The Bear Growl
The Bear Growl is a school newspaper at Mount Airy High School in Mount Airy, North Carolina. This student-run paper focuses on school issues as well as national news, entertainment, and local and national sports. The small staff normally produces three issues per semester. In the 2007 spring semester, the Bear Growl intends to publish 4 issues. Throughout the year the staff works to find advertisers in the community, as the high school does not allow the staff to charge students for The Newspaper.
In the near future, the staff archivers intend to create an Online database of current and past issues dating back to 1934, when the paper was called "High Spots." With this, relatives of those who attended Mount Airy High School will be able to see their family as they were in high school many years ago.
A taste of the Bear Growl
This is an article that was printed in an EDition that came out at the end of October.
With new safety procedures around the school, many students and teachers are angered and concerned. This year has seen more school shootings nationwide than ever before, and with recent issues in our own area; our school is now on a “permanent lockdown.” In a lot of ways, this is good; students are protected more so because all doors are locked into the school and no one is allowed out between classes. Recently we had an issue with the threat of a student coming into the school and shooting several people; we also had an issue in Galax recently where a man was spotted on a school campus with a gun. In today’s society, school shootings are a scary threat; one which we are attempting to protect against. However, we almost seem to be working in the wrong direction. Just AbOUT every school you go to is going to have a “lockdown procedure.” The teachers lock the doors and put a green or red card out to show if everything is all right while they all hide in a corner. With the media coverage today, just about everyone you talk to knows this. This fact in itself makes the entire “lockdown” procedure seem completely inadequate and harmful. Common sense tells you that a simple locked door isn’t going to stop an armed person who wants to harm schools occupants. In our school, schedules are posted beside each classroom showing the times that people are in the classes, telling the person almost certainly whether or not there is anyone in the room at the time. Should they decide they want to go in, once again, a locked door is not going to stop them. Once in the room, everyone is concentrated in a small area, creating a situation like shooting fish in a barrel. Looking at the situation like that, it doesn’t really seem like the lockdown helps in much of any way. Having a plan for a situation where an armed person enters the school with intentions of causing harm is a difficult thing to do. Looking at the school plans, maybe this is the best they reasonably do; but it just seems too inadequate to really help in the actual situation. In a real situation involving a gunman, the actual events that would transcribe would probably deviate from the lockdown procedure significantly. In almost any circumstance that a person is threatened, instincts can take over and persuade people to defend themselves and try to survive. Administrators need to work on keeping these situations from even occurring more so than anything else, then concentrate on what to do should someone manage to get into the school.
Not all articles make it into the paper. Here is one installment of a recurring feature, "This Month In History," that never made it to press.
November in History
November – The eleventh month of the Gregorian calendar and one of the four months with only thirty days.
November 1, 1800 – John Adams becomes the first president to live in the White House.
November 19, 1863 – Abraham Lincoln gives his famous Gettysburg Address speech from a national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
November 11, 1918 – WWI comes to an end and this day is later established as Veterans Day.
November 18, 1928 – Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie premieres in New York and the legendary Mickey Mouse is born.
November 13, 1956 – The Supreme Court outlaws segregation on buses.
November 22, 1963 – President John F. Kennedy is assassinated while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas.
November 17, 1968 – NBC begins its scheduled showing of the movie Heidi during the last minute of an Oakland Raiders and New York Jets football game. During the unaired minute of the game the Raiders score two touchdowns to come from behind and win.
November 18, 1978 – The leader of the Peoples Temple religious group, Jim Jones, convinces 900 of his followers to poison themselves for religious purposes.
November 24, 2000 – The U.S. Supreme Court decides to take on the case of Bush v. Gore, to decide if Florida’s presidential voting process was lawful.