The
Santa Paula High School Cardinal newspaper for February 10, 1978 is now online! The lead story covered an administration crackdown on "ditchers and troublemakers" in which detention hall was established and teacher patrols were implemented. A later story in the same issue discusses that annual February crackdowns had taken place since 1975. In February 1976 for instance, a new rule was put into place that required students to fill out a form if they were absent or tardy - they even had to give a reason why they were absent or tardy (how draconian)! The new rules were also the subject of an editorial by David Beach, who felt that the rules weren't especially extreme or unfair.
The cartoon that accompanies the editorial shows a group of students being punished by sitting in the corner with the traditional dunce cap. The cartoon is fairly standard fare, but where did those creepy paintings come from? Do we still have them hidden away in some sub-basement of the school?
Other stories include the three nominees for the "King of Hearts", Alex Carrillo, Jim Hoover and Robert Howard. The nominees were selected by the Pep Squad, and the winner was selected by a vote of all students. It was also a big week for the Cardinal Basketball team - they broke a 35 game losing streak (ouch!) by winning two games, one against Santa Clara and the other against Rio Mesa. The newspaper was rounded out with an opinion piece about messy student bathrooms (some things never change).
