From the Principal’s Desk: “May is a whirlwind, but it’s always a happy tornado.”

By Ayla Ozturk

The month of May was filled with school activities, sports, testing, and senior shenanigans.

Principal Matt Shin says, “May is a whirlwind, but it’s always a happy tornado.”

The seniors, class of 2022, got creative with the classic senior prank. Seniors typically decide on a prank to play as a “parting gift” to the school.

There are many cases of students pulling a prank that is dangerous and harmful. Redwood on the other hand, managed to pull one of the best pranks without harming others or destroying property.

The students decided to steal every stapler in the school, put them in a suspicious box, and leave it in front of the office addressed to Shin.

The goal was to make Shin and staff believe the box contained something harmful.

As a precaution, the box was taken outside and was carefully opened. To Shin’s surprise, it was filled with staplers. A lot of staplers.

Shin says, “[The prank] was fun. It was one of the best ones I’ve seen yet. It was fun, it didn’t harm anybody. And that just showed that they were being creative, you know, and we push for creativity.”

The seniors decided to have mercy on their teachers and label the staplers with their names written on blue tape.

“Like they didn’t just give me a box of staplers,” Shin says. “They had them all individually marked, so giving them back was not a problem. Ater a couple of days, no teachers came. So we were like, ‘We better deliver these’. It was pretty cool. We never [would have] thought of it.”

AP testing, finishing up the math portion of the CAASPP [California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress] test, and preparing for school activities have been some of May’s challenges. Arranging for test makesup sessions was a difficulty as well.

However, the good things made the whirlwind that is May a “happy tornado”. Shin says, “I call it [that] because there’s so many things going on, but it’s good things.”

Some of these events include scholarship night, academic awards night, sports playoffs, powderpuff, and much more.

Redwood is starting to prepare for finals and the year’s end. Finals are June 1-3.

Principal Shin’s Advice

1. “Don’t wait to cram right before every final, because you’re going to forget.”
2. “Make sure you fully understand [the content] so that you’re prepared.”
3. “Get a good night’s rest.”
4. “Don’t give up.”
5. “Come and do your best!”

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