Portsmouth Students May Face Weekend Detentions

PORTSMOUTH,NH—Portsmouth High School students may be forced to serve Saturday detentions for smoking in school bathrooms and other disciplinary problems.

The Saturday School motion was made by School Board member Tim Steele, who suggested that students who have disciplinary problems during the week should be required to return to school for a special Saturday session.

The weekend detention would be held from 8 a.m. until noon on several Saturdays throughout the year. It would require an allocation of $3,000 per year for staffing.

Mr. Steele explained that the new disciplinary measure is being proposed in an effort to reduce the number of in-house suspensions, which are currently given automatically to students caught smoking inside or outside of Portsmouth High School.

In 1995, 154 students were given in-house suspensions after which they were not permitted to make up the school work that they missed during the day. Steele said that the new program would ensure that students would not have to miss any class time.

Steele’s proposal was met by both positive and negative feedback at the Portsmouth Town Meeting, which was held last night at 7:30. “I work 6 days a week—including Saturday morning—and it’s bad enough to get my son off to school Monday through Friday,” said Peggy Bacon, a parent of one of the students. “Why should I have to worry about Saturday as well?”

Ms. Bacon went on to express her feeling that the Saturday detention would most likely not have any impact on students’ behavior. “I just don’t think it’s going to make any difference, and the parents are going to pay for it—in higher taxes as well as in ruined Saturdays,” she said.

Bob Farley, resident of 64 Elm St., said that he liked the idea of the new rules. “Parents can whine all they want about this, but maybe it’s time parents in America were made to take a little responsibility for their kids,” said Mr. Farley. “Maybe if they have to miss a few Saturday morning cartoons they’ll start wising up.”

Lisa Gallagher, a senior at Portsmouth High School, was one of five high school students in attendance at the meeting. “In 12 years of school I’ve never served a detention, and I don’t intend to. But I don’t like this idea,” said Ms. Gallagher. “I think it’s just being done to make life easier for the faculty, so they don’t have to deal with detentions during the week. Anyway, what if someone skips a session? What are they going to do, make them stay all weekend?”

Mr. Steele assured Ms. Gallagher that if a student skips a Saturday session, he or she would not be allowed to return to school until the detention had been served. This would prevent students from being able to do their class work and would create even more incentive to serve the detention promptly.

After about 30 minutes of discussion, the board voted 5-3 in favor of the new proposal. However, one board member abstained from the vote, tabling the issue until its next meeting on March 7. Steele was instructed to return at that time with figures on in-school detentions so far this year.

Other highlights discussed during the meeting were a retreat for administrators in June; four requests from teachers for leaves of absence in the coming year; a financial report detailing federal budget cuts on the school lunch program; and approval of several school department and food service bills amounting to $13,568.

Speculation of Bias in the Times

Over the past few days, the New York Times has been attacked for publishing pro-Republican articles.

By looking at articles published Thursday, Oct. 23 and Friday, Oct. 24, it is clear that both issues of the paper feature Republican articles on the front page, with Democratic articles appearing later in the front section.

Although the location of the articles does seem to be a bit biased, the content of the articles is exceedingly fair.

Friday's front-page article, "How McCain Hopes to Defy the Polls and Win," discusses the plans of Senator McCain's campaign advisers. It talks about how it is crucial that the Republican Party focus on winning swing states, such as North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, in order to stay in the race.

If any bias is evident in this article it is in favor of Senator Obama. This is because the article, while outlining the highlights of Senator McCain's plan, mainly emphasizes the difficulty and almost impossibility of coming from behind.

Another article featured in the Times was "$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image," which appeared in last Thursday's edition.

Although the content of the article fairly discussed Governor Palin's disinterest in her new wardrobe, stating that "Ms. Palin did not spend time on the shopping, and that other people made the decision to buy such an array of clothes," the title of the article suggests otherwise.

Readers scanning for headlines might have glanced at the title and been too outraged by the ridiculous amount of money spent by the Republican campaign to even read the article, which possibly further demonstrates the Times hidden favoritism of the Democratic party.

Danger in Durham

DURHAM, NH – A rare spotted leopard named Fluffy escaped from the Durham Zoo sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“We have no idea what time Fluffy escaped or where she went,” said zoo director Gerry Durrell during a press conference on Wednesday morning. “We are searching the grounds of the zoo but so far we haven’t a clue.”

According to the zoo’s chief biologist, Kitty Smith, the Durham community should be highly cautious of Fluffy, who is an extremely dangerous carnivorous animal. “If these cats are cornered –or encountered on a dark night – their defense is to kill, and to kill quickly,” said Smith. “We urge anyone who encounters Fluffy to get slowly to the ground and lay still.”

Police and zoo workers alike carried high-powered rifles as a precaution as they frantically searched the grounds for Fluffy. According to Police Chief William Blair, the Durham police department plans to expand their search into the neighborhood after the zoo has been thoroughly searched.

“We are concerned because this is a residential neighborhood with an elementary school,” said Blair. “We don’t want Fluffy wandering around after the kids get out of school.”

My First Blog

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

I think I'm finally starting to wrap my mind around the art of journalism. I've learned how to generate story ideas, conduct interviews properly, and have a voice without showing bias. It has been challenging at times, but I think that I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

Like any relationship, my relationship with writing has its ups and downs. Sometimes there are hours, even days, when I suffer from severe writers' block and I can't make words flow for the life of me. But then there are other days when words come easily and putting pen to paper feels so natural and right. Those are my favorite days.

-Ali