2015 November Issue

Volume 75 l Issue 2 l 11.12.15 l 801 Niblick Rd. Paso Robles, CA l Paso Robles High School

love famil art

y hope religion

future art

LIGHT

home

faith passion

trust truth wish goals trust art

+ MENTAL SPORTS VEGETARIANISM BLIND DATE PLANNED PARENTHOOD

C O N T E N T S

News 3 Board meeting & Pay raise 4 Spearhead 5 State teaching award & Mock trial Co-Editors-in-Chief

Bearcat pride (left four) : PRHS students show off their spirit by participating in sports, spirit days, extracurriculars, and blind dates.

Photos by Lauren Wassam

Emily Ayer Feature/Blind Date/Food/Web/PR Manager Jessica Cole Overview Editor Maureen Pushea Feature/Blind Date/Art Director Mariela Villa Feature/Business Manager/PR Manager Managing Editors Mae App Feature/Food/Art Director Sadie Mae Mace News Copy Editor Marlee Drake Photography Director Lauren Wassam People Web Team Sam Mabry Graphic Designer Nathan Rowley SciTech Editors Natalie Cole A&E Tegan Curren People Raegan Lomanto Sports Annie Meeder Health Madecyn Penn Sports Nicole Raithel Environment Mason Seden-Hansen Opinion Grant Scheiffele World Kathryn Varian Environment Emmaline Voorheis News

Feature

18&19 Light in the dark 20&21 It’s in the name 22&23 Tomorrow is another day 24 Living to our own beat 25 Shining with sympathy 26 Faith be our light 27 A familiar light 28&29 Finding my light in you 30 Got game?

02 TOC // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Photographers Adviser Jeff Mount Facebook www.facebook.com/crimsonnewsmagazine Website www.crimsonnewsmagazine.org

Emma Corippo Ana Mendoza Madison Warren Coleen Wiest Business Team Valeria Cisneros CarmesĂ­ Kalyn Armstrong Health Graphic Designers

Email prhsjournalism@pasoschools.org

Nichole Landon Sabrina Hernandez

Instagram

Cinematographer

@crimsonnewsmag

Angelina Valencia

Pay raises arrive for teachers First $3000-$5000 per year pay raise in years

by Mason Seden-Hansen, Opinion Editor

A

On Campus

7.12 percent raise from the current teacher as the vice president of the teacher’s union. salary this year and an additional 2.5 percent The negotiations took place on September 24th raise next year have recently been approved and were between a team representing the district, by the teacher’s union executive board, comprised of District Superintendent Chris the district superintendent, the school board, and Williams, interim Chief Human Resources Officer the teacher’s union for teachers in the Paso Robles Jerry Stehman, Director of Secondary Schools Jennifer Gaviola, and Chief Public School District.

Academic Officer Babette In addition, teachers will Decou, and a team representing also have an increased the teacher’s union, including medical cap, making it Arnette, Advanced Peer and almost $11,000, which is Psychology teacher Jennifer the highest in the county.

Martinez, Winifred Pifer Teachers will also receive teacher Bridgett Woods, increased stipends, which Virginia Peterson teacher are additional payments Katherine Wilson, for extracurricular activity PRPE executive director directors such as coaches.

Jim Lennet, and Skinner.

“We truly appreciate that the school board and The unprecedentedly short that our superintendent negotiation period was also bargained in good faith, ” reportedly pleasant. “The tone at the bargaining table was history teacher Robert more civilized and congenial Skinner said, who was compared to the previous active in the negotiations. administration,” Skinner said.

The historic pay raise was negotiated between the While teachers were bargaining district and the teacher’s for more, they seem satisfied union to compensate with the agreement. “Of course, Social Studies Dept. we wanted more, but we were teachers for furlough days able to negotiate and live with from 2012 to 2014 and the suspension of teacher pay raises beginning in 2008. the 9.62 percent [increase] over 2 years,” Arnette said.

“We don’t really look at it as a raise. We look at Administrators and district personnel also it as restoring us back to where we would have received a matching raise. Teachers can been [with standard yearly raises]”, AP English expect to see the raise reflected on their teacher Steve Arnette said, who serves November paycheck, according to Skinner.

“We truly

appreciate

that the school board and that our superintendent

bargained

in

good faith,”

—Robert Skinner

By the numbers 7.12% + 2.5% = 9.62% $11,000 increase this year increase next year

“We look at it as restoring us back to where we would have been.” —Steve Arnette

Sunny prospects Solar panel installation approved

by Mason Seden-Hansen, Opinion Editor The Paso Robles School Board of Trustees voted unanimously to find out. The Paso Robles School District (PRPS) will be installing solar panels capable of producing 1,714 kilowatts of renewable solar energy. Assuming a 3 percent annual increase in energy costs, this installation will save the PRPS school district over $260,000 in just one year and approximately $9.2 million over a 20 year span, according to SunEdison representative Brian Taylor.

The solar panels will be installed at Paso Robles High School, Winifred Pifer Elementary School, Kermit King Elementary School, Virginia Peterson Elementary School, Flamson Middle School, and the Culinary Arts Academy. The solar project will be built by the SunEdison company, which is the largest renewable energy company in the world, according to Taylor. PRHS panels will be installed on new structures over the parking lot to provide shade.

Taylor also explained how SunEdison will pay for any shortage of production for the solar panels. “We have a performance guarantee that guarantees we will produce what we say we’ll produce...if this doesn’t produce what we say it will produce, we’ll [cover] what you have to pay PG&E,” Taylor said.

District staff are reportedly pleased with the upcoming installation. PRPS chief Business officer Scott Lathrop said the installation of solar panels was “definitely” a good financial move for the district. Teachers are also pleased with the installation. “I’m thrilled that [the solar installation] is happening... it’ll shrink our school’s carbon footprint and show that we’re taking climate change seriously and that we are interested in the future of our students...Bravo to the district for doing this” Earth Science, Biology, and GEO teacher Mark DiMaggio said.

Time is of the essence for this project. There are major financial incentives to finishing installation by mid-2016. One program called NEM 1.0 guarantees the value of electricity (at $0.34 a KWH) sold to the grid during summer when it is not used by schools. A 30% federal tax break will be monetized by SunEdison to lower the cost of installation for the district. PG&E will remove demand charges.

The solar “landscape” is shifting quickly and the economics and incentives will soon change, according to Taylor. The construction is planned to start sometime in spring or summer 2016 and finish by the end of the year. PRPS will be much more carbon efficient.

increase over last 2 years Total medical cap

PRHS PARKING PANELS (above) : There was a School Board decision to install solar panels in the high school parking lot. This is the high school’s renewable energy source contribution to society.

Photos by Emmaline Voorheis

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // News 03

SERVING THE BEST (Spearhead) : Spearhead Coffee opened early January 2015 in downtown Paso Robles. Coffee is always brewed in house and fresh.

International coffee with a small town feel Spearhead delivers top of the line coffee to Paso Robles

Photo by Lauren Wassam

by Kathryn Varian, Environment Co-Editor

Spearhead Coffee, located at 619 12th Street in Paso Robles, is the creation of the three innovative minds of Matt Klomp, and Jeremy Sizemore, and Joseph Gerardis who are dedicated to bringing the Central Coast specialty coffee.

Spearhead Coffee opened its doors officially in January.

Excited about scoring a spot in trendy downtown Paso Robles, the spearhead team states that “we want to help our local and global community.”

Sizemore, a graduate from Templeton High School, spent 15 years as a world-traveler. Now he is trying to buy coffee directly from growers in Haiti, El Salvador, and Thailand.

“I’ve spent time in Thailand working on importing the Thai coffee, we buy from the farmer of El Salvador, and we work directly with the importer from Haiti,” Sizemore said . He also claims that the Specialty Coffee they buy is the top 10-20 percent of coffee in the world, in order to make sure that they serve nothing but the best.

Spearhead also wants to buy coffee through direct-trade straight from the growers that they knows personally, “it is our goal in the future to work more closely with the farmers of the coffee beans we roast and serve,” Sizemore said.

They believe in direct-trade in order to help eliminate the ongoing struggle with the coffee slave trade industry.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor “coffee is produced with forced labor in Côte D’Ivoire and with child labor in Colombia, CDI, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, El Salvador, Kenya, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Uganda.”

Spearhead Coffee owners believe in a movement named Specialty Coffee. This campaign strives for coffee to become an artisanal food, like wine, instead of just a commodity. In order to stick to their beliefs, Spearhead only roasts in house and the coffee’s always fresh.

Precision is also very important to them, claiming, on their website spearheadcoffee.com, that “From the way we source and pick our green beans, to the method used to roast our coffee, to the preparation of each drink, precision is the key.”

The design of the building clearly reflects the artisanal feel the owners are striving for.

In order to be sustainable and energy efficient, mostly everything is reclaimed wood, electrical outlets are not littered through the cafe and there are no TVs. “People come to Spearhead Coffee as their office away from their office, for dates, to meet friends, or to spend a little time alone,” Sizemore said.

Their mission: to “provide our coffee in a clean and creative atmosphere, with friendly and knowledgeable staff, and in a reasonably timely manner.” And, according to their 4.5 rating on Yelp.com, it looks like they are doing just that.

Coffee Worldwide

$4 billion is spent on importing coffee every year

“We want to help our

local

and

global

community.”

—Jeremy Sizemore

04 News // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

34% of coffee drinkers go to premium places to buy coffee

9oz 54% is the

average size of a cup

of 18+ year old Americans drink coffee every day

ofAcoffee coffee drinker consumes 3.1 cups of coffee daily

According to theatlantic.com and statisticbrain.com

NEWS in brief Clothes collection

by Ana Mendoza, Reporter During the board meeting on Tuesday, Oct 13, student representative Lily Seebart reported on Jeans For Teens to the Lowe’s Hero Project and the board approved a couple of Resolutions.

As for Jeans for Teens, Seebart brought the charity over to PRHS last year and hopes to continue with the charity once again. “[Jeans for Teens] is a charity that I’ve been involved with for six years,” Seebart said.

“It is a charity that gives the clothes that we wear to homeless shelters, women’s shelters, and other places that help those in need around SLO county.”

The collection will continue through October 26-February 12, 2016.

Career Dress Day

by Raegan Lomanto, Sports Co-Editor

Unfortunately for those spirited Bearcats who love to dress up in wacky attire, this year at PRHS for Halloween was Dress For Your Future Day. “Leadership was given the task of coming up with a fun dress up day, [and we]came up with this idea,” said Leadership teacher Jennifer Bedrosian.

Mixed reactions have arisen.

“I think it’s annoying that we can’t technically dress up...because it’s been a thing for us since we were little,” senior Alex Bigelow said.

Junior Easton Anguay agreed with the idea of dressing up with meaning. ““I’d say it’s a good idea because it’s more organized and gives a purpose to dressing up”.

Humerus and effective

Teacher Jon-Paul Ewing receives state recognition for teaching

by Kalyn Armstrong, Health Co-Editor Anatomy and Physiology and Marine Biology teacher Jon-Paul Ewing patrols around his fourth period Anatomy classroom, observing the sketches of

expressed pride in Ewing’s remarkable teaching.

Ewing recieved a Finalist Award from the California Science Education Conference the weekend of Oct. 2 from

transmembrane proteins his students have sketched to their best ability on memorization. His approach to create metaphors of a glycoprotein, or little cactus dude, as he

the Sheraton in Sacramento with knowledge that he was one of the top five finalists. While attending the luncheon, Ewing explained that he felt friendly vibes, as well as tremendous

would put it, is just a glimpse into his ability to connect with his students and reach the ‘Ah-Ha!’ moment of a learned concept.

Ewing was nominated last spring by principal Randy

support from fellow Paso teachers in the district.

“I think my most successful method of teaching is making science fun and connecting with the students. I enjoy laughing every day either at or with my students,” Ewing

Nelson to submit a live class video of a 45 minute lesson. He entered the lesson to The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching along with thousands of other teachers. Ewing was selected as one of the top five

said. His teaching has humor and the topics he presents to his students are unique.

“I have Ewing for two of my classes, and I’m almost positive that if any other teacher taught them I would be

finalists, and if he advances to represent California as the top science teacher of the state, he will travel to D.C., meet the president and receive an award of $10,000 in approximately one year.

“I gladly put in the letter of recommendation for him, and

incredibly bored,” senior Taylan Perez said. She also claimed that Ewing’s best method of teaching is the use of funny metaphors that clarify concepts.

Ewing’s best memories include helping students push through with a topic they may struggle with and forming

I’m not surprised that everyone who has had a chance to see the type of teacher he is recognizes that this is a very deserving award” said principal Randy Nelson, who

a personal relationship with them. Ewing concluded that overall, the students of PRHS are his main priority.

Wizards Unite

Mock Trial

Annual Paso Triwizard Cup is a success

by Camden Tucker, Reporter

by Ana Mendoza, Reporter

Mock Trial is back and running with Modern World History/APUS H teacher Seth Draine and AVID & English 12 teacher, Janice Hoy. Mock trial is an academic competition where students compete against other schools in the county to win a court case. The club meets Tuesdays in room 112 and Thursdays in room 1020 after school at 3:30. The Mock team consists of pre-trial lawyers, prosecution and defense attorneys, witnesses, a bailiff, and an unofficial and official timer, a courtroom artist and a courtroom journalist.

Photos by Lauren Wassam

SCIENCE IS FUN (top right) : Ewing was recognized as a top five finialist in the state. He may advance to nationals next year.

WINNING THE TROPHY (bottom left) : Nation poses with the trophy. She led the Gryffindor team to victory.

Left. Right. Left. The darkness surrounded them. A breeze swept through the labyrinth of corn bringing a chill to their core. As they rounded the corner, a dementor lunged through the green stalks releasing a high pitched squeal. They wielded an array of LED cell phone flashlights and the scuffling of their feet through the dirt trails to locate a miniscule golden goblet, the goal of this autumn evening.

Anyone who participated in the

third annual Paso Triwizard Cup on October 27 knew these feelings well.

The Harry Potter themed event was hosted by the Adventure Club at the River K Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze. First people were sent into the maze at 7:30 p.m.

Gryffindor won the event by finding the cup twice out of the four rounds.

Ravenclaw and Slytherin tied second with one find a piece. Hufflepuff took last when they came back empty handed every round.

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // News 05

PLANNED

PP FACTS

Man makes bad choice A commentary on Project Front Lines

by Mason Seden-Hansen, Opinion Editor

We’ve all noticed the anti-abortion protestors at the high school. One guy caught my attention. Do you remember this guy: the one who stood at the crosswalk in between the parking lot and the district office with a sign, sometimes two, and ranted about Seden-Hansen abortion? I had an epiphany; he might be insane.

You may be wondering how I came to this seemingly blunt and simple conclusion, especially if you’re pro-life.

Truth is I don’t know him. But he certainly made his views known to many of us as he shouted about abortion and how girls can’t have them, and that it’s not acceptable to have one even if you are raped. He was unpleasant and intrusive. A man who acts like this is a menace to all of us, even those who would seemingly agree with his views. It might seem he is out there to save babies from abortion, but there appears to be a darker, much more twisted motive that guides him. To determine this motive, we must consider his methods.

This man is affronting the people on the sidewalk with his strongly held anti-abortion views, but notice his chosen audience. He is targeting the people who use the crosswalk, mostly the younger students at our school who cannot yet drive. This would include students as young as 14 and 15 years-old, many of whom just a few months before were in the 8th grade. This man is harassing these girls--he is coming where they cannot avoid him and pressuring them to make decisions that he deems morally correct. This is the very definition of harassment. Why is this man harassing unsupervised young people and prompting them to make decisions about their sexual lives and bodies?

Well, he is certainly insensitive towards children, as he dragged out his own child to witness his abuse of others, even in the sun when the temperature was 103 degrees. To me, it’s all too obvious he doesn’t care about the wellbeing of female students, as there are obviously much better ways to help them than yell at them while they wait to cross the street. His pamphlets outright call people who have abortions murderers, which contributes to a culture of harassing women. And, surprisingly, even preventing abortion may not be his motive, as the most simple and effective way to prevent the need for abortion would be to provide contraception and birth control, which this man has stated he is against.

What guides a grown man to aggressively approach and harass young women about sexual issues? He is being disrespectful of young women without any adults around. Most sane adult men know what we all know: talking to girls on street corners about sex is the very definition, the epitome of creepy. Can I make a request?

Please stay home.

Founded in

1916 516,000 pregnancies were averted by contraceptive services

87,988 women had cancer detected early—or abnormalities were identified

$500

Planned Parenthood receives $500 million per year from the government

4,470,597 tests/treatment were provided for STDs

06 Opinion // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Knowledge is Protection Planned Parenthood isn’t a murder factory

by Angelina Valencia, Cinemaphotographer On a gloomy October day of last year, I was walking to school with the usual dread of my upcoming English quiz in my mind. I trudged onto campus with my hands in my hoodie pocket; minding my own business, just lost in thought. Outside the tan and metal gates of the school was a man with a giant sign that featured a bloody fetus on it. He stopped me and asked my opinion on abortion. I nervously muttered, “Well it just depends on the circumstance.” I guess my words sparked something in him because he began yelling at me with graphic slurs of rape and my heartlessness for the babies who were aborted. Following the already absurd display of gore, he slipped a flyer made of cheap cardstock into my hand as he said something along the lines of, “Rape victims cannot abort the baby because killing a baby at conception is murder.” I began to think of my mother’s experiences and felt an overwhelming urge to ask this man about his pregnancy scares because he obviously knows what it feels like to be pregnant.

I learned when I was 14 that my mom had an abortion at the same age, and when she explained it she was devastated. She said, “I wasn’t mature enough to keep the baby, but when I had you I at least was two years more mature,” and this obviously made a huge difference. I was born in the Summer of 2000 when my mom was just 16. At this time my mom and my dad were in a relationship that was going too fast for both of them. And that was very unhealthy.

Sadly enough, my father was abusive and didn’t understand how things had consequences, how words affect people’s outlooks on themselves, or even that violence is never the answer. My whole life I felt like her past was hidden from me, and when I asked she would change the subject or just seemed uncomfortable sharing stories of that nature. She told me the story of how it went and what the abortion felt like. I looked in her eyes as they teared up while she said how it made her feel unbelievably heartsick, but she still thinks it’s important to discuss all the options before you go through with having an abortion. In her opinion, she believes that all girls need to be on birth control at the age they begin to have sex in order to reduce the risk of pregnancy when they aren’t ready.

Pro

My mother is a perfect example of how not having Planned Parenthood could affect someone.

Seeing it first hand, this isn’t some sad MTV Teen Mom story; this is real life. If she would have had that baby, neither me nor my sister would have been born.

There is a better way of going about “scaring” teenagers into being safer with sex or showing them the horrific consequences of having a child. If we provide our youth with better sexual education, then there will be a lower pregnancy and STI rate. This will lead to a lower high school dropout rate because nearly 50 percent of teenage mothers drop out of school, according to letsdosomething.org.

The House of Representatives is planning for removal of Planned Parenthood on the grounds that it is being unnecessarily funded by the government. If this bill goes through, we will lose a valuable health center that is free no matter what age you are. Planned parenthood isn’t just for abortion; they offer things such as STI testing and treatment. They also offer contraception and cancer screening. Planned Parenthood only performs abortions as only three percent of what they do.

Even if you aren’t looking to get an abortion, Planned Parenthood is a valuable resource. They offer many different services to young parents that they might not have access to because of their age or lack of parent aid. If teenagers are told about abortion without seeing the process or what it could do to your body, then they will not receive the message that these protestors are trying to “teach” us. Along with learning about the consequences of our actions with unprotected sex, why don’t we learn about different forms of birth control? Especially condoms. It’s disappointing that most high school students would not be able to go to the store and pick out the correct condom to use or be able to use a birth control method that works for them.

We need to learn what is right for our bodies when being sexually active and discuss all the options in a mandatory school setting in order to teach our youth. We need to learn things that will actually prepare us for a healthy life. We need to learn these things because knowledge is protection.

PARENTHOOD Con No need for Planned Parenthood

2,840,000 people are served by planned parenthood committee health centers in the U.S.

by Jessica Cole, Co-Editor-in-Chief In the beginning, I didn’t want to watch the grainy videos about Planned Parenthood and their careless dissection and sale of baby’s body parts.

So I resisted, tugging away from the videos, but I kept a careful watch on the events that followed. I saw politicians give speeches, blowing up the videos into bigger issues that included women’s rights, health care, and congressional funding.

The politics of it all created a very vague, nice sort of general knowledge that kept me rooted to my pro-life views without having to deal with any unpleasant facts.

Because ignorance is bliss. Right? And then I watched the video.

After the horrific stories I had heard about Planned Parenthood, I expected ugly old scientists who looked like murderous monsters, but as the video opened I saw a girl. She was young.

Maybe late twenties, early thirties. She had short curled hair. Her name was Amna. She seemed so normal. She seemed like an older version of my sister.

She then began speaking casually. She talked about her process for an abortion at 22 weeks, and about pulling out the fetus, extracting them spine first, so that she could get them out whole. She talked about her disappointment with not being able to extract the whole brain out at once, as if she was speaking of a cake that wouldn’t come out of the pan quite right.

But she was talking about someone’s child. Wanted or not, she was talking about a person that was slowly knitted together.

She was talking about endlessly complicated DNA coding that determines musical ability and a million other tiny parts of that human. She was talking about a being that would have an entirely unique set of fingerprints. She was talking about a baby. The only baby exactly like that to ever be born in the entirety of history.

Yet, she talked like she was talking about a piece of gum that was stuck to the bottom of her shoe.

I always hate it in literature when a character is so obviously evil to me because I can see inside their mind and witness the selfishness or the hate that lingers there. I could never understand how other characters, good characters, can still view the evil character as normal, sweet and caring, when from my standpoint, they clearly are not any of those things.

But I could have met and talked to Amna and, as the video started, I even liked her. She seemed like such a nice person.

Then she talked about stretching women out, so that she could

1 yank a baby from its mother, and sell it for stem cell research to the highest bidder.

My stomach rolled and churned.

This couldn’t be real. People like Amna--people who seem nice--they don’t just murder babies.

I was backpedaling, like all readers do when a character plot twists. I went back through every debate, every comment, every article I had seen and considered them, now knowing that people out there, people like Amna, were the ones behind the horrible things I had read about.

It seemed like something from the Hunger Games. But people were defending them. People were standing up for Amna, shielding her from the consequences of her actions, and they claimed it was because Planned Parenthood was a resource that America couldn’t do without.

I squinted, and leaned in, trying to see what reasons they had for their argument.

I believe they hide behind the argument that this is all for the greater good. The country needs Planned Parenthood? We need to do this to living miracles called children?

The greater good is a dangerous line to walk. Any evil can be justified by a supposed good that comes out of the evil. Where do we draw the line? When people are sold into slavery for the greater sake of a nation’s economy? Or when people are killed in the millions for the sake of convenience and choice?

I urge people to take a fresh look at Planned Parenthood, I beg you to watch the videos, as hard as it may be, and to watch people like Anna talk about the gory details of abortion. Because abortion is happening. Take the opposite side if you must, but at least be informed on what you are siding with. Know the actions that you are defending.

Something to Strive For (above) : Dr. Amna Dermish talks about pulling out the spine and extremities of a fetus. Dermish later tells the camera that she will “strive for” pulling out the whole head at once.

in

3

women will have an abortion

75%

of women receive services to prevent pregnancy

Medical Services 1% Other Services 3% abortion 9% Cancer Screening/protection 11% Other Women’s health services 34% Contraception 42% STD testing and treatment 0

20

40

60

80

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Opinion 07

X XENOS

MEANING: stranger, enemy, guest friend, and family

Xenos. It’s one of the most complicated words in history, for one of the most tangled topics in history.

Because Xenos can mean stranger. It can mean enemy. It can mean “guest friend.” Or it can cover the entire topic of Greek hospitality, and the idea that spans the entire course of human history. It means help, safety, sanctuary, friend, and family.

Xenos can mean welcoming foreigners into your home and treating them like family.

It’s an ambiguous word on purpose because humans have always been divided on the issue of offering their own homes, earnings, food, and families to strangers.

The Syrian refugee crisis--and the exodus occurring out of many Middle Eastern countries--once again raises the virtue of Xenos before politicians and citizens .

Xenos always comes down to the issues of trust and generosity. It is a risk, certainly. It asks hosts to humble themselves, change routines, and give. It simultaneously asks guests to respect the house, tread gently, and contribute what they can.

Now where has that ideology gone? It has disappeared into a vast library of literature and ideas, shelved snugly between Plato’s allegory of the cave and Steinbeck's concept of “timshel.”

It is packed away, waiting for a society that gently will wiggle it off of the shelf, and blow the dust off, and crack open the spine of its doors and policies so that strangers can have shelter and blessing.

The refugees in Syria need the world and the United States. They stumble and flee a war stricken land. They are turning to the world, watching with anxious eyes, filled with the images of the horrors they’ve seen and the children that have died. They are looking for a sanctuary; they are looking for healing. They are looking for Xenos.

Some in the world are stepping up, Germany is accepting refugees by the thousands. Yet others are turning away from Syria, shoving away the old concepts that ruled in the ancient

08 Editorial // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

kingdoms as foolish, risky, and upsetting.

But Xenos also involves a potential mystery of fate, faith, and destiny. It is centered on the idea that any human could be a holy god. To mistreat anyone was a grave sin. The guest could have been a god or an angel. Xenos expected that the stranger was sacred, a person to be honored.

Xenos follows the small children from Honduras that cling to the top of trains as they are jolted down to the path to what they hope is a better future than the drug invested corrupted world that they have always known. These children are looking for help. They are looking for a family to take them in.

We must not raise walls and taxes to stop these refugees. We must not shove away the concept of Xenos because we don’t trust these people. We must not forget that we were once all immigrants in this land, struggling to survive, and welcomed by people who were worried about us. We were all once shown Xenos. It is what this country is built upon, but we have hurried past this, eager to argue that the immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.

And Xenos lingers at street corners and twists around people curled up on park benches.

It dwells in the homelessness that we consider a plague, who are sifting through the uncaring masses for a friend.

In this world, this country, this state, this city and this school, we should pursue Xenos.In this country Xenos has become a form of weakness, a sign of stupidity.

We urge you to not let it become so. We have to create a generation that sees Xenos as not a thing of the past, but as the only way to a bright future. We must trust each other, no matter how difficult it is at the beginning. We must fan the flame, and create a society, where we don’t have to turn away orphans and families that have been torn apart. We must become a culture that believes in Xenos.

Room 331

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // People 9

Within the special education programs at PRHS, a smaller class with only 17 students is focusing on basic multiplication and subtraction, as well as living skills and so on. This class is known as SH, or Severely Handicapped Special Day Class. Room 331 on the far right of campus, near the bus road, holds these 17 students and 4 aids.

Special needs at PRHS

by Tegan Curren and Lauren Wassam, People Co-Editors

Kate walks into room 331, it’s Monday morning, and after she sets down her blue backpack, she makes her way to the front of the classroom where a chart of daily duties declares assignments for each of the 17 students enrolled in the class.

Once everyone completes their assignment they all return to their desks to be greeted by their teacher, Chris Emmons.

Before teaching SH Emmons taught English, History, and P.E. in Nepal where he met his wife.

Emmons has been teaching special needs for 19 years at Paso Robles High School, after working three years at Watsonville High School teaching in the same setting.

“When I was in high school we had one special needs student… [who] latched onto me more than anyone in the doggone school. I don’t know why. But that was my first little seed planted...,” Emmons said.

And the spark was lit when he was working as a substitute teacher; Emmons subbed for an SH class in Watsonville and the teacher’s aid noticed how well he fit into that position. He was then convinced that teaching students with special needs was his calling.

This day in special needs, Emmons and his aids are teaching state standards of money management.

Emmons walks through the rows of desks and lays several paper bills and coins on each student’s desk.

“When I was in

high school we

had one special

needs student… [who] latched onto me ... I

don’t know why.

But that was my first little seed planted...,”

—Chris

Emmons

Words of Encouragement (abovw) : Class aid ___ helps a student with her classwork on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

The students in the Severely Handicapped Special Day Class are constantly focusing on thier living skills.

Meet the kids Favorite Color:

Favorite Color: Blue

Green

Favorite Movie:

Favorite TV Show:

Favorite Animal: Horse

Favorite Song: “Royals” by Lorde

Favorite Animal: Cats

Favorite Animal:

Favorite Hobby: Painting

Ben

Hamster

Favorite Hobby:

Favorite Subject:

Watching Movies

Robotics

10 People // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Purple

“Diary of Jane” by Breaking Benjamin

Jungle Book

Haley

Favorite Color:

Kendra

As the fake dollar bills and coins are lain along desks and students begin to practice coin counting. The Bearcats are given a dollar amount, such as $4.73, and are expected to count that amount using the bills and coins given to them.

The pale yellow paper that runs along the length of the white board is labeled with numbers in increments of five ending at 100. Emmons uses this as a tool for assisting the learning of coin counting. He starts with counting five, then 10, 15, 20, 25 and then skip: five, 15, 25, so that’s representing dimes, then 25, 50, 75, one dollar. This activity is useful for the class’s monthly outing. Emmons organizes these outings once a month where the students practice their developing skills outside of the school. This is called community based instruction and is intended to teach the students skills they need in daily living. These trips consist of using public transportation, activities like bowling, and eating at a restaurant. These trips are useful tools of learning, as the students practice social skills and counting money when they purchase items on the outing.

Today, sight words, following coin counting. Everyone is given a word that they must read then say aloud. While doing sight words, three different students are working on a game called Ed-mark, an educational computer program provided to the class by the district to stimulate sight word reading.

Nutrition then comes, and within the comfort of room 331, students burst of energy, and visiting students who are not enrolled in special eat their food, socialize, listen to music, or play an educational game on the computer.

After nutrition the students are split into groups chosen at the beginning of the year . Each student with one teacher’s aid, and they attend and participate in their third period P.E. class.

Once a week the students also go to a health class with P.E./Health teacher Brian Kerr.

As P.E. ends, the boys and girls get ready to come back into classroom and begin News to You. This current events program helps them read news stories, along with visual representation to go along with the words for the students who are having a hard time reading the words.

After News to You, they continue practicing coin counting or sight words, and then lunch begins. Like nutrition, lunch is inside room 331 for the comfort of the students, but still filled with activity and energy as they continue to socialize, play games, or sit at their desks and eat.

Ding, ding, ding: the bell rings and Emmons splits the students into three different groups.

Each group does a different activity, whether it’s cleaning up the classroom, collecting recycling around campus, or going across the street to help clean the district office. These are all important tasks for the students, as cleaning up is part of their curriculum and standards, and the recycling they collect they may deposit for money and use for rewarding prizes in class.

Once the day is done, they get their backpacks and books and their coats and they return to their seats for a game of hangman. Emmons picks words or phrases that are relevant to the lessons they learned that day. Then the bell rings, and it’s time to go home.

This schedule applies to most days, but on Thursdays, when there is no third period for P.E., each student runs for 12 minutes. For every lap ran, the students chart their progress to see if they have improved throughout the school year.

At the end of Friday, the 17 students go home and practice their newly acquired skills. Come the next Monday, the students are back in room 331 and ready to learn.

1 2 N 3 4 L 5 6

Daily Duities—Each student starts the morning off by looking at the white board and doing their daily job. Jobs include: pulling the blinds up, greeting each other, ect.

Work Time—The 17 students work on living skills. An important living skill they focus on is coin counting.

Nutrition—During thier break, the students stay in the comfort of room 331 and eat thier snakes, play games, and hang out with with other students P.E.— All of the students head out to a third period P.E. class and particpate with other students on campus.

Back to the Books—Reading and writing ensues, as well as math and current events.

Lunch—The same as Nutrition, this break consists of eating, games, and conversation.

Living Skills—The students split into groups and are assigned tasks: collecting recycling, cleaning the classroom, or district office are all apart of thier curriculum.

Game Time—All of the students collect their bags and return to their desks for a game of hangman based on the lessons of that day.

Favorite Color:

Favorite Color:

Favorite Color:

Yellow

Dark Blue

Yellow

Favorite Subject:

Favorite Movie:

Favorite Subject:

CNN Student News

Paper Towns

Ladybugs

Playing Wii U

Favorite Animal:

Dog

Spiders or

Favorite Hobby:

CNN Student News

Favorite Animal:

Favorite Animal:

Jovanni

R E G U L A R DAY

Dogs

Favorite Hobby:

Favorite Hobby:

Basketball

Haley

Monse

Taking walks Photos by Lauren Wassam

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // People 11

12 Ads // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Ads 13

DIY

by Emily Ayer, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Mae App, Managing Editor

BLOOMING CINNAMON APPLES ingredients 2 Honeycrisp apples 1 Teaspoon cinnamon 2 Tablespoons butter 3 Tablespoons brown sugar 1 Tablespoon flour 4 Caramels

directions 1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit 2) To get the blooming apple look, you need to cut the apples. Slice off the top 1/4 to 1/3 of the apples and scoop out the core.

3) Turn the apple over and make narrow cuts all the way around the apple. Flip it back over and you can see all of the cuts.

4) Place the apples in an oven safe dish and put two caramels into the center of each apple.

5) Heat butter and brown sugar in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir and continue heating for an additional 30 seconds.

6) Remove from the microwave and stir in flour and cinnamon, then spread the mixture over the top of the two sliced apples.

7) Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes. (Check apples after 25 minutes and continue cooking until tender. Some apples can take 45 min to 1 hour to soften).

8) Top with a scoop of ice cream, drizzle with caramel, and sprinkle with cinnamon. The ice cream will cause the caramel in the center to harden, so eat it quickly or put the ice cream scoop on the side.

14 Food // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

BLOOMING APPLES: Seasonal apple adorned with cinnamon. These are a taste of the coming autumn season.

Photos by Emily Ayer

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Food 15

Early review euphoria

Early reviews on the games that excite us the most for the month of November

by Nathan Rowley, Sci-Tech Editor with contributions from Clay Maggiore

2.5 Multiplayer Gameplay

5 Rainbow Six: Siege

Multiplayer Gameplay

4 Single Player Gameplay

Black Ops 3

4.5 Multiplayer Gameplay

Tom Clancy’s: Rainbow Six Siege

Being one of the most intense games coming out in 2015, Rainbow Six Siege is bringing you one of the most interactive and thrilling games yet to be released on the FPS, first person shooter market today. The five-on-five firefight between the two oppositions of “Rainbow Team”, a counter-terrorist assault team, and the Terrorists placed in the game is a window-smashing, charge-breaching, blowing-through-doors type of chaos that is bonded together using the game engine from Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots. Although commonly considered the successor because of the previously failed project Rainbow 6: Patriots, Rainbow Six Siege introduces new concepts as well as revamping old ones from previous game titles in the Rainbow Six series. Terrorist hunt, a popular game mode previously in the Rainbow Six series, is being reintroduced as Terrohunt, a new game mode where a team of five connect and go through a series of challenges like locating and defusing bombs while defending against the opposing AI Terrorist team.This game comes out Nov 6.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Call of Duty, one of the most dynamic and top selling franchises in video games today, brings you a sequel: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. This rendition of Call of Duty is fasterpaced, with a more futuristic storyline and online multiplayer game set in 2065 looks a bit like a well made cartoon. With its all new momentum-based movement system, wall running, and the return of “double jump” gives reminessance to the monstrosity of the Advanced Warfare “exo jump” while improving the jumping moving system by limiting the time and height the jump is actually able to put out. A newly introduced “specialists” system can also allow certain abilities to be obtained as you select that specialist as your loadout for that game. But the good news is the specialist you choose does not limit your create-a-class or your scorestreaks, but does give a scorestreak-like ability unique to each one of the nine specialists promised in the final game. Little things that have been updated make this game run beautifully on the heavily modified IW engine previously used in Black Ops 2. If you’re interested you can pick up your copy of the game on Nov 6.

Fallout 4

5 Single Player Gameplay

Fallout 4 16 Sci Tech // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Coming Nov. 11, Bethesda brings you Fallout 4, one of the most anticipated single player games for PS4, Xbox One, and PC alike. Hundreds of hours of unmolded and raw content will be available, as well as the ability to modify your game on all platforms; yes, that means consoles also. However it must be noted that consoles will only run this game at a maximum of 30 FPS (frames per second) vs. the PC which has no limit. As it’s most unique new feature, Fallout 4 has added settlements to the wasteland, a kind of place to call home where you will be able to create a society that will need power, food, and its own defense system from raiders. Bethesda has also implemented voice acting for both your character and the others you come in contact with, in hopes for the player to feel more immersed within your character’s dialogue than the previous text based system.

They introduce players to a map set in post-apocalyptic Boston, where the developers traveled to in order to design the most realistic setting possible. This map will be four times larger than Bethesda’s previous largest map in Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and bring plenty more enemies to tackle. To pair with the introduction of a larger map comes a more diverse crafting system with over 50 base weapons and over 800 modifications, along with armor customizable to every limb. Gamers old and new to the series will find a place in the wasteland of Fallout 4.

Riding off into the sunset

Seniors Jena Corea and Dominic Petrillo spend the day in Parkfield

TROTTING TOGETHER : Seniors Jena Corea and Dominic Petrillo smile for the camera on their blind date at the V6 Ranch in Parkfield.

Photo by Kathryn Varian

by Emily Ayer and Maureen Pushea, Co-Editors-in-Chief

I

n the midst of college applications and SATs, most seniors can feel up to their noses in work, but seniors Jena Corea and Dominic Petrillo found time on a Sunday afternoon to take a relaxing ride on horseback through the countryside of Parkfield, CA. Corea and Petrillo, blind to where they were being taken, shouted guess after guess of their destination.

“I bet we are going to the pumpkin patch”, said Corea, “or just the middle of nowhere.”

“I don’t know, but this is really far out”, said Petrillo who, after arriving in Parkfield, 50 miles away from Paso Robles, guessed the correct activity. “I think we are going horseback riding.”

They arrived at the V6 Ranch and were promptly taken to the Blue Oak Camp, where roughly 80 horses were kept. After meticulously choosing the horse most suitable for them, they prepared to saddle up.

Before they could get on the horses, however, they had to get comfortable around them. As they walked their horses, Malibu and Shelzy, up and down the trail with horse noses pressed against their backs, they sent anxious smiles to one another, excited for the ride around the ranch.

As soon as Corea and Petrillo were on the horses, it was all smiles and laughter between the two as they discussed their homemade Halloween costumes and college plans. The two daters trotted through the riverbanks and up steep slopes to the top of a small mountain that contained a picturesque view of the countryside painted with green trees, brown fields, and white, fluffy clouds.

“This is the best blind date I’ve ever been on”, said Corea, who trotted up to Petrillo and nudged his horse with hers.

This sentiment was shared by Petrillo. Then the daters rode back to the V6 ranch and headed to have a late lunch at the Parkfield Cafe. On the drive back to the cafe, however, they happened to cross paths with a giant tarantula and as Corea hung back, Petrillo took some close up photos. After the spider shenanigans, the two walked into the cafe and sat, similar to their previous positions on the horses, on stools adorned with horse saddles and shared in the award winning burgers and a vanilla milk shakes.

After lunch the daters climbed through a child-sized tree house outside the cafe and posed for pictures at the top. The journey back to Paso held much more laughs instead of “are we there yet”s and astonishment of the day’s adventure.

Jena

Dominic

10

10

Rate

Rate

Second date?

Second date?

Best part?

Best part?

Sure as friends Riding horses

Yeah as friends

Horseback riding

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Blind Date 17

light in the dark O

ne second. You open your eyes to a bright new world, real and harsh and raw. 31 million seconds later, you try to crawl away from your mother before she puts you into the chair in front of your birthday cake with a big number one candle on it. Three hundred million seconds later, your path starts to change; there are bikes and scraped knees and kids being mean to other kids for no reason other than “fun.”

Five hundred million seconds later screams over a broken piñata turn into screams over the cops raiding your friend’s party. Suddenly you are tugging down your shirt sleeves to cover the scars running up and down your arms and you feel as if your life is in ruins. Then, sometimes as if by magic or divine encounter, something changes. The world doesn’t seem so dark anymore. You’ve found the thing that bandages your scraped knee, the reason to refuse alcohol or drugs, or the shining moment that makes you drop the blade and realize your worth. You’ve found your light.

There is light to be found in the worst of times

and hope to be found in the of darkest places.

No matter how deep the cavern of your pain, there is always something that will pull you out, but you have to let it. You have to both accept your light’s help and take charge of your life and pull yourself up.

Search for the beauty and light in what may seem to be an ugly and broken world. Get lost in song or dance. Shove all of you rage and hurt into kicking a soccer ball. Find your hope in a God that rules over everything, or in a friend that has always been there for you when you need them. Life is a stream of seconds, each one just as precious as the last, and the world is stocked with beautiful things to dunk yourself into.

The world is not void of hope, life, or beauty, but you have to open your eyes and have a little faith in yourself --or in an idea bigger than yourself. Let the good things lead you out of the suffering, and find your light in the darkness.

—by Emily Ayer and Jessica Cole, Co-Editors-in-Chief

“There is no darkness so dense, so menacing, or so difficult that it cannot be overcome by light.” -Elder Vern P. Stanfill 18 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

SPARLKING IN THE DARK : The sparkler symbolizes the light in all of our darkness. Bearcats look to the light when they feel as though tthey could be lost forever in the shadows Photo by Maureen Pushea

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 19

it’s in the name Sophomore Cassidy LeClair shines the light to her fellow Bearcats LITTLE LIGHT (above) : Sohpomore Cassiday LeClair spreads her arms wide and lets her light shine for fellow bearcats.

Photo by Maureen Pushea

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 19

20 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

I

t’s no surprise what her name means, if you know her. LeClair: from the noun “clair” meaning “bright”, “light”. Generally this is a nickname for a cheerful individual. Most of her friends will agree that this is a true definition of her.

Her smile lights up the room. Her kind words warm hearts of her friends and classmates. Her contagious laugh brings a smile to everyone’s faces. Her Instagram bio reads “If ya need a hug, let me know”. It is clear that sophomore Cassidy LeClair is a ray of light into fellow Bearcat’s lives.

Her abundant ray of light comes from her passion to make others happy.

“Whenever I get the opportunity, I just decided that it’s going to be a good day. When I see other people that I see sad I try to make them happy because making other people happy makes me happy,” she said.

Although LeClair is a light within herself, she found her light and her new found home away from home in room 505, with her drama family. Halfway through her freshman year, LeClair was cast as a “Teen Dancer” in Paso High Theatre Company’s production of “The Music Man”, and she was welcomed into the “Drama Family” with open arms where she has proven to be an evident light.

On May 10, 2015, after the closing performance of “The Music Man”, LeClair was awarded with the Gypsy Robe, an award voted on by the entire cast and crew of 60 people and given to the cast member who radiates the most positive energy, kindness, and happiness. LeClair claims that being awarded the Gypsy Robe was the best thing that has ever occurred in her life. Her face lit up and tears of happiness flowed abundantly from her warm brown eyes as the spotlight shone upon her. She froze and all she could think was ‘oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh’.

“I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so hard and everyone came up and hugged me and said they voted for me and it meant so much to me so when Ms. Goodnow said my name I just had a Cassidy Spasm Attack. I couldn’t even function, I didn’t know what to do,” LeClair said.

She was surrounded by the people she loved, and she was touched that she was able to impact them in such a positive way.

“Cassidy sees the good in everything and in everyone and she wants to take care of the environment, and wants to make sure everyone’s happy and feeling supported and knows that they’re cared for and that is really really special.

She just wants to make sure everyone is loved,” said Drama teacher Marcy Goodnow.

“She always has this level of energy about her. It’s almost never a dull moment...she makes me happy because she is always smiling wherever she goes,” said Senior Jamison Murray, one of LeClair’s best friends and fellow Drama colleagues.

But it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. In the midst of middle school and becoming a teenager, LeClair battled through a tough time of teen angst and loneliness, she says.

“I would just get lonely and cry all the time and especially when I was alone I would just start sobbing, and I wouldn’t know why, and that was the hardest thing,” LeClair said. She claimed that she struggled with becoming a teenager and struggling to find herself.

LeClair claims that her saving grace was the ability to talk to others about what made her so upset and has in turn been able to reverse the roles and help others find the silver lining in their lives.

“It was sad to see myself moping around everywhere, so I just decided that I didn’t want to live life like that, so I started seeing the good in all of things, and whenever I see someone sad now, I ask them if they would like to talk about it...

I just ask them if they need a hug or smile at them,” said LeClair, who has a passion for making others happy and making small gestures to brighten someone’s day.

After finding the light in her own darkness, she now offers a light to guide other out of the pitch black tunnel.

“I’ve been sad before, and it’s never fun being sad, so whenever I get the opportunity, I just decided that it’s going to be a good day. When I see other people that I see sad I try to make them happy because making other people happy makes me happy,” she said.

LeClair can often be found brightening others days by handing out homemade brownies or writing kind, encouraging letters to friends.

“That’s my job, that’s what I do, I love going around and making people happy,” LeClair said.

People often tell her to not worry about other people’s happiness, and to focus on making herself happy however, that just isn’t enough for her.

“To see that I make someone smile is the best thing in the world to me, and the way I get happy is by making other people happy,” LeClair said.

When strangers harshly remind her that she can’t make the whole world happy, she simply says, in her most upbeat, positively confident voice, “Well I can try, can’t I?”

“To see that I make someone smile is

the best thing in the world to me, and the way I get happy is by making other people happy” —Cassidy LeClair

—by Marueen Pushea, Co-Editor-in-Chief

A candle uses nothing by lighting another candle. -Italian Proverb 11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 21

tomorrow is another day Junior Sara Grinager finds her light after a dark period in her life

BASKING IN THE LIGHT : Senior Sara Grinager poses and soaks up all of the light she has found in her life.

Photo by Maureen Pushea

22 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

H

er favorite color is gray. She loves fall, and she listens to Halsey nearly constantly. She has a golden-doodle, an older brother, and a hard life. She’s 16 years and 99 days old.

She’s changed her hair color seven times, and she plays eight instruments. She’s won 10 awards in various music competitions.

But her struggles with an eating disorder started at the age of nine, with her father threatening her, telling her not to eat certain things or she would get fat and never be loved. At the age of 10, depression crept into her world, urged on by her father’s words which slipped seamlessly into her psyche. At the age of 13 she developed PTSD when her boyfriend sexually assaulted her on their date to the movies. The summer between her sophomore and junior year, her mom checked her into the SLO Mental Hospital because she tried to end it all.

She’s Sara Grinager. She survived an emotional jungle and emerged from it with a newfound hope from the havoc the erupted around and inside her during those three days.

Before the ER She woke up in her purple, gray, and black sheets, and stretched. She was looking forward, well, as much as she ever looked forward to anything anymore. Since depression had become her life her future had become null and void. She was going to commit suicide by age eighteen.

It was a fact. But she was vaguely excited that morning. And then the day collapsed. Her boyfriend, full of concern, shared her problems with her mother. He meant well, but Grinager was infuriated. He had no right! Her subconscious screamed. The next day was uneventful, but the misguided attempt to help Grinager lingered in her memory. She didn’t sleep that night.

Instead she rolled around in the purple, turning the only love that kept her alive over and over in her head. The next day the fight that started over text escalated until her boyfriend showed up at her house, uninvited and unexpected. Grinager immediately felt an uneasiness steal over the room. He wouldn’t touch her, wouldn’t even look at her. She knew what was about to happen but she couldn’t admit it to herself at the time.

Eventually Grinager gathered enough courage from her broken heart to say, “You need to make a decision about this. I know you’ve made your decision, just say it.” He admitted that he wanted to work this out but then changed his mind and told her that he wanted to break up, and then Grinager fell to begging. For ten long minutes she begged her only light to stay, pressing, begging, and blowing on her little flame, urged on by the thought of what would happen when it was extinguished.

But he left, left with without saying goodbye. Grinager was left alone, tangled, crying, and alone in her purple dogtooth sheets.

“I felt so utterly alone. Like no one was going to love me ever again. I felt like I was just going through this depression alone, and that [life] wasn’t worth it.”

Eventually she got up, she pulled out her trundle and methodically opened both her drawers embedded into the frame. She clinically counted and recorded the exact number of secret pills that she had stored up in her drawer, the lines of lime green, blue, yellow and white slowly filling up her list.

By her estimates she had over 250, maybe not enough to kill a average sized adult, but for her, a slight, short five foot two teenage girl, surely that would be enough medicine to kill her, end her thought process, and send her out of the darkness where she was huddled, now completely alone.

She was wrong.

The pills didn’t kill her, and the sharp stabbing feelings that they created were covered by the pain of her heartbreak. She was stripped of hope, stripped from her light. After realizing that her attempt had failed she walked to her mother’s room, and opened the door. She didn’t say anything at first, but she didn’t have to.

“Did you break up with him ?” Her mother asked.

Grinager slowly nodded. Her mother, a passionate puzzler, quickly left the online jigsaw puzzle and hugged her daughter tight.

“She held me in her arms for a while, and it was the most comfort I had felt throughout the whole experience.”

Grinager told her mother that she was having a panic attack. Her mother suggested the Mobile Crisis line. At first Grinager refused, but after thinking about it she agreed, and Mobile Crisis told her to go to the ER.

In the ER Grinager was then sent to the ER, with her mother by her side she walked into the room, still heartbroken, exhausted, and terrified. She glanced about the room while they assigned her a room, a bland TV show about people getting bad tattoos was on. They told her to take a seat and she slipped into a restless sleep. She twisted and jerked about, lured into unconsciousness by the heartbeat of the emergency room.

Grinager was checked in to the ER at 11:00 p.m. the noise of a tv show was empty in substance and the feeling of numbness captured her. The thought of death sounded better than living, overcome by heartache and exhaustion.

“There’s just one problem with hope... When suicidal, you reach a point when death stops scaring you, and that’s when hope starts to scare you. You get so comfortable searching for something just out of reach,” Grinager said.

She would then play the waiting game until Mobile Crisis came to pick her up to take her to SLO Mental Health Hospital, where she would seek further treatment.

SLO Mental Hospital

Around 1:30 am Grinager arrived at SLO mental Hospital, a place that she calls, “The scariest place I’ve ever been.” She wasn’t given a bed for her stay there, but instead she was expected to sleep on the floor. Grinager laid awake all night on the linoleum floor, still fighting an endless roundabout of suicidal thoughts before they dragged her up off of the floor and shoved her into a van. Bewildered, scared, and still sleep deprived, Grinager bounced in the back of the van next to a boy who looked no older than twelve, but whose arms were covered in bandages. She had no idea where they were taking her. An hour later the boy asked for water. The driver coldly informed him that he wouldn’t receive any.

Good Samaritan Hospital At 9:45am they arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital. Grinager was slipped into yet another room, where she was evaluated for the third time. They called her high risk and took her pants because they had a draw string, and the expression on them could have triggered reactions from the other patients. After she was told that the evaluation was over, they shuffled her back to another room, where her nurse Francis met her. Grinager, lacking three days of sleep, surviving only on fear and suicidal thoughts, burst into tears. Francis offered Grinager a hug, but she refused, a decision that she still regrets today, as she was the first person to be kind to her.

Alone in the room, with the memories from the past 72 hours swirling around in her head, Grinager did the most mundane thing she could think of; she took a shower, and somehow the hot water and the soap washed away the disconnected part of her and restored her humanity.

When she hopped out, suddenly feeling cleansed of at least part of her depression, she met her psychiatrist Doddakashi. Grinager was quickly diagnosed as Bipolar 2 with PTSD.

Beyond the darkness But Grinager’s story doesn’t end with a diagnosis. A year ago she would have said that there was no escape, that the darkness was inescapable. That she would soon be dead. She would have said that there was no point in life, no point in trying, no point in love.

And then Grinager got a puppy, she fought her flashbacks and picked her up a block away from her old mental hospital. She moved to her mother’s room and she burned the sheets that held so many memories of failed and false love.

Grinager is a new person, she looks forward to the surprise that her Bipolar mind brings.

She’s dug out her old passion for music, and found a passion for teaching. Her new sheets are a bright blue floral pattern, and her dog crate rests beneath her mattress. Grinager is a story of hope, a story of light, and a story centered around a person, and their real journey through darkness. She’s a story that says that bad times end, and good times come. She’s a survivor, but more than that, she’s a thriver.

“I never thought I would make it to eighteen,” Grinager said. “But I made it.”

—Jessica Cole & Mariela Villa, Co-Editors-in-Chief

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. -Albus Dumbledore 11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 23

living to our own beat I

Students describe the light in their art

magine earbuds that let out no sound. Imagine trying to sing, but no melody comes to you. Imagine your favorite song completely wiped from your memory. Picture our summers without lyrics of sunshine, parties, and beach days stuck in our heads.

School dances would be silent circles of people standing huddled together as the lights pulsed to no beat. Think about how dully and how silently our days would pass by without our favorite jams rocking in our ears. Those moments in our rooms where we just turn up the volume to drown out the noises of the world would simply be gone.

Approximately 20 percent of teens experience depression before reaching adulthood. But studies have shown that music therapy reduces depressive symptoms dramatically. A 2010 study of 200 depressed people discovered that those who listened to music for 30 minutes twice daily for five weeks had significantly improved scores on several depression rating scales.

Not even science can deny it: Music is a form of escape, expression, and excitement. We use it to tune out the world, tune into ourselves, or just let go. And that applies to all art forms. They give opportunities for us to soak it in and let it out. Not everyone is an artist, but we can still appreciate color, shapes, and abstract beauty. Not everyone is a dancer, but we can still marvel at the emotions created by movement. Not everyone is a musician, but everyone has that one song that makes them want to dance, sing, cry, laugh, smile, or just hug someone you love. Art has the power to guide us through blackness and pain, and it has the power to move us toward hope. Art is a light.

“Music has always provided an escape from the problems I’ve faced throughout my life. It’s given me hope and inspiration in times when nothing else [could],” sophomore Zach Smith said.

Smith has been playing guitar since he was five years old, and his love for music is as clear as the notes ringing from the belly of his instrument. “[Playing guitar] is like being transported to another world, where every bit of emotion can come out in the form of music instead of words, and to me, that’s a lot more powerful,” Smith said. His weekends consist of sitting in his music room, plucking away, creating intricate, electric sound. And when his guitars are put back on their stands, he has his headphones in, shuffling through the 347 songs that exist in his music library. Music floods our everyday lives, giving us an escape from the pressures we face.

Musicians and singers are able to use their gifts as outlets for their feelings, but this theme flows steadily

through every form of art known to planet Earth. Artists of all kinds create what they feel and what they are passionate about, and the arts provide a universal way for people to scream through brush strokes and cry through pirouettes.

Sophomore Ian Young can attest to this statement. Young is a spray-paint artist who creates incredibly detailed scenes of outer space using only spray-paint and the depths of his imagination. “Art has definitely affected my life in a positive way. It’s given me a different view-point on things. I no longer see anything as ‘ugly’ or ‘unappealing’. Everything contains its own beauty. Art has opened a new pair of eyes for me.” Young said.

Young has been creating art since his freshman year, and he tries his best to paint as often as he can. “[When I paint,] I feel pretty relaxed. I just enter into something similar to a Zen state. It’s one of those things where you can’t think logically, and you end up ditching your brain and just drive yourself purely by your heart,” Young said.

Beyond finding a light in the arts, we can discover who we are. Senior Gabby Hamamoto found herself when she found dance.

“Dancing has given me a sense of identity and individuality. Before dance, I was always known as ‘Guadalupe’s little sister’. And for my first year of high school, I thought that was all I’d ever be,” Hamamoto said. “[Then] I found dance, and people started recognizing me for my performances. I felt like I was actually someone. I was me.”

See, we all struggle with feeling lost, alone, or silenced. There are times in our teenage lives when we see no way out. But you just have to remember the words to that song that lifts your spirits.

“When I dance, I feel like I escape from reality. It’s like the pressures of life are lifted from my shoulders, and I am both lost and found with my emotions,” Hamamoto said.

Even here, at our own high school, there is fine art for us to find beauty in. Go to the PRHS dance show; go see the fall play and the spring musical; audition for the spring musical! Wander through the thousands building, gazing at the student art that lines the hallways. The arts are all around us. When we’re stuck in the dark, the presence of music and art can be our flashlight.

—by Raegan Lomanto, Sports Co-Editor

TREBLE CLEF (above) : The music note symbolizes looking to music and the arts for a way out of the darkness.

24 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Photo by Maureen Pushea

HELPING HANDS (left) : Senior Daniel Callahan helps others get of the dark which in turn is his light in the dark.

Photo by Maureen Pushea

S

shining with sympathy

learn more and experience volunteering. “[Key enior Daniel Callahan reached club] went to Oxnard College, and we met up high on the black lamppost at the with other divisions and we just chanted all day corner of 13th and Spring street. and went to workshops,” Martinez said.

On pointed toes, he fastened the When one is at their knees in dark, tumbling flag mount tightly to the pole, and stepped in waves of confusion and loss, their community back to view a new addition to the holiday flag expresses sympathy and brings them to route. Callahan placed several more flag posts their feet with healing and service. Through surrounding Paso Robles’ downtown plaza to volunteering when at their highest points, people raise more American flags on national holidays, lengthen the times spent feeling purposeful and enabling the town to further commemorate strong, and shorten their time overwhelmed by veterans, presidents, and historic events in a bitter challenges the world throws at us. brighter atmosphere. With the help of his fellow scouts in Troop 60, Callahan achieved the rank “There always came a sense of accomplishment with a service project, putting of Eagle Scout on Oct. 29, 2014 due to his contribution to the people of Paso Robles. Callahan is one of thousands of young people who volunteer flags around town or helping with another person’s eagle project. It just gave me this sense of ‘I helped create to work and improve their community and shine light on Paso Robles even in the gloomiest of times. this’... whenever you see the thing, I think ‘I helped with that’. “ Callahan said By volunteering time for others, Callahan felt gratified by making efforts to improve the lives of those Nationwide, volunteering has become a light for youth to find purpose in their community and a way to reach surrounding him. Serving others in a surrounding community even saves people caught amid dim, uncertain out when life’s difficulties are pressing upon them.

Twenty six percent of teenagers from age 16-19 are involved in community service or volunteering, times. Through community centered service and volunteer groups, such as the Rotary club, Optimist according to surveys by the Bureau of Labor Services, released on Wednesday, Feb. 15 2015. 25 percent of International, Boy Scouts of America, people of all ethnicities and ages develop radiant lights to raise their people age 16 and over were involved with volunteering in September of 2014. Youth contribute an average communities into a beacon for other towns, cities, counties.

With a “whistle while he works” attitude, Callahan has so far amassed 170 hours of community service of 1.3 billion hours of service per year according to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Volunteering and its power shed light on the fact that he lives of people are never isolated or solitary, but through his scouting career alongside fellow scouts, which included his Eagle project, countless city clean ups, interconnected. Whether briefly visiting businesses, chowing down with friends at restaurants, or passing and other functions in Paso Robles that the troop serves for.

Callahan and Martinez serve to show the importance of regular community servitude, leading their through town, nobody walks through life like an island, alone. A person’s success depends on the aid of their community indirectly or directly by working alongside each other, as a unit, to gather canned food for fellow people.

Freshman Diane Martinez volunteers by the side of her friends. “It’s not an awkward experience with grumbling stomachs, celebrate all members of the community with helping hands. They serve by rejoicing the friends, you talk with them, you have fun with them, they show you certain things and you show them certain impact volunteering efforts make by continuing to sweep its streets and maintain their city.

“I think volunteering has changed me for the better because I have become a little more patient with things, and it’s fun helping each other.”

A serving community can shine light in them, and bring a radiant smile to their face, along with an certain things and I feel that I have taken more responsibility, with taking on tasks when volunteering or just unyielding sense of belonging and trust. showing up to volunteer,” Martinez said.

Martinez joined Key Club this fall semester, where the student members have traveled across California to —by Grant Schieffele, World Editor

Finding the light of serving others

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 25

PRAYING FOR LIGHT (top left) : Junior Nadeene Al Azzam uses faith to guide her out of tragedy and through the darkness to the light Photo by Maureen Pushea

faith be our light

W

hen the darkness gets so thick that it’s not possible to find their way out on their own- from relationships, addiction, and depression- many people will turn to a higher power to give them a guiding light through the shadows life casts.

Religion can serve as a way to escape the whirlwind of the trials and tribulations that life can present, as the burdens of everyday can often be too much to shoulder alone.

Faith can provide new hope through troubling times, especially for junior Nadeene Al Azzam, whose faith helped get her through her own tragedy, the death of her grandfather.

“He was a follower of Islam and… he was a hard believer of the one God. (He) was a big impact and affected me because religion is a big aspect of my lifestyle and just staying in that type of environment and (to) keep preaching the same religion that he believed; it just kind of gave me peace and relief I needed to bear with his passing,” said Al Azzam, who prays weekly, usually with her family.

Today, roughly 26 percent of Americans ages 18-29 claim no religious affiliation, an increase of 23 percent since 1960, according to civicyouth.org. With many people turning away from religion, the perception of faith’s value is diminishing in young people’s eyes.

However, there is a power in religion that goes beyond human understanding and capabilities that a few call their light.

One of the greatest lights that religion presents is the light of love. It is the core tenet of faith and the identity of God. At their core, humans crave this sense of belonging and

Bearcats turn to religion to guide them through the dark hours love. For many, religion provides that community and affection they desire. Many faiths promise an unconditional love that will find believers where they stand, and not demand that they transform to earn it. Love glows in even the darkest corners of life they never want mentioned, and for many knowing that love is unchanging and will never fade is a comfort in the worst of times.

This is a familiar topic for sophomore Hattie Dunn, who experienced the power of this love first hand when she was struggling with self harm and suicidal thoughts.

“One day I finally just was so tired of not being okay that I just let it go. I prayed to God asking for his mercy and love. Since then it’s been all light and only a few gray areas,” said Dunn, who has been a Christian for five years but dealt with depression from sixth grade until her freshman year, when she gave her pain up to God. Religion is more than a doctrine or set of rules regarding how to achieve salvation. It can be a salvation here on Earth, and not just in the afterlife. For those who are facing darkness, Dunn believes that religion can be your light.

“God will always love you and you need to know you are worth it.” Dunn said.

—by Marlee Drake, Copy Editor, and Coleen Wiest, Photographer

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. -John 1:5 26 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

LOVING LIGHT (left) : Juniors Gabrielle and Madison Morrison smile together, thankful that they have eachother as a light.

Photo by Maureen Pushea

a familiar light

I

We turn to family and friends for a glimmer of hope

magine a desolate alley at night, when everything is impossibly dark, and we can see nothing but our shoes on the pavement. Nothing accompanies us except discomfort.

But as quickly as we can plunge into that alley, a familiar face can appear. Honey gold light beacons off the pavement, and whatever fear or discomfort we previously felt is now banished. What once was an ominous stretch of loneliness is now just a distant memory, an ordinary path. And all of it because of one person, a friend, a family member, offering you the glow of a flashlight. And given the choice, anyone would rather walk through a difficult situation with someone they love standing right by them.

Ask Juniors Gabrielle and Madison Morrison if this is true, and both of their faces will glimmer with smiles. Being twins, and new students to PRHS this year, they decided to arrange to have all six of their classes together, because they “wanted to be here with each other,” rather than face new surroundings alone. They sought each other for comfort and trust, something they believe is the essence of both family and friendships.

“It’s obviously more than blood, like what everyone says, and it’s about being able to trust them. [They’re] someone you can trust and rely on.” Gabrielle said. The Morrison twins have two older sisters, also twins, who they remain close with, and a half brother.

People who lack these close bonds tend to be at greater risk of health issues, from mood disorders and mental illnesses like depression and chronic stress, to other stress-related chronic conditions like heart disease, according to newyorktimes.com.

Familial bonds offer an improved standard of living and health benefits, and they offer that emotional comfort we all crave, a truth known by Sophomore Stefani and Senior Blake Irysh. Stefani has faced a lack of support from her father, but has received it instead from her brother. “I don’t really have much support from certain

members of my family, but I do have some from Blake and some from my mom. And I appreciate that support.” Stefani said.

Blake also shares a similar view of Stefani, “She keeps up my happy-go-lucky attitude, and she’s one of the reasons why I’m like that. It’s a big part of who I am today.”

Family and friends, and our social interaction with them, is a large portion of our everyday lives, with a 72 percent of PRHS students reporting that family is a large portion of their lives, and another 72.5 percent reported turning to them for comfort.

Freshman Atiana Stratman can attest. When she isn’t on the soccer field, Stratman spends time with her parents and 12 year old brother, Chase. And when the choice of remaining on her old soccer team or advancing to a new one arose, Stratman said,” my parents supported me through this hard decision and I appreciate the fact that they support me in all decisions even if the decisions aren’t exactly what they would choose.” Atiana’s comfortability with her family allowed her to grow as a better soccer player as well as have her parents support.

While some may believe we are alone in the worst of times, it actually can be the contrary. Family, especially in the worst of times, can be a lifeboat in the sea, a rock when we fall, and even the light in a dark alley. When we feel alone, the best thing to do is find that lifeboat, rock, or tunnel and allow them to help and listen, because sometimes that’s what we need.

“It’s obviously

more than blood ,

like what

everyone says, and it’s about being

able to trust them.”

—Gabrielle Morrison

—by Sabrina Hernandez, Graphic Designer and Valeria Cisneros, Carmesi Editor

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 27

HIDING BEHIND THE LIGHT : Bearcat peer stands in for the anonymous student who requested privacy, due to the extent of their darkness.

Photo by Coleen Wiest

finding my light in you Senior bearcat realizes her father is her lifeline after 17 years of pain 28 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

L

aurie Terry* jerked the door open and ambled out, eager to celebrate one of her greatest achievements in early June of 2014. So she met up with her boyfriend but practically everything went downhill from there.

She ignored the fact that the relationship had lost its glamour and was shrouded in a cloud of arguments. She just wanted to get out and be happy, for once. That night was no different than the countless others they had spent together, and, as usual, an argument swelled over a trivial topic, and her anger caught fire. She was fed up with life, too blinded by emotions to see any other option and stepped out of the car, barefoot on the cold concrete, with the intention of stepping in front of the next car that came into sight she wanted to find an end to her pain. A night meant for celebration ended with despair. This is the breaking point she told herself, this is the end to all of it, and this is how I make it go away.

A slight crackle under her foot stopped her in her tracks, and although her eyes were blinded by the flash of headlights that whirled past her, they honed in on something else. The crunch under her foot was followed by an unpleasant slime. She was awed by the unlikely candidate that had unknowingly traded its life for hers. The snail, despite its crushed form, was still recognizable. It’s fractured shell gleamed under the street lamp, and as her face drew closer to it, her heart broke. Her stomach churned over the thought of ending such a pure life. The epiphany her crippled mind had come to was clear; she weighed a snail’s life over her own.

Laurie Terry had an accumulation of tragic moments in her life, that held her back from truly finding herself.

The divorce, the lack of support and parenting from her mom, which led her to toxic relationships with boys and blades. She was lost in her home life and got tripped up in the excitement and freedom granted to her during adolescence; alcohol, sex, drugs. It was all a fingertip distance away from her whenever she wanted it, and she couldn’t help but fall for each temptation. She was the fly, and life was the arachnid catching her in its web and weaving her farther and farther into darkness.

When her feelings flared, Terry found herself enamored with the crimson outpour that dribbled from the veins on her wrists and thighs after having expertly slid a blade across her porcelain skin. She lowered her body until she was sitting cross-legged on the bitter cold ivory tile that veiled the shower floor. This motion had become routine for her petite body within the last two years. Terry yearned for any feeling that could distract her from the exploding emotions inside of her that dropped like bombs. This was the only time her emotions were diluted enough for her to remain sane and alive. Her fits of uneasiness were triggered primarily through her toxic relationship with her mother and sporadic relationship with her unconcerned boyfriend.

With little hope for her life left, and a knowledge that she had succumbed to the darkest parts of herself, she looked toward the only person she thought truly understood her: her father.

“He’s not just my dad, he’s my best friend,” said Terry, she is thankful her father raised her, he treated her like a human, like an equal “...He taught me like I was one of the guys, and I can never thank him enough for raising me how he did.” Her father is her counterpart, she considered them to be practically the same person, just opposite genders and varying ages. However, despite the support her father offered her, Terry still struggled with self abuse as a coping mechanism for her mental and emotional trauma.

“I needed to feel something other than what I felt inside. It was sort of like

a release and my boyfriend at the time just didn’t care. He was just like, ‘Okay that’s something you do.’ Same with another guy I dated. They never tried to help me,” Terry said. She knew it was not their job to mend something they hadn’t broken, but it was the lack of support and needed confrontation that hurt her the most.

It was during these times that her father’s influence really guided her so she could see through the pain clouding her eyes and her judgment. Thoughts like,“How would my dad feel,” and “I can’t hurt my dad like this” bloomed from her subconscious into the foreground of her mind often and were constantly saving her life. “He doesn’t really have anyone else. I’m his person and he is mine” Terry reflected.

“I feel like the only person I can talk to about that kind of stuff is my dad. Even though we don’t talk about personal stuff that often, he makes it easier for me to just feel normal, because he knows about these awful things and he’s like ‘okay cool let’s move on,” said Terry.

Despite all of Terry’s negative encounters, she is currently stable and healthy and has found healing through her bond with her dad and their love for each other. She uses him as a resource when she can’t find any way out on her own, like he taught her to do.

The most important lesson he taught her was to realize that she needed to love and take care of herself first, rather than look for someone else to do it. “I didn’t love myself, so it was hard to fix myself without having anyone else in the picture. And I know now that you can’t depend on other people for your happiness.” said Terry, who knew her father would always be there for her when she couldn’t solve things on her own, but still encouraged her to stand on her own. .

“My dad is my best friend. He means the world to me,” said Terry, who often recalls flashbacks of her and her father’s long car rides in the family Jeep filled with laughter, cheesy smiles, and genuine love. “some of my favorite memories with my dad are the ones where it’s just us, out on the open road, doing our thing.”

She bopped her head and sang along word for word to the classic Matchbox 20 hit she had heard a million times while her father whistled along, the back roads were breathtaking and the windows were down, as always, letting the smooth country air settle on their skin. Her hair whipped manically across her face and got stuck to her eyelashes and halfway in her mouth. She looked over at her dad seriously, and both of their stoic faces cracked to let out barking belly laughs. From the exterior the snow colored jeep was a monster, spattered in dirt and mud, but from the interior breathed Terry’s childhood. Every stain on the upholstery had a memory attached with it, spilling the child-size milk containers to musty brown tracks leftover from hiking trips all over the coast--not to mention the permanent layer of dog hair coating every surface. With her dad in his faded blue Levi’s relaxed in his seat with one hand on the steering wheel and the dogs flapping their cheeks and tongues out the window against the breeze, that was her home, her heart, and her light. *Laurie Terry’s name has been changed in this story to conceal the identity and protect the requested privacy of a fellow Bearcat.

his person , and

“I’m

he’s mine.”

—Laurie Terry

—by Mae App, Managing Editor and Mariela Villa, Co-Editor-in-Chief

The wound is the place where the light enters you -Rumi 11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Feature 29

got game?

Bearcats use sports to cope with life’s issues

I

n the extensive seas of desks, books, and homework filled nights swims an ever lingering stress. But what to do to get rid of it? How can you escape the agony of stress? For some bearcats the answer is sports.

Senior Joshua Bustamante is one such example. To Bustamante the physical activity relieves the stress of school and life.

“For me, [soccer] allows me to train hard and shut out the world for the 90 minutes in a game. I forget my struggles and worries,” Bustamante said.

According the the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, physical activity may be the most recommended coping method for stress. And as for Bearcats, a 23 percent of the students population uses sports for just that.

“Everyone needs a sort of niche that allows them to think positively on life, whether it be a sport, club, class, hobby, or even social group. One that constantly motivates them to strive to become a better person and guides them to success. Soccer is that niche for me,” Bustamante said.

Online sources agree, “Engaging in a sport can help increase feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy, which can significantly reduce your overall level of stress,“ Ashley Miller from Healthyliving.com, “If you’ve ever remained inactive for an extended period of time, you’re familiar with that sluggish, apathetic feeling that can quickly turn to feelings of self-loathing or even depression, which can further exacerbate your stress levels,” said Ashley in her article, “How Does Participating in a Sport Relieve Stress?”.

For Sophomore Mollie Batrum, Cheer has given her confidence and has taught her not to shy away from revealing her true personality.

“When I started I was a quiet and shy person. I always kept to myself but now I’m a more outgoing person,” Batrum said.

Batrum shouts out “We got spirit, yeah, yeah we got spirit, yeah yeah” and lets the “what what what what what what” ring through her ears after an unpleasant day or an irksome 24 hours during her practice with the Bearcat JV team. Other times she’s practicing for two and a half hours during with the CCE Senior Level Three Diamond Team in the Central Coast Gymnastics Sports Center in San Luis Obispo to get her mind off of the bothersome situations she faces.

An article on Volunteer Behavioral Health website said that socializing helps relieve stress by releasing oxytocin that decreases anxiety and increases a feeling of relaxation.

“I feel like whenever I have a hard day at school I go down to cheer three times a week, it just brings my mind off of people because I can be myself and I laugh, and they make me feel happy whenever I feel down or mad,” Batrum said.

These two bearcats have something in common with yet another PRHS student Kiara Gable, who uses volleyball as her therapy. As Gable plays volleyball, her mind is only focused on the game and what she has to do for the team instead of her personal problems.

“All my life I have had major family problems,” Garble said. “My younger life was very poor. But now things are settling down for me and have gotten way better.”

Volleyball not only helped her with team skill work but, like Batrum, brought Gable out of her shell over the years.

“Volleyball helped me become someone that anyone can come to for help, whether it’s personal problems or volleyball help. I like to be that person that anyone can form a relationship with and trust. Volleyball also helped me be a leader and make decisions,” Gable said.

Sports, whether it’s volleyball, soccer, or cheer, act as more than physical activity or exercise. They can act as coping mechanisms, team building, character development, therapeutic activities, and even as the light at the end of a tunnel.

—by Ana Mendoza, Reporter

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

-Aristotle Onassis 30 Feature // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

KICKING THE DARK (below) : Senior Josh Bustamante kicks the dark out of his life using sports as a light.

Photo by Maureen Pushea

Refugees arrive on our shores Mass exodus from the Middle East causes congestion in European countries

by Annie Meeder, Health Co-editor

T

hree year old refugee Aylan Kurdi lay face-down in the wet sand, his red shirt clinging to his still frame on Sept. 2, 2015. His five year old brother, Galip, washed up on the beach a short HEADLINE : Migrants lift each other across razor wire distance from him. The cold water from the Mediterranean Sea strewn along the border of Greece and Macedonia, tickled Aylan’s body, but it was unable to elicit any action from the running a gauntlet of agony to reach safety in Europe. small youth. One of his black velcro shoes was halfway undone. One Photo by “Freedom House” on Flickr. Picture is free public domain would expect his mother, Rehan, to smooth it over for him, but she met the same fate as her two sons on their escape to the Greek Island of the displaced people.

Kos from the war torn beach resort of Bodrum; drowned after their German foreign exchange student Leni Nitsche stays positive and said she believes the 15-foot long skiff capsized. This catastrophe, although it was one of many, was the realization to refugee overload “will cause a problem, and we will struggle, but we are developed enough to the world of the seriousness of the refugee problem in Europe. The situation has been going on make it happen.”Her own town of Landshut is distant from the impacted areas; she has encountered since 2011, when the Syrian Civil War began. The flow of refugees has divided nations between the exodus nearby in Munich. those willing to aid the refugees in their exodus and those who erect razor blade fences to keep Nitsche said there are a lot of people in Germany who are vehemently the displaced people out. against the refugees and Chancellor Angela Merkel, including NeoIn four years, 4.1 million Syrians, nearly 20 percent of the nation, have fled Nazis, who are trying to use the refugee problem for their goals. to other parts of Europe due to life-threatening factors. The horrors ISIS has Yet, Nitsche thinks it’s beneficial and wants Germany to fulfill her inflicted on the citizens play a leading role in the tidal wave of immigration. country’s saying, Willkommenskultur, meaning ‘welcome culture’. She Sharing the culpability is the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, as he said the refugees make her country “more multicultural.” uses the people of Syria as test dummies for chemical weapons the Syrian Certainly many worldwide are opposed to the refugees. Due to the army intends to use. Out of fear of their country and lack of opportunity, acts of individuals, such as an incident on Aug. 10 in a Swedish IKEA the massive refugee flight to other countries has risen due to the hope where two asylum seekers from Eritrea killed a mother, 58, and her of a better life. Elders and normal families with small children, like the son, 28, leading to labels and generalizations about all refugees. Many Kurdi family, make the perilous journey in a desperate attempt to escape countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, fear that among the their current harrowing situation. Some, however, never make it to safety. throngs of refugees, ISIS militants will disguise themselves and cause Refugees are traveling by train, by bus, by foot, and by barely sea-worthy incidents like the shooting that occurred in January at the office of a dinghies. They travel with little beyond the clothes on their back and their satirical French newspaper. family. Some, have smartphones. All have hope.

American presidential candidate Donald Trump said the refugees Abdullah, a nine year old refugee from Turkmenistan, said in Time “could be ISIS” and pledged that if he were to be elected “they’re Magazine, “I had to leave all my toys behind. I don’t know when we left going back.” home. I don’t see the days.”

Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, is less welcoming to the Other countries spewing refugees include 2.59 million from Afghanistan - Abdullah, nine year idea of being a more multicultural country because he believes that due to the war that has spanned over 33 years, and 1.1 million from Somalia. the refugees, since their religious preference is Muslim, will threaten All together, there is an estimated 60 million migrants worldwide according old refugee Christianity in his country. to the Time Magazine.

“We must not forget that those who are coming in have been brought The U.S. has responded by admitting 1,500 Syrian refugees into the U.S. up under a different religion and represent a profoundly different since the start of the war in 2011, a mere .03 percent of the refugees seeking asylum, safety in a foreign nation from their native nation--but starting Oct. 1, President Barack Obama ordered the culture,” Orban said.

Orban closed his gates to refugees on Oct. 17. The day before, 6,353 refugees had passed federal agencies to plan on taking in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees, according to a briefing on Sept. through Hungary, but after they closed their borders only a mere 870 refugees were able to pass 10 by the White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest.

Earnest said on behalf of President Obama, “So, now we know the scale of this problem. It’s through, according to Aljazeera News. Hungary’s neighbor Croatia also closed its borders, forcing significant. And there are millions of people who have been driven from their homes because of the refugees to Serbia, but two days later, Serbia also closed its borders to the refugees. The massive flow of people had been redirected to a much longer route through Slovenia on their quest to reach this violence.”

US’s response is a miniscule effort compared to Germany, who plans to welcome 800,000 refugees the richer, more welcoming countries, such as Sweden or Germany. However, things did not go as with open arms and fresh pastries by December. In September, 200,000 refugees sought asylum in planned, two days after closing their borders, Croatia and Serbia loosened their restrictions on the the benevolent country. However, it is feeling the strain from the flood of thousands of refugees per borders for the refugees after leaving them stranded for days, ankle-deep in mud and rain. day. The country is finding itself without enough resources, nor a quick enough process to accept

“I had to leave all my toys behind.

know

I don’t

when we left home. I don’t see the days.”

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // World 31

Noticias en Breve

Reunión de la Junta por Ana Mendoza, Reportera El Distrito Escolar de Paso Robles (PRPS) va a instalar paneles solares capaces de producir 1.714 kilovatios de energía renovable solar. Asumiendo una tasa de aumento anual de 3% de los costos de energía, esta instalación está aspectado para salvar en sólo un año el distrito escolar PRPS sobre $260.000 y aproximadamente $ 9,2 millones en 20 años de los actuales costos de PG & E, según SunEdison representante Brian Taylor.

Resurrección de CSF por Mason Seden-Hansen, Editor de Opinión Después de dos años de este club bajo la dirección del consejera Jennifer Clayton, la Federación de becas de California inició el año escolar por el profesor de Inglés Sr. Leclair. CSF ofrece becas para los estudiantes en su programa.

El programa permite que muchos de sus miembros sean elegibles para becas muy buenas que no conseguiría en lo contrario. Los estudiantes en la programa también recibirán un cordón de honor en la graduación, así como un sello de oro en su diploma. Para estar en este programa los estudiantes deben hacer servicio comunitario y también no recibir D’s o F’s en sus clases. CSF tiene algunas reuniones al año y la membresía se renueva cada semestre y se reúne en la sala de 1023 que tambien es el salon de Sr.Leclair.

Simulacro de Juicio por Ana Mendoza, Reportera Hace un par de años PRHS tenía un club como organización llamada simulacros de juicio. Avance rápido para los años de 2015-2016, simulacros de juicio está de vuelta y corriendo gracias a Historia de Mundo/AP Historia de Estados Unidos profesor Seth Draine y AVID e profesor de inglés 12, Janice Hoy. Simulacros de juicio es una competencia académica donde los estudiantes compiten contra otras escuelas en el condado para ganar un juicio.

El club reúne los martes en la sala de Draine 112 y el jueves en sala de Hoy 1020 después de la escuela en 3:30.

M

Un Húmero enfoque para la enseñanza

aestro de Anatomia y fisiologia y Biologia Marina, Jon-Paul Ewing paseos alrededor de su cuarto período de clases de anatomía, y observar los dibujos de las proteínas por Kalyn Armstrong Co-Editor de Salud transmembranales sus estudiantes han bosquejado a su mejor capacidad de memorización.

Su enfoque para crear metáforas de una glicoproteína, o amigo de cactus chiquito, como lo dice él, es sólo una vislumbre de su habilidad para conectar con sus alumnos y alcanzar el “Ajá!” momento de un concepto aprendido.

Ewing fue nominado la primavera pasada por principal Randy Nelson a presentar un video en clase de una lección de 45 minutos en una de sus clases de anatomía. Él entró la lección para el Premio Presidencial a la Excelencia en las Matemáticas y la enseñanza de la Ciencia, también conocido como el PAEMST, que miles de maestros también sometieron sus videos.

Ewing fue seleccionado como uno de los cinco finalistas, y si él avanza para representar a California como el maestro de ciencia superior del estado, se va a Washington D.C., reunirse con el Presidente y recibir un premio de 10.000 dólares en aproximadamente un año.

“Hubo varios maestros que consideré reconociendo y Jon-Paul fue un interés a cambio, así que con mucho gusto poner en la carta de recomendación para él, y no me sorprendió que todos los que han tenido la oportunidad de ver el tipo de maestro que

es reconoce que este es un premio muy merecido”, dijo Nelson, quien expresó su orgullo de bearcat en enseñanza notable de Ewing.

Ewing trae a país de bearcat un Premio finalista de Conferencia de Educación de la Ciencia de California (CSTA) el fin de semana de 2-4 de octubre de 2015 desde el Sheraton en Sacramento con el conocimiento que él era uno de los cinco finalistas de la lección en video que ingresó en el año escolar anterior de la primavera de 2015. Mientras estaba en el almuerzo en el Sheraton, Ewing explicó que él sentía amable vibras que rodean el evento, así como el tremendo apoyo de compañeros Maestros de Paso en el distrito.

“Creo que mi método más exitoso de la enseñanza es ciencia es para burlarse y conectar con los estudiantes. “Me gusta reír cada día en o con mis alumnos, dijo Ewing. Su enseñanza tiene humor y los temas que presenta a sus alumnos son únicos.

“Tengo Ewing para dos de mis clases, y estoy casi seguro que si cualquier otro profesor les enseñó sería increíblemente aburrido,” dijo el señor Taylan Perez. También afirmó que el mejor método de Ewing de la enseñanza es el uso de metáforas divertidas que aclarar conceptos.

Mejores recuerdos de Ewing incluyen ayudar a los estudiantes a pasar con un tema que pueden luchar con y la formación de una relación personal con ellos. Ewing concluyó que, en general, que los estudiantes de PRHS son su prioridad principal.

Maestro Jon-Paul Ewing recibe reconocimiento del estado por su enseñanza

LA CIENCIA ES DIVERTIDA (arriba) : Ewing fue reconocido como uno de los cinco finalistas en el estado. Puede avanzar a los nacionales el año próximo.

32 Carmesi // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Photos por Madi Warren

Mañana es otro dia

Junior Sara Grinager encuentra su luz después de un período oscuro en su vida

por Jessica Cole y Mariela Villa, Co-Editors-in-Chief

S

u color favorito es gris. Le encanta el otoño, y ella escucha Halsey constantemente. Ella tiene un goldendoodle, un hermano mayor y una vida dura. Ella tiene 16 años y 99 días de edad.

Ha cambiado su color de pelo siete veces, y ella toca ocho instrumentos. Ha ganado 10 premios en varios concursos de música.

Pero ella lucha con un trastorno alimentario que comenzó a la edad de nueve años, cuando su padre le dijo que no debería comer ciertas cosas porque ella sería gorda y nunca pude ser amada. A la edad de 10, la depresión se arrastró. A la edad de 13 años desarrolló PTSD cuando su novio la agredió sexualmente en su salida al cine. El verano entre su segundo y tercer año de secundaria, su mamá le ingresó en el Hospital Mental de SLO porque ella trató de terninar su vida.

Ella es Sara Grinager. Ella sobrevivió una selva emocional y todo lo que tenía era su esperanza.

espantoso que he estado." No le dieron una cama para su estancia allí, pero en lugar de eso se esperaba que dormiría en el piso. Grinager estaba despierta toda la noche en el piso de linóleo, sigue luchando contra una rotonda sin fin de pensamientos suicidas antes de que la arrastraron del suelo y la metieron en una camioneta.

Desconcertado, asustado, y aún con falta de sueño, Grinager rebotó en la parte trasera de la camioneta junto a un chico que no parecía tener más de doce años, sus brazos estaban cubiertos con vendas. No tenía ni idea de dónde la llevaban. Una hora más tarde el chico le pidió agua. El conductor con frialdad le informó que no recibiría nada.

GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL

EN LA SALA DE EMERGENSIA - 4to de Agosto

A las 9:45 de la mañana llegaron al Hospital Buen Samaritano. Grinager fue arrastrada a otra habitación, donde fue evaluado por la tercera vez. La llamaban alto riesgo y robaron sus pantalones porque tenían una cadena empate. Después le dijeron que la evaluación había terminado, que barajan la espalda a otra habitación, donde conoció a su enfermera Francis.

Grinager, carente de tres días de sueño, sobreviviendo sólo en el miedo y pensamientos suicidas, se echó a llorar. Francis ofreció Grinager un abrazo, pero ella la negó, una decisión que todavía lamenta hoy, ella fue la primera persona a ser amable con ella.

A solas en la habitación, con los recuerdos de las últimas 72 horas se arremolinaban en su cabeza, Grinager hizo lo más mundano que se le ocurrió; ella tomó una ducha, y de alguna manera el agua caliente y el jabón arrasa la parte desconectada de ella y le devolvió la humanidad. Cuando ella saltó, de repente sentía limpia, conoció a su psiquiatra Doddakashi.

Grinager fue diagnosticado rápidamente con Bipolar 2 con trastorno de estrés postraumático.

Grinager se comprobó en la sala de emergencias a las 11:00 de la noche, después de que su madre hizo un llamado a la Crisis Mobile, una organización que da servicio a la comunidad, dando respuesta inmediata de evaluaciones de salud mental. Cuando ella vio a su hija llegar a momentos de ataque de pánico antes. La esperanza estaba en la parte de más atrás de su mente y no estaba haciendo su bienestar.

"Sólo hay una problema con la esperanza ... Cuando suicidal, se llega a un punto en que la muerte deja de asustarte, y eso es cuando la esperanza empieza a asustarse. Usted consigue tan a gusto en busca de algo fuera de su alcance ", dijo Grinager.

Ella entonces juega el juego de la espera hasta Crisis Mobile vino a recogerla para llevarla al Hospital de Salud Mental en SLO, donde buscaría tratamiento

Esto no es una historia de un fallido intento de suicidio, sino una historia de superación de la oscuridad y descubrir que la luz al final de una historia. Es una historia de la búsqueda de la felicidad cuando la idea parecía descabellada, una historia de tener los días buenos superan a los malos días cuando tu mente te pone al desafío.

"El único pensamiento que me hace feliz es que mañana es un nuevo día, porque cuando yo estaba deprimido todos los días era el mismo día. Me sentía miserable y triste y era todo lo mismo. Pero ahora ya que soy bipolar cada día es algo nuevo y estoy emocionado por eso. Estoy muy entusiasmado con mi futuro. Eso es lo que me mantiene especie de pasar por el día ", dijo Grinager.

ANTES DE LA SALA DE EMERGENCIA Grinager dependía en su novio para su felicidad. Al igual que cualquier otra persona, sintió emociones por todos lados. Ella estaba tomando cinco antidepresivos diferentes para hacerla sentir normal y estable, pero no tuvo efecto sobre ella. La medicina no le estaba ayudando; hizo sus síntomas y la depresión peor.

"Todo lo que sentía era tan intenso ... Cuando estoy feliz, estoy volando. Cuando estoy triste, me estoy ahogando ", dijo Grinager.

Hizo un esfuerzo para conseguir una mejor yendo a terapia y tomar toda su medicación, pero simplemente no estaba funcionando. Ella necesitaba ayuda, pero no tenia los medios para hacerlo, y no recibió la ayuda que necesitaba hasta esa noche - la noche cuando ella trató de suicidarse.

LA LUZ

adicional.

HOSPITAL MENTAL SLO Alrededor de las 1:30 a.m. Grinager llegó al hospital mental SLO, un lugar que ella llama, "El lugar más

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Carmesi 33

APPLES TO APPLES (below) : Sophomore Gavin Hughes and junior Maddy Owens pose with their favorite vegetarian foods. Some vegetarians start their lifestyle to contribute to the health or the ecosystem ad give back to the environment.

Photos by Kalyn Armstrong and Annie Meeder

Food for thought The benefits of living a vegetarian lifestyle

by Sadie Mae Mace, Managing Editor, and Mason Seden-Hansen, Opinion Editor

T

he candlelight flickers warmly as I pull my chair out from the long table, and the rain taps sharply on the window pane. As dish after dish emerges from the kitchen and are placed by my grandmother in front of each of my family members, the aroma of stuffed turkey, honey glazed ham, and spicy chicken fill the room. As the beginning of this Thanksgiving commences, the “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” come from seven of the family members. However, I shift my plate closer to me and dig into my alternate Thanksgiving meal- “tofurky”, a tofu based protein imitation of turkey. I am a vegetarian, and choose not to participate in consuming meat at meals.

Instead, I choose an alternate and healthier route.

A vegetarian is someone who doesn’t eat meat or fish, mainly consuming fruit, vegetables, grains, and nuts. Many varieties of vegetarians exist, such as vegan, pescatarian, and semi-vegetarian.

Pescatarians are similar to vegetarians, except fish are included in the diet. A semi-vegetarian, also called a flexitarian, limits intake of meat, and normally does not eat red meat. A vegan does not eat any animal byproducts, such as meat, dairy, and sometimes honey. All choices represent an individual sacrificing to feel better, protect animals, or score long term health benefits.

Sophomore Gavin Hughes has lived the vegetarian lifestyle his entire life. Both his parents support and allow him to choose whether to be vegetarian or eat a meat diet. However, he is convinced of the positive impact his vegetarian diet makes environmentally. “...We’re becoming such consumers of natural resources. We can do our best to conserve what we have and live most efficiently … by changing our diet... and vegetarians are much, much better than your average person at conserving,” Hughes said, whose entire family also is vegetarian.

Hughes swims six days a week for the PRHS Varsity team during the season and with a club team during the off season. Hughes has swam competitively the past six years and finds that vegetarianism doesn’t affect his potential as an athlete.

Various studies since the 20th century debate if a vegetarian diet affects physical performance.

The conclusion suggest that “...the vegetarian diet had neither a beneficial nor a detrimental effect on aerobic endurance”, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“The more I learned about what I eat, the more I learned about farm factories and genetically modified foods. I realized how my body felt more active and awake...a wide range of foods that help me run and I honestly feel great when I run with my team everyday,” said junior Maddy Owens, who is on the Varsity Cross Country team.

Through choosing a vegan lifestyle, Owens enjoys the benefits of helping the environment and ending world hunger. She feels that that this lifestyle choice makes a positive change in the world,

34 Health // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

with not cutting down trees to make factories and grazing land for market animals. The Earth itself benefits from vegetarians. Raising animals for market releases more greenhouse gases then the combination of vehicles around the world, according to the Food and Health Organization of the United Nations.

Reducing the risk of many diseases, a major health benefit of switching to vegetarianism is less risk of heart disease, cancer, and cardiovascular disease, according to the recent study by the World Health Organization. Another perk of becoming vegetarian is longevity, because the higher intake of vitamins and fiber boost the immune system and can increase the lifespan up to six years.

However, vegetarians must be careful to consume a healthy intake of protein, which is found in mushrooms, mixed nuts, dairy, and more. According to BBC’s Good Food, tofu is also a source of “amino acids, iron, calcium and other micro-nutrients”,. Without enough protein, vegetarians may take a treatment of iron supplements to combat anemia, which is the loss of healthy blood cells. It causes fatigue, based on a lack of consistent intake of iron.

Contrary to popular meaty diet, humans are not physically built for a carnivorous lifestyle. Our hands are built for grabbing fruit, our intestines are long, like omnivores, and our canines are built for crunching veggies instead of steak, according to the Huffington Post. Due to this physical tendency for vegetarianism, it has existed among humans since about 580 BC, but started gaining interest as a lifestyle in the United States around 1971. Many religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, encourage a vegetarian lifestyle, to “... enshrine compassion to all living creatures,” according to the Vegetarian Society.

There are many reasons why people make the lifestyle switch to vegetarianism; the most predominant is ethical reasons, according to vegetarian.com. Documentaries, such as Food Inc. and Super Size Me, exploit the gruesome behind the scenes workings of large scale meat factories and sparks the conversation about animal rights and vegetarianism.

I made the switch from flexitarian to vegetarian when I was thirteen, but not everyone has to make the switch to vegetarianism; it’s not in the lifestyle choices of the average American. However, I play my part in helping make the world more eco-friendly through reducing my carbon footprint. Living vegetarian, and even adding more veggies and less meat into a diet, can reduce a carbon footprint by half. However, if citizens all work together in similar lifestyles, such as Meatless Mondays or switching to a red meat free diet, citizens can reduce the carbon footprint left behind by humans, and introduce a healthier life for everyone, even the carnivores.

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VEGETARIAN PROTEIN SOURCES : To get protein that would normally be found in meat, vegetarians turn to a variety of sources Photos by Kalyn Armstrong and Annie Meeder

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Health 35

Playing Alice

Senior Isabella Marziello plays a childhood favorite this December

by Kathryn Varian, Environment Co-Editor

You are the MAGIC in me

WORKING THE LIGHTS (above): Ian Young sets up the lighting for Alice in Wonderland and tests the colors of the lights.

Tech Crew lights up stage for Alice in Wonderland

by Nicole Raithel, Environment Co-Editor

I

t's a little more complex than, "Lights, camera, action!"

Shocker, I’m sure.

Headsets in place, every last button in its proper hole, every light filter fit properly in its slot, tech crew makes sure that everything is up to par. Stage Manager Brandt Goodman stands in the booth above the seats with the sound crew; there’s excitement thrumming in the walls. The Assistant Stage Managers, or ASMs, shift their footing from behind the stage; one covering stage right and the other, stage left. All forms of stage managers have their headsets on, allowing them to communicate with each other. The last of backstage crew scuttles silently through the dark, placing the last piece of the set in place.

They give the all clear.

With PRHS’ Drama Department’s opening night of Alice in Wonderland, adapted and written by Anne Coulter Martens in 1965, quickly on the horizon (Dec. 4-13), it’s imperative to acknowledge the people who may not go through hours of rehearsal and line memorization, yet rather go through over 86 hours of careful preparation. The tech crew includes, but is not limited to: Stage Manager, assistant, assistant stage manager(s), light designer, sound designer, sound assistant, backstage crew, robotics/sound team, spotlight crew, costume crew, make-up/ hair, ticket manager, usher manager, house manager, and ticket crew. The titles are self explanatory. The bearcats behind the scenes plan every exotic light show, help change every costume, arrange every set, paint every face, fabricate every sound (such as a door closing or a pocket watch ticking), and fix every last problem. Without Backstage, every show would just be “bare and lacking,” said advanced drama student Celeste Geary: “There wouldn’t be very much magic.”

Of course, one could never ever diminish the light that the actors bring to the show, and to life in general. It is assumed that drama kids just want to jump on tables and break into song­— High School Musical style. “Drama kids are not shy,” said Geary, “they don’t get embarrassed about doing idiotic things. They like to stand out and they enjoy that.”

Others are less outspoken and rambunctious— not quite jumping on tables and singing show tunes— but definitely are still unique. They complete the show with their cheshire smiles and their voices as loud as the Queen of Heart’s when someone paints her roses red. Though confident and vivacious, five drama students confessed to associating themselves as “wallflowers” due to the observation that they, at times, feel awkward and excluded. And since the kids behind the curtain put the spotlight upon these “wallflowers,” one could call backstage bearcats wallpowers. They power the show, after all. These teens-- the ones who silently move in the dark, the ones who whisper cues into their headsets, the ones who divulge into every miniscule detail of the show—these teens are wallpowers. They light the stage from the shadows; they are the unspoken voice in every act. They are the ones who set the stage for the shows so the actors don't actually “break a leg” up there.

Senior class president, stage manager, and overall overachiever Brandt Goodman described just what it is like to be part of the backstage crew: “It is very exciting when the show is going on; it’s a lot of work but we all love to do it.” He said that after school work begins this month (Nov) and lasts roughly four hours every weeknight for two weeks. “We work very hard and are all committed,” said Goodman. The week of opening night is what the tech crew call “tech week.” This is where the

36 A&E // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

Isabella Marziello is gearing up for the December production Alice In Wonderland along with the rest of the PRHS drama department. Marziello has been acting since she was very young and was in her first show freshman year.

Four years later she is nearing her seventh PRHS show, “I hope that everything runs smoothly, we actors have fun with it, and I hope the audience has fun.” Marziello has jumped down the rabbit hole and into her character, Alice, with hours of practice this fall. “I'm doing all I can. I'm memorizing my lines and blocking and really trying to understand what she does and says the things she does,” Marziello said. Alice has been a prominent figure in her childhood and she is “really excited to be playing Alice.” Performances are December 5, 6, 11, 12 at 7:30 PM and December 7, 13 at 2:00 PM in the Paso Robles High School Performing Arts Center.

LOOKING AT THE RABBIT HOLE (above): Marziello poses in the costume for Alice during her fourth year in drama. stage manager, assistant stage manager, light technicians, sound designers, and everyone else stay for six to seven hours Monday through Thursday to make the final preparations for their Friday premiere. Many question who would even want to be a part of backstage; who wouldn’t want to be in the spotlight? Backstage crew member Maricela Garcia Serrano explained just why. “A lot of backstage and other tech crew people want to be a part of the show, but they don’t feel comfortable on the stage,” said Garcia Serrano. Although drama kids are the heart of the performances, tech crew brings the “magic,” as Geary put it. The tech crew to the actors is as the Sun is to flowers. Flowers need light to grow, to look beautiful. Without the backstage and tech crew working their tails off, the stage would be unlit, the Queen of Hearts would be beheading the wrong card soldier, and for all we know, Alice could accidentally fall into a mole hole.

Photos by Nicole Raithel and Kathyn Varian

MARCHING in step

A day in the life of junior drum major Shadi Frank

by Marlee Drake, Copy Editor

T

he sound of guitar floats around the room at 6 a.m. as junior Shadi Frank stretches and readies to face the day as the junior drum major of the PRHS band. Much of the work she does may go unnoticed, but her dedication helps take thundering drums, blasting trumpets and delicate bird-like flutes and transform them into dulcet songs.

Frank, in a crisp white uniform that offsets her from the deep crimson of the rest of the marching band, bears the responsibility of helping to lead the band when teacher and director Santiago Galvan, who has taught at PRHS for six years, is busy, as well as conducting during performances.

Along with four and a half hours of 2nd period marching band every week, she also assists in conducting practices every Tuesday that run from 6 to 8:30 p.m., arriving early to ensure that everyone is ready to go with their instruments and music In a typical practice, Frank and senior Daniel Tibbets, the senior drum major, conduct the band and critique their performances. During football season, the band warms up with the Star Spangled Banner, Alma Mater and Fight song, and then rehearses the pre-game march on and then practices a seven minute long show, in which band members must march around the field, creating arcs and curved lines, all while playing the memorized song.

Along with these group rehearsals, Frank also practices conducting the band with her military baton, a silver staff with a crimson braid that is used to command the band during parades, roughly three hours each week.

Frank’s passion for band began in fifth grade with the flute and has since grown, as has her sense of community with her band members.

“We all know each other's struggles and we all spend a lot of time together because of band. Sometimes band gets frustrating and we get frustrated with each other, but we’re always a family and we’re always there to support one another.” Frank said.

Tibbets, who also began band in the fifth grade as a clarinet player, has worked closely alongside Frank as the two command the band together.

“Working with Shadi has been very smooth. She is turning out to be an awesome junior drum major.” Tibbets said.

Along with Friday night football games, the band also performs in the Pioneer Day Parade, the Colony Days Parade in Atascadero where they competed and placed third, a competition in Selma, the Paso Christmas parades, as well as winter and spring concerts and festival, a concert band competition. Frank has personally participated in five parades and four competitions.

“I really like going to Selma, because we get to watch the smaller bands as well as the bigger bands who have hundreds of people on the field. We get to see bands from all over California” Frank said.

The process of selecting the junior drum major can take anywhere from five days to two weeks and involves an extensive process of filling out an application, a one on one interview with Galvan, showing they know how to give and execute the commands, and a conducting audition. Four or five candidates are selected from that, and the final decision is made by Galvan and Principal Randy Nelson.

In preparation for assisting in leading the band this year, Frank attended a four day drum major camp at UCLA over the summer, where she learned how to call out commands and be a motivational leader.

Next year, she will take over as the senior drum major and help to train her successor. While she’s not sure that band will be in her future plans, she knows she will always make music a part of her life.

LEADING THE WAY (above) : Junior Shadi Frank and Senior Daniel Tibbits, both drum majors, pose with their batons. They use the batons to lead the rest of the band.

Photos by Lauren Wassam

TEAMWORK(above) : Shadi Frank stands with the other drum major and two other members of the band.

IN THE LEAD (above) : Shadi Frank stands with the baton with which she directs other band members.

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // A&E 37

Cal Fires Leave Lasting Effects Valley and rough fires burning across California leave environmental changes in their wake

T

CAL FIRES (above) : Cal fires destroy the environment for future generations.

Photo is free public domain

by Emmaline Voorheis, News Co-Editor

he fires that scarred the state of California left more than smoke and crumbling trees; they left a lasting effect on the environment of California with them. Burning 76,067 acres of the Hume Lake, Napa and Sonoma Counties alone, these fires, though 100 percent contained, have caused irrevocable damage to California’s environmental status; a legacy of devastation lasting longer than the less than 25 days they endured.

From the remains of the fires, invasive weeds and grasses - some being the multiflora rose, common buckthorn, gray dogwood, Asian honeysuckles, Japanese barberry, Scotch broom, and catbrier grasses - could potentially crowd out native shrubs and low-lying plants, increasing the erosion rate of the forest floor because of their shallow roots, leading to more frequent future fires. After the blazes, some of the young shrubs may not regrow, due to their lack of maturity and ability to drop seeds, causing more flammable invasive plants to take root. If a fire recurs in an area devastated by the Valley fires within five to 10 years, the hardy native shrubs may not get the chance to mature and create seeds, due to the rapid germination rate of the weed-like grasses.

“If you want to get rid of native shrubland, this is how you do it,” Rick Halsey, a homeowner in Escondido, told CNN News, as he watched the fires burn dangerously near his home. “The problem now is you get a habitat covered by exotic weeds, and that can regenerate every single year and carry a fire every single year.”

Along with California’s plant life, small birds, rabbits, and other ground or tree - dwelling animals dependant on the Valley’s rapidly disappearing vegetation native to California will also struggle to maintain their footing, while some endangered species may find themselves trapped on increasingly jeopardized islands for refuge. With the smoke of the fires often resulting in air quality five to 15 times worse than normal, these animals and plants alike are definitely going to have difficulties.

Despite the grim symptoms the fires have wrought upon California, Cal Fire firefighter Mike Williams hopes for a speedy recovery for the Valley.

“Because of the drought, most (of) the plants were very dry, so the fire burned just about everything in its path,” Williams said, “new plants will grow back, (but) it will just take a longer time for it to look like it did before the fire because it was burned to a bare landscape” Though it may take years to undo the damage done to California, not all of the fires’ effects end on a bad note. The environment has a way of rejuvenating itself in the face of fire, in more ways than

one. California’s natural landscape is geared to profit from periodic fires. Many of native Californian plants actually need fires to germinate. Pine forests around California may see a comeback in the future, as the fires can be necessary for the rejuvenation of the pines.

But wildfires are on the rise, in both frequency and intensity, in part because of hotter, drier conditions, due to current events such as California’s drought state. In 1981-84, the average rainfall added up to 32 inches; in 2011-14, the average rainfall has severely dropped to 15 inches, leaving the area seriously parched. Dry, hard ground affected by the drought, as well as dead trees, only enables the fire to burn longer and with more intensity. Lack of humidity only adds to the risk.

Last summer, as many as 110,000 dead trees were recorded in a given amount of acreage in California. This summer, 12.5 million dead trees were found in that same spot of land. This drastic increase in dead trees equals the same increase in fire fuel.

Given these conditions, fire season has lasted longer than the norm. A generation ago, firefighters could expect the season to last no more than a couple of months. Fire season has increased over the last 40 years, however, starting out as 78 days and increasing to 143 days.

“I’ve got 30 years in, and in the last 10 years I have seen fire behavior that I had never seen in my entire career,” Capt. Ron Oatman, a public information officer for Cal Fire, told the New York Times.

“I think fires like this one will be more frequent,” Williams said regarding the Valley fire, “especially if the drought continues.”

However near fires seem in the future, there are ways to prevent such wildfires from occurring as frequently. Cultureofsafety.com lists five main causes of wildfires in California; campfires left alone, innapropriatly handled fireworks, yard waste-burning, cigarettes, and vehicle sparks. With a firm hold on the way we handle these things, most wildfires can be a thing of the past. Before starting a fire, there are four things to do beforehand to ensure your safety: 1. Comply with all local laws and regulations 2. Check the weather 3. Only use easily controlled locations for burning 4. Do not burn anything unusual or combustible “A lot of the fires can be prevented, (and) education is a start for preventing fires, teaching the understanding of the dangers of wildfires and how easily the can get out of control.” Williams said.

“Because of the drought, most (of) the plants were

very dry ,

so the fire burned just about everything in its path.”

—Mike Williams

38 Environment // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

“When he’s gone, my mom is like a

single

parent.”

—Averi Kerr

Fire & Family Struggles that come with being in a fire family

by Emma Corippo, Reporter and Natalie Cole, A&E Editor

O

n Christmas morning, Sophomore Maddison Harris woke up and felt joy rush over her. She smiled and ran down the stairs to the christmas tree. Her mother was sitting on the chair next to the bright fire, smiling weakly. Maddison’s face dropped in disappointment. She frowned, and walked over to where her presents were neatly piled. She knew why he wasn’t there. Her father was working at the fire station, busy helping those in need. They began to unwrap the presents apathetically, and after every present had been unwrapped, they took photos, smiling, while the reality of not having the whole family together tugged at their hearts. They sent the pictures to Harris’s father in hope that he would feel as if he was a part of their Christmas morning. For the children of firefighters this is a common situation, as their parent’s job requires them to be separated from their family for long periods of time, and the length of time that they are away from home becomes longer during the fire seasons.

This year, firefighters have been working around the clock to put out the extensive wave of fires.

“We don’t see an end in fire season for...months to come,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director. With the fire season lasting indefinitely and the large spread of the fires across California, firefighters are starting to feel the heat.

“A firefighter would be up there for...two weeks,” Harris said. Her father, a captain in his unit, is often away from home.

Harris’s family has a long history of fighting fires; her father, grandfather, and uncle all served as firefighters. Despite the toll it takes on her family life, Harris believes that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and hardships.

Photos by Nicole Raithel

“No one else will be there for the people who need it most.” Harris said.

Harris is not the only student at PRHS whose family makes many sacrifices; junior Averi Kerr’s step-father is often absent in her life, sometimes for periods lasting as long as three weeks. Kerr’s two siblings and her father are constantly working.

Firefighters are often put in near death situations to ensure the safety of others as well as fellow firefighters, or “brothers”.The brotherhood of firefighters is a close knit community, “It’s not a career. It’s a lifestyle,” Harris said.

The entire family works together to get errands done and work around the house.

“When he’s gone, my mom is like a single parent,” Kerr said.

Pressure is often placed on the spouse of a firefighter, whether it’s running the household or taking care of the children alone. Firefighting is a very risky career that can be dangerous or bring hard to deal with memories that can leave firefighters with traumatic memories.

Freshman Dylan Sonniksen is one of many students whose family is a part of the firefighting community . Sonniksen’s step-father is a Captain at Station 2 and is often working overtime. Like most firefighters, he is often working long, tedious hours.

“That’s what I wanna be when I grow up,” Sonniksen said.

“It’s a great career; it’s not for everyone, but you have to have that determination inside of you, that passion, that courage to be able to...put others’ lives before yours,” Harris said.

“You have to have that...

courage

to ...put others lives before yours” —Maddison Harris

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Environment 39

Hydrate with s me

Bearcats look forward to four water refill stations

by Nicole Raithel, Environment Co-Editor

I

t all started with a class project: come up with an honorable cause— a proposition that would help others and the community— a regular assignment in Geoffrey Land’s class. Senior Pearl Herrera sat in her ink-marked desk and recalled how she had bought “a water bottle almost every single day” her freshman year, but then soon realized that she was destroying the environment and destroying her piggy bank in the process. To solve that problem, she switched to a reusable water bottle, but she would run out of water by lunch and the water from the fountains was “hardly drinkable.”

Bouncing back to the present, she was struck by a brilliant idea: Filtered water stations.

Herrera “didn’t think anyone would care” about her idea; she almost didn’t propose it, yet in the end she was “so glad” she did. Once the groups of four people pitched their ideas to the class, the students voted for the most valiant cause. After pitching her idea for water refill stations, Herrera still didn’t think she had a good chance of winning. She went up against ideas such as letters to soldiers, positive posters around school, and sending gifts to children in Nicaragua. The class must have been feeling philanthropic that day because, by a majority of the class, the water station idea beat out its opponents. Elated and “surprised”, Herrera quickly set off on her journey to make her water refill station idea a reality. “[Her government class] drafted the petition in class,” said Herrera, “people worked surprisingly hard to get [the petitions] in; I didn’t think that anyone would really do it.”

Students and staff alike willingly and knowingly signed the formal petition. Over the next two weeks, all the petitions started “flooding” back in. After arduous summation, they had gotten over a whopping 1,000 signatures. But that wasn’t the end of it.

“Land made it known that we couldn’t lose momentum; we had to keep going,” said Herrera.

So, to progress even further, Herrera went into Land’s class

during tutorial and drafted a formal letter with Land addressing why Paso Robles High School needed water stations. Giving multiple examples stating that bottled water is wasteful, they requested the installation of two water refill stations.

“Bottles used to package water take over 1,000 years to biodegrade and if incinerated, they produce toxic fumes,” they wrote.

Using 11 other sources, Land and Herrera thoroughly backed up her proposition. She brought up key elements as to why PRHS needs water refill stations; referring to that fact that for every 33 oz of Fiji water produced, 7.1 gallons are consumed.

Or that one liter of fossil fuel and 1.2 pounds of Greenhouse Gases [the gases causing Global Warming] is emitted into the biosphere, all according to treehugger.com. The most hard hitting evidence she provided was that schools are required to provide safe, drinkable water to their students (California Edu. Code, SB 1413, 2011). After the final draft had been once again reviewed, Herra hand-delivered the printed-out copies of the petitions and the formal letter to Principal Randy Nelson.

But Herrera didn’t do everything; on Oct. 8 Land emailed the letter to Superintendent Chris Williams and Board of Trustees President Field Gibson. As luck would have it, a board meeting was scheduled for Oct. 13. The board reviewed the petitions and the letter and decided that they would grant Paso Robles High School four water refill stations instead of the requested two.

Most water stations cost between $500 to over $1,000. The stations are going to be “a little bit above $1,000 per machine [installation included],” Herrera said. They are expected to arrive sometime within the 2015-1016 school year. This one example of an individual making a change in our community shows the brilliance and importance of one, simple idea.

Remember that the road less traveled is always more fun. Stay hydrated and keep the environment clean, Bearcats!

Photos by Nicole Raithel

40 Environment // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

“Land made it known that we couldn’t lose momentum; we

keep going .”

had to

— Pearl Herrera

V6RANCH.COM

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Ads 41

PLAYING THE MENTAL GAME Mental toughness is vital to every sport

JUST KEEP SWIMMING : Junior Kasey Moffit strives to keep every thought positive with every stroke she takes.

Photos by Kathryn Varian, Enviroment Co-Editor

Mental Fundamentals

90%

of every sport is mental

48%

thoughts per minute

80%

of our thoughts are negative

14%

boost in performance

by Kathryn Varian, Enviroment Co-Editor

T

he wheels on the bus went round and round as it crept slowly down the road, every once in awhile hitting a pothole that forced the nervous swimmers to re-adjust in their seats. A tense silence surrounded the players. Time ticked by as everyone anticipated the races ahead of them. They had put in the hours of rigorous training, now it was time for pure concentration and a perfect mindset for what was ahead.

The mental game, or mental toughness, as many like to call it, is four things: staying calm under pressure, keeping yourself focused on the right things, being able to rebound quickly from your mistakes, and having confidence in yourself and your abilities. Strong competitors here at PRHS, RUNNING TO like volleyball player Madison Anderson, cross POSITIVITY country runner Ashley Davis, and swimmer Kasey (left): Senior Moffitt, know that these four things are necessary Ashley Davis for success. competes not Talk with or observe these stars and it’s clear only in running their sport is not all about putting in the physical but also in a work. They will argue that the mental game is just strong mindset. as important as physical training - if not more.

Senior Ashley Davis has been a competitor in Cross Country and Track since her freshman year and in that time has seen great success.

“It’s going really well,” Davis said with grin from ear to ear.

She is a strong believer in having mental toughness and claims that, “The mindset is really important. It’s a very big part of it, especially in running. It’s such a difficult sport, you have to have a really strong mindset.”

In the past, Davis experienced the consequences of a poor mindset, but she says that “I have been learning to keep a really positive mindset.”

Not only do athletes here a PRHS believe in this philosophy, it’s what the pros do. LeCharles Bentley, offensive line performance coach, has been working with Larry Warford, the third-year guard for the Detroit Lions. Bentley is usually at his training facility, in Scottsdale, Arizona, working NFL players into the ground, but one athlete needed different training. Knowing the importance of the mental game, Bentley sat down with Warford and focused on the space between his ears, according to ESPN. “Once again… a young guy that has played well and shown his salt as an NFL player. You want

42 Sports // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15

those guys to start looking and trying new things to get better. But what you don’t want to have happen is they ultimately start reaching too far and trying to do too much,” Bentley said.

Dr. Alan Goldberg, an internationally recognized expert in the field of performance enhancement, is also a believer in not “reaching too far,” according to his website competitivedge.com. He believes “your concentration needs to stay in the moment,” and that “If you let your mind jump ahead to the future, (i.e. thinking about winning or losing) or slip back to the past (i.e. a previous mistake), then you’ll end up getting yourself too uptight and distracted to perform to your potential,” said Goldberg.

Madison Anderson, a member of the JV volleyball ALWAYS SMILING team said, “Without it you are somewhere else.” (right) : Sophmore Anderson, a sophomore here at PRHS, is a very Madison competitive volleyball player. She is known by her Anderson smiles teammates to always be calm and cool, even after a her way into good loss. thoughts and a Anderson believes that paying your physical dues positive mental is just as important as having mental toughness and game. that “they feed off each other.”

“Your attitude can make or break you,” said Junior Kasey Moffitt, “You could do all the training and be totally ready, but if you tell yourself ‘there’s no way I’m going to be able to do it,’ than you won’t have to motivation to win.”

Moffitt has been a competitive swimmer since the age of ten and is now trying her hardest to get a scholarship in swimming at UCLA, “I have a sticky note on my mirror with the fast times from UCLA, so everytime I look at my mirror I’m like ‘gotta get that before senior year’.”

Having lots of experience in the field, she knows that “you’re racing against yourself,” and a positive mindset is crucial.

“I learned the hard way. I would freak out before the race and tell myself I’m not going to do good, and I then I would swim, and I wouldn’t do good,” said Moffitt.

When it is time to put her practice to work she knows what to do, “I get to the block and just zone in.”

“My mom always tells me the body achieves what the mind believes,” said Moffitt with a smile on her lips.

MUSCLE MUSCLE VS

As practice hours, game schedules, and plays vary, so do the vital muscle uses. Take a look at some of the most important muscles used in two different bearcat athletes.

Varsity Football player Junior Steven Schouten

by Maureen Pushea, Co-Editor-In-Chief & Sam Mabry, Graphic Designer

Varsity Volleyball player CALVES HAMSTRINGS QUADS HIP FLEXORS GLUTES

USED FOR...

SETTING PASSING HIT APPROACH

MUSCLES USED

SERVING PASSING HITTING SETTING

LEG MUSCLES

BICEP USE

Junior Kiara Gable

1. LOWER BACK 2. LEGS 3. CHEST 4. SHOULDERS 5. TRICEPS

SCHOUTEN USES HIS...

&

QUADS, CALVES, HAMSTRINGS

TO RUN DOWN THE FIELD

11.12.15 // Crimson Newsmagazine // Sports 43

The LIGHT in two thousand eyes

CLAD IN RED (top left) : Bearcats of all ages gather round a ladder to take a large group shot while they dawn their red clothing for red ribbon day during spirit week.

COZY MONDAYS (top right) : Bearcats dress up for pajama day during spirit week. for Breast Cancer Awareness during spirit week.

SWIMMING IS WINNING (middle left) : Junior Kasey Moffitt smiles all suited up in hear swimming gear. #TWINNING (middle center) : Junior Bearcats match up their flannels and Zeppelin t-shirts fo twin day during spirit week.

ALL WE DO IS WIN (middle right) : Senior Kristen Thompson shows her spirit at a bearcat pep rally in the gym.

PRETTY IN PINK (bottom left) : Bearcats get dolled up in pink ALL SMILES (bottom right) : Bearcats get together to ward off drugs.

Photos by Lauren Wassam, and Madi Warren

44 Photo Essay // Crimson Newsmagazine // 11.12.15