del driversed norte

News
Mt. Carmel SUN
A3
September 17, 2010
Protestors congregate to promote religious tolerance
emma glassman-hughes
staff writer
At precisely 12 PM on Saturday,
Sept. 11, the protest began.
The red, white, and blue
balloons were the first indication
that something was happening.
Signs were being waved, horns were
being blown, and voices were being
heard. Those voices belonged to a
group of dedicated college-aged kids
passsionate about a cause.
cordell hunter | photographer
Many have heard of Florida
Pastor Terry Jones’ proposition
to have a “National Burn a Koran
Day,” where he spelled “Quran”
incorrectly, and he and his 50
member congregation were planning
to burn thousands of copies of the
Muslim Holy book.
When word of his scheme
caught wind in places including San
Diego, many people were angered
and offended.
Among those people were the
Funds continue
to deplete from
school budget
KELLY FAN
centerspread editor
In recent times, every new school year has
reflected ever more drastic cuts in funds – meaning more crowded classrooms, fewer teachers,
and cut classes. This year is no different.
“Essentially our budget situation is the same
as the end of last year,” Ron Garrett, assistance
principal, said. “Twenty-four million dollars,
about 10 percent, was cut from the district budget
last year, and people are now seeing the effects
of 24 million being removed from the system.”
Essentially the budget cuts lead to the same
unhappy situation, only at a greater magnitude.
Many rooms are over-flowingly full, while
others are empty from lack of teachers.
“What you’re seeing nowadays are mostly
classrooms very full,” Garrett said. “Many have
added an additional row of seats at the back of
the room.”
This is due to the fact that the school has
had to cut 11 teachers, not including those lost
to Del Norte.
“That’s 11 less teachers for over 2,000 students, which makes 11 a very significant number,” Garrett said.
However, the releasing of teachers is not an
arbitrary thing, says Garrett. There have already
been cuts in office administrators, student maintenance, and even the number of school days
(from 180 days to now, 175).
“We have tried to keep away from classrooms as much as possible,” Garrett said. “In the
past two years we have cut from all other areas,
but we have run out of areas to cut.”
In this way, this year’s fiscal situation has
been the worst yet, because of its extended impact on students.
The issue with funding is further exacerbated by the fact that there has been a significant
increase of students this year.
“Typically, 100 students leave Mt. Carmel
every year – not referring to those that graduate,”
Garrett said. “We also gain around 100 students,
so there is no significant change in the number
of students. However, only 70 students left this
year, and we gained 140 students.”
This means a net gain of 70 students, and a
lot more financial headache.
Even though things have been holding up,
says Garrett, knocking on the wood of his desk,
the whole situation still undeniably puts a great
deal of strain on teachers.
“They have been so good; they’re troopers,
and they’re professional, putting on their best
faces in class,” he said. “It’s hard to manage a
class, period, and it’s even harder to manage
with 40 students. I really feel for the teachers.”
Garrett is positive the situation will get better, but “the light at the end of the tunnel is very
far.”
“This is all due to California’s bad funding
system,” he said. “Our funds come and go with
the economy: when the economy gets better, the
money will come back.
Things are bound to change, Garrett says.
“I just hope things will happen soon enough
to prevent permanent damage.”
kids who organized this protest,
which took place in front of the
Federal Building downtown.
They were all determined to get
their point across to the opposing
party.
“This cause is really about how
people shouldn’t blame an entire
religion for what happened nine
years ago,” Kevin Iraniha, one of the
protest organizers, said.
The group was also trying to
spread awareness of the culture and
enlighten those who are ignorant.
“More awareness means less
ignorance,” Iraniha said. “There
are so many cultures today, and
ignorance happens when you only
associate yourself with one kind.
People need to educate themselves
on other lifestyles. Then maybe we
wouldn’t have this kind of hatred.”
At this protest, there were the
organizers, all in black t-shirts with
the “Coexist” emblem on them,
random protestors off the street, and
a man preaching and spreading their
word via megaphone.
As pedestrians passed by, he
would speak to them and try to get
people’s attention.
When confronted with the
rudeness of some passersby, he
would simply say he was sorry that
they felt the need to act like that, and
he kept going with his speech.
This kind of peaceful spreading
of their message was what these
citizens were all about.
Their main goal was to raise
awareness of ignorance and try to
calm such hateful acts like the Quran
burning.
“This cause is not only because
of the Quran burning, but about
Islamophobia in general,” Iraniha
said. “We’re trying our hardest to
denounce those who say that all of
Islam is bad, because really, no one
religion is bad. We can all exist
peacefully in this world, and that’s
really what this is all about.”
ASB swings into the new school year with aloha pep rally
rachel peters
staff writer
After a long, hard two weeks, ASB
was finally ready to present us our first pep
rally of the school year.
“In ASB, we do a lot of hard work but
in the end it’s worth it when you see how
much fun the students are having,” sophomore Sharon Su said.
The theme of this years fall pep rally
was Aloha MC.
Everything was Hawaiian and at one
point they had hula dancers dance for the
students.
“Planning this pep rally was less
stressful than last years spring pep rally,”
Su said.
Last year, they stayed up till 12:30 in
the morning.
They also made a video for each fall
sport and especially enjoyed making the
football video a little more creative by
making it like a news channel and showing
the highlights of the game against La Jolla.
“The most exciting thing about plan-
ning this pep rally was making up the
games and activities,” Su said. “The most
difficult was getting the balloons on the
ceiling.”
Senior Justin Nguyen plans and makes
up all the games and activities.
ASB gives out red t-shirts for redout day so students can show their school
spirit and pump them up for the fall sports.
Although most students try to keep up
the school spirit by wearing their red MC
t-shirts on Fridays, some don’t.
“I like having red-out day because it’s
just cool when you’re in the gym during
the pep rally and you see a sea of red,”
sophomore Marc Mattern said. “It’s just
awesome.”
It looks like the first pep rally of the
school year was a success and the students
can’t wait for the next one.
“This pep rally was great,” junior
Annika Nelson said. “I loved the AllMale dance because they’re skilled and I
liked watching everyone attempt the Hula
Dance. This pep rally was definitely a hit!”
lindsay adler | photographer
Sundevil football player is thrust into the air at the climax of the pep rally last Friday morning. The rally had an aloha theme which featured professional Tahitian
dancers, class competitions, dance performances, and recognition of varsity athletes. ASB bought every student a red-out shirt that most proudly wore.
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