Respecting the President’s The Life of Rodney Brown: Big Blue is Back Student Inaugural Madame Keeping it in Action Voice Address Riordan Clean 2 4 5 September 20087 /// www.darienps.org/neirad8 DHS: Committed to Commitment Administration Haron said. ment policy. attention by parents and anonymous puts expansion The commitment policy has under- Last year, players were only on com- sources to help establish evidence of drinking policy gone some revisions since the plan was mitment during their season. However, against students who broke commit- into effect publicized last year. These changes in- this year if an athlete or club partici- ment. clude a difference in the duration of pant is caught in a season when they Unlike last year’s Community BY reece PELLEY the punishments. First-time offend- are not involved in any school activi- Council President McKay Potter, new As students strap on their backpacks ers will be suspended from sports and ties, the strike against them will still President Amy Marchesi has taken a and shuffle into school, some changes all extracurricular school activities for count. Even though they cannot be drastically different approach to the will be obvious for a new year. Many 14 days. Second-time offenders will suspended from activities, it will still administration’s commitment policy. DHS CLUBS will be pleasantly surprised by the tree be suspended for 28 days, and anyone show that the student has one strike “I recognize that underage drinking is a in the courtyard and the artwork on caught a third time in one year will be against them and will remain that way prevalent issue in our school communi- the once drab hallways (See September suspended from all sports and school for the rest of the year. ty,” Marchesi said. “However, I disagree Quidditch Enilno for more on the new artwork). Yet activities for the remainder of that Along with the new rules comes with how the new commitment policy students seem to already know of the school year. new opposition. Some people say this approaches the issue. I don’t under- commitment change, considering they “The main difference is that this new provision does not only affect the stand how denying students the oppor- at DHS already began la- tunity to be in- BY JOE SIMONSON menting over it volved in positive The biggest jocks of Darien High last year. “I recognize that underage drinking is a prevalent activities is the School’s football, hockey, and la- The tough new solution to un- crosse teams have a new club to policy has official- issue... however, I don’t understand how denying derage drinking,” devote time to after a hard day of ly been put into Marchesi said. practice. Quidditch, or as we “non- effect at Darien students the opportunity to be involved in positive M a r c h e s i ’ s magic-using” folks call it, “Muggle High School this stance is one of Quidditch,” is a new sport at DHS fall. The policy re- activities is the solution to underage drinking.” the main points that is capturing some magic of its quires that both —Amy Marchesi, Community Council President brought up by op- own among DHS’s biggest Harry athletes and now ponents of the Potter fans. club members sign an agreement that year’s policy will cover everything,” Mr. person caught violating the policy. new policy and could possibly be an “We really started DHS Quidditch they will not partake in using alcohol Haron said. This means that no activity “Commitment is ridiculous. What hap- area for discussion about revision in just for fun. We all grew up read- or drugs. Those caught doing so will is exempt from the newly revised com- pens if the lead role in the play gets the future. She also feels that it is not ing Harry Potter, and I think we risk losing their spot on a team or in mitment policy. For example, a player busted for drinking and then cannot always the school’s job to police un- all secretly wish we could attend their club. on the football team and a member of perform at opening night?” junior derage drinking that happens off the Hogwarts.” senior David Hammer The reason for the change? “We feel Theatre 308 must abide by the same Theatre 308 member T.J. Ganser said. school grounds during non-school said. that this will help reduce the amount rules, and will receive the same pun- T.J argues that the new policy affects hours. Marchesi said she feels that In May of 2008, Hammer cre- of underage drinking,” Principal Dan ishment for violating the commit- those who are not caught violating breaking the law by engaging in ille- ated a Facebook group to create the policy as well as those who are pe- gal activities such as underage drink- awareness of the budding sport. DOWN FOR THE COUNT Yahoo! HEALTH STUDY nalized. ing is the purview of the Darien Police In a matter of days, the group had Mr. Haron said this stringent new Department. more than 150 listed members stance will not extend to accessing stu- “I hope that we can work things – all of whom are DHS students. dents’ Facebook accounts for the pur- out with the administration in find- The league was divided into nine pose of commitment enforcement. In ing a different approach towards deal- teams, although this number con- fact, he said administration has never ing with the commitment policy,” tinues to grow in order to com- 75% 25% used Facebook proactively to monitor Marchesi said. pensate for the group’s expanding Amount of high school teens who say Say they’ve had a recent episode of student behavior. However, they do membership. The teams include they’ve tried alcohol heavy drinking (more than 5 drinks) say pictures from students’ Facebook Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, accounts have been brought to their N and Ravenclaw, whose names are derived from the renowned Hogwarts’ houses in the Harry Potter series. Hammer will pre- side over the league as Quidditch The More Frosh the Better Commissioner. The six other teams names are taken from professional Quidditch DHS Undergoes Changes to teams. These include Chudley Cannons, Equipe Nationale de Accommodate New Class Sizes Cote d’Ivoire, Falmouth Falcons, BY EMILY DELEO Puddlemere United, the Irish National Team, and the Moutohora school to help guarantee the spaces we need,” Mr. Macaws. With such a great amount Fiftal said. of talent spread across multiple The influx of new students has spurred ren- teams, rivalries are expected to ovations to add space to the three-year-old build- rise. So far, the two top contenders ing. “We have done some work over the summer seem to be Slytherin and Equipe to create some more classroom space and we hired Nationale de Côte de Ivoire. more teachers to accommodate the enrollment in- “I chose Slytherin because we crease,” Principal Dan Haron said. are the epitome of Quidditch per- An additional two classrooms were gained by fection. And we’re awesome,” removing lockers on the third floor. The move came senior Kevin Ramsey said. Ramsey after it was determined that many students did not acts as Deputy Commissioner use their lockers due to the inconvenient location. of the Quidditch league. Despite Lockers have been moved to a more accessible point rumors of Equipe Nationale being near the cafeteria in the F building. a potential threat, Ramsey remains Although the DHS population has grown in unconvinced: “There’s a lot of hype When the class of 2009 entered Darien High School The senior class is also falling behind the soph- size, the larger numbers will not change the number around the Ivory Coast’s nation- as freshmen during the fall of 2005, it had the distinc- omore class, which now has 319 students, but it is of classes each teacher will teach. Science teachers al team, but I think it’s a bunch of tion of being the largest class in Darien High School still larger than the junior class of 294 students. That have four classes due to the lab schedule; math, art, crap. Everyone who plays Quidditch history. But many students from that grade have since brings the total DHS enrollment to 1,279 students. and the foreign language departments carry five knows that if you want to be the left DHS, dropping the senior population down to 316 Despite being an additional 60 students compared classes; and history and English have a split four/ best, you join Slytherin.” students. The new freshmen class has them beat with to the average enrollment, this number is still below five class load. In other words, history and English The game of Quidditch was a class size of 350 students. the maximum capacity for the building. teachers have either four courses in the fall and five invented by the creator of the “We checked back in our records over the last 15 “When our new high school was constructed, courses in the spring or vice versa. They can be full Harry Potter enterprise, author years. The entering freshmen in 2005 had 351 students it was designed to comfortably accommodate 1,400 year or half year courses. J.K Rowling and is featured in her enrolled, and that was the largest class in a long time,” students. Since the specifications for the school were The DHS faculty is rested and ready to take on the monumentally popular book series. Superintendent of Darien Public Schools Don Fiftal created eight years ago, however, we have added new challenges of a larger student body.