By JD AvilaEditor-In-Chief

HILLMEN MESSENGERPlacer High School

September 14, 2009Volume XXXVII, Issue 1 hillmenmessenger.com

Parents have newfound access to student lives

Schools in the Placer Union High School District have added a new feature to the grading system called the Parent Portal.

The Parent Portal gives parents the option of looking over their son or daughters productivity in the class-room anytime they wish. Parents now have the option of viewing their child’s tardy record, class attendance, missing assignments, test scores, and anything else that the teacher may mark in their grade book.

Teachers will now be constantly updating assignments in their grade books to give parents the option of being able to see the most recent work that has been done in the class-room. Some teachers are finding it too much to keep up with, while others are finding few difficulties with it.

“I don’t think it is really going to affect the things I do in class,” stated Mike Sabins, English teacher at Plac-er High School. “I’ll just be more diligent getting grades posted in a timely manner”.

Parents and teachers are finding that the ability to know their child’s information at all times is a big help, but many students are weary about this new device. Most students feel

they are more productive and work much better at their own pace, rather than being constantly watched. Stu-dents also feel that it is not neces-sary for their parent or guardian to remind them of missing or incom-plete homework assignments.

“I think it is going to put more stress on me about my grades,” ex-plained Anthony Marquez, a senior at Placer High School. “[I think that] parents find the need to always be looking over our grades, but they shouldn’t.”

Although the Parent Portal is meant to be used for the parent and student to stay up to date with their grades and class attendance, teach-

ers and students are concerned that it my be abused, causing more stress for the student and less productivity.

“I think that parents need to be patient, because in an English class there will be writing assignments that will not be graded over night,” stated Sabins. “If the parents use it as a way to keep tabs on their kids and make sure that their work is done, then it’s a good thing. If they’re going to use it as something to hammer their kids with, then it would have a negative outcome.”

Parents and students will be able to access their grades and attendance record anytime at http://puhsd.k12.ca.us/placer/.

Parents can log onto the parent portal to keep track of their students academic performance

Placer High School staff members are now dealing with harsh new reali-ties due to California budget cuts.

Students are well aware of the larger class sizes this school year, but what does this do to the teachers? And what else has been impacted due to the budget cuts that students are unaware of?

An obvious impact of budget cuts is large class sizes, but students may not realize what a strain the increase in students puts on those who teach the classes.

“We just can’t teach as well or as much when the classes are so large,” stated English teacher Katy Cham-berlin.

“Last year, three teachers retired from the English department, and only one new member, Mr. Haydon, was hired,” commented retired Eng-lish teacher Dave Krizman.

With freshman English classes averaging 36 students, Chamberlin knows first-hand how difficult it is to give such a large amount of students the same lessons as she gave previous classes which totaled about half as

many students.“25 to 30 students are much dif-

ferent than 35 to 40 in a single class-room,” acknowledged assistant princi-pal Gary Pantaleoni.

“It makes it hard to get around and help individual students each day,” said Kathy Long, a teacher at Placer.

Why have the class sizes increased so much in size this year? The simple answer is a shortage in funds which results in fewer teachers than were employed at Placer High School last year.

“In these difficult times, we are all forced to do more with less,” stated Principal Peter Efstathiu.

The increase in class sizes have also forced teachers to change their curric-ulum in order to accommodate more students.

“The budget cuts have slowed down my curriculum,” admitted Chamber-lin, “I cannot move as quickly and cover as many topics because I have to teach at a slower pace.”

“I’m trying my best to not change my teaching style, but I have had to change tests since I have twice as many to grade,” stated Long.

See “Budget” on back page...

Budget cuts to impact programs

By Laura MolnarMessenger Staff Writer

The year book staff wants to help replace the yearbooks of current and former Placer High School students who lost their homes due to the 49er Fire.

The school has copies of recent year-books to give out to cur-rent students, as well as old yearbooks to alumni. If they don’t have copies of the issue, they are willing to scan in-house cop-ies of the issue and are making copies of the yearbook digi-tally, according to Mr. Panta-lioni.

The idea was brought up by students in the yearbook class and some staff when brain-storming ways to help the situ-ation.

Heather Johnston, the year-book advisor stated the idea

of having a ‘current events’ page in the yearbook dedicat-ed to the fire.

“The idea just came up when we were on the topic. We all felt it would be a good way to give back. Even though it’s

probably their last concern to get their y e a r b o o k s back, its just one way we can help out,” stated Johnston.

Josh White-head was one of the resi-dents who

lost his yearbooks, among many other things. “I found out I was getting it when my girlfriend brought it to me a few days ago. I thought it was a cool thing to do and was glad because those are all my high school memories I would hate to lose.”

This is just a small difference that the school has decided to make to help the victims of the fire.

Old yearbooks available to fire victims

By Laura NashMessenger Staff Writer

“The idea just came up when we were on the topic. We all felt it would be a good way to

give back.”-Heather Johnston,

senior

Superheroes participate in 49er fire fundraiser

Spiderman flexes his muscles after scoring a point against the varsity girls volleyball teams. For more photos of the fundraiser, go to www.hillmenmessenger.com

Photo credit: Amy Van Groningen

Social networking provides news quicker than media out-lets. See FEATURES, page 2

Is the constuction of the Au-burn town square way too big of a hassle? See OPINIONS, page 4

Is the Placer football team destined to succeed this year? See SPORTS, page 10

NEWSVolume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 200912

By Melissa SmithMessenger Staff Writer

By Shauna KeanMessenger Staff Writer

The H1N1 virus, more com-monly known as the Swine Flu, is the illness that had the entire United States talking. But now that it has hit Placer High School, students are saying that it’s not really a big deal.

When con-sidering the large popula-tion of Placer, the amount of students who have had the H1N1 virus is very minimal. Many believe that this ‘super flu’ has been blown way out of proportion.

“The symptoms weren’t that different from the regular flu, it felt like a really bad cold.” stated sophomore Devin Mc-Farland, and recent victim of the H1N1 vi-rus.

The most anyone did, t r e a t m e n t wise, was stay in bed, take some Robitus-sin, and wait it out until the virus wore off. Other than that, there’s really nothing else that could be done due to the lack of medicine.

“I actually went to the doc-tors a little too early in the pro-cess to tell exactly what I had, so I had to wait until I got a little sicker…I wasn’t able to be diagnosed right away….” commented McFarland

“In the end they just gave me some Robitussin, told me to lay low, and to stay out of school.”

McFarland wasn’t the only one that had the H1N1 virus,

Kristen Soejoto, senior, also had the H1N1 virus, and got the ‘super flu’ at last summers’ band camp.

“I started feeling sick after I got there and it was just hor-rible! It was the worst I’ve felt

in a long time,” explained Soe-joto. “I wasn’t worried about it at all though, it was bad, but not bad enough to make me fear for my life.”

But, according to Soejoto, they weren’t the only

ones that caught the ‘super flu’. As it turns out, most of the Uri-netown cast had the symptoms of the swine flu. Urinetown was a Summer Theatre Acad-emy musical that premiered in late July and early August.

“Even the director was wear-ing a face mask during some

of the re-hearsals to try to avoid c a t c h i n g [the Swine F l u ] , ” l a u g h e d Soejoto.

But even t h o u g h

people have died from this flu, the students at Placer High School aren’t fazed.

“I wasn’t worried about it all. It wasn‘t that big of a deal.” stated McFarland.

There is no doubt that this virus can be dangerous and it can potentially harm some people, but according to the few students that have had the supposedly deadly virus, this was just a new kind of flu like any other.

H1N1 virus now affecting Placer

AP English students at Placer High School will be allowed the entire year to complete their Se-nior Projects. AP English stu-dents will write their research paper in class fall term, but will be given the entire year to com-plete the 15 hours of required project work time. They will also give their Senior Boards at the end of the spring term with the rest of the seniors.

The 4x4 schedule last year created multiple problems with the Senior Projects for the AP

students. Students were expect-ed to complete the time con-suming Senior Project while taking an advanced English class. The rigorous curriculum of the AP English class pro-vided little time for work on the projects and the AP atmo-sphere of the class was overrun with the completion of the Se-nior Project.

“The pace was intense and the students felt rushed,” stated

AP English teacher and Senior Project coordinator Brittany Haydon. She hopes that this year’s changes will make the project less stressful and more rewarding for the students.

Both AP and regular English seniors will also be complet-ing their college applications during the fall term. Last year the AP English students had to juggle AP English work, Senior Projects, and applying for col-leges all at once. Also, many of these students are in other AP classes which add to the work

Senior project different for AP english students

Placer teachers even chose to take a pay cut this year when they voted to take two furlough days in hopes of sav-ing money and keeping class sizes down.

“I think it’s difficult for teachers when they choose to take a pay-cut and have hor-rific class sizes anyways,” ob-served Krizman.

The class sizes are indeed a problem, which administrators and board members must be-gin to deal with.

“I have a class scheduled for next term with 69 students. There is no way I can teach that many students in one class. The district has to find money soon,” stated Cham-berlin.

“We’re squeezing in as much

as we can,” commented Ef-stathiu. “We’re doing every-thing possible to ensure that students will experience mini-mal impacts due to budget cuts.”

In addition to increased class sizes, the amount of money available for supplies has also been decreased.

“There have been cutbacks in general funds, and there is less money for supplies this year,” stated assistant princi-pal Pantaleoni.

Every year, Pantaleoni orders one or two new sets of desks for students, but that couldn’t happen this year. Teachers like Chamberlin need more desks for students, but there is no money to buy them.

“Some of my students sit at a table because I don’t even have enough desks to seat all of them,” said Chamberlin.

The general budget for ev-ery department at the school is also decreased. For example, the English department doesn’t even have a budget, meaning teachers have no money what-soever for supplies such as whiteboard markers.

Administrators and faculty members are doing every-thing they can to work under new cuts in California school budgets. Factors such as class sizes and supplies have taken especially hard hits in order to ensure that students experi-ence minimal changes due to a decrease in funds.

The virus infects studentsand is found to be not as

Budget (continued):

“The symptoms weren’t that differ-ent from the regu-lar flu, it felt like a really bad cold.”

-Devin McFarland,sophomore

“I wasn’t worried about it at all though, it

was bad, but not bad enough to make me

fear for my life.”-Kristen Soejoto,

senior

The H1N1 virus under microscope Photo credit: www.cdc.gov

bad as many thought

Photo credit: Shauna Kean

load. The change will provide the AP students with less stress and allow them to better their performances in all of their classes. It will also give the AP classes more time to focus on preparing for college courses.

Some students are ecstatic about the change. AP senior Dylan Moon simply stated, “Yeah, it’s sick!”

Other students have mixed feelings. Many were looking

Senior AP English students doing silent sustained reading

forward to having the project completed by winter break, while others are excited for the added time.

“It’s a bit of a bummer hav-ing it drag out for the entire year,” explained senior James Wilson, “but it has its plus-ses.”

Kelsey Albertazzi, a stu-dent in normal senior English next term, believes, “The AP classes will wind up with bet-ter grades because they won’t be rushed.”

The normal students will not have the ex-tra time because their senior English classes are designed strictly for Se-nior Projects.

Erika Han-son, an AP English student explained, “We have many oth-er reading and writing assign-ments, whereas normal senior English classes focus solely on the Senior Proj-ect.”

The added time does not n e c e s s a r i l y mean that the AP students will have less work. The AP

English curriculum requires numerous readings and essays that the normal senior English students do not have to do.

Brittany Haydon stated, “I believe the students will ben-efit from these changes and I look forward to being a part of this learning experience.” The AP students and staff are all looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

SPORTS 11Volume XXXV1

Issue 1September 14, 2009

By Colin BrownMessenger Staff Writer

Are student athletes practic-ing longer than necessary?

There is controversy regard-ing the alleged over-practicing of Michigan football players. Two 21-year-old players made allegations that Michigan coach, Rich Rodriguez would rou-tinely hold practices that were longer than the NCAA maximum practice time of four hours.

“Nothing has been proven yet,” Placer High School’s head football coach Joey Montoya said. “…and the media sometimes exaggerates these things.”

But with new facts being uncovered in other schools’ athletic departments, it begs the question if there is any over-practicing in Placer’s athletic department. Any student athlete at Placer knows that some-times there can be a challenge completing school work after a hard day’s practice, but how long does a practice have to be before it is too much?

Brandon Pope, Placer’s right guard, knows how hard the bal-ancing act of school and athletics can be. “You have to find the point between over-practicing and not practicing enough.”

Most coaches understand the challenge of this balancing act and try to keep practices to reasonable hours.

“You have to use good judgment with your athletes… As a coach you’re always worried about time

management, when you have kids that have to balance school, athlet-ics, and sometimes a job…” said Mark Lee, Placer’s athletic director and varsity basketball coach.

But sometimes even a coach’s careful precautions are not enough.

“Sometimes its hard get-ting both schoolwork and football done…especially when there’s a big project due,” said Ethan Halp-ert, left guard on Placer’s Football team.

And he is not alone. “…Sometimes I am exhausted and lose focus…but I am able to fin-ish my homework every night,” said Connor Daniels, corner on the football team.

The CIF has rules on how long coaches are allowed to prac-tice student athletes.

“The CIF limits practices to four hours or less a day,” said Joey Montoya.

But some people still be-lieve that there is too much time spent on the practice field and that it is too hard for kids to complete their studies. This has prompted a movement to limit practice to even

less time. “There has been a discus-

sion towards limiting practices to three hours a day and eighteen hours a week…” explained Mark Lee.

But many players do not think that this discussion is neces-sary. “They don’t overwork us…Our practice times are reasonably fair,” says Conner Daniels.

Despite the fact that sports can have unreasonable hours and make school work a challenge to complete, the option to play sports is still the student’s choice, and most athletes tend to agree that sports can teach you lessons you could never learn in a classroom.

Last year, one of the most noticeable sights at the Placer football games was the loud and spirited Gold Mine. The Gold Mine brought outra-geous outfits, painted faces, school spirit, smiles, joy, and laughter. However, another noticeable fact was the lack of Gold Mine in other sports, such as basketball, volleyball, track, soccer, baseball, etc.

“I never saw any student support at a cross country meet when hundreds of par-ticipants, fans, and students went to the football games,” said senior Blake Prior.

Many feel it is easier to be part of the Gold Mine during football games because the games start at 7:30 on Fri-day nights. Others feel sports such as volleyball, soccer, and basketball are difficult to at-tend because the games are during the week at an earlier time, which makes it hard for the students to actually par-ticipate and make it to the game.

Football is huge and the community attends it, but the Gold Mine is mainly just to cheer on the participants of Placer and every sport needs encouragement. If the Gold Mine were there for the teams listed above then teams would be more pumped.

“Hearing the crowd cheering for us while on the field makes my adrenaline rush and lets me have confidence in our team,” sophomore Ashley Cook explained.

Confidence would definitely fill the athletes’ body, along with the fact that the students would feel important and get the support they deserve for working hard at practice. The Gold Mine at Placer high school was started last year by the leadership class. It had a very positive impact on foot-ball players and cheered the team all the way to the PVL’s last season. Bigger crowds are drawn to football mostly be-cause football is a dominat-ing sport with lots of action, more players on the team, and a whole lot of fans.

“I think football is a domi-nating sport for placer but I think some sports need more recognition,” Dakota Ford ex-plained.

If the Gold Mine was to be more broadly expanded then Placer high would not only encourage players but also be known for amazing school spirit. Hopefully this tradition of the Gold Mine will continue for many years to come at Plac-er high school.

In the best of times, and in the worst of times, it’s great to be part of the Gold Mine!

Gold mine want-ed at other sporting events

Officials debate over gender of sprinter

By Nicole ParrishMessenger Staff Writer

By Shannon HarcusMessenger Staff Writer

A South African teen was asked to prove her gender after winning the 800 meter final at the world champion-ships last month. 18 year old Caster Semenya f lew by the competition in a blazingly fast 1 minute 55 second two laps. Her muscular body and manly physique, along with her extraordinarily fast times, caused suspicion about wheth-er she is truly a woman.

On the surface, the test for this would seem to be quite simple- either you are a wom-an or you aren’t, however a true gender test is a lot more involved than that. The test requires a full physical medi-cal evaluation, including the input from a gynecologist, en-

d o c r i n o l o g i s t , psychologist, an internal medi-cine specialist and an expert on gender. Be-cause of this, IAAF spokes-man Nick Da-vies predicts that the results are not expect-ed for weeks.

“We’re talking about reports that are very long, very time c o n s u m i n g , ” Davies told the associated press two weeks ago. Since then, conclusive results have not yet been determined, but the issue continues to be a con-troversy. It is still unknown

whether Semenya’s gold med-al will be stripped away if her results show that she has male chromosomes.

“If there’s a problem and it turns out that there’s been a

Photo Credit: hollywoodgrind.com

Athletes, coaches, and parents debate whether some coaches go overboard

Popular Placer rooting section only visible at Footbal games

fraud ... that some-one has changed sex, then obviously it would be much easier to strip re-sults,” Davies ex-plained. “However, if it’s a natural thing and the athlete has always thought she’s a woman or been a woman, it’s not ex-actly cheating.” This is the case of Seme-nya, who has grown up thinking she is a woman.

In an interview with BBC, Davies

states “she was born, christened and grew up a woman.”

Hannah Peterson, an 800 runner at Placer, thinks that the whole situation is “weird”.

“They shouldn’t put her down and insult her like that…if it was me, I’d be insulted.” She also thinks that it’s unfair that people are jumping to the conclusion that she is a man just because she ran so fast. “It’s possible (for a woman to run a 1:55).”

The results of Semenya’s gender tests will prove wheth-er that is true. If the results show that she has no male chromosomes, it will be an amazing day for women ath-letes everywhere, proving that the impossible is possible. If, however the results show she has male chromosomes, or perhaps has intersex disorder, the controversy battle will wage on.

SPORTS10 Volume XXXVIIIssue 1

September 14, 2009

Placer Football optimistic for 2009 seasonThe Placer Hillmen Football team

has put last year’s drama behind them, and are focused as well as excited for this year’s upcoming football season. The Hillmen start their season with Rosemont, followed by Woodcreek, and, D1 power house, Casa Robles. This pre-season, combined with tough league competition, makes for an exciting ‘09 football season.

“I think we’ll be one of the toughest teams to beat,” exclaimed nose guard Arthur Gayduchik.

Your Hillmen have been in the weight room and on the field work-ing hard since January. Coach Mon-toya, along with the help of Coach “Young Money” Rodarte, has put in a new weight lifting program which has been successful, and the football team is looking bigger, faster, and stronger as the seasons draws near.

“The weight room has become a lot bigger part of our off season train-ing,” said Senior and offensive line-men Brandon Pope.

Last years playoff hopes were dashed in the final game by the talented young Whitney team. Last years loss was tough for all Hillmen but the football team is not discour-aged. In fact it has shown them that they are a good team, that they are a

strong team, but most importantly, a team capable of becoming champi-ons.

“In the beginning it was tough, really tough, especially for the seniors but the juniors now have a sec-

ond chance, and have responded with hard work and a positive attitude, and I believe that that loss has allowed the players to realize the winning potential

that Placer has always had,” remarked, Coach Rodarte Sr. on last year’s cham-pionship loss.

“Even though we did good, last year’s loss showed that we didn’t play to our potential,” explained Se-

nior defensive end Conner Mckenzie. Placer is number two on

Calpreps.com’s PVL picks going into the season in front of the Bear River

Bruins and behind section champi-ons, the Whitney Wildcats. Whitney is a strong defender but the Hillmen have what it takes to go all the way this year. Talented returning seniors and a strong junior class could pave the

way to this year’s San Joaquin Section Championship.

“Replacing the talented se-

nior class was, I think, the biggest ob-stacle we’ve faced so far, but both the seniors and juniors have done a good job,” commented Coach Montoya

Returning seniors include running back Asher Gotzmer, who gained 1105 all purpose yards, middle line backer and tight end Josh Klem with a season total of 72 tackles, running back Dalton Dyer, who rushed for over 400 yards, and 2nd team all-league linemen Brandon Pope. Up and com-ing juniors include Josh Turney, who played a big part in last years playoffs, offensive linemen Pat Nevin, and starting quarterback Colin Burnett. This is a strong roster for the football team, which will be facing ‘cross town rivals and playoff contenders Colfax, Bear River, Lincoln, and of course, Whitney.

“We have some good opponents in our league, but we’re just going to focus on improving week in and week out,” said senior and offensive linemen Brandon Pope when asked which team he most looks forward to facing this season.

Your Hillmen are focused on bet-tering themselves above all else and may hold the key to the first section championship title Placer High has seen in 28 years. So get out and cheer your team to the playoffs and beyond and help our boys make history.

Placer High school fall sports are ready for the new competition 2009 will bring. With many impressive PVL wins last season, all of the fall sports are preparing for a new season.

The Football team is ready for yet another stellar season this fall . After last years impressive section title match up with Whitney, the boys are desiring another trip to the section title game. Se-nior Asher Gotzmer feels that the team has good prospects for the new season.

“We’re looking good. We want to go out there and play our best, win games, and have fun,” said Gotzmer.

The team is practic-ing hard, ready to be on top of their game for the season to come. The first football game is September 11th at Rosemont High School, and the first home game is Sep-tember 18th, where they will face off against Woodcreek High School.

The girl ’s volleyball team is also motivated for their coming season this fall . Last season, the girls over-came the odds as an under-dog team. They won the PVL title and made it to the semi-final match. With new players and an undying motivation to win, the team is confident they’ll succeed.

“I really want to keep a hold of the PVL League Championship and make it to the sections game at Davis”

senior captain Kelsey Lardner explained. “I think we have a really good shot at that.”

A newcomer to the team, sophomore Michaela Leon-ard, feels the team is very

welcoming to her underclass-men status.

“They’re always on

the sidelines cheering for me and making sure I have a good attitude.”

Having leadership and a talented group, the girls are ready for a successful season.

The first volleyball game will be against Rocklin on September 15th.

Fall Sports teams look promising this yearBy Kathryn RealeSports Editor

By Ian BecklerMessenger Staff Writer

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

The boy’s soccer team is intent on having a great season this year. Returning with a strong team, the boys are confident they’ll have a great season.

S e n i o r Mitchell Mad-dox feels the team will do very well this season. “Were kicking balls and taking names,” Mad-dox said.

T h e

Soccer team will face league rivals Colfax at the Colfax stadium Sep-tember

The cross-country team is determined for another PVL win this fall . After cap-turing a PVL win last year, the team is focused on yet another win for Placer C r o s s - C o u n -try. Junior Kirby Riecks believes her team will do

amazing things this season. “We’re looking very

good as a team,” Riecks said.With powerhouse runners

such as Luke Standcliff, Shan-non Harcus, Erika Steppig, and Gordon Sproul, they’re intent on winning this season. Junior Shannon O’Flaherty also feels her team is on a good track this year.

“We have a lot of natural talent on our team,” said O’Flaherty. “It’s a fun team and there’s a lot of tra-dition.”

Cross-country has their first PVL meet on Sep-tember 16th at 12 Bridges

Golf Course. The girl ’s Golf team

is ready for their upcoming season. Junior Sky Conners believes her team will do great this season.

“I think we’ll be a pretty good team,” she stated. “It’s a mental game, it’s just you out there. I think I’ve im-proved a lot.”

The girls will chal-lenge El Dorado at Auburn Country Club on September 15th.

All of the teams are striv-ing for PVL league wins and beyond this fall season. They are all hoping to become a part of the Placer High tradi-tion with a PVL banner hung with pride in their home gym. Good luck to all of the teams and have a great season!

“They’re always on the side-lines cheering for me and making sure I have a good

attitude.”

Junior Sarah Francis practices for the upcoming season Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

OPINIONS 9Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

By Tierra SchroederMessenger Staff Writer

Editor-in-Chief: JD Avila Features Editor: Britny ChristineNews Editor: Amy Van Groningen

Opinions Editor: Cait CullenPerspectives Editor: TaNee Edwards

Sports Editor: Kathryn RealeOnline Editor: Claire McCoy

Design Editor: Alicia SandovalAds Manager: Melissa Smith

Copy Editor: Tierra Schroeder, Shauna Kean

Reporters: Karrah Barger, Ian Bechler, Alex Brigham, Colin Brown, Rachel

Church, Alyssa Harben, Shannon Harcus, Santa Hart, Zac Hersh, Shauna Kean,

Claire McCoy, Mackenzie McGown, Laura Molnar, Laura Nash, Nicole Parrish,

Alicia Sandoval, Tierra Schroeder, Melissa Smith, Savannah Young

Adviser: Dan Wilson

Mission Statement: The Hillmen Messenger is dedicated to providing an open fo-rum of expression and producing a newspaper of quality based upon professional standards of accuracy, objectivity, and fair play so that students, faculty, admin-istration and the public can gain insight into student thinking and concerns. All students and staff are welcome to send letters to the Hillmen Messenger. Letters can be brought to room 306 or e-mailed to phsnews@puhsd.k12.ca.us. All letters must include name and first period class. The Hillmen Messenger reserves the

Hillmen Messenger

right to edit letters for content, size, or spelling.

For the first time this year Placer High School has a portal on its website where parents can access grades, as-signments, tests and tardies of their son or daughter. You would think that, being in high school, this would no longer be necessary, but apparently not. “This isn’t 4h grade any-more,” said Kaitlyn Kel-ly, a junior at Placer. Many students feel the same way, that the ‘parent portal’, as they call it, is just another way for their parents to moni-tor everything they do. In this day and age, technology allows parents to keep track of their kids at just about all times, whether with a GPS on their car, cell phone or even one that attaches to their wrist. So, naturally, parents now feel the need to have full ac-cess to their child’s grades and information at all times. “It puts a little more re-sponsibility on the parent to keep track of that stuff rather than the teacher or the secre-tary,” stated Greg Robinson, a history teacher at Placer. But shouldn’t it ultimately be the student’s responsibil-ity? After all, most of these students are allowed to drive in a car alone already, so why shouldn’t they be responsible for their own grades and as-signments? It’s true that not every student is responsible enough to manage all of their grades so that they pass ev-ery class, but do parents re-ally think that hovering over their child and nagging them will help them in the long run? “You would like to think that students would be re-sponsible enough for their grades, but the plain fact of the matter is that many stu-dents are not,” added Robin-son. While this is true, I don’t think that the parent portal is the right way for students to be learning responsibility. In my opinion, the parent portal enables lazy kids to be lazy because they will rely on their parents to check their grade and tell them when they have a missing assignment. If students know that their parent is taking care of their grade and telling them about their tests, what motivation do they have to be on top of their grades and be responsible about them?

As for the responsible kids, many parents will check their grades often and nag them, even though they are on top of their grades. “I’m actually a good stu-dent, but [my mom] has to check all the time after every test to make sure that I did fine, but I know I can handle it,” commented Riley Stol-tenburg, a junior at Placer. High school should be boot camp for college or the work-force, where many students could be living hundreds of miles away from their par-ents. And to think that parents could see if their child missed a lecture in college online is

absurd, but suddenly it seems like a great way to train high schoolers to be prepared for college.

“You need to learn good study skills now,” stated Kelly. But having parents stay on top of students’ grades rather than the students themselves isn’t helping one bit. While parents can definitely help by encour-aging students to study and work hard, them being in con-trol and watching their kids like hawks definitely won’t help. Another issue is simply trust. Parents need to learn to trust their kids. Somehow parents trust their kids to leave campus and go pretty much anywhere during lunch, but parents don’t trust their kids enough to han-dle their grades themselves. High school should be a time when you slowly loosen the grip that your parents have on

you as you begin to get ready to live on your own, but sud-denly it has become a time for parents to tighten their grip and keep a closer eye on their child at all times.

High school is a time for students to progressively learn to manage their lives them-selves and to gain the trust of their parents and the Parent Portal is not helping either of those goals. While it’s great for students to have a resource to check their own grades and be on top of them themselves, it is more likely that the Parent Portal will be misused by over-protective and micromanaging parents.

Parent Portal only a fall back for lazy students

The Parent Portal is a new feature on campus, which has been raising some controversy. But what the students are really

wondering is, does it help? Will it just make life harder? Is it worth it?

There have been too many times where a student has been caught off guard with their grades, expecting something other than what was ac-tually printed on their report cards. With the new Par-ent Portal, parents can log on and see their child’s grades anytime, no sur-prises needed. With this new feature, parents will be-come more aware of what is going on in their child’s high school career, and the families may become more open to talking about it and may find a so-lution to help boost their grades.

“It helps when parents don’t trust their kids and you can say, ‘Dad, just

log onto the parent portal and see how good I’m doing in that class.’ The proof is right there,” said senior Jessie O’Neil.

Many students have been complaining about the Parent Portal, feeling as though this will only help fuel overprotec-tive parents and make their situation worse, but in the end, will the parent portal actually help students more than hinder them?

Jessie O’Neil thinks so. “If the students are out every night and failing all their classes, their parents should know about it, because our education is paid with taxpayers’ dollars. Us kids don’t have to pay a cent (sic). So why waste it? I think that the parent portal will help kids get back on track, and take advan-tage of their virtually free edu-cation.”

If a child has nothing to hide, then why worry about their par-ents’ seeing their grades? The goal of Placer High School is to teach the students and have them actually retain what they have learned. If a student is not paying attention or goof-ing off, then that goal isn’t be-ing reached, and it shows in their grades. The parent portal is only looking to keep the par-ents notified so they can talk to their kids about their grades, and maybe then students will start to improve their grades with their parents helping push them along.

Jessie O’Neil chuckled and stated, “Besides, the kids who are worrying about their par-ents’ being on the Parent Por-tal are the ones whose parents’ should probably be on it. There would be no problem with it if there were nothing to hide.”

By Alex BrighamMessenger Staff Writer

Students will keep up, with help of Aeries

8Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

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Contact the Hillmen Messengerat 530-885-4581 ex. 5743

PERSPECTIVES6Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

By Claire McCoy Messenger Staff Writer

The recent 49er fire that caused millions of dollars in damage and uprooted many families also brought back memories of a much more devastating “49er” fire that occurred more than two decades ago.

On Sunday, August 30th, many res-idents were shocked as they watched their homes being destroyed by a fire that gutted 63 homes and businesses. The fire started around 2:20 p.m. and eventually brought on 199 firefight-ers in 29 fire engines. 343 acres were burned along Highway 49 and near Rock Creek.

With the help of the Cal Fire Ne-vada-Yuba-Placer Unit, there were only three reported injuries. Cal Fire Incident Commander, Jeff Brand, said that “the fire burned so hot and so fast, they were lucky to get every-one out.”

Law Enforcement officers increased the security and patrol in the area where only residents with valid proof of residence could enter. Shelters were

set up w h e r e victims of the fire or residents that had to evacu-ate could stay.

D o z -ens of a n i m a l s that were in danger of the fire were forced to stay at the C o u n t y She l t e r. Residents who lost their homes are able to meet with an employee from the County’s Local Assistance Center and receive assis-tance in retrieving legal documents.

The original 49er fire started on the San Juan Ridge. The fire began

Placer High School students pull together to help extinguish 49er fire

In the recent 49er fire, the lack of firefighters avail-able led to many students from Placer High School as well as Colfax High School pitching in to do their part for the community.

Dalton Dyer, a senior at Placer, was among the many students who helped out.

“We were coming from dinner in Roseville and we saw the fire from the res-taurant. Then we drove back to Auburn to watch the fire. Then instead of watching, I saw one of my friends help-ing, so I ran over to help too,” said Dyer.

Because of the amount of fires in Southern Califor-nia, we have sent many of our local firefighters there to help. However, when we needed them most, they were unavailable.

“I think they were just lazy,” stated Dyer. “We felt like we had to help out.”

Many students were there, however, to help out in Au-burn’s time of need.

“There were a bunch of us,” recalled Dyer. “Joe Jergo

(Colfax), Hector Gonzalez, Zach Scott, Christian Harris and Coach Will Nesbit.”

Zach Scott, a junior at Plac-er said, “Well, first Dalton ran over there, so then I ran over there to pitch in and then fire-fighters gave us all a hose and

By TaNee Edwards Perspectives Editor

on September 11, 1988 by a resident burning household debris.

More than 4,500 people were evac-uated as the fire burned 33,500 acres and devastated homes and businesses in the area. 148 homes were destroyed along with 356 other structures that

led to 22.7 million dollars in damage. 2,894 firefighters assisted in the fire along with many other police officers and residents of the area.

Although the fire destroyed thou-sands of acres from North San Juan

to the outskirts of Beale Air Force Base, homes have been rebuilt in the following 21 years. Everyone in the community was somehow involved in the fire. Whether they helped, lost their home or had to evacuate, this fire burned a memory in their mind forever.

Virginia Lee, a previous resident of Yuba Crest Drive, lost her home in the 1988 fire.

“My life had radical change after the fire. When the fire happened, I started over. It was a forced change,” she said. “I never knew how much the community meant to us.”

Victims of the fire or long-time residents of Auburn still remember it to this day. Anyone who survived the 49er Fire of 1988 can describe the devastation of a runaway blaze in the wild. The recent fire on Au-gust 30th brought back painful

memories to the original, devastat-ing fire in 1988. However, then and now, our community has strength in numbers.

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

49er fire returns once again after 21 years

we just started putting out the fire.”

Five people in our school were victims to this 49er fire and lost their homes. Students here at Placer High School are rallying together to help these people as well as helping oth-

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

Dalton Dyer, Hector Gonzalaz and Rene Zamora help local firefighters fight the 49er fire.

ers in the community that lost their homes. On September 8, Olivia Coder, a senior, as well as everyone in leadership and FFA held a fundraiser to help raise money to donate to the victims of the fire. At the fundraiser there was a potluck

and a silent auction and many other ac-tivities to help sup-port those who need it.

Olivia Coder said that she is proud of our school in how they have come to-gether to help those on need.

This fundraiser was great way for our school and ev-eryone in it to show the great love and support that comes from being a Placer Hillmen.

There is also a T-shirt drive that will help get clothes for those that lost all of their belong-ings. Yearbooks and photos are being re-placed to the best of donators’ abilities.

All of this and more are be-ing put on by students in our community to help and sup-port the victims of the 49er fire. In the best of times and the worst of times, it IS great to be a Hillmen.

PERSPECTIVES 7Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

Determining what is important during a crisisOn Sunday August 0th, a wildfire

swept through Dry Creek and 49 area. This prompted a mandatory evacuation for everyone within a 7 mile radius. When in such an un-expected situation, confusion takes hold and people get flustered. When one faces the threat of losing every-thing they’ve worked hard for, except for a very limited amount of items, how do they decide what items are worth keeping?

Garren Prather, a student at Placer High School who was forced into mandatory evacuation, faced this is-sue. “I grabbed some pictures of me and my girlfriend, as well as clothing and entertainment.”

Pictures are obviously an important item to most people and entertain-ment is something that, in this day

and age, people are constantly look-ing for. However, clothing is different, clothing is a ne-cessity. In a time of un-foreseen d i s a s -ter one w o u l d m o r e t h a n l i k e l y switch to survival m o d e a n d think of necessi-ties first.

People might wonder what neces-sities really are and may not be able

to decide what to take on such quick notice. However, Tyler Flash was

quite certain on what he needed. “I would definitely take my medi-

cations.” When he ranked his medi-

cation against things such as clothing and pictures, he argued that this was

by far more im-portant than the previous items m e n t i o n e d . However, in a state of confu-sion, one might get anxious and forget their ne-cessities.

Sydney Mon-zon, a placer student also within the evacu-ation radius, had trouble deciding exactly what to take. “I didn’t really

think about it; there was too much stuff going on. It took me by sur-

By Alicia Sandoval Messenger Staff Writer

prise.” He left his house carrying ba-sically nothing.

“I would’ve been really upset if my house had burned down. I didn’t take anything important to me because I wasn’t thinking about it at the time.”

It is unfortunate that homes are lost in fires or natural disasters and terrible when no one has time to prepare. Therefore it is safe to say that when facing such emergencies you should slow down, collect your thoughts and start rationalizing.

Make sure you think about which items are absolute necessities, esti-mate how much you are able to take with you and pack everything to-gether in an easy to carry container. Once you have everything you need, take the irreplaceable items you want, such as pictures, photo albums and a change of clothing, then move swift-ly and be on your way.

Fire prevention tips that may protect your house

Prevent ing a f i re f rom

happening at your house i s something the res idents of Auburn might want to look into now, due to the t rag ic 49er Fire Sunday, August 30 th.

“I t i s impor tant to be pre -pared for a f i re a t a l l t imes because you never know when a f i re might happen and take ever yth ing you have.” sa id Mitch Mi l i tano, a for mer CDF f i re f ighter for Hig g ins Fire Protect ion Distr ic t .

So how can we prevent a f i re? For tunate ly there are many easy ways to hopeful -l y prevent th is f rom hap -pening to you or anyone e lse.

O n e c o m -m o n w a y f i r e s can be s t a r t e d i s by c o o k -ing. To p r e -vent th is make sure to keep f lammable th ings such as cur ta ins, towels, and loose f i t t ing c lothes away from the hot burner and never leave a cooking area .

Another way f i res could be s tar ted i s by your heat -er or f i rep lace. I f there are cur ta ins or papers near, they can catch on f i re. Also, the chimney to your f i rep lace should be checked once a year.

Smoking i s an obvious cause of many f i res. I f you have a fami ly member who smokes, be sure that they use “f i re safe” c ig aret tes and smoke outs ide. Ciga -ret tes buds should be p laced in deep ash t rays, on some -th ing s tab le so they won’t fa l l .

But what happens i f a wi ld f i re you d idn’t cause i s in your ne ighborhood, and i s heading towards your home? There are ways to prevent your home from

catching f i re. “There have been over

25 f i res in Cal i fornia , s ince 2009 and unfor tunate ly you never know when one wi l l happen,” sa id Mi l i tano.

I f you know a f i re i s ap -

proaching , there are a few th ings you wi l l need to do quick ly.

Your roof gut ters wi l l need to be c leared of leaves

a long wi th your deck and lawn near your house area . F lammable i tems outs ide your house need to be moved,

By Mackenzie McGownMessenger Staff Writer

such as baskets, door mats, and outdoor furni ture. Al l doors, windows, and shut -ters need to be c losed. F i l l the bathtub and any other conta iner wi th water. Put a ladder outs ide, and water down your deck and roof. I f you have spr inklers, have them on.

When the f i re ar r ives a t your house, i t should only take a few minutes to pass by. In that t ime your house wi l l be ver y hot , smoky, dark and loud. I f there i s any spot that a f i re s tar ts in your house, put i t out . Check your roof and around your house constant ly. I f the house catches f i re and there i s no way to put i t out , c lose a l l the ins ide doors. And be sure to ex i t the house a t the safe and cor rect t ime to do so.

After the f i re has passed, go outs ide and put out any smal l f i res and be sure to check p laces l ike your roof, under your deck , and other areas for severa l hours.

“I ’m just g lad that the f i re was s topped when i t was, unfor tunate ly around s ixty fami l ies lost the i r homes.” sa id Mi l i tano.

Hopeful ly, i f another f i re occurs, we can a l l be pre -pared and prevent so many houses f rom being burned.

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

Photo Credit: Ian Bechler

“It is important to be pre-pared for a fire at all times because you never know when a fire might happen and take everything you have.” -Mitch Militano, former CDF fire fighter

5Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

OPINIONS4Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

By Amy Van GroningenNews Editor

Reality television stars’ daily lives irrelevant

Traumatic events occur in ev-eryday life. For example, the death of a family member, di-vorce and bankruptcy are things that happen to people across the globe. However, who wants these events broadcast on tele-vision and tabloids everywhere?

Some people are insane enough to let the entire world in on their lives. But honestly, there is a point where the media should just back off.

Take the Gosselin family. Nearly everyone has heard of them and knows of their di-vorce. Headlines of magazines and newspapers have been screaming, “Divorce to Dating in 20 Days!,” “Mom to Monster,” “Jon’s Engaged!,” and “Caught Hitting Her Daughter.”

Seriously? To quote Jon Gos-selin’s headline on People maga-zine, “Enough is Enough!”

I don’t remember the last time I walked by a magazine and there wasn’t a story on the cover about this family. And honestly, I’m sick of it.

While these two parents are obviously begging for media attention, it’s disgusting how much they are publicized.

So Kate Gosselin is a mother of eight? So she was walking around in a bikini? So she called the cops on Jon? So she took a vacation? Who cares?

A few months ago, I went camping. Where’s my headline?

The fact is that this family is only known for their drama. The same goes with most real-ity television stars. Winners of “Survivor” have been followed by paparazzi, as have the stars of the MTV show “The Hills.”

Sure, it’s been debated that “The Hills” is actually scripted, but what do the people on the show actually do? They live their lives, and get into petty argu-ments. Again, who cares?

And I’m sure that despite en-joying all the publicity that they

get, the people on these televi-sion shows cringe every time something unflattering is written about them because it ‘looked’ like they were doing something.

Yet even with this unflattering publicity, the Gosselins still fre-quently do talk shows and inter-views with magazines.

However, it’s not only reality stars’ secrets that are irrelevant, the secrets and lives of regular celebrities are also irrelevant. I understand that people like to hear about this stuff. Divorce, death, etc. are obviously big top-ics, but these events only need to be mentioned once. Follow-ups and the constant repetition of facts is pointless. Michael Jackson is dead. He was a great music artist who will be missed. The end. That should be it. If the police want to do an investi-gation on his death, that’s nice. But all the gossip is completely unnecessary. Please, just let him rest in peace!

If one is going to write stories about people, it should be about people noted for something they have done, and it should be stopped at the point where bad gossip is being spread.

Living in California, we are all aware of our financial crisis. The economy across the United States is doing terribly, but Cali-fornia is one state that is hurt-ing more than others. Governor Schwarzenegger is looking at many options to bring Califor-nia out of this financial rut, but what if one of those options could put you in danger? Let-ting convicts out of prison early could be one choice that may help our economy but put our safety at risk.

California’s prisons are 200 percent over capacity. Not only do prison workers need to be paid, but costs such as food and energy make state prisons very costly. It is true that some crimes are more punishable than others, but if someone is sentenced to prison time, shouldn’t they serve it until their time is up? That old saying, “if you do the crime, you gotta serve the time,” rings through my head. Many convicts

By Clarise BankusMessenger Staff Editor

will serve their time and go out and do it again. In 2005, a study in California revealed that more than two-thirds of parolees were sent back to prison within 3 years of being released. What is going to make convicts stop repeating crimes and being sent back to prison? Well, probably not let-ting them out early; that would just make them relapse faster.

The case of Jaycee Lee Dugard is a perfect example. Philip Gar-rido, the man accused of kidnap-ping Dugard, was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to five years to life in a federal pris-on, served 12 years, and was let out on lifetime parole. In 1991, three years after being released, he allegedly kidnapped Dugard, who was 11 at the time. Parole officers visited his house, but found nothing out of the ordi-nary. For 18 years, this girl sup-posedly lived in his backyard. Who is to blame? The parole officers, or the courts that let him out of prison early? In my opinion, this man would have never had the chance to commit the crime if he was behind bars, where he belongs.

California is not the only state who is considering letting con-victs out of prison early. Geor-gia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missis-sippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont think that this could help improve their state

budgets as well. With California and Kentucky combined, this would save $450 million. Let-ting out the convicts with only six months left, who are very ill, and who committed nonvio-lent crimes such as marijuana sales are on the top of the list for early release. While it’s true that there’s not much an 80 year old convict can do to reek havoc on the streets, there should still be some concern about the con-victs, like Garrido, being prema-turely freed.

It is Governor Schwarzenegger who will have to make the deci-sion if the safety of California’s residents is more or less impor-tant than the cost of having state prisons 200 percent over capac-ity.

“Economics cannot be the engine that drives the train of public safety,” Terrence Jungel, executive director of the Michi-gan Sheriffs’ Association, told reporters. “Government has no greater responsibility than the protection of its citizens.”

The State of California has the responsibility to ensure the public’s protection and letting money and economics get in the way of that is not only irre-sponsible but reckless. My only hope is that California won’t be blinded by the budget crisis and can still see fundamental issues clearly, namely our safety.

Early released inmatescan compromise safety

Starting this summer, Placer County approved a $2.3 mil-lion project to renovate a few streets and sidewalks in down-town Auburn. Thus disturb-ing the peace of all businesses downtown until the rebuilding is finished.

The project promises bigger sidewalks, planter boxes and a

year round Christmas tree, all with a general theme honor-ing Auburn as the Endurance Capital of the World as well as the Tevis Cup winners. Exactly what a city in a serious budget crisis need.

All of these things are sup-posed to help enhance the appearance of downtown Auburn, but if that weren’t enough, we’re also getting a large mural painted on Lincoln Way. The way the street is laid out will also change, adding stop signs and repaving the roads in hopes of making the drive easier.

Although they started the project just after school was out for the summer, the con-struction shall continue until December, at the very least. At the end of all of this, Auburn shall, hopefully, have a much more beautiful downtown area.

“I’d like to see it turned into a safe, convenient round-about,” commented social-sci-ence teacher Mark Faulkner.

Many comments and sugges-tions like this have been made. This may be a cause for the project to last even longer than it should.

For these six, possibly more, months, we are unable to drive from Lincoln Way to Placer and are forced to take a detour. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if that street wasn’t so busy, but there are thousands of high school students who need that street. This so-called ‘detour’ is now the reason many students are late, seeing as traffic is sim-ply ridiculous.

As for the 2.3 million dol-lars, I’m rather confused as to where it came from. Our state is experiencing a serious budget crisis, correct? If so, why must we spend so much on planter boxes, especially when there’s a high school right down the street that can’t seem to find the funds for new books? This ‘six month’ project has already

b e e n delayed o n c e ,

as a result to budget issues, and I honestly hope it won’t be delayed by the conflict of the town’s people.

Many feel that the theme of the project should be switched to the town history, and should have nothing to do with the Endurance aspect of our town. While it is understood that Auburn has become popular due to the Western States race which partly takes place in Auburn, there is a select few people Many are writing to the Auburn Journal and complain-ing, as well as starting to show up to city council meetings in hopes of convincing everyone otherwise.

Some people, such as Rachel Whiffin, a Placer High senior, can see the bright side of the construction, stating, “At least they’re trying to fix up the downtown area, making it more presentable to tourists and the public.”

While not all people are ful-ly capable of seeing the posi-tive in the construction just yet, let’s just have our fingers crossed that in the long run the torture will be worth it.

Construction is irresponsible spending

The downtown construction is shown here on Lincoln Way.Photo credit: Savannah Young

By Britny ChristineFeatures Editor

Features 3Volume XXXVII

Issue 1September 14, 2009

By Zac HershMessenger Staff Writer

Every high school student who wants to get their driv-ers license is faced with a very difficult decision when he or she turns fifteen and a half. That decision is: should I take drivers Ed in a classroom or should I take it online? So which is better? First let’s take a look at the aspects of online Drivers Ed.

Online Drivers Ed offers an at home learning environment that allows you to take the course at your own pace and when your course is through you are sent all the paperwork you need to take your permit test.

“I did my drivers Ed online and it was good. It was really fast, easy, and I passed my test the first time,” said soph-omore Casey Sabins.

A recent report on on-line education, conducted by SRI International for the Department on Education, said, “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face in-struction.” The cost for on-line Drivers Ed varies from site to site. The lowest price found was at www.cal-driver-ed.com which offers the class for $18.98 but it does not in-clude your behind-the-wheel driving lessons.

Now we’ll take a look at the traditional in-class Drivers Ed. In-class Drivers Ed of-fers live instructors teaching in traditional methods. The classroom setting allows you to share ideas with peers and get mean-ingful in-sight from an expert in the field of driver safety. Tak-en private-ly, classes run about $100, but it is dis-c o u n t e d if com-bined with drivers training. Also, many schools offer free Drivers Ed classes after school hours.

Now we will take a look at the downfalls of online driv-er’s instruction.

The first major downfall of online drivers Ed is complet-ing the courses may be frus-trating if you have an older computer or a slow Internet connection.

The second downfall is online courses can only of-fer written instruction, not hands-on driving time. This means after the course is through, you still have to schedule your drives with an instructor in order to get your permit and your license.

The third and final downfall is anyone can set up a web-site and claim to offer online driver education courses, so it’s important to check it out before you send them your money.

Now we will take a look at the downfalls of in-class driv-er’s training. The main downfall is it can take up to 30 hours of your w e e k e n d s to complete the course, w h i c h

doesn’t make any sense if you can do it from the comfort of your home whenever you want.

“I took Drivers Ed after school and it was a pain… because it was from three to six every day after school and we only got a fifteen minu-et break,” said senior Matt Steele.

So which is better : online or in-class? It’s all up to you. If you feel that you would do better in an in-class environ-ment, then the in class Driv-ers Ed would be best.

If you enjoy studying from the comfort of your own home, then the online course is the way to go.

How online Drivers Education compares

“I took Drivers Ed af-ter school and it was a pain… because it

was from three to six every day after school

and we only got a fifteen minuet break,”

-Matt Steele,senior

By Alyssa HarbenMessenger Staff Writer

By Savannah YoungMessenger Staff Writer

Auburn helps out in relief efforts for fire victims

As we all know, disaster hit our lovely little town of Au-burn. The fire ravaged 275 acres, destroying sixty homes and buildings in its wake.

But as a close-knit town we are banding to-gether to help each other out. Already more than half the town businesses are making con-tributions to aid the victims: Echo Valley is supplying free dog and cat food for the victims’ animals; Placer Farm Supply is offering discounted prices. Umpqua Bank is accepting canned food, clothing, and toys.

The relief efforts are in-credible.

With five people just at Placer High School losing their homes, us Hillman are

holding a fundraiser for the victims.

Olivia Coder and Clar-ise Bankus both seniors, designed and organized the event.

September 8th at 4:30 the 49er Fire fundraiser was a major hit, with channel 3

news and c h a n n e l 10 news r u n n i n g it live and A u b u r n C o m m u -nity Tele-v i s i o n taping.

T h e K i w a n -is club c o o k e d the ham-

burgers and hot dogs. The Placer FFA brought the side dishes and the Ham-burgers from Longhorn Meats.

With just this one fundraiser we raised three thousand dol-lars and massive amounts of

donations that filled the leadership room to the brim. All around it was a great success!

“If we can’t re-build their homes, we will at the very least restore their hope.” Olivia lost her home when she was two years old, so unlike a lot of us she doesn’t have her baby pictures or home videos of her childhood.

“My heart goes out to them.” Cod-er said as she ex-plained her reason for organizing this event with Jona-than Adams.

Grocery Outlet, Salvation Army, and Savemart all have barrels ac-cepting anything anyone can give. Gold Country Fair Grounds took in 4 horses, while the

Everyone from Placer students to local businesses are pitching in to help families in needAnimal Shelter in DeWitt took all the dogs and cats they could.

There is also the Red Cross which is helping the families find a place to stay and food to eat.

Donations places are main-ly asking for are the bare es-sentials such as tooth brush-es, clothing and gift cards for food. Because maybe some of them are in hotels and don’t have a stove to cook the canned foods in.

Contact HELP (Humans Empowering the Livelihood of the People) they are send-ing out an “adopt a family” that has been affected by the fire. The Nor-Cal motorcycle club is hosting a barbeque and poker game for the vic-tims.

With all these relief efforts how could you say we as a community are not close? Mr. Camillucci, Ms. Rohde and Mr. Efstathiu laugh

from the sidelines Photo Credit: Amy Van Groningen

Obama’s speech to the youth of America causes uproar

President Barack Obama was scheduled to give a speech to the students in public schools on September 8th.

Even though President Obama was not the first president to attempt to give a speech to all the students, his speech was surrounded with the most controversy.

One of the main topics of the controversy was in the original draft Obama asked the students to “write a let-ter to themselves on how they can help the president”.

Many parents felt that this was an inappropriate thing to ask of their children and they felt that he was trying to spread his “socialist agenda.” Later, Obama changed that request to “write letters to yourself about how to achieve your long term and short term goals.”

Even though that was changed to be less offensive, many conservative parents still would not let their chil-dren watch the speech.

They said that the speech had not been screened for po-litical content, or approved by school boards, and because of that they were going to keep their children home on the 8th.

“They don’t need to be told by the president what their responsibilities are. It’s the parents’ responsibility to teach them that, not the gov-ernment,” said Ryan Chris-tensen, a parent who kept his daughters home.

Even though some stu-dents did not get the chance to watch the speech, a num-ber of students were inspired to try harder in their school-work.

A sophomore from Wash-ington said.

“When you see someone of such power saying what your parents say or your teachers have said, like all your life, it really makes it more powerful to you and it really makes you want to try more,” Younger students were also inspired to try harder so that they would be able to accomplish their dreams.

“The message he gave to children was so appropriate, that you shape your destiny no matter the hand you’re dealt the message was abso-lutely on target. I had chills,” Said a former PTA Official, in the Houston area named Ka-tie Miller.

Many people found out what Obama had to say whether or not they agreed with him.

“If we can’t rebuild their

homes, we will, at the very

least, restore their hope.”

-Olivia Coder, senior

Features2 Volume XXXVIIIssue 1

September 14, 2009

By Rachel ChurchMessenger Staff Writer

By TaNee EdwardsPerspectives Editor

Exploring Burning Man’s colorful past

By Santa HartMessenger Staff Writer

Social networking sites, a place where people can stay connected with their friends and family eas-ily online, is getting more popular than ever. Many students at Placer High School have at least one social networking site such as MySpace, Twitter, or Face-book.

62% of stu-dents had a social networking site, 28% preferred using MySpace, 30% preferred Facebook, and 0% Twitter. Ac-cording to Com-pete.com dur-ing the month of July 2009, 1.22.677k people visited Facebook, 59.614k people visited MySpace, and 2.3284k peo-ple visited Twitter.

“Facebook is easier to control.” said Sophomore Mandy Mathews. According to most people Face-book is more organized, had less spam, and more applications than MySpace. Facebook currently has 7.4m users between the ages of 14 to 21, 13.8m users between the ages of 22 to 30, 8.5m users 31 to 50, and 1.4m over the age of 51.

“Everyone says Facebook’s (better)” says Sophomore Emily Martin.

Haley Casbeer disagrees, “(with MySpace) you get to put songs on your profile and personalize it.

Messaging is more private, people can read your wall on Facebook.” On MySpace, the user can use html code and many applications to personalize their profile while Facebook doesn’t have as much versatility. Myspace currently has 37.3m users between the ages of

14 to 21, 23.5m us-ers between the ages of 22 to 30, 7.5m users 31 to 50, and 7m us-ers over the age of 51. Although MySpace has millions more us-ers between the age of 14 to 30 than Facebook, but Facebook has more users 31 to 50.

Not very many people had a twitter account; some people didn’t even know what twitter was. The difference between other so-cial networking sites and twitter is that Twitter users send text-like messages up to 140 characters long known as tweets. Tweets are posted on the users profile and

Social networking: a source of news for teens and everyone else

A lot of students think that the Star Tests are pointless to do, seeing how they provide no grades to them.

In reality, the school has cre-ated a Star Testing Reward, but how do students get these re-wards? Where do they go to pick them up?

Some would also think that the rewards would also make stu-dents try harder as well.

Larry Alberts, the school art teacher, said, “I would think it would influence some students to try harder and try to get the rewards.”

Before the rewards, many had no real incentive to do their best, but now there is a goal to win. For example, parking can be difficult for those who drive to school daily; luckily now there is a reward for your very own park-ing spot.

This will make things easier for you! Some other rewards are a Starbucks or a Togo’s gift card, a free ASB card, or to be a TA.

But there is a catch; you have to raise the score of your STAR test previous to the last score you had made. For example, if you raise the score by ten points, your name will be put into a raf-fle, each time you raise the points by ten your name goes in.

The raffle will be chosen at the rallies. Mrs. Barry hopes to get these in by September 11th of this year.

But if you raise a whole band, from basic to proficient, your en-tire grade can go up a third of a grade. To do this you have to schedule an appointment with your councilor to ask about the reward and to get it added onto your actual grade you earned during school, but the grade that will be raised is that of the band raised on the STAR test.

For example, say the English grade was raised to proficient, your English grade on your re-port card will be raised as well after you talk to you councilor. A ‘B+’ can be raised to an ‘A-‘ which can help with lower graded students if they actually wanted to try for a high score.

Some of the prizes you can win from having your name drawn are, a Starbucks or Togo’s gift card, a free parking spot to help your troubles with parking, be-coming a TA the fallowing year, and possible even a free ASB card to help reduce the price you pay to get into school events like dances.

Some of the students like this idea as Garren says” They are pretty cool.” The STAR Rewards give a lot of incentives to actu-ally push to get these rewards.

Star testing rewards become a reality for Placer students

Have you ever wondered what is going on when tens of thousands of people flock to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada? The answer is two simple words: Burning Man.

So what is it? Toby Covich, our very own ceramics teacher said that Burning Man is the “biggest, wildest fair you’ve ever been to.”

Larry Alberts says that it is, “Music, art and crazy people. It is a bunch of artists that come together to trade and show their work.”

Burning man was started on the summer solstice in the year 1986 by Larry Harvey, Jerry James and a few other friends on the beaches of San Francisco. According to Larry, Harvey started burning the effigy as a release from being dumped by his girlfriend the pre-vious weekend. This is a rumor; however the ritual of burning effi-gies has been around much longer than the festival itself.

A tradition of the Burning Man gathering is to have a theme for the art and other pieces of work that are displayed there. This year’s ongoing theme is “Evolu-tion: A Tangled Bank.” In past years the themes have ranged from “The Body” to “The Seven Ages of Man” to “Hope and Fear: The Future.”

Toby, who has been every year for the last eight years (excluding this year), told of some of his ex-periences. The first year Toby Co-vich went to a Burning Man Fes-tival the theme was “Wild, Wild West.”

Toby recalls a time when he went and there was a group of Belgians who came and built a few hundred odd foot tall struc-ture that, when lit up with green spotlights, looked like underwater seaweed.

Burning Man, in past years, has been known for the drugs and the “anything goes” attitude. How-ever, Toby stated that there was

little to none public drunkenness. Of course, drinking and what not are usually involved, but the hired police force that patrols the Black Rock Desert (also known as the Playa) makes sure that ever one stays safe and protected.

Larry, who has never once been to a Burning Man festival, says that Burning Man is ‘unsafe.’

“It’s very dangerous. Last year, or the year before, some guy burned the man early. I think he got arrested.”

While this is true, no one was injured and the man was rebuilt to be burned on the appropriate day.

Since that mishap, security has been much improved. Guns are no longer alowed in center camp, and explosives are no longer appropri-ate for use in the Man. Although, many pyrotechnics are on hand to keep the fire in hand and to make sure the flames do not damage the surrounding environment.

Although Toby believes that the festival is for more mature people –“people of ages thirty to sixty”-

there are tickets available for a much younger crowd. And, if you are twelve years old or younger, you can get in for free. This might

be a plus consid-ering that tick-ets, just this year, range from one hundred sixty dol-lars to three hun-dred fifty dollars.

“Be prepared for extreme des-ert weather and ready to survive there for a good length of time,” Toby warned for anyone who plans on going in the future. “It looks like a base camp for Mount Ever-est.”

From its start in the 80’s to the now occurring festival, Burning Man has evolved from eight friends

burning an eight foot effigy to

78,000 people in one temporary community sharing everything: art, love, and a really good time.

sent to anyone who subscribed to their page. “I think twitter is an invasion of privacy” says Haden Skinner.

Social networking can also be a source of news such as during the 49er fire. Some students like Sophmore Shane Chanler, jumped

onto social networking sites for information before the news had it.

“I was on facebook all night that night” Said Chanler.

There are also the students who don’t have an account to a networking site such as Celeste Hovener who had a MySpace but deleted it because she never used it.

“It’s good for exchanging pic-tures but I’m so busy” she said.

Regardless of which social net-working sites used, its easy to see social networking sites are be-coming more and more popular.

Students use facebook during class to keep in touch with friends Photo Credit: Rachel Church

The entrance to Burning Man Photo Credit: Ronzo