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the Talisman shstalisman@gmail.com
a student newspaper
Sheldon High School 2455 willakenzie Rd., Eugene, Or 97401 vol. 44 Issue 1 Oct. 2, 2008
ASB officers work hard once elected Sheldon students benefit from all the hard work put in by ASB officers by Anthony Rhoads ads manager The Associated Student Body (ASB) seldom receives schoolwide recognition for the work they do and the contributions they make to Sheldon High School. They work quite hard at the set up that they do in preparation for all the activities that are fun for us, as the student body. They organize dances, assemblies, and community involvement projects. When students pay for parking passes and student body cards, they are contributing to all the activities that ASB puts on. ASB has seven members: president Olivia Girod, vice president Kendra Desler, treasurer Ali Kerns, publicity Annie Mohler, and two activity directors, Olivia Alison and Brad Bevens. Each member works very hard to put on all of the activities. Girod said, “To get ideas, we go to Seaside in November to share ideas with other schools.” Girod also stated, “We meet three times a week: Sunday for just ASB, Monday for executive leadership, and on Wednesday for big leadership. You need a 2.5 GPA, and passing all classes and no drug or alcohol use to be in ASB.” Girod said people can join ASB in the spring; ASB elections candidates campaign the week before, and then give speeches at an ASB elections assembly. Girod said in addition, “It’s a huge amount of responsibility, also a very large time commitment.” The meaning, or goal, of ASB according to Girod is, “To increase school spirit, increase community involvement,
and to beautify the school.” When they get ready to put on an activity she said, “It takes a lot of preparation and organization to make sure the events run smoothly and are fun for everyone.” ASB is not just student organized, as Girod said. “We do have advisers who are all hard working and help to ensure that everything runs smoothly.” Some of the upcoming events are the fundraiser, “Snowflakes of Joy,” and its corresponding dance. Michael Voss said that the meaning of ASB is, “It provides leadership and a boost
of school spirit, and it affects the student body by, showing what leadership looks like and how to be involved.” Vice principal Mike Johnson said, “ASB is a representation of what the student body wants to happen at school and provides what students need to have a student voice on the campus.” Johnson also said, “ASB over all is a support group for the student body, and an important link between administration and the students. For me personally, I have to applaud them for taking that responsibility.”
Molly Morris photo
The hello dance is just one of the many dances ASB officers help organize throughout the year.
Letter of concern forms make Sheldon safer New forms allow students to help inform staff of school problems by Michael Zimmerman staff writer The intent of a letter or statement of concern is to alert the staff of Sheldon High School about anything that had or will have an effect on the campus. Beginning television teacher Pam Crisalli said, “The school started to use the letters of concern forms after the incident last year when a new student brought a gun to Sheldon High School and started to ask about gangs in the area.” It is a way for
students, parents, or the community to bring awareness to something that has happened or is happening on school grounds. In the past, statement of concern forms have saved and protected students and staff from harassment and various other circumstances. Campus supervisor TJ Johnson said, “You can fill out a concern form for anything ranging from harassment, threats, to even anything not directly involved with you, but someone else.” These forms are really easy to find. If you are having a problem, just go to the office or to your counselor and ask for a letter of concern form. They are yellow with bold letters marked at the top saying “Statement of Concern Form.” You write about who the person who started the conflict is and what exactly happened. Multicultural studies teacher Jose Alonso said, ”If not explained all the way on what is going on in the conflict, then conflicts may not be solved all the way,
then you will get the feeling that this system isn’t useful.” A lot of students who go through high school being bullied tend to not try to stand up for themselves or tell someone. Either because of what the bully or harasser will do after the person has told on them, or because of the “silent rule,” which says, “It’s not cool to tattle tale on someone.” It is because of these reasons or “silent rules” that people like the two boys from the Columbine incident decided that the only way to solve a problem was to bring guns to school and start shooting people. But the truth is that no one has the right to bully or harass anyone because no one should have to go through their whole high school experience afraid or nervous about what the next day will be like. Alonso said, “The schools image is number two on the list of importance; the number one goal is to stop any harassment going on in school.”
New Internet Authenticator Service helps track internet use IAS program tracks user web history by Adam Green features editor In past years the 4J school district has struggled with keeping students in check on school computers. Websites associated with games, chat rooms, or social networking such as MySpace, Addicting Games, and Teen Chat, have been banned from school computers. The district has been trying to find a way to completely block students from accessing sites like these for some time, but the methods the district has used have continually been thwarted by proxy servers that allow students backdoor access to any webpage. Could the solution to this problem have been found, or will the attempt only create new problems? This year, all 4J schools have been equipped with an Internet Authentication Service (IAS). IAS prompts
teachers and students alike for their username and password when trying to access the internet. While logged in, the authenticator scans the site for key words and phrases before allowing access. If it detects inappropriate material, the authenticator will block the page. Since the page itself is scanned beforehand rather than just the name, proxy servers can no longer falsify the name of the sites to allow backdoor access into them. With this new system, every time someone tries to visit a website unrelated to 4J, everyone is asked to put in his or her username and password. Once logged in a small window pops up. While this window is running, the user remains logged in. Students can learn their username and password by talking to their teacher, the librarian, or technology director Bob Cherney in the technology department. If someone finds the initial password difficult to remember, all passwords can be changed by going to the website https://password.lane.edu. However,
librarian Melinda Warburg had the following to say about password changing, “We have recently been encouraging students not to change their password. It has to go through a set of processes at the district level which may take time and if you need on the internet right then, you’re out of luck. And if you forget it, I have no way of accessing that.” Not to fear. If the changed password is forgotten, it can be recovered by talking to Cherney. The 4J school district has a very vague description of what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. The Children Internet Protection Act (CIPA) implemented in 2001 states “Schools subject to CIPA are required to adopt and enforce a policy to monitor online activities of minors.” Although the “appropriate use guidelines” page on the 4J website does not directly disallow games, chat rooms, or social networking sites, Sheldon High School specifically bans them, as is stated in the school handbook. see Authenticator page 3