Many parents began to worry as they found out that math teacher, Charla Klein will be participating in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program and in exchange for Ms. Klein, Ms. Schouler will be the new math teacher. This opportunity allows a new experience for both teachers.

“I’m a little anxious about Ms. Klein leaving…she is an excellent teacher,” says freshmen, Melisa Staff. “It would be fun to have a teacher from another country, but I hope that she is half as good as Ms. Klein.

Despite doubts, Ms. Klein is staying positive and is excited about the opportunities made possible to her by the Fulbright program.

“This was my second time to apply to the Fulbright program. The first time I was selected as an alternate and the director encouraged me to reapply this year,” says Charla Klein, math teacher. “ I was thrilled when I received the acceptance letter last week.”

Principal, Bruce Dubes has much faith in Ms. Schouler and her ability to learn the TEKS within a three-week period before school starts.

“I understand the parents’ apprehension, but Ms. Schouller will be prepared when students come on the first day of school,” said Bruce Dubes, principal. “Three weeks is ample time for me to review the TEKS, the TAKS test and our local curriculum.”

The parents worry that their children may not receive proper and necessary education from a teacher outside of the country.

“The PTA is very proud of our exemplary rating and we want to keep it,” says Oscar Ramirez, parent and president of the parent/teacher association. “Mr. Dubes said he will make certain that this new teacher will be ready and I guess we have to take him at his word.”

The principal shows his excitement and faith do this opportunity that has been presented.

“We are proud of Miss Klein’s accomplishment, being selected into this prestigious program is quite an honor. We also are excited to have Ms. Schouler from Scotland,” said Bruce Dubes, principal. “The Fulbright program selects only the best teachers to participate, so I have no doubt that Ms. Schouler will know her content area and be a dynamic teacher.”

This picture of a young girl and her quote speaks to me by her speaking of her dreams and how she didn’t know if they were too far fetched at a previous time  this connects to me by my own dreams and goals that may seem unreachable at some points in my life. She shows through a short quote that perservence leads to success. 

A board meeting will be held whether the school should allow the students availability to rent computers due to recent hacking of computer system. The yearbook has a deadline to complete the yearbook and the district will be offline for the next three weeks.

Considering this, they may be allowed to rent computers while they’re installing a new security software and finding the hacker. For 22 years, the school has sponsored a “yearbook day,” which is a signing party for the seniors. This is scheduled from noon to 5p.m. on May 29, and with the internet shutdown this will be a hard deadline to meet.

A breach in the computer server was found by Ed Robles, the technology director, in January. This ongoing investigation with several leads should lead to an arrest made within the next month.

“I certainly will not be able to come back for a signing party in the summer or fall,” says Reggie White, senior.

Not getting to have yearbook day would be like not getting to have homecoming: a huge tradition that needs to pertain throughout complicated times.

“We understand the inconvenience of the shutdown, but it is necessary,” says Ed Robles, district technology director.

Many believe that this shutdown is necessary to keep the students safety.

“This year we pushed out final yearbook deadline back as far as we could to add more coverage to the book,” says Alexis Zavia, junior and editor of the yearbook.

The deadline has been pushed back as far as possible, therefore there is no stretch room.

“It’s great that the the school board is moving so quickly on this request,” says Rodney Stephens, yearbook adviser. “Yearbook day for seniors is one of the most beloved traditions at the school.”

1. Lunch periods will be extended by 10 minutes at RHHS also will start having. An open campus lunch policy. This policy will go into effect due to phenomenal test scores on September 25, 2015 for all students besides freshmen.

2. A petition will be sent around and a town meeting will be held on Sep. 25, 2005 for the idea produced by Wal-Mart on May of 2006 in Rock Hill. WM feels that since Ararat is such a growing community that it can handle two Super WM’s in one town, but the citizens feel that this will hurt local businesses.

3. A sixth grader a genius? According to Mr. Fred George he has a sixth grader who for which he believes should be in high school. He believes that Napoleon Dynamite should waste no time in middle school so he can go into medical school more prepared.

4. Three to four children die everyday in the U.S. from child abuse or neglect, the number of child abuse cases rose from 2.6 to 2.7 million in one year. This survey from the Child Abuse Prevention Center says that more than half of the children who died under age 1, and 79% of the deaths were among children under age 5.

5. A fire in Los Gatos caused $76,000 in damages which was caused by a lit cigarette on a sofa. Firefighters arrived at the house at 3:30 am and put the blaze under control within 5 minutes; luckily the homeowner was awakened by the smoke and flames and only suffered minor burns on her hands and feet

What good is having guns when the criminals have more control when it comes to guns? If we got stricter gun control laws the criminals would find away to get guns, it would be punishing the good guys, by taking away their freedom, and it could lead people to think that the government is trying to take control. It wouldn’t’ be easy to live in a world where your family members or you had no way to defend yourselves from the criminals on the street. Decide if you want to take away your freedom and defense.

The same way drugs are illegal if stricter gun laws were implied then the criminals would still get ahold of them. According to an ATF agent the criminals get guns by sources allowing them to fall into the wrong hands, or people sell them illegally. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html).  Just as how the cartel distributes drugs throughout our country they can do the same with guns. Making laws has not stopped them or they wouldn’t be called criminals; they would find a way to get the guns rather it was illegal or not. Most of the time these criminals have served jail time or will serve jail time and most of the time they believe that the jail time is worth it.

What good is taking away the defense of the good guys when the criminals don’t follow the same rule. A mom at the park with her little girl while her husband is at work has no way to defend herself when a criminal comes up with a gun threatening her daughter, and her own life. This is why we don’t need stricter gun control lies, to protect the defenseless. Many people nowadays are scared to go csomewhere without protection. According to an article by Michael Sydner (http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/crime-is-getting-worse-violent-crime-in-america-increased-by-15-percent-last-year) the crime rate grew 15% last year and is approximately double in six years. As our country grows the crime rate grows.

“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.” -Adolf Hitler. One of the most memorable and dishonorable part of history was the part where Adolf Hitler lived and he believed by disarming the citizens you can conquer a nation. Although these are Adolf Hitler’s words many people believe it. The more and more freedoms that are taken away from the citizens the more and more they believe they are trying to be conquered. The last thing that is needed in our nation is more riots, or more people believing the government is against the citizens. Stricter gun control would hurt the loyalty, trust, and bond between the government and the people of our country. This is greatly needed. How much would you believe in the government if they took

Decide, do you want to not to be able to defend yourself when you go to the store from the criminal who will have a gun no matter what. The bad guys are going to find away to get the guns, the good guys don’t deserve to lose their freedom for what other’s do, and this could make the government look as if it is trying to take complete control. Is the small chance that these laws will take away a criminal’s gun worth the loss of yours?

Swallowing Stones

This book is set in the modern times of today. It is a small town where everyone knows everyone. That’s one of the reasons everyone is so connected…which isn’t always a good thing… if you’re trying to hide something.

I’ve never experienced what these characters have experienced, but the author made me feel as if I could feel what they felt. When a shot is fired in the neighborhood and a girl, Jenna, watches her dad fall from the roof, it gives you chills as everyone scrambles to figure out a way to put everything together.

Michael is a party, don’t’-really-care type. He’s a jock that’s too good for everyone. His whole demeanor changes though when a shot was fired. He begins to care more fully for each and everyday. Michael finds out things about himself and others that he never would have paid attention to before.

Joey is Michael’s best friend. He loves the excitement of everything and convinces Michael to not tell the police about the things he knew about jenna’s dad being shot. He was also the party type so all of this stuff hyped him up until it was him that was put in Michael’s position, then his perspective changes. He is willing to do anything for Michael though… including lying.

Michael and Jenna have a weird connection, although they had never meant each other they felt like they knew each other. Jenna was one of the more popular girls, she had a lot of friends. Jenna throughout the story learned to forgive and cherish every moment. She was sweet but never before had she defied the code and talked to Amy Ruggiero, but one day she did..

Amy caked oh her makeup, had no friends, and felt as if she always had to prove herself to everyone. She was cast out by Michael until he began to talk to her and she was really nice and normal. She also had a huge connection with Jenna , Amy’s parents had died in a car wreck so she wanted to help Jenna as much as she could.

Jason was Jenna’s boyfriend and he was confused throughout the whole book. He really did love Jenna. He got in the way a lot though, because no one could tell him what was going on.

Darcy on the other hand, Michael’s girlfriends only made things worse. As a very jealous, and selfish girl she got her friends together and they told Amy that Michael only was around her because he wanted to win a bet. She only caused more problems for Michael.

This book is so easy to relate to though, because it is in such a modern setting, and it seems so realistic. It is also filled with a diverse group of characters. All of the characters come from different backgrounds but they all somehow connect.

This book also has a bunch of different feelings combined from guilt to love the book puts you on emotional roller coaster. It’s the type of book where you never want to put it down. It keeps you so emotionally tied that you can relate to the characters.

This is a great book. There is love, guilt, and death all intertwined. To find out more you’ll have to read the book.