Crimson Oct. 2010

Crimson

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Volume 71 / 10.6.10 / Issue 1

The Student Newsmagazine of Paso Robles High School

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Paso Robles, CA

801 Niblick Rd. Paso Robles, California

C R Y S T A L

MESS

A PRHS senior’s recovery after a week spent spun

by Caitlyn Curran, Business Team

This is to serve as a true account of a student’s experience and a warning to those ignorant of the dangers of drugs. All names have been changed.

Glass shattered. It poured into the truck and scattered on the asphalt. It felt like a simple push, she said, but before she knew it, her leg was through the windshield of her father’s truck parked in downtown Paso.

“I’m on the streets,” Alice yelled to her father who had just lost a windshield and temporarily the sanity of his daughter. She ran away in a methamphetamine induced psychosis and was soon tackled to the ground. She woke up in jail on July 5, where she was picked up by a suicide prevention worker and taken to the San Luis Obispo Mental Health Institution.

Alice was introduced to meth just two days before the

windshield shattered. It took two days to change the direction of her life from hanging out with friends to walking into a mental institution for the first time. Her’s is a story of deceit, addiction, psychosis, and finally, rehabilitation. Alice still has friendships to recover, but as of Oct. 6, she remains three months clean.

About a month before her first encounter with meth, she ventured into a new, arguably shadier group of friends. Her old crowd, she said, had grown tired of her incessant partying, daily use of marijuana and alcohol, and frequent use of ecstasy.

Continued on Feature page 7 Photo by Monica Patel

Feature 8 >> Noel Phillips battles cancer

Food 17 >> Oasis Restaurant Review

World 19 >> “World Piece” on Cambodia

T.O.C.

Crimson Volume 71, Issue 1

O C T O B E R 6, 2010

06 New building structures 08-09

Noel Phillips leukemia

10-11 New teachers 12-13 17 Oasis

Haunted Paso Robles restaurant review

23 Steeple chase

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Editorial

Busting the bias

Be responsible: think for yourself—even in class

Original graphic illustration by Matthew Pridgeon

C

What we think Are PRHS teachers opinion neutral?

Yes 31% No 50%

It depends 19% 27 students surveyed.

Thinking for ourselves — it’s something that’s been stressed Staff

by Greek philosophers and Editorial teachers alike. But just how much do teachers let their opinions on social issues, God, and life in general slip?

Teachers can offer their personal opinions to their class, but some students say that at one time they have felt scared to voice their opinion in class because they knew it was juxtaposed with that of the teacher’s.

Numerous students felt that a teacher’s opinionating in class depended on the topic and was done for the sake of learning.

Attacks on one’s personal point of view are inevitable throughout life, but it is essential that students know when a teacher is simply sparking debate, or actually imposing their opinion.

The education code states that “Controversial issues may be discussed in the classroom provided that: all sides of the issue are a given a proper hearing,” and that “The teacher does not use his/her position to forward his/her own religious, political, economic or social viewpoint.” “[Teachers] only do it for argument’s sake, to get us to look at the other sides of the argument or consider the opinions of others,” one anonymous student said.

But when does playing devil’s advocate turn into preaching? There is a fine line.

“Because teachers are human, it’s likely that some of their opinions show through in their lessons. I never have felt their opinions forced on me though,” sophomore Spencer Young said.

Economics teacher Matthew Drake believes that it depends on the topic.

“I hope teachers work to be neutral on major issues such as politics, religion, and other potential hot button topics. However, I do think on low-level trivial matters a teacher should feel free to give an opinion keeping in mind the objective is not to persuade students. Opining that Lindsay Lohan should face punishment for her actions might fall

into this category. The idea is [that] students are to develop their belief systems with the material presented,” Drake said.

But there is much to be said for a teacher playing the role of devil’s advocate. English teacher Sean Pierce often takes that role in his class.

“I do my best to play devil’s advocate. I think it is important that all credible sides of an issue — or even incredible sides of an issue — be discussed, because otherwise if they’re essentially ignored or pushed to the side they actually gain more status,” Pierce said. “Bringing an idea or theory front and center and saying, ‘Okay, what are the merits? What are the drawbacks?’ and so forth, that actually provides a better learning experience.”

Looking at social issues and other theories at all angles is indeed an important skill and is essential for creating well-balanced and thoughtful citizens.

But when teachers turn into the preachers of their classrooms, not only does that violate the education code, but every student’s first amendment right to the freedom of religion, speech, etc. by not allowing students to voice their opinions. Learning cannot and will not occur when a student is only seeing one side of an issue, or feeling as though their opinion is invalid. This is indeed an issue that all students at PRHS should be aware of.

“Religious documents have contributed to the major cultures, to the personal lives of countless persons, and to self-understanding. A knowledge of biblical literature, for example, is necessary to understand Western literature, history, and the values underlying the U.S. and many of its laws,” the handbook of Moral and Civic Education and Teaching About Religion said (23).

If a teacher decides to disagree with a student in an open discussion, they need to state if they are playing the devil’s advocate. Otherwise, they’re creating an atmosphere that is unhealthy for learning and inappropriate in general.

As a student, whether teachers are just making you think or thinking for you, be careful in what you believe. Read, discover, and think for yourselves.

Teachers should make sure that they are giving students the education they deserve— not the one they want students to have.

—lead writer Emily Cone, Opinion Co-Editor

Monica Patel Editor-in-Chief Center Co-Editor

Ethan Baietti Managing Editor Web Manager

Alicia Canales Maddison Coons Managing Editor Front Page Editor

Managing Editor Center Co-Editor

www.crimsonnews.org 801 Niblick Rd. Paso Robles, CA 93446 Paso Robles High School (805) 237-3315 EXT. 5601 Room 601

Crimson is an independently funded, monthly publication of the journalism class at Paso Robles High School. We publish monthly newsmagazines free to students and teachers. Subscriptions are available for US mail delivery for $15. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the staff and do not necessarily t reflect the views of Paso Robles High School, its faculty, administration, or students. Crimson is an open forum for the exchange of Special thanks ideas. We welcome feedback in form of letters or e-mails. to the contributions Letters must be signed but names can be withheld upon of Reilly Newman, Kim Bergin & Wally Ohles request. All stories, graphics, typesetting, and layouts are completed by Paso Robles High School students.The staff actively pursues advertisement accounts but reserves the right to refuse those deemed overly controversial or aimed at illegal behavior. Crimson is designed using Adobe In-Design and Photoshop and prints with Atascadero News Co.

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News

Crowded classes increase It’s tight quarters in many classrooms at Paso Robles High School which are currently occupied by up to 41 students per period. Due to a 2010-2011 decrease in staff members, class sizes have climbed significantly. Implementation of academic support classes has also made scheduling much more involved, according to Principal Randy Nelson.

The biggest issue with this many students in a chemistry class is safety, according to Chemistry teacher Dave Boicourt. However, not all of his classes have this large of a population. Boicourt’s average class size is 28 students.

“The problem is what they call ‘balancing.’ Mr. Nelson has assured me that they are trying to balance out the classes as soon as possible, hopefully by next week [Sep. 13-17],” Boicourt said.

Across the campus, Spanish teacher Jennifer Fuller is concerned with trying to control and give each student individual attention and a chance to participate for her largest class of 37.

“The solution is that it’s not so much a school problem than an economical and political problem. We don’t have the money to hire enough teachers…the priority can’t be the kids when there’s a severe budget issue. It’s sad,” Fuller said.

Sophomore Shanna Potter has had four schedule changes to date due to overcrowded classes. Her most recent change on Sept. 16 made her one of four students to be removed from Boicourt’s first period class to reduce its size from 34 to 30.

“It’s annoying because you have a bunch of different classes and different homework to do. It’s not even worth [doing homeT.O.C. work] anymore,” Potter said.

Next Page ...

Teachers As teachers work to develop stronger lesson plans to hold stuimpose dents’ interest and students attempt to stay on top of the fastopinions paced schedules and large course sizes, PRHS counselors are hard at work “balancing” out classes.

—Jenna Wookey and Shanna Dowling, Reporters

>>

One for the record book From 192 AP senior students in the 2009 class and 238 AP senior students in the 2010 class, this year’s senior class of 2011 breaks the record book with a reported total of 353 seniors enrolled in AP programs.

Only 20 students passed the 2000 AP Language exam and 22 on the AP Literature test. In 2009, 50 Bearcats passed in the Language exam and 48 scored well on the Literature test.

AP Calculus teacher Mike Serpa believes more students are enrolled in his class due to the high pass rate. Last year, 84 percent of students passed the AP Calculus test while 75 percent passed the AP Literature test.

The AP Literature class has more than doubled in size from 70 students last year to 148 this year. Accordingly, the AP Calculus enrollment has also increased from 40 students last year to 50 students this year.

Why are so many seniors taking AP classes? AP Literature and Language teacher Aaron Cantrell believes the reason for the increase in AP students is due to Cuesta College’s decisions. “[There are more AP students] because Cuesta cancelled the summer school and many kids took classes at Cuesta and can’t anymore,” Cantrell said.

Senior and AP Literature, Statistics, and Government student Kelsey Hunter believes the reason for the hundreds of AP students is because of the competition between students when applying for colleges.

“This class is more jam-packed, from recent memory, than any other class with ambitious students with potential to go to the top colleges,” Cantrell said.

KNITTING SOME LOVE: Owner of The Scarlet Skein Tracey McKay, teaches sophomore Brianna Long the first steps of knitting. All scarves created by Scarves and Fishes will be sent to soldiers in Afghanistan or to the Salvation Army.

Photos by Paul Cleland

Knitting for a cause Sophomores create scarves for soldiers

by Paul Cleland, Opinion Co-Editor Knitting isn’t just for those with grandchildren anymore.

Adding on to the 31 clubs and organizations available to PRHS students is Scarves and Fishes, founded by sophomores Chelsea Farrer and Brianna Long, president and vice-president of the new club, respectively.

Scarves and Fishes, a pun off of the food-providing organization Loaves and Fishes, was started in order for students and teachers to get together in an effort to help soldiers in Afghanistan or the Salvation Army. Farrer and Long hope each member will be able to make one scarf every two months to send to soldiers across the globe.

“Chelsea and I originally wanted to make a club for knitting, but new ideas started to develop and now we’ve decided to knit for sold iers,”

Long said. “We hope that people start coming to our meetings and really [are] getting involved in our cause. We want to be able to help a lot of people because of Scarves and Fishes.”

For those who don’t know how to knit, the club leaders have arranged for Tracey McKay, owner of The Scarlet Skein in downtown Paso Robles, to come for free to at least one club meeting a month to teach basic knitting and new techniques to the members.

“I really enjoy their cause so I decided to give four knitting needles that belonged to [my] mother-in-law who passed away to the club. She loved to knit and loved charity,” Ruth Enriquez-Bague said, who is the student teacher for Yearbook teacher Maggie Roberts. “Later on in the school year when I’ve been a student teacher for a little longer, I’m going to go in and work with the club.”

“Right now Chelsea and I are not talking to any companies about sending the scarves to soldiers. Actually, one of our friend’s [sophomore Sara Wilson] mother is going to talk to her church and find out if they might have any connections or way of delivering our scarves,” Long said.

The club meets on Mondays at lunch in advisor and English teacher Carrie Baldovin’s classroom, room 205. Scarves and Fishes is open to anyone willing to learn to knit.

—Megan Rodrigues, Reporter

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News

The CST is being tested California Standardized Testing likely to be replaced with national test even as PRHS scores improve

by Aryn Fields, A&E Editor

CST Scores 775 2010 scores

745 2009 scores

741 2008 scores

712 2007 scores

702 2002 scores

686 1999 scores

+89

Points Improved since 1999

Survey

75 Students Polled

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For 11 years students have taken the infamous California Standardized Test [CST] since first grade to test their knowledge in English, math, science, and history. Now the CST is finally being tested. Reports state the CST may be replaced by the National Standardized Test [NST] in 2014. California is the one of the only states with its own standardized test while the majority of the nation operates on the NST. With this change in 2014, PRHS may say goodbye to the CST once and for all.

Principal Randy Nelson reported nothing has been approved since it’s just a proposal thus far. With the “No Child Left Behind” [NCLB] standards, the faculty is pushing ahead for continuous high scoring on the CST. “There’s talk about changing state assessments, but nothing’s been approved; I don’t have enough information at this point to know how, when, or if it will change. In the meantime, we are trying to improve the number of students to pass the CST and CAHSEE,” Nelson said. “This is 2010. 2014 is a long time away. State accountability is a big deal, and we want to stress that to everyone when we approach testing time.”

The CST has been around since 1999, so why switch to something completely new in 2014? Well these answers lie with what expectation has already been made. It was announced all schools in the nation will have to be 100 percent proficient in 2014.

“2014 is an interesting year to set this date on. It’s interesting because something will happen that year as that is the year current NCLB statutes expire, but we don’t know what. I know of no school anywhere that has 100 percent proficiency,” Nelson said.

The new Vice Principal Wendy Nielsen heads the PRHS test scores. She stated if the CST were cancelled, she would be in charge of our NST scores. Her stance on the proficient requirement stands firm with Nelson.

“Realistically I don’t think it is possible to meet the 100 percent proficiency expectation. But we need to keep trying if we want to achieve it. We need to know where we are to see where we are going,” Nielson said.

Administrators and teachers alike doubt the state goal of total proficiency. Especially when no administrator or teacher can control how much motivation a student puts into bubbling a scan-tron.

The 2009-2010 CST motivational posters stated the PRHS test score was 747 and last in the county. PRHS

experienced a big jump in scores last year when PRHS reached 775, with the goal being an 800 score. The English Language Learners subgroup has increased their CST score by 45 points, the Hispanic or Latino subgroup increased 38 points, and the Socioeconomically Disadvantaged subgroup increased 68 points in 2010. Nelson hopes students get more motivated.

“We hope and expect that state testing will be

Wendy Nielsen We need to keep trying if we want to achieve [100 percent proficiency].

We need to know where we are to see where we are going.”

Aryn Fields

taken seriously again and that PRHS has another significant jump in scores. But that’s only if each student gives a true representation of their effort; if students just bubble in answers and give a half hearted effort, then it doesn’t give us their true ability,” Nelson said. “We should want our school and community represented in a true light.”

Nielsen believes that students are surrounded by tests they aren’t even aware of, and if PRHS took the CST as serious as some took video games, then PRHS would reach the goal and go much further with student potential.

“We need to have a better attitude about testing. And we are taking tests without even knowing it. Games are a test; you try to beat a high score, go up levels, and use skills to get an accurate score. Video games are a test that students partake in almost everyday,” Nielsen said.

The class of 2014 will be the first to use the NST, but for now PRHS will be sticking to the old fashioned CST. So this spring be prepared to have a fresh booklet and scantron sitting in front of you.

Do you think you would rather take the CST or NST?

65% NST

TESTING FRENZY: Vice Principal Wendy Nielsen shows her enthusiasm about CST scores improving. Photo by

35% CST

New

... building egaP txeN

structure Crystal mess

>>

Are you looking forward to the CST being replaced?

55% Yes

Paso Robles High School

45% No Crimson |

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News

Pimp my school: North, South, East, and West PRHS gains two new buildings

by Paul Cleland,

Opinion Co-Editor

New club

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Maino Construction Company has been working on the new Agricultural Academy located near the baseball field.

The building should be completed by 2012. Photo by Paul Cleland

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CST testing

In 2012, PRHS will have the Agriculture Academy and most likely a two-story building for the English department standing where two construction sites stand today. These two sites, large as they are, are just a part of the entire construction PRHS will experience over the next several years.

Including what is currently being constructed, a total of nine projects planned by the Board of Trustees will have been completed by the time this year’s 2010 freshmen will be seniors.

“It’s going to be really exciting to see our school once the construction is complete. PRHS will look almost like a junior college.

It’ll look very professional,” Principal Randy Nelson said.

For now, PRHS has two different construction companies working on campus: the Wysong Construction Company for the site next to the quad, and the Maino Construction Company for the site near the baseball field, according to Doug Walters, Assistant Project Inspector of the Wysong site.

The only students currently at PRHS that will be able to enjoy an updated high school are the freshmen.

“It’s kind of really exciting to be getting new buildings.

With all the budget cuts and the teacher layoffs, it’s good to have something to look forward to being able to use,” freshman Maddie Berry said.

The funding for the structures to be erected at PRHS over the years are funded by three different sources: Bond Measure T, a $20 million bond specifically for the improvement of PRHS, passed by voters in Nov. 2006; $20 million worth of state funds allocated to match the local bond; and four Career Technical Education [CTE] grants totaling over $6.5 million.

“Paso Robles High School was the only high school in the state to receive four CTE grants,” Director of Facilities and Operations of our district Ashley Lightfoot said. “That demonstrates the caliber of teachers and administrators in this district and how hard we work to achieve as much as possible for our students.”

>>

NEW HOME FOR STUDENTS: (Left) A computer simulation shows what the new agricultural building will look like.

(Right) This is what the construction near the quad is going to look like.

It’s a two story building planned to be the new English Department.

Simulations used with permission of the BFGC-IBI Group

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Feature

Continued from Front page 1 “It was difficult to deal with the excessive drinking and smoking she was doing. She didn’t realize how much everyone was starting to resent her and get upset with her,” a PRHS junior and reported former best friend of Alice’s said.

Alice was first exposed to crystal meth with her new crowd on July 4 at 12:30 a.m. Her friend Summer —a friend with darker purposes Alice would soon discover—had asked her to join the group at Jessica’s house where they would smoke meth but told Alice she didn’t “have to try it, it’s okay.” When they pulled out the pipe and the crystals, however, Alice grew quite curious. Summer noticed and approached Alice on her way to the bathroom, begging her to try the drug. Hesitant, Alice took the pipe.

The smoke swirled as she inhaled and created “a rush of euphoria all through [her] body” at first. Dopamine, a pleasure chemical in the brain, pumped through her body, soon calming down to a sense of well being. After 12 hits, the potent upper was darting through her mind, over stimulating her body unnaturally. She began to pop her knuckles, back, and neck obsessively all while chewing gum and smoking cigarettes nonstop.

Alice came down from her high at Jessica’s house at 2 p.m. and needed money. She went home to ask her dad for $20, telling him it was for the movies. She did chores, collected the money, and went back to her friend Jessica’s house without Summer, for she was growing suspicious of Summer’s intentions. Jessica confirmed these suspicions, telling Alice that Summer had begged her to try the drug so Alice might get hooked. Summer would then initiate her plan of getting Alice into prostitution.

This way Alice could buy meth and Summer could sponge off of her and her money. With her plan foiled, Jessica and Alice soon got threatening phone calls from Summer, saying she would tell Alice’s dad what she had done.

Jessica and Alice left to Fresno at 8:30 p.m., feeling unsafe in the same town as a furious Summer. They arrived three hours later at Jessica’s ex-boyfriend’s house. They sat around smoking meth— now Alice’s second encounter— and listened to music.

Addiction had already burned into the pathways of her brain.

They smoked away a sleepless night from 12:30 a.m. to 7 a.m.

“I chewed on my lip like it was candy. It was huge, swollen, and bloody,” Alice said. The concrete clenched jaw pressed her bottom lip, splitting it open again every time she had the urge to chomp down, a habit for addicts of a stimulant.

Around 7 a.m. on July 5, she began to nod off and rested her mind with short lived, inconsistent naps until 11 a.m., when she woke up and did it all over again.

Alice realized she needed to get home at 8 p.m. Her dad would be furious if she was gone for two nights. She got a ride with a friend’s dad, Greg, who had been smoking meth with www.crimsonnews.org

Photo by Serina Lewis

them at Jessica’s ex’s house.

“I’ll give you a hit if you take off your shirt,” Greg said to Alice.

She refused but ended up taking the hit anyway as she sat back, hallucinating fireworks in a blank sky. She arrived home just before midnight on July 5.

Before entering her house, she met with her neighbor to smoke marijuana and tell him of her day. Minutes later, she laid her head on her pillow and heard knocking on the door.

“Are you Alice?” the two police officers on her front step asked.

“Could you get your dad for us?” She struggled to convince the cops she had only been smoking marijuana, but they had gotten a report from her neighbor that she was on meth.

“What happened to your lip?” they asked. She replied defensively that she fell on her face, but they knew.

Police Officers

Would you like to tell your dad you’re on meth, or should we?” the police officers asked.

She walked to the other room with a confession for her father.

She barely let the words escape her lips when Alice was drowned in her father’s disappointed screams. The chaos shook her and she ran into her room, assumed the fetal position, and rocked herself back and forth. She shouted for her mother and the help of a hospital, and her father relented.

Early in the morning of July 6, she awoke in Twin Cities hospital with an I.V. of Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug, attached to her arm. She threatened suicide and was made to sign a safety contract with the hospital so as not to make any rash decisions and was assigned a suicide prevention worker.

“Alice was in a psychosis due to drugs. When we had to go to the bathroom for a urine test, she was hallucinating. She was in and out. She’d lay down then get up and just start blurting things,” her mother said, who described the experience as “the worst thing that ever happened to me, but never happened to me.”

Later Alice remembered her mother under her arm holding her up and helping her to the bathroom, along with a woman with long brown hair under her other arm who was never there.

“It was shocking… surprising, no, because I could see the path that she was going on. I was disappointed, but I drew upon my faith. I have faith in the Lord and faith in Alice. We all go down the path we’re supposed to, although it’s not always good.

This incident saved her life,” her mother said.

Paso Robles High School

From the hospital, Alice’s mother and father drove her back home to Paso Robles to let her sleep. She would be going to the SLO Mental Health Institution afterwards. For some reason, as Alice cannot remember, she got very upset at a text she received, and they had to pull over by Goodwill. Her parents tried to restrain their instantly belligerent daughter, and it was then that Alice’s foot found contact with her father’s windshield.

She awoke in jail and was taken to SLO Mental Health Institution by her suicide prevention worker. She was depressed, angry, confused, homesick, and mostly uncooperative. She cussed, swore suicide, and pledged not to stop drugs.

She slept off the first day. When she woke up, they knocked her back out with Ativan to transport her Noel egaP txeN to Vista Del Mar Hospital in Ventura. She arrived ... Phillips Tuesday, July 6 at 9 p.m.

“I learned I wouldn’t go home if I wouldn’t cooperate.

I talked in group therapy, but I decided I wouldn’t stop doing drugs. There was a drug dealer there, and he said he could get me meth,” Alice said. In a family meeting on the fourth day, she admitted her intentions to keep doing drugs. The next day, her psychiatrist called her in and told her they’d find a residential rehab for her.

She traveled to Adolescent Growth in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles on July 12. The next day, as a boy in rehab recounted his story of punching through a window, Alice’s anxiety­—as she was now off of meth and Ativan— surmounted her body, and she fell to the floor in a seizure.

After a week at Adolescent Growth and the healthy food distributed, things were looking up. Her hair no longer fell in broken, fragile strings about her face. Color returned, if only in the slightest, to her cheeks and her complexion was healing.

Two weeks in, she decided she’d be okay without drugs. After an emotional family session, it was decided she would live with her mother. After 43 days at Adolescent Growth, she arrived home rehabilitated, but relationships were wounded. Her best friend since freshman year could hardly believe the news that her friend had tried meth.

“I just kept thinking, ‘No, not Alice. She wouldn’t do something like that.’ She was like a sister to me but it all changed when she called me screaming and crying. Then, she was gone for over a month, and I didn’t quite know who she was anymore.

We are still friends, but she’s on such tight restriction, it’s hard to talk to her or hang out with her. Our friendship is really just a work in progress. Still, I love her to death, and I’ll always be there for her but she has changed a lot from the Alice I used to know,” senior and a long-time friend of Alice’s said.

Alice received her red three months sober chip on Oct. 6. On July 4, or as they call it in rehab, her “birthday,” she will receive a glow in the dark one year sober chip. She’s counting the days.

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Feature

Faith doesn’t fail

Sophomore Noel Phillips maintains an optimistic outlook on her rare case of Leukemia

by Maddison Coons, Managing Editor, and Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief

An effortless poke bruised sophomore Noel Phillips in less than 10 minutes. Excessive marks appeared on Noel’s legs in late June 2010. She had been diving left and right all summer for PRHS JV volleyball and club softball team, Velocity. But what first seemed to be a few battle wounds soon began to look like enduring bruises.

Pediatrician Ellen Castellanos ordered blood work for her July 13, 2010. Noel said nothing prepared the family for the phone call mother Andrea Phillips received just a few minutes after returning home from the doctor’s office that day: Noel was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (A.L.L.), a fast growing cancer that attacks the white blood cells.

Oct. 6, 85 days after the day she was diagnosed, Noel finds her willingness to endure her disease through the power of Crystal God. Her foundation for support begins with God, her family, mess Next Page ... friends, and the generous community. Through the treatments of chemo pills or chemo injections from Aug. 30 through Sept.

New building 6 to having spinal taps and surgery on Wednesday, Sept. 8 and structures 15, this basis is what has enabled her to follow through with her medical treatment.

When the Phillips family was on their way to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for the first time, Andrea looked at Noel and told her she had to stay strong through all of this.

“Now I have to stop her and look her in the eyes to tell her she has to stay strong through all of this,” Noel said.

Leukemia is the most common cancer in children and adolescents. A.L.L. accounts for about 74 percent of the leukemia cases among children ages zero to 19 years according to the American Cancer Society. Having leukemia makes everything just a little harder, according to Noel.

“Prior to this I was an average girl excelling in school and sports; I had a wonderful family, good group of friends, adorable boyfriend, big new house and the life that so many people would kill for,” Noel said on her blog on July 15.

Within the first two days of learning of her cancer Noel had over 25 vials of blood drawn, several surgeries for bone marrow extraction, a spinal tap, a portacath (a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin) inserted into her neck artery for chemo and I.V. work, and chemotherapy, most of which she endures weekly according to noelsfight.com.

“Who she is is amplified when the odds are against her,” Noel’s father Noal Phillips said. “Most of what scares us in life is that which we don’t understand and that which is out of our control. The news covered both of these for me so we did what we could to understand, and I did my best to not torture myself with all the possible negative outcomes.”

Despite the numerous treatments Noel had undergone the past three months, she still manages to keep treading along.

Physically, Noel is a little tired from her run down body but strength training mixed into her exercise will aid her body to

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Crimson

gain its strength back. Emotionally she’s doing great, although she stated it can get hard not being able to interact everyday with everyone like her boyfriend and friends.

“The best key in life is to always have a winning attitude. If you’re going to go hard for something you need to go all the way. You want to try your best at everything,” Noel said in an interview on Sound Off with Jeff Bradley on KPRL. Good news did find its way on July 16: Noel’s cancer cells had not reached her spine where they could be trapped, meaning she was one step closer to a positive outcome.

Although she is one step closer to a more positive outcome, she has an unusual genealogical condition known as Monosomy 7. There is so little information on it that researchers have only recently started to track people with it and follow the Overall Survival (OS) rates. Those with Monosomy 7 in the last tracked statistics were about 37 percent OS, however, they admit that each person is unique in how they fight it, according to Noal.

“But I try to see my cancer experience with a positive spin and am still making the best of life. I don’t think of it as a sad thing. I turn to the positives. I don’t want to be a depressing person with an ordinary story. I get to see more and do more different things in life that not all teens get to do, so I see that as a wonderful thing,” Noel said.

Noel’s positive attitude is bolstered from her faith in God as seen in her blog where she frequently refers to Bible verses.

She was baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church after she was born and has attended ever since.

“His [God’s] peace and his grace is what has pushed Noel and brought her where she is right now,” Andrea said.

“I just thank all he has blessed me with, and I think of all the amazing things he does, can, and will do. Knowing that my trust is all in God gets me through each day happily and positively,” Noel said.

Along with God, sophomores Riley Edwards and Monica Garcia support her. They “have pretty much been through everything together.” It was no different when Noel was diagnosed.

Paso Robles High School

“When I heard [about the leukemia] I was absolutely crushed. Her and Monica are like my sisters so hearing that was like a stab to the heart. But after, it sank in and I had no doubt in my mind that she would definitely put up a fight,” Edwards said.

Softball is a love all three girls have shared together since they were in elementary school. Both Edwards and Garcia agree playing with Noel is always a blast, and although she likes to goof off, she is a positive and competitive person who just never gives up. But because of her treatment, Noel, who plays center field, is unable to play the sport she holds dear.

“It [not being able to play softball] made her do an extra lap down our hill because that’s all she can do right now,” Andrea said.

Noel has been playing softball since the age of eight, which happens to be her softball and volleyball number and the number she always had to get and did get, according to Andrea.

Before the diagnosis, the Phillips family would race to coordinate homework, practices, games, friends, weekends, etc. but now it’s been put on hold.

As of now, Noel has all her bases loaded and is on her pursuit to come back home.

“She’ll be back strong…” Noal said.

STAYING STRONG: Noel Phillips and her dad go through their regular medical procedures with a smile upon their faces.

Photos used with permission of Noel Phillips

www.crimsonnews.org

REV UP FOR THE RAFFLE: Noal Phillips is letting go of his blue 1991 Harley Davidson in a raffle for his daughter. Each ticket costs $50, and the winner will be announced at a live drawing that will take place on Dec. 11 at Wine Street Showcase.

Feature

Photo by Maddison Coons

‘The journey of supporting a beautiful life’

Phillips Benefit Fund raises thousands for medical costs

by Maddison Coons, Managing Editor, Nico Jolicoeur, Reporter, and Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief Noel Phillips’ best friends, sophomores Riley Edwards and Monica Garcia, camped out all night in the PRHS student parking lot after helping set up Noel’s parking lot sale on Friday, Sept. 10. The pair made sure no one took any items from the thousands that were spread across the lot.

A swarm of students, teachers, and dwellers of the community waited outside the PRHS staff parking lot waiting to enter the benefit sale that supported that raised money for the cost of Noel’s medical care at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11.

“As soon as they said open, they were running towards the parking lot. At one point there were almost a 1000 people here,” Noel’s mother, Andrea Phillips said.

While some donated through the purchase of sale items others gave their time. Noel’s team of friends and family members sported baseball shirts with her softball number eight. People purchased water, baked goods, and tri-tip sandwiches with donated salsa from Atascadero and meat from San Luis Obispo—all with the support of one girl in mind.

Booster club members Valerie Huff and Hannah Testerman were in charge of the bake sale. Sophomores Elli Bernal and Natalie Evenson helped from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and baked brownies for the sale.

“Elli and I became teary eyed when we saw Noel at the fundraiser. She looked genuinely happy. I pictured her being sad and not full of life. When I found out about her leukemia, I was shocked because she is really athletic and has always been a healthy person. I never envisioned her getting cancer,” Evenson said.

Senior Lauren Huff, who’s known Noel her entire life, spent her day from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. helping at the parking lot sale. Huff’s grandmother made 130 cookies out of hundreds that people in the commuwww.crimsonnews.org

nity donated for the bake sale.

“It was a long day but worth it. She looks good for going through all the chemo—you wouldn’t think she had cancer by looking at her. She’s always so bubbly and happy,” Huff said.

The bake sale alone made approximately $800.

The massive amount of customers and donated items had dwindled to less than 10 percent of the people that morning at 3 p.m. Seventy of approximately 100 tables lent by local families, PRHS, and Trinity Lutheran Church, had been taken down. Everything left over from the sale was donated to the Trinity Lutheran church thrift store.

The fundraiser lasted nine hours and raised $21,000, all donated to Noel’s cause.

To help pay for Noel’s medical bills and all other expenses, Edwards and her family are selling one dollar bracelets. Everyday since July 26, the Edwards have been hard at work. The bracelets come in a variety of colors, and some even have volleyball, football, or airplane beads. As of Monday, Sept. 27, Edwards has made $1,254 selling 1,254 bracelets with the help of her family.

“It’s for a good cause,” Edwards said. “She inspires me to continue making the bracelets because I know she would do the same, if not more, for anyone.”

Noel’s father, Noal Phillips is donating his 1991 Harley Davidson in a raffle where the proceeds will go to the Noel Phillips Benefit Fund. Each ticket costs $50 and a maximum of 500 tickets will be sold. A live drawing will take place on Dec. 11 at the Vine Street Showcase where the winner will be announced.

“It is overwhelming, in a good way,” Noel said about the day and the support from family, friends, and the community.

THE THREE AMIGOS: “The three of us, Noel (left), Moni (below right) and I, have pretty much been through everything together,” sophomore Riley Edwards (above right) said. Edwards and sophomore Monica Garcia were the lookouts on Fri. Sept. 10, for the thousands of items stacked for Noel’s parking lot sale the next morning.

... New egaP txeN

teachers

>> Photo used with permission of Noel Phillips

Photos by Olivia Musial

BUNCHES OF BEADS (above): Sophomore Riley Edwards created bracelets that raised over $1000 for Noel’s Benefit Fund.

Paso Robles High School

FAITHFUL FAMILY: Noel stands by her parents, Noal and Andrea, after the parking lot sale dwindled from a thousand customers at 7 a.m. to about 50 at 3 p.m.

CANDID COMFORT: Noel’s mother, Andrea, and sister Emma, embrace at the parking lot sale after a long day.

Photos by Maddison Coons and Kim Bergin

Crimson |

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Feature

q&

with the new crew ­— Ethan Baietti, Managing Editor and Jessica Vaughn, Reporter

Drama Teacher Marcy Goodnow Goodnow is a Sacramento State graduate who is experiencing her first year of official teaching at PRHS. She has guest taught at elementary schools and high schools around the community and participated and directed plays in Sacramento. She spent one year living in New York living in bohemia. She is a dancer, singer, director, choreographer, and trying to be an actress.

Crimson: What’s a fun fact about you?

Noel Next Page ...

Phillips

Goodnow: I will spontaneously break into dance if asked.

C: What is your favorite part about teaching PRHS? G: The kids! They care, they are dedicated,[and] they are very very talented. I love the spirit of the school and deep set traditions.

So far the staff has been overly supportive with transition into the

school so I like a lot of it.

C: What plays have you been in?

And it is Dr. Seuss, so one [play] is very dramatic and one is good for anyone in community.

G: The last play I was in was “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. ”My name is Marcy, and I played Marcy Parks. That was really fun, and I do mostly musicals.

C: What is your favorite musical that you were in?

C: Why drama?

G: When I was in my senior year at Sac State, I was Sally Bowels from “Cabaret.”

C: What plays can we expect to see this year?

G: I want to make them feel safe and push them to be really brave and try things that will make them feel uncomfortable because drama is all about stretching yourself. I really want them to trust me and trust the process and all that.

G: We are producing “Dracula.” It opens Nov. 4. I can officially announce we are doing “Seussical the Musical” for our spring musical.

G: I didn’t make cheerleading my freshman year, and my mom put me in drama. Little did I know I would fall in love with it.

C: How do you get kids to love drama?

Photo by Emily Cone

>>

Chemistry Teacher Anthony Overton Crimson: What’s a fun fact about you?

Overton: In college, I blew something up in the fume hood, and it cracked the window.

C: What’s your favorite part about teaching at PRHS? O: The friendly students and staff. It was cool to come back because I was a student teacher here last year.

Photo by Kimberly Boswell

Overton, at 23, is the youngest teacher on campus. This Cal Poly graduate is teaching for his first year at PRHS, after returning from his student-teaching with Mark Fairbank (AP Physics and AP Chemistry teacher) last year.

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Crimson

C: Why do you teach Chemistry?

O: I teach chemistry because I love the science. I started off as engineer but wanted to be architect. But changed my mind because I am not very artistic, so I wanted to be an engineer. Then I took chemistry in high school, and I was good at it. I am teaching because I really found a passion for teaching while I was in college.

C: So if you were a superhero, would you be Chemical Man? Paso Robles High School

O: What would Chemical Man even do? All right, I’ll be Chemical Man. C: How do you get kids to be interested in chemistry?

O: Blowing things up! Most people don’t really think about their world from a chemistry point of view, so you have to give them a little more shock and awe.

C: Have you ever failed a class?

O: Yes, at Cal Poly: History of Architecture and Calculus. I didn’t fail, though; I got a D in both.

C: What do you enjoy doing besides teaching?

O: I am really into snowboarding and skiing.

C: Do you know how to make a bomb?

O: Theoretically I do, but not practically—like I could not just make a bomb right now. www.crimsonnews.org

Feature

q&

with the new crew Band Director Santino Galvan

Type Here s

Crimson: What are your goals as band director?

Photo by Kimberly Boswell

The new PRHS band director, Galvan is a Fresno State graduate with a BA in music education. He has been teaching in public schools for the last 11 years and private lessons for the last 20. This last year he made the move from the Central Valley to Paso in order to work at PRHS to replace Dr. Weller.

However, he also works with the elementary and middle school music teachers during his free time. His best instrument is the bass trombone, which he plays professionally.

walked to up to the band director and I said, “So, I was thinking Galvan: To survive marching season! And to keep the program on about maybe— ” “NO.” “But I really think that I could—” “NO.” I played bass trombone and there weren’t very many of us, so the track, but also improve. director needed me to keep playing.

C: Why do you work with the elementary and middle C: Is there an instrument you can’t play? school teachers?

G: Yes. Guitar is my kryptonite.

G: I work kind of as their assistant—mostly I do it so that I can meet the younger kids and get them interested in the music C: What’s the craziest thing that ever happened to you while teaching? program at the high school. It’s my way of keeping it all going.

G: Every day is crazy when you teach band—just look: there are C: Did you play in your high school marching band? two guys sumo wrestling outside my office door right now!

G: Yes. I wasn’t great, but I really enjoyed it.

C: What is one memory you have of being in your high school band?

G: I remember that I wanted to try out for drum major. So I

Administrator Wendy Nielsen Nielson was a successful core teacher for 12 years at LMS but is now an assistant principle at PRHS. She is Cal Poly alumnus who has a BA in history, a Masters in Curriculum Instruction & Assessment and a minor in Spanish.

Crimson: What do you do when you’re not in school?

Nielsen: I like to travel. I like to read a lot. I like to torture my Chihuahuas­—Not really.

C: Where is the most interesting place you have traveled to?

N: I have been to London a few times,

and I’ll have to say that is my favorite.

C: How long have you been an administrator?

N: This is my first full time administrator position, but I have summer school administered for three years.

C: What did you teach?

N: I have taught Spanish, yearbook, history, language arts, and GATE (Gifted and Talented Education).

C: Which was your favorite and why?

N: Probably GATE because the students

interacted with the material at a deeper level; I learned things more from them, and I got to read great books.

C: What are you hoping to accomplish at PRHS? N: World Domination, just kidding. I am hoping I can help the kids’ CST scores and help the school get out of program improvement.

C: What do you enjoy most about administrating at PRHS? I have gotten to see a lot of my old students and that has been a lot of fun.

U.S. History Teacher Evan Ball Ball, a SLO county native, graduated from Cal Poly with a major in business and a social science credential. He is in his third year of teaching, and has taught/ subbed in the community, including part of his student teaching at Morro Bay High School. He is currently the long term sub for Greg Williams (U.S. History and Government teacher) while he is recovering.

Photo by C.J. Prusi

www.crimsonnews.org

Crimson: How did you decide you want to be a teacher?

Ball: After working in an office for a few years, I began to realize that teaching young people would be a lot more exciting and rewarding. I enjoy having the opportunity to participate in the process of creating better-informed citizens.

C: Have you had any other jobs besides being

a teacher?

B: Before teaching I worked at Ernie Ball Inc., a guitar string company. I supervised their domestic sales dept.

C: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

B: I wanted to play music and become a vainglorious rock star.

C: How did you get the job substituting for Mr. Williams?

B: I was called about the opening right before the school year started. I assume I was offered the job because I had already taught history full-time in the

Paso Robles High School

Haunted

... stories: egaP txeN

Old Paso Robles

>>

Photo by Aryn Fields

district.

C: Do you know Mr. Williams?

B: I’ve met Mr. Williams once. He showed me his room and introduced me to some of his methods and resources. He seems like an amazing teacher and really nice guy.

C: Have you ever lived out side the country?

B: Yes, after high school I lived in London for five months. I took some guitar classes and briefly joined a band. Years later I lived in Spain. I took some classes and had an awesome time.

Crimson |

11

sty cemeteries, and crea hosts, mi ky Vi g f o d s o t s w e e n r t . s P k a w s e o f n a Roble ctoria i e b h t o t s t n t firs xpect i s ghoulish happenings, from the 1 has its hou e 32-y sha se n ’t e ap bles Inn built in o h o R r o s a e n e P re s a n p 1 n o 8 r w e yd 9 d o o of 1 n n . n u u s l n u a k a e l W a d b e l s l l c i a e l w p h A ade t h ous e we isit, it ate d o ir v h s ay ver o t ide to the e t ry dec le u

Ghosts and gunslingers Tales of Adelaida Cemetery

by Austin Ehrhardt, Business Team More recently, ties were discovered to legendary bank robber Billy the Kid., Stepfather to the infamous Southwestern bandit was Adelaida inhabitant William Henry Antrim. Antrim’s residence leaves some to believe Billy the Kid may have even visited the area. Though originally buried in Adelaida Cemetery upon his death in 1921, Antrim’s grave was later moved for undisclosed reasons.

Adelaida resident and vineyard owner Curt Dubost holds rich ties to the area. In 1882, his relatives Auguste and Pauline Dubost immigrated to the area from Cherbourg, France, eventually accumulating over 4,000 acres of Adelaida ranchland. Consequently, the Adelaida Cemetery became the final resting place for many of the family’s kin.

“Our only stories of the cemetery are cleaning up after all the nonsense of people leaving empty beer cans and trash all over our family’s graves. Not a pleasant thing to do,” Dubost said, noting the history of vandalism and blatant disrespect by trespassers. “Most recently some fool lit off fireworks there, which could easily have burned down the whole neighborhood. This is why we routinely call the CDF, the sheriff’s department and take down license numbers of trespassers.”

Though private property, the graveyard is open to the public during daylight hours. However, when the sun sets, visitors be wary; startled midnight visitors tell of being chased off the property by a neighboring man wielding a shotgun.

“It’s a beautiful area and people are welcome to come during the day to see the historical markers and enjoy the peace and quiet,” Dubost said. “But at night, foolishness is not appreciated.”

BENEATH THE DIRT: A relative from late 19th century and early 20th century of Adelaida resident, Curt Dubost, sits inside the gates of the haunted cemetery.

Paso Robles has its own scary stories

by Alicia Canales, Managing Editor, Shanna Dowling, Reporter, and Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief

Photo by Austin Ehrhardt

Photo by Monica Patel

At 10 p.m. every Friday night when Adelaida is draped in darkness—with no city lights to cast their glow—a crying woman is said to appear, roaming the graves in a white night gown in search of her dead son.

Twelve miles west of Paso Robles, just off windy Chimney Rock Road lies Adelaida Cemetery. A black wrought iron gate greets visitors of the 132-year old graveyard, somewhat eerie and uninviting even during the day.

Tales of ghosts and gunslingers have haunted the cemetery for decades. Most prominent perhaps is the legend of Charlotte M. Sitton, a Mennonite settler whose two young children were killed in the diphtheria epidemic of 1887.

Her youngest, John Barnes Sitton, was barely two years old when he was stricken and killed by the disease. Terribly distraught by their deaths, Charlotte committed suicide, the method of which varying from tale to tale: hanging, poisoning and willful starvation. However, researchers agree her suicide was hushed so she could receive a Christian burial.

Since her own death in 1890 at the age of 19, Charlotte’s ghost has been rumored to wander the cemetery desperately searching for the children she was separated from. It wasn’t until 2001 that her son John was moved from Row F to Row G to finally rest beside her.

This image of a mourning mother, recurrent in Western folklore, is a possible reference to the Spanish legend of La Llorana — the crying woman — historians agree.

“Kids have long been making midnight journeys to the necropolis as somewhat of a local tradition,” driver’s education teacher and historian Wally Ohles said. Ohles is the author of The Lands of Mission San Miguel, a book chronicling the early settlement and development of Paso Robles, San Miguel, Linne and Adelaida. “I’ve been out there plenty of times. I’ve never seen [Charlotte], but I sure would like to do so!”

Mysterious mischief in the Inn

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W h m t Ce y rea me ste lm te yo

,

MYSTERY MUSICIAN: Some people have said they hear the piano playing when there’s no one on the first floor of the ballroom building Mike Child said. It was a part of the old hotel and was saved the night of the fire, taken by a Cal Poly professor, but brought back when Tom Martin started refurbishing the hotel. Photo by Monica Patel

As a new wing was added to the Paso Robles Inn in 1999, the hotel management changed, and strange things started occurring. Paso Robles Inn Head of Maintenance, Mike Childs, shared stories about three ghosts occupying the Inn...

Ballroom madness Housekeepers and guests have seen a little girl appear in the upper hallways of the ballroom building, the only original part of the hotel. One housekeeper discovered the girl’s picture in the Paso Robles Inn history book. She’s the daughter of former manager Dr. Frank W. Sawyer, yet her name is unknown.

“She’s not an apparition or something you can see through, it’s a real looking little girl,” Childs said.

Childs claimed that he would close doors in the hallway only to go up an hour later and find them open. Nobody was in the hallway during his absence either. Other people have had a more up close experience with the un-dead girl.

“Room 1211 is the one where the lady saw her standing by the bed. The little girl was standing right next to the bed when she woke up. The little girl

was standing there looking at her. And she [the lady] kind of said, ‘what are ya doing,’ and the little girl turned around and went into the bathroom. The woman followed her into the bathroom and she wasn’t there,” Childs said.

Garden lady At one time one of the managers had a mistress who would stay at the hotel, according to Childs. Childs stated he didn’t know what happened to her, but her spirit ambles around the garden early in the mornings.

“I’ve had two different chefs through the years who have seen the lady standing on the bridge in a white night gown around 5 a.m. One walked towards her to see if she was okay. When he passed between the bridge and a tree he found that on the other side she was gone.

And she is always seen in the same location,” Childs said.

Both chefs quit their job within a few days.

Mysterious phone calls The front desk started receiving phone calls from room 1007 on the second floor. At first the calls were dismissed as a glitch in the phone system but when again empty room 1007 called 911 they suspected something else.

“So I unplugged the phone and reset the system, no big deal. The problem went away for about a day, but then

that night it started dialing all the extensions again and it even called 911 twice,” Childs said. He stated the calls continued despite a new phone system.

Night clerk J.H. Emsley of the El Paso de Robles Hotel discovered a fire on the second floor and sounded the alarm one December evening in 1940.

Emsley died of a heart attack that night.

General Manager Paul Wallace “thinks the ghostly clerk doesn’t know” all the hotel’s guests were safely evacuated, according to www.historichotels.org.

The Inn’s friendly ghosts Though some guests may have left Paso a little shaken, no one has ever been harmed.

Guests have had experiences where a full water bottle at their desk was empty or half full the next morning or their clothes left on their bed mysteriously ended up on a chair while they’ve been gone.

“The ghosts don’t do anything malicious or vicious or anything like that.

It’s all kind of calm and mellow and just real minor stuff but nothing bad. Nobody has ever said that the ghosts have attacked them or anything—just little mischievous things,” Childs said.

Keep your eyes open next time you visit the Paso Robles Inn. You may just accidentally say “hello” to a ghostly little girl without even realizing it.

Photo by Austin Ehrhardt

Graphic illustration by Reilly Newman

Haunting in the house of Brewster Vine Street house home to ghostly encounters

by Austin Ehrhardt, Business Team BEAUTY AGAINST DARKNESS: The gravestone at Adelaida reads “To dwell in that celestial land. It here joys immortal flow.” Poinsettias have been placed on the grave of Charlotte M. Sitton.

Photo by Austin Ehrhardt

12 | Crimson

1804 Vine Street holds residence to a striking Victorian style home, a century and a half of history, and a whole host of haunting encounters with the expired inhabitant, Mr. Moody.

Built for merely $1,600 in 1895, the elegant house was home to G.W. Brewster and his wife Mary Moody. The brother of Mary Moody, Mr. Moody―as current resident Norma Moye refers to him―died of pneumonia in an upstairs bedroom around the turn of the century.

Paso Robles High School

Moye, head of the Paso Robles Downtown Main Street Association and PRHS alumni, used to give tours of the house.

“I was showing a group around the house and a man fainted in the room where Moody died. We had to drag him out of the room, but he was OK,” Moye said. “The house just gives you chills sometimes. The hair on the back of your neck stands up.”

Similar events have surrounded those braving the up-

stairs bedroom. Moye’s daughter, Patty Baldwin, allegedly woke to a man standing over her clad in nineteenth century garb. As driver’s education teacher Wally Ohles recounted, she refused to sleep in that bedroom again.

On Oct. 29, 1982, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, granting the residence preservation rights. Now protected by law, Mr. Moody and his macabre dwelling will go on undisturbed.

www.crimsonnews.org

Wally Ohles elaborates...

“Norma Moye needed some furniture moved, in her home. Darrell Lane worked for A&R Furniture for years. Norma asked if he would meet her at her home, during her lunch hour. He said, “Sure.” He drove over to her house, and parked on Vine Street, facing north. He sat for a while, finishing a cigarette. He saw Norma coming up Vine Street. She always parks at the side of the house, between the house and the Speck School. Darrell Historian and PRHS got out of his car, and started across the street. He saw a man standing on driver’s education her porch; he was wearing a long outer coat, had a beard and a hat. Darrell teacher Wally Ohles. thought he was a part of an ‘enactment group,’ that Main Street has. They Photo by Olivia Musial sometimes meet people at the train, dressed in period costumes. When Darrell went to the front door, and Norma opened it to let him in, he said, ‘There was a man waiting on your porch.’ She asked his description; when Darrell told her, she remarked, ‘That was Mr. Moody! He’s never been seen outside, before!’ This happened probably six years ago.”

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15

Health

‘A pinch of sugar’ PRHS student sautés Culinary Arts and Asperger’s Syndrome

by Serina Lewis,

Feature Editor

“Say that every person is a jar of water and Asperger’s is sugar. I probably have a pinch of sugar in my jar and everyone else [with Asperger’s] has more and more and more,” senior Austin Porter observes.

Porter has many friends who have a more severe case of ASD. He feels with much work and progress in his speech therapy classes and working alongside doctors, he can eventually get a job, continue to a higher level of education and possibly get into a good culinary school.

Autism is a common developmental disorder that usually appears in the first three years of life. Porter was diagnosed with Asperger’s when he was four or five years old.

Autism affects the part of the brain controlling developmental social and communication skills.

“My mom thought I was different because instead of crying I would be really quiet,” Porter said. “From the ages of birth to four I did not speak a single word. I was somewhat of a mute. The only way I started talking was through video games, thanks to Mr. Pridgeon.”

Bruce Pridgeon was his speech therapist at Pat Butler Elementary. He is also a close friend to Porter’s family and was the first person to get him to speak.

“Socializing is the hardest thing. It really sucks to just not be able to open up completely like other kids and tell you my whole life story, but I think that by sitting in the back of the classroom and observing what to do and what not to do is the best thing about Aspergers,” Porter said.

Autism is a chronic, lifelong disorder that can affect one’s income and living arrangements. With the treatments and helpful resources today, many autistic people can function normally in a society and live a productive life.

One of his biggest challenges in his life has been bullying, with the worst being at Pat Butler Elementary School and Flamson Middle School, according to Porter.

“Everyone knew I was different and so they kind of took advantage of that,” Porter said, who has been bullied since his elementary school days. He has dealt with bullying through his “care free attitude” that he learned from his half brother and PRHS alumni, Andrew Kendrick. Kendrick was the “popular guy in school, that helped him deal with harassing students.” Porter assumes the bullying arose because he wasn’t the “chattiest” person around and he wore glasses. “Four eyes” and “idiot” were frequent names that were used to taunt him. Kendrick taught him how to deal with the bullies, how to ignore them, and how to just go somewhere else if they stuck with it.

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Porter conveys most of his needs or wants through actions because that’s an easier way of communicating than trying to converse with other people.

Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) is a subgroup conceptualized as part of the Autistic spectrum, shares features of Autism but without the associated learning difficulties that coexist with normal or even above average IQ. Persons with AS show no autistic language delays, according to the Autism research center at Cambridge University.

Factors that could bring a parent to notice dissimilarities between their kid and others would be their child is not particularly good at participating in social interactions, pretend play, and verbal and non verbal communications.

The average age parents notice a difference in a child’s behavior would be about 18 months of age, and they would usually seek help and support by the time the child turns two, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Porter’s mother began noticing he was very quiet and wouldn’t speak when he was about two years old.

Autism is in every one in 110 babies in the United States at birth, which is the only way it is developed. It’s neither gained over time nor contagious. Autism varies from fairly mild to very severe cases and is four times more common in males than females. Out of the 4 million children being born in the United States each year, about 24,000 of these children will eventually be diagnosed with Autism.

Since there is no cure for the disorder, many different forms of brain or psych doctors examine the child’s developmental progress compared to their age and behavior to those of their peers. Treatment programs are available for people with Autism like speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, behavior therapy and other forms of therapy to help a child advance with their age by developing as normal as possible.

Each child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) functions as a treatment plan and legal document outlining specific educational goals for the child. IEPs are designed by an educational institution in collaboration with the child’s parents, teacher, and special education director “I was basically on my own, but the IEP was here to keep me on track. And if I started to fall behind, sometimes I’ll feel a little rebellious about having people control what I do but it’s something that I really do need to have,” Porter said.

California ranks first in the United States as the most children with Autism with 24,863 children. Texas is in a far second with 11,940 children with forms of Autism.

>> Photo by Serina Lewis

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Food

Restaurant Review: Oasis

by C.J. Prusi, Food Editor, with contributions by Emily Cone, Opinion Co-Editor, Sheridan Cook, Reporter, & Monica Patel, Editor-in-Chief Photos by C.J. Prusi

On the busy street of Higuera in downtown San Luis Obispo lies an Oasis, quite literally...

Oasis Mediterranean Cuisine is a little restaurant with a vibrant atmosphere, transporting your five senses to somewhere in Morocco.

You can see all the decorations on the walls, tables, and floors and smell the delicious scent of Baba Ghanouj and Spicy Shrimp, while listening to music of the far-off lands. Once you get your hands on the menu, order their tasty Moroccan Tea. Though the tea may seem pricey, it’s well-worth its price at $4.50.

Emily Cone, 11: Roasted Eggplant Pita

Once situated with your tea, start off with appetizers such as the classic Hommus or try it all with the Cold Sampler Platter, which includes Hommus, Baba Ghanouj, Dolmas, Tactouka, Mediterranean Carrots, Feta, Olives and a Pita.

Their menu is vegetarian and vegan-friendly, but it does include meatier choices for the everyday omnivore. Though some claim the wait may be a bit longer than the average McDonald’s, Oasis makes up

Monica Patel, 12: Avocado Pocket

for it in quality and quantity. Each dish is like a work of art, with fresh lettuce in nearly everything and pita abounding.

If you’re lucky, you will be hosted by the friendly owner, Chef Karim BenBrahim, who is helpful if you have a query concerning the menu.

Fun for a group of friends or the whole family, Oasis is truly a Mediterranean gem of the Central Coast.

Sheridan Cook, 12: Chicken Shwarma

Prop 8 ... egaP txeN

Germany travels

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“Upon walking into Oasis, flavor instantly presents itself. Authentic music, along with colorful blues, yellows, reds, and intricate steel lamps accompany the distinct smell of spices.

As a precursor to the meal, a special family blend of tea is served. The tea is exquisite in both taste and weight and allows the eater to become quite relaxed.

The Oasis menu, although not restricted to, serves numerous vegan entrées, such as the roasted eggplant plate. This entrée includes rice, eggplant, and other assorted delicious ingredients on pita bread. The portion sizes at Oasis are substantial and worth the price paid. With meals such as the roasted eggplant pita, you will savor every single bite.”

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“I walked into the empty restaurant and was immediately reminded of a place so dear: India. The aroma of lingering spices filled me with excitement—I just wanted to eat something so spicy that I would choke, which I did. The Avocado Pocket fulfilled it.

When the owner of Oasis delivered it to me, he said, ‘This is my favorite sandwich, very good!’ I bit into the cold, very green pita bread sandwich filled with delightful yogurt sauce. Sometime throughout my meal a bright green jalapeño snuck into my mouth (yes, this is when I choked). But thankfully I had my Moroccan tea to cool me down—not really, but it was tasty!

Even though I wasn’t able to finish the sandwich because it was about four times bigger than what I expected, I still enjoyed it, and I think it is a great meal choice for a vegetarian to eat!”

Paso Robles High School

“I wasn’t really sure what to order when I first looked at the menu, but I ended up ordering the Chicken Shwarma which was amazing! It was the perfect mix of familiar and foreign tastes: chicken with a Moroccan seasoning over lettuce. The whole experience was fantastic, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to try something new.”

Bro ad St. Ni po mo St.

Oasis

675 Higuera St. Downtown San Luis Obispo

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Opinion

Button Taking today’s hot and controversial issues, “Hot Button” rates the current flammability of odd discoveries, political incorrectness, and just plain slip-ups.

WHITE HOT Original photo used with permission of Danny Valdez Graphic illustration by Reilly Newman

Matrimony matter manufactures a mess Prop 8 overruling reveals importance of individual rights

by Alicia Canales, Managing Editor U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker was right to overrule Proposition 8 which illegalized gay marriage. The issue isn’t whether gay marriage is right or wrong—that isn’t this story. The real concern is a matter of justice, Oasis review individual rights, and religion.

Walker lifted the ban on sameNext Page ...

Asperger’s sex marriage on Aug. 4, overruling syndrome what 52.1 percent of over 17 million California registered voters asked for, according to The Wall Street Journal and an Oct. 20, 2008 Report of Registration. He concluded the proposition was unconstitutional under Section I of the 14th Amendment that states “… No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law...”

As a result, Californians voiced liberal praise and conservative indignation.

Despite the majority vote, it was wrong to pass Prop 8 because of its interference with homosexuals’ rights as Walker pointed out.

Homosexuals are asking for the same right as heterosexuals. They want to marry and be connected socially and emotionally to the persons they love. Their desire for this entitlement does not affect anybody else’s rights. Therefore, it is unacceptable to

strip their marriage privileges away.

Plus, the majority opinion should not be the only decision maker for a minority’s fate. The 1950s taught us that a majority who believed in slavery had actually violated African Americans’ rights.

“If the majority of people voted for slavery to be legal again, I would hope that a judge would overrule it. That is what the judicial system is for, to decide if matters are constitutional or not,” senior Jessica Vinson said, who supports gay marriage.

The First Amendment grants citizens the freedom of religion and also freedom from it. Yet beneath the surface, religious followers were protecting their beliefs on heterosexual marriage through the ban against homosexual marriage .

Typically Californians—and Americans in general—vote for what they believe in, and religious followers believe in “traditional marriage.” Seven in 10 voters who voted for Prop 8 described themselves as Christian, according to a Nov. 5, 2008 LA Times article.

“It’s the opinion of the people voting. We have a right to vote on whatever we think is right or wrong and that’s what we did. I didn’t vote, but I don’t think I’m enforcing my religion on anyone, just voicing my opinion,” an anonymous Christian student said.

Yet when your opinion interferes with someone else’s freedom, it’s a problem.

The government is based on JudeoChristian principals.

Nonetheless, religion—or in this case, the proper religious practice of marriage—should not be legislated and enforced, especially with the First Amendment in place.

Not everybody believes in Christianity, Mormonism, and other heterosexual proponents. Outlawing same sex marriage forces homosexuals to abide by a religious law.

This is one reason why 52 out of 100 PRHS students and one Paso Robles citizen support Walker’s overruling.

“The Constitution is what makes our laws, not the Bible. And there are a lot of rules in the Bible we ignore all the time. [People] quote Leviticus [to say homosexuality is wrong], yet in the same book it says shellfish is an abomination, so why isn’t anybody suing Red Lobster?” owner of Asuncion Ridge Winery and homosexual Philip Krumal said, who has a partner of seven years.

In defense of the Bible, Jesus Christ had a loving perspective of humanity in spite of their lifestyle. This love is absent as Prop 8 imposes beliefs on homosexuals.

Walker was correct in overruling the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8. Now the question is can homosexuals avoid using the government to impose their beliefs?

Blog comment reading “All faggots must die” traced to office of Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, staff member fired.

—The Atlantic

Fox News calls for EPA to “ease off” environmental restrictions.

—Fox News

Twitter hacked, sends users to “hardcoreporn sites.” ­­­ —NPR

‘Magic mushrooms’ ingredient beneficial to cancer patients, report says.

—Los Angeles Times Maryland school board votes to require comprehensive K-12 environmental education.

—Washington Post California’s largest labor union (SEIU) endorses marijuana legalization initiative.

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—Los Angeles Times

Same-sex marriage was put on stay by the Ninth Circuit panel until the appeal for the Supreme Court is heard in December, according to an Aug. 16 New York Times article.

Do you agree with the judge overruling Prop 8?

NO: 36

YES: 52

BLACK COLD

I DON’T KNOW: 12 100 students polled

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Paso Robles High School

—Austin Ehrhardt, Business Team

www.crimsonnews.org

Kelly Clark shares his Germany experience

Ethnic snippets

Wo

‘Berlin in a heartbeat’

World

ie P rld

ce

by Alicia Canales, Managing Editor

Meditation and fertilized duck eggs in Cambodia

by Lindsay Reed, Reporter As her thighs stuck fast to the cheap leather bus seats, she wondered how much longer she’d be able to handle the suffocating cabin and screaming babies. Suddenly, somebody pulled the break chord and dozens of passengers piled out to surround an animal on the dirty road. She peered through the crowd and realized it was tarantula, about 12 inches across, being ripped apart by the citizens to fry it up for dinner.

PRHS junior Judy Thach, the first AmericanCambodian in her family, has traveled to Cambodia multiple times learning about its tropical climate, social customs, Buddhism, child labor, and cuisine.

Sitting only 13 degrees north of the equator, Cambodia neighbors with Thailand and Laos. Due to the tropical geography, the country splashes through monsoon seasons lasting from mid-May to mid-October and short dry seasons from November to April.

Despite Cambodian’s toleration for other cultures, just a shrug of the shoul- Ads der and obnoxious “what’s up?!” would ... egaP txeN be considered a mistake.

The “The people are down to earth and Gruuv very friendly, but we are still very old fashioned,” Thach said.

With 95 percent of the population practicing Thervada Buddhism, it’s common to observe men meditating on lunch breaks. Reincarnation dominates mindsets. Your performance on Earth dictates whether you will become greater or lesser being in your next life.

Despite foreign sights, none other compares to the retail.

“Definitely get your school shopping done there. Places like Abercrombie & Fitch have jeans for only $5!” Thach said.

Unfortunately, such bargains are credited to one of the largest child-labor industries in the world.

Nearly 52 percent of the nation’s children from ages seven to 14 spend more than 20 hours weekly to support their families, according to voanews. com. The U.S. has shed light on the 1,400,000 laboring children by funding $13 million over the past decade to help battle child labor.

“It makes me feel lucky I’m here in America.

Instead of selling fruits on the streets like most of the girls my age do, I’m getting an education,” Thach said.

Cambodian cuisine represents flavors rich in neighboring customs and influences. With 90 percent of the population impoverished, fried insects naturally become the beef.

“There’s different sensations like slippery or dry, spicy and sweet and everything in between,” Thach said. “In the street markets, tarantulas are fried and served up for 25 cents apiece.”

For weddings, if one can afford it, it’s a delicacy to eat fertilized duck eggs. “Sometimes you’ll get a little toenail or some feathers stuck in your throat, and an occasional beak!” Thach exclaimed.

>>

Photo used with permission of Kelly Clark

In history class, Germany is known for being where the Holocaust oc“The key thing is their public art reminders to German history and culture, curred. In breakfast, Germany is known for its waffles. In art teacher Kelly the good and the bad.”

Clark’s eyes, Germany is known for its “amazing art history and art appreciaBrass cobble stones with names of German-Jewish citizens on the street tion.” would be positioned so people would stumble over them. Clark Clark had a leave in the 2009-2010 school year to work on his Masters stated he saw a room in the street, with four walls of empty in Fine Arts which he should have by summer 2011. During Septembookshelves symbolizing the book burnings during 1930s. ber and October, Clark visited Berlin, Munich, Buchen, MittenHe also walked into a huge building that was empty except burg while in Germany with his wife to visit his wife’s family. for two bronze figures by Kollwitz—a mother cradling “Berlin was wonderful... very art focused, very international, her child, both with a frightened expression on their face. lots of young people; if I were 21 again, I’d move to Berlin One memorial Clark said stood out to him was an entire in a heartbeat. It’s very artsy… for people wanting city block lined with different leveled sarcophagi standing to create peace in the world. It seems they keep the upright. The further you walk down, the darker it gets, acknowledge of their past wrongs alive with little cording to Clark. reminders all around the city,” Clark said.

“You get this feeling of darkness when you walk in, it’s Clark came back from Germany with a coualmost claustrophobic… it’s just a sea of coffins. It felt ple ideas for his advanced art class to do. One like you were at a cemetery, but one that could swallow of the statues he saw was by German artist you. The further in you get, you can’t get out. Maybe Käthe Kollwitz, known for her anti-war and that’s how Jews felt being taken into the concentrahuman compassion pieces. His advanced tion camps. That was powerful,” Clark said. art class will now study her work along with However, positive reminders of art were throughdifferent artists. Clark also stated he had an out Germany also. Statues from the 1800s and Babyidea to try more social and political drawlonian art from Iran and Iraq also filled museums. ings like Germany often expresses in their Clark stated some street walls were “filled with beauart. tiful graffiti, and [Germans] keep it up because they One of the ways Germany illustrates see it as an artwork.” their community and opinions is through Clark plans to return to Germany and do more their art memorials contrary to the United sight seeing next summer.

Diw Witwe I (The Widow I) by Prussian artist Käthe Kollwitz States, according to Clark.

Photo used with permission of John Sparks www.crimsonnews.org

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How Paso got its 'Gruuv' back

A&E

Local student band takes funk to a new level

by Alicia Canales,

Managing Editor,

and C.J. Prusi, Food Editor

“Shh! Silence!” drummer and junior Zander Souza yelled at his band mates. The yellow tungsten light filtered into Souza’s garage. After a few calm moments, the garage pulsated with deep bass lines and funky rhythms The Gruuv pride themselves on. The Gruuv is a local band started by seniors Forest Erwin and Tyler Dukes that transforms the ’70s into a style of music they labeled California, or “Kali,” funk.

“Forest says the line ‘California funk’ in almost every one of our songs…if I had to define our version of California funk, I would say it’s traditional funk a little radified and a little broader,” sophomore and guitar player Nick Stair said.

One of their latest performances was at the 2010 Mid-State Fair. Erwin came up with the idea of performing at the 2010 California Mid-State Fair Albertson’s Talent Show, and his peers agreed. The Gruuv performed Stair’s song “The Jump” on Wednesday, Jun. 21 at the Albertson/Pepsi Headliner Stage and won the talent show. Dukes stated a crowd of about 300 people attended.

“It was pretty sick. The more people we play in front of, the more of a challenge it is to “GRUUVING” A BEAT: (Top) Junior play better. When I’m in front of someone, it inspires me to play better. When you put the Zander Souza, who audience in the equation, it takes us to a whole different level,” Erwin said. has been playing The Gruuv was created in the beginning of the 2009 school year by Erwin and Dukes. Souza the drums for seven years, busts a beat was recruited by Erwin as the drummer and has played drums for seven years. Stair is the guitar player, and even though during a Gruuv band Stair is 15 “he shreds harder than a lot of 25 year olds,” according to Erwin. Dukes sticks to bass, the instrument he’s rehearsal. played since eighth grade. Erwin is the lead singer.

Their very first performance was at Peach Valley Winery a couple days before school started in 2009. Earlier that day, Stair had been added to the band so The Gruuv rehearsed only four hours before performing. However, Erwin stated the gig went alright.

Since then, The Gruuv has played at PRHS talent shows, the PRHS outdoor stage area, English teacher Aaron Cantrell’s classroom, Templeton High School, a benefit show at Hayward Lumber Yard, and occasionally on the street.

Pre-season Before booking any more gigs, the band is trying to do some recordings of their songs to get their music out. The group board ... egaP txeN recorded with Keven Thayer on Sunday, Sept. 26.

“I like our music a lot, and I think people would like it too if we can get it out there,” Dukes said.

Steeple chase Senior Jacob Scotti has been one of The Gruuv’s fans since mid-September 2009. He enjoys their music “because it’s different than most music out there.”

Even though they practice two to three times a week, The Gruuv isn’t all about work. The group also takes time to relax and have fun. “[One] favorite memory is one band practice where we didn’t really have band practice. We just ate pizza and watched zombie movies, and that was a great day. I really enjoyed that,” Souza said.

JAMMIN AWAY: Sophomore Nick Stair plays Each member has their own plan after Erwin and Dukes graduate this spring. Dukes would like to apply for a music the electric guitar and tries to practice as much school in Hollywood and continuing performing music. Erwin stated he will continue performing. Stair stated “music as he can. will always be a really good hobby” for him. Souza wants to pursue music whether he “gets paid or not.”

Until then, The Gruuv will continue to share their Kali funk with Paso Robles.

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Fall play gets blood hungry

‘Dracula’ comes to the PRHS stage under new drama teacher’s direction

by Shanna Dowling, Reporter

The sinister creature of the night who captivated decades of audiences with the idea of immortality long before adolescent fiction tackled the topic is coming to PRHS. This creature’s name, you may ask? Count Dracula.

This fall, the un-dead will be taking lives and stealing the show in PRHS’ fall drama production.

For five nights in November, junior Jason Moscato will transform into the blood-thirsty Count in the drama department’s production of “Dracula.”

Starring alongside Moscato are seniors Aryn Fields, Joseph Wittington, and Brandon Ellsworth; along with juniors www.crimsonnews.org

Trinity Smith, Monty Renfrow, and Brandon Harris.

Drama instructor Marcy Goodnow, who took over direction from former teacher Cynthia Anthony, is hoping that her theatrical selection will potentially “build up the program” and “get teens at school involved with drama” in the future.

“I thought students would like to do something dramatic and classic. With all of the hype around the Twilight Saga, it seems like a play that would get teenagers interested,” Goodnow said.

Ellsworth, a leading actor in last year’s productions of “Lend Me a Ten-

or” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” is looking forward to showcasing the versatility of the drama program and providing a shocking and entertaining experience for the audience. ‘”Dracula” is completely different from our recent productions,” Ellsworth said. “It’s scary and dramatic and I think the audience will be taken aback and pleasantly surprised.”

The Activity Center stage will be occupied by these blood-hungry fiends on Nov. 4-6 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 14 at 2 p.m.

No need to stock up on garlic, the performers won’t bite—if you’re lucky.

Paso Robles High School

“DO WHAT I’M THINKING”: Dracula ( Jason Moscato) tries to control Mina (Aryn Fields) and Seward (Brandon Ellsworth) in a Dracula rehearsal. Photo by Emily Cone

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Sports

Football

Season Preview

—Paul Cleland, Opinon Co-Editor

Coach Rich Schimke: Our work ethic is good. The nucleus of kids coming back is solid. We have some good, experienced

The Gruuv

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guys like Scott Plescia, Jacob Searcy, and Cole Thompson. Our pre-league opponent quality is the best in our league. Our guys understand this. We want to be league champions so we need to prepare against the best teams possible.

Cole Thompson, Senior: We definitely want to be league champs, and we have a good chance this season. Our pre-season games have been tough, but in league all the games will be tough. The whole team and I are all looking forward to our Atascadero and Arroyo Grande games the most. If we get to CIF we’re going to try and do our best against every team.

Girls Golf Coach Dewey Stroud: I’m excited for this season. So far Righetti and St. Joseph are the top two in the league, but it’s

going to be a battle for third against Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo, and us — we have a good chance though. We have a 3-2 record and we just placed fourth place in our first league tournament at Cypress Ridge hosted by Arroyo Grande and third place at Dairy Creek hosted by SLO. I think we have a really good chance to succeed this season.

Tori Sepulveda, Senior: I think our season is going to go well. The whole team has been trying really hard and practicing a lot. We’ve been trying to stay positive. I’m most excited to go play golf at Glen Annie against Dos Pueblos High School because of the nice weather and the girls are really nice.

Girls Tennis

Coach Laura Clowes: I think this season we should definitely be able to place fourth or better in our league, for us to go to CIF. I think we have a good shot at winning most of our matches. The match I'm most looking forward to is against Atascadero, our rivals. This year we have rather a young and inexperienced team, but we really do have a ton of potential and drive which I think can take us far.

Morgan Farrior, Senior: I’m really looking forward to this season. We finally have the opportunity to showcase our wide variety of talent on our team. It’s certainly going to be an exciting year for our team. I have faith that Paso will do a wonderful job this season simply because we have such a diverse group of girls that all possess one [important] characteristic — an intense passion for the game of tennis.

txeN ... egaP

Boys Water Polo

Coach Duane McRoy: I have extremely high expectations this year because we have six or seven seniors with a lot of experience and they know what’s at stake — the playoffs. We have worked very hard over summer and last winter. Competition for second, third , and fourth place is strong, but we have a good chance to go to CIF. Ricky Lloyd, Junior: I'm looking forward to playing with all the great players and overall improving. I think the team

will do really good this year with the leadership of our team captains, Austin McCall and Spencer Silva, and hopefully go to CIF. A few teams I'm looking forward to going against are Atascadero because they're pretty good and San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande because they are always really good so they make us play better and the games are always really intense.

Cross Country

Coach Ivan Huff: I am expecting Varsity Girls girls to go to CIF, possibly get second in league. Overall training has not been consistent for team. The boys’ team is very young. We’ve lost two out of our top three runners. I’ve seen improvement from the younger runners, and ultimately the team’s goal is to still win league.

Lauren Rodrigues, Junior: I definitely think we’ll get to CIF this season. We have a really good team full of good runners. One of our new girls, Devon, is so good — she’s the next Maddy Cline. Our last meet went very well so I think the whole team has high hopes for the future.

Girls Volleyball

Coach Terry Gutierrez: The team is playing really well. After finishing second last year I think everyone has high expectations, but anything in the top three would be a big accomplishment. Anything below second would be disappointing for the team though. After getting a game off of Arroyo Grande last year I think we have more of a chance. There was a mental barrier before we got that game. Our captains Tess Rountree and Krista Broderick are great leaders and are really setting the example for the rest of the girls.

Tess Rountree, Senior: I think our team will do really well this year. We should definitely be in the top three of our

league. We annihilated Atascadero, and Arroyo Grande will be big competition. Arroyo Grande will be harder though. No one knows what to expect because we haven’t seen AG play this year. We’re just going to bring our all. We’re excited about the whole season.

Paso Robles High School

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No barriers unreachable

Sports

Two senior runners staple down steeplechase

by Torey Wise,

Sports Co-Editor

Last summer at the regional championship for Junior Olympics in Bakersfield, senior varsity cross country runner Nikita Kinsell stood on the track of her very first steeplechase. Without any previous practice on the actual course, Kinsell set out to do a practice run through on the uncharted barriers and water jumps. As she approached her first water jump, she took a bound, missed, and ended up face first into a watery pit.

But after getting up and brushing herself off, Kinsell went on to run and won her first steeplechase race.

Kinsell is one of the only two girls to compete in the steeplechase in SLO county, the other being senior runner Maddy Cline. Both Cline and Kinsell have been on track team all four years of high school. Kinsell has also done four years of cross country while Cline has only done two.

The steeplechase originated in the British Isles. Contestants in the race had to run from one town’s steeple to the next.

Now in 2010, contestants race around the track in a 2,000 meter race while having to jump over barriers and water puddles.

The water puddle is 12 feet long and at its deepest three and a half feet; barriers are 30 inches tall, six inches wide ,and weigh 176 lbs. “They aren’t like hurdles that fall if you hit them. If you hit the barrier, you go down,” Kinsell said.

Kinsell has competed in four steeplechase races and Cline in three. Cline received first place at Reno, third in Modesto (which qualified her for nationals), and fifth at the Junior Olympics in Sacramento. Kinsell received first place in Bakersfield, second in Reno, third in Modesto (qualified for nationals also), and received 16th place at the Junior Olympics in Sacramento, after what head cross country and long distance coach Ivan Huff calls a “big fall off a water jump early in the race.”

Both Cline and Kinsell had never practiced on a real steeplechase course before their races.

“I felt unprepared [for my first race] I didn’t know what to expect,” Kinsell said.

Last summer the girls joined the “Above the Grade” club track team where Coach Steve Martin suggested the steeplechase race for them.

“Nikita came to me and said she was interested in the steeplechase so I had

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her practice on some hurdles, and she had good form right away, same with Maddy,” Huff said.

“Coach would throw in hurdles as we ran an 800 around the track to get a feel for the race,” Cline said. The girls could not practice on an actual steeplechase course because no central coast high schools have them.

“Only Cuesta and Cal Poly have water jumps to practice on, but we never went,” Kinsell said. In the 25 years Huff has been coaching cross country at PRHS, none of his other runners have pursued steeplechase through a club besides Cline and Kinsell.

California is one of many states that has banned steeplechase along with javelin events from high school track meets which means the girls can only compete in steeplechase through their club team until college. Both girls expressed they would like steeplechase to be in their future.

“I would really like to continue steeplechase in college,” Cline said.

“It would be nice to have an actual steeple coach and track to practice on,” Kinsell agreed.

As Cline and Kinsell came together through their sports, a relationship developed.

“We work out normally everyday together and tell each other stories on runs.

We’re running buddies,” Kinsell said.

“Distance runners suffer together and especially with the clubs and traveling together [and] I think that is what made the girls closer,” Huff said.

With the small amount of high school steeplechasers, the girls have competed against each other in a few races. Over the “hill” and through the “streams” as these two girls go, friend or competitor, they take a leap into an unfamiliar event for PRHS and most California high school runners.

Spirit

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2010

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Photo by C.J. Prusi

GO FOR IT: Cline going all out to jump the hurdle during practice. Cline won frist place at Reno and fifth at Bakersfield at the Junior Olympics.

Nikita Kinsell

Steeplechase by the numbers: Maddy Cline

5 barriers 30 inch tall barriers 12 foot long pool 2,000 meters 7 laps

Photo by Emily Cone Graphic Illustration by Reilly Newman

Paso Robles High School

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PRHS students left in high spirits Sept. 27-Oct. 1

Bearcat Pride: The PRHS football team riled up the crowd at the assembly with their traditional chant.

scooter scur­ ry: Seniors Kyler Olson and Forest Erwin raced against peers around the 800 building for a free t-shirt prize.

Sophomore spunk (above): Tenth graders showed their L.A. style at the assembly on Oct. 1.

SENIOR ROYALTY (right): Senior nominees Alyssa Napoli and Adrian Jauregui walked the runway at the assembly. CHALK art (far right): Twenty seven urban-inspired chalk drawings covered the quad, including senior James Bachellier’s Japanese castle.

Photos by Kim Boswell, Emily Cone, Nico Jolicoeur, and Jenna Wookey