Since the school’s founding in 1960, The Yorktown Sentry has served as an informative newspaper, covering important happenings around Arlington and the world. Today, The Sentry is entirely online, but for years prior it delivered the news in traditional paper form. Articles in these papers give a look into what Arlington life was like at the time and how the county and school has developed over the years.
- January 24, 1961, The Sentry, “Student Council Committee Selects ‘Patriots’ as Nickname for School:” The cover story for this issue of The Sentry reports on the selection of ‘Patriots’ as the school’s nickname. After extensive debate in Student Council at the time, the name was decided upon to honor those at the Battle of Yorktown during the Revolutionary War. The Council operated with the knowledge that whatever nickname they chose would likely stick to the school for decades to come, as it has. It was also a priority to select a name associated with the military in some capacity, continuing the theme set by other schools in the area such as the Washington-Lee Generals and the Wakefield Warriors.
- October 13, 1965, The Sentry, Letter to the Editor by Barbie Payne “Abuse of School Symbol Angers Students”: Payne, a student at Yorktown, writes to the newspaper in complaint over the treatment of the school seal, which is made of mosaic tile, was given by the class of 1965 and still sits in the school today. Located underneath the stairs of the atrium, Payne complains that students mistreat the seal by eating meals on it and walking over it, leaving trash and mud. The irony of this letter from over 50 years ago is that the same transgressions occur on a daily basis at Yorktown today, with the seal under the stairs being a popular area to eat lunch and hang out with friends.
- April 23, 1971, The Sentry; “Anti-War Group to Organize Protest Movement Saturday”:
In the tumultuous era of the Vietnam War, the school’s students were avid participants in protests against the war. The People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice, a national organization with a branch at the school, motivated students to attend the D.C. protests. Support was also given to the ‘People’s Treaty,’ which advocated for a peaceful resolution to the Vietnam War to be reached between the United States and North Vietnamese.
- June 6, 1975, The Sentry “Senior Superlatives”: For the graduating class of 1975, which included students set to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard and Wake Forest for college, Senior Superlatives were given out of equal prestige. Categories include traditional honors such as “Most Likely to Succeed,” “Best Dressed,” and “Wittiest.” However, there were also superlatives that would likely not be accepted in year books of today. These included “Sexiest,” “Most Chauvinist Man (Pig),” and the coveted award of “Class Drunk,” received by Billy Moffitt and Martha Coupe. Relationships of the year’s class were also given recognition with “Cutest Couple,” and “Most Likely To Get Married.”
- November 20, 2003; The Sentry, Rachel Thompson; “D.C. Metropolitan Area Targets Gang Involvement With Increasing Vigilance”: The article identifies the increasing issues with gang violence in Washington D.C., and talks about how these problems have spread into the suburbs of D.C., including Arlington. Thompson, the article’s author, references “fights, assaults, auto thefts, robberies, and substance abuse” happening in Arlington as being apart of the gang-related violence. The article represents a stark contrast from present-day Arlington where violence of this kind seems to be a far off issue. Local efforts from organizations like Neighborhood Watch and the Arlington County Police Department are credited by the article for leading efforts to curb crime, and their efforts have evidently payed off as seen by Arlington’s current state.
