By Derek Etter
Social Media and Marketing Editor Kathi Hunger-Sanders, the district’s dental hygienist, works every day at the Junior High, responding to calls from all schools in the district, and has done so for the past 10 years. Some may even remember her as the “tooth fairy” that visited their classes in elementary and junior high school.
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By Carrie Knight Multimedia Editor Two years of preparation and planning has finally come to fulfillment for the members of student council. November 2, 3, and 4 Red Lion hosted 1,000 students statewide. “I have never seen a group of leaders so dedicated and passionate about working for two years straight on a conference that was going to directly benefit 1,000 students from across the state.” said Jacob Franciscus, the current president of student council, and state co-chair. “The council has become family within the past two years...I am so proud of every single one of them.” By Derek Etter, Emily Heiss, and Ali Kochik
Collaborative investigation While on duty during C lunch Wed. Nov. 29, senior high principal Mark Shue learned that a male student brought a loaded gun with him that morning. In that moment, Shue said that he knew that the student needed to be located and taken into custody. By Carly Guise
Editor-in-Chief As students filed into the auditorium on Dec. 1, buzzing with excitement for the upcoming weekend, a little boy sat on the steps leading to the stage, eyeing up the crowd. His name is Connor Rowan. He is in first grade at Locust Grove Elementary, and he is a cancer survivor. By Brianna Lehr
Staff Writer On Friday Sept. 22, chatter erupted from the Fitzkee Center as excited students got ready for the 2017 Homecoming Pep Rally. And shortly after the final event, the constant chatter quickly ceased as the time came to announce homecoming queen. By Paul Jones
Sports Editor Fridays at Red Lion during the fall have always been filled with football and fanfare. Student sections are a big part of that given that they are the students cheering for their fellow students. However, some within the county have questioned how inclusive those sections actually are. While this may sound like something out of a bad movie, this might be an actual problem. This issue was talked about at Student Forum, which schools from three different counties attended. “There are two student representatives from each school in Franklin, Adams, and York county who go to those meetings,” Mrs. Dennish, head of Student Council, said. “At the meetings they talk about issues that are going on at school, and last year one of the issues was about school spirit and out of that came a conversation about all the different student sections.” By Zachary Rhine News & Feature Editor Pond, stream, reptiles and amphibians, energy, insects and arachnids- these words come together to form the embodiment of what Fourth Grade Environmental Days is all about. For six days a school year, three in the fall and three in the spring, a small farm in Felton, PA is transformed into a place of learning and games for the fourth grade classes of the Red Lion school district. The field trip involves high schoolers instructing fourth graders on how they can better their environment while at the same time preparing the kids for their impending standardized tests such as the PSSA’s. On the last of the three spring days, field trip adviser and Red Lion Science teacher Ms. Heather Fogell invited Pennsylvania representative Stan Saylor to the day’s events. While Saylor himself could not make it, he had his office’s regional manager, Kevin Eck, attend the field trip. By Ian Adler Editor-in-Chief With almost 170 projects submitted, Red Lion managed to take home 24 of the 59 awards available at the York County Science and Engineering Fair Mar. 7-8, including the awards of Grand and Reserve Grand Champion. YCSEF Fair Director and science teacher Mr. Ben Smith attributes Red Lion’s wide range of success to a team effort from both students and staff. “We’ve had the (county) science fair for a long time, but this is the second year that we’ve had a Red Lion fair,” Smith said. “So I think what we’re seeing is the fruits of the labor from the Science Fair Club and Mrs. Stone and some of the other science teachers who have really worked to try and get students to raise their level.” The Red Lion fair scored and placed projects roughly a month in advance, allowing students to improve and adjust their projects before the county fair rolled around. Not all of the Red Lion fair projects advanced on to the county fair, but those that did drew lots of attention. Juniors Mickayla Smith and Levi Jones earned the title of Grand Champion(s) and seniors Tristan Schluderberg and Olivia Tarman brought home the title of Reserve Grand Champion(s), Red Lion’s two highest awards earned at the YCSEF. “We looked at what people find attractive in different faces and then how that perception of attractiveness can affect how they perceive you otherwise,” Tarman said. “In the first part, we had people look at different faces and just pick which one they thought was the most attractive and in the second part, we looked to see if there was a match between what people found as being attractive and what they also found to as being trustworthy.” Tarman and Schluderberg ended up sorting the data of 377 50-question submissions in Microsoft Excel and displaying results and observations on their tri-fold board in typical science fair fashion. Their project was called “Face to Face.” Other multiple award winners included juniors Jason Bernhardt and Jessica Sun, sophomore Anthony Migash, and freshman Austin Kutcher. “We see a great enthusiasm about science at Red Lion and we think that that’s finally starting to show up at the county science fair,” Mr. Smith said. While the projects are required for certain science courses, several voluntary projects found their way into the county fair, including Schluderberg and Tarman’s. Although their project was voluntary, several incentives were still offered, such as bonus points on their final and midterm scores. Schluderberg gives credit to the “unique projects” for much of Red Lion’s success in the county fair. “I think it’s just going to keep building and progressing,” Tarman said. “Before these two years, it had been awhile since Red Lion had done that well in the fair, I think maybe Red Lion’s making a comeback.” By Helen Zeidman Junior Editor-in-Chief Hostages have been taken. Insults have been thrown. Promises have been broken. The fate of Pennsylvania’s education system hangs in the air. The battle to approve the Pennsylvania State Budget for 2015 has evolved into a war, and the amount of casualties has been rising. Public schools are scrambling to find funding. The Pennsylvania School Board Association has filed a lawsuit against Governor Tom Wolf, claiming that the schools are not getting the financial support that is promised to them in the Pennsylvania state constitution. Public universities, such as Temple University and Penn State University, are lacking the funding that they are supposed to receive annually. “What it forced schools to do is to create austerity budgets, where you cut spending to the bone,” Principal Mark Shue said. “I know this year we have cut back spending.” During all of this chaos, Governor Tom Wolf and the Pennsylvania State Senate and House of Representatives are stuck in a deadlock over the provisions of the 2015-2016 state budget. Governor Tom Wolf has been using his power of the line item veto, which is a specific authority given to governors that allows them to reject certain parts of a bill, to turn down proposals from the Republican dominated legislature. Tom Wolf’s original budget contained policies consistent with Democratic ideals that were not initially approved of by the Republican majority of the State Legislature. The discrepancies between the Democrat governor and the largely Republican legislature have made the state budget difficult to pass. This led to the current predicament of Pennsylvania going over 200 days without a solid state budget. The priorities of Governor Wolf’s gubernatorial campaign are “schools that teach, jobs that pay, and government that works,” according to his website, Governor.pa.gov. One of the main changes in the original budget, which was proposed back in March of 2015, was an increase in education funding. This would include more funding for basic education, special education, early education, and secondary education. The increase in funding for schools could help keep taxes in the school district down. “Pretty much what happens in Red Lion is that we have an operating budget. What the state doesn’t cover, the tax payers will,” Principle Shue said. If the school district receives more funding from the state budget, then that money could be used to maintain the current tax rate and possibly prevent tax increases. While the rewards could be great, the delay of the state budget has caused obstacles for many schools in Pennsylvania, including tightening the budget for the Red Lion Area School District. Without an approved state budget, Pennsylvania school funding will not be the only casualty in the war to approve the budget. By Shawn Gunarich
News & Feature Editor Landon Knepp is a kindergartener at Red Lion, but two years ago, he and hisfamily had their world pulled out from under them, as a 12 centimeter tumor in Landon’s abdomen was found. The tumor would come back to be cancer, a rare and aggressive cancer called Stage Four Neuroblastoma. Since his diagnosis, Landon has undergone six rounds of chemotherapy, stem cell transplants, and immunotherapy. Any child who has to undergo such things should be considered a superhero, and in the Four Diamonds family, Landon is a superhero. The Knepp family has agreed to be the Red Lion Mini-THON family for 2016. This means on April 8, Red Lion students, faculty and Four Diamonds families will dance for twelve hours straight to raise money in honor of the Knepp family. This year is special to the Red Lion Mini-THON family, as it is the tenth birthday of THON at Red Lion. Since Landon’s last round of chemotherapy this past November, his tumor was reduced considerably and completely eradicated. “Its tears you apart to see your son like that,” Mrs. Katie Knepp said after recalling Landon in a weakened state, “but after everything, in the end it pulls you all together.” Landon’s mother was forced to resign as a teacher in Red Lion School District in order to be with Landon in his time of need. Since 1993, Mini-THONs have raised over $17 million to help end a disease that affects millions of families worldwide. In 2015 alone, 188 schools in Pennsylvania raised $4,309,979.60. These feats could not have been reached without the growing family that is the Four Diamonds Fund. The Four Diamonds was founded by Charles and Irma Millard who lost their son, Chris, to pediatric cancer, but not before Chris could write a story called the Four Diamonds. This story, which gave the Four Diamonds its name, also gave them their ideals and principles. In Chris’ story his character, Sir Millard, is sent out to collect four diamonds that symbolize a certain characteristic of the Four Diamonds fund. These characteristics are honesty, courage, wisdom, and strength, each of which is a diamond that makes the symbol of the fund. Because of Charles and Irma Millard we have the Four Diamonds, a fund that is based out of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and has touched over 3,200 families. For those who don’t know, the Four Diamonds helps to raise money to help end childhood cancer, but also allows the parents of the affected children not to have to worry about medical bills. Everything from lodging to food is taken care of by the fund, which allows parents of the children to focus on what really matters, the kids. “Knowing we didn’t have those medical bills was like a ton of bricks lifted off our shoulders,” Mrs. Knepp said. Every three minutes, a child is diagnosed with cancer worldwide. The aim of the Four Diamonds fund is to make that number zero, and with the help of Mini-THONs across the world, we can make it happen. |
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