Shining a Light on Warrior Nation since 1960
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
The 60’s Revisited: A Blast From The Past
Lawrence Savoy ‘14
High waisted pants and skinny
ties; have the 60s revisited? Sort of. This
is the student body of Wakefield 2013.
They have similar styles from Wakefield
in the early 1960s. Grandpa sweaters,
old school patterned jackets, high
waisted shorts and pants as well as a variety of different things tend to be seen
a lot in the halls. Junior Julia Dumlao
says “It’s high waisted pants, skinny ties,
and sleek suits.
Sophomore Destiny Willingham
says “The high school trends are wearing too little clothing male and female.
Its quite unfortunate.” Females in the
60s wore a lot of plaid designs and
mostly skirts when they went to school.
They all had short bob hair cuts. In the
60s students were more focused on
what they were doing than how they
looked.
In 2013 Juniors Cathleen Madlansacay,
Lawrence Savoy, Julia Dumlao take a
photo to show their different styles.
Photo By Lawrence Savoy
Sophomore Destiny Willingham says “The high school
trends are wearing too little clothing male and female. It’s
quite unfortunate.”
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
In 1964 Wakefield Students gather in the
Auditorium.
Photo By Wakefield HS Yearbook 1964
High school kids in the 60s
learned a lot about politics because of
the Vietnam War and also the draft.
Every male that was a junior or a senior
in the high school was prepared for the
draft. Now juniors and seniors in 2013
are worried about college and how they
are going to get in or get a job. In 2013
high school students are more focused
on what they are going to do later in life,
and career that would make them a lot
of money.
Students in high school in the 60s
smoked a lot of cigarettes. Now students
smoke marijuana and drink alcohol.
Skateboards became popular in the early
60s; some people fixed them up and sold
them but almost every teenager had one.
Now, every teen in 2013 has an IPhone
or some kind of smart-phone.
Teens also have “Beats” headphones
that go with their fancy cell phones.
Teens at Wakefield High School
play lots of sports; Lacrosse, Football,
Soccer, Field Hockey, Cheerleading &
Basketball. In the 60s one of the most
popular sports was Football. Football
players wore there varsity jackets around
the school.
In the early 60s trends were set
because of issues going on at that time.
Some trends started because of war and
teens know they could be drafted after
high school. Everyone had a certain
style but today students dress because
of how they feel. Sports and activities
influence an individual’s style at the present time.
Out With the Old, In
With the New
Steven Khlen '16
Wakefield High School has been
home to the Wakefield Warriors for 60
years. Ever since Wakefield was opened
during the 1950's it has gained lots of
expansions, such as the English wing,
and a larger library. Now, Wakefield is
building a new school and replacing the
current, older one. In our modern world
surrounded by technology, the new
Wakefield is on the cutting edge of being part of a higher educational system.
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
The new school will feature a
green, environmental, efficient and renewable energy system, healthy and safe
for students to learn in. The new Wakefield's front entrances are planned to be
easier to access by transportation, including having separate vehicle circulation
routes on the separate side, similar to the
transportation circulations in the current
Wakefield.
“In our modern world surrounded by technology...Wakefield is on the cutting edge of
being part of a higher educational system”
said Steven Khlen.
No one is seen in the empty hallways of
the current Wakefield, located in the basement.
Photo By Steven Khlen '16
The progress of building the new Wakefield High School continues.
Photo By Steven Khlen '16
Each classroom will have a space
fit for twenty students with a white
board, smart board, and black board. All
the Science labs will include six island
spots for students to work at or observe
experiments, along with a central chemical room for safety use. The shape of the
new Wakefield will have multiple wings
that form a large fan shape, with a large
room in the center called Town Hall, or
The Heart, including its very own courtyard, along with two other courtyards
around the school.
The new Wakefield will include a
friendly and welcoming outdoor space,
both attractive and relaxing for those who
enjoy studying outdoors. The auditorium
will have 625 seats, divided onto the main
floor, a cross-aisle, a mezzanine, lower
slope area, the stepped upper area, and
the seat gallery. The New Wakefield
School will also feature an indoor pool. It
will contain an eight lane competition
pool, along with an attached teaching and
diving pool.
Thus, the new Wakefield is surely
to be a wonderful feature when students
attend it next year. Freshman Jonathon
Moya mentioned how a new school
"Would be awesome," and how even
though the old school was nice, a new
school would present "Wakefield as a better school than it already is."
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
Freshman Robert "Bobby" Aselford
brought up how a new school would
be "Beneficial" and that even though
the old school was full of memories,
it would be our "time to leave."
Alumni Interview:
Athletic Trainer
Rebecca Kigin
Yousserf Dhimni ‘16
What year did you attend Wakefield
high school?
Nov. 1990-June 1992
How was your experience at Wakefield?
Awesome. Much better than I experienced at HB Woodlawn. I
transferred here because I was
coming here for sports every day
anyway. Most of my friends were
at Wakefield, both from Junior
ROTC and from sports. I liked the
classes much better, the structure, the bells, and the diversity. If I'd had a bad experience,
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be an
Athletic Trainer, much less working at Wakefield!!
On may 30th Ms.kigin posing in a vote for Pedro
shirts across from her room.
Photo credit by Youssef dhimni ’16
Did you have a class that you really enjoyed?
I really enjoyed Mr. Chalker's physics
class: all the problems involved Calvin
and Hobbes scenarios, so it made it
really cool (i.e. Calvin is flying in his space
ship at 60 mph and Hobbes is coming towards him at 30 mph, how fast will they
Who was the Principal at the time?
Dr. Djouadi. Everyone was afraid of her. I
wasn't really, because I knew that I wasn't
doing anything that would get me in trouble. And then I started working here, and
I got a little scared of her, because I didn't
really know what I was doing because I'd
never taught before, and I realized that
What was your least favorite class?
I was only here for 1 3/4 years, and there
weren't any classes that I didn't like, just
ones that I wasn't very good at. I enjoyed
Judy Klevin's Drama 1 class, but I was a
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
senior and couldn't even act like a
fool, so I wasn't very successful. I
can't say I particularly liked my math
classes, but that was because I wasn't really sure what I was doing, and
they wanted me to do daily homework. Also, when I transferred from
HB I was in French 5, but when I got
here I had to go to French 4, and
then finished the year in French 3 (I
still can't carry on a conversation in
French, and would have no idea what
someone is telling me, but that is no
fault of Wakefield!! Senior year I settled for Spanish 1)
Do you have any memorable moments
at the school?
I remember when we, the girls varsity
basketball team, won our only two
games that season AT WashingtonLee and Yorktown (sweet justice).
I remember when we went to states
in 1990, when we beat South Lakes
(playing against South Lakes) in the
Regional Finals at Robinson High
School.
I have lots of memories of the various teams that I played on.
On may 30th athletic trainer Ms.kigin,
massages a injured students ankle after she sprained it during P.E .Photo
credit by Youssef dhimni ’16
How has Wakefield change since you attended the school?
There are more sports. There are more
students from more countries. Technology and the internet have really
made education different. In order to
do research for our classes, we would
go to the card catalog and find books,
or we'd use the encyclopedia, or even
use microfiche, which is pictures of
newspapers and journals saved to
filWe used to have beepers (pagers),
and that was only MAYBE 1/50
kids. To get picked up to come home
from school, we used to use the payphone outside the cafeteria. We'd
make a collect call, and say that our
name was "Kigin Cafeteria" or "Kigin
Barcroft field". If my mom was available to pick us up, she'd decline the
call, and we'd know that she was on
her way.
From the Past/ Towards The Future: A New Wakefield
If she couldn't pick us up, it would
cost her the money to tell us why she
couldn't pick us up!! We used to
watch movies in class from a movie
projector: it was awesome.
Has Wakefield change for the good or
the bad?
Wakefield as a whole has changed
for the better. The students, perhaps
they are more lazy. I wish the kids
had more school spirit. I remember
there used to be more people playing
football, and many more people
would come to the games. More people were in the band and orchestra. More people would come to the
activities.
The whole school was honored that he
picked Wakefield out of any other school
in the country. His speech was televised
and was meant to inspire kids of all ages
to try harder, work harder, never give up
and most importantly, to stay in school.
The President’s second visit was in 2011
when he came with Australian Prime
Minister Julia Gillard. This time he came
secretly and also came to talk to an AP
US History class, taught by Ms. Fraley.
That same day happened to be Ms.
Fraley’s birthday and he sang to her.
Wakefield Marches
Through History
Jennifer Delgado ‘14
Every year is filled with new surprises and different changes. Wakefield
has changed immensely throughout the
years; all the different events that happened have shaped Wakefield by creating lasting memories that have changed
Wa k e f i e l d f o r t h e b e t t e r .
One of the most memorable
events in Wakefield history is when
President Barack Obama visited the
school. , not once but twice His first
visit was in September 2009, where he
gave his national “Back to School
s
p
e
e
c
h
”
.
President Obama visits Wakefield to talk
about the importance of getting an education and to get serious about school on
Tuesday, September 8,2009.
Photo By: Doug Mills ,New York Times
Another proud moment was when
Wakefield’s Scholastic Bowl team earned
4th place in the Virginia High School
league’s Scholastic Bowl championships in
April of 2012. The team put countless
hours of practice and worked extremely
hard
in
order
to
get
there.
One of the more upsetting events
that happened in recent history was a
bomb threat on May 12th 2011. A call was
made to 911 from one of the payphones
within the school saying there was a
bomb in the school. Students and staff
were sent out to the football field for a
bit over two hours as officers and police dogs checked the school. Thankfully, it was a hoax and eventually the
school was cleared and the classes continued but it did cause some panic
a m o n g
e v e r y o n e .
There have also been events that
don’t just affect one school or just one
area, but they affect everyone. For example, the space shuttle The Challenger explosion in January of 1986,
the terrorist attack of September 11,
and the shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. These are all events
that people remember throughout their
lives because they see how many people were hurt and how many lives are
permanently changed.
Former Wakefield student,
Heather Comeau said “Something that
really sticks out to me was when the
Challenger blew up. Just how tragic it
was, I remember when they announced
it everyone was just shocked.” Both
negative and positive events happen
everywhere. How a community handles
them helps define who they are; Wakefield has had horrible things happen,
but it’s also had really great and lovely
t h i n g s
t o o .
One important event that seniors go through is graduation. When
the school first opened up in 1952, the
students graduated in the football field
or in the gym, if it happened to be
raining; now they go to Constitution
Hall.
Although where they graduate isn’t important, it’s an exciting and memorable moment regardless of where it is held. Another big change that has happened
through out the years is how much diversity there is now. Former Wakefield student Mary Thacker said “Back when I was
a student things were different… the majority of the students were black or white,
now there are all types of different races
and it’s amazing.” Thacker also said mentioned that school sprit has gone down incredibly.