March 2011 - Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School

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4 News March 2011 Random Doors Reveal Secrets Maggie Switzer Copy Editor If you think you’ve seen big cockroaches at CJ or maybe in the Faust-you haven’t even seen the biggest ones yet. Try looking in one of the tunnels under the school. That’s right, there are underground tunnels that run all over CJ, and the entrances to them are right under your nose. One tunnel runs directly under the area in the cafeteria where students get their ketchup and spoons for their lunches. This tunnel only has one entrance and is used for pipes and such things to fuel the cafeteria technology. When a student goes to lunch, down that little hallway, there is a door on the left just before the stairs. The door has windows that are hard to see in. Inside the door there are steps that lead downward, and on the right is an entrance to the tunnel under the cafeteria. (That’s where the dead mice and the huge dead cockroaches are, by the way). Mr. Young actually reported that about twelve years ago, CJ bought new boilers. The workman they hired to help replace these boilers was adjusting pipes in a tunnel, when a fire happened in the tunnel. The workman had to crawl out of the tunnel with the fire raging behind him, just like in an action movie. It was put out quickly before any damage was done. Going down the Ministry & Service staircase into the basement, most students turn right into the doorway there. Instead, look to your left and you see a janitor’s closet with storage. Okay, so CJ has storage in the basement. Not uncommon. What is uncommon, however, is what’s at the end of the room. Looking out at eye level, there is a huge room that can only be traveled through on hands and knees. It’s not a normal tunnel; it has a good size width and length. Its height, however, is different. You have to climb into it, and then crawl around on the dirt. “In the old days of the school, the space was actually used for more storage, but it was cleaned out a number of years ago,” says Mr. Young. There are two entrances to it: one through the janitor’s room, and another through a trap door. Inside a janitor’s closet, a hole in the floor is off to the left, revealing another way to get from the courtyard to under Ministry & Service. Now that two tunnels have been discov- Female Alternative to FreshMan Club Emerges Maggie Switzer Copy Editor In response to the FreshMan Club run by Mr. Colvin, Mrs. Bardine decided there should be a club for freshmen girls as well. Girls Inc. is a national program run by the YWCA to help high school girls’ transitions through the struggles of adolescence. The slogan for the program is “Inspiring all girls to be smart, strong and bold.” The club meets every Tuesday for six weeks. They have two groups of six-week sessions, and the first group will have just finished and the second group of freshman girls will have just begun. Twenty girls are in each group. A woman from the YWCA named Veronica Fodor comes in and runs the meeting with the girls during homeroom/lunch. The program is also featured in many other schools such as some of the Dayton Public Schools. CJ pays no money for this, and the YWCA representative is a volunteer. They meet in Mrs. Bardine’s room, which is why the program has to be split up into two sessions, because of the lack of space. Either Mrs. Bardine or Mrs. Badinghaus also sits in on the meetings. Freshman Logan Cobbs likes Girls Inc a lot. She says, “We talk about very broad subjects with our little group, and I feel like I can talk about basically anything.” Fellow classmate Sha’Lori Ansley felt the same way. “I think they give good advice about stuff that you should do and how you should approach certain situations.” Ansley also liked learning about other people. The girls have watched inspirational video clips, made posters, participated in team building activities, read articles and had discussions. They cover all sorts of topics: self-esteem, healthy relationships, leaders, choices, etc. They also focus on assertiveness and try to strengthen their values and goals. Every meeting there is a balance between lectures, information and fun activities. Left: The large tunnel under the first floor which previously contained storage. Below: The tunnel under the cafeteria where the fire happened. Photos by Maggie Switzer ered, you’d think there would be no more. In reality, there are many more. Another tunnel is more like a room. It lies under the Food Lab. Its equipment blocks off the entrance to this underground room. In the old Chaminade days, the room was used for storage of important student files, since computers were not yet invented. Now the room is reportedly empty, although no one has been in there for quite some time. Maybe the rumors are true: Fr. Chaminade may possibly be buried underneath the school, in a deep dark tunnel. Science Fair Students Showcase Projects at CJ and Beyond Nick Muhl Editor-in-Chief On February 17, CJ again hosted the school science fair. The school had 40 participants in the competition, where 22 judges from the local community judged them. 14 students moved on to the County Science Fair at the University of Dayton on March 5. Freshmen Tom Weckesser, Adrienne Myton, Matt Dudon, Samantha Cudney, Luke Schumann, Carli Goode, sophomores Kaitlin Blanchard, Annemarie Krug, Kathryn Marshall, and juniors Jon Besecker, Taveon Brown, Adrianne Marx, Erin Warfield, and Lauren Wells all moved on. “Once the judging started, I was really nervous, but now that I made it to county, I know the nerves will be gone because I have confidence in myself that I can do it,” said junior Erin Warfield. On March 5, the students participated at the Montgomery county Science Fair. Six students, Blanchard, Cudney, Krug, Marshall, Schumann, and Warfield all scored superiors. The six will now move onto the West District Science Fair, which will be held on March 19 at Central State University.
Because of the diversity at CJ, the words “racism,” “prejudice,” and “discrimination” are thrown around quite a bit. As a fourth year student at CJ, I can honestly say that racial discrimination is hardly an issue. Of course it still exists, and it probably always will. However, the majority of CJ students definitely accept each other for who they are. Racial discrimination is more of an issue freshman year, since lots of Catholic grade schools aren’t very racially diverse, and students are used to being with the people that they are most comfortable with as opposed to the people that they don’t know. As the years go on, students tend to become much more accepting of other students that aren’t exactly like them. For the most part, the administration does not racially discriminate either. Of course people have their hidden resentments about various things, but I have never had a teacher that I felt showed favoritism or dislike towards students of a particular race. However, I have seen teachers show favoritism to students that play a particular sport or are involved in a certain extra curricular activity. The football coaches that are also teachers always get the worst reputation of playing favorites to their students that also play on their team. In some cases that is very true, but they are not the only ones guilty by a long shot. It isn’t always coaches that also happen to be teachers either; it can be a teacher 5 Is Racial Discrimination an Issue at CJ? March 2011 Opinion You might have caught wind of the confusion briefly centered around the changes occurring in room 126 rather recently. Some teachers and students had taken to calling it the “New CIL,” and questions were raised regarding the fate of the old one. In fact, the “old” second-floor computer/information lab, or CIL, that we are familiar with has not changed, and nothing has taken involved with Poetry Out Loud, Science Olympiad, or any other club. However, it would be hard for a teacher to see a student on a regular basis and not establish a better relationship with them as opposed to the rest of the students that the teacher only sees in class. If there was a group of people involved with the CJ community that might tend to be racially discriminatory, it wouldn’t be the student body nor would it be the faculty and staff; it would probably be the parents. Of course not all of the parents would be considered prejudiced, but as a group, many more parents would be as compared to the students and administration. Racial acceptance can be harder for some of the parents to achieve, since a lot of them grew up during or close to the Civil Rights movement, when equality for all was new to the country. A lot of current CJ parents were raised in a household that wasn’t necessarily racist, but definitely prejudiced. This can be proven because many students make statements such as, “I don’t think my parents are racist, but my grandparents definitely are!” These particular parents have grown its place. However, the first floor computer lab— that is, room 126—has seen some recent improvements. A fancy, new name has been provided for the space; it is now known as the Writing Center, and it has a new arrangement combined with a dual function. Half of the room, of course, is the computer research center, but the other half is now devoted to providing opportunities and tutoring for writers, complete with new bookshelves and furniture. Teachers are scheduled to be present in the space during periods 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to address students’ writing concerns, provide second opinions on pieces, help students obtain writing resources, and so on. So far, the Writing Center sees about one to two students per day, usually seeking help with formatting or guidance on how to write the most effective research paper. Senior Alexandria Boyer is a regular visitor to the new Writing Center. “I have noticed more and more students going there during homeroom to work on the computers and get work done. I have been using the up with prejudiced ideals, and the older you get, the harder it is to change. Hence the expression, “you can’t teach old dogs’ new tricks.” I am not condoning this opinion, nor claiming that is acceptable, nevertheless it is justifiable. In other words, the origin of the opinion can be logically explained. Some parents aren’t extremely blunt about their hidden dislike towards members of different ethnicities; most are great at hiding it. Most people aren’t comfortable with being labeled “racist.” There have been scenarios at CJ that involve two people of different races going to a dance together, or even dating and people ask questions such as, “How do your parents feel about that? I know my parents wouldn’t approve.” There are also parents that have contemplated sending their children to CJ but have made statements that expose their discomfort with a racially diverse school. For instance, “I don’t want my son to go to CJ because black people will be on his football team.” Statements such as those are clearly unfair, seem ridiculous, and hurt many peoples’ feelings, so what can be done about this? Sadly, not a whole lot. Discrimination will most likely be an issue for a very long time, if not forever. The odds suggest that there will always be a group of people in society that are in the minority and get picked on because of it. As long as individuals understand ethics and good moral reasoning, it doesn’t have to be everyone’s issue. Refurbishing of Computer Lab Offers New Opportunities for Writers Chrissy Barrett Photo/Design Editor Poll of all freshmen during freshman retreat room to work on my scholarship application essays and random English papers,” she says. Mr. Mueller says that he’s had the idea for this writers’ wellspring for about two years, and that last semester was the planning and preparatory period to get this new space in 126 up and running. “We saw a need for writing tutoring in the CJ community, and felt that a Writing Center would be a good way to address it,” he says. Mr. Mueller also added enthusiastically that CJ was lucky enough to receive a $1,000 Gerald L. Turner Teachers’ Grant, which went toward the refurbishing of room 126. CJ has used the donation to purchase new furniture, bookshelves, and reference books for the space. Mr. Mueller and Mrs. Ketch installed the final bookshelves on February 23; they, and the other teachers that have assumed a position of counsel for this new Writing Center, look forward to serving a wide range of writing needs in the CJ community and foster the literary growth of our essayists, poets, journalists, and maybe even aspiring novelists.
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March 2011 - Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School

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