The hallway about 5 seconds after the bell rang.

We have now been in school for four weeks, and the number-one change since last year is the tardy policy, or as most students like to call it, “being swept.”

If you walk the halls about two minutes before the bell rings, you will hear multiple students saying, “Hurry up, I can’t be swept.”  I roamed the halls minutes before the tardy bell rang and heard that sentiment in every hall that I went down.

Mr. Kosko, our new administrator who is in charge of handling the tardies, sat down and explained the new policy.  The idea originally came from a school in Greenville, then it slowly moved from school to school.  It went to South Aiken and then Silver Bluff, where Mr. Bornscheuer witnessed it and realized we needed it at NAHS.  The main goal of the tardy policy is, “to keep students out of the hallways and in the classrooms learning,” Mr. Kosko explained.

Students being "swept"

By now every student has realized that the tardy policy is being enforced.  All teachers are to have their doors closed and locked when the tardy bell finishes ringing.  This forces students to go to Room 303 to receive a pass back to class.  Once you are given a pass, the pass is to be handed to the teacher, and he/she is supposed to destroy the pass so it can’ t be used again.  Mr. Kosko cautioned, “if you are caught using the same pass over and over again, then you will have a minimum three day OSS.”  (Let me be the first to say, yes, you can get away with it every now and again, but you will be caught, and then you will have OSS.  Not worth it.)

Many teachers approve of the policy.  Mrs. Coyle said, “I think the tardy policy should be bottled and sold,” adding,  “It’s fabulous and working.  I don’t know why we didn’t do it ten years ago.”

Mr. Gill says, “I approve of it. Students need to get to class on time. I really enjoy seeing empty halls when class is in session.”

Junior Danny Thomas agrees: “it does keep people out of the halls and in class, though I feel sorry for the students who are right outside of their class when the bell rings and receive a tardy.”

Freshman Carly Clements feels, “It’s okay. Kinda pointless! I mean it’s just class, who cares if you’re like a second late? It’s not like you’re going to miss the whole class period.”

Junior Victoria Long agreed more with Carly, “It’s kinda stupid in my opinion. After my 4th period, I have to race from one side of the school to the other to make it on time for 5th period just to get there on time. I can’t even go to my locker after 4th or do anything because I always get in right before the bell rings.”

Haley Duckworth, Junior adds, “I think it’s something the teachers should deal with; it’s their students after all.”

Many students have expressed their complaints about how the administrators where referring to the tardy policy as being “swept” to room 303.  Some went and jokingly told Mr. B, “I feel like I’m in jail now.”  But what Mr. B didn’t realize is that some students had a different connotation of being called “swept.”  Some students said that they felt like the administrators were referring to the students as dirt.  When this was brought to Mr. Bornscheuer’s attention, he immediately put his hand over his heart and said, “Now that breaks my heart!  I had no intentions of making the students feel that way.”  Therefore, Mr. B came up with the new name, “tardy party.”  However, it just hasn’t stuck like “swept.”

Regardless of their feelings on the new policy, almost everyone agrees that the policy is definitely working.  So bad news to the students who are always late, it looks like this is one policy that is going to stick with NAHS.

The Garcia Project is a competition where high school drama groups get together and compete to see who has the best play. This year, South Aiken High School, Midland Valley High School, North Augusta High School, and Ridge Spring-Monetta High School were the competing schools.

Chase Pardue adds, “Just have fun and enjoy every moment, because it’s all gone in a split second.”

More than 500 hundred participants, spectators, and volunteers were at the 25th Special Olympics.

To start this day full of fun and games, each school presented themselves in hopes of winning the Spirit Award in a parade around the track. The award went to East Aiken Elementary School. Everyone in the stands could feel the smiles radiating off of the children as they waved and held hands with their buddies, leaping and scooting down the track. Buddies held children on their shoulders, ran around after them, and panted from being out of breath.

To finally signal the beginning of the

events, a young man barreled down Midland Valley’s track carrying a lit torch. The Star Spangled Banner was sung, Midland Valley High’s principle spoke, and so it began!

With sporting events such as the softball throw, the 100 meter run and walk, and the 200 meter dash, the Special Olympic participants were kept busy. The Very Special Arts Festival, sponsored by The Aiken Women’s Club, had stations such as funny hats, mask making, sand bottling, crazy creature making, and, of course, the most popular station -face painting.

A volunteer, junior Ashley Ellefson, thoroughly enjoyed herself. Her buddy was 11 year old Serena, who was impaired on her right side. “It was a lot of fun,” Ashley said. She and sophomore Jessica Cody both agreed that “it’s a great experience.” Jessica thinks the Special Olympics is something that really benefits the children. “It makes them more open to people.” The Special Olympics gives children who are looked down upon by people who are not handicapped a chance to see that there are a lot of people like them, and their own age as well. Senior Rachel Ellefson believes that participating in this event “encourages them.” “It teaches them creativity skills,” she says. Senior Page Barnes loved the Special Olympics. “It helps them interact and gain social skills. It even helps them by using the skills they already have.”

Even though this year’s Special Olympics was my third time going, I still felt as though I’d been through a new experience. The Special Olympics is something that could really change a person’s perspective of handicapped children. They are people, they are kids, and they do have the potential to participate in sports, as obviously shown in The Special Olympics. The kids who participate in this event are truly  some of the best kids ever.

 For those of you who don’t know, Mock Trial is when a group gets together and acts out either a criminal or civil trial.  Positions on the team include: attorneys, witnesses, bailiffs, and time keepers.  All these people get together and act out a trial taking either the prosecuting side or the defense side, and compete see which team has the best lawyers, witnesses, time keeper, and bailiff.

 Our team has attorney Don White and Richard Mays helping them to get better at what they are supposed to be able to do.  At the meeting Mr. White said that he plans to, “help the team learn procedures and learn how to think through a legal problem.”  The lawyers must learn to be able to introduce evidence, and be able to object and state the reason of their objection.  The witnesses must be able to act when need be and know the facts about their characters.  The time keeper must be able to read the stop watch and record times.  The bailiff needs to be able to keep order in the court room. 

Mrs. Patterson, one of the teachers planning to help with the Mock Trial Team says, “I plan to give the students the rheto, “I am going to teach the students retorical devices that they need in order to advance in a debate.” Mr. Gill adds the “laws of the [court] system.”

 Mr. White promises, “You all will never watch another criminal law show again with the same perception.”  The teachers/attorneys plan to teach the group how things are done and show them how to do things, so that at the regional competition in February, the students will be able to conduct the trial with no help from them. 

 Mr. White believes, “this group is going to be state champs by the time I’m done with them.”