Nov. 7, 2018 Weekender

Thursday, November 8, 2018

CENTRALIA DRAMA CLUB BURNS HOT

Your Guide to What’s Good

‘FAHRENHEIT 451’ DELVES INTO DYSTOPIAN WORLD — Page 4

SCHOOL CAFETERIAS: BIGGEST RESTAURANTS IN TOWN — Page 6

MUSIC PROGRAMS HIT HIGH NOTES — Page 8

HIGH SCHOOL LIFE

ART GETS CREATIVE AND DOWN TO BUSINESS — Page 10 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET CAUGHT DRINKING AT SCHOOL? — Page 12

CALENDAR

2 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

OF EVENTS

tap into the scene

FRIDAY, NOV. 9

dancing at Swede Hall. Dress in your best 50s fashion and step back in takes place every Friday beginning at time for an entertaining evening.

7 p.m. Bring an inflatable floatie and Chris Guenther and the Honky a friend for a movie on the big screen Tonk Drifters will open the show over the big pool. Free for members with a vintage country performance and fun for the whole family. The featuring 1950s Country music. junior pool is also open during the weekly “Dive In Movie” event. The The Roxy Theater in downtown show this week is “A Bug’s Life.”

Morton presents “Command

Thorebeckes Dive In Theater

SATURDAY, NOV. 10

Chris Guenther & the Honky Tonk Drifters Winter Dance Party ‘59 Retrospective — The

Day the Music Lived — at Swede Hall in Rochester, located at 18543 Albany Street SE. Cost is $15 at the door, or $12 online through brownpapertickets.com. The show starts at 6 p.m. This show features music from Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens and more.

Live 50s rock and roll music and

VETERANS DAY PARADE

GARCIA BIRTHDAY BAND

Performance — USO Show”

to explore the art and science of fermentation. Learn to safely and easily make raw fermented sauerkraut teeming with probiotics known to improve digestion, boost immune function and increase energy levels. This popular class includes a demonstration, recipes and OlyKraut samples. You will review the history and science of fermentation, discuss equipment Fermentation Basics @ Centralia options and suitable ingredients and Timberland Library, 2 to 4 p.m. demonstrate how to make your own Join OlyKraut founder Sash Sunday fermented sauerkraut from start to finish. For adults and teens, middle and high school. starting at 7 p.m. Celebrate and honor veterans with 1940’s USOstyle entertainment: skits, vocalists, dancers, plenty of laughs, and dancing to the Sound of Swing Big Band. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for veterans and $7 for students/children. Info: 360.496.0541 and mortonroxy.org.

Annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Bazaar & Chili Feed 10 a.m. to

4 p.m. at SAFE Family Ministries, located at 3149 Jackson Highway, Chehalis. Add crafters and artisans with chili! Does it get better than that? Chili Feed tickets are $10 for adults, $7.50 for children under 6.

Door prizes, raffles, fun booths and tours. Info: safefamilyministries.com.

All fees, raffles, soda pop, hot drinks and ticket sales will be considered donations to exclusively benefit SAFE Family Ministries.

SUNDAY, NOV. 11

The Veterans Day Parade will start 3 p.m. in downtown Chehalis.

Everyone is welcome to participate in this 100-year anniversary of the end of World War One. If you wish to participate in the parade you can register at 2 p.m. at the registration tent in the parking lot across from the PUD building on the day of the event.

Mount Rainier National Park, which calls a small portion of Lewis County home, will open to the public for free Nov. 11 in celebration of Veterans Day weekend. This day ON THE COVER Weekender photographer Jared Wenzelburger is a perfect opportunity to see the possible first snows of winter at the burns some books, with assistance from Weekender Assistant Editor Eric Schwartz, park. to illustrate the Centralia High School play “Fahrenheit 451.”

SEE PAGE 3....................................

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 3

FROM PAGE 2.................................

TUESDAY, 13

Great Northwest Music Tour featuring the Garcia Birthday Band in the Olympic Club Theater 7 to 10 p.m. This is a

free, all ages welcome show. The Garcia Birthday Band (GBB), based in Portland, Oregon, is a group of veteran musicians interpreting and celebrating the vast repertoire of the late Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead. But this isn’t a “tribute band!”

Drawing on years of individual and shared experience, these players are able to craft and transform these tunes into something fresh and original. Solid chops, tight arrangements and fine harmonies all contribute to the band’s musical travels and explorations of possibly the greatest and most diverse songbooks of all time. Music-lovers with a wide variety of tastes enjoy this band’s extensive playlist which includes classics from Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jimmy Cliff, Traffic, Dr. John, Merle Haggard, The Meters, Neville Brothers, Buddy Holly, Otis Redding, Warren Zevon, Rev. Gary Davis, Bruce Cockburn, and Peter Tosh, to name a few.

WEDNESDAY, 15

Static and Surrender plays the Olympic Club Theater 7 to 10 p.m. This is a free, all-ages show.

Made up of members of venerable Bay Area rock bands The Trophy Fire, Pine and Battery, and Cold Hot Crash, national award-winning singer songwriter Jeff Campbell

LEWIS COUNTY

WEEKENDER Editor-In-Chief Michael Wagar mwagar@chronline.com/360.269.7979 Assistant Editor Eric Schwartz eschwartz@chronline.com/360.807.8217 Design Director Nicole Kiourkas nkiourkas@chronline.com Media Specialist Tyler Beairsto tbeairsto@chronline.com/360.807.8212 The Lewis County Weekender is published in conjunction with The Silver Agency and is a property of Lafromboise Communications, Inc., the parent company of The Chronicle.

Editorial and Advertising Mailing Address 321 N. Pearl St., Centralia, Washington, 98531

was recruited by brothers Adam & John Schuman to write and record new ideas. The result is a body of songs all three were excited enough about to enlist decorated Berkeley producer Jim Greer (The Rondo Brothers, Foster the People) to help them bring their ideas to life.

The members’ combined careers boast multiple festival appearances, regular radio play on three major Bay Area radio stations, a performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, onstage appearances with and support for Filter, Train, John Mayer, The Killers, Modest Mouse, Silver Sun Pickups, the Shins, and the Raconteurs. The name Static and Surrender was given to the project to symbolize the members’ surrender to the static that they felt their individual careers had settled into, and their hopes that joining forces would open new doors for them collectively.

STATIC AND SURRENDER

FRIDAY, NOV. 16

Thorebeckes Dive In Theater

takes place every Friday beginning at 7 p.m. Bring an inflatable floatie and a friend for a movie on the big screen over the big pool. Free for members and fun for the whole family. The junior pool is also open during the weekly “Dive In Movie” event. The show this week is “Homeward Bound: Lost in San Francisco.”

VE

WE’

GOT

SATURDAY, NOV. 17

Chris Guenther and the Honky Tonk Drifters play the Kit Carson Banquet Room

in Chehalis, with the theme of a Country Music Dance-o-Rama. The show starts at 7 p.m. Cost is $5.

To get your event listed in Lewis County Weekender send items to mwagar@chronline.com.

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4 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Our Dystopian Future: Book Burnings

Centralia High School Students Tackle Hard Themes for Stage Rendition of Fahrenheit 451

By Cody Neuenschwander THE WEEKENDER

Drama students at Centralia High School cleared out a swath of tables and chairs in the commons area to make room for a makeshift stage with minimalistic props. It was a scant set-up, but they’ve been making do since practice started on Oct. 1.

Ongoing construction on the building has made play rehearsal pretty complicated.

They were practicing the stage version of the 1953 dystopian classic “Fahrenheit 451,” written and later adapted for the stage by Ray Bradbury. It’s a complex story about government control of knowledge, the destruction of literature and a decline in critical thinking.

It’s heavy stuff, with maybe more than a couple parallels to modern society — something that hasn’t escaped the young actors, who have been tasked the difficult job of personifying and bringing to life the complicated characters.

“Some of the stuff you can see in today’s society, with just caring not really what the story is, but more about the headline, and just kind of unfortunate stuff, but stuff you can see in real life,” said Damian Bean, who stars as the story’s protagonist Guy Montag.

Jared Wenzelburger / jwenzelburger@chronline.com

Students act out scenes from Fahrenheit 451 during rehearsals last week in the Gilmore Commons at Centralia High School.

Montag’s a fireman — but not in the traditional sense. Rather than extinguish flames, he and his cohorts are tasked with burning the homes of people caught with books — which have been outlawed in the dystopian society, in the wake of new, interactive and less thought-provoking media.

A series of troubling events leads Montag to question his occupation and his society’s mantras, and begin to rebel and preserve classic works of literature.

The story seems like a natural fit for a history teacher, like Michael Ready, given the value he attributes classic text. Ready took over the school’s drama program last year, when he directed their rendition of “Our Town.”

SEE PAGE 5....................................

Students are in deep rehearsals at Centralia High School as they prepare to perform in the stage adaption of the book “Fahrenheit 451.”

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 5

FROM PAGE 4.................................

commons area after school, due to an ongoing full like-new remodel of the high school.

Before deciding on “Fahrenheit Ready said they’ve marked the 451,” it had been decided that whatarea, and planned stage direction as ever the play would be, it wasn’t going to be easy viewing. Ready said accurately as possible to match the stage at The Liberty Theatre — where he and his assistant directors had three performances will be held in been struck by somber headlines of mid-November. the past couple Regardless of years, and felt the IF YOU WANT TO GO how accurately best way to be part TO THE PLAY: they plan and of the conversation “Fahrenheit 451,” presented practice for the was through their

by Centralia High School, will stage, it’s likely student’s acting be shown 7 p.m. Nov. 15 and to be a jarring chops.

16 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at the difference. They They mulled over Liberty Theatre, 413 N. Tower a couple scripts.

Ave. Tickets are $10 for general only have three One centered admission, $7 for students with days of practice at on school shootASB and free for kids under 5. the Liberty before show time. The ings. Another, the biggest challenges are sure to be Holocaust. technical, said Ready, like the light “Comedies are great and everysystem. thing, but they don’t really take the But in the meantime, Ready said message that I try and leave with the he’s been watching the young actors students that are in the show,” said grow and discover the complexity of Ready. their characters. Anyone familiar with The two scripts they considered the book is sure to note changes in were solidly-written, and good the stage version. Some of these options, but were much changes are to make the story too short. The curtain call more probable for for each comes after just a live rendition. one act.

But some are Then Ready found a creative. Like copy of the stage script the character for “Fahrenheit 451” in arc of Beatty — a stack of scripts. He Montag’s captain didn’t realize there and the book’s was a stage version antagonist. of the story — one Beatty on stage, he read and loved while still displaying in college. antagonistic “So I took it characteristics, has out and started more sympathy for perusing through Montag than the it, and as I did, Beatty on page. It’s I was like, man no more evident than this is some the final scene the two really good character’s share together, stuff. It had said Ready, that the great themes, and I audience gets to see the think it really resonated in today’s complicated nature of the kind of era of fake news and trying two’s relationship. to censor the media and books in “A lot of the times it feels that general,” he said.

Montag’s antagonist is more When practice started in October, Montag, and dealing with Montag’s logistics have proven a bit more internal conflict,” said Ready, who is complicated than usual. Rather than practice on stage, they’ve been in the quick to don the script, and expertly

Jared Wenzelburger / jwenzelburger@chronline.com

Students act out scenes from Fahrenheit 451 during rehearsals Monday afternoon in the Gilmore Commons at Centralia High School.

pick out specific lines of dialogue to reinforce his interpretation.

“The process of the script as opposed to the book is you really see the transformation in Montag from somebody who had drank the Kool-Aid of that very dark and dreary society who had been trying to keep them down with menial facts and lack of critical thinking.”

Gavin Wheeler plays Beatty, and the play is his first exposure to “Fahrenheit 451.” He’s been in previous school plays and has acted with the Evergreen Playhouse. Diving into a major role in a well-worn story he’s unfamiliar with meant he had to feel the character out a bit. It’s challenging, but it’s fun, he said.

“The way the story carries along and the way the characters interact with each other and really just what the message is is very interesting to me,” he said, adding later: “It’s interesting to see how maybe books are a little more important than we think and we often take them for granted.”

A handful of other students in leading roles also described their interactions with their characters.

They spoke in hushed tones in the school’s commons area, while rehearsal was going on just behind them. Tables and chairs were stacked on top of one another to make room

for a “stage.” The informal setting created a lax environment — far from the somber tone of the words being spoken by students in rehearsal.

Claire Schwartz plays Clarisse McClellan, the teen who sets Montag down his path of reinvention. It wasn’t too tough to get into character, she said.

“We have a lot of the same body language, cause I noticed in the script when it has our blocking, that I already have those qualities,” she said.

“If you like a kind of dystopian feel, if you’re not expecting to come in and love the characters and you’re expecting to come away thinking about the themes that Bradbury wanted with this, then this is definitely the show to come and see,” said Ready.

6 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

School Food Gets ‘A-Plus’ for Efforts Centralia and Chehalis School Districts Combine for Largest Restaurant Servings Per Day In the County

the breakfast counter last week — filling in for a few workers who called in sick due to the flu hitting her staff. She’s proud of the food they serve.

“We try to do a lot of our stuff from scratch, not so much from frozen,” Charlton said.

She oversees a kitchen filled with

BY THE WEEKENDER ovens, steamers, walk-in fridges, freezers and all equipment found in The two biggest restaurants in a fast-paced, busy restaurant.

Lewis County serve up to 3,000 One rule that most restaurants people combined each day. You do not have to follow that Charton can’t go there to eat. does: No butter. The food, howevThe Weekender took its hunger er, remains attractive to your averto W.F. West High and Centralia age youth. Last week she made High to take a look into what stuvegetarian chili Fritos from scratch dents get to eat these days.

— enough to feed 500 — as part of At the Chehalis School District, “Meatless Monday.” about 40 percent of the kids qualify Charlton, 53, said when she was for free lunch. In Centralia, due to a in school, most of the food was grant, every kid eats free. homemade. Then it took a turn Janet Charlton is the food sertoward fast food, which is a fav vices manager for the Chehalis when it comes to teens. Today’s School District. She was working school food tries to embrace both

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

The USDA requires schools provide fruits and vegetables in their school cafeterias. Pictured is the salad bar at W.F. West.

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West

A student fills up her plate from the salad bar at W.F. West High School.

tasty and healthy. Chicken nuggets might still be on the menu, but so is a fruit and salad bar.

Charlton said she enjoys interacting with the students.

“I pretty much know all the kids’ nacho orders by heart,” she said.

When she’s away from work, Charlton, who obviously is a foodie, likes to go to Berry Fields Cafe in Centralia. They also feature

homemade, from-scratch food.

“It’s probably my number one,” she said. “I like their homemade bread and honey butter and their homemade soups.”

Helping Charlton is Carolyn Lansing, who picks up the food from the high school and delivers it to the other schools in the district.

SEE PAGE 7....................................

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Items such as this Caesar salad are available for lunch at W.F. West High School.

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 7

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

The salad bar at W.F. West.

“Right now it’s too congested,” Centralia School District Young said. “What my staff does is When renovations are complete for Phase II for the Centralia School District in 2020, students Lansing said food made from incredible with what they do in that will enjoy a new cafeteria including the Tiger Cafe, as pictured in an artist’s rendering. scratch is one of the appeals for space.” students. Her favorite is the biscuits The food is distributed throughsome parents can come in and eat and gravy for breakfast. She also out the district. At the high school, with their kids at the elementary likes the mashed potato bowl filled they only have room for about 200 level. with chicken nuggets, corn, cheese kids, so they serve lunch in two USDA puts restrictions on school and gravy, with a side of bread. shifts. They also lack a dishwasher, food; no butter for example. It “The most fun is the kids,” she so food is served on disposable also requires all students that get said, echoing Charlton. “I love plates, with plastic straws and plas- the free lunches to take a half cup them. It surprises me, but a lot of tic forks. The remodel will allow serving of fruits and vegetables them say thank you.” the district to switch to plastic trays at lunch. The Weekender’s final Up north at Centralia High School, and real plates and utensils. assessment: the schools serve a Food Services Director Michael Each school has its own salad combination of tasty and healthy Young has different obstacles. The bar, and while The Weekender food, and they serve a lot of it. school is undergoing a massive wishes they could enjoy both of “We serve more meals than renovation thanks to the passage the districts’ food, it is only for the anybody in Lewis County,” Young of a $74 million bond in early 2017. student body and staff, although said.

The state kicked in money as well when the bond passed — a sweet $27 million extra. As part of the bond, the school district will build a new cafeteria. The new cafeteria is scheduled to open in the fall of Dr. Matthew O’Brien specializes in Musculoskeletal Radiology.

2020 on the high school campus as Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan Dr. O’Brien is a former rday part of Phase II of the entire project. y & Satu a musician who is married with one daughter. id r F s Join u ld one.

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8 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Music Programs a Needed Outlet for Students

From Music Technology to Jazz Band, W.F. West and Centralia Keeps It All in Rhythm

BY THE WEEKENDER

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Music programs vary at W.F. West High school, including this wind ensemble. Note the iPads on the music stands. No longer tied to printed pieces, the students can dial up different songs. They also get to take the iPads home to expand their musical tastes.

don’t offer music programs starting in fifth grade.

“It shows a very strong commitment from out entire district to support music. And we think our music programs excel. This is an award-winning program.”

Adam Campagna is the music teacher at Chehalis. He comes from a tuba-playing background and went to UW and Oregon State. He believes music taught in the schools CH591059tb.do

Both Centralia and W.F. West offer strong music programs, from jazz bands, pep bands, symphonic bands, wind instruments and several forms of choir.

You can take a class in percussion, and at W.F. West, they teach music technology using multimedia tools such as Garageband and Audacity (future hip-hop stars can learn how sound systems, sound mixing and editing and live sound recording and engineering).

“We have a strong fifth-grade through high school music program,” said W.F. West Principal Bob Walters.

Walters said many school districts

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makes for a more of three Tigers rounded person. for a regional “Music is honor band. such a big part She started her of everybody’s musical journey lives and with so in the fifth grade much academic at Washington content Elementary. throughout the “My older say it’s great to sister was in give students band,” she an opportunity said of why she to use a entered the different part music program.

Teacher Adam Campagna leads band practice “I went for the of their brain,” Campagna said. at W.F. West High School. flute because “It’s a creative I wanted to outlet.” experience band like my sister did.

He loves his job.

It seemed fun.”

“I get to come to school and When she graduates she is make music everyday. … It’s a considering joining the Army, where privilege to work with everyone of she hopes to continue to play these students.” music. For now she enjoys jamming Kiara Campuzano is a 17-year-old on the flute with her friends. She senior at Centralia High School. She said she leans toward slower is proficient in the flute and piccolo.

She was recently chosen as one SEE PAGE 9....................................

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 9

W.F. West High School offers a variety of music programs, including one which focuses solely on percussion.

FROM PAGE 8.................................

school years kept her grounded.

She said having music programs tempo music such as “America the in schools makes for a better Beautiful,” which just might be in an experience.

Army band repertoire.

“I think it’s very important,” she She credits music teacher Louis said. “I probably would have gone Blaser as a positive influence. She crazy by now without those music said playing music throughout her programs.”

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Many different percussion instruments are in play.

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10 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Art Classes Combine Biz and Creativity Editor’s Note: The photos for the music and art feature stories in this issue of Lewis County Weekender were all taken by W.F. West High School students.

BY THE WEEKENDER

Art takes many forms in the Twin Cities school districts, from pure painting to digital photography to entrepreneurial-based subjects such as sign making and screen printing.

At W.F. West, one class in the Career and Technical Information department is preparing students for the art of making money.

Donny Bunker teaches the signmaking class. They make everything from small signs to majestic vehicle wraps. His class has made signs for the city of Chehalis, construction companies, even Penny Playground.

Bunker said his class is based in art, but is really preparing our youth for their future careers. He teaches problem solving and how to use software programs.

“We run it like a business,” he said, with the goal of making his students career and college ready.

Key attributes are being on time and teamwork.

“I’m kind of like the owner of the company,” he said, adding his advance students are supervisors and incoming students the staff.

Bunker appreciates working in the Chehalis School District.

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Schools Nurture Artists and Also Teach Real-World Skills

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Donny Bunker’s sign making class teaches both skills and real-world business practices.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “The district and administration is really supportive.”

The students flock to his classes.

“I have a waiting list, all our classes are full,” he said.

Part of the appeal throughout the district is its commitment to current tech hardware. The district completely turns over its computer equipment every three years.

Bunker has 31 Mac computers in his class.

W.F. West Principal Bob Walters said that fulfills the district’s goals of “improve, modernize and prepare.”

“Seven years ago we started

changing out and modernizing our schools,” he said. “We think we’re there with having computer labs in the classrooms.”

On a more pure art form, W.F. West also offers photography classes, with an emphasis on entrepreneurial, journalism and studio photography. Teacher Alison Clinton teaches them to shoot on manual, look for background noise, software manipulation and studio lighting.

They also have current computers and cameras, as well as software programs.

SEE PAGE 11....................................

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Students taking graphic art classes at W.F. West work with the latest computers and software.

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 11

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

Teacher Donny Bunker, seated, helps out during his sign making class at W.F. West High School.

FROM PAGE 10................................

Groves has been creating art ever since she can remember, The high school also delves into and does it both at school and in food, teaching a culinary arts class her spare time at home. She said preparing them for the real world public schools need to provide a of restaurants. Classes in graphic liberal arts education. design are also popular. Traditional “I think it’s important we do art classes such as pottery and have it because some people painting round out the curriculum. don’t have access to supplies and At Centralia High School, art is this might be their only opportualso part of the makeup of classes. nity to express themselves that Senior Hailey Groves, 18, is one of way,” she said. “I don’t think the school’s top artists, specializing school should just be for core subin watercolors. jects, but include things people “My go-to is watercolors. You get enjoy. You should be a wellto customize your colors and if you rounded person, you should get to make mistakes it’s easy to cover experience things and have some them up and fix them,” she said. fun.”

Angela March / W.F. West High School

Screenprinting is a popular class at W.F. West High School.

Contact us today for information on our classes.

Gracie Ericson / W.F. West High School

A student from W.F. West’s sign making class puts on a professional-grade product.

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12 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Officer Lowery Adopts 1,000 Kids

From Street Cop to Campus Connector, Officer Finds His Perfect Place

BY THE WEEKENDER

Ed Petersen / Centralia School District

At Centralia High School, the toughest guy on campus is school resource officer Mike Lowrey, a commissioned officer with the Centralia Police Department.

He just might also be the biggest teddy bear. He spends his days keeping peace on the campus, talking to students and helping solve some of their problems. He started the campus job last year after 20 years on the mean streets of Centralia. Going from patrol to campus has been the best assignment

Officer Mike Lowery shares a moment with a student at Centralia High School.

ever, he said. When talking about the kids, his eyes water.

“I have to build relationships plus uphold the law,” he said. “My whole job is to build relationships with kids and not to have them fear the uniform.”

Regular patrol in the past meant Lowery was always being sent to disturbances, to the seamy side of life in the Hub City.

“In the public at least 75 percent is over bad things,” he said. “Here

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Team W.F. West: Helping Kids Succeed

(Centralia High School) 90 percent of the people I deal with, it’s positive.”

What isn’t easy is the closeness he gets to kids, and watching them scuffle about. Sometimes it hurts what he calls “my kids.”

“I went from having five kids to Our Scenario: A Student having 1,000 kids and I absolutely Comes Back From Lunch love it,” he said.

He juggles the duties of counselor, Clearly Tipsy and law enforcement and general helper Reeking of Alcohol — from handing out candy to helping with homework.

BY THE WEEKENDER “You develop such a love of kids, your whole goal is to see them gradIn the past, some school disuate,” Lowery said. tricts didn’t have much patience Ed Petersen is the communications for the “bad” kids, the ones and public relations coordinator for doing drugs and alcohol, survivthe Centralia School District. ing on the fringes of teen life.

“He’s a good guy,” Petersen said Today, as exemplified at W.F. of Lowery. “I like how well he relates West High School, a major effort to the kids. … He’s not just looking every day attempts to heal the for drugs, he’s looking for conneckids, to bring them back to tions.” a productive and joyous life.

Lowery said the campus job is the Substance abuse cases come in best work he’s done in the past 20 waves at the high school. Some years.

SEE PAGE 11....................................

“I plan on retiring here,” he said.

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 13

FROM PAGE 12................................

Patrol Trooper of 26 years and a member of the Bomb Squad. weeks they may have two or three He and Vice Principal Elder will cases; sometimes several weeks get a call to go to the classroom. go by without incident.

Elder will come in soft, talk to The team at W.F. West is various students, and then quietly Principal Bob Walters, Assistant approach the student in question, Principal Tommy Elder, mental asking if he could come outside health specialist Brian Adams and the classroom for a talk. In the district security and safety offihall waits Thornburg. They make cer Todd Thornburg, along with the walk to the principal’s office. a slew of staff and teachers, and Along the way they look for an perhaps most important, parents. honest conversation with the stuThe school relies on several dent. Once in the office, if they methods to keep kids from break- have reasonable suspicion, they’ll ing the law. They talk of actions search for drugs and any other having equal real consequences, problem items. they have peer-mentor programs.

The team then evaluates. They The Weekender met with the decide drinking did take place. team and went over what hapParents are called. pens when a student makes poor “We work with parents, they’re choices. Our scenario: A student part of the team,” Elder said. comes back from lunch (W.F. West The student is placed on a has an open campus) clearly a bit 45-day suspension, but told there tipsy and reeking of alcohol. is an appeals process where it Officer Thornburg, a bit intimicould be reduced to five days. dating at first glance (but just get That’s the goal; get the kid help him to smile — he’s another teddy and back in school. bear in hiding), is a former State “We have a huge appeal pro-

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cess with the child and parent,” Elder said. “That’s the start of the intervention process.”

Adams begins the healing, telling the student and parents that “we’ve all made mistakes.” If the student agrees to an outside substance use evaluation, and then follows up with the requirements, the student can be back in a week. And they’re not just let back in; they are welcomed back.

Once back in school Adams gets regular reports on the student’s progress, and councilors keep in steady, if unstructured, contact.

“They’re usually very good at following recommendations,” Adams said.

The team said the process usually works.

“For us it feels great but I’m so happy for the parents and the kid,” Elder said. “We have success stories all the time.”

Officer Thornburg, despite his background as a Trooper and an intense stare at The Weekender

Local

reporter, breaks out his big smile.

Turning one kid around has impact, he believes.

“It’s good for the kids in this school to see kids (that had gotten off track) graduate and walk,” he said.

Often Thornburg is on the front lines with the students. He spends his days building relationships. It is a far cry from his patrol days.

“My law enforcement days it was hammer time, it was arrest and write tickets, not so much building relationships,” he said.

“Now, I’m here to help. The goal is to get you through high school and contribute back to society; to try and keep them from going down that road where it is hammer time.”

Elder spoke for the team and said it is all about creating second chances that have a strong probability of success.

“Kids today need help,” Walters said, summing up the efforts.

“We’re not going to throw them to the curb.”

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14 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Movie review

Jonah Hill’s ‘Mid90s’: A Hard-Hitting Slice of Young Skateboarder’s Life

By Katie Walsh

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, “Mid90s,” ends with what is seemingly the film’s inspirational spark. It’s a sequence shot in the style of those ’90s homemade skate videos, the ones that would have been passed around on VHS tapes housed in battered paper covers.

Set to classic rap music, the style is grainy, handheld, filmed mostly with a fish-eye lens. It follows teen boys on skateboards as they grind rails, kickflip and ollie. They hang out in parks, cruise in the back seats of cars and taunt the camera, helmed by a skater nicknamed “Fourth Grade.” It’s a perfectly executed slice of ’90s nostalgia, and the film begs the question, just who are these kids?

“Mid90s,” written and directed

by Hill, opens with a shockingly violent beating, punches thrown by Ian (Lucas Hedges) at his little brother, Stevie (Sunny Suljic), thudding like cannonballs. This brutal beatdown is the true thesis of “Mid90s,” which explores the violent initiations of boys into manhood against the backdrop of a laid-back L.A. skateshop crew. The film’s poster tagline, “Fall. Get back up,” underlines the notion of bootstrapping violent masculinity, but quickly, this coming-ofage film becomes body horror.

Taking the hardest hits is the shrimpy, achingly young Stevie (Sunny Suljic). When his brother beats him in his bed, he swallows his cries. Repeatedly smacking into

Tobin Yelland

“Mid90s” includes Ryder McLaughlin, Na-kel Smith, Gio Galicia, Sunny Suljic and Olan Prenatt.

concrete while mastering his skateboard is cake. These are his own hits, not administered by his brother, and with these hits he’ll prove himself to the group of skater boys he idolizes who hang at the skate shop on Motor Avenue. Eventually, they adopt him as one of their own.

The pack of wild boys groom Stevie in their own contradictory and troubling ways of manhood, from rampant homophobia to drinking, drugs and sex. He drifts away from his mother (Katherine Waterston) and rejects his brother while falling into homosocial love with the group of four-wheeled rascals. Ray (Na-kel Smith), who has his sights firmly set on professional skating, tries his best to undo the most harmful of the lessons for Stevie.

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Ray emerges as the sole voice tressed Olan Prenatt is another of reason. At one point he surveys wonderful discovery. He and Smith Stevie, recovering from his worst play the devil and angel on Stevie’s injury yet, and says, shoulders, respectively.

“You take the hardest However, ascribing ★★½ Mid90s hits of anyone I’ve ever this much intent of with Sunny Suljic, seen — you know you meaning to “Mid90s” Na-kel Smith, Olan don’t have to do that.” may be an overreach.

Prenatt, Lucas Hedges, It’s the only sense The film is an achieveKatherine Waterston, any character makes ment in authentic Gio Galicia, during the entirety of world-building, but Ryder McLaughlin.

“Mid90s.” It’s both a you can’t shake the Directed by Jonah Hill. relief, and far too late. feeling that what 84 minutes.

Hill has excelled “Mid90s” does say R for language in casting the posse isn’t perhaps what Hill throughout including with a clutch of young intended it to. While sexual references, some discoveries. Smith is a observing the rituals of drug and alcohol use, standout, even more friendship and socialand brief violence — all so than the talented ization among young involving teens. Opened Suljic, who stunned in men is fascinating, Oct. 26 at multiple last year’s “The Killing what we take away is, theaters. of a Sacred Deer.” Ray ultimately, these cool is the heart of the film, attempting kids are vulnerable more than anyto steady the young Stevie, who thing else — they might not think flails among all the dangerous mixed so, but owning that is the coolest of messages. The gloriously goldenall.

LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018 • 15

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16 • LEWIS COUNTY WEEKENDER • The Chronicle, Centralia/Chehalis, WA. Thursday, November 8, 2018

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