An Independent Publication of Leigh High School

May 14, 2010Volume 48 Issue No. 7

Saturday’s football game against Santa Teresa left a lot of emotions run-ning high. Leigh’s varsity team didn’t win the game, but tears of joy were still welling up in Coach Thomas’ eyes. And in that moment, his love and pride in his team was apparent. The players had reunited, and the week that had the whole school talking was over. Wednesday of last week began as a relatively normal day. But by Wednes-day night, the Leigh High rumor mill was abuzz: the entire football team had quit because of Coach Thomas’ harsh critique of the players. There were several different ac-counts of what actually happened that day and the days preceding it, but each story came down to the same concept: Coach Thomas had left the team dur-ing a practice the day before, and a good portion of the team walked out on him the next day. The minor, more significant de-tails were filled in by Coach Thomas and several players on the team. An anonymous source indicated that the team was not particularly fond of Coach Thomas this year, as he tended to blow up frequently. “I think that’s just he how is, though,” says the source. “Basically, a player did too many sets on a workout...and Coach got mad and walked out.” Coach Thomas clarified the play-er’s statement in a later interview. “On Tuesday, we weren’t work-ing as a team. I was feeling too negative during their practice and it wouldn’t have been fair [to the team]. Some guys came up to me [on Wednesday] and wanted to know if I had given up on them,” said Coach Thomas regard-ing the week’s incidents. When asked about his response to the players, he mentioned that he could have been a coach and worked at Valley Christian High, a school that ranks at number 20 in the nation for football. “I love these guys so much I didn’t leave them. After games, [the team] always leaves positive. Losing’s not fun, but your character is shown through these trying times.” Coach Thomas, whose primary passion is for teaching, has been coach-

Varija YelagalawadiIn-Depth editor

ing our football team since 2000. On how he felt about part of the team walking out, Thomas said, “I was proud they were able to come together and they stood for what they believed in and not [just] played for whatever reason. I can’t tell you how happy I am that they came back on their own.” Several players stayed back and continued on at Wednesday’s practice

as they watched the rest of their team walk out. Tyler Gable, the defensive back for the varsity team, commented on his teammate’s actions. “I thought it was pointless to leave for just one prac-tice. They were letting the team down and they didn’t prove a point other than they were willing to quit.” Larry Donald, the wide receiver and another player who stayed, stated

that he stuck up for Coach Thomas be-cause he knew that Thomas loved all the players. Though the entire incident seems to be based off of a misunderstanding, the team’s initial concerns about Coach Thomas’s attitude bring up a more press-ing question: where is the line betweenCONTINUED on Sports 15,Football Tensions.

AP Government/Politics teacher Matt Oderman has volunteered to co-ordinate the statewide MyVote Student Mock Elections here at Leigh. The state created the program to help students discover the importance of elections and the power of their votes. The mock election will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 26, a week before the midterm elections. Voting materials will be sent out to all classrooms so students can vote in any of their classes throughout the day.

“I’d like people to be involved in voting; to not just vote but find out about the issues and candidates, and talk among themselves, so that they can be ready,” said Oderman in regard to his goals. His incentives are similar to that of the state; to prepare students to ex-ercise their voting rights. Voting in the mock election will be voluntary, in order to compare the turnout of students at the mock election to the voter turnout for the real one. “It would be great if we got strongerCONTINUED on News 02,Oderman’s Elections.

Mock elections todayAbel MariamStaff Writer

Homecoming Week

Today: Schoolwide mock electionOctober 27: Haunted House opens in the cafeteriaOctober 29: Football game at Pio-neer (4:30-9:00)October 7th SAT scores released on-line at 5:00 a.m.Wear costumes to school for Hal-loweenOctober 31: Halloween November 1: UC and CSU appli-cation submission beginsEarly Decision applications dueNovember 2: Election DayNovember 5: “Home” Football game (4:30-9:00)November 6: November SAT dateNovember 11: Veteran’s day holi-day, no schoolNovember 12: No schoolOur Town opens at 7 p.m. in caf-eteria“Home” football game (4:30-9:00)November 18: Minimum dayNovember 19: Minimum day12-week grades dueNovember 20: Our Town closes

News (pages 02-04)Deaf awareness week - p. 02Stadium lights recall - p. 03ADHD is a genetic disorder - p. 04

Opinion (pages 05-07)

Features (pages 10-12)

Sports (page 15)

Entertainment (pages 13-14)

Ineffective new dance policy - p. 05Internet privacy - p. 06Prop. 19 - p. 07

Football tensions boil over

Origin of Silly Bands - p. 10Homecoming interviews - p. 11Secrets of the fall play - p. 12

Burritozilla showdown - p. 13Jackass 3D review - p. 14

Unenthusiastic spectators - p. 15

In-Depth (pages 08-09)Uncovering dreams - p. 09

Flip Side (page 16)Name calling in politics - p. 16 (see Boom Roasted)

Photo by Varija Yelagalawadi

photos by Kylie Brown

see page 05 Homecoming Court 2010 and page 11 Queen and King Interviews

Pictured in Longhorn: Leigh students as they cheer for their class Lip Syncs

Leigh students were irritated at the immense schedule difficulties that occurred during the first few weeks of the 2010-2011 school year. “I’d say the biggest reason why [we experienced difficulties] is due to budget cuts. For example, we had to cut psychology. A lot of students signed up for that and we had to move them around to other classes,” said sophomore and senior guidance coun-selor Jon Pratt. “We lost funds for Art 1, 3D design, and every level of child development courses got cut. Our so-cial sciences department also lost a few classes.” Classes were not the only thing the school lost prior to this school year. Leigh also let go one of our two guid-ance counselors, Elizabeth Cima.

For the 2010-2011 school year, Leigh administrators have created a new way to check if students are cleared to leave campus or not. Students who do not have a third or seventh period will have special stickers on the back of their I.D. cards: yellow for third period and purple for seventh. Because the stickers are new, they are raising many questions on campus,

including whether the stickers are actu-ally effective. People could potentially just take a sticker off of their friend’s I.D. card, put it on to their own, show it to the campus policemen, (or any ad-ministrator depending on which cam-pus exit is used), and leave campus. “I’ve never seen anyone try to leave without a sticker, but I’m sure they will try…” said Vice Principal Dave Walters when asked if he has caught anyone try-ing to leave campus with someone else’s I.D. card sticker. Although getting a sticker on your

However, we now have a new counselor for freshmen and juniors, Jennifer Halas. With only two guid-ance counselors and vice principal Dave Walters handling the schedules of about 2,000 students and moving students’ classes around due to budget cuts, it was difficult for the administration to satisfy the desires of every Leigh student, let alone in a short amount of time. “Losing another counselor defi-nitely affected our efficiency and sup-port during scheduling,” said Pratt.

Many people may not have been aware, but the last week of September was National Deaf Awareness Week. The week certainly applied to Leigh, as students may have been spot-ted wearing their “Deaf Pride” T-shirts around campus and showing their sup-port by learning sing language or visit-ing several of the seminars that the Deaf Awareness program held. T h e r e was much emphasis on uniting our hearing and non-hearing kids as one. During this week, our goal as a nation was to raise conscious-ness of deaf culture. “There is very little interaction between hearing and non-hearing stu-dents, so we’re trying to encourage more of that,” said Leigh interpreter Adina Kaplan. “Kids are often too shy to even ask or know what to ask when it comes

to this topic, because they don’t know how to begin to make a connection,” ex-pounded Kaplan. In response to our number of hard

of hearing stu-dents, there has been a high demand for an ASL (Ameri-can Sign Lan-guage) class. Carr ie Peña, an inter-

preter at Leigh, said “We have 50 deaf students, yet we don’t have an ASL class. It’s considered a foreign language and could count towards college credit.” Despite differences in methods of learning and communication, Peña maintains, “The only thing a deaf person can’t do is hear.”

Kylie BrownStaff Writer

Meddlin’ with the schedulin’

Roya AskariStaff Writer

Caitlyn NurnbergStaff Writer

One week too many Jordan Weinberg

Staff Writer

I’ll need to see some I.D....I.D. card is relatively easy, it’s getting past the cops in the parking lot that’s the hard part. The sticker goes onto the back of the I.D. card, so it would be effortless to just flash the back of your card to the cop and be on your way. While some of the policemen might not mind that, others might in-sist that you turn your card around so they can see what grade you’re in or if your face matches the one on the card. So while the stickers on the I.D. cards are a valid idea, there is still much room for improvement.

Administrators use stickers as sign of permission to leave campus early

Leigh raises deaf awareness

“ ”The only thing a deaf person can’t do is hear.

- Carrie Peña

Oderman’s Elections (continued from front page)

It is obvious what is on every-body’s minds: grades. As many may have realized, as we entered the seventh week of school, we still had not yet re-ceived six-week grades. Some, however, were happy that their parents’ anger was delayed one more week. Vice Principal Walters explained the delay: “Teachers have a couple days

after the six-week grading period to enter grades, which in turn get sent to computers which have to process the grades, also taking a couple days, then each report has to be mailed out, also taking a couple days.” Some students feel that this delay has negatively impacted their grades and caused general confusion, but most are indifferent to this current situation. “I don’t really care either way but I could see both sides of the story. On

one hand, you have time to raise your grades even more, on the other you have time to see them drop,” said senior Kevin Gaan. It seems that most students are indifferent to this new grading technique. All in all, the delay on the six-week grades seems to have little af-fect on the student body, as many seem to be more invested in do-ing their work than receiving their progress reports.

Faculty explains the seven week grading period

1. A stack of schedules Jon Pratt and Jennifer Halas had to deal with.2. Students participating in Deaf Pride week.3. A student’s seven week report card.4. The new stickers placed on a stu-dent’s I.D. card.

2. 4.

3.1.

Photos by Kylie Brown

voter turnout than the real elections,” Oderman eagerly said. Along with that, Oderman is interested to see who would win if the election were up to Leigh stu-dents. Student involvement in past mock elections has been high. In 2008, more than 275,000 students cast ballots in the MyVote California Mock Presiden-tial Election. The mock elections con-tinue to be a significant source of voter education and political awareness. Junior Kitt Ynchausti supports the idea that kids should be more politi-cally active: “If we don’t pay attention to those that [could potentially] hold our futures, then we’re letting someone else decide how we live our lives and then we’re screwed.” - Abel Mariam, Staff Writer

The “Los Angeles Times” re-cently published an online database of the ranks of Los Angeles elementary schools and teachers. Following the publishing of the database, several in-dividuals and organizations expressed anger. The database, organized by the LA Times itself, was a compilation of the analyses of test scores in English and math over the course of seven years to determine how the students had improved in a system known as “value-added” scoring. History teacher Don Mason ex-pressed his thoughts on the fairness of the Times publishing the teacher and school rankings. “I think for it to be a just rank-ing system it has to be amongst equal schools with equal demographics. As long as there’s [equality between the schools being ranked] there’s no prob-

Kim FooteStaff Writer

Kylie BrownStaff Writer

Get Low and Get Cut

news10.26.10 page03

Rebekah HassenStaff Writer

Spare the Air Days increased from 13 days in 2008 to 14 in 2009, and are continuing to increase. When a Spare the Air Day oc-curs, people are encouraged to cut back on pollution-causing activities, such as driving, using aerosol sprays, and us-ing electricity. The two main sources of bad air quality are ozone and particu-late matter, or PM pollution. Ozone is an unstable molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. When pollutants are released into the air, the chemicals combine in the lower atmo-sphere to create a toxic photochemical reaction. In the summertime, this is the main cause of pollution, because of the smog from cars. In the wintertime, PM pollution is the most common cause of pollution because of the increase in wood smoke from wood stoves and fireplaces. PM is made up of small solid particles or liquid droplets that can be emitted directly into the air. When PM concentrations are too high, the Air District issues a Winter Spare the Air Day. This makes it illegal for Bay Area residents to burn wood, or other fuels, because of the impact that it makes on

Following the back to school dance, Leigh High School adopted a new tool to enforce dance policy: wristbands. “We are going to use wristbands to help us as staff and chaperones see who’s dancing inappropri-ately and monitor that. Each person will be wearing a wristband and if they get warned they get it cut off and the second time they get sent home and we call their parents,” said dean of disci-pline, Rick Hayashi. The reason why this was not a policy at the first dance, the back to school dance, was that administrators like to try to give each new year a fresh start. “We wanted to see. Every year we reiterate to certain groups and certain classes. We hoped that this year be-

comes a better year, we like to give stu-dents a chance and opportunity to let them solve their problems but if that doesn’t work then we have to kind of step in and do our own intervention,” said Hayashi.

The administration feels that this is necessary because dancing inappro-priately has been a continuing and un-

resolved problem in the past and they want to make it more PG. “It’s what makes other people around feel comfortable or un-comfortable and it’s role modeling. Ninth graders see our upperclass-

man dance a cer-tain way and think that is appropriate and it’s not,” said Hayashi. Some students disagree. “I am very angry about that and the policy shouldn’t be enforced because that makes students want to do it more. It’s natural, people are still going to freak. I don’t think it is a necessary pol-icy,” said junior Tae Okamura. Junior Danielle Lampreda agrees,

saying, “I think it’s too strict of a policy be-cause students should be

able to dance how they want to, but not to the point where it is gross to watch.”

the environment and people. PM pollution can cause lung ir-ritation, and blood clots. It can aggra-vate asthma and inflame lung tissue, impacting heart function. Ozone pollution can also aggra-vate asthma, but most of the effects are more obvious. Ozone can irritate the respiratory system; it can cause cough-ing, throat irritation and headaches. It can affect lung function or the amount of air that you draw in when you take a full breath. Ozone can also make it harder to breathe in deeply and quick-ly, which is why strenuous activity is dangerous during high ozone levels. Although these two types of pol-lution are capable of causing disastrous side effects, many P.E. teachers ignore Spare the Air Days. “My P.E. teacher would make us run a mile every class whether it was a Spare the Air Day or not,” says senior Melissa Clark. Yet, still many teachers follow Spare the Air Day. “Coach Perry followed Spare the Air Day. He would let us run inside,” says senior Leah Murch. No matter how often Spare the Air Days occur, the dangers of pollution should not be underes-timated.

Please spare our polluted air

lem with ranking,” said Mason. The published rankings fueled charged debate and may even have resulted in the death of one teacher, Rigoberto Ruelas. Reulas was overall rated “less effective” at educating his students in English and math than his fellow teachers, a deduction that made for a crushing blow to his confidence in his abilities as a teacher. Reulas’ family told reporters that Reulas had fallen into a depression because of the scoring. It is believed he may have committed sui-cide as a result. Reulas’ brother, Alejandro Reu-las, stated on the radio station Air-Talk on Wednesday, Sept. 29 that he thought it was unfair of The Times to publish the rankings. Reulas’ brother has speculated the possibility that Reulas and other low-ranking teachers faced bullying and harassment in the workplace from other teachers, administration, and even principals.

In response, Martin Sandoval, principal of Miramonte Elementary School, told The Times that he had neither used the information published nor discussed it amongst the staff. Reulas taught at Miramonte El-ementary School and is remembered as a positive and inspirational influ-ence who made an effort to steer his students away from drug use and gang activity and towards a higher educa-tion. Hundreds of mourners gathered at Presentation Catholic Church to pay their respects to Reulas. The congregation at Presentation Catholic Church was furious with the LA Times for publishing the database to begin with. One of Reulas’ former students, 13-year-old Karla Gonzalez, told the “LA Times” that “he wasn’t just a teacher, he was a second father. I will always be grateful to him.” When Gonzalez moved to LA from Mexico, Reulas helped her learn English and bought books for her.

LA Times teacher ranking backfires

Seniors ‘get low’ as they flash their mandatory wristbandsPhoto courtesy of Jeremy Martinez

What do you think?“I don’t like it. It itches and when I’m going it comes off anyway.” ~senior Chris Martin

“As an adult, it’s a good insurance policy. It’s a good way to keep track of kids.”~ teacher Allison Duffy

“It sucks because we’re high school students and we should be allowed to dance how we want to.”~junior Mark Asmar

“I just don’t like it.” ~ senior Larry Donald

Spare the Air Days increasing in number

The darkness has fallen on Leigh

ADHD may be in your DNA

snare line section leader Leah Ginsky. The marching band is known for theirextensive practices, hard work and commitment to excellence. The Leigh marching band is one of the most decorated extra-

Some people, however, choose not to take medication. Senior Cody Knight, an ADHD patient who was prescribed two pills of amphetamines a day from when he was a kindergartner until he was a seventh grader, feared that the medicine took a part of him away. “[The medicine] made me re-ally mellow, chilled out, and just kind of in a glazed over kind of feel. You’re just walking around like a zom-bie or something. You’re not hun-

British researchers have discovered that attention defi-cit hyperactive disorder, abbrevi-ated as ADHD, is a genetic disorder. A higher percentage of children with ADHD have missing or duplicat-ed segments of DNA which could bet-ter expose them to the condit ion. Accord ing to the Lan-cet, British r e s e a r c h -ers studied the genet-ics of more than 1,400 c h i l d r e n , 366 with ADHD, and more than 1,000 without. Around 14 percent of children with the disorder had missing or duplicated DNA seg-ments, compared to 7 percent of those without the disorder. ADHD, which includes symptoms such as inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, affects

Stadium lights traded for flash lights, night games for day games, and glow sticks for shadows. The Leigh Bowl’s stadium lights were removed during spring break of last year due to a manufacturing default. Leigh was the only school in the district that had prototype sta-dium lights, being they were the first school in the district to receive them. The lights that were put in at the other schools throughout the district were updated models of Leigh’s lights, leav-ing Leigh to be the only school in the district to have the lights removed. The prototype removal was enact-ed after an entire light pole came crash-ing through the gymnasium roof of Hay High School in Texas. The model was therefore inspected and deemed unsafe for use, due to the height of the poles, which resulted in the complete remov-al of the lights, and the cancelation and relocation of football home games. The second to last home game of the pre-season against Marina was cancelled, and the Leigh verses Andrew Hill game was relocated to Andrew Hill. However, the lights are going to be put back. It’s just a matter of when and the length of time they take to put up. The lights are scheduled to be back up at either the end of Octo-ber or early November. However, the school has no control over when the lights will be replaced. The new light plans must go through the state level and be approved by the state architect before they are installed. “We’re hoping to get at least two games in,” said Ath-letic Director Chris Perry. This leaves the last two consecu-tive home games to be played at Leigh, but of the rest of the home games scheduled, only Leigh’s homecom-ing had an official time and location. The rest of the games are undecided.

“We’re on a game-to-game basis,” said Perry. The “home” games will be played on neutral turf. This should not have a negative affect on the team according to Coach Shawn Thomas. “I can’t see playing on a neutral field affecting the team,” said Thomas. Not having home games is not going to have a negative affect on the current team, but it will have a nega-tive affect on the amount of money raised for the program. Sports teams must follow a guideline of allowed fund-raisers designated by the district. The Sports Booster Guide Man-ual considers the following allowed fund-raisers: “Athletic Events, Conces-sion Sales, Entertainment and Dances, Advertising, Publications, Student Stores, Limited Food Sales, Book Fairs, Car Washes and Cultural Events.” Without the lights the foot-ball program can no longer take advantage of the fund-raisers they were using during night games. No lights means reduced fund raising money and that will di-rectly affect the team in their abil-ity to get new equipment, jerseys, and training tools, such as new tackling bags, shoots, and sleds. There hasn’t been any imme-diate financial deficit on the team yet. When asked if there would be substantial losses, Coach Thomas responded, “It’s too early to tell”. No lights affects other activities such as marching band. In previous years, marching band has made use of the bowl for night performances and formation practices. In fact, the music boosters contributed funds to purchase the lights. The marching band has not stopped these practices, they instead just hold them in the dark. “We do practice in the dark. It gets cold and it’s hard to see. One of our instructors usually holds a flash-light over our drum major’s hands so we can see her conduct,” said senior

between 3 to 5 percent of children. “This is really exciting because it gives us the first direct genetic link to ADHD. Now we can say with confi-dence that ADHD is a genetic disease and that the brains of children with this condition develop differently to those of other children,” explains author Ani-ta Thapar, in a briefing with reporters. Medical response to ADHD has been the subject of heated debate.

There are three sides to the argu-ment: one side says that medica-tion is okay, the other d i s a g r e e s , and the next wants some-thing in the middle. M a n y

parents believe that medi-cating ADHD is beneficial. “Being medicated has re-ally helped [my son] understand,” writes parent Mary Paliescheskey in Helium. “He’s finally learned to read. He’s learned so many things.”

10.26.10page 04

gry, you don’t want to talk to people, and you’re just tired you know? It’s like something smacked you in the face but it didn’t hurt,” said Knight. Doctors, however, feel that there is a certain point at which medicine is necessary. “Instead of immediately pre-scribing drugs, physicians should recommend to parents a sequen-tial approach—behavioral therapy first and then medication if need-

Shayna JamesStaff Writer

curricular activities on campus. However, it will have to ex-cel with shorter night practice times, due to day light savings time and the absence of the light. “Currently, every practice will

be getting shorter as the daylight hours become less and less. Shorter practices will most definitely mean a lack of performance quality as the two are directly related,” said se-nior section leader Kevin Drake.

Terra SteadmanStaff Writer

ed,” said Dr. Dean Edell, a physi-cian, author, and broadcaster of the KGO AM 810, to Livestrong.com. Although Knight is no longer taking the medicine, he still finds ways to improve himself every day. “It’s about living with it [ADHD]. Even if you have a problem and it will never go away, people find ways to live with it…instead of just sit-ting around whining all day, they just do something about it,” he explained.

Senior Makayla Betts conducts the Leigh High School marching band in the dark.

Some people, such as this student, find themselves sidetracked with ADHD at the most inconvenient moments.

Recalled stadium lights leave many groups feeling stranded

Photo by Kylie Brown

Photo by Zack Galou[ ]Around 14 percent of children with the disorder had missing or duplicated DNA segments, compared to 7 percent of those without the disorder.

inionEditors-in-Chief

Annie Jung, Maddy Kirsch

Section EditorsNews: Jordan Boomslider

Opinion: Jenna GoekeFeatures: Shannon Keener

Sports: Kelly GroganEntertainment: Josh VasquezIn-Depth: Varija Yelagalawadi

Visuals EditorKylie Brown

Business ManagersChris Wyman, Kelley Grogan

Copy EditorsVarija Yelagalawadi

Staff WritersJosh Vasquez, Jenna Goeke, Danielle Baldelomar, Blayke Leach, Jennfer Park, Shayna James, Rebekah Hassen, Maddy Kirsch, Shannon Keener, Annie Jung, Varija Yelagalawadi, Jordan

Boomslider, Kelly Grogan, Alex Sainez, Spencer Thresh, Zack Galou, Terra Steadman, Jacob Parker, Kylie Brown, Abel Mariam, Marissa Rodriguez, Caitlyn Nuvnberg, Nicole Hamilton,

Andy Simionas, Arman Alam, Chris Wyman, Kim Foote, Sydney Black, Roya Askan

Design StaffJosh Vasquez, Jenna Goeke, Blayke Leach, Jennfer Park, Shayna James, Rebekah Hassen, Maddy Kirsch, Shannon Keener, Annie Jung, Varija Yelagalawadi, Jordan Boomslider, Kelly Grogan, Alex

Sainez, Spencer Thresh, Terra Steadman, Jacob Parker, Marissa Rodriguez, Caitlyn Nuvnberg, Nicole Hamilton, Andy Simionas, Arman Alam, Chris Wyman, Kim Foote, Sydney Black

Visuals StaffKylie Brown, Zack Galou, Abel Mariam, Roya Askan, Danielle Baldelomar

AdviserElizabeth Towner

The Eleight is an independent publication of the Journalism class at Leigh High School. Its content reflects the opinion of the Writing Staff and does not necessarily reflect the views of Leigh

High School, its Board of Trustees, faculty, administration or student body.

If you feel that The Eleight improperly or insufficiently represents any part of the Leigh High community, or have any other questions,

suggestions or comments, please email Leigh’s Journalism class via the_eleight@yahoo.com.

Deserving of their CrownsMarissa Rodriguez

Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again. The time of year when it’s perfectly accept-able to drink your weight in apple ci-der, wear football jerseys to school, and pretend that AP exams don’t exist. But along with all the amazing things that come with September, there are a few not-so-amazing things as well. H o m e c o m i n g court. It’s been over-clichéd in just about every teen movie in the history of Hollywood, and it’s an institution that openly accepts people based on their looks and popularity, not their attitude or level of participa-tion in school. Well, that is, until now. Class of 2011, you really shocked us all. This year’s Homecoming court is a force to be reckoned with. Virtu-ally every aspect of Leigh is covered by this year’s court. Our court represents Leigh Drama, Marching Band, Chris-tian club, The Eleight, Varsity Football, Leadership, ASB, AP students, Swim-ming, Badminton, and a vast array of clubs on campus. Although there have been some really deserving people on Leigh’s Homecoming courts of years past, there has certainly been a trend of most of the people on court being from the

same popular circle of friends. And that’s great, but what about the rest of the senior class? When the seniors selected to be on Homecoming Top 20 received their balloons and everyone found out who they were, there was definitely

speculation that Class of 2011 was do-ing something a little bit different for their homecoming court. Those twenty students—and the ten of them that moved on to Homecoming Court Top 10—were from every different corner of the school, covering practically ever single extra-curricular on campus. That’s probably the main reason why the campus was buzzing with ex-citement the minute that the Home-coming Court list was posted outside of Room 28. There was class-wide, and even school-wide representation. “Homecoming Court was nice

Leigh elects a diverse Homecoming Courtthis year because the people are diverse and they’re not only popular kids. It was surprising, but good,” said senior Keenan Wolfe. Although this breath of fresh air is certainly welcomed around Leigh, many students are wondering if Class

of 2012 will choose their court with the same intentions. “I don’t think our court is going to be very diverse next year. Our class has al-ways been all about popular-ity; we’ve been like that since middle school,” said junior Jennifer Lewis. Even though Homecoming Court is voted on by the senior class, and is therefore who they want to represent them, one can’t help but be concerned that our school could turn into a real-life version of Mean Girls.

How boring would it be if our school was filled with Regina Georges, or Cady Herons? Isn’t that the best

part about high school? Meeting peo-ple who are completely different from you, yet getting to experience these four crazy years with them? So Class of 2012, when you’re voting for your Homecoming court next fall, keep in mind, not everyone is exactly like you, and that’s a wonder-ful thing! Just remember the kid who volunteers at animal shelters, the kid with a 4.5 GPA, that guy who is nice to everybody, and yes, maybe even the var-sity football player… they all deserve a shot at being our Homecoming King and Queen.

Photo By: Kylie Brown

The 2010-2011 Homecoming Court as they watch the slideshow before their own lip sync in the gym on Thursday’s lunch

Forty-Five Degree FailDance guidelines don’t live up to their threats

Photo by Kylie Brown

Students as they dance “modestly” at the Homecoming dance

Picture Perfect

Portrait studio? Ha, more like Hall of Fame. Faces smile down at me from the wall: perfect teeth, per-fect hair, and perfect makeup. That guy with the guitar, he was the aide in my Biology class freshmen year… I’ve seen pictures of her on Facebook. I rec-ognize a surprising number of faces. For the past twelve years, school pictures have never been a big deal. Ok yes, in elementary school Mom would curl my hair and make me wear nicer clothes. But once you hit high school, no one cares about pic-ture day anymore. The line takes forever. There’s no mirror around so you have no idea that your hair looks like you just rolled out of bed. You give the lady your info sheet. You sit on the stool. You take a deep breath and prepare the smile that you worked on in the bathroom mirror that morn-ing. SNAP. The sweaty bald guy hits the buttons and the lights flash. And then it’s over—a whole year until the next one. The line for the ID card takes even longer. How long can it possibly take for the stamp-sized picture to be printed onto the plastic card? The top of the machine is conveniently see-through: so you can see your ID card spinning around in there, just teasing you. It eventually comes out. It’s face down, hiding the picture that will ei-

ther make or break you. The picture that will haunt you for the next year from it’s post on Grandma’s mantle. You pick up your ID card and mentally prepare. You flip it over quickly (like a Band-Aid!) to see just how awful it is this year. Outwardly you keep quiet, not wanting to draw attention to the ghastly thing grin-ning up at you, but on the inside you’re dying. You shove the ID card in your wallet, vowing to never let it see the light of day again. That’s all fine and dandy for the first three years of high school. But senior pictures are a whole other ball game. This is the picture that will be shipped off to some Great-Aunt

Louise in Delaware that you’ve never met before in your life but she’s re-lated to you somehow and she always sends a hefty amount of cash for your birthday. There’s a lot of pressure to look absolutely perfect. This is the moment that will be frozen in time forever and will be shown to all fu-ture generations: “This is what the woman who cured cancer looked like as a 17-year-old high school senior”. But aren’t seniors supposed to be older? Or more mature? Isn’t senior year supposed to be a magi-cal transition between the awkward puberty-filled stage of adolescence to the smooth happy sailings of adult-hood? No more zits or tripping over my own feet in the hallway. No more bad hair days. No more braces. No more being awkward. I think I’m missing something because my face still breaks out and I trip weekly, if not daily. Well I guess it’s time to confess… My name is Sydney Black. I’m seventeen. I’m a senior. I’m short and sarcastic. I’m Mormon. I like sunshine, laughter, and playing the piano. I’m in the process of applying to college. I’m legally allowed to drive a car. But no, no I am not grown-up or mature, nor am I ready to be. But it’s being shoved in my face. Senior pictures are just the beginning of the end.

Forty-five degrees. One degree past half a right angle and you’re cut, baby. While adjusting their shirts and applying their face paint, students in the line to enter the Homecoming dance tittered about acceptable angles. What business did geometry talk have at such an occasion? The mentions of angles were referencing the stricter dance policy that Leigh administration is now cracking down on and enforcing. Before the dance, it was announced that stu-dents would wear wrist-bands to enter the dance. If a student violated the bounds of “appropriate dancing,” such as by bend-ing forward past 45 degrees, they would have their wrist-band cut. If an administra-tor approached them again, the wristband-less student would be kicked out of the dance. Not only would they miss the rest of the dance, but they would be banned from the next two dances. “I just think it’s ridiculous to not be allowed to the next two dances. I think it just makes you go into the dance with a negative vibe and feel like we’re going to be watched for every little thing,” said senior Savannah Henry. Although the overwhelming ma-jority of students have voiced negative opinions about the policy, there are a few that support it. “I honestly think if the dancing was that bad, then good for the school for taking action. It definitely made people more cautious because of the

Annie JungEditor-in-Chief

consequence about missing the next two dances, so it made people think before they visited the ‘other’ 45 degree angle,” said sophomore Krystal Kate Soltani. However, the potential conse-quences seemed to be of little conse-quence to dance attendees. There was as much grinding, bending over, and thrusting as at any other dance. Students were able to get away with freaking to the same degree as they always have - derrieres writhed against each other, girls’ hands and hair pressed against the gym floor, and boys’ hands

roamed all over their partners’ backsides. It seems as though the policy was hardly enforced - only one student is known to have gotten her wristband cut. Administration walked by as dance partners made the beast with two torsos, and some students bypassed the purpose of the 45-degree rule - to curb inappro-priate dancing - by increasing their level of physical intimacy while keeping their backsides at a 39-degree angle. While walking out of the dance and on Facebook, students expressed their relief about how the policy had not been enforced.

“If they end up enforcing it, I think a lot of the students will be upset, especially the upperclassmen. I would be pretty angry because we pay to go to our school dances, and they choose to kick us out only because they are uncomfortable with the way our generation dances. But they ended up not enforcing the wristband rule, so I didn’t mind,” said junior Gabby Eik. In tandem with the lack of en-forced dance policy, there are other areas in which the administration is all bark but no bite.

ID stickers were in-troduced in order to keep students from leaving campus during school hours, but students have been able to leave with ease. Some put friends’ stickers on their own ID cards and some talk their way off of campus with little difficulty. Many students have discovered that they don’t even need the stickers - they simply park their cars off-cam-pus and walk off with-out any questioning.

And then there’s the issue of dress code. Ample amounts of bosom are shown - the cups of many female students runneth over. Short shorts are more like denim panties these days. Yet those who wear such items are rarely reprimanded. Overall, it seems that the adminis-tration rarely follows up on their threats of strictness and punishment. Few people ever face the deans for going out to lunch, wearing skimpy clothing, and folding in half at dances, contributing to the disregard students have for the administration’s policies and threats.

108,096,800 with access to the internet in America. Over 350 million social net-working users. And one major law that can hack through it all. Luckily, the law isn’t as bad as it seems. On October 26, 2001, George W. Bush signed an act into law lowering the restric-tions placed on governmen-tal organizations seeking to search telephone and other electronic communications. And in February of 2010, President Obama signed for an extension of this Patriot Act, prompting many Ameri-cans to defend their privacy. In our generation, most teenagers don’t go home and immediately start on home-work: they check Facebook. And Twitter. And whatever other social network they’re signed up for. Though there are many types of electronic com-munication, the majority of people are worried about the Internet. What most people are failing to realize is that this act isn’t trying to put citizens in harm’s way. It’s not a bad law. Our govern-ment is trying to protect us, not take away our civil rights. “Yeah, it [definitely] impedes on [my] Internet privacy, but I doubt the

Recess is no more. Class time is no longer set-aside for naptime. And being the line leader isn’t fought over anymore. So much has changed since elementary school. We dress ourselves and we make our own lunches (for the most part). We don’t have Jump Rope for Heart assemblies, Walk-a-thons, Turkey Trots or Olympic Days. The differences be-tween elementary and high school are drastically ap-parent, but those middle school memories, which are much fresher in our minds, are not nearly as easy to place. Middle school is just an awkward phase full of braces, puberty, and acne. Middle school drama is the absolute worst. Dating begins. Hearts are broken. Backstabbing and two-faced friends emerge. “The most dramatic part of mid-dle school is balancing all of our home-work and trying to not have problems with friends. For me, having problems with friends cause the most drama,” said Shelby Wright, an eighth grader at Ida Price. But really, how much of that is dif-ferent now that we’re in high school? In middle school, the drama was all focused on dating and friends. What is our cur-

rent drama about? Dating and friends. Have we really changed all that much from middle school? In middle school, so much energy is focused on who-likes-who, who-got-in-a-fight-with-who, and what-she-said-about-

her. But when there is a lull in the aca-demic activity of high school, what are the topics that we revert back to gos-siping about? Good gossip is good gossip. Girls still talk about boys. Boys still talk about girls. He asked her out. She cheated on him. He dumped her to hook up with her best friend. It’s sad, but we love it. We talked about it as tweens and we continue to talk about it as teens. The gossip

has just gotten merely gotten juicier as we’ve grown older. “In high school you hear rumors about who has sex, who is always high in class, and who enjoys a drink or two every once in awhile. The only

one I remember hearing about in middle school was whose gotten high before, but never who was high in class,” said junior Olivia Laws. Drama is drama. We still fight. We still lie. We still are bul-lys. We still get hurt and cry. Are we really more mature than our younger siblings in middle school? “I think that we’re close, but we’ve ma-tured a little bit. Some people more than oth-ers,” senior Nick Kar-kas admitted. Yes, we’re in high

school. We have Home-coming and prom and lockers and binders full of unorganized crap and

we take AP classes for college credit and we are legally eligible to drive our cars. We have come a long way from the days of snack time, Sesame Street, and monkey bars. Perhaps the newness of being one of the big kids has worn off. The same issues from middle school remain, but hopefully high school kids deal with them in a more mature way. Have we matured? Yes. Are we mature? The jury is still out.

It seems that height, age, and size may be the only differ-ences between high school students and middle schoolers

Uncle Sam is still listening...The government is wire-tapping the internet

government will be able to keep track of so many conversations,” said senior Andrew Lau. When asked whether he would

stop using social networking sites, Lau said “No, but I wouldn’t put out all my secrets in the first place.” The extension mandates that electronic communication sites such as Facebook and Twitter should be com-

patible with a certain software. If the government has the belief that national security is being threatened, these sites can be easily searched, and otherwise

encrypted messages can be decoded. More than a threat to our privacy, the extension of the Patriot Act ensures that our personal safety is protected as much as possible. We use the In-ternet for social rea-sons, so what is to say that terrorists don’t as well? Chances are that they have so-cial lives as well, and probably utilize social networking sites to converse with other potential terrorists. It’s understandable that, as Americans, we want to protect our right to privacy in our own country. Howev-er, it must also be un-derstood that the na-tion’s security is just as important, if not more

than, our privacy. With a nation overcome by ter-rorists, it can be assumed

that our rights and privacies would be obliterated. Taking this notion into consid-eration, the extension of the Patriot Act is one that will do more good than harm in the long run.

The only difference between them and us is our larger size!

Sydney BlackStaff Writer

opinion 10.26.10page 06

Photo by Danielle Baldelomar

Varija YelagalawadiIn-Depth/Copy Editor

Courtesy of www.farm3.static.flickr.com

Wiretapping is the monitering of telephone or internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means.

A Look Through the Pensieve

by annie jung

Of a Drug and a Mug I have recently discovered the joys of America’s most popular drug. It has proven itself very useful to me, and I wish that I had tried it earlier in life. Not only does it benefit my consciousness, but Dean Hayashi, my parents, friends, and teachers ei-ther don’t notice or don’t care that I partake in its use. It leaves no track marks and I exhibit no jitters, paranoia, or ram-bling about how my mind has ex-panded and that we should all come together and damn the government. And although the price for one hit fluctuates, depending on whether I purchase it from a well-known dealer or make it myself at home, it is quite an affordable daily habit; indeed, I see many members of both the student body and faculty alike taking hits at school, sometimes mul-tiple times during the day. “Enjoying that?” I’ll ask a teach-er as they indulge between classes. “Oh, yes,” they’ll reply, smiling as they ingest the drug. I prefer obtaining it from the big dealers, as their product is of higher quality, but my mother dis-courages me from doing so, repri-manding me: “There’s no need to buy it from them! We can’t cultivate it in the backyard ourselves, but we’ve still got the materials to make it at home. Save money and make it here!” Its medical name is trimethylx-anthine with a chemical formula of C8H10N4O2. When isolated in pure form, it is a white crystalline powder that tastes very bitter, so most users prefer to take it with other substances to mask its powerful flavor. Ninety percent of all Ameri-cans consume this drug every day, and while there are those who go overboard with it, it has become a beloved American pastime, daily dependency, means of sanity, and means of respite. Ah, caffeine. I must admit that, like a little girl, I’ve come to associate it with sophistication. Oh, to stride about holding that coveted daily cup of Starbucks. The glamour! The certain aura of je ne sais quoi that an espresso-filled mug douses one in. Caffeine has become one of my dearest friends this year because years of masterful artisanship in the fine art of productive procrastination has taught me that my best writing hap-pens in the interval between two and three ante meridiem. In order to utilize this golden win-dow of Pulitzer Prize opportunity (or rather, essay-completing prime time), I must be awake in the early morn’. It’s a shame that my interval of peak productivity falls during a time when most in my part of the hemi-sphere are frolicking with sleep. However, I like sleep. As much of an obstacle as it is toward progress, it is necessary. And it feels damn nice. And Sleep must sure as hell like me, because she wants to hang out all the time. Quite clingy, that Sleep. Texts me all the live-long day, asking if I’m free. My answer is always the same: “No, I’m busy, sorry.” I tell her this at nine, twelve, four, six, then nine again. And still she persists with her beckoning. She does have a sweet voice and powerful skills of persuasion. What a siren call she provides, that Sleep. However, I do get around to feeling bad for ignoring her, and she’s pleasant company. But sometimes my friend Home-work is very pushy. He’s a bit of a pos-sessive bully, now that I think about it. A fickle fellow, as well - sometimes

he’s completely inane, yet sometimes he offers learning of substance. Anyway, to avoid getting beat up by Homework’s goons - Failure and Rejectionfromcolleges - I am obli-gated to spend time with Homework. Sleep, however, is terribly jeal-ous, and often tries to take me by force! Several times, she has success-fully kidnapped me from Homework and held me hostage until morning. Homework was seriously displeased. He decided that he had to bring in the big guns - he brought in one of his best guards, a fellow by the name of Caffeine. He’s a powerful dude. Manages to keep Sleep at bay until late past the witching hour. Wasn’t too fond of him at first - he’d hurt Sleep’s feeling with his intimi-dation, and frightened, she hesitated to visit until early in the morning. To boot, Caffeine has been a lot sweeter lately. At first, he was a very dark person. Bitter. Now, however, he has lightened up. He’s provided good company throughout the late nights where Homework forces me to sit through hours of calculus problems with him. The fellow is obsessed with graphs of functions. Insufferable. His fashion sense has improved as well. He had a dark, brooding style, favoring black double shot espressos. His wardrobe has since come to in-clude creams and sugars and milks, in the form of lattes and cappuccinos. We’ve become very good friends, in fact, and I miss him terribly on days that I don’t see him. Because he’s pushed Sleep away, she’s been very ea-ger about making up for lost time and visits much too often. Without him, Sleep oppresses me. My work output slows in the afternoon, and past evening, I’m a goner. Her charms are overpowering, and without Caffeine to rescue me, I wearily collapse into those welcoming, wonderful arms that render Home-work but a passing concern. Alas, Caffeine’s strength has dulled against the powerful pull of Sleep. When once a double shot espresso was enough to keep me up well into my writing primetime, it provides now only a lift of two hours. ‘Tis a sorrowful loss. It’s rarer that I am able to keep consciousness untill two in the morning; poor tim-ing on Caffeine’s part, considering that this week is intense essaytime for my Early Decision application. Woe! Lament the night. Though bereaved of my peak faculties of writing, I still drink my coffee. If anything, it provides a weak placebo effect to aid alertness in the depths of the dark night. When Caffeine’s effect shall die, take him and pour him out in little espresso shots, and he will make the face of two a.m. so fine, that all the world will be in love with night. And so I sit here, in front of the screen, fingers a-tappin’ and a-typin’, with a solitary mug of coffee.

Are we so different from our middle school selves?

attitude surrounding homosexuals. “I think it’s a great idea [to use these words as insults],” said an anony-mous sophomore. This kind of bias and hate is dan-gerous, especially in a high school en-vironment where bullies and wounded egos run amok. There is nothing to be ashamed of by being gay or mentally disabled, and it should be a societal norm to be conscious of others, not

sexual, or mentally impaired. For example, what if someone were to replace the word “gay” in “that’s so gay” with words such as “black”, or “Jewish?” “If you were to use a gender or ethnicity [as an insult], you would have a lawsuit on your hands,” explains Royaltey. This double-standard is per-plexing, but it may be due to the fact that there’s still so much of a negative

change over time. After all, the term “gay” originally meant happy, “re-tarded” was (and still is) a clinical term used to describe someone with im-paired mental development and “fag-got” was…a pile of sticks. But these words are currently used to describe groups of people. By using them as in-sults, you demean those that belong to that group, making it seem like there is something negative about being homo-

Words hurt more than you thinkNicole Hamilton

Staff Writer

It doesn’t matter whether or not someone means to use a word in a sense that’s insulting to someone else. The fact of the matter is that “not meaning to” doesn’t change the fact that these words are insulting. Using words such as “gay” or “retarded” in substitute for “stupid” or “boring” is insensitive, and it hurts members of these respective groups far more than people realize. “[People get hurt] whether you’re intending [those words] to be hurtful or not,” said Holly Royaltey, faculty ad-viser for Leigh’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA). “Leigh stu-dents are upset, defi-nitely.” In 2009, 97 percent of students in California schools heard the word “gay” used in a negative sense, such as in the phrase “that’s so gay.” “It’s so normal, and I find that sad and disturbing,” said Roy-altey. It’s true that definitions of words

Calling students out for their use of derogatory languageignorant. Luckily, this opinion is defi-nitely the minority. “I never really used the phrase ‘that’s so gay’, but I did use the word as an adjective [to describe something that was stupid],” said senior Robert Macintosh. “But I never meant any-thing offensive. It was a long time ago.” “If you want to be grammati-cally correct, then use words to make

a point, and use the right words,” said junior Alex Gutierrez, “Why don’t they say it straight up [if they think something is stupid]? I don’t know how they manage to substitute those words.” After all, with so many words that are al-ready synonymous with stupid, why do so many people feel the need to use “gay” or “retarded”? But when you’re surrounded by a sea of teenagers spewing deroga-tory language, what can you do to work against it? One of the best things you can do is to call people out on their language, and con-front them. Often times, these people won’t believe that their derogatory lan-guage is a big deal, and it may take someone more conscious of the issue to point this out for them.

opinion10.26.10 page 07

The highs and lows of Prop 19

Christopher WymanStaff Writer

Kelley GroganBusiness Manager

Light. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. This is a process that some people want to make legal. The legalization of marijuana de-bate has taken center stage on California’s No-vember Ballot with California Proposition 19. It is hard to turn on the news without finding yet an-other story about California’s ever widening budget defi-cit or California’s climbing unemploy-ment rate. As these numbers continue to rise, marijuana contin-ues to be the largest cash crop in the United States, according to drugscience.org. Sophomore Arnela Colic voiced her support for Proposition 19: “It [marijuana] should just be legalized and treated like al-cohol. A fine isn’t going to stop people from doing it...The law will not do much of anything except cost the state money, and if they legalize it and tax it, they [California] will earn a lot more than if they just fine people for using it.” Critics of Proposition 19 contend that marijuana is a “gateway drug” that leads to the use of more harmful drugs and that an increase in usage would re-sult if marijuana were legalized. How-

ever, this is not true according to a study by the University of Pittsburgh which found that people are equally as likely to use illicit substances regard-less of what order they are exposed to them. Additionally, a study published by the University of California Santa

Cruz comparing San Francisco and Am-sterdam marijuana use, concluded that the legalization of marijuana did not re-sult in an increase in use, and that people are more likely to use “harder” illicit drugs in places where it is illegal such as San

Francisco. California’s current marijuana law treats the possession of marijuana

similarly to a traffic violation. It only results in a $100 fine and doesn’t pro-vide any solutions, rendering it inef-fective. Instead of using tax-payer dol-lars for legal fees related to marijuana

The question of whether to legal-ize marijuana in California or not is an obvious no. In the coming elections of No-vember 2010, the nineteenth propo-sition legalizing the regulation and consumption of recreational mari-juana in the state of California is a reckless one. As Califor-nians, it is our job to know what the side effects of this proposition passing could possibly be. When the issue of medical marijuana came about in California, people agreed that under supervision it could possibly work. But when talking of ‘recreational marijuana’ or ‘marijuana for fun’, the cir-c u m s t a n c e s are complete-ly different. We are told marijuana is a drug—s o m e t h i n g with a negative connotation—not a lollipop or good time. And I think it would be accu-rate to say that many teenagers are excited for this proposition to pass. They think, “Finally, I can smoke all the weed I want.” Those teens are se-verely mistaken.

This proposition is only applica-ble to adults over the age of 21—leav-ing out all the high school students. The proposition also states that mari-juana would not be allowed on school property or in ‘public places’. This means that the high school students that light up at school will be

severely bummed. Of course, will that really stop people from doing it? A n d another effect would be the fact that bus drivers could possibly drive while high—

giving people the right to drive while having marijuana in their system. This proposition also does not protect business owners who require their employees to be drug-free. Employees would also be allowed

to sell and d i s t r i b u t e marijuana to c o w o r k e r s if they hold a license—b u s i n e s s owners hav-ing no pro-tection from the state. And for all you weed-

lovers out there: under this proposi-tion, you will only be allowed to have an ounce of weed. Let’s be real: and ounce is not realistic. At first glance you might think, ‘this sounds like a great idea’, but at second glance the logic in the proposi-tion is missing.

law enforcement, Californians should make people who use marijuana help fix the budget deficit. A tax on mari-juana, according to the State Board of Equalization, could generate up to $1.4 billion. If Proposition 19 passes it would allow for people over the age of 21 to purchase and possess up to one ounce of marijuana, as well as grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana for per-sonal use. Something to consider is that this would bring a new industry and new jobs to California. If Proposition 19 passes, there would be a shift from people buying marijuana from their lo-cal drug dealer to people buying from licensed businesses. Because of this, crime associated with the unauthor-ized production and sale of marijuana would be reduced and an increase in job demand in the marijuana industry

would result. While in an eco-nomic downturn, it is im-portant for California to look ahead and see what we can do to boost our economy rather than look-ing for what we can cut from the budget. “I think that it [Proposition 19] would get rid of the debt, and it would supply a lot of jobs,” said junior Andrew Jerrom. He’s right; come Wednesday Nov. 3, when the election results have

been tallied, if Proposition 19 passes, careers related to the marijuana indus-try will become available. The future of the industry and the future of Califor-nia under Proposition 19 are literally budding.

“Hey that’s not okay...”Responses for when people use derogatory language

“How do you think a gay person might feel?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“So, that’s not a good thing?”

“Do you say that as a compliment?”

for the primary electionsLegally high in California:

Joint ready to smoke, but will it be legal soon?Photo by Kylie Brown

Pro

“ ”We are told marijuana is a drug... not a lol-lipop or a good time.

ConPhotos by Zack Galou

Whoa there, why don’t you try a different phrase for next time?

in-depth10.26.10 page 08

Dreams. The portal to our innermost thoughts. Our solace after a dreadful day. The world we turn to when our own world doesn’t offer us what we want. We subconsciously place so much importance on our dreams. We base our every move on them. We dream about our fears, and new fears evolve from the dreams we have every night. But these dreams are forgotten once we wake up. There is no acknowledgment of these dreams in our waking lives. We laugh them off, and simply think they are crazy or a little bit weird. But what can our dreams really say about us? about our personalities? What effect can they possibly have on our sleeping habits? as Zadok rabinowitz once said, “a man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.” It is up to us to analyze how great we really are.

-murdering someone-Being kidnapped-Being unprepared for school-spiders crawling all over-reliving the past-Being late for school-Being mute-Breaking various body parts-Theives breaking into your house-Dying-Crashing your car-alien abduction

-Getting shot-Burning/freezing to death-Drowning-Fighting in the war-The world ending in 2012-Being surrounded by clowns-Forgetting an important assignment at home-Being paralyzed-Getting your eye gauged-Being run over by a car-Waking up in your own grave

Waking up in a cold sweat:

What did you dream of?

On the Other Side of the Pillow

No day is so bad it can’t be

fixed with a nap - Carrie Snow

Consciousness:

that annoyin

g time

between

naps - Author Unknown

The best bridge be-tween despair and hope is a good night’s sleep - E. Joseph Cossman

Varija YelagalawadiIn-Depth editor

in-depth10.26.10 page 09

Dreams. The portal to our innermost thoughts. Our solace after a dreadful day. The world we turn to when our own world doesn’t offer us what we want. We subconsciously place so much importance on our dreams. We base our every move on them. We dream about our fears, and new fears evolve from the dreams we have every night. But these dreams are forgotten once we wake up. There is no acknowledgment of these dreams in our waking lives. We laugh them off, and simply think they are crazy or a little bit weird. But what can our dreams really say about us? about our personalities? What effect can they possibly have on our sleeping habits? as Zadok rabinowitz once said, “a man’s dreams are an index to his greatness.” It is up to us to analyze how great we really are.

Do you..Yes: 133No: 71

No: 93

Yes: 111

Yes: 101No: 103

....dream every night?

....remember your dreams?

....still have nightmares?

We all know that unwanted feeling. It’s around three o’clock and your leg jolts upwards suddenly. You are whisked away from a dream world and you crash back down to reality. It’s as though some strange and awkwardly compelling force tells you to look into what just occurred. You find yourself analyzing the dread, trying to look into a bunch of intangibles, instead of within yourself. It is as if we tie so much meaning to something that is just a simple product of our inner beings. Overanalyzing your dreams is like looking at a piece of art without knowing who was the artist or what they were feeling the day they painted it. The dream itself is very much like a form of art; dreams are our mind’s way of letting our subconscious free and allowing our imagination to manifest itself before our eyes. In a sense, to really know what you are dreaming about you need to get in touch with yourself and understand what you are all about. Knowing who you are is very important and can be a very hard task for the typical high school student. Let’s face the fact: it’s hard to find yourself in this large mess of homework and hormones. Don’t get so lost in limbo with your dream; instead, try looking toward yourself for answers. “Take a look and you will see in your imagination,” stated Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He meant that to truly understand our dreams and wild imaginations, we should look into ourselves. The fact that we are still growing into our adult selves, and that is confusing enough. Looking to a subconscious world that is filled with such raw thought and limitless possibilities seems simply too much for a young teenager to handle. Therefore, we should not dwell too much upon our dreams or we will lose sight of reality.

In Between DreamsSpencer Thresh

Staff Writer

On the Other Side of the Pillow

No day is so bad it can’t be

fixed with a nap - Carrie Snow

a ruffled mind makes a rest-

less pillow - Charlotte Bronte

Consciousness:

that annoyin

g time

between

naps - Author Unknown

The best bridge be-tween despair and hope is a good night’s sleep - E. Joseph Cossman

sleeping

is no mean

art: for

its sak

e one must stay

awake

all day

- Fried

rich Nietz

sche

Nothing happens unless first we dream.

- Carl Sandburg

f resSilly origin of Silly Bandz revealed

10.26.10page10

AVID: A Very Intelligent Decision

Danielle BaldelomarStaff Writer

AVID stands for Advancement via Individual Determination, and is a class used by students who are moti-vated and looking forward to going to college, but just don’t know how to re-ally get there. This class was developed to provide guidance to those college bound students that just need a little push in the right direction. Part of the AVID class is curricu-lum, writing, college applications, etc. and the other half of the class is tuto-rial where each student has to bring in a question from their homework, and they work with tutors on their home-work, and getting extra help with other classes. Throughout the year, the AVID classes take field trips to different col-leges to give students a head start on which college they will choose to go to. They have two different sources of funding, one is a grant from Xilinx, and the other is one fund-raising event a year; as of right now they do not know what it will be this year. Allegra Ullrey runs the avid pro-gram with Sharon Goodenough. Ly-

nette Jackson teaches the senior avid class, Holly Royaltey teaches the junior avid class, Joe Nakamura teaches the sophomore class, and Goodenough teaches the freshmen. “I’ve been with the AVID pro-gram for eight years,” said Ullrey. At the beginning of the year they only had 14 people in the senior AVID class and 15 for the junior class. The week after Labor Day students and teachers from the AVID program went around to junior and senior classes to get more juniors and seniors to join the class. Normally if you would like to participate in the AVID program you have to go through an application pro-cess, but after they talked to the classes the students had the option to go to the counselor and talk to them about changing their schedule and then they were in the class. Now there are 19 people in the senior class, 19 in the junior class, 32 in the sophomore class, and finally 35 in the freshman class. It is recommend-ed that if you want to be in the AVID class it is best to start out as freshman, that way you aren’t behind in your ju-nior or senior year. AVID is a class for kids who don’t

have a 4.0 gpa but are in the middle. It’s a great class for kids who are deter-mined to make their way into college, and this class is fully capable of getting them to that point. “My biggest challenge is getting the students to believe that I’m right,” said Jackson, who teaches the senior AVID seminar class. She tells the students that they are going to make it to college and they won’t believe her until they actually get there. She has been teaching AVID for six years, but has been in the AVID program for about ten years. “It gives me time to make sure that I know what’s going on in all of my classes, and to get help from my peers,” said senior Megan Pappas. Pappas works on math and sci-ence the most, and sometimes touches base with foreign language. “I’ve been in AVID since my eighth grade year in Union Middle School”, said Pappas. AVID seminar is a college prep class, and it has helped students tre-mendously with filling out college ap-plications and helping to decide what college they want to go to in the near future.

Students save the floundering class by joining early this year

Caitlyn NurnbergStaff Writer

Dinosaurs and elephants and ro-bots, oh my! This year Silly Bandz are the things that everyone of every age here at Leigh and in the country has to have. These silly creations by Brainchild Products started becoming popular to-wards the end of the summer, but that’s not the case everywhere. Silly Bandz were originally put on the market two

years ago, but people did not start go-ing crazy for them until last year. The first states to catch Silly Bandz fever were Alabama and New Jersey and then it spread like wildfire throughout the United States. Silly Bandz creator Robert Croak got his brilliant idea when he saw simi-lar designs in Japan. He decided to try to market it here in the states, and al-though it took a while Silly Bandz soon caught on. “I definitely feel like I’m one of the luckiest guys alive,” said Croak in

an interview with CBS news. “That’s for sure.” Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and even some seniors here at Leigh are taking a liking to the Silly Bandz sensa-tion. While a good part of the school is busy trading these silly bracelets, others are pondering why high school teenag-ers are even spending their money on something that will soon go out of style anyway. But then again, are Silly Bandz just another passing trend? Or are they here to stay?

Two words five letters

A Foot in the Door

Photo and graph courtesy of Vivian Nguyen

Two words, five letters, and an apostrophe comprise a seemingly simple phrase that when uttered out of unresponsive lips seems to take hours to say when in reality it takes only a moment. One conjunction and one ad-jective can change someone’s view of you forever. An admission of some-thing genetically predetermined like the color of your eyes, yet it holds a connotation as defined by society as wrong, immoral, and undesirable. Two words, five letters, and an apostrophe are all that it takes for me to say that I’m gay. The first time I told someone it was over a text message. There I was, staring at the small rectangu-lar screen, a blank message open. I typed two words, five letters, and an apostrophe and sat. While I typed, every ounce of self control was in use to resist the urge to press delete and go about my day. I proceeded with my message, selected a person from my contacts to send it to, and sat there some more, my thumb gently placed on the concave surface of the send but-ton, while I eyed those two words, five letters, and an apostrophe star-ing at me from the screen. I tried to push the button, the rational half of me willing my brain to send a signal down through my nerves to ever so slightly apply pres-sure to the send button and change my life forever. As simple as it sounds, I shockingly had many reservations. I set my phone down as I pondered the elaborate scenarios the irrational half of me had created. The endless hypothetical situ-ations and hypothetical responses and conversations that could hypo-thetically happen ran through my head. My irrational half told me that my friendship would suffer, that I would be judged, or that my friend would never look at me the same. Conversely my rational mind told me that my friendship would be more open, that she would be

proud of me, and that she would look at me and know that I am be-ing honest. Yet I sat there, phone in hand. My heart, like a bass drum, seemed to drown out the noise around me. I had a foot in the door, one simple gesture and I could walk out, but instead it felt like I was standing at the open doors of a plane, ready to take the plunge. Below me the open space, the uncertainty, and the only thing that would be able to hold me up was my parachute, my faith in my friend-ship. I eventually sent the message, after forcing myself to press the but-ton and then tossing my phone to the other side of the room so that I didn’t have to face her reply, which ironically told me how proud she was of me. Looking back, it is hard to explain why it is so difficult to tell people at first. It isn’t that I can’t ac-cept it, because I don’t have a doubt that it is not just a phase. It isn’t that I’m uncomfort-able with someone knowing because if anything I am more comfortable around someone who knows. It isn’t that I was afraid that it would affect my friendships because all of them have gotten better. So the answer to the question of what exactly is so difficult will re-main a mystery. I can’t explain my hesitations. I can explain the feeling that I get as soon as I tell someone. It is hard to capture the feeling as a whole, but the best way that I could describe it is liberation. It is the realization that it isn’t a big deal and that because the person is your friend, they will support you. The irony of the whole coming out process for me is that no mat-ter how many times I have done it, I still get the same anxiety before I ac-tually tell them, even though I know how good it will feel. The anxiety, I have learned can be taken away by having fun with it. In my opinion there really is no rea-son to make the process bland and stark. I’ve tried to have fun with it by writing a rap or casually mention-ing it, and for most people I add my signature phrase, “It’s whatever,” to lighten up the mood. Overall the process is com-plicated, and it has its ups and its downs. The only way that you can go about it, is with a positive mind-set, and to roll with the punches. As for the people who might have had someone come out to them, or in the future if someone comes out to you, my advice is to be supportive and relaxed about it. It is very easy to underestimate the gravity of the situation consid-ering the phrase is only two words, five letters, and an apostrophe.

Are S

illy Bandz Overrated?

Poll compiled by Caitlyn Nurnberg

Nicoletta. The Literaleigh Club, run and founded by seniors Bianca Broszus, Caralyn Lee and Emily Ogle meets

every Thursday during lunch in Room 55. According to the presidents, the club writes and helps critique works of literature and at the end of the semes-ter those works are then published and distributed to the student population. “We like to write, and we want to see other people write and we want to help each other write,” said Lee.

do it, but it looks really fun. TE) Do you have a lucky number? LW) Three. It was always my soccer number because I always got the smallest jersey because I was like a midget. For what-ever reason it just shows up all the time. TE) What is one thing you will always remember when you think of Leigh? LW) The back to school dance this year because I went with all of my friends and we went in and it was like the best dance I’ve ever

Their Royal Majesties features10.26.10 page11

Jennifer ParkStaff Writer

New clubs make their debut at Leigh

Visual by Danielle Baldelomar

Larry Donald:

TE) What was your favorite part of being on the Homecoming Court? LD) The sleepover that we had. We just practiced lip sync, had dinner, and chilled.

Lauren Weber:

TE) What was your favorite part of being on the Homecoming Court? LW)When we were doing our lip sync, I went to pull my pants down as part of my costume and part of my shirt came down with it and my shorts were like up around my butt and everyone saw my butt cheeks and it was really embarrassing. TE) What is one thing you have always wanted to do? LW) Parasailing, but I’m deathly afraid of it so I will probably never

TE) What is one thing you have always wanted to do? LD) Skydive. It just seems fun, but I’m probably never going to do it because I’m afraid of heights. TE) What college do you want to go to, and do you want to play football there? LD) I hope to go to a university, but it looks like I’m gonna go to De Anza or something and play football. [My dream school would be] Oregon or Ohio State. TE) Do you have a lucky number?

Shannon KeenerStaff Writer

“”

Over the summer I start-ed playing Ultimate Fris-bee a lot and I just kind of fell in love with [it], and [starting a club] just seemed like a good idea.

- senior Aaron Shuler, president of Ultimate Frisbee Club

LD) Three and five are my lucky numbers. With those numbers I do [well]. TE) What is one thing you will always remember when you think of Leigh? LD) All the people are really nice. My first dance was fun. All of the seniors were dancing with me which was fun. TE) What is the best part of being a senior? A) Everyone looking up to you and if they need help they come to you.

Visual by Danielle Baldelomar

had at Leigh and it really hit me then that I was a senior and that this was my last back to school dance. It was the beginning of the end, really.

Get to know the real King and Queen of 2010

It’s a rainy Sunday morn-ing as I’m writing this column on my old, beat-up MacBook. I have “The Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi blasting on my iPod speakers, seeing as the rest of my family is at church right now. I opted out of the weekly service, citing the 14 chapters of APUSH study guides that I’ve been procrastinating on (er, just kidding, Mr. Von Rassler! I mean I’m 14 chapters ahead...) And I’m currently racking my brain for any errands I could possibly need to run because… wait for it… I got my driver’s license this week! Yes, that’s right. I have finally obtained the single most sought after item for any high school student looking to get out of the house. And let’s just say, driving is my single most favorite thing, ever. I’ve been offering rides to my friends left and right (um, just kidding, Mom and Dad! That’s completely illegal, and there’s no way I would ever do that…) and I’ve been getting Starbucks practi-cally every morning for breakfast. Everything was going fine and dandy until this morning when I went to Bank of America to get some cash out of my bank account. I had quite the rude awaken-ing when I looked on the blurry little screen to see that I had ex-actly $13.89 left in my account. Just to give you the full sto-ry, I had $97.26 in my account the day before I got my license. As I scrolled through all my recent purchases, I felt like smack-ing myself for my stupidity. Had I really offered to pay for my friends’ food that many times this week? Now, the cinnamon candle next to me is starting to make me sick and the Pumpkin Spice Latte is starting to taste a little less sweet. It’s funny how everything I had ever been taught about saving money and following the law has gone out the window within the same week. Now blatantly breaking the terms of my driver’s license and swiping my debit card like there’s no tomorrow is a no-brainer. This newfound defiance was making me think—when did all the morals I grew up with become just silly little stories my parents told me? When did going to church become an option and not a weekly ritual? And when did I start relying on borderline-cheating sites such as Sparknotes and Book Rags to help me with homework on a weekly basis? Something about Junior year makes me feel like I’m suddenly exempt from all the rules and guidelines set forth by my parents and teachers. If I no longer need to rely on my parents for transportation, who says that I still need to de-pend on them for anything else? Obviously I still heavily rely on them for food, water, and a place to live, and not to mention the checks they’ll be writing to my college of choice at the end of next year. But since when has my relationship with my parents revolved solely around money? I realize I sound like a spoiled little brat, but at the same time, do I? I can’t seem to decide if my new relation-ship with my parents bothers me. I feel like I should be sad that our relationship has turned

into a business deal, or even a countdown to my eighteenth birth-day. But at the same time, it re-ally doesn’t bother me that much. According to Oprah and all the cheesy Disney Channel movies I grew up watching, I’m supposed to want my Mom to be my best friend. But I honestly don’t want her to be anything more than my mom. Don’t get me wrong, I love both my parents dearly, but I think I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I don’t really need to depend on them anymore. In fact, I’ve kind of reached a point where I can’t depend on anyone anymore. When I first started writ-ing this column, I was wor-ried that I sounded too frank and blunt. But when I showed it to other staff member of The Eleight, they all said the same thing: the way I write this col-umn is the way I am in real life. I’ve never been one to hide anything about myself; all my secrets, struggles, hopes, and dreams have always been com-pletely open subjects for me. Usually it’s a good thing, be-cause I never have to worry about hiding anything, but sometimes leaving myself so vulnerable has made me feel well, vulnerable. I open myself up to so much hurt and criticism when I allow my entire life to become public information, but the re-lief of never having anything to hide almost makes it worth it. This whole theme reminds me of a certain lyric in a certain Taylor Swift song (that’s another thing you’ll learn about me: I have an undying obsession with T-Swift. I seriously wish she could be my sister or something) that goes “You learn my secrets and you figure out why I’m guarded; You say we’ll never make my parents’ mistakes.” I certainly am not a guard-ed person, and I can only think of maybe one or two secrets that I wouldn’t openly talk about in this column, but maybe that’s a secret in and of itself: there has to be some deep, psychologi-cal reason why I feel the need to compulsively remain unguarded. All I want to be is hap-py, and is that so much to ask? And all this brings me back to the song that is still playing on repeat on my iPod speakers: “I’m on the pursuit of happiness, and I know everything that shines ain’t always gonna be gold. Yeah, I’ll be fine once I get it, yeah I’ll be good..”

The Pursuit of Happiness

By Marissa Rodriguez

Visual by Zack Galou

The new LiteraLeigh club meets to discuss its literary magazine with all of its new members and club adviser Michael White.

It’s the start of the new school year and students are getting their schedules and lockers, and making new friends. However, there is something missing in this picture: clubs. Some stu-dents still aren’t very certain which clubs they are interested in and wonder what kinds of clubs are available. This year, Leigh has started off with some new clubs that students might find interesting, such as Litera-leigh, EAAC, and the Ultimate Frisbee club. On Sept. 21, Leigh had its annual Club Fair, with rep-resentatives from each of the clubs answering questions from students. “There are at least 5 to 6 brand new to Leigh clubs but there are also others that restarted. The Anime Club, wasn’t a club last year, but they restart-ed this year. I like the fact that people are finding their niche and they’re or-ganized enough to do something with it to get other people involved with things,” said Activities Director Gina

The student population is now given the opportunity to express them-selves to others through words and ink rather than speech or voice.

“I think there’s a need for a literary magazine on campus and that there are a lot of tal-ented writers on our student body,” said Mike White, the club supervisor for Litera-leigh. Then we have the Envi-ronmental Action Aware-ness Club, EAAC for short, founded and run by seniors Nadia Alayoubi and Clara Luu. They meet every Mon-day at lunch in Room 63. The club helps with the re-cycling process at Leigh for those who are either too busy or don’t care to do the job themselves.

“Few teachers had paper recy-cling. Most of them wanted to, but it’s up to the teachers to recycle the paper themselves and we understand that teachers are too busy. So we wanted to help to recycle the papers,” said Alay-oubi. The club also teaches students to understand the importance of recycling and helping out nature. Now we have the Ultimate Fris-bee Club, founded by seniors Aaron Shuler and Matthew Nestle. The club gets together every B-Day Tuesday during lunch in Room 34. The club teaches students rules of how to play Ultimate Frisbee tournament style and has regularly scheduled practices at Houge Park. “We get people together and play regularly scheduled games every week. We want to have a pretty con-sistent schedule, two or three games a week and we might enter some tourna-ments,” said Shuler. The club is also planning on competing in actual Ultimate Frisbee tournaments hopefully in the near fu-ture, after teams have been assembled.

Soundtrack to my life

Monsters’ Ball: Monsters may be on the guest list, but throwing a large party doesn’t have to be frightening. Choose colors like zombie-sage green, bright orange, and dark purple for a festive autumn ball. Pair colorful streamers and cutlery with store-bought “scary” decorations. You can even make yarn balls in your theme colors and ac-centuate with paper bats or skeletons. Add a monster-face cupcake bar to your party. Make cupcakes and frost in bright colors. Allow guests to create their own monster-face cupcakes by setting out bowls filled with shapes: Skittles, peachy rings, Starbursts, Life-Savers, hot tamales, jellybeans, cut sour punch straws, candy corn, and sour belts cut into shapes,. “Chilly Ghosts”From What’s New, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson•24 baked chocolate or vanilla cupcakes baked in brown or black paper liners• 1 ½ cups ground chocolate cookies (chocolate graham crackers or Oreos)•1 16 oz. can chocolate frosting•2 8 oz. containers frozen whipped top-ping (Cool Whip), thawed in refrigerator•24 1 ½ inch balls of ice cream•48 multicolored chocolate covered sunflower seeds or mini M&Ms•paring knife

1. Use a paring knife to cut a cone shaped piece 1 ½ inches in diameter from the center of each cupcake; reserve the cones.2. Place the chocolate cookie crumbs in a small, shallow bowl. Spread the chocolate frosting around the top of the cupcakes, leaving the opening unfrosted. Roll the tops of the cupcakes in the cookie crumbs to cover.3. Divide the whipped topping into two ziplock bags. Snip a ¾ inch corner from each bag. Place the ice cream balls into the open-ings, pressing the ball down into the hole.Place the cone shape on top of the ice cream ball, flat side down, and press down slightly. The cone does not have to completely cover the ice cream ball; imagine if the ice cream ball is wearing a rice paddy hat.4. Pipe a circle of whipped cream around the base of the cake cone. Pipe a smaller circle on top of the ice cream and previ-ous whipped topping circle to cover the cake cone.5. Add a last layer of whipped topping on the very top of the cone. Place the tip vertical to the cone top. Squeeze enough to create a ghost head, release the pres-sure, and pull the ziploc bag tip away to leave a peak.6. Add two little candies for eyes. Serve immediately, or freeze and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before

serving. Yarn Balls:• assorted cut black and white yarn strands•white glue•water

•balloon•1 small cup or bowl•1 medium bowl1. Inflate the balloon and place it over the small cup so that it is held upright.2. Add some water to the white glue to thin it and mix in the medium bowl until well combined.3. Take the strands of yarn and dip them into the glue mixture, taking care to evenly coat the strand. Use your fingers to wipe off excess glue back into the bowl.4. Place the strand on the balloon. Re-peat in a random or crisscross pattern, leaving “windows” of space between strands.5. Allow to dry for at least 24 hours undisturbed. Pop the balloon, and voila!6. Use caution when attaching to a string to hang.

Black and White Ghouls’ Gathering: Hang alternating white or black tablecloths, covering the walls with vertical stripes, and add black, white, and orange balloon clusters where the tablecloth edges meet. A dark room with strings of pumpkin lights draped

Blayke LeachStaff Writer

Behind the scenes of the fall playJacob ParkerStaff Writer

Paint buckets are scattered across the floor. Half built props lay sideways near crumpled construction paper, wooden mixing sticks, and over-turned crates. The stage is set. For producing a play, that is. From requesting performance rights, to putting the finishing touch on the set opening day, the efforts of the producer and direc-tor, Bryan Ringsted, co-producers, and cast is astounding. “Permission…? Not really. With a classic like “Our Town”, you simply e-mail them requesting performance rights and write them a big fat check and you’re good to go,” said Ringsted. After the legal processes were completed, the stage was ready for the organization of this play, which is set in early twentieth century America. “Auditions are held and [Ring-sted and Cody Knight] choose the cast the best [they] can around the second

week of school,” said senior Emma Canepa, who plays Mrs. Gibbs. Once everything is organized, each member of the cast and staff does their part to make the production a success—perhaps the most difficult

part. “I oversee the entire production and make all of the creative decisions pertaining to the acting and design. I also am in charge of the technical as-pects of the production. The actors provide the talent; I provide the vision and organization,” said Ringsted.

Free afternoons usually bring so-cial chats and unhealthy snacks—the cast of “Our Town” have the former during their preparation. A mixture of witty comments and instructions echoes throughout

the cafeteria as the actors set up for rehearsal. The stage manager, se-nior Tes Stone, works with actors to make sure they have their lines down as tech crew—members of which are often called “Techs”—construct the props offstage. Serv-ing to assist Ringsted by relaying information, the assistant director, Knight, is seen taking notes near the stage. Senior Nathan Laird de-scribes the experience as “pretty chill. Everyone on the cast is really cool and like-minded. Everyone

has an original sense of humor that you don’t get outside theater.” As the cast sets up for the re-hearsal of the first act, they jump over props, have mock sword fights with yard sticks, and joke around. However, once senior Dustin Szuszitzky, the nar-rator, says his first line, the actors snap

into character instantly. Rehearsal of the first act starts, and Stone continu-ally gives supportive advice while the backstage actors practice their lines in hushed tones. O f f -stage, the faces of the tech crew peer over massive flats and props as they labor to build the best set they can for the actors to perform on. How-ever, Techs do more than what is seen during the practice, and much more than what is observed dur-ing the play. Their jobs range from constructing the set and props, to de-signing the lighting, makeup, costumes and sound.

“Actors and Techs have a love/hate relationship. But in the end we’re all part of the family, so we get along,” said sophomore Marshall Robbins, a

sound designer. T h e month of off book rehears-a l—rehearsa l from mem-ory, without viewing one’s l ines—allows for focusing on character development, a key factor in producing a drama. Actors, tech crew, and staff are excited for the assembly of each aspect “Old Town”,

and this is shown by the enthusiasm generated during rehearsal. “I think it’s going to turn out really well,” said senior Hydie Pavick, who plays Emily Webb.

Halloween at Great America:Just how haunted is it?

features 10.26.10page12

AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! The screams can be heard from every direc-tion. All that can be seen from afar is bright lights, thick fog, and the seem-ingly innocent outline of someone walking towards you. As they get closer you suddenly realize that this person is not quite normal, and before you know it, a frightening face is up close and personal. At Great America’s annual Hal-loween Haunt, scares and screams

are guaranteed throughout the whole night. Beginning at 7 p.m. every Fri-day, Saturday, and Sunday night in October, the park is transformed into a Halloween nightmare, determined to scare the life out of you every step of the way. While slightly expensive at $40, it is most definitely worth it when looking for the best of the worst chills. With plentiful attractions, in-cluding all rides, several mazes, a few shows, and scare zones, the park and its “monsters” are always around to show you a haunted evening. The whole park is broken up between normal areas--where shows are held and mazes stem off all around--and scare zones, with just enough smoke to mask the surroundings and the people creeping up. The people dressed to scare come out of every cranny and come as close as possible to the point where they nearly touch you. At times, if there is a group, they tend to force the group to split up, making each person alone to fend

for themselves. And out of nowhere, people equipped with knee pads come sliding out of the fog towards your feet, screaming at the top of their lungs. Depending on your tolerance toward someone popping out at you and mak-ing you jump, these zones might pres-ent some of the biggest scares. The shows offered throughout the night are meant for creepiness, oddities, and the occasional laugh, but scares are less of a feature. They seem to be more of a break to the other attrac-tions around the park, while still keep-ing up with the theme of the night. If

looking for the ultimate scary night on Halloween, skip these shows and move right on. The features that will definitely offer up the best nightmarish expe-riences are easily the various mazes. With names like carnEvil, Cornstalk-ers, Slaughterhouse, and Toy Factory, they may sound like a joke. But on the contrary, they bring back some of your worst fears, such as carnEvil’s clowns, Cornstalkers’ hell-bent scarecrows, and Toy Factory’s demonic toys and gad-gets. Creatures lurk behind every cor-ner and come from every angle to give some of the worst frights and deepest thrills. Overall, a normally chilly night becomes that much more frighten-ing when adding some of the creepi-est costumes and best scares. If money and time are available, spend Halloween night with those who do it best at the scariest haunted house in town, Great America’s Halloween Haunt.

Clara LuuStaff Writer

How to make your Halloween party unforgettable

Mystery Murder Dinner Party: If you’ve ever played the clas-sic game Clue, you know what a mystery murder game is like. Bring the intrigue and competition to life on Halloween night: throw a mystery murder party! Mystery murder party kits can be purchased for almost every group size. You can also design your own

game. For a New York mystery theme, decorate with black and add metallic details, like silver balloons. Add posters of New York landmarks or celebrities and create cardboard cutouts of skyscrapers with “city lights”- simply poke holes in the cardboard cityscapes and use a string of Christmas lights! Tailor your menu to match a New York City murder case: try mini hot-dogs, bagels, a variety of

ethnic foods, or Manhattan clam chowder, and finish with New York-style cheesecake.

crisscross or black or white electric lanterns with orange light bulbs create the right ambiance. Add flair to your ceiling by making these simple hang-ing yarn balls. (see inset) Create an eerie table with black plastic tablecloths with ripped and frayed edges, topped with a white lace tablecloth and cobwebs. Scatter black plastic spiders and skull confetti over the table. Wilted roses in a crystal vase will complete the look of otherworldly elegance.Decorate with white gourds. Tea lights placed in short glasses covered in black

paper with silhouette cutouts will cast creepy shadows on the walls. Red, blue, and white tortilla chips served with blood-red salsa or zombie-green spinach dip, black rye bread, veggies with ranch, or a fruit tray with a white or black chocolate fountain are some simple menu ideas. Fill glass bowls marshmallows, chocolates, licorice, fudge chunks, or white chocolate macadamia cook-ies. Make these ice cream- chocolate ghost cupcakes for your spectacular showstopper-nobody can “boo” to these cuties.

“”

Actors and Techs have a love/hate re-lationship. But in the end we’re all part of the family, so we get along.

- sophomore Marshell Robbins

Photo by Annie Jung

Photo by Danielle Baldelomar

Photo by Rebekah Hassen

Photo courtesy of travel.latimes.com

Photo by Josh Vasquez

Out of 149 people

Where do

YOUHalloween?

go for

Poll compiled by Rebekah Hassen

Halloween Movies: Trick-or-treating is not for everyone – sometimes you feel that you’re too old, kids are too young, or you just don’t like candy. Luck-ily, there are plenty of Halloween-themed movies that can get you in the holiday spirit without dressing up or going out. “Halloweentown” (1998) Before “High School Mu-sical” and Hannah Montana, the Disney Channel used to release some quality original movies. “Halloweentown”, released in 1998, is the story of a family of witches and wiz-ards who follow their grandmother Aggie into Halloween-town, where she lives. When they discover the evil sorcerer, Kalabar, has cast a dark spell on the town, it is up to the kids to save the town. This movie is great for kids and fami-lies to enjoy if you’re staying in on Halloween. (See also: Hocus Pocus)“The Ring” (2002)

Josh VasquezEntertainment Editor

Andy SimionasStaff Writer

A lot can be said about American remakes of foreign films. Many con-sider them unnecessary or just a way for American filmmakers in Holly-wood to cash in on the success of great films that were p o p u l a r in other c o u n t r i e s . Prior to its

release, “The Ring”, the American re-make of the Japanese cult classic, “Ringu”, seemed to be yet another remake destined to destroy the reputation built by the original. Eight years after the film’s release we can now say that director, Gore Verbinski, has cre-ated one of the scariest films of the past decade. Because what’s scarier than a girl giving you only sev-en more days to live? The torment you receive from that girl dur-

ing those seven days. (See also: Paranormal Activity)“Shaun of the Dead” (2004)

The “Burritozilla” burrito at Iguana’s Taqueria is not merely a food challenge, but a test of human deter-mination, endurance, and girth. Four contenders, junior Blayke Leach and seniors Andy Simionas, Annie Jung, and Spencer Thresh, were eager to take on this trial with empty stomachs and an appetite for glory. So now to introduce the Bur-ritozilla. Hitting the scale at approxi-mately five pounds, and a whopping eighteen inches long, this monstrosity is $18.75, and is more than the aver-age man and tortilla can handle. Three industrial sized flour tortillas are not enough to contain the pounds of carne asada, beans, rice, and other ingredi-ents. Each of our challengers had a unique approach to tackling this bad boy. Some of these in-cluded the “ S i m i o n a s Special,” a technique of extreme orga-nization and clean cuts, and Leach’s “foil take”, which in-volved slowly undre s s ing the burrito so as to keep it intact. Jung

If you’re not so much into hor-ror movies but still want to watch a movie that will give you the Hal-loween experience, look no further than “Shaun of the Dead.” The hilarious zom-bie spoof staring the dynamic duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is about a man, Shaun, who finds himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Shaun sees this as an opportunity to show his friends, fam-ily, and ex-girlfriend that he is worth some-thing by saving the day.

But that proves to be harder than it seems. With incredible directing by

Edgar Wright and performances by the whole cast, this quick-witted com-edy could be the funniest horror movie you ever watch. (See also: Zombieland) “Psycho” (1960) Alfred Hitch-cock’s classic thrill-er, “Psycho”, set the bar for horror films to come. The story is of a woman who is simply fed up with her bad luck and decides to steal $40,000. While on the run, she stops at The Bates Motel and befriends the hotel manager, Nor-man Bates, who is controlled by his mother. Not only is this film an outstanding classic but it is still wide-ly recognized as one of the most rec-ognizable and talk-ed about movies of all time, and its infamous shower scene is one that will be remem-bered forever. (See also: The Birds)

“Saw” (2004)

attempted the tried but true “slow and steady” approach, while, as Thresh puts it, “I just threw myself at the burrito.” Right off the bat, Simionas was off to a promising start, annihilating portions of his burrito. Thresh decided initially that he would go for the bur-rito head first, but soon found more food on his face than in his s t o m a c h . With a bur-rito that did not want to cooperate, he tore off the tortilla and ate the ingredients separately. Jung seemed to be quickly falling behind, making it hard to catch up later on, while Leach was right on schedule, just making av-erage work of an above average meal. Thresh soon found more of a mess and less of an entrée, but he

changed his strategy to take care of this fiasco. He heard a voice call-ing “Use the fork…”, and that’s just what he did. Soon Leach found that his portions were falling apart, too, and sought

out an apparatus to help clean it up. With fork in hand, he was back in business. With each bite bringing him closer to food challenge glory, Simio-nas was on the fast track to a win. But

out of no-where, he ran headfirst into what eat-ers call “The Wall.” There’s no exact way to describe ‘The Wall,’ but when you get there, you know, and you can’t eat anymore,” S i m i o n a s

moaned. All of a sudden, the Burritozilla attacked on mul-t i p l e f r o n t s , becom-ing not just a c h a l -lenge of size, but of taste. A f t e r w h a t s e emed like an eternity, the once scrump-t i o u s t a s t e s o o n g r e w bland on the pal-

ette. Thresh had the idea to blast music

to raise moral and appetite in the dark-est of moments, when all that seemed near was an insurmountable hole.

Blayke LeachStaff Writer

The Battle of the Burritozilla!The time between bites soon became

significant-ly drawn out, with all four contenders con s id e r -ably slow-ing down. With Si-mionas ba-sically out of the com-p e t i t i o n , T h r e s h ’ s eating be-gan to draw to a close. Leach con-tinued to

eat, but with a heavy hand, and a light fork. Jung kept to her slow, steady pace, still slightly behind. But at the end of the

day, no contender was worthy of the Burritozilla’s aura of greatness, so there was nothing left to do but pack the remains up and weigh out the winner. In fourth place, finishing at about one pound, 9 ounces consumed, is Annie Jung, who made a respectable dent in this incredible food challenge. Next came Blayke Leach, whose appetite al-lowed for about a pound and 10 ounces, causing signifi-cant damage to the monster. Losing by just an ounce was Andy Simionas, who ate just over 2 pounds, leaving Spen-cer Thresh the winner at 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Even with opposite techniques, there was one common denominator:

go big or go home.

Spencer ThreshStaff Writer

Photos by Varija Yelagalawadi

Thresh enjoying the monstrosity.

The weight of this beast is unbearable.Burritozilla weighing in at approximately five pounds.

The delicious demon in preparation by the cook.

The best classics sure to cause sleep loss and paranoia

Staff takes on the five pound monster from Iguana’s

entertainment10.26.10 page 13

Photo courtesy of zombcon.com

Photo courtesy of best-horror-movies.com

Photo courtesy of photobrowser.com

Photo courtesy of ctnews.com

When the original “Saw” came out, it was met with very mixed reviews. Now, six years later as we are only days away from the sev-enth and final instal-ment, we know that it is the movie that kicked off a fantas-tically compelling and gory franchise. The story is of a man who goes by the alias “Jigsaw” who is in a battle with cancer. Upset at how people around him don’t appreciate the life they have, he cre-

ates horrifying traps that these people have to find a way out of. He gives

them a choice: life or death. In the past six years, Jig-saw has become an iconic horror character in his own right. With its gripping story and mind-bending twists, the “Saw” franchise is des-tined to become a horror classic. (See also: Saw 2)

Photo courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com

Directed by Jeff Tremaine

Jackass 3D

Steve O may have said it best after the movie’s final stunt: “This is the extreme shit that even the ex-treme guys don’t think of.” “Jackass 3D” is over-the-top ridiculous. Catered to a target audience of 17-year-old boys (or at least people of that maturity level), this movie is a collage of pranks with intermittent clips of the guys getting hit in the balls and punching each other in the face. The pranks vary between cre-ative and vulgar; the weak stomached may want to consider bringing a barf bag. The movie’s definite highlight was the airplane scene.

T h e

guys powered up a turbo jet and let objects and humans fly in the wind of it. They threw a football into its wake and it zipped away faster than the cam-era could even manage to record. Then, of course, they threw another one and someone decided to jump in front of

Andy SimionasStaff Writer

The Best Worst Movie

The Room

Director

There are movies that are so great, so well thought out, so emo-tionally compelling and are just so darn brilliant that after watching them you’ll never forget them. Un-fortunately, “The Room”, directed, written, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, is definitely not one of those movies. This indepen-dent film, released in 2003, is in a league of its own of hor r ib l e -ness. But the movie is so all a r o u n d bad that it’s actually good in a sense. The fact that everything about the m o v i e is awful makes this a great movie to watch sim-ply for the sport of making fun of it. And when critics say every-thing about the movie is horrible, they mean literally all aspects of the movie are bad. The first horrible thing about this movie that makes it great is the combination of awk-ward lines with awkward acting. The lead character, played by none other than Wiseau him-self, has a knack for saying lines in such an uncomfortable man-ner that a viewer can only respond to this attempt at a drama with a laugh and say, “Is this guy serious?!”. Also, for some reason when Wiseau wrote the film, he decided to

have nearly every character introduce themselves with “Oh, Hi!”. This monotony in introductions along with the variations in pronounc-ing and timing of the introductions add to how horrible “The Room” is. Another thing about “The Room” that makes it so horrid is the plot. The main story revolves around Julius (Wiseau) and his fiancé Lisa who has an affair because she sees Julius as boring. Not only is this basic story line confusing and bor-ing, but there are other smaller story lines, like their neighboring college student who ends up getting in-volved in drugs. That’s simply what

happens, no real develop-ment as to what drugs or why their neighbor got into it, just a confronta-tion about it on a “roof-top” with a poorly green-screened back-ground of the o u t d o o r s . Also, Lisa’s mother tells her daughter that she’s ill with breast cancer but nothing comes

of it. The mother only mentioned it once and that was it. It seemed as if Wiseau forgot to continue with the idea that one of the characters had cancer. Along with this loosely thrown together plot, there are scenes where the characters simply throw around a football. Weird, yes. But even weirder is the fact that the characters toss the football while standing three feet from each other. This flawed plot and horrid acting of The Room make it what could be the worst movie ever, but at the same time makes it so great. For those who can criticize and make fun of things, this movie will truly be a delight.

Zack GalouStaff Writer

Halo: ReachXBox 360

The fifth first-person shooter of the “Halo” series and prequel of the 9-year-old “ H a l o : Combat Evolved” g a m e ; “ H a l o : R e a c h” has fi-nally ar-rived. P a c k e d with ren-o v a t e d ( d e t e -riorated, r a t h e r ) weapons, features, mode l s , and spec-t a c u l a r s t o r y - t e l l i n g , this game deserves its high score. The delineation of the story through the campaign offers an eas-ily understandable explanation for the gamer who doesn’t know much about the “Halo” trilogy. Its prestige is en-hanced by its graphically beautiful game, too. The graphics of each game consequently improve in color, depth, and animation. Nearly all of the same weapons have been kept, but the ones that were removed have been altered. Previously, the Battle Rifle had a 3-shot burst. Now called the DMR, it is a single-shot rifle. The Carbine has been removed, and re-placed with the Needler Rifle: think of an elongated, single-shot Needler. The Dual-Wield option has been removed;

players can only hold one weapon at a time. Various maps have been imple-mented for multi-player, and many gamers’ multi-player favorite, “Blood Gulch” from “Halo: Combat Evolved,” has been brought back again. Some game modes have been strategically re-invented. The armor is as customizable as ever, with various head, shoulder, chest, wrist, and knee armor, amongst other character factors. However, there are some contra-

dictory aspects of the game that pertain to the story line. For instance, the armor the spartans wear looks very much like Mark VI armor, which is the armor the Mas-ter Chief utilizes in “Halo 2” and “Halo 3,” but since “Combat Evolved” uses Mark V armor, one would expect the Reach spartans

to use Mark V armor. Similarly, Mongooses weren’t available for use in “Combat Evolved,” why should they be in use in “Reach?” More-over, the assault rifle still carries 32 shots, like “Halo 3”, but in “Combat Evolved” it carries 60. All in all, “Halo: Reach” is a gen-erally spectacular game; though it has its drawbacks, the majority of the game is astounding.

Grade: A-

This highly addictive zombie-horde survival game has finally been released after years of waiting. Chuck Greene, a former moto-cross star, is the hero; his daughter has been infected with the zombie virus, and she needs medicine to cure her. The player takes the role of the resourceful Greene and fights vast amounts of the living dead. The first game was a love-it-or-hate-it type for most, but the sequel has proved to be admirable by both spectrums of the gaming community. The weapon combinations are innovative and deadly. One can wield a lawnmower with two-by-fours for handheld operation, if necessary. Co-operative play introduces another style of play that maximizes fun. The leveling factor adds more depth to gameplay and gives the player a reason to complete objectives and

missions in the game; Chuck Greene increas-es his strength amongst other skills each time he levels up. I s s u e s like lag and long loading screens are still prevalent, but exponentially less so than the first game. W h e n dealing with large groups of zombies, the

game tends to slow down, and loading screens take a bit of time to complete. In general, this sequel is like the first, only with great improvements of the original game, and some overdone clichés.

Grade: B+

XBox 360, Playstationtion 3

Dead Rising 2

theflicks

ME CUS IM SWEET!

Maddy KirschStaff Writer

YAY MOVIE!

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Maddy KirschEditor-In-Chief

it. The guys suited up with umbrel-las, parachutes and even those flying squirrel-like body suits in attempts to fly, but ended up wiping out in the mud. They even set up a dinner scene with a couple eating on one side of the en-gine and a waiter with a tray of entrees on the other side. When the waiter

crossed the threshold, all the food was hilariously stripped away to 1000 yards across the field. The scene was all fun, clean action comedy until the end; it

wouldn’t be “Jackass” unless they also peed into the en-

gine’s wind. Other high points included “bee hive

tether ball” and “fun with super m i g h t y

glue”. In the former scene, the guys slipped into banana hammocks and tossed

around a gar-bage bag of 1500 bees, only mo-ments after the audience was told that 100 simul-

t aneous bee stings could kill a man. The lat-ter scene involved s l a the r -ing hands with a powerful a d h e -sive and p l a n t -

ing them on Preston’s hairy chest. The separa-tion thereafter was painful hilarity. Despite these few ingenious gems, the bulk of the film was potty humor. We watched someone poop into a pa-per mache volcano and someone else fart into a kazoo. It was with these clips that producers really took advantage of the 3D element, making the poop and the kazoo tip protrude out of the screen and right into our faces. Their

efforts were largely wasted however, as most

v i e w e r s

averted their eyes at these moments. Perhaps the most disgusting scene of all was the final one. Steve O strapped himself into an over flowing Port-a-Potty and then bungeed the potty between two giant cranes. Cam-eras inside the potty complex and out captured the following explosion of poo as the Steve was launched several hundred feet above the cranes. Many of the bystanders and crew barfed onto the cameras after watching Steve emerge, and those in the theatre were gagging equally as hard. Although poop explosions may

never get old for the jackasses, the jackasses seem to be getting too old for the poop explosions. When

leading man Johnny Knoxville first

appeared on screen to introduce the movie, several audience members com-mented on his older look. These are no longer amateur kids goofing off in the backyard; the guys are getting old! The aging factor only seems to remind viewers of how long the “Jack-ass” franchise has really been going on. It first aired as a 30 minute show on MTV in 2000, more than ten years ago! Most of the kids who watched the boys back then are now grown up men, and miraculously the jackasses are too. Maybe it’s time the show grew up along with its audience.

Grade: B

[ ]These are no lon-ger amateur kids goofing off in the backyard; the guys are getting old!

Photo courtesy of filmofilia.com

Photo courtesy of theroommovie.com

Photo courtesy of gamersisland.com

Photo courtesy of api.ning.com

Unenthusiastic spectators put a damper on the atmosphere of games

Leigh High School has various sports teams on campus; our ath-letic department has mem-bers ranging from the bad-minton team to the football team. But what do people re-ally do when they attend the school’s local and away games? “I think that people actually go to the foot-ball games to hangout with friends and because it’s what everyone else does, not as much to support the school,” suggested senior Alyssa Carwile. Leigh students attend local sports games for various reasons: some to “hang out” with their friends, some to show school spirit and scream

their lungs out for the team, and some attend only to cheer for the people they may know on the various teams, but very few of the spectators actually pay attention to the game itself; many

spectators leave the game not really knowing what happened or what the final score was a few minutes before. Leigh’s sports events have been molded over the years into what seems

sports10.26.10 page 15

Alex SainezStaff Writer

being a good coach and being a bully? Throughout the decades, verbally abusive coaches have been prevalent in California. Many cases have been presented where players with high po-tential have quit simply because of a negative attitude from a coach. These coaches have in turn stated that they were simply doing their job, and that the players needed the tough love in order to prosper in their chosen game. “All coaches [use tough love] to motivate us and [encourage us] to work together. If they don’t, the team would be bad,” said Charlotte James, a senior varsity cheerleader at Leigh. However, when is this tough love too much? And when players quit, are they justified or are they need-lessly abandoning their teammates? The answers to these questions are not readily available, because they rely heavily on not only the nature of the sport, but also on the person-alities of both the player and coach. “[Coach Thomas] is a nice person at times, but he can’t apolo-gize when he’s wrong. He could be a

good coach, but he just doesn’t know how to control his anger,” said Senior Ryan Devincenzi, who played as run-ning back until early August of this year. Devincenzi claims that he quit due to a conflict with Coach Thomas. When it comes down to it, the coach-player relationship is much like any other relationship. It requires a lot of pushing and prodding and in-volves a lot of tears and hurt feelings, but in the end, as long as the team connects, was everything worth it? Wednesday was a relatively normal day for most of the school, but for the varsity football team, it was any-thing but an ordinary day. Amidst all the rumors about Coach Thomas and the players, the team has come together and is reportedly closer than ever. Most of the team is back to their regular practices, and only a couple players have quit indefinitely. “I think that after everything that happened, [we are] more of a family and [it] made us stronger,” says senior Dante Sunseri, who plays cornerback.When asked how the players were

Football Tensions Continued from front page...

now to be mainly a social event rather then the competitive and entertaining demonstration of skill and precision on the part of Leigh’s many athletes. Students appear to be attending

sports events not to watch the game or players, but to socialize with their friends and various other people they know at the games and to just “get out” and do something with their free time; very few people actually attend the games and are really attentive to the score and plays. Besides the cheerleading squad, the football team, the marching band, and all the oth-

er various sports teams on campus, very few members of the student body can recall the score or what happened at most games. So, what are we really doing at the games?

Photo by Kylie BrownExpressionless spectators watch game without emotion

Spotlight

2. Returner Ricky McDiarmid begins his return on the kickoff

1. Drum major Makayla Betts conducts the band during the halftime per-formance1.

2.Photos by Kelley Grogan

performing as a team following the incident on Wednesday, Coach Thomas said he gives them an “A.”

flip-side 10.26.10page 16Ph

oto

s by M

addy Kirsch

Where’s Hayashi?

BOOM! RoastedAndy SimionasStaff Writer

Name calling. It seems a bit juve-nile, especially when it’s being done by the two candidates for governor in the upcoming California general election. Although Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown aren’t literally calling each other names like “doddy heads”, there is a surge in negative ads in the media against both candidates. Instead of focusing on their positive aspects, the negative ads take a fact, then distort it or use it to portray the other candi-date as something they’re usually not. I’m not some senior political correspondent, I’m a senior in high

school, and it doesn’t seem like the best idea to have someone vote for you simply because the other candi-date is perceived as a worse person. Instead of roasting these people who make advertisements for politi-cians, I simply have some advice for them. In my all time favorite chil-dren’s move, Bambi, Thumper said “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”. And honestly, if political ad managers can’t understand this concept told by a cartoon rabbit, then they shouldn’t have had that job in the first place.

Jenna GoekeOpinion Editor

Photo by Kylie Brown

Go Vote Now

As each of Leigh’s clubs fall into their weekly meetings and activities, club presidents begin preparing for the most

important events throughout the year. From Cafe Francais to the an-nual Fashion Show and fund-raisers, each club is planning a way to raise and increase money, awareness, and club members. SOS is leading with the most members, although each and every club

has a strong following and devotion. And with their devotion comes an ever growing calendar of events to support and exhibit their pride and fill their club coffers. Here’s a preview of those upcom-ing events available here at Leigh:

Oct. 25Leo’s Club Glasses Drive

Oct. 26JSA/Oder-man Mock-Election

Glasses Drive

Nov. 2Chipotle Fundraiser form deadline

Oct. 29Haunted House

Glasses Drive

Oct. 28Haunted HouseGlasses Drive

Nov. 4Chipotle Fund-raiser at Lunch

Nov. 18, 11:59 p.mDumbledore’s Army’s Harry Potter Premiere Night

Oct. 27Drama Club Haunted House

Glasses Drive

Oct. 30JSA visits Stanford for featured debates

Haunted House

Glasses Drive

Oct. 31Haunted House

Glasses Drive

Nov. 14Leo’s Club assembles care packages for soldiers