Crimson April 2011

Crimson

Presorted Standard

Non-Profit Org

The Student Newsmagazine of Paso Robles High School

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GEO students go for the globe

by Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief Senior Tori Sepulveda scuttles into GEO teacher Mark DiMaggio’s class just as the clock strikes 9:11 a.m. It took a hot shower, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and mastery in the art of weaving past cars in morning traffic to claim her parking spot. But it also cost her a dent in her ecological footprint.

The GEO class began on March 7 the Ecological Footprint Project: a complication of weighed clothes, trash, food, and behaviors that tries to answer how students’ lifestyles affect the planet. They finished on April 3, discovering impacts from energy use, driving cars, and personal cleaning habits.

An ecological footprint is expressed in “global acres,” which measures the difference in biological production of various ecosystems impacted by human consumption activities, according to myfootprint.org.

Continued on GEO page 20

Editorial 07 >> College craziness

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Paso Robles, CA

801 Niblick Rd. Paso Robles, California

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Volume 70 / 04.13.11 / Issue 6

U.S. Postage

Center 18-19 >> Skills USA Sci-Tech 32 >> Radiation information

Contents

April 13, 2011

Volume 70, Issue 6

Photo by SOMEONE!!!

On the cover: Senior Tori Sepulveda is one of the 32 students in Mark DiMaggio’s GEO class. They experienced the Ecological Footprint Project from March 7 to April 3.

Photo by Maddison Coons

13 Avid students

Juniors Vivian Rodriquez and Maritza Valdez share a friendship and goal for the future.

feature

24 Burrito bash Three judges determine which local burrito triumphs above the rest and which fizzles out.

food

30 Spinal trapped Senior Katie Frey opens up about her seven-year struggle of scoliosis and emerges with a passion for helping others.

health

17-23 Special Project Edition SkillsUSA, GEO, PolyMUN, Peer, and FFA are all being featured in this month’s special addition.

Photo by C.J. Prusi

35 Varsity baseball Senior Scott Plescia gives an inside look of sportsmanship and how their love of the game is bringing in victories.

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04.13.11 Crimson

Paso Robles High School

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News

Gathering relief for Japan Two PRHS students are trying to make their impact for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the March 11 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that jolted the island in the Pacific Ocean.

Sophomore Hernan Arreola came up with the goal to raise $100 for the people in Japan, and junior Noel Aschenbrener stepped in to help expand the vision. Their current goal is to raise $1,000, all of which will be used to directly help those in need in Japan. The money will go through the American Red Cross Association, who will distribute it where it is needed.

“To be completely honest, I actually was impacted and devastated when I saw how much damage was done. It really made me think how good Americans have it, and it made me think about ways of helping.

I wanted to do this because I care about others, even if they are no where near my vicinity or country,” Arreola said. “I would love to see our community reach out to those in need.”

Aschenbrener and Arreola’s goal is to gather money donations from PRHS students as well as people in the community. Aschenbrener is focusing on gathering the community’s attention with the intention to post flyers, talk to KSBY news, and contact various radio stations including KPRL, CAT Country, and K-Jug. Arreola created a Facebook event page, “Japan Relief Donations,” to bring the word out to students about the donation opportunity. One hundred and six people have already pledged to donate as of April 6.

“I am so doing that!” sophomore Nicole Scarborough wrote on the event page’s wall.

“Japan Relief Donation” is still in the developing stages. Arreola has been working with the American Red Cross Club and Leadership class. Leadership teacher Geoff Land doesn’t want competing organizations raising money so once GEO is completed with their fundraiser for endangered species, boxes for Japan will grace PRHS’ presence.

“I know it isn’t much, but it is the little things that really make an impact. The main objective is to get the community and the student body involved to help donate,” said Arreola, who has volunteered for his mom, a speech therapist in Monterey County, by helping kids who have hearing and speech problems.

“Lives can be affected in a second, and [PRHS students] can make a change for the better,” Aschenbrener said. “A penny can help.”

The Red Cross Club is showing their effort to help Japan by ordering white bracelets with a red circle representing the Japanese flag. The date of the earthquake, 3-11-11, and “Support Red Cross” will be inscribed on the bracelet.

“My mom told me, ‘There can be a way we can help’ and I really believe this. Anything goes—whatever you give will just be perfect as long as you give something. The littlest things make a big difference,” junior Jessie Hursell said, Treasurer and Secretary of the Red Cross Club.

The Red Cross Club meets on Wednesdays at lunch in 309, Melissa Wedmoore’s classroom. They currently only have three members and are looking for PRHS students to join and help their efforts.

The numbers are catastrophic: 12,341 dead, more than 15,000 missing, and almost 160,000 Japanese are in shelters, according to an April 5 article in the New York Times. Arreola and Aschenbrener appreciate even the smallest donation because even one bronze Abraham Lincoln can make a difference.

— Maddison Coons, Managing Editor

One student’s trash is another’s college fund To the untrained eye, the usual “junk” found around a person’s house—that long forgotten souvenir snow globe, the unwanted knit sweater from Grandma, or last year’s tattered shoes—may seem unimportant. But for seniors of the Academic Booster Club [ABC], those items could help them financially on their path to college.

ABC is hosting their annual rummage sale on Saturday, April 30. All of the money earned goes toward senior college funds and scholarships. The sale started getting serious attention about three years ago, according to senior Janessa Hagen, copresident of the club along with senior Nicole Fabian.

“We try to help the school in any way we can,” Hagen said about the club’s goals. The ABC Club, led by English teacher Aaron Cantrell and parents Elane Hagen and Jan Leightner, consists of about seven juniors and seniors, though it sometimes varies.

ABC also received money in ways other than rummage sales, like coffee sales which have previously earned the club $500-$1,000. ABC also does annual southern and northern college trips, and this year collaborates with Templeton High School so more students can visit colleges. In addition to college funds, ABC helps cover the cost of AP tests, depending on the financial circumstance of the student.

In the past, the rummage sale has received furniture, clothes, and brand new items from donators. The 2010 sale rounded up approximately $15,000.

“It has been a really rewarding experience working with these people and giving out all the money we have in previous years, and I can’t wait to see what we get to give out this year in scholarships,” senior club member and secretary Addie O’Loughlin said. “Our hope is that underclassman will step up and take over the club when we are gone so it doesn’t die off because we have all put so much work into this club.

It would be amazing to see future seniors benefit as well.” Those who earn scholarships from sale profits have received $500 or more.

Anybody who is willing may donate items for the sale at Paso Self Storage on Union Road near Barney Schwartz Park. Donations will be accepted on the second and fourth Sundays of every month between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. With as few as five to as many as 20 volunteers in previous years, students outside of ABC are eligible to volunteer at the sale. Not everyone who volunteers is guaranteed a portion of the sale’s profits, but the better the adult club leaders know who you are, the higher your chance is of earning money.

“My ABC team and I are all very passionate about our club and thankful for the support we get from Cantrell and the parents and other students,” O’Loughlin said. “I think all of the hard work will pay off in the end.”

— Sarah Wilson,

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A&E Co-Editor

INSPIRATION AND DONATION: Olympian Julius Achon is presented with a $200 donation from the Paso Robles Rotary club for bricks for the Achon Ugandan Children’s Fund. Achon hopes to build the first medical facility in his village in Otuke County, Uganda. Photo by Paul Cleland

Ugandan racer raises funds for foundation

Humanitarian speaks at PRHS

by Paul Cleland, Managing Editor

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Pink Slips

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One hundred twenty-six students, faculty, and teachers filed into the Activity Center during fourth period on April 5 to hear Olympian Julius Achon speak.

Achon came to PRHS to tell his inspirational story and inform students that no matter what they’re going through, “it’s not as hard as Africa” and life in America is “lucky.”

“Anything is possible if you want to do it, and anything can be stopped… you make your own life,” said Achon, whose family is raising 11 orphans in their home.

Achon was abducted by Ugandan rebel forces at age 12 in 1988 and was forced to be a boy soldier for three months before he escaped. He later went on to win the 1993 World Junior Championships in Portugal at age 17 and competed for Uganda in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. Currently, Achon is coaching an Australian friend for the 2012 London Olympics. His success in running drew the attention of U.S. distance coach John Cook, who brought him to George Mason University on a scholarship. Achon still holds the 800-meter American Collegiate Record with a time of 1:44.55 set back in 1996 at George Mason. Next year will be his last year of competitive running.

“Twenty-one years after the war has ended in Uganda, so does my career as well,” said Achon, whose first timed mile at age 13 was 4:15.

Achon established Achon Ugandan Children’s Fund (AUCF) in 2007 in response to the dire situation faced by the residents of his home village in Otuke County in Uganda. Ravaged by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army during Uganda’s two-decade civil war and damaged by floods and famine caused by drought, the Ugandan natives are struggling in the face of insufficient living conditions, and many children have been left without family.

Achon began speaking to high schools and college in 2008. So far he has told his inspirational story at “about 20” institutions.

Achon’s biggest project yet is to finish construction of the Kristina Acuma Achon Medical Clinic, a $75,000 project he has already raised $27,000 for. When completed, the clinic, named after his mother, will be the only medical facility in his village.

At the end of his speech, Achon was presented with a $200 check for his foundation by the Paso Robles Rotary and Interact club. This check will be able to provide nearly 2,000 bricks for his medical clinic.

“It’s really amazing that someone this big has come to PRHS,” Leadership teacher Geoff Land said. “I think it was really important for students to hear what he had to say.”

Paso Robles High School

Crimson 04.13.11 |

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News

‘Ripping the band-aid off’

AP and CST testing administered in same week

IN HIS ELEMENT: First year chemistry teacher Anthony Overton gives his second period students directions on the test review. Overton was one of the eight teachers to receive a pink slip. Photo by Lindsay Reed

The pain of pink

PRHS teachers face the dreaded pink slip

by Olivia Musial, Food Co-Editor

It’s time for round three. For the third consecutive year in a row, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) is facing a Uganda $2.2 million budget deficit and more teacher guest layoffs. speaker After 52 pink slips were handed out in the PRJUSD last year, the 2011-2012 forecast does not look much better. With a potential $2.3 billion loss from the state budget, layoffs are inevitable. Thirty certificated teachers and administrators from the PRJUSD were notified they may not have a position next school year. Among these 30 employees, eight were PRHS teachers. One of which includes first year chemistry teacher Anthony Overton.

“I was informed in person by an administrator, and I received a letter stating that I would not currently be needed next year. As a new teacher in this profession, sadly it would be foolish not to expect one [pink slip] in the current economic conditions,” Overton said, who received his pink slip in March.

While the budget cuts have lowered from last year’s totals of $7 million and 52 pink slips handed out, it is clear California is still in a fiscal crisis, and it is taking a toll on educators.

“It’s horrendous to see the destruction of the educational system in California. We are seeing higher class sizes, lack of funding, and yet we can pay big bonuses to investment CEO’s,” said AP U.S. History teacher Scott Larson, who has been teaching at PRHS for 34 years.

Larson has experienced the pain that comes from receiving a pink slip. During his first year of teaching at PRHS, Larson and 13 other teachers were pink slipped in 1978. Students protested Prop 13, which cut funding and led to teacher layoffs, by marching out of school to the front parking lot in support of their beloved teachers.

While the California education system continues to take the beating of a poor economy, many teachers feel grateful to have a job, especially in these tough financial times.

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“In general, I feel lucky that I had a job to get ‘pink slipped’ from this year. Many of my friends from college were not as lucky to find a job at such a wonderful school like PRHS or at all in most cases. Watching them face the challenge of finding work each day as substitutes makes me appreciate the work I have. I am hoping the overall situation in education gets better not only because I would like to return but because the direction that it is heading is not good for students or their communities,” Overton said.

Governor Jerry Brown entered the ring when he proposed a budget that would protect public education from more cuts. To prevent a potential cut of $2 billion or more to schools, there must be a two-thirds vote in the Legislator to extend the temporary tax already in place or put the proposed budget on the June ballot.

“No one likes taxes, new or continuing. However, with the current situation California is facing, it seems like a reasonable compromise, and it would allow school districts all over California to maintain what we have currently,” Assistant Superintendent Personnel Greig Welch said.

Unfortunately, recent developments in the Legislature revealed the discussion of Brown’s proposed extension of temporary tax had been killed.

PRHS Principal Randy Nelson also believes it is the right of the people to decide whether or not to extend the temporary tax.

“That’s a decision that the populous of California. The voters should have the right to determine,” Nelson said.

With the future of California’s education system hanging in the balance it is clear that the 2011-2012 school year is going to be a challenge with the constantly reducing budget.

“A school district constantly monitors its budget and student enrollment. Most school districts, including ours, use 85 percent of the money on people. So when there are drastic reductions from the state, as has been the case for the last three years, you have little choice but to reduce staffing,” Welch said.

Paso Robles High School

by Kelly Munns, Editorial Editor The majority of PRHS juniors are looking forward to a relaxing two weeks off for spring break, but with the California Standards Test [CST] and AP testing taking place the week they come back, preparation is crucial.

Now 406 juniors are gearing up for the upcoming CST, but a portion of these students are also preparing for more challenging and extreme tests: The AP English Language test, AP U.S. History test, or both. This year is especially unique because both complex tests occur within one week of each other; in past years the assessments have stretched over a couple of weeks or a month.

The mandatory CST taken every spring by freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will take place on May 9 statewide. This “no brain drain” test results in an average 300-325 basic level score, but does not include a timed essay.

The AP tests will be taken in Bearcat Hall and proctored by an administrator.

The AP English Language date is scheduled for May 11 and the AP U.S. History date is set for May 6 nationwide.

Eighty five to 90 students are flustered as the AP U.S. History test approaches.

With 80 multiple choice questions in 55 minutes and three essays in two hours and 10 minutes, any question is fair game. “[The] essay questions are more in-depth,” AP U.S. History teacher Scott Larson said. “[There will be] anything about American history; usually taken from four different time periods. Early colonial, revolutionary wars, early America, civil wars, industrialization, World War I, and 1920s until today.”

While taking the English Language portion, 100-105 juniors will answer 54 multiple choice questions that account for 45 percent of the overall score and write three essays for the remaining 55 percent in three hours and 15 minutes.

“It is very common for students to get 50 percent correct on [the] multiple choice because it is so difficult,” AP Language English teacher Sean Pierce said.

On two of the essays, students are given a prompt and are expected to create a well-written essay on the spot. The third essay requires reading six different sources and synthesizing them into a document based question essay. The grading rubric for the essays range from a score of one to a nine with three being the average score. Approximately 1 percent of students nationwide taking the English portion of the AP test obtain a nine, the highest score, on one of their essays.

“Everyone wants to get it over with. Everyone is nervous right now. Give me a three and I’m happy,” junior Vincent Diaz said.

To prepare for the challenging test, Pierce created a detailed handout that he gave all his students. Included in the handout are ways to stay on your ‘A’ game.

“Psychological preparation is very important. Positive self talk, maybe even devise a playlist of upbeat motivational songs—no Justin Bieber—that make you feel like you can take on the world,” Pierce said jokingly. “Be on good terms with friends or family; don’t have upsetting conversations before the exam because there is no way to concentrate if you just broke up with your girlfriend or boyfriend. Physical health is important too. Eating healthy, maybe just walking a mile a day especially with the longer exams, [as] it is harder to sustain a positive performance.”

Because spring break is so late this year, there is very little time to get in test mode. The Paso Robles district has a two week spring break compared with other districts that are only equipped with one. Larson has offered juniors to come in for 240 minutes during break to take a practice AP test, complete with the three essays and multiple choice questions.

“I’m definitely going to study [during spring break]. On one week, [I] will focus more on History, and the next on English,” Diaz said. “We have a week [after spring break] and then, boom! It’s right there!”

“Having both tests in the same week is like ripping the band-aid off,” Pierce said.

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PRHS masters the scientific method

News

Teacher and student passion helps Biology/ Life Science CST scores defy national trend

by Kathryn Wingfield, Feature Editor PRHS has science down to a science.

Seventy-nine percent of 12th graders nationwide failed the science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam, issued by President Obama in January 2010 to various states. These results are “disappointing,” according to Francis Eberle, Executive Director of the National Science Teachers Association in an interview with the Washington Post.

However, PRHS’ latest standardized test results call for a different reaction.

Fifty-eight percent of PRHS juniors scored at or above proficient on the Biology/ Life Science section of the 2010 California Standardized Test, 12 percent higher than the state average. These results accompany a recent rise in Academic Performance Index scores from 755 in 2008 to 770 in 2009. The formula for fighting failure has been perfected over the past five years, according to Anatomy and Physiology teacher Jon-Paul Ewing. Three years of science plus one dedicated department equals a countless number of students that are increasingly discovering a love for learning “how the world works.”

Junior Kalyn Taborski discovered an unlikely career path in Chemistry during her sophomore year.

“It was when [Chemistry teacher Anthony] Overton came in as our student teacher, and we got into all the experiments,” she said. “I realized that I loved what I was doing, and I was really good at it. So I decided to go into forensics and plan on being a coroner in the future.”

Taborski is an example of a passion for science that grew from classes taken due to the three year requirement classes enriched by educators such as AP Physics teacher Mark Fairbank, whose own love for the subject overflows into his teaching.

“The science department is composed of creative dedicated teachers who are striving to provide the students with an outstanding education,” Fairbank said, who maintains a regular 5:30 a.m. arrival in order to assist his AP students. “Each science teacher makes the commitment of choosing a positive attitude each day having fun, making the students’ day and being in the moment with the students.”

Ewing, a former PRHS student himself, agreed the science department’s strongest attribute is its staff.

“Every single teacher in our department loves what they do. We love interacting with the students and showing them how the world works. Our science department is very tight knit with lots of fun personalities,” Ewing said, who personally looks forward to the department’s weekly Friday nutrition get-togethers, where the teachers have the chance to “laugh and build each other up at the end of the week.”

Both Ewing and Fairbank strongly advocate educational techniques such as the use of the interactive

notebook, praised as a great help to learning, and demonstrating The strategies we “conscious thought that implement have been forces the teachers to backed with educational check for understanding research that statistically and allow students to interact with the science curriculum,” makes a difference in student learing.” according to Ewing.

“The strategies we implement have —AP Physics teacher Mark Fairbank been backed with educational research that statistically makes a difference in student learning,” Fairbank said. “Collectively they teach the whole child, emotionally, socially, physically, and cognitively.”

Ewing, a 1999 graduate who took five science classes in his four years at PRHS, confirms the programs’ effectiveness.

“The three classes that prepared me the most were Fairbank’s Physics, DiMaggio’s GEO, and Anatomy with Egan. I know for a fact that PRHS science educates our students very well since I was once a student in these halls.”

Though Ewing believes the department has a long track record of success, he attributes the recent rise in numbers to the three year science requirement which was adopted five years ago. Compared to a typical two year requirement, this gives students more opportunities to participate in the wide variety of offered classes, which “allow something for everyone.”

Senior Neil King Rice opted to take four years of science and math along with it. “My Autism favorite class I’ve taken in high school was AP Physics, and I’m actually thinking about majoring ... walk egaP txeN in physics or engineering. It comes naturally to me, so it’s great to be able to have classes that specialize in it.”

As the three year requirement holds strong, the future looks bright for the science department and its students. The teachers hope to soon offer elective classes in Marine Biology, Conservation Biology, and possibly start a Biotechnology Academy. These classes would further expand the environmental and scientific impact the program brings to the modern world.

“I hope we can keep this momentum,” Ewing said. “I hope we can really make a difference on campus and ultimately change our society’s apathetic view of science.”

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Kennedy brings P.E. to life

PRHS elective course, life fitness, attends classes at Kennedy Club Fitness

Photo by Torey Wise

by Torey Wise, Sports Co-Editor The aroma of fresh smoothies and deli food arouse the senses when entering into Paso Robles’ four-year-old Kennedy Club Fitness. When scanning the scenery, to the left a glass wall dance room, lined with mirrors, is crowded inside with enthusiastic guests pushing themselves to keep up with the fast paced Zumba instructor. A stair case leads to a room full of expensive treadmills and weight machines, but to the far corner a class is playing a rowdy game of “wolley-ball,” attracting spectators from shrill screams and “Don’t let it drop!” This group belongs to PRHS’ Life Fitness class, ran by Cara Macomber, P.E. and Life Fitness teacher of 25 years.

Macomber instructs one life fitness class each trimester and has been taking her classes down to visit Kennedy four times a term. At Kennedy students have opportunities to try out different classes: cycling, Zumba, senergy, wolleyball and Groove.

“I take the kids here to expose them to different types of GETTING YOUR GROOVE ON: PE students learn on site at Kennedy four lifetime exercise options. I do not want them to be intimitimes per month.

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dated going to a gym,” Macomber said.

It’s a brisk 15 minute walk to Kennedy and 15 back, which gives the group around 3040 minutes inside the club for their class. Students also have the option to bring money and order a smoothie or food item from the café inside and pick it up as they leave.

Each trip they pick one class to sweat through; each student pays $3 per class. That means they spend $12 for a month—compared to Kennedy membership fees that can average $50 per month—to try out all the classes that others are put on a waitlist for. The money they pay goes to a KF instructor who comes in to teach the class specially one on one with no other members.

This alliance with Macomber and Kennedy allows students to try out the gym feel and experience all different kinds of fitness, from vigorous sweating to body movement to the beat.

“Hopefully they will see all types and ages of people working out and staying healthy and thinking ‘I can do this too,” said Macomber.

Paso Robles High School

Crimson 04.13.11 | 5

News

A WALK TO REMEMBER: The 500 plus crowd prepares for the walk from Monterey Street to Osos Street. April is National Autism Awareness Month, and this walk was to raise awareness. Photos by Lindsay Reed

Autism awareness traipses through SLO Local efforts to raise awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorders

Science

by Lindsay Reed, Reporter Scores Next Page ...

It wasn’t just the spring sunlight that caused the 500 plus crowd in Mission Plaza, downtown San Luis Obispo (SLO) to wear their sunglasses. No, it’s the neon green and purple helium-filled archways bouncing along in the slight breeze and similarly hued T-shirts of strangers from all walks of life advertising a shared cause: Autism.

People of all ages packed the tight, shaded spaces between local vendors creating a green and purple sea of sunscreen, sneakers, and occasional strollers. A bounce house jiggled with tiny toddler bodies jumping to and fro while a lone mother sat carefully, attempting to keep them from falling out of the entrance. Adjacent to the rubbery edifice was an “instrument zoo” put on by the SLO Youth Symphony with instruments galore being blown, plucked and tapped by fascinated youths. The combined scent of various foods from vendors traveled into nostrils, and ears were filled with laughter and excited chatter from volunteers scurrying to and from the information booth, assuring that all details are taken care of before the big event.

The local Central Coast Autism Spectrum Center (CCASC) in SLO, used April, National Autism Awareness Month, to its advantage as it completed its third annual walk on April 3. This was their way to provide a creative way for the community to interact and become aware of the world of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The CCASC founders had realized there was a “great need for awareness, and for that, funding, otherwise there would be no change.” For three years now the center has provided support and services for individuals directly and indirectly affected by ASD while simultaneously providing training and education for those interested in ASD in the surrounding communities.

“The [CCASC] is almost there, we’re evolving… we have a need in this area. We’re just trying to fill that void,” said Mercedes Meier, member of the board of directors 20 minutes before the walk began.

The starting line was packed full of groups such as “Red Dragons” and “Team Tyler” consisting of friends and family ready to proudly strut the green (short) or purple (long) paths carved out of the streets of SLO in honor of their loved ones affected by the disorder at 2:23 p.m.

The spirited participants waited patiently for the hands to reach 2:30 p.m. as they watched a flash mob of couples dance to Usher’s “DJ got us falling in love again.” With seconds left on the clock, the crowd began to go wild as Disney’s “High School Musical” star and SLO native Zac Efron walked out of a previously unnoticed black tent under the sycamore trees to kick off the walk.

“I look for every chance to come home… all my friends from my hometown are supporting a great cause…. Send my love to Paso!” Efron said, in explanation for his surprise visit.

While Autism is incurable, the CCASC has made it their goal to help minimize the symptoms and affects of ASD as best they can by providing programs, information, and care to those in need.

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Paso Robles High School

TEAM TYLER(Top): The walk started at 2:30 p.m. Participants formed teams and took a short or long route. ZAC ATTACK (Below): Central coast native Zac Efron returns to San Luis Obispo county to make an appearance at the third Annual Autism Walk on April 3. “Send my love to Paso,” Efron said.

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We sincerely regret to inform you…

Editorial Editorial

PRHS students must cope with college rejection

by Aryn Fields, A&E Co-Editor, and Maddison Coons, Managing Editor Even with a 4.0 GPA, amazing extracurricular achievements, and college essays that tug on the heart strings, it’s still possible to be rejected.

PRHS seniors have experienced denial from colleges they thought they should have been accepted into in the past month. With fresh wounds of rejection on one’s mind, getting revenge on those who made it in and the college itself seems justified. However, more mature ways to cope with being denied are available, and if students want to succeed, they must Agree: 19 react to being let down in a respectful manner.

“Rejection happens to everyone at some time or another. It could be college, a relationship, a scholarship, a job, or an opportunity of some kind. It will happen to everyone, and it is how you handle it that makes Disagree: 6 the difference in your future,” counselor Sandy Buck-Moyer said.

Buck-Moyer feels rejection allows someone to reinvent themselves.

Look at the rejection as an opportunity to grow better from. Are there new projects you can try? More free time that can be used? What are new dreams you can form?

“Looked at in this way, rejection can let us change in an exciting way,” Buck-Moyer said.

Senior Georgia Binkele was denied admission from her dream college, UCLA. Binkele has been accepted into UCSD and USC, but she still needed to find a way to cope with her rejection.

“When I got my letter my mom couldn’t handle waiting so she opened it and then sent me a long text that said ‘everything happens for a reason,’” Binkele said. “Then I cried for about five minutes and the first thing I thought was that I had no plan anymore.”

Binkele has a mile long list of extra curricular activities and a 4.3 GPA, yet she knows an understanding of why she was rejected may never happen. She firmly believes she will end up where she is meant to be and that has aided her in going through the let down.

“To cope through this, I also talked to other students who had their dreams shattered. I made lots of jokes to keep back the tears every time someone asked. Now I’m less devastated than I thought I would be,” Binkele said.

In contrast to Binkele, another senior was accepted into UCLA, but not everyone was happy for the student.

“I was in class, and someone started going off on me about how I didn’t have a high enough SAT score and haven’t done enough extra curricular activities and that I shouldn’t have been accepted over them,” the senior said. “I personally didn’t take much of it to heart because I got into a really good school, and I was happy about that.”

This situation demonstrates that PRHS is in a serious need of a reality check. There is an acceptable time to grieve over being denied acceptance, but holding onto it and taking it out on others is immature and unacceptable.

Before seniors can be accepted into a rigorous and established university, they must learn how to handle being let down. Rather than crossing their arms and sporting the pouty face, students should take a moment to recognize this as a speed bump, not a road block; then they must exemplify the reasons they should have been accepted, instead of justifying the action that they were denied admissions.

Around six students have been targeted for making it into another student’s dream school. Modern World History teacher Mark Bradford believes this happens over an inferiority complex.

“Some students unfortunately feel that the only way they can feel ‘big’ is by making others feel ‘small.’ They have not learned that you can feel superior and special by making others feel special or superior too,” Bradford said. “Students who harass others still need to learn about dignity and respect. They still need to grow-up and mature.”

Crimson Staff Vote: Is harassment following rejection a problem at PRHS?

AP English teacher Aaron Cantrell has watched capable students be denied acceptance for almost 13 years. Cantrell’s answer is that, like love, college admissions are irrational.

“My idea is that college admissions are like marriage. There is some place for everyone...if a college rejects you, it’s not a match. Just hang in there, and you will find that ‘love match’ later. Having said that, I really feel for those kids who do everything right and still get rejected,” Cantrell said. “We should think of a visual representation of admissions officers...maybe cupid in... an academic gown.”

In a recent conference at Wesleyan University with 10 colleges, many misconceptions were cleared for students about the admissions process. WSJ On Campus from the Wall Street Journal brought an inside look at being admitted into a college from admissions officers.

“There are usually two readers of a College application, sometimes three. If there is a discrepancy... If it’s not a clear admit or rejection then it goes into a committee where the application is reviewed then put to a majority vote. This is true for most colleges,” according to Seth Allen from Grinnell College admissions.

Even though this may be the case, Cantrell, Bradford, and Buck-Moyer are adaGraphic illustration by Kellie Kennan mant that everything will work out perfectly for those top-rate students.

“If they did all they could do to be competitive, they shouldn’t worry. Something wonderful will work out,” Cantrell said. Bradford agreed.

“Life is a challenge and there are no guarantees. Everyone experiences set-backs and being turned-down. The average person gives-up; the successful person never quits. So the question becomes, how will you react to the negatives that we all experience? Will you quit or will you persevere?”

“Always remember, you are more than this one thing. Because one thing was not a success does not mean you are not a success,” Buck-Moyer said.

That leaves it to you now Bearcats. How will you deal with rejection? Whether it is a job, a romantic partner, or college, being denied is all around you and a part of life. Learning how to properly cope is a virtue that all successful citizens need. If someone was harassed in an office or in a relationship—it would be over. Be lucky this is high school and other colleges aren’t aware of the attitude that’s being put forward. The institution wouldn’t be impressed with you, and frankly neither is anyone else.

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Crimson 04.13.11 |

7

Opinion

profanity sex low morals promiscuity nudity drugsclubs inappropriate alcohol partying profanity sex low morals promiscuity nudity Reality TV too shallow Disgusting behavior now the norm

by Alicia Canales, Managing Editor

Remember the 1950s show “I Love Lucy?” The black and white show presented a clear black-and-white moral stance.

It was very conservative. The married couple Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds for the first few years of the show. No allusion to sex was made at all.

But today television shows’ morals lounge within the grey areas and show what’s going on in bed.

Television nowadays exposes too much inappropriate behavior: too much kissing—by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike—sex, obscene language, violence, excessive alcohol use, etc. Chances are a person will be offended by one of those. Instead of watching it, turn the channel. The viewer controls what he watches.

“If you compare now to the 1950s, we live in two worlds. We’re on a different planet. The country that I was born to, it’s still here physically, but it’s not the same anymore,” said Ethnic Studies teacher Stanley Cooper, who saw the first television set at five years old in 1953. “The tv programing in the ’50s was fantasy, not based in reality at all. Now we have gone to far the other way into a fantasy of violence, a celebration of carnage, and I don’t understand why.”

One difference would be the homosexuality coverage, which has been controversial to conservative viewers. “Glee” characters Kurt and Blaine, two males, had been eyeing each other since Kurt joined Blaine’s Dealing choir group in season two. The two shared a rather long first kiss in the March 16 episode. Then they took a Next Page ... breath, gazed into each other’s eyes, and made out some more. with rejection Watching people make out is uncomfortable; it doesn’t matter if the couple is straight or gay. While this isn’t appropriate, it’s not a crime for television shows to show a reasonable amount of it—like three seconds.

Honestly, couples make out everywhere. And just like a person can turn away from that scene, a person can change the channel when the kissing becomes overwhelming.

“I think that they should take out all the sexy stuff from family TV shows and leave it on like HBO and Stars and those other channels,” senior Celina Solis said, who enjoys watching “So You Think You Can Dance.”

However, certain images are meant to be private regardless of if it’s on an “adult” channel. Unlike PDA being common in society, people having sex, complete nudity as seen on MTV, or excessive drinking in public is rarely seen—and if it is, leave that area a.s.a.p.

Reality TV star Aubrey O’Day, from P.Diddy’s 2008 reality TV show “Making The Band 3,” now has a show of her own on Oxygen, documenting her attempt to start a solo artist career. In episode three of “The Aubrey O’Day Project,” O’Day had the cameras follow her and roommate Krsytal Bronson into their sauna. The nude girls covered their most private

parts and kissed before leaving the room.

Privacy definitely applies here. Even if it wasn’t 100 percent exposing, it showed more than a person would normally see—by 99.99 percent.

Then shows like “Jersey Shore” exist. “Jersey I think that they should take out all Shore” had the highest rating in Cable TV with the sexy stuff from 7,608,000 viewers for the week of March 21 beating family TV shows.” out other shows like “Amy Wives,” “WWE Raw,” and —Celina Solis, 12 “Spongebob,” according to nielsen.com. “Jersey” might be considered “entertainment,” but it’s pathetic if “entertaining” now means watching Snooki tan herself orange while drunk or trip and face plant into sand.

“I don’t find shows that have excessive drinking worth watching. In fact, I don’t find many shows worth watching...

Most of the shows on television are just not educationally scintillating enough for me to devote a half an hour or an hour watching,” senior Louis Dam-Mikkelsen said, who watches National Geographic or the History Channel.

Ultimately, today’s television programs bring up the question: what happened to shows with a moral value? What happened to “The Cosby Show,” “Happy Days,” or “The Brady Bunch” when everyone knew the moral was coming by the sappy music that started to play?

“I’d rather have better programming; better stories. I like films that feature positive role models; I like moral stories ,and I like it when good wins over evil... even if it ends up being bloody and the characters are flawed and imperfect,” Cooper said.

The Greek poet Prudentius defined seven virtues to counteract the seven deadly sins. They are humility, kindness, chastity, temperance, diligence, charity, and patience. The Greek era is obviously history, but the lessons aren’t. Television shows, and all stories, should promote these values.

Since television producers probably haven’t even heard of Prudentius, viewers must be in control of what they watch.

Teenagers are fully capable of determining what enters their mind. It’s their choice to have TV-14 or TV-MA thoughts.

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Button

Taking today’s hot and controversial issues, “Hot Button” rates the current flammability of odd discoveries, political incorrectness, and just plain slip-ups.

WHITE HOT Actress Victoria Jackson let loose a stream of homophobic remarks. “I don’t care what is politically correct. Everyone knows that two men on a wedding cake is a comedy skit, not an ‘alternate lifestyle’” —Worldnetdaily.com

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04.13.11 Crimson

In England, politician Stuart MacLennan called House of Commons speaker John Bercow a “t---,” Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg a “b------,” and Labour MP Dianne Abbot a “f------” idiot, all before his twitter account caught the eye of journalists. He was sacked by his party.

–Telegraph

Alan Simpson, former senator of Wyoming, refers to Social Security as “a milk cow with 310 million t---.”

–The Economist

Samantha Ardente, a school worker who moonlights as a porn star, has had her secret double life exposed after a pupil at her Canadian school asked her for an autograph, having watched one of her illicit movies.

–Dailymail.com

Paso Robles High School

BLACK COLD —Madison Butz, Reporter All photos used with permission of AP Images Photo by Paul Cleland

www.crimsonnews.org

Opinion Photo illustrations by Kellie Kennan and Paul Cleland

f Cup o cs politi

U.S. politics: And the winner is?

When Alice fell into Wonderland, she didn't know she’d have tea with the Mad Hatter. The real irony is when Alice leaves, she hasn’t had any at all. Unfortunately, this echoes the nation's modern-day efforts to deal with politics: someone puts an issue forward, and after months of debate we continue pouring butter and sugar into the white rabbit's clock.

Imagine you’re trying to find out what the Tea Party movement believes. Type into ask.com, "Tea Party," and several billion results will pop up, mostly critical. The people behind each result get so caught up in name-calling that facts are obscured, twisted, and obliterated.

Just watch. The Tea Party calls the Democratic health care plan socialism; someone liberal gets offended and rants all Republicans are fascist, racist, elitist pigs. On the other hand, many with a conservative bent call anyone in favor of the plan a socialist and/ or communist and explain that if welfare is free, lazy people use “our tax dollars.”

Then someone says taxes are too high, and most liberals call them greedy and rich. Someone else implies raised taxes would fix our economy; economically challenged people jump on that case, ranting about who should be taxed. Again and again, calls of “Communist,” “Fascist,” “Liberal,” and “Conservative” fill the air.

All the “discussion” has done is bring up societal problems hearkening to the 20th century, in the days of real Fascists and

Modern discussion tactics lead nowhere

by Kellie Kennan, Graphic Editor

Communists. And these previously meaningful terms turn into another way to say, “You jack-donkey, I don’t want to listen to you!”

Nothing gets done.

The result is a mess of old resentments, renewed hatreds, and uninformed dissatisfaction. For every person with any opinion, hundreds of others attempt to rip him to shreds. And we wonder why no real progress is made toward a possible solution.

We aren't in Kindergarten. What is the purpose of arguing in circles? Aren't we looking for a solution? If so, something's got to give. And if not, we should be afraid for humanity.

Positive discussion has mutated into a constant, unhappy discontention and is now what we strive for. No one seems more pleased online when he has typed, in all caps, every reason why the other person is completely wrong.

It’s the same way in high school. No one tries to actually resolve anything. Instead of addressing the issue, we complain about everyone but ourselves and at the first sign of conflict either jump at it or hide.

If no one had any point of view, we would be in deep trouble. But does every single person have to voice every problem they have with every thing? Yes, a little 'comment' button is beneath almost everything.

Sometimes these leads to great discussions, and maybe even solutions, but the pseudo-discussions get us no closer to a solution and often do more harm than good.

Why do people take it personally when someone disagrees?

That's just life. It's impossible to exist in this world without someone disagreeing with you. You can be John Lennon, Obama, Hitler, or Jesus.

It happens. If you speak a strong opinion, someone will inevitably hate

you and want you dead. If you have a problem with that, go ahead and hide under a rock and don't say anything. Yet someone will say they own the rock, someone else will say it's unethical to own a rock, and then an existentialist will say there is no rock, and everyone will be just a little bit more confused.

So, enough complaining. Now for the part no one ever gets to: a solution. Instead of chasing the rabbit down the hole into madness, Alice, stop for a moment and think about what you're doing. Are you actually looking for a solution, a way for peace to come? Or are you just talking to hear the sound of your own voice? Is discussion an end or a means? Will the world end if you don't say what you're thinking, or will it keep orbiting the sun?

Everyone can look at a white tablecloth and say, "Golly gee, there's a stain on it!" You must have years of education. Pointing a finger at others will do nothing. You've got to help wash the tablecloth. Be understanding of others. Even if they really Senior are wrong, they haven't lived your life, and you haven't lived ... Keegan egaP txeN theirs. And really, if your opinion holds any truth at all, you Mullin shouldn't have to prop it up. Anything you have to constantly re-inflate is faulty ideology.

Whatever you are, you are also human. Remember that.

No problem can take away your humanity, even if the other person can't understand that. It's not about who is more correct, or even what the word 'correct' means. It's about what you do with it. If you're just ranting for the fun of it, no amount of eloquence on your part excuses the breath you just wasted. It's more valuable than you think.

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Make a stand or just sit down Why the Tea Party deserves some respect

by Sinéad Schouten, Sports Co-Editor Text “PATRIOT” to 41411 and enter one of the greatest grassroots movements in modern American politics. The Tea Party updates will keep phones—and the press—buzzing.

From the West Lawn of the White House to west Paso’s open parks, people are gathering to protest dissatisfaction with the current government. Hoping to “attract, educate, organize, and mobilize our fellow citizens,” the Tea Party is a conservative coalition of growing fame. A political faction branded “by the people, for the people,” their name is in honor of the Boston Tea Party—a protest in the name of high taxes, something the modern day group also fights. They work under a simple mission statement: “fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets.”

Of course, that’s only one side of the coin.

The movement is rarely seen in a good light. Forty-seven percent of Americans have “an unfavorable view of the Tea Party,” according to a March national poll

by CNN.com. Infamous rallies haunt the headlines, such as the March 20 incident outside the Capital. While protesting the upcoming health care bill up for vote, demonstrators called a Democratic black Representative “n*****” and a gay Congressman “f*****.” Politicians debated whether or not to consider it an isolated incident or proof of something more, but the damage had already been done. Democrats turned on Republicans. Republicans argued no association.

Nothing was solved.

America was founded on the idea of people ruling themselves. If you don’t www.crimsonnews.org

believe in what your government is doing, you have the right to go out in public and try to fix it.

While this patriotic idea is professed by Tea Party members, the rhetoric used is something based out of anger and not logic. At the teapartypatriots.com, a large blue button sits on the homepage. “Engage,” it says, “The Battle Starts Here.

Contact Congress NOW.” Battle? Engage? These words seem more suited for violence than politics. But there’s something to be said for their strong spirit, separating themselves from the mainstream.

“They’re more of an ideological group. They don’t vote for a party necessarily just because that’s the one they’re in,” said senior Joseph Gregory, former member of the since disbanded PRHS Republican Club. After his parents decided to attend a Tea Party rally in downtown Paso last year, Gregory found himself drawn to the movement’s independent philosophy. “You might not agree with them, but they believe what they believe not just because people tell them to. I respect them for that.”

While commonly associated with Republicans, Tea Party organizers claim no party affiliation. Proving independence, the recent 2010 mid-term Congressional elections had numerous official Tea Party candidates, several winning over Republican nominees. Many of the movement identify with famous conservatives such as Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. But there is no “official” head of the organization.

Paso Robles High School

You might not agree with them, but they believe what they believe not just because people tell them to. I respect them for that.”

—Joseph Gregory, 12 “From Washington’s who’s-in-charge-here perspective, the Tea Party model seems downright bizarre,” wrote Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal, examining the unusual structure of the group. “Perplexed journalists keep looking for the movement’s leaders, which is like asking to meet the boss of the internet.

Baffled politicians and lobbyists can’t find anyone to negotiate with.”

When it comes down to it, this is the true power of the Party. An honest movement of the people who are trying to change the country they love, for what they believe is the better. This is what our country needs—people who care about America and who are trying to make a difference. Whether or not you agree with them isn’t the biggest concern.

If they’re standing up, you can’t critique them if you’re sitting down.

Crimson 04.13.11 |

9

Feature

Extreme

politics Next Page ...

Behind the scenes: it’s reel

by Paul Cleland, Managing Editor, Maddison Coons, Managing Editor, and Monica Patel, Editor-in Chief

At age 12 the boy with the dark brown curls and contagious laughter was told not to worry, “everything’s going to be fine.” He was lied to.

It would be these five words that would open senior Keegan Mullin to more opportunities to contribute to his love of filmmaking since elementary school, as well as a therapeutic healing of the pain (unknown to most) he had kept bottled up after the divorce of his parents, his father leaving, and the inability to get in contact with him. He built a façade of laughter and happiness despite his personal experiences.

“I am really inspired by the crap that takes place in my life. What more can you be inspired by? You can either take the problems that you have in your life and just dwell on them and let them ruin your life or make something out of them, so that’s what I wanted to do,” Mullin said.

In March, Mullin discovered via postal he was admitted into Chapman University Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in Orange, Calif. Chapman is ranked No. 8 in the West as well as the No. 2 “Up and Coming University” of the West according to the 2011 US News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”

“I have no equipment really. That’s what was so crazy about me getting in,” Mullin said, who submitted to Dodge College a twominute collage of images and videos from his mission trips to Mexico each year with the Christian Life Center.

The eighteen year old hadn’t put much thought into college, until after the summer of 2010 when he was invited to apply to a fourweek program for the California State Summer School of the Arts (CSSSA). For Mullin’s CSSSA application, he depicted the divorce

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04.13.11 Crimson

of his family and the effect it had in “The Kids Will be Fine,” which he wrote, filmed, and edited.

Mullin’s time at CSSSA from July 10 to Aug. 6 required him to make five films, though he created eight, some of which include “Spooning in the Men’s Room,” and “Art Nude,” both available on YouTube.

Of these included his thesis project: Dial. Dial contains about eight minutes of Mullin’s real conversations with family members in his attempt to contact his father for the first time in over two years. He didn’t tell anyone he spoke with that he was filming; the collection of recordings are pure, filled with concern, and leave the viewer pulling for the father to pick up on the other line.

“I couldn’t get a hold of him [my father]. I accomplished nothing when you think about it. I didn’t get a hold of him, I didn’t speak to him, but I feel I got something powerful from it,” Mullin said whose ultimate goal was to interview his father at CSSSA. “I mean there was no chance of that.”

At the end of the program in August his mother, Vikky Mullin, and younger brother, sophomore Hayden Mullin, along with best friend of ten years, senior C.J. Prusi made the trip to Southern California to view the premiere of Dial.

“It was the first time they saw the film. I told them not to ask any questions and just watch,” Mullin said. “[At the end of it] my mom was bawling her eyes out. Hayden was probably a little sad too.”

“I didn’t know he was feeling this way until the film,” Hayden said. “To actually be able to understand what he felt when he went through my dad leaving, it just made me kind of sad for him because I didn’t really go through all of that. He went through more Paso Robles High School

Photo illustration by Maddison Coons.

pain.”

Mullin’s dreams are rooted in reality too—last year he ran the Paso Film Festival as program manager and also helped in running the Sacramento’s Tower of Youth Film Festival in Fall 2010. Mullin has also taken classes in screenwriting as well as acting at the Aaron Metchik Acting Studio in Shell Beach, Calif. from December 2009 to January 2010.

“I want to know how to do everything involving film. If I’m going to have to direct actors or talk to a writer I need to know what to say and know what I’m doing. I need to be able to put myself in their places,” Mullin said, who’s inspired by Spielberg and the likes.

For one of two required essays for Mullin’s application to Chapman, he had to write a speech as if he was accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In the essay he explained to the posed spectators that he owed his achievements “to the troublesome moments that [he] overcame.”

“Scared, lost, and powerless, I refused to give in. These moments present us with the drive and the motivation to press forward onto new and brighter days. They are the reason that I can walk off this stage and out of this room tonight not with a feeling of being finished, but being further driven and motivated to work harder and stronger than ever before to change this world of ours for the better.”

This is just the beginning. Filmmaking was the epiphany that changed Mullin’s view of expression. Today, he speaks out and confronts his problems, but uses them to create as well. His smile is no longer a façade but a spot on sign of happiness and relief.

www.crimsonnews.org

Feature

Maintenance man works his mag c Head custodian Ron Shannon is keeper of the keys

by Shanna Dowling, In-Depth Editor

Almost without notice, vibrant blades of dew-covered grass sprout anew from barren dirt patches. The once daily barrages of graffiti tags overwhelming bathroom walls are now few and far between. Slowly but surely, the campus is being renovated by the hardworking hands of head custodian Ron Shannon, a tireless crusader for campus beautification. For 14 years and 11 months, Shannon has been toiling away behind the scenes to make PRHS a clean and aesthetically pleasing environment for learning and working, leaving many students unaware of his diligent hours of work and the life he has led.

“I never really thought about being a custodian,” Shannon said, who learned the “value of good day’s work“ from his father, according to Kim Shannon, his wife of over 30 years. “I enjoy all [of my job] now, there’re so many things I get to do.”

On campus, Shannon checks the fire extinguishers, plans how to cover functions on campus, reviews the daily schedule of his crew, and tries to keep tabs on the incessantly growing construction.

“He would never ask anyone to do something he has not done himself,” Kim Shannon said. “He has the gift of administration and organization, and is able to see the big picture, and know what small steps it takes to get the job done.”

While a relatively veiled staff figure, his unrivaled dedication to his profession has not snuck unnoticed by the eyes of his co-workers.

“He’s turned the school into a beautiful place. No groundskeeper compares,” said security guard and seven year co-worker Claire McClure, ...Bedrosian egawins P txeN who fondly recalls a memory of Shannon’s faith and spontaneity. “When Teacher of his kids were in their high school days, he’s a real strong Christian, and the Year he would let them have giant youth group mosh pits, which is so cool. He [was] really into it.”

Arriving at school 5:15 a.m., nearly three hours before the first period passing bell, Shannon has made a habit of checking in on the cafeteria staff each morning to make sure their kitchen ware is running smoothly and they are ready to cook up a storm to quench the ravishing hunger of roughly 2,000 teenage students.

“He has the best sense of humor, and he’s the sweetest person,” cafeteria worker Linda Bilderback said.

When not working 40 hours a week at PRHS, Shannon enjoys a quiet life at home with his wife where he passes his free time renovating his property and sprucing up his ‘83 Dodge and ‘84 Volvo cars, one of his many hobbies—a radical divergence from his wild teen years.

“I don’t want to entice any young gentlemen on campus, so leaving my teen years out, white water rafting is probably the craziest thing I’ve done,” Shannon said. “It was an adrenaline rush! We rafted the Snake River during a thunderstorm and watched a raft full of Boy Scouts who were in front of us get thrown through the air!”

Shannon’s wife has supported her husband’s “servant heart” throughout their marriage and isn’t shy of showing her appreciation.

“I don’t see a job as the defining factor of who a man is but the character in which he does it,” she said. “A man could be the President of the United States and if he has no character or scruples, he is not any greater of a man than the man who is a custodian of a high school. I could not be any more proud of the man I married than what I am today.”

“I love spending time with my wife,” Shannon said. “We want to start traveling when we can. We’ll probably just continue in California and venture off from there, just seeing the beautiful parks and everything; I don’t necessarily feel the need to travel across the seas.”

Bells ring. Feet shuffle. Lockers slam. Engines roar. The majority of the student body is headed home after a taxing day of classes and assignments, but Shannon is handing off the keys to the night staff to prepare the campus for a brand new day of wear and tear. Revamping the campus or revamping his home, Shannon lets his devoted character and fervor for life shine.

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Photo by Kathryn Wingfield. Graphic by Amanda Hutchinson.

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Paso Robles High School

Crimson 04.13.11 |11

Feature

‘If you can, do’ Jennifer Bedrosian awarded Teacher of the Year

by C.J. Prusi, Food Co-Editor

Perhaps it is thanks to her high school Algebra Two teacher Mr. Kirchner for his “humor and constant follow-up,” or having her dream job of teaching leadership and dance, or maybe it’s her teaching philosophy, “if you can, do.” For whatever reason, due to her continual efforts 12 year PRHS teacher Jennifer Bedrosian, currently teaching all dance classes and leadership, was awarded 2011 Teacher of the Year on Thursday, March 17, an award voted on by the entire teaching staff.

Teaching: The Dream Job

Bedrosian always felt she was called to teach, from her childhood when she would play “teacher” with her dolls.

“It’s just one of those things you always know. [The best part of teaching] is watching my students get a new skill, gain confidence, make them proud of who they are as individuals. I love to make them realize that they can set the bar higher for themselves and then actually reach it!” Bedrosian said.

“I love every class I teach for different reasons. I love

dance because it is an automatic reward. Leadership has Next Ron Page ... actually given me confidence that I can begin to make Shannon a change on campus and the students I work with are amazing. Cheer has always been a part of me, the whole school spirit thing.”

Bedrosian’s fervor for teaching isn’t just something that lies dormant inside her, but rather a fire, radiating to her students, refusing to go unnoticed.

“Mrs. B is definitely one of the most caring, personable teachers I have ever had,” senior Lauren Huff said, vice president of the dance team. “She is not only a wonderful dance teacher but a beautiful person inside and out, and I will always be thankful for her!”

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Dance & Cheer

Though Bedrosian’s passion for teaching stemmed from an early age, it wasn’t until college that she began to develop an interest for dance. She recalled taking a ballet class and hating it when she was younger, but in college she learned an appreciation for dance and grew to love it.

Her favorite style of dance is lyrical jazz, and her favorite song to dance to is “Dancing Shoes” by Gavin DeGraw.

Bedrosian began teaching dance in 2008 with a class size of 17.

The dance class is now at 35 students, learning beginning, intermediate, and advanced dance. She also has been coaching a first trimester class of 55 cheerleaders for the past 11 years.

One of those 35 students is four year dance veteran senior Marina Plemons, who remembers the dance program Bedrosian needed to rehabilitate.

“She organized it and changed it to fit everyone’s needs. She kept it strong though all the adversity,” Plemons said, who choreographed two numbers for the dance show. “Plus she buys us Starbucks!”

Leadership

Bedrosian took over the position of Activities Director this year, previously held by independent living teacher and friend Debbie Mensing. Bedrosian now teaches alongside second-

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04.13.11 Crimson

year leadership teacher Geoff Land.

The pair have approached the class as advisors rather than teachers, with the idea that students who sign up for student government should be able to step up and be leaders.

“I want to make the students believe that they can make a change on campus, that they have a voice; but I want to make sure that their voice is a positive one, and that they are following through with their responsibilities,” Bedrosian said. “These students will be our leaders some day.

Now is when we lay that foundation of making them active and good members of our society.”

Teacher of the Year

Her March Teacher of the Year award represents a complete 180 from the same time last year when she faced some other big news: the dreaded pink slip.

“I think that would be my biggest moment of transformation,” Bedrosian said. “Once I realized that I might not be in the career that I have always wanted to be in, it made me realize that I wanted to not take for granted what a gift I was given. So I focused on staying positive and working really hard.”

The vote for Teacher of the Year, taken in mid-March, came down to Bedrosian along with math teacher Jim Steaffens and journalism teacher Jeff Mount.

Last year’s winner, English teacher Heather Stover, made the announcement after school at a staff meeting. Bedrosian recalled that she was not prepared to make the acceptance speech, though she did remember to thank her husband, Jon Bedrosian, who supports her through everything, even when she’s really grumpy.”

“I was really in shock. I was in the final round with two amazing teachers and I was pretty confident that I wasn’t going be given the honor, so it meant so much to me to have been given that from my peers,” Bedrosian said.

Bedrosian’s tale is one of inspiration and a reminder that with determination and drive, a seemingly bleak situation can be transformed to make a happy ending.

“She is super dedicated to her job and she cares about each student individually. She’s also always there if you need someone to talk to,” Plemons said, president of the dance team.

If she could leave her students with one message, it would be that “hard work really does make a difference.” Bedrosian, through her efforts, has exemplified this message.

“She has been an integral part of our high school for a number of years, from being cheerleading coach and as our high school dance instructor, putting on one of the finest dance programs around, to now taking on the additional duties of teaching leadership,” Principal Randall Nelson said about Bedrosian. “She is most well deserving of the award bestowed to her.”

Paso Robles High School

I HOPE YOU DANCE: Bedrosian poses with her Advanced Dance class (above) and shows off her moves in the dance room (right). Bedrosian’s students will ‘always be thankful for her,’ according to senior Lauren Huff. Photos by C.J. Prusi

www.crimsonnews.org

Feature

Great friends rise to a great

future

Passionate AVID students strive for academic excellence ...Special egaP txeN

Education

>> WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS: Juniors Maritza Valdez and Viviana Rodriguez enjoy the academic atmosphere. The girls endorse friendly competition to stay motivated on the path to success. Photo by Lindsay Reed

by Emily Grandoli, Reporter Arriving at school at 7 a.m. to get extra help in Physics and not leaving until 4 p.m. to improve on their writing skills, juniors and best fiends Viviana Rodriguez and Maritza Valdez are highly motivated AVID students and are driven to succeed academically and eventually become part of the university community.

Junior AVID teacher Anne Spohnhauer feels as though Rodriguez and Valdez are ideal examples of AVID students.

“They are devoting themselves to their studies and have a healthy competition between each other,” Spohnhauer said.

“My friends and I are competitive, so I try really hard,” Rodriguez said. She reports that joining AVID has helped her grow academically and that Spohnhauer has encouraged her to challenge herself by taking two AP and college prep classes as well as after-school programs. “I like to stay motivated by involving myself in school clubs and activities in the community,” Rodriguez stated.

Valdez also feels supported by Spohnhauer.

“For AVID, community service is required. At first I didn’t really like the idea, but now that I’m involved with the community, www.crimsonnews.org

I tend to exceed the hours required because I love doing community service so much,” Valdez said. Valdez stated that AVID has helped her academically as well, and reports her peers are a big reason for her drive to succeed.

“I’m a competitive person; I strive to do my best and beat my [classmates] in schoolwork and tests to get higher grades than them,” Valdez said.

During tutorial days, AVID classmates help one another with class work. “When I need help with something, someone is always there to explain and help me,” Valdez reported.

Spohnhauer, the 2006 Teacher of the Year, has been teaching Rodriguez and Valdez since their sophomore year.

“They both entered AVID during their 10th grade year, and up until that time, going to a four-year university was a desire but possibly not a reality. They had good grades but were not being coached in how to get to a four-year university. They needed to be encouraged,” Spohnhauer saud.

Rodriguez and Valdez speak very highly of Spohnhauer.

“Mrs. Spohnhauer is a very honest person; she pushes us to do our Paso Robles High School

best and doesn’t let us give up,” Valdez stated. She feels as though Spohnhauer is someone she can rely on for encouragement.

“To me she is like a second mother. She is very inspirational and says so many things that keep me going,” Valdez expressed. “Even though we don’t really enjoy doing all the stuff she makes us do, we know it’s for our own good. She’s our AVID mom that we love so much.”

Both girls have families who encourage them to graduate high school and move on to a successful university. “My parents didn’t even get to finish the sixth grade,” Valdez reported. “They want me to do everything I can to earn success.” Rodriguez reports that her mother is her main support system. “My mom encourages me to do the best I can, so I can have the opportunities that she never had.”

“I want to go to an impressive school with a well known name. I, as well as others, have great expectations for me, and I’m not going to settle for anything small,” Valdez stated. Both are interested in making their dreams a reality by attending universities such as UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Los Angeles.

Crimson 04.13.11 |

13

In-Depth

What’s in a day?

Teachers administer creative lessons for disabled students

CLICKING ALONG: Emmons’ students go through a typical day of computer instruction, handling money, stretching for physical education, and recycling for work experience on Mar. 28 Photos by Shanna Dowling

by Shanna Dowling, In-Depth Editor

Avid Students Next Page ...

>> 14

As the 7:55 a.m. bell rings, room 331 is swelling with a unique brand of student life. On Tuesday, March 28, 10 sets of curious eyes hone in on the television set in the right corner of the classroom, displaying the words “CNN.com” across a bright red website banner as a video of Japan’s devastation begins to play.

“Did you guys hear about what happened to Japan yesterday? Look at that building. It’s like a boat being carried away,” Special Education teacher Chris Emmons said to students as they siftt through recent headlines.

This is the morning start of Emmons’ special education “MS Living Skills” class quietly nestled across from the science buildings.

Though this special assemblage of 12 Bearcat students often struggle to function normally on a campus broadly ill-informed of their trials, their day bears a striking resemblance to that of the basic high school student.

Each Monday, colored index cards designate new classroom jobs for students to fulfill before the academic portion of their day is set in motion: blue, pink, green, yellow. Senior Iris Pollak and a freshman in pink feed the class pet, a white and orange fish left to an empty tank by the death of its three beloved, gilled friends. Two male sophomores are assigned counter-cleaning duty and assigned to set up the television for their daily dose of news. A red marker squeaks across the whiteboard in a big check next to each task completed.

And the students?

“Our students are very happy with simple things. In fact most of them are happier than the average person. Some of the kids however would like to feel more a part of the regular community and very often other students do not even acknowledge their presence,” Emmons said.

They learn a little math, science, social studies, health—

04.13.11 Crimson

everything the average teen would study but with a minor twist.

Practical skills rather than abstract mathematical equations or chemical experiments drive the curriculum, mainly dealing with the counting and handling of money and how to cope in real life situations, according to Emmons.

A small brown table occupied by two sits in the center of the room as determined sophomore, Elisabeth Bollam, carefully completes lesson 95 out of 100 that constitute her journey to learn to read.

“Ban, bane. Lit, lite. Can, cane,” she recites as Emmons listens encouragingly.

The eager reader learns to distinguish how adding an ‘e’ to the end of the word changes the sound of a word. Her current fluency and knowledge of reading wouldn’t show it, but the now proficient reading machine began reading sentences like “Sam-is-mad” and is only five lessons away from completing the book within a few short months, to which Emmons’ pride is unmistakable.

At 8:40 a.m., students break out their cash stashes and attempt to match the dollar and cent amounts on the board as closely at possible. A boy in the front of the classroom proudly displays a collection of paper bills and plastic coins, the first student to successfully match the $1.68 written on the whiteboard. Two desks to the left, Bollam shifts around her pile to find an amount to cover a bill of $23.01.

“Thirty will cover it, but you can come closer. How about a five instead of a 10?” Emmons asked her.

The third period bell rings and the students and aides furiously push the desks and tables across the carpets and outside the perimeter of the center circle, adjusting their normal trek to the track to compensate for the stormy weather. Three minutes on the clock and the runners are off—jogging laps around the classroom to get their athletic juices flowing, followed by a series of arm and leg

Paso Robles High School

stretches to limber up and an eight minute run around the room.

For some budding athletes, this allows another area to shine.

“Our fastest miler, [ junior Joshua Morales], has run 6:41 and we have a girl, [Bollam], who’s run 7:02 which is not too shabby,” Emmons said. “We also have a boy who’s done 500 consecutive situps, his name is Jackson Nash, [a senior].”

Photo by: Shanna Dowling

YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?: Chris Emmons sets up a fast food simulation on Mar. 28 in room 331. Each student chooses a meal from the menu on the board and practices ordering from aides Kim Capps and Randy McDowell at a cash register in the front of the room to educate students on the proper procedure of ordering meals at restaurants.

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In-Depth

Noon brings a unique experience: a fast food simulation. When walking to the register to place an order at a fast food restaurant, most PRHS students mindlessly order without a second thought. But for students of room 331, this is a fresh task to master.

“Your number is 169,” said aide Kim Capps, manning the money at the cash register with clinical psychiatric student Randal McDowell.

Teachers, aides, and students watched in anticipation as one freshman selected a Number One from the four-option menu on the board for $5 and another requested, “a Number Three please”— chicken and French fries, for $8.99. Applause sounded as they effectively asked for their respective meals.

“Number 15! Number 15, please! Number one, number one, please!” Emmons shouted.

The students wait to recognize their number and walk to the front of the room to grab their hypothetical meal. It’s a rarely thought about process that for some of Emmons’ students took up to five tries.

“Have a good meal, sir,” Emmons said as the final student returned to his seat.

With countless lunches and nutrition breaks spent in room 331 with Emmons’ students, sophomore Angelica Tapia has acclimated herself to the unique thinking and education processes of these special kids.

“You get to see how they see the world and how they are able to do things,” Tapia said. “I feel good about myself when I pass by and they remember me and say ‘hi.’”

Twelve students on campus are fighting an inner battle, attempting to live as comfortably and independantly as their handicaps allow. Though their combat is tough, the specialized teaching they receive gradually breaks down the barriers of their disabilities to expose a humbling realization: they are just like us.

Trash pick-up: Debunking the myths

End of the world

You may see students from special education teacher Chris Emmons’ class scouring the campus for debris during fifth period. You may watch as they extend the metal claws of their trash grabbers to seize discarded garbage. You may feel angry that these special students are being put to work completing jobs no one else wants to do. What you may not know is why. But what is said is true: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Look inside one of the white shopping bags carted around by students and rather than clumps of grimy waste, your eyes will fall upon an array of empty bottles and cans—the Yoo-Hoo you gulped down at nutrition, the Pepsi you tossed in the trashcan at lunch. The 11-student class is in charge of the recycling program at PRHS and their hard work does not go unrewarded.

Each collected aluminum can and bottle brings in money to be saved for fieldtrips and special events, whether it be a school trip to the library and the bowling alley as on Mar. 31 or out to fast food once every two weeks.

“It makes me kind of angry when people say negative things about the kids picking up trash. They have a sort of self-righteousness that they know better than us how to teach the students,” Emmons said. “For one, students come to school to get job skills and picking up bottles is a job skill—it’s good training for them. For two, it’s an opportunity to contribute to society, and there’s nothing shameful about picking up trash.”

Emmons shares that they also enjoy the sense of accomplishment and self-worth it gives them to be able to contribute as productive members of the campus.

>>

—Shanna Dowling, In-Depth Editor www.crimsonnews.org

Paso Robles High School

Crimson 04.13.11 |

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In-Depth

Time’s a ticking End of the world may be sooner than expected

Pack your bags and say your prayers because the end of the world is just around the corner—or so they say. Over the course of time, many theorists, scientists and prophets have predicted the destruction of the globe and the end of civilization. Crimson took a look at three popular theories and asked PRHS students to see when time will run out.

— Alicia Canales, Managing Editor, and Lindsay Reed, Photo Editor

1 2

WHO: Jesus speaking in the Bible WHEN:“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the

angles of heaven, but My Father only,” according to Matthew 24:36.

WHO: Harold Camping, voice of Family Radio WHEN: Genesis 7:4 states: “For yet seven days, and I [God] will cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights; and

every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Noah was addressed in this passage, and the flood came in the second month on the 17th day. Camping took the seven days as a prediction for 7,000 years based on “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” in 2 Peter 3:8. Adjusting to the Biblical calendar, Camping’s prediction landed on May 21.

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Special

Education

WHO: Mayan calendar WHEN: The Mayan civilization’s (300-900 A.D.)

calendar were based on their advanced knowledge of the correlation of the cycling of nature and our solar system as it sits in the Milky Way galaxy. The calendar tracks over 5,000 years of existence, then resets itself to zero. Although the calendar does not specify it will be the “end” of the world, it could mean that there will be a drastic shift from one world age to another. Scientists have taken the Mayan calculations and determined that on the 2012 Winter Solstice, the earth will pass through a dark rift also referred to as a galactic equinox in which the massive black hole’s in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy will create gravitational pull that will be too much for the Earth, creating a break-out of global catastrophes destroying civilization. Due to the break-out of floods and earthquakes occurring daily in the past few years, scientists believe that the galactic equinox might be just around the corner.

>> g lin ow ed D Re na say han ind y S y L nb s b tio oto tra Ph o illus ot Ph

“I think the world will end in a disease epidemic.” —Taylor Machado, 10

16

04.13.11 Crimson

“I don’t think it will end. If it does, the world will catch on fire and burn. Dinosaurs will come back to life and eat everyone. Earth will crack open, and we’ll all fall in it. All this will happen at once.”

—Collin Lux, 9 and Thomas Stainbrook, 10 Paso Robles High School

“Pretty sure the world will end when Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black do a duet. The whole world will start to move in and implode. It will be on a Friday, of course.”—Colby Bales, 10

www.crimsonnews.org

Inside Look

Champions at work

Offering over 100 occupational skill areas spanning from auto maintenance to web design, SkillsUSA is the epitome of hands-on learning. Students from all over the nation compete in local, state, and national competitions.

PRHS SkillsUSA won 77 gold medals and 12 silver medals at the regional competition in February and will send the gold medalists to state this April in San Diego.

The national competition will be held on June 19 in Kansas City, MO.

The club was

established in 2003 and THE BOSS-MAN: SkillsUSA

advisor Randy Canaday has been has evolved

to become witnessing success stories since

the largest chapter in 2003 when SkillsUSA was first established.

the state of California, sending the most students from a single high school to conventions every year.

“Skills USA is a partnership of students, teachers, and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. The organization helps each student excel,” their website states. More than 300,000 students annually participate in the event, accompanied by more than 14,500 advisors according to the website.

Preaching more than just job skills, the program also emphasizes the importance of citizenship, leadership, teamwork, and self-confidence. Their creed: “I believe in the dignity of work. I believe in the American way of life. I believe in fair play. I believe satisfaction is achieved by good work. I believe in high moral and spiritual standards.”

said, who “It’s like game time,” Randy Canaday

has been the advisor of the club since the club was first established. “We train kids, they compete, and then move on.”

More important to Canaday, who received the 2009 PRHS Teacher of the Year Award, is the opportunity to excel in what they’re doing.

“Sometimes we take a job apprehensively, and we find out whether we want to do it or not,” Canaday

said. “We compete in 32 types of contests and have 10 teachers on campus that will train kids in SkillsUSA.” different skill Over 5,000 students compete in 96 theme for this year is areas on the national level. The “Champions at Work Respecting all Perspectives.”

Below is a story about alum, Kevin Hahn, whose skills have helped him secure a job at IQMS.

—Andrew Chang, Sci-Tech Co-Editor

Using skills in real life ABIT KR74-133 Motherboard. Thermaltake Volcano 6Cu CPU Cooler. No, these are not parts of a spaceship. They are two components of every computer society couldn’t live without, and PRHS alum Kevin Hahn knows exactly how they function.

“I know how to use a computer, which is more than most people can say, also building and fixing computers is easy,” Hahn said, who’s been interested in computers for as long as he can remember.

Hahn took Computer Maintenance and Mechanical Drafting as a freshman; ROP Internetworking with the Cisco Academy’s curriculum his sophomore year; ROP Computer Service and Repair Field Experience as a junior; and ROP Web Design to wrap

up his last year at PRHS. He was under the guidance of computer teacher and Skills advisor Bartt Frey all four years.

“I’ve seen progress from freshman to senior year with Kevin, and now he’s at a job where he can see the potential of what he can do. I think that will help him focus on becoming better. That’s what I want all kids to do. I’m really happy to see Kevin do that… it makes me happy as a teacher when they’re successful,” Frey said.

Hahn attended the 2010 Calif. SkillsUSA Region 2 contest at Salinas High School and won gold in the USA Computer Maintenance Technology (CMT) competition. He went on to the State contest with 47 fellow Skills members in Southern California.

Hahn placed in the top ten but did not move to nationals. At state he had to identify and repair computer hardware malfunctions, solve configuration problems, and install components and take the A+ Certification exam. Hahn stated the only thing circuiting through his head was “just that I wanted to win.”

After graduation, Hahn applied to five jobs. He secured a job at IQMS, a computer software designing and developing company started in 1989. He builds circuit boards, used for inventory management and scheduling, which are shipped around the world.

Hahn plans on entering the United States Air Force (USAF) within two years. He stated he wants to join since it’s “good pay, steady job, [and to] serve our country.”

—Alicia Canales, Managing Editor Photos by Amanda Hutchinson, Sarah Wilson and Katie Wingfield

www.crimsonnews.org

Paso Robles High School

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med ley

V8s and victories

s l l i k s d l i u b s l When dril

Welding the way

Auto students rev up

NO PAIN, NO GAIN: Senior Kassidy Abbott tapes JV baseball player Tim Wassam’s arm in preparation for his practice. Abbott has been an athletic trainer for two years.

VROOM VROOM: Junior Morgan Murphy, a three-year auto veteran, works on maintaining a motorcycle. PRHS is the only school in the county to have a motorcycle crew.

Photo by Monica Patel

State sparks hope for first win

the county to have a motorcycle crew. The trio of three-year veterans look forward to their first big challenge in San Diego.

“This will be an adventure so that next year I know what to expect,” Murphy said.

But despite Murphy’s humble expectations, the auto program has enjoyed a legacy of success. The past five years have produced five Nationally ranked students, with alum Brent Savage making it to Kansas City just last year. But the high school doesn’t do it alone—the community has come together to support the winning program. Special Ed teacher and aquatics coach Duane McRoy donated the dashboard of his Ford Escort for those in Mobile Electronics to get hands-on experience. A classy loaned showbike is worked on at the end of the garage. This real-life training has proved invaluable in a trade such as auto.

“It’s all on [the students],” Boswell said, who feels confident that his Bearcats will represent well down south. “We have just as good of chance as anyone else at State. The kids are just that good.”

—Sinéad Schouten, Sports Co-Editor

Photo by Amanda Hutchinson

Technicians in training Blood trickling, gauze flying, someone suffocating—just a scenario put forth in SkillsUSA's regional competition that eight girls from PRHS Athletic Training participated in.

Seniors Karlee Jewell, Natalie Farales, Jennifer Smith, Kassidy Abbott, Katie Farley, Lauren Harrington, Chelsay Paris, and Mariah Medina participated in regionals at competitions: Basic Health Care Skills, First Aid/CPR, Health Knowledge Bowl, and Nurse Assisting. Farelas, Jewell, and Medina who competed in Nationals SkillsUSA inKansas City, Mo. last year are returning to State SkillsUSA this year.

Fareles was one of four from PRHS to make it into the top 10 in her competition, First Aid/ CPR, comprised of a skill test and a written exam. Six different scenarios were given three minutes each using a mannequin. Contestants were judged by an official in the skill test: unconscious adult choking, conscious adult choking, first aid component, infant CPR, adult CPR, and AED on an adult.

"I'm really glad that I took Athletic Training and Sports Medicine last year. O [Todd Olivera] helped with my initial training and certified me in CPR. At nationals when I was in my skill test, I looked over and saw him taking pictures with his phone and cheering me on, saying 'You can do it!' and that gave me the confidence to keep going," Fareles said, who is also taking Community Health Care along with Athletic Training again this year.

Fareles placed fifth among 46 at the national level in her competition. She had to place first at both the regional and state level. This year at regionals she placed first again.

Medina, who placed 21st at nationals in Nurse Assisting last year, was one of two students who had to go above and beyond to prepare for their competitions. Medina and Jewel, who placed 13th at nationals, both had to study at home using medical textbooks. Medina competed against actual certified nursing assistants in her competition that lasted six hours.

"Outside of school I studied a lot from nursing assisting books that I borrowed from O. [He] was very helpful preparing [SkillsUSA competitors] for what to expect and teaching us how to do our skills accurately," Medina said, who plans on becoming an OB/GYN Nurse, For some of the seniors moving on to state, what they’ve spent hours preparing, studying, and working towards is more than just a competition—it’s what they plan on dedicating their adulthood to.

18 | 04.13.11 Crimson

The smell of gasoline rides on a breeze around the open campus garages, the cloudy sky outside threatening rain. As a few drops begin to fall down, the auto kids of SkillsUSA continue to work away inside, oblivious to anything but the vehicle under their hands.

“You don’t even notice the smell after a while,” junior Zach Kenyon said before disappearing back into his huddle of three boys with a sand blaster.

Ten students have emerged from the shop of auto teacher Greg Boswell with invites to State. Seniors Corey Solberg, Ben DeAlba, Trevor Hendricks, and junior Raquelle Coxsey will be securing speakers and sound systems in Mobile Electronics. Juniors Morgan Murphy, Christopher Kleinman, and Kenyon are perfecting the art of motorcycle maintenance in Motorcycle Tech. Power Equipment Technology (PET), working with smaller engines, is represented by sophomore Austin Brown-Silva and junior Taylor Throop. And tackling a thirteen-station general skill test; senior Ethan McCoy in Auto Body.

“I’m not really concerned about winning this year,” Murphy admitted, who is practicing on more complicated bike systems that he believes will be at the four-day competition, such as Harley. PRHS is the only high school in

—Paul Cleland, Managing Editor

Preschool pandemonium

Cute kids and vicious competition Twenty-eight kids from ages three to five bustle about in room P13 as 30 PRHS students try to maintain order. BearKittens has taught students how to take care of children and prepare for the SkillsUSA competition.

From the BearKittens class advised by Brenda Matthysse, known as Miss Brenda, 11 students are moving on to the state competition in Preschool Teaching Assistant, two of which are also participating in Job Demonstration A. Last year only one BearKitten student competed at nationals, junior Emily Grandoli, who placed in the top 10 for Preschool Teaching Assistant.

One of the 11 students this year moving on to state is junior Mykayla LaMere. LaMere earned a silver medal at regionals and bronze at state in Preschool Teaching Assistant last year and received a gold medal in Preschool Teaching Assistant and silver in Job Demonstration A at regionals this year.

"If it wasn't for [BearKittens], I wouldn't know how to write a lesson plan or even know anything at all about child development. We spend a lot of in-class time preparing for SkillsUSA on days we don't have preschoolers [Wednesdays and Thursdays]," LaMere said.

For the preschool competition, competitors develop and write out a lesson plan around giving teaching supplies (markers, paper, paint, etc.). At the regional level PRHS participants are able to use the BearKitten kids to present their lesson plan. At state they must utilize a woman pretending to

be a child, and at nationals they use their lesson plan on a teddy bear. For Job Demonstration A competitors present any job skill to a group of judges through props.

“I am always thinking of what new activities to set up that I could use at state,” junior Natalie Trudeau said, who plans on a career involving special needs preschoolers/kindergarteners.

For LaMere, this involved her explaining to the judges her lesson and demonstrating to them how it helps children learn and grow in every area of development.

“Treating a full grown woman as a preschooler was definitely an odd experience. It was kind of difficult being as fun and animated as I would normally be with children though because in the back of my head I was constantly thinking 'I'm talking to a 40 or so year-old woman who is acting like a preschooler... weird,'" LaMere said, who has taken the BearKittens class for two years.

The SkillsUSA competitions helps students “realize the difference they make to the children and has really pushed them to excel,” according to Matthysse.

—Paul Cleland, Managing Editor

PRETTY LITTLE KITTIES: Junior Natalie Trudeau flashes a smile with BearKittens Annie, Cecilia, and Lindsay (left to right). The three girls spent their morning doing the hula hoop in the sunshine. Photo by Lindsay Reed

Paso Robles High School

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BABY, YOU’RE A FIREWORK: PRHS welding has never competed at nationals, but this year the team has put 3,451 hours of practice into their specialty to make it there. In team competitions, each welder focusus on different types of weld to contribute to the piece they are building as a whole.

Photo by Lindsay Reed

A door leads into a cement floor room. On the right, stairs guide up to a classroom, but to the left slots supplied with welding machines are arranged. Five SkillsUSA welders are found practicing 19 hours a week here.

Seniors Veronica Shaeffer, Landon Sudberry, David Wilkinson, junior Chris Marsh, and freshman Nathan Taylor are headed to state to show how eight months of preparation pays off. Each student is paying $200 to attend. PRHS welding has never competed at nationals, but this year the team has put 3,451 hours of practice into their specialty.

“Welding is the infrastructure of America, it can take you to any job even under water,” Wilkinson said, a four year welding veteran.

On Mar. 28 PRHS FFA traveled to a welding competition at Butte College in Chico, Calif. Out of 72 contestants and 14 teams, PRHS placed third overall and Wilkinson placed second individually.

Wilkinson, Sudberry, and Schaeffer will compete in the fabrication competition where they will build a mobile welding cart out of steel in one hour for state. The cart must be complete with two shelves, four wheels and a blue print of their design.

Sudberry will tackle shield metal arc welding, a “dirty” yet strong weld that comes from amps and electricity.

Wilkinson performs the high class weld, gas tungsten, on lighter metals. Schaeffer executes the wire feed approach on smaller projects such as benches and tables. All three use oxy-fuel cutting, a technique for cutting metals. They will be judged on the quality of their weld and the design of their blue print.

Even though losing isn’t an option for them, Sudberry still sees the benefits of competing. “[SkillsUSA will give a] more knowledgeable understanding and a professional based training experience in the job trade I plan to pursue later in life,” he said.

Both Sudberry and Wilkinson are attending the Commercial Diving Academy in Jacksonville, Fla. next August where they will begin training for underwater welding.

Win or lose, their talents will carry sparking accomplishments wherever they place their torches.

—Torey Wise, Sports Co-Editor

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‘GEO students go for the globe ‘

continued from front page

by Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief

SkillsUSA Next Page ...

“If you were to decide to change the way you act and keep that as a constant way of living, then that would be fine. But if you’re just changing for your ecological footprint, then that would lower your ecological footprint.

It’s supposed to encourage you to change your habits,” BCASE President Devon Lambert said.

GEO students must measure how much food they consume along with their petrol consumption on a daily basis. In addition, they must weigh everything they use.

From beds to each container of nail polish, every detail must be considered as well as categorized by what it is made of. Eventually the measurements will move from bedrooms to bathrooms and onto everything else the students use in their households.

“The project really opens your eyes to how you actually live your life. You may think you have a ‘green’ lifestyle because you recycle or ride bikes

but that really isn’t enough. Everything you do from what you choose to eat, the clothes you buy, how you decide to get around, and so on really matters and so many people don’t even think of stuff like that. This project isn’t meant to make us feel bad but to show us the impact we individually make on the earth and to hopefully get us to make changes. More people need to care and I think that this project is a great opportunity for people to see a problem and to try to fix it,” senior Jessica Vinson said.

Home energy use and transportation requires absorption of carbon emissions. Since 6.4 million humans share all the biologically productive land on earth, each person has 4.5 acres as their personal planetoid, according to radicalsimplicity.org. Their calculations claim that each person possesses 4.5 acres to grow food, produce material needs such as energy, and absorb wastes although individuals on average use 5.8 acres globally.

>>

A footprint is broken down into consumption categories:

carbon food housing goods and services.

20 2004.13.11 Crimson

North Americans are the world’s largest consumers.

If the world’s people consumed as North Americans, we would need five Earths, according to myfootprint. org.

“This project has made me realize how difficult it can be to maintain your footprint in line with your beliefs, while successfully participating in human society and particularly American society,” senior Summer Hoy said. Because of the Ecological Footprint, she is aware of her daily intake, waste, and impact.

“You could not improve at all and that would be fine,” Lambert said. “As long as you know what your ecological footprint is—that’s your goal, to realize if that’s where you want your footprint to be.”

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The average per capita footprint in global acres by consumption category is: carbon footprint (home energy and transport), 6.77 percent; food footprint, 7.13 percent; housing footprint, 2.79 percent; and goods and services footprint, 6.78 percent.

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TEENS TAKE OVER: Sophomores Jonathan Kisch and Andrea Lorenzo look forward to attending the first annual PolyMUN conference on April 9. Kisch will be representing the delegation of South Africa, and Lorenzo will represent Israel. Check crimsonnews.org for results of the meeting. Photo by Kim Boswell Photo illustration by Amanda Hutchinson

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Uniting the voice of the future PRHS students participate in United Nations general assembly simulation

by Amanda Hutchinson, World Editor, with contributions from Kim Boswell, Photo Essay Editor The fate of the world’s nuclear power rests in the hands of 25 high school students in business attire. Well, almost.

Cal Poly Model United Nations (PolyMUN) is a locally created MUN (Model United Nations) program offering opportunities for students to “learn about international political systems in a learn-bydoing atmosphere” by setting up a replica of a general assembly United Nations meeting, according to calpoly.edu. Twenty-five students from PRHS, Atascadero High School, Templeton High School, and Mission Preparatory attended Cal Poly for the first PolyMUN meeting on Saturday, April 9. PRHS sent eight delegates, including sophomores Jonathan Kisch, Michael Reitenour, Lauren Sterner, and Andrea Lorenzo.

Locally formed, PolyMUN was created by Alexis Bradford, Modern World History teacher Mark Bradford’s daughter and a senior Cal Poly Political Science student, as part of her senior project.

Bradford has MUN history to base her own creation off of. She has traveled to New York City with nine additional Cal Poly students to represent the delegation of Guinea and she has attended two other MUN conferences. Inspired to create a senior project with more impact on the community than a lengthy essay, Bradford collaborated with Political Science Department chair Dr. Craig L. Arceneaux to organize PolyMUN’s first conference in hopes it would become an www.crimsonnews.org

annual event.

PolyMUN participants are expected to gain skills in public speaking, conflict resolution, formal report writing, and group collaboration. In addition, members have already become the specialists on topics they would have expectably not come across otherwise.

“I am really looking forward to seeing the past five months of planning and preparation culminate in a real event that will benefit the participants in numerous ways,” Bradford said.

The gathering was a simulated general assembly meeting of the United Nations where students must be well versed in their assigned country’s history in order to come to an informed decision on the topic of nuclear non-proliferation (the government armament of nuclear weapons).

In PolyMUN, each student represents a country of the United Nations assigned to them randomly by Cal Poly. The eight PRHS students represented eight different countries. They presented their country’s profile, position paper, a sample resolution, and worked together to make a mock-up international decision. The PolyMUN regulations require business attire, or cultural dress of exotic nations.

A resolution on non-proliferation was determined by discussion and presentations of the student delegates in the Science North Building 53 Room 215 at Cal Poly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Paso Robles High School

Kisch, a South African native and PolyMUN delegate, has been researching the history of South Africa since late February. He spent two to three hours a week working on writing a one page position paper, reviewing past UN decisions, and studying the Non-Proliferation Treaty rules of South Africa.

“Students are probably involved because of an interest in politics and to find out more about how government works,” Reitenour said, representing the delegation of New Zealand. Reitenour expects to use some of the skills learned from this project in his future.

PolyMUN teaches students about history and politics using a hands-on method. Through acting as a UN representative, they are exposed to real issues the world faces. With this knowledge students can join the well informed citizens of America and make educated decisions in future political affairs that their generation will inherit.

“In the future [PolyMUN] could lead to actions taken by the government,” Sterner said, Ireland delegate.

“I hope the students who participate this year will be positively affected by their experience and will choose to participate in future conferences,” said Bradford, who has been so positively affected by her own experiences in MUN that she is willing to continue organizing future PolyMUN events even after her graduation.

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THROW YOUR HANDS UP: Peer and handicapped students alike wave their hands in the air like they just don’t care while dancing the night away on April 1 in Bearcat Hall. This is the second handicapped dance Peer has organized this school year. Photo by Brielle Silletti

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Twenty-one years of self improvement through peer

by Brielle Silletti, Reporter, and Daniel Hipp, Health Editor The paintbrushes stroked away at the beige butcher paper as Advanced Peer students joined in decorating a poster for the latest “Ninjas versus Pirates” handicapped dance held on Friday, April 1 in Bearcat Hall. Handicapped students of North County gathered together for a night of ar-r-r-r-rdent fun in the class’s second organized handicapped dance of the year. Peer sponsored the handicapped dance in hopes of bringing the students an uplifting and most memorable experience.

Recently, Beginning Peer students have had the opportunity to take on an elementary student as their buddy. Sophomore Marina Perry began weekly meetings with her fifth grade buddy, Cider Marshall, from Pat Butler every Thursday to converse about day-to-day happenings. Perry’s goal as a peer student is to act as a playmate and role model, while simultaneously building trust.

“I know the relationship will turn out spectacular because Cider is funny and loud just like I am.

She enjoys drawing and surfing the net on websites like YouTube,” Perry said. “We will most likely be drawing or whatever she wishes to do, since I’m game for anything.”

Although having a buddy is not mandatory, all, but one student in the class has chose to be assigned one.

In Advanced Peer, emotional intelligence is a key factor in being accepted into the class. Senior Madalyn Rainey portrayed a naturally high emotional intelligence during an interview with Jeanne Neely, the Peer instructor. Rainey decided to take the advanced class a second year due to the opportunities she would not have received had she not taken the class.

“I love the friendships I get [out of the class]. I talk to people I would have never had the chance to otherwise,” Rainey said. “It’s nice to connect with others on a whole new level.”

Advanced Peer student senior Zane Harvey has already taken part in three major events: Red Ribbon Week, December Red Wagons, and a Halloween dance for the handicapped. During Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-31, Harvey played in a band to promote abstinence from drug use for Bauer-

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Speck Elementary School second graders.

“I’m able to connect with people [on a more personal level] and have also found myself in a way,” Harvey said. Harvey believes he’s made the right decision in taking the class over other electives.

This is Harvey’s first year in Peer, but after a 10 minute interview with five current Advanced Peer students, he was informed he was well qualified to start in the advanced class. The screening process for advanced students entails an interview, application, and approval of faculty and attendance. In class, students inform Neely of their findings in regards to the interviewee and whether or not they would succeed in the class.

Twenty-one years ago, Neely brought the Peer Communications class to PRHS, designed with the goal of giving students the skill set needed to advise and help their fellow classmates overcome crises. The classes are handpicked with care, as Neely’s goal is to make them as varied as possible, with different personalities of students from different social groups joining together.

“The school had a couple suicides in 1988,” Neely said. During the time, teen suicide was a rising issue and remains currently the third leading cause of death of people ages 15-24 years old, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

PRHS counselor Joe Cardinale offered Neely the chance to be trained and start the first Peer class on campus. The class has since transformed into something more than simple education about addiction, pregnancy, and family; they serve PRHS students and the local community as well.

Starting off as just an idea in 1988, Peer has blossomed over the span of 21 years. The program has provided for all: PRHS students, families in need, and the most impressionable, young children. “[My favorite part about peer is] when students are loving who they are,” Neely said. “It’s volunteerism at its finest.”

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ALL SMILES: (Left to right) Juniors Garret Britton, Garrett Schasteen, Hannah Testerman and sophomores Kaitlyn Bedell and Branson Medieros show their pride in awards won at a field day. At Modesto Junior College, the judging team won fourth team overall. Photo used with permission by of Leah Gibson.

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Results from an April 1 competition

by Nicolette Jolicoeur, Culture Editor

Family: the strong, supportive people who surround you on a day to day basis. Junior Vincente Garcia is lucky enough to have two. He has his average family with his dad, mom, and sister; but his other family is the unique one.

Future FarmersReporter of America’s (FFA) judging team is a tight byThe Shanna Dowling, knit group of 11 PRHS students. Only four students compete as a team at the competition, so they have different teams.

“My FFA family means the world to me,” Garcia said, who has been in FFA since his freshman year. “We are so close, and it’s always a journey when we get together.”

Chapter historian of the Paso Robles chapter, sophomore Leslie Merkle stated her FFA family means the world to her.

“I have grown so close to each and everyone of our members [through] fairs, judging trips, conferences, or just meetings. They are so great. If it wasn’t for FFA, I wouldn’t have known them like I do,” she said.

“The family component of FFA is what makes it so unique,” junior Leah Gibson said, who is competing in public speaking at the state finals. “The FFA atmosphere is incredibly inspirational and loving. We encourage people to set goals and achieve their dreams while lifting members up when they get knocked down. A lot of people don’t have a positive family outlet at home and so to receive such a constant source of support and direction through FFA is extremely beneficial.”

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March is all about livestock judging. In livestock judging, the team travels to field days that are held all over California every weekend. The officials of the contest give nine or 12 sets of livestock classes to judge, with four animals in each set. The judging teams of 11 members judge beef, swine, sheep, and the recently added goat classes. If the animal is a market animal, which means an animal used for consumption, they judge on muscle, quality of finish, and size of the animal. For judging based on breeding purposes, the team looks at structure, size of body, sex characteristics, and other essential elements.

The FFA group spends approximately 27 hours a weekend at these competitons but these future farmers know this is what they signed up for, and they love every second of it.

“FFA is not just an organization, it’s a lifestyle. Its something you have to put your heart and soul into,” Garcia said.

“Paso FFA has so much heart and drive. They all work hundreds of hours, give up their weekends, [and] sacrifice individual needs all for their teammates and fellow members in the FFA,” Gibson said.

“It is the member’s burning desires to become positive leaders and make something of themselves that allows the FFA to thrive and what motivates me to never give up.”

FFA’s heart and drive is what makes this award winning program come alive.

Paso Robles High School

• 4th High Team Overall (all species) • 4th High Team in Beef, Sheep, and Verbal Reasons • 1st High Team for Novice • Individual Results: • High Individual in Beef Overall: sophomore Branson Medeiros • High Individual in Novice Overall: first place junior Garret Britton, eighth place sophomore Leslie Merkle, ninth place sophomoreDalton Smith, tenth place sophomore Lauren Aikenhead • High Individual Novice Beef: first place Garret Britton, second place Dalton Smith, sixth place Lauren Aikenhead • High Individual Novice Sheep: first place Garret Britton, second place Leslie Merkle, third place Lauren Aikenhead, fourth place Dalton Smith • High Individual Novice Swine: ninth place Leslie Merkle, tenth place Garret Britton • High Individual Novice Questions: third place Garret Britton, fifth place Lauren Aikenhead Crimson 04.13.11 |

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Burrito Bash

Food

Chicken? Beef? Vegetarian? Bean and Cheese? There is a wide variety of burritos out there and an even wider variety of restaurants that offer this delicious Mexican meal. Crimson picked out three local restaurants: Tortilla Town, Los Robles, and Mi Ranchito and ordered their chicken burritos. All three burritos had the basic ingredients: rice, beans, chicken, and cheese. Three judges: Sophomore Jessica Gonzalez, junior Stephanie Smith, and art teacher Kelly Clark, sampled each of these wonderful creations without knowing which restaurants the burritos were from and judged them based on presentation, taste, and quality. Commence the blind burrito bash!

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STEP 2: TASTE— Gonzalez sinks her teeth into the flavors of Mi Ranchito’s burrito.

STEP 3: JUDGE—Smith judges Los Robles’ burrito based on presentation, taste, and quality.

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STEP 1: SAVOR­­—Clark enjoys the smells of Tortilla Town’s delicious creation.

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The winner of the taste test received first place with 2 out of 3 votes. The judges liked the “variety of ingredients” and the burrito’s “colorful and vibrant filling.”

“My Mexican taste buds are telling me that that this is delicious!” Gonzalez said.

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Mi Ranchito $4.65 + tax

2nd Place

Los Robles $6.95 + tax

3rd Place

The judges commented on the “nice flavor in rice” of the burrito but did not like the fact that the chicken was “dry.”

Some judges didn’t like the burritos “non authentic” taste, but our guest teacher judge had a different opinion.

“The beans are cooked very nice, it has a creamy texture,” Smith said.

“I really like cheese; it had lots of it!” Clark said.

Paso Robles High School

—Olivia Musial and C.J. Prusi,

Food Editors

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Culture

Unrelenting sacrifice

Christian faiths celebrate the season of Lent

by Sarah Wilson, A&E Co-Editor, and Clarisse Dart, Reporter Get it while you can! The McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish is available for 99 cents every Friday since March 11 for five weeks! Why is this?

Because for those six and a half weeks, willing Christians gave up meat, except fish, on Fridays, among other things for the season of Lent.

Forty days and 40 nights: the time Christians believe Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert before starting his ministry. It’s also the duration some Christians will spend without their vice, habit, or favorite snack that they have given up. Lent is a season for Christians to appreciate the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made for those on Earth, as well as prepare to celebrate his return from the dead and then ascension into heaven.

The season of Lent, meaning “springtime,” is celebrated by Christian faiths such as Catholism, Methodism, Lutheranism, Mennonitism, Presbyterianism, and some branches of Baptist.

“Lent is about being like Jesus, and most importantly, being with Jesus, alone in times of prayer, and in community with the church in solidarity and when we give to the needy,” Israel Gonzales said, Pastor of Christian Discipleship at Highlands Church.

Though 46 days actually are between Ash Wednesday and Easter, Sundays are not counted during the Lent season. Sundays are the Lord’s day, meant for worship.

Catholic and sophomore Brianna Long believes giving something up helps you concentrate more on the importance of Easter.

“It helps you to focus on spirituality and unity and getting ready for the resurrection,” Long said.

Ads “The main significance of Lent is the conversion of our hearts as we emphasize fasting, alms-giving and prayer, in order to become better Christians,” Father

>> “[Lent is] a time to remember the foundation of Catholic religion…It shows us how lucky we are to have such a loving God.”

Roberto Vera said, Pastor Saint Rose of Lima.

Falling on April 24 this year, Christians believe Easter signifies the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion.

“The early church thought it was a very good idea to enter into a time of repentance as a way of refreshing and preparing oneself to experience Easter in a new way each year…Lent for me personally is a time to become more acquainted with my limits and mortality, and therefore my need and gratitude for the ever-reaching resurrection power of Jesus,” Gonzales said.

“Since the earliest times of the [Catholic] church, there is evidence of some kind of Lenten preparation for Easter… Lent became more regularized after the legalization of Christianity in A.D 313 during the Roman Empire,” Vera said on the history of the Christian tradition.

On Ash Wednesday, Christians mark their forehead with ashes in the shape of the cross“…for you were made from dust, and to dust you shall return,” according to Genesis 3:19 in the Bible.

Catholic and sophomore Rudy Binkele, who gave up soda for Lent, took part in the ashes ceremony. He interprets Genesis 3:19 to meant God made humankind from nothing and that our bodies will return to nothing when we die. “[Lent is] a time to remember the foundation of Catholic religion…

It shows us how lucky we are to have such a loving God,” Binkele said about the importance of Lent in his faith.

Sophomore Katelyn Olsen also believes the quote ties into the Creation story of Adam and Eve. “God made Adam from dust, and it’s connecting us to Him and the Creation story,” Olsen said.

Catholics follow certain traditions other than the sacrifice of an excessive behavior or habitual custom. While some of these traditions

“We always do Lent in our family because it’s the family tradition.”

A generation to generation comparison —Nicolette Jolicoeur, Culture Editor CHASING SKIRTS: Poodle skirts were very popular in the 1950’s, glorified in movies like “Grease” and “The Outsiders”.

Graphic Illustration by Nicolette Jolicoeur. Photo used with permission of Flickr user “shortiestar3000” [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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“God made Adam from dust, and it’s connecting us to Him and the Creation story.”

“It helps you to focus on spirituality and unity and getting ready for the resurrection.”

—Sara Bourgault,10

—Rudy Binkele, 10

When I was your age...

are required, others are simply guidelines: some Catholics fast; married couples abstain from sex on Ash Wednesday and every Friday of Lent; and some meditate and pray at the stations of the cross every Friday. In addition, fewer baptisms and weddings are celebrated, and contributions to charitable causes are encouraged. Meat is also left out of diets on Fridays. Fish, deemed undesirable by the church, is still allowed while beef and other meats are seen as luxuries.

Catholic and sophomore Sara Bourgault also gave up soda because it is better not to drink while participating in sports. Last year, Bourgault’s family tried the Daniel’s Diet for Lent, which excludes meat, sugar, and anything made from animals.

“It’s just natural stuff from the earth,” Bourgault said, who has participated in Lent for the past 16 years. “We always do Lent in our family because it’s the family tradition.”

The Presbyterian Christian Highlands Church, consisting of 800900 members, began Easter 2006. Led and founded by Pastor Graham Baird, Highlands believes “humanity was made perfect [by God] and then fell from perfection as a result of its own sinful activity,” according to highlandsadventure.org. For some, to show penitence—or remorse for sinful deeds—during Lent is a way of expressing the regret that may accompany sin.

“The whole point of Lent then [is] to prepare our hearts for Easter so that we could experience the wonder and power of Jesus conquering death and sin on our behalf,” Gonzales said.

With so many people who hold the season of Lent and sacrifice close to their hearts, it’s no wonder that 23 percent of all Filet-O-Fish sandwiches are sold during these 40 days of Christian tradition.

—Katelyn Olsen, 10

—Brianna Long, 10

Grandparents ’40s-’50s Gadgets First computer 1948 First Mobile phone 1947 First Microwave oven 1946 A stick of Chewing Gum .03 cents Divorce rate 41 out of 1,000 people Sayings “Get bent” “Dollface” “Gold digger”

Photos by Katie Wingfield

Parents ’60s-’70s

Students 21st century

Walkman 1982 First home computer 1981 First handheld video game 1981

Blackberry/Iphone/Ipod, Garmin Gps units 3dhdtv

.05 cents

.16 cents

200 out of 1,000

410 out of 1,000

“Can you dig it?”

“Far out” “Keep on trucking”

“Hella” “That’s what she said” ‘Text’ language- “OMG, LOL, GTG”

Source list:fiftiesweb.com, thepeoplehistory.com, sagedagonfly.com urbandictionary.com

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A&E

From Mockers to Rockers

Mock Rock and talent competition return to PRHS

by Kim Boswell,

Photo Essay Editor

The lights flashed, warning the 215 person audience of the beginning of the show. “Shhh” flew throughout the auditorium as children squirmed in their seats and teens giggled to their friends.

Darkness filled the room, a sole spotlight lit the stage, and out came FNL advisor Jeanne Neely. Two hours later, the Beyonce Experience and the Central Coast Lovenotes were crowned as the winners.

This event was not a musical or a dance show; it was a showcase of PRHS students’ abilities to mock, mimic, and mime today’s biggest stars. They competed on Saturday, Mar. 19 in the Templeton Performing Arts Center for the chance to bring their acts up against the best of neighboring schools in the county-wide competition.

Ads Strutting their way to first place in the mock portion was the Beyonce Experience with juniors London Bass as the main diva and Camille Nelson, Joslyn Sanders, and Kayla Myhand as backup dancers. Juniors Mitchel Carroll, Amanda Zimmerman, Shannon O’Brien, freshmen Lyric Jefferson, Jasper Utter Morray Guiliani, and senior Haku Tsogbat were the mock band. Singing “Single Ladies,” the group wowed the audience with humor and talent as they used choreography from the music video and real instruments, including two trumpets, a bass guitar, a tambourine, a drum set, and a keyboard.

Bass, Nelson, Sanders, and Myhand have been practicing everyday at lunch since their initial tryout for the competition during the week of Feb. 28 and will continue to do so until the competition is over on May 4.

It was a moment of surprise and triumph when they heard their name called over the amplifiers in the auditorium, according to Nelson.

“It was stressful to think that we had come so far, and it all came down to that moment,” she said, recollecting the tension on stage as all 11 acts lined up, awaiting the reward of their perspiration.

The talent portion was a medley of today’s top songs. The Central Coast Lovenotes’ juniors Trinity Smith, Katie Wingfield, Emily Cone, and Lindsay Reed slowly walked out from behind the stage curtain, humming and beat boxing. Their special arrangement of songs included Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are,” and Justin Bieber’s “Baby.”

“I feel that the medley we chose to do reaches a younger crowd but can still showcase our abilities. We are all so excited for the upcoming competition,” Smith said.

Second place in the talent competition was junior Fernie Madueña’s beat boxing compilation of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow,” Snoop Dogg’s “Drop it Like it’s Hot,” Rahzel’s “If Your Mother Only Knew,” and many other top songs of the decade.

Laughter and cheers emanated from the crowd as he hummed, sang, made a bassline, and dropped beats.

The talented Bearcats will continue in their pursuit of the “mock” experience on May 4 at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center for the county-wide competition. Tickets will be sold beforehand on the PRHS campus. First place winners at Cal Poly will receive $400, second will receive $300, and third will receive $200.

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TEENAGE DREAM (above): The Central Coast Lovenotes finish their performance with Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and strike a sassy pose before transitioning into the medley of all three songs they sang. The Lovenotes took first place at Mock Rock.

KEEPING IT FRESH (upper right): Junior London Bass danced to NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” with her group, DB Fresh. The group didn’t prevail at Mock Rock, but Bass’ other group, the Beyonce Experience, was also crowned first place mocker.

DROPPING A BEAT (lower right): Junior Fernie Maduena stood alone in the spotlight to beat box for the audience. Maduena beat boxed a medley of many rap songs the audience cheered at. Maduena took second place for talent and will be going to County Mock Rock with the Lovenotes.

NO, IT’S ME! (left): Seniors Caitlin Raithel and Georgia Binkele M.C. the show along with drama teacher Marcy Goodnow. The running joke throughout the night was that each girl was the “real Goodnow.” However the true tap dancing, big butt-costume-wearing Goodnow was the joy of the show.

Photos used with permission of Goerge Major

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Paso Robles High School

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Whitney Adams:

A&E

tooting her own flute

A look into the life of a five instrumentplaying, music performance major

by Madison Butz, Reporter PLAYING FOR JOY: Senior Whitney Adams shows what physical strengths she has while playing the flute with skills she has learned from the Marching Band. Photo by Kathryn Wingfield

In a dark room on the north side of town, an alarm beeps. Fifteen minutes pass. It beeps again. And again.

Finally, at 5:45 a.m., senior Whitney Adams rolls to her feet, disheveled and bedheaded. The sun hasn’t even crept over the eastern horizon, and her nine-hour school day, 45 percent of which is music, is just beginning.

The curly-haired brunette is a member of every music class on campus, including Jazz Band and Bella Voce, “except concert choir, and there’s no way I can take that because I have calc that period.” Three AP tests, seven classes, six college auditions, and two acceptances (so far), decorate her senior year; and she uses her talent and passion to reconcile budget cuts with an incredible band that she feels has been rejuvenated by brand-new director Santino Galvan.

Adams is as versatile as she is passionate.

“My primary instrument is flute, but I also play piccolo and tenor saxophone, as well as percussion, and I sing,” Adams said. “[The flute] is my favorite. It has the melody most of the time. If I played tuba, I’d be bored out of my mind. It would just be holding the same notes over

and over.”

The flute is one of the most difficult instruments to play in the marching band because it takes more air and core strength to maintain a beautiful tone, according to Adams.

Adams knew early on what she wanted to do with her life. Her love of music began to blossom in a fifth-grade band class. It continued into three band classes and one choir class at PRHS. As a future Music Performance major, Fresno State and Cal Poly are already vying for her attention, but her goals for the moment are focused on being “the best of the best.”

Zero, first, and second period are filled with tuning forks and ensemble pieces: Jazz band, Percussion, and Marching band. After most other students have left for the day, she’s still involved in the music department, singing as a first soprano with the advanced choir, Las Voces Celestiales, and Bella Voce, the women’s choir. Both celebrated recent victories at the SLO County Choral Festival.

Jazz band, which is audition only, includes Adams’ second instrument, the tenor saxophone. In Marching band, which is larger, Adams plays her flute. The choirs, in which she’s a soprano, harmonize

using three to eight vocal parts per song.

Adams applied to UC Irvine, CSU Long Beach, Fresno State, Cal Poly, San Francisco State, and the University of the Pacific. While most students would just complete the online application and wait by the mailbox for a letter of acceptance or rejection, Adams drove hours to audition in person at all of her schools.

So far, she has been accepted to Cal Poly and Fresno State as a Music Performance major.

“I would like to be a member of an orchestra as well as a studio musician... I love to perform, and it seems like that job gives me the best opportunity to do that,” she said, smiling.

Katie “Strangely, I wasn’t nervous [about my auditions]! I’ve had Frey so much experience with performing that it’s not a big deal.

I was actually really surprised at my first audition. It was UC Irvine. I went in, came out, and said ‘Ok. What’s next?’”

What’s next? Anything is possible for Adams, whether it be in Fresno, LA, or San Luis Obispo.

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Drawn into an alternate reality Anime Club shares their love of the art

by Shanna Dowling, In-Depth Editor Six thousand two hundred and fifty eight miles away in the country of Japan, a new art form sparked interest and spread through the world like wildfire. Now, 94 years after the first successful film animation screened, anime has traveled across the world to the United States, to California, to Paso Robles, to PRHS, and to room 507 for the weekly Thursday and Friday convening of the Anime Club.

It is difficult to grasp the caliber of devotion to the Japanese cartoons shared by these 20 dedicated fans. Why do they wear animal hats? Why do their books open right to left? But these customary questions pulsating through general conversation have not halted the growth and expansion of their untiring hobby.

“Some people kind of mock us. My mom always says, ‘Why do you love pixels so much?’ But [it’s] just an escape from reality for 23 minutes [each episode] and it actually has good morals,” said freshman club president Sara Vernetti, who jumped on the anime bandwagon in seventh grade. www.crimsonnews.org

The 20 member club under the advisement of art teacher Mary Legleiter consists of writers, artists, and anime enthusiasts who collaborate to create their own four-column comics as well as enjoy movie screenings of cartoons, such as “InuYasha” and “Blackcat.” They also discuss manga—anime books—they read.

“I write fanfictions of my favorite couples I like because they would never be together in the Manga.

It’s just a way to get the characters to interact with each other in a way they never would. My favorite fanfic I’ve written is the ‘D. Gray-Man’ fanfic of Allen and Kanda,” said freshman Breanna Anderson. “My favorite, sorry!” she added, to the disappointment of the rest of the group who burst into a frenzy of “You can’t be serious!”

For the five freshmen club founders, the Japanese tales run much deeper than 2D accounts of fiction; they provide relatable characters whose struggles and moral fibers are reflections of their real lives, selves, and friends, despite the alternate reality anime offers them.

“Rukia Kuchiki from ‘Bleach’ is the character viewers. This Japanese art form is essentially most like me. She’s always worrying about her nothing more than ink, computers, paper, and friend’s safety, and she looks out for people even foreign words, but the PRHS Anime Club’s love for if they don’t want her to,” freshman vice president it could not be more real.

Allison Thatcher said, while Anderson feels a close affinity with an alien humanoid from the popular anime show “Dragon Ball-Z.” The enthusiastic club leaders have been bonding through their love of anime for over three years, but room 507 is also home to newfound lovers of the craft, recruiting members through their weekly loud-speaker announcements.

“My friend and I heard an announcement for the premier meeting of anime club and we just had to check it out,” said sophomore Eric Younger. “That’s where I first heard about anime.”

Reality recedes to the back burner as inanimate characters jump off pages and ANIME LOVERS: Sara Vernetti, Breanna Anderson, Eric and Allison Thatcher meet for the Anime Club, screens into the heart and soul of enthused Younger they have created deep bonds through this love of art.

Paso Robles High School

Photo by Shanna Dowling

Crimson 04.13.11

29

Health

Spinal trapped Senior Katie Frey emerges from seven years of Scoliosis trauma with a commitment to helping others

by Aryn Fields, A&E Co-Editor

Anime Club Page ...

Next

>> SPINAL TRAP: Senior Katie Frey stands in her backyard with an X-Ray of her own spine.

This X-Ray was taken while she was using the day brace.

Photo by Aryn Fields

30

04.13.11 Crimson

She sat in torturous spinal correction chairs, she wore agonizing back braces, and she lived in a constant fear of peers realizing what was hidden under her black fur lined sweater. This is how senior Katie Frey has been living for the past six years.

Frey was diagnosed with Scoliosis when she was 12 years old, while attending a routine medical appointment. Frey’s pediatrician, Dr. Nave, had felt the sideways curve to her spine. That slight curve would result in years of painful treatment, and continuous spinal shifts that now leaves Frey with a thoracic 43 degree curve.

Scoliosis is a muscular skeletal disorder; the spinal column is shifted to the right or left, normally in the shape of an “S.” Typically Scoliosis occurs when large growth spurts take place in an adolescent. Frey has idiopathic Scoliosis, meaning her cause for Scoliosis is unknown.

For every 1,000 children, three to five of them will develop a spinal curve considered serious enough for treatment, according to medlab.com.

From sixth grade to her senior year, Frey has struggled with trying to slow the curvature of her spine. For the first three years, Frey was required to wear a night brace, which strapped around her for eight hours every night. Although the brace hindered sleep and was painful, Frey grew dependent on the brace.

“Wearing it was hard in the beginning and very painful, but after sleeping with it every night for three years, I wasn’t able to sleep without it,” Frey said.

However, after three years it became apparent that Frey’s night brace wasn’t working. Her spine had shifted almost 20 degrees. Doctors recommended a day brace for Frey to wear 18 hours everyday, only to be removed for showers and exercise.

In 2007, the brace was agonizing to wear all day, according to Frey.

“I absolutely hated the day brace. It really embarrassed me to wear it at school, and I didn’t want anyone to judge me for having it. I only wanted people to accept me,” Frey said. “That’s why I always wore a jacket, because I didn’t want anyone to see the brace through my clothes. My hair was always kept at a length that would cover my entire back. And anyone who bumped into me got the ‘it was my books’ excuse. I always found ways to hide it.”

The day brace caused emotional and physical strife as Frey Paso Robles High School

distanced herself from the surrounding students. During school Frey couldn’t focus in class due to the brace being strapped so tightly onto her. But eventually the day brace stopped helping and Frey’s spine curved seven additional degrees.

“My spine was pushing into my lungs, so I couldn’t breathe, and because of that I had to quit soccer and varsity swimming.

I think that was one of the biggest sacrifices I’ve had to make,” Frey said.

With her spine being curved at 42 degrees her junior year, the Frey family were forced to look into alternatives to halt the Scoliosis. Frey was turned onto the Scoliosis Traction Chair; made out of wood and used to strap the body into a washing machine powered vibration, the chair slowed the curving.

“It was torture. I had to sit in the chair for half an hour every morning and night. It killed me emotionally too because I was always worried and humiliated. But after a year of using the chair I was able to stop,” Frey said.

This experience affected her parents as well, who were with her every step of the way. Frey’s mother, Cindy Frey, was left helpless to stopping this from happening to her daughter.

“One of the hardest things a parent could go through is seeing your child struggle with this. More than anything I wanted to hug her and make it go away,” Cindy Frey said. Frey’s father Bartt Frey, PRHS computers teacher, realized Frey has grown up immensely since being diagnosed with Scoliosis.

“I think she has become an adult faster than most teenagers.

A lot of kids don’t have to deal with adult problems but she has.

There has been a lot of heartbreak involved,” Bartt Frey said.

Through this journey Frey has gained a lot of knowledge about life and looking at problems in a positive light. She believes that everyone has a “bag of life” and inside there are issues that everyone has to deal with. Even though she wishes her Scoliosis would go away, Frey is content with the bag she has been given.

“I’m happy with all the insight it’s given me. And I believe it is how people deal with their ‘bag of life’ that matters, everyone is going through something,” Frey said.

Frey wants to follow the medical path to aid those in need of help; she chose not to work in most wards of the hospital because of her spine. Frey wants to be an OB/GYN Nurse, because she can care for new born babies. She also noticed the maternity ward has a positive vibe that she wants to be a part of.

“I just want to help others. People with scoliosis or any other patients; I want to help people as I’ve been helped,” Frey said, smiling contently

www.crimsonnews.org

Elephants at Christmastime

World

A glimpse into Aiden Farrell’s travels

by Lindsay Reed, Reporter From riding elephants on Christmas day off into the Thailand Jungle to skiing in the Alps of Austria, sophomore Aidan Farrell has many stories to tell of his childhood spent in Seoul, South Korea and Ansbach, GerPhoto and graphic many. illustration by Amanda Hutchinson For the first eight years of his life, Farrell was born and raised alternately between Woodland and Loomis, Calif. until the end of his first grade year at Loomis Clark Powers Elementary School when parents, Brian and Suzy Farrell, applied for jobs in DODDS, department of defense, and there they got their first job as sixth and eighth grade teachers for military children living on Yongsan, an American army base in South Korea. The summer before his second grade year, Farrell and his family of five set off on their adventures to the third largest city on the globe, Seoul, South Korea for the next three years of his childhood.

From his ninth floor, high-rise apartment overlooking the city of Seoul stretching far into the horizon, Farrell realized he was “a little unaware” of the world around him other then sunny California. He was struck by “such a huge and loud place,” though soon enough, life began to settle down and the city became his home.

Stationed in his apartment, Farrell traveled to China, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand. He ambled along the Great Wall of China, experienced a hurricane in, Tokyo, traveled major cities along the coast of Thailand “experiencing ‘luxury’ a year before a tsunami off the coast of India hit, destroying the same coastline,” and backpacked for two weeks through the scrambling city of Vietnam.

By the end of his fourth grade year at Yongsan Elementary School, Farrell’s parents received a teaching transfer to the quieter, rural, “classic” town of Ansbach, Germany. After buying a house in a German/ American community, Obereichenbach, the summer of 2007, Farrell started his fifth grade year at Ansbach Elementary School on an American military installation in Katterbach. “It definitely took a while,

but it worked out, and I fit in just fine there,” Farrell said as he remembered that in the beginning it was rough due to his difficulty of immediately adjusting to the new community.

Settled in their simple cottage in Ansbach, the Farrell family zigzagged their way through Europe in Italy, France, Poland, Britain, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic. He trekked the leaning Tower of Pisa, met Big Ben in London, and meandered through Buckingham palace and Westminster Abby in Britain. However his most memorable were his adventures in Paris, France.

“I can remember first seeing the Eiffel Tower from a distance and experiencing the awe of where we were,” Farrell said, recalling the “extremely exciting” experience he spent with his family. From their post in a youth hostel, they did their best to see all the main attractions. In the Eiffel Tower, Farrell was in awe of the incredible view, and enjoyed the long race against his brother descending the stairs to the bottom of the 1063 foot tower.

“The experience was amazing… growing up and hearing about all these incredible places, and actually [getting] to visit them,” remarked Farrell as he fondly remembered his day to day experiences, unheard of in the daily lives of students at PRHS. His adventures in Europe and Asia came to a temporary end when in the summer of 2010, after a 10 hour plane ride from Frankfurt, Germany to San Francisco, the Farrell family made their way back to California. For Farrell and his siblings—Claire, 15, and Graham, 12—they searched for educational opportunities and a “depth of programs and school functions” found in American schools.

Farrell recalled that transitioning from Ansbach, Germany to Paso Robles, Calif. proved most difficult.

After having completed his freshman year at Ansbach American Middle/ High School and developing close friendships, it was hard to leave it all behind. “This is the hard part of the military community: people coming and going,” Farrell said, “ [even] if I didn’t leave first, a lot of my friends would have been gone with in a couple of years anyway.”

However, settling into the Paso Robles student way of life, transitioning from a school of 300 total students (grades seven through twelve) and coming to a high school of over 2000, was easier than Farrell had predicted.

“I couldn’t be happier with [PRHS]… I’ve made great friends, learned from great teachers, More on gotten involved in activities, and now I feel no different than I ever did in Germany or Korea,” Japan’s Farrell remarked, who is glad for the chance of an American lifestyle once again, but can’t help Disaster but “seriously” miss living overseas.

Japan report: 2009-10 exchange student Mao Otake sends word from Tokyo

by Amanda Hutchinson, World Editor and Emily Cone, Opinion Co-Editor Otake said she feels changed by the incident and believes her With around 20,000 dead or missing from Japan’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, one small face remains hopeful. Mao country will able to prevail eventually.

“To think about people who [are] dead, suffering, trying to surOtake, 2009 – 2010 foreign exchange student at PRHS, was in Tokyo, Japan when the earthquake occurred. She was only 186 vive, for me, [the minutes I live] and food I eat seems so important,” miles away from the epicenter. But what was a terrific blow to Japan she said. “We, Japan, have to be together and show that we can get turned the perspective of one Japanese girl into one of compassion through this.”

During this new challenge Japan faces Otake is among the many and perseverance.

As the destructive waves began, Otake was at Kyoritsu girls’ youth of Japan stepping forward to help. In Time Magazine’s Mar. 31 school. She felt the immense power of the earthquake and a few article “Rising to the Challenge,” the power and need of Japanese of its aftershocks while she was doing a club activity. She was sur- young people is overwhelming. Students are feeling eager to help prised to hear that the epicenter was so far away because the trem- their country however they can. Volunteering at shelters and evacuors of the 9.0 earthquake reached Tokyo with great power despite ation centers are amongst the ways teens can assist. Although the country is in ruin, youth are rising out of the ashes to rebuild the the distance.

“I’m fine now. Earthquake occurred at school. All subways and country of their future.

The government is not yet ready for volunteers, so most Japanese trains were stopped and I had to stay at school. It was so scary! …

We still have small successive earthquakes. But I’m okay,” Otake citizens send donations and necessary items to those in need.

At this time, the power plants are the biggest problem, according posted on her Facebook wall on March 11, at 5:06 p.m., 27 hours after the occurrence. “My first worry was ‘Can I see my family again?’” to Otake—and most of the media.

Successive earthquakes are still targeting Japan, including a 7.1 she said.

Otake is in the hearts of several Bearcats after news of the earth- that hit off of the northeastern coast on April 7, 73 miles from Fukuquake struck the U.S. PRHS students professed their worries, such shima and 207 miles from Tokyo.

“It’s horrible that Japan has to go through all of that, America as junior Iris Anastacio writing “Thank goodness that you’re okay,” on Otake’s Facebook wall on March 12. Host brother and should be doing all it can to help,” said junior Jessica Yoshida, sophomore Austin Russell and his family, who keep in touch who has Japanese relatives on her dad’s side.

In the face of this newfound hardship, Otake is grateful for the with Otake, were quick to call and see if she was safe.

Regardless of the situation she is in, Otake assured Paso that she help America is providing during this time of crisis.

“I’m so glad to know that people in the [world are] not forgetting is all right. “Because of radiation, I’m in Hiroshima for spring vacaabout us. Thank you,” Otake said. tion. But I’m going back soon,” she said. www.crimsonnews.org

Paso Robles High School

>>

ALL SMILES IN THE STATES: Otake smiles for a picture in Spring of 2011 Paso family, the Russells.

More than just a host family, the Russells saw Otake off to an American prom in Cambria.

Photo used with permission of Mao Otake Graphic illustration by Amanda Hutchinson

*For an inside look at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant situation, turn to page 32.

Crimson 04.13.11 |

31

Sci-Tech

Next World:Page ...

Japan

by Andrew Chang, Sci-Tech Co-Editor

>>

The world watched, holding its breath as explosions rocked Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant following the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Comments and captions blared that the apocalypse had come as workers stuggled to flood the plant with seawater before the reactor overheated.

Although Japan’s crippled facility isn’t out of troubled waters yet, a look at the science behind the crisis shows that Dec. 2012 will not be occurring a year and a half early.

How the reactors work The word “nuclear” and “reactor” paired together may conjure images of explosions, glow in the dark radioactive material, and mutants. But a nuclear reactor is similar to its coal-burning counterpart. Bundles of uranium fuel rods are submerged in water and generate heat through nuclear fission. The heat evaporates water, and the resulting steam spins a turbine connected to a generator.

Water is then pumped back into the fuel chamber, cooling the fuel rods. Nuclear power plants don’t use combustion so no carbon dioxide is released. Nuclear reactors do create radioactive waste, which is encased in containers and stored in concrete or in pools of water where it decays over thousands of years.

Japan’s worst case scenario Because of the risk of nuclear crises, nuclear power plants are equipped with safety features and back-up plans. But the Fukushima nuclear reactor encountered the worst case scenario. When the 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit, the strongest in Japan’s history, neutron absorbent shields dropped between the bundles of fuel rods, shutting down the generator. But from there, everything started to go

32

04.13.11 Crimson

downhill. To cool down the rods, water must be continually pumped into the chamber. But the earthquake had damaged the power grids, disabling these pumps. Diesel backup generators, strategically designed to run underwater were rendered useless as the 10 meter (33 foot) tsunami proved too powerful. As a last resort, the pumps had to rely on batteries, but these only lasted a few hours. Without power, water could not be pumped onto the rods, and they started to overheat, and eventually began to crack. Leftover water trickled into the cracks and was superheated, separating into H 2 and O2 gas.

The hydrogen gas built up and reacted explosively with oxygen. No significant amounts of radiation were released, as the reactor core remained unharmed.

What is radiation?

Radiation occurs when an unstable atom goes under nuclear fission, which is the breaking apart of an atom.

“It’s like firing a magnetic marble at a large ball of those marbles, releasing two smaller and lighter balls and three more marbles,” science teacher Mark Fairbank said. “Because the mass of the lighter balls is less than the large ball, the lost mass is converted to energy (heat) through E=mc2 .”

Scientists use a special type of uranium, U-235, which exists in about 0.71 percent of naturally found uranium because it is possible to control when the atoms undergo fission. But because of how rare U-235 appears in natural uranium, the ore is enriched to contain enough for practical use. Fuel rods are enriched to contain 2-5 percent more U-235 whereas weapons-grade uranium is enriched to around 90 percent.

What happens next Although the situation is not as bad as the media may make it seem, Japan is not out of the danger zone. The crisis is considered a Level 5 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, equal to that of the Three Mile Island incident of 1979 (Level 7 being the worst, as seen in the Chernobyl crisis of 1986). There is still a risk of the rods melting the reactor core and escaping into the environment in what is known as a “meltdown.” Around 1,850 times the legal limit of radioactive iodine lingers within 1,000 feet of the plant, according to the Washington Post, and it is still unclear what is being done to resolve the problem.

The New York Times reported radioactive water has leaked into the ocean, although the levels aren’t dangerous yet. But even in the event of a meltdown, the risk of harmful levels of radiation reaching the West Coast is minimal.

“Things would have to get kind of 'end of days' for us to see even a little bit of it here. We’re talking very extreme,” spokesman for the California Emergency Management Agency Jordan Scott said to the LA Times. “We’re just too far for anything to really reach us. A majority of the materials that would come out of there in a meltdown would dissipate within miles” Other nuclear power plants are learning from Fukushima’s mistakes. Diablo canyon reports on their website “We work very closely with the United States nuclear power industry to ensure we are implementing the most current and relevant safety practices, and continue to train, learn and put into place the best systems and practices available.” For Japan, it will be another few years until this radioactive mess is cleaned up.

Graphic by Amanda Hutchinson. Photo used with permission by AP Images.

Paso Robles High School

www.crimsonnews.org

3

Sports

things you should know

Boys Volleyball

1.

Boys Golf

Baseball

Boys, boys, boys. Crimson investigated all boys spring sports and found secret handshakes, seven mile golf games, and restaurant routines that makes these teams memorable.

Boys Tennis

Baseball

Before every game, the team meets up early in the morning at the Cowgirl Café for breakfast. “It has been a tradition way before I even came along,” senior Scott Plescia said.

2.

The boys are very superstitious about a handshake called the “Dap” that involves knocking the sides of your fists together and extending your fingers. However, if a player “Daps” a teammate more than once, the game is jinxed.

3.

The hit and run drills they do before games “force you to react under pressure and put you in a game’s situation.” They are the hardest drills the varsity team does, according to senior Jesse Horne,.

1.

Boys Golf

To be on the team you must provide your own golf clubs, according to sophomores Joshua Simon and Connor Binkele.

Depending on the quality of the set the price could range from $200 up to $3,000.

2.

Each match can last up to five hours, and the boys play regardless of the weather. During an 18 hole match, the boys walk between three and seven miles.

... Girls egaPsoftball txeN

top in league

>> DAPPIN’: Varsity baseball show off their signature handshake before their game against Pioneer Valley began, March 25; they won 9-4.

Front row (left to right) : junior Mac Stuart (27), senior Scott Plescia (32), junior Justin Sly (55). Back row: senior Jason Brown (51), junior Tanner Berry (46), and senior Anthony Ramos (52). Photo by Josh Orcutt

3.

Golf is measured in par, therefore golf is the only sport where you want the least amount of points. A golfer tries to get the least amount of strokes towards the hole.

1.

2.

Boys Volleyball Senior Tyler Dukes always rallies up the team, and no one could replace him, according to sophomore Javier Jimenez.

Five seniors, three juniors, one sophomore, and five freshman make up the varsity boys volleyball team. No JV boys volleyball team exists.

3.

Volleyball is a carefree stress reliever for some team members. “[Volleyball] is a lot of fun; we are able to mess around, it’s not about the winning. It is about playing every game with a smile,” Jimenez said.

Boys Tennis 1.

A two minute water break can turn into a 10 minute politics debate between the coach and one or three different players while the rest of the team waits to finish up practice, according to junior Levi Le.

2.

After the boys play in San Luis Obispo, they always stop to eat at Firestone or Woodstock’s and Bali’s Yogurt. If at Firestone, the boys enjoy the tri-tip sandwich.

3.

If one of the boys hits his opponent, he receives a Jamba Juice smoothie as a reward for being aggressive at the net during a match.

—Laura Callahan, News Co-Editor, and Olivia Musial, Food Co-Editor

BEND AND SNAP: Varsity tennis player and junior Ricky Lloyd bends down for a backhand return. Photo by Laura Callahan

www.crimsonnews.org

Paso Robles High School

Crimson 04.13.11 |33

Sports

Softball catches a top place Varsity team remains first in league

by Brielle Silletti, Reporter The bleachers were filled on both sides of the diamond as family members patiently eating sunflower seeds waited for either a PRHS Bearcat or Templeton High School Eagle to score the first run in a Pac-7 Los Padres League face-off Friday, April 1 at PRHS home field. PRHS drove the ball to the fence during the bottom of the second inning, where a double and RBI (runners batted in) was hit, bringing in a lady Bearcat for the game’s first run. PRHS struggled to score their next run, leaving a runner stranded on third base. Freshman varsity catcher M’Lynn Martin slammed the ball over the outfielder’s head resulting in a run, and the next batter hit scoring an additional point in the fourth inning bringing the score to 4-0. In the next inning, THS plunged to the ground, failing to catch the ball, resulting with bases loaded and PRHS scoring their next and last run. However, no additional runs were scored, and the score was left at 5-0.

PRHS played THS in a second scrimmage and won again with a score of 17-3.

“It’s good practice,” said senior outfielder Alexa Munoz, who also has a .909 fielding average. “We all work off each other being good players.”

PRHS varsity softball proved exactly that in the past two scrimmage games. The tables were then turned when the lady Bearcats lost to Arroyo Grande High School in extra innings 0-1 on April 5.

But an emotionally charged match up had occurred two weeks prior, as Atascadero High School’s varsity softball team had toilet papered PRHS’s varsity coach Val Reynolds and shortstop Kellie Reynolds house the Saturday before the game. Neighbors of the Reynolds reported the incident to the police, and AHS girls participated in mandatory clean up the next day, along with an apology letter to Reynolds. The intense rivalry between the two high schools grew, and a week later, AHS played at PRHS in a one-of-a-kind softball game.

During the first inning, the Greyhounds scored the first run, while the Bearcats scored two runs in the fourth inning. Greyounds scored their second run, leaving them tied with PRHS at the top of the 3 things you seventh inning. The bases were loaded at the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, AHS pitcher should know Jill Johnson walked in the winning run. Even just remembering the day “reminds me how intense the Next Page ... game was,” according to sophomore pitcher Jenna Wookey.

Pressure proved not to be a factor to PRHS varsity softball, and in the upcoming Pioneer Valley High School home game on Apr. 15, they anticipate building off their overall record of 10-5.

HEADS UP:(Right) Freshman on varsity M’lynn Martin catches a pop up behind the plate for an out against Templeton High School.

BATTER UP: (Left) Right fielder and senior Alexa Munoz swings away at bat against THS.

>>

Photos by Torey Wise

CURRENT PAC-7 RECORD 34|04.13.11 Crimson

Pioneer Valley

March 22

4-1

Win

Atascadero San Luis Obispo Arroyo Grande

March 25 March 29 April 5

3-2 7-1 0-1

Win Win Loss

Paso Robles High School

www.crimsonnews.org

Varsity baseball has high hopes

Sports

POINTING THEIR WAY TO THE TOP: (Left):Varsity boys baseball players pose for camera after practice. (From left to right) Juniors Mac Stuart, Tanner Berry, and Elias Stokes, and seniors Angel Gonzales, Damien Marquez, Ryan Brockman, and Michael Gonzales.

ALL SMILES (Below): Varsity baseball team groups together in dugout for picture after their win against SLO Tigers baseball team 3-0, on Tuesday, April 5.

Photos by Torey Wise

txeN

Cheerleading ... egaP try-outs

Baseball has potential to be best in decades

>>

by Josh Orcutt, Reporter

Junior center-fielder Elias Stokes stepped up to bat, and before anyone could react, slugged a ball into the left-center field track in the bottom of the first inning on the cold, windy night of March 4. After the cheering and hitting was over for the Bearcat varsity baseball team, the first inning on defense was set in motion for the Bearcats by junior star pitcher Mac Stuart. As the starting pitcher, Stuart threw four innings, giving up only one hit and one run while striking out eight batters. The varsity boys baseball team challenged Cabrillo High School for the first game of the regular season and conquered the Conquistadors.

The 2010 record books tell a story of success, with the Bearcats going 17-12 before falling to the Chaminade Eagles in a heartbreaking playoff loss. But coach Derek Stroud stated that this year’s Bearcats have “gotten off to a good start.”

“Mac Stuart and Scott Plescia have started the year well offensively...

Stuart has pitched well in his first two starts,” Stroud said.

Stuart has a .538 On Base Percentage, and a .750 slugging percentage.

He is coming off an impressive season, batting .380 last year with a .470 OBS. Stuart also had a 4.28 Earned Run Average (ERA) last season, while pitching in 52.1 innings. Plescia, on the other hand, came off last season having a 2-1 record, pitching one complete game with a 4.20 ERA. In the PRHS dugout all the players are always positive, whether it be after mistakes like errors or outs, or triumphs like key plays.

“Hearing positive remarks from my team makes me feel confident and good about myself. Making a good play on defense or getting a hit www.crimsonnews.org

on offense and hearing them cheer for you makes you feel a lot better than if nothing was said at all,” senior first-baseman Damien Marquez pointed out. The camaraderie and friendship between the 18 players of the team is their driving force.

“Our dugout is anything but lazy. We all are on the railing every inning of the game. It’s really important that our dugout stays tuned in [to the game] and they do a great job,” Marquez said. “I love and respect the sport and the adrenaline rush you get in the big situations. It’s one of the hardest sports to play and I am happy to be a part of it.”

Defeating royalty is always impressive, and on Tuesday, March 15, they managed to beat the Mission Prep Royals 18-4. Number 31, junior shortstop Matt Culp, one of the stars of the game, batted 1.000 on three at bats. Stuart had four runs in five at bats, slugging two RBIs (Runners Batted In). He also stole three bases, and Plescia stole one.

The stats seem to be favoring PRHS this season: the Bearcats boast a record of 10-2 overall, and 6-2 in league play. Currently, the varsity baseball team has outscored their opponents 89-32. The squad is averaging 8.55 runs and eight hits a game. They have managed to perform in the clutch during their seventh innings, averaging at least one run in the final inning, as was the case when they scored six runs to beat Santa Ynez High School on March 10. They may have mastered the seventh, but their weakness is the second inning, where they average less than one run. The national batting average is .295, but Paso averages a.340, a statistic that coaches and teammates have worked hard to Paso Robles High School

perfect.

T h e varsity team started league on Tuesday, March 22, with a heated matchup against the Pioneer Valley Panthers. On game day, the Bearcats faced a tough starting pitcher who caught them “off balance,” Stroud expressed in frustration. Nevertheless, he is optimistic about the season. Stuart pitched his first start at this game, and showed that he can pitch in the big time, throwing a complete game. On Friday, March 25, the Bearcats played for revenge, competing against Pioneer Valley once again. “They are a good ball club; we have to play well to win, [but] if we play well I like our chances,” Stroud stated, although the Bearcats sadly came up short during their March 22 loss. But the team played a double header on March 25 and came out victorious in both match-ups by an outstanding amount. In game one, senior pitcher Ryan Brockman threw a complete game in the victory, with the Bearcats winning 9-4. He had one strikeout and only gave up four runs. Plescia batted 1.000 on three at bats, scoring three runs with two stolen bases and two RBIs In game two, the Bearcats started their usual shortstop, Culp, at pitcher. He threw five good innings with a 1.40 ERA. The team rallied late, scoring six runs in the fifth and Stuart had a great statistical game.

He batted .800 on five at bats, with six RBIs and three doubles.

With three more series against tough opponents, and a tournament coming up at Rigetti, the Bearcats have high hopes for CIF and beyond this season.

Crimson 04.13.11 |

35

PRHS cheer tryouts: March 2011

by Kim Boswell, photo essay editor

“1, 2, 3, 4! Clap your hands, stomp your feet!” No, football season isn’t early this year, PRHS cheerleaders prepared for the 2011-2012 school year with crunches, v-ups, lunges, toe-touches, and choreographed dances.

Cheer tryouts were early this year. Last year, tryouts had to be held during the last week of school because of dance teacher and varsity cheer advisor Jennifer Bedrosian’s pending “pink-slip.” This year, the search for new and old spirit was on Mar. 30, 31 and April 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Gil Asa Gym. Fifty girls tried out for varsity and twenty-five tried out for junior varsity, according to Bedrosian. “It’s sad that so many won’t be able to make it this year,’ she said.

Clad in shorts, T-shirts, and smiles , 75 girls sat along the crimson perimeter of the basketball court as they did splits, crunches, push-ups, frog jumps, and lunges.

After warming-up they were granted a one minute water break. Girls flocked to the bleachers, fanning their faces and laughing in spite of the pain.

“We’ll just take one bite each,” one sophomore said to

SYMMETRICAL STRENGTH: (above) Hopeful girls lined-up in the gym while being directed through warm-ups by senior Sarah Manson.

HIGH SPIRITS: (top) Seventy-five girls formed lines in the gym and did right punches in front of Bedrosian and her judges. They then split into grades and practiced cheers and dances.

“STAND UP AND FIGHT!”: (left) Junior Linda Arteaga displayed her flexibility to fellow juniors while practicing cheers.

04.13.11 Crimson

LUCKY NUMBER THIRTEEN: (above) Junior Elizabeth Kerr practiced --while senior Britney Brewer watched over the junior group. Stress was eminent throughout the room with thoughts of the filming of the cheer was the next day.

SILENT CONCENTRATION: (above) Sophomores, including Cassie Radecki prepared to cheer their hearts out on the second day of tryouts on Thursday, March 31.

Photos by Kim Boswell

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another as she pulled out a Snickers bar from her brown leather purse and handed it to her friend, a moment of sweet relief before returning to the sweat and exertion of tryouts.

Three days after they were filmed dancing to “Evacuate the Dance Floor” by Cascada and a cheer, both of which were choreographed by the current varsity cheer seniors and Bedrosian, girls of all grades rushed over to the dance room door on Monday, Apr. 4 and searched the sign for their designated numbers.

There were screams, squeaks, and hugs as thirty-two names were announced for varsity and twenty-two for junior varsity. The next day, girls were fitted for their $500 uniforms and began their journey to the sidelines.

Junior Hannah Robinson is looking forward to the larger size of the team next year. “It will be a bigger family, and we’ll be able to show the school how spirited we are,” she said.

The “family” will continue in their pursuit of spirit during summer vacation with practices two days a week.

Paso Robles High School

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