blue&gold Friday, April 8, 2011
THE BIG PICTURE
FEATURE
Three ways to do prom on a budget page 7 Volume 88, Issue 6 Findlay High School 1200 Broad Ave., Findlay, Ohio , 45840
seniors Brandon Malec and Liza Schumacher
SPORTS
Making a scene
Henry balances three seasons page 8
Godspell cast members re-enact the gospel of Matthew as they tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
WEATHER TODAY Rain showers High: 53 Low: 45
SUNDAY Isolated T-storms High: 74 Low: 57
TOMORROW Rain showers High: 65 Low: 57
INDEX
NEWS
page 6
New technology reduces lunch wait page 4
page 6 junior Emily Dillon and senior Sophie Miller
Feature.................5 Photo essay.........6 Feature.................7 Sports..................8
Editorial...............2 Entertainment....3 News/Feature.....4
senior Alex Henry
test one
you can’t study for
photo illustration by Leah Cramer
Board moves forward with drug testing policy n By Leah Cramer
uring high school, students must pass a slew of exams to show what they’ve learned, but next year they can expect to be tested in a different way. This new pass/fail test will not force them to prove what they know, but rather, what they did or didn’t do. The Board of Education has asked a drug testing committee to move forward with the development of a policy that could result in random drug testing of students who hold certain privileges, starting next school year. “It’s something the school should be involved in,” senior Brandon Shanahan, Drug Testing Committee member, said. “Drugs affect athletes physically and mentally for their sports, but also affect their learning ability at school by making it harder to pay attention.
BLAST from the PAST Hank Aaron’s 715th homerun broke baseball legend Babe Ruth’s record on April 8, 1974, according to historyorb.com.
courtesy of classsicpopculture.net(fair use)
“You hear about things going on during the weekends and at parties and a lot of the time it’s people who you wouldn’t expect to be doing drugs or drinking. Drug use is pretty even throughout the student body. A lot of athletes who signed contracts that say they’re not going to use drugs don’t obey that.” Students in extracurriculars or who have a parking permit could be tested, which puts over 50 percent of students in the testing pool. “Kids can use it (random testing) as a deterrent,” Activities Director Debbie Benson said. “When they’re out with their friends and there’s peer pressure to do drugs, they can say, ‘I can’t do that; I might get tested this week,’ and use it as an excuse.”
Testing methods Since, legally, only students with certain privileges can be subjected to drug testing,
5
things to make you look smart
around half will go untested. “We will potentially be missing out on a key group of students,” school board member Shane Pochard said. “But, hopefully, just having this policy will help students who we can’t test see how serious of a problem drugs are.” Typically, five drugs are tested for each time and it is possible that those could be different each round, according to Kyle Preuter, president of Great Lakes Biomedical. Testing will most likely take the form of a urine test and a random number generator would determine which students get tested. “There are pros and cons to each type of drug testing,” Preuter said. “Saliva testing is the least intrusive, and then there’s urine testing which is very reliable, has been around for years and is very economical. “Hair testing can go back as far as 90 days, but is more intrusive and about three times more expensive than urine testing. Most
schools use urine testing because it is the most economical and can test for the widest range of drugs.” Details that have yet to be determined are what drugs will be tested for, what percentage of students will be tested and how often tests will be administered.
31
percent have tried drugs themselves
These factors will all affect the cost, which the board of education is searching for ways to fund. Testing 20 percent of the eligible students once per season would cost $10,608. “We are looking to fund it through state and federal grants, as well as with help from booster clubs and community members,” Pochard said. “We could also resort to raising parking pass costs.”
92
percent know at least one other student who has tried drugs
51
percent believe drug testing will not reduce substance use
story continues on page four
HATS
OFF
2. McDonald’s restaurants across the U.S. plan to hire 50,000 people on April 19 to help with unemployment rates. 3. It takes six minutes to make one Marshmallow Peep, as opposed to the 27 hours it took in 1953.
sources: spiritmag.com, mnn.com, interestingfacts.org,berro.com, npr.org
In a February 2011 125-student survey,
Money matters
1. In a 2010 study of 20,000 women, blondes earn 7 percent more than brunettes.
4. A Google search requires as much energy as an 11 watt bulb uses when lit for an hour. 5. Approximately 500,000 detectable earthquakes occur each year, but only about 100 cause damage.
DRUG TEST
McDonald’s employee junior Meghan Donelson
Senior Tyler Copus was named as a National Merit Scholar finalist. “It feels pretty good to be the only one from our high school to be a finalist and the help from scholarships will be good too,” Copus said.
Copus