1

East Hampton’s Senior

Capstone Project has generated

varying opinions from faculty and

students. The plan of senior pro-

jects was created by English teach-

er, Mrs. Cristin Flannery.

“I was getting my

‘hippie degree’ and it made

a lightbulb go off in my

head. I brought the idea of

senior projects to Mrs.

Riggio, Mrs. Seeley, Mr.

Fidler and Mr. Dalton. We

began researching,” Mrs.

Flannery said.

According to Mrs. Flan-

nery, the state of Connecticut will

pass a bill into law which will re-

quire all public schools to have

some type of independent project

put in place for all graduating sen-

iors. East Hampton High School

decided to start the process earlier,

so when it becomes a law, it

wouldn’t be such a shock to stu-

dents and faculty.

Mrs. Flannery believes that

the senior projects are the best

learning that can be done in high

school ,because it’s a student led

passion project.

“Students will gain skills

for every aspect of life, including

normal adult situations,” Mrs.

Flannery said.

Senior projects are an inde-

pendent project where students can

pick a topic they are very passion-

ate about. These projects use skills

that show how much students have

learned in the four years of their

high school career. Senior projects

can show a student’s ability to

think critically, solve problems,

plan, speak publicly, and set goals.

They will provide students with an

understanding of what college life

will be like in the aspects of inde-

pendence.

When asked what her opin-

ion of the Capstone Projects is,

Mrs. Flannery called the projects

“awesome” and said that she

likes “the fact that you can do

anything.”

Senior Emma Begin has

already completed her senior

project during her junior year

because of her decision to

graduate early. Her opinion on

the projects is very different from

Mrs. Flannery’s.

“We had to figure it out ourselves

and I just wanted to get it done”

Begin said.

Mohmond Hussain, senior,

is working on a project to educate

people on the culture of Afghani-

stan. He worked at the EHHS Cul-

ture fest with his sister and plans to

have a meeting after school to

teach some more people.

“I like it. It’s creative; you

can do whatever you want,”

Hussain

Inside This Issue

Senior Classes…………............. page 1 EHHS Fall Ball……….…...…. page 2 Balancing School, a Job, and a Social Life ……...…….…...….. page 3 Basketball Season…………...... page 6 Flannel Friday Clothing Drive.. page 6 Project Oceanology Field Trips……………………...…. page 7 Tis The Season ………..….…. page 7 High School Sports Injuries…..page 8

“Students will gain

skills for every aspect

of life, including normal

adult situations”

Welcome to The New Bellringer! We hope you enjoy our latest issue! This edition includes articles written by Mr. Dunn’s journalism class, as well as other East Hampton High School students! - Alexis and Emilee -

Continued on page 2

Senior Projects By Madeline Galtieri, Riley

Close & Angie Alaconis

2017 Issue 1

2

STAFF BOX

All of the articles featured in this issue were written by the students of Mr. Dunn’s Journalism class.

Editors in Chief: Emilee Karalus

We hope you enjoy this issue of The New Bellringer ! We would like to thank the students of the Journalism class for contributing their amazing articles, Mr. Dunn for

being a wonderful advisor, and our supportive readers!

“I like them. I’m working on mine now. I chose what I did, because it’s going to help people and I like

helping people. I like the fact that it gets people out of their comfort zone and talking to people.” Basso had the

idea of helping veterans with PTSD by compiling a book of letters from other veterans who have been able to

get through their traumatic experiences.

When asked about the feedback she has heard from students, Mrs. Flannery said that she has only heard

good things because most aggravated students will complain to friends or family, not their English teacher.

But, one critique students have given to Mrs. Flannery is to have students hand in their project proposals at the

end of the junior year. Mrs. Flannery agreed.

“With proposals handed in at the end of the year, students can take a deep breath the next fall and start

their project,” said Flannery.

Even though opinions vary at East Hampton High School, the truth is that Senior Capstone Projects are

East Hampton High School

students danced the night away at

the annual Fall Ball on Friday, Oc-

tober 28. The Fall Ball was consid-

ered a success by many, including

the Student Council advisor, Mrs.

Chambers.

“It was very uneventful and

that’s a good thing. It means no

trouble,” said Mrs. Chambers. From

eight o’clock to ten o’clock, stu-

dents gathered in the cafeteria to

spend time and dance with their

classmates.

“People really enjoyed the

music and dancing with their

friends,” freshman Emily Balda

Said.

The decorations at the Fall

Ball followed an autumn theme

chosen directly from the Student

Council who picks the theme every

year. Various reds, oranges, and

yellows filled the cafeteria, as well

as pumpkin decorations. Snacks

and drinks were available for stu-

dents and faculty throughout the

night.

“I liked the decorations and

the color scheme went along well

with the season, but people kept

popping balloons, which was messy

and annoying,” Balda said.

Senior Jake Krzeminski was

the DJ at the dance.

“Jake was great! I would

love to have him as DJ next year

too,” said Mrs Chambers. Many

attendees seemed to enjoy the mu-

sic that was played.

“I enjoyed the music,” Bal-

da said, “but I feel as though more

of a variety could have been

Played.”

Balda also offered other im-

provements that could have been

made to make the Fall Ball even

more enjoyable. She suggested that

the photo booth be promoted before

the event, because many students

did not know there would be a one

and therefore, they did not bring

money to purchase photos. On the

positive side, the money earned

from the photo booth funds will be

going towards Project Graduation

for the seniors.

Emily Balda commented on

the hot temperature of the cafeteria

when the dance was taking place.

“It was really really hot,

even though it couldn’t be helped,

EHHS Fall Ball By Maggie Donohue and Emma Begin

Continued on page 3

3

High schoolers are more

stressed than those that attended

high school back in the ‘70s.

“I’m just constantly in a

state of panic and anxiety,” East

Hampton High School senior Angie

Alaconis said, “There’s always

something in my head that stresses

me out.”

Alaconis is a 17 year old at

East Hampton High School. She’s

one of the many teenagers that bal-

ances school, a social life, and a job

on a daily basis.

“I’m a cashier at Higganum

Market three days a week and a

server at Saint Clements Castle two

days a week,” said Alaconis.

According to Alaconis, she

doesn’t see her friends very often

either, due to her work schedule

clashing with her friends.

Also a senior at East Hamp-

ton High School and a friend of Al-

aconis’, Masie Hartt, has a busy

schedule as well. She answers the

phone and is a cashier at Rossini’s

four days a week between 3 and 10

pm. Hartt said she, on average, re-

ceives about thirty minutes of

homework per night. Alaconis

agrees with that average and claims

that senior year has been much

more lenient and relaxed with the

homework distributed.

Mr. Mark O’Donnell, Eng-

lish teacher at East Hampton High

School, grew up in a time that was

very different than the one students

live in today.

“I wasn’t overwhelmed as a

high schooler, because I didn’t over

-internalize,” O’Donnell said. “I see

a lot of that now. We also didn’t

have the spyware also known as

grading programs when I was

younger. School was my time and

my parents let me deal with it.”

O’Donnell also spoke about

people’s current obsession with

mental health and stress.

“We didn’t know the word

‘stress’ in my time. I think we’ve

created monsters just like we’ve

created the idea that the world is

more dangerous than it actually is;

reporting and media has made peo-

ple paranoid,” he said.

O’Donnell is very under-

standing when it comes to stress

and mental illness and he agrees

that there are people living with

those issues. But he also believes

that people’s current obsession with

these problems has made them par-

anoid and convinced they have

these huge problems when they ac-

tually don’t.

When asked how he dealt

with his problems, O’Donnell said

that he didn’t deal with it well and

that he pushed the idea of stress out

of his mind. Alaconis, who is deal-

ing with a lot of similar problems

right now, said that she has trouble

dealing with her feelings as well.

Her idea of a best case scenario was

to not have to pay for her insurance

and other bills so she wouldn’t have

to work as much.

Times have changed quite a

bit in the last 40+ years. Teenagers

feel stressed out of their minds at

every moment of the day. Social

Tickets for the dance cost

$5, and were sold during lunch

waves starting the Wednesday prior

to the Fall Ball. This price was con-

sidered reasonable by many stu-

dents, because the DJ was paid for

his services with the money as

well. The money will be put to-

wards the cost of the expenses of

the dance, but any leftover money

goes to scholarships for students.

“It was nice how tickets

were sold during lunch waves, ra-

ther than at the door, because at

middle school dances, it got very

crowded and chaotic when tickets

were sold at the door,” Balda said.

Overall, the 2016 Fall Ball

was a fun-filled nights for students,

consisting of entertaining music,

eye-catching decorations, and fair

ticket prices.

Balancing School, a Job, and a Social Life By Riley Close

4

Washington DC Trip

5

6

Expectations are high for this year’s

boys’ and girls’ basketball teams

after both the boys and girls ended

with winning records last season.

The boys’ team is looking

strong despite the loss of three pre-

viously starting seniors.

“Contrary to past years, we

already have guys ready to step up

and fill the roles of last

year’s seniors,” said Mr. Parker

Strong, head coach of the boys’

basketball team.

The girls’ team also lost

many starting seniors, including an

all-state player. With only

fifteen players on the entire team,

including both varsity and junior

varsity, the group is very

young. But what the girls lack in

size is made up in spirit.

“We all get along really

well, like a little family. We always

have each others back,” said

senior captain Gyanna Russell.

Both Gyanna Russell and

Thomas Close, a player on the

boys’ varsity team, commented

on how the older players have wel-

comed the new ones, especially the

freshmen. With ten freshmen on the

boys’ team and five on the girls,’

the returning participants have

helped them adjust to the team.

“There have been a lot of

learning moments for younger kids

and a lot of examples are

being shown for younger players,”

said Gyanna Russell.

“At our first scrimmage, a

lot of the older kids helped the

younger kids. The jv kids

watched during the varsity scrim-

mage and transferred that infor-

mation into their game,” Close

said.

Throughout the preseason

games and scrimmages, both teams

have looked effective. The

coaches have been pleased with the

learning that has taken place

throughout these games.

Preseason games are more about

finding individuals’ strengths and

weaknesses as players than

they are about the results.

“The scrimmages have

shown me a lot and I am pleased

with the effort. They are very

educational and part of the process

of getting ready for the season,”

said Mr. Shaun Russell,

athletic director and head coach of

girls’ basketball at East Hampton

High School.

As the season goes on, both teams

are expected to grow as a group,

and individuals. Both coaches com-

mented on their appreciation for

having the opportunity

to train such great kids.

“I enjoy watching the kids

develop as people,” Strong said.

“I enjoy seeing the team

build throughout the season and

seeing the team come together

as a unit. The girls have such great

chemistry,” Shaun Russell said.

Both teams are excited to

get their basketball seasons under-

way and encourage parents

A group of sophomore boys

are creating something great for

East Hampton High School. Pat-

rick Farren and Tristan Wales are

two sophomores who are running

Flannel Friday. Their other friends,

Chris Rau & Josh Barrientos, help

too. These four students turned

their small inside tradition into

something bigger.

Patrick Farren always

seemed to wear a flannel shirt on

Friday and then started telling his

friends to wear their own flannels

on Friday too. It spread quickly in

his class and eventually the sopho-

more class. Now they are planning

for a clothing drive for The Con-

nection Inc. in Middletown. They

will take blankets, flannels, coats,

sweatshirts, just anything warm

that people do not use anymore.

The event starts January 6, 2017

and will last roughly a month.

“One day in English class

my friends and I were talking and

wondering what we could do

around the school to make it a bet-

ter place. We decided to come up

with Flannel Friday, because we all

liked wearing flannels on Friday,”

said Farren.

Farren got his friends to

start something amazing. The

group of friends loved the allitera-

tion in Flannel Friday and thought

it would be something catchy that

the whole school could and would

want to be a participant.

“We did get approval from

Mr. Fidler and we have talked a

little bit about it to Mrs. Flannery.

Continued on page 7

Basketball Season By Maggie Donohue

Flannel Friday Clothing Drive By Madeline Galtieri

7

Project Oceanology Field Trips By Angie Alaconis

Students were given an op-

portunity this year to partake in a

field trip with Project Oceanology.

The group of 25 took three trips on

three different rivers in Connecti-

cut. The students helped the Project

collect different water studies.

East Hampton High School

also worked with University High

School which supplied the students

with the ability to meet new people

and create friendships. On the trips,

the students were also given special

opportunities to look and often

hold fish caught for research.

The teacher involved with

the field trips was Miss Giuliano,

who says the trips were great, with

no problems. She’s so far heard

good feedback with most students

asking “are we doing this again?”

“It wasn’t what I was ex-

pecting. I was expecting boring

stuff, but it was actually really

fun,” senior Celia Basso said.

She also admitted to learn-

ing more than she thought she

would and that she would love to

do it again.

“I would love to do it again.

It was fun and I got to meet people

that I never would usually,” senior

Masie Hartt said.

Hartt also talked about how

they might influence her options

for schooling and future plans.

“It helped me discover a

new interest in animals and the en-

vironment,” Hartt said.

Miss Giuliano showed an

interest in trying to do the trips

again, but said the school would

most likely organize it separately in

future years. She also wants to fo-

cus on nearby rivers so students

This clothing drive is com-

pletely student run with only a

small level of help from English

teacher Mrs. Flannery. The princi-

pal, Mr. Fidler, just recently ap-

proved the entire project and they

are ready to go.

“What Flannel Friday

means to me is love, happiness and

just plain old perfectness, because

it's doing something nice for other

people and not always thinking

about yourself,” said Wales.

The Flannel Friday clothing

drive is not just a small deal to

these boys’; to Wales and Farren,

this project means they are helping

people for the holidays and their

hearts are warm. It makes them

happy to help people in need and it

will not be the last project these

Tis The Season By Joey Raymond

It's always a wonderful

feeling to see people come together

and help the less fortunate. That is

why the East Hampton High

School helps the ABC Women's

Shelter every year to bring toys to

kids who don't have much for

Christmas.

Students from every home-

room came together to collect toys

or money to be donated to these

kids. Truckloads of toys are later

wrapped and delivered to the wom-

en's shelter. These gifts will go to

kids in the Middletown area whose

families can only afford very little.

But with the amount of gift dona-

tions to the shelter, the kids will

most definitely have a joyful

Christmas due to the selflessness

and compassion of the students and

faculty here at East Hampton.

“It's really an amazing thing

to see people coming together and

giving to those who can't afford a

lot.” said social studies teacher,

Mrs. Keska. “I feel this sense of

joy from when we gift wrap to

when we bring the gifts to the

women's shelter.”

Mrs. Keska runs the

school's Interact Club and each

year they run the gift wrapping

event for the presents. Even though

it was led by the club, any student

was able to join in the wrapping

and help out for the cause.

“It feels nice to know that

there's a community that will come

together and and together and help

out the less fortunate,” Interact

member Amanda Thisdale.

“Having people help out

really makes you feel connected

with everyone,” she said.

Hundreds of presents were

wrapped and delivered to the wom-

en's shelter and will be going to

kids of all ages. Everyone at East

Hampton High School is filled

with joy, knowing that by giving to

8

With student participation

in high school sports on the rise,

the number of trips to the emergen-

cy room is also increasing at an

alarming rate. With injuries becom-

ing more and more frequent, coach-

es and athletic trainers at the high

school level are trying to figure out

the correct course of action that

needs to be taken to most effective-

ly deal with injuries. The National

Athletic Trainers’ Association

(NATA) already has guidelines and

standards for handling injuries in

high school sports. Most times,

these protocols are followed, but

the rare cases where the standards

are forgotten could be fatal to a stu-

dent athlete.

East Hampton High School

has a part time athletic trainer who

only attends games, rather than

both games and practices. To be-

come a high school athletic trainer,

applicants must have a bachelor's

degree in athletic training and exer-

cise science or kinesiology. This

person must also be certified and

licensed through the Board of Cer-

tification, Inc. In addition to medi-

cal and healthcare knowledge, ath-

letic trainers must have good judg-

ment, make quick decisions and

possess strong communication

skills.

One part time athletic train-

er is not enough to meet the needs

of student athletes participating in

sports. High schools need either

two part time trainers or a full time

trainer to ensure that injuries are

being dealt with as efficiently as

possible.

Studies show that sixty two

percent of organized sport-related

injuries occur during practices. Un-

fortunately, the same precautions

are not taken after an injury during

practice than would be following

an injury that occurred during a

game. With an athletic trainer at-

tending practices as well as games,

athletes would get the proper treat-

ment for injuries that may take

place. Some may argue that an ath-

letic trainer cannot attend two or

more practices that are occurring at

the same time. However, having a

full time athletic trainer does not

necessarily mean that he or she

would attend every practice. This

person would just need to be at the

school where he or she would be

available to handle injuries that

may occur. If a team practices at a

different school, it is that school’s

athletic trainer’s responsibility to

deal with injuries that occur while

on that school’s grounds.

Coaches, parents, and the

athletes themselves need to be

more aware of the benefits a full

time athletic trainer would have.

The East Hampton community

needs to take action on this issue

for the sake of student athletes

throughout the nation by attending

Board of Education meetings to

request the funds for a full time

athletic trainer. The futures of

America’s high school athletes are

Thank you for reading!

The New Bellringer of

East Hampton High School

High School Sports Injuries By Maggie Donohue

9