The Orange and Black Record

The school knows all too well that English teacher Mr. Southlea used to be part of a band before leaving to pursue teaching. After getting another job offer, everything has changed for Mr. Southlea. His love for music has resurfaced and the offer was too good to resist. Starting on April 1st, Mr. Southlea is leaving Martinsburg High School to join Taylor Swift and start a brand new band called The Tortured English Department.

Swift and Southlea will debut their new band this April on a world tour with stops in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. The Tortured English Department will release a debut Pop album before their tour. If you're worried that the new band won't have many songs to perform on their world tour, don't be. Along with their new album, many hits from Swift and Southlea's personal discographies will be making a come back.

When asked about his upcoming tour, Mr. Southlea says "I'm most excited to perform under the starlight. Performing in the daylight is what I'm used to so the night shows feels much bigger." Getting a job offer from Taylor Swift was all he needed to leave MHS saying, "I love being here, but after reading the letter from Taylor, that was the moment I knew that I wanted to go back to music."

Trent Sherman has announced he is stepping down from his role as Martinsburg High School principal with the intention of pursuing a campaign for the upcoming presidential election vs. Kanye West. After serving MHS for the past several years, Sherman has decided to take his leadership role a step further and advance to a national level. Sherman’s promise to the United States is free MHS gear and one free school store card for life! Our overachieving principal also promised that if he wins, he will be taking over our MHS office, so he doesn't have to leave MHS. Sherman has affirmed his confidence and his determination to beat Kanye this November saying, "Yes! I have no doubt I'll beat that loser!" When asked about his decision to run against Kanye, Sherman said, "It was a no brainer honestly. If he can lose Kim K that easily, I'm sure he will easily lose this election."

MHS is posting a fan page of Mr. Sherman to get his popularity up. All of the social media pages are named Sherminator.thedog, so make sure to go follow on all platforms. Sherman is asking upperclassmen approaching voting age to cast their ballot for him this fall to ensure a win against West. Sherman says he worries about "Kanye’s interesting fashion style may give me some competition compared to my MHS gear. I bleed orange and black." Show your support for not only Mr. Sherman, but all of Martinsburg High School in the upcoming presidential election! Don't forget to follow all of his socials and use the hashtag #sherm4prez to get your free items!

Mandatory School Uniforms?

Everyone seems to struggle with adhering to our school's dress code. Sagging pants, strapless tops, short skirts, etc: these things happen very consistently in our school building. What if there was a way to fix this issue completely? Martinsburg High School's admin decided to propose the idea of brand-new school uniforms to the board. They thought it was a great idea! So effective in fall of 2024, school uniforms will be mandatory to all students at our high school.

These uniforms consist of orange polo shirts with the option of a black long sleeve polo, black dress pants with the option of tight orange dress pants for the boys as well as black and orange plaid knee length skirts for the girls. If students do not wear these uniforms they will be sent home from school and must return with the proper attire. These new uniforms are being funded by the board so we will not have to pay for them as long as we keep them intact.

Students must also conform to the new dress code rules in order to keep our grades up. Starting in fall of 2024, wearing the proper attire to school will now be 10% of our grade and it will be replacing our habits of work grading system. First period teachers will keep track of these grades when their students walk into their classrooms. If a student is late, whichever teacher they have at the time of signing in will have to grade their uniform accuracy. Hairstyles and makeup are still completely personalized and will have no effect on this new grading system.

There are a lot of mixed feelings on this topic according to the teachers I've interviewed. "I think making the students transition from wearing whatever they want to forcing a strict uniform dress code will be incredibly difficult. It is not worth our resources" says Mrs. Elliott. On the other hand, Mr Walter's thinks it's the best idea this school has ever had. "Making the students wear uniforms will make it so that students don't judge each other based on their clothing choices. Rather than focusing on their clothes in class they can finally focus on their class work."

Back in February before the weather began to get warmer students yearned to eat lunch outside. Students came up with a solution to their unique problem, bathroom picnics. Now these picnic-enthusiasts are pursuing the pretty privacy of the potty.

In early March administration placed a ban on bringing backpacks in the bathroom. The ban arose from the number of students camping in the bathrooms during lunch. While students were camping in the bathroom, they also set up indoor picnics. Students would bring blankets and baskets and sit on the bathroom floor for the entire lunch period. “I don’t understand why these picnic enthusiasts can't just have a normal lunch like the rest of us!” said freshman Taylor Wert. “Sit at a table like normal person for crying out loud,” said junior Briana Woods. Bathrooms became overcrowded and other students began to complain. Witness to the potty-picnics Lizette Lopez suspects the students involved may be attracted to the delicate scenery if the bathrooms. Lizette claims a student involved in the crime told her that, “the smell of the toilets really gets their stomachs grumbling.”

Ms. Maye and Mrs. Burkhart were placed in charge of guarding the bathroom from loitering students. Their job is to prevent these bathroom picnics from occurring, so they restrict students from bringing any bags into the bathrooms. Ms. Maye has actually made contact with one of the culprits and had the chance to ask them their motive. “The grime on the walls and between the tiles gives the space a nice cozy feeling,” said the picnic-enthusiast. A second picnic-enthusiast chimed in, “these picnics get us all involved in keeping the teachers on their toes.” The bathroom luncheons have become a game between the students and teachers on duty.

Even as the weather gets warmer and students are allowed to sit outside during lunch, other students yearn for their bathroom picnics. Apparently, bathroom picnics are so fun students will risk disciplinary action to eat on the bathroom floor.

The bathroom guards Ms. Maye and Mrs. Burkhart, have made it their mission to keep the bathrooms available. Let them know if you notice any suspicious activity.

For the past several years, Martinsburg High School has been utilizing an online education platform, IXL, to enhance student learning in a virtual setting. Recently, MHS participated in an inter-county IXL competition that served as the catalyst for an IXL addiction from many students at MHS. Students found themselves pouring over tasks at all hours of the night, chasing a score on IXL for the chance to win a $50 gift card offered by administration. Students quickly became obsessed with completing assignments and climbing the leaderboard, anxiously waiting for Mrs. Glover to announce the top contenders in the morning. "My inbox has been filled with messages from students asking about their placement on the leaderboard and begging to extend the competition," said Glover, who has been struggling to contain the zeal for IXL at Martinsburg High School, "I've been getting phone calls throughout the night from students obsessed with the next competition."

However, the sudden increase in IXL activity has catapulted MHS into first place within the inter-county IXL competition. Administration nervously awaits Martinsburg's upcoming competition with Hedgesville Middle School, nervous that the obsession will reach new levels. Faculty and staff are already noticing students glued to their IPads and MacBooks, stumbling through the hallways with IXL open and skipping lunch to optimize their time for IXL advancement. Parents and community members are beginning to raise concerns about IXL, claiming their children are "addicted" and urging students to be careful when using IXL.

If you are unfamiliar with the psychology classes at Martinsburg High School, then you might not know their routine. After some class time, they go outside to exercise. Most teachers make this a challenge between the classes to see which can complete it the fastest. They'll even have larger, more complex challenges that take up the whole class time and are called misogis. The AP psychology teacher, Mr.

Gallagher started this trend and pushed for something to be built to improve it. A ninja warrior course will be put on the student parking lot for use by their classes only.

Starting March 29th, on the first day of spring break, construction will begin and is planned to finish by the week of April 7th. To make his challenging misogis more interesting and complex, Mr.

Gallagher has convinced the board of education to convert the MHS student parking lot to a ninja warrior course. "I wanted to be able to really challenge my students and show them what they are capable of," said Mr. Gallagher during the board meeting. "I showed the board my misogi, and they loved the idea so much, they gave us the space and funding to improve the quality and effectiveness of it," said Mr. Gallagher. Since the ninja warrior course will take up the whole parking lot, students will need to find somewhere other than the two teacher lots to park. As another option, Mr. Gallagher suggests walking to school to warm up for the day. With this new equipment, psychology classes can have misogis more often, even every other day. Everyone at MHS is excited about this great addition to the school's supplies.

Reporters: Isabel Banks, Kaylin Henry, Savannah Malatt, MaryKate McKinnon, Aden Reid

Co-Editors: Ruby Amores and Phoebe Porter

Advisor: Rhonda Foreman