According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in ten teenagers nationwide reported that they had been physically abused in a relationships and one in four teens are physically, emotionally, verbally or sexually abused each year.
The dark screen suddenly brightens to reveal two cars screeching across the racetrack, hurtling closer and closer to the camera. Just when the pair appear to be on the verge of colliding with the cameraman, the two cars swerve and continue whizzing down the racetrack.
Senior Nathaniel Chen shot this scene in Englishtown, NJ, and incorporated it into his film “Drift,” a montage of drifting culture. The film placed second in the 2010 Video Fairfax Competition and Chen expects to compete again.
Students Against Animal Cruelty is holding a donation drive for the Fairfax and Loudoun County animal shelters.
According to club sponsor and special education teacher Andrea Wallace, rescued animals typically overburden shelters this time of year. The drive—which ends in February and is the third since Wallace became the sponsor of SAAC—ordinarily collects two to three boxes of contributions.
“We’d like to see more,” Wallace said. “Animals need help [too.]”
The area in front of the makeshift stage remained standing room only as MC and senior Keith Boylan energetically encouraged the crowd to “buy books!” and Marshall’s first Barnes & Noble Open Mic Night ended.
The event, which stretched from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 and raised more than $660 for the All-Night Grad Celebration, featured two poetry readings, the dance crew FcDc/Rhythm Ground Breakers and The Thirteenth Story, along with solo or two-person musical performances.
The orchestra’s annual winter concert, which took place last Wednesday, centered around “music from around the world, different time periods, winter time and holiday spirit” according to orchestra teacher and concert organizer Catherine Prosser.
Senior and second chair Hannah Perlman said that the orchestra, which performed a number of works including “The Snowman,” has become a more unified ensemble.
“It’s challenging to stay lined up with a score, so it takes a lot of focus and cohesiveness,” Perlman said.
DECA is expecting to provide INOVA Fairfax Hospital for Children with what is likely one of the largest-ever lump donations to the hospital, said DECA member Rachel Killmeyer.
“We just decided to work with them and come up with what they needed,” she said.
Members of DECA have spent the past week collecting items for patients at the hospital as part of their “Treats for Treatment” project.
“Santa has left the building. I repeat, Santa Claus has left the building.”
With that announcement the holiday expo, held on Saturday Dec. 10, ended, marking its second year as a Marshall Community and holiday event.
The event showcased various small businesses in the area, in addition to having entertainment like pictures with Santa, periodic raffles that offered items donated by the vendors and performances from both orchestra and choir students.
Their winter concert had not even passed, but the Statesmen Singers were getting plenty of showtime through gigs in the community. The holidays are a concert season for the Statesmen Singers, who performed at five caroling gigs around the area in addition to this year’s pyramid winter concert.
“For the Statesmen Singers, the whole season is their performance and the concert to them is another gig,” choral director Keri Staley said. “Each performance that they do in the community is an opportunity.”
The Gay-Straight Alliance club is attempting to become a large, active and positive force within Marshall, after a year of relative dormancy.
Currently, the club is attempting to garner publicity for pro-tolerance activities such as their sponsoring of classrooms as “Hate-Free Zones.”
An anti-bullying campaign of sorts, these zones are marked by large colorful signs and symbolize areas in which students can work or socialize without the fear of harassment.
A number of teachers have agreed to sponsor these zones by putting posters in their classrooms.
Group 4 has experienced a dramatic increase in participants, having grown from 174 members in 2010 to 234 participants this year.
This increase made it difficult for some groups to collaborate on topics and come to agreements on what steps to take next, resulting in groups having to start over in some cases.
“We tried to use Google Docs to share our research, although some people did not use [it], making it hard to compare data,” junior Becca Toser said.
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