Junior Alida Beste says one word comes to mind when she hears ‘C-Woods’: trouble.

C-Woods is the area behind the C building of BHS, the wing in which most English and History classes take place.

Junior Delia McConnell also feels that C-Woods has a fishy reputation.

“I mean, I have never heard of anything first hand going on in C-Woods but people always joke about how it’s like the place to go if you’re skipping class or breaking rules,” McConnell said.

Despite its bad reputation, C-Woods is also used by some teachers during class time every once and awhile.

Junior Willa Govoni has had classes in C-Woods.

“I had a mindfulness class in there, and also freshman history. I think also one semantics class,”  Junior Willa Govoni said. 

Junior Delia McConnell wishes C-Woods were put to better use.

“Sequoia Ponzio-Young made an outdoor classroom out there that’s pretty cool, and I don’t think it’s used enough,” said McConnell.

BHS alumna Becky Cassidy graduated in 1969 and remembers C-Woods rumors about students cutting class and smoking existing back then.

“There was definitely this land behind C building that was heavily wooded and easy to get ‘lost’ in,” Cassidy laughed.

Junior Casey Stouffer thinks the C-Woods gossip is outdated.

“I think, in reality, C-Woods culture is an older thing than it is a present thing. I think that that’s well known for the place that kids used to go smoke cigarettes,” Stouffer said. I don’t know of anyone who genuinely uses C-Woods to smoke nowadays. Cigarettes aren’t as popular in our generation.”

English teacher Kevin Cook has worked at BHS for 23 years. He said that there have been rumors about C-Woods the whole time he’s been here.

“A long time ago the rumors were that that’s where students went to smoke pot. Smoking cigarettes was legal on campus when I first got here. There was a smoking area, so C-Woods was for people who cigarettes weren’t enough for,” Cook said.

He said that once cigarettes were made illegal on school grounds, students moved to C-Woods to smoke them.

“The funny thing was that this time of year they’d wear like bright ski parkas, so you could like see them through the woods. They weren’t being very smart,” Cook laughed.

BHS Register staff traveled out into C-Woods to investigate.

In the wooded area, a reporter found nine cigarettes around one tree, mini cigars, mini cigar wrappers, two empty cigarette packs and some BHS students smoking.

“Need a light?” called out these students as Register staff walked through the woods.

In an email to the Register, Assistant Principal Herb Perez said that C-Woods is on school grounds and that 18-year-old students who want to smoke need to do so elsewhere.
“Federal law strictly prohibits the use of tobacco (as well as other controlled substances) on school grounds,” Perez wrote. “In general, the vast majority of our students utilize all of our school grounds, including C Woods, appropriately.”