Last Friday, over 100 students briefly turned one of Chaska High School’s halls into a large mosh pit.

The juniors and seniors, dressed in red and blue shirts, ran and pushed into each other.

The action was apparently a response to a high school fight last spring that police said had been caused by gang friction. The shirt colors were supposed to be a humorous wink at the murderous Crips and Bloods gangs in Los Angeles.

By Chuck Friedbauer

Before his Physics X class at Chanhassen High School this year, science had always come easy for freshman Kyle Homstad.

“That first week was pretty hard though and I was stressed that science was going to be tough all semester long,” he said.

Homstad and his classmates have recovered nicely since that first week of school, and are now enjoying some of the new science classes developed as part of the redesigned secondary programs at both Chanhassen and Chaska high schools.

Dozens of students were involved in a May 21 fracas at Chaska High School.

Students, dressed in blue and red shirts, ran through a hallway in a staged event pushing and shoving each other.

“It was evidently an attempt by students to mock last year’s StarTribune article, which intimated there was a gang presence at the high school,” said Nancy Kracke, director of communications/community relations. “My understanding is that it was satire, or a way to show how silly that was.”

By Chuck Friedbauer

As a past and current member of several Chaska High School academic teams, Trevor Vossberg wasn’t sure how this year’s teams would fare.

“I thought this might be a horrible year and I just hoped we wouldn’t really suck,” he said.

After qualifying for the national Science Bowl tournament and the national Quiz Bowl event this year, the Chaska High School academic teams most definitely do not suck.

Jill Velure is the next principal of Victoria Elementary School, according to a District 112 newsletter.

Velure succeeds Nancy Wittman who will move to Chaska Elementary following the retirement of Roger Hunt June 30.

Velure has been a District 112 classroom teacher, lead teacher and, most recently, coordinator of Student Testing and Assessment, according to the newsletter.

Theresa Arntzen was just 17 years old when she found out she was pregnant. At the time, continuing on at her high school didn’t seem possible.

“I felt like an outcast at school,” Arntzen said. “It wasn’t supposed to happen to me.”

Arntzen worried about what the future might hold for her.

“I was embarrassed,” she continued. “And I was scared about getting my credits in.”

By Chuck Friedbauer

When it comes to the range of literary tastes of middle school students, books such as “The Hobbit” and “Twilight” are generally at extreme opposite ends.

“If you love one, you’re probably going to hate the other,” said eighth-grade student Jonathan Murphy. “My brother just about fell over when he saw I was reading ‘Twilight.’”

Murphy is just one of the members of the Pioneer Ridge Middle School eighth-grade book club, which brings together those students who simply share a love of reading.

By Chuck Friedbauer

Electronic media, raging hormones and students struggling to express newfound independence are just a few of the obstacles facing the typical middle school teacher.

“My goal is to sneak the learning in every chance I get,” said Mary Perrine.