February 2020
LHS Penguins Spotted at the Beach
Hampton Beach, NH - With encouragement from Ms Jones, LHS high school students participated in the 12th annual High School Plunge for Special Olympics New Hampshire on Saturday, February 1, 2020. Here we see our fellow Crusaders attempting to stay out of the hot sun.
With an air temperature of 36 degrees and a water temperature of 42, there was great enthusiasm to dive in!
No one really likes to come out of the water, especially on such a nice day, but the Penguins were troopers. Photographic coverage was provided by Mr Doucette, who was mightily impressed with the Littleton High beach-goers.
Just Around the Corner: The Daytona 500
Jeffrey Santo ~ February 6, 2020
The Daytona 500 is about a week and a half away. The Daytona 500 is the biggest race in all of NASCAR. The Daytona International Speedway is the second-longest track in all of NASCAR at 2.5 miles long, only behind Talladega Superspeedway. The race track can hold up to 146,000 people. The Daytona 500 started in 1959 thanks to a young mechanic from North Carolina named Lee Petty who was just 34 years old at the time. Lee also raced in the Daytona 500 and ended up winning it. There were 59 racers in the first race. Nowadays you will see 45 at the most. The race now is still going strong and is the biggest race in all of NASCAR.
The early favorites to win the race are Brad Keselowski (7-1), Joey Lagona (8-1), and Clint Bowyer (9-1). The qualifier was this Sunday and Ricky Sinehouse, Jr. won the pole. The pole can be a good thing and a bad thing. Most of the time the pole driver doesn't win the race but they are always pretty close to winning. Most of the time someone who qualifies the top 20 wins the race. It’s not the greatest thing to get the pole because the Daytona 500 is one of the longest races in all of NASCAR.
Richard Petty has the most wins in NASCAR history with 7. Richard Petty is known as the “king” and is said to be the greatest NASCAR driver ever. His team also has the most winners in Daytona history with nine. This will be Jimmie Johnson’s last Daytona 500. He is also a NASCAR legend and a win would help him a lot. If he won he would have three Daytona 500 wins and would help his case for best racer of all-time.
Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500, Denny who is in his 14th season qualified 3rd for this Daytona 500. Only three drivers have won back to back races in Daytona 500 history, and the last person who did it was Sterling Marlin in 1994-1995. So it has been done in nearly 25 years, but Hamlin will have a decent shot at doing just that. Hamlin is just 39 years old, but has an estimated net worth of 30 million, one of the highest-paid racers in NASCAR. With a win, this Sunday his net worth could sky-rocket through the roof as the winner gets a one million dollar bonus and many endorsement deals from multiple companies.
There is one thing for sure this year at the Daytona 500 and that is that there is no clear front runner. There have been stranger things that have happened at the Daytona 500. Racers who were projected to finish outside of the top 30 have won the Daytona 500, and some people have thought that clearly a particular racer was going to win, but the racer would end up not even finishing in the top 30. Humongous crashes happen all the time and can really shift the whole race. These are some of the many reasons why the Daytona 500 is one of the best events in all of sports. As a NASCAR driver, it can make you or break you.
Valentine’s Day Around the World
Christian Shafer ~ February 10, 2020
Happy Valentine's Day? Merry Valentine's Day? Not much is known about this holiday. In the states, we celebrate the day by giving loved ones chocolate and sappy Hallmark cards. But what's the history of this holiday? In this article, I'll dive into the account of it all to give us a better understanding of the day shrouded in mystery.
The first Valentine's Day was celebrated (brace yourself) in 496. And no, not 1496, I double-checked. Celebrating Valentine's Day is an age-old tradition believed to have originated from a Roman festival called Lupercalia, the official start of springtime. It's believed that as part of the celebrations, boys drew names of girls from a box, leading to them as boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival. In some cases, they'd even get married.
Later on, the church chose to turn this festival into a Christian celebration and decided to use it to pay tribute to St Valentine. Gradually, St Valentine's name started to be used by people to express their feelings to those they loved.
Here in the states, we manage to commercialize every holiday we can. That's our culture. But let's take a look at how other countries choose to celebrate this holiday:
Japan
In Japan, Valentine's Day is all about chocolate candy. On February 14, women in Japan hand out two kinds of chocolate. One is called Giri-choco, the other is Honmei-choco. The women there will make Honmei-choco for their loved ones. They offer Honmei as a way to show their love for them.
Denmark
Valentine's Day is a relatively new holiday for Denmark. Young people here began celebrating in the early 1990s. One of the most prominent Danish Valentine's Day traditions is the exchange of a lover's card. The cards can represent anything that you want give to someone on Valentine's Day.
Brazil
In Brazil, the country's Carnival celebration overshadows Valentine's Day. Because of this, Brazilians mark a similar day later in the year, on June 12. This holiday is known as Dia dos Namorados translates to “Lovers' Day”. Brazilians celebrate with gifts, cards, flowers, and chocolates, the same way as we do in the states. However, instead of celebrating Saint Valentine, they celebrate Saint Anthony.
Philippines
The Philippines celebrates Valentine's Day with weddings. Thousands of Filipino couples come together to propose during the celebration. Local government officials sometimes lead the mass weddings. The celebrations are often free and include flowers, a wedding cake and sometimes even wedding rings.
Finally, who is Saint Valentine? By some accounts, Saint Valentine was a Roman Catholic priest and physician who ministered to persecuted Christians. There's very little information about Saint Valentine outside of the Vatican's archives; there is only one first-hand account of his existence available for researchers. This account dates back to his execution when Roman officials caught him binding the marriage of Christian couples. From this account, it 's believed that he died in 270 AD.
What is known about Saint Valentine is that he has a wide range of spiritual duties. People call on him to guard the lives of lovers. He's also responsible for interventions regarding beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting, and traveling. As you might expect, he's also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.
LHS Drama at the Dock
January 17 ~ Britnay Ward and Jenna Doucette bring to the stage the classic Marcos Silveira play "TikTok". Never has an audience been so moved by the portrayal of contemporary technology's effect on modern youth.
January 17 ~ Riley Johnson inspects the sprawled victim Mrs Potter while Bailey Reed looks on. The heart-rendering production addressed the issue of the dangers of canine halitosis.
Winter Carnival Days Arrive at LHS
Averie Sorrell ~ February 6, 2020
In February, the Littleton High School students will have one week of Winter Carnival, followed by a week vacation from school. Winter Carnival starts off with the dance that is hosted in the cafeteria on Saturday, February 8th (Mr. Stinehour’s birthday -- yay!). The class that sells the most tickets for the dance gets points towards the Winter Carnival games. Grades 7-9 will attend from 6:00-8:00 p.m., and the grades 9-12 dance is 8:30-11:00 p.m. There are several games during TASC starting February 11th, usually one or two games each TASC up until the actual week of the Winter Carnival.
The first three days of Winter Carnival are dress-up days. Monday (2/17) is sports day, where the students can dress up and wear their favorite team attire. Tuesday (2/18) will be an iconic duo/group day. The students will choose their favorite group or duo and try to dress similarly to them. On Wednesday the 19th, there's meme day, as long as the meme is appropriate, the students are allowed to dress like it. The Thursday and Friday to follow, there are the game days, and every grade will be in the high school gym in their own section and play games to gain points for their grade. Thursday, students will wear all white for white-out day, and Friday, each grade has their own shirt, and each person in the grade will get one to wear and represent their class. The grade to win each of the dress-up days will earn points toward the Winter Carnival.
This year the schedule was switched up slightly. Instead of indoor soccer and basketball, games will be held outside depending on the weather. During the whole Winter Carnival week, there will be containers in the main office for each grade; they will compete against the other grades and try to bring the most pennies in and fill their buckets. Any silver coin counts against the pennies, so any grade that feels threatened can place silver coins in the opposing teams' buckets. It will be counted by the student council at the end of the week before the awards ceremony on Friday. This year is different than the past as there are more games, but the games are also during TASC earlier in the week as well. There is also no grievance committee this year due to problems with the past years, and this could potentially help and make the students figure it out themselves.
The last thing that will be happening Friday after the games will be airband. Each grade creates their own playlist and rehearses their gig before competing against the other grades. There will be a faculty board that judges which one is the best. Each grade puts a lot of effort into airband because it could change all the games around. Winning airband could put a class in the lead due to the number of points it can win. The acts have strict guidelines to make sure it is fair for all and appropriate for the school environment. Go Crusaders!
The Juvenile Juulers Follow-Up
Josh Finkle ~ February 1, 2020
In November 2019, I wrote an article entitled “The Juvenile Juulers.” That article was about the ongoing behavioral issues with some of the eighth grade and most of the freshmen class this year. I recently conducted interviews with my peers to get their thoughts and see if they have ideas about how things are going in Round Two.
In my first article, I stated “All of the doors were taken down by administration. Now because of this attack on the [bathroom] door by a group of freshmen and eighth-graders -- who shall remain nameless in print, but are known throughout our hallways -- we have no doors on all the bathrooms except the ones that are used by only one person at a time. As you stroll the hall make sure you peek in the bathrooms around the school and say “hi” to the people in there. Hey, maybe even walk in while you’re at it.”
Now, a few months later there is still only one bathroom open for the boys and that is in front of the main office. The girls have two bathrooms. Half the time I have to walk two miles to get to the bathroom and back when there are two bathrooms that remain locked I have to walk by to get to the unlocked bathroom. The other day I saw a student visibly upset that the boys bathroom was still locked. He started kicking the door, screaming obscene words and he was yelling. I thought he was going to break it open, but was fortunately stopped by Mrs. Wood. It’s safe to say he is fed up with the humongous walk male students have to make just to go to the bathroom. After high school lunch, when I go to wash my hands, there are at least five or more people in the bathroom by the office. This is way too many and it is hard to get around because there are no other bathrooms to use. Am I mad at the admin of our school? No, I am not. I am mad about how things haven’t changed and that changes to not seem to be on the horizon.
The November article also addressed the constant vulgar language and loitering in the freshman hallway outside the library and outside the other section near the nurse’s office. Has it gotten better? Yes, but it is still an issue. What my friends and I used to deal with whenever we walked in those sections of the hall was the freshman calling us names and threatening to beat me up, which never happened. My friends and I would defend ourselves and they would stop. They mostly stay out of our way now and we deal with it if they want to go out of their way to make a comment. We do not want to give them attention. That just encourages them to keep up their bad behavior.
Junior class president Christian DeMoras was interviewed on February 11th.
*
How do you feel about the freshman class?
Christian: In general, the freshman class is good -- they have a good group of students. Though, compared to other grades there is a noticeable difference as they have a substantial amount of students who engage in unethical activity in and outside of school. They are a significant factor in the participation of “juuling” throughout the school, and can be partially attributed to the closure of bathrooms throughout the school. Currently, there are only two mens’ bathrooms in the original high school that are open -- the remaining are in the CTC, which can create a nuisance for students in classes in the original high school (see above). Whereas, the women’s restrooms are not closed at all -- even though both boys and girls engage in the unethical activities referenced earlier. Overall, vaping in bathrooms isn’t the sole factor in the closure of the restrooms, though a large portion of the students who vape also participate in violence and vandalism of the school facilities, thus, the closure of the bathrooms.
Are you aware of the nickname they have been given?
Christian: Some people reference the group of freshmen as the “juvenile juulers” which is partially correct. The actions that this certain group of students is taking to deface and destroy school property is juvenile, as it is purely out of the desire for attention. They are destroying property that is not theirs and that they have the privilege of using -- not the right. Their actions are fostering significant frustration in the school population for both teachers and students alike; however, the closure of the bathrooms has been occurring for several months, and has essentially become a “normal”. Again, the students who vape aren’t the sole factor in the closure of the bathrooms, so we can’t automatically connect the two -- though, a noticeable portion of the kids who do vape participate in these destructive and seemingly juvenile activities.
How should the school try to fix the issue?
Christian: Administration has tried their best to correct the destructive actions of this said group of students. Closing the restrooms throughout parts of the school that aren’t necessarily as closely monitored helps, though I have personally gone into restrooms throughout the school and witnessed students actively vaping, or just after they have vaped. Vaping will continue to haunt our school until government action is taken at a state or federal level to solve the vaping epidemic. But for now, administration is trying its best to control the immature actions of these students -- a noticeable decrease in vandalism and destruction of school property has occurred, though vaping will always be a problem until action is taken by a higher authority.
*
Overall, things have changed, but still it feels the same way it did. The kids will stare you down and say what they want to. I think the best way to deal with these troublemakers is to ignore them and not give them anything to feed from. As you can see, the troublemakers do affect the school, as seen by Christian DeMoras giving us his opinion and thoughts on the matter, which was greatly appreciated by this concerned reporter.