TheViking Press

GOING GREENGas prices dominate

the headlines. Many believe arbon dioxide emissions are contrib-uting to global warm-ing. Pollution is a con-tant worry.

Find out how you can help the environment by “going green” with a number of simple changes in your day-to-day routines.

Page 10Breakfast ClubThe KHS

THEY MET BEFORE SCHOOL, AND IT CHANGED THEIR EOC SCORES FOREVER

THEY ARE A GROup OF KINSTON HIGH STuDENTS TAKING HONORS BIOLOGY,

MEETING ONCE A wEEK BEFORE SCHOOL,

HONORS, I.B., ATHLETES, SCHOLARS.

BEFORE FIRST pERIOD EVEN BEGINS, THEY REVIEw BIOLOGY NOTES,

ENjOY SOME BOjANGLES’ BREAKFAST,

AND pREpARE FOR AN END-OF-COuRSE TEST

IN wAYS THEY NEVER THOuGHT pOSSIBLE.

“I thInk the club Is good. I understand a lot more now. I was confused about some of the InformatIon before, and

I’m lookIng forward to goIng agaIn.”- freshman molly rIddIck

get the full story

on Page 6

REGIONAL HOOPS COVERAGE

(PAGES 15-16)

Volume 3, Issue 6 KInston HIgH scHool ● 2601 n. Queen st ● KInston, n.c. 28501 ● TheVikingPress.com marcH 2011

(Sierra Wood/The Viking Press)

ENGINEERING DAY AT KHS

Metallurgical engi-neer George Piegols visited Kinston High school to inform the students about the re-sponsibilities of being an engineer and how much he enjoys his job.

Page 8

Editorial2 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

Don’t waste your future by dropping out Our Take

The Viking Press, for the purpose of allowing the voices of all students to be heard, be-lieves in complete, unbiased reporting and strives for hon-est, open dialogue in the KHS community.

Mission Statement

Editor-in-chiefBrianna Rhodes

News editorCreeshona Berry

Feature editorLaShawn Koonce

Opinion editorAbbye Reynolds

Advertising directorMackenzie Brown

ReportersAkyra AllenQuinton AlstonBrody BergmanSenquasia ColemanTiana CraiggPhilip DavisKenneth GeorgeMalasya GrajalesJorge HidalgoJulius HodgesLeShaun MayoJames WhitnerSierra Wood

AdviserMichael Moon

Viking Press Staff

The Viking Press2601 N. Queen St. / Kinston N.C. 28501

The Viking Press is the award-winning student publi-cation of Kinston High School and is published entirely by KHS students as a public forum.

Opinions expressed in The Viking Press are solely those of the writer whose byline ap-pears above each story.

Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of The Vi-king Press staff as a whole and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of any Lenoir County Schools employees.

Some material courtesy of American Society of Newspa-per Editors/MCT Campus High School Newspaper Service.

Find us online at www.thevi-kingpress.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter at twit-ter.com/thevikingpress.

Letters welcome

Whitney Houston said we are the future. The famous R&B singer is right, so we should be making the world a better place. Going to school is where it starts.

For the past few years, the school dropout rate has been a major concern in Lenoir County as well as other neighboring counties.

The N.C. Department of Public Instruction report-ed lasted month that area schools have had success in lowering the dropout rate.

Lenoir County had a 7.43 percent dropout rate five years ago, but the latest fig-ures show that number has been nearly halved; the rate now sits at 3.87 percent.

While some may not un-derstand why students even think about dropping out in the first place, others rec-ognize there are factors that contribute to this decision.

At the end of the day, re-gardless of the reasons stu-dents may find to stay in school or drop out, the moti-vation to attend school -- or not -- lies within.

Students our age need that push to keep going and to focus on schoolwork. That guidance from another per-son can make a huge differ-ence. That’s where the word “teacher” comes in.

There are several common reaons students do drop out, including household prob-lems, peer pressure, lack of motivation and apathy or la-ziness. But we believe our faculty and staff are the ones

who help outweigh some of these problems.

The word “teacher” is not the word that should be used for the adults that further our education. “Mentor” is a more adequate descriptor.

Many students at our school are not surrounded by much positivity in their households, but when they get to school they find a place they can call their home.

School can be a much-needed sanctuary for kids who have experienced loss first-hand. Too many cur-rent and former students have died from violent crimes in Kinston, yet students now have the chance to find a place in which they feel as if they are secure and protected, and our teachers are the ones who help contribute to this.

Teachers at our school do not just teach us; they give us the inspiration to live bet-ter lives. They inspire us not only to be that helping hand but to educate others to make positive choices.

In the 2009-2010 school year, all of the students

helped contribute to reaching almost 70 percent proficiency on our state exams, up more than 20 points from three years earlier.

We also have remedia-tion periods during and after school that help students fo-cus more on schoolwork.

Recently we also had the chance to be a part of two programs that started at our school.

Writing Boot Camp (see story on Page 4) was a three-day camp focused on writing skills before the tenth-grade writing test, and the Break-fast Club (our front page story this month) is a morn-ing study session for students who cannot stay after school but need focused review be-fore a test.

Since our teachers are tak-ing the time out of their busy schedules to help us, we be-lieve we should take the time out to thank them for helping us stay focused.

We should also remain mo-tivated to stay in school and continue lowering the drop-out rate until it reaches zero.

The Viking Press welcomes letters to the editor. Submis-sions must be 300 words or less and must be signed by the au-thor.

The Viking Press reserves the right to edit letters for content and length.

By the numbers

Number of students in

North Carolina who dropped out of school last year

17,346

Number of Kinston High students who dropped

out last year (compared with 43 at North Lenoir and 33 at South Lenoir)

30

State high school dropout rate for

2009-10 (compared with 2.77 percent for Lenoir County)

2.55

(Source: ncpublicschools.org)

School district needs to redraw lines

Editor’s note: This is Part II of a two-part column by Opinion Editor Abbye Reynolds. Part 1 appeared in our February issue. Read the column in its entirety at TheVikingPress.com.

Having such a large per-centage of students in one school eligible for free or reduced lunch is a challenge for both students and staff at Kinston High.

“It presents challenges to the school in regards to meeting the needs of those students academically and otherwise,” Whittington said.

Eventually this grow-ing percentage will qualify KHS for a federal grant to be used for more resources

and more teachers, both of which would greatly benefit students. But Whittington would rather redistrict than get the federal money.

“It would be better to have socio-economic diversity,” he said. “Redistricting for socio-economic diversity would definitely be the way to go.”

North Lenoir, meanwhile, is overcrowded, and they barely have enough room to teach all the students attend-ing.

“We could probably use 15 more parking lot spaces,” North Lenoir senior Kendle Letchworth said.

This is appalling since Kin-ston High barely has a third of its student parking lot filled.

Letchworth also said most of her classes held 27 or more students.

In fact, the average class size at North Lenoir, accord-ing to Trulia Stats and Trends, is 32 students. This is much

Around the Waywith

Abbye Reynolds

higher than the averages the other county high schools.

North Lenoir sophomore Hannah Gerding said that re-districting would solve some of the problems Lenoir Coun-ty Schools are facing, includ-ing the class size problem, but it wouldn’t please everyone.

“No matter if they redis-trict, people are still not going to be happy but they could solve it by making it manda-tory,” Gerding said. “It would be a start.

“If they do redistrict they need to make the city kids go to city schools and the county kids go to county schools.”

The problem is that the district lines still remain as they were when the county schools and the city schools were two separate schools systems. Now that there is one system with fewer stu-dents living in the city and more in the county, the small portion of Lenoir County that is considered within the city

school district results in a small population at Kinston High and larger populations at “county schools” North Lenoir and South Lenoir.

Moving district lines would be a crucial update.

There is not just a quan-tity difference to be no-ticed at two of our county’s schools, though. We are also dealing with an obvi-ous racial and socio-eco-nomic imbalance. Most stu-dents at Kinston High are African American, while the overwhelming majority of students at South Lenoir are Caucasian. While North Lenoir is somewhat more balanced, the majority are still Caucasian.

As for the socio-econom-ic imbalance, significantly more than 40 percent of students – the number used in Wake County for years — are eligible for free

See DISTRICT LINES, Page 3

Opinionwww.thevikingpress.com 3 - The Viking Press - March 2011

The Internet is revolu-tionizing how we see the world and how

we communicate with other people.

But the Internet is not only known for breaking down barriers; it can harm people too.

CNN reported last month that a TV news reporter for a Los Angeles station was doing

an live report on the Grammy Awards when her speech suddenly became garbled.

The newscast quickly cut away when it became appar-ent that she was in trouble. By the next morning, tele-vised news reports were mak-ing it a part of their Grammy coverage.

The incident was fea-tured on an AOL recap of the Grammy’s as one of the show’s most “memorable mo-ments.”

It may seem like there is nothing wrong with such coverage, but there is.

Is the Internet destroying our empathy?Breezin’

withBri Rhodes

People could not turn away from what was happening on the television or when they saw it online. The reporter’s incident evoked a range of emotional reactions -- anxi-ety, laughter, and horror.

Of these reactions, laughter is the most shocking, espe-cially considering the report-er was later revealed to have had a stroke on the air and could have lost her life.

The incident forced many of us to consider the ugly truth about ourselves: We have laughed at a dangerous event before. But where is

the empathy when thousands of people are on YouTube watching this unfortunate woman in danger?

Before the age of instant access on the Internet, we might have been instructed to look away or give the person privacy, but because of the as-sessibility of the Internet, this just doesn’t happen anymore.

All we do is click, click, click.

Our brains have become “wired” to using gadgets and becoming masters at multi-tasking. This access is expos-ing our brains to videos that

make us lack empathy toward others.

Scientists have pinpointed a specific region in the brain the controls the tendency to-ward selfishness and a lack of empathy, and over-exposure to the more shameless aspects of the ‘Net are affecting our ability to control that area of the brain.

With time, teenagers in the future will not be able to ex-press their emotions -- all be-cause of the Internet.

Don’t let technology take over. Have some empathy for the rest of us.

District Linesfrom page 2

or reduced lunch at Kin-ston High. That number, in fact, has ballooned to 78.27 percent for the 2010-2011 school year, compared to 51.50 percent at North Lenoir and 47.76 percent at South Lenoir.

That is a problem as well.In response to the highly

publicized issue in Wake County, U.S. Education Sec-retary Arne Duncan wrote a letter to The Washing-ton Post. In it, he called for school districts nationwide to be aware of the need for racial and economic diver-sity in America’s schools.

“In an increasingly di-verse society like ours, ra-cial isolation is not a positive outcome for children of any color or background,” Arne wrote to the newspaper. “School is where children learn to appreciate, respect and collaborate with people different from themselves.”

So why hasn’t the Lenoir

County School board more actively sought to increase di-versity in our school district?

Maybe it is an issue where some in our county just don’t want diversity. They don’t want, as Colbert said on his show, “to get poor all over them.” For some, perhaps it is racism, which is sad consider-ing how far we’ve supposedly come in society as far as civil rights are concerned.

According to a few mem-bers of the board, last year was just not the most conve-nient time to redistrict.

“I voted against continuing the redistricting process for middle and high schools,” Mr. David Fillippeli said. “Since none of our high schools are at capacity, a decision to re-district at this time would do nothing but reassign students from one school to another and would benefit one school at the expense of another, which I don’t think is fair.”

He went on to talk about “new growth in the coun-ty” coming from Spirit and Sanderson Farms and stated that it would not make sense to redistrict now when this

growth was about to occur.This “growth” will be oc-

curring in the county, where the new businesses are lo-cated. It stands to reason that such growth would increase student populations at the county schools rather than the city ones.

Waiting too long to redis-trict will continue to put stu-dents at both North Lenoir and Kinston High at a disad-vantage. With both schools struggling for varying rea-sons, a district line change would most likely help a good deal more than it would hurt.

Ms. Rita Hodges also voted against moving forward on redistricting in 2010, saying she thought no clear objec-tive was being presented to the board that would be ac-complished by the redistrict-ing.

“In a redistricting process, defining the goal must pre-cede looking at attendance lines,” she said.

Ms. Hodges has also chaired the accreditation visit for Ad-vancEd at three of the high schools in Wake County since the “neighborhood schools”

controversy there first began.“In my role, I have led in-

terviews with students, par-ents, and community lead-ers,” she said. “With each group at each school, much support for the diversity pol-icy was expressed. I saw the results in operation and am very sorry to see such strides abandoned.”

This gives hope that if such a diversity policy was actu-ally presented to our school board, a district line change may actually be considered.

“I would be very supportive of redistricting for the sake of diversity as long as all schools were involved and not just several,” Hodges said. “When some people hear such an idea, they immediately as-sume one is trying to bus students all over the county. Such massive movement does not need to be necessary. Slight movement of atten-dance boundaries could possi-bly make a huge difference.”

The Lenoir County school district needs a change, and fast. If a presentation of mul-tiple goals is what is neces-sary for this change, then by

all means let the presenting commence.

Racial and socio-econom-ic re-segregation should not be allowed anywhere — not in Wake County, and not in Lenoir County.

Hopefully, Lenoir Coun-ty school board members will take into careful con-sideration these issues that our students are enduring and see that schools are suf-fering. For this suffering to stop, redistricting needs to start.

Education in Lenoir County needs to be ad-dressed. Hopefully, Wake County’s situation will bring more attention to our own issues and, if possible, encourage those who are capable of making change to do so.

Maybe if we finally redis-trict and succeed in having a school system comprising real socio-economic and racial diversity, our own progress won’t be undone by backwards-thinking politicians in 30 years.

Hey, it’s worth a try.

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March Madness: Who will win the NCAA Tournament?“UNC is going to win.” - Junior Monica Bunn

“Duke is going to win because I don’t like Carolina and Nolan Smith is the best.”- Senior Sir’tera Brewer

World4 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

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Two bills proposed in the N.C. General Assem-bly would change the law to allow additional charter schools to be established.

Currently, Kinston has two such schools -- Kinston Charter Academy and Chil-dren’s Village Academy.

Senate Bill 8 and House Bill 247 would allow addi-tional charter schools, but critics worry that public schools would be nega-tively affected by such a change.

According to ncpublic-schools.gov, “The State Board is on record for supporting incremental growth of charter schools.”

-- By The Viking Press

Have you Heard?State

State

General Assembly considers Charter School changes

A House Bill in the state General Assembly will trim the state education budget by eliminating standard-ized testing “except as re-quired by federal law or as a condition of a federal grant.”

The legislation, when it becomes law, will elimi-nate end-of-course exams in Physical Science, Alge-bra II, U.S. History, and Civics and Economics.

The proposal has caused considerable controversy, with the State Board of Ed-ucation arguing that EOCs are “a critical part of the high school accountabil-ity model” and that the bill would violate the Constitu-tional right students have to a quality education.

The bill became law when Gov. Beverly Perdue refused to veto it, but stu-dents will still take EOCs this year.

“I have mixed feelings,” teacher Teri Connor said. “It’s nice to have a measure of the students’ achieve-ments, but a lot of teach-ers feel like it’s been used to pressure and criticize them.”

-- By The Viking Press

Some EOCs will soon disappear

Japanese citizens are still reeling from a magni-tude 9.0 earthquake that

struck the region on Friday, March 11.

CNN reported that a ‘’30-feet wall of water’’ crashed onto the region immediately after the quake. The same tsunami affected both Hawaii and California, and newspa-pers reported that one man died along the California coast as a result of the tsu-nami.

The quake, one of the strongest ever recorded, was several hundred times stron-ger than the earthquake that struck Haiti last year.

As a result of the cata-strophic earthquake, fires ravaged Japanese cities and nuclear reactors in the Fuku-shima Daiichi plant began to fail.

According to CNN, cooling systems of the reactors were failing, and officials had to re-sort to pumping in sea-water to cool the reactors.

At press time, there were

By Jorge Hidalgo

Staff Writer

Massive earthquake, tsunami strike Japan

The above map shows the aftermath of the massive earthquake that struck Japan on Friday, March 11. The magnitude has since been adjusted to 9.0.

©MCT 2011

Daily news, sports, games, discussion

and more!Visit us online at

the viking press .com

The Viking Press

no life-threatening levels of radiation, but the Japanese aren’t taking any chances.

CNN reports that officials have set up a site for anyone living near a nuclear reactor to be tested and, if affected, treat citizens for radiation.

The nuclear disaster is al-ready one of the worst in his-tory, surpassed only by the Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986) incidents.

According to CNN, the death toll has risen to 3,373, with more than 6,700 people still missing. Bodies are still washing up on the country’s beaches, and the death toll is expected to exceed 10,000

Aftershocks, according to CNN, continue to hit the area, with the latest measur-ing a 6.1 magnitude several days after the initial quake.

The U.S. military, along with allies, has come to the aid of Japan, with the USS Ronald Reagan and eight oth-er warships en route.

Scientists say this is the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900, accord-ing to TIME.

Natural disasters since 2004Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (2004)

A massive underwater earthquake triggered a massive tsu-nami that killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries.Hurricane Katrina (2005)

The Category 5 storm was the costliest in U.S. history and one of the deadliest, costing $81 billion and killing more than 1,800 in the Gulf Coast.Haiti earthquake (2010)

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake displaced more than one mil-lion Haitians and killed some 300,000, according to the Haitian government. The island nation’s economy has yet to recover.

(Compiled by The Viking Press)

The anatomy of an earthquake

An earthquake does more than shake the ground; tec-tonic plates actually move the earth.

Japan is under such a plate (in fact, four) in a region called the “Ring of Fire.”

The force of the recent 9.0 magnitude quake caused the plates to shift, with one slid-

ing forcefully underneath another.

After the event, the rising plate shoots back down; oce-anic quakes send off monster waves in all directions.

As the water approaches shallow coastal waters, the water level rises to unimagi-nable levels (in Japan’s case, up to 30 feet) and can lead to catastrophic loss of life.

By Jorge Hidalgo

Staff Writer

Newswww.thevikingpress.com 5 - The Viking Press - March 2011

Proposed laws aim to stop distracted driving deaths

Stephanie Jones sent her last text message on Sept. 16, 2009.

The message caused Jones, 18, to veer out of her lane and crash head-on into a truck, an accident that would take her life and change the lives of everyone who loved her.

“When I heard about the accident, I thought I was going to be sick. I just went home and went back to sleep,” Houston Davis, 20, said, “She was my best friend. I miss her a lot.”

Jones, a 2009 South Lenoir graduate, was a student at Lenoir Community College working on her Associate’s degree. She planned to trans-fer to N.C. State University.

All that changed in the blink of an eye. Car accidents like Jones’ are becoming more and more frequent, each one a trag-ic loss of a young person with so much life to live, all because of a distraction: texting.

Many teen drivers are not truly aware of the dangers of texting while driving, or they simply ignore the haz-ard. A lot of teens even admit that texting while behind the wheel is something they write off as simply a bad habit.

Experts say there are many things teenagers do that are bad habits: biting their nails, chewing on pencils, popping their chewing gum. But none of those habits can result in death. Texting can.

Legislators addressed the concern two years ago when the governor signed a bill into law that officially banned texting while driving. Additionally, three so-called “distracted driver” bills are currently sitting in the North Carolina General Assembly. Two of the bills would ban the use of all electronics and

By Abbye Reynolds

Opinion Editor

cell phones by drivers while providing an exception for the use of hands-free devices. The third bill makes no such exception. All three, if passed, would extend an existing law that prohibits drivers under 18 from using a cellular de-vice while behind the wheel.

Officer Andre Corbitt, re-source officer at Kinston High, fully supports the new bills. He said that banning all devices would be better, but allowing hands-free devices would still be a major im-provement.

“If someone calls you, you’ll just have to call them back,” Corbitt said. “You’ll see you have a missed call.”

Corbitt warned that one of the major hurdles of any law that addresses texting on the road is that it will be difficult to enforce.

“It’s hard to prove that they are texting unless you’re sit-

ting right beside them,” he said, explaining how there are many other things that people do in cars that could cause them to appear to be texting, such as changing ra-dio stations.

However, officers say such distracting behavior as us-ing a cell phone while driv-ing can be just as dangerous as more obvious infractions such as speeding.

In fact, according to a study by the Virginia Tech Trans-portation Institute, texting drivers were 23 times more at risk of crashing or having a “near crash event” than were “non-distracted” drivers. The study also revealed that “texting took a driver’s focus away from the road for an av-erage of 4.6 seconds—enough time… to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph.”

According to Keepthe-Drive.com, “when teens text and drive, reactions become as slow as those of some se-nior citizens.” The site also reported that sending one text message while driving is the equivalent to drinking four beers.

“Texting takes your atten-tion away from the road, caus-ing your car to drift,” Corbitt said. “Don’t do it. There have been students at other schools that have died because of tex-ting while driving. If you have to use your phone, stop, pull over and use it.”

Despite the warnings, ac-cidents still occur. Televi-

sion commercials sponsored by various organizations are trying to change that by fre-quently warning about the dangers of texting while driv-ing. Websites like Keepthe-Drive.com work constantly to keep updated material on their sites to better inform teens of the dangers of dis-tracted driving. Wireless provider AT&T released an emotionally charged docu-mentary titled “The Last Text” that relays the stories of a handful of teens throughout the U.S. who were victims of texting-related accidents.

“The Last Text,” which has been broadcast at numerous high schools, shows view-ers that car accidents caused by texting are not isolated to their own town, but occur all around the United States. And these accidents are hap-pening in North Carolina too.

In Asheville, on May 10, 2010, 16-year-old Ashley Johnson lost her life.

Like Jones, Johnson viewed a text message while she was driving, causing her to cross the center line and collide head-on with a pick-up truck. At the time of the accident, Johnson was a tenth-grader at Buncombe County Early Col-lege and, like Jones, was on her way to earning her Asso-ciate’s Degree.

Johnson’s death sent shock-waves through the school. Principal Meg Turner had daily contact with Johnson and was very close to her.

Junior Tommy Tsao checks a text message before leaving the Kinston High parking lot. Police encourage drivers to pull over before using electronic devices.

Abbye Reynolds/The Viking Press

“Ashley was full of life,” Turner said. “She was a great girl. She was bubbly, and she was always trying to cheer people up. She was a wonderful student, and we miss her a lot.”

Buncombe Early College provided formal in-school support through grief ses-sions and conversations with school counselors. Informal-ly, the school provided breaks for students who were having rough days, Turner said.

Now, almost a year later, the school encourages special projects on behalf of Johnson, and Turner said the students are eager to put their energy to good use. Students are currently raising money for a memorial garden for her. Turner said that it helps them to do something in order to use their energy to deal with the loss.

“(Her accident) brings to light something that teenagers have a hard time with, which is realizing that they aren’t in-vincible,” Turner said. “They realized this by losing a great friend and student.”

Turner said she is also very eager to keep students in-formed on how dangerous distractions while driving can really be.

“Driving is a complex and involved task and it requires all of your attention,” she said. “Not paying attention can cause great tragedy and loss.”

Those who knew the girls have a simple message for other teen drivers: Jones’ and Johnson’s lives were both cut short because of a text. Don’t let yours be.

“Don’t be dumb,” Houston Davis said. “When you text while you drive, you aren’t just risking hurting yourself, but also hurting everyone who loves you.”

Do you text while driving?No

(30 percent)Yes(57 percent)

Only when stopped(13 percent)

The Viking Press surveyed 90 Kinston High student drivers and asked each if they regularly sent text messages while driving.

Fifty-one said yes, compared to 27 who said no and 12 who said they would only send a text while stopped.

Pending N.C. legislationHouse Bill 31

Would ban use of any electronic device by drivers, including hands free devices.

House Bill 44Would ban hand-held cell phone use.

Senate Bill 36Would outlaw use of cell

phones and other devices by drivers. Similar to HB 31.

(Source: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us)

News6 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

By Sierra Wood

Staff Writer

BreakfaSt CluBfrom page 1

‘Breakfast Club’ meets weekly to review biology concepts

Biology teacher Joseph Romig wanted to help his students meet their academic requirements.

For years, scores on state end-of-course ex-ams had been below his expectations, and Romig felt the need to make a change, so he created the Breakfast Club.

Beginning in the fall of 2009, the Breakfast Club -- its name inspired by the 1980s movie of the same name -- has met regularly before major tests to discuss important concepts before school.

Romig described the club as a topic-specific study hall, explaining that the group focuses on one topic and reviews it in depth.

He feels that it stops a lot of confusion and he is able to break each topic down so the students can better understand. The Breakfast Club, when it first began, was initially for his honors pre-IB (In-ternational Baccalaureate) class.

Romig had realized his class was not meeting the average honors class expectations. By the third exam of the fall semester in 2009, he said, the hon-ors students continued to make C’s and D’s.

“By creating an intense review per request of the students, the exam scores and EOC scores should go up,” Romig remembers thinking at the time.

Beginning at 7 a.m., students met in Romig’s classroom, ate breakfast (often from Bojangles’ and other nearby eateries) and reviewed for tests.

The results were almost immediate, and Romig

Teacher Joseph Romig reviews for a test with his “Breakfast Club.”

Sierra Wood/The Viking Press

has the numbers to prove it.Before the review sessions began, 73 percent of his

students were attaining passing rates; by the end of the semester, the figure had jumped to 89 percent.

“It was very evident that the club was working,” Romig said, adding that he soon expanded the ses-sions to include students in all of his biology sections.

At its height that first semester, the group swelled to include 52 students. The club continued to meet every Wednesday morning through the spring se-mester of 2010.

All honors students passed and the regular biol-ogy class had a 91 percent pass rate.

”It was fun,” sophomore April Davis said. “It made it easier to listen and learn since there are a lot less student in the classroom.”

The following semester -- this fall -- attendance in the morning sessions dropped, and Romig had to stop the meetings mid-semester when very few stu-dents showed up. Biology scores reflected that with a 43 percent passing rate on the fall 2010 EOCs.

Romig hasn’t given up on the idea, though, and has re-opened the doors to the early morning meetings for students this semester.

“In Breakfast Club, I am able to branch off on the topic and make broad connections,” he said. “Pow-erpoints are one-dimensional and cover many vague topics. They serve their purpose for certain content, but they are not as good as the visuals I use in Breakfast Club.”

Freshman Molly Riddick, who attended the first session this semester on March 2, agreed.

“I think the club is good,” she said. “I understand a lot now. I was confused about some of the informa-tion before, and I’m looking forward to going again.”

Writing Boot Camp prepares sophomores for testBy tiana SCott

Staff Writer

Tenth-grade writing scores are steadily im-proving at Kinston High, and teachers brought back the Writing BOOT Camp for the third year to make sure that trend continues.

The yearly after-school remediation, organized by English teachers Christel Car-lyle and Treva Romig, is meant to prepare soph-omores for the North Carolina Tenth-Grade Writing Test. The four-day program (which stands for “Bring On Our Test”) has multiple stations for nearly every aspect of writing a pa-per. Students can focus on writing thesis state-ments or how to begin a conclusion paragraph, for example, while their peers work on topic sen-

tences or grammar is-sues.

Both Romig and Car-lyle said they have high expectations for their students.

Previous statistics show that this camp en-ables students to make a Level 3 or 4 (the mini-mum scores for profi-ciency) on the Writing Test.

“Students that come one day score higher than students who don’t come at all,” Romig said.

Two years ago a total of 120 sophomores at-tended, and 75 percent of those students passed the test.

This year, more stu-dents came to the first day of the camp than in either of the previous two years.

Students appreciate the chance to work on specific weaknesses.

“Mrs. Carlyle brought

to my attention that I needed to use better word choice,” sopho-more Jacoya Coward said. “Now I know that is something I will fo-cus on during the actual Writing Test.”

Other students said

the test showed them areas they didn’t even know were problems until they attended.

“The camp made me realize that texting slang is a problem for me,” sophomore Trevon Ber-ry said. “It messes up my

spelling and it becomes a habit.”

Some students, how-ever, feel they reached their maximum poten-tial without the camp.

“A Level 4 was not in my reach, with or with-out the Writing Camp,”

junior Edward Nesbith said. “I’m pretty sure there are better writers in my IB class, and no-body made a Level 4.”

But teachers believe the purpose of the test is being realized.

“The goal of the Writ-ing Boot Camp is for as many sophomores as possible to come out and hopefully get the help they need to get a Level 3 or 4,” Romig said.

Sopohomore Tatyana Rosenburg works at one of several writing stations during the Writing Boot Camp earlier this month.

Creeshona Berry/The Viking Press

By the numbers

sophomores at Kinston High

School who took the Writing Test.

206

Number of sophomores who

attended this year’s BOOT Camp.

Percentage of stu-dents at KHS who

passed the 2010 state Writing Test.

70

75

Newswww.thevikingpress.com 7 - The Viking Press - March 2011

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By James Whitner

Staff Writer

A man in Cambridge, Mass., taped the first three years of his son’s life.

A CNN article reported that Deb Roy and his wife implanted video cameras in the ceilings of every room in their house before their son was born.

From the moment that they brought their son home into their house, they recorded their lives every day for eight to 10 hours per day, ending up with 200,000 hours of their son’s life recorded.

Deb Roy is a speech sci-entist, and his wife is a cog-nitive scientist and they both wished to understand how a child learned words naturally and comprehen-sively.

Working with a team of PHD students at MIT, Roy developed many complex ways of seeing how his child learned to speak. This allows scientists to study and learn when, where and how language is learned and acquired.

To read more, visit www.c n n . c o m / 2 0 1 1 / O P I N -ION/03/13/roy.tapes.child-hood/index.html?iref=NS1.

(-- By Abbye Reynolds/The Viking Press)

have you heard?nation

World

Cambridge father records son’s life

International Women’s History Month, which be-gan on March 8, 1911, is a time set aside to honor the women in our country’s history and acknowledge their struggles, triumphs and contributions to our country and many others.

“I hope that people from other countries see her (poet Maya Angelou) and other women’s rights ac-tivists as individuals who represent our country, who we are and what we stand for,” teacher Lois Sutton said.

(-- By Philip Davis/The Viking Press)

March is Women’s History Month

Everything is made for a purpose by someone, from the cars that we drive to the soles of our shoes.

The people who make the things we use are engineers. There are different types of engineers for different pur-poses; from mechanical engi-neers to nuclear engineers to civil and structural engineers, the list goes on and on.

Metallurgical engineer George Piegols visited Kin-ston High last month to in-form the students about the responsibilities of being an engineer and how much he enjoys his job.

A metallurgical engineer, he said, is one who processes the rocks of the earth and takes out precious minerals such as gold, silver and diamonds.

He says that engineering is a “profession which seeks to meet today’s challenges by applying scientific knowledge.”

Piegols was present as part of Career and Technical Education Month and Na-tional Engineers Week.

During his presentation, Piegols talked about the innovation engineers use to create the latest gadgets, from the cell phones we use to communicate to the lat-est equipment to make vehicles safer.

His advice for the class was simple: “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, because it’s always fun.”

During this program the students gained some experience with the field and learned different things about exactly what engineers do.

Students quickly found out if engi-neering was the right career path. Senior Sir’tera Brewer said plainly that “engi-neering is boring” and that would had changed his mind about his career.

However, there was a number of stu-dents who said that they actually ben-efited from the program and are highly considering engineering as a career.

Students selected to attend included Project Lead the Way, Drafting, Con-struction, Machining, and Advanced Sci-ence and Math students. They attended a 90 minute interactive session to under-stand what engineering is, understand local job opportunities and seriously con-sider engineering as a career choice. Local and regional engineers spent the entire day at each of our high schools and did four of these sessions.

During the presentation, students par-ticipated in a contest to see who could build the tallest free-standing tower out of pipe cleaners in a timed activity.

“Just like in life, you always need a good base,” engineer Paul Carlson said.

Jessica Shimer, CTE Career Develop-ment Coordinator, arranged the events locally and was very pleased with the en-thusiasm of both the presenters and stu-dents at each high school.

Engineers share knowledge with students

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The winning team of an engineering activity built the tallest tower out of pipe cleaners in a timed challenge.

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(Mackenzie Brown/The Viking Press)

Seniors showcase acting skills in state contestsWalker finishes third in Poetry Out Loud

Shakespeare earns Cubbage trip to NYC

Senior Willie Cub-bage got iambic with his pentameter, and his acting skill earned him a trip to New York City to compete in a national Shake-

spearean monologue contest.Three judges named

Kinston High senior Willie Cubbage the Colonial North Caro-lina chapter winner in the English-Speaking Union’s National

Shakespeare contest.Cubbage worked dil-igently on portraying the character Aaron in “Titus Androni-cus” and worked eqally hard to mas ter “Sonnet 130.” “I chose the mono- logue for him,”

drama teacher Clay Raines said. “It was a dynamic

By LaShawn Koonce

Feature Editorshift in both pieces and the role of Aaron was for an African American.”

Cubbage said he had to re-ally practice to hit the right marks.

“It was hard hitting the punctuation marks, but Mr. Raines helped me work on articulation and intensity.” Cubbage said.

He also worked on his focus, intensity, meaning and basic voice skills.

“He was just wonderful,” said teacher Shirley Holt, who attended the contest in New Bern. “I knew he had it from the start. Another lady in the audience leaned over to me and said, ‘Oh he is go-ing to win.’ Everyone surely enjoyed it”

With the win, Cubbage earned a trip to New York City in the spring to compete in a national contest.

“I’m glad I won and thank Mr. Raines for guiding me through everything,” Cub-bage said, “because without him, it would have been a true challenge.”

By MacKenzie Brown

Advertising Director

There is more to reciting poetry than simply saying the words; you have to feel the words.

Senior Jessica Walker learned that lesson while competing in Poetry Out Loud, first at school, then at a regional competition at Arendell Parrott Academy and finally at a state contest in Raleigh in March.

Walker was the second runner up at the state level.

Approximately 9,000 students in North Carolina competed in Poetry Out Loud this year, meaning that Walker came in third out of 9,000 students.

Walker became interested in Poetry Out Loud through drama teacher Clay Raines’ class. Serena Ebhardt, a performing artist, came and worked on poetry with his students. Walker learned from Ebhardt how to break down a poem and learn the real meaning of it.

The first thing Walker did to prepare was memorize her poem. After memorizing her poems Raines said they met every day and worked on articulation,

Walker also worked with Melissa Burke on voice and articulation.

Raines made her say her poems in front of as many people as he could.

The hard work she put into this was evident when she recited her poems.

Her performance was “dynamic, breath-taking, emotional, overall magnificent,” Raines said.

Raines was proud of her success, but thought she de-served more.

“I think everyone besides the judges knows she should have won,” he said.

“I got robbed,” Walker said. “Mine was original and fresh. It really came from my heart. I felt like everyone else up there was just saying a poem.”

News10 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

Senior Devin Bryant is not just an North Carolina All-State athlete; he is also a sci-entist.

Last year, Bryant attended a summer program for minor-ity students.

Project SEED is a proj-ect that provides minority students the opportunity to interact with university re-searchers in the laboratory during the summer following their junior years.

Bryant’s research work has won him first place in his division at the recent North Carolina Student Academy of Science competition. He will now be entered in the state competition.

Teacher Ron Owens taught Bryant both Chemistry and Physics. He describes Bryant as intelligent, bright, excel-lent and dependent.

“He always wonders why something happens and look-ing for answers, he is an ex-cellent student,” said Owens.

Owens said he is proud of Bryant’s accomplishments and he knows that he will succeed in any scientific field he enters.

Going green and why we should care

Senior Devin Bryant attends Project SEEDBy Brianna rhodes

Editor-in-Chief

James Whitner/The Viking Press

Senior Devin Bryant

James Whitner/The Viking Press

Junior Allie Pharo

Gas prices are boom-ing, technology is ex-panding, and the popu-lation is increasing.

These and other fac-tors are affecting us all.

Deforestation, driv-ing vehicles for long periods of time, and not recycling are affecting both humans and ani-mals.

Pollution is causing damage to human and animal health, plants, and the rest of the en-vironment. Pollutants have effects such as reducing energy levels and lung functioning, causing more asthma attacks, cancer, pre-mature deaths, acid rain, and damage to the

ozone layer. Researchers believe that

people’s daily activities are causing global warm-ing, which is the increase of the average temperature on Earth.

In 2008, according to the Union of Conserved Scien-tists, China, United States, and Russia had the greatest amounts of carbon dioxide emissions, accounting for 56.25 percent of the global to-tal. Not much has changed, as these three countries are still the top three.

Obviously, it’s a serious problem that people need to address. Fortunately, there are things that can be done, even at Kinston High.

The 3 R’s(Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

To reduce is to decrease the amount of potential trash and use items for something dif-

ferent. For example, instead of using paper or plastic bags when going grocery shop-ping, buy reusable shopping bags. Most supermarkets sell them as low as $1 each. This prevents papers and plastics from entering the landfills.

Reusing is another way to prevent waste from go-ing into landfills. Instead of throwing away a plastic bot-tle, you can add more water into it and use it again. Even if you grow tired of your old electronics or clothing, you can donate them to charities such as Good Will or Salva-tion Army. Recycling is prob-ably the easiest way to “go green.”

You can recycle things made from plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, and card-board. Recycling an alumi-num can saves enough ener-gy to run your television for

Allie Pharo is Kinston High’s Junior Miss for 2011.

Pharo is Kinston High’s only contestant this year and hopes to win the first annual Distinguished Young Woman of Kinston award, the name America’s Junior Miss has newly adopted.

Two years ago, all the par-ticipants of Kinston’s Junior Miss were from Kinston High. Last year, eight of the 14 participants were from Kinston High.

But being the Vikings’ only representative this year doesn’t worry Pharo.

She considers being a part of it her greatest prize.

Participants are judged on interviewing, scholastics, tal-ent, fitness and self-expres-sion, with each being differ-ent percentages.

“This has nothing to do with beauty,” program chair-man Garde Parson said. “It is based off of scholastics, poise, talent, and being physically fit. Now that the name has changed, it separates it even more from being a beauty pageant.”

Pharo said that although it’s a lot of work, it’s a great expe-rience to go through.

The contest was held Satur-day, March 19.

By Brianna rhodes

Editor-in-Chief

Junior Pharo competes in Junior Miss

By Malasya Grajales

Staff Writerthree hours. In most cities, there are roadside services to pick up recyclables to make it easier for people to recycle.

“Going green – economi-cally, aesthically, and morally -- is the right thing to do,” bi-ology teacher Joseph Romig said.

Saving the environment will create a clean and healthy world to live in. Re-sources are limited. Recycling organizations and the media are encouraging people to begin “going green.” Going green is not only good for the environment, it can save you money too.

Students can help, too, by making simple changes to their daily routines:

● Unplug electronics that you are no longer using.

● Save water. Turn the wa-ter off when you are brush-ing your teeth. Also, take

quicker showers and use the dishwasher instead of hand washing dishes.

● Use compact fluores-cent light bulbs instead of standard bulbs. They use 75 percent less ener-gy and last much longer.

● Drive less. Walk or ride a bike instead of driving at least once a week.

● Plant a tree. Trees re-duce the effects of global warming. Planting a tree also provides exercise.

● Recycle all plastics, papers, cardboard and aluminum objects.

● Use natural air. On nice days, open windows instead of turning on the air conditioner. Instead of using the drying ma-chine, hang clothes on a line.

Featurewww.thevikingpress.com 11 - The Viking Press - March 2011

By Brianna rhodes

Editor-in-Chief

Casual Foster got her name when her mother went into la-

bor at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh while she happened to be in the casual clothing department.

“My name is one of a kind,” said Foster, a senior at Kinston High. “I can wear my name.”

People’s names are what define them. It is the one thing people learn about you first and, best of all, it sticks with you forever.

The Social Security Admin-istration keeps tabs on popular baby names at ssa.gov, its of-ficial website. Information on the site dates back to 1880 and is broken down by birth year.

Names like Michael and Elizabeth have been main-stays on the top-10 list for years, and the Bible has long been a source of inspiration for many new parents.

For others, like Foster and senior Char-Keva Hodge, their names are part of what

Most popular baby names for 2009Boys GirlsJacob IsabellaEthan EmmaMichael OliviaAlexander SophiaWilliam AvaJoshua EmilyDaniel MadisonJayden AbigailNoah ChloeAnthony Mia

Source: Social Security Ad-ministration.

Students’ names have many inspirations

name GameThe

makes them unique.Locally, parents are staying

away from traditional names and moving toward names that make their children stand out from the rest.

Hodge’s name was derived from both her mother and step-father. Her mother’s name is Charlene and her step-dad name is Kelvin. Her name was supposed to be Char-Kelva but her step-fa-ther was very nervous signing her birth certificate.

“I wouldn’t change my name for anything,” Hodge said. “My name is unique. Nobody has it, and I like how it came about.”

Kinston High’s students have a wide array of names, and they have a broad range of meanings.

Some are traditional and oth-ers arise from popular trends.

In 2009, the SSA reports that the top boys’ name is Ja-cob, while the most popular girls’ name is Isabella -- both are names of main characters in the “Twilight” book series.

Senior D’Mario Levon Gil-

What’s in a NAME?

christ, meanwhile, got his name from a family tradition.

His father’s name is Marion Lee Gilchrist, as is his broth-er’s. All of the men in his family, in fact, have “Mario” in their names. Gilchrist said his mother decided to put the D in front of Mario to add a little variety. His middle name, Levon, comes from his dad’s middle name Lee.

Junior Quycheka Lashay-Nelson Brandon also got her name from her family, as she named after her mother’s next-door neighbor. The first part of her middle name, Lashay, came from her god-mother and the second part, Nelson, came from her de-ceased twin who died at birth.

Brandon got her first unique name from her ethnicity. Her father is from Belize, and she is both Black and British.

Brandon said she loves her name because different fam-ily members contributed to it.

According to a 2005 Slate.com article on baby names, a child’s name tells us “how parents see themselves” and

“what kinds of expectations they have for their children.”

Senior Quawiyy Amirah Washington admires how her name came about. Her aunt was overseas while her mother was pregnant with her, and she learned that the word “Kawaii” (rhymes with “Hawaii”) meant cute in Japa-nese.

Washington loves the name because nobody has it, but it also creates confusion at times.

“I dread going to school on the first day,” Washington said. “I always have to cor-rect it and spell it out. Most teachers pronounce it ‘Quee-WEE.’ The lettering is differ-ent than how it sounds.”

Seniors Neffertti Muham-mad and Kaminski Murrell also have names that borrow from other languages.

Neffertti, a name that dates back to ancient Egyptian so-ciety, means “most beauti-ful,” while Kaminski’s name means “stone” in German.

“I love my name because it represents my personality,

and it’s foreign,” Murrell said.Then there are the names

inspired by popular culture. Long before “Twilight” hi-jacked Jacob, Edward and Bella, parents were finding inspiration in Hollwood.

English teacher Michael Moon noticed about two or three years ago that there were an unusual number of Jasmines in his classroom.

He believes the name was inspired by the Disney prin-cess from the movie “Aladdin.”

The SSA website seems to back his notion. Prior to 1990, “Jasmine” was barely in the top 50 for girls’ names. By 1992, the year the movie was released, the name had jumped into the top 25.

Wherever the names are coming from, students are proud of them, and many say their children will have meaningful names, too.

Casual Foster has already picked out baby names for when the time comes.

Her top picks? Judah or Zion. “They both mean praise,”

she explained.

C A S U A L

QM

DO

A NA E

OL X

YQ U A W I Y

BAJ C

“That which we call a rose / By any other

name would smell as sweet.”- Romeo & Juliet

did you Know?Jacob and Isabella,

the most popular boy’s and girl’s name in 2009, are main char-acters from the popular “Twilight” book series.

(IllustratIon by the VIkIng Press)

When you are listening to your favorite song on your Ipod, how loud is the volume? If you’re listening to it on its maximum level, you may be damaging your hearing. Teens are likely hurting their hearing on a daily basis, and many probably don’t even realize there’s a problem. Theearisfilledwithverysensitivestructuresthatourvitaltoourhearingcapabilities.Expertssayprolongedexposureto anynoiseabove85dBcanresultingradualhearingloss.Asapointofreference,alawnmowerrunsaround90dBwhilea garbagetruckrunsaround100dB.Exposuretodecibellevelsofmorethan100dBcancausepermanenthearinglossafteras littleasoneminute.(Astereoregularlyproduces110dB.) Everyday,weexperiencesoundinourenvironment,suchasthesoundsfromtelevisionandradio,traffic,andhouseholdappliances.Normally,wehearthesesoundsatsafelevels,buttheproblemthatisnowformingisthevolumeoftheTVormusic player. It’s not the noise that is the issue; it is sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time. When the sensitive structuresinoureararedamaged,itcouldcausenoise-inducedhearingloss(NIHL). “Thesesensitivestructuresarecalledhaircells,andtheyaresmallsensorycellsthatconvertsoundenergyintoelectricalsignalsthattraveltothebrain.Oncetheyaredamaged,theycannotgrowback,”BiologyteacherJosephRomigsaid. Societyasawholedoesn’tseemtorealizetheseverityofthesituation.Storesaresellingdifferentnamebrandearphones advertisinghowloudeachonecanget.Theyaremakingaprofitwhilewe,thebuyers,aredamagingourears. “AlmosteverydayinclassIhavetotellastudenttoturntheirmusicdown,”Mr.Bradshawsaid.“Idon’thavea problemwithmystudentslisteningtomusicwhentheirworkisdone,butifIcanheareverythingthey’relisteningtothen it’swaytoloud.” Earphoneswereinventedsoyoucouldbeinthesameroomwithotherpeopleandlistentomusicthat wouldn’tdisturbthem.Iftheentireroomcanhearwhatyouarelisteningto,thenthatdefeatsthepurpose. Forexample,anewearphonerecentlycameout,called“BeatsByDr.Dre.”Despitethefactthatthisear-phoneisreallyexpensive(averagingfrom$100to$500dependingontype),agreatmanyofourstudentsare buying them. “AfterIlistentothemforalongtimemyheadstarthurting,”seniorTianaCraiggsaid.“WhenI’mwearingthemI’mcompletelyunawareofmysurroundings.” Whenyoupurchasetheearphones,inthedirectionsthereisawarningnottolistenatmaximumvolume forlongerthananhour.Butsincecelebritiestalkaboutthem,peoplebuythemandoftenignorethe warnings. Evenincars,peopleareinstallingloudspeakersfortheirradio.Theprofitthestoresaremakingoffofspeakersandearphonesareskyhigh.Rememberstudents,theeffectsmaynothityounow,butinthefutureyourpastwillcatchup.Sodoyoureallywantto“Boom”toyourfavoritesongnow,damage youhearingandhavetoreadthelyricsinthefuture?

Can you hear me now?

By Creeshona Berry

News Editor

You always hear about the hottest song from the many students that walk the halls, or you might occasionallyhear a teacher or two talkabout what happened on some award show, but do you really take interest in what typeofmusictheylistento?Wethinkofteachersaslis-

teningtolow-keyboringmu-sicwithourdefaultteenagermindsets.

Kids see themselves as “up onit”whenitcomestomu-sic. Seldomly do we ponderteachers jamming to some

Feature12 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

Teachers share their thoughts on music

LaShawn Koonce/The Viking Press

Teacher Julie Batchelor listens to her iPod during a break from teaching.

(And it’s not what you might expect)By Lashawn KoonCe

Feature Editormodernrapmusicorteenag-ersinamellowsceneplayingjazz or blue grass. Further-more, when we see kids we see Lil Wayne, Green Day,andImogenHeapintheiriP-ods. Kids in the new era tend to lack the sense of historythat comes with old music.Teachers,ontheotherhand,are thought of as listening to music like Ozzy Ozborne,Aerosmith,orAlGreene.“Musicisoneofthethings

inhistorythathastranscend-ed with its messages and language, and answers more thanwhatwordscandescribealone,”Mr.King,banddirec-tor said.

Evenifyoucan’tspeakthelanguage of a country, youcan move, sway, dance andmostofallenjoythemusicofthecountry.Music holds the power to

elevate our moods above our worries and relieve debili-tatingdepression. It can alsoperk us up if we use it with exerciseordance.

“What I listen to all de-pendsonmymood,” teacherClayRainessaid.“IfIamsadIwill listen to something more mellow. If I am more upbeat I will listen to something up beat like techno, but overallI listen to a wide variety of music.”

Entertainmentwww.thevikingpress.com 13 - The Viking Press - March 2011

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ comes to Kinston

There is a superstar headed for Kinston, and his name is Jesus Christ.

Clay Raines, drama teacher at Kinston High School, is di-recting Andrew Lloyd Web-ber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

The show will go on March 25-27 at Lenoir Community College.

“I told myself when I was 11 years old that if I could play any part it would be Je-sus, and I’ve had it [the play] memorized ever since then,” Raines said.

In addition to directing “Je-sus Christ Superstar,” Raines will finally fulfill his dream of playing the role of Jesus. He has been at KHS for five years and in that time he has either been in, directed, or taken part in 32 performances.

Joining him in perform-ing is a phenomenal cast he hand-picked after holding auditions in early January. He chose those who had ex-perience and whose voices fit the role.

“They had to sing, and I picked from their singing abilities and the experience they’ve had on stage. Each cast member has a specific type of feel for their part,” Raines said.

He and the rest of the cast have been working extreme-ly hard to prepare for the up-coming production, which will take place on March 25,

26, and 27 at Lenoir Commu-nity College.

Raines has grown his hair out, lost 55 pounds and is planning to tan in order to look the part of Jesus. He has been vocal training himself and really studying the words he is saying. To get ideas and inspire himself, he has been looking at biblical pictures, set designs, the characters’ backgrounds, and combat techniques.

Several KHS students are in the cast, including senior Jes-sica Berry who is playing the role of an Apostle’s woman.

To prepare for her role

she has been singing; she re-hearses the songs not only in practice, but also on her own time.

Berry says that the best part of working with Raines is “watching him.”

A local resident, Dr. John Herlong, is playing the role of Judas. He was interested in being a part of this musi-cal because he has seen “Jesus Christ Superstar” Broadway shows and knows that it is one of the top five produc-tions of all time.

Herlong said of his role that “Judas is a complex con-troversial character. He is a

scapegoat in the story who is essential to turning Jesus in, which leads to his death. What if nobody did that?”

Herlong has been prepar-ing for his role by constant-ly singing and also reading about Judas and what he represents in the story so he can convey that during the performance. He wants the audience to consider how our actions affect others.

“We need to be aware of our individual power to cre-ate change in this world. Gandhi said that by the way,” Herlong said.

Everyone involved is very

aware of the importance of this production. This musical is special to Raines and he is doing everything in his pow-er to ensure that it is done perfectly.

“Jesus Christ Superstar” is “a powerful rock opera spectacle that highlights the teaching of Jesus in a different way,” Raines said.

The play’s purpose goes beyond theatrical entertain-ment. This story has the potential to invoke strong emotions from the audience, and Raines wants the perfor-mance to have a powerful ef-fect on the audience.

“I want to save people. I want to amaze, to astound, to inspire, to let them realize that theatre is back,” Raines said.

Kinston High School Drama Teacher, Raines, will play Jesus in upcoming production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Pictured here with Jackie Golebiowski who will be playing Mary.

Kaity Bestenheider/Special to The Viking Press

Above: John Herlong as Ju-das practices his lines.

Below: Cast members lis-ten to Mr. Raines.

By Mackenzie Brown

Advertising Director

Spring break iS almoSt here! BE SAFE!

Fast facts about JCSWritten by:

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Genre:Rock opera

Plot:Highlights political and

personal struggle between Judas Iscariot and Jesus. Loosely based on the Gos-pels’ accounts of the last week of Jesus Christ’s life be-fore his Crucifixion.

First performed:Broadway, 1971

Sports14 - The Viking Press - March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

Soccer team starts season at 3-1-3

The Kinston High soc-cer team has made quite a turnaround.

Two years removed from a season-long losing streak, the Vikings are coming off a season in which they made the playoffs for the first time in recent history.

Kinston picked up right where it left off last year, winning three games and opening the season with only one loss in its first seven contests.

Sophomore Becky Irvin said the hot start has done wonders for the team’s con-fidence.

“Just winning,” she said, “has everyone confident that we can go out there and com-pete.”

Junior goalkeeper Caitlin West has been a big part of that success, recording four shutouts in seven games and allowing a single goal in two others. The team’s only loss as a 2-1 setback to South Lenoir, a game the Vikings got re-venge for with a 2-0 win at South Lenoir a week later.

Meanwhile, Irvin and ju-

Ruth Anderson/Special to The Viking Press

Sophomore Becky Irvin (right) dribbles past a defender in a recent game. The Vikings began the season 3-1-3.

By Tiana Craigg

Staff Writer

nior Hayley Vermillion have provided most of the offense for the resurgent Vikings.

“Getting everybody togeth-er as a team and getting ev-eryone to work together and communicate has been big,” Vermillion said.

Another key to the team’s success, she said, has been conditioning.

“Running the Viking (a two-mile cross country cir-cuit around the KHS campus) every day is keeping us in shape,” she said, adding that the team’s exercise program has allowed them to outlast many teams they have played.

Tennis team wins first match at EP2A foe Farmville CentralBy The Viking Press

The Kinston High tennis team won just two matches last year.

This year, the Vikings got halfway to that milestone af-ter their first match, beating Farmville Central 6-3 in pro sets in an Eastern Plains Con-ference match.

Jeremy Merritt (10-1), Wil-liam French (10-5), Kevin Plymouth (10-7) and Adrian Paez (10-1) were singles win-ners. Alex Frankfort (3-10) and Tommy Tsao (10-11, 5-7) were singles defeats.

Merritt-French (8-5) and Plymouth-Paez (8-2) were doubles winners. Tsao-Frank-fort (6-8) lost in doubles.

Following the win, the Vikings (1-3) lost their next three matches.

“We’re struggling,” coach Perry Tyndall said. “We are getting better but have to compete a little harder. The guys are working hard. Hope-fully we can reap some ben-efits soon.”

The Vikings play at Tar-boro on March 22 and host Southwest Edgecombe on March 29.

Kinston has only five matches left before the con-ference tournament begins on April 11 at Greene Central High School.

ScoreboardKinston 0, S. Central 0

Kinston 1, N. Lenoir 0 (OT)

Kinston 2, Goldsboro 1

Kinston 1, N. Lenoir 1

Kinston 1, S. Lenoir 2

Kinston 0, Goldsboro 0

Kinston 2, S. Lenoir 0

Upcoming gamesDate Opponent LocationMon., March 21 East Carteret AwayWed., March 30 Southern Wayne AwayFri., April 1 Southern Wayne HomeMon., April 4 East Carteret HomeWed., April 6 Arendell Parrott Home

Ruth Anderson/Special to The Viking Press

Senior Jeremy Merritt, the team’s No. 1 seed, returns a serve during a recent match.

The Kinston High softball team started its season 1-1 with a 16-13 at Jones Senior High.

Every starter scored at least once, and senior Sim-one Pender was the winning pitcher.

After the win, however, the Vikings dropped their next three games.

“We are an inexperienced team but we are learning,” se-nior and captain Anna Keith said. “We all have fun togeth-er and that’s all that count.”

Said coach Michael Moon: “We’re struggling right now, but if we work hard and play to our full potential, we’ll be alright.”

Rita Ray/Special to The Viking Press

Senior third baseman Donikqua Edwards waits for a pitch against Ayden-Grifton High as coach Michael Moon watches from the coach’s box.

Softball team beats Jones, continues to learn the gameBy Lashawn koonCe

Feature Editor

Sportswww.thevikingpress.com 15 - The Viking Press - March 2011

Staff photo/The Viking Press

The Kinston High Lady Vikings aren’t accustomed to postseason mag-ic.

The last time they reached the post-season at all was February 2003.

This year, the Lady Vikes turned it around, not only making it to the playoffs but winning a sectional title and advancing to the Eastern Region-al semifinals.

The Eastern Plain conference champions went 24-5 this season. Their record landed them a No. 1 seed in this year’s state playoffs. They had very high hopes for this year, having a strong leader in junior Tisha Dixon and an explosive scorer in freshman Brittany Drumgoole.

“We are very proud of our girls,” boys coach Wells Gulledge said.

Northwest Halifax was the Lady Vikings’ first obstacle to overcome on their road to the regionals.

Kinston High was led by a 28 point, 15 rebound showing from Dixon.

Sophomore Monique Loftin also added another seven-points in this low-scoring game. Nothing much was really falling for the Lady Vikes, who shot 18-of-53 from the field. In the end, Kinston High came out with the win, edging out Northwest Halifax 44-19.

After their first round rout, the Lady Vikings looked to face the Clin-ton Dark Horses in the second round.

This game was much more exciting than the first, with Kinston adding another win with a 60-47 win. Fresh-man Brittany Drumgoole heated the net, scoring 25 pts along with 16 more contributed by Dixon. This win gave Kinston 15 straight, along with a trip to the sectional final.

One more win, and the Kinston High Lady Vikings planted them-selves in the East’s final four.

This would be the first time Kinston High has made it this far since 2003. But first, they had to get past the Ber-tie Falcons.

There has been so much hype around freshman Brittany Drum-goole, and this game certainly proved

that she can live up to it. Drumgoole led Kinston High in scoring, supply-ing 37 of the Lady Vikes’ 59 points.

“I took the 3s when they left me open and tried to get to the basket when they came out to guard me,” Drumgoole said. “I wanted to win this game so badly, not just for myself, but mostly for the seniors who’ve never made it this far before.”

It was a close game, but Drumgoole had too much invested in this game for them to lose. Down the stretch, even though Bertie stayed in it, the Lady Vikes never trailed after the freshman sensation took over. Kin-ston went on to win 59-55.

“I don’t mind the pressure,” Drum-goole said. “I like having the ball with the game on the line; especially to-night, because I was shooting so well.”

With two more games in the way of being state champions, Kinston High’s next obstacle was the Graham High Red Devils.

Being Kinston’s first trip to the semifinal regional game since 2003, they wanted to return to the success they had in the past.

Junior Tisha Dixon was very ag-

By Brody Bergman

Staff Writer

Junior Christian Pridgen (left) goes for a loose ball against a North Pitt player during the Eastern Plains 2A Conference Tournament.

Arena football should come to Kinston

gressive this game, aiming to send the Lady Vikings to this year’s regional fi-nal. Dixon had a career game, scoring 32 points along with half as many re-bounds. This outing from her should surely send Kinston High to the next round, but one must always expect the unexpected in the playoffs.

Even though Dixon had an incred-ible game, there wasn’t much to say about the rest of the Lady Vikings.

Junior Caroline Debruhl and fresh-man Brittany Drumgoole added six points each. Drumgoole struggled, shooting 2-of-12 from the field, after having a 37 point outing in the round before.

The Lady Vikings led most of the game and led 53-48 with a minute and some change to go. Then the Red Devils turned it on, scoring the last 10 points of the game to knock out Kinston, and also advance to the state semifinals.

Despite the loss, Kinston High has high hopes for the future.

“We’re not going to know what a loss feels like next year,” Dixon said. “We’re going to go out and play hard every night. Next year is our year.”

Lady VIkings make first regional appearance since ‘03, end year 24-5

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the tragedy at Grainger Stadium by now: The Indians are leaving town after the 2011 season.

The Kinston Indians have been sold to the Carolina Mudcats owner Steve Bryant, and the team will be moving to Zebulon while the Mudcats are moving to Flori-da, all of which means the move is leaving Kinston without a base-ball team.

Aw, man. That’s too bad, huh?Please. I mean, come on, I am

glad they are gone. I think Kinston now has a

chance to bring either a basketball team or an arena football team to town.

I think that would bring in more money than baseball ever would. If you think about it, bas-ketball would be a better option since Kinston is also known for basketball due to success at Kin-ston High School and its two re-cent state championship rings.

It would be a good move, and Kinston would have to make some changes to Grainger Stadium but it would be worth it.

The entire Kinston community would pay to go see some basket-ball games right here at home in-stead of traveling to Charlotte to go see the Bobcats play.

Another option is arena foot-ball. Football is another sport all of Kinston enjoys -- at least as much as basketball or baseball.

Bringing an Arena Football team to Kinston would be great in my opinion. There is a lot of talent here in Kinston and they could also get college students who aren’t ready for the NFL but may want to try the Arena Foot-ball League.

Such a plan could bring in tons of revenue for Kinston, and that would be a huge boost to the Kin-ston community. Of course, we would also need to upgrade the downtown buildings and roads.

Still, I would love to have this approved by Kinston mayor B.J. Murphy and our City Council.

By Leshaun mayo

Staff Writer

The Kinston High baseball team has yet to win a game, but both players and coaches say the team will turn the corner soon.

“The group is young but good,” coach Jason Wade said.

Players pointed out that last year’s

team had more experience, and that the youthful players will develop into good baseball players in the future.

Another hindrance has been the ankle sprain of junior C.J. Bradshaw, who was injured in the basketball team’s final game. Bradshaw just got back into action last week.

“Baseball is a tough sport,” Wade said. “You have to learn to accept de-

By James Whitner

Staff Writerfeat.”

Some of the players on the team has a hard time doing that.

To overcome that obstacle, the coach’s plan is to “beat weaker teams to get prepared for the stronger ones.”

The Vikings’ played at home versus North Pitt on Friday, March 18.

Results were not available at press time.

Youthful baseball team struggles early

SportSThe Viking Press

Volume 3, Issue 6 March 2011 www.thevikingpress.com

Vikings fall short of ultimate goalKHS reaches record fifth straight regional finalBy Brody Bergman

Staff Writer

Staff photo/The Viking Press

Senior Mike Tyson (left) passes to junior C.J. Bradshaw (No. 3) during the Eastern Plains Conference Tournament.

The Kinston High men’s basketball team entered the North Carolina 2A playoffs looking for a repeat of last year’s championship run.

A championship would have been the Vikings’ third in five years; instead, the Vikings had to settle for a school-record fifth straight regional finals appearance.

The first round of this NCH-SAA State playoffs brought Corinth Holders to the Vi-kings’ home court. The first round started out extremely slow for the Vikings.

Coach Wells Gulledge had a few comments on how the first half of the game played out.

“We began the game pretty slow,” Gulledge said. “Our preparation wasn’t where it should’ve been. We were a little over confident.”

In the second half, the Vi-kings picked it up on the defensive end. They started taking care of the ball as well, having a 16-5 assist to turn-over ratio.

“When you’re in an elimi-nation state of mind, you play better. It’s either win and go on, or lose and go home.” Gulledge said.

Junior Jaquon Brownridge led the Vikings in scoring with 11 points, being the only player to reach double-digits. Following him was sopho-more Denzel Keyes with eight points and senior Cor-Sun Wynn with six.

The Kinston Vikings end-ed up leaving that night ad-vancing to the second round with a 59-29 victory over the Corinth Holders Pirates.

Kinston faced the North-side Monarchs in the second round. After having a slow start at the beginning of the last round, the Vikings looked to pick up their tempo in this one.

This was much more of a back and forth game for the Vikings until the second quarter.

Gulledge found his pot of gold in senior Mike Tyson

Wednesday night. Tyson fin-ished with a game high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Ju-nior Chris Hall added nine points while juniors Nakeil Williams and CJ Bradshaw added another seven each.

In the end, the Vikings took off and started the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run. They never looked back after that.

The final score in the sec-ond round of the NCHSAA playoffs was Kinston High 67, Northside 50.

Next up on the list were the Bertie Falcons. In the section-al final, the Vikings looked to advance to their fifth straight regional game.

Bertie led most of the game, dominating the paint and get-ting players into foul trouble. This was a thriller, coming down to the final quarter for the Vikings to come back.

Seniors Jeremiah Lanier and Mike Tyson were the high-point men that night, with Lanier scoring 15 and Tyson scoring 13. The Vikings won 63-57.

“This was our first true test this postseason,” Gulledge said. “Seeing that we had to come back in the final three minutes to come back and win, I’m really proud of our boys.”

With that win out of the way, the Kinston High Vi-kings could focus on a more challenging feat, the regional playoffs.

On this road to a regional championship and a shot at a repeat, the Vikings played TW Andrews of High Point.

Andrews, early in the sea-son, handed Kinston High a pair of losses. After these disappointing losses, junior Chris Hall had something to say about those defeats.

“I hope we get another shot at them,” Hall told The Free Press in August. “We’ll be ready next time.”

To handle Andrews, Gulledge opened up a rare zone defense, which the Vi-kings play little of.

The Red Raiders had a tough time getting up shots from the inside and around the perimeter. With these

misses, Kinston dominated with a 40-24 rebound advan-tages, which lead to second chance points and a lot of fast break scoring.

Senior Mike Tyson led the way in points with 14, fol-lowed by sophomore Josh Dawson with another 10. The Vikings went on to capture the victory, 49-46.

As the Vikings reached the state semi-finals again, they faced a rally killer in this opponent, the Northwood Chargers. The Chargers were known for the comeback wins, and this one turned out much the same way.

Kinston held the tempo to their end for most of the game, having multiple runs throughout.

“This was a game of runs. We held them to one 3-point-er in the first half.” Gulledge said. “They just came out and had a better second half than us.”

It was a very difficult for the Vikings to get up shots, shooting 37.5 percent from the field.

“We were just rushing it against the zone,” Gulledge said.

The Chargers just out-played the Vikings, taking the victory, 56-42.

This eliminated Kinston

High, ending their quest for a repeat.

The Kinston High boy’s basketball had an overall suc-cessful season.

Going 23-6, the Vikings won a conference title, made it all the way to the eastern fi-nals, and did this while losing

major components from last year’s team.

“Losing 90 percent of our offense from last year, we had a bunch of guys who had to jump into roles they weren’t used to,” Gulledge said. “They had some big shoes to fill.”

Staff photo/The Viking Press

Junior Chris Hall dribbles past a Greene Central opponent during a late-season Eastern Plains 2A game.