Last week about 20 juniors attended the biology field trip to understand ecology and how creatures and the environment are affecting each other. The three places that they went to were the Sunset Beach tide pools, the Marine Life Center in Charleston, and the South Slough research reserve.

While at the tide pools they spend about an hour exploring the wonders of what is in the waters and under the rocks. They found some interesting creatures like a sea cucumber, a few gumboot chitin, and two sea stars, as well as a bunch of crabs. The group explored for a while until they were loaded onto the bus.

The group then headed to the Charleston docks to see what creatures lived on the docks. There lived a bunch of barnacles, some jellyfish, sea lions, seagulls and giant white-plumed anemones. After that, the group headed to the Marine Life Center where they saw exhibits with bones of whales, sea lions, otters and turtles. They had touch tanks with sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish so you can understand and touch the creatures. The Marine Life Center also had tanks with small ecosystems full of all kinds of fish, kelp, and other marine animals.

Soon after that, the group went to the South Slough were they went on a hike around the forest and slough and learned about the history of forest as well as interesting facts about the slough, which then concluded the field trip. This field trip will be happening next year too, so if you’re an interested sophomore that wants to go, sign up next year!

This year, we got a new superintendent in the North Bend School District - Mr. Bogatin. As a child, he grew up in the Midwest and now spends his free time officiating college women’s basketball, everything except divisions one and two. He also does activities like golfing and biking. As a family man, he enjoys spending time camping in a tent with his loved ones. Even though Mr. Bogatin is more of a sports man himself, he thinks supporting the arts and activities is very important, and encourages students to look for opportunities in the fields they're passionate about.

There’s a lot of schooling, effort, and time he put into the journey of getting this job. His first job wasn’t actually in the field of education. He went to the University of Northern Iowa and finished going to school after three years to become a bank teller. After some time at this job, he realized he wanted something that would leave a bigger impact in people’s lives. A principal from his life had encouraged him to become a principal, so he went back to school to pursue it. Back at Northern Iowa, he got a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education, eventually getting his Master’s Degree at a college in Arizona in Administrative Education. After all this schooling, he worked for five years as a principal in a private school in Lake Oswego. A little while down the road, he got another job in Corvallis and ended up being the assistant superintendent for nine years. After his ninth year, he felt like he had done all he could do in that position and wanted to move on to becoming a superintendent somewhere else.

When he started seriously looking for a superintendent job, he looked at the coast but not at any school in particular. He applied for jobs around the area, was a finalist for a few, but ended up here. As far as North Bend goes, he’s still getting to know the school but is filled with excitement. He said he was very impressed with all the students and teachers he’s met, he thinks we need great administrators to help teachers be great, who can then help students be great.

One thing that he keeps hearing is that the traditional pathway that high schoolers have to take doesn’t work for all kids. Showing up at 8:00 and going to all seven classes can be really challenging for some kids, so we need more options to help students be successful.

Mr. Bogatin is also happy with the timing he came into this job. Oregon recently got 2 billion dollars towards public education due to the student success act passed by the state. With that, he plans to spend this year talking to the community about what's been missing in the educational experience at North Bend High School. One thing he’s hoping to do is upgrade buildings. Since so much is possible right now, as he walks around the school he plans on asking himself “Could this be a more inviting space?”

Another thing Mr. Bogatin thinks is valuable to a school system being successful is state testing and report cards, they’ve had a generally positive impact on education since it shines a light in areas the district might have overlooked before. It shows areas where a school might need to be putting more effort into serving groups of kids like students who are emerging bilinguals, students in poverty, and more.

With all of his experience, goals, and his views on how to better our school, I think Mr.Bogatin is going to have a very positive impact on North Bend’s future.

Mental health is still considered a pretty taboo topic, even now in 2019. People are afraid to talk about it. However, no matter how hard they try to ignore it, it’s still there. One in eighteen adult Oregonians suffer from a mental illness, and one in nine Oregonian children suffer from severe emotional disturbance. According to lifelineconnections.org, suicide is the leading cause of death among Oregonians 45 and younger. Suicides in Portland are three times the national rate, according to the same source. Oregon is ranked thirtieth in texts into the Crisis Text Line about anxiety or stress on crisistrends.org, and forty-second in texts in about depression or sadness. We’re fourth for texts in relating to suicide.

I interviewed Taileigh Prickett, one of our counselors, to get some insight on mental health, since that’s what she specializes in.

Question one: What would you say is the biggest issue with mental health in our school?

Taileigh: I believe that there is a mental health crisis not only within our county, but within our country as well. We can also do more to improve the mental health of everyone, whether they reside within the district or not: by taking the stigma away from mental health and educating everyone on the inner workings of mental health would be a fantastic start. At the beginning of the year, our entire district, kindergarten through twelfth grade, was trained in QPR (question, persuade, refer) as a first step in the direction of improving in our mental health offerings.

In the wake of the recent wave of mass shootings and other gun violence that has happened, some states are feeling the pressure. Americans are finally standing up and demand that their government assert some action to combat gun violence. For Oregon specifically, they have implemented Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) also nicknamed “The Red Flag Law”. The Red Flag Law allows a family member, intimate partner, or anyone who is living in the household, to fill out a petition to have all of the firearms of the person they are worried about confiscated. This law supposedly stops gun violence before it can occur. Many people praise the effort and steps that Oregon is taking in order to prevent these tragedies, while others are questioning if the law is even constitutional. The law is fairly new and there are still a lot of questions floating around, so taking a deeper look is a necessity.

Even the idea of ERPOs is a recent discovery; so there is only a moderate amount of information about the law and its effectiveness. Oregon decided back in 2018 to add ERPOs. Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon’s Attorney General, had said that Oregon does not have many statistics about it, but judges have told her that it is a “very effective law”. When the idea first came about, it had caused a lot of controversy, just like every other idea that involves any gun reform. Many citizens support the law, even some of Oregon’s most conservative citizens support ERPO, saying that it is “common sense”.

All ERPOs vary from state to state, so it's important to be aware which ones apply in Oregon. For instance the only people that are allowed to petition for ERPOs are any family members, intimate partners, a law enforcement officer, and anyone else who lives in the household. Those petitions must be filled out and signed before any court hearing can occur. Filling out said petition is straightforward, easily accessible, and can be found here. The form asks whether the accused has ever threatened to harm someone or themselves. An ERPO form also asks whether the accused has ever committed a crime. Once the form is submitted the hearing will either be the same day, or the day after. The person that had filed for the ERPO will be confronted by the judge, and be asked questions about the person being reported on. If the judge approves the ERPO, the accused will be served and is required to surrender all of their firearms and all permits. Then the accused is able to request an additional hearing which will take place within 21 days. If the accused is found guilty or does not request a hearing, their firearms will be confiscated for one year. After the initial first year, if the judge deems the accused safe, the court will relinquish their guns to the accused. That's basically the whole process. If there are any intentional false statements on the petition, the petitioner may receive a penalty.