Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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4 iS L®? • •» ' -- , '- 0r (Jay h00 h ' cb J ce °ne thi in S 4 err. ‘y 0. 41 C® c - .- 3 -4i S$8S£ 4 ' 4 a» k:'Sy : 5 f v, head BRINGING NEWS OF our school to the public is paperboy Dave Saturday. Good news about us wasn't always seen by the subscribers as many of the BEACON’S stories reflected negative aspects of our school. INSET: Proclaiming to the world the arrest of five students, this article appeared on page two of the BEACON when many more positive events were occuring here. Introduction 3

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“Hey, Dad, I just came from the new neighbor's house; they say Ashtabula High School’s the place to go. “Ashtabula? Is that the one on West 44th? “I'm not sure. It’s uptown somewhere. “Yea. that’s what I thought. You can just forget about going there. “Aw, Dad. How come?” “I was just reading in the STAR BEACON that that school just had five of its students picked up for possession of marijuana at lunch time!” “Every school has a drug problem. From what I’ve heard, there are schools in the area a lot worse off than Bula - that’s what they call it for short.” “1 don't care if they call it heaven for short. I was talking to some people. too, and from what I’ve heard, you can just forget about Boo Boo, or Bula, or whatever it's called.” What else have you heard?” “1 was talking to that old man a-cross the street “How often does he get to the high school? He barely gets to the end of his front porch. “He reads the paper, though. He says that they’ve had an article in there about a teacher being assaulted and a whole series of articles about the girls' basketball team wrecking some other school’s lockers. You think I want your sister playing on a team like that? Dad. from what most of the kids told me, those articles were blown way out of proportion. “Arc you trying to tell me the STAR BEACON didn’t report the facts?” “No, but they emphasized those stories. And guys like the one across the street took them and labeled the kids from Bula hoodlums.” “The paper can only report the facts. Son. “1 know. Dad. but there are also a lot of good facts that are in the paper that I bet that guy didn’t tell you about.” “ Well, the paper’s not the only reason you're not going there. “What else is there?” They Only Report The Facts' 2 Introduction

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“I don’t know why I let you talk me into coming down here to look at some 65-year-old school.” “Come on. Dad. You have to admit it didn’t look too bad from the outside.” “No, but now that we’re inside, it’s worse than I ever dreamed of.” “What do you mean?” “1 mean I saw windows boarded up. lockers torn apart, and plaster falling like it was going out of style. No kids of mine are going to this pig stye.” “You mean I can't go here just because it’s a little run down? You're not even looking at the education i might get here. ‘‘What kind of education? The kind that teaches you to write on restroom walls?” “Dad, how can you size up a whole school system by the way it looks? Maybe it’s like this because they don't have the money to fix it up.” “What do you mean? Don’t you remember the realtor telling us they just passed a levy for the schools last year? They must be getting some money from that.” “Well, there are some new lights, and that auditorium didn’t look too bad.” “Sure, but a couple of things like that don’t make it a brand new school. That parking lot alone is enough to make you think twice about coming here. There’re holes big enough to get lost in.” “Okay, but look at the custodians in this place. We must have seen at least five of them since we came in. They’re trying to clean this place up. and there are even kids picking up papers outside.” “From the looks of the school, the custodians don’t do such a great job. And from what I’ve heard, they’re the only employees who do work around here.” “What do you mean?” Learning 4 lntroduction