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Show ;'4 4 ii ' w fM " , ,, . n ut . '5 rr 'i REVIEW For turn 4 Lakesjdejteview You're (Tltoo YP-- VW vAte oe IS You know youre ?&&? over 40 when . . , it comes to age, are basically five in one's life. The first is turning 6. After that its turning 21, 30, 40 and then 65. When 1 Well, I only have one more milestone left now. This year I celebrated my 40th birthday. I dont consider turning 40 a traumatic experience. Everyones going to do it at one time or another. I guess the only complaint I would have is if I didnt make it this far. A bunch of friends, who by some quirk of fate all seem to be a couple of years younger than I am, have asked me what it feels like to turn 40. Well, it doesnt feel much different than 39. It wouldnt have been a big deal, except we all seem to make it such. Funny birthday cards and gag gifts add to the celebration. All this does is get you thinking that turning 40 is the beginning of the downhill slide. I like to look at all the rock musicians who are still going strong over 40, and it makes me feel young. Except for Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, who looked like he was 40 when he was 19. So rather than fight this trend of seeing turning 40 as a significant event, its better just to go along with it So in the best interest of laughing at yourself, here is a collection of insights. You know youre over 40 when . . . . . . Your favorite rock groups have moved from MTV to PBS. . . Your teenage childs favor ite high school teacher is someto high school with. one you went ... All your music CDs are old of your duplicates just and LP collections. . . . You remember when the Utah Jazz played in New Orleans and you still think their nickname sounds funny. . . . You remember when a Democrat was governor. . . . You remember when you could work on your own car. . . . When you get Rogaine as a Christmas present. . . . You remember when all the sports announcers and coaches actually played the game. . . . Your encyclopedia collection doesnt have any information on half the countries in the world. . . . When your child asks you who Jimmy Carter was. . . . When you tell people you dont care if you get the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition - and mean it. . . . When youve never heard of half the Grammy winners. . . . You remember reading about the sexual exploits of pub- lic figures only after they were dead. Andy Howell is an assistant managing editor for the Standard-Examine- r and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. He can be 1. reached weekdays at 776-495- Letters to the Editor North Layton students respond to article Multiethnic school being misjudged The following letters were selected from a number written to the Standard-Examinbv students at florth Layton Junior High School in response to articles about a racial t . 'flur being spelled out on the school's sign. Due to space considerations not all the letters could be run in the i , newspaper. i . er ft . . t t9 As a studentI of North Layton Ju, nior High, enjoy reading about , 9 my school in the paper. I apprecit ate the time you spend recogniz. . ing us teens. With our multiethnic society we have our 9 , I multiethnic schools. This results I many times as a problem facing our society and schools today. 9 9 My school in my opinion has 9 . ? . been misjudged. I would like to let you know along with many others what is happening in my school. I have read how this paper portrays my school as a gang filled and racial school. This is false. . We may have some students in our school that could possibly be in a gang and others can be racial. I for one am not and do not appreciate you telling me and my family that I am. In my school we do not single them out beV cause of our difference in views. c As a school we have many so . . v-- ; !: . Ashley Evans North Layton Junior High North Layton not only school with problems As a subscriber to the Standard-Examiner, I can fully enjoy the wide variety of articles the paper has to offer. I can also appreciate the few articles which portrayed North Layton Junior High as a respectable school. I feci the recent article i! This I believe has been brought on by society and we are labeled a Bad Kid or a Gang member before we even have the chance to show our selves. I would like to state that when you label something in this way, it hurts feelings, offends people, and also gives us no chance to speak in our behalf. We could fix this problem by NOT labeling students in schools as racial. I have discussed this with my fellow students and as many as I have talked to no one has been racial. Please when writing I would appreciate it if you would print the truth. On North Layton Junior High we do not have a racial problem, I believe. And if we do I am sorry for I as an individual am not racist. As a school we strive to fix this problem with any others that may surface. Thank you for spending your five minutes on my letter. 1 hope I have gave you a little bit of light on this subject. Thanks again for all the good things you have done, and the time you spend for us so we can be informed. called clicks. Racial Slur Ignites School has mislead the people to believe our school is brimming with racism and gangs. This could not be further from the truth. I have attended North Layton Junior High for nearly three years and I have not noticed such activities with the frequency that had been suggested. Truthfully, no school is free of either gangs or racism and ours is no exception. Our school may have a couple small gangs and some of the students are racist, but those people do not represent the entire student body of North Layton Junior High. As I read the article, that is precisely what I felt was being implied. To prove North Layton Junior High is not the only school being touched by the traces of racism and gangs, I propose the paper print an article stating how well North Layton Junior High handled the problem of the sign and the racial slur. I also believe the article should reveal to the public that the problems of racism and gangs exist in other schools and not exclusively ours. I thank the paper for the exquisite articles and the time spend reading letters such as this, has been the Standard-Examinthis city's information source for years and will continue to do so for many more. Staci Gustafson North Layton Junior High Article overshadows wonderful acts School not full of racial tension As a student in the learning process, I highly appreciate the high quality of your newspaper. A strong controversy has arisen over the article and editorial printed in your paper concerning the incident with the sign at our school. The article has portrayed our school as very undisciplined and wild. I have been attending this school for a year and a half and have never witnessed any act more malicious than a simple fight between two people who have momentarily lost control, as we all tend to do at one time. Along with participating in Red Ribbon Drug Free Week, our school has had food drives, brought and donated clothes, books and hygiene items to needy people. This article seems to overshadow all these wonderful acts, placing NUH in an unfavorable light. After reading your article titled Racial Slur Ignites School, I was infuriated. North Layton is not a school full of racial tension and gang activity. The changing of the sign is the first act of racism I have seen in this school. I doubt very highly that someone from the school changed the sign. Most of the students at North Layton do not see color as even an issue. I know I havent ever. And the ones that do know enough not to make mention of it. Students at our school feel that if you are racist, you are uneducated. If the sign in front of your office building was changed, would you like us to think of you in the At my old school which I attended in 7th grade, we had security guards with guns and surveillance cameras in the halls. NUH, in my opinion, is a vei7 safe school, and racial tension is a minor problem rarely affecting the education most students are trying to get. Some students at our school are related with gangs, but I have d never witnessed any activities taking place on school grounds, during or after school hours. Do we really need to focus on the negative? Is it going to solve the racial problem? Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please consider this letter as another view point and a simple act of loyalty to a school I am proud to attend. Heather Miller North Layton Junior High gang-relate- Article painted false picture I appreciate how the Standard-Examinreports on what goes on in our community. You have written many articles about the things our school does for the community such as the book drive that we held where we collected over 2,000 childrens books. er However, in your recent article Racial Slur Ignites School, I feel that you have painted a false picture for the readers of that article. I am now a ninth grader and have attended North Layton Junior High for almost 3 years. In all that time, I have not noticed any type of racial prejudice. Since seventh grade, there actually have been less and less fights. Most of the time the students treat each other with respect. But like all schools they do have their incidents. Statistically, in the past four years, there have been 97 less incidents. We do deserve credit for that. In reading the article, many students got the impression that you were judging our school on the basis of one incident. The accusations were also upsetting because there wasnt proof that the person who switched the letter even went to our school. It could have been anyone walking by. Brant Weiche North Layton Junior High Letter policy The Lakeside Review encourages readers to submit letters to the editor. Content of letters should address issues of interest to our readership throughout north Davis County. Letters should double-space- include the be typed, and must name and telephone number of the writer for verification purposes. Send ail letters to the Lakeside Review, 2146 N. Main, Layton, Ut., 84041. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Letters can also be faxed at 773-728- 4. same manner you have us? I know that in previous years North Layton has had a bad reputation, but even as you reported, our problems have dropped considerably. I think that it is imperative that the word gets out: We are NOT a school full of racial tension and gang activity. Yes, we have our problems, but what school doesnt? And most of our problems come from the normal teenage motives such as popularity and becoming an individual, and racial problems arent what come out of it. Tiffany Peck North Layton Junior High School deserves more credit I am a ninth grade student at Layton Junior High School. As a student I enjoy North reading your newspaper and as a member of this community I enjoy hearing about what is going, on in our town. I must commend you on your efforts. However, I was very disturbed by what I read in the paper about our school. Our school now has a bad reputation. I have been going to this school for three years and all of those years I have seen maybe three fights at the most. We have a wonderful administration that is always out in the halls. They are always willing to talk to students and parents. We also have some wonderful teachers. I think that our school deserves more credit than they are receiving. We have teachers and administrators who work day and night to make this a wonderful school. I also think that you should have interviewed more students to get a better look at what others think of our school. This school is a top notch school with people who care and I want the community to know that. I want to thank you for your time and for all that you do for the Top of Utah. Shahn Cheshire North Layton Junior High Have never heard racial slurs at school As a subscriber to your paper I appreciate that you report on local stories. Your paper is very informative and useful. However, an article you printed about our school caught my eye. As a student of North Layton Junior High, I have never witnessed the violence, or the racial slurs, that you have wntten about. I have been here three years and have seen maybe three fights, none of them big enough to really worry about. 1 also feel that you needed to interview more people, not just a few. Those few may feel that this is a Gang School, but most of us don't. When you walk the halls of our school, you feel totally safe. Sure we have a few gangsters, every school does, but they havent caused any problems since I started here. We like to think of our school as the best in Davis County. I would like to encourage you to focus on the good and not the bad points of our school. 1 know you have to report bad news, but dont sensationalize it. Interview more people, look at statistics, and get informed before you write such a judgmental piece. Treetia lluven North Layton Junior High POOR |