbarStaff writer

SouljaBoy hitschartswith‘CrankDat’

sophomore Michael Guidry saidabout the dance from the “CrankThat (Soulja Boy)” video. “I mean,think about it. Everyone knows it,and for those of you who don’t,good for you.”

The instructional video on howto do the dance has already gotover 6 million views on YouTube.The dance also won best dance atthis years Hip Hop awards.

The CD which was self-titled“Soulja Boy Tellem” hit shelves onOct. 2 and has sold 230,000 albums.Although his single “Crank That(Soulja Boy)” is the number onesong in America, his album is only18 on the charts.

Now, his album has had some-what good reviews like a 3.5/5stars from Allmusic.com, butTheDailyYo gave it 1/5 stars,411Mania 3/10, Rap Reviews 3/10,and The Review 0.5/5.

Facebook vs. MySpace is a re-cent debate. Which one is better?

Facebook and MySpace are so-cial networking websites that al-low users to create individualprofiles of themselves, make andtalk to friends, join and creategroups, post music, and photos allfor free.

According to Alexa Internet, asubsidiary of Amazon.com ,MySpace is the world’s sixth mostpopular English-languagewebsite, and the sixth most popu-lar in any language, as well as thethird most popular website in theUnited States.

While MySpace does have highand impressiver a n k i n g s ,Facebook isn’tfar behind.Facebook ranksas the fifth mostpopular in theUnited States,right below

By Ambree PapaStaff Writer

YouTube. And on global rankings,Facebook is the seventh mostpopular, one spot behind MySpace.

FFej Reppoc said, “I loveMySpace because it’s MY space. It’seasy to use; it’s easy to join. Whatis there NOT to love?”

Facebook was created on Feb.4, 2004. Facebook’s name derivesfrom actual facebooks made of in-coming students, faculty, and staffto colleges in the U.S. Its creator,Mark Zuckerberg, had intended touse Facebook only for Harvardstudents.

It expanded to other schools inthe Boston area, and then to all IvyLeague schools. Other universitiesand colleges from around the coun-try joined, and Facebook quickly

evolved to the social utility it’sknown as today.

MySpace was created by TomAnderson in Aug. 2003. The fa-mous “Tom” comes as a defaultfriend whenever a user creates aMySpaceprofile.

How-e v e rthere isa lot ofcontro-v e r s ys u r -rounding who actually createdMySpace.

Both Facebook and MySpacehave the useful tools of groups,which anyone can create. On

MySpace, the group leader orleaders can control who joinsthe group, but on Facebookthat isn’t an option. Some in-teresting groups on Facebookare: 1,000,000 Strong forStephen T. Colbert, All YouNeed Is Love!, Who doesn’tunderstand almost any of the

applications facebook has?, andAlbemarle Sucks at Everything.On MySpace there are groups like:Unblock Myspace and other sitesat School and Work!, People wholike gifts, and Computer Nerd Cen-

tral.For those in favor of a little

decoration, MySpace users havethe option of making their layoutshowever they want them to lookusing HTML codes, but Facebookusers are stuck with the defaultlayout.

Finding friends is easier onFacebook. While both sites allowusers to browse the whole net-work and their friends’ friends,Facebook has the Friend Finder.The Friend Finder allows Facebook

Facebook versus Myspace: the social networking battleusers to browse specific networks,like high schools.

There is one major drawbackunique to MySpace. On MySpace,unlike on Facebook, there are hack-ers or phishers. They log onto pro-files and post spam bulletins andcomments on every single friend’spage, usually advertisements andfake once-in-a-lifetime deals orcontests. Users can easily get ridof them by changing their pass-word.

Also, MySpace has a somewhatbad reputation for pedophileshaving easy access to children. InFeb. 2007, a judge dismissed a courtcase in Texas when a family suedMySpace after a girl who misrep-resented her age as 18 when shewas 13 was sexually assaulted.

However, MySpace does havesafety measures in place for chil-dren. The minimum age to have aMySpace account is 14, and thoseunder 16 cannot have their profileviewable to users who aren’t ontheir friend list.

ntertainment

From My Friends”. These songs aresome of the most similar to theoriginals. Although that is not theonly reason as to why they are sogood. The songs are exciting andseem to capture one’s attentionand make them listen. They aren’tsongs that can easily be overlookedor cast off with the numerous vol-umes of Beatles remakes.

The weakest songs by farare “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”and “Being for the Benefit of Mr.Kite”. “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”deviates too far from the originalsong and ends up sounding forced.The song is so boring that it seems

to take forever to finish, eventhough it is under three minuteslong. “Being for the Benefit of Mr.Kite” has always been a ridiculoussong, but the improvisations of co-median Eddie Izzard make it evenmore so. It is hard to even classifyit as a song; there is a minimalamount of music and copiousamounts of talking. Althoughthose two songs are pretty bad,they don’t bring down the rest ofthe soundtrack.

“Across the Universe” is anenjoyable listen for fans of themovie or people who like an eclec-tic mix of music.

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 224054FROM PAGE 1Food Drive: Supplies needed Gill gets journalism

certification from JEABy Justin GravesOpinion Editor

Mrs. Sue Gill was recognized asa Certified Journalism Educator atthe Journalism Education Associa-tion/National Scholastic Press Asso-ciation fall conference in Philadel-phia on Nov. 8-9. Gill has joined about900 other journalism teachers in theUnited States with this certification,out of thousands.

Gill has been teaching in thecounty for 34 years but a total of 42.She began in the building that is to-day Drew Middle School. She wasthere two years before Stafford Highmoved into it current building. Backin 1973, she onlytaught Englishand reading.

Over theyears she be-came English de-partment chair, aposition that sheheld until thespring of 2007. Itwas then that shedecided to applyfor her CJE sta-tus.

“I applied forit in the fall of2007, and I de-cided not to tellanybody. I didn’twant people to know until I knew Ihad gotten it,” said Gill.

This was not an achievement thatGill had recently qualified for.

“I could have done this sevenyears ago,” said Gill. “At the time, Iwasn’t aware of the significance ofhaving such a title after my name.”

Gill is now part of a select fewthat have gained this recognition.

“I got a letter saying that I hadbeen awarded the status, and that Iwould be presented with the certifi-cate and pen at the adviser’s lun-cheon at the JEA/NSPA fall confer-ence in Philadelphia,” said Gill.

“I love journalism because itcombines by favorite things— his-tory, politics, reading and writing,”said Gill.

Her newspaper productionclasses have come a long way sinceshe first started baking cookies in1998.

“When I picked up journalism, Ihad one computer. The school gaveme $400,” she said. “I had to raisefunds to print the paper and get sev-eral inexpensive digital cameras“.

Today, journalism has 13 comput-ers, and two very expensive digitalcameras.

Many teachers including Mr.Jimmy Andrews,a fellow Englishteacher, thinkhighly of her.

“I believe sheis a great lady. Sheis irrepressible,e n t h u s i a s t i c ,knowledgeable,and only a littlequirky,” saidAndrews.

Gill has beenteaching for awhile, and shedoesn’t plan tostop any timesoon.

“I can’t imaginenot coming to Stafford High

School because teaching is what I do,and that is one of the main reasons Ihaven’t retired. When I’m here, Idon’t feel 65, because in my mind I’mstill in high school,” said Gill. “I reallythink that the kids have kept me moreyouthful.”

From her beginnings as a studentto currently holding the recognitionof Certified Journalism Educator, Gillhas yet to give up on being an edu-cator.

“My favorite part about teachingis the kids, period--from the ones whotrash my room, to the ones who aresuccessful--I love them all.”

Photo by Alisha AbramsJournalism advisor Sue Gillproudly shows the certificate.

students to bring food to her room,C106. “If any students want tobring food to me, I will certainlytake it to the church,” said sociol-ogy and psychology teacher Mrs.Sherri Pierce.

American Legion Post 290 hasbeen helping the community since1950. “They work with The Na-tional Honor Society, SCA, JuniorROTC, Learn and Serve, DECA,VICA, the Marines, and any stu-dent or parent that is willing towork,” said Fargo Wells, a mem-ber of the American Legion. TheAmerican Legion collects donatedfood to make food baskets. “Therewere over 300 families that re-ceived generous contributions ofthe Stafford students last year. It

gets bigger and better every year,”said Wells.

With approval from theStafford County Public Schools Su-perintendent, the American Legionwill be placing boxes in schools forstudents to put food in. The boxes,with collection instructions, willbe picked up on Thursday, Dec. 20.The food will be sorted and packedon Thursday and Friday, then de-livered Saturday to the familieswhose names and information arekept confidential.

“Last year, families and numer-ous local community service orga-nizations were able to restocktheir shelves because of the gener-osity of students,” said BonnieAkkerman, Christmas BasketChairperson of Post 290.

Each class can compete by giv-

ing the most food, then decoratingthe box. The pick-up driver willleave a token prize to be presentedto that classroom. Food needed in-cludes canned vegetables, fruits,soups, sauces, and boxed goods.New and gently used toys andbooks will also be accepted. Glasscontainers or jars should not bedonated due to safety reasons.

Besides just donating food, stu-dents can give their time. Cold-night shelters are opening for theseason, and they need people tohelp organize their areas. Sleepingbags, cots, tables, and other itemsneed to be set up for nights whenthe temperature is very low.

Students and teachers can allhelp make this holiday season asuccess for everyone in the com-munity.

schools are newer, and the up-to-date items were put in while theywere being built. This building,on the other hand, is considerablyaged, and does not have a struc-ture that allows for these things.

“Both Mountain View and Co-lonial Forge have data projectorsin every room,” said Kelsey. “Wehave about 40 for the whole school.The county is making assessmentsas to whether or not it will bephysically possible to put one ineach room, but the cost would beseveral of thousands of dollars ifthat does happen.”

The School Board plays a bigrole in making sure that schoolsget what is needed, as far as tech-nology goes. In the past, the boardtold schools to purchase things outof their own budgets. However,there are many different needsthat are not technological, so of-

down while she asked questionsand they raised their hands in re-sponse. Of Pierce’s 40 students inone class, 14 students knew some-one who had threatened to com-mit suicide if one partner leavesthe relationship.

More than half the studentsknew someone who has a jealousand possessive partner, or a part-ner who is unpredictable andmoody. Sixteen students knewsomeone who was isolated fromfamily and friends because of theirintimate relationship and 15 stu-dents knew someone who has got-ten too serious too fast. Almost allof the students raised their handsto indicate that these factors are aproblem for teens.

“I knew it happened, but itwoke some people up and openedtheir eyes,” said junior JoseNavarro. “I raised my hand for allof the questions.”

Horii then went on to talkabout the key factors of a healthyrelationship. This doesn’t only in-clude intimate partners and dat-ing, but also friends, co-workers,and family members.

The number one ingredient isself-esteem. “You can’t love any-

FROM “TECHNOLOGY,” PAGE 1

FROM PAGE 1tors to a relationship by writingfive values on post-it notes andsticking them on the board. “Re-spect is important,” said junior JoLawrence. “When you’re aroundtheir parents, don’t be all overeach other.”

Horii educated some studentson what can really happen in anunhealthy relationship. “It waspretty informative,” said seniorOwen Taggs.

“I learned that there is alwayssomebody to talk to and that it’sa teenage problem,” said seniorRenee Shipp. “I’ve had friends inbad relationships, but none hereat Stafford.”

However, many students al-ready know about the issue ofteen violence.

“I had one friend who experi-enced domestic violence,” said se-nior Rodashia Shields. “I told herto get out of the relationship, butthere’s nothing you can really doif they don’t listen to you.”

The RCDV is available forpeople of all ages. “Help yourfriends,” said Horii. “It will hap-pen to you or someone you know.”There are many resources avail-able, including brochures andother information.

RCDV: Students in position to help

ten, the money is just not there.“Next year, there will prob-

ably be an actual instructionaltechnology budget for schools,and money will be specifically as-signed,” said Kelsey.

This program, though, is be-ing studied, and might get elimi-nated when budget cuts happen.

Robert Wallace is the mediaspecialist, and works close withtechnology.

“My job is to acquire, install,and maintain the A.V. equipmentand computer software in thebuilding,” said Wallace. “I thinkit’s a positive thing for kids to getmore exposure to new technol-ogy.”

Eventually, all people, includ-ing students, will be expected tohave certain technology skills.This may be considered morework for students, but it’s a nec-essary ability.

Technology: Improvments needed, prospects good.“The county has actual com-

puter technology benchmarks forstudents,” said Kelsey. “They aretested on skills that the countyfeels are essential for students tohave as they progress.”

Wallace believes that the timebeing committed is a good thingfor students.

“With students using newthings, it will allow more creativ-ity,” said Wallace. “However,teachers need to make sure theyknow how to operate the equip-ment.”

Overall, Stafford County is onan even playing ground with thosecounties that surround it. As thecounty is doing what it can withlimited budgets, and although in-dividual schools often face difficulttimes, the school board is evaluat-ing them, to see what can be doneto solve the disparity, and makeStafford High School and thecounty competitive.

one else unless you love yourself,”said Horii.

The second factor is communi-cation. “This isn’t just talking toeach other, but listening, too—things like speaking in a harshtone and their body language,”said Horii. “Are you talking toyour partner like you want to betalked to? Are you being respect-ful? Communicate your feelings.Be able to express satisfaction anddissatisfaction.”

The third ingredient is makingboundaries. “There are no rules inboundaries,” said Horii. “It can behard because we don’t know whatnormal is. We’re influenced by so-ciety. Boundaries are your gut feel-ings.”

The fourth factor is connection.“Physical attraction only lasts solong,” said Horii. “There aredeeper reasons. Knowing whatyou want will help you find thatconnection.”

The last factor is balance. “Bal-ance is the give and take in a rela-tionship,” said Horii. “Whenthings are balanced, things arehealthy. You want to strive forequality.”

Students also shared whatthey thought were important fac-

ews

Pierce, a teacher here and amember of the parish, will allow

Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405 5Dec. 12, 2007

Students often welcome any break that they get fromcoming to school everyday, and with the added food andfamily time, Thanksgiving break is always a success.

A+ Field HockeyThe Lady Indians made Stafford High School proud,making it all the way to the state championships for thesecond time in three years.

Staff: Lindsey Brady, Nicole Clyde, Wendy Cole, Julia Colopy, Rafael Dueno, Connor Dunbar,Hailey Eutsler, Kyle Falkenstern, Anthony Frederick, Olivia Garner, Kathleen Gayle, BrianGreen, Amber Huffman, Lacey Hynson, Ben Jennings, Jill Karwoski, Brandon Leatherland,Gillan Ludlow, Ian Lyons, Michelle McConnell, Krysten McVicker, Ariana Miller-Keys, LexiMorello, Joe Nelson, Iksu Oh, Jenny Pan, Dawnthea Price, Julian Rivas, Jessica Scatchard,Mike Siner, Emily Smith, Jaqueline Stout, Christina Sullivan, Mandy Sullivan, Kerstin Waldrop,Tamika Williams, and Kristin Wood.

Advisor: Sue Gill, CJE

The Smoke Signal is a cross-section of the news and opinions of the student body of StaffordHigh School. It is published every two weeks. Editorials represent the views of the writer andare not necessarily the opinions of Stafford High School, its administration, or staff. The SmokeSignal is an award winning, monthly newspaper that strives to inform, educate and entertainthe student body and community. Signed letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer may besubmitted to room W-206. ormailed to the school. The Smoke Signal reserves the right to editletters and to refuse advertisments.

The Smoke SignalStafford High School

33 Stafford Indian LaneFalmouth, VA 22405

Phone: 540-371-7200 Fax: 540-371-2389

Newspaper Staff

Editors-in-Chief: Juli Berenotto, Alexis Cote-Coble, Nick Magrino

INTERNATIONALFIRST PLACE

FIRST PLACESECONDPLACE

FIRST PLACE

A+ Winter SportsWith basketball, wrestling, and swimming, studentshave something new to keep their attention while itgets colder and colder outside.

Opinion Editors: Ben Dunbar, Justin GravesFeatures Editors: Sierra Abaie, Lexi MorelloNews Editor: Nick MagrinoPhotography Editors: Alisha Abrams,NathanCardenBusiness Manager: Ben Dunbar

Entertainment Editors: Juli Berenotto, Kelsey Chest-nutSports Editors: Cara Fenwick, Andy TolerStudent Life Editors: Allison Brady, StacieGregorious,Design Editiors: Nina Gonzalez, Ambree Papa

A Thanksgiving

Teen idols not always goodMany teens today seem to idol-

ize the wrong types of people.There are many different kinds ofpeople teens idolize, from celebri-ties to the adults in their lives.

Teens mostly idolize figuresthey see or hear about through themedia. There are tons of celebri-ties on television and several ofthem set bad examples for people.

Immediately, when peoplethink of a bad teen idol, they mightpicture Britney Spears, LindsayLohan or Paris Hilton for very ob-vious reasons. There are othertypes of people seen through themedia that don’t come right tomind as a bad role model.

Teen girls see celebrities on tele-vision and think they’re beautiful

Indians, keep moving!

The Day I Found My VoiceThe way I viewed adults and

their honesty to children changedwhen I was lied to, and believed itfor the last time. I had beenthrough many different fosterhomes before this, but I felt like Icould reach out, and really be partof this small family. I trusted toomuch, just let other people controlmy life, went where they said togo – then one day, I found myvoice.

I had been living with Susanand Emily for several months, forthe second time, when news fi-nally came that I was going to begoing back to live with my biologi-cal mother, Robin, again.

I believed it, totally and utterly,to be the absolute truth. Thishouse I had learned to call homewas located at 4716 Bellevue Avein Louisville, Kentucky. The houseitself had even had a homey feel toit, and Sue and Emily took me inas if I were Sue’s daughter, andEmily’s natural sister.

I was amazed that two peoplecould care so much about a rejectfoster kid like me, with all my prob-lems with authority and all. I wasa mess, to say the least.

When the social worker told methat I would be going back to livewith Robin, she looked like an an-gel to me. I was ecstatic. I was go-ing home! Finally!

A week later, the day I was sup-posed to go came around. I had allmy stuff ready. I was so excited. Iwouldn’t stop talking. Sue got an-noyed with me, and ended up tak-

ing Emily and me to the store forcandy and snacks. We went to themall, got a lot of stuff that Sueneeded and didn’t get home for acouple hours.

When we did get home, Suechecked her messages, and thenshe called me into her room. I knewsomething was up; I could feelsomething was wrong. Still, Icouldn’t believe that in just a fewhours, I was going to be goinghome!

“Desiree, honey, I don’t knowhow to tell you this, but the socialworkers called and they said thatyou weren’t going to be goinghome today” Sue told me. I lookedat her with a blank expression fora minute as the words sank in.“Ok… maybe tomorrow,” I said.

She looked at me, and only laterdid I realize it was doubt in hereyes, as she said to me, “Yeah,maybe tomorrow.”

Well, ‘tomorrow’ came andwent. As did the next day. And theday after that. I was still livingwith Sue and Emily.

As the days kept adding up, Ibegan to, albeit very reluctantly,accept that I was not going to begoing home.

When the realization struck, Iwas devastated.

I refused to come out of myroom. I felt hurt, angry, even be-trayed, and angry at the socialworker.

Then all that slowly hardenedinto rage, which I buried, and inturn changed into depression. Icouldn’t shake the feeling of aban-

donment, or the terrible feeling ofbeing let down. So I started toblame myself, thinking no bodyreally wanted me. I stopped be-lieving everything I was told, thatthings were going to happen justbecause someone said they weregoing to.

A few months later, the socialworker came again, this time totell me that I was going to live withan aunt and uncle, who I had nevermet.

I looked her dead in the eye, andwith all the strength of the rageand pain in my 10 year old body,said, “No I’m not. You’re lying tome,” and after that my voiceraised, “just like you did before,”by now I was yelling, “I’m not go-ing anywhere! You just want meto think I am! You don’t want meto have friends! Or a family! I hateyou!”

Her response was a blink. Thenshe looked at me, and all she saidwas, “Ok.” And left, just like that.

That day, I stopped believinganything any adult said was go-ing to happen. I stopped trustinganybody.

I never let my guard down,never let somebody get close.

Even now, I do so only when Ifeel I can absolutely and whollytrust a person, and even then, I amreluctant.

I still have problems with au-thority. I still don’t trust easily. Istill hate social workers, and theentire foster care system.

This was written by a student whowas in foster care.

The day I found my voice

The hallways are alreadycrowded as it is but it doesn’t helpwhen people just stand in themiddle of the hallway. Saying “ex-cuse me” just doesn’t cut it any-more. just to get through the hall-ways and make it to class on time,elbowing through the crowds is amust. It’s getting ridiculous. It’sokay to stand close to the lockersand socialize or talk to yourfriends while walking to class butis it really necessary to stand inthe middle of the hallway?

On top of that, people’schests can receive elbow bumpsand dirty looks because appar-ently it’s not their fault peopleare in their way. People’s man-ners have gone down the drain.Stop being so rude and insteadof standing in the hallway, so-cialize while walking to class.If you want to see friends somuch, just hang out with themafter school. Some of us actu-ally have a place to go.

even though this woman they’rewatching is so thin, their bonescan practically be seen. If thesegirls think they need to becomethis thin to look as “nice” as thecelebrity, it can result in eatingdisorders. Eating disorders are ahuge problem today and these ce-lebrities who slim themselvesdown are just contributing to theproblem.

Another group of people whoteens see or hear about throughthe media is professional athletes.Athletes today, mostly males,sometimes have physical fightsduring a game or sports event. Insports like ice hockey or even bas-ketball, players may feel the needto start a fight because of some-

pinionpinionpinionpinionpinion

thing that happened during thegame.

Professional athletes set otherbad examples for student athletes.They sometimes only play for themoney they make, and not for thepassion of the game. Some athletes,such as baseball players and maleswimmers, even feel the need totake drug supplements, such assteroids. They may feel the need totake the drugs for a better bodyimage but mostly to help themplay better.

Student athletes deciding to actlike the athletes they see on televi-sion can become big problems.They might get kicked off theirteam for drug use or get thrown

out of a game for excessive vio-lence.

Girls and boys of all ages seemto idolize kids who are older thanthey are, or upperclassmen.Younger teens may be walking inthe footsteps of someone who’solder than they are, but thatdoesn’t mean this person is doinggood things.

Younger teens watch olderteens and some adults do thingslike drugs and drinking alcohol,and they think it’s cool. They canpressure themselves into doing thesame things to look as cool as theperson they’re idolizing, and feelit may make them more popular.

Even family members such asparents and older siblings, can set

bad examples for teens. It is im-portant for family to not do thingsthey wouldn’t want their child orsibling to do. Some parents of teenstoday drink or smoke. Unlike theolder teens who do this, parentsare old enough to do so; they stilldon’t set the best examples fortheir teen children if they don’t talkto their children about it.

Teens should know who theyshould idolize. There are manypeople on media and in their lifewho do set good examples, suchas good parents, teachers, orpeople trying to make difference inthe world. These people are theones that these teens should reallyidolize.

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 224056

The Friday after Thanksgiving,Black Friday, is known as the big-gest shopping day of the year. Itofficially kicks off the holiday shop-ping season.

Stores draw customers to shopat their store with cheap pricesand sales on popular items. Popu-lar electronics and new must-have items are at low prices forthe holiday season. The sales areso big and popular that people willline up hours before a store opensto make sure they are the first onesin.

“I’ll be out on Black Friday,”said sophomore Melissa Cole.“The Ipod I want is going to be onsale. I’ll be saving a couple dollarsif I buy it that day and every pennycounts at this time of year.”

Black Friday is often confusedwith the day the stock marketcrashed in 1929. The meaning ofBlack Friday refers to the stockmarket, but not the actual day itcrashed. The day the stock marketcrashed is known as Black Tues-day. Black Tuesday was a hectic,chaotic day with heavy traffic.Black is often referred as to retail-ers going black, making a profit.

Stores and businesses will becutting down the prices on popu-lar items, trying to get customersto shop at their stores. There aresome stores that have sales whereitems are 20 to 40 percent off.

“The sales are great,” said jun-ior Tasha McCoy. “I’m able to domy holiday shopping withouthaving to dish out too muchmoney.”

People save a lot of moneywhen they go shopping on BlackFriday. Even though there’s a lotof chaos and the stores arecrowded with holiday shoppers,they still come out.

They have a general idea wherethey are planning on shopping atfirst, what time they have to bethere when the store opens, andwhat the main items they are look-ing to grab at first.

Electronics like Ipods, laptops,Play Stations, video games andcameras will be at a great buy atmost stores this holiday season.Stores expect to be hit hard forthese popular items. Some mighteven be sold out of certain itemswithin a couple hours of theiropening.

By Wendy ColeStaff writer

Bigge$t$hoppingday of year

Chri$tmas $hopping tip$By Nicole ClydeStaff writer

As the holiday season nears,many retailers prepare for thebusiest shopping period of theyear. Traditionally, Black Fridaybegins the morning after Thanks-giving with many retailers open-ing as early as 5 am. As crazy asthis may sound, there are peoplewho arrive at stores as early as 3am simply to get a better bang fortheir buck. Retailers tend to offertheir best deals during this timeof the year to lure shoppers.

As much as this is an event forshopping fanatics, it is a night-mare for the people who actuallyhave to work on this “black” day.Kerry Callahan, a loss preventionmanager at a local JC Penny said,“This is one of the busiest days ofthe year, and with more shoppers,there are more shoplifters.”

It can be difficult to monitor ev-ery area of a store with people

Black Friday become$nightmare for $omeBy Ian LyonsStaff writer

flooding through the door all day.The struggle of the retail busi-

ness is most evident during thistime of the year with the influx ofcustomers. Picture waking upearly in the morning and comingin to work, with hundreds ofpeople standing outside the doorjust waiting to make your daymiserable, doesn’t sound like thebest day ever.

The holidays are a time of fam-ily, love, and happiness for adultsand kids alike, but for the retail in-dustry it can be the exact oppo-site.

Although this season is full oflong hours, long lines, and crazyshoppers, it wouldn’t the samewithout it. Jodi Mitchell, a fre-quent shopper on Black Fridaysaid, “I take off on Black Friday tomake sure I can get out to the storesand find the best deals.” This dayis almost a ritual for some people.

Fighting crowd$Is Black Friday worth it?By Sierra Abaie world to shop before Christmas,”

said junior Brie Andrews. “Whywake up on the day after a holi-day?”

Stores open earlier than regu-lar time, with a huge crowd infront of the store. The crowdstarts to build up hours before thestore even opens for the day.

When doors open, it becomes amad rush to the most wantedmerchandise, trying to get the itembefore it sells out.

“Heck no, I don’t want to waitin the lines,” said junior BenHoward. “I would rather pay ex-tra money to not wait in somedarn line.”

The mad hassle of runningthough the stores, is it really worthit for the savings? Is the savingsreally that significant?

Stores normally reduce priceson their regular sales price, butthat comes with the cost of hav-ing to wake up early.

People prepare for Christmasas early as the day after Thanks-giving. This day is the first majorshopping day for the Christmasseason is Black Friday. It allowsmany shoppers to get an earlystart and get good savings.

On Black Friday, departmentstores put most of their items onhuge sales to draw a crowd ofshoppers.

Parents are the ones that nor-mally have in endure the stressand chaos of Black Friday. Peopleuse this day to get a jump start onChristmas shopping. They are atthe stores waiting in the lines,while their children are still asleepin their beds. Many parents arriveback homes before their childrenwake up.

“I don’t think it’s worth it be-cause you have all the time in the

David Self, a junior at Staffordand an employee of Target, is ahard working and devoted stu-dent.

As a marketing student he ex-cels. “David is a great student; heparticipates and makes excellentgrades. He is outstanding at every-thing he attempts,” said Mrs.Simms, Self’s marketing teacher oftwo years.

Self is also an active memberin both DECA and FBLA and hasbeen for two years. He is also a wellbehaved stu-dent. “David isthe type of stu-dent the admin-istrators neverget to know,”said Mrs. Simms.

Self is a dedi-cated employee ofthe Target in Cen-tral Park and wasthe Top Salesper-son on Black Fri-day. The TopSalesperson is acashier that is se-lected by theamount of TargetCredit Cards he/she gets people tosign up for and the amount ofprofit they bring in.

Having only worked at Targetfor a little over a month being thetop salesperson is a big accom-plishment.

In the eight hours of work thatSelf put in he sold the most Targetcredit cards and brought in moreprofit then any other employee atTarget on Black Friday, the busi-est day of the year.

Marketing readied Self for theworld of sales. “The reason Selfwas a better salesperson thensome of the people who haveworked at Target for years is be-cause of what he’s learned in Mar-keting,” said Simms.

Self has only worked at Tar-get since October, but he’s al-ready gotten a good dealof experience. Heworked on Black Fri-day, the day afterT h a n k s g i v i n gwhen all inhibi-tions are thrownto the wind andshoppers flock tostores like herds ofwildebeest to a water-ing hole.

It’s the biggest day of savingsall year and people take advantageof the low prices. They line up andset up campsites hours in advanceto be the first ones to walkthrough the automatic doors andinto a bargain hunter paradise.

Self had the opportunity to see

these thrifty Black Friday shop-pers first hand.

Self arrived at Target at 5:30AM to find that a line had alreadyformed outside of Target. “The firstcustomers told me that they hadarrived around 2:30 a.m. to waitfor the doors to open,” said Self.“The line was all the way downthe side of the building.”

All day Shoppers swarmed inand out of Target. “The lines neverstopped,” said Self. “They just keptforming.”

Security guards and policewatched forshoplifters andmade sure nofights broke out.“It was reallycrazy; every-thing was arush,” said Self.

There were19 cashiersworking all daylong. Everyonewho works atTarget had tocome in at somepoint duringthe day.

Self workedfor eight and ahalf hours.

“When I got off at 3 p.m. every-thing was a mess, and people werestill shopping,” said Self.

By Jessica ScatchardStaff writer

Black Friday topsalesman at Target

eatureseatureseatureseatureseatures

In addition to putting up lightson houses, decorating the Christ-mas tree, and spreading Christ-mas cheer, shopping for gifts is onthe “to do” list for the season.

Christmas shopping can beboth the best and worst part ofthe holiday season; the best in thesense that it’s something to lookforward to and the worst as ittakes a toll on one’s wallet.

Although Christmas can beexpensive, there are ways toguarantee that therewill be some moneyleft over in the end.

An importantthing to remember isthat it’s the thoughtthat counts, not howmuch spent. The ideaof getting that specialsomeone a gold-plated necklace issweet, but it will mean the same ifyou gave them a pretty necklacefrom Kohl’s that is much, muchcheaper.

Another thing for Christmasshoppers to remember is to lookout for the sales. Yes, sales. Theycan save shoppers a lot of moneyand one may be able to actuallybuy something that they wantedto in the first place but could notafford otherwise. Coupons don’thurt either.

So another problem arises;

what to buy? Well, it reallywouldn’t hurt to ask, just athought. But if asking the persondirectly is not an option, then itmight be ideal to ask a relative orclose friend what he or she maywant.

Then what do the hopeless ro-mantics do, assuming that theywant to come up with somethingcreative and special to give theirspecial someone? Think about

what that person likesand his or her person-

ality. That will bethe true inspira-tion for your giftidea.

Ok, so nowthat that specialperson is covered,what aboutfriends? They candeeply puncture

one’s wallet as well,especially if there are lots of them.

First, one needs to decidewhich friends are “gift-worthy.”This should narrow it down to afew close, select friends. But thenthere is the guilt factor of “I feelbad for not buying so-and-so agift” or “They got me a gift so nowI have to give them something,too.”

This is when it is crucial to re-member that it’s the thought thatcounts! Candy is the best optionin situations like these. They getsomething and poof, guilt is gone!

Features editor

Photo by Alisha Abrams

David Self was the topsalesperon on Black Friday

Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405 7Dec. 12, 2007

eatureseatureseatureseatureseatures

Stress is a part of everyone’slife. High school especially can bea time of high levels of stress withso many things going on.

“Too much stress isn’t good foranyone,” according towww.kidshealth.org. “For ex-ample, feeling a little stress abouta test that’s coming up can moti-vate you to study hard. But stress-ing out too much over the test canmake it hard to concentrate on thematerial you need to learn.”

Some causes of stress includebeing exposed to violence or in-jury, relationship stress, familyconflicts, ongoing problems withschoolwork, crammed schedules,not having enough time to rest andrelax, and always being on the go.

Junior Matt Jobrack said that

Teens cope with stress

Teachers look around theirclass rooms and they notice thatmost of their students are asleepon the desk or trying to fight offsleep. Lack of sleep is a huge prob-lem among people, mainly teenag-ers.

However, most people don’teven know that they aren’t gettingenough sleep. Insomnia is one ofthe biggest factors for not gettingenough sleep but a lot of peopledon’t know that snoring can affectyour sleep either.

Snoring or periods of no breath-ing is part of a sleeping disordercalled “Sleep Apnea.” “Apnea” inGreek means “without breath.”

According to the AmericanSleep Apnea Association, there arethree types of apnea. There is ob-structive, mixed and central andobstructive is the most commonamong people.

Obstructive Apnea means theairway is blocked by soft tissuethat has collapsed and closedwhile sleeping.

Central apnea is when the air-way is not completely blocked butthe brain fails to tell the musclesto breathe. Mixed apnea is a com-bination of the two.

Lack of sleep and apnea cancause high blood pressure, anyother cardiovascular disease,memory problems, weight gain,impotency, and headaches. Jobimpairment and motor vehiclecrashes can also be caused becauseof lack of sleep and apnea accord-ing to the American Sleep ApneaAssociation.

According to Neurology Chan-nel, there are three major catego-ries of sleep disorders: lack of sleep(insomnia), disturbed sleep (sleepapnea, REM sleep behavior, rest-less leg syndrome, and periodiclimb movement disorder) and ex-cessive sleep (narcolepsy).

However, some people thinkthat lack of sleep is caused by otherthings then just sleeping disor-ders.

“People worry about Myspace,Facebook, and the general internet.People don’t get their sleep be-cause of their social life,” said se-nior Doug Warford.

Some students disagreethough. It could be homework, orworking late at a job that keepsteens from getting their sleep.

“I think it’s a combination ofprocrastination and social life,”said junior DJ O’Neil. “After school,I’ll go out and chill then I’ll gohome. I’ll do homework if I wantto and then I’ll be up late becauseof it.”

There are ways to get a goodnight’s sleep. Reserving one hourbefore you go to bed to read or justlieand listen to music is a goodidea. Don’t watch television rightup to the point of going to bed. Thiswill keep your brain awake and itwill harder to fall asleep.

Try some different things tohelp you go to sleep. If nothingworks, then you might need to talkto your doctor.

NO Sleeptakes tollBy Gillan LudlowStaff Writer

homework is the most stressfulpart of his life, sometimes havingup to three hours of homeworkeach night.

While school can be enough ofa challenge in itself, many stu-dents have part-time jobs, play asport, take part in after-school ac-tivities, or a combination of these.In addition to a heavy homeworkload, this can be overwhelming toany teen.

“I do sports 10 to 15 hours aweek,” said Jobrack.

Not getting enough sleep atnight can also contribute to thebody’s stress level.

“Most teens need about eightand a half to more than nine hoursof sleep each night,” according towww.kidshealth.org. “The rightamount of sleep is essential for

By Christina SullivanStaff Writer

Teens struggle with body imageBy Alexis Cote-Coble

Teens today are under morepressure than ever. They seem tobe stressing looks more than in-telligence and personality. Insteadof focusing on school, teens areobsessing over their body images

Media is sending a dangerousmessage about eating. Commer-cials for dieting are increasing.Some of these diets are extremelydangerous and unhealthy. Mostdiet pills on the market are riskybecause of theunknown longterm effects. Itmay seem like agood idea at thetime, but tak-ing these pillscould causemany futurehealth prob-lems. Oftenteens don’tthink about theconsequencesbecause theyare more fo-cused on drop-ping weightquickly andeasily.

Teens arecoming upwith a superfi-cial sense ofwho they arebecause ofwhat they areconstantly hearing and seeingaround them. Models keep gettingthinner and diet advertisementsare being shown all the time. It’sno wonder that people are tryingto live up to such high standards.

“I think the amount of focus themedia puts on celebrities whohave ‘perfect bodies,’ puts a lot ofpressure on girls to look like them.I think it is also due to high schoolpressure. More pressure is put ongirls, but guys still want a perfectbody as well,” said senior BrittanyBowler.

According to www. parentingteens. about.com, “51 percent ofnine and ten year-old girls feel bet-

anyone who wants to do well on atest or play sports without trip-ping over their feet. Unfortunately,though, many teens don’t getenough sleep.”

Some ways to avoid stress areto not overbook oneself, get a goodnight’s sleep, exercise, eat healthy,and to learn how to relax.

To not overbook people, oneshould think about which activi-ties are the most important to themand then try to cut out ones thataren’t. Teens should get plenty ofsleep and exercise regularly tostay healthy.

Learning to relax can be assimple as taking a few deepbreaths, reading a book, or listen-ing to music. Everyone has differ-ent ways to unwind and it’s im-portant to find something to take

Thanks forfeeding The

Smoke SignalLayout Crews

one’s mind off stressful things inlife.

“Video games, music, movies,and sleep,” help junior, ShaneMisemer relax. His most stressfulpart of life is “getting up forschool.”

Also, thinking positive canhave a huge impact on the amountof stress in a teen’s life. When facedwith a stressful situation, if in-stead of panicking, one looks at thesituation calmly, it will help tokeep the stress under control.

“A healthy dose of optimismcan help you make the best ofstressful circumstances,” accord-ing to www.kidshealth.org.

While everyone faces stress intheir lives, there are ways to keepthe level of stress to a healthy one.

ter about themselves if they are ona diet.” It’s very unhealthy for suchyoung girls to be this weight con-scious. Instead of controlling howmuch they eat, they should focuson what foods are good for them.In the growing stages, kids needall the nutrients they can get.

Eating disorders are very com-mon among athletes. This is be-cause of the high expectationscoaches and team mates have for

the players. Student athletes oftengo to great lengths to achieve speedand muscle mass. According towww.sportsmedicine.about.com,eating disorders are most com-mon in athletes that participate insports such as, figure skating, bal-let and other dance, gymnastics,running, swimming, rowing,horse racing and wrestling.

“In the 2002 study of 425 fe-male college athletes, 43% saidthey were terrified of being or be-coming too heavy, and 55% re-ported experiencing pressure toachieve or maintain a certainweight. Most said the pressurewas self-imposed, but many also

felt pressure from coaches andteammates,” said Nanci Hellmichin her article on www.USATODAY.com.

Two common eating disordersare anorexia and bulimia. Bothcan be cured, but require a lot oftreatment. Without treatmentthese diseases can last a lifetime.

Anorexia is a very serious psy-chological disorder. According towww.medterms.com, anorexia is

“An eatingd i s o r d e rc h a r a c t e r -ized bymarkedly re-duced appe-tite or totalaversion tof o o d . ”Weight lossbecomes asign of con-trol. Muchlike drugs,people canbecome ad-dicted to be-ing thin.“The indi-vidual con-tinues theendless cycleof restrictiveeating, oftento a pointclose to star-vation.”

“Approximately 95% of thoseaffected by anorexia are female,but males can develop the disor-der as well,” said www. medicine.com.

Symptoms of anorexia include,obsessively exercising, preoccu-pation with preparation of food,making lists of unhealthy andhealthy foods, refusing to eat fooddespite hunger, and the intensefear of becoming fat.

If left untreated, anorexia canlead to death caused by severeweight lost, or in some causes, sui-cide. According to www.doctorndtv.com, other problems mayarise such as, heart disease, hor-

monal changes, blood disorders,imbalance of minerals and electro-lytes, nerve damage and digestiveproblems.

“About 40 percent of peoplewith anorexia will later developbulimia,” said www.pursuit-of-perfection.com. “Anorexia affectsseven out of every 100 teenagegirls. Bulimia may affect up tothree in every hundred teenagegirls.”

Bulimia is “characterized byovereating (bingeing) and thenpurging to get rid of the caloriesconsumed. A person with bulimiafears gaining weight, yet has anuncontrollable compulsion tobinge on foods,” said www.helpguide.org. Symptoms includeoverconcern of body shape andweight, weakness, abdominal painand loss of menstrual cycles.

Both anorexia and bulimia cancause urinary tract infections,damage to the colon and kidneys,dehydration, constipation, diar-rhea, seizures, muscle spasms orcramps, and chronic indigestion.

According to www.pursuitofperfection.com, malnutritioncaused by both illnesses can haveeffects such as absence of men-strual periods, severe sensitivityto the cold, inability to concentrateor think rationally, and growth ofhair all over the body.

Eating disorders have becomefar too common. Between five andten million people in Americahave them, said www.kidshealth.org. If the media focused less onbeing thin, and more on maintain-ing a healthy body weight, teensmight not feel so pressured to be“perfect.” The models being shownin magazines and television arenot realistic. They are air brushedand primped up to look flawless,but this is with the help of profes-sionals. Reality is that those mod-els are far from perfect. The ma-jority of the public should be ableto look at models and celebritiesand still feel good about themselves. The media needs to glam-orize people with average bodiesand quite focusing on dieting.

YES 105NO 35

140 STUDENTS RESPONDED FROM OVER 300 GIVEN SURVEY ON 11/20/07

ARE YOU STRESSED?

185 STUDENTS RESPONDED FROM OVER 300 GIVEN SURVEY ON 11/20/07

WHAT CAUSES THE STRESS?

FAMILY 45

SCHOOL 105WORK 15

FRIENDS 20

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 224058

The boys and girlscross country teams gotan early start on their sea-son when practices beganin mid-August. Bothteams had lost some valu-able seniors, but returnednumerous experiencedrunners such as JoeyMurray, Kyle Reese,Stephanie Raddatz, andLaura Wandres.

Murray said that“This cross country sea-son was the most physi-cally demanding one thatwe have been apart of.”

Raddatz, a senior said“the girls worked reallyhard this year and we hada lot of fun even thoughwe only had six run-ners.”

Making a return tocoaching the team wasPeter Gorfida, who or-chestrated Stafford’s lonecross country state title in1995.

The Commonwealthdistrict meet was heldNov. 25 at WillowmerePark. The boys had fifthrunners in the top 25which resulted in afourth place finish, quali-fying them for the re-gional meet. The highestindividual finisher wasJoey Murray who fin-ished 15th, with a time of16:58.

The girls gave it theirall but came up short

Stafford’s varsity foot-ball team ended their season3-5 in the District and 4-6overall. They started theirseason off with a couple ofscrimmages against Free-dom High School andOsborne Park. Stafford wonagainst Freedom 21-0 andlost to Osborne Park 12-2.When the actual season be-gan, Stafford playedPotomac High School, givingthem their first loss of theseason, 14-0.

“This was the first gameof the season. We realizedwhat we needed to workon,” said football head coachChad Lewis.

A week later on Sep. 14,Stafford held their firsthome game against FauquierHigh School. Stafford fellshort 27-21, going into threeovertimes.

Playing in the pouringrain, Stafford was ahead thewhole game, then fell apart,letting the Falcons score atouchdown to tie up thegame with no time left. Go-ing into three overtimes,Stafford missed opportuni-ties to win the game. “Weplayed hard the wholegame,” said quarterbackStephen Lamar. “We never

gave up.”Starting off their season

0-2, the Indians added an-other loss to Liberty HighSchool.

With the next gameagainst cross town rivalsBrooke Point, also being thefirst district game, Staffordhoped to come out on topwhen it counts.

Stafford couldn’t achievethe win, leaving the score13-6. Dante Cook had theonly running touchdown toput points up for Stafford.With this loss Stafford’srecord overall was 0-4 and0-1 in the District. On Oct.5, Stafford finally got thewin they needed. PlayingMountain View, Staffordwon 42-7. Touchdownswere scored by Lamar, whoran for three; Drew Overbyfrom a pass from Lamar;Tre Harris with a kick offreturn; and DexterMcDougal had a punt re-turn. Jeff Roles had extrapoints for all the touch-downs.

After the MountainView win, Stafford wasready for their next gameagainst Colonial Forge.Stafford won the game 21-17 in overtime, puttingStafford’s record 2-5 over-all and 2-1 in the District.

XCountry runsin Regionals

Photo by Mimi BoppStaffords defensive line sets against Massaponax. The MassaponaxPanthers beat the Indians in this away game.

EXTRA

FOOTBALL

PICTURESPhotos by Mimi Bopp

Varsity finishes 4-6By Cara FenwickSports Editor

By Ian LyonsStaff Writer

with a seventh place fin-ish. The highest indi-vidual finisher was LauraWandres, who finished37th, with a time of22:04.

The boys then movedon to the Northwest Re-gional meet, which washeld at Panorama Farmsin Charlottesville.

They finished seventhout of 16 teams. Murraysaid, “Regionals was a dis-appointment this year.Despite it being out high-est finish in years, we stillcame up short of our goalto make it to states.” Thehighest individual fin-isher was Jacob Lysher in27th, with a time of17:29.

As a whole, Reesethought that the seasonwas “very successful,”and this was the bestteam he has been a partof.

Nearly all of the run-ners set personal besttimes during the seasonand they will look to im-prove for next year andsome will be competingat the collegiate level.

The team will miss itsgraduating seniorsMurray, Reese, Raddatz,and Wandres, as well asCaroline Rice, SarahSanford, Matt Kairys, andPatrick Waller, but it willbe returning anotherstrong team for next sea-son.

Dante Cook with the ball.Cook made All-Districtthis season

Stafford blocksMassaponax from gettingto the ball.

Record doesn’t reflectvolleyball team skills

Varsity volleyball fin-ished the fall season withtwo victories and 18 losses.

“The record was not agood reflection of the team,”said coach Demaris Brown.“The team had a lead inmost of the games theyplayed. They just needed tolearn how finish thegames.”

Brown has coachedStafford Volleyball for threeyears now. She has com-pletely changed the pro-gram, but “it will take an-other two years to see achange in the record.”

Compared to last seasonthis year ’s team workedbetter together.

Under the leadership oftheir two captains, seniorAnalisa Brown and juniorBrittny Libero, the team

worked very hard and alsonever quit even when theywere losing the game.

Analisa was not only acaptain, the middle hitter,and the team’s MVP but alsoreceived all-district honor-able mention. “Analisa de-served every award shegot,” said Lauren Priddy.She was a great aspect toour team.” With over 102blocks she led the county,”

“Libero is one of thehardest-working playerson the team,” said coachBrown. “Because of her hardwork she was presentedwith the Coach’s Award.”

Marie Brenninger andAmanda Rivera were twoother seniors on the team.The team however, wasmainly made up of juniorsBritney Painter, AbbyReisenfeld, Lauren Priddy

and Sarah Silk.“Sarah was the most im-

proved throughout the sea-son,” said Brown. “Shenever quit.”

Courtney Collier, outsidesetter, and MichelleMancari, outside setter andhitter, were the only twosophomores to make theteam.

The varsity volleyballteam started the seasonwith the motto, buildingpride one victory at a time.“The reason for this mottois because of the change inthe team,” said Brown.“They needed to be proud ofwho they are as a team, re-gardless of their record.”

“I think that we will domuch better in the confer-ence next year,” saidBrown. “We will have astrong returning team.”

By Sierra AbaieFeautres Editor

Cheer does wellBy Stacie GregoriousStudent Life Editor

Dante Cook goes for a sackagainst Libertyquarterback

Dexter McDougal runswith the ball for a c oupleyards

Spencer Boop gets readyfor a tackle

Stafford waits for a call,Johnson signals it’s SHSball

Stephen Lamar takes theball after Jake Johnson getstackled

Tyler Ross first putpoints up for Stafford, fol-lowed by Jake Johnson. Co-lonial Forge stayed strongand tied the game 14-14.Stafford, being in this famil-iar situation before wantedto make the most out of thisovertime and not be re-minded of past overtimegames.(Fauquier, threeovertimes)

Lamar handed the ballto Cook who ran for a touch-down, winning the game.Riverbend was next for theIndians for their homecom-ing game. Stafford fell shortwith a score 34-40.

Touchdowns were madeby Lamar, Ross, and Cook.Putting the game in over-time for a third time thisseason, Stafford let a winslip through their fingersfalling to Riverbend withtheir overtime victory.

Stafford’s last two gameswere against Albmarle andNorth Stafford. Staffordwon both games and withthat got the bell back fromNorth Stafford.

“North has had the bellevery year except this onesince my freshman year,”said senior Jake Johnson.“I’m glad to finally get thebell back.” Stafford finishedtheir season 4-6 overall,with an good season.

The competitioncheerleading squad’s seasonhas came to an end.

For some girls, it wastheir last season. The loss of11 seniors this year has donenothing but put more pas-sion into the remaininggirls.

The squad has seen theirshare of setbacks this sea-son. Right before districts inOctober, two cheerleaderslost their spot on the teamand the team scrambled tofill their positions.

Also, one of the girls suf-fered a sprained ankle andwas forced to sit out forweeks. Fortunately, she washealed enough to compete indistricts.

The squad suffered twofalls in their first routine.Some thought that this wasthe end but when the re-sults came in, Stafford hadplaced in the top four.

This allowed them tocompete in the second roundfor placement. They nailedtheir routine and placedthird overall.

Everyone was extremelypleased with their successso far.

“First round we felltwice but second round wewent out and hit every-

thing,” said senior Ashley-Nicole Carmichael. “It feltreally good to show every-one what we could do.”

Next up was the regionalcompetition which washosted at Stafford. The girlswere excited to compete attheir home school.

The familiar settinghelped calm nerves andmake the girls feel morecomfortable.

However, right beforeRegionals, sophomoreHeather Kincaid broke herhand. “It was definitely an-other setback for the team,”Kincaid said. “But I knew Icouldn’t let anyone down soI did my best.”

When it was their turn,the girls were nervous yetready to compete.

Their routine was solidexcept for two minor stuntfalls which were threepoints each.

Unfortunately, this wastoo much of a deduction totake.

Stafford ended up takingninth place.

Though everyone reallywanted to make it to states,the girls were pleased withhow they had done.

The end of competitionseason marks the beginningof basketball season, andtheir current focus is pre-paring for the games.

porporporporportststststs

Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405 9Dec. 12, 2007

porporporporportststststs

Megan Oliver has beenon the varsity field hockeyteam for three years. All ofher hard work on the teamfinally paid off when shew a sawardedR e -gionalPlayerof theYear onN o v .2 6 .Oliverh a sa l s oA l l -D i s -t r i c tt h i sy e a r ,accom-panied by Amanda Loweryand Sammi McNulty.“Megan is an amazingplayer and hard worker,”said head coach AutumnArrowood. “I wish I couldhave ten Megans.” Oliver

OLIVER REGIONAL PLAYER OFYEAR, 1ST TEAM ALL MET

The field hockey teamhad a very successful seasonwith a 17-8 record, finish-ing second in the State AAAfinals. “The girls worked re-ally hard during the pre-season to prepare for thestrenuous season ahead,and in the end it definitelypaid off,” said Coach Au-tumn Arrowood.

During the regular sea-son, the girls had practicesMonday – Friday, workingas hard as they could tocomplete the season witha title. “We worked reallyhard together at the prac-tices after school, and itshowed when it got downto the end of the games,”said the Varsity juniorgoalie Emily Raddatz.Raddatz went through theseason with 12 shutouts.

Through the early prac-tices and dozens of games,the girls worked to come to-gether as a team, especiallyconnecting to different po-sitions on the field. “Defenseplayed really well in all ofour games,” said seniorMaria Colopy. “The scoreswould have been a lot worsehad we not played together.”

The team mostly hadhome games on Tuesdaysand away games on Thurs-

days. They had a great sea-son though, they had a fewlosses. From the four, twowere from the MountainView Wildcats, and the oth-ers from the Colonial ForgeEagles, both being closematches.

For all the games, theteam had a large support

group of their families, stu-dents, and staff. They keptthe players fired upthroughout the game so thatthey could carry on a fan-tastic record.

“This season we had ourups and downs, and I’m re-ally proud of the team, be-cause they worked reallyhard,” said senior captainMegan Oliver. “We defi-

nitely proved ourselves, andleft no doubt.”

For the Districtgames, the girls first domi-nated Brooke Point with ascore of 4-0. Then they wenton to beat one of their rivals,Colonial Forge, to advanceto the District Champion-ship against Mountain

V i e w .A f t e rcomplet-ing theg a m ewith aloss of 2-0, theg i r l swere de-t e r -m i n e dfor a winin theupcom-ing Re-g i o n a lPlayoffs.

I nthe Re-

gional matches, the girlsquickly took control bywiping out Forest Park witha 6-0 shut out. Next the teamneeded to defeat Riverbendfor another chance to attendthe State Tournament inVirginia Beach. The girlseasily secured their spots instates with a score of 5-0.The Regional Champion-ship was yet again another

meeting with their numberone rival, Mountain View.

For the players,this was a must win to get agood position in States. Thegirls completed their mis-sion with a score of 2-1 inovertime. It was a big winfor the team, not only be-cause they beat their great-est rival, but also becausethey got a great spot in theState Tournament.

“We went out there,knew what we had to do,and we did it,” said fresh-man Taylor Bailey. “Weended their undefeated sea-son making it the ultimatewin!”

The girls went into theState AAA competition, firstfacing James River to ad-vance into the semifinalround. Stafford dominatedthe game but came out witha score of 1-0.

The semifinal round wasplayed against PrincessAnne. The first half left Prin-cess Anne with a 2-0 lead,but the second half showedthe fighting side of the Indi-ans. They came back toscore 3 goals in the last 10minutes of the game.

“A lot of people knew thegame was over from alreadybeing down 0-2, but wepulled through in the endand made it count,” said se-nior Cara Fenwick, the

Hockey gets secondin state tournamentBy Julia Colopy, KatheleenGayleStaff Writters

Oliver takes the ball down thefield against Massaponax

Photo By Cara Fenwick

The field hockey team hold hands every game during the National Antham. This has been a Stafford traditon for a long time. Photo by Julia Colopy

strongest players on theteam, is known for herstrong dribbling down theright side and her hardcrosses to goal. Oliver wasalso one of the leaders ingoals with after KaitlynRipley. She was also con-tributed with assists. Thisis not the first time Oliverhas been named AllRegion.This is not as high ofan honor as player of theyear, but she was awardedwith All-District, All-Re-gion, and All-State lastyear ’s season. Oliver hashad her best season over allof her other two. Oliver doesnot know if she wants toplay in college, but she hopesto attend Virginia Tech inthe fall.

By Cara FenwickSports Editor

Boom. Boom. Clap. That’sthe sound of people makingrhythms with their hands andfeet. The definition of step isthe single complete move-ment of raising one foot andputting it down in another spot.Fortunately Stafford’s stepteam has more rhythm thenthat.

Anna Ellis, the sponsor ofthe step team, has a lot to sayabout the upcoming season.“Step team is similar to dance,except the entire body is usedas an instrument to producerhythm and sounds throughfootsteps, spoken word, andhand claps,” said Ellis.

When coming out for thestep team, as with other teams,great attitude, unity and lotsof Indian spirit is required.The team captains VictoriaSmith, Marissa McDuffie, andCourtney Murphy make surethat everything is in order.

“To be the captain of thestep team is very fun, but italso comes with responsibil-ity and learning how to take

the role of a leader,” said se-nior Victoria Smith, “I lookforward to having a much bet-ter year than last year, eventhough last year wasn’t thatbad, but I plan for the team togo far with my help.”

With any team there isbound to be drama, but witheverybody willing to help ev-erybody, there is none of that.“So far there is no drama,”said senior Courtney Murphy,“All we have is sisterhood.”

The step team will be per-forming at both boys and girlsbasketball games, which theywill be alternating with thedance team. They use theperformances at the basket-ball games as “practice” forthe upcoming step competi-tion that is hosted every year.

“Heck yes, we are goingto make it to competition thisyear because we are going towork very hard,” said seniorAngel Thomas, laughing. Stu-dents look forward to seeingthe step team portray thatteam unity and spirit that weall know and love.

Step team isgetting readyBy Tamikia WilliamStaff writer

A. Lopezsigns atVMI

Photo by Alishia Abrams

scorer of the winning thirdgoal.

This comeback sent thegirls into the finals of theState Tournament againstCox.

“We were just so excitedto be there, and differentpeople at school didn’tthink we could do it, but weproved them wrong byplaying at a very intenselevel,” said senior captainAmanda Lowery.

The girls put in theirbest effort but Cox’s teamtook quick control, endingthe game at 6-0. Their fun-damentals and stick skillswere too much for Staffordto make a comeback.

“The girls did a great jobthis year, and it was a greatleadership experience beingable to be a captain and helplead the girls to such anamazing finish,” said seniorcaptain Kaitlyn Ripley.

The players had a greatseason by outscoring theiropponents 77-32 and be-coming 2nd in the District,1st in the Region, and 2ndin the state of Virginia.

“We have a lot of youngtalent on the team for nextyear,” said Arrowood. “Af-ter having nine seniorsgraduate, the underclass-men have very large shoesto fill.”

Regional and State Runner-up trophies areon display for all students to enjoy the teamsseason

Photos by Nate Carden

PitcherWins -- 1Losses --1Games -- 6

Earned Run Average -- 4.05Strike-outs--24 in 18

innings

was a captain this year andone of the strongest leaderson the field. Oliver is also avery positive player.“Megan is the kind of girlwho believes in everyoneand won’t let negativity get

out,” said se-nior MariaColopy. “Shekeeps every-one going.”Oliver hasnot had aneasy seasonthough, asthe startingright for-w a r d ,Oliver isk n o c k e ddown threeor fourtimes agame, but

gets right up and keeps fight-ing. “Meg gets the worstbeating out on the field,”said freshman CarlySullivan. “Her little bodycan handle it though.”Oliver, being one of the

Oliver takes the ball to goal.

Adam Lopez shakes handswith his baseball coachDanny Beverly

Lopez signs the letter tocommit to VMI baseball.

Lopez gets a hug from hismother after signing.

Lopez smiles with hisfamily, brother Michaeland Mr. and Mrs. Lopezand baseball coach Beverly

Lopez gets ready to shakehands with AthleticDirector Wes Bergazzi.

Lopez smiles with Mrs.Mary Beth Worhatch, hisguidience counselor, whoorganized the event.

Lopez gets ready to cut hiscake with basketball coachSteve Spicer

ADAM LOPEZ

Photo By Cara Fenwick

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 2240510

By Mandy SullivanStaff Writer

AP English 11 is a hit

AP Language and Composition11 is a class added this year avail-able to juniors in search for theopportunity to improve theirwriting skills.

“It’s very different then anyother class,” said Brauer. “The stu-dents have to establish argumentsto support their ideas.”

“I like that the class allows meto controllably argue with the re-spect from other people,” saidKatherine Pisciotta. “I think thatMrs. Brauer is the perfect teacherfor it.”

This class allows the studentsto talk about up-to-date issues thatare impacting the world such aspolitical campaigns dealing withHilary Clinton and other issuesthey think would be a successfulargument topic. The students arein an environment in which theyaren’t shy to suggest a topic of in-terest.

“I love making the kids validatetheir beliefs,” said Brauer. “Theymust support their ideas with re-search and not just count on whatthey already know.”

All students can tell the classtheir opinions. If they are pre-pared with backup support, theywill be never looked upon aswrong.

“I love the class because we getto argue,” said Jessica Byl. “It’s theonly class I have where I can talkabout things that are going onnow.”

Jamie Stafford, Olivia Garner,Nick Sharp, Rebecca Rochte, andRita Daniels were elected as Inter-national Club officers in a recentmeeting. Out of the ten prospectiveofficers who ran, only five wereelected.

The officers do not have specificpositions; they share the responsi-bilities equally between them. Eventhough the majority of clubs atschool have defined positions andthey don’t, the officers seem to likeit.

“I think that the way we runthe club is better,” said Garner.“Everyone feels as though theyhave the same responsibilities.”

Some of the officers, such asStafford, were involved in the startup of International Club as well.

“When I heard that there wasn’tgoing to be a Spanish club this year,I went to Mrs. Lorenzo and wetried to think of a club to replaceit,” said Stafford. “I wanted an ex-citing club that would be fun for alot of people. So we thought of In-ternational club.”

The old Spanish club sponsor,Mrs. Lorenzo, is now the Interna-tional Club sponsor. The officershave generally taken many yearsof at least one foreign language andhave an interest in foreign culture,such as Garner who is in bothFrench and Spanish club and is alsoa French club officer.

“I really like being involvedwith different cultural activities,”said Garner. “I also enjoy organiz-ing and leading a group.”

The club officers also decide theactivities of the club members.They recently celebrated the Mexi-can holiday The Day of The Dead.To celebrate this Mexican traditionthe officers set up a movie, handedout information packets and hadtrivia questions with a chance towin candy. Members also sharedstories of their experience with TheDay of The Dead.

International Club alsoadopted an army platoon thatthey collected non-perishablegoods for. Senora Lorenzo’s Span-ish class students also wrotecards and letters to send to the sol-diers. Donations were made in theforeign language rooms.

At their next meeting, they areplanning on cooking holidaydishes from different countries.The officers try to think of eventsthat are multicultural and thatreflect the festivities and the sea-sons for many different countries.The officers are also trying to planfield trips and other out of schoolactivities to observe cultural holi-days.

Anybody who is interested injoining International club is stillvery welcome to come and join. TheInternational club meets on thefirst Monday of each month in Se-nora Lorenzo’s classroom, N217.

International clubelects first officersBy Kyle FalkensternStaff Reporter

The National Art Honor Soci-ety is organized for students toshowcase their artistic talents togive back to their community, andto learn more about art. This year,NAHS plans to become much moregoal oriented.

There are many upcoming ac-tivities that NAHS is planning, in-cluding a Winter Arts Show toshowcase members’ artwork.

Also, NAHS members willpaint the backdrop for the upcom-ing school play, The Sound of Mu-sic, and will design ceiling tiles fordifferent organizations. Field tripsare also on the club’s agenda, toplaces like the National Art Gal-lery.

The NAHS is also organizing acouple of murals, such as a SocialCommentary Mural highlightingthe good and bad of downtownFredericksburg, and possibly amural dedicated to past andpresent wrestling MVPs in theauxiliary gym.

Meetings are held every otherThursday after school in the artroom. Senior Anthony Frederick,

who is one of the NAHS’s PublicRelations officers, stressed the im-portance of coming to the sched-uled meetings.

Participation is key in NAHSthis year. In order to remain in theNAHS, members need to earntwenty NAHS points per semes-ter. Students can earn points bybringing supplies, doing after-school volunteer work,fundraising, and going to clubmeetings.

Members must also maintaina certain GPA and stay actively in-volved in the NAHS. There is anapplication that must be filled outand returned with NAHS dues,which are seven dollars.

“We are trying to make theNAHS more respectable and letthe members know that this is aclub that will require effort tomaintain membership,” saidNAHS President Ana Brown, se-nior. “You can’t just pay your dues,come to the club picture, and callit a day.”

NAHS members are lookingforward to a year of activities thatwill expand their knowledge andlove of Art.

By Michelle McConnellStaff Writer

NAHS takes part inmany activities

The storage space in the cafete-ria refrigerator slowly disap-peared as Thanksgiving break ap-proached. Students and teachersdonated turkeys that replacedchicken nuggets and mystery meatloaf.

The Latin Club sponsored aturkey drive for theFredericksburg Food Bank on LeeHill Drive in downtownFredericksburg.

“The drive allowed underprivi-leged families to have a goodThanksgiving,” said Latin clubteacher and club sponsor Mrs.Corrina Quader.

Ms. Jetta Peterkin, a substitutefor Quader during her leave, tookseven turkeys to the food bank onthe Friday, Nov. 16. Quader alsohelped take two additional tur-keys to the food bank.

According to theFredericksburg Food Bankwebsite, the organization reachedtheir goal of collecting 2,000 tur-keys and turkey breasts. Addi-tional turkeys and hams are stillbeing collected for the Christmasholiday. The bank also acceptsmoney as a donation for needyfamilies in the area.

The Latin club has sponsored aturkey drive for two years.

“The lady that I handed themover to was very pleased, espe-cially with some of the bigger ones

that they can now give to largerneedy families,” said Peterkin.“They also bring a sense of com-munity by feeling that they arecelebrating with others as well astheir own families.”

While the Latin club was busyat home, sophomores NicholasMorton and Nicholas Larsen andjunior Allison Strock representedthe Latin club at the Virginia Jun-ior Classical League Latin Conven-tion (VJCL) in Richmond.

Students from around the coun-try participated in a wide-rangeof events including dramatic in-terpretations and Latin oratorycontests as well as tests aboutLatin and Greek mythology.

Junior Allison Strock went tothe convention for the secondtime. “I enjoyed the convention alot,” said Strock.

Strock won third place in thetree ornament contest and ninthplace in the Greek history quiz.

“The highlight of the trip wasthe talent show, which had lots offunny singing and dancing,” saidStrock.

The three students who at-tended had to pay their dues, be-come a VJCL member, be in goodacademic standing, and partici-pate in at least one academic test.

Possible participants wrote aparagraph giving reasons why heor she should to go the convention.

Along with drives and conven-tions, the Latin Club also takes

Latin Club sponsorsturkey, food drive

The art and drama depart-ments found a fun and competi-tive way to kick off Thanksgivingbreak: a football game between thefriendly rival departments, clev-erly named the “Turkey Bowl.”

Students and teachers fromboth departments met after schoolTuesday, Nov. 20 after school forthe first Turkey Bowl, which thedrama department won 2-1. Butwhy would the two fine arts de-partments play football?

“We started playing footballFridays after rehearsal,” said KellyThomas, drama teacher. “Then wedecided to organize a game withthe art department for the holi-days.”

Few art students made an ap-pearance at the game, causingdrama students and teacher ChadJohnson to play for the other team.

“We were completelyoutmatched,” said junior LysuelleSlaughter about the artdepartment’s turnout. “It was like,ten art kids to like, forty dramakids.” Slaughter played for the artteam and scored their only touch-down.

The atmosphere at the gamewas friendly, but still competitive.Players were tagged, tackled, andscored touchdowns, but still man-aged to have a lot of fun.

“It was a deliriously good time,and I’m still giddy,” said artteacher Nicholas Candela.

“Art did great. They held us off,”said senior Aaron O’Connell.“Drama did great, everyone didgreat and had fun.” O’Connellplayed for the drama team.

“It was a lot of fun and nextyear art’s going to put up a betterfight against drama!” said Slaugh-ter.

Overall, the first Art v. DramaTurkey Bowl was a success, andthe departments look forward tonext year’s game.

Fine ArtsTurkeyBowlFootballBy Dawnthea PriceStaff Reporter

The AP 11 students will be do-ing a project that will be based ontheir subject of interest.

Students will select an issuethey are interested in but will stillneed Brauer’s approval. The stu-dents have been collecting articleseach day to get more informationon their subject, but aren’t surewhat they are actually going to dowith it.

The students will be expectedto research an area to develop in-formation to support an argumentwith others.

“This year has been challeng-ing so far in that the students havehad to learn how to argue with-out the emotional attachment thatfollows,” said Brauer.

The students are currently us-ing the text, “Everything’s an Ar-gument,” which has current issuesthat are debatable. It is used dailywithin class.

“I like the fact that I can voicemy own opinion,” said Carol AnneParks. “It’s different from anyother English class and I really en-joy having Mrs. Brauer as ateacher.”

The students are looking for-ward to getting something specialout of this class and have the op-portunities that they have neverbeen given before. The course endswith the normal AP test but thisone requires writing argumentsrather than remembering litera-ture or facts read for a course.

Sponsor Mrs. Quader holds upone of the many turkeysdonated to the Food Bank.

tudent ife

These two texts are the primary textes in the new class. Learninghow to argue is more difficult than many think.

Photo by Alisha Abrams

By Jenny PanStaff Writer

trips to socialize as a club. Theygo to the Lazy Susan Dinner The-atre in Lorton, Virginia every Dec.to enjoy some “fine dinner the-ater,” said senior Latin club secre-tary Kevin MacArthur. “In theyears past this event has been ahighlight for the club that every-one has enjoyed.”

New members are welcome tojoin at any point during the yearby contacting Quader at Room N-216. Students can listen for meet-ing dates on the announcements.

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Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 22405 11Dec. 12, 2007

Research shows that studentsneed to have an after school job inhigh school to learn values suchas responsibility and time man-agement. However, people are de-bating whether having an afterschool job is too stressful and timeconsuming.

According tofamilyeducation.com, a report bythe National Research Counciland the Institute of Medicineshowed that students who worked15 hours a week had lower grades,higher dropout rates, and wereless likely to attend college.

“I get little time for sleep andhomework,” said working seniorJason Jones. “Sometimes my home-work affects my sleep and if Ichoose to sleep more, my gradesare affected.”

An experiment conducted byfamilyeducation.com on the im-pact of part-time jobs on studentsshowed that students who wereemployed had a disadvantageover students who were unem-ployed. The negative effects ofhaving a job increased with thenumber of hours worked afterschool.

“Students who work longerhours report diminished engage-ment in schooling, lowered schoolperformance, increased psycho-logical distress, higher drug andalcohol use, higher rates of delin-quency, and greater autonomy

By Kelsey ChestnutEntertainment Editor

After school jobs requiretime management skills

from parental control,” saidTemple University researcherLaurence Steinberg on edletter.org.

Students who do not have anafter school job have more free-dom to get good grades in schooland keep up with sleep and otheractivities.

“I definitely have more freetime without a job,” said juniorBasil Fedun. “My friend works atthe VOC and he’s always preoccu-pied on the weekends.”

Parents want their students toget a part-time job after school toteach them how to be responsible,manage their money, and save upspending money for college. Ac-cording to research by Steinberg,only 11 percent of students saidthey saved their money for college,and three percent used theirwages to help benefit their fami-lies.

According to edletter.com, re-search shows that students withlow GPAs, no plans for attendingcollege, no future plans, and arecord of retention were morelikely to work jobs with longhours.

There are some benefits abouthaving a part-time job. Part-timejobs give students an opportunityto be responsible, learn how tomanage their time and money, andshow them what life after highschool will be like. It is up to thestudent to get these positive op-portunities from an after schooljob.

According to suite101.com, se-niors in high school should get af-ter-school jobs to help their par-ents pay for expensive events suchas senior prom, SATs, and gradua-tion.

Students are recommended totake jobs through programs suchas School-To-Work or Work-Based-Learning. Researchers saidthat the most successful jobs arejobs that are linked with schooland learning programs.

“The majority of teenagers arenot working in this type of job,”said researcher David Stern.“There is evidence that those whoare have a more positive attitudeabout work and fewer academicproblems than those whose jobsare not linked to a school pro-gram.”

There are positive benefits ofgetting an after-school job. Ac-cording to Steinberg, working en-riches young people’s life experi-ences, thereby enhancing self-con-fidence, self-responsibility, self-discipline, self-initiation, self-es-teem, and independence.

“Workplaces offer youngpeople a real-life environment toexamine and practice the knowl-edge and skills that they learnedin school,” said social.jrank.com.

There are both pros and consto getting an after school job. Af-ter school jobs can affect students’grades in school and their sleep.However, a job is thought to teacha student responsibility and timemanagement.

The Stafford marching bandpracticed in the summer andduring the year to compete incompetitions during the fall.They also played during footballgames.

The band had a great seasoncompetition-wise. In the WarriorClassic competition, they placed1st for band. The marching bandwas also given Straight Superi-ors, a perfect performance, in theVBODA competition. They re-ceived awards in the NorthStafford and Spotsylvania com-petitions such as 2nd and 3rd inpercussion, respectively. Theband placed 3rd overall in bothof those competitions.

“After the competition, gettingawards is fun”, said Chris Wil-son, a senior trombone player.“There are about 20-25 schools atthe competition sometimes.”

For marching band members,competitions seem to be very funand interesting to them.

“Performing is fun and it’s in-teresting to watch other bandsperform,” said Jessica Stewart, a

freshman flute and piccolo player.“The Warrior Classic competitionwas most memorable because wegot to stay overnight.”

Chuck Hite is the marchingband advisor as well as the bandteacher. “The most importantthing in band is that you learn tocooperate, you learn dependabil-ity, responsibility, and honesty,”said Hite, “This is very important.When you work outside of school,you still use it.”

Band requires talent and a lotof determination.

“You have to practice,” saidIan Guagliardo, senior trumpetplayer. The marching band prac-ticed everyday for sports gamesand competitions.

“Band takes a lot of dedicationand patience,” said Wilson.

Students also know that bandis something that will affect theirfuture.

“Band definitely helps you incollege,” said Guagliardo.

Other students plan to useband for life.

“I want to get a doctorates de-gree in music performance”, saidStewart.

By Iksu OhStaff Writer

Marching bandends with BANG!

With a rich history surround-ing Stafford it is no wonder thereare stories around every corner.Historical Society members dugup a time capsule near the lake todiscover an arrangement of arti-facts that managed to stay hid-den for thirty years.

The Historical Society hasstarted off to a quick start, withmany more activities ahead.

This fall offers a lot of oppor-tunities for the Historical Societyto be involved in the historicalevents around the area. A WorldWar II veteran and local authorvisit is scheduled as a possibleactivity.

The author, who wrote a bookabout the many visits presiderAbraham Lincoln made to theFredericksburg area, has ex-pressed interest in showing apresentation.

Civil War reenactments arealso open for members to volun-teer at. This year there will be a

special civil war reenactment ofthe Battle at Marye’s Heights. Thisyear marks the 145th anniversaryof the battle in Fredericksburg.This is the first time that there willever be a reenactment of the battle.Of the events in the reenactment,street fights are planned through-out the day on the streets of down-town.

Exam survival kits will be soldagain this year as a fundraiser.Exam kits include pencils, pens,mints, coupons and gift certificatesfrom area businesses.

Members of the Historical So-ciety volunteered at Ferry FarmDiscovery Days held at GeorgeWashington’s boyhood home. In-teractive activities catering toyoung children helped create anexciting experience for both par-ents and their interactive learners.

“The kids, for the most partwere pretty sweet,” said seniorLauren Jones.

Volunteers helped out withcrafts such as face painting, mak-ing headbands with Native

American symbols, making fra-grant pouches of nutmeg, laven-der and rose petals, decoratingpumpkins and makingdreamcatchers.

“There were different stationsof fall activities, like decoratingpumpkins inside and colonialgames outside,” said Molly Bond,a senior member.

The whole experience allowedchildren and parents to learnmore about Ferry Farm and theunique history around it.

“I learned how to play colonialgames, they even had a womantelling stories who was a descen-dant of the Native Americansaround the Fredericksburg area,”said Aaron O’Connell, senior.

The volunteering was a suc-cess to those who participated,even with rainy weather in themorning.

“I often thought we needed tooutreach to the elementary schoollevels, this definitely gave us achance to do that,” said sponsorMr. Eric Powell.

By Nina GonzalezStaff Writer

Historical Society offers fun

The seniors of 2008 have cre-ated a mural to represent theirclass. The class officers came upwith the creative idea and pre-sented it to be approved at the endof the 2006-07 school year. Theyare the first senior class to create aclass mural.

“We were really impressedwith how it turned out,” saidLaura Wandres.

Before the idea was able to becarried out, even before they wereable to go get the supplies neededget started, it had to be approved.Once approved, they began to puttheir plan into action.

It was largely a group effortand very special for everyone to

By Lacey HynsonStaff Writer

come together and work hard. BillyPetre built the frame while AnalisaBrown did most of the artwork.

“The mural helped the officersto bond,” said Cameron Adams.

The idea was to get all of thegraduating seniors to sign themural. Most of them did on Nov.13 and 14 with a gold paint pen.By doing so it gives the mural thepersonal touch of the class of 2008.

Advisor Sherry Pierce contrib-uted to the senior mural by help-ing and getting the suppliesneeded to complete this great task.The supplies were purchasedthrough the senior funds.

“I’m very pleased; the idea be-hind it all was very creative. Anda creative way to remember theclassmates that are no longer with

Seniors sign mural

Photo by Nathaniel Carden

us,” said Pierce.There will be a make up day for

the seniors who didn’t get a chanceto sign or were absent on the twooriginal signing days. After themake up signing day the seniorclass officers will discuss with Mr.Bergazzi the action of getting themural hung and the locationwhere it will be placed.

The seniors would like to havethe mural at their graduation. Get-ting the large canvas into the gym-nasium is posing a problem, butplans have not been finalized.

“It was a pain and very tediousto make but in the end it was allworth it because it was all aboutthe senior class and the memoriesof our fellow students,” said presi-dent Crystal Morales.

tudent ife

Dec. 12, 2007Stafford High School 33 Stafford Indian Lane, Falmouth, VA 2240512potlight

Mr. Portner, driver’s educationinstructor, emcees the event.

The Stafford County police helped set up thedemonstration on the field.

The sophomore class attended the Air-bag demonstration as a part of Driver’sEducation. All sophomores came to the football stadium for the demo.

All sophomores were ableto skip their second periodclass in order to see an airbagdemonstration Thursday, No-vember 8th.

Bundled up, every 10thgrader filled the center sectionof the bleachers and watchedauto students set airbags offwhile Coach Portner gave factsabout airbags. An airbag willinflate in one-twentieth of asecond, and deflate in three-twentieths of a second.

Several different objectswere set on top of the airbags,such as a bucket of sand, abucket of water, an emptybucket, and a doll referred toas “Suzy.” A steering columnand a bucket with “Suzy” ontop were also attempted, butthe airbags failed to go off dur-ing those demonstrations.Plain airbags in their contain-ers were set off as well.

“I never knew airbags wereso strong,” said sophomoreMolly Bond. “I liked how theyput the sand in the bucket toshow how strong it is.”

Coach Portner also talkedabout the different types ofairbags that are used today.Originally, airbags were just insteering columns and would

go off when a crash occurred.Newer models go off in twostages for crashes 30 mph orless, and one stage if faster than30 mph.

Airbags are not just insteering columns anymore, ei-ther. Passenger airbags, sideairbags, rear airbags, andbrake airbags are all commonin today’s cars as well. Onlydriver seat airbags were usedin the demonstration.

“Airbags can be danger-ous,” said sophomore BryanElam. “They’re not alwayssafe.” Airbags are calibratedfor 95% of the top heights ofwomen, and the lowest heightsof men. They can be dangerousfor those 5’2” and under.

There are three types of col-lisions in a car crash. The firstis when the car comes into con-tact with something else, andis called the primary collision.The secondary collision is themost dangerous, and is whenthe people in the car come intocontact with the dashboard,the steering wheel, or thewindshield. Airbags andsafety belts do their best tosoften the secondary collisionin order to help along the thirdcollision, which is when theinternal organs catch up withthe body.

By Dawnthea PriceStaff writer

Sophomore studentsget air bag demo inDriver’s Education

The doll Mr. Prowett held for the students to see wh\as blown sky high.

PHOTOS BY NINA GONZALEZ