By Delaney Simmons//Opinion Editor
An emergency training exercise on campus featured a mock hostage situation and a simulated triage center set up in the school parking lot. School administrators, teachers, and students participated in connection with local safety personal.
Law enforcement and emergency personal from the Encinitas Fire Department and the Carlsbad Police Department descended on campus for an emergency training exercise. More than fifteen selected students took part in the exercise which involved an undercover police officer posing as a gunman.
The drill was scheduled for noon and all teachers and students were notified days in advance. The drill lasted over two hours and proved successful.
All of the classrooms successfully went into lock down. Each classroom was individually evacuated by a policeman who had a key, in order to insure student security. “Injured” students were evacuated first to the triage center, set up in the parking lot.
Chris Sayer from the Encinitas Fire Department was taking student vitals and ensuring health, “[In a real emergency] we would treat all of the injured students with anything we could fix and then send them off to the hospital.”
All of the healthy students were evacuated and escorted to the field. There was a lot of speculation from faculty that students did not take the drill seriously. English teacher Nicole Housen said, “It is hard to take something seriously until it actually happens.”
The students were not made aware of the simulated events. This differs from last years because the actual threat was not present.
Assistant Principle Doug Kamon said, “Students are taking it seriously, if it were the real thing than they might be more quite, but they are very organized, they are going where they are supposed to go, they are sitting where they are supposed to sit.” During the last class on the day of the drill, a police man dressed in sweats and a sweatshirt was released onto campus [. He approached students that were loitering outside the library and bathrooms asking questions regarding the school and details about security.
In a staged confrontation with Meredith Adams (11), the man asked, “Do all of the teachers have radios? Do you know of anyone who has guns here at the school?” Adams responded as a student might in a real confrontation, “I don’t know.” This addition to the drill was one of the many tests throughout the day for faculty members. Administration did not alert any of the teachers of the man that would be walking around.
One teacher did pass the test proving to administrators that teachers are constantly on the alert for suspicious people. Many students have begun coining the phrase, “Maverick Man,” referring to history teacher Bill Vice. He noticed the suspicious man and “saved” the day.
“He was goofy looking, he popped his head into my room, didn’t say anything and… I escorted him down to the Admin. Building [to make sure],” said Mr. Vice.
Mr. Vice apprehended the undercover policeman, despite the man’s assurance that he was in fact a part of the drill.
Many students were laughing and giggling through the rest of the drill where they met up with friends and socialized with teachers while waiting out the rest of the day.. Student Cody Christensen (10) said, “I am just going with it; I do not know what is going on right now.” At the end, many administrators were happy with the drill and stated that it was a success and a learning process.
“The likelihood of something like this happening is very rare but we were prepared,” said Assistant Principle Marc Trocchio.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
Entertainment: Opening Night of The Dining Room
By Nicoll Mischel // Staff Writer
The Dining Room. A spectacular performance brought to you by talented students from Sue Raley’s acting class in the Black Box Performing Theatre. Opening night on February 7, 2008 might have gone wrong but think twice- there were no mistakes.
“It was better than I thought it would be the hardest part was the rapid character change going from a dying father to and old grumpy man.” Chris Gurley said. It is a touching story of many colorful characters. Many of the themes make the audience appreciate the wooden thing that you sit around or sort the laundry on. It’s the idea that the dining room table and setting is useful in many ways to different people. How society and families over different generations evolved its presence.
Each different scene is an example of how that person or family treats the dinner table and the human interactions between family members. The set never faltered in bringing a distinct giggle or solemn tear from the extremely responsive audience. Collectively the way the actors used the dinner table was for leisure, bringing families together, disciplining children, talking about their days, gaining knowledge about the family history, gossiping, or asking grandpa for money.
The dinner table is supposed to signify togetherness or gathering, it was well established and apparent how touching each scene was. Just sitting at the table can bring up such things from the past whether it’s good or bad. Sparks that moment when mom asked you about your first boyfriend, or yelled at you because you got D in chemistry, or remembering your fifth birthday was at the dinner table- whatever it is, its an extremely important thing, this production redefines the need for families and community.
Every aspect that goes into making an extraordinary production was executed flawlessly. The lighting was spot on, and the set was beautiful. The actors engaged the audience, they did a wonderful job. One of the different aspects of this play was the intimate setting in the Black Box. Unknown to many of the students, it is a fully equipped stage with seating surrounding the stage.
“I’ve never performed in the black box theatre, it’s different than stage because there are people all around you and there is no focal point so you always have to be in character.” Sarah Frondoni said, emphasizing the tedious two-month long rehearsal calendar. Even the actors said it was hard with all the experience that they have and the dynamic presence of the audience. Remember to keep the tradition of the sacred dining room, going and go see the show!
The Dining Room. A spectacular performance brought to you by talented students from Sue Raley’s acting class in the Black Box Performing Theatre. Opening night on February 7, 2008 might have gone wrong but think twice- there were no mistakes.
“It was better than I thought it would be the hardest part was the rapid character change going from a dying father to and old grumpy man.” Chris Gurley said. It is a touching story of many colorful characters. Many of the themes make the audience appreciate the wooden thing that you sit around or sort the laundry on. It’s the idea that the dining room table and setting is useful in many ways to different people. How society and families over different generations evolved its presence.
Each different scene is an example of how that person or family treats the dinner table and the human interactions between family members. The set never faltered in bringing a distinct giggle or solemn tear from the extremely responsive audience. Collectively the way the actors used the dinner table was for leisure, bringing families together, disciplining children, talking about their days, gaining knowledge about the family history, gossiping, or asking grandpa for money.
The dinner table is supposed to signify togetherness or gathering, it was well established and apparent how touching each scene was. Just sitting at the table can bring up such things from the past whether it’s good or bad. Sparks that moment when mom asked you about your first boyfriend, or yelled at you because you got D in chemistry, or remembering your fifth birthday was at the dinner table- whatever it is, its an extremely important thing, this production redefines the need for families and community.
Every aspect that goes into making an extraordinary production was executed flawlessly. The lighting was spot on, and the set was beautiful. The actors engaged the audience, they did a wonderful job. One of the different aspects of this play was the intimate setting in the Black Box. Unknown to many of the students, it is a fully equipped stage with seating surrounding the stage.
“I’ve never performed in the black box theatre, it’s different than stage because there are people all around you and there is no focal point so you always have to be in character.” Sarah Frondoni said, emphasizing the tedious two-month long rehearsal calendar. Even the actors said it was hard with all the experience that they have and the dynamic presence of the audience. Remember to keep the tradition of the sacred dining room, going and go see the show!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Sports: Game of Giant Proportions
By Sean Bentley // Staff Writer
As the clock dwindled down to zero in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLII, all the New England Patriots andtheir fans could do was gaze at the celebrating New York Giants in utter disbelief. Even those who hadn’t joined the Patriots bandwagon on their 18-0 perfect season run were baffled to see them come up just short of reaching the elusive 19-0 when it really counted in NFL’s most prestigious event on Sunday, February 3.
In a matter of two minutes the Giants, led by quarterback Eli Manning, turned the perfect Patriots into the forever imperfect Patriots by steadily driving down the field ending in a touchdown pass to their leading wide receiver, Plexico Burress, leaving New England with only thirty-five seconds left on the clock to attempt a miraculous come back from a 17-14 New York lead. And this time, even the Patriots couldn’t bounce back from this shocking blow to their perfect season dream.
After the regular season had come to a close, no one expected opponents to even come close to winning against New England going into the playoffs, being well favored in every one of their playoff games, including a twelve point favorite in the Super Bowl, based on some solid reasons too. Besides going into the Super Bowl a perfect 18-0, quarterback Tom Brady was announced the Most Valuable Player of the league and had broken the record for most touchdowns in a single season with fifty. Plus, wide receiver Randy Moss caught a record high twenty-three touchdowns for one season. These accomplishments and more didn’t mean anything in the end though, as they didn’t come through in the one game that fans and athletes ultimately look upon in the end to measure a team’s success. Instead of Tom Brady and Randy Moss stealing the show as they were expected to do, Eli Manning and Plexico Burress ended up taking the spotlight away from them by pulling off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history.
Although the Patriots had achieved what no other team has yet to accomplish, a 16-0 perfect regular season, after Super Bowl XLII they will always be remembered as the best team to ever end their season with no Super Bowl trophy to show for their achievements. While on the other hand, the Giants, who flew under the radar during their entire season, ended up settling into a groove in the playoffs when they really needed to, and defied the odds, by narrowly defeating the undefeated.
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