A tremendous amount of events happened in a week at Union. The teapot was steaming throughout the week, and there were specific topics that had students busy gossiping. To begin, the re-emergence of the glow-in-the-dark dance, also known as the “Dark Side” dance. Controversially, it was not put together by the student council, but rather by the Titan Nation. This glowing dance was the definition of last-minute planning, but was well attended and mostly enjoyed. In addition, the timeless spirit week was a success. Subsequently, there was the matter of the last football home game, Camas vs. Union, who were and still are intense rivals. Most of the students at Union long awaited the game and looked forward to celebrating senior cheerleaders, band members, and football players. However, a curveball happened on Thursday, right by Mckenzie Stadium, a shooting, with no known injuries. This led to complications for the Freshmen Football Team and a potential cancellation of the Varsity game. So, to hear it all from the source, keep reading. 

The question is, what is the “Dark Side” dance, and when did it come about as an idea? Ashley Gutierrez from Titan Nation recalled, “We started planning it about 2 or 3 weeks ago.” This was a little after the last dance, the yearly homecoming. When asked if this dance was a revamp or copy of homecoming, Hyrum Lacher said,  “No, the students just asked and we provided, you know, a student voice we never fail.” The dance brought in a lot of students and likely a lot of funding as well. However, this dance used to happen in the past, Kate Miklas said, “We want to make sure everybody comes and has fun, Union used to do it a long time ago, so we’re bringing it back.” The dance was decorated with bright neon glow sticks, balloons, and colorful hanging tassels. There was a great DJ with a wide selection of music with plenty of lights. 

However, the dance and the big game almost got canceled, putting an unexpected roadblock in the week. On Thursday, several schools were put into lockdown, due to a shooting, close to Evergreen High School. The Columbian had informed, that a 16-year-old high school student was caught shooting at two 15-year-old boys, outside Evergreen High School, on Thursday around 1 PM. The shooting was most likely affiliated with a gang-related issue. But at the end of the day, the shooter was arrested and taken into custody. Luckily, no one was harmed, and the local police took a handle on the situation. But that day was supposed to be the day of the freshman football game. The head freshman coach Mr. Woods, of Union High School, said, “Well, you know safety first. The first thing was to cancel the game because obviously, we have to protect our athletes. What I will say is that luckily our senior staff was able to reschedule the game for Monday at 4 p.m. So, the athletes will be able to play.” When asked about how much he knew, he declared, “Yes, I understood that something had happened there, we initially just told the athletes that there was an incident, and won’t be able to go at the moment, the game is canceled for now, we are going to meet at our normal practice time later. I knew it at the moment but I didn’t insinuate it until later on.” This is what had students at Union concerned, especially when the varsity game was in the air and potentially even the dance. Mr. Lamount Woods, the athletic director and associate principal said, “Actually, we brainstormed with the district office and with Camas administrators over there and our plan was to see what the outcome was with what happened. We determined that we were going to continue the game today with high security.” Outside Mckenzie Stadium, there were upwards of 6 police cars, as well as security guards placed around the bleachers. Mr. Lamount Woods had briefed that there was plenty of enforcement, from the city and the school district. So, to the student body’s luck, the game and dance continued.

The Titan Nation utilized their social popularity in the school to put together a spirit week and compiled all the information for the dance. Spirit Week highlighted popular themes,  such as Adam Sandler, and stuck with the classics of Color Wars, Jersey Day, and Blackout. But putting together a dance in so little time is quite the challenge. Tucker Dunseth stressed,  “It was a lot, it was tough because this is going through another booster, and planning it was not as easy as you would think. A lot of paperwork and meetings with our associate principal.” Funding is important and being that the Titan Nation wasn’t the student council, they had to figure something out. Hyrum Lacher summarized that they had a lot of help from the Associate Principal because he also held the title of being the athletic director. Due to this, the Titan Nation was able to use sports boosters to fund the dance. They advertised the dance not only on socials, but on flyers in the student parking lot, and posters around the school. Tucker Dunseth mentioned he had missed a lot of class but, “We were just trying in every way to advertise for this dance, but I think we did a pretty good job.” Get ready for winter sports and concert season, because the music and athletic programs aren’t going to be done anytime soon. 

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