pantherprowler.org
PANTHER PROWLER Friday December 13, 2013 Issue IV
in this issue
5
ANNOUNCES
DELIVERY DRONES
Is Amazon Prime Air science fiction or the future?
Blood Drive
6-7
Holiday Charities
456 N. Reino Rd., Newbury Park, CA 91320
ATHOL WONG
Daphne Johns/Pawprint
3
Editorial:
Newbury Park High School
Patrick Rewers Editor-in-Chief Grace O’Toole Copy Editor
RETIREMENT
The crowd roared as the announcement was made. As she was handed a football and a bouquet of flowers, a chant rose up from the Panther Pit: “Athol! Athol!” “That’s Mrs. Wong to you!” she replied. On Nov. 8 during the home game against Moorpark, it was announced that current principal Athol Wong will be retiring at the end of the 2013-2014 school year, ending her 38-year career as an educator. Wong has worked here as an administrator for the past 10 years, eight of those as principal. Before working at Newbury Park, she was an English teacher at Camarillo High School, and then assistant principal at Thousand Oaks High School. Once Wong decides on a official retirement date she will submit a formal request to the district. “I intend to put it in writing early after the holidays so the district can plan and do the necessary recruitment,” Wong said. The specifics of the date rely in part on her daughter’s upcoming wedding, which Wong will help to plan. However, her daughter’s marriage plans are not the primary reason for her decision; Wong feels that after 38 years, she’s “just ready”. Larry Berlin, Assistant Principal of Athletics, says that “from my standpoint, (she has) incredible leadership. She’s mentored a lot of young administrators. She’s made incredible advances in curriculum and we’ve seen courses we’ve never had before. (Athol) is a genius with the schedule and making things work. And she’s got a good eye for teaching talent.” Wong leaving her position does not mean she is
leaving the school entirely. She plans to return to campus regularly to visit colleagues, attend school events, and volunteer. Wong has faced many challenges as principal. “The first day on the job we had a bomb threat and I had to evacuate the campus,” she said. The next year, the same thing happened; another time, the school had to be closed for swine flu, right in the middle of AP and IB testing, causing the cancellation and subsequent rescheduling of prom. Despite the difficulties that come with the position, Wong will miss a lot about the school, including working with colleagues on a daily basis as well as more specific events: graduation, going to Disneyland with the choir for the annual Candlelight event, and even simply “going into classrooms and seeing what they do every day. I miss that, and I’ll continue to miss it. But that’s okay.” When asked about her future day-to-day plans, Wong joked “I’m not going to curl up on the couch and sleep.” She is instead “looking forward to being able to read what I want to read, exercise in daylight hours rather than getting up at 5:30 to get up and swim here … (and) going to the gym when other human beings are there,” in her newfound free time. She will also be taking up target shooting, and has tentative plans to travel once her husband retires in the next few years. “We’re going to miss her guiding hand,” Berlin said, “They say no one is irreplaceable. I’ll tell you what: there aren’t many like her out there.”
Alumnus pleads p guilty g y to g under the influence driving Mariam Syed Staff Writer Last year, the school mourned the death of Nick Cwayna, 2007 alumnus, who was killed in a car accident in front the school this past April. Alejandro (Alex) Pope, then 19, who was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the accident, was arrested. On November 26, Pope pleaded guilty to driving under the influence (DUI), a misdemeanor, as well as DUI causing injury, a felony. Cwayna, then 23, was killed in the two car collision at 9:30 a.m. on Reino Road on April 13, 2013. Hours after Cwayna was pronounced dead, a memorial sprang up on the sidewalk near the site of the accident in his memory; pictures, flowers, candles, chalk drawings, posters, and notes adorned the sidewalk in remembrance of the former student.
The alumni were accompanied with Alexa Strauser, 19 and a 2012 alumna. Pope was driving an Audi A4 northbound on Reino Road when he collided head on with a Volvo SUV. The driver of the SUV and her two-month old son were both later released from Los Robles Hospital. Pope was originally arrested on the account of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and was allegedly under the influence of drugs. According to the Ventura County Star, prosecutors said that Pope had been under the influence of methylone (commonly known as bath salts), alprazolam, also known as Xanax, and marijuana. Pope could face up to eleven years and two months in prison when he is sentenced on December 23.