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‘It’s Not Only a Teacher Everyone Loved, It Will Go To a School’: NCHS Book Drive in Memory of Kay Timmis

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Charles Sosnick, a University of Pennsylvania-bound New Canaan High School senior who serves as president of the student body, remembers Kay Timmis as one of the nicest, most respectful educators he’s ever had. The longtime, beloved New Canaan Public Schools substitute teacher’s sudden passing in January at age 82 “left a pretty big hole in the community,” Sosnick recalled from outside the main office at NCHS Thursday afternoon. “It was pretty amazing, the level of emotion that kids had for her,” Sosnick said. At his feet lay scattered boxes and bags filled with books that are being collected in Timmis’s memory. The Student Coalition’s book drive will benefit the classroom libraries at Edison Elementary School in Bridgeport—an effort dedicated to Timmis because she was a champion of literacy and education who was “very charitable and loved to read,” Sosnick said.

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NCHS Senior Fashion Show [PHOTOS, VIDEO]

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Hundreds of parents, friends and other residents cheered from the darkened seats of the New Canaan High School auditorium on Saturday night as about 100 seniors strutted their stuff in casual, athletic, dressy and prom wear during the NCHS Senior Fashion Show. The major fundraiser for Post Prom, the annual show saw some $6,800 in tickets sold in advance, Chair Whitney Williams said. Here’s a video from the show featuring local band Triple Coil:
New Canaanite Video-NCHS Fashion Show 2015
“It’s pretty heavily attended,” Williams said as students shuffled from a pre-show dinner in the Wagner Room to separate areas to change and get made up for the runway. “We have prom fashions from A Step Ahead in Stamford and Camillo’s in Norwalk. The rest of the fashions have been provided by local vendors.”

Those included Athletic Shoe Factory, Blaze-In, Caren Forbes, Darien Sport Shop, Island Outfitters, J. McLaughlin, Jos.

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New Canaan High School Seniors Veronica Ma, Charles Sosnick Selected for Venerable U.S. Senate Youth Program

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Two New Canaan High School seniors have earned a $5,000 college scholarship and weeklong trip to the nation’s capital under a prestigious, competitive program whose alumni include congressmen, governors, judges, ambassadors and presidential advisors. Veronica Ma and Charles Sosnick are Connecticut’s delegates to the 53rd annual United States Senate Youth Program—the first time in memory, officials say, that the two participants selected from each state are also from the same high school. The pair will attend “Washington Week” next month, and the program—sponsored by the U.S. Senate and funded by The Hearst Foundations, is designed “to increase young Americans’ understanding of the interrelationships of the three branches of government, learn the caliber and responsibilities of federally elected and appointed officials, and emphasize the vital importance of democratic decision-making not only for America but for people around the world,” according to a press release. Veronica called it “a once-in-a-life-time kind of thing.”

“It’s crazy that a high schooler like me can experience D.C. from such an incredible, first-hand perspective,” she told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “I’m especially thrilled because I’m looking to concentrate in government next year in college, so Washington Week will be an amazing way for me to explore our nation’s governmental system.

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New Canaan High School Students Protest Grand Jury Decision in Eric Garner’s Death [VIDEO]

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Saying their goal was to spread awareness in the New Canaan community and beyond that young people demand equal treatment at the hands of police and justice in the legal system, regardless of race, some 200 high school students staged a protest on the campus grounds Thursday afternoon, and about 60 of those went on to rally in front of the police station. Organized by senior Charles Sosnick (see video above) in the wake of Wednesday’s grand jury decision not to indict the white police officer on Staten Island whose chokehold led to the death of a 43-year-old Eric Garner in July, the protest featured impromptu speeches by Sosnick followed by demonstrations and chants such as “I can’t breathe”—a reference to Garner’s dying words on the sidewalk—“The cops are not above the law,” “All lives matter,” and “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”

“We are not protesting the New Canaan Police Department or any of its officers,” Sosnick told those gathered in front of the department, passing cars occasionally honking as they did as the protesters marched down South Avenue from the high school.

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School Officials Advise NCHS Students of Less Disruptive Ways To Protest Staten Island Grand Jury Decision

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Administrators at New Canaan High School, catching wind Thursday morning that some students had planned to walk out of classes at 1:30 p.m. in a protest of the grand jury decision not to indict the police officer whose chokehold in July led to the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island, addressed the effort’s organizer and advised that “there are ways to protest and some may be more appropriate than others,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said. Asked what the administrators said to NCHS Senior Charles Sosnick, Luizzi said, “They advised that there may be other ways than walking out of class at 1:30 that may not be disruptive to the school day for themselves and their peers, so they [the students] are considering that.”

“They are students and they want to have their opinions heard about what is going on in Staten Island, so we just tried to advise them around different ways they can do that,” Luizzi said. He confirmed that the original plan had been to gather at the flagpole out front of the school. A grand jury on Wednesday decided not to indict on criminal charges the white police officer whose chokehold in July on Garner, an unarmed black man, led to that man’s death. The officer, 29-year-old Daniel Pantaleo, told the grand jury that he wanted to take down Garner, 43, not choke him.