Westwood High School - Chipmunk Yearbook (Westwood, CA)

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THE cm EM UNE STUDENT BODY ACTIVITIES OUR first year of student self-government (1921-22) was such a success, in spite of the many mistakes which as beginners we naturally made, that at the beginning of this school year both Student Body and Faculty voted to con- tinue self-government. One year's working experience with our constitution, however, had shown it’s weaknesses and a revision of it was considered necessary. A joint committee of students and faculty' revised the constitution providing one that thus far this year has worked very well. The Constitution as adopted provides for the usual Stu- dent Body officers, an Executive Committee, and a Legisla- tive Committee. The president of the Student Body is chair- man of the Executive Committee, which is composed of the treasurer of the Student Body, two representatives from the Senior class, one from the Junior and one from the Sopho- more classes, and one representative from the Freshman class, the latter elected at the beginning of the second semester. The Principal and one other faculty representa- tive elected by the faculty are advisory members of the com- mittee having no vote. This committee meets every Wed- nesday afternoon. The Executive Committee has the power to enforce all laws passed by the Student Body, to arrange for all social functions and plan all school affairs, to control the expendi- tures of student body, funds, presenting estimates of all ex- penditures over twenty-five dollars to the student body for approval. A Legislative Committee was appointed for the first time this year. It is composed of the Vice-President of the Student Body, as chairman, and three other Student Body members and one faculty representative appointed by the Principal of the school and the Student Body President. All proposed legislation originates in this committee. Upon the request of three active members of the Student Body this committee must meet to investigate any question that is to be discussed in the next Student Body meeting. They pre- Fage Fifteen sent both sides of the question and open discussion follows. The Executive Committee has proved itself a worth while institution in our school; by enforcing measures neces- sary to maintain a high scholarship, by upholding the descip- line of the school and by carefully planning all Student Body activities and social functions. To assist in the maintenance of discipline they have organized two detention classes, one, a special detention class, to which the committee sends for some definite period of time, all students whose grade in any one subject falls below a three. Such students must make a weekly report of their standing either to the chairman of the committee or to the committee itself. This system has proved very effective in raising the scholarship of some of the lazy or weak students. A second detention class is held for purely disciplinary purposes,—such as misconduct and tardi- ness. This class is in charge of one of the upper-class stu- dents. The first thirty minutes is spent in an old fashioned spelling lesson. Student body meetings are held on alternate Friday afternoons. Reports of the various committees are read, fol- lowed by an open discussion of any new business and a vote thereon. Our Student Body through the excellent planning of the Executive Committee, has had a busy and successful year. We have carried on, in our usual way, all of the customary activities and have undertaken several new activities. The Freshman initiation took a novel turn this year when the upper classmen forced the Freshman boys to es- cort all the girls and carry their books for them from the cor- ner of the school grounds up to the front door of the school house and shine their shoes for them. This caused much merriment among the rest of the student body. In the af- ternoon the second Annual Sophomore-Freshman Brawl was held on the athletic field. Such contests as relay races, jousting ,and tug-of-war tried the strength and skill of the boys who were ably helped by the screams of their weaker classmates. At the end of the last event one would never re-

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I‘»K •ourlftu THE CHIP MUSK STUDENT BODY OFFICERS Top Row i Left to Right)- Miss Elliger. Faculty Advisor Leg. Com.; Mrs. Frodsham. Faculty Advisor Ex. Coin.; Erwin Morrison. Senior Rep. Ex. Com.; Kenneth Walker. Leg. Com.; Gus Dixon. Leg. Com.; John Carnia- to. Senior Rep. Ex. Com.; Miss Neill, Faculty Rep. Ex. Com. Front Row—Ruth Gadehon. Vice-President Student Body and member of Leg. Com.; Beatrice Eckert. Junior Rep.; Ruth Jensen, Student Body Treasurer ar.d member of Ex. Com.; Elsie Stout. Sophomore Rep. Ex. Com.; Agnes Israelson. President Student Body and chairman Ex. Com.; Bernice Houghton. Leg. Com.: Elsie Steed. Freshman Rep. Ex. Com.; Lydia McKinney. Secretary Student Body.

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1‘age Si.t tern cognize the contestants as being members of the Westwood High School Student Body as they were in tatters and black and gritty as could be. The Sophomores won every event of the day except the tug-of-war, and, needless to say, it gave every one of the Freshmen a thrill to end the day by drag- ging the high and mighty Sophomores through a stream of water. Last fall in an effort to reduce Student Body expenses it was suggested that an orchestra be formed. Accordingly a meeting of all pupils interested in music was called and the High School Orchestra was formed. Miss Fern Stitser kindly consented to direct us and through her faithful and diligent work we became sufficiently musical and harmon- ions to be called an orchestra. We have played for all Stu- dent Body dances and have greatly reduced expenditures. Our music has been furnished us by the Student Body. We have also played at meetings of the P. T. A and for the Ladies Aid. The Orchestra consists of: Stanley Davis. Pres- ident; William Corbett, Vice-President: Ruth Jensen. Secre- tary and business manager; Doris Drake, George Chipman, Fred Davis, Henry Coyle, John Carniato, Victor Scammon. and Earl Lane. With our experience and training we can look forward to a better orchestra in quality, if not quan- tity, next year. One of the new features sponsored by the Executive Committee and loyally supported by the whole Student Body, is Choral. The eighth period each Wednesday afternoon is devoted to singing in chorus, popular and well known songs. The student leaders and student accompanists have been as- sisted by Miss Neill, and Miss Rennie of the Lincoln Gram- mar school, who has very kindly given unstintingly of her limited time and her wide knowledge of music and voice con- trol. Early in the second semester the Student Body was di- vided by lot into two literary societies for the purpose of en- tertaining on alternate Friday afternoons after Student Body meetings. The chief feature of the first program given was a thrilling pantomime depicting the love and self sacrifice of THE CHIPMUNK “Wild Nell, “The Pride of the Plains. Another program in- cluded a modern version of “Little Red Riding Hood and a doubtful reproduction of Miss Elliger’s gym class. One of the later programs was entirely in Spanish and included a debate, the reading of several papers on Spain and Mexico, several musical selections and a Spanish play. The latest program was entitled “A Trip Around The World. A group of sailor lads sang about the sweethearts they had had in different ports, and as they mentioned them, girls dressed in the native costumes of the different ports came out and. in turn, danced or sang for them. There were Irish, Dutch, Hawaiian, Spanish and Japanese girls; finally the American girl came and was declared the girl of the sailor’s choice. Perhaps the most worth while activity that we have un- dertaken is our new Scholarship Fund. Early in the school year we decided to start such a fund with which we could send at least one senior to a university for one year. A committee was appointed to investigate how other schools awarded scholarships and to determine how we would award ours. It was then decided that the proceeds of the an- nual High School Circus would be put into this fund. This affair netted us something over four hundred dollars, so the fund is firmly established. Members of the High School and Grammar School Faculties produced “Stop Thief for the benefit of the fund and added another two hundred dollars to it. The scholarship for this year has not yet been award- ed, but it will be announced on Commencement night Our second annual High School Circus was held in the Auditorium February 17, where many wonderful side shows, clowns, wild animals, hula-hula, and ballet girls entertained the crowds—and there certainly was a crowd and how they did enjoy the pop-corn, chewing gum, pink lemonade, kew- pie doils. and best of all the jitney dance. Two clever vaude- ville programs were staged at 9:30 P. M. and again at elev- en o’clock. It was even a better and bigger circus than that of last year. One of the best indications of the co-operation that ex- ists in the Westwood High School is Labor Day. Our second