Gossip Girl. Hannah Montana. The Princess Diaries. iCarly. Mean Girls. Cliques and their drama lie at the heart of so many media portrayals of the teenage years. This depiction of teens creates a vicious cycle of ever-increasing stereotypes.
High school is portrayed as a place where each student has his or her place in a system of cliques. This categorical system, of the jocks and the nerds, of the cool kids and the losers, has been shown in every movie from Grease to High School Musical.
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A drastic decrease in parking options are leaving certain students, who were once able to drive to school, to find other ways to first block on time.
In the past, any student with a license and a car was able to apply for a parking pass. However, this year a decision was made by the administration to hold a lottery for the 45 parking spaces available to students. This lottery was only open to seniors.
“It was basically just pulling names out of a hat, except that we did it through a computer,” security specialist Steven Williams said.
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The freshman volleyball team is experiencing greater success than last year’s freshman team, which finished with a record of 8-6.
Defeated only twice so far, the fall 2011 season is off to a good start for the young team.
Coached by Dorothy Brown, the team has played 10 matches so far, with eight of the wins with a score of 2-0.
“I’m trying to develop the individual player … and put them in a position that fits their skills,” Brown said.
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Crash. A massive oak tree broke through Isabelle and Sophia Therriault’s home at 2 am.
This tree, “big enough that it would have taken four people to wrap their hands around it,” fell on their house during Hurricane Irene, Isabelle Therriault said. When the loud bang woke up Sophia, she ran upstairs to tell her parents. “I thought [at first] that just the cars in the driveway were hit,” Sophia Therriault said.
The tree hit the bedroom and landed on the Therriault’s parents’ bedroom.
“They were able to get out with only a few cuts and bruises,” Sophia Therriault said.
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I can’t believe that we’re already a month into school and I’ve started my second year as editor-in-chief of the Marshall paper. One of the benefits of being able to work on a long term project is being able to implement more than just a single year long goal.
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One of the contenders in the up coming FCPS school board election can trace his political roots straight to Marshall: Ryan McElveen was Marshall’s class of 2004’s senior president.
The 25 year-old McElveen, the GCM alumnus whose father teaches at Kilmer Middle School, is looking to replicate the Marshall experience throughout Fairfax County and to give a voice to student concerns.
“I’ve been a student advocate and we really need that perspective on the school board,” he said. “My goal is to… give students more of a voice.”
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The Marshall Statesmen and the Langley Saxons, long-time division rivals, met in yet another football game on a warm and wet Friday evening. The Saxons (2-1) came off of a loss to Chantilly High School the previous week and the Statesmen (1-2) were coming off a sweet victory against Falls Church.
Langley elected to receive first and Marshall stopped them on downs and the Statesmen fans, all covered in black, were wild from excitement. However, the great play did not continue as Marshall fumbled the football and the Saxons recovered and later turned it into the first touchdown of the game.
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Senior IB students recently learned of the departure of English teacher and IB coordinator Eston Melton. Carlota Shewchuk, world language and fellow IB coordinator, replaced Melton as IB coordinator for the class of 2012. Melton now serves as the assistant principal at West Potomac high school.
With Melton’s departure, a role opened for history teacher Matt Axelrod, who has taught both AP and IB classes, as IB coordinator for the class of 2013.
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Around 100 students in the class of 2012 are in a choke hold.
They are held down by an unquantifiable amount of course work and have little time to catch their breath between this and extracurricular activities. These students are the ones who have decided to defeat the monster that is the IB diploma.
They knew what they were getting themselves into when they made the choice, taking on a challenging agenda of IB course work, an extended essay and “Creativity Action and Service” hours.
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There I stood, in a seemingly endless line of students, waiting for essay help from my English teacher. I had been standing for a good 20 minutes, and Lunch & Learn was nearly over. A couple of other students were trying to get ahead on reading assignments or were making up class work. All the while, pockets of students were chatting nosily.
I remember how chaotic the Lunch & Learn situation was in English last year. With Marshall’s renovation underway, it seems that the English department is its giving Learn policy a much-needed face-lift.
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