M theMENTOR
Oct. 9, 2012
News
Manhattan High School, Manhattan, Kan.
Volume 100 Issue 6
Community discusses BOE thoughts on open lunch
Safety week designed to inform students John Rockey Staff Writer
Naomi McClendon Entertainment Editor Although the turnout to last week’s USD 383 Board of Education public hearing was much lower than expected, the students, faculty and parents who came to speak all supported keeping an open lunch period for Manhattan High School. Open lunch became a hot topic on this year’s agenda after the high school’s renovations made it possible for the new cafeteria to hold a third of the school’s students. The meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 3, was in Rezac Auditorium, instead of at the Robinson Education Center because the board expected a large community attendance. Only nine people spoke at the meeting, which came as a shock to the school board. “The turnout was much, much less than we had anticipated,” Coordinator of Communications Michele Jones said. Although the board was presented with substantial evidence against open lunch, community members of all kinds presented cases in favor of it. Many view open lunch as a necessity in the maturing process See Lunch on page 8
Cheerleaders perform a dance routine during the all-school pep rally on Friday. The pep rally was attended by students at West Campus during seventh hour and included cheers, dance routines by Powder Puff boys and the MHS dance team, and introduction of the Homecoming candidates. John Rockey, Photographer
StuCo busy with upcoming projects Maddie Ross Trending Co-Editor The Student Council is preparing for the upcoming blood drive and introducing video announcements. The blood drive will be Thursday, Oct. 18, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the gym. The expectations for the drive are hopeful. “Last year went pretty well,” StuCo sponsor Leslie Campbell said. “Around 70 units of blood were collected on each of our drives. I hope to get even more this year. We also have coordinators who are very excited and enthusiastic about the
project.” To provide the safest possible donation experience, the Red Cross has specific requirements. Donors must weigh 110 pounds or more, depending on their height. Prospective donors should know that appointments will be taken the week before the drive t o Female Height : Weigh t 4’10” : 146 lbs . 4’11” : 141 lbs . 5’ : 138 lb 5’ 1” : 1 s. 33 lbs. 5’2” : 1 29 lbs. 5’ 3” : 1 24 lbs. 5’4” : 1 18 lbs. 5’5” : 1 15 lbs. 5’6” an d up : 1 10 lbs.
make sure that they meet the requirements. Preparations for the event have gone smoothly so far. “The Red Cross cont r i b - utes a lot. They d o pretty much everything; we just Male
Height : Weight 4’10” : 120 lbs. 4’ 11” : 115 lbs. 5’ and up : 110 lbs. * All information from redcrossblood.org
Above are the female and male size requirements in order to donate blood.
provide the space and the food,” sophomore cocoordinator Molly Bollman said. StuCo is also working on a form of video announcements. So far they have created a template and have done practice run-throughs. The announcements are set to be filmed in video production teacher Kathy Ricketts’ room. The goal is to produce the video announcements once a week. However, the way teachers can access them is still up in the air. “We are still trying to figure out minor details, including the accessibility,” Ricketts said.
This week, Manhattan High School West campus will participate in a series of different drills for Safety Week. This week provides students and staff with the knowledge necessary to handle a variety of different threatening situations that could occur in the school setting. Whether it’s fire, severe weather, a bomb threat or an intruder in the school, the goal of Safety Week is to educate the student body as well as the staff on what to do when lives are possibly at stake. Safety Week started last year with all schools in the district, except West Campus, participating in fire drills, tornado drills, lockouts, lock-downs and a school-wide evacuation in the event of a gas leak or other danger. Beginning with an assembly first hour yesterday, students learned how to act during an emergency situation. Faculty and staff were trained in PLT on how to organize the students in the event of danger. Everyone in the building learned how to move themselves out of the way of those tasked with reacting to the particular emergency, who also See Safety on page 8
German Club celebrates Oktoberfest with brats, fun Kaitlin Wichmann Photo Editor The German Club brought the German tradition of Oktoberfest to Manhattan High School last week to coincide with the time that the Oktoberfest occurs in Munich. On Thursday, the German Club hosted a Bratwurst Fest during lunch, where students could feast on bratwursts and potato salad for a $3 fee. The German classes helped by preparing the potatoes and
bratwursts during their normal class time. After a shortage of bratwursts last year after first lunch, 150 bratwursts were prepared for both lunches. A total of 125 bratwursts were sold this year. “I thought that the Bratwurst Fest went very well this year,” German Club sponsor Elke Lorenz said. “Next year we will try advertising ahead of time so that people know when to bring money. A lot of people would have liked to have bought the bratwursts,
Clu b Notes Key Club
The Manhattan High School Key Club had a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 3, that focused on recapping recent club events, such as Peanut Day on Sept. 8, their car wash on Sept. 30 and the Kiwanis Picnic on Tuesday, Oct. 2. “Everyone has been so active, and I’m happy Key Club members enjoy being in Key Club,” president Sophie Wang said. From all the fundraisers Key Club has held this year, they have raised over $750 in donations. Wang’s next idea for a fundraiser is an eating competition in late October during both lunches, where students can buy a ticket to compete and win a prize. However,
the idea has yet to be made into a plan. “I think the eating competition will be a fun idea but we have to make sure we have no choking hazards,” secretary Siera Haug said. During their meeting, several things were finalized. Recycling for Manhattan High School West Campus is now on the agenda. The recycling will be collected three times a month. Key Club, Earth Club and German Club will each have an assigned collection date. Manhattan High School East Campus recycling will be managed by freshmen Key Club members. Also for the East Campus, two new freshmen Key Club officers have been
but they forgot to bring money.” The money made from the bratwursts and potatoes will help to pay for students to attend the Schuler Kongress in March, a competition for German students that takes place at the University of Kansas. The admission costs $5 per student. Besides the Oktoberfest, the club also has meetings with the German-speaking exchange students, watches German movies and has German dinners. New
things are being added to the schedule this year. “We are going to try to get in contact with the KState German Club to work together with them,” Lorenz said. “We also enjoy refreshments and speak German together as a group.”
chosen -- Rachel Chang and Adelia Cruz-Bianchi. “Their main job will be to communicate with us on things that are going on at the East Campus, and also to get the word out about meetings and service projects to other freshmen key club members,” Haug said. The next meeting will be on Oct. 17 in Laura Sapp’s room, E-206. - Dheepthi Perumal
to host an Earth Dinner on Sept. 21, but the dinner had to be scrapped due to football game scheduling. The club is now going to conduct an Earth Breakfast, where they will be selling cinnamon rolls some time during this month. It also plans on cleaning up the front by the Indian sign and planting flowers there in the spring. “We wanted to be able to get as many people as possible to come so we decided to hold a breakfast instead of a dinner,” Donohoue said. - Connor Bliss
Earth Club Earth Club may have seemed like an underground operation in the past few years, but club president Nick Donohoue is wanting this year’s members to change that. Donohoue said he is “excited to get the club off the ground since it has been stagnant in the past few years.” The Earth Club planned
Peter Sang, sophomore, serves customers at the German Club Brat Fest in the commons area on Thursday. The Oktoberfest celebration is one of many German Club activities this fall. Ben Shields, Photographer
ACT Prep Class Counselor Carolyn Devane has a class going on now to help students prepare for the Oct. 27 ACT test. Devane’s classes are on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. in A-113. Tuition cost is $80
for the three-night course. “Normally my classes have a higher attendance than 28 students and are held in the Little Theater. But because this class had less than 30 students I made arrangements to move it to a classroom,” Devane said. “Usually this first class consists of mostly seniors who either haven’t taken the ACT yet or are taking it for the last time.” It is too late to sign up for Devane’s first class, but she has another class later in November. The end date to register for that class is Nov. 2. The final class is Nov. 26, just in time for students to take the Dec. 8 ACT test. - Julianne Harkness
I
known as the Blue Light Journal, has been undergoing some changes. The first is the name, which has been changed back to “This Is How I Scream.” The literary magazine has also named senior Lora Pellegrin as the new executive editor. On Sept. 25, TIHIS held a bake sale during both lunches to raise money to go towards the publication of the magazine. More fundraisers will follow as the year goes by. The literary magazine is also now accepting submissions for each of their sections: Art, Poetry and Prose. Students, or anyone who wishes to have their works of art published in the literary magazine, should contact the club sponsor, Rachel Fontenot, in D-008. - Julith Perry
Manhattan High’s literary magazine, previously
See Clubs on page 8
This Is Scream
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