VOLUME 35, ISSUE 7
Inside the Lake Conference IN-DEPTH, p.6-7
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
www.hopkinsrp.org
From scent to suspect:
Several students were called out of class as HHS conducted drug search on April 26
by Abby Doeden Print Editor-in-Chief As Bennett VanDellen, senior, sat in the auditorium during band class on April 26, he never thought he’d be searched for drugs. “I saw one person get taken out, and then there was another girl taken out right after, and I was like, ‘Oh, that seems surprising.’ And I just had a bad feeling,” VanDellen said. Shortly after, VanDellen himself was taken out of class, and escorted down to the Main Office. The drug-searching dogs had hit on his car, and his person, possessions, and car would have to be searched. “I was confused at first. I knew I didn’t have anything,” VanDellen said. “Because I didn’t have anything.” VanDellen was not the only student whose car was hit on by the
dogs. About 20 HHS students were called down to the office to be searched that day, with only two citations being made. “I got a little nervous because I have people in my car all the time, and what if they had dropped something in there? Then I would get cited for that,” VanDellen said. “I started thinking about what the effect of getting caught would have on college, and I started to get really worried about that.” When the police dogs smell even a trace amount of drugs on the car, they’ll signal a hit. This means that even if someone has recently smoked and touches a car, there is a possibility of the dogs targeting that car. “There aren’t really any ‘false citations’. There were just no drugs found in the car. The dogs will hit on the car even if there was a drug in or around the car in the past,” said Jim Giese, HHS Police Liaison. Getting caught yields many consequences, both in and out of school. For student-athletes, it means sitting out for two weeks or two games, whichever is greater. For others, it could
mean not getting a job, or a certain scholarship. For one student, who wished to remain anonymous, it meant two days of in-school suspension, and missing two weeks of their sport, in this case, eight games. “It sucks [to be cited], especially when it hurts my team more than anything,” the student said. “But I have to take responsibility for the people in my car.” While the substance found in the car was not theirs, the student will still have to serve the punishment
for the rest of these next two weeks. With this amount of sensitivity, administrators believe that students need to take more precautions to not have the wrong person in their car. Traci Meyer, Dean of Students, says that HHS should strive for better. “We want a drug free campus. We want zero hits; or if we do get hits, we want zero finds,” Meyers said. According to Giese, there is a larger message behind the drug checks than to just catch HHS students. “The [drug searches] aren’t to give students tick-
ets or arrest them, the point of the searches is to change behaviors and show what the possible effects of getting caught could be on their futures,” Giese said. However, Morgan Holmes, senior, believes that there could be a better way to catch the students who are actually under the influence. “There are kids walking around the school doing drugs, and they don’t catch them. I understand that stuff happens, but at the same time I don’t think they are getting the right kids,” Holmes said.
Holocaust descendant brings perspective to AP students by Samantha Horowitz Staff Reporter When teaching a unit such as the Holocaust, it can be difficult to convey to students the magnitude of the largest genocide in history. Iris Shaver, daughter of Holocaust survivors, hoped to transform the Holocaust in the minds of students from a historical event that happened over 70 years ago to an event that is somehow closer to them, through her family history. “The students have the chance to hear directly from me, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, what it is like to grow up in the home of people who experienced trauma when they were teenagers,
and survived,” Shaver said. “When a war ends, the conflict and trauma still goes on inside the people who went through the conflict. And that trauma is transferred to the next generation.” Shaver’s father grew up in Poland and was sent to several concentration camps, including the most wellknown camp, AuschwitzBirkenau. After surviving the Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew), he initially thought that all of his six siblings had died in the struggle. Shaver found out later in life that her father’s older sister, who had died by the time of discovery, had also survived the war and had two children of her own. At the end of the war,
Shaver’s father moved to Is- I hope I make it relatable, so rael, where he and his wife that we learn from the past had seven children. Upon and learn to recognize the the discovery of her aunt’s signs of hate and bias. We all family, Iris reunited with her have the responsibility to do cousins in our part in the holy stopping land. Since "When a war ends, the hate and then, she conflict and trauma bias before moved to still goes on inside it evolves Minn. and the people who went into intentional had two through the conflict. c h i l d r e n , And that trauma is murder Avi and transferred to the next of people generation." based on Ariel. their reli“ N o w - Iris Shaver gion, nathat my tional oriparents generation is passing, it is gin, or looks.” In bringing Shaver in to my role to step up, to work for remembrance about the discuss her father’s experihorrors of genocide through ences in the Holocaust, Rick my family's history,” Shaver Rexroth, Social Studies, said. “I make it personal and hoped to bring the issue to
life and give students a real perspective from the daughter of a Schindler Jew. “This is actually the grandfather of someone sitting next to them in their class,” Rexroth said. “I think it makes it much more personal and helps to understand the humanity of it better.” In terms of giving his students a better understanding about the Holocaust and the significance of hearing a survivor’s stories, Rexroth often talks to his students about the significance of the words “six million” and “90 percent of the Polish Jews.” “Those numbers are big numbers and they’re powerful, but they don’t mean the same thing as ‘my father,’ ‘my
grandfather,’ ‘my aunt,’ ‘my family,’ and the experiences and connection of things,” Rexroth said. Shaver hopes the students realized that we need to stand together to stop hate and bias, and to support each other in standing for our values of inclusion, celebration of diversity and above all celebration of all people. “The Holocaust may appear far away and as if it has nothing to do with the life of high school teenagers in 2017 in the United States, but sadly that is not the case. Genocides are still happening,” Shaver said. “I tell my family history because we have a tendency to forget, or get confused with propaganda of Holocaust denial.”