Monthly Archives: November 2010

In the 2009-2010 school year, drug related suspensions are at 31%, and drug expulsions are up to 40%. 15% of the polled students said they are or have been selling, distributing, or possessing illegal drugs.  In the situation that a student is under the influence, law enforcement is rarely involved. The rise of drug use in Colorado students is up 34% since 2008.  School teachers and law enforcement blame the use of medical marijuana. Medical cannabis (marijuana) was legalized in 2008 in 15 states, including Colorado.  It is said that medical cannabis helps with different types of cancer, Alzheimers, HIV/AIDs, and Opioid dependence. What do you think?

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Fighting the fear of standing up in front of a room of people is going to be a reality for many FFA members on the 9th of November. The first year students will get on stage and present the FFA Creed by E.M. Tiffany.

The FFA Creed is a promise that you believe and support the organization. It is a five paragraph nightmare for fifteen students.

November 9th is dreaded for some and exciting for others. The FFA Creed Contest will be held in the Meeker High School Auditorium. There is also going to be a FFA meeting to go along with the contest.

With basketball practice starting this upcoming Friday, (12th of November), many of the school’s so called “Cheerleaders” are getting a little riled up.  All though Meeker lost their three main supporters, Evan Edwards, Spencer Madison and Jarrett Waldruff, the future looks bright in the stands of Meeker High School.  Many of the kids have agreed to drive to the games and cheer on our boys and girls, but teenagers are not enough.  The players and coaches encourage you to come to the games and help cheer on the Meeker Cowboys.

Micheal Carey, 51, was found dead in his cell on November 4. His death was ruled a suicide by Logan County Coroner Dave Tennant. He hung himself after 9 News aired a story about his DNA being found in two cases of sexual assault from more than 10 years ago, involving a fifteen year old girl and a female jogger. Carey was going to be charged with first-degree sexual assault and second-degree kidnapping, as well as the already in prison for drug manufacturing charges. Carey also assaulted an Adams County police officer, in which he was given sixteen years in prison.  He has been in prison since 2000, and has a criminal record dating all the way back to 1978, that includes drug dealing, assault, drunken driving, robbery, and burglery. A member of the Carey family said that she did not believe the charges, and bragged upon Michael for helping with chores around the neighborhood.

Is honesty the truth, or does it just sugar-coat reality?  People do not express honesty, they all have their lies.They are just too afraid to admit it to themselves. They can’t face the truth that what they did, was wrong. Some are even too stubborn to realize it when they hurt someone. Shouldn’t we come to grips with reality, and realize that a lie is a lie and everbody else knows it? Every action that we make deeply affects another. When one soul brightens, another darkens. No one wants to be sucked into the black hole that is a lie.

It seems that today  honesty is defined as a lie. Has the world we live in today made lies appear as honesty, is the  saying “finders keepers”  even still applicable?

Honesty is bringing people to justice, as well as the unpinning of our democracy. I believe when people say “the good ol’ days”, they are talking about a time when honesty was common nature; back when we punished people because of what they did, not who they were. Honesty is facing every problem caused by a lie, and taking the backlash; kicking at the dark until the light shines through.

Will people ever come to realization of how to express honesty in a civilized manor, and admit to their faults? Today’s generation has buried themselves so deep into the masking of the truth, that honesty may never prevail.

Most parents of TLS ( Teen Life Skills) participants are not allowing their child or children to take part in the wearing of the Pregnant Bellies this year. This allows a teen to experience the difficulties of being pregnant. They  experience the weight of a pregnancy in the third trimester. The belly weighs 25 pounds and include a rib constrictor to allow the students to understand how hard it is to breathe. Parents say they are afraid of harassment, bullying and teasing.

Is this not how real teens who are actually pregnant are treated?

Although it will be difficult to adjust, these are the real things that happen to real teenagers who are really pregnant. This is what the student are supposed to get out of it. Obviously fellow students know and realize that this is in fact NOT a REAL pregnancy.

Are the parents the ones refusing to allow their children to participate in this lesson? Are the students allowed to have a say?

Before parents start to assume, their child should be allowed to have a say. Better that they have the fake experience than learn through the real one.  This decision is supposed to be agreed upon by both the parent and the student. Yes, the parent(s) have a decision, but shouldn’t they look more into it? You can find more information with The instructor of this lesson Angela Urenda.

In 2008, Marvel Comics released one of their most famous movies, Iron Man. This movie was the first in a series of new comic book movies. In September of 1963, writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created a team of superheroes called the Avengers, which consisted of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the Incredible Hulk. Now, with the Iron Man movies out of the way, they are going to be making a movie based on the Avengers.

Marvel has decided to make a few movies for some of the other characters before putting them all into one movie. A movie about Captain America be released in July of 2011, along with Thor in May of 2011. So far, a movies based on Hawkeye and Black Widow have not been announced. The Incredible Hulk has had a plethora of movies, but a different actor will play Bruce Banner in the Avengers movie, which is scheduled to release in 2012.

On November 12, a helicopter went down up by Wilson Creek oil field. This was about 10 miles out of town close to the county line between Rio Blanco and Moffat counties. Seven Rio Blanco and three Moffat county sheriffs were on the scene along with eleven police officers and thirteen fire resuce and EMTs. A deputy is at the scene protecting it. NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) is sending an investigator from Texas. Also the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is sending investigators from Salt Lake City, Utah.

The pilot was Richard Westra  who was a former Air Tracker pilot for News 7, a Denver TV station.  Mr. Westra was sent to St. Mary’s hospital in Grand Junction. His wife Kelly Westra was killed. She was the only passenger.

Christopher Nolan has the annonced the production of a new Batman movie! Although the movie won’t be released until 2012, some of the cast has been announced. Christian Bale will play Batman, Morgan Freeman will play Lucius Fox, Gary Oldman will play Jim Gordon, and Michael Caine will play Alfred. The Joker, played by Heath Ledger (who died of a drug overdose shortly after the production of the Dark Knight), will not be making a return even though the character is still alive. Two-Face, played by Aaron Eckhart in the Dark Knight, will not return because his character was killed at the end of the film. So without a main villian, rumors are going around that Tom Hardy might be cast as the Riddler. Also, rumors say that Catwoman may be making an appearance, because without Rachel Dawes, Batman needs a woman in the movie; and who could fit the role better than Catwoman?

Tuesday, October 16, Meeker High School and Barone Middle School had a life changing experience by seeing the consequences of using drugs, alcohol, and not wearing their seat belts while driving.  Roy Kenny from the Sheriff’s office and Mike Washburn from the Meeker Police Department, and District Attorney Gene Tardy showed students a graphic presentation of deaths and accidents around Rio Blanco County.  Many of the deaths were caused by drugs and alcohol being mixed with high-speed motor vehicles.  Mr. Kenny spoke to the students about an airplane that went down in the middle of Marvine Lake.  There were four people in the plane, three of which were sober, and a pilot that was stoned. One drunk driver was in a wreck where his body was thrown onto the top of a building along with a passenger that was thrown into the building. The passenger slammed into a large yellow pole inside of the building. The story of Austin Stoner, a former Rangely High School student, stopped the students clear in their tracks. Stoner was a young man with a great future, who made some bad decisions. He told his friends that he had learned how to mix morphine and alcohol safely with a recipe he found on the internet. He died later that night. “So don’t for one second think that it couldn’t happen to you,” said Roy Kenny.

Now that volleyball season is over, athletes of Meeker High School are making the change to basketball. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Coach Neil Joy is having open gyms. It’s more for fun than anything else, but we have a few drills, then have the option to play a game or run another drill. The first real practice will be held on November 12, starting with two a days for a few weeks, depending on how the girls are doing. So far there is no assistant coach, but hopefully there will be at least one before the season starts. All of the girls are anxious to start playing basketball!

Support for cheerleading as another extra curricular activity has picked up at Meeker High School. Cheerleading was a popular activity from the beginning of the school  through the 1980’s and even included a large pepclub during many of those years.  However, cheerleading in Meeker died out in the 1990’s.

“They brought a lot of spirit to the pep rallies and assemblies,” says  Elaine Collins.

Coach Palmer also states, “I think it would be very exciting if we had cheerleaders again.”

The teachers aren’t the only ones encouraging this petition. “Cheerleading would be so much fun!” says freshman Alyssa Davis. “If we had cheerleading it would build our cowboy spirit and boost our athletes’ motivation.”

“These Cowboys need some support,”  says freshman Kellie Crawford.

We had cheerleading here at Meeker High School until the advent of  womens sports through Title 9 came up, and the cheerleading squad continued to decrease more and more. The popularity of volleyball and basketball soared, and cheerleading was no more.

“Our cheerleading squad decreased as people lost interest in the sport,” says former cheerleader, now Rio Blanco County Assessor, Renee Nielsen.

Freshmen Alyssa Davis, Kellie Crawford, and Taryn Kohls went to visit principal George Henderson at cowboy time and they were very excited to find a cheerleading uniform laying on the chair Alyssa sat in.

Principal George Henderson says, “I’m all for cheerleading, but we need to acquire the steps:

1. We need to talk to Ms. Urenda, she needs to be C.H.S.A.A. certified to sponsor and coach any athletic activity.
2. We need to contact Mr. Steinacher
3. To get this process started we need to make a survey for the student body to take, then we need to see if there are enough students who are wanting to do it becuase just three girls aren’t enough. I dont want to have cheerleading for just 4 years; we need to make sure that this process continues on after you girls have left high school.
4. Also, you need to understand that you guys can only cheer at the home games for the first couple of years and we have to pay for ourselves for the first three years.

“We plan on doing fundraising events to help pay for everything.” explains Alyssa Davis

“Okay, well I’ll talk to Mr. Steinacher then and we’ll get this started, touch base with me and remind me to talk to him.” replied Meeker High School principal George Henderson.

“Okay thank you so much for your time, we apprecitate it.” said Kellie Crawford.

All we need now is the Meeker High School student body to accept this proposal and show the town what were made of, let’s build up our Cowboy spirit and give it the best we got!

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On Wednesday, the twentieth of October, a sick, eighth month old mountain lion wandered in front of the Meeker High School. Mrs. Washburn the librarian at the high school, whose husband is Officer Washburn and took part in the capturing, answered a few questions.

They did not shoot it. They chased it into the main coral at the fairgrounds, then caught it with a catch pole, which are usually used for dogs. It was then put into a cage in the back of the Animal Control’s truck and taken to a wildlife center in Silt. It had scours (diarrhea for animals) and had not been trying to attack  anyone or anything, just scared and running.

The wildlife center is the Western Colorado Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center. Efforts were made to  contact the center, but they have not yet responded.