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

The Wingspan newspaper staff has decided, after 17 years of printing a seven issue, eight-page broadsheet style newspaper, to switch to a more reader-friendly news magazine.

The first issue of the Wingspan was produced in 1982 under then adviser Mary Ellen O’Shields. The first issue was produced as a tabloid style newspaper until Martin Johnson, the 1996 editor-in-chief, decided to produce a more professional broadsheet style newspaper.

English teacher Brenda Gorsuch began advising the Wingspan in her first year at West, 1982-1983.

“It was the first high school newspaper in North Carolina to change to the broadsheet format, which is the professional newspaper size,” Gorsuch said. “We’ve been that for 17 years. All the research has shown that today’s young readers don’t relate to traditional newspapers because they don’t have them in their homes anymore, but they do relate well to publications they pick up at Starbucks. So the motivation was to try to meet the needs of our students by moving to a more appropriate reading format.”

This year’s editor-in-chiefs were more wary to make the switch since they’ve won so many awards as a broadsheet, but decided to keep up with the times.

“When I went to the journalism convention in Chapel Hill, I saw many of the other schools were making the switch to keep up with the times, and I thought the regular newspaper was becoming cumbersome and outdated,” editor-in-chief Lauren Stepp said.  “This is also my senior year and journalism has done a lot for me during my high school career, so I wanted to make history at West. I think we are doing that.”

The editor-in-chiefs knew that the change in format would require a total redesign.

“It’s definitely been overwhelming, and it was a lot more of a work load than I was expecting it to be. Some days I’m in here all day working,” Stepp said. “Although, in the end, when I get my copy of the magazine, I know that it will all be worth it. We do have to make 24 pages, but the pages are smaller, so it’s like the same amount of writing to a certain degree.”

The staff knew that a magazine would require different marketing techniques in selling ads and that it would be more costly to produce. They called on Paula Burke Roberts, the managing editor of the 1982 Wingspan staff, who now sells advertising for The Lightning, to help them with an advertising campaign.

“You’ll notice that our ads are a lot different and Sierra (Fender) worked a lot harder making those than I think we did last year,” editor-in-chief Anna Yarbrough said. “It’s not a lot of extra work that we weren’t expecting; it’s that we’re working on something different.”

The staff is nervous to see how the students and faculty react to the new magazine format. The first issue will be distributed in early December.

“I hope they’ll be like, ‘Wow,’” Gorsuch said. “‘This is different, this is cool, there’s cool stuff in here.’ I’m hoping there will be a strong reaction. We’re also putting our publication out into the community, so I’m hoping to get a lot of response from people in the community.”

By Katie Miller

In reality, such a move would ruin the chances of teenagers getting jobs and in the long run increase inflation, an unnecessary waste of time for Congress. It would ruin the U.S. economy.

According to philly.com, 15 million American workers currently earn minimum wage, making about $15,080 for 2,080 hours per year, just $50 below the poverty threshold.

Fewer jobs would be offered by companies if they had to finance workers at a higher minimum wage. Isn’t that destroying the original intent to add more jobs to the economy? This would raise the already astounding 7.7 percent unemployment rate, according to beaumontenterprise.com.

There would be a decrease in skilled workers seeing how they wouldn’t need to get a higher degree in their profession to get pay raises. This means that low wage and low skill workers ages 16 to 19 are more likely to be let go before an adult at the new minimum wage.

Almost 50 percent of employers already report having trouble filling crucial higher level jobs. This number would only rise with an increase of the minimum wage.

“I guess I’d like to get more money, but by a raise or something like that. I don’t need to get more money for doing the exact same thing I’ve been doing. Anyway, if the act is passed, it’ll be helping adults with minimum wage who should be getting the promotions to higher level pay, not the teens who get and keep their minimum wage jobs,” junior Matt Rice said.

A teenager’s first job is the critical first step in the job world. These minimum wage jobs are vital for teens to get experience and references for future more intense jobs. Unemployment rates for teens 16 to 19-years-old are already at a high of 23.8 percent, and it doesn’t need to be increased further.

The price of paying workers more would be higher product prices, reduced profits and lost jobs. According to GazetteXtra.com, most companies decide that they can get by with fewer workers versus paying higher wages.

“The higher the price of anything, the less that will be taken, and this includes labor,” William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business said. “Raising the cost of labor raises the incentive for employers to find ways to use less labor.”

Obama’s proposal would extinguish jobs for younger workers. From 2007 to 2009 the minimum wage was raised from $5.15 to $7.25. This did nothing significant for the economy in the long run. With a gap of only four years, chances are nothing significant will happen if the minimum wage is raised again.

The United States seems finally to be coming out of the Great Recession. It is not the time to be encouraging business owners to lay off workers or delay hiring. Raising the minimum wage would only destroy jobs for teenagers and lower the number of skilled workers.

By Katie Miller

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