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Hazed, that's terrible. I can't imagine ever being able to find humor in something like that, especially so soon after.
edited for spelling
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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C.- "Heathers" is sitting right next to me. Great, great movie.
I was a "Veronica" for a while... seeing that movie helped me flee to the "art freaks"...
...who turned out to be just as nasty and shallow...
But, to be OT, in my senrior yearbook, the staff decided to put their own quotes (like, in quotations and everything, as if the people in the pictures had said them) mocking all the "uncool" kids. For example, National Art Honor Society members, each year, decided on themed halloween costumes. The year was Lord of the Rings. So we agree to get a group picture taken, and wind-up with the very mocking "We look super-duper hot!" caption. My friend C.J. was a ghostbuster (and, if I may add, looked FANTASTIC!) had an equally sarcastic caption... I'll try to dig it up.
Nocturnal "Voted Most Artistic" Goddess
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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Wow, I'd always thought my school was in the majority. Apparently not.
Anytime anyone dies for any reason, suicide included, they get a full page in the year book dedicated to them, there's a pep session you have to go to, they get mentioned at graduation that year and the year they would have graduated, and as soon as the school can there's an announcement or three over the PA.
I remember a while ago there were about four people dead in one year. (Note: we're talking 400 people in our school total here, so everyone knew all of them.) One guy got hit by a semi while riding his bike, one girl died in a car wreck after hitting a deer, one guy died in another car wreck after mistaking a turn, running off road, and flipping, and another girl killed herself by hanging. All four got the full treatment listed above. Course, two of the convecations about the girl who suicided was about how to find help if you or a friend was thinking about suicide/extremely depressed.
Er, and to close it off: Our yearbook is rather nice, I've always thought. The people who staff it come from various realms of the HS world so that there's next to no way it gets taken over by a certain group, and the yearbook sponsor and the yearbook editor quadruple check it.
~Mac (Maybe it's the fact that I go to a small school or something?)
-------------------- "STUPID COOKIES! I'M GOING TO EAT THEM TO HELL!" - Nick Posts: 43 | From: Bicknell, Indiana, USA | Registered: May 2003
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As a yearbook teacher for a high school w/ 2000+ kids, I live in MORTAL FEAR of this stuff. Let me tell ya, I go over that baby with a fine-toothed comb before it goes to press. Rude, snotty captions are grounds for "getting ripped up one side and down the other," as one unwise offender put it.
Last year, our "cross-town rival" school had some pretty bad issues with their book. In a boys basketball group shot, one of the boys was sitting with his knees sorta tilted up and his baggy shorts had slid up far enough that everyone had a great view of his hairy balls. No one, not the kid's mom, the photographer, or the basketball coach noticed this in the original photo, but once it got published -- yikes. Their adviser, who's actually a pretty good friend of mine, actually cried and tried to quit, but the school begged her to stay. I never gave her any crap because, like I said ... MORTAL FEAR!
Posts: 264 | From: South Dakota | Registered: Dec 2005
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Today is the remembrance day for a student i know who killed himself last year, on February 15th.
He was on the wrestling team, and he used to sit by me in my computer class.
When he died, we school did everything for him. We had a special pep rally for him. The wrestling team was allowed to leave school early for his funeral.
I am very surprised more schools wouldn't do that.
Posts: 60 | From: Ohio | Registered: Jun 2005
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Broken Angel
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
posted
Ok, I have to put my story in here just because all of yours made me realize how close-nit our highschool was.
For grades 9,10 and 11 I went to the school where parents live (grade 12 I lived with my aunt). Anyways, the school I went to was super small; about 70 kids in total, and everyone knew everyone. My class was the biggest class that went through the school in years; nearly 30 kids, and so the school sort of revolved around my grade.
Anyways, there was this guy in my class; *Jim*, who was super popular, and an amazing hockey player. One day he came home from hockey practice and walked into his house. I guess he started to call his Dad's name, but couldn't find him. When he walked into his parents room, he found his Dad dead, having shot himself in the head with a shot-gun. The next day in school, within half an hour, everyone knew what happened to Jim's Dad, and that Jim had found him. There wasn't a student or teacher that had dry eyes, and when the funeral came that Friday, the whole school was closed down so everyone could go.
Three weeks later, I remember, I was sitting in History class. The lights were off as we copied down questions from the overhead, and in walked Jim. Everyone was quiet, and didn't know what to say to him. At the end of class though, we all told him how sorry we were for what happened and if there was anything we could do just say so. Jim was a strong kid, and is actually professionally playing hockey now.
But in conclusion, our school here never hid anything from anyone because it was impossible. Our town had a very big mouth and if someone sneezes at two in the morning, everyone will know by noon the next day.
~*~ Broken Angel ~*~
-------------------- You're only a failure if you quit while you're behind. Posts: 119 | From: Manitoba, Canada | Registered: Nov 2005
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I never really had anybody die in my graduating class in high school that I know of. A teacher (unretired) did die while I was there but I didn't have any classes with her.
My sister though has the worst luck with this. When she was in 7th grade a girl in her class commited sucide by standing around the train tracks near the school. It got quite a bit of attention and from what my sister told me the whole school really got closer together. I don't remeber if the girl got a memoral page in her yearbook. I think she did.
Then just recently, my sister is a freshman in high school now, another one of her friends in her class was hit by a train, though this one wasn't suicide, the girl was walking by the tracks late at night and didn't see it comming apparently. This was at the same crossing area that the girl commited sucide at.
-------------------- "I was in one of those rare states where you curse someone else's misfortune."-Rikudo Koshi Posts: 125 | From: Villa Park, IL | Registered: Jun 2005
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Last year of high school (or maybe it was the second year, can't really remember), a girl, who I believe was the same age as me, commited suicide. The school had a memorial an afternoon where people who knew her could talk about how they felt (I had no idea who she was, so I just carried on with my lessons as usual). I think something like our school chose to do is the right thing (if any such thing exists) in these situations.
Posts: 144 | From: Sweden | Registered: Sep 2005
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When I was a senior in high school, one of the juniors committed suicide; we had announcements, a moment of silence, and a program a few months later about suicide. Then again, my high school was a small Catholic school, and only five years old by the time I graduated.
Posts: 82 | From: Dixon, CA | Registered: Jan 2004
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quote:Originally posted by ThistleS: Our yearbook staff let a naughty word slip into someone's senior quote. The adults found out after it had gone to press, so the leader of the yearbook staff had to take a Sharpie and black out that quote in all 700 something yearbooks by hand.
Proud member of the "I tried to use the last line of Thunder Road for my senior quote but the principal made me change it" club, at your service. And there aren't even any naughty words in it.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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quote:Originally posted by BlushingBride: If you need further proof that stuff gets by the adult sponsors, look no further than Waxahachie, TX. Last spring, the yearbook identified the only black student in the National Honor Society photo as "Black Girl".
[Edited after re-reading the article] That might not be as inappropriate as it would first seem. When I worked on the yearbook staff, a person in charge of photos often would leave descriptions in the place of names while waiting for the writer to provide a complete list of all individuals. For example, I often had captions that would say "Hat Kid, Afro Kid, and Marty IForgetHisLastName pose in front of their limo before prom." The idea was to replace said descriptions with actual names before the page went to copy, but no system ever works perfectly. And it seems that's exactly what happened... I don't buy that there was any sinister motive here.
Also, my yearbook teacher took a pretty strict view of cramming the pages with ourselves and our friends. For example, even though I took third place in my region as a wrestler, I wasn't allowed to include a photo of myself on the wrestling page. I did get a spot in the Winter Sports Mural, but still... seemed a bit cold of him at the time.
-------------------- "What!? Those are my graham crackers! Don't move I'm going to go find something to strike you with!" Posts: 66 | From: Baltimore, MD | Registered: Feb 2006
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2 kids died in my class; one had cystic fibrosis and died of that and the other was killed in a car accident that wasn't his fault, IIRC. Both got an "in memoriam" at the front of the yearbook for what would have been their (and was my) senior year.
-------------------- "I have never in my life been more disappointed by a politician I voted for than I have been with George Bush. He is a total liberal."- overheard by me on the shuttle to the U of A game on Nov. 11th. Posts: 3878 | From: Tucson, AZ | Registered: Jan 2001
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I'm amazed at this sort of thing with yearbooks. The only people who ever volunteered for it were goodie-goodie kids (regardless of popularity). You know, Student Rep Council members. There were some pretty funny photos, but we'd copy them and then edit them for ourselves, and they never saw the light of day outside the yearbook room. Usually they'd be of people we personally knew and wouldn't get offended if they knew we were doing it just for fun on our own time. Then again, I've never been to a school where a grade had more than 150 students, so we were always pretty close.
-------------------- - "I am slain!" ... "Ack! I am slain AGAIN!" (fun with Drama class) Posts: 147 | From: Saskatchewan, Canada | Registered: Feb 2003
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Recently, I was over my friend Phil's house, going through his (our) old yearbooks.... in one picture of me, they sharpied-out my t-shirt!! It wasn't even done well, just scribbled out. And the shirt wasn't offensive, it was just silly. My shirt said "Shh... I'm in drag." Which is funny because I am a girl... but, according to the yearbook staff, this is offensive and must be badly edited out... now, the interesting thing is that the words were in a white square on a black tee... and the sharpie is transparent enough to show that the words don't even show-up, it just looks like a white square.
I don't get the yearbook staff.
-------------------- "I saw weird stuff in that place last night. Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, EVIL stuff... and I want in."- Homer Simpson Posts: 2161 | From: Delaware | Registered: Aug 2005
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In my high school yearbook there was a mislabelled picture of me. I was voted "most likely to succeed", but the accompanying name was some random dude. The advisor told me it wasn't the yearbook staff's fault, that somehow the printers messed it up, but I don't know if thats plausible or if he was just shifting the blame. At least I got my yearbook free because of it.
I can't think of anyone that died at my elementary/middle/high schools (whether some unpopular kid died and it was covered up as suggested here, I don't know). But I know my college was notorious for covering up any suicides or crimes. Just statistically at any large school bad things will happen, but if you didn't specifically dig for information you'd think it was preternaturally safe. I think a lot of colleges hush up this sort of thing for the sake of their reputation.
Posts: 2018 | From: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: Aug 2005
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Whenever someone died at my school there were grief counselors, the memorial in the yearbook, moment of silence, etc. I went to a small high school of about 500 people, where everyone pretty much knew everyone else (including a good deal of gossip about each of them). I went to kindergarten with a good number of my graduating class.
Each of the three graduating classes before mine lost someone before graduating. One was a car accident (no drinking that I know of, just a bunch of teenage girls in one car), one died of leukemia, and I think the third was in a drinking involved car accident. They weren't hush hush about alcohol related incidents, either, once during "Prom Promise" time they had an entire assembly one day where a kid from our high school got up and talked about his drinking related car crash that ended up causing brain damage, and one of the EMTs that helped him talked about her experience with it, and how scared she was, and that she recognized him and had known him since he was little. It was very emotional, not to mention effective. I was always dreading that we'd lose someone in our class, but we didn't. AFAIK, the first of us to have died was a friend of mine from before we started school, and he was murdered a few years after graduation. His death still haunts me. His loser killer was finally caught and convicted, but it's never really enough, is it?
Our yearbooks tended to have a lot of pics of the friends of the photographers, but it included at least a little bit of everyone. The yearbook committee liked to include silly and unflattering pics of their friends, whenever possible. But no one was excluded or seriously picked on with the yearbook. I guess we had a really good yearbook director. We were allowed to have class superlatives, but I wasn't voted for any of them. We didn't have any "worst" whatevers, only "best", though.
I was going through mine recently, and I noticed what consisted of "bad boy" behavior at my school. In one of the posed "buddy pictures" anyone could have included if they sat together for them on a certain day, a guy in my class is standing with his arms crossed, and his hand underneath prominently displaying a single finger. The look on his face shows he thinks he's "getting away" with something. For a moment, you think "ooh, he got away with flipping off the camera!" and then you look again. It's his index finger.
We lived in a small community along with having a small school, so really, anything untoward would have had parents and others in the community coming down on the school's heads. Plus, the environment fostered kids being pretty good, overall.
No one ever committed suicide while I was in high school. I'm sure there were others besides myself who considered it. What's funny, is once I accidently got a fondue fork stuck in my hand during a French class "culture day" and was taken out on a stretcher (despite my protests) and whisked away in an ambulance to the emergency room. It was really no big deal, and I would have pulled it out myself if I had realized what a big to-do was going to be made of it. Anyway, the next day, even my friends were referring to me "stabbing myself" in hushed tones (including one who was in the room when it happened, but I was quiet enough taking it to my teacher, who whisked me across into the Office, that I guess people in the classroom were unaware of what happened until the gossip mill started running). I thought it pretty sad that they thought so little of me, that I'm suddenly going to go wild in the middle of the day and stab myself in French. Even funnier, it spread to other nearby small communities and back, so that one of my teachers mentioned the next week she had a teacher friend from another area school come ask her breathlessly "Did you hear about the stabbing at Brookville?!"
Posts: 550 | From: Springboro, OH | Registered: Feb 2006
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I had a similar experience, Mags. I'd returned to my local Catholic High School school after three years overseas - some of my old primary school friends were there, and others were completely knew to me. The old friends delighted in reporting rumours back to me. Most were fairly innocuous - I was what one friend described as 'a walking anthology of ghost stories'. It was gleefully reported back to me by a mate that the whisper was doing the rounds 'Have you met the new girl? She's a devil worshiper!' when old friends begged to differ with the rumour mongers, my penchant for telling the odd spooky tale was offered as irrefutable proof that I was a Satanist.
When I was in my senior year I foolishly passed my arm over a boiling kettle in the art room and gave myself a circular steam burn about halfway down the underside of the arm, so it had to be bandaged up with a patch. Nothing at all dramatic.
It wasn't too long before the report came back that the word was going around: 'Have you heard about Bacardispice? She tried to cut her wrists'.
I was a bit bemused, as the burn was a fair bit below my wrist, and was on only one arm. Not to mention that there had been plenty of witnesses to the incident that caused it!
Posts: 221 | From: Sydney | Registered: May 2003
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I went to high school from 1984-1989 - one year two kids died of cancer. One died on the weekend, but the other just went home one day and took a nap, never to wake up. There was an announcement about that the next day. No elaborate memorial services or dedications. The yearbook had a one-page memorial for the both of them, and misspelled one of their names.
We had a former student die in a motorcycle accident in the first week of September - he had just transferred to another school and was riding a motorcycle with his brother. No mention of this because they were speeding in a residential neighbourhood late at night.
The school only had 800 total students, but there were no other incidents, no suicides, etc. But this was the mid-80's and there was no such thing as grief counselors.
-------------------- "The fate of *billions* depends on you! Hahahahaha....sorry." Lord Raiden - Mortal Kombat Posts: 1587 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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our year book was horrible...there really wasnt a year book advisor...and it was made up of a handful of seniors who decided it would be a perfect way to include themselves on every page...they must have just taken pictures of themselfs one day around school because all of the pictures are of them with the same outfits on...I was in two seperate pictures.
On top of that, there were loads of mistakes everywhere...the homecoming game had no score listed despite the pages of pictures displayed, the only sports pictures displayed were the fall ones and most of them had no names listed or were labled wrong, no activities or clubs were listed, no dances or events except for that year's homecoming and the prom from the year before and the whole book was done in black and white...no color what so ever...plus the senior superlatives were a disastor, labeled wrong or just not there to begin with...
My point is...it was entirely possible for anything to get by...nothing harmful, in my opinion, was displayed...but I'm sure alot of people were very angry with the results, I know I was. There were no deaths that occured in our school, period, during the four years I was there except for the one student who had graduated when I was a freshman and passed away a few years later when I was a junior...it wasnt mentioned in our school except for undercurrents of chatter amoung the upper classmen. There was a few tragic car accidents involving alcohol that occured well after i graduated...and as far as I knew, the school gave them full respects...the monument for one of the deaths still gets redecorated for every holiday even almost as year later
-------------------- If God was a college student he would not have created the world in seven days. He would have slacked off for six and then pulled an all-nighter Posts: 30 | From: Massachusetts | Registered: Dec 2004
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The worst picture caption we ever had was "Most Likely To Be Seen In Space". (This is the best photo I could take of it. I cut out their names, like you could read them, anyway.)
The reason it's the "worst" is for the guy in the photo. (I can't speak for the girl, I didn't know her.) The guy was a sort of bizarre celebrity in the school. Kinda gave you Norman Bates vibes. Quiet kid. During soccer matches, he'd walk around with his little radio and blast classical music. My brother's friends would tease him with turning the fire alarm on while he was on duty as hall monitor, and this used to freak the kid out. He had some kind of problem, I'm not sure if it was a developmental or mental problem. He just got some sort of cult status in the school. The kids would all cheer him on, and he loved the attention, but they all laughed behind his back, and I'm sure he was unaware of it. I'll wager they cheered him on with "You're gonna be in the year book, man!" and didn't tell him what he was posing for until it was too late. (Or possibly they told him "'Most likely to be seen in space' means 'like an astronaut', so look up at the sky when I take the photo!". )
-------------------- I would prefer not to. My blog Posts: 4789 | From: Rhode Island | Registered: Feb 2004
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Weirdly, I first misread that as "Most Likely to Be Seen FROM Space" and that it was gonna be an excuse to make fun of some fat people.
Posts: 2787 | From: California | Registered: Feb 2000
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My highschool year book reminds me of "Heathers". If someone was killed or commited suicide they'd be gaurnteed a page. In college our yearbook was just a national joke. The first year they got on Leno for being "condom U" since it featured a condom machine on the front cover. The next year it was on Leno again for "express Yosef" with a picture of our mascot 'Yosef' flashing a crowd of students on the cover... after that the school stopped doing a year book (I think that was a wise decision).
-------------------- "The question for joining the protected forum for real magicians should be:
What is the use of women?" Steve W. from JREF's 'This is no fun' Posts: 7622 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2002
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OK, Not yearbook related, but definitely highschool clique. Here in Central AR, we recently had a rash of cherleader deaths. The first girl was captain of the local High, already accepted to the squad in college, all A's, blond, blue eyed, very very rich,yatta-ya. She went to the same school I graduated from four years Ago. When my mom told me she had died in a one car accident, I immediately sad "she had been drinking."
I say this because my school is the iconographic clique divider. The rich kids did all the sports, and were drunk all the time. They got away with everything, and could shit gold bricks on the prinicpal's desk.
Anyway, girl dies, and not only does she get a 1/4 page obituary, but two editorials about how great of a kid she was. This was within two days of her death. Within four, toxicology came out that not only was she drunk, she was also on Coke. Of course, the papers immediately tried to keep this quiet.
This bothered be in that the girls family knew before she died she had a problem. My mother works within the circle (however we do not belong to the "bubble"), and was finding out all this within the two days after her death. In fact, she had been suspned from the squad the week before her accident for showing up to practice drunk. At 3:00 in the afternoon. The coach took away her keys and called her parents, who promptly gave them back to her as soon as she got home. They didn't consider any kind of rehab, because "kids will be kids".
On top of this, exactly as week later, another school's head cheerleader died in an non-alcohol related accident with her mom. She had all the same academic aspirations, but her family was middle class and she was more skipper than barbie. She got a short obit and no mention in any other part of the paper. A month later, the asiistant cheerleader on the first girl's team died, but this was because her boyfriend was drag racing. Just the same as the second girl. Very little mention, not the all american looking girl.
Now please, explain to me, why did this girl get put on a pedastal? Its now as though everyone didn't know what her behavior was, or what her problems were. And yet, she was put out there as a student to idolize before it came out "publically" that she was an alcoholic with a drug problem.
Why dont the kids that work hard without money and drugs ever get recognition. Sorry to rant, it just pisses me off.
Oh, and I was in 4 of my year book pictures. The rich kids, who ran the paper, were every other page, including pictures with beer and cigarettes. I am so glad to be out of high school.
-------------------- “You want to know what marriage is really like? You wake up she's there. You come back from work she's there. You fall asleep she's there…I know that sounds like a bad thing. But, it's not. Not if it's the right person.” ~Raymond Barone Posts: 334 | From: Arkansas | Registered: Apr 2003
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My mother is in charge of a yearbook at the high school where she teaches. A caption like the one in the OP would NOT make it past most yearbook sponsors. She also screens for bad language in senior quotes, but I think sometimes suggestive slang terms may slip past.
Posts: 885 | From: Florida | Registered: May 2004
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Showed this topic to my husband. He showed me his senior yearbook. He got a two page spread in the front of the yearbook. His best friend who was killed in the accident that left my husband paralyzed got one page. Hubby says he thinks it's because the school had used their accident as an example to students. Two seniors are in the same car accident. Driver of the car is not wearing his seat belt, is thrown from the car and killed. Passenger is wearing his seatbelt, is paralyzed, but still alive. He has said it's not fair that he got more attention than the guy who died.
-------------------- "Cheating Hall Of Shame"-in honor of the dishonest. Every driver, owner and crew chief has a place in our Hall, which won't be moving to Daytona Beach anytime soon. Lone exception? Kyle Petty, who hasn't won a race since 1754. Posts: 545 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Dec 2004
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I was in high school 1984-88 and the entire school was about 2000 students.
A classmate died June 6th of our freshman year. Many of us found out that evening. The next day was the move up / graduation assembly, which is supposed to be a special day. Horrible day - we didn't enjoy it, and really felt like the death of our classmate was being ignored.
The following week there was a school memorial the morning of her funeral. I went to the school memorial (we had had 3-4 classes together) but not the funeral, since we weren't really friends. Since she died so late in the school year there wasn't anything in the yearboodk. I pasted her obituary in my copy.
In my sophomore year a freshman committed suicide with a gun. I think there were counselors for those who wanted them. I didn't know him - I think the only reason I found out was because a friend of a friend knew him. It was sort of hushed up.
I remember that at least one person died each of the years I was in high school, but I don't remember much else. There certainly were not full page spreads in the year book.
Edited to change icon.
-------------------- "Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of the pieces." Judith Viorst Posts: 1082 | From: Luzern, Switzerland | Registered: Jan 2005
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Go figure, almost the exact opposite of what happened to so many people in a lot of peoples' high schools here, happened to me.
I was the quiet loner chick, that everyone teased for ten bajillion reasons. I ignored them all, and wound up as a computer nerd. I loves my computer.
My supposed graduating year (I really don't count it as such), was also the year of the Columbine shootings. Zero tolerence was in effect. Some kids who decided they REALLY didn't like me 'tattle taled' on me, saying I was going to kill off the whole graduating class.
Nevermind there wasn't any proof of any sort. Of course there wouldn't have been, since I didn't do anything. Psht.
I was kicked out of school, told to keep hush hush, and I'd be allowed to graduate without taking my exams (parents found out, thought I was a threat, didn't want me around their darling babies!) etc etc.
Meanwhile, since I only halfway talked to maybe 2 or 3 people, no one knew where I went. From a guy I talked to after the fact (I moved away almost right after graduation, at 17!... I was such a wreck from the experience though, still recovering kinda.) I found out that people figured I had commited suicide, or was in prison. For something that didn't happen.
I didn't bother getting the yearbook, but my sister, who was two years behind me in the same school got her's. No me whatsoever. And I didn't die or anything!
Still considering suing the school board for mental stress, but 6 years later... ehhh. Probably too late, now. It never made any news (of course!) and I am sure none of them would be too pleased that I've ever spoken of it at all. Ever.
By the by, this was in Canada! Not the US. I know a lot of false reports were shown down there (I get all the American news stations here) around that time, but no one ever mentioned me, apologized, or anything. What a world. Posts: 51 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Nov 2002
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Part of it has to do with time of death. In 8th grade, we had a student die close to the end of the year, and those who preordered a yearbook recieved an add on a few months later with a few things including a memorial.
In my high school, quite a few deaths happened. A guy shot, a girl beat to death, a heart attack. I don't recall any of those mentioned in the yearbook, but I may be wrong. There weren't any councillors or assemblies. Unfortunately I lost my yearbooks during a move, so I can't check it out.
A fairly good friend of mine was killed by a drunk driver my senior year. We were best friends for a while, although not at the time, and I had known him since kindergarten, so the time following his death was a haze. I'm not sure if there was a memorial in the yearbook, but I do know they presented his diploma to his family during gratuation, as well as other awards (I recieved his thespian award as his parents couldn't make it). He was pretty popular, when the others weren't, which may have made a difference.
ETA: Before I wet off on that, my response to the OP was there were various embarrassing photos in my yearbooks, and some of them were bad enough that people at least thought of committing suicide, so the story doesn't sound too far fetched to me.
Posts: 60 | From: Johnston City, IL | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:Originally posted by DaphHime: I never really had anybody die in my graduating class in high school that I know of. A teacher (unretired) did die while I was there but I didn't have any classes with her.
My sister though has the worst luck with this. When she was in 7th grade a girl in her class commited sucide by standing around the train tracks near the school. It got quite a bit of attention and from what my sister told me the whole school really got closer together. I don't remeber if the girl got a memoral page in her yearbook. I think she did.
Then just recently, my sister is a freshman in high school now, another one of her friends in her class was hit by a train, though this one wasn't suicide, the girl was walking by the tracks late at night and didn't see it comming apparently. This was at the same crossing area that the girl commited sucide at.
Ah...I was in that junior high when it happened, I was in 7th grade, the girl who got killed was in 8th grade. It wasn't suicide, tho it was an accident. Her and two other students (7th graders in my class) were standing on one set of tracks waiting for the train on the third track to finish going by so they could pass. Because of the noise of the train, they did not hear another train coming down the track they were standing on, killing the 8th grader and landing the other two in the hospital. I ended up going to beauty school with the girl who was injured. I still have the yearbook. She has an entire page dedicated to her, with a rose, and it says "In Memory of (name here)
-------------------- "Whenever I hear a man say that women hate sex, I think 'No, they just hate having sex with you.'" - Waterlily Posts: 81 | From: Chicago 'Burbs | Registered: Aug 2005
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We only lost one student in HS. For reasons that are not entirely understood, he picked up a shotgun in the midst of five or six fellow students that were hanging out at his house, smiled and said in a somewhat sarcastic voice, "hey guys, watch me shoot myself" and proceded to do just that in full view of everyone. I can't even get my head around the logistics of fatally shooting oneself with a shotgun, but he somehow pulled it off.
It wasn't officially considered a suicide so much as a monumentally stupid move. I believe investigators concluded that he thought the gun wasn't loaded and he just liked to fool around with such things.
There was a two-page spread in the yearbook, one with a nice picture and born-died dates, and a poem written by a friend on the opposite page.
It was really creepy to see his seat empty in band for the rest of the year, as well as his locker and the rest of his classes. I can't fathom what it was like to have actually been there when it went down. I was at a loss for words when someone mentioned that he saw the whole thing.
-------------------- "If I didn't see it and didn't know it was a real news report, I wouldn't believe it. I mean, how nutty can you get?"-Pat Robertson Oct 26, 2006. Posts: 2936 | From: Mean Streets of West Virginia | Registered: Feb 2003
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My high school must have been abnormal. Any time anyone passed away, for any reason, they were mentioned, and the yearbook from that year were dedicated to the people that passed away. My senior year, one guy died during spring break (his mother and he went on a camping trip to Chile, and they forgot to turn off the heater- they died of carbon monoxide poisoning). Usually, the student would get a full page in the yearbook, with a ton of pictures from the years that the student went to the school. Because it was so late in the year, his page was the last page in the yearbook, with his graduation photo and "in loving memory", IIRC.
-------------------- My mom, about my nervousness with Jeopardy!: "Don't worry about it. Just get drunk and you'll do fine." Blog Just call me Mickey 2 Posts: 3295 | From: Radford, VA/Herndon, VA/Orlando, FL | Registered: Jan 2006
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Well, as soon as I post my last post on this thread, my school promptly gets some tragedies.
Beginning of April, two alumni are driving home from an all night Halo 2 party. The driver falls asleep at the wheel, goes across the line, head on collision with a truck. The driver burns to death, the passenger is taken to the hospital where he's pronounced dead. (This was on a Sunday.) By Monday, everyone knew. Announcement was made. There was a decision to make a memorial to them in front of the school. Prayer service was held. Grief counsiling. Anyone who wanted to go to the viewing or funeral was excused from school. Both were popular guys.
Two weeks later, a sophomore goes to the office and says he's feeling sick 4th hour. They call his mom to see if he can go home, she says yeah, he goes home and shoots himself. Dad finds him when he goes to check on him. Principal hears nearly immediatly, tells the teachers, asks them to break the news to us. They do. Grief counselors, funeral/viewing excused, memorial in front of school. Was kind of a loner, but would joke around with anyone who'd talk to him.
Oh, and there were school sponsered shirts for all three of them. For the driver in the car, it had his nickname "Hazel" in big letters on the back and "In memory" on the front. For his passenger, his basketball number when he played plus his last name, and the front was birth date/death date. The guy who commited suicide got one that said "R.I.P. My Favorite Rockstar" and then his name.
And they'll all three get a page in the yearbook, because one of my friends said they're already made.
Long post, really nothing to add, but man, that felt good to write about.
-------------------- "STUPID COOKIES! I'M GOING TO EAT THEM TO HELL!" - Nick Posts: 43 | From: Bicknell, Indiana, USA | Registered: May 2003
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quote:Originally posted by DaphHime: I never really had anybody die in my graduating class in high school that I know of. A teacher (unretired) did die while I was there but I didn't have any classes with her.
My sister though has the worst luck with this. When she was in 7th grade a girl in her class commited sucide by standing around the train tracks near the school. It got quite a bit of attention and from what my sister told me the whole school really got closer together. I don't remeber if the girl got a memoral page in her yearbook. I think she did.
Then just recently, my sister is a freshman in high school now, another one of her friends in her class was hit by a train, though this one wasn't suicide, the girl was walking by the tracks late at night and didn't see it comming apparently. This was at the same crossing area that the girl commited sucide at.
Ah...I was in that junior high when it happened, I was in 7th grade, the girl who got killed was in 8th grade. It wasn't suicide, tho it was an accident. Her and two other students (7th graders in my class) were standing on one set of tracks waiting for the train on the third track to finish going by so they could pass. Because of the noise of the train, they did not hear another train coming down the track they were standing on, killing the 8th grader and landing the other two in the hospital. I ended up going to beauty school with the girl who was injured. I still have the yearbook. She has an entire page dedicated to her, with a rose, and it says "In Memory of (name here)
That was quite a few years ago if I remeber correctly. I was talking of an untrelated incident it seems.Those train tracks were always death traps in my opinion. It took them enough deaths to fineally decide to add bus service to those who lived on the other side of the tracks. My poor sister was so afrade to cross them after her friend died.
I never did like that middle/jr. high school. For reasons unrelated to the train tracks however.
-------------------- "I was in one of those rare states where you curse someone else's misfortune."-Rikudo Koshi Posts: 125 | From: Villa Park, IL | Registered: Jun 2005
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Hi, this is my first day on the forum & as such I have been reading through a lot of the threads.
Without doubt this one has got to be one of the most bizarre for me.
I live in the UK which has a completely different school system from the US & reading all your memories of the High School system has left me quite glad I went to school in the UK.
Is it really as bad as you guys, (& the movies), make it out to be?
Posts: 80 | From: Hemel Hempstead, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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