Newspapers / Rocky Mount High School … / Jan. 19, 1978, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE 2 - THE GRYPHON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1978 The Gryphon will inform its readers of matters of school, community, and world interest and concern. All departments, activities, personalities, and organizations will be given full coverage in proportion to their interest and relative importance to the entire school. The Gryphon wUl be student expression. However, while exercising freedom of the press. The Gryphon will also assume the responsibilities of an ethical newspaper. Letters from students, faculty, and other citizens are welcomed and may be sent to The Gryphon, room 110. However, the editor reserves the right to withhold libelous or profane material from publication. Parking Lot A Mess Judging from the trash at the back of the parking lot, students eat food from Hardees and drink among other things Oeosu, Dr. Pepper, beer and milk. But assistant principal Charles Davis noted that the students may not be responsible for aU the trash. He attributed part of the refuse to people going to games that park in the parking lot Cigarette packs, Michelob bottles, and Stroh’s cans constitute the major part of the mess Tuesday, Jan. 10. Hardees also ranked high on the list of throwaway articles. Other oddities included an empty Bacardi Rum bottle, an empty metal Band-Aid box and old plastic bags. At present, groups from the special detention program pick up the trash. “We try to polish it every afternoon with a group from the special detention,” said Mr. Davis. In fact some of the trash may be accidentally dumped when the group is dumping barrels,” he added. Yet some of the trash is thrown by students. Cluttering the parking lot whea trash cans are avaDable is bad, but throwing beer bottles .across the fence into yards speaks even worse of students; however, some bottles found their way over the fence. Mr. Davis noted, “Our students have been very cooperative as far as keeping it (the parking lot) clean and putting trash in the trash can. But we need all the help we can get.” Most students use the trash cans and some of the trash on the ground may be windblown, but cans and bottles don’t carry far in the wind. The present punishment for littering is a warning for the first offense and an hour on detention thereafter. Since catching someone littering remains almost impossible, the responsibility is left to each individual student to clean up after himself. Senior High students should project an adult image, since most wish to be treated as adults. Voters Disregard Rights. Through Apathy At Polls The act of voting is a democratic method by which students decide issues and choose their leaders. A student who is too lazy or indifferent to vote is throwing away what should be one of his most precious ri^ts. Apparently the majority of the students at Rocky Mount Senior High have decided to disregard their rights to have a voice in student government. Less than 200 students in each class cared enough to exert the energy to walk to the auditorium lobby and mark the ballots. Some students believe that the ballots should be brought to each homeroom during the elections. This is ridiculous. High school is supposed to prepare young people to be able to live a successful, democratic way of life following graduation. Students must realize now that everything is not going to be brou^^t to them, if goals are going to be reached, people must not wait for them to happen, rather they must make them happen. Many students explain their apathy by claiming elected officers don’t do anything except smfle for [Hctures and write down senior statistics. If this it so, the student body should find students who will demand and accept the responsibility which the offices should carry. It is time to get the responsibility and decisions affecting the students out of the hands of the administration and faculty members and make student government what it should really be. That is a student government organized by the students in order to achieve their goals. Faculty members and advisors should not do more than attend meetings and offer assistance when needed. If they are allowed to do more than this, the name Student Representative Assembly should be officially changed to Teacher Representative Assembly. It is true that the officers can not do everything by themselves, they are not in the office for that purpose. It takes an active, enthusiastic student organization to achieve a true student government. The organization should accomplish much more than just allowing the homeroom representatives to be excused from class twice a month. Pronunciation A Moot Question Rocky Mount Senior High is known statewide for excellence in several areas. However, there seems to be some discrepancy in what the true name of this school is and in how the nickname is pronounced. The name of this school according to many scholars is Rocky Mountain Senior High. Now it doesn’t take any erudite knowledge to ascertain that Rocky Mount is covered with high mountains. Why here in Rocky Mount, people rarely see anything but snow because of the high altitude. The second area of debate lies in the pronunciation of the word Gryphons. According to Rocky Mount natives, the correct way to pronounce this word is Gri’ fShz. However, the more educated people in the state insist that the natives are ignorant and therefore could not know how to pronounce such a difficult word as Gryphons. In Chapel Hill at the state journalism convention, the name of the school paper is THE GRYPHON (pronounced GrT fan.) At the Pine Forest playoff game, many students weathered a furious downpour only to hear that the correct way to pronounce the word in question is Gri-finz’. Perhaps the easiest way to solve the problem is for the natives to change their ways. However, the natives hold tenaciously to their primitive way of pronouncing Gryphons and still insist that the name of their city is Rocky Mount, not Rocky Mountain. Maybe someday they’ll learn. Cans and botties left in parking lot make an unsightly mess. Photo by Joyner Editor's Echo By KEITH KING A couple of issues ago, I commented that Jimmy Carter was trying to get tro much done at once. Well, the President remained true-to-form with the beginning of the new year. His “hop-skip-and-jump” trip, despite administrative claims of accomplishment, seemed some what misdirected. The apparent hurriedness of the trip was beautifully sym bolized by Stephen Seymour. Mr. Seymour was the transla tor that caused some disrupt ion in Poland with his garbled translations. Seymour attributed the mis takes to the fact that he had not been given an advance copy of Mr. Carter’s remarks. He also commented that the two hours of freezing rain he had to stand in didn't help any. Mr. Seymour’s plight resem bled that of the American people. Mr. Carter is giving us so much so fast it’s hard to figure out what he means. Something gets lost in the translation. Early this year, Mr. Carter said an effort would be made to solve the energy problem that would equal any “wartime ef fort.” What did he mean by this? I’ve seen no effort of wartime proportions. This would mean strict dedication. The “symbo lic” dedication (the “fire-side chats,” holding out on his trip abroad until Congress passed an acceptable plan, etc.) doesn’t cut it. He told Big Labor he would concentrate on jobs and unem ployment? Here he’s done noth ing spectacular. And it seems that lately, Mr. Carter’s one branch that he seems dedicate to, human rights, has become more of a banner to wave to other nations than anything else. Yes, once again, the Presi dent is long on show, short on substance. 308 South Tillery Street, Rodcy Mount, N. C. 27801 Member of Ctdumbia Fr^ Assodatioa Member of Quin and ScroQ Member SIPA PnUiahedBi-Weddy EDIT0R-lfi-'6SfeF'. - •.. .KeithKing MANAGING EDITOR . Clifton Barnes PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Beth Hutchisson GRAPHICS EDITOR .John Smith ASSIGNMENT EDITOR. Dan Thorp COPYEDITOR ■ • • • • David Goff ADVER-nSING MANAGER, - • • Kathy Carroll BUSINESS MANAGER Leslie Locke CIRCULATION MANAGER Mary Fleming MATERIALS MANAGER Karen Walston PHOTOGRAPHY Jerry Joyner NEWS SECnONHEAD Traoy Sykes Page 1 Donna Massie, Steve Felton Page 12 Mary Fleming, Patinya Battle FEATURES SECnONHEAD Leslie Locke Page 4: Stan Miller Page Karen Walston Page 6 Greg Frederick Page 7 Angela Lloyd Page 8 Linda Roberson SPORTS SECnONHE AD Sam Clonts Page 9 Clifton Barnes Page 10 Kathy Callahan Page 11 Bill Brannon EDITORIAL SECnONHEAD Hope Kelly Page 2 Melinda Penny Page 3 Debra Henderson ADVISER Mrs. Henrietta Barbour PRINCIPAL Mr. £lton Newbern ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS Mr. Charles Davis Mr. Robert Miller
Rocky Mount High School Student Newspaper
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Jan. 19, 1978, edition 1
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