Month: December 2014

The young fighter opened the box and she saw something that made her smile bigger than she has in a long time. Locks of Love donated a wig to junior, Jim Stack’s little sister. Stack now wants to grow his hair out to make-up for it.

 

Stacks wants to grow his hair out, but it takes at least ten inches to be able to donate. The dress code states that males hair cannot pass his collar. The school board meets Friday to see if he can.

 

“I had not seen a smile on her face in a long time.” Stack said.

 

Stack enjoyed his sister being happy. He just wanted to grow her hair out to make Locks of Love happy like they did for his sister and family.

 

“I was disappointed when Mrs.King turned my request down.” Stack said.

 

He really cares about this group that brought joy to his little sister and he became sad when Principal King denied his request to help the group by donating his hair.

 

“I am proud of Jim. He wants to help the group and that means a lot to our family.” Holly Stack, Jim’s mother said.

 

Stack’s efforts to grow out his hair mean a lot to not only himself, but also to his family. Jim hopes to inspire other people to give to the group.

 

“I hope the school board understands. I won’t be hurting anyone when my hair gets longer.” Stack said.

 

He is so serious about this he even tried to better the situation by agreeing to tuck his hair into his shirt to make it less noticeable.

 

“I was moved by Jim’s passion to donate his hair. Every month we receive about 200 request from families who cannot afford a wig for their sick child, and every month we have to turn down about 150 of those request.” Gisel Roco, president of Locks of Love said.

 

Locks of Love appreciates all that they can get. They desperately need human hair, almost anyone can donate money, but it takes time and dedication to grow your hair out to donate. It makes it more special when you take that kind of time.

 

“He told me felt hopeless about the whole ordeal.” Gilbert Castillo, student council president said.

 

Stack did not want anyone else to feel the hopelessness he felt, so he wanted to donate to the group.

“I think it is cool Jim wants to do this.” Castillo said.

Friday, January 16th will start the beginning of district for the JV and freshman basketball teams. The first district game will be here against New Diana.

 

“Practice mainly consist of running back and down the court and trying to improve.” Freshman basketball player Stone Palmer said.

 

The teams work hard in practice to build up their skills and improve for the district games that are coming up.

 

“Playing with people in different grades is fun because you get to see how your skill level matches up to theirs.” Freshman basketball player Elijah Trest said.

 

Trying to get better for district is obviously important to the JV and freshman basketball teams. With long, hard practices, the teams prepare for upcoming games. They kind of make a competition between each other in practices.

 

“[When I go to away games] I listen to music and get in the right mindset.” Freshman basketball player Max Lamana said.

 

Lamana does this on the way to away games to become more serious about the games he is heading to. He also said that he enjoyed away games rather than home games.

 

“This years basketball season is harder than last year because you have to be more disciplined in your actions and the way you play games.” Trest said.

 

The coaches work harder with the freshman and JV players than they worked last year, but the players say that the hard working practices pay off when they play in games.

“Basketball is important to me because it enables me to build deep relationships with my already-good-friends and play the game I love.” Freshman basketball player Andrew Hood said.  

Four students who used the internet to buy research papers got suspended for seven day. The school board will meet on Tuesday to determine whether the students can return to normal classes.

 

“It’s unfortunate these students felt they had to cheat to succeed in this class when all they had to do was to put in the time it takes to create a quality research paper and they would have passed,” principal Susan Aleman said.

 

These students who bought the research papers were suspended for seven days and were given the opportunity to re-write their research papers and receive a maximum of a 70 as a final grade. They may not make up work for other classes, however they may spend their suspension in the library, re-writing their research papers.

 

“It is written in the agreement that if they are caught buying one [a research paper] they will be punished…” English department chair Clara Barton said. “All four broke the honor code of the English class by doing this. I think their punishment is equitable for what they did.”

 

All of the students read and signed the agreement, however they broke the rules of the honor code. Barton thought that the consequences they got equaled out with their choices.  

 

“I admit,I was one of the people who bought a research paper. It was one of those things, though, that I had to do,” senior William Jefferson said. “I have to work 30 hours a week to help supplement the family’s income since my dad got laid off two months ago.”

 

Jefferson and the three other students who bought the papers all went to court and they lost the case because of their actions.

 

“The agreement we sign is like everything else in school. They stick it under our noses, and we sign it without really reading it,” senior Sandy Peoples said.

 

Every student signed an agreement at the beginning of the year stating the rules that the four students broke. The school board will decide if the students should carry on with their suspension or to return to their normal classes.  

 

“I guess kids will start reading what they sign from now on.” Peoples said.