Category: School Happenings

By Errol Hammond –

Principal Doug Eby believes he can outsmart Mother Nature.

Time after time, Spring Fling, the school district’s big May festival and club fundraiser fights bad weather, thunderstorms, high winds, torrential rains, and cloudy or unseasonably cold temperatures.

But not this year, said Eby who heads the event.  This year he checked the Farmer’s Almanac and CHANGED the week in which Spring Fling is typically held.

This year Spring Fling will be held on May 18th, from 3:00PM to 9:30PM.

“We changed the date,” said Eby. “We’re actually a whole week different this year, and confirming with the Farmers Almanac for the the future weather prediction … I guarantee it’s not going to rain, it will be a beautiful day, 75 degrees. There is a zero percent chance of rain, so I’m talking sunny, light breeze from the southeast. And it’ll be the night of your life if you attend,” said Eby with a straight face that held back a flicker of a smile.

No matter if it rains or shines, people will gather around Comet Field for some fun rides, Dip n Dots, french fries, soft pretzels and BBQ Chicken.

Hundreds and hundreds of people gather at Comet Field every year to support Comet Pride and have a good time with family and friends for the annual Spring Fling event.

The regular rain-out doesn’t seem to stop people from coming back year after year.

But what if for one year, it was completely nice, all day?  Some old timers remember when the sun did shine, somewhere back in 2005, for the event.

“It all depends on the weather… If it’s nice, it’ll be packed,” said Doug Eby, junior principal and coordinator of the Penn Manor event.

Rain or shine, organizing a fun Spring Fling takes a lot of time and preparation.

This year, it’s put together by a seniors Sara Bennis and Alex Kirk. Along with junior students Savanah Blake and Adam Hess, who will take over next year.

The four leaders are from Eby’s internship class, but are only part of the 90-person crew who are helping out with cleaning and making sure that May, 18 is a great night.

It’s really important that all the crew members are determined and committed, said the team of organizers.

“It’s really our job to call all the people for it, such as the fire company and ambulance people, which we have done, but we just have to get our contracts in,” said Bennis.

So, it takes more then a Sumo-wrestling pit and fireworks to make a great Spring Fling.

There will be several professional stands, 10-12 school club stands, bands on the stage, Marines, National Guards, roller coasters, four large blow up inflatables, and bouncy boxy which is a bounce castle with people boxing with giant gloves.

Food: Hamburgers, hot dogs, Walking Tacos, Smoothies, Maggie Moo’s, pizza, pretzels and more.

FFA will be having activities like throwing a hay-bale the farthest and a two man saw competition.

“It will be the Spring fling of all Spring flings,” said  Eby.

By Taylor Skelly-

Penn Manor alumni, Matt Johnson will be on the national spotlight as his appearance on the popular TV game show Jeopardy airs next week.

The multi-talented 2000 graduate of Penn Manor not only tested his knowledge on Jeopardy, but also plays in a local band and is planning on making a trip back to the high school as an artist in residence as he awaits the airing of his show.

“The process is actually a rigorous ordeal for a TV game show,” said Johnson about applying for the show, “But it’s definitely an awesome opportunity.”

The process begins by taking an online trivia test, in which about 300,000 people are involved. Out of the 300,000 people who take the test, only 3,000 are selected to participate in further testing and evaluation, which includes interviews and personality tests.

“And if you’re picked, they call and tell you you have to be in L.A .in a month,” said Johnson.

The show, which Johnson said was filmed back in December, airs on April 24 on national television. Unfortunately, he couldn’t release any details regarding his performance on the show because of the contract he signed prior to filming it.

“I’ve been threatening not to watch it as we get closer and closer to the airing of the show. It’s like when you hear your own voice on a recording and it sounds weird, you know?” stated Johnson.

In addition to appearing on Jeopardy, Johnson’s band, Slackwater News, is opening for the national act, Rubblebucket at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster on Friday April 20.  The band consists of four other Penn Manor alumni, JJ Gammache, Dan Zdilla, Matt Blank and Dan Ramirez. Johnson is the guitarist in the indie rock group.

“Three out of the four members of the band and myself have been playing together for at least 10 years,” said Johnson.

Johnson will be making his trip back to the high school on April 27 as an artist in residence.  He will be working with both music and twilight students throughout the course of the day.

“It’s really cool that he had the opportunity to appear on jeopardy, I think it will be a great experience for all the students that get to work with him when he comes back to the high school,” said Penn Manor junior Bobby Goss.

Keep an eye out for the Jeopardy star next week not only on TV, but also in the halls of Penn Manor.

By Maggie Dubbs –

A mental condition that has always been around is more now in the spotlight than ever before.

World Autistic Awareness day was April 2 this year and it marks recognition of a condition that some are calling an epidemic. In Penn Manor High School an entire classroom is devoted to treating children with autism.

The increase in autism among children is hotly debated.  The cause, the number of children diagnosed and treatments and learning support have supporters, parents and educators on opposing ground at times.

Up an estimated 23 percent since 2009, scientists and educators are placing some children on an autistic spectrum that measures how severe the condition is for a individual.

Autism is a condition,  usually diagnosed between the ages of two and three, where children have difficulties with social interaction with other children. They also have difficulties expressing themselves verbally and emotionally, and have repetitive behaviors.

This class has five autistic children. They go about a normal routine schedule throughout their school day, she said.

“In the mornings they concentrate on academics…after lunch we do more activity type stuff like we go to the gymnasium, and do crafts,” said Ginny Hall who has been working with autistic children since 1997 and, is one of the aides for the classroom.

Hall feels that the children being able to be around other kids their age helps them a lot.

A recent article on CNN said that “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 1 in 88 children are affected by autism, and the percentage of children with autism has risen  since 2009.”

Some believe childhood inoculations have contributed to the rise in autism.

According to autismspeaks.org, one out of 54 boys have autism. Autism is found more in boys than girls, but it is on the rise for both genders.

Many organizations have come together to bring awareness and raise money for this condition. Autism Speaks is a large group of people dedicated to helping fund laboratories to find the cause of autism because it is still unknown.

Autism Speaks also works heavily with the children to better their lives in many ways.

The support group at Penn Manor allows the children to be there until 21. After that it is decided what is best for them between the parents and teachers. All the students at Penn Manor are in the middle for to high functioning on the spectrum. All the children at Penn Manor are literate.

“They really enjoy going into the auditorium, and cafeteria, associating with the other children,” said Hall.

By Joey Jackson –

Our economy may be on it’s way back up, but the students here at Penn Manor are still finding ways to curb their spending.

One of the ways students have come up with is to advertise.

Much like the old advertising method of the “sandwich board,” some students here at Penn Manor have been using their bodies to promote Central PA Tuxedo, a tuxedo rental store that has been largely used by Penn Manor seniors to get their tuxedos for their prom dances.

Three Penn Manor seniors used this style of advertising for the tuxedo seller last week by wearing different types of tuxedos to school for all of the student body to see the quality of tuxedos available if you choose to rent from Central PA Tuxedo.

The students, in return, will receive a free tuxedo rental for their own Prom night.

“It was really nice just to do a little bit of work and get a free tux out of it,” senior Dylan Weber said, a nearly $60 investment for other students.

Not just anyone could advertise for Central PA Tuxedo, however. Senior Landon Alecxih, who had represented the store before, was only able select two other classmates to model the tuxedos with him that day. Senior classmates David Mohimani and Dylan Weber were lucky enough to be selected by their friend.

The experience didn’t come off entirely as work to the seniors though. Instead, some almost enjoyed their day in the tuxedo.

“I felt like a boss wearing the tux,” said David Mohimani, a senior that modeled a white tux for Central PA Tuxedo last week.

It wasn’t all fun and games for the students, who had to take unexpected time to prepare for their day in the tuxedos.

“It didn’t take that long to get sized for the tux but the drive from my house in Pequea to the shop in Centerville took a good amount of time,” said Weber.

On top of the time out of their day, the seniors biggest concern was focusing on not getting a mark on their tuxedos.

“I didn’t even eat lunch that day because I didn’t want to risk spilling my Gatorade on my white tux,” Mohimani said.

But the seniors had a job to do, and they needed to hand out about 50 flyers throughout the course of the day to rather unwilling people.

“I never would have guessed how badly people wouldn’t want a flyer,” Weber said. “I mean it’s not that big of a deal to just take a flyer.”

One person was even so emphatic on not receiving a flyer that he slammed it back onto the desk of the unsuspecting Mohimani.

At the end of the day though, each boy handed out all of their flyers, fulfilling their job for the day and earning them the free tuxedo rental. Which, the students will admit, was the only reason they did it in the first place.

By Taylor Skelly –

In the wake of a crafty, yet embarrassing scandal centered around the mother of all standardized tests, the popular SAT has recently undergone a number of security enhancing changes, to prevent another scandal from taking place in the future.

In the New York suburb of Great Neck, some fifteen high school students are facing or have faced charges for hiring five college students to take the SAT or ACT for them, paying anywhere from $500-$3,600, according to the Associated Press.

Some blame the pressure to do well on college entrance exams causes students to act irrationally while others believe students will do anything to get into a big name school.

“There’s a lot of pressure to get into a good school,” said junior Adam Hess, “I can understand why they would cheat if they had the resources to pay that kind of money to someone that could guarantee a good score.”

The security reforms will now require students to upload a picture of themselves to the college board website, or mail a photograph of themselves to the testing agency upon registration prior to the test. These photographs will be printed on their admission tickets and used to check identification of the students on the day of the test.

As well, the rival college entrance exam to the SAT, the ACT, has recently announced that it also will implement new security enhancing methods to ensure that future cheating incidents are eliminated.

Both testing agencies also have made it clear that students should expect their identification to be checked on a more regular basis, and that students should carry a valid source of identification, whether it be a drivers license or school ID, whenever they are planning on taking either exam.

As the dust begins to settle in the aftermath of the scandal, many are beginning to question whether too much pressure is being placed on students to score well on college entrance exams. After all, many of the students involved in the Great Neck incident were good students from affluent backgrounds, causing many officials involved in the investigation to wonder why they cheated in the first place.

I think kids around here would definitely consider getting someone to take the SAT for them, but ultimately I don’t think they would follow through with it because of all the work it would take to pull it off, said senior Harrison Manning.

Whether you are planning on taking the SAT or the ACT anytime soon, expect longer lines, and more of a wait as test proctors and officials crack down on cheaters and fake ID’s.

By Blake Wales and Brandon Bowers –

People all over the world have joined together, earlier this month, to raise awareness of poverty by participating in one simple task. Participants went through the entire day without shoes, but students here at Penn Manor High School, being prohibited from going barefoot through the halls, instead wore flip-flops instead to symbolize their participation in this event.

For children across the world who suffer from intense diseases that affect them in many ways from not wearing shoes, the matter is life and death.

Following the five-day Easter break, the principals here at Penn Manor instituted the flip-flop rule, but some students decided to come to school barefoot so they could get the full experience, regardless of the consequences.

Senior Abby Talbot decided to go ahead and take the challenge of going the full day barefoot regardless of the dangers.

“I really wanted to see what it was like to live your life without shoes,” said Talbot.

Abby almost made it through the entire day until she had to put her shoes back on to drive because it is illegal to drive without shoes in the state of Pennsylvania.

About a quarter of the people asked said that they participated in this event in some way. For most it was by wearing flip flops and others by actually going barefoot. They went through the struggles of walking cautiously to they didn’t step on sharp objects or other hazardous things that are around.

Some students on the other hand either decided to not participate in this event just simply because they forgot. Senior Kevin Brubaker was one of the Penn Manor students that was not apart of this day.

“I honestly forgot about this day, plus I didn’t really feel like going all day without shoes. I don’t even go bare-foot through my house,” said Brubaker.

Along with Penn Manor there were many events and gatherings all around the world in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles. Also in countries through most continents like Europe, Asia, South America, and many others. These events consisted of people rallying together collecting money to donate, walking through cities trying to draft people into their crowd to help spread the awareness.

According to the One day Without Shoes website,  more than 4 million people suffer from Podoconiosis which is a debilitating and disfiguring soil-based disease that tampers with the immune system. This happens in countries like Mexico, the northern regions of South America, eastern Africa and even some parts of Europe.

There is another disease called Hookworm which is common in Mexico, southern regions in Africa, and also in Asia. Some 740 million people are affected by hookworm which can cause intestinal pain, weakness and cognitive impairment. More than 30,000 people live on one landfill in the Philippines, where many are without shoes and are exposed to broken glass, syringes and debris.

All the students that participated and went fully barefoot stayed true to the commitment and finished the rest of the school day shoeless.

By David Mohimani-

Two weeks down, two more to go.

Penn Manor High School completed its first round of PSSA testing this Wednesday and overall school officials said it went rather well. But with reading and math in the bag there are still two categories that will be tackled in April.

Juniors have completed six days of grueling testing in math and reading, the two subjects most critical to the success of students.

Penn Manor has been preparing with daily enrichment and remediation sessions aimed at raising the basic skills of students before the testing dates.  Enrichment sessions will continue until the rest of the year.  This is the first year in Penn Manor when students will have to prove proficiency to graduate.

Junior Ali Khan isn’t going to be losing sleep over his results.

“They are so easy. I think I did pretty good,”said Khan.

Although Khan is confident he did well, he still did not enjoy taking the test.

“They are too long, (I) just sat there for an hour and a half. They suck,”said Khan.

Khan also noted that he did not really feel that enrichment helped prepare him for the test.

Khan hated the entire PSSA process.

“The best part of the test was leaving,” said Khan.

Well, Khan will be less than thrilled to hear that the test is only a little more than half complete.

In April the juniors will be back at it on the 18th and 19th, they will be completing the writing  portion of the exam.Then a week later on the 25th and 26th of April, the students will finally finish the PSSA’s with the science section.

One group of students that is sad to see the first set of tests come to a close is the seniors.

“I am extremely mad that I have to come in at 7:40 now, when I was learning just as much coming in late,” said senior Alex Cummins.

Cummins is counting down till the next round of PSSA testing days.

“I’m looking forward to the next set of PSSA’s so that the seniors get to sleep in again,”said Cummins.

While some are ecstatic and some are depressed about the upcoming assessments, they are going to come just the same.

Preparation and focus will be key to success on the writing and science portions.

Hopefully the added emphasis on the PSSA performance will increase Penn Manor’s scores which have been on the decline reccently.

Vice principal Krista Cox was more than optimistic about how the tests’ went.

“Very well,” said Cox on how the first round of tests went,”attendance was fantastic, student effort was fantastic.”

Cox also believed that the extra enrichment sessions will pay dividends.

“Absolutely, anything extra to get ready (for the PSSA’s) is better than doing nothing,”stated Cox.

Although the first round went well, that does not ensure that the exams in April will go as smoothly.

Cox pointed out some key factors that will hopefully help the students be as prepared as possible for next month.

“It’s always good to get a good night of sleep and eat a good breakfast,that’s research based. Also (its important to) apply what you already learned,”said Cox.

By Alicia Ygarza –

People will no longer be able to purchase the book collection that was once considered a trophy to have.

The Encyclopedia Britannica was printed and sold for 244 years, and now that information is constantly being updated on the internet, it will no longer be continued.

“Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site [Encyclopedia Britannica Online] is constantly being updated, and it’s much more expansive and it has multimedia,” said Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.

The last print version is the 32-volume 2012 edition, according to The New York Times.

Sites like the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, gave Britannica a run for its money.

Wikipedia is constantly fresh with new updated information, and it has nearly four million articles in English.

“Students rarely use the encyclopedias, they go online much more,” said Pamela Yarnell, librarian at Penn Manor.

In 2005, Nature questioned Britannica’s “presumed” accuracy advantage over Wikipedia. Nature discovered that out of 42 entries, Wikipedia made an average of four errors in each article, while Britannica made three, according to The New York Times.

Although Wikipedia makes only one more mistake than Britannica in each article, and is more convenient for many. Some people would rather flip a page than surf the web.

“They’re [encyclopedias] used by anyone who’s learning, anyone who’s new to the country, older patrons, people who aren’t comfortable online. There’s a whole demographic of people who are more comfortable with print,” said Sonya Durney, a reference librarian.

“I prefer more printable versions, like a newspaper. When information is printed it’s outdated,” said Gary Luft, math teacher at Penn Manor.

However, some people feel differently about printed encyclopedias, like Gary Marchionini, dean of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina.

“There’s more comprehensive material available on the Web,” said Marchionini.

“Print encyclopedias account for less than one percent of the Britannica’s revenue.  About 85 percent of revenue comes from selling curriculum products in subjects like math, science and the English language; 15 percent comes from subscriptions to the Web site,” said the Britannica company to The New York Times.

But what will Penn Manor do with its large encyclopedia collection?

According to Yarnell, some teachers encourage their students to use the schools encyclopedia collection, but not as much as they promote them using the internet. 

“Teachers want students to use the specialty encyclopedias, but not these [Worldbook, Encyclopedia, Compton’s Encyclopedia],” said Yarnell. “I think teachers want students to use the internet more because the encyclopedias are too easy to find information in,” states Yarnell.

Joe Herman, history teacher at Penn Manor, wants his students to use primary sources, and rarely encourages his students to use encyclopedias.

“I encourage my students to use diaries, letters, pictures, and journals because they’re primary sources, and they help the students do more research,” said Herman.

When Penn Manor gets a new encyclopedia set, they typically donate an old set to any library or person who wants it.

However, Penn Manor will keep its collection for a while, said Yarnell.