I S S U E 3 V O L U M E 4 Miss Sandalwood 2014 By: Kaitlyn Kritzmire, Savanna Moreno, and Alyssia Gullett The twelve dedicated juniors, Paige Hockaday, Gianna DelBonis, Alysha Brannon, Elizabeth Lawrence, Kayla Scunico, Amanda Eisert, Kiana Smith, Melanie Peck, Kathleen Marais, Danymarie Consolacion, Sydney Renstrom, and Imani Powell, focused on practicing every day after school from October to February to put on a great show. They all showed great talents vary- ing from dance, poetry, vocals and even tumbling! With the theme being all about dreams; they were each asked to portray their dream destination with an outfit. The girls showed a vast variety of styles from all around the world. After answering sev- eral questions, walking across the stage in their evening gowns, and showcasing mag- nificent talents, the results were as follows: Kathleen Marais was 3rd runner up, Dany- marie Consolacion 2nd runner up, Sydney Renstrom 1st runner up and Miss. Sandal- wood 2014... Imani Powell! Awards were also given to Danymarie for people’s choice and interview, Imani for most pho- togenic, Kiana for Miss Congeniality, Syd- ney for talent award, and Kayla for most tickets sold and director’s choice. Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Miss. Sandalwood pageant! MAY 2014 SANDALWOOD HIGH SCHO OL T H E H A L O VOLUME 4 ISSUE 3 T H E S P O R T WORLD The Track & Field Season was a Success Yet again! Disclosure: Athletes Only in Track and Field By: Aaron Owens, Desiree Corbat, and Jessica Pugh The Track & Field season this year was very successful. The boys track won the Coach Mac Saints open. On Tuesday April 1st, both boys and girls finished fourth overall at Gateway Conference and had five conference champions. These champions included Jaqwon Wright in high jump, Chris Jones in long jump, Blake McClain in shot put, Imani Bish- op in Discus, and Aberona Cabell in the 100 meter high hurdles. These athletes moved on to districts which were held on Wednesday April 16th. They set personal records and some are moving on to regionals, which was held on Thursday April 24th. Coach Taylor was very pleased with the performance of the long distance runners who came in 7th and 8th. Racism?? Apparently the general manager/owner of the Clippers didn’t get the 1964 memo about Civil Rights, the 1972 memo about Brown v. the Board of Education, the 1965 memo about af- firmative action, the memo about diversity, or the memo about how social- ly unacceptable it is to discriminate against minorities. Racist comments are archaic and ignorant. Those who cling to such beliefs do not move this country forward in its thinking about acceptance of all humans. Mr. Ster- ling is being censored by several groups and has lost his basketball team. He has also been fined a whopping $2.5 million, which is the largest sum the NBA can fine. Will he care? Isn’t he a multi-millionaire already? Will the sanctions against him have any effect except to make him even more resentful? Or will Mr. Sterling finally realize that all people should be treat- ed equally and with respect. The Clippers will survive even though they have lost some of their sponsors. Other sponsors are sure to come their rescue to make sure the team triumphs over this unconscionable action of its present owner. Flag Football Sandalwood’s Varsity Baseball Team By: Kennedy Masse SHS varsity baseball players had a winning record through the regular Sandalwood has a rich history of flag season and districts playoffs led by All football successes, and this year’s team is con- American pitcher, Sean Reid-Foley. tinuing that tradition. The 2014 outstanding Saints flag football team, coached by D. Mur- The team made it into the regional phy and F. King, is on the road to districts. playoffs. Players like Sean and Pitcher The team, led by Sienna Paroch, the quarter- Alec Wisely continued Sandalwood’s back, has been able to achieve five amazing tradition of excellence on the dia- wins and only 3 losses this season. They mond. Joey Bend with his power hit- reached the second round of conference and ting was selected as one to watch in the 2014 lost in districts with a score of 19-16 against Englewood High. If you missed seeing the Collegiate Baseball Magazine Preseason edition. girls play on the grid iron, you missed some great competition!! Page 2 T H E H A L O VOLUME 4 ISSUE 3 Thanks to the following sponsors of Teacher Appreciation Week!! Senoir Class SHS Track PTSA Page 3 T H E H A L O VOLUME 4 ISSUE 3 W O R L D N E W S Syrian Civil War by: Daniel Arroyo The Syrian Civil War has been going on since March 15, 2011. The people of Syria started to protest against their government and demanded democratic and economic reform in their country. In April 2011, the Syrian Army was deployed to suppress the uprising, and soldiers fired on demonstrators across the country. This attack on the demonstrators caused the formation of the Free Syrian Army, or “rebels.” These groups of Syrian rebels were formed to protect the people of Syria from their own gov- ernment. The Syrian Civil War continues even today. According to the United Nations, the death toll surpassed 100,000 in June, 2013, and reached 120,000 by September, 2013. In addition, tens of thou- sands of protesters, students, liberal activists and human rights advocates have been imprisoned, and there are reports of widespread torture and terror in state prisons. Chemical weapons have also been used in Syria on more than one occasion, triggering strong international reactions. Missing Malaysian Airways flight By Tiffany Bassett and Victor Ramos On March 8, 2014, the Malaysian airways flight MH370, the Boeing 777 went missing somewhere around the South Indian Ocean during its path to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. There was no distress signal; it just disappeared off the radar. After over a month of extensive searching, nothing was recovered, not even the black boxes on the plane; although here were a few spots with wreckage and satellite signals that were investigated. Because no clues have been found, it is believed that all of the searching is hopeless and will just lead to dead ends. To increase the progress of the search, submarines are now being used to search the depths of the Indi- an Ocean, but nothing has been found yet. Will the plane ever be found? Will it take two years like it did to find the French plane that crashed several years ago? Endless Winter By: Hieu Tran This year’s brutal winter made it seem like it was Disney’s advertising campaign for its new movie, Frozen. There is no doubt that the 2013-2014 winter was bitterly cold and unusual. At its peak, 26 states were under freeze warnings and watches and 140 million people were confined in old man winter’s icy grasp. Residents across the Midwest and the Northeast were advised to stay indoors as temperatures dipped precariously low. One of the trendiest topics during the winter was the Polar Vortex. With a name like that, it is not something to be reckoned with. This weather phenomenon was virtually an Arctic hurricane that came down too far south. Changing weather conditions and a rapidly warming Arc- tic has pushed colder air down south enough for Floridians to feel the fringes of the arctic winter. To put this in perspective, it was colder in Atlanta, Georgia than it was in Anchorage, Alaska. Page 4 T H E H A L O W O R L D N E W S VOLUME 4 ISSUE 3 Russian Invasion of Crimea By Chadd Christensen At first when Russian gunmen seized the Crimean parliament and installed a separatist leader, the Ukraine didn’t have a central govern- ment capable of stopping them. The revolution- aries in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, had only toppled the old regime a week before, and were deciding who would lead the nation. On Mon- day, April 7th, 2014 while Ukraine’s active presi- dent, Oleksandr Turchinov, was making a tele- vised address to the nation of Ukraine about the Russian plan, which, according to him, was to disrupt the elections and tear the country apart and force it to join Russia. While the Ukraine’s President was making this televised address, his security chiefs raced to eastern Ukraine to prepare a defense of its cities. Ukrainian police officers had already begun arresting separatists and fighting to take back occupied buildings. They called this a “counterterrorism operation”. The Ukraine now has a police force and a military command structure to throw into the fight, with Ukrainian fighter jets patrolling the skies of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv. During April 12th and 13th, masked and armed Russian speakers who resembled special forces, but had no military insignias, took over police stations and other loca- tions in much of Ukraine’s east. Ukraine then responded with some force of its own; The Kiev government mobilized its military for what was called a “large-scale antiterrorist operation”. But since USA’s president, Barack Obama, rejected Ukraine’s plea for military aid, Russian leader Putin may calculate that he can move without fear of serious economic sanctions, or a military buildup inside the front-line NATO countries. Putin may also calculate that raising the military pressure on the Ukraine will help him achieve what he wants without a full-scale invasion.