Every year at St. John High, we have our annual Sadie Hawkins Dance. It is a small dance, put together by the Key Club that brings the school together to have fun and dance. This year’s Sadie Hawkins will be different than the past years. For 2008, the theme of Sadie Hawkins will be “A Black and White Affair”. The dance will be held on January 26, 2008. It will take place from 7:00-10:00 p.m., with a lock-in at 7:30.There is a very specific dress code for the dance. Students will be allowed to wear their favorite black and white attire, but they will not be allowed to wear jeans. The dance will take place in the St. John School Cafeteria. There will be a D.J., a photographer, tons of decorations, and fun for all.

Many students at St. John are very excited about the dance. I asked Senior Dallas Landry how she felt and she replied, “I am very excited for this year’s Sadie Hawkins. I had tons of fun last year and I hope to have tons of fun this year. I can’t wait till Saturday. I also love the theme. It is something different and it sounds like it will be very fun.” While some students are enthusiastic, others are dissatisfied. Senior Blaine Delaune says, “I am disappointed in this year’s theme. I feel that it affects the way we must dress. Now we have to obey to certain colors. I have always been able to express myself at Sadie Hawkins, but now I feel that we don’t even have an option. It feel like many restrictions keep occurring during my senior year, I wish this year’s theme could have been different.” Although there are many different opinions on this year’s dance. I firmly believe that the dance will be full of fun and excitement for all who attend.

By Allie Hebert

This Tuesday, 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger was found dead in Mary-Kate Olson’s SoHo apartment. He was found at 3:26 pm, according to police, and pills were strewn on the bed around his naked body, though it hasn’t been confirmed whether they are prescription or over-the-counter. It’s not clear why Ledger was at Olsen’s apartment, since she is reportedly in California.

It’s unclear whether the cause of Ledger’s death was deliberate, or a drug overdose. Considering Ledger has been a fairly successful actor in popular movies such as “10 Things I Hate About You,” “The Patriot,” “A Knight’s Tale,” and “Brokeback Mountain,” and was cast as the joker in the upcoming sequel to “Batman Begins,” suicide seems unlikely.

Many celebrities have fallen prey to Hollywood’s partying and drug scene. Some, like Amy Winehouse, Pete Winz, and Lindsay Lohan, have made multiple trips to rehabilitation to try to correct this. Others, such as Ledger and Elvis Presley, haven’t been so lucky.

Drug abuse a serious issue that affects people of all ages across America, not just celebrities. According to a survey taken by the U.S. Bureau of Justice, drug use in teens was much more prevalent in the ‘80s than now. However, despite the efforts of D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and other organizations devoted to stamping out drugs, many Americans still struggle with drug addiction.

By Susie LeJeune

Plagiarism is defined by www.dictionary.reference.com as “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work.” Especially in recent years, since the Internet has made others’ work so easily accessible, plagiarism is very common among middle school, high school, and college campuses.

In fact, plagiarism is so serious, it is even punishable by U.S. federal law. Violating copyright laws, which outlaw the copying of another’s work without their expressed permission, can result in appearing in court.

According to www.plagiarism.com, the following are considered plagiarism: “turning in someone else’s work as your own; copying words or ideas from someone else without giving them credit; failing to put a quotation in quotation marks; giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation; changing words but copying sentence structure of a source without giving it credit; copying so many ideas or words from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.”

Not all students plagiarize because they are lazy; many students are shocked to discover they are being punished for plagiarism. Not understanding how to correctly cite works can result in unintentional plagiarism. Becoming informed on how to properly paraphrase can help avoid this issue.

At St. John, plagiarism is punishable by a suspension and a 0 on the plagiarized assignment. The most frequently plagiarized assignments are summer reading assignments and class essays.

By Susie LeJeune

LSU’s next stop will be in the New Orleans Superdome to play in the BCS National Championship. The LSU Fighting Tigers will face the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday, January 7, 2008, LSU ranked number two, and Ohio Stated ranked number one. After a very unpredictable season for both LSU and Ohio State, LSU will play in the National Championship game for the second time in the last four years. This is Ohio’s State’s second consecutive year to play in the BCS National Championship. The strength of both teams would be their defense, LSU ranking third nationally in total defense, Ohio State ranking first.

A few weeks ago, it was as if both Ohio State and LSU had ruined their shot at playing in the BCS Championship due to losses of unranked opponents. However, both teams played their way back into the championship game after a very strange college football season. Many teams who were unable to take advantages of opportunities to get into the BCS Bowl were of great assistance to Ohio State and LSU.

It was the first time in the history of the BCS that both the Number 1 and 2 teams in the standings lost on the same day, Missouri and West Virginia. This opened the door for Ohio State to climb to the top spot. Meanwhile, LSU had rose from number seven to number two in the standings after their 21-14 victory over Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Also, LSU had defeated ACC champion Virginia Tech and two idle teams in Georgia and Kansas.

By Corrine Reeves

Smoking is a very common thing for Americans. It is the main cause of lung cancer. Every day 1,200 Americans die from smoke related diseases. Every day almost 3,000 children under the age of 18 start smoking. Smoking is every addictive and contains nicotine. Nicotine makes up 5 percent of the tobacco plant. Tobacco is what is found in a cigarette. Nicotine helps release unneeded amounts of adrenaline. Adrenaline makes your heart beat faster, increases blood pressure, and rapid of shallow breathing. Smoking also makes peoples lungs smaller. It is estimated that about 4.5 million adolescents are smokers in the world today. There are other things such as chewing tobacco or smoking cigars or pipes, but neither of them is better for you than smoking a cigarette. Smoking dieses claim more lives than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide and illegal drugs combined. Most people smoke at least a pack a day. This means that people are more likely to die seven years earlier than people who do not smoke at all. Women who are pregnant and smoke are more likely to lose their children before they are even born or have premature children. Smoking causes second hand smoke in smoker’s friend, family and strangers all around them. Second hand smoke is just as bad as smoking. This means when someone else lights up…. Run the other way! Teens who smoke usually get sicker than teens who do not smoke at all. Teenagers who smoke are also more likely to use other drugs or illegal substances and alcoholic beverages. Once someone starts to smoke it is very hard to quit because the nicotine in the cigarette or other tobacco substance is highly addictive. There are many different alternative sources of nicotine, such as patches and gum. People who start smoking at a young age have a harder addictive habit to break if or when they decide to stop smoking.

By Sara Pennington and Alannah Myers

This week in Saudi Arabia a teacher was sent to prison for naming the teddy bear at a local school Teddy Bear Muhammad, because the people saw it as an offense against the great prophet, Muhammad. Others however, believed that her actions were highly unforgivable and began to protest in the streets, claiming that the teacher be put to death for her actions. There were also those who believed that no punishment should be taken and that she should simply be excused of her actions. The teacher wasn’t the one who named it though; it was given the name Teddy Bear Muhammad because it was given to it by the class, and however the protesters believed that she shouldn’t have allowed it to be named that.

The prophet Muhammad was once one of Saudi Arriba’s most religious and well respected leaders, who is believed to be the head source of Saudi Arian worship. And a huge majority of the population could easily be classified as huge followers, leading towards a drastic outrage given the following events. I fear to see what would happen if our government came in to this matter, to attempt freeing the prisoner. Sure, what she did was a minor mistake but I don’t believe we know the meaning of negotiation. Going there and interfering would not only worsen our ties with Saudi Arriba even more, but may also severe our trade with OPEC, the worlds head source of oil. This would be bad on a major scale, meaning that we should simply stand back, or take a very cautious and different approach towards this issue. The very last things we need are to be cut short of oil, and starting another war while still at war with another nation would give the United States government a bad reputation, especially seeing as how both areas are closely connected and major sources of oil, a desperately need resource it our society.

By Robbie Gomez

It is now official: the LSU Fighting Tigers will play the Ohio State Buckeyes for the Bowl Championship Series National Title in New Orleans on January 7th. The announcement caps a whirlwind of events for LSU this weekend. The Tigers won the SEC title Saturday night by defeating Tennessee. This comes as a big surprise to all the tiger fans because they all thought that it was off to the regular sugar bowl for LSU but with the dramatic win over Tennessee LSU came out in second place.

LSU’s coach Les Miles was thinking about leaving LSU to go to Michigan on Saturday but after they got into the national championship he decided to stay. He signed his contract Thursday night proclaiming that he is going to stay a couple more years.

This will mark the second time LSU plays in the National Championship game in the last four years. Last time in 2003 in a game against Oklahoma we were victorious hopefully this year, 2007 football season, we will be again.

LSU is the first team ever with two losses to play for the national title. Meanwhile, their opponent has only one loss. Although this is a disadvantage to LSU, LSU has home field advantage while playing in the super dome in New Orleans.

Senior Meagan Himel said “I am so enthralled that LSU will be competing for the national championship against Ohio State. If we do not win I will be extremely disappointed. I am also glad that head coach Les Miles has decided to sign a new contract and stay at LSU. He is a great coach and just what we need for success.”

By Jessica Harrell

Each year, Evangeline attends the Natchitoches, City of Lights, Christmas Festival. My family and I attended the festival on November 30-December 2 this year. The Natchitoches Christmas Festival is on the Cane River, and downtown Natchitoches is covered with beautiful Christmas lights. The decorations on the bridge, river, and throughout the town were unlike any I have ever seen.

Friday night we watched the boat parade on the Cane River. There was band with tons of food and people walking around just enjoying the festival. Saturday was the festival’s parade. The Natchitoches Christmas parade is one of the largest parades in the country. Before the parade, all of the visiting queens were invited to a reception, where we ate, got to know each other, and just had a good time. There were festival queens from festivals all around Louisiana in Natchitoches, ranging in age. I was able to meet many queens throughout Louisiana. During the parade, I rode on one of the three visiting Queen’s floats. After being in the parade, I definitely see how it is one of the biggest parades in the country. It was amazing and I have never seen so many people at a parade, it was unbelievable.

A thirty minute firework show also took place Saturday night, which the Natchitoches Christmas Festival is also known for. The firework show was a beautiful show with music, lasers, and spot lights, and I’ve never seen anything like it. I had a great time with my family and the new girls I met at the Natchitoches Christmas Festival, and it will always be a great memory of mine.

By Corrine Reeves

Every year, all of the Religion classes join together to make baskets for the poor. This year every grade from first to twelfth will be donating various items for the less fortunate. Mr. David Merrick, head of the Religion department, is organizing the event this year. He has already started planning and finding families to help. The effort to collect toys, cards, anything that will brighten
their day has not officially started yet. We will be starting this fundraiser next Monday. For the past few years, we have been adopting families to give the children toys, and the parents whatever they may need. Last year we helped over ten families. Many people in the community took notice and were very pleased with St. John Students giving back to the community. This year, we hope to live up to expectations and deliver the Christmas baskets once again.

I asked Junior Ashley Mumphrey about the fundraiser and she told me that “I can remember doing this every year. I remember three years ago, in eighth grade, I got to go help and deliver all of the baskets. The people that we gave them to were overwhelmed. They could not believe that we donated our own things to help them have a better Christmas. It made me feel a lot better knowing that I participated in such a wonderful fundraiser. I’m glad we’re doing it again. I’m sure we all have toys and clothes that we could donate.” Mr. Merrick told me that he was “excited” and “nervous”. He said that with Pat’s Coats for Kids being such a failure, he was very nervous that no one would donate items.

However, I am sure that the St. John Student body will live up to its yearly Christmas fundraiser and help the less-fortunate in our community.

By Allie Hebert

Starting on Saturday, December 8, dog season will open up. The purpose of dog season is for the hunter to run their dogs into the woods so the deer will run out of the woods so the other hunters can shoot the deer as they come out. This style of hunting is fast pace; where as, still hunting is a very slow and relaxed style of deer hunting. Still hunting is when the hunter sits in a stand in the woods and waits for a deer to pass.

When I am still hunting, I use a substance called scent blocker. Scent blocker is a spray on liquid that makes you smell like nature. I use this because if the deer smells you it will run away. I use another substance called natural earth. It smells like dirt, and hides your smell from the deer. However, when I am running dogs, I do not use these substances. Normally when we’re running dogs, the deer do not stop because they are either running or trying to get away from the dogs. The deer are distracted by the dogs so they are not worried about human scent.

When hunting, you should always used safety precautions and be very careful in the woods. A hunter should always wear some type of clothing with hunter’s orange. This is because there might be other people hunting in the same area and the orange will make the hunter stand out so the people already hunting will see him and not mistake him for an animal and shoot. A hunter should also never go hunting by himself because if something bad should happen, the hunter would have someone there to help him. There are many other safety guidelines that a hunter should follow and this is why anyone who hunts is required to have a Hunter’s Safety Card. This card is received by the hunter after the completion of the Hunter’s Safety Course.

By Kyle Albarado