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5IF 3PTUSVN As another year starts The Rostrum takes a look at all the changes happening around DHS.

check out the spread on pages 4-5

SEPTEMBER 26, 2008 VOLUME II ISSUE 1 DEXTER HIGH SCHOOL 2200 N. PARKER ROAD DEXTER, MI 48130

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Friday, September 26, 2008

STAFF PLAYLIST

trends

The Rostrum

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“What What (In the B---)” by Samwell “This song gets me in the mood.”

Brent Muse Get involved editor

“Whatever You Like”

by T.I. “I wish he was talking to me instead of Jill.”

Lauren Daughtery co-photo editor

“3030” by Del Tha Funkee Homo Sapien “This man is a lyrical mastermind and always creates sweet music.”

Kyle Boren Arts/Entertainment editor

“Bomb Tha Blocks”

by Bassnectar “It is an explosion of sound.”

Scott Crompton editor-in-chief

Jamie Munson staff writer

Senior Ian Nystrom, sophmore Graham Low, sophmore Jim Kelly, senior Will Stefanski, senior Gabe Golub, senior Kyle Vasiek, and senior Jamie Munson gather outside after school for a photo to celebrate purple polo day. Photo by Jocelyn Coast

Seniors Will Stefanski and Gabe Golub had a vision. A vision of starting a trend unlike any other. That trend, Purple Polo Day (PPD), has already experienced some success and is becoming a widespread phenomenon throughout Dexter High School according to Stefanski.

“It all started when Gabe and I both intentionally wore purple polos on the same day,” he said. “A substitute teacher was fussing at us for being disruptive and referred to us as the purple shirt gang.”

This was when Stefanski and Golub said they realized creating a purple polo cult would be a spectacular idea. And so it began.

PPD was officially named once Stefanski and Golub began recruiting purple polo wearers to sport their attire

on select Thursdays. They also decided to have the event occur about once every month throughout the entire school year.

Golub said that originally no one seemed to embrace the idea of wearing purple. “There were some haters out there, so I repped it hard and didn’t go soft ... I play for keeps,” Golub said.

Stefanski and Golub said they were upset when other students shot down their idea of creating such a trend, but it only gave them more motivation to make PPD something special.

They began recruiting and asking around to see if anyone wanted to join the group, and once a few people joined, it started getting more popular. Since then, Golub said the recruiting campaign has been extremely successful.

And now there is no looking back, ac-

cording to some of the other members. Senior Ian Nystrom, a dedicated PPD member, said he’s always found pouring his heart and soul into PPD. “If Halloween, Christmas, my birthday and stromboli day all took place at the same time, it would only give me half of the happiness and satisfaction that PPD brings to my heart,” Nystrom said.

Accorrding to the Purple Polo Day Facebook group, the record number of participants for the event is 15 , but Stefanski said he expects the number to increase to 50 by the end of the year.

As the word is getting out about PPD, Golub said he hopes more people will join the purple shirt gang. “I helped create something that is now popular and has gotten big,”Golub said. “I’m a part of this and everyone has unified together.”

'JUUFE IBUT UIF OFX 4XBUDI Pat Ledwidge trends editor

“Viva La Vida” by Coldplay “An awesome song with strong vocals and a powerful beat.”

Emily VanDusen copy editor

Walking through the school hallways, sophomore Austin Clark struts around with his new fitted hat.

“My favorite is a Detroit black and white hat. It goes with my fresh attire,” Clark said. And fitted hats have become more popular throughout Dexter according to Clark.

Clark said most people wear fitted hats because they are stylish. “I’m a G. They look fresh and fly,”he said.

According to Clark, an average fitted hat costs $25 at the mall, but he says he usually just buys them off his friends. He says he has at least eight hats but doesn’t wear every one. According to Clark, he doesn’t like some as much as others. “I probably only where three of them, but I like‘em all,” he said.

Even though students can’t wear hats in school, Clark said

he disregards the rules because he wears his hats everywhere.

Paraprofessional Dee Braden, however, is usually on patrol for people who violate this rule. “I just ask them to take it off,” Braden, who has asked Clark 20-30 times to remove his hat, said.

But Clark defiantly said, “I wear my hat all the time, so why not in school?”

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The Rostrum

get involved

Kaitlyn Shepard features editor

Photo by Christina Field

Students partake in link crew with their mentors. Freshmen came in over the summer to meet upperclassmen and to get more of a feel for high school before the real thing.

The sound of freshman Chante Liu’s new sneakers squeaking on the tile floor echoed through the hallway. Today was Liu’s first day of high school. Today was the day that all the nightmares she heard about high school would come true. Today was the day an upperclassman would shove her in a locker and her evil math teacher would assign her 100 math problems.

But thanks to junior Cora McHugh, none of these nightmares came true.

McHugh is one of the many upperclassmen participating in the new Link Crew program at DHS. This program sets out to help incoming freshmen with the transition from middle school into high school. “I know the transition into high school can be really hard for the freshmen,� McHugh said. “That’s why I wanted to be a link leader. I really just wanted to help the freshman and make things easier for them.�

School administers also recognize that the transition from middle school to high school can be a hard one for many students too. “You go from being in Mill Creek where the school is smaller, and the layout is easier to remember,� Principal Kit Moran said. “And then you come here and the school is bigger and more complicated and there are big kids with beards, and other stuff that scare a lot of freshmen.�

Although the Link Crew program is mainly about helping freshmen, peer leadership teacher Shirley Bitters said this program has the potential to teach students many other things.

Friday, September 26, 2008

“I hope that students will learn that with their day is important,� Bitters said. “And I hope they realize that people are watching them, and looking up to them.�

According to studies conducted by the national Link Crew program, The Boomerang Project, the program is proven to succeed in helping freshman feel more comfortable in high school.

David Douglas HS in Portland, Oregon for example, has seen a 71 percent reduction in freshman disciplinary referrals and a 48 percent reduction in freshmen absences as a result, they say, of the Link Crew program.

McHugh thinks that Dexter High School will have good results as well. “I think getting to know the school better will really help the freshmen,� she said. “It will also help to have someone there to make sure they know what is going on, and to be there for them. I definitely think we will help them have a better freshman year.�

Liu is an example of how the program is already working.

She, like many other freshman, always thought seniors were scary, but says she has learned they’re really cool after all. “At first I though the seniors were just going to be these really mean kids,� she said. “But after meeting some of them and hanging out with them, I’ve learned that they are just normal teenagers, and some of them are actually pretty cool.�

After making her transition in to high school easier, Liu hopes she too will be able to join the program and help other incoming freshmen. “I think it is really cool to help people out,� Liu said. “I know how hard it is to get adjusted to being in high school, and I think I could help make it easier for other freshmen.�

.BSUFMMP IPQFT UP SFBDI OFX MFWFM 8BMLJOH GPS 8JM fund raiser is going to try to run a 50/50 raffle during the game to raffle off prizes and such.

Part of the money that is raised will be donated to the After two straight years of running the Walking for Wil American Cancer Society for research, and the other portion fund raiser, video production teacher Matt Martello, with of the money will be going towards a theater scholarship to the help of others, is doing it again in 2008. The Walking send a drama student to New York for a school trip. for Wil fund raiser is run in honor of Harry Wilcox, Dexter’s Martello said the Walk for Wil fund raiser has raised previous drama teacher who was diagnosed with brain around $3,500, which has sent two students to New York on cancer a few years ago. the theater scholarship and there is still After school on Friday, Oct. 3, money left to donate to the ACS. “This Martello will start his 80 laps around year I would like to send at least one kid the track with whoever else is willing to to New York, and $1,000 raised for ACS join. “In the previous years there has would be really cool,� he said. been a couple people walking with me, According to Jan Wilcox, Harry’s but just a small group of students or wife, Harry enjoyed teaching more than i* XJMM CF EPJOH 8BML GPS 8JM BT MPOH teachers,� Martello said. “I would love anything, and she said Walking for Wil BT * BN BCMF CPEJFE w to have more people involved in the is a great fund raiser. “I am glad that walking part with me.�

Martello is running it because he is But during the game, it will just interesting in what he is doing and he does a good job,� she said. be Martello walking around the track Martello said he enjoys the Walk for because of safety reasons. Also the cheerleaders will be assisting Martello Wil fund raiser and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. “I will be doing Walk during the walk with support and loud for Wil as long as I am able bodied,� cheering. According to Martello, the Brent Muse get involved editor

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Martello said. “I would like to do it until I retire. Harry is my best friend, and it is the very least I can do for him.�

Photo by Jason Lomax

Every year video production teacher Matt Martello walks around the track for his best friend, former drama teacher Harry Wilcox.

Martello said he organizes the walk because WIlcox is his best friend and wants to do whatever he can for him.

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Friday, September 26, 2008

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The Rostrum Things to do

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Friday, day, September 26, 2008

on a Homecoming Date

Things not to do

1. Go with a date. Failure to do this can result in severe loneliness and a sudden passion for Phil Collins.

1. Request super lame songs. Last year, a certain girl thought it would be fun to request the hokey pokey, and everyone wanted to take her out back and give her an old-fashioned slap slap. Don’t be this girl.

2. Take you’re date out to dinner. And, no McDonald’s doesn’t count, unless your date came from the back of a truck stop at 3:30 a.m.

2. Dance with people besides you’re boyfriend/girlfriend without express written consent.

3. Dance. Don’t be one of the awkward kids who sit in the back or the nerds who watch the football game on the TV.

3. Come totally messed up. There will be several squadrons of drug dogs with orders to maim delinquents on sight. Let’s just hope they are more accurate than last year ...

4. Ask science teacher Mrs. Kreeger for a dance. Though she always refuses on legal grounds, I can tell she wants to. My current request to success ratio is 9:0

4. Accumulate massive quanities of perspiration under the armpits. Seriously, if it’s too hot, wear cooler clothing. Don’t cause a slipping hazard with you’re nasty sweat.

5. Dance face to face with some space. Just cause you’re in high school doesn’t give you the right to get your freak on in the middle of a couple hundred people.

5. Drink out of water bottles that you find. They may contain water and/or human excrement.

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GC: So, Jim, how does it feel to be a lame freshmen?

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JK: Dude, I’m a Sophomore.

GC: Oh...

GC: What is one thing you regret?

JK: Joining school chior this year.

GC: But you can’t sing

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GC: Do you enjoy a nice back rub?

JK: Only from Stephanie Wolyniak or else it’s just weird.

GC: OK?

GC: Next question, Razzle Snazzle.

JK: OK.

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GC: Really smelly feet or smelly breath?

JK: Feet are farther out of range, usually.

GC: You would pick feet.

GC: If you could start a fashion trend, what would it be?

JK: Geta. You look for it.

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GC: I hate you.

GC: What’s your favorite thing to do when no one is around and no one can see you?

JK: Let’s just say it’s itchin time.

GC: Gross dude.

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GC: Last question, why tight pants?

JK: So there’s no false advertising.

GC: That’s dirty.

8

Friday September 26, 2008

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The Rostrum

$BO ZPV HP UP UIF CBUISPPN Erin Hall past staff writer

Are you able to go to the bathroom on your own? Do you need guidance?

Well here at Dexter High School we can help you. The staff is always willing to guide students to the bathroom, and if you’re really fortunate a staff member may even stand and wait for you.

In fact, during the 1999-2000 school year, every bowel movement a student needs to make is recorded in a mandatory student handbook. If you’re a student at Dexter High School, you are given one of these attractive, large maroon books with a big boat on the cover.

If you lose your first book, you must pay five dollars for a new book or else you will not be able to go to the bathroom, because you cannot keep track of when you go.

There is one other alternative, you could go to the bathroom at hall passing time, but you know it’s kind-of difficult to make it through the over-crowded hallways and go to the bathroom all in five minutes.

Try to go to the bathroom during lunch at Dexter High School, and I bet you will have an incredibly hard time, maybe even harder than if you try to go during hall passing time.

You see, there are these big gates in the school, and any student is forbidden to go beyond the gates unless ou have a pass, the big book with the BIG boat.

My point is that we live in a free country. How free is it if we’re able to use the bathroom three times in forty five hours?

I just think that us young adults should be able to use the bathroom as we please. I remember having more freedom to use the bathroom as a first grader.

I’m not going to get lost in the halls.

I’m not going to get abducted by aliens, and if I leave, who cares?!

I end up with problems later, not the hall monitor.

So teachers and other staff members, please learn to trust us more and let us go to the bathroom when we need, even if we don’t have the ugly oversized maroon boat books.

4LBUF PS EJF BOZUIJOH CVU ZFMMPX TOPX Levi Powell past staff writer

How lucky can you get?

We Michiganders are among the select few who live in a temperate climate zone where we are exposed to two extremes of weather each year: hot and cold.

Some prefer one or the other and most enjoy the seasonal variation. Many Dexter residents comment that they enjoy the change because as soon as they get tired of the heat it cools down and vise-versa.

One advantage we possess from our unique climate is thee ability to participate in a broad range of extreme sports regulated by the weather.

Today’s teenagers don’t ride bikes and go sledding at grandma’s house.

Instead the youth of the now prefer snowboarding in the winter months, and skateboarding during the summer.

People ask a commonly pondered question; “Why have these particular sports become so popular in the last few years?�

Professional skateboarder Nate Xuereb said, “It’s probably from the highly publicized X-Games.�

The X-Games, which appear regularly on ESPN 2 has recently increased their viewing audience ten fold.

The games feature national skating competition, and snowboarding tournaments.

One thing is for sure. “Kids tend to do what they see other kids doing,� senior Jake Coffin said.

Why not get started today?

So you got the guts?

Thousands of teenagers your age are now snowboard-

ing this year for the first time, and if that’s your case too, congratulate yourself.

Pat yourself on the back and chuckle at the realization of your hard-core image.

Every year in winter, snowboarders from all over lower Michigan discover and tame their winter passion for adventure.

Most popular and convenient of these resorts is Mt. Brighton located in the Brighton city limits.

With over 130 skiable acres, Mt. Brighton has been a popular winter attraction.

For new riders, lessons are available at $25 a person or two persons at $15 each.

Ticket prices range from $14 for a tow rope pass to $20 for an allarea pass.

Ski and snowboard equipment is also available to rent.

So for all you diehard sports fans and extreme athletes, the slopes are a guaranteed utopia this winter season.

Enjoy, and don’t fall off a cliff.

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