102012

Feb.

LINo. 6

Volume

Occupy San DiegoOccupy San DiegoBy Ethan Decker

Thousands of protesters have been marching protesters have been marching the streets of downtown San Diego since Oct 7 in a movement known as “Occupy San Diego.”

The movement was inspired by “Occupy Wall Street,” a march in New York City that is mostly protesting the fact that the wealthiest taxpayers in the United States (the top one percent) own forty percent of the nation’s wealth. Meanwhile, the other ninety-nine percent only own the remaining sixty percent of the nation’s wealth.

However, protesters such as Poway High senior Megan Peranteau are fi ghting for other causes. Peranteau said that she has applied for numerous jobs in many fi elds, and has never even been granted an interview. been granted an interview. “It’s become more about who you know rather than how well you can do the job,” said Peranteau.

A photographer and participant in Occupy San participant in Occupy San Diego, Robert Martin, said that he did not think that “anyone was expecting the Occupy movement to be immediately successful,” and that it “took weeks for mainstream media to even begin minimal coverage of begin minimal coverage of the Wall Street protest.”

The movement has spread, and is being carried on in dozens of cities worldwide, some even in Europe and Asia.

Jacob Basinger, a Poway High sophomore, said that he mostly agrees with the protesters, but not the protest. protesters, but not the protest. “It may be wrong, but the top one percent has to split that forty percent of the nation’s wealth, leaving them with not as much money as people might think,” says Basinger.

In a speech President Barack Obama gave on Oct 16 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Obama stated that he bels owayt King himself would have marched in the Occupy movement.

Q:“It’s become more about who Q:“It’s become more about who you know rather than how Q:you know rather than how well you can do the job,” said Q:well you can do the job,” said Peranteau. Q:

Peranteau. Seeing people I knew who were dead at school really made me think about the choices I will make.”

How effective did you think the “Every 15 Minute” assemblies were?

Elle Pitts, 9

I thought it was extremely heartfelt and meaningful.”

Lizzie Gurrero, 11

I was moved to tears, as were many others.”

Rachel Pham, 12

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It was a good ex-ample of how drunk driving is.”

Jacob Bassinger, 10

Boys’ Basketball shoots to score

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Titans collide with drunk drivingSimulated crash teaches a somber lesson

Focus........................6-7

Trauma Support: Senior Hayden Canavan is removed on a stretcher from the mangled car and carried to the ambulance by the Poway Fire Department while senior Sam Beeler watches dressed as the Grim Reaper. Canavan and his girlfriend Kate Harrison were both taken to the hospital to fi lm the effects of a drunk driving collision for the second day’s assembly.

CASSANDRA VICK // The Iliad

Tuesday began like any other day. Students fi led into fi rst period and took their seats and settled into the familiar rhythm of a 1-6 schedule. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary—that is until student services coordinator Traci Barker-Ball and Assistant Principal Peter McKee started making rounds to classrooms and pulling students out. They were accompanied by the Grim Reaper, senior Sam Beeler, and two sheriff ’s deputies. Each student’s class solemnly listened as a classmate’s obituary was read.

It was not until fourth period, when all of Poway High’s student body was seated in the bleachers facing the fi eld, that the secret assembly was revealed. Two mangled, white vehicles sat on the track, surrounded by the 26 students that had been pulled out in periods one, two and three to represent the “living dead” with their black clothing and skull-like makeup.

Inside the car closest to the stands were seniors Kate Harrison and Hayden Canavan. Senior Jimmy Moreno lay halfway out the front windshield of the other car involved in the collision, face down on its hood. The crowd looked on silently as their friends were painstakingly removed from the crash, Harrison and Canavan in an ambulance, Jimmy Moreno in a coffi n. Meanwhile, Ryan Moreno completed multiple preliminary sobriety tests.

This elaborate and shocking performance is known as “Every 15 Minutes,” an assembly designed to persuade students not to engage in drunk driving, and was the shared senior project of Brooke Stark and Anna Schwab. The two girls began planning and organizing it late last spring, with the aid of Barker-Ball, and had kept their project a secret from nearly the entire school.

“The hardest part was just keeping it all a secret in general. We had to make fake cover pages for our senior project and tell people we were doing different things,” Stark said. After the death of the fi fth student in three years, junior Luke Lipscomb, the planning committee was unsure as to whether or not it would be appropriate to proceed with the “Every 15 Minutes” assembly. However, as the program is used in an attempt to prevent the loss of student lives, the assembly was not canceled.

“In lieu of losing so many people we weren’t sure we were going to do it, but we believed in the message so much that we decided to go ahead with it,” Barker-Ball said.

The assembly and everything that went into it was funded by a $9,999.99 grant from the California Highway Patrol, who funds and participates in the “Every 15 Minutes” assemblies at schools across the state.

The second part of the assembly occurred Wednesday morning in the gym, where upper classmen watched a video showing the consequences of

the simulated crash from Tuesday. Students also listened to various guest speakers, including former PHS employee Elaine Durham, whose husband was killed by a drunk driver a year ago, Cindi and Andrew Aguirre, who lost daughter and sister Veronica Aguirre to a alcohol related accident in the middle of her senior year at PHS, Director of Trauma Dr. John Steele and Judge Charles Rogers. Ryan Moreno and Jimmy Moreno then led the students in a commitment to stand up against drunk driving.

What many students don’t know is what occured between the two assemblies. After Harrison and Canavan were removed from the scene of the collision on Tuesday, an ambulance took them to Palomar Medical Center’s

trauma center, where the doctors informed the patients’ families that Harrison was deceased and Canavan was paralyzed from the neck down.

The next fi lming location was the courthouse in downtown San Diego, where the victims’ families, Ryan Moreno’s family and all of the “living dead” students gathered to watch Ryan Moreno’s sentencing.

“It was really sad seeing all the parents go up and talk; they talked as if it really happened. They were all really emotional, which made everyone else really emotional,” Steve Harrison, Kate Harrison’s twin brother said. Before Tuesday, Steve Harrison was unaware that the “Every 15 Minutes” assembly was taking place, let alone that his sister would be one of the

core victims.“I was shocked, to be honest. It was kind of weird because I was surprised

they could keep it a secret for so long. I think I looked at it in a different view than everyone else because it wasn’t just someone I knew, it was someone I spent my whole life with,” Steve Harrison said.

Assembly participants were pulled from different social groups on campus to increase the effectiveness of the presentation and represented the number of people who would die every 15 minutes throughout the school day. Once all the fi lming was complete, the victims and the “living dead” students retired to the Poway Hampton Inn & Suites, where they listened to guest speaker Jason Dudley, who was involved in a drunk driving crash and could relay his fi rst-hand experience to the assemblies.

The assembly participants ended the night by writing letters to their families. All of the students involved in the presentations had turned in their phones earlier that day, and had no means of contacting their friends and families.

Barker-Ball, Stark and Schwab received positive feedback from the PHS students and staff. Many students confessed that they were genuinely touched by the simulated crash and follow-up video, and the staff hope that it has a profound impact on the students as a whole.

“I think it was a success. I defi nitely don’t think many things could’ve gone better. The biggest concern was the weather and it all worked out. I think we really affected a lot of the students at Poway,” Stark said.

On the Scene: Ryan Moreno, the drunk driver in the simulated crash, takes a breathilizer test before being arrested for driving under the infl uence of alcohol. LONDON DETRICK// The Iliad

SKYLAR SLOTTER Associate Editor