District Teams with Police Department for Enhanced Security
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Vol. 57 No. 02 www.bcomber.org The Beachcomber Beachwood High School 25100 Fairmount Boulevard Beachwood, Ohio October 30, 2015 District Teams With Police Department for Enhanced Security Officer C.J. Piro holds the newly-created position District Director of Security. He is primarily stationed at BHS, but often roams between the district’s five schools. Photo by Bradford Douglas. By Grant Gravagna officers, eight of whom schools.” “[I want to] show all the programs within the dis- Editor-in-Chief work part-time, along Piro will follow a work ways, from preschoolers to trict, as well as conducting Inside This Issue... with Officer C.J. Piro, who schedule similar to district the adults here in the high additional security assess- Administrators are sat- works full-time. teachers. He is on site for school, that cops are okay ments of district facilities. isfied with the roll out of The officers are em- the arrival of students in people,” Piro said. Piro explained that he the district’s new security ployed by the city, though the morning, and stays on Students and staff have hopes to connect more program, Superintendent Hardis said the district will campus until the conclu- responded well to the pres- with students, adding that Bob Hardis said in a recent pay the department ap- sion of the school day. ence of the officers. he has set goals for himself. interview. proximately $370,000 an- Under Piro’s watch, “I love having them “I would like to, by Thanks- The plan, which puts a nually for its services. some changes are already here,” social studies teach- giving break, know 25 per- police officer in the halls of Piro, an 18-year Beach- in the works. er Melissa Buddenhagen cent of the kids’ names,” he every school in the district, wood Police Dept. veteran, For instance, adminis- said. “It never hurts to have said of BHS students. is done in partnership with holds the newly-created trators will likely replace someone who is trained to By winter break, Piro the Beachwood Police De- position of District Direc- the dated paper-and-pen deal with crisis situations.” said he hopes to be able to Recruiting partment. tor of Security. He is pri- visitor sign-in method “They’re actually really identify half of the student PG 3 season for “The main purpose … is marily stationed at BHS, with a more thorough elec- nice, if you stop to talk to body. extracurriculars at BHS to protect the students and but often roams between tronic system. Piro said them,” senior Alexis Rudd Hardis said he wants staff in the buildings from the district’s five schools. they are also considering said of the officers. students and their families any external threat that The shift from the streets additional security camer- Rudd commented that to develop a bond with the could emerge,” Hardis said. to the schools is relatively as in the BHS parking lot. the officers bring an addi- officers. Such a relation- He noted there was substantial, Piro noted. Piro’s official responsi- tional level of security that ship, he explained, would no particular threat that “I miss it a little bit, but bilities include overseeing she felt BHS had been lack- be beneficial for the com- prompted the district to not that much,” he said of the part-time officers and ing. munity as a whole. take action. his old beat, which includ- patrolling district grounds. Come summer break, “They have a really seri- “This was … something ed city-wide patrols, traf- However, he said he also Piro said he will use most ous purpose in being here, that we had been consider- fic enforcement and traffic hopes to help reduce the of his vacation time. How- but most of their interac- ing for more than a year,” crash reconstruction. nationwide animosity be- ever, he said he will also tions are positive ones,” he Hardis said. “I really enjoy my new tween officers and the citi- spend time offering pro- said. The team consists of nine position here with the zens whom they serve. tection at summer camp Restored PG 6 Violins of Hope at Maltz Museum African American Lit. Class Connects Past and Present By Sydney Eisenberg today. the topic. Editor-at-Large This unit is just one piece “Part of my Master’s of Matthews’ literature degree [from University On an October after- course, offered for the first of New Orleans focused noon, students walked into time this year. on] African American lit- English teacher Casey Mat- “[The course was de- erature, so it’s been a long- thews’ classroom, showing signed as] a semester-long time passion of mine,” more eagerness to learn class covering the range Matthews said. than is typical for high of African American lit- Students learn through school students. erature starting with slave many different methods, “I decided to take the narratives and ending with such as reading litera- Breaking class because I was already more modern pieces,” Mat- ture, writing journals and PG 8 football’s very interested in African thews explained. watching documentaries. African American literature students make a video about the gender barrier American history and lit- After the disappoint- “The reading is interest- term “Uncle Tom” with the help of broadcast teacher Kevin erature,” junior Chelsea ment of not having enough ing to the point where I Houchins. Photo courtesy of Casey Matthews. Hodge said. “I learn a lot students enrolled last year, don’t feel that I have a lot of stuff that I just did not Matthews is very excited of work to do,” Hodge said. out to Hodge is the impor- ism and connect them to know prior to taking the to see the class taking off Platt agrees, adding that tance of learning from the what African Americans class.” now. she finds the slave narra- mistakes of the past. have endured throughout Matthews asked stu- Due to strong student tives particularly fascinat- “History repeats itself,” history. dents what they already interest, Matthews chose ing. Hodge said. “Many things Aside from learning knew about the Harlem to extend it to a full year “Along with [reading the we have seen in the past the history of the African Renaissance, followed by elective. narratives], we wrote an are making their way to the American experience, Mat- a PowerPoint lecture and Hodge displayed a great essay comparing and con- present day.” thews said students learn video clips. Students were deal of excitement while trasting the lives of Harriet Recent instances of po- to connect the past to the engaged and focused. discussing the class. Jacobs and Frederick Dou- lice brutality and shoot- present day racial tensions Bison Soccer Matthews’ passion for “You learn a lot that you glass, and I found it to be ings of African Americans in America, and they must PG 11 enters post- the subject was obvious. can’t really get from anoth- very interesting,” she said. have made the issues ad- be willing to have intense season at full strength Although the lesson fo- er course,” she said. The class tackles many dressed by the class all the discussions about race. cused on literature from One of the many reasons thematic concepts and more relevant. “All races are welcome in the 1920s and 1930s, she Hodge decided to take the teaches students impor- In Hodge’s eyes, it is im- this class. It may get un- also made connections to class is that she admires tant lessons. portant to recognize these comfortable at times, but gentrification in Harlem Matthews’ enthusiasm for One theme that stands recent occurrences of rac- it is worth it,” Platt said. News THE BEACHCOMBER 2 News THE BEACHCOMBER 3 Student Club Leaders Scramble to Recruit New Members With New Bids Approved, Auditorium Construction Begins By Clarissa Djohari effective when you share By Clarissa Djohari 9. However, the district due diligence to make sure News Editor that bond.” News Editor was unable to accept con- we’re using the commu- And the approach tracts by law, because the nity’s resources effectively Before the first model worked. During the Sept. 15 prices exceeded their proj- [and] making sure we’re UN meeting, senior Pau- “For the intro meeting, Beachwood Board of Edu- ect estimate by over 10%. allowing this to happen line Keselman took a pro- … we had a great turnout,” cation meeting, $3.5 mil- The packages were re- in the best possible way,” active approach to recruit- she said. “We had around lion worth of construction configured, contractorsKlein agreed. ment. 25 [to] 30 people, and a contracts were awarded, were given time to review The design has been “I went around to the majority of [them] were granting official approval the details of the project shown to community lunch tables and talked to freshmen. We’re really ex- for the auditorium renova- and the project’s estimated groups, such as the Beach- the freshmen and asked cited about that.” tion to begin. cost was recalculated. wood recreation dept. and them to tell their friends,” The math team is less “Finally, you hear the On Sept. 3rd, bids were local orchestras. she said. aggressive when it comes sound of hammers and opened for the last time, “People are going to be Keselman feels it is cru- to recruitment, relying on nails…finally,” Superinten- and the district was able to very happy when it’s done,” cial to get to know the morning announcements. dent Bob Hardis said. accept contracts. Hardis said. students she is trying to “There are a couple of Workers have created a While the auditorium The contracts were origi- recruit.