Wando High School - Legend Yearbook (Mount Pleasant, SC)

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Reputation “You are about to enter a new di- mension of time and space beyond your wildest imagination. You are about to take an incredible voyage into ... the Party Zone!” The East Cooper Area as a fast growing, Yuppie haven has gotten a reputation as a community from which some wild parties have come. Most of this is purely rumor, though. In fact, these happenings are few and far between. Some people can remember (even if just from hearing some of these rumors) the parties that ended in disaster, but somehow nobody ever seems to be able to recall those parties that were all in the name of fun. It was a familiar scenario that oc- curred almost every weekend: a small group of friends had little or nothing to do on a Friday or Satur- day night, so they got together at someone’s house to have a good time. Sure, some of the activities at these parties may not have brought waves of parental approval, but at least they didn’t bring destruction to the house or guilt to the partici- pants. For those party-goers, a visit to the Party Zone was a unique and enjoyable experience. Shawn Slater Reaction Teen-age partying Do you know where your sons and daughters were the night of Saturday. Sept. 19? Well, there’s a good chance they were at my house or at one of the other two unchaperoned weekend teen-age parties that have become a regular occurence east of the Cooper. For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity of being absentee hosts yet, let me give you an idea of how it goes. You plan to go out of town for the weekend. You make arrange- ments for the kids, especially daughters, to spend the weekend with someone. Then, one of your kids decides to have a small group of friends over to your house with- out your ever finding out about it. From there things go straight down the tubes. This small group starts spreading the word. In our case, we came home Sat- urday night rather than Sunday, as originally planned. We pulled up in the driveway at 11 p.m. to a park- ing lot of about 15 cars. There were three cars full leaving when we arrived. Inside were approxi- mately 40 teenagers. It was the two couples in my bedroom that disturbed me the most. Needless to say. they were not discussing world affairs. We’ve dealt with our teen-ager and she will be paying for this mistake for a very long time. The house, garage and yard yielded a harvest of six full garbage bags of empty beer cans. We were luckier than some. We got home early before anything got too far out of hand. Some of the kids had already left, many of them driving drunk friends home. Several things occur to me. First of all. under the new drinking laws, in a situation like this if a carload of kids left our house drunk and had a wreck and got hurt or worse, would we be held liable? Who is ultimately responsible for selling all that beer to minors? Just be- cause a kid says he was invited to your home, does that mean that you have no legal recourse to prosecute them for trespassing? Where have we. as parents, gone wrong in teaching our kids the in- trinsic value of respecting some- one else’s property. Whose house will be next? Will it be yours? Don’t be too sure it won’t. I never thought it could happen to me. Oct. 4. 1987 JULIA P. KIRKLEY 1218 Chandler Road Awendaw the town in October, presents a par- V ent's point of view. (News Courier, printed with permission)

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Tk Pa iftf Zone, Reality Sure. The Tribe has a joie de vivre! We enjoy everything we do and we do everything well! Aside from parties, we also enjoy public acclaim for being one of a very limited num- ber of schools in the state to have received in excess of $100,000 in Educational Incentive Awards during the past two years; for having been awarded in excess of $60,000 in individ- ual and group grant money for specialized and advanced studies; and for our students’ consistently qualifying for close to three quar- ters of a million dollars in scholarships each year. Exceptionally high scores on standard- ized and exit tests have proven the calibre of our students, staff, and organization. Proof also lies in the eleven National Merit Finalists Wando has recognized in the last two years. However, cocky about our successes, we were jolted when we had to face the inevita- ble shortcoming: Dr. Burke. Superintendent of Charleston County Schools, calls Wando a diamond in the rough. Unfortunately, on January 7 he also added to his assessment the fact that an undercover surveillance project in the county schools had revealed a cavalier attitude to- ward substance abuse, substances includ- ing tobacco, beer, and marijuana. However, time of use of these substances were not nec- essarily during school hours. Factors contrib- uting to the actual on-campus problem were identified as the layout and size of the school, a lack of awareness on the part of the staff, and the overall community affluence level en- abling students the freedom, time, money, and transportation to traffic in illegal sub- stances. mainly underage drinking. Assured that the large majority of our ex- ceptional student body were being defamed by a few who were not afraid of retribution from their parents, school officials, or even the police force. staff members began more stringent canvassing of halls, restrooms, and parking areas. Staff, parents and students were informed of the facts found in the under- cover operation and were encouraged to join the staff in a no tolerance” stance toward any substance abuse. As The Legend goes to press, we are collec- tively concerned with the smudges which a small minority of our number paint on our record of outstanding achievements and community involvement. Among our staff of 17. clocking in a total of 59 years at Wando High School, we have seen only 13 instances of anything that might pass, to us. as sub- stance abuse, although we do acknowledge there is some tobacco smoking going on in the parking areas and restrooms. We want to take this opportunity to urge parents, stu- dents. community and staff to continue to emphasize the accomplishments and contri- butions of our students as a whole rather than dwell on the infractions of a few. know- ing that in any group of 1730 students there will always be those who feel they are above the conventions of society. We also would urge our readers to continue to be ex- amples of substance abstinence and to put pressure on any we see involved in any way in substance abuse. These actions, supported by our students and our community, will en- sure Wando's future role, already a leader in so many other areas, also as a leader in sub- stance control. The Legend Staff Bottom right Best buds. Eddie Taylor, Skip Lupton. and Mike James horse around on weekends between intense discussions about fast cars and cute girls. Below Ken LConway. TIHini Parker. Angie West. Jenny Ward. Lisa Floyd and Gwen Wright pose at one of the many New Year's Eve parties this year with Will Brock. Opposite page, top The French Club breaks their neighbor- hood entertainment at Mrs. Carson's home. Parties

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A Pnmd Heritage Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday Mt. Pleasant. Happy Birthday to you! Last October, the town of Mt. Pleasant held its 150th birthday cel- ebration. and Wando participated in the events of the finale weekend. Saturday morning, the student council worked at the Children' Fes- tival at Alhambra Hall. Pilar Ritchie. Eliza Middleton Stacey Peterson Wyche Warren, and Kristen Tram- mell were at the Ring Toss, while at the Milk Can Ball Toss were Eliza- beth Craven Katherine Sparks Ai- mee Rowland Shawn Slater and Britt Westendorff Britt admitted, Despite being hit by thousands of The pr ide ot the Sesquicentenmal Parade, the Wando Marching Band led the procession in its path down Coleman Blvd to the Sea Island Shopping Center tennis balls. I really enjoyed helping out the little kids. The parade was the next day. The Wando Band led the procession with their rendition of Soul Man. Fur- ther along the parade route, the cheerleaders were riding around with the Q107 Coke Video Van. After the parade, everyone moved to Patriots Plaza for the Spirit of '87 Pep Rally. Q107 and Charleston Mo- bile Music sponsored the event which featured performances by the Wando band, dance line, and cheer- leaders. It was a wonderful way to round out the sesquicentennial cele- bration and usher in Wando's Home- coming 1987. Cheerleaders Kerry Dupuy and Jenifer Has- kill show their spirit to the crowd gathered for the Spirit of '87 Pep Rally held at Patriot's Plaza after the parade.