VHS Riptide Online

Assistant Principal Dr. Stephanie Spencer was one of the staff rumored to be Connie Stone.
“All I know is that supposedly there was a rumor that I had created a fake Facebook account… and that I had friended students. When I first heard this, I thought, ‘Well, that’s totally absurd’ and just kind of laughed about it, like, that’s ridiculous. So then in talking to students, I found out there was a person named Connie Stone and supposedly this person was a 30-year-old woman who had friended 300-some high school students and early college students– from Vashon. This didn’t make sense to me. I don’t know a whole lot about Facebook,” said Spencer.
After being confused as to why she was the subject of the rumor, Spencer said she got angry then hurt.
“I would never do something like that to begin with; I would never even think to do something like that,” said Spencer.
Spencer said this situation has been very hard on her.
“Last Friday, I was walking through the halls and no students were smiling [at me], they were all glaring, and people called me Connie Stone. At which point I felt it had changed to a harassment issue and I was really hurt by that,” she said.
She said that what she’s taken from this event is the power of rumor. Principal Susan Hanson said that since students first started discussing the anonymous Connie Stone a few weeks ago, parents have emailed her questioning whether she or Spencer had created a Facebook page to spy on students.
“We’ve had KOMO [4] News call. I read a statement to them that said, no, it’s not [true]. They wanted to come out to the school but I said, ‘No. I have school. I have people’s educations to deal with’,” said Hanson.
To deal with this problem, the administration sent out a notification declaring that no one on the VHS administration has a Facebook page, nor were they hiding under the pseudonym of Connie Stone. Spencer said she asked Hanson to send out the notification after the rumor circulated about her being Connie Stone. Despite the difficulties, Hanson found a silver lining in the situation.
“The one positive thing that has come out of this [Connie Stone issue] has been conversations. It’s forced students and staff, students and parents, staff and parents to talk about issues that need to be talked about,” said Hanson.
The one solid thing, however, is this: Connie Stone, whoever she is, was not the one who reported students to the administration.

“[Ping pong] is one of the more positive things we’ve seen [at the school], but the location has to be fixed,” said government teacher Cynthia Powell.  “I don’t know how many times I’ve almost worn my lunch, and it’s not like anybody’s trying to do that, they’re just having fun.”
Senior Matt Amick, VHS’s ping pong league creator, understands the complaints, but sees them as trivial.
“I think that the complaints are valid, but all it takes to walk by the crowds is a simple ‘excuse me,’ so it shouldn’t be such a big deal,” said Amick.
Despite Amick’s assurance, the ASB has been working to solve the space issue, but have not found an easy solution yet.
“We understand that this threat is real and annoying, but it’s hard to move such a central and thriving activity, especially with the limited space we have,” said ASB secretary Natalie Kerns.
Some ideas have been to move the ping pong tables to the middle of the lunchroom or move the foosball tables to another location.  However, neither of these solutions makes everyone happy.
“[Moving the tables to the middle] just creates a lot less room where kids can eat and I feel like it would seem like we just want more attention for ping pong which we defiantly have enough of already,” said Amick.
Kerns agreed.
“[We] decided it is nice to have that [space] for only the championship game, like last year. Besides, having the tables in the middle of the lunch room all year round would be [going] a bit overboard, with it constantly being the center of attention for people who don’t necessarily enjoy the sport,” she said.
Powell had another idea.
“We could spread it out a little bit, maybe have one table there, and one in front of the ASB closet,” she said.
The ASB is continuing to search for a solution that will make both the students and the staff happy, in hopes to resolve the issue.

The controversy started when parents chaperoning the homecoming dance thought that dancing at the high school was going too far and was becoming overtly sexually explicit.
Island parent Marcy Summers, a prominent parent involved in the dancing discussion, feels that “adults are there to set the limits and boundaries”. She has seen the dancing for herself and has talked to students who feel awkward and pressured to grind at the dances. She is willing to let students control the atmosphere and what goes on at school dances as long as their actions are within the school district’s “no sexually explicit dancing” policy. Other parents feel the same way and have decided that grinding needs to stop.
In order to curtail the dancing style at VHS, parents set-up several meetings to discuss how they could make the dances a more friendly environment. The joint meeting between parents and students held on Sunday, November 7 and was meant to bring island students and parents together to discuss the dancing issue at hand. About sixty students and parents who attended the meeting were split into three groups to discuss three topics; music choice, possible additional activities at dances, and the specifics of what can and can not be done while dancing. The ideas generated were used as a starting point on how dances should proceed.
The parents opposing grinding at VHS have said that they are not trying to make dances boring but instead, as Summers said, parents “want to support [students] in using all of [their] creative energy… to make the dances fun and make them what they want within the limits set.”
The meeting was advertised as a place for parents and adults to discuss the issue of grinding, but senior Shelby Gale said that hers and other students concerns were not addressed, but instead “met with opposition and wild claims about the intent of the dancing.” The meeting was less a discussion of the dancing style of grinding and more of a meeting to brainstorm ideas on what a post-grinding dance atmosphere would be. As Gale put it, “the reality was made very clear when Marcy Summers and Michael Soltman stated to the group that ‘Grinding is over’.” She said that students were not accurately represented in the discussion process and that the adults steamrolled over most of their concerns. Gale understands where the parents are coming from in respect to their concerns over dancing, but she thinks that “the level they have taken this issue to is completely uncalled for and inappropriate.”
Summers felt like the meeting created a solid starting point from which they could further address the dancing issues. She said that “within the boundaries that are set by the school policy and by the parents… there’s a huge room for students to make dances what they want them to be; dance how they want and listen to the music they would like to listen to,” as long as there is no “sexually explicit dancing or touching.”
Principle Susan Hanson felt that the issue needed to be dealt with through direct communication between students, parents, and the district. The official word from the school district is that dances at VHS needs to change. However, Hanson is less concerned with how students dance, and instead on making dances incorporate a culture where no one is intimidated or pressured into dancing a certain way.
In response to the growing probability that dances may truly become a “no grinding” environment, several student Facebook groups have emerged, including “I Oppose Parental Domination of VHS Dances” and “Boycott Tolo. Save Prom.”, encouraging students to oppose the parental enforcement of dances.
The true indicator of whether the district’s “no sexually explicit dancing” policy and the parents’ efforts to change the culture of VHS dances is successful will be Tolo, the next school dance in January.

The Dockton Road Preservation Project is considering six possible solutions and working with an Island Community Advisory Group (CAG) to decide which solution will best suite the community. The first option, titled “No Build,” involves maintaining the roadway and seawall until it is no longer possible to obtain permits or adequate funding. Ultimately, the road would be closed. The second option would replace the road with a restored beach. In addition to removing the road and restoring the beach, the third option entails building a raised boardwalk along the beach. Alternative four would create a multi-use trail, either paved or with a soft surface, open to pedestrians, bicyclists, and equestrians. Alternative five would create a one-way road with an eight-foot wide shoulder for pedestrian use. Finally, alternative six would rebuild the two-way road existing now but, as in option five, would add an eight-foot wide, pedestrian friendly shoulder.
It is important to note that with any of these alternatives, emergency vehicles will always have access to the dock from either Highland Drive or Tramp Harbor Road. However, with the restoration comes the need to weigh many community concerns.
A major concern that accompanies the possibility for any large building project is the environmental safety of the area affected. Because Dockton Road runs along the shoreline of Puget Sound, working on the approximately 4000 feet of roadway could have a tremendous impact on the nearshore habitat and marine life beyond. The location of the road also proves problematic in another sense; it severs the connection between the bluff and the beach. Known as an armored shoreline, this prevents the supply of restorative sediments to the beach. 
Jennifer Wade, Maury Islander and member of CAG, expressed concern about the bluff. “I would like to see a suspended waterway built from Tramp Harbor Road to Portage,” she said. “With the road suspended out over the water, the magnitude of the environmental impact as well as the archaeological impact would be reduced.”
This brings up the necessity of considering the historical impact the project could have. Many archaeological artifacts have been discovered around Portage and along the Tramp Harbor shoreline. Significant construction could disturb those artifacts.
According to the project schedule, it won’t be until early 2011 that a final design is created and a permit is obtained. Construction would then begin in 2013. In the meantime, community outreach and public involvement is crucial in determining which alternative or which combination of alternatives would best support the communities of Vashon and Maury Islands.

Van Holde has been cooking since she was two-years-old, when her mother taught her. Later, when she was seven or eight, she was in an orphanage in Thailand and worked in the kitchen. She said she’s always known that she wanted to cook.
“[Cooking] is my passion; this is what I want to do with my life,” she said.
Van Holde first went to Puget Sound Skills Center for a cooking program last summer to try it out. She said she liked it right away.
“I knew this is where I should be; this is where I want to be,” said Van Holde.
She attends the morning shift, and works one meal course per session that alternates on a regular basis. Currently, she’s on pastry, and recently learned to make a delicious caramel sauce. She said her favorite course to cook is hotline, the main course.
“I’m learning a lot of different kinds of styles right now. My style is Thai food and Indian, but I’m learning how to cook French, Italian; I like to learn different styles of cooking,” said Van Holde.
PSSC offers 19 vocational programs that fall under the categories of Automotive, Health, and Technology. In addition to Van Holde’s Culinary Arts, PSSC also offers Auto Body Technology, Criminal Justice Training, Fashion Design and Marketing, Environmental and Marine Science, and many more. The classes are offered to high school juniors and seniors. Van Holde said the two most popular programs are mechanics, and her own culinary class.
Though she said it can be a hassle to commute into the city every day, it’s definitely worth it for her.
“For me, this starts my career. [At PSSC], they teach you about your passion. From here, I think I’m going to go to South Seattle Community College, then after go to NYC or San Francisco to go to a restaurant and work,” she said.
“I think most students who go here would want to go [to PSSC]; I think it would be really cool if kids [from our school] went [to PSSC]. If you’re interested [in a specific field], I recommend going there; it’s the best thing.”