The Official News Source of Weatherford High School and Home of Roo Student Media

WHS GrassBurr

The Official News Source of Weatherford High School and Home of Roo Student Media

WHS GrassBurr

The Official News Source of Weatherford High School and Home of Roo Student Media

WHS GrassBurr

Dare to Cross It

District’s new motto spreads across campuses

By Lucia Lopez-Rosas and Cheyenne Ponticelli

Walking down the hallway of any WISD campus, one might notice colorful banners hanging on the walls—banners proclaiming the same and perhaps most vital aspect of a unified community, the district’s new motto: Cross the Line.

The district’s slogans have changed from year to year; each new generation has inspired different themes, yet all contained an underlying idea—to enhance our community and ourselves.

WISD’s general goal is for Weatherford to improve as both a district and individual schools. To reach this objective, students and staff are expected to reach satisfactory attendance rates, academic achievement, success in sports, and to build strong relationships between students and teachers.

“It’s about transforming the school into a better model of a high school,” assistant principal RJ Rodrigue said.

According to counselor Courtney Trammell, administration and staff were introduced to this year’s motto at the Texas Scholar Banquet. WISD acquainted well with the new saying, and a little before the school year started, the district implemented the new saying with students. When asked whom the original idea belonged to, WHS gives all credit to the superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Hanks.

The motto proposes students and teachers to help each other as a community, perhaps with support in their personal aspirations, or with simple help on assignments.

“Math comes easily for me and I know many people have trouble with it,” Lauren Anderson said. “I try and help my [classmates] with homework I explain to them ways to do problems we’re working on in class and explain to them certain stuff they might not get the first try.”

However, the new saying also encourages students and teachers alike to aspire individually, apart from those goals set by the district, to set bars for themselves and work independently to reach them.

“Honestly I think we have to ask how we can challenge ourselves, how we can make ourselves better, “ senior Joshua Baldwin said.

For junior Jamie Brannon, crossing personal lines varies from sports to a better class rank; she also concurs that it is up to each individual to define exactly what goals to set and what lines they’re willing to cross.

“Basketball is important to me,” Brannon said, “but academics are vital. In both my sport and my schoolwork, I’ve learned that how much effort is put into something mirrors the final result.”

ESL teacher Aileen Akbar concluded that it is one’s character that outlines how we push ourselves; it is in fact our persona that plays as catalyst to our ambitious sense.

“Personality defines how we cross our personal line,” Akbar said. “Everything in life is part of training, we follow our ambitions, we set our own goals, whether good or bad. Of course, to reach any dream, we have to work for it.”

Trammell agrees with Akbar in the notion that in the end it is we who define ourselves, who we want to be, and how much effort we are willing to put into our objective.

“You don’t just cross the line without effort in any part of life,” Trammell said, “It takes purposeful actions [to reach our target].”

You can view the video here.

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Dare to Cross It