By Natalie SilverHUB Staff

The girls dressed up in lingerie and stilet-tos, sometimes with plastic wrap over their bodies so they wouldn’t expose too much skin. The boys were mostly shirtless, but some of them dressed up as well. According to vice principal Sheila Smith, many cos-tumes resembled penises.

They stormed the dance floor and en-gaged in some Bogus Ball activities—alcohol consumption, drug use and sexual acts—all in public and on DHS turf.

The Bogus Ball was a long-standing dance at DHS that ended in 2007. Since then, Student Government has tried to come up with a popular alternative while following school rules.

The Bogus Ball was initially designed to be a fun dance for DHS students. It was special because it lacked the formality and stuffiness of prom or semi-formal homecoming danc-es. Students were able to let loose and wear ridiculous outfits without having to worry about whether they could find a corsage to match or a date to accompany them.

However, with time, the dance escalated into a chaotic, scandalous and full-blown rave, according to admiinistrators, despite the presence of chaperones and a police offi-cer. Some students loved it; Smith did not.

Five years ago, as a newcomer to DHS, Smith did not know what to expect.

“At one point, I was able to break through the crowd of dancers circling one couple where I observed a boy licking a girl’s naked breasts and another boy, with his pants low-ered, balancing a girl on him for an intimate

session of sex in front of me and the students watching them,” Smith said.

When the dance finally ended, Smith ob-served empty liquor bottles, panties and bras distributed all over the dance floor. She didn’t see any evidence of drugs, but according to an anonymous DHS graduate who attended the Ball, “I know for a fact there were drunk, high and rolling [on Ecstasy] students the last year they had Bogus Ball.”

With Smith as the driving force, the DHS administration finally took action in 2007. Smith and her colleagues met with the par-ents of students involved in inappropriate be-havior, and the dance was banned.

According to Smith, some of the parents were critical of the administrators, thinking they were being prudish and were overre-acting.

“Some parents were supportive but a num-ber of parents accused us of being too strict and of not letting ‘kids be kids,’” Smith said.

Smith and her colleagues worked with Student Government and the PTA to push for a new and improved dance with a differ-ent theme and a safer environment.

“It was a challenge but well worth the ef-fort,” said Smith.

The change in theme eventually won the support of the community and the parents, but not the student body.

The dance was replaced with the Home-coming dance, which has been in place up until this year. This dance has not been as popular as Bogus Ball and has suffered from poor attendance.

Student Government membe, senior Ra-chel Smith, who is unrelated to Sheila Smith, was in charge of the 2011 Homecoming

dance and blames the widespread belief that the Homecoming dance is “no fun,” due to low attendance.

Student Government, in an effort to get a higher non-prom dance attendance and to start a new school tradition, decided to turn the Homecoming dance into a semi-formal.

“Student Government’s goals, and mine, are to get better attendance at dances, not for profit or our benefit because Student Gov-ernment usually loses money on dances, but to enhance the high school experience of the student and to become more of a connected student body,” senior Smith said.

However, because Student Government made a late decision to make this fall’s dance semi-formal, only one date was available, Oct. 19, which conflicts with the homecom-ing game. Because of this conflict, the Stu-dent Forum decided to not have a fall dance this year.

Although DHS is making progress towards developing new dance-related traditions, some still miss the infamous Bogus Ball. The DHS graduate pointed out that not all people were dressed seductively not acted inappro-priately, but were instead only there to have a good time.

“I don’t think they needed to ban Bogus Ball in the slightest,” the graduate said. “I think that if the school had such a problem with what it had become they should have worked more to enforce the rules that were in place.

“Getting rid of the dance didn’t get rid of the behavior they thought was such a prob-lem. It was a wonderful tradition that I wish were around for the current students to en-joy,” the former Blue Devil said.

By emily Gao Editor-in-Chief

Come fall 2013, many current seniors will disperse to various colleges around the nation. Some will even take a gap year to travel abroad. Others will go straight into the work force. And there are a few who will decide to take a completely unique route after graduation.

Senior Emmanuel Gacel is one of these few who will take a break from school; he wants to enter the United States Marines.

Gacel became interested in the Marines in junior high school because he is interested in helping people. In addition, he wanted to escape the average lifestyle.

“I don’t like the civilian lifestyle, it is kind of boring. Even though you rush around, in the military everyone is on time and things and you have certain standards you have to meet,” Gacel said.

In addition to the organized way of life of the military, Gacel is looking forward to the traveling and cultural exchange associated with the job.

“You get to go around the world and meet really cool people and get to talk to the people of the country and actually know how they are as a culture and people,” Gacel said.

Then there is the adrenaline and “cool” factor of joining the armed forces.

“They are paying you to be fit and if you get into a really cool job, you get to jump out of a plane,” Gacel said.

In order to enlist into the military, Gacel talked to a recruiter based in Sacramento who took him to the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS). The purpose of the first trip was to determine if Gacel’s physical qualifications and aptitude and moral standards set by the military were determined adequate.

After passing the initial screening, Gacel had to prepare for the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The “SAT of the military” determines the mental aptitude of the applicant to enlist in the military branch. By testing in general knowledge, electrical knowledge and other categories, the ASVAB determines which jobs the applicant is most qualified for.

Gacel scored 84 out of 99 on the ASVAB, which he describes as “awesome”, qualifying him for almost any job in the marines.

Currently, every Tuesday and Thursday, Gacel has Physical Training that includes running, push ups and pull ups to prepare him for boot camp in the summer. They also strength train with real military situations.

“Recently we have done fireman carries where you carry someone on your back, buddy drags, where you drag a wounded buddy across a football field,” Gacel said.

In July, Gacel will go to boot camp to learn infantry.

“I get to drive big armored vehicles and blow stuff up with rocket launchers,” Gacel said.

After the training, Gacel and his unit will be shipped off to Camp Pendleton.

Gacel’s ultimate goal is to become a 0351 assaultman who is responsible for the employment of soldier-launched multipurpose assault weapon (SMAW) and for supporting rifle squads from rocket fire.

FEATURESPage 3October 19, 2012

By BeN BaekHUB Staff

Costume stores open, decorations slowly start to appear on houses and pumpkins fill up boxes in grocery stores. This can only mean one thing: it is almost Halloween.

Although it is not an official school holi-day, Halloween is still an important holiday for many.

Most importantly, Halloween brings free candy in the form of trick-or-treating.

Trick-or-treating, or going door-to-door asking for candy, has been a tradition for many children on Halloween night. The fa-miliar cries of “Trick-or-treat!” fill the air on the last night of October as trick-or-treaters walk around in search of sweets.

For some DHS students, Halloween and trick-or-treating is just a childhood bygone.

“By the time you’re in high school, Hal-loween’s not really about the candy,” junior Ju-a Son said. “It’s just another reason to be able to hangout and party.”

According to Son, as students grow older, Halloween slowly loses its appeal as a fun holiday and becomes more of an excuse to get out of the house.

Others, however, still believe in the fun and spirit of “trick-or-treating” just as young children still believe in Santa Claus.

For senior Earl Breedon, trick-or-treating is not inappropriate for high school students.

“I think it’s fun to go out with friends in costumes to just have a good time roaming around at night without being asked ques-tions like if we’re in a gang or something,” Breedon said.

Breedon believes that the true spirit of Halloween comes from the time spent with friends in costumes rather than the candy.

Senior Jenna Farboud, who dressed up to trick-or-treat last Halloween, finds the event appealing for a different reason. “[Trick-or-treating] just makes me feel young again,” she said. “It’s all so nostalgic to go around getting free candy.”

So why don’t all high school students go trick-or-treating?

According to Farboud, the reason for the decrease in appeal is not just from being “too old for it.”

“On Halloween most people do dress up,

but instead of getting candy, they just go to these big Halloween parties or hang out,” she said. “Either that or they have homework or something like that.”

DHS students have various opinions, but what does an adult think?

John Oster, an English teacher, sees high school students trick-or-treating in a similar light as Son does. “I think it’s preposterous,” he said. “Anyone older than 12 needs to stay home.”

But Breedon could hardly disagree more. “Why let the kids have all the fun?” he said.

Candy cravers won’t grow up

Student Government stuggles to replace infamous dance

After risque student behavior, the Bogus Ball was cancelled and DHS has been looking for a replacement ever since. Photo illustration.

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Bogus behavior

Senior Emmanuel Gacel plans to enter the United States Marines after graduation.

The Devil You Know

Emmanuel Gacel