Posh Bagels make you feel “hole”
Ping Pong players prevail Page 5: Dropshot Divas take first place
Volume 58, IssuE 5
Page 6: Posh Bagels opens in Castro Village
Ja n ua ry 2 2 , 2 0 1 5
Trojans trample the Pirates Page 7: Girls soccer team tops San Leandro
We are born to seek the truth! www.cvhsolympian.com
Administrators backing up on student parking By Robbie Brandt Business Manager
Students dance the night away in the gym at Winter Ball on Jan. 10.
Alison Dhont/ photo editor
“Banding” together at Winter Ball By Desiree Broome Staff Writer
The thin line between appropriate and inappropriate dancing that takes place at school events has been an issue for many years. Although there have been many attempts, nothing seems to change student behavior. Over the years, administration has tried to find consequences or rules that could actually make a difference. Some rules that have been proposed in the past include a required talk between students with a member of administration, or removal from the dance. These ideas may seem harsh, but it was pretty much the only thing
left to try after others were proven ineffective. Neither of those ideas were ever put into effect, but a wristband system was. A few years ago each student would be issued a wristband. If a student was caught doing anything inappropriate the wristband would be cut, and that would be the student's warning. If the student was caught again and seen without a wristband, they would be removed from the dance. In the past, administration have had to take extreme measures such as keeping the lights on during the dance, strictly because it was the only way to prevent anything inappropriate from taking place. This year, many are hoping to
prevent such extreme measures from taking place. “I wish people could just control themselves. You can dance without being all over each other and when they can't it ruins the fun for everyone else,” said sophomore Alexis O’Gorman. Students in leadership have been working on coming up with new ways to make sure this is no longer an issue, and have decided to bring back the wristband system. With putting this system back into place, then comes the issue of finding out how effective it is. If it works well at Winter Ball, it could also be put into place for Junior Prom and Senior Ball.
two other students, but the actual number of students who received the picture will never be known, according to Dixon. When asked how those in the cheating scandal were caught, Dixon replied by vaguely saying, “Someone had a moment of clarity, went to someone, and basically told.” The girl given a four-day suspension, and received a zero on the test, she said. A boy who received a picture of the test, and then sent it to another student, received a two-day suspension, he said, but was permitted to take the test once it had been re-written. A second boy, who received a picture of the test but did not pass it on, did not receive any formal punishment, he said. The girl is very upset about her suffering grade, and with how
punishments were decided. “I don’t think it’s fair,” said the girl. “The other people got to take the new test and I didn’t, even though they saw [the original test] too. It’s been really hard because it lowered my grade a lot. I wrote an apology letter to Mrs. Dixon … so it just wasn’t fair I wasn’t allowed to take it.” Dixon is aggravated by the whole situation, and is upset she had to spend a whole weekend re-writing the new test and had to attend numerous meetings on the subject. The re-written test for this unit was much more challenging than earlier tests, according to students in the class, who did not receive a study guide as usual. Many students complained about its difficulty. The average score for the test was 59 percent.
Over the last few weeks students have been warned not to park in the staff lot or in the parking lot without a parking pass. Students, however, are ignoring these warnings and parking where they want to. This recent behavior has left our school administrators wondering what to do. “The problem is students that are parking in the wrong spots; there have been times when the special ed kids can’t get to their classes, or visitors can’t park,” said Assistant Principal Jesse Hansen. “When teachers leave the campus sometimes their spots are taken and it’s all because of students parking in the wrong spot.” Some of the few solutions to this problem are to ticket or tow cars, but so far the administration is still deciding about whether or not to do that. “Towing cars is a last resort because we don’t want students to have to spend three or four hundred dollars to get their car back, however
if this behavior continues the punishment will come; if we know who the student is we will call them in and talk to them. By February the administration will come up with a proper punishment,” said Hansen. Some students think there should be more spaces for students to park. “I don’t think students should park in teachers’ spots, the problem is all the signs restricting parking so I have to park two blocks away from school and walk,” said junior Alex Brown. Other students believe that the administration is already being strict enough as it is with the parking rules and they need to stop. “The admin shouldn’t be even more strict with the parking rules because juniors already have enough trouble finding places to park because we can’t buy parking passes,” said junior Chris Carruth. Will cars end up being towed, or will administration continue to let our students park wherever they want? Only time will tell.
Anatomy Test stolen, students Suspended
By Maia Samboy Staff Writer
Two anatomy and physiology students were suspended after school officials discovered that one had taken a picture of an upcoming chapter test and the other received the picture and passed it to another student. Teacher Carol Dixon stayed home sick on Dec. 4, and due to the failure of a substitute to show up to lead the class, students were left alone for the majority of sixth period. During this time, a student entered Dixon’s office, which connects to the classroom, and went through her file cabinet, the teacher said. There, the girl found a copy of an upcoming test and used a mobile phone to take a picture of it. She sent the photo to at least
“Not everyone saw the test, not everyone was directly involved with this, so giving everyone a purposefully more difficult test was just too much,” said junior Laurel Wilson. Dixon believes the school’s handling of substitutes contributed to the problem. CVHS has experienced a shortage of subs and sometimes assigns them to cover six periods per day. It seems that the sub did not show up to class because “he thought he deserved a period off,” said Dixon. Another root of the problem can also be found in society itself, Dixon said. “In our society, it’s almost okay to lie and cheat. It’s almost cool to be that way and I don’t know how you fix that,” said Dixon. She is extremely disappointed in the sixth period class, and is
puzzled by the fact that no one contacted the office or a nearby teacher when the substitute failed to show up. “No one wanted to be bold enough to take the initiative to do the right thing,” she said. Dixon, who has a background in college teaching, is concerned students will not be prepared for the harsh world that awaits them once they graduate high school. “People are so coddled now, we’re not giving them a realistic attitude towards life,” she said. Although this event has caused stress for all parties involved, Dixon has gleaned one lesson from this difficult situation. “If I am ever sick again, I will drag myself in here and lock that office door,” she said.