Name: Shannon
Posts by scarroll:
Words, words, words
May 1st, 2012Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” I couldn’t agree more. Read the rest of this entry “
Always take things with a grain of salt
March 11th, 2012As a joke, someone once listed movie titles that were supposedly butchered in translation. The list said Pretty Woman was shown in China with a title that, translated back into English, would read, I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money. Field of Dreams supposedly became Imaginary Dead Baseball Players Live in My Cornfield. My personal favorite: Babe was The Happy Dumpling-to-be Who Talks and Solves Agricultural Problems.
The thing of it is that the New York Times ran a story that treated the movie titles as the truth, not a joke.
You’d think people would learn their lesson, that not everything they read is true, especially online. That’s a lesson that Gazette advisor Karl Grubaugh reinforces all the time and that my dad, who spent 17 years at the Wall Street Journal, has been teaching me since I was a little girl.
Instead, people seem to be heading in the other direction, feeling free to treat as truth anything they read or hear. In fact, the Internet gives people cover for their stupidity. They can say they’re not vouching for the truth of something they’ve read, then repeat it as though it’s true.
As an experiment, freelance writer Jason Schreier tweeted an anonymous rumor that quarterback Pat Devlin was joining the Arizona Cardinals. Within 30 seconds, NFLDraftInsider posted the rumor.
CBSSportsNFL quickly picked it up. So did the Cardinals’ website.
No one checked the facts.
At least the Devlin rumor was just sports. My biggest problem is that our politicians use Devlin-like “facts” all the time.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann recently said a woman came up to her crying after Bachmann debated Texas Gov. Rick Perry on the merits of a government-mandated vaccine.
“Her daughter was given that vaccine,” Bachmann told Fox News. “She told me her daughter suffered mental retardation as a result.”
If Bachmann had bothered to check her facts, she’d have learned that extensive testing on the vaccine has shown no link to mental disabilities.
When she got beaten up for her baseless claims, she said in another interview on Fox News, “I am not a scientist. I am not a physician. All I was doing was reporting what a woman told me last night at the debate.”
That’s simply not good enough. If you want the responsibility of being president, Rep. Bachmann, then you need to take responsibility for what you say. If you want to argue that Perry shouldn’t have mandated a vaccine for 12-year-old girls, fine. But don’t use hearsay.
As a reporter, I take offense at the Bachmanns of the world – and there are many. I do not just repeat what others tell me. I do my best to make sure that everything printed is true.
I don’t just trust the word of my friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s best friend’s aunt. And if I can check my facts, then our nation’s politicians can, too. They have whole staffs of people. I’m just one 17-year-old high school student.
Riddle me that.
***
Shannon Carroll, a senior, is a Gazette co-editor-in-chief.
A critique of the sporting world
February 24th, 2012A friend recently tried to trick me by asking who the No. 1 player in golf is. He expected me to say Tiger Woods, but I knew the answer was the relatively little-known Luke Donald. It was pretty funny watching his jaw drop. Read the rest of this entry “
The repulsive rise of the ‘r-word’
February 24th, 2012“That’s so retarded.”
Have you ever said that? Chances are that, at one time or another, that word has slipped into your vocabulary.
The word “retarded” is offensive. It’s derogatory. It’s hate speech. By using the word, you’re acting as though anyone with a disability is useless, whether or not you meant to.
“Dude, that test was so retarded.” Or, “Did you see the way Johnny was acting? What a retard.”
See, when you say “retarded” you’re not saying something is stupid. You’re not saying something is dumb. You’re comparing someone who, by no fault of their own, is handicapped to something you dislike. That’s not OK. By comparing them, you’re basically insinuating that all who are intellectually disabled are stupid, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
When you say something is “retarded,” you’re saying that something is slow or limited in intellectual understanding and awareness, emotional development, and academic progress.” You’re basically saying that your test and Johnny are intellectually disabled. Is that what you meant to say?
So while people who use the word “retard” in their everyday vocabularies may just be trying to sound cool, they’re actually hurling a disparaging comment at those who actually are intellectually disabled.
In 2003, the Black Eyed Peas dropped their new single “Let’s Get Retarded.” Showing absolutely no self-awareness, the Black Eyed Peas released a song that essentially poked fun at the mentally challenged community and made it seem cool to use the word “retarded.” When most radio stations wouldn’t play the song because of its slur against the mentally handicapped community, the Black Eyed Peas were forced to change the name of the song to the more family-friendly “Let’s Get it Started.”
However, you still hear “the r-word” thrown around in movies and on TV. In the movie The Change-Up, Ryan Reynolds’ character asks Jason Bateman’s character if his kids are “retarded or something” because they can’t talk yet. Reynolds’ character then follows up by saying that one of the twins looks a little “downsy.”
Saying “retarded” doesn’t just hurt people who are intellectually disabled; it also hurts their friends and families.
When I hear someone drop the word “retarded” like it’s no big deal, I feel like someone has just punched me in the gut. I admit that this topic is a very personal one to me; I have a cousin who has cerebral palsy and, as a result, has both a mental and physical disability. She is “retarded” in the clinical sense that she learns some things slowly, but that doesn’t mean she likes to hear the word. She hates it. Calling her a “retard” is really just the same as hurling a slur at someone because of their race or gender.
A couple of years ago, “That’s so gay” was the old version of “That’s so retarded.” After some education, people began to realize that saying “That’s so gay” as an insult was hurtful to those who actually were gay. It’s no different with “retarded.”
Luckily, people have started to realize this, and important legislation has been passed. In October 2010, President Obama officially signed bill S. 2781, “Rosa’s Law,” which replaces “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” with “individual with an intellectual disability” and “intellectual disability” in all federal health, education and labor policy.
The terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” began being used innocuously as clinical terms in the medical profession. The term “retard” literally just means slow or late—as in, “I was tardy at school.” Over time, though, “retard” and “retarded” became pejorative terms. They became staples in many people’s (limited) vocabularies and are thrown around in jest, without people stopping to realize how hurtful the terms actually are.
We need to understand the offensiveness and drop the terms, just as people have learned not to use the many ugly terms that used to be applied to Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, Jews, and others.
Look, I’m not trying to tell people what they can and can’t say and go all politically correct on everyone, but some words are simply hurtful. I just want people to think about what they’re saying before they say it. If you hear someone throwing the word “retarded” around lightly, ask them politely to stop using the word around you because you find the connotation offensive.
Using another word in place of “retard” is a step closer to making those with intellectual disabilities feel more respected and valued by our society. “Dude, that test was so stupid.” Or, “Did you see the way Johnny was acting? What a dork.”
It’s not hard to replace an offensive word with another word. We’re all high schoolers, and we have a pretty vast vernacular.
***
Shannon Carroll, a senior, is a Gazette co-editor-in-chief.
Ten years ago, everything changed
January 11th, 2012
Bayside Church helped the Granite Bay community remember September 11 by posting 3,000 flags around the church campus to represent the lives lost in the attacks on 9/11. More than 9,000 people attended multiple services at Bayside over the weekend. Scott Shaull, left, and two other Bayside attendees chat quietly near flag arrangements at a prayer service Sunday evening.
Donna Garton, the mother of three GBHS graduates, was dropping off her oldest daughter at Princeton University and had to stay an extra day in New York for a business meeting. She got bad news about a friend and slept fitfully. On September 11, she got to the airport well ahead of time and got on an earlier flight as a result.
Donna Garton, the mother of three GBHS graduates, was dropping off her oldest daughter at Princeton University and had to stay an extra day in New York for a business meeting. She got bad news about a friend and slept fitfully. On September 11, she got to the airport well ahead of time and got on an earlier flight as a result.
The stories of these two women show just how hard 9/11 hit
communities and families across the country, and how precarious our existence can be. What follows is literally a story of both life and death.
Making every moment count
Deora Bodley grew up in San Diego, where she attended La Jolla Country Day School. She played basketball and was captain her senior year. She enjoyed writing – for school assignments and in journals — and she was a poet. On the back of a picture her mom took of her looking at the Grand Canyon, Bodley wrote: “If I would just live for the moment, and make every moment count, maybe the future would work out. Maybe that moment would be a doorway to the future.”
Bodley’s parents divorced when she was young, but she remained very close with both of them.
Rain enchanted Bodley as a child, and she went outside whenever rain started. When she got older, she loved to drive her car – first a Ford Escort, then a Neon, then, finally, a Jeep she bought herself.
Growing up, Bodley was a volunteering machine. She volunteered at the San Diego Zoo and at the Helen Woodward Center, which provides care and adoption for animals that have been orphaned. She was also heavily involved with Special Olympics. She helped with Teens Respond to AIDS with Caring and Education (TRACE) and would go from school to school talking to fellow high school students about sexually transmitted diseases.
When it came time for college, Bodley decided to stay in-state and attend Santa Clara University. She double-majored in psychology and French – she planned to get a doctorate and become a child psychologist so she could help children during their toughest times.
She was a beautiful girl with dark hair, a wide smile and kind eyes that reflected caring and compassion.
She was in a serious relationship with GBHS alum Lindow, who also went to Santa Clara University. H
e politely declined to comment for this story.
Near the end of her summer break in 2001, Bodley went to New York to visit friends, as she often did. She decided to come home early, to see friends and family and get ready for her junior year at Santa Clara. She rebooked her flight for an 8 a.m. departure and headed to Newark Airport.
She had no issues as she cleared security, headed to Gate 17 in Concourse A and settled into her window seat, 20F, on a Boeing 757. Perhaps she relaxed, as most people do when they have finished with all the logistics that precede a plane flight. She might have even closed her eyes and leaned her head against the window. But we’ll never know, because the date was September 11, 2001, and she had just boarded United Airlines Flight 93.
Bodley was the youngest of the 44 passengers aboard the flight –including the four hijackers.
The hijackers invaded the cockpit, using box cutters they had managed to get aboard as weapons. The hijackers then turned the airplane around and headed toward Washington, D.C. Anguished passengers con
tacted loved ones on their cellphones and quickly learned about the three planes that had already crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, so those on board surely knew they were in grave danger.
At least some of the passengers decided not to go quietly. Four men – all former college athletes – used a food cart to try to ram their way into the cockpit and prevent the terrorists from destroying another national icon. The hijackers then crashed the plane. The last words that Todd Beamer – one of the four men who charged the cockpit – uttered before moving toward the front of the plane were the now immortal phrase, “Let’s roll.”
“My baby was no longer there”
Bodley’s mother, Deborah Borza, said she can remember September 11, 2001, as clearly as if it was yesterday.
Borza got two calls in the morning, relaying the message that her daughter was coming in on an earlier flight, United Flight 93. Borza learned from news broadcasts that Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, but the possibility that her daughter was on the plane didn’t seem real. Borza wouldn’t believe it until she got an official call.
“I went to work, and there was a Catholic church across the street,” Borza said. “I asked God where (Deora) was. He was the only one who knew. He told me, ‘She’s with me.’ ”
At 12:20 p.m., she got the official call from United Airlines, saying Bodley’s name was on the flight manifest.
Borza still couldn’t process the information. She sat in silence for what seemed like forever.
“I dropped my phone and started screaming in the church,” Borza recalled, her throat tightening. “It was horrible. I was yelling out, screaming my daughter’s name, calling out for my baby who was no longer here.”
What might have been
Borza is now left with only her memories and speculation of what might have been.
“A lot of her friends would talk about how she was always there for them,” Borza said. “She knew when to come around to be with them and give them a hug. She always seemed to know what they needed.”
Kathy Almzaol, the principal of St. Clare Catholic Elementary, where Bodley volunteered while at Santa Clara, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2001: “(She had) a phenomenal ability to work with people. We have 68 kids who had a personal association with Deora.”
Borza remembered: “Kids clung to her. I had some of those kids come up to me years later and tell me that, because of Deora, they loved reading.”
While no one can accurately predict what Bodley’s life would have been like 10 years later, Borza guesses her daughter would be married by now, possibly with a child.
“I’m sure she would be doing really cool, fun, family things,” Borza said.
She thinks Bodley would have her doctorate in psychology and would be counseling people.
“She made a difference everywhere she went,” Borza said. “People depended on her.”
Imagine what she could have done with 10 more years, and then the decades beyond that.
An inexplicable decision
Donna Garton’s husband, Michael, actually flew on United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco. It’s just that his Flight 93 was on September 10, not September 11.
The Gartons had flown to New Jersey to help their daughter Jessie move into her new school, Princeton University. Donna had to stay an extra day because of a work obligation with Stanford University.
She had a late dinner on September 10, then got a call with some bad news regarding a friend’s health. She slept poorly.
The next morning, she left the Warwick Hotel in New York City around 6 and hailed a cab. Both she and the driver were surprised by how quickly they got to the airport. She was supposed to leave on Flight 93 for San Francisco at 8, but she was told at the check-in counter that there were seats available on a 7 o’clock flight.
She knew the change wasn’t going to save her any time, because she was still going to have to sit in San Francisco and wait for the same flight to Sacramento. She considered staying in Newark and having a relaxed breakfast before getting on Flight 93.
“For some reason,” Michael said, “she decided to come a little bit closer to home.”
And, of course, her life hinged on that inexplicable decision.
In the air, on the earlier flight, the pilot announced that he had been ordered to land in Lincoln, Neb., because of a “national crisis.” No one on Donna’s flight had any idea what was going on.
“We were sitting on the ground for a long time, and people weren’t telling us anything,” Donna said. “There were rumors that were going around about a bomb in Providence, R.I., but nobody really understood what was happening.”
When Donna got off the plane, she called her husband , waking him up, and told him she was OK. Michael’s reaction was: “Why wouldn’t you be?” Donna explained that her plane had been ordered to land in Nebraska, and Michael quickly turned on the TV to figure out what was going on.
“I remember them saying that they thought another plane was still out there, and it was a United Airlines Flight 93,” Michael said. “It’s at that moment that my heart stopped.”
Donna met a man who had rented a car in Lincoln, who was driving to Denver and who offered to take anyone who wanted to come with him. Donna accepted the offer. Her parents live in Denver, and Denver was at least closer to Granite Bay.
“We had stopped at McDonald’s to get coffee when we saw that Flight 93 had crashed,” Donna said.
She grabbed the hand of an older gentleman and stammered: “I was supposed to be on that flight.”
She said he just looked at her and responded: “My love, I guess it just wasn’t your time.”
Michael said that every time the topic of 9/11 comes up, he thinks about what almost happened – but he can’t go there.
“Sure, that comes to mind, but my mind just….” He trailed off. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “It’s horrendous.”
Relief, gratitude and terror
“I had to go and talk to my adviser about classes I was planning on taking,” Jessie said about the morning of 9/11. “There were a ton of different people in the room, and the person I was supposed to talk to was talking on the phone about an attack on New York City and buildings on fire. It was complete chaos.”
Jessie headed back to her dorm room, hoping her mom’s meeting wasn’t anywhere near the World Trade Center. She didn’t even think about the fact that her mom was supposed to fly home that day.
Then her dad called.
“Hearing my dad tell me my mom was supposed to be on that flight was the craziest feeling,” Jessie said. “I immediately dropped to my knees. I was already crying, but I just lost it.
“I think when you come that close to losing something, you can’t believe you still have it. It was just this feeling of relief, gratitude and terror.”
The thought of what could have happened is never far from Jessie’s mind.
The Garton family – son-in-law BJ Syzmanski, daughters Jessie and Jillian, husband Michael and son JJ – are grateful wife and mother Donna Garton, second from right, was spared on September 11, 2011.
“There’s no reason she shouldn’t have been on that plane,” Jessie said. “In fact, there are a ton of reasons why she should have been. There’s no explanation why she’s still here today, but that’s something to be incredibly grateful for.”
“I was the reason she was (supposed to be on Flight 93),” Jessie said. “I can’t even imagine how that would have affected me.”
“I was freaking out”
J.J. Garton was at GBHS when he found out the news of the terrorist attacks, after early-morning water-polo practice.
“I walked out of the locker room, and the quad was just silent,” J.J. remembers. “It was totally, totally dead.”
In J.J.’s first class, calculus with retired GBHS teacher Greg Holmes, the TV was on, and nobody was talking.
“I was freaking out a little bit, but I was just trying to stay calm because I didn’t know anything for sure,” J.J. said. “I knew (my mom) was flying home that day, but I didn’t know her exact flight.”
Toward the end of the period, newscasters reported that a United Airlines flight from Newark to San Francisco had crashed.
“That’s when it hit me, and I really freaked out. I didn’t know anything for sure, but I just had this really, really bad feeling,” J.J. said.
Because cell phones weren’t allowed on campus in 2001, J.J. had to run out to his car to contact his dad. People tried to stop him to ask what was wrong, but he just kept on running.
“My dad answered right away,” J.J. said. “‘She’s fine,’ he said. ‘I’m talking to her right now on the other line. She was supposed to be on that plane, but she didn’t get on it.’ I broke down right there and just thought to myself, ‘Holy shit!’ ”
J.J.’s next class was U.S. History with Brandon Dell’Orto, and J.J. remembers not being able to pay any attention.
“I broke down in tears, and I ran outside to get the whole story,” J.J. said. “I was petrified. I couldn’t speak.”
Michael came and picked J.J. up from school, and they went to Jamba Juice together, where he got on the phone with his mom.
“She seemed to be doing a lot better than I was,” J.J. said with a laugh. “I think part of that was that she had already talked to my dad. I’d speculate that they decided to be strong for the kids and not freak us out any more than we already were.”
J.J. went on to get his degree from Stanford, where he credits his mom for always being there for him.
“She’s an amazing person. The world is lucky to have her.”
Thankful for a cab driver
The Gartons’ youngest daughter, Jillian, was in fifth grade in 2001 and admits she doesn’t remember as much as her older siblings as a result. She thinks everything happened before she went to school.
She does remember that, when her mom finally made it home, friends rented a limo to pick her up at the San Francisco Airport. Jillian also remembers being unbelievably excited to get inside to see her mom.
Even now, the topic remains an extremely emotional one for Jillian.
“I’m just so thankful that cab driver drove so fast to the airport,” Jillian said, while crying. “My mom is such a big part of my life, so it’s really hard to think about if she wasn’t (here). She can always turn a situation into a positive and never has anything negative to say. Life would be pretty hard if I wasn’t able to talk to her. She is no ordinary woman. She is extraordinary.”
Making a difference
Donna has always been super-involved in the community. She served on the Eureka Union School District Board for eight years. She has been a huge supporter of the Granite Bay High aquatics programs and served as the Vice President of Activities for National Charity League, where she volunteered a lot for Special Olympics with her youngest daughter, Jillian.
“When something like [9/11] happens to you, you realize there’s nothing more important than family, and you realize how precious they are,” Donna said. “There are families that had a different outcome, and that’s just tragic.”
“You just hug your children a little harder, embrace life a little more. It changes you.”
Grizzlies Make History
December 20th, 2011
Seniors Michael Bertolino, right, and Koki Arai embrace as they celebrate their victory against Pleasant Grove High School during the Div. I section championship Saturday, Dec. 3.
The football left the hand of senior Granite Bay High School quarterback Brendan Keeney and arched through the clear, cold sky under the watchful stare of thousands of fans at Sacramento State University.
The ball seemed to hang in midair, leaving the feeling that the entire season could be hanging on the outcome of this one play, called “Back Pass Right Y Dancer.”
GBHS had gone up 10-0 in the early stages of the Sac-Joaquin Section Div. I championship, but the Pleasant Grove Eagles had come back with a touchdown and field goal to tie the game.
With less than a minute left in the half, this play was the best chance for GBHS to go into the locker room with a lead. It felt crucial for the Grizzlies to rebuild some momentum against an opponent that was not only the favorite to win the section championship game but had begun the season ranked in the top 10 nationally.
As the ball finally floated back toward the ground, it settled into the outstretched hands of senior tight end Spencer Briare.
Touchdown.
That completion restored the momentum, and the Grizzlies went on to win 30-24, collecting the team’s first-ever Division I section title.
Hanging in the Granite Bay High weight room is a sign that reads, “The most important ability is dependability,” and that was the key for the big victory at the end of a big season. No matter what happened, the players stood together and pushed through.
***
The game started rather slowly, but it picked up pace when Granite Bay went up 10-0. Without too many problems, however, the Pleasant Grove offense stormed down the field twice and tied the game.
After the Grizzlies seized the momentum on the Keeney-Briare touchdown at the end of the half, Pleasant Grove started the second half with a touchdown of its own.
The Granite Bay defense came off the field frustrated and angry. A couple of players banged their helmets against the metal bench, setting off what sounded like an angry chorus.
Granite Bay could have wilted. Pleasant Grove had an offense that beat up teams all season and averaged more than 54 points a game. The Eagles were not only favored to beat Granite Bay but had begun the year ranked No. 8 in the country. Besides, Pleasant Grove was led by Arik Armstead, all 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds of him. Armstead is being recruited by just about every major college in the country and is considered by some to be the top line prospect in the nation.
The Grizzlies had to battle nagging injuries and other challenges, but when the GBHS players came off the field, they quickly insisted they were OK and got back in the game. Senior offensive guard Colton Sviba, who had a stomach flu leading up to the game, left the game once to throw up but returned after a couple of plays.
The Grizzlies pulled ahead again, only to have Pleasant Grove tie the game at 24 in the fourth quarter.
Pulling together yet again, the Grizzlies mounted an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended when senior running back Arik Bird rushed into the end zone for a touchdown.
But then the extra point was blocked. A Pleasant Grove touchdown and extra point would win the game.
Bird threw down his water bottle on the sideline without realizing the lid wasn’t screwed on all the way. Water spurted everywhere.
With a little less than three minutes left in the game, Pleasant Grove got the ball. The Eagles, an offensive force, had yet another chance.
Grizzly defensive coordinator Tim Harrington told the defense to “turn the page, dig deep, find a way to get a stop. You got to believe.”
And believe they did. With the rest of the team watching in desperation, willing a stop with their eyes, junior linebacker Beau Hershberger stripped the Pleasant Grove quarterback of the ball, and Briare came up with it.
Briare credited Hershberger for the huge play and said he was just glad to be in the right place at the right time.
“The section championship is like the Super Bowl for high school football,” Briare said, “so I knew I had to step up, and I knew I had to make some big plays, and that’s what happened.”
The Grizzlies took a knee to end the season with a championship, and Keeney did a Lambeau Leap into the outstretched arms of the Tribe. Michael Bertolino, Austin Paulhus, Ian Mook, Beau Hershberger and Adam Wagner stood together on a sideline bench as fans chanted “Granite Bay! Granite Bay! Granite Bay!”
Someone tossed confetti into the air on that blustery day, and the smiles on the faces of the players were a million miles wide.
Senior Gavin Andrews, who plays both ways on the line, picked up anyone and everyone he could find and enveloped him in a hug. Coach Ernie Cooper briefly shared a special moment with seniors Keeney and Andrews, the only three-year starters on the team. Cooper then ran off to hug and congratulate the rest of his players.
“I just found (Keeney) and (Andrews) and asked them if all the hard work they put into the sport was worth it,” Cooper said. “They’ve been through the ringer with me for three years and were a huge part of the win.”
Cooper then said how proud he was of his team and how, even though they weren’t the most talented bunch he’s coached, they still pulled through and brought home a section banner.
“They’re a really special group,” Cooper said. “They had a great bond, and the guys really came together.”
Andrews is 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds and has committed to play football at Oregon State University. He heard all about his match-up with Pleasant Grove’s all-everything Armstead in the days leading up to the game, but he said he just wanted to live up to the offensive line’s motto: “Get nasty.”
“Coming into the game, I knew I was going to have to be my best against the best,” Andrews said. “We just all went 100 percent on him, and it paid off. We just had to make every play count. This was three years in the making.”
Keeney said: “It was a battle. It’s just such an amazing feeling to win a section championship.”
Keeney said he wouldn’t be where he is right now without Cooper and the rest of the team.
“(My teammates) mean everything in the world to me,” Keeney said. “We played well and got things done.”
Senior free safety Alec Naki said the team was excited coming into the game, especially after being labeled the underdogs, or “undergrizzlies,” as he put it.
“It was a team effort,” Naki said. “This team has heart. Words can’t even describe how much they all mean to me; I have 70 new brothers.”
The season as a whole mirrored that final game – plenty of setbacks but a perseverance that won out in the end.
Playing a brutal schedule, the Grizzlies lost on the road early in the year to Vacaville, a team that eventually won the Div. II section title. Granite Bay then put together a string of wins but lost a close one, again on the road, to Del Oro, the eventual Div. III champions.
Granite Bay entered the playoffs as just the No. 5 seed. They beat 12th-seeded Napa 31-7 and moved on to face 13th-seeded Oak Ridge.
On the third play of that game, Keeney went out with an injury. Backup quarterback junior Grant Caraway couldn’t throw because of an injury. Vinny Esposito, the junior varsity quarterback, missed two days of school with an illness that week and couldn’t play. That left the Grizzlies with the 5-foot-5, 135-pound JV backup Josh Neal.
It was easy to tell he didn’t fit in, because his JV uniform didn’t match those of the varsity players.
But a little thing like playing with their fourth-string quarterback wasn’t going to stop these Grizzlies.
Oak Ridge put a lot of pressure on the defense, but it responded with interceptions and other big plays. Neal made a few big plays himself, and, somehow, Granite Bay won the game 21-12.
The next challenge was Lincoln of Stockton, the top seed and a truly dangerous team. Granite Bay eked out a lead and just tried to hold on.
With GBHS ahead 28-21, and the Grizzlies needing a goal line stand to end the game, Cooper couldn’t watch. He took a knee and turned his back to the field. He knew the crowd would tell him what happened.
The silence turned to cheers, and Cooper knew his team had come through with an epic defensive stand. The Grizzlies had made the section final.
“It was all worth it,” senior defensive lineman Austin Paulhus said. “This win means everything to us.”
Senior wide receiver Adam Wagner said it was bittersweet, knowing he had played his last game in a Granite Bay uniform.
“This was the seniors’ fourth year together,” Wagner said. “Every year, we wanted to be champions, and now we are. This team is just a family. We’ve been through so much.”
2001 graduate Noah Frank, who has been at the games all season cheering the team on, said he always believed in them.
“They have been working hard and have enthusiasm,” Frank said. “I’m very proud of them.”
The legacy of great Granite Bay football will live on. On the sidelines during the section championship game were water boys who are playing for the Junior Grizzlies youth teams, just like Keeney, Briare, Wagner and others had done before them.
That’s going to be us someday,” one of the water boys whispered to a friend during the game. “We’re going to be just like them.”
CDC promotes HPV vaccine for both genders
November 15th, 2011
Gazette Photo: RACHAEL VASQUEZ
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says 50 percent of all sexually active men and women will get HPV at some point in their lives, and many will develop cancer as a result. Members of the Granite Bay community can hardly be an exception.
HPV, often associated with cervical cancer, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in America. The problem is, the 20 million people who the CDC say are infected may not know it because HPV generally doesn’t cause any symptoms—until cancer appears.
The CDC estimates that 17,300 women have HPV-associated cancers and that nearly 7,600 men do.
Two vaccines – Gardasil and Carvarix – have been approved by the FDA to protect against 16 of the 18 cancer-causing strains of HPV. The vaccines also protect against genital warts.
Stacy, a pseudonym for a Granite Bay High School junior, was diagnosed with an early stage of cervical cancer when she was 14. Her cancer was passed down through the female members of her family, not contracted because of HPV.
Stacy went to see a doctor after getting nauseous and having stomach pains. At first, she just thought it was her period. But the doctor diagnosed her with cervical cancer.
“I didn’t know what ‘cervical’ meant, but I knew what cancer was,” Stacy said.
Cervical cancer is the most common cancer caused in women by HPV and the third most common overall. The cancer develops very slowly and typically has no symptoms in its early stages. It can be treated easily if found early, as it was with Stacy.
Stacy said she couldn’t imagine why anyone who could prevent cervical cancer by getting a few shots wouldn’t do it.
“It helps you in the long run,” Stacy said. “It gives you a better chance of having a family (because cervical cancer might require having your ovaries removed), and for something that is preventable, why not prevent it?”
The vaccine is “strongly recommended” by the CDC. The vaccine consists of three shots over a six-month period and is recommended to girls 11 or 12 years of age, because the vaccine needs to be given before sexual activity begins.
Kristen Ehresmann, a director at the Minnesota Department of Health, said no one means to insinuate that children are beginning sexual activity when they are 11 years old.
“We suggest that age for vaccination because it is before the onset of sexual activity,” Ehresmann said. “The HPV is very easily transmitted, and once a person is infected the vaccine will be less effective for them.”
Ehresmann said the HPV vaccine is now endorsed for boys, too, to make the vaccine a “standard of care.”
“(The decision) also draws attention to the importance of the vaccine,” Ehresmann said. “This vaccine is an important tool in protecting people against cancer.”
William Schaffner, chair of the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, stressed that HPV doesn’t only affect females, contrary to what was originally believed.
“HPV is a viral infection transmitted sexually that can be a precursor to later development of cancer,” Schaffner said. “The most common type of cancer is in the cervix, but we’ve come to know that it causes other genital and anal cancers… and cancers of the throat, mouth and neck.”
Originally, it was believed that HPV could be eliminated just by vaccinating females, but not enough were getting the shots.
While the federal government has not mandated vaccines, Schaffner wishes it would. He said that, at best, 60 to 70 percent of people would get vaccinated without a mandate.
“Are we going to permit males and females to be unprotected against certain cancers when we know we have a safe and effective vaccine?” Schaffner said. “It would be shameful to allow 30 percent to go unprotected when we have a mechanism of protecting everyone.”
Senior Natalie Kreeger started her vaccination process last year, but she doesn’t believe that the vaccine should be mandated.
“I think education is the key,” Kreeger said. “Forcing people will lead to complaints… but I still think everyone should get the vaccine. I just think we need to focus on awareness.”
Kreeger said her doctor recommended the Gardasil vaccination to her, and she and her family agreed, despite the almost $400 price tag attached.
She said that, because of the side effects and the fact that the vaccination takes place over six months, it was hard to convince herself to keep going back.
“The first time. . . it was just like a normal shot,” Kreeger said. “The second (part of the vaccination) hurt really badly. After the shot, I felt really nauseous for the rest of the day.”
Other side effects can include pain and swelling around the injection site, slight fever, headache, nausea, fainting and muscle aches. In rare cases, people have experienced blood clots or Guillain Barré syndrome, a rare disease that may result in muscle weakness.
Sophomore Derek Smith is also in the middle of the vaccination process.
“My parents and I agreed I should get it so I won’t contract (HPV) later in life,” Smith said. “Doctors have now found that it does lead to cancer in men, so we wanted to prevent that.
“There’s a lot of nasty stuff (HPV) can give you,” Smith said. “It can lead to many other diseases. More people should start getting (the vaccination) because it’s preventing a disease you could potentially kill off, and that makes sense.”
‘Reality’ TV is just faking it for the cameras
November 3rd, 2011“Reality TV” should be renamed. It should be called “partially scripted TV,” or maybe “mostly scripted TV,” or perhaps “completely fictional TV that is being treated by willfully naïve viewers as though it’s real for reasons that are truly hard to fathom.”
Just pay a little attention as you watch these shows. Read the rest of this entry “
New GBHS feminist club ruffles administration feathers
October 18th, 2011
Gazette Photo: RACHAEL VASQUEZ
As people set up their tables for Club Day on Sept. 16, junior Haley Massara frantically tried to figure out why her club wasn’t listed on the map with the other 60 clubs.
Another student said she had a friend whose club wasn’t on the map, either, so Massara assumed there was just some confusion. She approached school officials and eventually learned that her club had, in fact, been denied.
The rationale was that her club, Feminists Against Negative Gender Stereotypes (FANGS), intended to raise money for Planned Parenthood. School officials said they felt the organization was too controversial.
But in trying to stem one controversy, GBHS threatened to step into another, because the federal Equal Access Act provides, in simplified terms, that schools can’t deny school’s curriculum.
Courts have already ruled that the act provides rights to sometimes controversial clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliance. So, Massara and some allies prepared to challenge the school, accusing it of violating federal law.
When questioned by a reporter, school officials said they would reconsider. As of Tuesday, the district formally approved FANGS’ charter after marking it as under review.
Massara said she had known that FANGS would cause problems, but she didn’t think they would arise until after the club had been in existence for a while. At that point, parents
might object.
“The way I found out was probably the most unpleasant part,” Massara said. “I had prepared for something like this to happen, but I didn’t think it would happen this early in the process. I was pretty angry.”
On the charter she turned in to Student Government, Massara had written that her purpose was to “empower the female students of GBHS and support causes friendly to women.” There was no problem with that.
Club Day commissioner Kristin Kurpershoek said clubs cover a wide variety, from service clubs like the Key Club and the Future Business Leaders of America to more eccentric clubs like the Avocado Club.
The initial screening is done by Student Government teacher Tamara Givens, who typically looks over the charters and returns them with questions that need to
be answered. FANGS was the only club that was flat-out denied this year.
The controversy arose because of the question: “What plans do you have for raising money, and what will the money be used for?” Massara wrote that she was planning on selling crafts and food and would donate the entirety of the money to Planned Parenthood. That raised some eyebrows.
Givens said she was concerned because of the connection to Planned Parenthood.
“Don’t you think it’s about abortion?” Givens asked. “That’s what I think it’s about – donating directly to an organization that espouses that as an option. There wasn’t an issue with (the club) being feminist.”
According to statistics from the Planned Parenthood website, three percent of all of its services are related to abortions. The site also says that one in five women in the United States has visited a Planned Parenthood health center, where, among other things, advisers help prevent unintended pregnancies and provide Pap smears that help detect cancer.
Assistant principal Brent Mattix, when queried by Givens, decided the club would be disruptive.
“We have the responsibility for all of our clubs to make sure they’re promoting positive energy, that they’re constructive, and that they’re going to be in a position to not lead to any distraction to the education process,” Mattix said. “So with this particular club… the feeling is that (Planned Parenthood) is too controversial of an organization to have one of our campus clubs connected to, and it would become a distraction to the education process.”
AP government teacher Jarrod Westberg said he thought the administration might have acted too fast. He said it’s uncommon to exercise “prior restraint.” It’s more common, he said, to wait and see if a problem occurs and then, if necessary, react to it.
Kathie Sinor, who is listed as the adviser to FANGS, said, “You can’t deny a club. (The administration) is afraid of repercussions. They’re afraid of something happening, and I understand that, but you still have to go back to the rights of students.”
Raquel Simental, the public affairs director of Planned Parenthood, said she was shocked.
“Women’s health shouldn’t be controversial,” Simental said. “We’re very supportive of women’s rights, both reproductive and otherwise.”
After hearing the concerns, Mattix said, he spoke with officials at the school district level.
“We truly want what’s best for Granite Bay,” he said.
Mattix later sent an email to Gazette adviser Karl Grubaugh, saying that “we have decided to not deny the (FANGS club) the opportunity to form on campus. The proposal is being reviewed.”
Massara, who had been considering pursuing legal action with the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was glad the situation seems to have been resolved.
“I have high hopes for the club,” Massara said. “I feel like this whole ordeal will at least spread the word about a good cause.”
She also said she was impressed with the way the administration seems to be handling the situation.
“Their reaction was pretty mature,” Massara said. “They didn’t drag this out into a three-month-long ordeal. I’m just glad it’s over and done with, and there are no hard feelings.”
Online Exclusive: September 11 Remembered
September 16th, 2011While September 11, 2001, was a landmark day in the nation’s history, many students at Granite Bay High School have little or no personal recollection of that day.
The seniors were in second grade when the terrorist attacks happened, giving them an answer to the question ‘Where were you when 9/11 happened?’But the rest of the GBHS students were so young when the terrorist attacks occurred – the freshmen were in preschool – that for many 9/11 has become their Pearl Harbor. They know what happened was terrible, and they hear about it all the time, but they can’t remember watching the first tower fall or listening to their parents try to explain to them what was happening. Read the rest of this entry “
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