”From a practical point of view, I think (the board) did a wonderful job. I don’t believe the (Observer) article represents what hap-pened in any way shape or form..

Watch out: Senior girl has a black belt, better stay on her good side. pg.10

Making a CD: Want to know how its done? Check out the cool ways to get your stuff on a CD. pg.3

Shh: GLOW students took a break at lunch on the Day of Silence pg. 6

Dexter High School2200N. Parker Road Dexter, MI 48130

April 28, 2005Volume XVI, Issue 8

Community members questions district’s honestyHillary McCown and Brandon Mayottecopy and image editor

New student press freedom bill waiting in education committee

Senator Michael Switalski in-troduced Senate Bill No. 156 to the Senate Education Committee on Feb. 3.

According to Michigan Inter-scholastic Press Association leg-islative chair Gloria Olman, the bill was created to prevent pub-lic school administrators from censoring student publications unless the content is obscene, de-famatory, advertises a product il-legal for minors or could disrupt the school day.

Journalism adviser Rod Sat-terthwaite said he supports the bill.

“The biggest problem is that administrators often misunder-stand what the bill says,” Sat-terthwaite said. “You can’t cen-sor something just because you don’t like it. “It has to be libel or obscenity. The bill will make that clearer to administrators.”

Olman said she too hopes the bill will pass so students can have the right to publish what they want.

“The bill protects students, ad-visers and anyone else who wants to use the First Amendment,” she said. “People need to understand and exercise their First Amend-ment rights, and this will help them do that.”

Sarah Craft editor in chief

“We’re so close to the end, but there’s one more issue left ... ahh, let it be over.”

In early Spring “The Community Observer,” a local news magazine, published an article titled “Fuzzy Math” accusing the Dexter school board of sloppy record keep-ing and digging the already troubled budget deeper into financial crisis.

The Observer introduced what they said are a plethora of budget and record problems in the district, including a $4.7 million hole in the record books, the destruction of over two truckloads of documents by former superin-tendent Bill Spargur, the holding of private school board meetings, unannounced to the public as is required by law and the issue of $63,332 to Spargur for “a few e-mails” after he retired.

According to the article, the district spent a total of $6.1 million in bond money on equipment, furniture and fixtures between 2000 and 2002, while keeping no inventory of its assets.

However, the latest audit, done on June of 2004, revealed only $1.4 mil-lion for the said purchases, leaving $4.7 million unaccounted for.

Spargur, however, says that he has no idea where The Observer got this figure.

“All funds in the bond were accounted for and ap-proved by the Board of Education,” he said. “The bond was audited every year with no discrepancies and a final audit completed at the end of the bond.”

But The Observer article said 100 items, including computers, video recorders, televisions and cameras are in currently unknown locations, which according to they, due to “haphazard” record keeping.

Board Treasurer Richard Lundy, however, said, “From a practical point of view, I think (the board) did a won-derful job.

“I don’t believe the (Observer) article represents what

happened in any way, shape or form.”The Observer also accuses the board of holding meet-

ings in private without posting notices of them in ad-vance.

Many of them were held at Zanzibar Restaurant in Ann Arbor, with only three board members, Spargur and a few others present.

Lundy said in The Observer article, “(We) did not want to be holding up construction to call a meeting of (the full board) to decide, when they were not actively involved.”

However, when interviewed by The Squall, Lundy said, “I don’t believe (the meetings) were private,” but that it was a “murky legal area” and said he couldn’t com-ment further.

As for the $63,332 given to Spargur, Superintendent Evelyn Shirk said the money was due to Spargur’s contract.

In June of 2003, Shirk said a group of board members created a Retirement/Separation Agreement that would allow for Spargur’s res-ignation to be accepted in Novem-ber 2003, with his last work day be-ing June 30 of that year.

“I was able to negotiate a retirement agreement that was satisfactory to myself and the board,” Spargur said about the Retirement/Seperation Agreement. “It was ap-proved (unanimously) in a public meeting.”

According to Shirk, “(Spargur’s original ) contract ran through the 2004-05 school year.

“According to the contract, if the board terminated the contract early, he would have been entitled to 15 month severance pay.”

Because of that, a choice had to be made to either pay Spargur the $63,332 or give him the severance pay which Shirk said would have been much more.

With budget cuts being dis-cussed for next school year, some parents are concerned about how cutting back on expenses will affect their children.

At the board of education meet-ing on March 21, parent Julie Stot-lar, whose daughter Lauren Stotlar was killed in a school bus accident five years ago, expressed her con-cerns.

Addressing the board, Stotlar made it clear that the school needs to have sufficient funding for the transportation department or offer none at all.

In the statement Stotlar gave to the Board, she said it was the way the transportation system was man-aged before current director Robert Poor that resulted in her daughter’s death.

A court document obtained from the National Coalition For School Bus Safety (NCSBS) alleges that Heather Armbruster, the bus driver that struck Lauren, had numerous complaints filed against her dur-ing her four years as a Dexter bus driver.

The NCSBS document said the complaints included driving over speed limits, skidding to stops and

screeching away from stops, speak-ing abusively and profanely to schoolchildren, striking a car with the bus, hitting curbs and mailbox-es and driving the bus into a ditch on two occasions requiring evacua-tion of school children.

In an e-mail, transportation di-rector Robert Poor said regarding complaints against bus drivers.

“We take all complaints seri-ously and have a concern and com-plaint form that is filled out and all complaints are investigated and the outcome is communicated with the complainant.”

In terms of the budget, Board of Education treasurer Dick Lundy said that cutting from the transpor-tation system would certainly be reviewed since this department still has unspent money in its budget.

Poor, however, said that there are so many ways his budget can be cut.

“We only have a few ways to limit costs of transportation, the biggest way is to limit service,” he said.

Stotlar, however, said any trans-portation cuts are dangerous.

“I basically went (to the board meeting) to remind them to follow policy and procedures,” she said. “And if cuts had to be made, don’t take from the transportation sys-tem.”

Trying their best: After struggling with nega-tive press from “The

Community Observer,” Superinten-dent Evelyn

Shirk said the district is do-ing its best to inform com-munity mem-bers of facts

regarding the district’s

budget.

“

”

I knew the job of superintendent would be chal-

lenging, and this job has proven to

be just that.

-Evelyn Shirk, Superintendent

█After “The Community

Observer” pub-lishes an article

questioning the district’s

finances, even more controversy

spurred over budget cuts.

Christina Fieldphotography manager

Transportation cuts worry parent

No problems yet: Although he has never had much trouble with cen-sorship, journal-ism teacher Rod Satterthwaite said he still supports Senate Bill 156. “Our current adminis-tration has been very supportive of our paper,” he said.

Friday Night Lights for spring sports

Cindy Glahn, president of the Athletic Booster Club of Dexter, will host a spring pep rally called Friday Night Lights at Ulrich Field at Creekside on May 13.

“We’re playing games and having different clubs set up tables to advertise for their club or sport,” she said. “We want it to have sort of a carnival theme to draw people from the school system as well as from the com-munity.”

And supporting school ath-letics isn’t all ABCD promotes Glahn said. They’re trying to sup-port school spirit too.

“We do usually focus on ath-letics alone, but in increasing school spirit, we’re also increas-ing sports attendance,” she said. “We’re really excited about this event. We’re hoping for a large crowd and just a really fun night.”

Sarah Crafteditor in chief

█ABDC will host a pep rally on May 13 at Ulrich Field

Students have ability to hackChanging a grade used to be

possible only when a student tried harder the next quarter. But with advances in technology, changing a grade is now possible through com-puter hacking.

“If you know what you’re doing,” junior Spencer Ryan said, “it’s not hard.”

According to Ryan, Dexter High School’s grading system is very vul-nerable to a hacker changing grades.

“It’s the way (teachers) turn in grades,” he said. “They just turn their grades into a folder on their desktops. That folder isn’t protect-ed at all, so anyone can change (the grades).”

According to Ryan, to change grades students only have to know one teacher’s login and that student will have access to all of the grades.

To prevent such hacking tech sup-port person Phyllis Risdon says that

it’s important for teachers to keep their passwords secret.

Besides password concealment, Ryan said the only way to change the glitch is to buy a new system. But changing the system would not nec-essarily eliminate the problem.

“Any system can be hacked,” tech support person Roger Johnson said. “No matter whose it is. There are just varying degrees of hacking.”

If the system were hacked into, Johnson said he would have to check the various levels to which the sys-tem could be hacked.

“I would have to look for security breeches,” he said, “from the server up, to see where the weaknesses are.”

Administrators say they know of no one who has changed their grades or hacked into the system, but they acknowledge that it is possible.

District technology director Rich-ard Weaver did not return phone calls seeking comment on the situa-tion.

Hacking isn’t the only way stu-dents can change their grades. Stu-dents can also scan their report cards and change their grades. Although this does not change the students actual GPA, it does hide grades from parents.

According to senior Mark Mess-more, who considers himself a hard-ware hacker, the scan change really is not that hard to do.

“If you have a scanner and a pow-erful program like Photoshop,” he said, “all you have to do is take a let-ter already on the sheet and duplicate it. It’s very simple.”

Senior Steve Cavanaugh said he has changed some student’s progress reports even though it only changes the grades on that paper and not ac-tually on the transcript.

“Think about the kids that come and ask,” Messmore said. “They are dumb people. (They) don’t un-derstand that when you change your progress report, you don’t change your transcript.”

Michelle Svetkoffmanaging editor█Increased

knowledge in technology could allow

students to tap into the school’s

system and change their

grades.

“-Richard Lundy, Board treasurer

Accessible: Grades of all the teachers are accessible and changeable by students who know where to look.

Photo illustration by Mike Vickers

� The next issue of The Squall will contain a continuation of this story including interviews with the editor of The Community Observer, Shirk, Spargur and others.

2 the Squall Thursday, April 28, 2005news

As senior Paul Miller filed through the lunch line, he took notice of the new sign which said, “Please Have Your ID Ready.” He punched in his PIN and the lunch lady frowned.

“Do you have your ID on you?” she asked.

Miller pulled out his ID, and stu-dents behind him looked on in inter-est.

According to Assistant Food and Nutrition director Faber, the new policy of checking student ID’s be-fore they purchase food is to protect students’ lunch accounts.

Recent thefts have led officials to reconsider the current lunch line process, as students have discov-ered ways to steal money from other student’s account simply by typing in the other student’s PIN.

This simple crime has been mas-tered by many students.

“I did it once to junior Derek Ag-er’s account freshman year,” junior

Erik Boren said. “I bought lunch for the whole table and no one ques-tioned me.”

But now Boren is a victim of lunch room ID theft too.

“I would put $50 into my account, and by the end of the week it would be gone,” he said.

“I went and asked for a print out, and it showed that someone had purchased something after me ev-ery day.

“After that, I started paying with cash or bringing my lunch from home.”

In February, Food and Nutrition discovered two separate cases of theft, both of which were brought to their attention by the parents of the students. Because hundreds of dollars of lunch credit were stolen, the school asked the police to get involved. As a result of this police investigation, administrators sus-pended at least one student.

“Stealing is serious business,” Faber said. “A lot of students will take things from the lunch room or use other student’s accounts without even thinking that what they are do-ing is stealing.”

In order to prevent students from stealing, the Food and Nutrition department decided to make some changes.

“If it is the second purchase that day, or if we don’t recognize the per-

son that is buying something as the person that owns the account, then we would ask for ID,” lunch lady Karen Franson said.

Beginning in the fall, Faber said some form of ID will be required for every purchase.

“Hopefully this will stop the stealing,” she said. “We don’t think it’s unreasonable.”

According to Faber, if the Food and Nutrition department hopes to purchase scanners and implement a card ID system in the fall.

She said this process would al-low students to swipe their cards for every purchase instead of typing in their PIN.

New lunch policy requires student IDs

Paying the piper: Senior Elise Seide hands lunch lady Mary Hafner money for her lunch. With recent problems in the lunch system, students regularly have to show a picture ID for proof of account ownership.

This would allow for both more security and a faster lunch line.

In the mean time, Faber hopes that the random ID checks will dis-courage students from stealing.

“Our primary goal is to make the system convenient and secure,” she said. “We don’t want to incon-venience anyone, but it is our job to make sure that the money that goes into a student’s account stays safe.”

After his short encounter with the new policy, Miller said that he agrees.

“I don’t think that the request to see ID is outrageous,” he said. “If it means that there isn’t anymore stealing then that’s great.”

Photo by Jennifer Allen

Due to a new fund-raising idea, there could be 1000 additional seats added to the football stadium.

The Athletic Booster Club of Dex-ter (ABCD) as well as the Football Touchdown Club is heading a project that will add 1,000 additional seats that have entrance and exit stairs in the middle of them to reduce traffic, a new press box and field house with team locker rooms, rest rooms and concessions.

These groups hope to raise money by selling personalized bricks that

will be laid around the flagpole and team entrance fence.

According to ABCD, The bricks include a $100 contribution for a 4”x8” brick with three lines for per-sonalization or a $250 dollar con-tribution for an 8”x8” brick with six lines for person-alization

For a dona-tion of $500-999 a booster plaque will be is-sued and a spot on a wall of fame reserved.

A $ 1 , 0 0 0 -4,999 contribu-tion results in a maroon plaque as well as a spot on the wall of fame.

At $5,000-9999, donors receive an individual hall of fame plaque and over S25,000 contribution results in a special permanent recognition.

Football coach Tom Barberi said

an example of this would be naming the wall of fame after the donor.

“Right now we have raised $35,000, and we purchased a new scoreboard which will be put in be-fore next season by volunteers,” he said.

“The bricks are going to be laid this summer in a 2000 square foot plot.”

As an incen-tive, Barberi also said each individual sports program can receive $10 for ev-ery brick they sell.

Although the bricks will be laid this summer, the sale of the bricks will not stop until the space runs out.

Barberi has high hopes for brick sales.

He said, “I hope that once people see the bricks in the ground they will want to be a part of it.”

School will come early for stu-dents next year. The 2005-2006 school calendar shows school starting on August 24.

According to teacher union president Joe Romeo, the early start is due to synchronizing the schedule with Saline’s in order to start consortium students with the rest of their class.

“Consortium students, for ev-ery day they miss, it is counted as two,” Romeo said.

“We had to coordinate our schedule with (Saline’s) in order to start these students with the rest of their class.”

Consortium, which is a pro-gram held at Saline Area Schools, is available to students who want to put emphasis on a part of cur-riculum that is not offered at Dex-ter High School.

The classes are three hours long, held in the morning and last the entire year.

Saline begins school on August 25. According to secretary Gina Newell, 55 students are signed up for consortium for the 2005-2006 school year.

A concern for some is that the schedule conflicts with the Chel-sea Community Fair, held August 23 through August 27.

Some students take part in the fair, and now have to choose be-tween going to school or continu-ing something they have been do-ing for years.

“When you weigh the amount of kids in the fair versus those in consortium, it was a choice that had to be made,” assistant princi-pal Andrea Glynn said.

Glynn also said that the sched-ule, which has a shortened sum-mer vacation this year, will help lengthen next year’s.

“You go in a week early and get out a week early,” she said. “So it really comes down to doing the

time early rather than later.”Some students, like freshman

Sean Kilian, say they are upset with the short summer but under-stand why it is being done.

“I think the start date of Au-gust 24 is OK, but I would’ve liked a longer summer,” he said. “It re-ally doesn’t matter to me that we coordinated our schedule with Saline’s.”

Romeo, who designed the initial schedule before it was ap-proved by the board of education, said that if the board would have known about the problems this schedule would bring beforehand, it would likely not have been ap-proved.

“I think it was a mistake the board made,” he said. “I don’t think they were intentionally try-ing to create a problem.”

Romeo also said that while this schedule may be a problem for some, in the following years he believes every district in Washt-enaw County will have essentially the same basic schedule.

“If we can get all the superin-tendents and teacher associations to agree, it should be only a matter of a few years before the schedule is enacted,” he said.

According to Romeo, the syn-chronized schedule would include basically the same start date, Christmas break, spring break and end date.

Each school district in the county, excluding Ann Arbor, be-longs to the Washtenaw County Education Association, the orga-nization Romeo says will govern the process. He has been meeting with the association in the past few weeks and is confidant the schedule will work.

Other highlights of the sched-ule: The last day of school is scheduled to be June 9, 2006.

Snow day make-up days will be the following Monday and Tuesday. PPD days will again be added on to weekends and be one full day every two months.

Daniel Monsonstaff writer

Jennifer Allen

circulation manager

Kyle Musenews editor “

”I hope that once

people see the bricks in the ground they will want to be a part of it.

-Tom Barbierifootball coach

At the senior meeting on April 15, principal Pat Little explained why graduation, scheduled for June 5, is on a Sunday this year instead of a Friday like in past years.

Because of sports and other activities that may extend into that weekend, the date was slated for Sunday in order to not make these athletes choose between attending their graduation or sporting event.

Senior Steve Cavanaugh likes the new day.

“I think it’s a good thing because it doesn’t interfere with sports or hanging out with your friends,” he said. “Another good thing is that you don’t have to worry about your parents taking off work.”

The graduation ceremony for 243 seniors starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 5. The seniors’ last day is May 20.

2005 graduation on Sunday, not Friday like years past

Recent theftschange the process for students who purchase lunch

Football players sell bricks to raise money for renovation of stadium

School to start earlier in fall

When junior Kristen Kolakowski found out final exams were going to be over three days at the end of the year instead of two like first semester exams, she said she was relieved.

“That’s a really good thing for me,” Kolakowski said. “It’s a lot eas-ier to just have two exams in a day instead of three, especially because I had my three hardest classes all on one day.”

And Kolakowski wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure. According to assistant principal Andrea Glynn, administrators heard a lot of com-plaining about the schedule.

“It wasn’t only from the students, it was parents calling in too,” she said. “We noticed that the students weren’t probably getting the study

Second semester exams to follow original two

Photo by Sarah Craft

Waiting for the bus: Juniors Matt Snider and Paul Jakubik and senior Andy Paulun wait for their ride consortium classes. One of the reasons school starts earlier next fall is that consortium students need to start school the same time Saline does.

New scoreboard, press box among new items for football program

time they need and were feeling too much pressure.”

In the past the school has had two exams a day for three days, but in order to meet state requirements regarding hours in the classroom, Glynn said the school had to change their ways.

“We were audited last year, and we weren’t making the hours,” she said. “That’s why we switched it to two days instead of three. That way students were spending more in-structional hours in the classroom.”

Although Glynn said administra-tors haven’t come up with the final schedule for end-of-the-year exams, she said exams will be held over three days instead of two.

“We’re looking to other schools in the area to see what their schedules look like so we can see some other options that will be the best for our school,” she said. “We want our kids to do well on the exams, and we’re doing our best to help them with that by taking away the pressure of three exams in one day.”

Sarah Crafteditor in chief

Complaints spark change for June’s final exams

Photo by Jennifer AllenWaiting in line: Freshman Alex Kish stand with his lunch while Mary Hafner puts his purchase into the computer.

Dreadnaught Burgers are back on May 12th!!

Try the Chicken Fajitas on May 25th!

On a slow Monday night at Champs Restaurant in Bloom-field, guidance counselor Gerry Holmes looked across the din-ner table into the eyes of her step daughter’s family.

What she thought would be her giving them a quick update of her medical condition ended up giv-ing her hope for the future. Two years ago doctors diagnosed Hol-mes with a rare brain condition that affected her trigeminal nerve and brain stem causing shocks to the right side of her body.

Four out of every 100,000 people suffer from the rare dis-order called trigeminal neuralgia which is often times known as the suicide disease.

“Something up in my head, which my surgeon found out is an artery, is pushing on my trigemi-nal nerve, which is back by my brain stem,” Holmes said.

“When I had my surgery two years ago, they placed a Teflon coated sponge to separate the ar-tery from the trigeminal nerve, and I was fine for two years.”

But for Holmes the sponge in her brain that separated a good day from a bad was not the mir-acle she was hoping for.

“Not that long ago, during the winter months, I went to plug in an electric blanket, and I stood up and hit the back right side of my head where the sponge was placed,” she said.

“It wasn’t too long after that I began to feel small sensations on my right cheek.

“It felt like a small bug or something. I let it go for a while, but the sensations became strong and more noticeable.”

By the time Holmes realized she had dislodged the sponge and her shocks would soon be coming back, it was too late.

“I remember when I had my first shock after I bumped my head,” she said.

“I was at the staff Christmas party at (principal Glenn) Ste-venson’s house. And it was just so embarrassing because I start-ed to have a half an hour long full blown shock. I was in so much pain and there was nothing any-one could do.

“So there I was on Mr. Steven-son’s couch in more pain then I could even put into words. My trigeminal neuralgia was back, and I needed to do something.”

Months after Holmes had her first shock she is still searching for a way to live her life without going back under for surgery.

“It was a difficult surgery that I had before,” Holmes said. “So I’m really trying to find other al-ternatives.

“Right now my neurologist has

the Day of Silence found that what they did had an impact on other stu-dents as well as themselves.

“It was hard to stay silent, so it’s hard to understand how so many people can alienate people based on whether or not they are gay,” Flemister said.

Greer found that the day had a very powerful impact on her as well. “My mom is a lesbian, and I’m bi, so to participate in something like this has a lot of meaning in my life,” she said. “It was very power-ful for me to stand up in what I believe in and put my-self in a vul-nerable place. When you can’t respond to some of the negative com-ments coming at you. It’s hard, but you have to hold your ground. Every little thing counts.”

It was especially hard for Greer to hold her ground when many of the comments were extremely of-fensive.

“People would walk behind me in the halls and say things like, ‘That’s so gay,’ and ‘fag,’” she said.

“People I didn’t even know could say these hateful things. It was hard. Sometimes I almost felt like cry-ing.”

Although not all students were supportive of GLOW’s efforts to end bias.

Flemister said, “You can’t change

the SquallThursday, April 28, 2005 feature

Students feelings towards Prom vary

Students stay silent in protest of gay bias

Two years after surgeryHolmes’ pain returns

While sitting in her fifth hour class, junior Kaelen Greer couldn’t help but hear the whispers around her about her appearance.

“This kid in my class kept nag-ging me on, trying to get me to say something,” she said.

But Greer didn’t respond. She was taking part in a National Day of Silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment directed towards gay and lesbian people.

The Day of Silence is a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Edu-cation Network (GLSEN).

It is a student-led day of action where students against gay bias in schools wear all black and take a day long vow of silence.

“Being silent is a way to protest other peoples’ silence to those things they don’t understand,” senior Rob-ert Flemister said.

Flemister who brought the idea for The Day of Silence to the Dexter’s GLOW club was disappointed in the reaction some students had to the protest.

“The idea was misunderstood by a lot of people,” he said.

“People thought that if you wore black that you were gay or lesbian, but really it was just that you sup-ported the idea at hand.”

Students who did participate in

everyone’s mind, but it is hard to ignore other peoples disrespect. I hoped that people would recognize and support what we were doing, but many still pointed fingers and made rude comments.”

Even though some students were disrespectful to the people in sup-port of the Day of Silence, others we’re supportive and understand-ing.

“There is always going to be peo-ple who dis-agree with you, but a lot of peo-ple in my class-es we’re very s u p p o r t i v e , e nc ou r a g i n g me to stand up for what I be-lieve in,” Greer said. “Also the teachers were great. They were really understanding

and supportive.”Some of this support even re-

sulted in students speaking out to others.

“People would stand up for me when they heard a rude comment, saying that it was disrespectful, or that they couldn’t believe it was be-ing said,” Greer said. “That helped make the day easier.”

Although some people reacted negatively to The Day of Silence, Flemister said the message of toler-ance was sent to his peers.

“I think we made an impact on Dexter. We got some reactions from people, both good and bad, but hope-fully we’re breaking the silence.”

Sara Newellcirculation manager

GLOW encourages students to participate in nation wide Day of Silence

put me back on some medications, and we found one that works.

“It is an epileptic drug or an anti-seizure medication, but I am on such high dosages it really inter-feres with my life.”

Aside from the interference Hol-mes’ medication has on her daily life, it is also taking a toll on other functions in her body.

“The drugs make you tired, hun-gry and it is very tough on your liv-er,” she said.

“To be quite honest I have been on 10 epileptic pills per day. I was up to 3,000 mg a day, and this was all to dull the nerve endings that cause my shocks.”

But as with most medications Holmes’ body will someday become immune to the chemicals and leave her searching for yet another cure.

“I’ve been going to an acupunc-turist, which is another alternative I’ve been trying, and he sticks about 25 needles in my head,” she said.

“I lay on this cot for 20 minutes while he connects these small elec-trical clamps to the little needles in my head.

“Then they turn on a very mild voltage of electrical current. The electricity pulses through these needles and I just lay there.”

But Holmes, who realizes that acupuncture may not work for the rest of her life, found hope from a stranger on a slow Monday night at Champs Restaurant.

“When I was at dinner with my family there was this man that walked over to me at says, ‘I’ve had that’,” Holmes said.

“I wasn’t sure he was talking to me, but he said, ‘I’ve had what you have,’” she said. “And I had a sur-gery a while back, and I have been pain free ever since.”

Still unsure about the story this man was telling, Holmes invited him to their dinner table.

“He sat down and he said, ‘Look, I’ve been through everything you have. I had trigeminal neuralgia for 14 years, and it was ruining my life’.”

In shock Holmes heard this man tell a story much like her own.

“He told me he did a study at the University of Michigan and discov-ered something called acute facial pain clinic in New York City.

“At this clinic there is this man that performs a surgery that is said to heal people with trigeminal neu-ralgia,” Holmes said.

“I felt like I wasn’t alone anymore when this man told me his story. It brought tears to my eyes.”

Stephanie Rushlowad manager

Sara Newellcirculation manager

3

Just like magic: GLOW members sophomore Emily Fisher, senior Robert Flemister and sophomore Sarah Martinez talk amongst each other during lunch. Although members were encouraged not to speak to other students during school, they took a break from silence at lunch to discuss the day.

Photo Sarah Craft

-RobertFlemister,senior

“”

Being silent is a way to protest other peoples’ silence to those things they don’t understand.

-Christina Sarneckisenior

“I want prom to be special. It’s senior year ... So I want to make it the best.

”Picture perfect: Seniors Bill Burgett and Christina Sar-necki discuss their Prom plans. Prom is April 30.

Ever since she can remember, senior Christina Sarnecki has won-dered what senior prom would be like.

“Growing up, watch-ing my sisters get all dressed up for their proms,” she said. “Hearing bits of how much fun they’d had, I’ve wanted to go.

“I got my dress in January. I want Prom to be special. It’s the last year I’ll have a chance to go, so why not go all out?”

Many students agree, Prom should be a special night with friends or a date.

“Prom should be a night to re-member. It’s not an every day event.”

Sarnecki said.Buying the perfect dress, find-

ing a dream date, and having a great night, is what many students hope for at Prom.

“It’s fun to get dressed up,” Sar-necki said.

“I’m a little girl at heart and still like to play dress up.”

“I like to pretend to be more fabu-lous, and Prom is a great place to do that.”

Although having a great night is important, Sarnecki said she may be missing out on the experience if it isn’t all out.

“I want Prom to be special,” she said. “It’s senior year. Everything I do in high school will be the last, so I want to make it the best.”

However, not everyone takes

Prom so seriously. In fact many stu-dents would rather it were less of a big deal.

“I don’t understand why everyone gets so into prom,” senior Connor Donevan said.

“It’s just another night, only the girls are in dresses and the guys are in tuxes, and it’s expensive.”

Because so many students have different opinions on what the per-fect prom night is, it makes planning for the big night more difficult for groups of friends.

For Sarnecki this year’s plans have been more stressful than be-fore.

“Everyone wants to do different things and spend different amounts of money,” she said.

“But at the same time I want to go

with all my friends. It’s hard to make everyone happy.”

Although some students want to make Prom night an extravagant af-fair, others don’t have the money to throw down for a limo and fancy din-ner as well.

“I don’t think its necessary to spend $60 on a limo, 30 on dinner, 80 on tickets and 100 for a tux, for one night that I’m spending with friends,” Donevan said.

Yet some feel that spending the extra cash is worth it.

“It’s senior year, and I want the night to go well, get a limo, have a nice dinner and have a good time,” senior Bill Burgett said.

“I don’t really have a ton of money to spend. But I will so that the night is special for me.”

National Day of Silence History

•1996 'Day of Silence' created with 150 participants at the University of Virginia

•1997 'National Day of Silence' began with 100 colleges participating nation wide

•1998 high schools began to reconize 'National Day of Silence' and was expanded from one day of silence to incorporate more educational events

•2001 'National Day of Silence' received funding from GLSEN to provide for a full time staff

•2002 'National Day of Silence' recognized by USA Today, MSNBC and CNN

In recovery: Counselor Gerry Holmes experienced pain after her first trigemi-nal neuralgia surgery.

www.dayofsilence.org

The night was clear. The streets were crowded. The Disney castle was all lit up and the marching band marched down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom in front of their largest crowd ever.

“I was so excited,” freshman Emily Wetzel said. “There was a big door that kept the audience out of backstage Disney, but we could hear all the crowd cheering for us before we even got to the street.”

According to band director Ken Moore, the band had to send in an audition tape from District Festival 2003 to be invited to march at Disney because the due date was so early. There was also a four page application the direc-tors had to fill out with the band’s past accomplishments as well as where the band had marched before.

“We weren’t surprised that we got accepted,” Moore said nonchalantly. “But they don’t take just anybody. The fact that we were the last band in the last parade be-fore the Spectral Magic Parade says something about our program.”

Recently, Disney has become very well acquainted with Dexter’s band program.

“This was our sixth time marching at Disney World,” Moore said. “We’ve marched in Disney Land, the Ga-tor Bowl, the Outback Bowl ...” he said trailing off with a smile, “but you don’t really need to know all about those.”

The trip started on Wednesday before spring break with a 23 hour bus ride.

“(The ride) was ... fun,” Wetzel said laughing. “I was with so many of my friends, but I really wish we would’ve taken a plane because the ride was just so long.”

Once Wetzel and the rest of the group arrived in Or-lando, they were allowed to roam the park in groups of four people for many hours.

“We got coupons for food,” Wetzel said. “But the food was horrible. It was almost all hamburgers. I don’t like hamburgers, and I got sick of them really fast.”

Despite the long parade route and many hours put into practicing, Wetzel said she enjoyed the parade the most because there were so many people watching them.

“The band directors hyped it up,” she said, “making it seem like it would be this terribly long parade route. It didn’t seem long to me though. Maybe it was because I was so excited from all the people watching us. But I play the flute.”

Wetzel’s lack of surprise was made up by Trixie, the parade route guide for the band, who has been working at Disney for over a year and a half.

“We were the first high step marching band she had ever seen,” Moore said, leaning back in his chair, cof-fee mug in hand. “She also thought our show stop was unique. She had never seen a band go down on one knee before.”

According to Moore, performing nationally is some-thing the band does for reasons more than just playing their instrument.

“(Mr. Woolfolk and I) were struck by the number of students who came up to us and told us how much the trip meant to them,” Moore said. “That’s why we do this ... It’s neat to perform when we represent more than just Dexter ... performing for a national audience ... but it’s for the kids. It gives them an experience of traveling in a large group.”

According to Wetzel, all the work that parents, direc-tors and any hired help put into the trip has been well worth it.

The band, however, never ceases to amaze the direc-tors.

“I continue to be proud of more than just how well our kids play their instruments,” Moore said. “I am proud of their behavior and because they represent their school and the community so well.”

When senior Maggie Seeger made the choice of whether or not to go on the band’s spring break trip, she said many factors influenced her final decision.

The abundance of advanced placement classes in her schedule accounted for her decision, ultimately, to not go.

“Partially, I was afraid of what (English teacher Mary) Mattner would say about me while I was gone,” Seeger said with a laugh. “I didn’t really want to miss my AP classes because I knew I’d be behind then. Freshmen year when I made the choice to go on the band trip, (Math teacher Dewey) Scott made me cry.”

And this year Scott is one of the many teachers up-set with the number of people absent as a result of the band trip. He said the trip could be planned for a bet-ter time.

“There’s only 180 school days and 365 days in the year,” Scott said, “I think they could have planned it for a time when these kids aren’t going to be missing school.”

Mattner agrees with Scott. She said there was a noticeable difference in her classes, as over half of the class was missing in one of her hours.

“I don’t question the impor-tance of the band trip,” she said, “I’m sure it is very beneficial for the students. However, It would be helpful to teachers if they could to it at a less rigorous time of year.”

She said it was especially hard to deal these blows to the curriculum, especially with all the snow days this year.

“It has a fairly serious effect on the curriculum, es-pecially in the higher levels,” Mattner said. “I’m trying to prepare students for a National AP Exam.”

Because of situations like Mattner’s, the school’s policy committee decided to deal with the problem.

The committee is creating a policy that would force teachers that want to take students out of class for two days or more to OK it with their peers first.

“If it was only a small amount of the students, it wouldn’t be so bad,” Scott said, “But the whole band? You’re talking about 20 percent of the students.”

While teachers silently cursed the band trip, stu-dents relished their vacation.

Seeger said she really enjoyed the trip freshmen year and would have loved to go this year.

For senior Bridget Riehle, the trip provided some much-needed relief.

“I was starting to get tired of the everyday work of high school,” Riehle said. “I know we have Spring Break, but the band trip really got me away from it all. I also learned a lot while there.”

Riehle did admit it was not easy to play catch-up, but with the whole week off from school, she was able to do it.

Scott said many of his students who attended this trip were not able to pull it off as easily as she did.

“A lot of the students struggled after missing a cou-ple days,” Scott said. “I had to postpone a quiz until after spring break, and I think some of the band kids struggled with it.”

Band director Moore said he had not heard any negative feedback from teachers directly, and encour-aged teachers who do have a problem with it to talk to him or Mr. Woolfolk.

“I thought the band trip was a success,” he said. “Educationally it was very sound. The clinics were very beneficial, and students had the opportunity to see what it feels like as a professional musician.”

4 the Squall Thursday, April 28, 2005

Stroke catches Sandy Klein off guard and unaware

Band marches through DisneyPounding to the beat: Marching through Diseny Land, the band enjoys cheers from the audience. “I was so excited,” freshman Emily Wetzel said. “...We could hear all the crowd cheering for us even before we even got to the street.”

Raleigh Holmesstaff writer

As Mill Creek custodian and for-mer high school para pro Sandy Klein walked to her car after going to lunch with some friends on an early spring day, she suddenly fell to the ground, landing hard on her right knee.

“Some men walking towards me helped me up and asked me if I was all right,” Klein said.

“I told them that I thought I was and continued walking to my car.”

When I fell, I didn’t black out and I remember seeing the men walking towards me.”

“I can also remember thinking that I was tripping on something and telling my feet that they knew how to work just do it,” she said.

“I had no pain anywhere when this was happening and felt fine.”

When Klein fell, she ripped a hole in her jeans so she went home to change before heading to a meeting at Copeland that lasted an hour and a half.

“During the drive home and back and during the meeting I felt a little shaky but really didn’t think much about it.”

After her meeting Klein went to Mill Creek for work.

“When I walked into Mill Creek, I remember that my left leg felt very heavy,” Klein said.

“It was like I was dragging a bag of sand behind me.

“My left arm also felt weak, al-most like I wouldn’t be able to pick up a piece of paper.”

When her daughter, senior Laura Klein, came to visit her at work, Klein said she didn’t feel right.

“When Laura came in I felt a little confused, but I still knew what was around me,” she said.

On hearing what her mom was ex-periencing, Laura called their doctor at Dexter Village Family Physicians.

“The doctors told me to come right over to the office,” Klein said.

“Once I got there and they checked me out, they said that they thought I had a stroke and they called an am-bulance.

“I was taken to the University of Michigan hospital where the doctors thought the same thing.”

But Klein didn’t want to go to the hospital because she thought she was fine, “When the ambulance was called, I learned that it doesn’t do any good to argue with them about the fact that I felt fine and needed to go to work,” she said.

“My family and the doctors just ignored me and told the ambulance workers to take me to the hospital.”

Doctors determined that Klein had a mini stroke. The hospital then performed many tests that all came back normal.

“The doctors and my family no-ticed that I was a little weaker on the left side,” Klein said.

“That did surprise them because I am left handed and that is my stron-ger side.”

One of the blood tests came back showing a peculiar result.

Klein said, “The blood tests came back showing that my blood sugar was at 40 and the normal should be between 110-130.

“When a person’s blood sugar falls that low tests will also show signs of a stroke.

“I had just eaten a good lunch so they are not sure why mine was so low,” she said. “I have had it checked several times since then and it is fine.”

To prevent her blood sugar from dropping again doctors gave Klein some tips on her eating habits.

“The doctors told me to eat six to seven small meals a day with lots of protein,” she said.

Klein said her stroke was very scary for her and her family.

“We were all scared because we really didn’t know much about a stroke,” she said.

“What we have learned is that you should be seen by a doctor within three hours after you think you have had a stroke so that they can give medications to reverse any affects of a stroke.”

Although the stroke didn’t seem to leave any permanent damage, Klein does seem to be slowing down.

“I am doing everything that I used to do but I am slowing down a lot,” Klein said.

“If things don’t get done, they will get done the next day or when I get around to it.”

Seth Porinskistaff writer

features

Former para-professional faces an unpredictable health scare

The band’s 24-hour drive to Florida pays off Jenny Heldtfeature editor

Jurassic Park: Sophomore Sean Wallace said he en-joyed Universal Studios a lot. “We ate pizza next to the Jurassic Park ride and in the gazebo where we sat they were playing music from Ju-rassic Park. It made me feel ferocious.”

18 candles: Senior Tif-fany Spencer enjoyed being at Disney for the first time. According to Spencer kids who had their birthday during the trip all had a semi embar-rassing mo-ment. “Having to wear a Mickey Mouse hat in front of the whole band was a little embarrassing. But it was my first Disney ex-perience, and it was great.”

� Recent band trip has caused

teachers to stress.

Numerous students

absences take their toll.

It’s a good reward for students who have been through bandall four years of high school.

-Maggie Seeger ”

“

Sarah Crafteditor in chief

On his way to school April 15, senior Kenny Harden called into the W4 Country station to enter himself in a contest to win a prom date with station broadcaster Brit-tany.

“I heard them talking about it on the radio and fig-ured, what the heck?” he said. “She’s hot, and I don’t have a prom date.”

But winning wasn’t easy. Seniors Kayla Wing and Me-lissa Ebright put posters of Harden around the school encouraging students to vote for him.

“When I heard him on the radio, I thought it was go-ing to be a good fun thing for Dexter,” Wing said. “I was really impressed with how many students got involved and voted for him.”

Harden said although seeing a three foot poster of himself on the wall was “kind of strange,” he was glad to get the votes.

After gaining over 70 percent of the online voting poll, Harden won.

Harden said he is taking his date to Knight’s Steak House for dinner, then afterwards heading to the dance.

“I think it’s awesome,” senior Will Thiele said. “He’ll be the most popular guy at prom.”

Senior Scott Mast was picturing a different scene. “No, everybody will be looking at her and how hot she

is,” he said. “There’ll be a spotlight on her and Kenny will just be a weird arm.”

And Harden is not complaining. He said, “She’s hot, so I’m pretty excited.”

� Instead of going solo, senior Kenny Harden won a date to prom with a broadcaster from the W4 Country station.

Student wins prom date

He started shaking, couldn’t talk ... every student thought it was diabetes.

the SquallThursday, April 28, 2005 entertainment 5

April’s FoolSamantha Harrisentertainment editor

I remember watching my sister, Steph, quietly wrap a rubber band around the faucet spray hose and wait in anticipation. I never had tasted victory of revenge on the first day of April before.

With the faucet at our house, if you turn on the water while holding down the lever of the spray hose, the water sprays out of the hose instead of the faucet, resulting in spraying mother in the face.

It was about 6:00 a.m., around the usual time my mother wakes up to begin her daily routine. Steph and I hid behind a wall snickering and giggling to ourselves.

Torturing our mother was one of our favorite hobbies which we practiced religiously.

Finally my mother came shuffling across the tile to-wards the sink in preparation for her morning coffee. This was the moment we waited for. I was frothing at the mouth with excitement ... Well, almost.

Words flew from my mother’s mouth, and we squealed with joy. My mother turned to face us with her makeup dripping.

Although I was only eight years old, it was extreme-ly exciting, but little did I know that as I grew older my school peers would perform ingenious tasks.

Junior Holly Woods recalls when she was little her first mastery of April Fool’s Day.

“I remember that my aunt was taking care of me at the time, and she decided we should play a prank on my gullible mother that day,” Woods said. “As I was on my way home from school my aunt pulled out this plaster and gauze. She told me we were going to make a cast for my arm and pretend I had broken it at school.

I walked in the door and my mom was scared seeing me with my arm in a cast. After enjoying seeing her freak out, we revealed that it was one we made for April Fool’s. I got yelled at.”

On the other hand what junior Frankie McAuliffe thought would be funny as a simple joke turned out to be the sad truth.

“I was talking to my mom on the phone, and she asked if anything was happening with me at the house, being that I was home alone.”

“No not really,” I replied. “Oh except the Pope died mom ... April Fool’s.

“About an hour later he died. I felt bad.”For junior Casey Daczka April Fool’s is all too real.“I remember I was driving to school and I saw my

mom’s car pulled over on the side of the road,” he said. “I stopped to see if everything was all right. My mom kept on leaning over and clutching her chest in pain. I asked her what was wrong, and she mentioned that her heart was hurting really badly. I asked her if she wanted to go to the doctor, worried what might happen if she didn’t get there in time. As she leaned over again, I saw her body shaking. I looked closer, and she was laughing! I was upset.

“How could you do that to me mom?” Daczka asked.“My mother played another April Fool’s prank on me

when I was about 10 or 12 years old. We were on a va-cation in the Barbados and my mom informed us that a hurricane was traveling in the path of where we were staying. Everyone started flipping out.

“Another time, one of my sisters called home to tell us that she was pregnant. I had forgotten it was April 1st, so it got me by surprise.”

“On any other day my family is normal, but on April Fool’s they are lying fiends!”

For Daczka and Woods, the first of April is a holiday for family mischief

Oh Mom!: On April 1, junior Casey

Daczka is ready for anything.

After his mother pretended to have a heart attack, he said he’ll always

be ready for silliness on April

Fool’s Day.

The room fell silent. Everyone in sixth hour Spanish III was stunned by the sad news. Thirty-two mel-ancholy faces and concerned eyes looked at Spanish teacher Melania Murphy with deep concern.

No one could say anything. And even if they could, they wouldn’t have known what to say.

With tearful eyes Murphy said to the class, “I have been through many tragedies, but this is by the far the greatest tragedy I’ll have to experi-ence.”

Murphy proceeded to inform her students that her husband has the rare terminal disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and later stu-dents found out that ALS patients only have 2-5 years to live after the initial symptoms.

ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease has no known cure and comes on some-what randomly.

Charlie first noticed something was wrong on the family trip to Peru when a normally easy bench press for him was ridiculously hard.

“I went to Peru,” Charlie said. “And I put 250 pounds on the bar, and I couldn’t move it, and I thought wow this is really weird.”

Charlie just assumed it was his age and that he couldn’t lift weights forever.Once back from the Peru trip, Charlie Googled his symptoms and realized his fatigue was much greater then just old age. Currently Charlie’s upper motor neural senses are affected, specifically his speech and swallowing abilities.

Other ALS patients who have the disease in the lower portions of their body have trouble with walking and holding things.

Eventually Charlie will experi-ence these symptoms and the living arrangements of the house will have to change which is why the family of junior Kiersti Kruzel is helping the Murphy family.

“The Kruzels,” Melania said, “they came, they saw the home, and they have been wonderful. They are helping us accommodate the house. I want to thank them.”

Mrs. Kruzel has also been helping Melania with the medical demands of the disease now that Charlie has enlisted in a testing clinic for ALS and is trying different trials to pro-long his life.

“(Mrs. Kruzel) is a nurse,” she said, “and she helps emotionally and

checks with me periodically now that Charlie is on trials and she checks on me to see if I’m injecting my husband with the medicine correctly.”

Melania also says that the school administrators and parents have been a great support to her.

“I want to thank all the parents,” she said. “They have been send-ing me e-mails since they found out about Charles’ illness. My adminis-tration, they have been very good as well. Especially the teachers. They have been very supportive.”

Members of the neighborhood have been very helpful to the family as well, but Melania’s biggest sup-porter is her daughter Megan.

“When I’m down,” she said, “She comes and supports me. And she talks to me in Spanish.”

Melania’s other therapy is teach-ing, which really helps her deal with the tough times.

“My best therapy,” she said. “Is to go to school and teach. Because otherwise you stay here and you get sad, depressed.”

Melania says that going to school occupies her mind because of her students.

“I have great students,” she said. “And they have been my inspiration to continue teaching and helping me not to think about my personal prob-lems.”

Charlie means a lot to Melania, so dealing with the situation has been tough.

“The person I am right now,” she said, “is because of him.”

Charlie and Melania have similar backgrounds which allows them to relate to each other and also it mo-tivates Melania to be more like her husband.

“He came from a poor back-ground,” she said, “And no one helped him and he still has two de-grees.”

One of Charlie’s last wishes is for Melania to graduate and get her mas-ters, which would mean that Melania is following in Charlie’s footsteps just like Melania wants.

The disease does not slow down Melania because she is able to deal with the disease day by day.

“There are good days,” she said, “And bad days. But we deal with it one day at a time.”

But Melania always enjoys her life, which helps her get through the tough days.

“Try to live a normal life,” she said, “As much as you can. Do the things you won’t be able to do later.”

Teacher’s spouse faces terminal disease ALSSenora Murphy shares grief with students and faculty

Posing in Peru: Spanish teacher Melania Murphy shares a moment with her husband and daughter on their vacation. Her husband, Charlie has been diagnosed with ALS.

Michelle Svetkoffmanaging editor

Wilcox to undergo brain surgery in May

Two years ago on a flight to France drama and French teacher Harry Wilcox suffered his first of a series of seizures. A magnetic resonance image later showed that a non-ma-lignant tumor had developed in the right side of his brain.

Wilcox began a regiment of taking several medications to reduce the seizures. He also began having MRIs every six months to monitor the growth of the tumor.

His last MRI showed that the tu-mor had grown significantly and doc-tors determined he needs to undergo surgery to remove the tumor in May.

For the past two weeks, Wilcox hasn’t been able to attend school.

“I’m taking new medications that slow me down a bit,” he said. “I have difficulty speaking because my words

are often slurred.” Junior Julia Keinath recalls a

time when she noticed something was wrong with Wilcox.

“He had an episode in class,” she said, “where he started shak-ing, couldn’t talk, coughing, but ev-eryone thought it was his diabetes.”

Wilcox did not clarify to the stu-dents what his epi-sode actually was until later when he wrote a letter.

“He wrote us a letter,” Keinath said. “In French he kept his humor. (It said) that he had a brain tumor that he wanted to remove.”

As director of the spring school musical “Blood Brothers” Wilcox has continued to attend play practices, though.

“The stress of the play does add a little to my fatigue,” he said. “But ev-eryone has worked hard, and it will be a good play.”

With surgery nearing, Wilcox said he is trying to maintain a positive attitude.

“I am want to be back before the end of the school year,” he said. “Hopefully this will all work out and everything will go back to nor-mal.”

Keinath said that it was weird without Wilcox be-cause now the class is not as good as it was before.

“We just do busy work,” she said. “(The students) miss him and his good jokes and all around sense of humor.”

Molly Brewstermorale manager

Plans for freshman

move-up day cancelled

Next year’s freshman will not be making a trip to the high school to get acquainted with the school. In-stead, counselors made a trip down to Mill Creek.

However, there will still be a freshman orientation day in the fall that will help the students become more aware of their new school.

“I think that this year will be bet-ter than past years because the last couple times we had a speaker that

would have been a lot more effective for older kids,” teacher Shirley Bit-ters said, “The speaker was not very interactive with the students.”

This year we have a good speaker, and I think it will be more effective this year.”

Bitters, who helps organize fresh-man orientation said the freshman will start the day in the CPA for a multimedia presentation of the high school and then make their way to the activities in the gym.

Canadian speaker Andy Fibido will end the day with a speech will be about the transition into high school. Mill Creek principal Jami Bronson said, “From the feedback me as well as the other administra-tors receive, it seems to be beneficial for the upcoming freshman.”

“It is nice to see seniors helping out the upcoming freshman because it gives them a view of what it is like to go to high school.”

Kyle Musenews editor

Photo courtesy Melania Murphy

May 4. Battle of the Bands*

Brain surgery facts

• Alternate names include Craniotomy and Neurosurgery

• Procedure includes shaving of head and temporarily drill-ing the skull.

• Risks of brain surgery in-clude reactions to medicines, breathing problems, injury to brain tissue, injury to brain tissue, injury to blood vessels, nerve or paralysis or weak-ness, loss of mental functions including memory, speech, understanding

Facts from http://auburn.edu/ and http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu

www.healthscout.com

“”-Julia Keinath

junior

“”

How could you do that to me mom?

Photos by Mike Vickers

Working for the Studnets: Life skills teacher Shirley Bitters will help organize next Fall’s freshman orientation day.

photo by Sarah Craft

6 the Squall Thursday, April 28, 2005features

New tunes and old tunes on my iTunes

My journalism class, among other things, could be described as a musical hodge podge. To my left the thumping, never ceasing beats of techno drone on. To my right rap blares.

Somewhere behind me I hear Simon and Garfunkel. My own computer changes its musical tastes daily, but one thing that is always welcome in the player is the soothing sound of the clas-sics.

I have often wondered what makes a song good enough to become a classic. What makes a simple melody good enough to bridge the generational gap?

As a kid I can remember lis-tening to old James Taylor re-cords with my dad, and when talking about classics names like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin are never far from my mind.

Thinking about music from my parent’s generation brings an interesting thought to my mind. What is the music that will de-fi ne my generation? It’s hard for me to imagine that the vulgar rap song playing next to me will ever be something I will want to share with my kids.

Harder still is the thought of my kid coming up to me asking If I ever listend to those great clas-sics like Britney Spears, or any other pre made pop showcase.

The only problem is, if not these artist then who? Who is fi t to carry the torch to continue the progression of music as we know it. It seems like we are missing out.

Where are the bands who are pushing the levels of modern music, where are the artist who will propel their music beyond their own time, leaving a gift for future generations to cherish?

The answer does not lie in the highly manicured, over pro-duced sounds that are coming from popular culture. The truth is not buried in the basements of million dollar records companies whose shameless exploitation of musical groups does little more then pack their over large pocket books.

To me the only future for good music as we know it lies in the self produced bands who are on tour 300 days of the year.

The future lies in independent record labels who pinch by on their own steam. These are the groups that have the commit-ment and dedication needed to advance music.

To me this is the only hope our generations has for their own spot in the musical record books.

Classics are not something that are given out our awarded to the richest record company. They are something that are awarded to hard work and in-novation. Truly the only way to become a musical classic is to be-come a musical pioneer.

‘Suicide Club,’ ‘M’ two entertaining foreign fi lms

“Suicide Club” is a very weird and fascinating Japanese fi lm.

For those who are not familiar with the Japanese culture, this movie might be a little over your head just because you might not understand it.

I will admit, there are a lot of aspects I don’t fully understand. Nonetheless, this movie still makes me think when I watch it.

The movie starts in a subway station some where in downtown Tokyo.

There is what appears to be a large group of young school girls walking down some stairs, which is a fairly normal situation for a subway station.

What comes next is far from normal. As the girls near the edge

of the subway track, they link their arms together.

As the train comes rushing down the track, they count, “1, 2 and a 3.”

They all consecutively jump onto the track, getting instantly killed by the train. A strong scene for a strong movie.

The movie then follows a de-tective who is boggled by this act of suicide. What surprises him is that more incidents similar to this one are happening all over the city.

What is also baffl ing is that on the locations of the suicides there is a bag full of skin sown together.

He then discovers a web site that may have a link to these suicides. But the true link is far from some organized club. It is something much bigger and much stronger.

I have never seen another

movie anything like this. It is very intriguing to get a taste of a culture dissimilar to your own. I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys something new.

M

The movie “M” is a fi lm-noir directed by Fritz Lang. Movies were labeled “fi lm-noirs” back in 1946 by Frank Nino who noticed how dark the trends and themes were in American crime and detective fi lms.

Though Fritz Lang is known for his ground breaking science fi ction movies, he pulls through with an excellent mystery movie.

An insane killer is on the loose in a German city, and the police can not fi nd a culprit. Soon the entire city is terrifi ed

as the killer keeps raping

and killing innocent girls. Even though the police forces has in-creased, the killings keep going.

Soon even the mob notices they can’t conduct their business anymore because of increased police activity. So they throw their card in the mix by trying to catch the killer.

Though the movie is in black and white and is subtitled, the acting is amazing and the camera work inventive.

Peter Lorre plays the part of the sick minded killer to an un-believable reality. He draws a lot emotion in his acting.

This is one of the greatest movies made, not just for its time but even up to today’s standards.

Some of the techniques in this movie can be seen in generations after it. It is a fi lm-noir that is both creative and thought pro-voking.

When it comes to being in a band, the mu-sic scene can seem pretty stagnant and hard to break into for newcomers. It’s no secret that the life of a rock star isn’t just sex, drugs and rock & roll. But while those may be the most glorifi ed aspects of the

lifestyle, the process of making the album is often overlooked and shouldn’t be.

Creating an album is a process that has many crucial components, and none can be sacrifi ced. It goes without saying that a good collection of songs is the fi rst ingredient in the mix, so once those have been created, it’s time to fi nd a producer. This will be the per-son who helps to sculpt the desired sound, and they will do this in one of two ways.

A producer will either go in on a band’s studio time to record them, or they’ll dis-sect each note of the songs until everything sounds perfect.

Often lumped in with the producer is the engineer, who in essence is the guy who works the mixing board. It’s a standard pro-cedure that once the songs are committed to tape, some mixing will be necessary to neaten sounds up.

The process of mixing itself is a com-plicated one. To most, it may appear to be random twisting of knobs to make things louder, but there is a science to it. Instead of simply raising volumes of tracks, mixing is also the time where effects can be added to create atmospheres, as well as making any dirty tones sound clean or dirtier if desired.

Most of the time, the mixing and record-ing consoles at professional recording studios will feature anywhere from 28 to 48 tracks. Basically, that al-lows for 28 different pieces of re-corded material to run at once in any given song, which allows for har-mony parts, solos, backing vocals, etc. The more tracks available to the user, the more possibilities they will have for creating a dense and deep piece of work.

Those interested in recording at a real studio have several options, such as 40 oz. Studios located in Ann Arbor, as well as Youth Owned Records, which is con-

nected to the Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor. 40 Oz. Studios charges $35 per hour with the services of the engineer included, while Youth Owned Records records at more affordable prices.

Of course a DIY approach is much more feasible for the average high school student, and simple 4 and 8 track

recorders can easily be purchased at most music stores for prices ranging from $150 to how much you want to spend. Along with this purchase, a few microphones may be necessary so that during the pro-cess of recording there’s no need to go back and record each person individually.

Also available is Pro Tools, which is editing software which acts as a engineer and the mixing console itself in one con-venient package. While a recording device is necessary to get the software as well as to record the tracks, Pro Tools is the mod-ern approach for creating albums for ev-eryone from Metallica to the band down the street. The entry level Mbox is a great answer for those interested in exploring the possibilities of Pro Tools, and only costs about $500.

Not only is the Mbox a great entry level recording device, but also one that can be used for the rest of a bands career. It resembles that of an average cable modem, and works with any USB Port.

As far as recording through the Mbox, there are direct in-puts in the back, so in most

cases external micro-phones for recording instruments aren’t necessary.

Recording may be a mystery to a lot

of people, but the pos-sibilities are endless for every budding musician to create their masterpiece.

No matter what kind of experience one may have, it’s still easy to get an album made. Look into some of these options today, and get your music out there.

The MBox: This is an entry level recording interface which works with your computer and is used by many professional producers

How to get yourself onto CD:

1) Some songs, which need to be complete

2) A good space for recording, like a garage or basement; anywhere that is relatively soundproof

3) A recording interface, such as the MBox, and a computer to run the MBox and ProTools software on

4) A minor understanding of the process of mixing, so that you can neaten up the sounds recorded

5) Some blank CD’s to distribute to the excited public

6) An interested audience to listen to your masterpiece.

Jonathon Williamsonstaff writer

David Agerstaff writer

M: Peter Lorre plays the deranged killer in the classic fi lm-noir “M.” This is one of director Fritz Lang’s fi nest work

Matt Gauntlettstaff writer

The MBOX: about $500

Tips and use-ful advice for those looking to record their own MUSIC

Suicide Club

http://www.fi lmkultura.iif.hu:8080/1999/articles/essays/tukor.hu.html

a little more SQUALL B

Q: What was the scariest part about being in the hospital?

A: Having dreams where I was at home but waking up and still being in the hospital.

Robyn Shepard, junior

Section

When Ken Staples, founder of the Staples

Center in Ann Arbor, contacted art teach-

er Autumn Campbell about doing an art

project for charity, she thought it was a

great idea.

“Ken called me, and it seems like a great way to get

the students involved in something.” Campbell said.

The project is being organized by The Staples Cen-

ter in Ann Arbor. The Staples Center is connected

with the Salvation Army and helps homeless people

get back on their feet.

Campbell’s class is painting a tiger carousel piece,

and the other classes in the area are doing similar

statues. The theme that Campbell’s Advanced Draw-

ing and Painting class chose is “Under the Sea”.

“I really like how it was decided,” senior Dawn

Lindemann said. “We all got to do a drawing.”

Lindemann is an Independent Study student dur-

ing the Advanced Drawing and Painting hour and is

helping out with the charity project.

“What Mrs. Campbell is doing has really changed

the art program,” Lindemann said. “She really in-

spires the students and makes them proud. I think

it’s really amazing to get to do something like this for

charity.”

As Lindemann said, each student in the class was

allowed to come up with their own theme.

Senior Josh Milks originally had his theme, a psy-

chedelic tiger, picked before changes were made to

have an “Under the Sea” theme instead.

“I like drawing really small with a lot of stuff,”

Milks said. “I really think a psychedelic tiger would

look cool in downtown Ann Arbor.

The “Under the Sea” theme was picked from a few

different student ideas. Some of the other themes

were a University of Michigan design, some abstract

and colorful ideas and even a cyborg tiger.

Milks also agrees that having the involvement of a

charity cause is a good thing.

“Charity is cool,” he said. “I hope it gets sold for a

lot of money.”

Although Campbell has done other projects and

displayed her students work, she thinks this is a spe-

cial chance to get involved.

“I’ve never gotten an opportunity quite like this,”

she said. “It’s great community service, and it’s really

for a good cause.”

The tiger, which is supposed to be finished by May,

will go on display over the summer.

“They might not just be going in Ann Arbor,”

Campbell said. “I mentioned putting it in Dexter so

the local community can see what the kids are doing,

so that is a possibility.”

Junior returns after five week battle against

nameless disease

After her daughter’s throat swelled up so much she couldn’t eat and after her daughter had a high fever for nearly three weeks, junior Robyn Shepard’s mom decided to take her to Chelsea Hospital.

“My mom was afraid that I had mono so she took me to Chelsea to see what was wrong,” Robyn said. “The doctors over there had no idea what was wrong with me so they just put me on Vicodin.”

Robyn’s mom, who is a nurse at the University of Michigan hospital, thought that Robyn might be overre-acting at first.

“Robyn tends to be a bit dramatic so I thought she was just exaggerat-ing,” Mrs. Shepard said.

After choking one of the Vicodin down, Robyn knew there was no way she could get another one down her throat.

“Those pills are huge, and I couldn’t even swallow food at the time, so I knew we had to go to a dif-ferent doctor,” she said.

The next day Robyn’s mom took her to the University of Michigan hospital. She had a very high white blood cell count so the doctors first put her on a medicine to cure a dis-ease she didn’t end up having.

But when the medicine started to kill her good blood cells and make her more sick, the doctors knew what they were dealing with.

The doctors at U of M were able to recognize the disease, but there isn’t a name for it since there have been so few cases. There have been 50 reported cases in the world and

nine of them have been at the U of M hospital.

The University of Michigan im-mediately admitted Robyn and put her on morphine. Her white blood cell count was really low, and she was in the hospital for two weeks and doesn’t remember any of it.

“When I first knew I was going to be put on morphine, I told my mom to not let anyone come see me,” she said. “I guess my boyfriend came every day, but I don’t remember him coming a single time.”

The entire two weeks she was in the hospital Robyn was on a feeding tube.

“A feeding tube is the most pain-ful thing you could ever have,” she said. “People think kidney stones are bad. I actually had some back in the fall and feeding tubes are way worse.”

Raleigh Holmesmorale manager

Kendall Goodephoto manager

April 28, 2005

While her daughter was in the hospital Mrs. Shepard took a leave from work and was by her daughter’s side the whole two weeks.

“Being a nurse I knew more than most parents would,” Mrs. Shepard said.

“It was almost worse. I knew too much, and I know how things are done at the hospital so it was very scary. It was hard to have a stranger taking care of my daughter, even though that’s what I do every day for a living.”

Due to the lack of water in Robyn’s system, her doctors were afraid that her kidneys were going to fail, so they made her chug water which she said was really painful, but it had to be done.

Robyn missed five weeks of school but managed to catch up with almost all her work.

Stellar school spirit snatches award

Art students raise money for homeless charity

A sea of students dressed in ma-roon and gold chanted “D-H-S” as a Channel 4 cameraman circled the gym floor catching it all on film.

Several seniors including Kev-in Vlazny and Renden LeMasters showed their spirit by painting their chest maroon and gold, while sophomore Sean King crowd surfed dressed in a gorilla costume.

The reason for this craziness was that Dexter High School was selected to receive the ABC Ware-house School Spirit Award present-ed by the State Champ television program on WDIV, Channel 4 in Detroit.

LeMasters said he got the idea to paint his chest from professional

and college sporting events. “I wanted to show that not only

does Dexter have the most school spirit but that of the students I’m one of the people with the most spirit,” he said. “It was clear to me the best way to show my spirit would be to paint my chest.”

King said he had other motives for dressing in a gorilla costume.

“My friends and I wanted to get on TV,” he said. “We had the cos-tume left over from a video we made for school, and we thought if one of us dressed up in it we would be sure to get filmed.”

Senior student council president Ryan Bruder received the award on behalf of the student body.

“I was surprised that we were rec-ognized,” he said. “It shows that what goes on in Dexter is important.”

Bruder said he hopes that the award will serve as a reminder of the potential school spirit at Dexter.

“Even though a lot of people couldn’t believe we got the award, they were still excited about it,” he said. “Hopefully the excitement the award created won’t go away.”

“The more people want to partici-pate in what is going on, the better our school will be.”

Senior Kayla Wing was also pres-ent to receive the award. As an ac-tive member of student council since her freshman year, she said she was happy to see all of her dedication to student council pay off.

“There are a couple of us that have dedicated a lot of time to stu-dent council, and it doesn’t seem like it is always appreciated,” she said. “But this award made me realize

that the last four years of hard work were worth it.”

Not only was the hard work of student council displayed but also the dedication of a Dexter athlete.

Junior Scott Chevalier was asked by football coach Tom Barbieri to squat 500 pounds as the entertain-ment for the assembly.

“It wasn’t about trying to show how strong I am,” Chevalier said. “But it was a once in a lifetime chance to have the whole school supporting me in something that I’ve worked hard at.”

According to Bruder the assem-bly was a success.

“The majority of kids participat-ed in the assembly,” he said. “Hope-fully this will keep up and Dexter will continue to be known for great school spirit.”

Painting the tiger

Hooray for Dexter: Seniors Ryan Bruder and Renden LeMasters accept the ABC Warehouse School Spirit Award.

Molly Brewstermorale manager

COLORING THE CITY

“

”

Hopefully this will keep up and Dexter will continue to be known for great school spirit.

-Ryan Bruder, senior

“Spring Break helped a lot with being able to catch up,” she said. “The only class I’m behind in is Chemistry. It’s been really stress-ful.”

Now, a week after leaving the hospital, Robyn is feeling much bet-ter but still has some effects of the disease. She gets fevers often and gets tired very easily.

There is also the chance of the disease coming back.

“The doctors are afraid of it mov-ing to my abdomen,” she said.

“I have to keep going back to the hospital so they can test me to make sure it won’t come back.”

Through all her troubles Robyn still manages to keep a good attitude towards being sick.

She said, “My mom always said what doesn’t kill you, cures you and what doesn’t cure you, kills you.”

photo by: Brandon Mayotte

Photos by Kendall Goode

Under the Sea: Juniors Kristin Kolakowski and Lauren Whitmer and senior Liz Emhoff paint the Under the Sea themed tiger in the art room. The tiger will be on display in May and be sold to raise money for the homeless.

8 the Squall Thursday, April 28, 2005

Graduates need not aim for LA, NYC, money after graduation

A few weeks ago, during March, I drove to Pennsylvania and back with my family.

All in one day we traveled to the funeral of my dad’s cousin’s hus-band.

I stayed in the western Pennsyl-vania hills for mere hours and most of those were spent in a church.

Many times I’ve gone to that area for family reunions and wasn’t im-pressed.

It was just something I had to

do.But in this visit I saw back in

time: a newspaper with the obituary had print style from the 50’s, people drove cars from the 80’s, the average funeral attendant’s dress was simple enough to transcend changing fash-ions.

I saw where my dad got his prag-matic, day by day approach to life.

I saw a place where families al-ways left but rarely moved in. If Dex-ter ever had an opposite, this was it.

As I creep nearer to graduation I hear the relief in my voice and oth-ers’: “I’m so glad to get out of Dexter. It’s the most boring, most out-of-date, most regressive place to live.

I’m ready to have fun, to have an in-teresting life - with options.”

During this trip I fi nally realized the lie I had been experiencing.

I never saw how lucky we are.The class

of 2004 had some 30 stu-dents go to the University of Michigan, one of the most p r e s t i g i o u s universities in the country.

We have access to aca-demic facilities, sporting events, em-ployment and other resources from the U of M.

Not only this, but Dexter has

‘Save Toby’ hoax easily revealed

MEAPs need improvement or else elimination

Help in not-so-high places

nearby movie theaters, restaurants, lakes, libraries, parks, bowling al-leys; the list continues.

The fact is, even if all our wants aren’t satisfi ed, we don’t have needs.

I saw plenty of unfulfi lled wants in the life of my dad’s relative.

“Larry B. Nickel, lifelong resident of Clark,” starts his obituary, 67 years living in one town.

He served in Vietnam, was active in church, worked into his retire-ment, volunteered as a fi refi ghter.

If there was anything the pastor

Happy Tree Friends

Thoughts of an emo kid

1337 5AUC3

Thomas Leonardopinions editor

Teri Chiadophoto manager

T. J. Larosastaff writer

Kendall Goodephoto manager

After sitting in a desk for two hours straight, my attention span began to disappear.

Once again I had fallen to the evil beast that is the MEAPs.

Every year juniors are forced to take another standardized test.

This year I was one of those mis-erable students, and that test was the Michigan Educational Assess-

ment Program.The test is made up of fi ve differ-

ent topics tested over a fi ve day pe-riod.

First of all I’d like to say that I re-ally believe the MEAPs are a huge waste of my time.

Tests aren’t exactly my forte, but that isn’t what makes me dislike the MEAPs so much.

My problem stems from a collec-tion of smaller problems.

Each morning before the tests began, carts set up by the para-pros were fi lled with food to nourish the incoming hoard of teenage angst and sleeplessness.

Each cart was placed in a very strategic location to allow students to begin their day with orange juice in a paper box that tasted too much like the box it was packaged in, ba-gels we see every day at lunch and frozen cartons of fruit punch.

After my horrible experience with the provided nourishment, I decided to go with some doughnuts and chocolate milk from the break-fast store before the test.

The tests themselves were riddled with essays, uninteresting topics and questions I found impossible to fi nd the answers to.

During the tests I continuously found myself asking why I was really taking them.

Of course, the better I do, the

more money I receive for college tu-ition.

The Squall has done countless articles on community service that goes along with the MEAP, but at the end of the fi rst test day secretary Joan Whitehead made an announce-ment stating that community service isn’t linked to the MEAPs.

The money that comes from the MEAP is an issue on its own.

But I still see very little good that comes from this standardized test.

There were a few things I liked about the MEAPs.

Our schedule was shortened, and even though most juniors and a handful of other high school stu-dents, me included, were at school at the regular time, I enjoyed the short-

ened class schedule.The tests didn’t seem diffi cult

in general. I was fi nished within an hour of the given two hour time.

That allowed for some time to pull a comic book out and do some reading. Sometimes I slept.

I did an extravagant amount of my homework: math and science.

I do have some suggestions, though, for making the MEAPs something that we all can be excited about for years to come.

I suggest a physical section be added which involves fi re and a few angry man eating gorillas.

This would easily solve the prob-lem of overweight teenagers.

My fi nal suggestion would be eliminating MEAPs all together.

You could shorten the school year by having the days we take those ex-ams be regular school days.

Even making this test optional would be a great improvement on the current process.

Most every student would be ex-cited if they learned that they could avoid another standardized test.

The people in charge of the tests could give the money saved to stu-dents to spend on college without having to take another test.

To recap, the MEAPs sucked and there is much room for improve-ment.

Whether the improvement need-ed is in the test itself or just the food provided beforehand, some great changes could be made.

“Unfortunately, on June 30th, 2005, Toby will die. I am going to eat him.” -http://www.savetoby.com

Since early 2005, every bunny lover with access to the Internet has been biting their nails in a nervous frenzy.

In light of all the unorthodox methods of income on ebay includ-ing forehead advertising comes a Paypal (online-credit fi rm) donation site with a ransom theme.

An anonymous gentlemen (male sex determined by excessive hair on hands in bunny pictures) demands $50,000 by June 30, 2005 or he will ingest his pet rabbit.

Indeed the focus of the donation seems a little cold-hearted and dry, but the author dresses it up with a nice story.

According to the site, Toby was found under the author’s deck, wounded upon sight, possibly vic-timized by an alley cat.

Being the kind man he is, he took it upon himself to nurse the bunny back to health.

Now this trauma-tranced bunny is being held ransom.

As if this situation weren’t enough to include a tear-jerking yet heartwarming story of survival, the author sucks in more donors with threats.

An entire page is included about ways he will eat Toby after he takes his friend to a butcher, with God as his witness.

A slew of recipes on the site in-clude “Toby Stew” and Hasenpfeffer, where the small rodent’s edible anat-omy will be sautéed with vegetables, sauces and various spice.

For people who wanted to donate to what they thought was a worthy cause but wanted something in re-turn, there was a link to a Cafépress store.

Cafépress offers to put images on T-shirts, mugs, thongs, etc. and sell these items from their web site.

Clever T-shirt designs included a vintage styled shirt that read “Toby’s Bar and Grill - eat what you want, as long as it isn’t me.”

Finally, when I scrolled to the bottom of the page, the browser and observed what appears to be a bal-ance of the man’s Paypal account.

As of April 10, the balance was over $20,000 from thousands of do-nors.

If you fell for this hoax, I just fl at out feel sorry for you.

You must be using a Macintosh computer.

If you were on a PC, like yours truly, you’d be able to right click the image box of the “balance”.

I was about to donate a dollar to this man, simply because it was a funny idea to me, and buying the do-main was probably expensive for all the visitors it was getting.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the eating of bunnies, especially ones held at ransom.

Anyway, before I donated I want-ed to see if this guy really did suck in 20 grand from a bunch of losers. The balance number had a little blur around it, and it looked rendered.

I right-clicked, and saw that it was a JPG fi le.

This told me that this image was a still picture, and still pictures can’t update the amount of money in a balance.

That was the fi rst sign of hoax-age.

As I began to grow wary of the truth in this site, I tried to access the Paypal account. Paypal instantly informed me that the account was closed.

How could he be raking in so much money if the account is closed?

Having my mind open to tech-nical diffi culties on Paypal’s end, I checked the next day and sure enough, the balance had grown, the box was still a rendered JPG fi le, and the Paypal account was still closed.

This was the point at which I gave up all hope in the truth of this site as well as the life of the bunny.

To see if anyone else knew that this was fake, I checked around the web. I found several results.

One page even informed me of many other sites that had the exact same pictures as this author did of Toby.

On one site, a girl even asked for funding to save her pet in the form of an iPod.

To be honest, I was a little let down after I found out that this was a joke.

I had a hunch all along, but I kept telling myself it was real for a few different reasons.

One, I had recently set up my own Paypal account, and I wanted to test it out.

On the other hand, I wanted to see what would happen if the guy didn’t get his money and what he would do to the bunny.

So I will end on this note: I am in-terested in trying heroin via needle, but I fear that if I get addicted I’ll need money to pay for all the drugs and sterile needles.

You can donate directly into my Paypal account, hand me cash. Funding will be accepted in the form of an iPod .

opinions

Throughout life, people will come and go. People will be un-kind and people will help. But in some cases there are those hand-ful of people who will bend over backwards to do anything they can to make sure of others’ suc-cess. I was lucky enough to have those people along the way.

When this year’s senior class were freshmen, it was terrifying. No one knew what to expect. No one was prepared for what was about to be the beginning of the rest of our lives.

Were we going to get picked on? Were teachers going to laugh or yell at us? For some, the answers may have been yes.

Our class has had to go through the same things every other class had to, with slightly different twists and turns along the way. But generally the struggle, the heartache and the fun was all the same as in the past.

But who I appreciate are those who were there to stick around through it all, and that’s not men-tioning friends. The staff of DHS has been challenging, great and helpful all throughout my high school career.

Some teachers I have had all four years. Some I have had just a couple. But something I will nev-er forget is how big of infl uences they have been on me. These peo-ple have taught me and prepared

me for life and have never given up on me.

For example, many people know about situations in my life I have expressed through my past articles. And others know about an inci-dent that happened last year when a friend and I left the States to live in Mexico. Of course, since we got caught, and I got put in a juvenile facility, I missed a lot of school.

I never thought I would gradu-ate after I got out of juvy because I had exceeded enough absences for about two years. But instead of dropping out and giving up with a loss of hope, the Academic Support program stepped in.

They helped talk to my teachers and fi gure out a system that would work for me to catch up on every-thing I missed in my absence.

I had to work for what I have now, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the cooperation of a group of people. The school coun-selors were great, rearranging my schedule and helping me with my loss of credits.

Specifi cally the Academic Sup-port teachers, Julie Stilber, Amy Raus, Kim Goffe and Laura Shultz helped me get my work done.

They stayed on my back until it was done, because that was the system we came up with to work for me. And I also had a lot of help and understanding from a few of my other teachers.

English teachers Rod Satterth-waite and Andrew Parker and math teacher Al Snider let me know I had someone to go to when I need help, or just need to talk. They were all

wonderful about keeping that of-fer open. They also gave me a huge break, leaving me able to fi nish and pass the classes I missed, instead of dropping them and failing.

Considering the situation and stress I was dealing with, those people have bent over backwards more than once for me, and I know they would not hesitate to do that again for someone else. That is what they are here to do.

Since I walked into high school four years ago, I became an adult. And I have many people here to thank for that. I have maintained my grades, no matter how low they dropped, because I always asked for a little help.

I was always afraid to ask, though. A lot of people are afraid. Because since when is it “cool” to ask a teacher for help to get the right thing done? You’d probably rather ask a friend.

That’s common, but there’s nothing a teacher won’t do to help achieve goals.

That’s why DHS has programs for these mishaps. We have Aca-demic Support programs and a new project coming next year.

This project, Project RISE, will be taught by English teacher Matt Martello. This new program will be open for kids who struggle in school academically. It will be run similar to a study hall.

Even though Project RISE will be open for more students than ac-ademic support, the program won’t be open for students with discipline problems or lazy students.

If this were the opposite, we wouldn’t have a very successful program.

But how the administration will decide who is accepted and rejected for the program is still in progress.

This program corrects a fl aw in our current Academic Support pro-gram: it is not open to just anyone. To be approved for these programs, some kind of disability has to be in the picture.

And that’s not fair to students who just need a little hand up.

I had emotional problems and things along those lines, and that is why I got accepted for the program. But I’m sure there are kids who are worse off than me in school and can-not get into this helpful program be-cause there is no disability.

Academic support teachers are here to help get students back on track. But a lot of students go un-helped and get worse into school be-cause they have no disability.

And if that is not the case, it could be lack of information.

Our school may have this won-derful program, but no one knows much about it because there is no one who informs people. The school needs to clearly show kids there is help and there’s no need to be afraid to ask for it.

And until a new program is con-structed, we need something avail-able as a hand up, not a “special edu-cation.”

I was lucky enough to get the break I needed to get my life to-gether. I hope someone else gets the chance to be helped liked I did.

It wouldn’t be fair to let others go because of a nonexistent problem or distraction from learning.

And for the students, don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s always there in many different ways.

said that day, it wasn’t about any ground-breaking invention or life achievement.

It was about the smile he always wore on his face.

That coming from a man who lived in one house since marriage and whose children moved out, es-caped if you will, to richer areas.

A man who saw the steel plants shut down and the weeds crawl up through the church building that should have been replaced.

That smile, that commitment, takes more than a high school di-ploma.

People paved over roads but never fl attened them out, dams never got reinforced: if something broke, a fi x wasn’t always available.

Junk piles grew as factories

crumbled in dilapidation. The fruit salad served after the

funeral by the church ladies was the same my dad’s mom made – they only used fresh fruit when it was stocked in the grocery store.

Most of us, the seniors of 2005, wouldn’t admit to a résumé like Nickel’s.

Living in Dexter for the rest of my life?

I think not.If I could just be a fashion design-

er in New York, a fi lm director in LA, something better than my dad.

Once I get out of here I’ll fl y over to Amsterdam and hang out with my friends this summer.

Then I can leave Dexter’s trash behind for good.

Right?

“”

“Larry B. Nickel, lifelong resident of Clark,” starts his obituary, 67 years living in one town ... Most of us, the seniors of 2005, wouldn’t admit to a résumé like Nickel’s.

Grains of Salt

Photo by Mike Vickers

Fake sacrifi ce of bunny fools thousands but we found the truth about this wascally wabbit

THE SQUALL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:Sarah Craft

MANAGING EDITOR:Michelle Svetkoff

EDITORS

FEATURES: Jenny HeldtENTERTAINMENT: Samantha HarrisNEWS: Kyle MuseOPINIONS: Thomas LeonardPHOTO: Brandon Mayotte and Teri ChiadoSPORTS: Lee HoggardDESIGN: Mike VickersCOPY: Hilary McCown

MANAGERS

BUSINESS: Stephanie RushlowMORALE: Raleigh Holmes and Molly BrewsterPHOTO: Christina Field and Kendall GoodeCIRCULATION: Jennifer Allen and Sara Newell

STAFF WRITERS

David Ager Matt GauntlettRobert KuzonTJ LaRosaDaniel MonsonSeth PorinskiJonathan Williamson

AD DESIGNER: Eric WilkinsonCARTOONIST: Jared Myers

ADVISER: Rod Satterthwaite

POLICY:The Squall is distributed monthly to 1,083 stu-dents and reaches an estimated 4,332 people with each issue. The Squall is printed by The Owosso Argus in Owosso, MI and is produced by the third hour newspaper class.

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ADDRESS:The SquallDexter High School2200 N. Parker Rd.Dexter Mi, 48130

THE ALL SQUALL CALL

Amy Jackson, junior Jaime Dudash, teacher

Mary Cebula, sophomore

Nathan Magyar, freshman

Mark Wisnieski, senior“Yes, because if youʼre in an ac-tivity you are obligated to follow through with it.”

“Three full days was a lot of time. When youʼre expecting 30 kids and you have 18, it s̓ tough to run a class.”

“No, it s̓ not fair that other people get out of school early and I don t̓.”

“Yes, this way it doesn t̓ take up their whole spring break.”

Dreads in the hallShould students be allowed to miss school for organizations such as band right before breaks?

“Yes. I mean what do students like more than missing school?”

School trip policy needs to change

Spring is a hectic time of year. Spring sports begin, exams approach and future decisions are made. Spring Break often provides the only relief for students.

When students have a chance to extend their Spring Break and miss some extra days through a school or family trip, however, they have to make a choice. Extend their break and fall behind in school or take only one week and keep their grades up.

Recently members of the band had a chance to take a trip to Florida to help fine-tune their skills. The trip cost $800 and included six days of fun. Three of those six days were school days.

Because of the number of school days students were forced to miss, many band students opted not to go despite the obvi-ous value. Many teachers were also upset that this extra va-cation time conflicted with their tight curricular schedules.

Many students who went on the trip struggled to play catch-up because the trip set them back three days. Many of the teachers upset were the ones teaching higher level classes. They said it is hard to prepare students for Advanced Place-ment examinations when they miss several days of school.

As a result of the complaints from teachers, the school’s policy committee is taking action. Their proposal would make teachers who plan to take students out of school for more than two days get approved from the rest of the teach-ers first.

This proposal would be very effective. Teachers would be able to account for these absences when structuring their school year. This would also make it easier for students to come back to school after a trip because their teachers would know about it prior to the trip.

This plan does make it harder for teachers who do have educational reasons for taking students out of class, like the band, however. Band instructors said that the trip to Florida provided a wonderful opportunity for the band. It was ex-tremely educational for them, and gave them a chance to per-form as professionals, they said.

Despite the perks of trips such as this, something needs to change. The proposal currently under review by the policy committee would allow teachers to find a middle ground that allows both sides to agree on a single solution for the benefit of all students.

Dear Editor, I wanted to say how proud I am of

the DHS Drama production of “Blood Brothers.” I worked very closely with the cast and crew and thought they did a great job.

Because I have a background in the-atre and wanted to work with the DHS Drama Club, I volunteered to direct an-other show this year.

This show, “The Last Dance of Dr. Disco” by Eileen Moushey was specifi-cally written as a murder-mystery din-ner theatre production.

Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7, the audience will be stepping back in time to the late 1970’s when disco ruled the dance floor. The Mill Creek Land-ing will be turned into the “Landing Discothèque” and Dr. Disco will intro-duce the victims ... er ... the guests to something far out and freaky.

It will be a mind-blowing experi-ence. Mind Blowing! HAHAHA.

Tony and Angie, the Landing’s fea-tured dancers, will teach a new dance to some guests who really know how to boogie.

The evening will include entertain-ment, a full dinner, a clue hunt that will test your knowledge of the 70’s and prizes for those who can solve the mys-tery.

This event is perfect for groups of friends, office gatherings, families and anyone who dares to wear polyester.

The cast of “The Last Dance of Dr.

the SquallThursday, April 28, 2005 opinions 9

Illustration by Jared Myers

Disco” includes Brittany Batell, Tally Chomic, Sebastian Gerstner, Stephanie Herrlinger, Ben James, Nathan Magyar, Eva Neil, Tom Neil, Jackie Stotlar and many others who will help with the clue hunt.

I am still looking for a student to “DJ” the evening and others to help with the clue hunt.

Tickets for “The Last Dance of Dr. Disco” are $20 per person or $150 per table of 8 and are available at Dexter’s Country Market.

Seating is limited. Ticket sales end Wednesday, May 4. Be prepared for a totally groovy time and Disco attire is encouraged.

For more information or to help, please call Mrs. Chomic at 734-449-8402

Congratulations DHS Drama for a great season!

Sincerely,Mrs. Francyn Chomic

Parent encourages students to see new production

Dear Editor,

The toil of shuffling feet and antici-pating warble of conversations grew as the audience filed into the CPA.

While meeting many of my friends, who also came to see the performance, I couldn’t help but wonder in the back of my mind what the show was going to be like or what to expect.

I knew only the basic story line and also that the play went through seg-

ments of time, skipping seven years ahead in the lives of their characters.

From all the pictures I saw, I almost expected them to play little kids while standing on their knees.

As the lights dimmed, nervous chat-ter subsided, and once again I could hear the hearts of our young actors, flut-tering behind the heavy velvet curtain in anticipation and thrill. The theater’s darkness melted away with the final melancholy notes of the overture.

I knew that “Blood Brothers,” written by Willy Russell and directed by Harry Wilcox on our Dexter stage was meant to be a tearjerker. After seeing the play, however, I thought its advertisement to put you “down in the dumps” if you ex-pected a fairytale ending did it no jus-tice.

Not only did it soften you emotion-ally, but also it carried at least one in-stance, if not more, that people in the audience experienced in their lifetime.

Whether it was the runaway train of adolescent life coming on too fast or “haves” and “have-nots” jealousy, losing an object or person dear to you, or play-ing the summer away with your friends, first love, or wishing to be in someone else’s shoes.

These and many more carried on a prominent segment in the melodrama.

The audience was fooled and cap-tivated by the time the intermission came. We were kept on our toes through the first act.

The darker undertone, foreshadow-ing something unstoppable and myste-rious with an array of superstitions, at times faded with laughter.

Some actors did an admirable job getting into character.

My favorite scene and the one that everybody bought was the one where the two kids meet for the first time. They are shy and hesitant, both a little afraid of what might happen; this pure inno-cence, too often lost in the “unspoken rules” of social conduct in high school life, brought back my own memories of making new friends.

Another memorable scene stuck in my mind was the real state of poverty Mrs. Johnston was living in. It almost tore my soul when I saw her come back from the hospital with the twins, just in time to see her things confiscated and carried away.

They took all to pay off her debts, and she is left with nothing but the audi-ence’s sympathy.

Her voice in resounding clearness is a beacon of hope, though her expres-sive tone makes a plea for pity, and you believe all the emotional distress right until the end.

After the fabulous standing ovation, I didn’t come out depressed or in a rot-ten mood.

The show gave me many ideas to think about as the music still rang in my ears for several hours afterward.

It surpassed all my expectations, and I was impressed you don’t have to walk on your knees to play a seven, almost eight, year old child.

I hope those who went to see it, and having tasted its bittersweet, will still remember it with a cherry on top for all those moments we can relate to our own and remember.

Sincerely,Margarita Malyshevasophomore

‘Blood Brothers’ exceeds student’s expectations

Letters To The Editor

10 the Squall Thursday, April 28, 2005sports

Division 1 hockey an option for some female players next spring

Hi-Ya: Senior Erin Hoyer punches senior Dan Thomas. Karate has been around in the world as early as 1422 when the people of Okinowa learned to train and fight in hand to hand combat to battle Chinese and Japanese invasions.

It’s time to start thinking about the future. And it just so happens that a few women hock-

ey players might be involved in the future of wom-en’s college hockey.

Seniors Kristen Burrows and Jenny Heldt have both decided to play women’s club hockey in col-lege.

Burrows is headed to Western Michigan Uni-versity. She said she would like to play for West-ern’s club team, since they don’t have a varsity program.

However Burrows said she still needs to try out for the team in August.

Heldt is attending Michigan State this Fall. “State has been one of the best club teams in

the nation the past few years,” she said.

“I’m really excited to have the chance to play for them.”

Both Burrows and Heldt say they have worked hard since they were very young and still want to play hockey in college even if it’s not for a varsity program.

There are also two junior girls hoping to contribute to the future of women’s hockey.

Juniors Lauren Ham-by and Kelly Hughes both plan to play Divi-sion 1 or 3 women’s col-lege hockey.

Hamby played for Honey Baked Hockey club this year.

She plans to continue playing for them next year too.

“I’ve received a let-ter from Ohio State and heard that Wayne State

might be interested as well,” Hamby said.Hamby also said that many schools will make

more contact over the summer and into next year.

Hamby said she will be taking the summer pretty easy.

However she will attend a skills camp in Colo-rado.

She could be offered scholarships as early as the summer.

Hughes is the other junior with hopes of play-ing Division 1 or 3 college hockey.

Hughes has talked to four different schools. Bemidji State University is a Division 1 pro-

gram that belongs to the WCHA hockey confer-ence.

Bemidji has shown interest in Hughes. Along with Bemidji, many other smaller

schools such as Gustavus and Lake Forest also showed interest.

Hughes plans to continue to play for her team The Pride and also plans to attend many showcas-es including The Prospects camp this summer.

Hughes has also received a letter from the Uni-versity of Connecticut.

She said, “I’m just going to continue to work hard over the summer and into next year and hopefully I will have the chance to play in col-lege.”

Senior karate master shows her moves

Eric Wilkinsonad designer

Lee Hoggardsports editor

Photos by Sarah Craft

Erin Hoyer spends years perfecting her karate to have it pay off in a black belt

Sitting in the library, several stu-dents exchange worried glances as they see a girl perform a tornado kick in the corner.

Senior Erin Hoyer, a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, demonstrated several Karate moves when asked about her ninja skills.

Hoyer, who recently became a first degree black belt, has been tak-ing Tae Kwon Do lessons for four and a half years and is also a teacher at Keith Hafner’s Karate.

“I also do weapons karate,” Hoyer said, “My specialties are nuchukau and escrima sticks, which are my fa-vorite weapons, but I’m pretty good with a bo-staff.”

The weapons class is only for peo-ple who are at least at the level of a brown belt, which is two belts below a black belt.

When working the way through the classes of Karate, the belts range from white to black, with eight levels in between.

While teaching lessons, she also furthers her own skill level.

Recently becoming a first degree black belt, she has many degrees left until she becomes a master.

“There are ten degrees of black belt, but the last one, the tenth de-gree is only awarded after death. It’s mostly for honor and show,” Hoyer said. “However, if you make it as far as fourth degree black belt, you are a master.”

While karate, to most people, seems to be lessons in beating peo-ple mercilessly, Hoyer says that is not it at all.

“Karate is good for mental health as well as physical health,” Hoyer said

“Being a black belt is not about kicking a--. It’s about not having to kick a--.”

Karate, as much as it is good exer-cise, entertainment, and training, a lot of it is for show. “There are a lot of ceremonies and shows,” Hoyer said.

“Breaking boards and bricks doesn’t teach you anything real about self defense, and many of the moves are something you’d never actually do if you had to fight someone, but we hope to never use them anyway.”

Hoyer is not the only black belt in the school though. Seniors Brian Grosso, Kason Van Doren and Tom Rich, as well as junior Cynthia Dou-cette are a few names she mentioned who are among the many black belts in the area.

While karate is a good way to get fit, it really helps to be fairly in shape prior to beginning, or else it will be hard to keep up. But don’t let that discourage you from trying.

People who take part in kara-te seem to really enjoy it, and the awards of gaining ranks and belts is a worthy goal to work towards.

While Hoyer demonstrated a “Tornado Kick” in the library, senior Bryan Vessels took it upon himself to give it a try. “It isn’t as easy as it looks,” Vessels said. “I think I might have pulled a muscle in my leg.”

Although in karate people learn moves that could injure someone, Hoyer hopes to never have to have them come in handy. “I just hope that I never have to use my skills to defend myself,” Hoyer said.

“Just because I can take someone out, doesn’t mean I want or need to.”

Future women hockey play-ers and their options for the fall:

Kelly Hughes: Bemijdi State University, Gus-tavus Universi-ty, Lake Forest University.

Lauren Hamby: Wayne State Univer-sity, Ohio State University.

Jenny Heldt: Michigan State University Club Hockey. “I am excited to play because a lot of the other players on the team will be better than me and able to push me to succeed,” Heldt said. “I think that it will also be a great experience for me to have that I will probably remember the rest of my life.”

Kristen Burrows: Western Michi-gan University Club Hockey. “Western has a really good girls team and they won the WCCHA this year. They were 22-0 and the coach is very good which means I will get better by playing on it,” Burrows said. “Overall I am really excited to be play for the club team next year. I think it will be fun.”

Chillin’ out: Hoyer sits and stretches to calm her-self down. Hoyer said she stretches be-fore doing any sort of karate to loosen up.

“

”

State has been one of the best club teams in the nation the past few years, so I’m really ex-cited to have the chance to play for them.

Jenny Heldt, senior

The colors of karate• White signifies a birth of a seed.• Yellow signifies the first beam of sunlight which shines upon the seed • Green signifies the growth of the seed as it sprouts from the earth.• Blue signifies the blue sky as the plant continues to grow toward it. • Red signifies the red-hot sun as the plant continues to grow toward it. • Black signifies the darkness beyond the sun. A black belt continues to learn more about karate.

http://www.itatkd.com/http://www.itatkd.com

For the past four years students have had the opportunity to par-ticipate in an athletic training pro-gram headed by Linda Nareski, the district’s trainer. “I had my first student in 2001,” N a r e s k i said. “It was sort of an ac-cident, but since then I have had at least one student.” Nareski said she has several stu-dents who have gone on to more a d v a n c e d s c h o o l i n g to become athletic trainers. Among them are Chelsea Spar-row who is currently attending the athletic training program at Lake Superior State and senior Ryan Hil-burn who plans to attend Eastern Michigan’s training program next fall. “The biggest benefit of the class is that you get a lot of hands on ex-perience,” Nareski said. “All of my students are very hard working and eager to learn.” “Overall I like my job a lot,” Na-reski said. “I’ve always loved sports and watching sports.” Linda works a split schedule spending three mornings a week at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube helping people with physical therapy and workout plans and then comes to DHS every day for various sports practices and games. Nareski is a Dexter High school graduate and says it is the main rea-son that she chose to work in Dex-ter. She had to take four years of college courses to earn her bach-elors degree necessary to become a trainer. Hilburn, who is taking an Inde-pendent Studies Athletic Training class sixth hour when says work-ing with Nareski comes in gives her some on the job training. Hilburn says that spending time with Linda has really helped her to prepare for her future. “I want to be a athletic trainer, so it

gives me some experience and the basic knowledge you need to move onto a higher level of education,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun and you learn a lot.” Although it is not required, Hil-burn sometimes helps Nareski at the Medsport Center at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube and has even been to Dominos Farms a few times as extra training.

“Athletic training is not an easy class as many people may think,” Hil-burn said. “It requires a lot of knowl-edge and spending a lot of your own time to help out.” You pretty much have to go to every-thing, or try to at least. When there are no games

Maegan Michalik and I usually split the time who will stay after school to help cover practices.” It isn’t all work though. “We got into some trouble with Connie one time when we borrowed the gator and had too many people on it. It was really funny,” Hilburn said. Hilburn highly recommends the class to everybody who is interested in athletics and is thinking about a career in health or training. The Independent Studies Ath-letic Training class is not as easy to get into as others. Students need to fill out paper work confirming that they are eligible for the class, it needs to be signed by the principal and parents or guardians. “I think that the class is extreme-ly beneficial to anyone who is inter-ested in athletic training,” Nareski said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun if you are willing to put in the time.” Nareski already has six students signed up for the program for the coming year.

11the SquallThursday, April 28, 2005 sports

Problems on the court

Busy busy: Linda Nareski

works at the Ann Arbor Ice

Cube in the mornings and

at the high school in the

afternoon.

Lots of new students cause athletes to move up to Class A

1,058 is the magic number for Dexter athletics this spring. It’s the

enrollment of Dexter High School, and Dexter’s growing enrollment has caused it to become a Class A school. But what does this mean for ath-letics? Not a lot if you’re talking in terms of the regular season. “Dexter already plays a lot of Divi-sion 1 schools in both the SEC con-ference and out of conference regu-lar season schedules,” Dexter athletic director John Robinson said. This is true. Being in the SEC helps Dexter in all of its sports. When you play schools like Saline, Chelsea and Pioneer it helps you prepare for the post season. That’s where the change from class

B to class A is going to make the dif-ference. Dexter will no longer be playing smaller Class B schools in their dis-trict tournaments. They will have to play bigger Class A schools from now on. The sports that this change will directly affect next season are sports like basketball and volleyball. They will now be playing larger schools in their district tournaments. Men’s basketball, for example, played Milan, Ida and Dundee in their district this year. They have three-peated as district champions the past three years.

However the change from Class B to Class A could drastically impact their chances to win next year. Instead of playing smaller Class B schools from around the area in their district tournament, the bas-ketball team will probably be playing bigger Class A schools from around the area. This is also true for volleyball. They play in the same format that basketball uses, where teams play in a district tournaments and then the winners advance to regional. And just like the basketball teams the volleyball team will be affected right away by the class change.

Basketball and volleyball are two major sports affected by the change from Class A to Class B

Thomas Leonardopinions editor

photo by Thomas Leonard

They will also have to play bigger Class A schools in their district tour-naments, making it harder for them to advance to regional. Some sports could potentially be helped in the long run by this change however. Sports that don’t have district tour-naments and go straight to regional like hockey, for example, could po-tentially get out of the tough class region which has most of the private schools in them. However no one is really sure how much that can really help a team because you never know who you’ll draw in the regional tournament.

At this point it is very unclear as to what the impact of moving up to class A will have on Dexter athletics. However as long as all the sports teams keep working hard and pro-gressing there is no reason as to why this move from Class B to Class A should have a negative impact on the athletic programs. MHSAA does not just look at the enrollment in schools, they first look at how many schools they need to be in Class A, B and so on. Then they split the schools up based on enrollment, meaning there is no set number that puts you in one class or another.

Pack & Mail Plus 7073 Dexter- Ann Arbor Rd.

Dexter, MI 48130 (734) 424-9700

Athletic trainer offers independent study Linda Nareskihelps students get experience by providing a class offering hands-on work as a trainer

“”

-Ryan Hilburn, senior

I want to be an athletic trainer so it gives me some experience and the basic knowledge you need to move onto a higher level of education.

Robert KuzonStaff Writer

Looking for success: Junior Jared Kovacs and senior Jay Leadley look up at the basketball rim waiting to see if their shoot went in during their after school game.

For a few weeks in the middle of March there was a minor controver-sy brewing. And according to assis-tant principal Andrea Glynn, “No, it hasn’t really been resolved yet.” After the conclusion of the men’s basketball season, the gym tempo-rarily went unused after school until women’s soccer tryouts began in the spring. So a group of students de-cided to use this available space for some recreational basketball. “After basketball season ended, there was still snow on the ground,” senior Dave Birmingham said. “There weren’t any sports using the gym.” So Birmingham decided that this was a prime opportunity relax with friends and play pickup basketball. “We played basketball for a week and no one had a problem,” senior Jay Leadley said. “Then football players started coming down and playing too.” What started as a game of pick-

up basketball devolved into a series of announcements forbidding stu-dents from playing basketball after school without supervision. Heated arguments sprang up between weight room supervisor, math teacher and coach Brian Baird and the ball play-ers. Baird said he addressed the play-ers as soon as he was aware of their games. He said, “Just because they weren’t caught before doesn’t mean it’s right.” Birmingham was reluctant to argue with a former coach. “I was a captain on the football team,” he said. “I un-derstand that Mr. Baird wants to get his football players up in the weight room; they should be up there. But I’m not in football, and I’m 18, so I should be able to play.” According to administrators, how-ever, the issue is not age, it is the fact that students are on school property without someone checking footwear and preventing injury. “It’s a safety and liability issue,” Baird said. “There needs to be super-vision because the school is liable, not just the students.” Leadley then decided to seek a gym supervisor in order to continue play-ing. “After the first day (of the inci-dent) I went to Mrs. Glynn and asked

her about getting a supervisor, and she said she would bring someone down,” Leadley said. “But when I came back the next Monday, she told me I needed to bring someone to her.” Leadley said he could not find a faculty member willing to supervise the gym and gave up his mission. Glynn said Leadley didn’t approach her with the subject and she didn’t have funds to pay for supervisors. “People can come to me with a su-pervisor,” she said. “The gym sched-ule is pretty crowded, but we can find times.” Even with a tight schedule stu-dents have found time to play bas-ketball and run on the track. “People are running on the track without supervision and Dex-ter graduate Nate Morrill cracked his head open running on the track,” Birmingham said. “It seems as if the people on the track should be affect-ed if we are.” Baird said the track and weight room are open to the community, not the gym floor. Further problems existed. Secre-tary Joan Whitehead said, “Most of the kids were in street clothes,” she said. “They need to be in proper at-tire and basketball shoes. The street

shoes mar it up.” With such a pristine floor she said the school wouldn’t want to resurface the floor any sooner than necessary. Athletic Director John Robinson said the ballpark figure for repolish-ing the gym floor is $5,000 or $12-15,000 for sanding and polishing the gym floor. In addition to the clothing issue, “We don’t want kids unsupervised in a room after school,” Whitehead said. “That’s the basic school policy at issue.” Now that students have moved outside to play basketball, the situ-ation won’t be an issue until next year. “I could see in the future school employees watching out for students playing in the gym after school,” Glynn said. Birmingham considered another option. “I don’t know if it could work if I went to the office and said, ‘I’m 18 so I’m going to keep track of these guys,’” he said. Although Glynn wasn’t sure if an 18 year old would qualify, she indi-cated that only school employees will supervise. “We just want the floor to stay clean,” Glynn said. “And we don’t want them getting hurt.”

Lee Hoggardsports editor

Students cannot play on gym floor without adult supervision

Interested students: If you are interested in taking Independent study with Linda Nareski, please go to the counselors office and register for next year.

He got soul: Senior Ryan Bruder and three other auctioneers helped auction food donated by staff members. NHS adviser and science teacher Cheryl Wells said over $1200 was raised in 45 minutes.

the Squall Thursday, April , 28

As a large group of seniors shuffl e into the lunch room during third hour, food donated by the staff lies before them.

Four auctioneers get up and start the ceremonies.

Seniors Ryan Bruder, Eric Kumbier, Andrew Morse and Trevor Sherwood stand in front of their class taking the role of auctioneers for the day and the bidding begins.

Within a few minutes the seniors get rowdy. “There was a lot of yelling and stuff. It was really funny,” senior Alex Gardner said.

Students spent as much as $50 for a few slices of pizza and a pop. Seniors Jay Leadley, John Dobrei, Aaron Cooch and Josh Cebula spent over $160 for one lunch.

“It was a really good way to make some money for a cause,” Cooch said.

Pizza and pop were not the only thing that sold well at the auction.

“The variety was really good,” Gard-ner said.

A big hit at the auction for the past few years has been peanut but-ter pie made by social studies teacher Ken Koenig

“It takes two hours to make six pies,” Koenig said.

“I got the recipe from the Common Grill cook-book. I think the senior food auction is awe-some. It shows the kids have a sense at putting money to a good cause.”

According to NHS adviser and science teacher Cheryl Wells, this year’s auction raised a record breaking $1200 and was split between charities for muscular dys-trophy and cystic fi brosis.

Wells said the fi rst food auction 19 years ago raised $400.

The event is organized by NHS and Wells.

“I try to think of it as the fi rst senior event that they get to come together and celebrate and is something that will al-ways be in there memories when they look back to high school,” Wells said.

Students were surprised at how much money the auction raised in such a short amount of time.

“I didn’t think we could raise that much in that amount of time,” senior Kim Evan-ski said.

Wells also thinks the auction went well. She said, “The auction was a great success.”

NHS food auction raises $1200 for muscular dystrophy, cystic fi brosisBrandon Mayottephoto editor

12photostory

Getting in on the action: Trying to get the auctioneer’s attention, senior Tom Syzmanski calls out his bid on pizza, cookies and pop. Syzmanski said he spent $45 at the auction.

Cake fi ght: Seniors Leah Sullivan and Anna LaForest dig into their newly acquired cake. The group of ten seniors bought the cake made by social studies teacher Susie Walters for $64. “Mrs. Walters makes really good cakes,” Laforest said.

Next item for sale: In the madness of the scene, senior Tara King places a bid on the item up for sale. Seniors Jay Leadley, Josh Cebula, Aaron Cooch and John Dobrei pooled together over $160 for a pizza, cake, pop, candy bars and rocky road brownies.

Photo by Mike Vickers

Photo by Mike Vickors

Photo by Sarah Craft

Photo by Sarah Craft