InsaneJournal

The 2007 - 2008 school year at Apple Creek Senior High had proven to be an eventful one. The days of the biggest scandal among the teenagers being something questionable being served to them in the lunch room or who dropped their books down the stairs were long over, leaving the teachers and administration wondering what had happened to the students they had known from all those years ago. Unsure of what they could do about what to do or how to handle this new wave of teenagers, the administration watched from a distance, hoping that the students that had made their lives and jobs much easier would return one day.

However, an ignored problem seems to be one that will only grow, rather than vanish. What started out as small behavior problems - tripping students between classes or the spreading of rumors - seemed to only grow until groups of friends were turned against other groups of friends, almost creating a war zone at Apple Creek Senior High instead of the comfortable place of learning and education it was supposed to be.

The new school year started and right off the bat the behavior proved to be no better than the year prior - in fact, it was only worse. It was impossible to ignore the amount of students that were in detention and the angry, glowering looks that were passed among the students serving there.

Before long, the threats and glares between students turned physical - both on and off the school campus. By the start of the final semester of school during the year, the administration had been forced to discipline a record number of students from all walks of life. It didn't take long after these figures became public knowledge that the parents began to speak out, each worried about the well being of their students and concerned with why the administration had yet to do anything about the behavior that was breaking out in the hallways of the high school.

However, the unthinkable happened before the administration could come to any sort of decision on how to handle the students. An anonymous warning was written across the mirror in the second floor girls' bathroom with a bright red shade of lipstick, pointing fingers at Tom Hancock, a junior that was allegedly making plans to bring an end to the violent turn the school had taken with an extreme form of violence - a gun.

The response was instant. Fingers were pointed at who might have made such an accusation, but it was quickly forgotten about when Tom Hancock disappeared from Apple Creek. Taking action for the first time, the administration questioned Tom Hancock and the warning soon proved to be all too real.

The situation made the administration realize that feigning ignorance is all but bliss and that something had to be done. It was Georgia Olives, a young guidance counselor, that came up with a possible solution. She discovered a program that several schools with similar problems to Apple Creek had implemented with success. Essentially, the program is geared toward bringing the students together on a like medium - online journals. The theory is that when the students are able to talk in somewhere other than the classrooms and hallways, they would be able to relate and learn more about each other in a relaxed way. Along with that, the school would also implement short and sporadic assignments for the students to complete in order to better get to know one another and learn something new.

The school board loved the idea and Apple Creek Senior High received a grant that would allow them to go ahead with the program, putting Georgia Olives as the head of the program. Rather than waiting until the following school year to start it up, they decided to instead start it near the end of the year as a bit of an experiment to see how the students would react and how it might effect them in just a few short months.