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Community, Front/Home, News

Monday’s BOE meeting focuses primarily on student walkout

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By Maria Leonino

    Mon March 19 the Board of Education had a meeting discussing the student lead walkout. Board members included Gerry Bettio, Lisa-Johnson Bowers, David Licate, Kelly Toppin and Jason Witacre.

    Principals, teachers, students and parents gathered to listen to the board talk about their views on the walkout. Many students spoke, including Student Council President, Moriah Payne.

    Payne was in charge of leading the walkout. She wanted to make sure she made a point to say the purpose of the walkout was to promote safety.

    “Four out of five board members responded with amazement at the respect of the student body and congratulated us for handling the issue so maturely,” Payne said.

    Along with promoting safety, the student walkout served as a memorial for previous shootings and to empower the students for the change they can make in the world.

    Payne, along with the other students who led the walkout, wanted to show students that they can come together to overcome the political differences for a common cause.

    There was backlash from the community about the walkout, and the Board of Education wanted to have more interaction with the students leading up to the walkout.

Overall, Payne wanted the board to know it was not her nor the students intention to disobey the rules of the district.

    “We know we cannot change the minds of everyone, but we would appreciate the consideration that our intentions were not to debate the 2nd amendment, but rather to demonstrate the power of the 1st amendment,” Payne said.

    In response to Payne’s speech, Board of Education member, Jason Witacre pitched an idea of students being more involved with the community and the board.

    Witacre feels if students were to organize a committee linked to the board, it could help prevent further complications with events in the district.

    

 

Front/Home, News

Senior Survivor kicks off their fight for charity donations–Day one

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By Madison Gash

    Time has come again for the high school to host the yearly tradition of Senior Survivor. This highly-anticipated three-day long event happens once a year around spring break.

    There are rules for surviving the competition–some of which include having to raise fifty dollars in the first day in order to be able to spend the night in the school library, and with that, participants have to make enough money to be allowed to sell the next day.

    For those who earned the advantage of spending the night, they get to compete in mini games all throughout the night as a fun way to bond with their fellow classmates. The main goal of this event is to create a friendly competition between teams of two seniors competing to sell treats and food for a charity of their choice chosen by each individual team.

     This year, some participants  went all out. Not only did they make all the delicious desserts brought back year after year, but they also brought a whole new menu to the table by thinking outside the box.

    They are selling pancakes, waffles, quesadillas, buffalo chicken dip, mac and cheese, nachos, walking tacos, milkshakes and more.

    Teams this year include Nick Montoni and Anthony D’alessandro who are raising money for St. Jude’s, Isaac Edmondson and Nyigel Spann who are also donating their earnings to St. Jude’s, Emma Workman and Corinne Dunton who are donating to the Celiac and Allergy Friendly Food Friendly Initiative, Sarah Laubach and Gwen Shelhorn who are raising money for Animal Aid Unlimited, Grace Flinn and Sophia Boris who are donating to Autism Speaks, Audra Graveu and Moriah Payne who are raising money for the House Of Hope in Ghana, Jacy Guider and AnnMarie McCombs are donating to the Women’s March, Josh Richardson and Logan Edwards are donating to St. Jude’s as well, Sophie and Andi Perez are donating to Palestine Children Relief Fund, Christian Laumbacher and Logan Winters are donating to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and lastly, Kiki Johnson and Brittany Hoopingarner are sending all of their proceeds to a little girl in Vietnam.

    In just the first day, the seniors have brought in over $5056 for their charity, and there is more to come in the next two days. The seniors are excited to keep taking donations each day of the event in order to provide a nice donation to their charities.

Front/Home, Sports, Sports Opinion

March Madness begins with upsets and surprises

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By Evan Bainbridge

The month of march is all about college basketball and the NCAA tournament. These games are all about crazy upsets, huge blowouts and a chance to take a national championship back to school.

The tournament starts out with 68 teams, and then after the first four play-in games are done the round of 64 starts. This is the first actual round of the NCAA tournament and many people, nationwide, fill out brackets to try and win money and enjoy many games of basketball.

After the round of 64, there are usually no perfect brackets left (occasionally there is but…) because there is bound to be a couple upsets in the first round that nobody expects. This round is followed by the round of 32, then the Sweet 16, then the Elite 8, followed by the Final Four and finally the NCAA Championship game.

“I think it has been the best one I have ever seen, just because of all the upsets and the Cinderella stories, like UMBC beating Virginia,” junior Jackson Carlson said.

March Madness this year has been an exciting one for most fans because of the upsets and close games, but that can also crush someone’s bracket. The biggest upset thus far in the tournament was the 16 seeded UMBC Retrievers beating the one seeded Virginia Cavaliers in the first round of the tournament, 74-54. This was the first time in NCAA history that a one seed has ever lost to a 16 seed, and it was unexpected by everyone because Virginia was suppose to be the number one team in the whole tournament.

“This year’s tournament was full of upsets and exciting games with my favorites being UMBC and Loyola of Chicago. I loved UMBC’s energy and presence in the tournament. This was one of the most exciting first rounds in a couple years, but my bracket was destroyed after round one,” sophomore, Matthew Duffy said.

UMBC ended up losing in the round of 32, but they were the talk of the nation and still are today because they will go down in history forever. Loyola of Chicago came in the tournament as an 11 seed, and they have upset two teams in the first two rounds to advance to the Sweet 16.

The Sweet 16 games will be this Thursday and Friday where four games will be played each night. As the games get closer and closer to the championship, they start to get better and better because they are all fighting to be the National Basketball Champions of the NCAA in 2018.