May 2015

By Tim Clifford

Highline teachers rallied on street corners throughout Burien and Des Moines along thousands of other teachers across Washington State on May 21.

“The legislature needs to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to amply fund education and they simply aren’t doing it. We are here to draw public attention to the fact that schools currently aren’t funded right now and we need to make sure that we’ve got adequate funding to help our kids have the best learning environments possible,” said Jeb Binns of the Washington Education Association.

On May 20 thousands of teachers participated in a walkout and rally that moved through downtown Seattle and ended at the Seattle Center, the largest teacher strike in the state’s history so far. The strike on May 21 was specifically for Highline teachers.

The protests have been a push by over 63 teaching districts to inadequate funds for classrooms and the legislature’s refusal to increase the pay for educators.

The Memorial Day ceremony at Forest Lawn Cemetery on May 25 honored those who have died while in service to the nation. A group of around 70 people were welcomed by Hank Kerns of Forest Lawn.

American Legion Post #160 performed the presentation of the colors and the invocation was read by their Chaplain.

Ross Hauck sang a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner (and later though not on the program read the poem "In Flanders Fields" written to honor those who died in World War I.

Remarks on the meaning and importance of the occasion were offered by John Phillips of Post #160 and Nate Hemphill Commander of Post #2713.

Echoing Taps was performed by trumpeters Pete Kirkman and Al Keith, and Ross Hauck completed the ceremony by singing America the Beautiful.

A reception followed at the Veteran's Center of West Seattle.

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

High schools
Fastpitch
West Seattle plays in the Class 3A girls fastpitch softball tournament this coming Friday and Saturday at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey.
The Wildcats open at 9 a.m. Friday against North Central of Spokane, then play again at 4 p.m. if they win or 2 p.m. if they lose.
The championship is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Seattle Christian, meanwhile, is playing the same days in the state Class 1A tournament at the Columbia Playfield in Richland.
The Warriors face a 10 a.m. opener against South Whidbey.

Track and field
The state Class 4A, 3A and 2A meet takes place Thursday through Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
Action starts at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, with Friday event start times running from 9 a.m.-6:30 p.m. and Saturday start times from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Tennis
The state Class 3A tournament runs Friday and Saturday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle, while the 3A tournament is in Kennewick and the 4A in Richland.

Semipro
Highline Bears

Dear Editor:

Imagine hearing your phone ring while you're on a jog through the park, and picking it up only to hear loud sirens and what you think sounds like your friend. You had just dropped you kid off at their house and had decided to take a long jog while you had some free time. Your friend says into the phone, " You need to come get your kid; he got hit by some person who was speeding down the street. He drove off almost immediately after he saw what he did so nobody could get his picture but a neighbor got his license plate. I haven't had the chance to ask yet but I will soon." Does that sound like it would be fun? Speeding is very dangerous especially in rain, on blind corners, and it is harder to brake when you are speeding. Speeding is dangerous anywhere but is more dangerous in residential areas. Drivers need to slow down on residential areas.

Dear Editor:

Imagine a world filed with chaos, a place where every street is unsafe to walk on and every town is a frothing cesspool of violence and danger. That is what the world would be like if games such as Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, which have often been accused of causing violence, actually followed through with these claims. Many people have different standpoints on the debate of whether nor not violent video games cause violent behavior and after seeing my research I guarantee that you will agree with mine. My view on this issue is that no, they do not cause violence. I say this because millions play these games and only small handfuls are the ones committing these acts, people committed violence before video games were even heard of, and finally, little is actually known about the correlation between violence and video games.

By Kyra-lin Hom

Have you ever stumbled across an article online that is so inflammatory and absurd that you can't help but read it? There you are, minding your own business, just casually perusing your regular news site when – BAM! Your attention is waylaid by an aggressively punchy headline or snagged by some ridiculous or crude photo of truly “are you kidding me?!” proportions.

Whatever you're looking at is hosted by said news site so you, equal parts intrigued and appalled, click on the link. Next thing you know, you're mired in an article that has all the reasonableness of a berserker honey badger. Your heart rate rises as your faith in humanity drops. Is this article for real? It must be because it's backed by a professional news organization. It's just that you had no idea this kind of opinion was out there let alone prominent enough to be featured on a mainstream news page...

By Pat Cashman

Small towns come in all sizes: Teeny to teeny-weeny; bitty to itty-bitty; eentsy-weentsy to itsy-witsy.
The one I grew up in was more on the dinky side---and while it gained some population through the years, it never became much above piddling.

But that just made it easier for Pat Cashman to know everybody in town. Not me---my dad, Pat Cashman, Sr. He knew them all.

I never called him the “old man” because I could never really tell his age---at least not without carbon dating.

Sometimes he seemed like he was a bit slow and shuffling---so I guessed him to be in his 30’s.
But then, he’d slip from his apparent dotage---and suddenly shoot a basketball swisher in our driveway from 40 feet away, grab his own rebound---and then drop another on my brothers and me.

However old he may have been, he was tall for his age: at least 6 foot 6---and he really did seem to know everyone in our pint-sized, sawed-off, one-horse town. He loomed like Gulliver in Lilliput.

By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

Ballard and West Seattle are both bound for state after taking third and fourth place, respectively, in the Sea-King District 2 Class 3A girls fastpitch softball tournament.

The two Metro League rivals played each other for third place Friday, with the Beavers of Ballard prevailing by a 7-1 score.

State action will take place this coming Friday and Saturday at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey.
West Seattle faces a 9 a.m. Friday opener, playing North Central of Spokane, while the Beavers open at 12 p.m. against Kelso.

In the case of both teams, a win would advance them into a second contest at 4 p.m. Friday. A loss would drop them into a 2 p.m. loser-out game Friday.

The championship game is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

information from WSHS

West Seattle High School's ultimate frisbee team, Westside Ultimate Coed team wins their first League Championship., in it's 3rd year of existence, wins it's Disc NW divisional League Championship. Westside finished the season undefeated with wins over Garfield, Chief Sealth, Bainbridge Island and others and entered the season ending tournament as the number 1 seed. With a win over Bainbridge Island 2 weeks ago and wins over Aviation and Mercer Island in the final 4 last Saturday, Westside Ultimate takes its first championship after losing close games in the finals the last 2 years. Westside also graduates 4 seniors; Shadid Baker, Devon Dascher, Greg Rosas and Daniel Thomas.

Championship game:
Westside 15 - Mercer Island 7

Final 4:
Westside 13 - Aviation 4

By Gwen Davis

It was uncovered recently that Peter Petrasek and his wife Joan, West Seattle residents, willed their estate to “the United States of America.” In their wills, a cashier’s check for $847,215.57 was made out to the Department of Treasury. There were no further details on the will. The couple had no known family.

Petrasek died on May 5, 2012 at the age of 85. Joan died 13 years earlier at the age of 79.

Reportedly, it took three years for the house to be emptied, and the car, gun collection, paintings and other assortments to be evaluated and sold. Petrasek was born in Vlastimil Petrasek in Prague, Czechoslovakia, according to previous reporting.