{"id":4485,"date":"2020-05-07T12:06:10","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:06:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:06:10","slug":"annual-pep-rally-canceled-due-to-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4485","title":{"rendered":"Annual pep rally canceled due to threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Lia Bergin &amp; Arielle Sutherland<\/strong><br \/>\nPioneer Optimist<br \/>\nPioneer HS<br \/>\n1st Place Division 1, News Writing<br \/>\nOnline Breaking News Coverage<\/p>\n<p><b>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reports as much of the who, what, where, when, why and how as possible<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Story is in the form of a short report to get out essential facts as soon as possible<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does not sacrifice accuracy for the sake of timeliness<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sharp, attention-getting lead that underscores news story importance<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uses inverted pyramid<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emphasizes news elements, i.e. timeliness, nearness, impact, and prominence<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoids opinion unless properly attributed<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper diction\/grammar; use of third person<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pioneer\u2019s annual Homecoming pep rally was abruptly canceled only a few minutes before it was scheduled to begin today after school officials learned of a threat made by a student.<\/p>\n<p>Just as students were ready to leave their first hour classes and head to the football field for the pep rally, Pioneer Principal Tracey Lowder came on the school\u2019s public address system to say it had been canceled. Some classes had already been dismissed to head to the rally. The administration\u2019s initial understanding was that a student had threatened to disrupt the pep rally with violence, but Pioneer Principal Tracey Lowder says they have since learned that the threats allegedly made by a student over social media were directed at specific people he was having a disagreement with, not the larger school community. \u00a0\u201cOur communication (was) that we had a student who made threats via social media,\u201d Lowder said. \u201cAs a result of us taking those threats seriously, the pep assembly was postponed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The abrupt cancellation caused distress for many students as rumors began to circulate. Following the announcement of the pep assembly\u2019s cancellation, students located in the cafeteria and annex gradually became concerned as talk of a potential school shooter began to spread. Halfway through the second hour, many students ran outside towards the tennis courts, under the impression that a shooter was in the vicinity. \u201cI was terrified for my life,\u201d said senior Allison Dabrowski, one of the students to run outside.<\/p>\n<p>Lowder, though, says that no threats were ever within the building. \u201c[The student who made threats] was never at school,\u201d Lowder said. \u201cHe was never in the building. He was interviewed and detained by police at his home this morning, so he was never on our campus today. He was never here to follow through with anything that he threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Optimist<\/em>\u00a0reached out to the Ann Arbor Police Department this afternoon who said while there had been an incident as described by school officials, the AAPD could not release any further information.<\/p>\n<p>Some students say that, despite an email to parents which said Pioneer was not entering a lockout, they were prohibited from leaving campus by administration officials due to the school being under a \u201csoft lockdown.\u201d Lowder, however, says that students may have misunderstood the nature of these prohibitive measures. \u201cStudents were already on their way to the field (for the pep rally) and they were told that they couldn\u2019t go,\u201d Lowder said. \u201cThey weren\u2019t told that they couldn\u2019t leave the building, they were told that they couldn\u2019t go [to the pep assembly] because we were, at that point, still trying to gather information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the necessity of these safety measures that took place, many students were saddened to see the pep assembly cancelled. \u201cI\u2019m really disappointed because it\u2019s my senior year and this is my last Homecoming and the last time I can do all of this with my friends,\u201d said senior Jad Merie.<\/p>\n<p>Concerning the football match and Homecoming dance that the pep rally typically precedes, these events will go on as scheduled. Typical safety procedures have been enforced for the football game, as Pioneer students were instructed to bring their student IDs for entry and backpacks were banned. Additionally, plans for a second pep rally are in the works among administrative staff. \u201cWe\u2019ll reschedule the pep assembly probably before we play Skyline at home or before we play Huron,\u201d said Lowder.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pioneeroptimist.com\/1668\/news\/annual-pep-rally-cancelled-due-to-gun-threat\/\">Click here for the story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lia Bergin &amp; Arielle Sutherland Pioneer Optimist Pioneer HS 1st Place Division 1, News Writing Online Breaking News Coverage JUDGING CRITERIA Reports as much of the who, what, where, when, why and how as possible Story is in the form of a short report to get out essential facts as soon as possible Does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,4],"tags":[175,20],"class_list":["post-4485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","category-breakingnewscoverage","category-nw","tag-2019-20","tag-division1","post_format-post-format-image","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joel Beeker","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1al","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}