At the convention the students, including seniors Sierra Fender, Melissa White, Katie Miller, Shannon Miller, Suzanne English, Andrew Murray, Sarah Littauer and Lara Bannister and juniors Graham Galloway, Haley Staton, Austin Woodard and Maggie King, attended a variety of newspaper and yearbook classes and competed in several events.

On Nov. 16 more than 2,000 high school students from across the nation competed for a superior, excellent or honorable mention rating in the national write-off competition. Superior awards were presented to White for yearbook cover/endsheets, Galloway for yearbook sports copy/captions and Fender for graphic design/photo illustration.

Excellent awards were presented to King for yearbook clubs copy/captions,  Katie Miller for review writing and Shannon Miller for news writing.

Honorable mention awards were presented to English for feature writing, Murray for sports writing, Staton for yearbook student life copy/captions and Littauer for yearbook student life photography.

In addition to the individual awards, the Westwind yearbook received a Best in Show Award in the 225-274 page yearbook category and the Wingspan Online received a Best in Show in the small school website publication category.

King, Katie Miller, Murray and Woodard made up the journalism quiz bowl team that earned the third seed and made it to the quarterfinals. The quiz bowl championship trophy went to Conestoga High School in Berwyn, Penn.

“Quiz bowl was a good experience, and as a team with two members new to quiz bowl I think we did well,” King said. “In the future we will study more and hopefully we’ll win next year.”

While in Boston the students visited Harvard University, took a Freedom Tour and visited the Boston Marathon bombing site.

“Boston was a great experience,” King said. “Not only did I learn a lot about journalism, but I got to travel to a place I had never been before.”

By Katie Miller

Kennedy and the 4 x 800 men’s relay team placed fifth at the meet, qualifying them for the state competition.

The indoor track team had a successful season and sent six team members to the state meet on Feb. 9. Seniors Kennedy, Heidi Brickhouse and William Bayless and juniors Melissa White, Joe Chapman and Michael Tang all had qualifying times to compete in the state competition.

Kennedy said the team performed well in the state meet and he was proud of everyone on the relay.

“The relay team really ran well in the state meet. We did as well as we expected,” Kennedy said. “Although I thought we should have placed fourth, I was impressed with how we ran.”

In addition to Kennedy, the 4 x 800 relay team was included Bayless, Tang and Chapman.

“When we went to the meet on
Saturday, I was nervous,” Tang said. “But our performance paid off and we raced really well.”

The track team is not judged as a team, but on individual races. Along with the relay team, Brickhouse qualified for the state competition in shot put and White in the 55 meter dash. Brickhouse took second place at the meet, landing her a spot on the Booster Club’s  Wall of Fame in the cafeteria.

Brickhouse said that making the Wall of Fame was an achievement that marked a positive end to a great four years on the West track team.

“I was elated that I had finally achieved a goal that I had set from the beginning of the season,” Brickhouse said. “I am excited to be up there with the ‘greats’ of the school.”

White qualified for the state competition on Dec. 12 at the first indoor meet of the season. She said that it was a pleasant surprise to qualify so early for state meet and that it gave her time to practice and prepare herself for the state competition.

“I was actually surprised to have qualified for state so early considering the past two years I have waited until the last two meets to do so,” White said. “Breaking my old personal record just made the experience even better. I could fine tune things instead of worrying about meeting the qualification time to get to the state meet.”

The men’s relay team placed fifth in the state and were off the fourth place mark by  .02 seconds.”

Coach Walt Fletcher said he was impressed with his team’s results.

“My goal was to send as many people to the state meet as possible,” Fletcher said. “I’ve been really glad with the performances I’ve seen, and my only hope is that we can add to the total we already have.”

By Andrew Murray, Asst. Opinion Editor

“[Winning] was overwhelming, and I don’t really think it hit me until later that night when I was getting hundreds of text messages from everybody,” Johnston said. “It was awesome afterwards when all my friends came and attacked me and were so excited.”

Johnston sang “He Knows My Name” by The McCrays, and accompanied herself on piano for the first round of the competition. In the second round, she sang “God Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flats, and on the final night she sang “American Honey” by Lady Antebellum, and was accompanied by Chase McIntire. Johnston says her favorite song was “American Honey.”

“I felt like it was a small environment, like Mrs. Provine [a judge] said, because we sat on stools and Chase was there, and I was just relaxed,” Johnston said. “By the third night I was just having fun.”

According to Johnston, Falcon Idol was a great experience for her.

“I made so many new friends,” Johnston said. “[The people] are all so great. They’re awesome, and each of them has an amazing voice. The experience overall [was the best part] because I want to be a professional singer, and now people know me better.”

Murray and Hoover enjoyed their experiences in Falcon Idol as well, and they enjoyed getting to know Joy and the other contestants.

“I was really happy that Joy won. She was fantastic, and she deserved to win 100 percent,” Murray said. “We all really got along well and that was very nice.”

Hoover was also pleased with the results.

“The results were perfect,” Hoover said. “To be honest, I think that Joy deserved it, and Andrew would have deserved it too. When I think about it, we were all really winners. Joy is the next Carrie Underwood, and Andrew is totally the next big guy on Broadway.”

Since the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, lockdown drills have become as much a part of school routine as fire and tornado drills. The more recent incident at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Conn., has refocused attention on school safety.

On Dec. 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot 20 children and six adult staff members, including the Sandy Hook principal, as well as his mother and himself using a semi-automatic rifle that belonged to his mother. This is the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

“I ran through a gamut of emotions when I heard the news,” Principal Dean Jones said. “Thoughts turned immediately to our school. What would I have done if I were in the same position? It makes you reflect on what emphasis we’re putting on safety.”

Jones and other principals in the Henderson County Public Schools have held lengthy discussions of school safety measures since the Sandy Hook tragedy.

According to the 2011 N.C. Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the Department of Public Instruction, 20 percent of high school students reported that they have carried a weapon, such as a gun or knife, on school property during the school year.

The Sandy Hook shooting has prompted renewed debate about gun control at the national, state and local level.

“My family owns a gun, and in a worst case scenario I’d use it for self defense. What happened at Sandy Hook was really horrible, but not all gun owners are murderers,” junior Katie Welch said.

Officer Steve Geyer, West’s Student Resource officer, is on campus to enforce the law and protect students and faculty from shootings like the one at Sandy Hook. He said that even though West is a relatively old campus, the school is prepared to handle an intruder.

“West was built in 1961, and it was built differently than schools that are newer like North (Henderson),” Geyer said. “Schools like East and West are open campuses, which makes it harder to secure the premises. In regards to security, we have me on campus and Keith at the bottom of the hill who checks the cars as they enter the campus.”

Jones and Geyer agree that knowledge about what to do during the event of an intruder is a key factor. Intruder alerts and lockdowns help keep the students and faculty prepared for a crisis situation, Jones said.

“Every emergency situation has a protocol and a process,” he said. “Depending on where the situation and action is, then that’s what goes into effect. Certainly, we have law enforcement personnel who are familiar with the school’s campus. They’ve been here, they’ve trained here, and they know the layout. We’re a little more vigilant about making sure visitors have a pass, and we’re just a little more aware of our surroundings.”

Civics and economics teacher Frank Gerard supports requiring armed officials on school campuses. He believes it is one step closer to having safer schools.

“Not every school has the luxury of an armed guard on campus, and I think that would be one step we could take,” Gerard said. “An armed officer on campus is certainly something the government, specifically Congress, could require relatively easily and would be a step in the right direction.”

Gun ownership is protected under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that, “being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The courts have generally ruled that the amendment guarantees law-abidding American citizens the right to own a gun. Debates have generally surrounded what limits may be placed on that right.

After the shootings that happened in schools like Sandy Hook and Columbine and at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., some have called for more background checks and bans on assault weapons.

Students at West feel very strongly about this issue, and although all agree that what happened in Connecticut was a disturbing incident that could have been prevented, they are divided on how to solve the problem.

“In general, I don’t think any of us really want to arm the teachers,” senior Collin Armstrong said on a recent school safety discussion with the other principals and student body presidents from the surrounding Henderson County high schools. “We talked about incorporating a buzz-in system, but it wouldn’t work for such an open campus.”

Junior Lara Bannister said she supports the Second Amendment and that the government shouldn’t infringe on that right. “We do have the right to bear arms and to protect ourselves,” Bannister said. “I realize that they can hurt people, but it’s the people who are doing the killing, not the guns.”

Wayne LaPierre, a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in Washington, D.C., is calling for armed officers or faculty in all schools. He said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a strategy of adding armed officials would protect students.

“I know there’s a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens. I know there’s an anti-Second Amendment industry in this country. I know there are political organizations that for 20 years always try to say it’s because Americans own guns,” LaPierre said. “I’m telling you what I think will make people safe, and what will make every mom and dad  feel better when they drop their kid off at school.”

By Katie Miller, Junior Editor and Andrew Murray, Asst. Opinion Editor