By By JAMES COLLINS / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- With the presence of Secret Service agents and White House staffers and last-minute preparations being made at Niles High School for President Bush's visit on Monday, students are buzzing with excitement.
On Friday, the top 79 senior honor students were invited to attend President Bush's speech.
The remaining seniors and all of the school's juniors have been invited to watch the speech on a big screen TV in the auxiliary gym.
Freshmen, sophomores and faculty members will be able to watch the speech live through a direct feed to Channel One on their classroom televisions.
Niles High School senior Jeff DePoy, 18, who will be attending the speech, got a chance to see Bush from a far at a presidential campaign stop at a Lake Michigan College in 2000 and is excited to have a chance to see him up close and personal on Monday.
He said the students have been told to be on their best behavior and to wear appropriate attire on Monday.
Senior Andrew Whitten, 18, who was invited to the speech, will be taking a special interest in the visit.
Whitten has been surprised by the amount of security going on at the high school over the last few days.
Anthony Kessler, 17, a senior who will also be attending the speech, found it very interesting that the Secret Service had been scouting the area for weeks, before anyone knew anything about the president's visit.
When Kessler first heard rumors of a Bush visit to Niles, he was going to go out of his way to make sure he saw the president.
He said the increased security measures may be an inconvenience on Monday, but that it will be well worth it.
The president's stop in Niles is of special importance to senior Allison Boelcke, 18, who is the editor-in-chief of the high school's newspaper, the Viking Journal.
Not only was Boelcke invited to attend the speech, she and a photographer from the school paper will have the same privileges as the professional media that are on hand to cover the event.
She will be working late on Monday night to put out a special four-page edition of the Viking Journal covering Bush's visit to the school.
While the excitement is obvious among the students who will see Bush's speech live, there is also a lot of anticipation among students who will be watching him from their classrooms.
Sophomore Zachary Keel, 16, said the fact that Bush has decided to come to Niles High School really says something about the quality of the school.