Suffolk High School - Peanut Yearbook (Suffolk, VA)

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Looks good. From the smile on Sharon Manning ' s face, she obvisouly is satisfied with her schedule, pausing in the hall to check her next number. Words of welcome. Annette Christian invites all students to participate in school activities. Getting to Know Y’all XI as it been three months already? I ' ll bet they set the calenders up a month . This seemed to be written all over the freshmen s faces as they began to slowly gather in the auditorium for Orientation. It was time to let go of surf boards and sand buckets and pick up pencils and notebooks. From now on, whenever there would be the need to take a cool dip, a Nestea plunge would have to suffice. Everyone was quiet and attentive the first day of school. Nobody wanted to miss a single direction, not even directions to a classroom. With all these steps and doors, I could get lost in a minute, sighed Jewel Winborne as she took a glance at the stairs at each end of the hall. During the opening assembly, Mrs. Bailey gave everyone a smile and eased a little of the tension with a warm welcome. She was followed by Mrs. White who explained scheduling and credits needed for graduating. We just got here and she ' s talking about graduation, joked one freshman as he sank into his seat. Instead of getting better, things turned a bit sour as Mr. Jones started to explain disciplinary rules and regulations, but a few smiles began to show when he announced that he was new to the school too. Laughter broke spontaneously as he further related the story of a young man who didn’t want to tuck his shirt in for fear it would wrinkle. Mr. Jones still made his point; he would be fair but firm. An hour and a half later it was off to homeroom were there were dozens of forms to fill out that were carbon copies of all the forms in previous years. This gave freshmen a chance to get acquainted with their homeroom teachers, who they would only see a total of two hours during the year. More important, there was time to catch up on summer loves and losses. 12 ORIENTATION

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Sell those oranges! The Band Booster families helped raise money for the shiny new drums. Worse I r is estimated that there are currently eleven million of them under age eighteen. One million more per year at the current rate will experience the situation. Forty-five percent of them will experience it before age eighteen. Who are they? Children of Divorce. In the last d ecade, the divorce rate in the United States has more than doubled, prompting many psychiatrists to call it one of the most serious and complex mental health crises facing children of the 80s. Despite the adage that children are flexible and will bounce back, the experience can be painful and damaging. Children between the ages of six and eight often take on the responsibility of the separations and have fears of abandonment and loss of love. Between the ages of nine and twelve, the children ' s anger seems to be directed toward the parent he deems responsible for the break-up. However teenagers face what many experts call the loyalty dilemma, or which parent to remain faithful to. They also tend to try to take on the responsibility of the missing parent. Boys are the harder hit because more is expected from them and they get less support from teachers and peers as a result. Yet, all the articles and experts can not know how living in a single-parent home affects the children. In many cases, divorce is a much happier situation than the fighting and bickering that was once present. And as long as the children are assured that the parents are only divorcing each other and not the children, life can go on almost as usual. Credit for statistics: Readers Digest May 1980 issue. FAMILY 11

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New sights and sounds. From their bench under the big tree out front. Freshmen survey the school grounds. Ready and waiting. A pile of ninth grade schedules waits to be distributed to heir owners. FRESHMAN QUESTIONNAIRE Twenty-one members of the Freshman class were asked the following questions, and here are the results. Q: What are your expectations of Suffolk High School? What do you expect your first year to be like? A: The majority felt that they would enjoy the school and their first year here. Freshmen felt their year would be spunky ” and different Q: Are you excited about starting high school? A: Most were, but there were a few who took nonchalant attitudes. Q: How do you feel about getting out of your bed, while still on vacation, to come to Orientation? A: The majority felt alternately happy or sleepy. A small minority felt upset about rising early.