NERD Nation to Worlds again Welcome Mr. Fisk Norwalk gets a new superintendent. Read about it on page 7.

Seniors Sign NERD Nation’s Team B moves on to Worlds. Go to page 4 for their story.

Senior athletes sign to continue their athletic careers. Check out who signs where on page 11.

TRUCKER IMPRINT

NORWALK HIGH

SCHOOL

Volume 13, No. 5 350 Shady Lane Drive, Norwalk, OH Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By Erica Leber

A new aroma is filling NHS today. Stomping Grounds coffee shop is finally open! Stop by the Truck Stop Café to check out the shop.

It all started with a simple email exchange b e t w e e n inclusion teachers Cari Beers and Callie Stanley. Mrs. Beers went to a conference and heard of the idea. Next thing you know, both teachers were on board to get this project going.

“I am so excited for such a unique opportunity for our school to link together the entire community,” Ms. Stanley said.

“As cheesy as it is, this truly has been a labor of love,” Mrs. Beers said.

I t c o s t approximately $6,400 to start the shop. So far, with all of the fundraising that S t o m p i n g

Grounds has done, they have raised around $12,000.

Sophomore Key Warnke said she is “really excited to start working in the coffee shop.” Ms. Stanley’s students will be working in the shop, along with other student volunteers.

The coffee shop has a wide variety of drinks that students and teachers can choose to buy. Prices range from $1 to $3. Drinks include iced and hot coffee, hot and iced tea, hot

c h o c o l a t e , Frappuccino’s, frozen hot chocolate and more. Also, there will be a d e d i c a t e d “drink of the month” each month. For the m o n t h o f March, the drink will be a Mint Chocolate F r a p p u c c i n o

for St. Patrick’s Day. “There will be opportunities

for students to get free or half-off drinks when the shop is open. Each week there will be a new teacher featured and whatever subject that teacher teaches, a trivia question will be asked. Students who answer correctly will be put into a drawing and then picked to receive a coupon or free drink,” Ms. Stanley said.

See COFFEE on page 7

Stomping to NHS: Stomping Grounds

Photo by Erica Leber Holding their coffee mugs in the new coffee shop are (from left) inclusion teacher Callie Stanley, Zach Naji, inclusion teacher Cari Beers, Key Warnke, Bailey Hall, Tommy Villarreal, Adam Poe, Mathew Mulder and Kayley Felter.

By Jessica Aguilera Mrs. Phillips has been

teaching for a very long time now, and this year she has decided to retire.

Mrs. Phillips has been teaching for 36 years. She began h e r teaching career in N o r t h Carolina, w h e r e she taught second and third grade for three years. Then she decided to move back to Ohio and keep teaching. She taught in Berlin Heights for eight years. She has been an elementary music teacher in the Norwalk City School District for 25 years. She formerly directed the Norwalk High School musicals, and served as music director for Mary Poppins this year.

“She’s a great teacher and a big part of the production. Not

only does she help with the music part, but she helps with the scenes. She is an important person to the cast,” freshman Roslyn Christian, a cast member

of Mary Poppins, said. She decided to retire

t h i s y e a r because her

t e a c h i n g certificate w a s expiring, and she is ready for a new

adventure. She doesn’t

know what the new adventure

will be yet, but she wants to join the Master Gardeners and she wants to volunteer for Hospice. Mrs.

Phillips also said that she plans to spend more time with her kids.

After retiring, she will still be involved with music. Right now, she leads the adult choir and kids’ choir at her church.

See PHILLIPS on page 7

By Caitlen Cameron Choir teacher

Carol Mason and two students are traveling to Scotland this summer to learn about jazz.

Two Scottish jazz musicians are writing a choral suite for the NHS choir, and the musicians wanted to tutor one saxophone player and one pianist. Mrs. Mason collaborated with orchestra teacher Mark Parish and band teacher Will Kish to select the best two candidates, resulting in picking junior Alyssa Tuttle as the pianist and sophomore Rilee Horowitz as the saxophone player.

“I am looking forward to getting to know Alyssa and Rilee and ultimately impacting their lives,” said Mrs. Mason.

Alyssa has been playing piano for 10 years and said she is

extremely excited about going on the trip. After going to Scotland for 15 days, she plans on staying over an extra night and then flying to Dublin, Ireland, to stay for an extra week as a senior trip.

Rilee has been playing the saxophone for five years and is also looking forward to the trip and the new experiences that the musicians will be providing.

See SCOTLAND on page 7

Trucker Imprint reporter Caitlen Cameron hands sophomore Kylia Jameson a $5 gift card to Sheri’s Coffee House. Kylia won last issue’s Find the Editor contest. In each issue of the Trucker Imprint, a staff editor is hidden within the paper. In this issue, Feature Editor Kirsten Kelley is hidden in a

p i c t u r e . I f found, cut out the picture she is hidden in, write your name on the back, and turn it in to the box in Mrs. Leffler’s room (6208). A winner will be drawn and will receive a prize.

Photo by Caitlen Cameron The trio traveling to Scotland smiles for a picture. They are (from left) junior Alyssa Tuttle, choir teacher Carol Mason and sophomore Rilee Horowitz.

Photo by Jenna Thorpe Mrs. Phillips goes over music with senior Morgan Sanford.

Singing goodbye to Mrs. Phillips

Musicians go to Scotland

Find the Editor

Two time qualifier

Photo by Jarrod Smith Junior Charlie Nash gets his hand raised in victory as he qualifies for the state wrestling tournament. See story on page 10.

Photo by Courtney Pelham

Page 2 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

OUR VOICES

Editor-in-Chief: Brie Schneider Editors: News: Sabrina Boyd Features: Kasey Duncan and Kirsten Kelley Entertainment: Paige Espvik Sports: Erica Leber Photo: Caitlen Cameron and Jenna Thorpe Layout: Courtney Pelham Reporters: Jessica Aguilera Karlee Conley Carlie Conney Hannah Hales Katlin Roberts Madeline Roche Quinn Schick Jarrod Smith Adviser: Mrs. Leffler

Starting with our freshman year of high school, we have been told to do the best we can and maybe even try new things. Par-ents have told us that high school is the time when we make new friends and find out what we’re good at. We are told to enjoy our four years because they fly by.

Yet, as high school students, we are required to take end-of-course exams for classes, ACTs/SATs for college entrance, AS-VAB if we want to go into the military, and now PARCC tests instead of OGTs for graduation purposes. In reality, how does anyone have the time to “enjoy” high school when we have to fret over not only passing, but scoring high enough on state tests to qual-ify for opportunities after high school?

There are problems with re-quiring all of these tests, because not every student is good at test taking, even though he or she un-derstands the material that has been taught. Another drawback to these tests is that some students have learning disabilities or aca-demic struggles that can discour-age them when taking these tests. These tests can also result in stu-

dents degrading themselves be-cause they did not do well on the test. It can make a person feel simpleminded compared to oth-ers. No human being, let alone a high school student, deserves to feel intimated by a test in such a way that it lowers his or her self-esteem.

If a student’s path after high school is col-lege, he or she has to take the ACT or SAT. Both tests are timed and stu-dents have to reach a certain score de-pending on the college require-ments. The opportunity to go to college after high school and pur-sue a desired career is not possi-ble without a high enough score on the ACT or SAT. The fact that having a good cumulative GPA and grades in general is not good enough for college, but we have to take the ACT/SAT too, is ludi-crous.

If students would like to go into any military field after high school, they do not have to take the ACT/SAT, but the ASVAB

test. This test score determines what jobs they will qualify for in the military: another test in which scores dictate the future occupa-tion of a person.

Having to rely on test scores for a chance at a successful future is completely wrong, because there are other essential qualities

a person should possess rather than just being ca-

pable of passing an aca-demic test. Personal qualities such as crea-tivity, sociability, integ-

rity, common sense and leadership skills cannot be

shown on a test. The big picture is that almost

everything we, as high school students, are taught in the class-room is to get us ready for these tests we have to take to be able to encounter the next step in our lives. Being taught what we need for these tests is helpful for now, but what about after high school when most of us will be on our own?

Though there are life skill classes offered, they are optional and many students do not realize their importance. There needs to be a balance between education

to help us now in high school and education to help us in our future. There is no point in getting an excellent test score if a person does not have the basic life skills to survive on their own and thus cannot further their journey in life.

Freshmen are coming in to school at 9:30 a.m. during OGT week this year. In past years, coming in late was a privilege reserved for upperclass-men who had passed the OGT, while freshmen had to come in at 7:30 a.m. to take a practice OGT.

The 2014-15 school year is the last school year for the OGTs. Starting with this year’s freshmen, students will take the PARCC test instead. - Interviews and photos by Katlin Roberts

“It’s stupid because we had to do it when we were freshmen.” Junior Jacob Deiderick

“I understand that they’re taking the PARCC tests but it’s irritating because they get to come in late and we had to take it.” Senior Jelena Cervelli

“It’s going to be cool because I can sleep in the whole week.” Freshman Carleah Hartley

“They should have to come on time and practice.” Sophomore Cole Berry

By Kirsten Kelley Out of a l l the places and classrooms in the high school, I can proudly say the li-

brary is the one I visit the most. Mrs. Hokes, our librarian, makes

the library a warm and welcom-ing place for all students.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes and is something I truly enjoy doing. For me, going to the library has always been fun. But it helps if you have an awesome librarian like Mrs. Hokes to keep things interesting.

So far this year, Mrs. Hokes has made a “Twitter” bulletin board, full of “Tweets” from stu-

dents and teachers who want to share a really good novel with others.

She did the “mystery Valen-tine” book pick up, where she would wrap up books from dif-ferent genres, such as science fiction and romance, so that you could not see the title. Then when people come into the library and ask for a recommendation for a book, she can direct them to that

display and they can choose whether they want to pick a mys-tery book or not.

Mrs. Hokes said she gets all of her ideas from Pinterest and has many more that she would like to showcase, to keep the library fun and inviting.

The library is a fun place. Stu-dents should try to visit the li-brary at least once in their high school career.

Three paths to graduation

Many people are aware of the new PARCC tests taking the place of the OGT for graduation. What people may not be aware of is that there are options other than the PARCC test to be able to graduate. There are three ways to be eligible to graduate. One way is scoring high enough on the PARCC tests. Another way is to be able to demon-strate career readiness, such as going to Ehove and becoming certified in a career. The last option is an unremediated score on a national test which could possibly be the ACT, but the state has not decided yet. The new requirements affect the freshman class and grades under.

By Brie Schneider On page 3 of this issue o f t h e T r u c k e r Imprint, I wrote about s t u d e n t -teacher and

athlete-coach relationships with social media and texting. I ex-plained the state guidelines, the school’s rules, and our own ad-ministration, staff and students’ views on that subject. However; I do not think texting or being Facebook friends is the problem here at NHS. I think that the problem is something more cas-ual but much more personal.

When you’re surrounded by the same 900 students for 180 days a year, you get to know each other pretty well; especially by senior year when you’ve been in the same classes with some of your peers since kindergarten.

Everyone knows everyone’s business and I believe that gos-siping is an epidemic at Norwalk, being spread not just by the stu-dents but by the teachers too.

Teachers should always be open to listen to their students and I am so grateful for the staff here at Norwalk because I strongly believe that every single staff member would listen and console any student if they need it. However, there are lines that need to be drawn with communi-cating personal life, situations and problems between teachers and students.

A teacher can be a student’s role model, greatest confidant and motivator, but I do not think a teacher should be a student’s friend or counselor and I cer-tainly believe it is wrong for a teacher to talk about other stu-dents with a student.

I believe if a person tells someone something in confi-

dence, whether it be a student to a teacher or a student to a stu-dent, they should feel comfort-able that that information will go no further.

It is terribly sad that some teenagers have trust issues be-cause they’ve already been be-trayed at this young age.

Gossiping is easy. As human beings, our inquisitive nature makes it so that we want to know things and figure things out. It is also in our nature to want to be accepted by our peers and fit it. Gossiping satisfies both of those subconscious needs.

I view gossiping as an epi-demic and I think that there is an easy solution: Respect others, respect their personal business and respect yourself.

How you make other people feel says a lot more about you than anything you say. Let’s make NHS a happy, gossip-free zone.

Testing troubles students

“...not every student is good at test taking, even though he or she understands the

material…”

Freshmen sleep in during OGT week

“We feel like the fresh-men are taking enough tests this year.” Assistant Principal Patrick Kania

Our librarian makes the library an inviting place

NHS should be gossip-free

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Trucker Imprint — Page 3

By Madeline Roche Balancing life and school can

be a struggle, especially if some-one is involved in many activi-ties. It may sometimes seem im-possible, and hard to complete school work, but it can be done.

“It’s mostly figuring out what works best for you,” guidance counselor Sandra Stewart said.

The school day is seven hours long, in addition to extra-curricular activities that many students are involved with.

Freshman Kylie Edney said she has been involved in sports since she was young, and has participated in softball and cheer-leading this year, but said she does OK with managing her time and doesn’t have trouble finding time to finish her homework.

“Do your homework as soon as you can when you’re not busy,” she said.

Ms. Stewart said taking time for yourself is a big part of being organized, adding that she is a planner herself, and likes to know when she has free time.

“A hard thing is some stu-dents can do in a half hour, what others can do in three hours,” Ms. Stewart said.

Sophomore Brandi Braker has participated in soccer, the musi-cal, Key Club, Art Club, choir activities, Awana, food banks, and the Humane Society.

“I don’t want to stay up late, but I have to so I can finish my homework,” she said.

Going back to freshman year, she said she would have still par-ticipated in all of the activities because when it comes to apply-ing for college, even if the GPA

isn’t that high, the number of activities will look good.

“Some teachers consider the activities you’re involved in and some don’t really care and pile on homework anyway,” Brandi said.

She said she has to work around the times of her activities to complete all of her homework and studying.

“I always get my assignments done; I just have to put some of my activities first,” she said.

English teacher Jennifer Lark said she realizes that kids are busy with their commitments and takes that into consideration when assigning homework.

When giving advice about time management, she said she would first ask if they are using their time well.

“It’s amazing what you can do in 15 minutes of actually working, instead of complaining, texting and flipping through TV channels,” Mrs. Lark said.

By Madeline Roche When people think of the

word “cheating,” they usually think of copying from another student in school.

For Norwalk High School, cheating is a broad topic and means something different to students and staff members.

The Trucker Imprint anony-mously surveyed 50 students from each of the four grades at Norwalk High School about cheating and academic dishon-esty, and some shared their opin-ions on the subject.

The surveys showed that a majority of students are involved in academic dishonesty.

“My personal definition of cheating is using someone else’s work and claiming you as the author or doer of that work,” Principal Brad Cooley said.

“Academic dishonesty is a bad concept. If you continue to practice such dishonesty through your professional career, conse-

quences will ensue. I don’t be-lieve it is a crime at the high school level. At this point, many of these tests aren’t of conse-quence to a majority of your life. A small amount of ‘cheating’ should be used in extreme mod-eration,” freshman Darren Ray-mond said.

“I don’t think it’s cheating. I think that it’s using your re-sources,” one female sophomore said.

Although not all cheaters are caught, every time people cheat, they take a risk of facing conse-quences to their actions.

“Cheating is 100 percent wrong but at the same time, high school classes are stressful and I would rather get a 100 percent than not cheat,” one male senior said.

“Everybody cheats; what’s the big deal?” one female junior asked.

See DISHONESTY on page 6

By Sabrina Boyd Progress Book for some stu-

dents can change their mood for an entire day.

Senior Bayleigh Collins has a strong opinion when talking about Progress Book.

“They should keep up to date because that’s just as important as students doing homework on time,” she said.

When asked why she feels so strongly about it, Bayleigh ex-plained that grades reflect back on an individual and she wants her reflection to be good.

“I wish some teachers would hurry because I’m really anxious to see my grade,” said freshman

Aimee Smith. She explained that she gets nervous when she has to wait a long period of time for her grades to update.

Junior Charlie Nash also has strong feelings about teachers updating his grades.

“I wish they would do them right away. Some teach-ers really take a while,” he said.

Charlie explained why it’s important to him.

“You could get a bad grade on one assignment and if they don’t put another one in, your grade stays low,” he said.

Being at the high school for her second year, sophomore

Paige Matzek is starting to see the struggle of Progress Book.

“Some teachers need to hurry and put the grades in. My grade might be low, and I don’t want that to happen.”

There is no official policy g o v e r n i n g how long teachers have to post grades

in Progress Book, Principal Brad Cooley said. Teachers have sev-eral different policies when it comes to entering grades.

“I try to put homework in that day, on a daily basis. When it’s done, it’s in,” math teacher Corrie Kaple said.

When asked how she responds to students who complain about how long it takes for grades to be entered, Mrs. Kaple said “Normally it’s the people that miss a test, and I can’t grade and put it in right away.”

“I put them in whenever I can get them graded,” science teacher Tiffany Chandler said, adding that she simply does not respond to students who complain about Progress Book.

Social Studies teacher Derek Pigman has this approach when discussing this topic: “If you want your grade and don’t have it, take responsibility, be an adult about the situation and talk to your adviser,” he said.

By Brie Schneider As human beings, we come

across the question “How far is too far?” daily. Whether we are at school, home, work or the mall, we are constantly trying not to “cross the line.” A high school is a system that is very delicate and has many lines drawn; lines that tell students not to get up in the middle of class, to keep their cell phones away, not to punch their peers in the face, and lines that tell teachers not to sleep at their desk or play movies every day.

Social media has caused these lines to become quite fuzzy re-garding professionalism in the school system. So, how far is too far?

Principal Brad Cooley believes that teachers are teachers 24/7 and are held at a higher standard be-cause of that.

The Association of American Educators sets the guidelines of teacher ethics in the Code of Eth-ics for Educators. In these bylaws there are many ethical rules about teachers regarding their col-leagues, the community and their teaching methods; however, there are no rules on teacher-student personal relationships.

“There is no reason ever to have cell phone communication [with a student] with having com-puter access as a form of commu-nication,” said Principal Cooley. He also explained that although every teacher is a human being, teachers always have to be profes-sional in and out of school.

Although teachers are required to be professional, some students’ teachers are the closest person they have in their lives. Mr. Coo-ley believes that teachers should listen and show that they care, but the line is drawn at giving feed-back or advice.

“Teachers are not counselors,” said Mr. Cooley.

Students and teachers should not have each other on social me-dia or have their phone numbers. Mr. Cooley states that there is no need and that would be unprofes-sional.

Academic Twitter accounts, such as NHS yearbook and Nor-walk Schoo ls (OH) , a re “awesome,” Mr. Cooley said, be-cause they get out the information and “that is where the focus should be.”

Teachers and students should never have each other’s phone numbers or social media accounts, but what happens when that teacher is also the student’s coach?

Guidelines regarding coach-athlete relationships are set in a statewide coach’s manual. The school has general rules on things like curfew and drinking, but each coach makes his or her own hand-book. In the handbook, coaches address rules like disciplinary ac-tions, consequences and practice schedules. The coaches are re-quired to turn in the handbook to Athletic Director Gary Swartz.

See BOUNDARIES on page 7

FACT OF THE ISSUE: Nationally, the percent of students enrolling in college in the fall semester immediately following high school was 66.2 percent in 2012. - National Center for Education Statistics website

DRAWING THE LINE WITH ETHICS

‘How far is too far?’

Academic dishonesty — from conscience to consequence

Teachers take time for updating Progress Book

Balancing life and school

Based on a survey of 200 randomly selected NHS students in grades 9-12

Based on a survey of 200 randomly selected NHS students in grades 9-12

CC

Page 4 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Firelands Challenge finishes third By Brie Schneider

Firelands Challenge finished their season third out of 18 teams in the

regular season. They were defeated in the playoff to get into the Cham-pionship by St. Mary High School.

“They were a very eclectic group with a wide variety of interests that provided the opportunity to be very competitive,” said coach and social studies teacher Chris Cloud.

English teacher and coach Amie Swope said the season highlight was when the team went on TV in Cleveland and won that match.

Team members shared their favorite memories: “Mine was when Luke [Landis] stood up and hit his head on a lamp

at Chipotle and he only caught himself by grabbing onto the lamp,” said senior Garret Bader

“My favorite memory was when Luke said 27 was a prime number,” said junior Brooke Landis, Luke’s sister and also a member of the team.

“Mr. Cloud’s trifecta,” said senior Luke Landis.

NERD Nation continuing success By Brie Schneider

Norwalk High School’s NERD Nation took

first in Programming Skills again this year at State.

“This is an outstanding achievement and I am certainly proud of the fact that two straight years we won Ohio Programming Skills,” math/computer science teacher and NERD Nation Coach Christopher Higgins said.

Team B will be going on to Worlds. The team consists of seniors Zach McGuckin, An-gel Garcia, Justin Klingelsmith, junior Brooke Landis and freshman Darren Raymond.

“It was very successful because we made awesome robots and we had a very strong team,” said senior Caleb Myers.

Caleb’s team did not qualify for State but he is making the trip to Worlds with the rest of the NERD Nation group.

Worlds this year is in Louis-ville, Kentucky, and takes place April 15.

Math/engineering teacher and NERD Nation coach Adam Leu-tenegger said that he hopes to get top 20 out of the 400/500 teams that are in the competition, but ultimately he wants to win.

“It is a pretty ambitious goal,” Mr. Leutenegger said.

Zach’s favorite memory from NERD Nation was Mr. Higgins running the bases last year at Worlds. His hope for Worlds is to bring home a trophy.

Angel said he is hoping to “beat China.”

“We’re going to be losing four of the seniors on the team going to Worlds; that’s a big loss,” said Mr. Leutenegger. He

hopes that the senior class’ leadership lessons will pass on to the next class.

New plaques being installed at NHS By Jessica Aguilera

New plaques will be installed in the build-

ing to recognize those who have excelled aca-demically.

They will be located in the health hallway on the wall by the cafeteria.

“We have done a good job recognizing those who have excelled in sports, arts and band, but we have not done a very good job recognizing those who have excelled academi-cally,” Principal Brad Cooley said.

The new plaques will honor past valedicto-rians, salutatorians, members of National

Honor Society, Hall of Excellence, and those who have achieved high scores on Advanced Placement and ACT tests, start-ing with the class of 2001.

Class funds will be used to pay for the plaques, Mr. Cooley said, adding that the plaques should be here by spring break.

Photo by Brie Schneider Pictured are NERD Nation members (from left) senior Caleb Meyers, freshman Darren Raymond, senior Justin Klingelsmith, jun-ior Trenton Roth, seniors Zach McGuckin and Angel Garcia, and junior Brooke Landis.

Submitted photo Pictured right are what the new plaques will look like.

Attending senior prom? Details announced By Paige Espvik

This year’s prom is going to be a “starry

night by the sea.” It will take place at Lyman Harbor on May 2.

Prom tickets are estimated to cost around $20 to $30. Student Council is still working on ticket prices for after-prom, but they will be announced at a later date.

Grand march will begin at 5:30 pm and prom will begin at 7:30 pm and go until 11:30 p.m. After-prom will follow at the Thirsty Pony and go from midnight to 2 a.m.

Wi-Fi questions finally being answered By Carlie Conney

What happened to our Wi-Fi? The answer, according to tech-

nology director Jeff Braumberger, is that many students used it un-ethical ly , and used non-educational websites.

Also, he said the websites that students have been using have brought in bad content and vi-ruses to the large band width the school has.

Mr. Braumberger said that after all the state-mandated test-ing that our school is doing, the tech guys will look into turning the student access Wi-Fi back on.

Have any students had issues with accessing the Internet at home? If students bring their lap-top down to the tech office, the

tech people will explain what it is they are trying to do and how students can fix it. Mr. Braumberger said that it’s mainly the Gateways that people have problems with, so he said that they give students a new battery that helps some of the problems they may be having. They are still tweaking and fixing little issues with all laptops brought down, said Mr. Braumberger.

Recently, Mr. Braumberger sent out an email to all students with laptops. It says: “Staff and Students, The tech department

has set up a white HP Chrome-book help desk kiosk for students located in the athletic office. The purpose of this kiosk is to reduce traffic at the tech office and docu-ment all issues with student lap-tops. Students will need to fill out the help desk form, and sub-mit the form to tech support. Af-ter filling out the online form, students should put their device(s) on the cart (marked with a sign). This kiosk is not a work-station for checking email or do-ing homework. Please do not come to the tech office. We will pick devices up during the day, and will inform students when work is completed.”

Sport achievements not going unnoticed

By Hannah Hales A texting and driving presentation, sponsored by the Huron County

Chamber of Commerce, will take place on March 26 for all junior and senior students.

During this assembly, “Rusty’s Story” will be discussed. This is about a Highway Patrol officer who was killed by a driver who happened to be texting.

This assembly is intended to educate students about the dangers of distracted driving, said Principal Brad Cooley.

Texting and driving assembly for juniors and seniors

By Hannah Hales Norwalk is welcoming

a few new additions to the town in regards to our high school sports at Nor-walk High School.

Seven new signs will be placed alongside roads at the entrances coming into Norwalk, represent-ing the boys’ basketball division 2 state champion-ship win and the football

team winning state in 1974.

The signs will have space at the bottom where new accomplishments can be placed.

These signs will go up whenever the weather permits, said Principal Brad Cooley, adding that the school is also waiting on approval from the state.

This is where the signs will be located:

⇒ Entrance near Walmart ⇒ Coming in from 61 by

H&B’s ⇒ Norwood before 20 ⇒ South 250 ⇒ North 250 ⇒ Before Maple City Ice ⇒ Entrance near Evans Funeral Home

Photo by Hannah Hales This is one of the new signs that will placed around the entrances of Norwalk.

Photo by Karlee Conley Pictured is the new help desk kiosk in the tech office.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Trucker Imprint — Page 5

STUDENTS AT SCHOOL TEACHERS AT WORK

Name: Chandler Baker Grade: 9 Age: 14 What traits do you find most admirable in a person? Funny, smart and athletic . Weirdest fear and why? Spi-ders because of the movie Arachnophobia. Five things you’d take to the desert and why? Food, water, a gun, friends and clothes. If you could be any celebrity of the opposite sex, who would you be and why? Tay-lor Swift because she is a mil-lionaire. If you could make up a holi-day, what would it be? Free Chipotle Day. If you could be a fruit or vegetable, what would you be? An orange. If you could be an animal, which would you choose and why? A lion because they are the king of the jungle. Biggest pet peeve? People smacking when they eat. If you were dying, what would your last words be? Remember the Golden Rule.

Name: Mrs. Koch Subject(s) taught: Physics, Physical Science and Integrated Science. If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be? I have no idea! If you were a student here at NHS, what clique would you sit with at lunch? There’s “cliques” at NHS? Shocking! Most embarrassing high school moment: I don’t remember any. I have an Etch-a-sketch memory. I shake my head and everything disappears. Craziest thing that ever hap-pened during class: When a stu-dent thought eating magic mush-rooms was a good idea. They kicked in halfway through second period -- Gnomes were every-where. What do you like on your pizza, and if you were a pizza topping which one would you be and why? Olives, mushrooms, pep-peroni and anchovies. I would be an anchovy because I’m a little salty. What is your biggest regret from high school? Getting caught skipping. Advice to seniors: Get to know your professors. Go to office hours frequently…it’s invaluable. Advice to freshmen: Zip it! When not sitting behind a desk, what do you do? I teach science. I rarely sit at a desk. So, I guess, just about everything.

Laws of Girlcode and Guycode By Kasey Duncan

“Don’t buy a dress unless your friends approve and on Wednesdays we wear pink.” –Senior Alexa Perry

“Don’t sabotage a relationship just because you don’t like the per-son.” –Sophomore Addie Mannino

“Don’t get too emotional over breakups” – Junior Nick Bying-ton

“Younger sisters are off lim-its.” –Junior Evan Kaczor

“Don’t be friends with your friend’s ex.” –Sophomore Cara MacFarland

“If your best friend’s girl asks where he was last night, regard-less of where he was, you say he was with his bros.” –Senior Ben Neuburger

“Bro code only ex-ists because boys haven’t figured out that the only code that matters is girl code.” –Mr. Baker

She said vs. He said: Getting ready for Prom

By Kasey Duncan For seniors, this time of

year is the most chaotic and hectic. We’re being constantly bombarded with questions about college and our choice in career path.

For those of you who know where you’re going and what your intended major is, I con-gratulate you on the majority of your stress being over.

For those of you who have absolutely no idea where you’re going or what you want to do, I’m here to tell you that it’s OK to be 18 years old and not have your entire life fig-ured out.

My freshman year, I was dead set on attending Bowling Green State University to play soccer and major in special education.

Then my sophomore year I was dead set on attending Cleveland State University to again play soccer, but this time pursue a degree in law.

Then my junior year I was set again on attending BGSU for special education.

Now as a senior I’m signed to play soccer at Chicago State

University and plan to major in business and marketing. It’s crazy how quickly life changes.

Society puts so much em-phasis on this time period in our lives, expecting us to grow up overnight and have every-thing figured out when that’s not realistic.

It’s OK to go into college with an undecided major. It’s OK not to go to college at all and head straight into the work force.

This part of our life isn’t about deciding, it’s about learning. It’s OK to make mis-takes as long as you learn from them. It’s OK to change your mind or your major. You don’t have to have it all figured out as long as you’re taking steps in the right direction and nar-rowing down your options.

Before we embark on the next chapter of our lives that we get to write ourselves, I say we all enjoy our last few months together as high school students. We are all going to graduate and our lives will separate our paths in different directions that will lead us far or close to home.

Regardless of the path you take, just know that as you’re moving in the direction your life is taking you, it’s okay to be unclear about where you’re going and to make a few wrong turns along the way. Just remember, nothing ven-tured is nothing gained.

Ceasing senior year anxieties A Student’s Life

Photographed: junior Jarrod Smith and senior Kasey Duncan

Page 6 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By Karlee Conley and Carlie Conney

Not everyone knows their birth parents.

Some students at NHS were adopted.

Joey and Johanna’s story Twins Joey and Johanna Thomas, both jun-

iors, were adopted at 3 years old. They both said they love being adopted! When they were old enough to understand, their adopted parents told them they were adopted. When asked if they have ever looked or planned on looking for their birth parents, Joey said no because he doesn’t want to see them and Johanna said she doesn’t plan on it but if she saw them out in public she’d say hi. Johanna also said that if her biological parents were to see them right now, they would have no idea who they are.

Sam’s story

Freshman Sam McClish was adopted in 2000 at 4 months old. Sam also was told he was adopted when he could understand. He said he loves being adopted because he is in a good home with a family that loves him un-conditionally. When he was asked if he ever

looked or plans on looking for his birth par-ents, Sam said he has tried by looking on the Internet, but had no luck. He plans on continu-ing the search because all five of his siblings are adopted and they all know their parents but him. Sam said he used to get made fun of for being adopted; other kids would say that his mom didn’t love him and that he’s a drug baby.

Corey’s story

Corey Rice, a senior here at Norwalk, is also adopted. When he was between the ages of 3 and 4, his adopted dad ended up telling him just so he was old enough to know what was going on. When asked how he feels about being adopted, he said, “It’s kinda strange mostly because I have no clue who my real

parents are. I know my four siblings and would’ve been five but my twin sister died at birth.” Corey also said that if he ever got the chance to meet his biological parents he would, because he said that it would give him a perspective on how his life would’ve been if he wasn’t adopted. Corey’s words to those who are adopted are, “If you’re adopted too, it’s not because your parents didn’t love you, it’s because they wanted to give you a better life than what they would’ve given you.”

My story By Karlee Conley I was adopted at a day old but the pa-

perwork didn’t get done for a year. I love be-ing adopted because I’m in a great home and my parents love me like I’m their own. I plan on looking for my parents someday; I’m just scared because I don’t know how I will feel or react to meeting them. I’m different from the other four students in this story because they all know they have siblings and I don’t know if I have any. I’ve always had really suppor-tive friends who understand my situation and care about me. I think adoption is a great thing because it gives children a chance at a better life.

“If you’re adopted too, it’s not because your parents didn’t love you, it’s because they wanted to give you a better life than what they would’ve given you.” - Corey Rice

By Quinn Schick The recent weather has most

likely kept everyone wondering if any living organism will thrive in our environment anytime soon.

Though it may not seem like it, springtime is approaching and some are wondering what it will bring.

Backyard gardening is some-thing to start thinking about. It is an opportunity to create life and grow food.

There are many ways to go about planting a garden and many factors to be considered before doing so.

Biology teacher Nate Whaley said he normally starts planning

his garden around this time of year.

“I normally start planting in-side and getting out old seeds,” Mr. Whaley said.

Mr. Whaley said he is plan-ning to plant some vegetables and flowers in the garden area in the back of the school. He will allow anyone who is interested in the garden to help with it.

“I want it to be a community garden,” he said.

English teacher Leah Schuster said she gardens because it is a hobby and “you know where your food is coming from.”

“Always talk to people who know more about gardening than you do,” Mrs. Schuster said.

What will spring bring for gardens?

Helpful hints for raising plants from seeds

1. Start plants inside. 2. When the ground thaws out, till or put newspaper and compost on the soil.

3. Around Mother’s Day, or after the last frost, plant what you have grown into the ground near sunlight.

4. Water regularly. 5. Watch grow throughout the summer.

By Quinn Schick Coursera Is an online college

course program that offers a wide variety of college-level classes.

There are 12 different foreign languages and many categories of study options.

Coursera offers courses any-where from Australian literature

to songwriting. The program does not give college credit.

This may be of interest to peo-ple who have spare time outside of school and work. It could also

be a great way to spend time in the summer.

Anyone can access the Coursera webpage by going to https://www.coursera.org/.

Coursera program means free college for anyone

Continued from page 3 The student handbook shows

the consequences of academic dishonesty, ranging from the first offense, which is two in-school suspensions or school service projects, through the fifth of-fense, which is ten out-of-school suspensions or expulsion. Aca-demic dishonesty is worth 10 de-merits.

The table with the list conse-quences adds that this is a “guideline for discipline and the Principal and/or Assistant Princi-pal can decide to adjust the steps and discipline at their discretion.”

The student handbook also says, “A student shall not engage in any act of cheating, plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, includ-ing but not limited to the removal and/or changing of any school records.”

Regardless of the conse-quences, cheating still continues for various reasons.

“Cheating and academic dis-honesty is something that will always happen. Kids progres-sively get sneakier. It’s unavoid-able,” one female freshman said.

Mr. Cooley said that although more technology makes cheating easier, it also makes it easier to catch the cheater.

“Desperate times call for des-perate measures,” one female senior said.

“If you’re getting a good grade from cheating, you’re get-ting a grade you don’t d e s e r v e , ” sophomore J e s s i c a Crane said.

The en-forced con-sequences of cheating vary from teacher to teacher.

“Teachers need to actually pay attention to catch people cheating. (How’s that not obvi-ous),” one female freshman said.

“I think the students know what will happen to them if they cheat,” math teacher Chris Hig-gins said, adding “It’s very tough to enforce, but as a school we could do a better job.”

“I definitely think it could be more enforced. There’s a lot of ways to do it and a lot of ways to enforce it,” English teacher Joe Kaiser said, adding that it is im-portant to enforce now because at the next level, colleges will kick students out of the school.

“It is a very serious offense that deserves harsher punish-ment,” one male senior said.

Copying homework is not al-ways thought of as a form of

cheating, but it is using someone else’s work, and is still consid-ered academically dishonest.

“If you copy homework, you’re only hurting yourself,”

math teacher Alli-son Sellers said. “I think the people that cheat are really lazy be-cause they don’t respect the subject and the teacher and how the

teacher is helping you and trying to prepare you for the real world,” one male freshman said.

“If people are given so much homework that they are unable to finish, perhaps less work should be given,” one female senior said.

“It’s taking the easy way out,” one female senior said.

Is cheating a major problem at N o r w a l k High School?

“I would-n’t say it’s a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b l e m . Does it hap-pen? Yes,” Mr. Cooley said. Sometimes if a student is given a zero for cheating on an assign-ment, that is the strongest conse-quence he or she would need, he said, adding that the main thing is making sure the student has

learned from it and will not re-peat it.

“Everyone cheats. Some peo-ple get caught and some people don’t,” one female junior said.

Some students seem to be guilt-free when it comes to cheat-ing.

“Gets you through high school,” one female junior said.

Some students also feel they do not have a choice when it comes to the pressure put on them to achieve “good grades.”

“It’s wrong but it feels so right,” one female freshman said.

“If high school wasn’t based on tests, we wouldn’t have this problem,” one female sophomore said.

“I don’t like doing it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do,” one male sophomore said.

“Today’s school officials are so worried about five little letters that it’s driving s tudents to cheat,” one fe-

male junior said. “It’s necessary to an extent.

Depends on the teacher,” one male junior said.

“Cheating is pointless. Who knows if the person’s answers are right anyway?” one female fresh-man said.

DISHONESTY

“If you’re getting a good grade from cheating, you’re getting a grade you don’t deserve.”

- sophomore Jessica Crane

“I don’t like doing it, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

- male sophomore

QS

Love: not limited by heredity

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Trucker Imprint — Page 7

By Kirsten Kelley In the past weeks, Nate

Whaley’s science classes and Jen-nifer Albright’s business classes participated in a state-funded en-trepreneurship program.

This program is called “Believe in Ohio” and is based around the STEM concept (Science Technology Engineering and Math).

Mrs. Albright’s students had to create a business plan whereas Mr. Whaley’s students had to

improve an already made product or invent a new one.

Mr. Whaley phrased this ques-tion to his stu-d e n t s w h e n t h e y s tar ted w o r k -ing on their commercialization plans: “What is one thing that would make life easier in a cer-tain situation?”

There was a $500 cash prize for the winners of this competi-

tion. The business winner was Miranda Eaton. The commerciali-zation winners were seniors Isaac

M o o r e , E l i z a b e t h Francis and P h i l l i p Mersereau. Isaac de-signed a foot-

ball helmet that prevents concus-sions. Elizabeth designed a cell phone case that holds accessories. Philip designed a personal flying machine.

Miranda designed an app named GlamMoi. This app can q u i c k l y o r g a n i z e t h e user’s closet by taking pictures of everything from shoes to hand-bags and organizing the items on tags/descriptions.

Now the contestants and their plans will go onto the regional level. There they have the chance to win $5,000, and then at state they have the chance of winning $10,000.

“I hope to continue on in the contest, and bring home that $10,000 scholarship,” Isaac said.

Being wise to win the prize

Norwalk welcomes Mr. Fisk By Katlin Roberts

The Norwalk City School Dis-

trict has a new superintendent. George Fisk was named su-

perintendent at a school board meeting last week.

“I’m incredibly excited to be with the Norwalk School Dis-trict,” the new superintendent said.

Mr. Fisk was chosen out of 21 candidates and four finalists.

“I’m looking forward to work-ing with the students and meeting the staff,” he said.

Mr. Fisk previously worked with the Ontario Local School District. He is currently the su-perintendent for the East Pales-tine School District.

He plans to move to Norwalk in June with his wife, Kristin, and their son. He will then start the transition and attend district meetings over the summer. He

officially begins his new job here on Aug. 1.

“The board is excited to have Mr. Fisk join the district and looks forward to working with him towards a high-performing school system for the commu-nity,” a press release from the school board office stated.

Photo by Katlin Roberts

New superintendent George Fisk greets the public at a recent school board meeting.

“I hope to continue on in the con-test, and bring home that $10,000 scholarship.”

- senior Isaac Moore

Continued from page 1

The coffee shop will be open from 7 a.m. to 8:21 a.m. The 7:30 to 8:21 time period will be for seniors with late arrival who would like to en-joy a refreshment before school. There will be muffins for sale along with some sort of coffee shop type of snack from the featured catering business of the month.

This new coffee shop will not only benefit NHS, but Stomping Grounds is taking their work to Peru. A founda-tion called “Reach Trade Cof-fee” is saving the world one cup of coffee at a time. A por-tion of each cup of coffee sold at the shop will go to Peru to help purify their drinking wa-ter. There will also be a tip jar that people can put change in and then that will be donated to local charities.

Stomping Grounds is on social media. Follow them on Twitter @nhs_SG and on Instagram @NHSSTOMPINGGROUNDS!

Continued from page 1 Mrs. Phillips said the thing

she likes most about teaching is when the students come to her class all happy to see her.

She said she is happy that she can bring that joy to the kids. Mrs. Phillips said she hopes to influence them to participate in music in some way.

What she will miss most, after retiring, are the “hugs” from her students. What she will miss least is the paper work and the testing.

One of the most memorable days Mrs. Phillips has had while

teaching is when she would bring hers kids up to the high school to practice for their programs and they would all get excited.

“They would gasp to see how big the stage was,” Mrs. Phillips said.

Another memorable day for Mrs. Phillips was when she was helping a student who was strug-gling with the melody of a simple instrument. She recalls how great it was “to see the happiness on my student’s face when he achieved his accomplishment,” she said.

Mrs. Phillips’ advice for a beginning teacher is to not get too

caught up on reaching the goal of the class, but instead to enjoy the kids’ creativeness.

“Let the kids be creative,” Mrs. Phillips added. Mrs. Phil-lips said teachers should enjoy themselves and laugh with the kids.

“She was a great person to work with, an awesome musician and she cares a lot about the kids,” Spanish teacher Janet Pe-terson said.

Mrs. Peterson worked with Mrs. Phillips at Pleasant Elemen-tary School.

Continued from page 1 The entire trip will be

funded by GEOTrac. The foundation connected the jazz musicians with Mrs. Mason because they wanted to create a concert, become more con-nected with Norwalk, and ex-pose the school to the culture of other countries. The trio is primarily going to get familiar with the two pieces and learn from the jazz musicians. Next fall they will have a concert with the two new jazz pieces.

Mrs. Mason and the stu-dents are leaving around 7:30 a.m. on July 1 and will go di-rectly to the jazz classes. The classes will take place at a girl’s prep school that will be empty because of summer break.

Instead of staying at a ho-tel, they will be staying at Mrs. Mason’s friends’ apartment, since they will be at their daughter’s wedding in Califor-nia. As a bonus to the tutoring, the two students will have ex-tra time with the musicians by having them come to the flat.

While most of the trip will consist of the jazz lessons, the group will also do some sight-seeing in places like Edinbor-ough and Glasgow.

Mrs. Mason and Rilee will be returning on July 15.

Continued from page 3

“I don’t think coaches regulate media enough,” said Mr. Swartz, adding, “The athlete should not be posting anything about the team or coach and vice versa.”

“Social media in many ways has made my job much more dif-ficult because when someone states what happened they don’t necessarily understand the tone,” said math teacher and tennis coach Christopher Higgins. Mr. Higgins also stated that he does not approve requests on social media sites from anyone who is a student.

Mr. Swartz said he does not like player-coach texting at all. He would prefer a communica-tion method called Google Voice. In Google Voice, each athlete would sign up for this messaging system. The coach could then text the players in a mass text, but the players would not be able to re-ply.

“There should be no personal texting. Once you put something out there it is out there forever,” Mr. Swartz explained.

Despite the ethical question behind coaches and athletes tex-ting, student athletes find this

form of communication conven-ient.

“Whenever school gets can-celed they always text or call us in group messaging to let us know what time we have prac-tice,” said junior Alexander Har-ness, who plays basketball.

“It doesn’t bother me at all because he’s just my coach,” ex-plained sophomore Bethany Cring, referring to basketball coach Brock Manlet.

Students’ feelings towards texting their coaches are casual, but Mr. Swartz believes “It should be all business.”

COFFEE

SCOTLAND PHILLIPS

BOUNDARIES

Mary Poppins

Photo by Karlee Conley Mary Poppins cast mem-bers (from left) freshman David Doll, senior Bran-don Fries and sophomore Brandi Braker go over their parts before perform-ing for the fourth and sev-enth graders last week. The full play was per-formed March 12-15 at the Ernsthausen Performing Arts Center.

Page 8 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

ENTERTAINMENT

By Jenna Thorpe

Prom is coming up, which means one thing: dress shopping!

Some girls will go to an actual store and try on dresses while others will buy a dress online. Yes, buying a dress online might be cheaper than going to a store and buying one.

The thing is, with buying online you don’t truly know the dress that you’ve bought until it shows up at your house. There are all kinds of things that can be wrong with your dress; it can have a tear in it, be the wrong

size, or it can look completely different from the picture on the website.

Personally, I think it’s better to buy a dress at a store. You know exactly what you’re buying and some dress stores have a seamstress to make sure your dress fits you perfectly. Plus you don’t have to wait five to seven days for delivery.

The only downside to buying a dress at a store is that some of the dresses can be very expen-sive.

This means you need to watch out for certain designers. Gener-ally, the more well known a de-signer is, the pricier the dress.

I think it’s a good idea not to order a dress online. Go to a store instead because you get to see the dress you’re buying in person and you get to try it on before you buy it.

If you do buy a prom dress online, make sure you know if the company sells quality dresses and that the store has good re-views.

By Paige Espvik Gossip Girl is a teen drama

based on the books by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series follows

privileged teens who live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York. There is an anony-mous blogger that everyone calls Gossip Girl who reports on all of their lives and all the things that happen to them.

Gossip Girl is mainly based around the It Girl Serena van der Woodsen, played by Blake Lively. She just returned from a mysterious boarding school, and while Gossip Girl is trying to find out why, so are Serena’s friends -- queen bee Blair Waldorf, bad boy Chuck Bass, and golden boy Nate Archibald.

While dealing with their crazy lives on the Upper East Side, the privileged teens run into Brook-lyn boy Dan Humphrey, his best friend Vanessa Abrams, and his little sister Jenny Humphrey. Dan

and Jenny are just trying to fit in with the crowd as they go to school with

the privileged group of teens. The series is a rollercoaster of

events. There are many scandals throughout the show and it will always keep you interested. I rec-ommend Gossip Girl to everyone.

It is a great series and it is loved by many. It is easy to find on Netflix and it should definitely be everyone’s next option to watch!

By Quinn Schick Lakewood, located

on the west side of Cleveland, has many interesting things to do.

Photo Editors Jenna Thorpe and Caitlen Cameron and I had an overall positive experi-ence when we went to dinner and coffee in the town.

Our anticipation was great for this trip because we were very excited to go to a place called Fruit Vibe we had seen on social media. We searched their website to verify it was a real company.

However, we went to the Fruit Vibe location that we en-tered into the GPS, we found ourselves in the parking lot of a local grocery store. Fruit Vibe is not an actual store itself yet. It is a small, growing company.

Inside the grocery store, we were directed to the Fruit Vibe products located near the fruits and vegetables.

The juice was quite expen-sive. A 12-ounce bottle of coco-nut juice cost $11 and a 12-ounce bottle of carrot juice cost $6, but it was worth it because everything was juiced that same day. According to the Fruit Vibe webpage, the juice is always from fresh, local fruit and vege-tables. The drink that I got was coconut. It was very tasty and made my stomach feel good.

After drinking our juice, we went to a small diner called The Diner on Clifton, located on the corner of Clifton Boulevard.

The atmosphere was very similar to a traditional diner with a more modern twist.

I ordered the macaroni and cheese dinner. It was very cheesy and delicious, although I would rather have gotten only a bowl of it. I ordered the full din-ner because I was very hungry, but I was not able to finish it.

Jenna got a Diner Dog with a side of macaroni and cheese. She also had leftover macaroni to take home.

Caitlen was satisfied with her pulled pork sandwich with a side of macaroni and cheese that she ordered.

Prices were not overly expen-sive. Each of our bills was under $15.

By Jenna Thorpe After Quinn, Caitlen and I

went to the diner, we went to a coffee shop called The Root, located at 15118 Detroit Ave. in Lakewood.

It was a medium-sized coffee shop that seemed like it was mainly based around things that were vegan approved. When we walked in, a band that was play-ing in the corner was just finish-ing up their act.

When we sat down, there was a man near us who had what seemed like all of his belongings with him and was walking with a walking stick. It added to the earthy vibe of the store.

When it was time for us to order, Quinn got black coffee, Caitlen got hot chocolate, and I got a “Mayan Mocha.” It had everything in a normal mocha plus cayenne pepper, cinnamon and vanilla.

I liked my drink, but if I were to compare it to when Quinn and I went to the coffee shop The Local in Oberlin, then I liked The Local more. Don’t get me

wrong, The Root was a very nice coffee shop and I would defi-nitely go back there, but it was-n’t my favorite place because even though the overall atmos-phere was nice, my mocha left a gritty feeling on my teeth, mak-ing me not want to finish my drink. Other than that it was a great place.

Overall our day was very good. I would definitely go back to Rocky River and Lakewood for more sightseeing and to see what other cool stores they have.

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands."

-- Douglas Noel Adams

A trip to Lakewood

XOXO Gossip Girl: scandalous and thrilling

Signed ‘your future stylist’

Prom dresses: store vs. online shopping

Fruit Vibe mishap turns to a good time

Gossip Girl here! Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhat-tan's elite.

–Gossip Girl

Photos by Caitlen Cameron Inside and outside of The Diner .

Photo by Caitlen Cameron Senior Jenna Thorpe enjoying her Diner Dog for dinner at The Diner.

Photo by Caitlen Cameron Hot Chocolate from The Root

Quote of the issue:

News on Netflix

Vegan-approved café establishes an earthy atmosphere

Gossip Girl cast

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Trucker Imprint — Page 9

ENTERTAINMENT

Music Review

Book Review

Movie Review

By Brie Schneider Boy meets girl, boy and girl

fall in love, and they live happily ever after -- that’s the typical fairy tale, right?

Author Jodi Picoult puts a twist on this fairytale plot in her book Between The Lines.

The main character, Delilah, uses the children’s fairytale book Between the Lines to escape from the reality of high school; however, this is much more than a book to Delilah.

From the moment Delilah picked up this book, she felt a spark.

She quickly becomes ob-sessed with this book and one character in particular, Prince Oliver. Delilah discovers her indescribable pull to the book when the book starts to change before her eyes and eventually she finds out that the two- di-

m e n s i o n a l c h a r a c t e r s come to life when the cover closes.

P r i n c e Oliver has dis-covered a way to communi-cate with Deli-lah. Despite Delilah’s mother insisting that she is crazy for talking to this book, Delilah and Oliver develop a very unique relationship and are soon infatu-ated with each other.

Delilah and Oliver are then stuck trying to find a way to their happily ever after, if a happy ending is even possible.

Between the Lines is a love story filled with witty humor and modern-day, relatable teenage problems

I recommend this book to teenage girls.

By Caitlen Cameron The magic of SeaWorld has

always enchanted thousands of children and adults from ages 1 to 99, but is everything you see and hear actually true? The docu-mentary Blackfish goes behind the scenes with the whales and controversy of the industry.

The documentary starts off by introducing Sealand of the Pacific and the killer whale Tilikum. Sealand received Tilikum from the North Pacific Ocean when he was around 2 years old. At the beginning he was very active and loved to listen to the instructors, but the instructors at Sealand de-prived him of food to control him, which eventually led to him becoming restless and agitated.

One day, the food deprivation and small living space frustrated him just enough to where he at-tacked trainer Keltie Byrne, lead-ing to his first kill.

Even though Tilikum killed someone, he was the largest whale in captivity so SeaWorld wanted to acquire him for its shows. This leads to the real story of what is going on in SeaWorld, and how the corporation cares more about the dollar signs than the trainers.

This documentary does state that the trainers love the whales as their family and treat them kindly, so it is not entirely their fault.

The film shows how it is truthfully the corporation’s fault. They are the ones who make the

restrictions on tank sizes and life-time captivity, send away the newborn calves to another park, leaving the mothers depressed and devastated, and lie about what happened to keep their name popular and cuddly.

All the corporation cares about is the constant income of money and blinded fans; they do not care about the whales or the trainers. They even blamed Dawn Brancheau’s death on her wear-ing a ponytail and simply getting too close, which is completely explained correctly in the film.

The documentary Blackfish reveals all of the lies and shows why the animals should not be held in captivity.

You can find this documen-tary on Netflix or at your local

video rental store. I definitely recommend this to any type of person. It is an eye-opener for all.

By Quinn Schick Title Fight is a hardcore punk/

shoegaze band from Kingston, Pennsylvania.

Their most recent album, put out in February, is called Hyper-view. This album demonstrates the band’s softer side, but still has hardcore elements.

At Title Fight’s sold out show on Friday, March 6, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, a hardcore band called Power Trip opened the show. They had a catchy sound and I was intrigued to move closer to the stage to actu-ally be able to see them playing, but it was very crowded and I may have gotten elbowed or kicked in the face if I moved any closer.

The second band that played was called Merchandise, from

Tampa, Florida. This band had more of an 80’s dream pop sound.

I think the difference in sound between Power Trip and Mer-chandise was a great balance. When Power Trip played, people were very excited and jumping around. Merchandise’s perform-ance gave off a more relaxed and dreamy feeling that made every-one more relaxed but still excited to see Title Fight play.

After the opening bands were done playing, my friends and I squeezed our way to the front, near the stage, to see the band.

They opened with the song “Murder your Memory,” off their new album.

There was a man who works at the Grog Shop standing in the middle of the crowd trying to stop people from stage diving and

getting too rowdy, but he did not do a great job of it. He made a comment about Title Fight not being the same band he saw play a few years ago because the Hy-perview album is less hardcore than their older music.

When they played older songs that were more hardcore sound-ing, the crowd was much wilder.

The band closed the show with the song “Secret Society” from their album Floral Green. Everyone went crazy during this song. I think it was a good way to end the show because it was a message that they are still the same band that they always have been, but they are always chang-ing, improving, and testing the waters without fear.

The band is very friendly and grateful for everyone that sup-ports them. They said thank you

to the audience numerous times throughout the night. After the show, a few of my friends talked to the band members and gave them words of encouragement.

SeaWorld’s lies are revealed

Title Fight: Hardcore punk band

Hey there, Delilah

Photo by Quinn Schick Ned Russin plays Hypernight at the Grog Shop.

Musician of the issue

Photo by Hannah Hales

Senior Bailee Cantu plays her violin during Orchestra.

App of the issue

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” -Theodore Roosevelt

By Caitlen Cameron

SPORTS

Page 10 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

By Erica Leber “N-O-R-W-A-L-K, NOR-

WALK TRUCKERS ALL THE WAY!”

Sometimes I feel like the stu-dents at NHS forget what that means.

Walking through the hallways, I’m sure we are just like any other high school. Some kids are talking to one another, some are at their lock-ers struggling to get to their next AP class with all of their books, and there are some who have their headphones in, just minding their own busi-ness.

Regardless which category you fall under, the lack of school spirit at this school is honestly heartbreaking. The so-called “spirit weeks” should not be

called spirit weeks; they should be called “if you dress up on the days, you’re uncool” weeks.

Harsh, right? Well, that’s how it is around

here. It is sad that kids cannot come to school dressed up as tacky tourists, movie characters or just plain blue and gold, with-

out having to worry about what other people think.

In my case, I’ve never been one to worry about what others think about me. I’m the person who goes all out on spirit week days. That’s how I have always been. Walking through the halls with costumes on for spirit week and seeing people laugh is enjoy-able. Whether they’re laughing at me because I am funny or laugh-ing at me to make fun of me, I don’t really care.

Maybe one day students will see the fun in spirit weeks like they used to in the past. Spirit weeks make going to school not so awful, so have fun with them!

What happened to school spirit?

By Sabrina Boyd Many people have heard the

rumor that pole vault will be coming back to the Norwalk High School track team for its upcom-ing season. It has been confirmed that pole vault will definitely be here.

The big question is why are we bringing pole vault back? Athletic Director Gary Swartz explained that during last year’s track season, our team missed the NOL championship by just half a point. He said Coach Ron Deluca

was certain that it was because our team did not have pole vault. Our school is the only school in the district that does not have pole vault.

“It’s just not complete with-out pole vault,” Mr. Swartz said.

Cost is a huge factor when first considering adding this event. The total for all the equip-ment will be $25,000. The Ath-letic Boosters have donated $20,000 of that cost. Mr. Swartz said adding that the school is go-ing to be paying the remaining $5,000. The money that the Ath-

letic Boosters are donating will be going towards the cost of the pavement and the mats. The money that the school is paying will be going towards the poles that are being used in the event.

The equipment that is needed includes the cement to layer the mats, the mats themselves, and poles. The area for pole vault will be located at the north end of Whitney Field, opposite the high jump area, Mr. Swartz said.

This event was taken out of the events list around the 1980’s. The reason behind it was there

was an accident where someone had fallen and hurt their head. This resulted in the person going to the hospital. Edison’s track team also experienced this and eventual got rid of pole vault as well, Mr. Swartz said.

Coach Deluca and Coach Mark Sindlinger are both certi-fied to coach this event and will be the coaches. Coach Sindlin-ger’s daughter is also a candidate to help coach, Mr. Swartz stated. There is one other person that Mr. Swartz is considering to help coach.

Welcome back, pole vault!

Nash & Neuberger to the Schott By Jarrod Smith

Being able to wrestle at the Schott is a big accomplishment and two Norwalk wrestlers get to experience it.

The wrestling team took seven wrestlers to the district tournament on March 7. Out of those seven, sophomore Charlie Nash and junior Braden Neuber-ger were the lone survivors who qualified for the coveted state tournament.

Charlie qualified for state for the second year in a row by be-coming a district champion with a 10-7 decision over Elida’s

Blaine Hunter at the 113-pound weight class.

“Every extra time, practice, or camp shot through my mind and I felt like years of hard work just paid off,” said Charlie.

Braden qualified for the state tournament with a second period pin over Kenton’s C.J. Cook at the 160-pound weight class. He then took third place because of injury default.

“I finally wasn’t falling short like I had all season. All my hard work paid off. I felt like I was in a dream,” Braden said.

The pair won the right to wrestle at the Schottenstein Cen-ter in Columbus March 12-14.

Photo by Jarrod Smith Junior Braden Neuberger (top) pins his opponent in his qualifying match for state.

By Jarrod Smith Here at NHS, many students

participate in school sports. But there are also students here who do different and unique sports that are not offered at school -- sports like dancing, drag racing, horse riding and skateboarding. There is also a basketball league for kids not on the high school team; most people call it “rec ball.”

Junior Maddie Bement par-

ticipates in dancing at Dance Act Studio in Norwalk. Maddie has been dancing since she was 7 years old. She started out doing acrobatics but loved to watch all the older girls dance, so she started dancing as soon as she was able. When she was in eighth grade, Maddie entered a jazz dance competition in which she got high gold. Although she doesn’t compete in competitions

anymore, there is a big dance recital every May.

Senior Tyler Shields com-

petes in drag racing. He has been racing since he was three because of his stepdad. All they did every weekend was race together. He has not won a championship yet because it’s hard for kids to win because they race against adults and the adults typically have more money and better cars, he said. His biggest accomplish-ments are racing every weekend this year and competing in bigger races.

Junior Macie Wallace has

been riding horses competitively for 17 years, or her whole life. Her uncle owned horses all throughout her life so Macie spent much of her time around all the horses and fell in love. She now competes in English, West-ern pleasure which is barrel rac-ing. In this style of riding, Macie

has taken first at the state fair, youth show champion, and first place at the Huron County Fair.

Sophomore Jacob Coe plays “rec ball.” This year was his third year involved in the rec league. Jacob averages 15 points a game but regardless of his contribu-tions, his team has never won a game in the three years they have competed. His main goal is to just have fun and hang out with his friends.

Senior Ben Love is a skate-

boarder. He has been skating since fifth grade because he saw Luke Landis doing kick flips at the Main Street playground and decided to buy a board and go at it. Ben just skates for speed and to have fun, but he would like to try and compete in a competition. Ben learned to enjoy skating by skating the streets and learning to do a “Madonna” is his greatest accomplishment.

By Jarrod Smith Seniors Caden Foos and

Luke Landis made it to the podium at the state indoor track meet.

At the state meet, Luke took second with a time of 4.19 and Caden took fourth with a time of 4.22.

Caden and Luke are no strangers to the state track meet as they were a part of last year’s division 1 state runner up 3200-meter relay team. Well, they’re at it again as both Caden and Luke qualified for the indoor track state meet in the 1600 meter run. Caden finished first at the qualifier with a time of 4:27.76 seconds followed by Luke who took second with a time of 4:28.38.

Sports outside the walls of NHS

Listen to Leb

“Regardless which category you fall under, the lack of school spirit at this school is honestly heartbreaking.”

Foos and Landis begin early for

2015 track season

SPORTS

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Trucker Imprint — Page 11

Student Signing Day

Photo by Erica Leber Senior Zachary Heald sits with his family as he signs his National Letter of Intent to play foot-ball at Division II, Findlay University. Zach is going to major in criminal justice and hopes to become a police officer.

Photo by Erica Leber Senior Matt Davidson sits with his parents and sister as he signs his National Letter of Intent to play football at Division II, Findlay University. Matt would like to major in physical therapy when he enrolls this fall.

Photo by Erica Leber Senior Breck Turner sits with his mother as he signs his National Letter of Intent to play football at Division I, Eastern Michi-gan University. He plans to major in sports management when he goes to school this fall.

Photo by Erica Leber Senior Jared Cook sits with his parents and brother as he signs his National Letter of Intent to play football at Divi-sion II, Findlay University. Jared would like to major in marketing and own a business someday.

Photo by Erica Leber Senior Kasey Duncan sits with her parents, coaches and Gary Swartz, athletic director, as she signs her Na-tional Letter of Intent to play soccer at Division I, Chi-cago State University. Kasey plans to major in business when she travels to the city this fall.

TRUCKER CAM

Photo by Kasey Duncan Mrs. Majoy’s foods class having a good time with cooking.

Photos by Kasey Duncan Senior Martin Garcia asks junior Micki Light to prom with flowers and a soccer ball. Pictured below is a better look at the promposal.

Photo by Madeline Roche Pictured above are sophomores J.D. Smith and Paige Derr having an in-class debate about slavery.

Photo by Hannah Hales This is an envelope vase that senior Jenna Thorpe made in art teacher Tracy VanBuskirk’s sculpture class.

Submitted photo Pictured to the left: The new weight room is under way. Pictured is the whole building, although there are no floors and no rooms yet.

Page 12 — Trucker Imprint — Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Teacher Callie Stanley- “I was born on my Grandma’s birthday. She loved to bird watch. I didn’t get my tattoo until I was 26, but I got a blue bird because that was my Grandma’s favorite bird.”

Sophomore Garrett Underwood- “My aunt died of breast cancer so my tattoo is in memory of her.”

Sophomore Antonio Diaz- “I got my tattoo because I love my momma.”

Secretary Jeanette Ott- “My grandma passed away two years ago. Being my best friend, I wanted to be sure to never forget her smile, her ability to forgive, her hard work ethic, and her beautiful blue eyes. Shortly after her funeral, I had the same tattoo [that my grandmother had] put on the top of my left foot. That way I see her every day and I remember how very special she was to me.”

Junior Casey Horowitz- “My tattoo resembles my name in a symbol. The symbol means strength and bravery.”

Sophomore Kylia Jameson– “I got my tattoo to see if I could tolerate the pain of getting a tattoo.”

Junior Ashtyn Ley • A box of

clothes • A shovel • A coat • An ice scraper • A basketball

bag • A hat • A beach towel • A blanket

What's in your car? By Karlee Conley

10 things you didn’t know about me 1.I have a pet bird. 2.My middle name is Erin. 3.I have six siblings -- five sisters and a brother. 4.I play the violin. 5.I hold two swim relay records. 6.I wear a size 9 shoe. 7.My favorite color is green. 8.I love One Direction. 9.My favorite Disney princess is Belle. 10.I want to become a teacher.

By Jessica Aguilera

Sophomore Anessa Berry

Photos and interviews by Karlee Conley and Carlie Conney

Junior Bonnie Myers– “I got my tattoo with my best friend Kayla Yourkvitch because she went to college and it symbolizes our friendship.”

Why did you get your tattoo?