![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
As part of their “Teen Click It or Ticket” media campaign from Feb.1-15, the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, gave a presentation yesterday on the importance of wearing a seatbelt to a variety of classes. Traffic Safety Specialist Monique Campa spoke to students about their seatbelt-wearing habits and how to improve them.
“We’re here to remind everybody to be safe, and how simple it is to put on your seatbelt to save your life,” Campa said. “And it’s not only your life, but also reminding your friends. It’s really important to wear a seatbelt. Everybody, every rider, every time.”
Teen Click It or Ticket is a newer program that came from the Click It or Ticket campaign, which has been educating Texans for over 20 years about seatbelt safety. Cedar Park is the second high school visited in 2024.
“You make the conscious decision to buckle up or not,” Campa said. “So, are you alright with making that conscious decision of possibly inflicting pain and devastation on [someone]? It’s something that we try to get teens to think about, to realize and put in perspective that this is a choice for you to be safe, but it’s also a choice to make sure you’re coming home, and you’re not just changing your own life, but the life of everybody else around you, too.”
According to the TxDOT presentation, 51% of teens killed in a car-accident in 2022 were not wearing a seatbelt, which Campa said is on the rise. Fines for not wearing a seatbelt can be up to $200, not including court expenses.
“Everybody knows that they’re supposed to buckle up,” TxDOT Teen Click It or Ticket Branch Manager Tracie Mendez said. “Everybody knows. Your generation absolutely knows they’re supposed to be buckling, but they don’t. We want to make it a good habit, making sure that they are putting that seatbelt on. If it’s something just as simple as putting on your seatbelt to give you that higher chance of survival, why not do it for yourself? For everybody in the car?”
The presentation, which lasted about 20 minutes, included a rollover crash simulator with a stuffed dummy to represent an unbuckled person in a truck cab. The simulator spun the cab and students could watch the “person” go out the car window.
“[My favorite part] was seeing the dummy fly out of the car,” junior Haley Norris said. “That was kind of scary. I thought that it was really interesting how it flew out of the car. I usually always wear my seatbelt, so I just thought [the lesson] was a good reminder, but I will always wear my seatbelt going forward.”
The campaign team reached out to Principal John Sloan, who worked with the organization to set a date and time for teachers to take their classes to the presentation.
“[The message] is not just for students, it’s for everybody,” Sloan said. “Adults aren’t always better than young people when it comes to remembering that it’s important [to buckle up] every time you get in a vehicle. [Campa] is mentioning a student who was just texting or sending something really quickly, looked away for a second and hit an oncoming car. If you have a seatbelt on it’s going to save lives.”
Since it was created, according to TxDOT, Click It or Ticket has saved over 7,300 lives and prevented over 129,000 car-crash related injuries. As they looked at the truck on display, students were told about a pair of teens who flipped in their truck but survived because they were wearing seatbelts.
“[The teenagers’] vehicle flipped head over,” Mendez said. “And they were both buckled and they survived. It’s likely they would have died, but they didn’t. Their mother was a few miles behind them and she came up on the crash and they were already out of the vehicle. They survived. And they are now grown men and living their lives.”
TxDOT has several other campaigns over traffic and teen safety, such as drinking and driving, underage drinking, bicycle safety, pedestrian safety and speeding.
“Speed is a different aspect,” Mendez said. “You add high speed to crashes, and the higher the speed, the less likely you are to survive. That’s another aspect of our program; educating teens about speed, because your body can only withhold so much of the crash. Everything inside of your body is crashing; your brain, all your insides are crashing as well. There’s so many different variables. You have the speed of the vehicle, and are they distracted? Are they sleeping? Are there too many people in the car?”
Campa said that the survival rate of a car-accident at 60 mph is 50%, and that percentage decreases the faster the speed of the crash.
“The idea is to stay in the vehicle,” Mendez said. “That’s the safety. You have all kinds of safety in the vehicle, your seatbelt, your airbags, but you have to be in there to be protected. And then your other passengers as well; if they’re not buckled, they’ve been converted into projectiles.”
At the end of the presentation, students were asked to fill out a survey about the demonstration and their thoughts about wearing seatbelts. iHeartRadio is sponsoring the survey, and will give out 30 pairs of AirPods Max to random students who complete the form.
“[The presentation] was very impactful on all of our lives and really changed my life and my perspective about wearing seatbelts,” junior Dakota Mroski said. “I will most definitely wear my seatbelt.”
This is the first time TxDOT has visited the school for a seatbelt safety demonstration. There were 17 time slots for teachers to take their classes to.
“That awareness and the cognition that we’re very vulnerable when we’re in a vehicle and remembering what happens when the impact of a collision happens is incredible,” Sloan said. “Just a reminder to click in your seatbelt every time. I think [we will try to make it a yearly thing], I like the way it is going, so I think we’d like to invite them back every year. It’s a good message to send every year.”
Neighborhood organizations, schools and other groups can reach out to TxDOT to have the Teen Click It or Ticket campaign presented for their community. To contact Campa, email [email protected] or call (512) 217-4118.
