In the fall of 2002, Grant High School began employing the freshman community system. It was supposed to be a way to ease the transition for incoming freshmen, giving them support from their fellow community members; the students would be together for three of their seven classes in a day. It’s been a mostly successful program—although there are a few exceptions. In 2004, I began my freshman year as a student in the ‘A’ community. Back then, there was a U.S. community, as well as G, R, A, N, and T. It took me a while into the first semester to realize that I was in the “troubled” community. Many of the students had difficult home lives, and an alarming number were not able to pass their classes.

It is now known across the nation that Portland, Ore., has the best senior pranks. As almost everyone has heard by now, Lincoln seniors pulled a prank that took local news stations by storm, and even made it to CNN's 24-hour cable news channel. The students sent out a letter on PPS letterhead to over 600 Lincoln homes, asking parents to open their homes to students after prom so they could have a safe place to be sexually active and drink.

This sounds ridiculous, but it really is creative.

For those of you who didn't hear about it, which may be many of you, Earth Hour happened over spring break. Across the globe on March 29, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. people turned their lights out as a statement and action promoting energy awareness and conservationism, hence the name Earth Hour. In the states, there were rallies and events, and even bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco dimmed their lights. In other words, this was a huge deal in the Green Revolution.

Guess who missed out? We did.

In the opinion of the paper:

As if finals weren't stressful enough, this year Grant faced a new finals schedule. Due to state law, Grant's previous finals schedule, which gave students more time for studying and sleeping to prepare for tests, didn't allow the school to offer as many hours of instruction as state law deemed necessary. While it is understandable that the administration had to adjust to state regulations, this change left students at a disadvantage coming into the tests or final activities.