Cleveland students who are a part of the student store, set up the door decoration contest. This contest was intended to be a part of CHS Gives Back and lasted until the week before winter break, when all of the door decorations needed to be taken down, effective immediately. 

This contest has been a tradition in Cleveland for a while. But it wasn’t until this year that the fire marshall paid a visit to the school and saw the mass amounts of paper decorations pasted to its many doors. The Cleveland administrators were then informed that the decorating of doors violated the state fire marshal code, which prohibits more than 10 percent of doors and 20 percent of corridors and classroom walls covered with combustible artwork.

Teachers have decorated their classroom doors with paper many times in the past, so it surprised many that it was unallowed. 

Lurena Weesner, the student store advisor, said, “Usually people will keep their door decorations up until the spring because they are cute, but now all of the door decorations will be down after the decoration contest.” 

 Teachers are allowed to keep a roll of paper next to their classroom door, but they are not allowed to unroll it and paste it on the door, Weesner said. 

Because this turn of events may hold many controversial opinions, all decorations were taken down as of the new year, and the fire marshall is satisfied, according to school officials. 

As for the winners of the door decoration contest, digital media teacher Dr. Martin Douglas took first, art teacher Emily Pratt took second, and Mandarin teacher Nancy Yang took third.

Sophomore student of Yang’s, Addison Clower, referred back to the winners and said, “I’m so happy Ms. Yang made the top three! I saw my classmates working hard on her door decorations and I’m glad it paid off.” 

All three winners received an assortment of goodies from the student store, such as a shirt and sweets. Additionally, Dr. Douglas, the first-place winner, got to choose which grade to give a $400 check to. Because he was absent the day of the assembly when the winner was announced, fellow teacher Eric Levine acted on his behalf and donated the check to the freshman class.