Swim Team Basks In Glory as Mission League Champs
By Katherine Gates, Advertising Manager

“Go red! Go white! Go fight, fight, fight! F-S-H-A go, fight, swim! F-S-H-A go, fight, win!”  The entire team and Teddy, too, huddled at the end of the lane, cheering their hearts out, while the final varsity swimmer sprinted towards the finish.

   A few seconds later, ecstatic swimmers jumped and screamed, basking in the glory of beating Notre Dame Sherman Oaks, as they maintained their undefeated season and took the well-deserved title of Mission League champs.
With an overall record of 9-0 and 5-0 in league, record-breaking times galore, a first place win at the Royal Invitational, seventh place at the Mission Viejo Invitational and now proclaimed Mission League champs, swim’s drive was unstoppable. A FSHA swim team hasn’t dominated the Mission League since 1995.  “The freshmen may not realize how special it is because they’ve only been here one year, but as a senior, I am so excited,” said varsity captain Chelsea Nugent.
Fierce determination and an intense team bond provided no chance that swimmers were going to let an opponent glide ahead.  Even at the historical encounter with long-time rival Harvard-Westlake, which hadn’t lost a dual meet since 2001, the girls didn’t lose face.
      “This has been a total team effort.  When I came here the girls said they weren’t winning; I envisioned that the school would have a winning record.  The girls wanted to do well and they did,” varsity coach Gary Appel said. JV swim finished equally as successful with an 8-1 overall record and 5-0 in league. 
     “It’s an awesome feeling,” said JV captain Brianna Miller ’08,  “and inspiring to think that last year we never won a meet and now we’re undefeated.”
Making history and reversing losing streaks weren’t the only happenings on swim.
Freshmen Shaylyn Stanley and Amanda Erwin on JV and varsity swimmer Andrea Kropp ’10 are among a few who broke school record times this season. At Division II finals, varsity continued to overachieve.  They won second place, behind Harvard by only 10 points. Coined  the  “fab  four,”  freshmen  Kropp  (breastroke)  and  Briana Swinney (backstroke) and sophomores Trisha Dobson (butterfly) and Alex Marquez (freestyle), reaped first place in the 200-yard medley relay and lone diver Brittany Salas ‘09 ranked eighth at CIF finals, but their victories weren’t enough to vault Sacred Heart into first overall that day. A week later at Masters, Tologs took home a runner-up plaque.  Kropp was the 100-yard breakstroke champion and the “fab four” secured third in the 200 medley. “I’m proud of each and every one of us.  We worked our tails off, were there for each other, supported each other, and we push each other,” Miller said.
  “I think it’s great for the girls and the recognition the school gets.  Next year we can only get stronger,” said Appel.

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Where is my parking spot?
By Christine Westhoff, Staff Writer

	Seniors: 122. Juniors: 102. Parking spots in senior lot: 95. Parking spots in junior lot: 75. Price of a parking spot: $25. Actually getting a parking spot as a junior: PRICELESS. With the vast nbility of getting a parking spot as a junior is very slim because parking atop the hill is very limited.

Many soon-to-be juniors are distraught over the fact that they won’t be able to drive next year because they won’t have anywhere to park. “If I can’t get a parking spot next year it’s going to make it really hard on my mom and dad,” said Hannah Schulenberg ’09. Many of next year’s seniors are looking forward to not having to walk up the torturous stairs from the junior lot. “I’d better get a spot in the senior lot next year. I’m too lazy to have to walk up from the junior lot,” said Kimberly Henry ’08. In order to be able to park next year, you will have to get a parking permit, which will be available on registration day. You must have a photocopy of your insurance coverage, your license, and a check payable to FSHA for $25 (although this amount may change). Seniors will have priority to all parking spots; spaces are allocated on a first come basis.

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Stop the Smoking Gun and End Violence in America
By Caroline Johnston

   While no one can predict the future, I can’t help but wonder if our country could have prevented the “deadliest massacre in U.S history.”  Cho Seung-Hui, a resident alien from South Korea, easily obtained Glock 19 and 22 caliber pistols from a pawn shop and a gun store near Virginia Tech, where 32 people were shot to death on April 16.  In Virginia, all that one needs to purchase firearms is proof of residency. The White House issued a statement following the shootings:  “The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed.”  President Bush is from Texas, a state known for its antigun control sentiments.  But a large population of our country also supports the National Rifle Association’s belief in the Second Amendment.  Even Democrat presidential candidates running for office have had a difficult time passing gun control legislation because of strong national allegiance to this interest group. 
     The NRA supports the right to bear arms and proposes to represent citizens with hobbies such as gaming and target practice.  But who hunts with handguns?  They are small and easy to conceal, and all too effortless for a disturbed 23-year-old like Seung-Hui to purchase.

Guns have been a part of America’s culture since the colonists had to fight the British in the mid 1700s.  Guns were also necessary to shoot game for food.  But now it’s the 21st century; why does the general population need weapons in their cars and homes?  There is no reason. Our right to bear arms is contrary to other modern countries in the world today.  In 2002, a German teenager shot and killed 16 staff members and students at his high school.

  In response to this tragic event, the government changed its legislation and raised the age from 18 to 21 to own recreational fire-arms. 
     The Australian government responded to our lax gun laws the day after the VA Tech shootings: “We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the U.S would never become a negative in our country,” said Prime Minister John Howard on foxnews.com. 
     And following a killing spree 11 years ago which left 35 people dead in a Tasmanian tourist resort, automatic weapons and handguns were banned and the government paid gun owners to give up more than 600,000 of their firearms.
     I support the Democratic Party’s solution to America’s gun control problem: Require a photo license I.D, a background check, and a gun safety test to buy a handgun.  Also, a child safety lock should be mandatory on all handguns. 
     This would negate the “gun show loophole,” which allows prospective gun buyers to purchase guns from unlicensed sellers who are not required to perform background checks.  Democrats strongly oppose these under-handed dealings and advise a stop to this legislative breach.  Al Gore’s gun control proposal in 2000 would have forced all arms owners to have a license. 
     Our nation mourned after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, when two teenage boys killed 13 students and staff.  What did the federal government do to crack down on our easy accessibility to guns after this horrifying occurrence? Nothing.  How many tragedies have to occur in the U.S until some change in legislation is made?
     If others can learn from their mistakes to better their countries, why can’t we learn from ours?  We view guns as a safety blanket for self defense or to intimidate others, but guns are completely unnecessary in our lifestyle.
     Handguns have been banned in Britain since 1969 and statistics prove that these citizens have benefited from this legislation.  Britain only had 46 homicides involving firearms last year, while Los Angeles alone had 464 murders. New York City reported a whopping 590 homicides in 2006, a 10 percent increase from the year before, according to ABCnews.com.  Every year, America’s gun-related homicides rise.  Just think of all the deaths we could prevent if we stopped these killing machines from getting into the hands of terrible, twisted people. 
     The headline that blazed across the Times of London after the Virginia Tech killings read, “Only the names change – and the numbers.”  Times editors wondered why we don’t have tougher restrictions on the availability of guns like all of Europe.  I am still asking myself that same question.

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Up Close and Personal with the LA Times
By Natalie Howard

The latest on the war in Iraq. The weekly sports schedule. Family Circus. Such different aspects of the news are brought together daily in the Los Angeles Times, but who really knows where this magic actually takes place? Veritas Shield editors in Journalism II and III and I do. We were given a special in-depth tour of the Times office and printing plant, two of the most interesting places I have ever been in my life. In the Times building we saw where professional reporters write their  professional stories. It looked like what I always imagined a newsroom would look like, but different at the same time. There were rough drafts and dictionaries and old newspapers all over the place, and also a distinct lack of actual people. The Times 14  local columnists were out and about, digging up scoops and tracking down breaking news. What I wouldn’t give to have been one of those reporters. Even more inspiring were the displays of past journalistic excellence by Times photographers and columnists. The walls of every hallway were lined with Pulitzer Prize-winning pictures and articles. I know tons of people who have a subscription to the Times, but it was amazing to realize how many people are truly exposed to, and affected by, one person’s writing. Hopefully, one day, it will be my writing that is lining the halls of a newspaper or magazine. When the tour was over, I thought we were driving to a restaurant for lunch, but apparently no one had bothered to tell me that the field trip had a part two.

The gigantic building we pulled up in front of, unfortunately, contained huge rolls of paper instead of huge rolls filled with hamburger meat. Every weekday, 800,000 copies of the Times are printed, and on Sundays the run explodes to 1.2 million. Clearly, printing the Times is a big job. One roll of paper that’s practically as tall as me and weighs 2,500 pounds is used up in about 20 minutes. The paper is so heavy that there are robots that lift it into place in the printing machines. My favorite place in the plant was a room the size of the gym dedicated solely to holding these ridiculously large rolls of paper. Because of how widely read the Times is, the room can only hold enough paper for two months of printing! I was not the only one in awe. “I wish we could’ve played hide and seek in that paper room!” exclaimed campus ministry editor Sarah Yang ’07.  “Except, I probably would have gotten lost forever.”
Another of my favorite parts of the tour? The party favors: an L.A. Times reporter’s notepad and pencil, and an early copy of the next week’s Sunday edition of the Calendar section.  

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