Giant Word

By Vinny Armpriester, reporter

In 46 days, the seniors at Waynesboro High School will walk across the stage. Usually, graduation would be on the Waynesboro’s football field. But this year is different. The bleachers have deteriorated over the years to the point where they are not usable.  The school’s insurance company refuses to provide coverage with the bleachers in their current condition.

So, it was up to principal Mr. Tim Teachey to find a new location to hold the ceremonies. The options available were to have it on Waynesboro’s soccer field, to mend the bleachers on the football field, or to have graduation at the Convocation Center at James Madison University.

Teachey, a graduate of Waynesboro, said his original plan was to just fix the bleachers on the football field, but he found out that they wouldn’t be fixed by June 2. Down to two options, Teachey let his seniors vote on where they would like to graduate. The Class of 2012 elected to have their graduation at JMU.

The decision triggered a wide array of responses from the students. Some were very unhappy.

“It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of,” says Scout McDevitt. “I didn’t go to JMU, so why would I graduate from there?”

And others were satisfied.

“I’m excited. I didn’t really want to have it here,” said Desean Dillard. “I wanted something different.”

With a month and a half left until graduation, Teachey is still trying to confirm the speaker. Meanwhile, the senior class is preparing themselves for the commencement of their adult life.

By Vinny Armpriester, Reporter

For the past seven or eight years, Mr. Timothy Wion has been dreaming about developing a travel club at Waynesboro High School. Wion, who teaches earth science, thinks that it’s important to see what it means to be immersed in a different culture.

“Traveling is transformative,” says Wion. “People change when they travel.”

One of Wion’s goals is to create a customized elective course that allows students to study an area for the first half of the semester, visit that area during spring break, and then spend the last two months of the class reviewing and analyzing their trip.

Wion and fellow science teacher Ms. Desiree Henriksen have planned a trip to Costa Rica during spring break of 2013. The trip is open to all students, but it’s particularly focused on juniors. Wion states that while he hasn’t had anyone commit to going, he has met with several students who are interested. Anyone who thinks that they would like to participate should contact Wion or Henriksen as soon as possible. The trip is nine days long. The cost includes round-trip airfare and three meals a day.

According to Wion, it will cost about $2400, or $200 per month, for the next 12 months. Students will stay in tourist-class hotels and work on projects within the community. Some activities include planting trees, visiting and helping an elementary school, taking a canopy tour, and enjoying a visit to La Fortuna waterfall.

Wion said to think of this as a “mission trip for the environment.”

Jacob Stevens and Derek Haynes pose with lacrosse equipment.

JoJo Collins, Reporter

He shoots and scores the game is over! The North Carolina Tar Heels beat the Virginia Cavaliers to win their tenth Lacrosse Championship.

Lacrosse is known to be one of the most physical sports. Lacrosse is mostly played at colleges, and private schools. Lacrosse is a spring sport. WHS doesn’t have a lacrosse team.  Coach McDaniel said He is looking into getting a team together.

Some of the obstacles are the cost. WHS would have to pay for uniforms, coaches, fields, and equipment. And if WHS gets a lacrosse team and the day of tryouts come and no one shows up there goes all the money.

“I think if lacrosse came to WHS I would join the team,” said freshman Morgan Armstrong.

The equipment they use has some rules that they have to follow. The net on the sticks can’t be more than two inches from the top of the basket. The balls they use are heavy and could really hurt someone. All players have to wear a facemask, shin guards, and gloves when they play.

“If lacrosse becomes a sport here at WHS I have all my equipment from when I went to Stuart Hall,” said freshman Garnett Swain.

The rules in lacrosse are difficult to understand. There are 11 people on the field for both teams. When the game starts off they start in a head to head battle on the ground fighting for the ball. Then the players can pass the ball around.

When players try to score on the other team they have to shoot the ball into a little net that the goalie is trying to protect. Goals earn one point. There are many ways to score a goal. Players can throw in, roll it in, and it can bounce off the goalie and go in.

Lacrosse is like any other sport. It’s competitive and many players like to play it. This is one sport that anyone can play. This sport can be played by girls and guys.

“If WHS gets a lacrosse team I could help teach lacrosse to the girls,” said Swain.

Lacrosse would be a good sport here at WHS because many people have requested a team. A lacrosse team might get more students involved with school.

She shoots and scores! The Waynesboro Lil Giants have won the AA Regional two Lacrosse championships. This could be in our future if we get a lacrosse team.

Rachel’s Challenge is a worldwide program that an 18 year old girl, Rachel Scott, described before she was the first one to lose her life in the Columbine High School Shootings.

                TheColumbineHigh Schoolshootings took place in 1999, they were the worst school shootings thatAmericahas ever seen. The attack claimed the lives of 14 students and one teacher, including the two shooters, who died from self-inflicted gunshots.

                Before Scott died she kept a series of journals that outlined the way she wanted to see people act. She said she wanted to start a chain reaction.

                Scott believed that with compassion and one small act of kindness a day the world would be a better place.

                After Scott died, her dad began to read through the journals, and decided to compile everything to create a challenge for the world: Rachel’s Challenge.

                                Rachel’s Challenge consists of five small challenges:

1)      Look for the best in others.

2)      Dream big- write down goals, keep a journal.

3)      Choose positive influences.

4)      Speak with kindness.

5)      Reach out to the 7-10 most important people in your life, and tell them how much they mean to you.

                All the aspects of Rachel’s Challenge were compiled into a presentation. The presentation not only described Rachel’s Challenge but it also laid out what happened at theColumbineHigh Schoolshootings.

“The impact that it had to those who listen, and are empowered to do something different, is just so inspiring.” Said Torski (Toy) Dobson-Arnold, the speaker, while describing her experience with the presentation.

        “Whenever you hear a tragic story, like this, it is amazing that they found joy and positive energy,” said Dr. Robin Crowder, Waynesboro Public Schools superintendent.

        “ Watching the students be real, open to the story, and relating their life to the experience, and then deciding what they will do, was so great.” Said Ms. Janet Buchhheit, principal of Kate Collins Middle School (KCMS). 

         The presentation touched people of all ages and did indeed evoke a chain reaction.

         “It made me want to be a better person, and change parts of my life,” said Dymond Turkiwicz, a seventh grader at KCMS.

        “I like how it really affected everyone,” said Alexis Monroe, a seventh grader at KCMS. “ It changed the way people act in a positive way. Everyone is much nicer,” she added.

        Alicia Lowry another seventh grader, said, “The presentation was sad, but it really got everyone to think about how they treat others.”

        Many KCMS students signed up to participate in a training course, that would help create a program for the middle school and eventuallyWaynesboroHigh School. However the faculty could only pick 100 of the students, to participate in the training course. 

        The students that were chosen decided to create a club called F.O.R; which stands for Friends of Rachel. They want to create a mural that involves school wide involvement. They want it to represent what Rachel’s Challenge meant to them.

        People of all ages participated in the presentations, and people of all ages have decided to accept Rachel’s challenge. They want to be a part of the chain reaction.

As the new block schedule starts to settle in the Waynesboro High School classrooms, questions arose about the placement of exams in the year schedule. Are there mid-terms after the first nine weeks as well as common assessments? Are they the same thing? How does it affect the student’s grade? Are they ready for a mid-term?  Is there even a mid-term? What’s the difference?

Freshmen Holly Martin and Andrew Bihl have a common assessment and a mid-term to look forward to in their math and earth science classes.  Martin said she feels prepared for her math exam.

“Mrs. Biggs lets you retake everything beforehand so you know what you’re doing by the time you get there,” she said.

However, she doesn’t feel too confident for her Earth Science exam.

“I feel like we breeze over the things in order to make them ready for that test and then by the time we get to the mid-term we will have forgotten everything,” Martin said.

Bihl is a little more uneasy about the upcoming tests.

“I’ve been looking back at the tests that I got like As on, but I don’t know how to do those things anymore, even though I did well on them two weeks ago,” Bihl said.

But mid-terms in the middle of the semester don’t surprise them that much.

“I had the same thing happen last year and the classes are really long,” Martin said.

At Kate Collins Middle School, students take their science and social studies classes within a semester so naturally, some WHS students would have a taste of what block scheduling is like.

A clarification: common assessments and mid-terms are not the same thing. Bihl and Martin were a little confused to whether they were taking both or not.

“What are common assessments?” Martin asked.

“I thought the common assessment was the mid-term,” Bihl said.

Ms. Erin Widener teaches earth science. She helped to clarify the difference between mid-terms and common assessments and how they affect students.

“It is a mid-term in the fact that it covers half the information you learn throughout the year but it doesn’t count as an exam grade in your overall grade. It just counts as a test grade. It’s not 10% of your grade or 20% like a final exam,” Widener said.

And for those taking a year round course, their mid-terms are in January.

“For Earth Science and most SOL courses, just what you get exempt from is the final exam you take in January, if you pass your SOL. If you don’t have an SOL in your class, that’s when you take your final. However, if you’re taking A/B classes, that’s when you take your mid-term in January because you have a full year of classes,” Widener said.

According to Widener, common assessments are to help the teachers make sure that their students are getting all their information equally for all the teachers that teach that subject.

Widener, Mr. Timothy Wion, and Coach Charlie Cox all teach earth science and they give a common test to ensure that all their students are at the same place in their material. If students are having trouble with a certain subject, the common assessments allow teachers to know what to review.

Actually, the new schedule doesn’t really affect Widener at all with her teaching. Because she teaches a class everyday instead of every other day, she can fill in more material in a smaller amount of time. It gives her more cushion time to teach students more effectively if they don’t understand.

Widener’s only surprise about the new schedule is the increase in grading that she has to do, she said.

Like Martin, Widener agrees that freshman have more experience about block scheduling than the upperclassmen who are accustomed to the alternating block schedule.

“I think that they might find it more frustrating and a lot harder,” Widener said, referring to the students who are used to the old schedule.

Overall, Widener believes that her students are prepared and can handle the material on the test.

So stressed- out students, take a deep breath. These tests were not that bad.  For those who have taken the common assessments, at least they’re over! Now be ready for a mid-term, but just to make sure, ask your teachers since some may have tests and others may not. And don’t forget… get ready for the SOLS, but they’re a different story.

Aaron Ford, Reporter

Many people wonder if the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is affecting Virginia and the seafood restaurants within Virginia. An owner of a seafood restaurant tells how the oil spill affects her.

Debbie Deffenbaugh, owner of a local seafood restaurant in Waynesboro called Capt’n Sam’s Landing, says the food she gets comes to her from a company in Calico, Virginia, near Reedsville.

“The food we order is not from the Gulf,” she said. “It hasn’t affected our business.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      The seafood she gets is in the company in Calico so it wasn’t contaminated by the oil in the Gulf.                           

Deffenbaugh explained that the oil spill didn’t affect the prices of her food.

“Our prices haven’t gone up really. The only thing that went up was the oysters because we had to order them from the Gulf,” she said.

Her business hasn’t seen a decline in customers either since the oil spill. She stated a few people asked about the quality of her food.

“A few customers asked about the quality of the food but not a lot,” she said. “There weren’t any complaints about the food tasting funny.”

Deffenbaugh’s restaurant wasn’t majorly impacted by the oil spill. She still has her loyal customers and her business is still up and running.

By Michael Maneval, Reporter

In the face of a cut budget, the schools have had to cut back on many programs and staff. These cuts have affected students in some ways such as class sizes or the price of field trips, but Dr. Robin Crowder, Superintendent of Waynesboro Public Schools, has said that hopefully students won’t notice.

Though $2.6 million cut from a $30 million budget doesn’t sound like much at first, it is actually a lot. According to Crowder, eighty percent of the $30 million goes to paying for the salaries of the teachers while most of the rest pays for things that the schools can’t run without such as air conditioning, water, and electricity. The remaining five percent of the budget is “cuttable” stuff such as new school buses.

When deciding to cut and what to keep, Crowder said, “Protect staff; get rid of ‘stuff.’” However, protecting all staff wasn’t possible this past year.

“Reducing our staff by 20 was really hard,” said Crowder.

Crowder doesn’t see a solution coming soon. The budget will be cut by another million dollars next year, he said. The schools have been faced with 100 more students than anticipated. This isn’t entirely bad, Crowder explained. For each additional student enrolled, the state gives the school extra money. Crowder hopes that the economy will turn up after next year. Crowder says he’s “hopefully optimistic,” but “pessimistically cautious.” Further cuts, will likely mean that the schools will not be getting new stuff, such as buses or computers.

“The schools are in the same economic woes as our community and country. We have not been spared from the economic decline,” said Crowder.

So what does this mean for students? According to Doug Norcross of the Waynesboro School Board, the cuts have been made on all levels. The city council has had less money to give to the schools while the state has made large cuts. The federal government has helped some by providing some of the stimulus money.

Norcross says that the students shouldn’t see many changes in the school.

“The main thing is for the students to have the resources to learn,” said Norcross.

Scarlette Harris, Reporter

As debate rises in New York City over the development of a Muslim community center, a religious community struggles to keep its respect and reputation. According to other news sources, the new facility, called Park 51, will be two blocks away from Ground Zero. Park 51 will contain a pool, recreational center, bookstore, auditorium, restaurant, and a mosque. The controversy is how people see the Muslim world.

Amna Adrees, a practicing Muslim and a WHS student, wants to show people what Islam really is, and that it is not a terrorist religion.

“The main misconception is, with this Ground Zero mosque, is that 9/11 was caused by Islam, which is not really true because it was just an extremist group that didn’t know about the basics of Islam anyway. Terrorists don’t really have a religion because they’re terrorists… religion’s purpose is to be good and help people, and not hurt anyone,” Adrees said.

One of the main reasons why some Americans are against the mosque is because of recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and especially from what happened in 9/11. However, according to Shahnaz Adrees, Amna’s mother, in the Holy Quran, there is a verse that states if a person kills another, it is like killing all of humanity. There is no terrorism in Islam, Shahnaz Adrees said.

Also, some people aren’t educated in the beliefs of the religion. Amna shared a story about her father’s business. A Christian church raised an issue and spoke out about the fact that Adrees’s father owned a gas station nearby. At the same time, people stood up to say that such persecution was inappropriate and unfair. It might have hurt the business, Amna said, because some of the audience might have actually listened to the false facts.

“A lot of people listen to what they’re told; I guess that’s not very good.”

While critics say Park 51 would be disrespectful to those who were killed on 9/11, and that it’s too close to the Ground Zero site, Amna disagrees. She said that the location might not have anything to do with Ground Zero; it just might be a coincidence that it is two blocks away.

“We don’t really know the factors that went into them getting that area; if it was cheaper… you can’t really say that’s because of the location exactly. It is two blocks away, it’s not at Ground Zero,” Amna said.

Muslim Americans also died at the World Trade Center, she pointed out. “Would it be disrespectful to them if the mosque weren’t built at all?”

According to the Park 51 website (www.park51.org), the location of the center was considered because of the space it has for crowds, and that it was easily accessible for people from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Also, the site states that it would be of help to the surrounding neighborhood and that the community board that represented the neighborhood gave unanimous consent to the project being built.

Shahnaz Adrees adds that in Islam, if a mosque provides an inconvenience to the surrounding area, then it should not be built. There shouldn’t be any problems within the community despite the fact that Park 51 is a particular center under lots of heat.

Amna said she would have no problem with actually going to the center.

“I would go, why not? What’s wrong about going to a mosque as a Muslim? It’s the same as someone who is a Christian visiting New York going to a church. It doesn’t matter.”

Amna said she hopes that the violence will go down if the mosque is built because of the safety of those that live in New York, including some of her family members. Recently, there was a taxi driver in New York who was stabbed when answering he was Muslim to a passenger’s question.

“If you look at the ideal then I would want it to be built, but I feel it might cause more trouble than necessary,” Amna said. “Religion isn’t supposed to be violent, and a mosque is supposed to be for people to go pray and relax…it’s for us to do our thing…I don’t think it would be the Muslims’ fault if it caused violence. It is people not realizing the reasoning behind it being built.”

The right to religious freedom is one of the main arguments of those who agree with Park 51 being built. That’s one of the main reasons why Adrees wants it to be built.

“When you think of Americans you shouldn’t think about a religion, you should think about citizens.” Amna said. “We’re all Americans; it doesn’t matter if we’re Christians or Jews or Muslims or Hindus, or whatever because we’re all living here together, so religion shouldn’t even be an issue. That’s the point of America.”

Whether Park 51 is built or not, Adrees and her mother want to show people what their religion is really like. In English they said, Islam translates into “submission,” which comes from the word that means “peace.”

Written By:  Destiny Teeter, Reporter

Giant Pride Day has been announced to take place on June 2, 2010 after the Honors assembly. During this time, groups will work to clean-up WHS and show school spirit. Groups can either be clubs, such as the SGA, or student-made teams with a teacher willing to sponsor them. Each group will pick an assignment out of a list or make up their own that benefits the school. For example, a group may pick to polish the trophies or clean graffiti off the bathroom stalls. Not everybody has to participate; it’s simply a choice out of other alternatives.

Mrs. Katie Mays and her SGA group have willingly joined in the fun. The SGA group includes member such as Lorrie Ailstock, Shannon Mellon, Cortez Anderson, Skylar Hedrick, and others. For Giant Pride Day, the SGA group will be painting motivational quotes around the school.

“We want kids to see everyday what it means to be a Giant,” said Mays.

Other groups are participating, such as Mrs. Candace Donnelly and the FCCLA. They will be picking up trash around the front and back of the school as a way to “make [the] school look better,” said Donnelly. In addition, Donnelly’s group will also be making individual luncheon favors for the teacher luncheon on June 7.

“If the teachers are happy, the students are happier,” said Donnelly.

Donnelly said the purpose of this activity was to “appreciate each other.” Both activities that Donnelly’s group will be participating in will be of no cost.

For more information on Giant Pride Day, you can visit Giant Pride.

By: Chris Campaigne, Reporter and Faryal Zubair, Editor-In-Chief

As students flocked from table to table, they realized the truth about life; it’s not cheap. Monday started a week long event sponsored by the Virginia Cooperative Extension called the “Reality Store.” In this virtual store, students are given a job, marital status, and offspring. They are expected to use their income to support themselves in real life matters.

Tables were set up in the old gymnasium for students to visit. First, students had to visit “Uncle Sam” to pay the necessary taxes based on their incomes. Next, they had to go from table to table to purchase life necessities such as means of transportation, food, housing, utilities, electronics, clothing, etc.

Cristin Sprenger, who helps creates this experience in high schools across Virginia referred to the store as an “opportunity for students to get an idea of the real world and costs.”  Sprenger said that Ms. Marsha Sensabaugh first heard about the idea a year ago. Sensabaugh then contacted Sprenger to get the ball rolling.

Volunteers from the community helped man the tables and made the students understand the reality about life. They taught them that as people enter their adult life, they have to overcome financial burdens while managing family life.