The first semester of the 2014-2015 school year was undeniably a stressful, yet exciting one. Many special events took place, but the chaos of the schedule change, the persistence and success of doughnut sales, the immense fear of the purge, the performance and guidance by the Power Team, and the pure enjoyment of Trivia Night take the lead.

This school year is going to be long. Literally. The school decided to add twelve minutes to each school day. Six minutes in the morning and six minutes in the afternoon, in order to make up for any day missed for snow or weather.

Doughnuts! Get your Doughnuts! Or, more likely, you’ve already received them. In mass quantities. The latest school-wide fundraiser took place early last semester to raise money for the new auxiliary gym, which would remove wrestlers from the cafeteria and have a new place to house their mats. Students received their Krispy Kreme’s via the auditorium, then proceeded to shove them into lockers until school was let out that day.

After the release of the new film The Purge: Anarchy on July 18, 2014, many high school students were left raging. The following fall, students at George Washington high school had been threatened with the rumor of a real purge happening at school. This rumor quickly spread to Tunstall. The day of the supposed “lawlessness” went on with very few students absent based on fear of the possible consequences.

The Power Team 2.0 is a group of world class athletes who recently visited the school. Matt and Crissy Dopson opened the performance by demonstrating amazing feats of strength. They broke wooden bats over their heads, blew up rubber water bags with just their lungs, and bent steel over their heads. Although their demonstrations were amazing, this was not the main reason they visited our school. The Power Team are world class athletes, but their main purpose is to motivate young people. They deliver motivational speeches and share stories about their own experiences. All of this they do to hopefully inspire the youth they talk to and keep them on the right track in life.

On December 16, 2014, our school hosted its first Trivia Night. With 16 teams involved and several supporters, the night was a huge success. When asked how hard it was to compete against his own teachers, senior Joseph Snead said, “It wasn’t that hard. The way it was set up, everybody was asked the same question at the same time. The teachers that were in the competition (Mrs. Watson, Mr. Thaxton, and Coach Potts) were sitting a bit away from me. For me, it wasn’t really a factor.” At the end of the night, two teams were tied until the final question was asked. With the correct answer of “Yule Log”, team Jedi rose to victory by 0.5 points. The winning team included Joseph Snead (team captain), Mary Snead, Scott Snead, and Jack Faughn. Overall, Trivia Night brought the community together and provided nothing but fun times and great memories to all who were involved.