Smokin' in the girls' room not so cool - Vashon Island School District

OPINION & EDITORIAL
10 APRIL 6, 01
Let us wear shorts
Riptide Staff
hannahsikorski
staff reporter
Editors-In-Chief
Jacob Gateman
Sarah Kai Schwarz
Ad Manager
Avalon Koenig
Section Editors
Alexia Pagliarini
Katherine Misel
Maddi Groen
Tazi Flory
Taylor Hernandez
There is something to not
look forward to when spring
arrives and the weather
warms up. Girls are no longer
allowed to wear shorts. Principal
Susan Hanson recently
decided not to allow girls to
wear short shorts.
“Shorts and skirts need to be at least the length of the tips of their fingers
when they put their arms down. And the issue is appropriateness at
the work place. They are here eight hours a day and it’s like a job here
and you need to look professional in the work place,” said Hanson
On a nice sunny day girls can wear bermuda shorts, jeans, or skirts,
but not shorts. All of those options are not an outfit many girls want to
wear everyday on a sunny day.
Why, on a sunny day, would a girl want to wear jeans? Jeans are for
the wintertime, not a hot spring day. And as for skirts are we back in the
1920s when all girls could wear were skirts? It’s the 21st century. Also,
bermuda shorts only look good on certain types of bodies. If you have a
smaller frame and are skinnier then bermuda shorts can make you have
chicken legs.
“It doesn’t make sense that girls can wear short skirts that can show
everything, but we cant wear shorts that would cover everything. Shorts
are way more casual then skirts and that’s what it is nicer to wear
them,” from senior Gianna Andrews
Hanson has made it clear that super short skirts aren’t alrigh either.
A lot of the girls don’t understand why it’s so bad to wear skirts
when girls can’t wear shorts. But Principal Hanson has another idea.
“This started to become more of a issue when girls’ outfits became a
lot more inappropriate, and places that shouldn’t be out were out,” said
Hanson
It’s not fair that guys can wear shorts and tank tops but girls cant. It’s
understandable that sometimes can be inappropriate, but for the majority
of the time girls’ shorts are fine.
Just because some girls break the rules don’t take it out on the rest of
us.
Staff Reporters
Hannah Sikorski
John Smith
Jesse Hazzard
Orion Zick
Alex Soriano
Maggie Amundsen
Mara Burns
Neah Lynch
Jack Brenner
Anya Quig
Dylan Hoffman
Kyle Pearson
Photo Editor
Maddie Bergman
Web Editor
Julie Wilson
Adviser
Greg McElroy
THE RIPTIDE
Smokin’ in the girls’
room not so cool
taylorhernandez
backpage editor
It is against school policy to smoke
tobacco, pot, or anything else on campus.
We all know that, but considering the recent
occurrences of usage on campus, it clearly
isn’t getting through some of the thick skulls
at our school.
It is disrespectful and a health hazard
to smoke on campus. One big issue lately
is smoking in the girls’ bathroom in the F
building. Smoking on campus is gutsy as it
is, but doing it inside the buildings is just a
no brainer.
Many students and teachers have health
issues and can’t handle those scents. We also
have a pregnant teacher who shouldn’t be
breathing in second hand smoke.
“I think it’s disgusting for one. It’s a complete
lack of respect for the school and the
people at the school. I think it’s a symptom
of a larger problem,” said health teacher
Kara Sears.
Students shouldn’t have to worry about
being around tobacco or pot at school.
“I don’t want to worry about my health
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being compromised because of some
students lack of respect,” said sophomore
Paulina Hernandez.
That being said, how do students still get
away with it?
“Our campus is difficult to supervise, but
once the new school is done, it will be easier
to monitor what goes on,” said Assistant
Principal Stephanie Spencer.
The new campus will be one building,
so students won’t be able to wander and get
into trouble as easily.
There has been a rise in tobacco use this
year than in the past; usually students are
anti-tobacco and pro-pot.
“Cigarettes are used more this year than
in the past. My first year at the school, there
were a lot of smoking issues and now it’s on
the upswing again,” said Spencer.
With the issue at hand, the only thing
we can really do is try to prevent smoking
on campus even more. We can do this by
getting students to notice the issue, and get
those that are doing it to go somewhere else,
or even stop. But at this rate, those that are
smoking on campus don’t have the respect
or decency to do it elsewhere. So those of
you that are reading this, here’s my message:
Stop disrespecting the school, your
classmates, and your teachers.
Flight from Florida becomes flight from hell
maddybergman
staff reporter
Air travel has, without a doubt,
changed the way people travel. They
can spend the morning in New York
and be in Los Angles by the evening
Flying home from a horse show in
Palm Beach, Florida, I experienced
some of the worse of one company in
particular, Delta.
Our Delta flight was originally taking
off from West Palm Beach at 7 p.m;
we would then have an hour layover
in Atlanta before landing in Seattle at
midnight. We planned on not checking
any of our bags, to better our chances
of making the 12:50 ferry.
Our odyssey began with our flight
to Atlanta leaving an hour late. Walking
through the jetway, my mom and
her boyfriend Garth, were stopped
and forced to check their bags, which
they were told were too big to fit in
the overhead bins. When asked for the
reason why her bag was being taken,
the baggage worker replied, “If we
put your bag on the plane, then it will
spark, making the plane catch fire, and
go down.”
All hope of the 12:50 boat was lost.
A half hour before our flight was
scheduled to land, the realization that
we may miss our connecting flight set
in. My mom asked the flight attendant
if anything could be done. She replied,
“You will just need to run fast.”
We landed, the plane door opened,
and we gradually moved from the back
of the plane. With 10 minutes before
our flight was to take off, we realized
we were in the wrong terminal.
Arriving at our gate, out of breath,
we gazed upon a closed door and a
clock reading that we still had five minutes.
There was no attendant to explain
why we had missed our flight.
After finding the Delta Service desk
with a line of 25, we received vouchers
for a hotel, transportation and food.
Fifty yards before leaving the airport,
Garth realized that he had left his
wallet in the checked bag. Without his
wallet and I.D, he could not reenter the
airport. Franticly we went back to the
service desk where my mom was advised
to check the baggage hold. Thirty
minutes later, we got a phone call
from my mom saying that his bag was
Seattle bound, and that she could not
reenter the airport until after midnight.
We found a set of chairs where we
could sleep. The sound of the vacuum,
sweeping, and the all night CNN news
channel, made for a difficult night.
In the morning we checked into our
gate for 8:10 flight to Salt Lake City
with a half hour layover. It was not until
9:00 that we boarded our flight, sure
that we would miss our flight to Seattle.
Luckily we landed only eight minutes
late. After running from one plane
to another, we were finally going home.
Flying over Puget Sound after our
ordeal was a relief. We were home
before 3 p.m
It’s not fair to blame Delta for all of
the unfortunate travel issues. However,
they did not step up and take care of
their customers. Nobody apologized for
our nightmare and the Bergman family
will no longer be flying Delta. I do not
wish to discourage people from flying
Delta, I only want them to be informed.
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Vashon, WA. 98070
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THE RIPTIDE
Lunchroom seat still hard to find
katherinemisel dt co-editor
Lunch is a time for socializing, eating,
and relaxing before the last part of the
day. It is hard to do that when you have
to scrounge every corner of the lunchroom
to find a chair. Limited space in the
lunchroom has been a constant problem
since my freshman year. Even with the
addition of the new chairs, students are
still searching the lunchroom, and sometimes
even classrooms to find a place to
sit. However, with the sun finally coming
out, students will have a place to sit and
Instagram does not a photographer make
taziflory
features editor
By constantly updating ways of communication, sharing
pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other
social media websites have become very popular. With
popularity of the new iPhone, it is very easy to upload
a picture right after you take it. Go to the grocery store,
take a picture and upload it to Facebook. Get new shoes,
upload a picture of them, too. These pictures, while
maybe clogging the news feed, are just quickly snapped
photos of your day, and are uploaded just to give people
a visual shot of what someone just did. Camera phones
can be used for more sophisticated pictures than standing
in line at the grocery store, or new Steve Madden pumps.
Very common is a beautiful picture of the sunset or of
Vashon that the said Facebook user was lucky enough
to witness and capture. Some of these pictures could be
considered art photography. But a picture of a smudge of
peanut butter with a cool tint to the photo, does not make
one a talented photographer.
Meet Instagram, the easy way to make any photo look
way more interesting and hipster. Take a picture of a leaf,
add Instagram filter look, and viola! It’s a ten times cooler
looking photo. Take a picture of a friend, add a vintage
look on Instagram and poof! You have a artsy looking old
photo. Instagram is great for those who don’t know how
to use Photoshop, but want to have interesting looking
pictures. This is all fine and dandy, but let’s set one thing
straight. Taking a picture of anything, slapping a Instagram
filter on it does not make one a talented, aspiring
photographer. Of the Instagram photos I have seen, the
only reason the pictures look cool is the effect added by
Istagram. It’s true, some sunset or Seattle pictures were
enjoy the outdoors until school comes to
a close.
But what happens next school year?
With new students coming from McMurray
and off-island, there may be more
coming in than are graduating this year,
“...with the sun finally
coming out, students will
have a place to sit...”
leaving the same problem we have faced
for at least three years.
Hopefully, next year will be the last
year with not enough chairs for the student
body due to the construction of the
good already. But clicking the “take picture” button on
your iPhone and capturing the setting sun doesn’t make
you a great photographer. I am not trying to say, nobody
should use Instagram because it is stupid. I fully appreciate
Instagram, I am merely pointing out that using
Instagram does not make you a hipster photographer. If
you want to be a hipster photographer, start by getting a
real camera and learning a thing or two about Photoshop.
Then feel free and post. True talented photography is
harder to come by these days with all of the easy apps to
achieve a beautiful picture with minimal effort and skill,
the problem is that people start to believe through using
Instagram that they are artsy, skilled photographers. News
flash! You’re not, you just are good at pressing buttons on
your iPhone.
OPINION & EDITORIAL
APRIL 6, 01
new high school. But until that happens,
are the students attending VHS supposed
to go through the same hassle to find a
simple chair? It seems ridiculous that
there aren’t enough chairs to go around
considering that our high school only has
about 500 attendees. It also baffles me
that we didn’t order enough chairs when
we had the chance, or extras for that matter.
What if we needed extras for some
unfathomable reason?
Finding chairs is awkward and
becoming routine for those who stay
after classes to get help from teachers, or
stand in the line to get lunch. It seems to
me this problem can be fixed by simply
purchasing a few more chairs. Is that so
much to ask for us hardworking students?
b
“Become a zombie and
eat people’s brains, om
nom nom.”- TeraJane
Ripley, 10
“I would go to a grocery store,
somewhere there is a lot of people.”-
Eli Sedgemore, 9
11
Polly Wants To Know:
“If there
was a zombie
apocalypse
what would
you do?”
“I’d turn into a zombie.”
-Victor Moreira, 11
“I’d head to Ireland, no joke.”-
Helen Pendergast, 12
Compliled by
Mara Burns,
“I would hide out in New
Zealand in one of the hobbit
holes ”- Tom Devries, staff
Jack Brenner, and
Maggie Amundsen