Wildfires ravaging California as Gov. Newsom declares state of emergency (Aug. 24, 2020)
This headline brings us back to the vivid orange skies that kicked off the Class of 2024’s freshman year.
Despite not being on campus because of COVID, the wildfires were yet another obstacle that stopped us from leaving the house.
More than 600 wildfires sent California into a state of emergency, and in order to contain the blaze, firefighters took on grueling 24-hour shifts to try and contain the fires.
District gives students choice to stay remote or switch to hybrid learning (Nov. 9, 2020)
After the first semester of freshman year, entirely remote students, or more accurately their parents, had a decision to make: go to school in person with masks or stay at home and keep learning through Zoom.
Classes were reorganized in order to have all the hybrid students in the same classes. In addition, there was also a group A and group B to limit the number of students on campus at one time. Group A showed up in person on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while Group B was there on Thursdays and Fridays. All students stayed at home for online learning on Mondays when all classes met.
The most extreme cases were an entire bathroom’s doors being stolen and French teacher Miranda Kershaw’s room being vandalized.
Vandals hit classrooms, bathrooms thanks to “Devious licks” (Oct. 19, 2021)
The trend known as “Devious licks” was one of the many TikTok trends that gripped Cal’s campus.
Just after finishing up in the bathroom, many students found when they went to wash their hands that whole soap dispensers were missing. They were just ripped off the walls, with four little holes in the wall left behind to show where they should have been.
DoorDash thieves whisk away lunches (April 29, 2022)
With DoorDash orders at an all time high after COVID, a new problem arose: stolen orders.
DoorDashers would leave orders on the table outside the admin building where parents were meant to drop off food and other items for students. But some student thieves swiped the lunches.
Detentions increase ninefold with new system (Feb. 14, 2024)
The introduction of the new attendance system resulted in an extremely large increase in detentions.
Originally, detentions were assigned by teachers and hosted in a single classrooms. But once the machines took over – tardies were automatically issues once the computer indicated five were recorded across all classes – the number of students serving detention jumped ninefold and the school had to start using the theater to accommodate everyone.
And some weeks detention was hosted on multiple days.
Computers 1, Tardy Students 0.
‘ClusterFest’ a colorful mess (April 28, 2023)
Colorfest 2023 was likely Cal’s last. And for good reason.
With SOB and Shoreline Mafia set to perform, the leadership class seemed to have set up quite the event.
But just before the event, the artists “violated their contract” as members were caught smoking on campus by administrators. The artists were not allowed to perform but apparently were still paid $50,000 per the contract.
On top of this, attendance was already low as Cal prohibited the attendance of students from other schools.
Florida Man Season 1 Finale (March 15, 2023)
A series that started before the Class of 2024 is the chronicles of Florida Man.
Class of 2023 graduate and former News Lite editor Wyatt Golla documented many of the wild headlines coming out of Florida news sources, including some of our favorites: Florida Man ‘Throws Hot Dogs at Police Officer’ and Florida Man ‘Crashes Trying to Time Travel’.
Golla always fleshed out the details of these riveting “news” stories.
Cal screams for ice cream (March 18, 2022)
When reviewing the city council minutes it was revealed that $10,000 was put aside for ice cream Fridays. Newspaper calculations found that $10,000 worth of ice cream could buy the school 1,536 gallons of ice cream.
The question arose: Where did the school store $10,000 worth of ice cream, and who got to eat all of it?
