Poll of the Week

To ski or not to ski

by Brittany Lefebvre

There are many clubs offered at Shenendehowa to give students opportunities to get involved in different activities. One club that has caught the interest of many students is Ski Club.

Ski Club has been offered at Shenendehowa for many years and is very popular among students. It starts in the month of January and continues for six weeks. Every Wednesday Ski Club takes off to the Jiminy Peak mountain resort. The club is open to all skiers and snowboarders, whether they have just started or if they are skilled. Jiminy Peak offers lessons to those who want the training and also rents equipment to those who sign up for it.

Arjan Sarang, a junior at Shenendehowa, has been doing Ski Club since eighth grade. He said, “I think Ski Club is fairly priced, and [is] a fun, relaxing club I can enjoy with friends while skiing or hanging out in the lodge.”

Shannon Ryan, another junior at Shenendehowa said she was very excited to start Ski Club. She also said, “I think the transportation is convenient to have for the students because otherwise many students wouldn’t have a way of going during the week.”

Ski Club has continued to be a popular club at Shen and allows students to experience a fun outdoor activity during the cold winter months.

Poll of the Week

Going dark to fight censorship

Wikipedia, Google, and WordPress all protested Wednesday January 18th, 2012.  These sites were “blacked out” to protest the U.S. Government’s SOPA and PIPA bills. SOPA is “Stop Online Piracy Act”, and PIPA is “Protect IP Act”.

The protest was worldwide for 24 hours. The bill’s main purpose is to stop copyright infringement. It is feared that if these bills are passed, the internet wont be the “free” world it used to be. The bill might censor some aspects of the Internet as we know it.

Irish Festival

Photo by Katie Greenberg

by Olivia Nadel, Becca Pollard, Lindsey Waring, and  Kalee Neumann

On Friday January 13th, the 24th annual Irish Fest was held in the High School East satellite cafeteria and auditorium. This merry festival celebrated the completion of the semester long course, “Irish Literature”, and showcased the students’ many artistic projects and informational posters.

The event allowed guests to taste Irish-themed food made in the homes of Irish Lit students. In addition, spectators also enjoyed several styles of traditional Irish dancing performed by the students. Alanna Bailey, an assistant of Irish Fest said, “Periods 1 and 2 are only open to the invited guests and the students.”

Parents, students to address sex ed issue at board meeting tonight at 7:00 PM

Tonight at 7 PM the Shenendehowa Board of Education meeting will be held in the Gowana middle school library. Parents and students are planning to attend in order to voice concerns about the termination of the district’s long running partnership with Planned Parenthood in delivering part of the health curriculum for high school students.

The controversy was stirred when the Times Union recently published an article about the removal of Planned Parenthood from the health programs.

Wifi in the library

The Shen high school library now has wifi. Students are now allowed to use their electronic devices to access the internet for school purposes only. The acceptable uses are internet access for research involving assignments, using shen library databases, checking teacher blogs and webpages, and emailing other students and teachers regarding assignments. The unacceptables uses are games, texting, music, movies, and no head phones allowed. If the guidlines are not followed the privilege will be lost, and the device could be confiscated.

NHS forecasts snowball

by Kailyn Stewart

The snowball dance, traditionally held in December has now been changed to January 14^th. Snowball is a semiformal dance which will be held in the main gym instead of in the cafeteria. Tickets are on sale behind the cafeteria for $12 each.  Some of the proceeds will be donated to the Double H Ranch, a nonprofit camp in Lake George for children with life-threatening illnesses. 

The National Honor Society members have worked hard to make the Snowball Dance as much fun as prom can be. They have added many changes that they’re hoping the students will enjoy, such as DJ Cool Cat. They have also gone the extra length to get a mixed soft drink bar, and even finger food for students. The changes have all been made in consideration of what the students want and what will make them happy.

“The Snowball Dance was, at one time, even more popular than prom,” said Margot Kimmel, its coordinator. Over the years, Snowball has become less and less popular with students. By making changes, NHS is hoping that the popularity of the dance will increase. The date of the dance has been changed due to many conflicts of interest that occur in December.