FSPA Spring 2015 Quick Turn Contests
07 – Headline Hero
Write headlines for each of the four articles below.
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One headline should be 26-30 characters long followed by a one-sentence deck.
One headline should be three lines of 16-18 characters each. One headline should be two lines of 27-30 characters each. For the editorial (Article 4), write 3 words followed by a one-sentence deck. A character includes spaces. Submitting: n Create a document with each of those headlines, clearly labeling articles 1, 2, 3 and 4. Convert that document to a PDF and upload it under Category 7. 1. News story In science teacher Bill Lorentz’s class, the sky is literally falling. Recently, during second period, ceiling tiles caved and crashed to the ground. Fortunately, no one was underneath while it happened. One student in English teacher Sharron Clayton’s class was not so lucky. “The tiles fell on one of my students and if he were asthmatic, he would be in the hospital.” In addition to the discomfort of falling ceiling tiles, the deterioration of buildings seems to be causing unhealthy side effects. This problem is apparently common everywhere. The job of fixing up old schools as well as building new ones in California will take an estimated $42.5 billion over the next 10 years. Nationwide, the figure amounts to $112 billion. Clayton, who teaches in the original P-­‐wing portables, attributes these problems to the structural damages of the classroom. “The mold that is created from the rotting wood causes respiratory problems. Tiles break up and they are filled with asbestos and once they break up it becomes airborne.” These symptoms seem accurate. Poorly maintained ventilation, heating and air conditioning, according to a study by the National Education Association’s Indoor and Air Quality program, can cause headaches, sinus congestion, dry or itchy skin and shortness of breath. Sophomore Germain Dawening reports these symptoms as well as feeling sick at times. Clayton has been hospitalized several times, the most recent occurring a few weeks ago. “I’ve gotten scars in my lungs. My doctor told me not to come back to work but I don’t have a choice.” The unhealthy environment has proven to be too much. Clayton has stopped teaching and will not return until a classroom change is made. A poll by the National Education Association shows that 43 percent of California schools have at least one building in need of extensive repair or replacement. Additionally, 87 percent have at least one unsatisfactory environmental condition. “It’s not intentional to leave them (buildings) dilapidated, but it’s all we’ve got,” said Assistant Principal Jesse Nabors. Constructed more than 40 years ago, buildings are sure to decay. The R-­‐wing, though only 20 years old, is also having problems. Once damages occur in a classroom, teachers fill out work orders requesting for services. If school custodians cannot do the job, the work order is passed to the corporation yard, which handles jobs in need of special attention. Art Hand, director of Support Services for the school district, said that with 41 school sites and more than 2.5 million square feet of building, work orders cannot be completed as people would like. “We only have two guys who are actually classified as roofers,” Hand said. “The rest we supply with guys from carpentry.” As a result, work orders are completed in order of importance. “There is no set timeline,” Hand said. “Work orders that are emergencies can take one day. Regular work orders can take as long as one day to six months.” The fierce weather of El Niño has also been blamed. “The volume of water has increased the problem exponentially, even in schools considered to have good roof conditions,” Hand said. “In a normal year they (corporation yard) do a good job.” The district has also sent in the Schedule Maintenance Team to work at this campus for six weeks, three weeks more than last year. Hand describes the money needed to repair buildings “as a scarce commodity.” George Ridler, deputy superintendent in charge of Business Services for the district, said, “The community needs to do a bond measure if we want structural repairs.” Bond measures, which need a difficult two-­‐thirds majority vote to pass, provide extra money to schools from tax revenues. “We could spend an extra $5 million more on maintenance but that would mean it would be $5 million dollars less in another area,” Ridler said. The district spends about $8 million a year just on maintenance. “We spend a lot of our money on things that got damaged over and over. Instead of spending it on the roof, it’s graffiti, it’s the vandalism.” 2. Sports story When people look at senior Andre Brown they will see a lot of things: baggy clothes, serious face, slow walk. He stands a mere 5’ 6’’ and weighs about 120 lbs, hardly the build of a basketball player who can take over a game. They probably mistake the most electrifying athlete on this year’s varsity team as just another athlete. What they don’t see is the smallest player with the biggest heart for the game, someone who has fallen in love with basketball as if it were the most beautiful, most prized woman in the world. A player who takes few shots and still manages still to average more than 10 points-­‐per-­‐game while adding several flashy assists. Since he was a toddler, Brown remembers being strongly attached to the sport. “My mom told me I always tried to shoot a basketball,” he said. As he got older he found himself often traveling to Seifert Center, known as a haven for talented basketball players. It became his home away from home, a way for him to avoid getting involved with the law. If it were not for basketball, he said, “I’d be locked up — seriously.” Instead, he spent hours at the gym where “some of the older guys let me play with them once they saw how good I was.” Playing against much older, more skilled competition helped him become the player he is today. Because of his height, Brown has always relied on skills and a natural feel for the game. Basketball has been somewhat of an outlet for Brown. Growing up with his grandmother, he remembers not always having his parents to lead him through his life. Instead of relying on his parents to help him with his problems, he found a way through by playing basketball. “Wherever I would go I had a basketball, and if I’m by myself that’s what I take with me. I sleep with my ball.” Although he admits to have bitter feelings about his upbringing, he acknowledges he could have done better in school, particularly homework. He has often found himself procrastinating and doing schoolwork at the last minute. What keeps him coming to school, he said, is that his team is his family. Fellow senior Jaime Galindo considers Brown a brother. Senior Donald Salter also claims to have a brotherly love with the other three seniors, seniors who are a rarity on a team made up mostly of juniors. “I really don’t have another family,” Brown said. This close bond — the lack of which apparently had tarnished past Stagg teams under former coach Steve Keeter— is what team members believe will carry them into the playoffs behind Brown and first-­‐year head coach Tony Espinoza. Players say there is something new this year, that Espinoza is more of a player’s coach, somewhat of a father to the group, which makes them feel more stable. Junior Benny Flores respects both Espinoza and Brown and knows that without them, the team is not the same. For a while last week the team was not the same this season, wallowing in losses while Brown sat out, suspended from the team for an outside altercation. It was a firm move made by Espinoza, who wants his team to realize he is in charge and discipline will be carried out if necessary. The two have moved past the incident and Brown was allowed to play the final two games of the Turlock tournament where the Kings went 2-­‐1 and finished in fifth place. In his first game Brown scored 15 points on three 3-­‐point goals and six free throws So far, with Brown starting, the team is 3-­‐1. “He’s a very talented player and has leadership skills when he wants to apply them,” Espinoza said. Regarding Espinoza, Brown said, “He’s not just a coach; it’s like he’s a dad. He helped me get back into the sport.” 3. Feature story To say that Mike Bourandas, who teaches biology and earth science, loves flies is an understatement. Ever since reading “The Natural History of Flies” in his junior year of high school, Bourandas “decided to dedicate (his) life to flies.” “Did you know that about one in every 10 species is a fly?” he said. “If you were doing Noah’s Ark, it would be like ‘something, something, something, something, something, something, something, something, something, fly.’ ” With a degree in entomology — the study of insects — and a master’s thesis on flies that. Even now, fellow researchers the world over ask to read, Bourandas has earned his moniker around school as the “fly guy.” Looking relaxed with a ruler in hand, Bourandas had plenty to say about his devotion to the insects most people dislike. Many people believe inaccurately that all flies spread disease and live in feces. Even master playwright William Shakespeare mistakenly refers to flies in his plays when he writes about diseases. Not so, said Bourandas. Less than one percent of flies lay a part in making people sick, and flowers, not poop, are the most popular fly hangouts. Bourandas also said that he would happily devote himself to flies full-­‐time if he were given the opportunity. “Anywhere you go there’s flies doing something neat,” he said. “They’ve just been everywhere, done everything.” However, even with researching flies as a hobby, he’s managed to discover a new genus. Bourandas, while collecting new flies for his collection, found a fly smaller than pin. He thought it was just a tiny species of dolicopodid, a species he knew well. However, when he examined the fly beneath a microscope, he realized he’d never seen anything like it…and neither had anyone else. He has also permanently made his love of flies public. On his upper left arm, a tattoo of a female dolicopodid dominates the skin. In order to capture the details of the fly’s anatomy, Bourandas brought not only a book but a specimen of the fly and a microscope for the tattoo artist to refer to. “With flies, you don’t have to wait for aliens to see a different type of life,” he said, explaining the differences between human and fly bodies. Flies can see 10 times faster than humans, hang upside down on the ceiling, and fly by rapidly breathing in and out instead of flapping their wings. Bourandas’ flies have also led him to other discoveries. On a trip to Nevada, he an across several large weevils and took a few back for his collection. As it turned out, only three specimens of these weevils had ever been collected din the world, and they were from before World War II. In the decades since their initial discovery, no one had been able to discover where the weevils were originally taken from until Bourandas brought back his eight specimens. In addition, Bourandas’ research has led him around the world. “I don’t want to say I’m not people-­‐oriented, but I wouldn’t make a good sociologist,” Bourandas said. Despite this, he said he’s learned many things about people and cultures by observing the ways they deal with flies. Bourandas is frequently asked why he cares so much about flies. “How could you not?” he said. Since there are so many amazing things in the world, he’s surprised that everyone doesn’t have a subject to devote their life to. In addition, his intense research has helped him develop as a teacher by showing how the concepts he teaches, like evolution, really affect life on the Earth. “I need to come back (in the next life) as a fly, “ Bourandas sad. “If I could live to be 1000 years old, I still wouldn’t’ have every (species of) fly.” 4. Editorial As staff members and parents are pressuring the school board in response to the recent Homecoming halftime incident, it is clear that this topic will not streak on by. The two seniors who revealed all on Oct. 9 met with more punishment than expected. We think it was more punishment than was deserved. After the two seniors flashed the Homecoming crowd, they received a five-­‐day suspension and Saturday School assignments. They also face possible expulsion. Although we do not condone what they did, we feel their punishment is far too strict, especially in light of another situation. When senior Brandon Hunt, captain of the boys’ water polo team, was injured in the varsity boys’ locker room two weeks before the Homecoming game, that situation was handled quite differently. The football player who caused Hunt’s shoulder injury received two days in-­‐
school suspension and one day suspension. He was still able to play in the football game the week after the incident. We realize that it is difficult to replace a starter on the football team. But it is equally difficult to fill two holes in the band and one in the play. Because of the five-­‐
day suspensions and Saturday School assignments that continue into November, the band has been forced to change its routine to accommodate the loss of the members and the play needed to find a replacement actor within two days of opening night. Which act was truly worse — the physical abuse that Hunt endured, causing him to miss four water polo games, or the 10-­‐second long flashing incident? Even if both acts were equally inappropriate, the punishments should have been equally severe. We raise the questions: Do football players get special treatment? Is playing in a football game valued more than playing in the band or acting in a play? Regardless of which uniform one wears — or does not wear — the punishment should always fit the crime.