The reigning MVP of the National Basketball Association, LeBron James, will be the reigning MVP for at least one more season.
James won this year’s most valuable player award by a landslide. He had a total of 116 first place votes which was 112 more than the closest contestant, Kevin Durant.
LeBron James excites crowd before Cavaliers' game.
With averaging 29.7 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game, and 8.6 assists per game, it isn’t a wonder as to how James acquired this award.
He also carried his team, the Cavaliers, to the number one spot in the league with the best record.
Students around Penn Manor have great things to say about James.
“He is flat out amazing,” said Junior, Jessen Smith.
“He will probably win the title five more years in a row, he is amazing,” boasted Sophomore, Joey Jackson.
Even with thousands of supporters around the nation, there are still many critics of James.
“I don’t think he should have won, Durant,” said Robert Warfel.
Durant came second in the polls for first place votes for the MVP title but still lost to James by more than 100 votes.
James has proven to be an all around excellent player with his skyrocketing statistics and impressive leadership.
Now, all the King has to do is win his first championship to secure a spot as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Monday, students at Penn Manor were left wondering why they were forced out into the sticky, humid morning weather twice in one day.
At the beginning of second block, students were interrupted by a routine fire drill.
In the middle of B lunch/third block, even more unexpectedly than the first time, another fire alarm erupted in the hallways and classrooms throughout the school.
“It was a waste of time,” said sophomore Willie Welsh.
Some students questioned whether or not the fire drill was legitimate, noting the sounds of fire trucks seemingly approaching Penn Manor High School.
“I thought it was really long,” said sophomore Nick Cunningham
According to principal Phil Gale, the first fire alarm was a drill. However, the second fire alarm was due to a faulty sensor somewhere in an unspecified location of the building.
Despite the sounds of fire trucks, the waves of mass confusion and the sight of principals on their cell phones, Penn Manor remains safe for another day.
On Friday, April 16,a Penn Manor student was arrested by Millersville Police for disorderly conduct toward the school’s resource officer.
The student was told multiple times to stop waving a multi-colored flag during lunch hours but continued to do so.
According to Lancaster New Era, Cindy Rhoades, the district’s community relations coordinator said that the student became “unruly and insubordinate,” to the officer.
The officer then took the student to the administration officer. This is where the student went ballistic by “trashing” the office and yelling profane words.
Rhoades also told Lancaster New Era that they did not tell the student to put away the flag because of any message it could have portrayed but for the possible injuries to any of the 600 to 700 students occupying the cafeteria from the pointed end of the flag stick.
Rhoades then explained that the student was not disciplined for showing off the flag but for the way the student acted toward the officer and administration.
In concurrence with the disorderly conduct charge, the student was also suspended from school.
This year’s graduating seniors may be begging to come back.
Under the old health care policy, young adults were able to remain on their parents coverage as long as they were being educated, be it in college or graduate school. This option still holds true, but not all seniors will continue their education after high school, so not all will be covered by health insurance.
President Obama is trying to speed up the available insurance coverage for young adults, which could last until they turn 27, but the law suggests that some will not be able to sign up until 2011. Not only that, but employers will not be required to keep 20-somethings on their parents health care program.
So as seniors are pushed from the safety of high school and their parents’ health care into the workforce and uncertain coverage, they may just be desperately hoping to stay healthy.
In the coming year, healthcare will be difficult to find for some high school graduates.
Dylan Swanson, a soon-to-be graduate without health care said if he injured himself in the coming year, he would fix it with “duct tape and 2 by 4’s.”
That answer (and others like it) seems to be the general consensus among out-of-luck seniors.
Neal Bricker, a 2009 Penn Manor graduate, was without health care for the past year.
“I just tried not to get sick, but I did have to go to the doctor once. Paying wasn’t fun,” said Bricker.
Deb Meckley, Penn Manor’s social worker, offered more reasonable solutions.
Meckley explained that if you live with someone you are not related to and your income falls below a certain level, you can apply for medical assistance.
Palco, as Meckley said, is a local group of doctors that provide free medical care from the goodness of their hearts, though you must enroll to be eligible.
Lancaster General Hospital is a third option, offering more wallet-friendly clinics.
The masters of physics from Penn Manor were at it again last week.
Wednesday, April 21, 43 students from five area high schools attended the 18th annual Physics Olympics. This was Penn Manor’s first year, so they didn’t know exactly what to expect.
The students from the various schools were then split up into ten different teams so individual schools would not be competing against each other.
“The competition helped build teamwork with people we never met before,” said senior Jordan Franssen.
The competition consisted of five high-concentration events.
Some of the Penn Manor students who participated in the Physics Olympics
The events were:
Pinwheel of Fortune – Create a air powered cardboard pinwheel to lift the most mass in the least amount of time.
Jump – jump off a chair onto a force plate with the minimum force.
Bernoulli Relay – use a hair dryer to guide a ping pong ball along a path.
Weight of a metal block – use spring scales and knowledge of vectors to determine the weight of a suspended metal block.
Volume of an irregular object- determine the volume of an object using only a ruler.
“There’s a lot of dexterity involved,” said junior Lars Anderson.
From the teams that were part of the competition, only two Penn Manor students finished in the top three.
Jordan Franssen’s team took first place, and Ivan Puskovic’s team finished third.
Overall it was a good first experience for the Penn Manor students, who look forward to next year’s event.
The Pennsylvania State Board of Education is “weighing” the benefits of eliminating unhealthy foods from school vending machines, cafeterias and fundraisers to combat childhood obesity.
As the board holds hearings on the subject, students are already expressing their displeasure.
“I buy French fries almost everyday, they can’t take them away,” senior Krista Conlin said.
Don’t fuss about losing fries just yet, Penn Manor’s cafeteria already switched to zero trans fat oil about four years ago when they got a whiff of the direction government was going in its efforts to slim kids down.
French fries may only have one-falf gram of trans fat per serving under proposed state regulations.
Penn Manor cafeteria employee Sherlyn Wolf said, “Our food that requires oil has zero trans fat, due to the switch the school made about four years ago for health reasons. The margarine blend we used to make desserts like pies, cakes and cookies have one gram of trans fat.”
They may have to cut a little more with the new regulations.
“Food items containing vegetable shortening, margarine or any kind of partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil unless the label required on the food, pursuant to applicable federal and state law, lists the trans fat content as less than 0.5 grams per serving,” the regulations state.
Randy Wolfgang, Penn Manor’s Food Services Coordinator, is aware of the changes being proposed by the state. If the proposal passes, Pennsylvania will be one of eight states that are changing the nutrition and physical endurance guidelines of school students.
“As the rules change, the food manufacturers will change to produce lower fat in foods,” said Wolfgang. “The regulations wouldn’t necessarily replace (all) cafeteria foods; it will just reduce the size proportions. For example, the big cookies would be down-sized.”
Many Penn Manor students are not happy with the new proposed regulations.
But news of a down-sized cookie is not any more popular than the idea of cutting back on lemonades or deep-fried food.
“A lot of students spend more money on cookies and fries than anything else sold at our cafeteria lunches,” said junior, Vennessa Nougeras. “What’s the point of a “big cookie” if it’s not even big?”
The big cookie may not be so big next year at Penn Manor or any other public school if proposed state regulations take effect.
The new requirements will require that beverages have 67 or less calories per eight ounces, will replace all milk with skim milk or one percent milk, prohibit energy drinks as well as food with 35% or higher calories from sugar.
Not only does the state Board of Education want to eliminate high fat food, but they also aim to require at least 30 minutes of physical activity from every student, every day. As for elementary students, if this regulation passes, they will be required to have 150 minutes of physical activity each week.
Now that’s an idea that makes physical education teachers very happy.
“I don’t think the chance of passing the food regulations is very high. But it would be nice; kids would lose body fat within a month,” said Aron Basile, phys-ed teacher. “Having 30 minutes of physical activity would be like a high school recess.”
“I am all for 30 minutes of physical activity. It’s absolutely a great idea, schedule adjustments would have to be made, but we would make it fit,” said Britney Clugston, another phys-ed teacher. “It would probably alleviate tensions between students. Exercise increases your endorphins release, which internally makes you happy.”
“I agree with adding physical activity to schedules, although it involves more work with course scheduling. But I don’t know about the food changes only because we have a good variety of food in our cafeteria. It isn’t all healthy food, or all junk,” said Penn Manor school counselor, Marjean Long.
The board has held hearings on the regulations in April and plans to vote on the changes during the first week in May.
A new fad is smacking Penn Manor students right in the face. SillyBandz.
SillyBandz are the average jelly bracelets but when they are removed from the wrist they take the form of an animal or shape. They come in every color including glow-in-the dark! They come in many different packs such as the pet pack, the zoo pack, the sea pack, the basic pack, the dinosaur pack, etc.
The SillyBandz idea was thought up by Robert Croak. They are sold only in the US and Canada but other places are looking into possibly selling Sillybandz as well.
“The thing that I like most about Sillybandz is that it teaches kids how to share,” Clair Lethart said an employee working with SillyBandz.
Sillybandz became popular last year (2009) but are becoming more and more popular this year.
Sillybandz are sold on their website www.sillybandz.com for $4.95 for a 24 pack of bracelets, but they can be found at various other places like 5 Below or Walmart.
But what is it about these new bracelets that is driving students mad?
Students at Penn Manor had a variety of reasons.
“I like Sillybandz because they’re cool and amusing and you can stretch them,” Becca Eckman said.
“They’re stretchy and they prettified my wrist and I like taking it off and showing people my long-neck giraffe,” said Genny Leonards as she played with her bracelet.
“I like Sillybandz because they’re puuuurfect,” Zach Miller said referring to his kitty cat Sillyband.
Sillybandz are very popular not only in Penn Manor but all over the United States and Canada.
It looks like Sillybandz might find a way to stretch themselves worldwide.
The Penn Manor boys volleyball team was soaring through their season until Tuesday night when the team succumbed to Warwick.
With a 6-2 record before entering the game against Warwick, Penn Manor was playing really well while riding on a five-game win streak.
They took down Manheim Township, Cedar Crest, Conestoga Valley, McCaskey, and Garden Spot while on a roll.
Penn Manor players, Dylan Weber and Bryan Buckius, go up for a block. Photo courtesy of tornadoalleyhoops.com
The match was never really close. In fact, Tuesday was the only time throughout the season that the Comets were swept during a match, meaning they lost the best-of-five-game match in three games.
Penn Manor lost the first two games of the match 25-17 and the second was 25-23.
The whole match came down to a third game which was a nail biter.
With the game tied at 25, the team that scored the next two points would have won the third game of the match.
The points were back and forth, one team was leading at one point and the other team was leading at another.
This pattern continued until Warwick took control.
The score was tied at 26 when Warwick finished the Comets off with two straight kills to end the game, the match, and Penn Manor’s win streak.
Penn Manor’s next game will be a showdown against Hempfield, Penn Manor’s biggest rival and the division leader with a record of 6-1.
