V3 Issue 15

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0488dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B>Gripes</B></div> <div> <B>of Wrath</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Will the girls please be more careful about disposal of feminine products!</B></div> <div> <B>       Anonymous</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Everybody should bathe often!</B></div> <div> <B>......Sam</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A majority of the rules aren't enforced equally.</B></div> <div> <B>......Michelle</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Insignificant transgressions are often blown out of proportion.</B></div> <div> <B>      Zac</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Snitching.</B></div> <div> <B>......Danielle</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>People who want things will complain.</B></div> <div> <B>......Brandon</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Stupidity.</B></div> <div> <B>......Erica</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Ignorant people.</B></div> <div> <B>......Jessica</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0498dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Mrs. Davies                      Room 206</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mrs. Davies Room 20"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Journalism 2004/2005"><U>Journalism 2004/2005</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3 Issue 1"><U>Volume 3 Issue 1</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3 Issue 2"><U>Volume 3 Issue 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3 , Issue 3"><U>Volume 3 , Issue 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3, Issue 4"><U>Volume 3, Issue 4</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3, Issue 8"><U>Volume 3, Issue 8</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Issue 9"><U>Issue 9</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Issue 10 Review"><U>Issue 10 Review</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="V3 Issue11"><U>V3 Issue11</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3, Issue 12"><U>Volume 3, Issue 12</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volume 3, Issue 13 Photojournalism"><U>Volume 3, Issue 13 Photojournalism</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="V3 Issue 14"><U>V3 Issue 14</U></A>   |   <B>V3 Issue 15</B>   |   <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="V3 Issue 16"><U>V3 Issue 16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id54.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="V3 Issue 17"><U>V3 Issue 17</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0498dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>V3 Issue 15</I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Stuff That Bugs Us</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Bored With the Board</div> <div> by Jen Cohen</div> <bR> <div>         If you give the board a cookie, they'll want a cup of coffee. This is the ongoing story of you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. The Liberty's Board of Education needs to earn their end of the deal because many of them haven't raised a hand in this epic tale. </div> <div>         With an election on the horizon, hands should now, more than ever, be flying sky-high. As in all elections, the objective is to have the votes go to the person that would stand tall while working the best at their designated position. The Board of Education in Liberty, NY has three members up for reelection this year: Vice-President Armand Seibert, Robert DeStefano and Christine Murphy. This year, especially, there needs to be change brought to the board.</div> <div>       You see, when these nine members are voted to be in an organization to help others, they are expected to fill a quota full of responsibility, ethics, compassion, and respect to all that decide to surround themselves in their company. In life come quotas, deadlines, and expectations that need to be met by <I>all.</I> There should be precedents set by these “higher authority” figures if the faculty and staff demand such high standards for <I>students</I> in Liberty Central Schools.</div> <div>        Reinstated this year was the attendance policy. Students at Liberty High School cannot miss more than 24 classes for a full year course. The board approved this rule for the students. In return for placing this rule, the board themselves should be able to follow the policy. The reason for bringing this up is merely to prove that in order to place such demand on students, in return there should be some sort of requirement for members of the board as well. Students can have up to 24 absences out of 184 school days. For the 2004-2005, only 22 board meetings are tentatively planned. If the board members followed the student attendance policy, than the board would need to limit their absences to a maximum of three meetings. If the three meeting rule were placed upon the board, there would be a few members that wouldn't be able to continue their membership on the board contingent to their excessive absences. The board approved this rule for students so therefore should be able to follow it themselves being more mature adults. </div> <div>         Students also are expected to participate in the classroom when they are attending. Participation is usually even designated a part in the overall grade. The question at hand is: who decides when the effort is being demonstrated in a decent and dependable manner. And the answer: nonexistent. No one can determine the scale in which members of the board participate purely because of the lack of interest within the school community. Some would argue that by these members taking the time to sit at a meeting would be enough participation and leave it at just that. If these nine people were to be judged on their performance, then the grades would turn out to be lower that the fourth-graders score on their ELA tests.  </div> <div>       If a person feels overly passionate about a topic, then they should go out and discuss it as normal human beings. Board members have only three categories in which they have come accustomed to presenting themselves; 1. Sit back and not speak at <I>all</I>. 2. Raise a hand once, and, if it's a good day, maybe twice. 3. Step on speakers, toes, and act themselves as animals going in for the kill.</div> <div>       What the Liberty Central School District needs are people to care enough about the district to find a happy medium to work with and work at while they hold their position as, believe it or not, leaders. A board as a whole should be united and present themselves in such a manner. These nine people cannot honestly think that everyone around them will tend to their every waking desire. The point is; they need to change, and soon. </div> <div>      Although it is almost impossible to teach old dogs new tricks, the effort should be there on <I>both</I> sides. There is a definition explaining the State learning standards and states what follows, “State learning standards means the knowledge, skills and understandings that individuals can and do habitually demonstrate over time as a consequence of instruction and experience.” So let us all look over the past, mend the present, and build on today, for tomorrow. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Mold: Not Just For the Middle School</div> <bR> <div> by Jennifer Cohen</div> <bR> <div>      Each day hundreds of students avail themselves of the not-quite gourmet, but certainly dependable (pizza, soup/sandwich, pizza or pizza) spread put out by the friendly workers in the high school cafeteria.  Certainly, some days the food is better than others. However, on some days the food may not be as appetizing as others.</div> <div>      People take it for granted that the food in restaurants is properly prepared and stored.</div> <div>      “If you're at a restaurant and you say something is in your food, they don't question you.  It's an honor system.  The restaurant wants you to come back; they want your business,” said Jen Cohen, senior.</div> <div>      Not so at school.  At school, students are captive consumers.       </div> <div>      “If you don't bring your food, that [school food] is all you have to eat,” said Samantha Jardine, who normally does not eat lunch at all.  “If you don't like what the school has to offer you, then you don't eat.  That's not right.”</div> <div>      Diana Rivera occasionally eats lunch at school.  “I don't eat the pizza because I find it gross.  It's pizza everyday; I get sick of looking at it.”</div> <div>      So what's a student to do when he/she has a problem with the quality of the food?  The assumption would be to advise the food servers of the problem; in a restaurant that would be all that is needed. However, to one student who recently found mold on the pizza, the solution was not that easy.</div> <div>      When a teacher apprised the cafeteria staff of the problem, and requested that the student receive her money back, the issue escalated from the simple to the complicated.  The student could not receive her money back without going to the Supervisor of Operations.</div> <div>      Both the cafeteria worker and the Supervisor of Operations emphatically told the student and teacher that the substance on the pizza was not mold, despite the determination by a biology teacher that mold did indeed exist on the bottom of the pizza.   </div> <div>      While no physical damage was done to the student who ate the “moldy” pizza, just the thought of it was enough to gross her out.</div> <div>      Gary Sawyer, Supervisor of Operations, stated that the pizza crust is frozen and wrapped at the source and not opened until the morning that it is cooked at the school.  He did not believe the substance was mold. While the student got her $1.55 back, the money is not the point.  </div> <div>      Shouldn't the students, as consumers, be treated with the same respect they would receive in a real restaurant?</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Simply Cell Phones</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>by Zac Shavrick</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div>      The cell phone issue is a raging brush fire of controversy, which is spreading throughout Liberty School. Students agree that there is no reason cell phones should be outlawed but it is apparently unanimous among teachers that the phones are needless</div> <div>      “I can understand the need for them after school, but during the day they are unnecessary,” says math teacher Art Olson. Mr. Olson upholds the rule strictly, enforcing a warning upon first seeing the cell phone and awarding confiscation to second time offenders. </div> <div>      The other problem often seen with cell phones is that they can be used for text messaging which has been found to be universally disruptive. The problem with text messaging is that it is discreet and can be done quickly without being noticed. </div> <div>      Students, however, don't feel that the strict enforcement of cell phones is entirely necessary. “Cell phones are undeniably necessary in emergency situations,” says Michelle Schmitz .  Cell phones can be important if one needs to reach their parents during a lunch period and doesn't feel it necessary to go through the office to make a quick phone call. </div> <div>      A perfect medium needs to be established: Students should not be able to use their phones in class; however, perhaps students should be allow to carry phones with them and use them in the lunch room for making important phone calls without a fear of getting their phone taken away. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Flood Waters Recede From Broken Community</div> <bR> <div> by Erica Minckler</div> <bR> <div> With the floodwaters receding throughout Sullivan, Ulster, Orange, and Delaware counties, the President has come to show his support to the families that have lost their homes to this horrendous flood. This flood was more destructive to the town of Deer Park in Orange County than the last two before it in the last two years, even more destructive than the hurricane that swept through our area in fall of 2004.</div> <div>      There was much financial damage as this flood crippled the already wounded Sullivan County. According to newspaper reports, the village of Liberty suffered an estimated and reported $2,000,000.00 in damages that the state will hopefully help pay for. It is said that the Sullivan County schools have suffered about $1,500,000.00 in damages that they need the state to help with. It's not just the village of Liberty that suffered, but also towns that are closer to the Delaware River have suffered as we did. Callicoon requested about $420,000.00 for its damages. </div> <div>      Since this area was hit so hard from this storm, the federal government did label it as a disaster area. This was for our area to receive financial aid from the federal government. The financial aid that we get is money for the state and village governments as well as lower interest rates for homeowners to be able to rebuild or to fix their homes.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Complaints About Complaints</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>by Erica Minckler</B></div> <bR> <div>      Recently in Liberty High School many students have been complaining about the rules.  However, rules are rules and must be followed.  Different people, according to what they like, complain about different rules.  For example, many girls are now complaining about the flip-flop rule now that spring is here.  However, this is not a new rule, this rule has been in place our entire high school life.  Every year the girls complain and every year nothing happens.  The rule is sticking; wearing flip-flops is strictly a safety hazard and not allowed.  All the complaining is tiresome.</div> <div>        Also what about smokers?  Smokers want to be able to at least leave school grounds to smoke, however that has never been allowed since we have been in high school and it isn't going to change; if anything, it will become stricter. </div> <div>      So why year after year complain about smoking, and wanting the ability to smoke if you know it will not ever be allowed.  All the complaining in this school all comes down to what students wants, and students will always want something different.  If a student wants to smoke, they will complain about not being able to smoke.  If a student wants to wear flip-flops, they will complain about not being able to wear flip-flops.  There are many things that students complain about, however the rules are in effect for a reason and therefore will not change.  Stop complaining.</div> <bR> <div> Snitches Get Stitches</div> <div> by Danielle HInton</div> <bR> <div> <B>     Imagine if you will…you're sitting in class and you see the kid sitting in front of you cheating on their test. The test is very difficult and you've been studying for weeks to pass, and this one student takes five minutes to look at the answer and may get the same grade as you. So now you're faced with an issue, do you tell the teacher or keep it to yourself? Students are faced with this dilemma everyday and are left speechless without an answer. If you tell, no one would trust you for anything, but if you don't, the truth may eat at your conscience, and no one should have to carry a burden of that magnitude.  So what is one to do?</B></div> <div> <B>     Schools all over the country are beginning to deeply encourage snitching, and are even beginning to hand out cash rewards of $100 or more for the identities of students who have vandalized the school or brought illegal substances on to school property. From this the rising amount of students who are more than willing to get other students in trouble is overwhelming. Students are carelessly giving up their friends and classmates, and the sad part is, they don't always give very creditable information. </B></div> <div> <B>“Tips about guns, thefts or drugs might bring a $100 reward. Information about lesser offenses is good for $10 or a lunch voucher. Even third-graders are urged to be alert for offenses by their classmates, creating the impression that younger children are exposed to, or might engage in, criminal acts,” a recent issue of USA Today states about schools all over the country trying to crack down on crime. But with all the stress of high school, trying to “fit in” and the endless new responsibilities students are right around the corner of facing, is it really fair to put the pressure of keeping their school safe on top of everything else? Not to mention the tax dollars that go into the police force  to keep schools safe, and  now schools are turning to teenage high school students to help them do their job, and in some cases do the job for them. </B></div> <div> <B>Rewards and cash prizes for snitching is not only wrong but also potentially dangerous. How can a school operate when you go day to day looking over your shoulder and watching your every move as if you were a criminal? Students today do a lot more things that they want no one else to know, and are really no one else's business. Kids these days are willing to do too much to keep their skeletons in their closets. And by tattling like we did when we were all little kids in elementary school, it doesn't show much maturity either.  Besides, if you can't trust your friends, who can you trust?</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>