http://5magazine.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/eating-disorders/

Others are suffering from a more long-term and hazardous problem; eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia.

With several instances recently discussed in the media about cyber bullying and its fatal results, it’s clear that some teenagers face ridicule and teasing regularly. 

This does not mean, however, that help and support cannot be found.

One Urbana High School Counselor Samuel Furrer said, “If a student came to us with an eating disorder issue, we would certainly speak with them but we would refer them to other professionals. The school social worker, Ms. Trezise, would also be a resource for students, as would the School-Based Health Center.

Eating disorders cause many irregularities in a person’s eating patterns and habits. They also can leave lasting affects on the body and it’s organs. Irregular heartbeats, depression, stomach rupture, and tearing in the throat are only a few possible results. 

“I feel like eating too much or too little can be unhealthy, but it’s hard to control, “ said Freshman Jackie Sparnicht.

Bulimia is a disorder that involves binge eating followed by drastic measures, such as vomiting, to get rid of weight gain. This often leaves the person feeling very out of control. They can go from eating abnormally large amounts, to not eating at all.

One or two out of every 100 teenagers has or will develop an eating disorder of some kind. With over 1,100 students attending Urbana High School, the chance of a student struggling with an eating disorder is a very real possibility.

Sparnicht added, “Appearance isn’t everything, so whether you’re fat or skinny, people who matter won’t care about that.”

The National Eating Disorders Association has a toll-free hotline, 1-800-931-2237, for those in need of advice or help.

Almost every school has its ghost story, but here at UHS the story of the ghost in the tower has gained popularity, even outside of town. Our haunted tower story has even made the online list of “The Top Ten Haunted Schools in Illinois,” coming in at number three.

Two classrooms once existed in the tower, a music room and an art room. There is a flight of stairs on the third floor leading to the former classrooms, but a locked door now keeps students from wandering up them – or perhaps to keep anything from wandering down.

The tower was blocked off in the eighty’s due to renovations, but students and staff at UHS have insisted that the real reason for blocking the towers is a tragic love affair between a student and teacher, resulting in the teacher hanging herself in the fire escape.

Since that time, strange occurrences have been reported around the building. One story is that the door to the tower was discovered to be unlocked for no apparent reason, and it was unknown who was up there.

The police were called, but were hesitant about entering after hearing strange tapping sounds in the former classrooms. It is unclear if there is any truth behind this event or if it is merely a wild story to frighten students.

Another reason the tower is claimed to be haunted is unexplained paint peeling. No matter how many times the walls in the room are re-painted, the paint soon begins to peel off again. This is probably due to all of the air conditioning equipment that is now located in the tower, which can cause the room to get extremely humid.

English Teacher Erin Ludwick also has a story involving peeling paint. In one of her former classrooms, she began to notice paint peeling on the wall, near the ceiling. As the paint continued to peel over time, she couldn’t help but notice that it seemed to spell the word “help.”
“I asked my students, ‘what does that paint look like to you?’ They said it looked like the word help, so I knew it wasn’t just me,” said Ludwick. She went on to tell that the walls were repainted to cover it up, but after a short period of time, the paint began to peel in the same spot, again revealing the word “help.”

Gregory Chew was the drama teacher at UHS for years. He is a reliable source for tales about the tower, since he once taught a class up there. “I happen to be a skeptic of the first order, so I’m not among those who think ghosts have ever haunted UHS, or anywhere else outside of the movies. However, I also love a good story and I’m not above keeping it alive for others,” said Chew.
He says his old classroom came with a closet, in which was a strange little window. One afternoon, he heard a buzzing noise coming from the closet, where the costumes are stored. When he went back to see what it was, he saw a large number of flies drawn to the window, buzzing loudly. “That didn’t mean anything supernatural to me until I saw the classic movie Amityville Horror,” said Chew.
Amityville Horror is a film about a haunted house, released in 1979. There is a scene where a priest is trying to rid the house of any spirits, and suddenly flies buzz all around him, and cling to the windows.

Chew recalled another incident involving a mysterious figure wearing a top hat. “I’ve heard stories of custodians who wouldn’t come to work after seeing a tall figure with a top hat and a cigar walk down the hallway late one night toward the Iowa Street doors past the vending machines on the first floor. When the custodian followed him, he had disappeared,” said Chew.
He went on to explain that theaters have always had a history of being haunted. Stage superstitions often involve paranormal activity. The theater is having its 100th anniversary very soon, and everyone knows the older something gets, the more haunted it becomes. “I’m sure there may be a few spirits hanging about in there. Keep an eye out for them when the auditorium re-opens next year,” said Chew.

After learning about the history of our ghost, and the history of our school, I spoke with a man who’s all about history. Michael Pollock is a history teacher here at UHS, and loves a good ghost story. He says he does not deny the presence of ghosts our spirits in our school. “No one’s proved there is a ghost, no one’s proved there isn’t one. I like to keep an open mind,” said Pollock.

Pollock seemed very unafraid of spirits and ghosts; in fact, he is intrigued by them. So intrigued, that he has been up to the tower to take a look himself. He said he saw nothing unusually up there, except mysterious stains on the wall, which are rumored to be bloodstains. He also has seen the rumored paint peeling in the room. To his disappointment, he hasn’t gotten a chance to meet the ghost. “I’ve never been acquainted with a spirit in this building, but I look forward to the day when I see one.”
He still seemed very confident that he wouldn’t be frightened by the ghost if he ever comes across it. “If there are ghosts, I wouldn’t think for a minute that they’re all bad, or out to harm us,” said Pollock. He told me that after the renovations on the auditorium are complete, he may get to take me up to the tower to have a look around.

The story of the ghost has been with the high school for many years, and continues to live on today. No one can really be sure how much truth is behind the stories, but some instances are still left unexplained. The mystery of the ghost is very intriguing, and I know every time I am on the third floor, I will be dying to know what is happening just one floor above me.

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Justin Bieber, 17, has done a huge amount of charity work. He helped the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals by performing at benefit concerts, and donated portions of the proceeds from some of his albums to them. Growing up, Bieber was raised by his single mother and they struggled to make ends meet. Now that he has made it big, he helped and is helping other charities like Pencils Of Promise. He gets how it is to struggle for the things you have. In addition to all the charities he helps, he also released a new Christmas album where portions of the proceeds go to his new charity, Believe. On top of that, he has been pushing his fans to just give what they can, even mentioning charity in some of his songs.

Tutor Amber Ballinger said, “I think it’s great that he’s [Bieber] using his success to the benefit of other people.”

Some of the causes Bieber supports are Creative Arts, Disaster Relief, Education, Health, Human Rights, Literacy, Philanthropy, and Sports. He also supports movements that fight AIDS, and Poverty, and he helps charities that help children in need.

Many people help charities; even celebrities. Although Justin Bieber has a hectic schedule and many social obligations, he still makes helping charities a big priority.

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http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/mmd/aml/Bat%20list/LittleBrownBatMyotislucifugus.htm

About halfway through 8th hour on Wednesday January 25th, 2012 an unusual visitor graced the Urbana High School library.

“Two students saw him first at the southeast corner of the library” said Urbana High School librarian Matthew Murrey. “As soon as they commented on him to me, I heard screaming and excited shouts as he started flying around the computer area and reading tables at head level.”

“A lot of people were freaking out. I was just trying to stay clear out of its way”, said Martha Heinegman, Sophmore.

As it turns out, Wednesday’s visitor, named Brooks, was neither student nor staff, but a member of the Myotis lucifugus bat family and standing at about 3 inches tall and 9 inches wide wingtip to wingtip.

“It seemed more scared than anything else” said Murrey. “There were about 25 kids in the library at the time, and after about 30 seconds or so I decided to get everyone out of the library and into the library as it was clear he (Brooks the Bat) wasn’t going away anytime soon.” A local animal services specialist captured Brooks later Wednesday afternoon.

http://chloesoames.co.uk/page160.html

This week’s issue is Identity. Teens worry about a lot, and the way they look is on their mind all the time. If you want to know why teens get tattoos and piercings keep reading.

Many teens have some sort of tattoo or piercing or they want one.

Research says, “Men are less frequent at getting tattoos and piercings and would rather not get them.” Piercing and tattoos are cool but can include some complications for certain people.

Some dangers from getting a tattoo or piercing are regular infections, HIV/AIDS infection, pinch nerve, numbness, ink poisoning, cancer, skin reactions, and the use of unclean needles.

Margaret McDermott, a teacher at Urbana High School said, “There shouldn’t be laws about tattoos and piercing unless it dangerous to teen’s health.” Some of these dangers are not the piercer’s or tattoo artist’s fault.

Now let’s get to the fun part. Common tattoos are tribal, crosses, stars, butterflies, and fairies. Also, some common piercings are the lobe, anti-tragus, tragus, daith, rook, helix, orbital, industrial, outer conch cartilage, and inner conch cartilage.

Students at Urbana High School took surveys concerning whether or not they had tattoos or piercings. In my results most people have piercings and rarely do people have 
tattoos, but more have tattoos than one would think.

Also, people have friends that have tattoos and piercings but it is not considered rare to have friends that don’t. Most people plan on getting a tattoo or piercing but some don’t.

People get tattoos and piercings for many reasons. Some reasons why teens get them are for cultural, to express individuality, membership of some kind of group or way of life, to make a statement, permanent reminder of an event, reclaim the body after an event, making the body to please someone else’s eyes, and to annoy parents.

Rachel Moyer, a teacher at UHS was asked whether or not tattoos and piercings on teens are pointless. She said, “I don’t have any right to tell someone some part of their body is pointless. I trust that teens make these decisions with a purpose and meaning in life.”

Tattoos and piercings are a part of people’s style. They’re important to some teens. You don’t have to be punk or gothic to get a tattoo or piercing.

If getting a tattoo or piercing is a way you want to express yourself then do so, but keep in mind there are infections you can get if you don’t take care of it. Express yourself the way you want, don’t let anyone stop you from being you!

http://jurylaw.typepad.com/deliberations/2007/02/index.html

teenagers get involved in drugs. What we do not know, or do not know enough about, is how teens get driven to drugs. There are many different opinions of why teens turn to drugs. Urbana High school’s staff and students had different opinions on this subject.

1) It is a way to deal with pain, the pain of death, an injury, bullying, and tragedy.

“I think teens do drugs as a way to cope with pain. Unfortunately, it’s a destructive way to cope,” said English Teacher Rachel Moyer.

“Tragedy. Almost always its tragedy,” said Sophomore Quentin Roberson.

2) Friends, or the pop/culture around them telling them to drugs.

“I think teens get driven to drugs because their friends are doing drugs and they may want to fit in,” said Sophomore Celeste Miller.

“Peer pressure and images/ideas portrayed in pop/culture and society,” said English Teacher Tim Broeker.

3) Curiosity and peer pressure when teens see their friends around drugs.

“I think teens get into drugs because they’re curious. They want to know why everyone knows that drugs are bad, but yet people still do it, ” said Freshman Elizabeth Coffman-Mackey said.

“I think teens get into drugs because their friends make them get into it, and then the friends keep supplying them with it over and over until its too late to stop, ” said Sophomore Tori Washington

Cheerleading is one of the top priorities in my life. It takes up a lot of my time and effort, causes me to lose sleep and stress out, but honestly, I would not drop it for anything. In the past, cheerleading was not as important to me as it is now. When I cheered in 7th and 8th grade, I had no real incentive to push my hardest and give it my all. But after getting accepted onto the varsity cheer squad here at Urbana High School, I completely changed my attitude towards the sport.

When I received the text from my friend saying I made the varsity squad, I was completely taken aback. The tryouts had been for JV and, although Coach Shannon Mulvey had mentioned varsity had three spots open, I hadn’t considered myself to be acceptable for that squad. After the parent meeting, the practices began the next Monday. We had not expected what came next. We started out practice by running the perimeter of the school grounds, one mile total. We then went into a week of conditioning and learning sideline cheers. Starting Friday morning at eight we went through four strenuous hours of stunting, jumping and competition formation. These practices lasted every day throughout our three-day weekend. By Monday morning, the whole varsity squad was full of complaints of sore muscles and sleep deprivation. And people say cheerleading isn’t a sport.

Cheerleading to the outsider may look like it’s just an extracurricular activity for the girls who don’t want to be beat up by basketballs or other sporting equipment, but cheerleading causes numerous bruises, huge headaches, and a plethora of other bodily injuries. Not only do we receive bruises, etc., but we also take in people falling onto us, the fear of not catching our flier and the possibility of everyone not being as devoted and ruining our chances at competition.

Even though cheerleading is sometimes not considered to be a legitimate sport, the IHSA website includes cheerleading listed under the ‘SPORT’ section. Cheerleaders endure as much if not more pain than any other sport. So next time you think about saying ‘Oh, that’s not a sport,’ think about it and remember we go through just as much work and put in just as much effort as you do.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2415666308426&set=at.1150997732502.2024000.1154370237.1433591282&type=1&theater