Pepperbox Issue 5

In the BoxMore Budget Cuts �� 3STAR Testing �� 4Intercom �� 5New Bells �� 5Will Kauffman �� 6New ASB Officers �� 7News Briefs �� 8-9Savanna Nickols Wins Nationals �� 10-11Powderpuff �� 12Dodgeball �� 13Winter Sports Wrap �� 14Hunger Games Review �� 15Living With Learning Disabilities �� 16Transients�� 17Taylor Bennion’s Rants �� 18Slackers �� 19Fraternities �� 19Spring Week Schedule �� 20

Box BriefsAprilSpring Week, April 2-6Powderpuff Game, April 5School Board Meeting, April 17STAR Testing, April 23-May 4Sophomore Dance, April 27Madrigal Recital and Fundraiser, April 28Circle A Nominations Out, April 30

MayClass Elections, May 4ACT Registration Deadline, May 4AP Tests, May 7-17

Toby Shao, Editor-in-Chief Nadia Al-Yagout, Managing Editor

Colin Swenson, Art Director Hannah Luu, Photo Manager

Kimber Peterson, Graphics Editor

Forrest Lewis, News EditorFelicia Watson, Feature EditorFrancis Zierer, Opinion EditorElaine Cunha, Sports Editor

Nirvana BegovicTaylor Bennion Kasey CatherAnnie Ewald

Shea Hamilton

Lily HebertWill Kauffman

Billy MillerPetey LevesqueVictoria Moroni

Michael ScofieldKaylee Steiner-Olson

Brian ThenZoe Tinseth

Carter Wright

AdvisorDanielle Lehman

The Pepperbox would like to thank Western Web, based in Samoa, for printing at-cost�� Western Web supports student journalism throughout Humboldt County and has made publications like the Pepperbox possible for decades�� We appreciate their dedication to keeping print media alive!

Web TeamKim-Thu Pham, Online Editor

Kristyn Payne, Online Director

Reporters

Editors

UC tuition

EDU-CUT-TION Less funding for education, from kindergarten to college, and how it’s going to affect you

Kim-Thu PhamOnline Editor

NEWS The PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 3

Pink Slips Over 20,000 pink slips, notices of potential layoffs for teachers, were distributed to K-12 teachers state-wide on March 15, 2012. The num-ber of pink slips sent out in a district depended on how grave its financial situation was. In the Northern Humboldt High School District only four pink slips were sent out, down from 22 last year (luckily, only four employ-ees out of the 22 were laid off last year). “We moved registration up this year for a more accurate picture of enrollment,” explained Princi-pal Navarre. Teachers are laid off when enrollment in classes is low, and the administration was able to avoid sending out several pink slips because they had a better idea of how many students AHS would have next year. Additionally, the district budgeted for the worst fi-nancial situation possible last year and actually sustained minimal fi-nancial damage when Governor Jerry Brown released his education budget for 2012. Humboldt is fortunate compared to the rest of the state, where thou-sands of teachers currently face potential unemployment and won’t know their district’s final decisions

until May 15. After May 15, districts can rescind pink slips but cannot is-sue any more-- people chose to take the safest route by issuing plenty of pink slips. But the financial security comes at the cost of quality teach-ing. Pink slips don’t just threaten teachers’ job security, they create often unncessary stress and anxiety. The pink slip process forces teach-ers into two months of employment limbo- they have to begin seeking employment in case they are laid off and have less time to focus on their students which further dam-ages educational quality.

Losses for community col-leges, CSUs, and UCs State funding for community col-lege has been cut by $564 million this year which has resulted in in-creased class sizes and a 20% re-duction class offerings. At the same time, California State Universities are reducing their en-rollment by almost 25,000 by clos-ing down spring admissions on most campuses. This means that community college students will have less of a chance to transfer into the CSU system, which is already sufferig from financial difficulties. When students cannot transfer into CSUs, they stay in the community colleges for another semester and block

access for graduating high school students. Over the past four years, the CSU system has lost $1 billion in funding and 3,000 employees. According to Robert Turnage, the CSU assistant vice chancellor for the budget, the CSU system, “will be at the same level of state funding as 1996, but serving 90,000 more students.” According to a 2011 budget re-potr from the University of Califor-nia, state funding for UCs “is be-low 1998 funding levels, when UC had 75,000 fewer students than the 237,000 it does today.”

A shred of hope? Brown’s November ballot initiative In the coming November elec-tion, voters will choose whether or not to support education. Governor Brown’s proposed ballot initiative would allow schools to be funded at the levels established by Prop 98, which guarantees that 40% of the state general funds will go to edu-cation. The money will come from a one to two percent tax increase on households earning over $500,000 per year which would be in effect for the next five years.

If the initiative does not pass in November, districts statewide will see a $370 funding reduction per student and may lose up to 15 days of instruction while CSUs will face up to $200 million in additional cuts. The California Teacher’s As-sociation President Dean E. Vogel said, “CTA is supporting the gover-nor’s initiative so that we can begin to deal with the state budget deficit responsibly while we increase fund-ing for our schools and colleges.”“As much as we would like to, we couldn’t pass an initiative solving everything at once,” explained Ms. Moore, AHS English teacher, “but the budget is getting better.” California is currently ranked 47th in the nation for public education funding, which has suffered four consecutive years of cuts. Accord-ing to EdSource, one in eight public school students in the United States attend school in California. In such poor fiscal conditions, the prospects of high-quality education for Cali-fornia’s students are dimming.

UC tuition costs have nearly doubled since

2007.

CSU tuition costs have tripled since 2007.

K-12 funding has dropped con-sistenly in the past four years.

UC tuition

CSU tuition

K-12 funding

(Note: graphs not drawn to scale)

“STAR”ring THRIVEKristyn Payne

Online Editor

FREE SAT PREP WORKSHOP

Want to find out what the SAT is like?

Taking the SAT for the first time on June 2nd?

Maybe you’re taking it a second time and want to improve your score?

Arcata High will hold a Free, 15-hour SAT Preparation Workshop during the second half of May.

Space is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Dates & times to be determined, but will include two

Saturdays as well as after-school times.

There is a deposit of $25.00, fully refundable upon completion of the workshop.

The Career & College Center

Or

Your Counselor’s Office

“It’ll be interesting to see how it works out ; it’s been a crazy ride so far��”

--THRIVE mentor and math teacher Kay Wozniak

NEWStuesday, april 3, 2012

page 4 The PB

STAR testing is just around the corner and, thanks to THRIVE, these standardized tests now have an impact directly on teachers. The perfor-mance of students on this year’s STAR exams will influence the teachers’ ability to receive a THRIVE incentive bonus. STAR testing will begin for freshmen through juniors on Monday, April 23 and continue until Friday, May 4. The state requires the school to improve test scores each year with the goal of having every student reach the proficient or ad-vanced level. With the Performance Based Com-pensation System of THRIVE, the percentage of students who improve on this year’s STAR exam compared to their score on last year’s exam will make up 30% of a teacher’s “overall effec-tiveness score.” As a part of THRIVE, teachers are evaluated on several components for Performance Based Com-pensation: student STAR test improvement (CST), student improvement between pre-tests and post-tests (Local Assessments), and four observations conducted throughout the school year (Collegial Observation.) However, STAR test results will only affect CST teachers (those who teach STAR exam subjects such as Math, English, History, and Sciences.) While Non-CST teachers, such as in Health and Computer Science, do not receive STAR tests and therefore are solely evaluated on Local Assess-ments and Collegial Observation. “I really think CST teachers have a lesser chance of receiving the pay bump,” said senior Jake Ben-sonmeyer, “I mean the non-CST teachers don’t even have to worry about STAR tests.” For each CST class, the percentage of students who stay at the same level or score higher on this year’s STAR exam will factor into the Perfor-mance Based Compensation System CST student growth matrix and be used to calculate an Overall Average CST Teacher Effectiveness Score. “It’ll be interesting to see how it works out,” said THRIVE mentor Kay Wozniak, “It’s been a crazy ride so far.”

NEWS page 5tuesday, april 3, 2012

The PB

Imagine yourself sitting in the classroom. It has been an aver-age school day so far, and nothing is amiss. As your teacher lectures about the day’s topic, the emergency bell rings, and everyone is instantly alert and looking toward the sheet of paper up in every classroom that deciphers the different bell codes for emergency situations. Only one thing sets the room into confusion; which code is it? It sounds like an earthquake drill, but then again it also sounds like a lockdown. So which one is it? With the new inter-coms that have been installed into the classrooms, this is a situation that will be easily avoided. “The old bells got confusing,”

Tahnia Campbell, Dean of Students at AHS, said on the system for alert-ing classes of an emergency. With the new intercom system each emer-gency will be given a distinct chime. Even better, the administration will be able to communicate with every class during an emergency to give specifics on the type of crisis that is facing the school. This means no more confusion. Along with serving as a more dis-tinct alert system during a crisis, the intercoms will also serve other pur-poses. “We’ll have more control,” Dave Navarre, Principal at AHS, said, “The system will allow for a simple and effective form of com-munication between the office and each classroom.” One form of com-munication being considered is for the morning bulletin to be read to

all classrooms simultaneously each morning—eliminating the chance of missing important information if a student’s first period teacher does not already do so. There will also be clean up bells that ring at different times in classes that need certain amounts of time for their end-of-class clean up. For example, if one class needs five minutes for clean up time at the end of the period, and another needs seven, then each classroom can get a bell that rings at that set time. “It’s a great idea,” Earl Peters, science teacher at AHS, said, “I look forward to utilizing it.” The intercom system came with the new clocks that are now in-stalled in the classrooms as well, and by being connected through the school’s I.P. address, will be able to assure that each clock through-

out the school is consistent with the time that it reads. However, there is a double-edged sword that comes with the new system: the phone sys-tem will have to be replaced. Fortu-nately, this will be done by the end of May. Besides this, there are very few, if any drawbacks, “We want to limit the number of disruptions to class,” Geri Wood, Assistant Prin-cipal, said. “The only disruptions should be for really important information that needs to be communicated im-mediately,” Campbell said. As to when the new intercom and clock combo will be completely ready for use, students can expect to have them up and running by April 28th and with them a new chapter in Arcata High School’s amenities.

Arcata High loses “no bell” prizeCarter Wright

Reporter

The new bell sounds like a:hospital

“It gives me PTSD from be-ing in the hospital.” - Sage Fanucchi

“It sounds like someone is dying, like a heart flat lin-ing.” –Gillen Martin

“Sound like...uhh... like... when someone’s dead.” –Geena Damian

“It sounds like the person next to me died.” –Julian Monahan

prison“If I was in a prison and there was a lockdown, that would be the sound I’d hear.” - Brandon Thompson

“It sounds like roll call for prisons.” - Billy Miller

“It reminds me of the pris-on cells opening and clos-ing.” - Pearse Narum

“It sounds like ‘lights off’.” - Samantha Harmon

good thing“It has a potential to be a great useful system. We are just fine tuning it. It’s going to get better.” – Dave Navarre

“I like them better than the old ones, I hated the old clocks and bells. The tone is alright.” – David Filippini

“Oh, they’re fine, kind of sounds like a blue light special.” – Michelle Anderson

bad thing“I hate that bell. I hate it. It ruins my day.” - Mr. Peters

“I’ve never heard anything like it. It’s not a bell.” - Ryan Ertman

“It sucks.” - Taylor Bennion

“It’s obnoxious and way too loud.” - Andrew Anderson

“Glad we have the bells back; tone has got to go.” – Marie Henson“I can think of a more pleasant sound.” – Doug Johnson


page 6

Kauffman awarded at “Young Entre-preneurship Business Challenge” Will Kauffman walked home on Thursday, March 22 with a $5,000 grant from the “Young Entrepreneur Business Challenge.” He hopes that this award will help him kick off his business career in woodworking. Will worked for three months writ-ing a business proposal explaining his future operations and how he was going to use the $5,000 for his business over the next three years. Kauffman made an elevator pitch video and researched all the legalities of opening and running a business. “It’s like if you stepped in elevator, and you had to explain to some-one your business plan, they are convinced to be your customer at the end of two minutes.” Once the judges had narrowed it down to three people, Kauff-man and the two other

remaining entrepreneurs each had to present a 5 minute PowerPoint pre-sentation to a judge panel accom-panied by an audience of over 100 people. The presentations described their knowledge of business. “It was really hard work,” Kauffman said. Since junior year, Will has had his business set in his mind. “After I get far enough along with my wood-working business, I want to start taking classes on metal shop and

sewing,” Kauffman said, “I want to give back to people. It doesn’t seem fair that all this should come to me without me giving something back.”

Will started wood-working in his

woodshop class and bought a few tools from Arcata High woodshop teacher Mr. Williams. One of Will’s goals with his business is to make unique, sturdy furniture for people that will be better and cheaper than the tables and chairs found in retail stores, all the while working on a

personal level with the customers to meet their unique requests. Winning this contest was an awe-some achievement for Will, and an inspiration to his fellow students. He showed that you can success-fully create a sturdy foundation for your future at a young age.

Michael Scofield Reporter

Senior Will Kauffman proudly displays his $5,000 check.

Photo courtesy of Will KauffmanZoe Tinseth/PEPPERBOX

NEWS page 7tuesday, april 3, 2012

The PB

New Associated Student Body officers

President Vice President Treasurer SecretaryDay Robins is currently the Junior Class Secretary. She is on the Varsity soccer, basket-ball, and track teams. Day is President of the Green Club on campus. She plans on mak-ing changes next year based on student recommendations, so if you have an idea, bring it to room 213!

Forrest Lewis is currently the Junior Class President. He has served as Sophomore Class President and Freshman Vice President and is on the Varsity soccer and tennis teams. Next year he plans on having more club fairs and advocating clubs to incoming freshmen.

Elaine Cunha is currently the Junior Class Treasurer. She is on the Varsity soccer, bas-ketball, and track teams, and is the Sports Editor of The Pepperbox. Elaine works in the student store and plans on utilizing her money managing skills to keep track of the ASB budget.

Kaitlan Tatro was a Leader-ship commissioner sophomore year. She is on the Varsity ten-nis team and an active member of the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society. Next year she plans on taking efficient notes and planning an awesome homecoming.

Zoe Tinseth/PEPPERBOX

After many e-mails and phone calls, Humboldt State University agreed to let Arcata High School’s graduation be held at the Redwood Bowl. “Burt Nordstrom, Vice President of Administrative Affairs, worked with Northern Humboldt Union High School District to invite the local high schools back to HSU for graduation,” HSU admissions counselor, Romi Hitchcock-Tins-eth explained. “It’s a nice way for Humboldt to showcase their school,” Arcata High School’s nurse, Norma Wat-

son commented. There was a blan-ket “yay” from the senior class. “It will be more convenient for most people, but parking may be difficult,” senior Mahalya Camp said. Overall, most everyone in the community is thrilled.

Graduation moves to HSU Petey Levesque

Reporter

Hannah Luu/ PEPPERBOX


page 8

“I picked ‘Little Shop’ because I liked the music and the edgy writing. The cast has made it a singular experience. They have been interdependent and supportive of each other, so it’s

kind of bittersweet that it’s closing night.”

- Josh Arbaugh , director of Arcata High’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” on closing night of

the school play

Come support Safe and Sober

Arcata High School Safe and Sober is having many upcoming fundrais-ing events in the next two months. On Friday, April 19th there will be a Backyard Barbeque dinner in the Sapphire Palace at the Blue Lake Casino. The dinner will have bar-bequed Tri-Tip, hamburgers, hot-dogs, vegetarian lasagna and many other side dishes. The dinner also features silent and live auctions and a wine pull. Both auctions will be showcasing items from local busi-nesses. This dinner is available with presale tickets only so make sure you pick them up before the event sells out. Tickets are $25 each or $200 for an eight person table. Each ticket also includes $10 of slot play at the casino for attendees over 21. For more information, call Kris-ti Puzz at (707) 499-3606.

Safe and Sober is also hosting a Mother’s Day fashion show. The Annual Senior Fashion Show will be held on Sunday, May 13th from 1:30 to 4 pm at the Arcata Commu-nity Center. All of the clothes will be provided by local businesses. There will also be a silent auction and delicious food. Bring your Mother, Grandmother or Mother

them feel extra special. Tickets are $15 for adults, $7 for Seniors and Students. Tickets may be pur-chased presale or at the door. For more information, call Jerryl Lynn Rubin and (707) 825-8495. To purchase tickets for both of these events, or to donate to Arcata High Safe and Sober mail payment to AHS Safe and Sober Class of 2012 1720 M Street Arcata, CA 95521.

Kimber PetersonGraphics Editor

Come support Safe and Sober

NEWS page 9 tuesday, april 3, 2012

The PB

Job Shadow is an excellent program that Arcata High offers for juniors and seniors. It allows students to glimpse possible future careers in a fun manner. Students can participate in a wide variety of jobs ranging from a psychia-trist, fireman, botanist, Fish and Game, radio DJ, interior design, dentist, EMT, and more. Basically, a student gets to shadow their chosen profession for four hours and get a feel on the job. Senior Jimmy Luchessi shadowed

at Fish and Game and told Pepperbox, “It felt good to see some live action wilderness justice.” Miranda Shapiro also enjoyed her experience shad-owing Dr. Tucker DDS because she got to wear scrubs. Gwyn Caughey was really grateful for her opportunity to shadow a firefighter. She told reporters, “It was really exciting and I learned a lot. You have to be really strong to run around in a 75 lb suit all day.” Job Shadow allows for a realistic look into your future and helps you decide what career is best for you.

It’s dark in the MPR, and crowded with teen bodies: whispering, texting and wait-ing with anticipation for the show to start. It’s the annual Spare Change performance, and this year almost the whole school is in the audience. Spare Change is a student theatre troupe that tours local schools using peers-teach-ing-peers methods to inform teens about sex ed. Their collection of skits provides information to students in a neat package: facts infused with pop culture references and popular music. The subject matter of Spare Change’s per-formances is often controversial, which in past years led to permission slips being sent home for students to be allowed to attend. This year, the default was for the whole school to go, and only students whose par-ents signed an ‘opt out’ form didn’t go. The majority of the show wasn’t all funny sex ed skits like the troupe is known for, added to the program were serious topics like teen suicide, cyber-bullying, and men-tal illness. “Tragedy skits add balance to the show,” Sonja Goetsch-Avila, AHS senior and Spare Change member, said, “com-edy is preferreda.” Norma Watson, school nurse, helped decide which skits would be shown at AHS. “We chose issues that we wanted to address at school,” Watson said, “to let students know that we understand.” The faculty sees Spare Change as a way of showing students that there are ways to seek help, and to en-courage students to learn how to recognize and help their peers’ problems. “The program is amazing, and it’s unique to our area,” Goetsch-Avila said, “I hope that through community involvement that it

can get bigger - spreading across California and into other states.”To see all of Spare Change’s skits, go to the end of the year Community Show on May 30th, 6:30 PM at the Arcata Playhouse.

Shea HamiltonReporter

Spare some time to change your mind

“Man, I am tanked��”

--AHS history teacher Doug Johnson after being the last

man standing on the staff dodgeball team at the Spring Week kick off assembly last Friday

For more information on the dodgeball tour-nament, see page 13.

Another successful job shadow day for AHS studentsHannah Luu

Photo Manager

Toby Shao/PEPPERBOX

Savanna Nickols: National champion

When asked what she does dur-ing her off season from wrestling, Savanna Nickols answered: “What off season?” Nickols epitomizes the slogan: “Hard work and persever-ance pay off.” It may sound cliché, but it all makes sense after sitting down and conversing with Savanna Nickols. On 24-25 March, 2012, the seventeen-year-old senior placed first in her weight class at the USA Wrestling Girls Folkstyle Junior Nationals in Oklahoma City. After twelve years of rigorous training, Nickols proved herself to be Ameri-ca’s number one female wrestler.

Rise to the top: Most children wrestle for fun. When Nickols was a child, she wrestled competitively. Starting at age five, Nickols took to the mats to continue the legacy of her older sibling, a four-year wrestler for Ar-cata High School. “When I was little I guess I just wanted to wrestle because my brother did and it was like, ‘Oh this looks fun,’” Nickols recalled. “I still didn’t want to lose, but it wasn’t nearly as intense.” Her father was apprehensive about sign-ing her up for wrestling at such an early age. “My dad didn’t want me to wrestle but my mom weighed me in anyways. He was furious.” Nick-ols easily won her first match, and began a lifetime of training. She would go to her brothers wrestling

practices and watch, doing pushups and sit-ups on the sidelines of the mat.Nickols wrestled her way through elementary school, seldom losing a match, even against boys. “There were definitely a few boys who quit because they were tired of losing to a girl,” Nickols recalled. “First off, you don’t want to wrestle a girl, because if you beat them its like ‘oh cool you beat a girl,’ but if you lose, it’s like ‘wow, you just lost to a girl.’” When Nickols entered high school, she did not hesitate to join the wres-tling team. Over four years, she wrestled for the varsity team, plac-ing first every year in the North Coast Section, and accumulating 151 wins and 16 losses. Nickols was given the Arcata High School First Year Wrestling Award fresh-man year succeeded by the Most

Outstanding Wrestler Award for the next three years. Her freshman year she placed 2nd in state and was se-lected to be on the national team. Her performance earned her rec-ognition as All American, an honor given to only the top eight wrestlers in the nation. She set the bar high, and continued to exceed expecta-tions for the next three years. Her sophomore year, she placed 2nd in state and her junior year she placed 3rd in state and advanced to the na-tional tournament for the first time. There, she impressed everyone with a 2nd place finish, losing by a few points to the current college nation-al champion.

The test: Finally, her senior year arrived and she put to test the twelve years of practice all building up to this season. “I was improving every year but I think this year I really excelled” Nickols said. “I spent months training on tiny details, per-fecting my technique, fixing any weaknesses.” This was evident in her undefeated season, in which she pinned every one of her 28 op-ponents en route to her fourth con-secutive North Coast Section vic-tory. But in the state championship, Nickols met her match, and ended up losing by a small margin. She could have given up right then.

Forrest LewisNews Editor

Nickols holding her championship bracket and 1st place medal.Photo Courtesy of Savanna Nickols

Savanna poses after her first place win in a tournament of all boys.Photo Courtesy of Savanna Nickols

Savanna Nickols pos-ing for wrestling pic-tures throughout her life. From left to right: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011.

Photos courtesy of Sa-vanna Nickols

Savanna Nickols: National championShe could have called it quits and ended her wrestling career. “I hate losing,” Nickols said. “When you train so hard for something and don’t succeed it is one of the worst feelings. You want to see your hard work pays off, and you can get dis-couraged. But you keep doing your best and hopefully you eventually become the best.” Nickols became the best. For the next several weeks, she prepared for the USA Wrestling Girls Folkstyle Junior Nationals. “I would get up in the morning and run five miles before school,” Nick-ols said. “After school I would go to a gym and train. Then I would have one-on-one drilling practice with my two coaches. During wrestling season it’s school, practice, home-work, sleep.” And true to her mot-to, the hard work and perseverance paid off. The end result? Nickols swept through nationals with ease, pinning every opponent without a single point scored against her. In the final match, she was up by a score of 9 to 0 and then pinned her opponent in an arm bar in the third minute.

The future:After being welcomed at the airport by friends and family, Nickols’ re-

turned to classes at Arcata High as if nothing had changed. Due to her extremely modest attitude, some of her teachers and classmates were unaware of Nickols’ National wres-tling feat. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t even know she was a wrestler until she won nationals last week-end,” Eric Volmers, Nickols’ eco-nomics teacher stated. Winning Nationals is not the end of Nickol’s remarkable wrestling career. “In mid-May I have world qualifiers in Florida against college girls,” said Nickols. “Only the top two placers go on to Worlds. I’m gonna go for it. I want to win.” After being contacted by nearly every girls wrestling school in the nation, Savanna Nickols decided to attend Simon Frasier University in British Columbia next fall. She was

awarded a full scholarship based partially on academic merit and

partially on her athleticism. At the number two ranked girls wrestling school in North America, Nickols hopes to continue her incredible

winning-streak, and eventually at-tain her dream, wrestling in the

2016 Olympics. In the meantime, Nickols is con-tinuing her “school, practice, home-work, sleep” schedule, with the ad-

dition of one extracurricular. She is currently practicing for the Arcata High School powderpuff game (ju-niors beware). “I’m excited. It’s gonna be fun,” Nickols said. “I don’t really want to tackle people that hard though.” This politeness stems back to her modest and re-laxed attitude, characteristics that her coaches are encouraging her to change before the world qualifiers. “All my coaches say I need to be more aggressive and angry when I wrestle,” Nickols said. “I just win with technique. They want me to be more aggressive and try to slam their face in the mat; try to knock them out.”

“When you train so hard for something and don’t succeed it is one of the worst feelings. You want to see your hard work pays off, and you can get discouraged. But you keep doing your best and hope-fully you eventually become the best.”

--National Wrestling ChampionSavanna Nickols

Savanna Nickols pos-ing for wrestling pic-tures throughout her life. From left to right: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010, 2011.

Photos courtesy of Sa-vanna Nickols

Nickols in her bedroom surrounded by trophies and medalsColin Swenson/PEPPERBOX

SPORTS The PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 12

Powderpuff 2012: May the best team win Football is a sport loved all over the US. People just cannot get enough of it. Once a year, Arcata High School has a legendary foot-ball game: an all girls game, juniors versus seniors. It is the time of the year when grades 11 and 12 become rivals, when girls get serious about playing football and playing it well. It is powderpuff. In late March, you can feel the tension in the air, junior and senior girls are getting competi-tive all over the school. Powderpuff is not just one silly football game; it is THE game. Each powderpuff team has two or three boy coaches who are in the same grade as the rest of the team. Most of the coaches have previous football experience and take their coaching very seriously. “I am try-ing to take football to the next level,” Alex Puzz, coach of the “Sparkling Seniors,” stated, “I’m using what my coaches taught me but putting my own spin on it. I try to provide my players with tackling fuel.” Puzz speaks of tackling, but the reality of powderpuff is that it is a flag football game (no tackling al-

lowed). Many players have com-plaints about this rule, including se-nior Rebecca Smith. “I would much rather have powderpuff be tackle football,” Smith said., “The fact that it’s flag football doesn’t stop the team from practicing tackling at practices.” Fellow teammate Ryley Tauzer takes a different approach. “Flag football is tackle football,” she said. The Sparkling Seniors hold prac-tices five times a week, two hours a day for a span of two weeks. Prac-tices consist of scrimmages, drills, and running exercises. The coaches expect the best from their teams and are the ones who choose po-sitions for each team member and create plays for game day. Most coaches are very competitive about the game. “I am pretty competi-tive,” Chad Blickenstaff, coach of the “Gypsy Juniors,” said, “Losing isn’t an option.” Girls on the powderpuff teams put their all into preparing for the big game. Senior players Smith, Tauzer, and Faviana Schectman are going beyond the two-hour practic-es to train. They have been making regular trips to the gym for weight

lifting and wrestling practices, hoping that some extra muscle will lead the Sparkling Se-niors to victory. They have also added pro-tein shakes into their diets and are trying to refrain from junk food before the game. “We have dedication to the sport,” Tauzer said, “We started practicing two months ago.” Despite the senior girls’ extra prepara-tion, juniors Molly Salamunovich, Megan

Vina, and Day Robins are very con-fident in their team. “We don’t have any competition other than the mud on the ground,” they stated, “We are very confident that we can take the senior team down.”But Puzz showed great confidence in his team. “I am pretty confident that we will win,” he said. “I mean, the girls were tackling each other before practice even started.” Tau-zer believes the senior team will be victorious as well. “Our team is un-defeatable,” she said. A win would mean a lot to many people. “A win will mean every-thing to me,” said Christen, “It’s senior year so we should carry on the tradition of seniors winning.” A win does not mean much to Tauzer though; even though she is confident that they will win. “We don’t really care about the win, we care about the kill,” said Tauzer viciously, “If we don’t make at least six junior girls cry, we won’t be satisfied.” The girls and the coaches become competitive and are absolutely ex-pecting to win. Juniors Robins, Salamunovich, and Vina are very sure of their team and their skills. “We are just good at everything so that’s what’s going to help us win,”

said the girls. Junior and senior girls choose the names on the back of their jer-seys to intimidate the junior team. Smith chose “R-Thunder” on the back of her jersey and Tauzer chose “Ryclops.” Though both teams are bursting in confidence and working hard to prepare we will not know which team is truly better until the official powderpuff game on April 6th, 2012. May the best team win.

The “Sparkling Seniors” practice five times a week, two hours a day.Hannah Luu/PEPPERBOX

Hannah Luu/PEPPERBOX

Ryley Tauzer, aka “Ryclops”

Zoe TinsethReporter

Senior powderpuff girls pose intimidatingly.Hannah Luu/PEPPERBOX

Dodge, dive, dip, duck, and… dodge. To most, these words are merely the “rules of the game” from the infamous film “Dodgeball,” but for the few rugged individuals who revere this game as a lifestyle and possibly a religion, these words are instilled deep in their hearts and minds as the only rules of life. You may think I am crazy for talking about dodgeball as such a serious lifestyle, but I dare you to approach one of these few soldiers and tell them they are crazy. See how long it takes you to receive a fresh, red dodge ball to the face. I felt so alone in the world until

Spring Week 2011, and I heard of a “dodgeball competition” that was going to be held at lunch on the ten-nis courts. So that is when a few friends and I put together the infa-mous Handy squad. The talent was there but we needed practice, so with only a week to prepare, practice we did. We woke up at approximately 6:23 a.m. every morning to start our day with a protein shake consisting of expired milk (to build character), two raw eggs (for determination), and thumbtacks (for taste). An ex-cruciating hour workout followed where we ran laps, hit the gym, and ran across a high traffic freeway to practice our dodging. When the big day arrived and we were more ready

than we would ever be, teammate Trevon Davis said, “We couldn’t lose, too much determination done.” Team after team, we rose above the rest proving that if you live by the five D’s you can accomplish any-thing in life. You may be aware that Spring Week 2012 is ap-proaching, and with that comes d o d g e b a l l . Many teams of eight have signed up to compete in this extreme event to try and take the throne of our new and im-proved Rammp-

tor squad. Raph Thompson, another pure force of our team states, “I feel like Jesus returning.” He also said that he has developed a new train-ing motto for the team to live by, which is “live like Canning.”

Spring Week DodgeballSPORTS page 13

tuesday, april 3, 2012The PB

Will KauffmanReporter

New and improved “Rammptor” squadZoe Tinseth/PEPPERBOX

SPORTS The PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 14

Winter sports wrap-up and awards

WrestlingMost Outstanding: Savanna Nickols

Most Inspirational: Michael Lefuel

Best First Year: Jake Navarre

Most Improved: Sophie Lefuel

Elaine CunhaSports Editor

Freshmen: 2nd in leagueMost Valuable Player: Ben Albright

Most Inspirational: Russ Taylor

Most Improved: Caleb Morin

JV: 2nd in leagueMost Valuable Player: Braden Nickols

Most Inspirational: Chad Blickenstaff & Quinn Rice

Most Improved: Errol Funk

Freshmen: 1st in leagueMost Valuable Player: Petra Foget

Most Inspirational: Madeline Nutter

Most Improved: Morgan Brown

Junior Varsity: 2nd in leagueMost Valuable Player: Abigail Puzz

Most Inspirational: Margaux Karp

Most Improved: Alix Flint

Colin Swenson/PEPPERBOXMatt Gulley, most improved of the boys’ varsity basketball team

Megan Viña, MVP of the girls’ varsity basketball teamPhoto Courtesy of Megan Vina

Varsity: 2nd in league1st round of NCS Playoffs

Most Valuable Player: Megan Viña

Most Inspirational: Ashley Moore

Most Improved: Katerina Rocker Heppe

All-County: Lauren McCoy, Ashlynn Cox

Honorable Mention: Megan Viña

•

CheerleadingJunior Varsity:Most Valuable Player: Shelby Sobol

Most Inspirational: Shelby Jones and Faith Maciel

Most Improved: Chloe Maskill

Varsity: Most Valuable Player: Maci Moser

Most Inspirational: Felicia Watson

Most Improved: Kaitlyn Lackett

Varsity: 1st in leagueNiclai Tournament ChampionsRanked 2nd in NCS PlayoffsSemifinals in NorCal State Tournament

Most Valuable Player: Thomas Witzel

Most Inspirational: Jim Thomas

Most Improved: Matt Gulley

All-County: Thomas Witzel, Justin

Heidrick, Will Taylor

Honorable Mention: Hawken Ritter,

Cameron Wallace

•••

Boys’ BASKETBALL

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

The midnight premiere of “The Hunger Games” took place on Fri-day, March 23th. I was at the Mill Creek Cinema in McKinleyville, and when I arrived that night at 9:30, the lines were filled with crazed fans waiting to be let in.

I didn’t have many friends that read the novel, and yet so many teens came out to see the film. And then I began to wonder why are youth reacting to “The Hunger Games” in such a positive and supportive way? Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the series, they’re definitely one of my favorites of all time (in my 17 years of existence), but what makes these people relate to a story about teen-agers forced to violently kill each other in some dystopian world? The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a futuristic novel writ-ten from the perspective of Katniss Everdeen, the strong-willed and de-

termined protagonist who has very severe trust issues with anybody but her little sister, Primrose. Kat-niss volunteers to take Prim’s spot in the “Hunger Games” (a televised bloodbath where two tributes from each of the twelve districts fight to death in order to “thank” the Capi-tol for caring after them). Sponsors

send items to a tribute, such as wa-ter, food, or medicine, in order to keep them alive. So…people on TV sponsored by the media destroy each other. Sounds like every reality T.V. show I’ve seen recently. And when the concept of the games is put into perspective, the ideas aren’t so dif-ferent from the real world’s media. Collins relates the dystopia of The Hunger Games to today’s world, in which the games are being watched by all the citizens of the twelve dis-tricts; and the viewers thrive off of the thrill and excitement of the un-expected. The Head Gamemaster has workers who control the live

viewing, and can add or subtract factors that happen inside the arena, which could potentially change the outcome of the games. Collins relates this to reality shows that are being broadcasted in the media today, with the target audi-ence being youth who anticipate the next “tragic” event that could occur in a reality TV show. Throughout the novel, Collins of-fers criticism of mass media for warping the identities of the tributes fighting in the games. After Rue gets killed, Katniss cov-ers her with flowers and sings to her as she passes away. But the Capitol, which is directly linked to mass me-dia, doesn’t show Katniss caring for Rue as she passes, due to the lack of empathy and emotion one tribute is supposed to feel for another. These thematical ideas are ex-pressed through out the entire novel, where only certain events or actions are televised, while others are cut out and ignored, because it may change the audi-ence’s views on a certain tribute. The relation: the capitol equals mass media, the sponsors equal the viewers, and the tributes equal the cast. Collins’ symbol-ism may explain why the youth are so affected by the characters in this novel. While the film was less dis-appointing than many die-hard fans thought, it still lacked great intensity where it was needed. The two main flaws in the mov-ie were: the lack of passion be-tween Katniss and Peeta as well as the fast-forwarding relation-ship of Katniss and Rue. In the novel, Peeta and Katniss’s rela-tionship was much more empha-sized, leaving Katniss looking very selfish by the end, which wasn’t portrayed correctly in the

film. On another note, Katniss’s com-passion for Rue came from her love for Prim, and since they reminded her of each other, Katniss and Rue agreed to be allies. These were two important details in the story that the director needed to get across to the viewers, which could have linked a stronger relationship be-tween the audience and the charac-ters in the story. So were the direc-tor and screen writers aware of the high thematic level in the novel? The whole point Collins tries to convey in the novel is that media has too much control over what “re-ality” truly is. Therefore she dem-onstrates the Capitol editing what happens inside the arena. Ironically, the film director also decided to edit out important aspects of the novel.

Hunger Games: Hollywood movie or reality Nadia Al-Yagout

Managing Editor

These teens weren’t so happy when they were slaughtering each other on national television.

the hunger

games

Kimber Peterson/PEPPERBOX

A&EThe PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 15

Varsity: Most Valuable Player: Maci Moser

Most Inspirational: Felicia Watson

Most Improved: Kaitlyn Lackett

FEATURE The PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 16

After failing three classes the first semester of his freshman year, and being completely unable to fo-cus in his Tech class, Reid Kernen decided that it was time to figure out why he was having such a hard time in school. After vigorous tests that the school provided, it was determined that Reid had Atten-tion Deficit Hyper Disorder, more commonly referred to as ADHD. At first Reid was prescribed Ade-rol, the dosage was increased when it did not help his symptoms. After giving it time and patience, he de-

cided to stop taking the medication. “It made my personality less joy-ful, and I completely lost my ap-petite…my stomach always hurt,” said Reid while describing how the medicine affected him. While some feel that ADHD is a fake disorder, used to make excuses for certain behaviors, Reid feels that his symp-toms are very real. They affect his short term memory, his moods, and his ability to sit still. Reid described his symptoms as his mind being overwhelmed with thoughts, and

said that he is left inattentive while trying to sort through them. Reid said that it is very important for him to prioritize the things he needs to get done. He also mentioned that he is easily distracted by noise be-cause he can almost literally “hear everything” and the excess noise is so hard to filter though, that he is entirely consumed. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between the conversation he is having and someone else’s conversation on the other side of the room, or random

noises from further away. Though Reid keeps a very positive outlook he said that one frustrating aspect of his ADHD is that food can trigger his symptoms. If he eats too much sugar, has too much caffeine, or his blood sugar is low, his symptoms become very hard to manage. Reid said that kids with ADHD aren’t stupid, they’re just a different kind of person. “What in life is going to bring me down? Little stuff hap-pens, and then I’m over it in two seconds.”

Living with learning disabilities

Nirvana BegovicReporter

When I was in grade school, my teachers were always frustrated with me. I never understood direc-tions, and when it came to home-work… forget it! Literally, I’d forget it. Talking to other students with learning disabilities, I came to understand that I wasn’t the only one that had felt misunderstood ev-ery once in awhile. “Some teachers get irritated when you’re not learn-ing the material when all the oth-er students are. You can’t help it. You’re not doing anything wrong you just learn differently,” says ju-nior, Madelin LaBanca. In fact, to be in Core Support you have to be smart or even above average, but for some reason your grades don’t always match or prove it. That’s where the learning disability comes in. Trouble focusing, bad short term memory, mixing words up in your mind, trouble understanding direc-tions, whatever it is, we are not in-competent. I can recall the time be-fore knowing that I had a learning disability when all my teachers and

my parents thought I was simply lazy, but teachers didn’t understand that I didn’t understand! You, dear reader, have no idea the joy I felt in revisiting a teacher or two from my past whom had been particular-ly hard on me and telling them that actually I have a learning disabil-ity. Yeah. I’m not stupid, and yes I can make it through school. You weren’t so sure were you? In my freshman year, I would re-play my teacher’s directions inside of my head over and over again, because they didn’t make sense to me. There were many times where I thought I understood and was very proud of the fact but when I’d turn my paper in my teachers would say... ”What were you think-ing..this isn’t even the assignment” So I gave up. Nothing ever really clicked, so I had developed the bad habit of staring off into space during class, which I think is why teachers assumed I was lazy. Like any other

person I like having good grades, it’s not that I don’t care. Everything has to be perfect. I’m finally figur-ing out that turning something that isn’t perfect in rather than turning nothing in is better for your grade. I learned that the hard way. For some other students, however, there may not have been any sign of having a learning disability. “My friends and some teachers almost seemed shocked when they found out I had learning disabilities, and yet I still maintained good grades. Also, my teachers try to tell me that I’m smart enough to take tests in class, it’s not about smarts, it’s about my anxiety disorder,” Emily Hooven, junior at AHS, said. Our school system indi-vidualizes a study plan for each stu-dent because every kid is different. This has been formed after hours of testing each individual student’s strengths and weaknesses. So to the teachers, don’t stress out, we’ll ask for what we need. Just take an ex-

tra minute explaining to us or doing what it takes for us to understand what you’re talking about. We might be visual learners or we may need to see things drawn out. I’m not trying to tell you that you’re a bad teacher; I’m saying we need you to do this for us if you don’t al-ready know there are 75 kids on this campus are in Core Support. I am incredibly grateful that now I have a learning experience equal to that of the rest of the student body. The person sitting next to you in any AP class, or the star athlete, just might be in Core support, you never really know. Almost all Core students go to college; we’re no different than anybody else. For people that think we go to Core to “cheat” we may joke about it if it makes us feel, but in all honesty I need the extra help and many others could tell you the same. Everybody has struggles, this is one of mine.

Lily HebertReporter Anyone sitting next to you in an AP class, or any star athlete, just

might be in core support��

He is easily distracted by noise because he can almost literally “hear everything��”

Living with learning disabilities According the Department of Fi-nance, there are 404,914 transient or homeless people in California. There are also many misconcep-tions shrouding this group of peo-ple in our community. We set out to clarify the myths, venturing into the Arcata community to talk with these so called “travelers.” “They’re not always lazy, they just choose not to work,” said an anony-mous college student, “They sort of add to the community and haven’t bothered me in any way person-ally.” After a loop around the plaza we encountered a group of transients hanging out by the bars. One looked suspiciously too smiley not to ask to interview. Cory, a thirty-four-year-old man who departed from Ukiah, California ten years ago to embark upon his adventure, has a simple outlook on the aspects of traveling and travelers alike.

Even though there are some won-derful people roaming the streets, there are also very problematic as-pects to such a large transient com-munity in Humboldt. Homeless people drive away certain potential customers from local businesses while others thrive on the large number of homeless people by sell-ing cheap food to them. One such haven is Don’s Donuts, where you can buy a donut for loose change scrounged out of old clothes or off of fellow donut cravers. Rachel Biester, a California-based apartment complex owner, does not share the positive effects on her business as Don’s Donuts does. “My tenants have a big problem with the transients and homeless, especially around the Humboldt area,” Biester stated, “I’ve lost a lot of my Arcata-based income because of the home-less sleeping outside of my build-ings. My tenants will want me to lower the rent, or they’ll move to a less homeless populated neighbor-hood.” Biester owns complexes in San

Francisco as well, where the home-less situation is worse, but her busi-ness does better. “Either my tenants know what they’re getting into, or they can’t afford to move. There’s always a steady income coming from San Francisco,” said Biester. The environmental impact of tran-sients’ presence in this city cannot be ignored. Off the sides of roads and paths are many abandoned and occupied “campsites” where travel-ers sleep while in the area. Not only is this illegal, but it also generates a large amount of trash in the area and can even destroy the environ-ments where these “campsites” are set up. One lone traveler told us that he does his part to clean up and that “if you pick up enough recyclable items that people have left around, you can make enough to live.” Every transient that we interviewed claimed to have had a struggle with drugs at some point in their life ex-cept for one, and many of which

were still struggling with illegal substances. The one who claimed sobriety, a twenty-seven year old man named Jeffrey, gave us his view on drugs. “I’m high on life,” he said with a smile and a wink, “I can be happy without any of those icky drugs and stuff.” While it is easy to see why people shun transients to the degree that they do, there is also good in tran-sients. It just depends on the way one looks at it. There are people who want to reduce the presence of the transient community within our own community and there are also people who don’t even care about the situation at all. One can gain a certain happiness and optimism from constantly mov-ing and living through hardships. These are people just as we are. They are entitled to a certain amount of respect, good and bad aside, it’s the least we can give them.

FEATURE page 17tuesday, april 3, 2012

The PB

Q: What motivated you to travel?A: The good weather made me decide to start traveling. Also the people, meeting new people like you.Q: What do you do in your free time?A: I’m not happy to say this, but drinking.Q: What is your ultimate goal?A: To find a place to settle down and collect my knowl-edge. Happiness is where I’m at, I’m living a fulfilling life.Q: What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve encountered when travelling?A: The weather, man.

--interview with Cory

transient - noun�� - 1�� a rugged traveler finding their way��or 2�� a lazy scoundrel shirking their responsibility?

Sarah Fraga A&E Editor

Michael Scofield Reporter

Hannah Luu/PEPPERBOX

Transients, or “homeless” shown above, are not necessarily forced into their situation because of their lack of ability in the work force.

OPINION The PBtuesday, april 3, 2012

page 18

Growing up in Humboldt County, I have found myself surrounded by an intensely liberal social climate.My journey to becoming the person I am today began all the way back in the 1990’s when I was a small child. I would often find myself stranded at Reggae on the River, a music fes-tival, where my mother worked as backstage security. It was a most in-sidious meeting of filthy drug using social rejects that opted out to grow out dreadlocks and listen to obnox-ious music in the 90 degree weather while ingesting poisonous fungi.

The days were uncomfortably hot and at night these drug addled losers would stay up until dawn playing their bongo drums smoking hashish and sharing philosophical ideas. I felt alone in this world, their unreal-istic hopes of world peace and free munchies for everyone was sicken-ing to me. Unlike these individuals, I grew up hanging out with my uber conser-vative uncle watching Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. The people who requested I write this amorphous article gave me a vague

prompt that I should point out how I am unique from the norm of Humboldt County and how my political agenda which is non- existent is somehow unique. But the truth is that everyone from behind the redwood curtain is some kind of unique weirdo with their own quirks. The fact is that once you leave high school none of these minor differ-ences are relevant. As a community Humboldt County is incrediblydiverse, making categorization of individuals impossible and ridicu-

lous; this emerald triangle has been trapped in some twilight zone esque eternal summer of love. Where the rest of the civilized world has moved on, our community has em-braced some odd drug obsessed, tofu-munching, ultra-political, soci-ety which is so self centered that it believes itself to be more progres-sive than other less liberal places... like the south.

Reggae on River = dirty hippiesTaylor Bennion

Reporter

Every school year, seniors are faced with the

terrifyingly exciting graduation cer-emony where you put on a silly hat and receive a piece of paper saying “congratulations you’ve survived high school in one piece,” but at what cost? How much for the silly hat? Jostens, a mysterious corpora-tion which peddles out the ritualis-tic garb and jewelry, provides these things as well as school annuals for your friends to scribble crude pic-

tures and obscenities in. They pos-sibly have links to the illuminati and other shady government secrets that we aren’t supposed to know about. They might even be aliens, but that isn’t important because our daily dealings with extra ter-restrials isn’t something that should worry us. What should worry us is what they plan on doing with the excessive amounts of cash that they rake in every year from graduating

students. Well I found out through extensive moments of online re-search that if one were to purchase the ultimate graduation package with the free shorts, you would be dishing out $199 to potential aliens. All the other packages are in $150 range the cheapest being about $99. The yearbook comes in at $100, al-though it’s very possible that this is some dastardly alien plot. “It makes me freaking angry,” said senior Casandra Kress, who feels that she has been exploited by the aliens/se-cret government organization. Now my theory is that the fluoridation of water sources has contaminated the current gene pool making us dis-turbingly comfortable with being charged excessive amounts for non-essential goods, which I believe support an evil alien empire that will no doubt harvest our body fat as a means of supporting their space society. Or they are the govern-ment doing the same thing…. Ever watch soilent green, it’s made out of people. The bottom line is that it is completely up to you whether or not you choose to do business with Jostens. An alternative to funding aliens would be acquiring robes from people who have already pur-chased them.

Taylor mingling with the dirty hippies.Hannah Luu/PEPPERBOX

Jostens are aliens

“It makes me freaking angry��”

--AHS senior Casandra Kress, upon hearing

she was funding aliens

Francis Zierrer/ PEPPERBOX

OPINION page 19tuesday, april 3, 2012

The PB

Slacks: a rather comfortable category of pants. Slacking: a rather comfortable life-style. I am about to discuss the ups and downs of the latter—you worry about the ups and downs of your slacks. You see, I take slacking seriously. I rigorously train for not doing my work until I really have to quite often, by not doing my work until I really have to. Doing this proves to me that, truly, I don’t have to do my work until I really have to. When I do, it can be pep-pered with nuggets of information such as this one. This gives the work a more sub-stantial look and feel, while being in fact a façade behind which hides but a single plank holding it all up. But hey, as long as I get a good grade, it’s chill (Teachers, I do actually put a lot of effort into my work, it’s just condensed into less time. I am an efficient, well-oiled machine). Not doing work until I absolutely have to certainly does give me quite a bit of free time in which to “volunteer” and do other things which colleges need. I win on all accounts! Or at least, so it seems…Reader, I must admit, I have not yet told you the full truth. Like pop culture sym-bols “the Force,” and “the Moon,” there is a dark side to slacking. At times, like a devout Catholic, you will experi-ence that heavy, crushing guilt. Especially when it is late at night and your assignment is due the next morning…perhaps in first period, removing that possibility of doing your work in another class. At these times, the guilt has usually been building up slowly for a couple days,

and as you come to this late-night real-ization, it all hits you like an Acme anvil. While it does cause dangerously high lev-els of stress, this also is often what causes one to actually start and (eventually) com-plete the assignment.2:00 a.m.: bedtime (if you’ve a competi-tive streak, make a game out of it! Com-pete with your classmates to see who can get the most sleep and still get to school the next day. One point lost for every pe-riod missed before arrival). The terrible thing about going to bed post-slack sesh is that by then, one is often completely awake and is forced to lay there, eternally staring at the thin blackness of their eye-lids until the pillow finally takes them. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit, my personal record is rather unimpressive: I did Moore’s CD case assignment in Hon-ors English the night before, and was in bed by a paltry 3:00 a.m. I was young and tireless then, unencumbered by the burn-ing, passionate apathy of senior year and easily made it to first period, wide awake. Nowadays, when it starts to get that late…I won’t disclose any further personal in-formation; I might jeopardize my grades. But ah! I’ve spent way too much time on this. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t stop now, would it?

The question on every col-lege freshman’s mind: To rush or not to rush? Rush

week, which occurs at the beginning of each semester, is a time when every fraternity and sorority opens their doors to try to convince the students why they’re number one on cam-pus. They try to entice and bribe students with beverages, false promises, and free shirts. Many freshman go through rush week thinking that joining a sorority or fraternity will be the best choice they could make in college. More friends, more experiences, more parties…what could be better? Fraternities and sororities vary depending on the school one is attending. There are some that focus more on the aca-demic aspect of college and some that focus more on the so-cial aspect of college. Greek life is not all about partying and fun, there is much more work that goes into it. For example, many sponsor charity events and raise money for different organizations. These charity fund raisers often result in par-ties later in the evening, but the money raised still goes to a good cause. When joining a fraternity or sorority, one possesses knowl-edge on how to balance school, a social life, and sleep; they will be golden.I chatted with my bro, literally my brother about his experience. “I joined a fraternity to have a social life at UCSD that went further than just chillen in the dorms playing video games and being boring,” said Zach Ewald, a sophomore member of the TKE fraternity at UCSD. “At many schools, such as UCSD, joining a fraternity is a good way to get out of the dorm, explore the college and meet new people.” Joining TKE brought much more life and ex-citement to Ewald’s college experience. Surprisingly, grades are a very important part of being in a fraternity or sorority. At most higher level universities, one must maintain a certain GPA in order to be a part of Greek life. “There may be a correlation between joining a frater-nity and grades, but not enough cases have been looked at to judge whether or not they are related,” said Ewald. If one does not have the capability to balance school and social life, I would not advise them to risk it by joining Greek life. Being a part of Greek life really depends on how well the person can handle themselves and being around others. It is important to remember one thing; make your own decisions and don’t let others make them for you. Greek life can be fun and exciting, but is not for everyone.

Francis ZiererOpinion Editor

Annie EwaldReporter

Fraternizing: pros and cons

Slacking: Is it truly worth the pain?

My average Thursday night after a week of slacking.Colin Swenson/PEPPERBOX

SOMEPAJAMAS

SOME TIE DYE

TACKY TOURIST CLOTHES/DRESS AS

SOMEONESTWIN

ANIMAL PRINTor perhaps

CAMOFLAUGE YOUR

CLASS COLOR

(at lunch)

Tie DyeActivity

Tailgate Party&

Dodgeball Tournament

Free Barbeque &

Faculty Band

Egg Hunt

Senior Auction

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