According to school resource officer Tom Harrington, four Marshall students became involved in an incident involving illegal drug possession on Marshall grounds on March 17. The FCPS Student Responsibilities and Rights (SR&R) states that if any illegal drug or imitation illegal drug is possessed on school grounds, a mandatory ten-day suspension from school and recommendation for expulsion must be issued to the student and the incident must be reported to the police who may press criminal charges.

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After nearly a year of controversy and a legal opinion that ultimately escalated the decision to its final outcome, the FCPS School Board voted to refund approximately $2 million in fees collected to cover IB and AP exams on March 25.

This decision was largely in response to Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s official opinion on Jan. 28 that charging students for an exam that is a required part of a course is illegal.

According to IB coordinator Carlota Shewchuck, Cuccinelli “works closely with the school board and all of Fairfax County’s affairs.”

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The newly revived literary magazine, Reveille, has been actively working out ways to publicize their annual magazine and is hosting their first-ever creative arts festival today.

The main purpose of it is to “try to raise community and student awareness,” sponsor and English teacher Joyana Peters said. The event will also help raise money to keep the club going.

However, a challenge the club is facing is that it is “having a hard time raising money to put into the festival even before [they] could get anything out of it,” Peters said.

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By the end of March, the majority of freshmen, sophomores and juniors will have solidified their schedules for the 2011-2012 school year.And, as they meet with their guidance counselors to finalize their schedules, they have the opportunity to consider several new classes that will be offered in the upcoming school year: Sports Medicine, Creative Writing, Leadership Training and Avid.

Sports Medicine, which will be taught by athletic trainer Esther Horner, will focus on medical professions, anatomy and physiology of skeletal and muscular systems, types of injuries and injury prevention.

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DECA was named a preferred chapter at DECA States, held March 4 through the March 6 in Norfolk. Twenty-eight students qualified to go to nationals, which will be held in Orlando, Fla. April 30 through May 4.

Additionally, Marshall is currently tied with Chantilly in the most first place DECA wins.

One of the DECA advisors, Jennifer Hendrickson, was recognized as one of several Outstanding DECA advisors, she said.

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Auditions for Amnesty International’s second annual Jamnesty event took place last Wednesday. Jamnesty will be held in May, but no date has been publicized yet.

The event is the club’s main fundraiser of the year and the money raised will be used to pay for postage for the club’s letter writing campaigns.

“It [will be] a night of music and human rights awareness,” club sponsor and social studies teacher Andrew Freeman said.

Jamnesty will feature a concert with student and teacher acts.

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Amnesty Club and Reveille will host Slamnesty after school today. The event, a poetry slam, aims to give students the opportunity to share their views on human rights issues.

To raise awareness about these issues, Amnesty decided to have students share poetry related to human rights.

“Everyone [can] share their poems and opinions on human rights,” sophomore Maggie Schumann said.

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The French Club is hosting a dance to celebrate the French festival of Mardi Gras. The dance moved from March 18 to Friday because of conflicts with a soccer tournament at Marshall also taking place that weekend.

“We want as many people as possible to come,” officer and junior Sharon Walbarsht said.

The dance is prepared entirely by the students involved in French Club, with four officers—juniors Yazan Alshawkani, Faby Chaillo, Amir Noorbaksh and Wolbarsht—leading the preparations.

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Rumors have recently circulated regarding the termination of Lunch and Learn. Rising concerns, especially among IB students, have resulted in a large number of student testimonials on L&L posted to the wall of a Facebook group devoted to the subject as well as an accumulation of letters to the editor on this subject.

Principal Jay Pearson addressed the situation publicly on March 4.

In a discussion inspired by junior Brandy Allen and specifically targeted towards worried IB students, Pearson outlined the fate of next year’s lunch.

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The annual International Night is going to be hosted on Feb. 9 in the auditorium. International Night celebrates the different cultures present in the school. Sharyn Quick, an adult sponsor who is helping in the overall production, said that the night represents “many of the 99 cultures we have here.”Continue Reading