Warrior Sherwood High School 300 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Sandy Spring, MD 20860
37th Year, Issue No.1
October 9, 2014
the
Inside: News: 1-3, School Safety: 4-5, Features: 6-8, Humor: 9, Spotlight: 10-11, Opinions: 12-14, Wondering Warrior: 15, Entertainment: 16-17, Sports: 18-20
Should the U.S. Intervene in Iraq and Syria?
Inside Sports
Football falls on the road, but looks to bounce back tomorrow at Magruder
pg. 14
pg. 18 ‘Yik Yak’ App Raising Concerns About Cyberbullying at School by Madison Dymond ‘16
Jack Armstrong ‘15
The makeshift memorial for Shawn Gangloff along Hines Road in Olney has become a gathering spot for the Sherwood community to mourn and remember Gangloff, who succumbed to his injuries on August 31.
School Mourns Death of Student by Julia Gajewski-Nemes ‘15
Through the best and worst times, Sherwood has proven to encompass the traits of its mighty mascot—the Warrior. The strength of the community was unquestionable as it came together after hearing that three of its members were involved in a fatal car accident on August 30 at approximately 1:30 a.m. All three students were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the vehicle, senior Austin Hall, was released from the hospital days after the accident and the front seat passenger, senior Max Dechter, is expected to be
transferred from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore to a rehabilitation center in early October. The backseat passenger, junior Shawn Gangloff, died the following afternoon. Jackie Dechter, Max’s mother, maintains a journal blog with updates on Max’s condition. Over the past month, he has been recovering from a shattered elbow, three fractures to his neck, and, of greatest concern, trauma to his brain. While he has had many setbacks during his stay in the hospital, he is becoming more alert and responsive and plans to continue
see ACCIDENT, pg. 3
In mid-September over a three-day period, seemingly every student at Sherwood downloaded the Yik Yak app onto his or her smart phone. Yik Yak is a social networking app where one posts, comments, and does everything that one normally do with social media. The only difference is that Yik Yak is completely anonymous. It is essentially Twitter but without identities. Yik Yak appeared approximately three months ago on college campuses, but just recently became popular at Sherwood. Though the app is supposed to be used by college students, there is no way to guarantee this, as students are able to use it at school. The app’s most attractive feature is that students can say whatever they want and no one will know it was them. The stated purpose of Yik Yak, as described in the app store, is to act “like a local bulletin board for your area by showing the most recent posts from other users around you.” It allows anyone to connect and share information with other people anonymously. While the creators of Yik Yak, fraternity brothers Brooks Buff-
ington and Tyler Droll, intended for the app to be “a hyper-local place to rant about anything anonymously with people in your community,” posts from Sherwood students frequently ridicule or insult teachers and other students. Reportedly, some teachers with Yik Yak accounts “downvote” any hurtful posts they find. Security Team Leader Patrick Rooney is aware of the app’s existence, but school security does not see Yik Yak as a significant problem, as new social media crazes come around all the time. “I understand that it’s out there and that it’s anonymous,” said Rooney. Teachers have complained to Rooney about bullying on Yik Yak. Bullying is a concern and a criminal violation, so it is not covered by freedom of speech. However, as long as it is not threatening to public safety, there is little that the school can do. The app is “not worth your time. Don’t feed into the frenzy,” Rooney advised students. If the cyberbullying gets in the way of students’ abilities to perform well in class or directly threatens someone’s safety, the school will have to become further involved in controlling the usage of Yik Yak.
Non-Athletic School Activities Receive Little Funding by Jack Armstrong ‘15, Emma Izzo ‘15, and Connor Loughran ‘15 Nearly all non-athletic activities and clubs at Sherwood have to raise money on their own, with little or no financial support from either MCPS or the school. This leaves many clubs, honor societies, publications and performing arts groups scrambling to independently raise money to cover operational costs and activities such as field trips and school performances. In order to raise money last year, the Key Club sold “boo grams” to students. Other clubs, such as the Shakespeare Club, sell pizza to students after school while a number of clubs and societies hold fundraiser nights at local restaurants. Any money raised is then put into individual school accounts for each club.
For most of these groups raising money is difficult. “We don’t really make any money,” said language resource teacher and French Honor Society sponsor John Falls. “The only money that we take in is [from members’] dues, and we honestly break even by buying the graduation cords at the end of the year.” Falls said that the lack of money makes it difficult to have activities and events, so students have to pay out of pocket for them. Another factor in raising money is both the type of club and the number of students in the club. Honor societies, for example, tend to have club dues for buying cords for graduation, and some, like French Honor Society, are required to pay a fee to the parent corporation. Usually, service clubs, such as the Key Club, try to raise money for charities to which the club is affiliated, where-
as honor societies and student government tend to raise money to hold special events and activities such as Mr. Sherwood. “Our club doesn’t really make money,” said Key Club sponsor and social studies teacher Michelle Games. “All of the money we do collect is either in terms of dues or any fundraiser or collections we do are primarily for charities.” When clubs struggle to raise money, the burden often falls on staff sponsors and student members to raise more. In contrast, the athletics department receives annual funding from MCPS. Sherwood athletics received $34,102 from the county last year as well as $22,087 from student parking permits. The rest of the funding for school sports comes from booster clubs, parent sponsors, ticket sales and other fundraisers. All money raised by each sport, with the excep-
Money Raised from Parking Permits Annually Goes to the Athletics Department by Jack Armstrong ‘15 The annual $75 parking permit fee required by students who drive to Sherwood raised $22,087.50 for the school during the 2013-2014 school year. The fee is set by the county and is the same for all MCPS high schools. The money Sherwood raises each year from these permit fees is distributed to the athletic departments throughout the county, going to multiple sports teams as a way to pay athletics expenses before other money comes in from MCPS. According to Business Ad-
ministrator Linda Berkheimer, the money Sherwood’s athletic department receives from MCPS is based on the number of parking permits sold and the enrollment at Sherwood. She says if Sherwood has a problem raising enough money from parking permits due to a declining number of upperclassmen who drive, Sherwood would receive additional funding from MCPS. The county would then take into account the total number of students enrolled before providing additional funds.
tion of fundraisers, then go into one large account that covers all sports, according to Business Administrator Linda Berkheimer. “The money [for athletics]
is in one account, but tracked by the sub-accounts of each sport, Berkheimer said. “[After that], it is
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see CLUBS, pg. 3