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 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 Carly Guise Junior Editor-in-Chief Jessica Sun has been named Grand Champion at the York County Science and Engineering Fair. The senior won the title on Mar. 8 after claiming the top prize at Red Lion’s own science fair and two days of judging at the county level. “I was both happy and surprised when I found out I was Grand Champion,” she said. “It was not a goal that I set out with. Mainly, I just wanted to research something I was interested in and do a good project.” The title will send Sun to the compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair, which is being held in Los Angeles this coming May. “I’m both nervous and excited for the fair,” she said. “I still have a little bit of work to do with my project before I go, but I’m really excited since the international fair is going to be in Los Angeles. I think that it will be a really cool experience.” By Brianna Lehr
Business Manager In the middle of September, Jessica Owrutsky, Brianna Lehr, and Madison Lester from Red Lion, and other selected amounts of students were chosen from each school district in York County to attend a youth mental health alliance conference at Wyndham Garden York Hotel. During this meeting, the youth came together and talked about how to make Mental Health more known throughout York County, and created a name for the alliance called The Silence Ends Here supported with the hashtag “I am because you are”. The reason behind this group is to reach out to people who are struggling with a mental health issue or who know someone who is struggling. The goal is to let them know that they are not alone, and that arms are always open. The Silence Ends Here has had two other meetings since September. The most recent meeting included several panelists who hold government and federal positions, who were asked several questions relating to mental health and how to make it more acknowledged. The Silence Ends Here is just a group of young people, who are trying to crush the stigma of Mental Health, in the idea that Mental Health issues are not fake or “crazy” but all too real. By Carly Guise
Junior Editor-in-Chief Punkin Chunkin--it’s an activity that has been steadily gaining popularity over the past few years. The idea is that participants build some kind of machine — usually a catapult or a trebuchet — capable of launching pumpkins that range from five to eight pounds. Chunking festivals around the nation have popped up, with the most well-known in Delaware. On Nov. 4, the festivities were brought to York County, with a Punkin Chunkin contest at West York Middle School. Red Lion juniors Tyler Burchett and Andrew Bacon placed fifth out of 15 teams while there. By Helen Zeidman Editor-in-Chief The Red Lion Area Senior High School shows its pride goes beyond an undefeated football team with its new status as the No. 2 school in York County. Red Lion’s high score on the Pennsylvania School Performance report bumped the school to the top of the county. The Pennsylvania Department of Education annually evaluates schools in Pennsylvania on a plethora of different factors. The department combines the scores from various categories to calculate the overall score for a school. Therefore, the top performing and well-rounded schools end up at the top of the rankings. Red Lion’s new ranking shows the hard work from staff and students has paid off. “The message I try to send is that we have a great school,” Mr. Mark Shue, the principal of Red Lion Area Senior High School, said. “This validated what we do. It really shows we have a great school here.” By Rachel Lau
Senior Editor William Penn will be playing against Red Lion on Saturday, Sept. 24, as a result of a recent shooting at one of the York school’s Friday night games. Every future William Penn football game has moved to Saturday afternoons, according to Ron Coursey, the athletic director at the school. “The decision was made after we had a conversation with the chief of police, board members, and the superintendent,” Coursey said. “The superintendent made the final decision.” The school will also increase their security on staff and crowd control at every football game to take extra precaution for the duration of the season. Red Lion already has 13 staffed security personnel and four regional officers. When asked why he would decline offers of William Penn games being played at all away games, Coursey said, “I don’t want to rob my kids the experience of playing at home.” By Zachary Rhine
News & Feature Editor Substitute teachers are often a class’s dream come true, but that dream may be in trouble as of late. In the past few years the number of substitute teachers in the country, and Pennsylvania specifically, has decreased by more than fifty percent, according to comments from the PA Senate and House Education Committees released in October. Superintendent of Penn Manor School District, Michael Leichliter, spoke at the state Congress about this substitute teacher shortage. Leichliter explained that Penn Manor, a school only a forty five minute drive from Red Lion, doubled in the number of vacancies left unfilled from the 2013-2014 school year to the 2014-2015 school year. “As our pool of substitutes has shrunk in relation to those needed just to handle routine sick day and personal day needs of teachers,” said Leichliter, “the number of professional days for teachers has grown, further contributing to our current crisis.” Not only is the demand for substitutes at an all time high, but the fairly recent Affordable Care Act is also making schools hesitate to schedule the substitutes that they already have. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly known, redefined how many hours a full-time and part-time job entails. If a substitute is scheduled for more than thirty hours a week then by law they are entitled to certain benefits, salaries, and are considered full-time workers. Schools now have to find a balance with how many teachers they can schedule and also manage an already tight school budget. “With cuts in education, and hiring, and simply the diminishing of the substitute teaching state,” said Mr. Shue, Red Lion Principal, “the district certainly has been impacted.” When asked if administrators ever cover any classes, Shue explained, “On occasion, but often students unfortunately have to report to the commons.” Mrs. Joanne Bouton has been a substitute teacher for fifteen, going on sixteen years at both Red Lion and Dallastown. She planned on only teaching for a year or two, but ended up continuing because of how much she enjoyed it. She said that she has noticed that the pool of her fellow substitutes has dwindled over the years. “It’s a shame, too,” said Bouton, “because it’s such a joy to see the kids from elementary grow up, and see how they change going from middle to high school.” Junior Levi Jones expressed concern about this year’s lack of substitutes. “When Mr. Smith was out for a week after his injury there were many days where we didn’t even have a sub; we were simply told to go to the commons. So now we’re behind from where we need to be.” With all of the news and struggles that schools deal with day-by-day, few could have guessed that the seemingly bismal component of substitute teachers would cause such dramatic effects when their group began to vanish. Now two things must happen if this stupple of public schooling is going to continue for future generations: schools must find the budget to schedule more substitutes, and more of the younger generation will need to be enticed to pursue substitute teaching. |
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