THAT A PLATE COSTS

SGA presidential and vice presidential tickets announced

On Jan. 31, Ball State’s Student Government Association announced two tickets: Presidential Nominee Joesph Gassensmith with Vice Presidential Nominee Monet Lindstrand and Presidential Nominee Skylar Ellis with Vice Presidential Nominee Taylor Perry. The Presidential debate is Feb. 14, and the Vice Presidential debate is Feb. 15.

National Shooting in an upscale LA neighborhood

Three people were killed and four wounded in a shooting around 2:30 a.m. in the Beverly Crest neighborhood Jan. 28. The three dead were in a vehicle, and the four wounded were in a multimillion dollar rental home. All four victims were transported to a hospital, two of which were in critical condition. Police believe the attack to be targeted, but they’re still searching for suspects.

Indiana

Permitless carry bill advances with bipartisan support

Bill SB136, which would create a system to quickly bring criminal justice background data to police in the field, moved forward Jan. 31. If passed, the bill would allow more information to be available to officers on whether gun rights have been suspended. The bill was advanced 7-0 by the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law.

Lila Fierek Lifestyles Editor and Copy Director

In the corner of Hailey Maupin’s second-grade classroom, shelves of light blue buckets filled with books sit under a bench, waiting for children to take the opportunity to travel into another world.

Twenty minutes before the school day at South View Elementary School ended, students celebrated their Friday free time. Excitement radiated off the students as jokes and giggles filled the room while they listened to music on their tablets and looked through these shelves.

The books “Black is a Rainbow Color,” “Mixed Me,” “Too Many Tamales” and “You All Matter” were placed along Maupin’s personal library.

“I try to find books that will help them see themselves represented,” she said. “I want to provide books for students of color where the whole book isn’t around them being a person of color … also books that will help kids who don’t have those experiences … I want to give them a way to see someone else’s point of view, so that way they can have that experience and put themselves in someone else’s shoes.”

Though Ball State University and United Way help donate, Maupin said she buys most of her classroom’s books. She purchases books based on what her students are interested in.

One year, Maupin said she had multiple students who had lost parents.

“It’s hard to find children’s books about someone dying, but they’re out there, and they’re helpful,” she said.

Maupin said reading these stories can be critical for students who have gone through those experiences to feel seen. It also helps students understand what an “unconventional” family looks like.

For the 2022-23 school year, Maupin didn’t buy any books. She listened to her students, or “friends” as she calls them, and waited to see what they liked, so she could surprise them with more later in the year.

Similarly to Maupin, Erin Eads, kindergarten teacher at South View, buys her own books. Eads said it can be difficult with interests constantly changing, especially for students at such a young age. Either way, she said it is important for all students to be represented. As a child, having a brown-haired Barbie meant a lot to the brunette teacher.

One book Eads pointed out was “The Proudest Blue” by Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali. The cover of the book illustrates a woman in a blue hijab who is connected to a wave carrying a little girl in a paper boat.

Eads has two students from Afghanistan who came to the United States as refugees, so when she saw this book, she knew it was perfect.

“And when they saw the book, they were so excited that it looked like their mommy,” she said.

“They were like, ‘It looks like me. It looks like my mommy.’ … I love that one. That one’s amazing.”

We are going to be bigger than any challenge that they ever face. We just have to work together to get there because if we’re not, then we’re wasting time for our kids.”

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Eads said one of the best moments about this process is seeing the students light up and realize a book is like them or someone they know.

“To show them these different things like, ‘Hey, this is possible, this is a thing,’” she said. “It kind of opens their little world. They’re more considerate of other people and their situations.”

According to Humanium, representation is important for children in literature and media because it provides them with models, helps them understand reality, allows them to discover other cultures and helps them develop empathy.

Research shows a lack of representation can cause negative psychological outcomes for people who are underrepresented or portrayed negatively.

A study in 2012 on Research Gate by Nicole Martins and Kristen Harrison showed there was a negative correlation between TV exposure and low self-esteem for elementary-aged Black boys, Black girls and white girls, but there was a positive correlation for high self-esteem for white boys.

“What we’ll see in videos or books sometimes are just stereotypes,” Maupin said. “Even the bad character in the story being a person of color, small things like that. I always try to point things out sometimes and say, ‘Okay, hold on, is this true every time? Why do you think that the author did that? Why would the illustrator do that? What makes you think something differently? What is your opinion on that?’ It kind of builds their critical-thinking skills and allows them to think for themselves.”

According to Northfield Hospital Clinics, “reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development which helps build strong pathways in the brain and in turn builds language, literacy and social-emotional skills that can have life-long health benefits.”

Both Maupin and Eads said they try to read to their students a lot, at least one book a day, in order to help this.

Because South View’s library is under construction, when students want to get a book outside of class, they have to visit the library next to the school.

South View Principal Anthony Williams said it’s important for both students and staff to be able to see themselves represented. The school also tries to show representation through its lesson plans. He said the curriculum for elementary school students has developed throughout Indiana and the U.S. to become more representative of all students.

Today, the teachers at Yorktown get sensitivity training and discuss adverse childhood experiences with professionals.

Deanna Harshman, fifth-grade teacher at Yorktown Elementary School, said because she grew up in an all-white, conservative school, she doesn’t remember seeing books or videos with students in wheelchairs, many people of color or families that weren’t just a mom and a dad.

“It is widely becoming important to our administration now too, which is something I don’t think used to be the case in the past,” Harshman said. “In old schools, people just came as they were. You’ve got teachers who have been teaching a long time, but they are kind of shifting their mindset too, so that’s kind of cool to see.”

Today, Maupin tries to face important issues head on and allow the lessons and stories learned in class to be played out in real life.

For instance, one day, Maupin decided to have the students come up with a list of things they would like to see changed in the world.

The top of these posters read “Changes We Want to Make,” and the list included “having freedom,” “every single person is nice and not racist,” “not being taken away from your family” and “ban guns from the world.”

The students enjoyed the activity so much, they ended up filling three posters.

Demographic Differences

Both teachers said they try to instill leadership skills in their classrooms to build confidence for the kids by calling them future leaders. However, Maupin said it can be a lot of pressure to make sure she is teaching the kids the things that matter.

“You’re going home thinking, ‘Today was horrible. I didn’t do anything right, they did not get anything at all,’ but just knowing we have 180 days, and I tell them all the time, when you leave here, I want you to be able to read and write and do math, but I also want you to be a better person,” Maupin said. “And today, if all we learned was how to be a better person, then I’m okay with that.”

Harshman said during the 2021-22 academic year, a book called “Stone Fox” was in the curriculum and though it was a good book, it portrayed Native Americans in a bit of a negative way.

“Sometimes, you have to watch that when you’re including those books in your plans,” she said. “You have to make sure you read it before you teach it, so I really try to consider whenever I use a book, I don’t just [say], ‘Oh, this is about this subject’ and pull it out. I like to preview it and look at it first.”

Similarly to Eads and Maupin, Harshman collects books and puts them out based on what the children like to read that year. Because of book fairs and discounts, Yorktown Elementary School gets most of its books from Scholastic. Before that, though, Harshman bought a lot of the books herself.

She said the students are able to have tablets in school, so they can also read on a site called Epic. Epic allows them to read a variety of books throughout the school day, so they are open to topics that may not be discussed in class.

Harshman said because they are in a dominantlyconservative area, some parents are unhappy by some of the books made available for students to read, say a book with two dads, for example. Therefore, the teachers have to be careful to not read them to the whole class but still have them accessible for students.

She said one year, parents questioned her after the students read “Because of Winn Dixie” in school, though the book was required. The book discusses the Civil War, slavery and a parent who is an alcoholic.

“There are kids in our classrooms who haven’t been in slavery, but they may have ancestors who have been,” she said. “There may have been kids in our rooms whose parents have been alcoholics, and they can relate to that. And the other kids are so concerned when they hear that in the book, it kind of breaks their heart, so it almost makes it real for them to realize that kids actually do go through this.”

Harshman said students are mind blown when they hear about segregation because it’s “unheard of” today. She said their innocence regarding topics and how they perceive the world can be a lesson to learn from, especially with adults arguing so often.

“Kids need to see somebody that looks like them every day, not just in the classroom, but in a book, in a video,” Harshman said. “They need to hear things that they can relate to, a variety of religions, a variety of sexual identities, a variety of family structures. So, I think representation is just realizing that these kids all have their own unique backgrounds when they come into school and just making sure that we are not living in our own narrow [minds].”

Harshman said she is a religious person, but she doesn’t bring that into the classroom. She sets her beliefs aside and tries to be completely neutral about everything.

“Just be kind, be a kind human,” she said. “I want them to know how to do certain things, but … in the real world, they just need to learn how to be kind and respectful.”

While Harshman is managing perceptions of parents and families tied directly to her classroom, Maupin and Eads are confronting issues of a different kind.

There may have been kids in our rooms whose parents have been alcoholics, and they can relate to that. And the other kids are so concerned when they hear that in the book, it kind of breaks their heart, so it almost makes it real for them to realize that kids actually do go through this.

“Because we are on the south side of Muncie … [families] have a bad [reputation] of not caring about their kids, about being addicted to drugs,” Maupin said. “That is far from the case … I have never met a parent that doesn’t love their child ever in this building. That love might look different from something that I experienced when I was a child, but that doesn’t mean that they still don’t love them.”

Maupin said because of this false reputation, the school isn’t seen for how it really is. It isn’t given the credit it deserves, and the students aren’t seen for who they are.

“A lot of people look down on people from the Southside [of Muncie automatically], so the odds are stacked against our kids … and some have already realized that … life is really hard,” she said. “They will grow up in school hearing ‘You’re a bad kid,’ … and when our kids hear negative things about them all the time, it’s what they become, so we’re preparing them to have self worth and to know they are good people even if they have done things that aren’t so great.”

Eads said she wants her kids to know resilience, how to keep pushing through hard times and still come out being a good person.

Kyle Smedley News Editor

When Deb Huston was growing up in Muncie, Indiana, oftentimes, someone not related to her would eat dinner and stay overnight in her family’s house. From a young age, Huston’s parents were doing what they could to help at-risk members of the community.

Huston said her childhood instilled a passion in her early on. She wanted to help children have the best quality of life. This passion drove her to create Panther Pantry in 2015 as a weekend backpack program at Muncie Southside Middle School to provide families with extra food during the school year.

“If I can help a kid be a kid, that is my purpose in life,” Huston said. “When I’m gone, hopefully my family will be proud. But here’s the thing: I don’t care if people know that, that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need recognition. If I could [run Panther Pantry] anonymously I would, but I can’t. It’s not about me. It’s about the kids; it’s about the volunteers.”

Huston has been involved with Muncie Community Schools (MCS) in some form for 25 years. The Muncie native got choked up when talking about why Panther Pantry was a dream of hers and what it means for her to be able to live out

School lunch prices in Delaware County

“A child should be able to be a child,” Huston said. “A child shouldn’t have to worry about eating; a child shouldn’t have to worry about anything like that … Teachers care. Schools care.”

While Panther Pantry aids families with feeding their children on the weekends during the school year, school breakfast and lunch at MCS are also free to all students, the sole public school corporation in Delaware County in which this is the case. By comparison, from March 2020 to May 2022, all eight corporation’s meals were free in an effort to aid families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, though COVID-19 is mostly behind the general public, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average annual cost of groceries for a family of four in Muncie is $7,923, averaging approximately $152 per week.

“I think, even for people who have good jobs and that can afford the lunches, it’s tough right now because of how expensive everything is,” Alyssa Dowling said. “... I think some people are afraid to voice that they’re struggling.”

Dowling and her husband have two children in the Delaware Community School Corporation, a first-year at Delta High School and a third-grader at Royerton Elementary School. She’s a hairstylist, running a salon out of her home, while her husband is an ironworker for the union.

She said her family can afford paying for school meals, but Dowling said an approximate $300 a week grocery bill, plus approximately $6 a day, five days a week for school meals adds up and forces their family to keep a tighter budget. Before COVID-19, she said her girls didn’t eat breakfast at school, but they ate lunch. However, while breakfast and lunch were free during COVID-19, they got used to eating both at school, so they want to continue to do that. Most days now, her daughters eat breakfast at home.

Dowling said her youngest daughter is more aware of school meals no longer being free because when they were free and she always ate breakfast at school, she could sleep in longer

Dan Brown and his wife also have two children in the “DelCom” school corporation. Normally, Brown said his children only eat lunch at school, though sometimes his daughter, a third grader at Royerton, will grab extra breakfast food if she’s hungry for it.

Even during the two-year period school meals were free, his daughter didn’t eat breakfast consistently at school, but the Brown’s weren’t concerned if she grabbed extra food at breakfast because it was complimentary. Now, they have to tell their daughter to be mindful of her budget and not to buy more food than she needs.

Brown said his daughter took that conversation well and understood, even at her young age. They stressed to her that if she needed extra food, they could provide it at home, and it wasn’t something she needed to worry about. Given their second child is a kindergarten student at Royerton, the family was only used to paying for one child’s school meals, and that was only for a year before COVID-19 hit.

Brown is a product owner, while his wife is an education specialist and instructional designer. Brown said his family has to always be mindful of their children’s respective meal balances, and that’s an added stress now that meals are no longer free. However, Brown recognized this issue may affect other families more than his own.

“It [isn’t] a terrible strain on our budget, but knowing some of the other children and knowing some of my daughter’s friends and their situations, it probably is a little bit more of a struggle,” Brown said. “So [I’m] a little disappointed that it went back from something that, in the long term, seemed like it was more beneficial to all the students, that way [they] didn’t have to worry about not being able to eat.”

Similarly, Dowling said there is a certain level of guilt she carries because she knows while she can afford the meals, many families struggle to find the resources to do so consistently. For Brown, he said he does the family’s grocery shopping, and he often will go to three or four different stores to find the cheapest items due to how high prices have gotten. As an added wrinkle, his son normally packs his lunch from home to eat at school.

42% of students in Indiana qualify for free meals. Source: PublicSchoolReview.com

“The payment might even be a little cheaper at school than doing packed lunches all the time,” Brown said. “So, sometimes that actually adds to the cost of lunch because he doesn’t eat there as much versus her eating at school. Even if the lunches were free, I don’t know if he would eat there often, but we might push it more to him, try to push him to try more things at school.”

Things aren’t looking to get easier for families, as according to the United States Department of Agriculture, grocery prices are expected to increase 7.1 percent in 2023, though not as much as the 9.9 percent in 2022. That’s why even for MCS, Panther Pantry is still necessary to provide help for the two days of the week breakfast and lunch can’t be had at school.

“They’re grateful. Any little bit that we can help, it helps them,” Huston said. “Maybe it’ll help somebody pay a light bill, maybe it’ll help them with something else. I don’t know, it just helps them. Does everybody need to be on the program? No, but I want them on the program if they want to be [because] you have to have it open to everybody. It doesn’t discriminate.”