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Sometimes in a small county such as Meigs, there isn't much to do. This can lead to many people, especially teens, making the wrong decisions to occupy their time. This is why, on November 17th, 2011, over 1,000 students from the three schools in the county met at Meigs Local High School for a summit on making good decisions. This summit, designed by the students for the students, was to encourage students to make the right decision, while still having fun. Sponsored by the Meigs County Community Coalition and Opiate Task Force, the event featured a variety of fun-filled, yet at times intense and somber, presentations on making better choices.
The day kicked off with motivational speaker and best-selling author Brooks Gibbs, who gave a hilarious and dramatic, although at times sad, account of his days in high school, including dealing with bullies, his struggles with fitting in while making good choices, and how he managed to do so, and his problems in his personal life growing up struggling with an addictive dad. After him, the Christian-based Sanctify Drama Team gave a series of chilling and artistic stage performances, including a re-telling of the story of David and Goliath, and how it fits in with good decision making, by their minister. After this, a brief intermission was taken to serve lunch. During this intermission, there was also a dance contest, an air guitar contest, and a spirit competition between the four grades, won by the junior class.
Up on stage after this was a represenative of the STAND Strength Team, Ralph "Pit Bull" Henneman, who wowed the audience with amazing feats of strength, and how they often require the same mental aspects to perform as making good choices in your life. The penultimate presentation was a video presented by Reed and Bauer Insurance Agency, coupled with a speech from a local patrolman, on the dangers of texting while driving, and how that single bad choice can forever affect your life and the lives of others. Finally, motivational speaker and YouTube sensation Judson Laipply took center stage, humoring the crowd with numerous antecdotes, sharing his thoughts on numerous topics ranging from bottled water to ketchup, and persuading the crowd of teens to make the right choices in their life, and steering clear of drugs and alcohol. Finally, he closed the day with a performance of his famous YouTube video, The Evolution of Dance, showing the crowd his wide array of dance moves.
Overall, the day was generally viewed as a success, and was widely enjoyed by all in
attendance. And, while there were numerous laughs and fun-filled memories, the making Good Decisions Summit achieved it's goal: helping teens handle life's problems with a smile on their face, and making the right decisions while being able to have fun.
-Joe Smith
Local News
Drug Testing is now being enforced at Southern Local. All students in both the high school and junior high school levels that are participating in athletics or driving to school can be selected for random drug testing. The test will be performed, overseen, and selected by an outside company, in order to avoid corruption and biased tests.
All tests will be urine tests, and observed by a classified official. The official will be gender flexible. A girl will be observed by a female official, and a boy will have a male official to observe. Any selected student must take the test, a rejected test will be treated the same as a rejected test and the same consequences will be upheld.
If a drug test is declared positive, the student's parents will be contacted before any school official is told. Once contacted, the parent must attend a conference with the student, the principal, and the student's coach, if the student is an athlete. From there, the student's punishment will be determined and performed. Any positive testing driver will have his or her driving privileges revoked for 50 days on the first offense, and after that for a school year. A positive athlete will be suspended for 25% of the season in which they are participating in or the next season they will participate in. Further punishment can still be performed by discretion of the coach.
-Andrew Ginther
World News
The fundamentalist Brotherhood is emerging as the biggest winner in partial results from the first voting this week in Egypt's landmark election, in which voters turned out in unexpected droves.
That strength is not necessarily testimony to widespread Egyptian support for its Islamist ideology. More crucial were two other major factors: the Brotherhood's history of helping the poor and a highly disciplined organization of activists, who on the two days of voting on Monday and Tuesday seemed to be everywhere.
Outside polling stations around the country, Brotherhood activists were set up with laptop computers in booths, helping voters find their district and voter numbers which they wrote on cards advertising the party's candidates. Elsewhere, they posted activists outside to wave banners, pass out flyers or simply chat up voters waiting in line and in a marked change from previous elections, when Brotherhood members running as independents touted their Islamic credentials, this time their campaign focused on promises to improve services, to appeal to poor voters.
-Nathan Roberts
School Board Meeting
The Southern Local Board of Education met in regular session Monday October 24th in the High School library. High school principle Daniel Otto discussed the possibility of a new drug test policy for the school district. The new policy would affect students who play sports and who drive to school. According to Mr. Otto, the purpose of the new policy will be to serve as a deterrent and not as a punishment. In other business the school board approved the five year forecast regarding the school's finances. The board also approved people to substitute and a few coaching and advising positions. A overnight trip for the Cross Country team was approved. The next board meeting will be held on November 11th at 8:00pm.
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