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.
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By Shayla Scallorn
Social Media Editor After 11 years of hard work, Mini-THON has raised a grand total of $500,722.22. The money was raised in support of the Four Diamonds Fund and recent Red Lion graduate Brooks Argento. Life for the Argento family was turned upside down when Brooks was diagnosed with a brain tumor only a few short weeks after starting college. Today, roughly seven months later, Brooks is on the road to recovery. Through this fight, his loving friends and family have been there to support him every step of the way. A personal message from Brooks played during the second hour to thank everyone for their contribution and dedication. Update: Due to low ticket sales, SnoCo has been cancelled. Previous sales will be refunded. If you bought a ticket go to D108 to receive a refund on Feb. 21 in the morning. By Ali Kochik
Social Media Editor Picture this; you’re standing in the old gymnasium of the Red Lion High School. The room is decked out wall to wall like a winter wonderland, music from a DJ is pumping and students are dancing wildly in the middle of the floor. Fast forward to to the end of February and that is exactly what you will see. Contrary to popular belief, the next dance to look forward to this school year is not prom. On February 25, 2017, Red Lion Student Council will be hosting the first ever winter homecoming, or SnoCo, at the high school. By Aidan Nelson
Staff Writer Two of Red Lion’s very own are attending the International Science Fair. Juniors Levi Jones and Mickayla Smith have qualified to attend. “We are proud of all our science fair participants, and our grand champions. We are excited to see Levi and Mickayla compete at the next level,“physics teacher Mr. Ben Smith said, Head of the Science Department at Red Lion Senior High School. The project that they created is using plastic, known as polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, to create fibers; These fibers can be used to make fabrics. About 25% of the PET is being fully recycled, making it the most recyclable plastic in the U.S., but only 31% of it is actually recycled. “Levi and I had a focus on adding strontium aluminate powder into the recycling process to produce recycled glowing fibers,” junior Mickayla Smith said. Science is not the only thing that happens at the International Fair. Students from around the world get to meet and enjoy each other’s presence. “I’m looking forward to the pin exchange with kids all around the world,” junior Levi Jones said. Levi and Mickayla, along with Mr Smith, are going to be at the International Science Fair, held in Phoenix, Arizona, from May 5 through May 13. 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 Benjamin Ostrander Staff Writer Insulation, two-by-fours, windows, and all sorts of power tools are scattered within the shell of the schoolhouse. This time it is not arithmetic, reading or writing that is being taught. This time around it is information about construction and use of power tools that the students are learning. The Neff Schoolhouse project began earlier this spring with a few students in Mr. John Royer’s drafting three class, which involves task of renovating the Neff one room schoolhouse. From tearing out walls to putting in new windows, the students are doing it all. “It was a lot of work in not a lot of time, but we got a lot done...We tore the right half of the front wall down, put it back up and put in all the windows,” said senior Brandon Kinard. “It’s a lot of fun to learn and a lot of fun to help.” Several of Mr. Royer’s students approached him about the project after completing the Habitat for Humanity Project in Windsor during the 2014-15 school year. “If all of these people are getting into it and they think this would be worthwhile and with how old it is, why not keep it around, ” Royer said. Through many day-long field trips, the entire front porch has been redone along with repainted, and almost half of the siding has been ripped down and replaced. “The progress is great. There are a lot of things to be done but for the most part it is well organized,” said project supervisor John Royer. “We’re on track for completion based on this spring (2016)...but if not, a little will be touched up next fall.” The school was built in the 1860s and moved to its current location in the mid-to-late 1970s. The move, which occurred almost 110 years after the schoolhouse was initially built happened because the owners of the house and the land only donated the land. When the borough of Red Lion acquired the house it was on the corner of Country Club Road and Dairyland Drive, which is private property. This move was not major, being only about a half of a mile down Country Club Road. The schoolhouse now resides in the front lawn of the Edgar C. Moore elementary school which is now River Rock Academy. This schoolhouse is one of the few that has not been turned into a business or a residence. By Ashlee Galloway
Marketing Editor “It was just a surreal moment to hear my name called. It took me an extra second or two to comprehend it. Being nominated was an honor in itself, but winning the category just made it so much more special.” 2014 Red Lion graduate Ben Otte took home an Emmy award for the “News: General Assignment” category at the NATAS Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards ceremony on September 19, 2015 at the Philadelphia Hilton. Otte’s award winning video featured a student who was well known around campus for playing his trombone on the rooftop of his apartment building. “I would always hear him play outside my dorm,” Otte said, “He was just a street away. When I walked to class I looked to my right, and I saw him there in the distance with the sun gleaming behind him. I was always thinking to myself how neat the story is. Many people talked about it so I knew I wasn’t the only one paying attention to it. It was just such a cool story so one time I went up to his apartment and yelled for him to come down and it took off from there. He agreed to do the interview and brought me up on to his rooftop. It was incredible.” Throughout the ceremony, he was introduced to several “higher ups” from Philly’s FOX affiliate and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. “Overall, it was just amazing to share the moment with the best in the business,” Otte said. Studying Media Studies and Production, he has a wide background in news journalism. As a student at Red Lion, he was an avid photographer and videographer for the Leonid and RLA-TV, as well as during sporting events. From a young age, he has been interested in news and broadcast, “Being able to tell a story through a video was just something special for me. I remember actually feeling that I “owed” it to others at times. In high school, producing a video and knowing that hundreds were watching when it played was a surreal feeling Then, hearing others talk about it throughout the day and telling me how much they enjoyed the videos basically told me that this was something I was supposed to do. I knew I was in the right place…” Currently, Ben is working for Temple University Television as an editor and producer. Working on numerous shows at the School of Media and Communication, he is the Production Supervisor for OwlSports Update and Director at Temple Update, which are both Emmy award winning productions. Of all of the people who have helped him to achieve his success, he would owe it to his older brother Kevin. “We’ve always had a close bond,” Otte explains, “he’s just always been there for me when it comes to video production. He’s taught me the bulk of best practices I know when it comes to shooting and editing. He’s really great at giving me constructive criticism (and I always ask him for it) so I really have used that to better myself.” To other students looking to pursue a career in production, his advice for them is to “outwork everyone.” “Always be willing to improve. Do what you truly enjoy doing and the rest will follow. Set high goals for yourself and stick by them. Stay humble. And always, always, always take advantage of the people (not always older) that are around you.” See the video at www.youtube.com/user/otteben By Ashlee Galloway Marketing Editor “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching.” This quote, which has been voted on by the senior class, represents Red Lion’s strength throughout times of tragedy. Seniors Stone Hill and Nicholas Mankin unexpectedly passed away in June following a car accident in which the vehicle struck a pole. The senior class has voted to honor Hill and Mankin by choosing the colors aqua and yellow to represent their class. The colors were chosen in honor of the two because aqua was Stone’s favorite color and yellow was Nick’s. The senior class also voted on their class song, flower, and motto during a class meeting held on Sept. 22. Class President Jennifer Owrutsky stood on stage, along with the rest of the Executive Council committee members, and presented the seniors with a powerpoint of the various flowers, songs, etc. Of the several different flowers to be chosen from - Forget Me Nots, Hydrangeas, and Carnations - the winning choice was the Forget Me Nots, with a total of 163 votes. During the meeting, Vice President Ian Adler played samples of each of the song choices for the class to listen to before they voted on their favorite. Adler played samples from “I Lived” by One Republic, “Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons, “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, “We Come Running” by Youngblood Hawke, and “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. The hit ‘70s song “September” took the vote by storm with 60 percent of the votes. The options for class motto were, “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching,” “You choose the legacy you leave,” “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” and “Sometimes, your biggest problem is in your head. You have to believe.” Of these quotes, “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching,” came in first to a close second by “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” with 65 votes. Forget Me Nots, the senior class flower, will be given to seniors at graduation. Class shirts, which can be ordered from Miss Seitz in A209, will feature the class colors, yellow and aqua. Shirts will also feature the quote, “the tassel is worth the hassle” on the back. In memory of Hill and Mankin, the senior class will be given gold football pins to wear during graduation. Underclassmen will also be able purchase the pins if they wish to wear them. By Ben Wesley
Staff Writer In person, DaNica Shirey doesn’t come across as a superstar. She’s soft-spoken and friendly. Just a bit of a technophobe—she didn’t get an iPhone until she became a contestant on a popular reality show. And truth be told, she’s kind of short, too. But this Red Lion Senior High School alumna may very well be one of the best singers in America after becoming one of the top 8 contestants on season 7 of The Voice, a televised singing competition on NBC, and getting her current position as a singer for Philadelphia’s prestigious Big House Band. So how exactly did DaNica Shirey go from Red Lion student to nationally acclaimed singer? She credits her father as inspiration. Though he wasn’t a professional singer, he had a love for music that was passed down to his daughter. Shirey remembers sitting on his lap as a young child. “We’d make up words back and forth to each other,” she said. Shirey started young. She began singing for other people around age 8, and was singing at paid gigs by the time she was 14. In the high school, Shirey had surprising choices for what she considered to be the most helpful classes for her career: public speaking and drama. Both were taught by the late English teacher Sara Yorty, who Shirey considers to be a particular inspiration. “It definitely helped me be more prepared for interviews, being able to talk to people and stuff like that,” Shirey said of the classes. I asked Shirey if she had any advice for someone who wanted to aspire to be like her, and she said: “Be positive. Don’t dwell on negative things in life. I’m probably the happiest person I know. Always try to reach for better goals, and know that if today isn’t a good day—just know for a fact that tomorrow will be better. If you are very passionate about something, you know, don’t give up on it. Do it because you love it—don’t do it because somebody tells you to; do it because it’s in your heart. And when you end up succeeding later, it’s going to make you feel amazing because you kept going towards that goal.” |
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