Edward Dong

In recent weeks, Saratoga High and district administrators have come under increasing fire for their decisions in the weeks following the suicide of sophomore Audrie Pott last September.

    “Wow, that test raped me.”     Every so often, a particularly difficult exam will leave students frustrated and upset enough to use this phrase or post it carelessly on Facebook.

On Feb. 14, world languages department chair Arnaldo Rodriguex and four other teachers brought 49 students to Cuernavaca, Mexico, for the annual Spanish exchange trip.

Just past noon on Wednesday, Sept. 12, principal Paul Robinson announced the death of sophomore Audrie Taylor Pott. 

Fearing the first few weeks of May, juniors and seniors brace themselves for approaching AP exams. They purchase preparation books, review old notes and form study groups. A whole year of effort and concentration culminates in this period of heightened tension.

Although many people watch and enjoy sports, there are also those who view the fan hysteria as pointless, who believe that sports serve no other purpose than to offer cheap entertainment. But for junior Jon Olsen, sports mean a lot.

Saratoga has long been recognized as a school centered on math and science, and numerous students have complained about the lack of humanities options.

For 31 years, world languages department chair Arnaldo Rodriguex has taken Saratoga exchange students to Cuernavaca, Mexico; this year, Mexican students from the “City of Eternal Spring” will finally return the visit.

Several new initiatives for taxes supporting education in California have emerged in competition with the proposal of Gov. Jerry Brown.

Digging dandelions from her lawn at her parents’ request, freshman Yvonne Ye cautiously holds each tuft of seeds.

In his first year of teaching, physics teacher Kirk Davis watches with apprehension as a student demonstrates a project, a homemade Rubens’ tube (which uses flammable gas.) Minutes later, Davis rushes every student out of his room—the contraption had caught fire.

Relieved after their fourth-period final exams on Dec. 20, most students streamed into the hallways and looked forward to enjoying their lunches. But students from teacher Margarita Morelle’s AP US History class remained in the classroom and looked on as first their teacher and then assistant principal Kevin Mount searched each backpack for a missing test copy.

“Ten women sit in 10 seats in a line. All of the 10 get up and then re-seat themselves using all 10 seats, each sitting in the seat she was in before or a seat next to the one she occupied before. In how many ways can the women be reseated?”

A flutter of pink in a large city, a girl hurries through the rain and hops into a cab.

A student stands where two roads diverge. He looks down one as far as he can, savoring the potential fruit of hard work after a year in an honors (or AP) course. He gives the other one a look—less stress, more time for extracurriculars. “Honors or regular?” he asks himself.

If a 95-minute lecture leaves you exhausted, imagine attending a 2-hour college lecture on Lagrange multipliers and vector integration.

After enduring a storm of criticism early last school year, the fence in the front parking lot has slowly won a greater degree of acceptance from students.

Just seven years after founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced the site to his fellow Harvard classmates to study and share notes for an art history final, Facebook has now expanded into an international website with more than 800 million active users. With the average Facebook user connected to at least 80 groups, community pages and events, Facebook has become the largest social media network in the world.

Gasping for breath, a sixth grader stumbles past the finish line with a mile time of over 10 minutes. His classmates had completed the run minutes ago.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the U.S. has been the undisputed leader of the world. Even with the recent economic downturn, America boasts the world’s highest GDP. America has won more than two times as many Nobel Prizes as any other country; each year since 2000, at least one economics prize was received by an American.

Gasping for breath, a sixth grader stumbles past the finish line with a mile time of over 10 minutes. His classmates had completed the run minutes ago. A few years later, a high school student crosses the finish line of a half Ironman—1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of biking, and 13.1 miles of running. Senior Eren Veziroglu was both of these students.

The varsity girls’ volleyball team faced tough opposition this season but managed to finish with a league record of 7-5, and an overall record of 10-16.

Students pick up folds of purple, green, orange, pink, and yellow tissue paper and craft their blossoms with scissors, pipe-cleaners, and help from Spanish Club officers. Soon, bright, vivid flowers bloom in the crowded classroom of Arnaldo Rodriguex.

The gym grew hot as crowds of students streamed into the enclosure during the Homecoming dance on Oct. 1. In the oppressively sultry atmosphere, one girl suddenly felt ill. An hour later, she was riding in an ambulance on her way to the hospital.

“It's true that you can't avoid becoming at least slightly feminist [at Wellesley],” Saratoga graduate Stephanie Hata admits, referring to the women’s college that she now attends in her fourth year. “A prime example is how many get offended when people refer to Wellesley as a girls’ school, because we are women.” The environment at Wellesley College, located in Wellesley, Mass., invites a prevalence of feminist ideas; however, according to Hata, the school has “more of a liberal environment than a feminist environment.”

With thousands of universities from which to choose, students often begin by asking themselves, “What do I really want from college?”

9 a.m., Dec. 3. Some students will be spending the morning in a cramped classroom, taking the SAT. Others may be enjoying their day at Christmas in the Park, a holiday-themed extravaganza in downtown San Jose. And still others will be relaxing at the school-sponsored Holiday Boutique, shopping for unique Christmas gifts with their friends as holiday music plays in the background.

Switching fluently between Spanish and Japanese, the student presents his research project as his peers take meticulous notes. In her impeccable French, the teacher reminds the class to use traditional Chinese characters, instead of English, for note-taking. The class groans. “Why can’t we just write in pinyin?” one student whines.

In December 2009, two masked men broke into the Wardell Road home of 96-year-old Charlie Maridon. In an assault on him and his daughter, Maridon was killed. Just over two weeks ago, on Oct. 5, disgruntled employee Shareef Allman killed three and wounded seven of coworkers at a Lehigh Cement Company plant, situated on Stevens Creek Boulevard a mere five miles away from Saratoga High.

At around 6 ft tall, with graying hair and sea blue eyes, Bob Mistele brings to mind the image of a leader. Well, a leader he is.

Harvard and Princeton will reinstate their single choice early action program starting with the graduating high school class of 2012. Four years ago, the two universities dispensed with early action on the premise that their policies put low-income families at a disadvantage.

Just one week before the school year began, Lisa Vlay saw an advertisement for the position of attendance secretary in the office. She applied, received the job and will work as attendance secretary for the school at least until January.

“You have to have good leadership qualities, you have to be fast and you have to be willing to hit the floor,” sophomore Katelyn Mollahan said, explaining that her position as setter on the girls’ volleyball team involves more than just setting the ball up for a hit.

Amy Keys stands enveloped by the humid heat of Indonesia, where street markets line the roads and common folk wash their clothes in rivers. It is 1990, and when classes resume later in the afternoon, she will teach English to Javanese students intent on learning the language in order to qualify for higher-level education.

On June 30, while faculty and students alike enjoyed the long-awaited summer months, a quiet but significant change occurred at the district office: Cary Matsuoka left his post as superintendent of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District after nearly five years.

Coach: Brad Frederickson (3rd year with girls’ varsity) 2010 Record: 11-22, 2-10 in the league 2010 Recap: Due to the loss of key seniors from the year before, the team’s performance last year failed to obtain satisfactory results.

Like many other incoming students, freshman Yvonne Ye hit the ground running.