The
North March 2016
Blue Valley North High School
The North Star | 1
What’s Inside. Commitment
THE BLUNT TRUTH, CLASS CLOWNS, SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW
Feature
4
BAYSIDE BALLERINA, REFUGEE FINDS ROOTS
10
Investigative
14
THE PATH TOWARD JUSTICE, #NOTINMYNAME, WHERE’S THE COLOR?
Opinion
CRAZY STUPID LOVE, STAYING PAST THE BELL
Community
THE RIVALRY, THE AP EXAM, FINDING FAITH
On the cover: A gay couple hold hands in Lawrence, Kan. Read about gay rights in Kansas on page 16. CC photo courtesy of tjtucker_01 via Flickr de photo by Jake Goldman 2 | Blue Valley North High School
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Meet the Staff.
The North Star, BVNnews.com and @bvnnews
Jake Goldman
Editor in Chief
Kendall Avenia
Editor in Chief
Sam Galapo
Section Editor
Jake Kaufman
Staff Writer
Section Editor
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Sri Veerisetti Staff Writer
Section Editor
Caroline White
Kusal Kularatne
Sophia Clarke
Corey Minkoff
Social Media Manager
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Section Editor
Gigi Wildman
Amanda Mok
Kristin Larson
Jaxson Dubinsky
Nicole Dolan
Social Media Manager
Amanda Birger
Staff Writer
Maggie Russo
Staff Writer
Sterling Reynolds Staff Writer
Adviser
Erica Benson The North Star | 3
THE BLUN A CLOSER LOOK INTO THE BLUE VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT’S SUBSTANCE ABUSE POLICIES
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ue to complaints that athletes were the only ones held to drug and alcohol policies, the Blue Valley Substance Abuse Agreement was adapted in 2015 to include all extracurricular and co-curricular activities in the district.
What’s changed?
As of the 2015-2016 school year, the contract must be signed by all students in the district involved in athletic and non-athletic activities. The new contract has been modified to include all activities, co-curricular and extracurricular, recognized by the district. Blue Valley North alumnus and former member of the Student Activities Committee, Clayton Covington was involved in the drafting and editing of the new contract. “The contract was inspired by the desire to convey to all students that that their activities were privileges
agreement for athletes and nonathletes was practical. “Some argued that a sweeping policy would not be considerate of the time and money invested in many activities,” Covington said.
What motivated this change?
Not only was the practicality of the contract unclear, the true motivation for such a drastic change in policy throughout the district was also brought into question. Every student involved in a club, activity and sport recognized by the district is obligated to sign the Substance Abuse Agreement before participating in that activity. This means that rather than
“I feel like the tacit message of this policy is that we should constantly be policing our students ...” that had to be earned. Thus, they would be held to a uniform standard,” Covington said. However, there were questions raised about whether or not the implementation of a standardized 4 | Blue Valley North High School
only athletes, now every student involved in any activity publicly represents the district every time they compete or travel. This includes activities that are also classes. There is speculation that
an underlying reason for the expansion of the contract was the fear that students representing the district as much as athletes would not be as motivated to act responsibly and could potentially reflect badly on the district. “Should a student in debate or broadcast get into trouble outside of school, the media would report the incident as ‘Blue Valley North student…’ and the reputation of the district would suffer,” Lane Green, Director of School Administration and District head of Athletic and Activity Program, said. The concerns raised are not only about whether or not the district had pure intentions when creating the new contract, but also about
NT TRUTH BY AMANDA BIRGER AND JAKE KAUFMAN
students’ work and learning in my class,” Huette said. In addition to the problem with the ambiguity of the motivation for expanding the contract, there are concerns that the implementation of the new contract happened so subtly that many students do not know how to act according to the contract they signed.
How do students get caught? how involved they should be in students’ private lives. Broadcast adviser Charles Huette argues that the contract involves faculty in their students’ personal matters that are not their concern as educators. “I feel like the tacit message of this policy is that we should constantly be policing our students, when to me the most important thing about being a teacher is my
The most common way students are found to be in violation of their contract is by turning themselves into their sponsors. This is because the consequence for a first offense is much lighter should a student confess rather than try to hide their misconduct. Another way sponsors find out about contract violations is through the police reports the Student Resource Officers receive every Monday. Green assures that students are given every opportunity to come forward or
The most common way students are found to be in violation of their contract is by turning themselves into their sponsors. CC image via Daniel Spiess on Flickr
explain themselves before they are accused of misconduct. According to Green, administrators only deal with facts. If a situation arises in which a student is turned in or is rumored to have violated their contract, “[Athletic and activity sponsors] give every student the benefit of the doubt,” Green said. This gives students the ability to advocate for themselves and be responsible for their actions.
What are the consequences?
While the contract explicitly states that coaches and sponsors have the authority to give a student any additional consequences they see fit, there are mandatory consequences given to students, depending on their offense. For example, if a student is found guilty of a first offense, the student is suspended from participation in activities for no more than 50 percent of one full season. However, should a student selfreport to their coach or sponsor before the school is informed of the violation, the suspension could be shortened to as little as 20 percent of the season. Dan Carney, District Head of Safety and Security, works with the student resource officers to make sure that no student is punished unless they are proven to have violated their agreement. The North Star | 5
As a student in the Blue Valley District keep in mind that if you signed the Substance Abuse Agreement at any point in your high school career, that you are contractually obligated to abide by the agreement for the entirety of your high school career.
“Before a student is accused of a first offense, he or she has to meet the elements of the crime,” Carney said. For example, if a student is found on school grounds in possession of drugs or alcohol, the student is in violation of their contract whether he or she is found to be in consumption or not. If the student is seen showing physical signs of consumption, like having alcohol on his or her breath or having bloodshot eyes, that is enough evidence to prove the student has met the elements of the crime. The consequences for contract violations by a student in an academic course are attempting to be the same as those for athletes and clubs. “The contract states that a student’s grade cannot be affected, so the students are not put at an academic disadvantage,” Green said. Every student who violates the agreement is required to receive some sort of punishment. This causes a series of gaps in the contract guidelines on how to deal with situations involving academic activities. So how can students be treated equally if their circumstances are different?
Is it fair?
The consequences mandated in the contract don’t exactly align to every situation. There are times when a student is supposed to receive a consequence but the circumstances don’t allow for it. For example, if a student who is a lead in the school musical is found to be in violation of his or her agreement the week of the musical, pulling the student from
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CC image via stock.tookapic.com
the show would be punishing the everyone who worked on the show, not to mention that the student in violation paid a lot of money to participate in the show. Situations like these bring into question the fairness of the new terms of the contract. “A suspension from 20 percent of a tennis season is two games out of nine while for a basketball player, a student would be benched for five out of the twenty two games in his or her season,” Assistant Principal Mickey Masterson said. When it comes to co-curricular activities like debate, if a student is found in violation of their contract before a competition and is suspended from participating, his or her debate partner is forced to forfeit the tournament before it even begins. There are many different situations that can arise because of how many different activities the contract has expanded to include. It is nearly impossible to standardize a list of consequences that can account for every potential occurrence, and the ambiguity of the sanctions listed in the contract does not make it any easier to adapt the consequences to a certain situation. The contract was originally designed with athletics in mind so the consequences are clear-cut when it comes to sports. However, the rules become unclear in situations involving other activities, co-curriculars in particular. “In our policy, because there’s no season, and your participation impacts your grade, I can’t bench you from this class, it just doesn’t make sense,” Huette said.
Class Clowns An inside look at Blue Valley North’s eclectic improvisers By Sterling Reynolds
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he Blue Valley North theater department is well-known for its plays, musicals, repertory theater and forensics performances. However, Comedy Troupe is “less well-known, but definitely worth seeing,” senior Cameron Stephens said. Comedy Troupe shows are made up of multiple improvisational games, played by the troupe without any previous preparation or script. Often, they take suggestions from the audience on the content of their scenes.
Seniors Ryan Dickey (left), Cameron Stephens (right) and junior Grant Harvey (middle) play the “dating game.” Dickey acts as a bachelor, attempting to find a new love interest. In the process, he must guess the quirks of each contestant.
“It’s all off the top of your head.” That’s the essence of Comedy Troupe: quick-witted people who can set a scene, play it through and make it comedic. It is not always easy or natural though. “The most difficult part of Comedy Troupe is when a scene doesn’t go as planned,” senior Ryan Dickey said, “Overthinking how to make a scene funny can throw off the chemistry and make a scene feel forced.”
“...THE MOST INTERACTIVE SHOWS AT BVN” “Comedy Troupe shows are the most interactive shows at BVN,” senior Dylan Kurz said. Every Thursday at 8:15 a.m., all of Comedy Troupe’s 16 members gather in the drama room and practice playing the games that will be played at their shows. Even though their shows are all performed off the cuff, practice is necessary to help them think quicker on their feet. “It’s a different aspect of performance, it’s not scripted,” senior Raymond Forstater said,
Each year at the Kansas Thespian Conference, the State drama convention held in January, BVN’s Comedy Troupe performs and competes against other schools. “It’s always harder to perform at the drama conference. At home shows we have a friendly crowd, but at Dramacon they aren’t as open to new groups and we’re being judged,” senior Kiki Manning said. This year BVN’s Comedy Troupe won 97 out of 100 possible points during the improv competition,
taking home second place. Comedy Troupe is led by copresidents, seniors Lexi Pudvan and Corey Minkoff. Pudvan has been in the troupe since her junior year, and Minkoff since his freshman year. Leading practices, suggesting games for the troupe to play and helping the cast hone their skills are their main roles. Pudvan, though co-president, does not consider herself the only leader. She feels that all of the seniors on the troupe step up and help lead practices, suggest new ideas and work hard to put on good shows for their audiences. When looking for team members at auditions each August, the troupe doesn’t have a specific type of member in mind. “I think that everybody has that ability to tap into that creative mind, it’s important to recognize that what someone has to bring to the table is unique, creative and different from what anybody else would bring,” Pudvan said. For an entrance fee of three dollars, this May is the last chance this school year to see BVN’s Comedy Troupe in action. The North Star | 7
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Last year’s team finished just above .500, their worst record in the last three years. With Parker Roberts, two-time Gatorade Player of the year graduated, the Mustangs must move on and reestablish themselves as cohesive. “This year we will be different because we won’t have Parker to rely on, everyone individually is going to have to step up,” senior Margot Rhyner said. The players discussed their team goals and what they wanted to achieve this season. “We intend to hold the tradition of excellence of North soccer,” senior Emily Jones said.
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This upcoming spring, the North softball team looks to move on and learn from the previous year. “Last year we didn’t get the wins we wanted, but I feel like everyone really improved,” senior Jayme Fletcher said. With the return of head coach Marissa Carroll, improved team chemistry, and four returning seniors and eight starters, the team is working to make this season one to remember.
by Jaxson Dubinsky
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Last year’s team struggled, finishing with a 4-17 record, leaving room for improvement. “Last year we didn’t do as well as we would’ve liked, but we have seven returning starters in the field so we have a lot of experience to build off of this season,” senior Carter Howes said. Last season eight seniors graduated, paving the way for the younger generation of BVN baseball. Despite losing those players, the team will return most of their starting lineup.
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With a very young squad this year, the BVN tennis team looks to pass on a legacy of excellence. “The team did pretty well last year. My doubles partner and I were State runner-up, and we had a singles player finished seventh at State,” senior Brady Flanagan said. With eight State Championships, North is in contention for another, along with Blue Valley Northwest and Shawnee Mission East.
Trying to duplicate an EKL Championship season and finishing in fifth place at the State Meet is a hard thing to do, but the girls swim and dive team is up to that task. Despite the strength of last year’s team, swimmers this year are trying
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Coming off a runner-up performance at the State tournament, expectations have only heightened for the golf team. “Not winning State last year was a big blow to all our hard work, but it just adds to the motivation the team has to win State,” senior Nick Kagy said. Practicing at courses such as Hallbrook Country Club and Loch Lloyd Country Club, the team is able to instill competition amongst each other. “What makes our team better is that we are all very competitive. Coach Cowan does a great job of making practices a lot like tournaments and we are always looking to compete,” senior Josh Pederson said.
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Last year’s track season ended with a number of individual and relay teams competing at the State meet. “We had quite a few good runners, but I don’t think that anyone really reached their full potential, which is something that we can really use as motivation this
to get away from it and start fresh. “Last year, all the girls didn’t feel like we are all apart of the same team, so I hope to improve the team’s cohesiveness, so we all feel like we are one team and all contributing,” senior captain Alison Kruse said.
year,” senior Will Elliott said. This team will have to prove themselves to everyone else as they lost a number of graduated athletes. “We might not have as many people coming out for track, but I can assure you that we are one of the hardest working teams in Kansas,” Elliot said. The North Star | 9
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Bayside Ballerina F
or most teenagers, a dream of becoming a professional ballerina fades away with time. For senior Maddy Veitch, that same aspiration only intensified with age. Instead of spending her senior year taking classes at North, Veitch is finishing her education online while she dances in the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program in San Francisco. The LINES Training Program is a selective two-year educational experience for pre-professional dancers ages 17-24. Each year consists of 35 weeks, divided into two semesters during which time participants work with a worldclass faculty and
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impressive roster of renowned Bay Area, national and international guest artists and choreographers. “I feel very lucky to be able to dance with some of the best young dancers from across the country, and the choreographers that we work with have made us all better dancers, even if it was all a little bit intimidating at first,” Veitch said. Veitch has spent the last three summers at various summer training programs in New York, Chicago, and one summer at the LINES summer program in San Francisco. She was 16 at the time she was accepted to the official training program, and is currently the youngest dancer in the company. “Last year she auditioned for the summer program and asked us
Photos courtesy of Krisi Veitch
if she could also audition for the year round program at that point,” Kristi Veitch, Maddy’s mother, said. “We said, ‘Sure, let’s just see what happens’ and so at that point to be accepted at 16 to a program that targets 17-24 year olds was obviously a big confirmation of her talent.” While living in San Francisco, Veitch rents a student-housing apartment with two other girls from the program. “Because most of the trainees are at least 18, LINES doesn’t provide or help to find housing for their dancers. Two other girls and I share a tiny apartment and walk to our classes every day,” Veitch said. “San Francisco is one of the most expensive places in the world to live, so the apartment that we all share is smaller than my bedroom at home.” While her parents had concerns at first about the level of independence that would be expected of their daughter, they trusted her to be responsible on her own. “She’s got more street smarts than the average
By Kendall Avenia Johnson County girl because she’s trained in Chicago, she’s auditioned in New York, and she’s had the opportunity to explore these cities essentially on her own,” Kristi Veitch said. “We’re confident that wherever her dance career takes her, that she can handle living in any city in the world because she’s figured this one out on her own.” Veitch, on the other hand, was immediately excited about the prospect of living on her own in California. “This is not an opportunity that most teenagers ever have in their lives. [In the time that I’ve been here] I’ve definitely learned a lot about living on my own and a lot about myself. I’ve had to grow up a little bit faster than normal,” Veitch said. Still planning on graduating and walking with her class, Veitch is taking online classes through Blue Valley’s Blackboard proram, which she completes in the evening or on weekends. “It’s definitely a struggle to strike a balance between my dancing life and my school life. While all of my friends at home are at school, I’m in the studios dancing for the same amount of time, and then I still have to come home and finish my school work on top of that,” Veitch said. “But that was my parents’ one
stipulation. In order to do this, I had to still graduate with my class.” Although Veitch’s professional dancing career has just begun, her training began 14 years ago when she began taking classes at the age of 3 at Legacy School of the Arts, where she continued to train until her move to California. “Dance has always been my biggest passion. Ever since I was a toddler, all I ever wanted to be was a professional dancer,” Veitch said, “It’s a type of expression that you can’t achieve through any other art form. [Dancing] is the greatest creative outlet I have and to be able to create movement that makes people feel something is the greatest rush that I’ve ever experienced.” Kristi Veitch noted that she and her husband always knew that Veitch was meant to perform, and that watching her grow as a dancer was one of their best experiences as parents. “So many kids when they’re little have a dream of achieving something special. At that point
you haven’t been exposed to the world of limiters. Then the limiters start to place themselves on you or in your head,” Kristi Veitch said. “To see your child, who wanted to go away to the Ballet Academy when she was 5, not only earn that opportunity the first time she auditioned for her dream program, but to be able to then take that to the next level- you can’t describe it.” After her graduation, Veitch has one more year as a trainee in the training program, and then will begin the process of auditioning for professional companies. “Auditioning for professional companies is going to be scary. [Dancing] is one of those things that can essentially take you anywhere in the world,” Veitch said.“It’s really difficult to plan out what your future will look like because new opportunities can present themselves at any time. That being said, there’s no doubt in my mind that dancing is the path that my life is meant to take.”
“I never feel more like myself than I do when I’m dancing.”
The North Star | 11
Refugee Finds Roots By Gigi Wildman
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t is the American dream to be able to rise out of desperation, victimhood and poverty, and, through work hard, become successful. This is exactly what Purna Biswa did. Biswa, a former Bhutanese Nepali refugee and currently a thriving Kansas City resident, shared his experiences of overcoming the obstacles he faced as a refugee and adjusting to a new culture and life. Purna Biswa was born only six days after his parents, who had been forced to flee their home in Bhutan, arrived at a crowded refugee camp in Nepal. This camp would become their home for the next 16 years. “I was born in a tent that we use [in the U.S.] for camping,” Biswa said. “It was tough. It was a struggle for all of us. There was no electricity. [My parents] had to worry about food or what they were going to serve their family at dinner.” In the early 1990s, the Buddhist Bhutanese government forced tens of thousands of Hindu Nepali Bhutan residents out of the country, due to cultural and religious differences. “Nepali speaking people in Bhutan wanted cultural and religious freedom,” Biswa said.
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“There was no
electricity. [My parents] had to worry about food or what they were going to serve their family at dinner, or the next day.” “In Bhutan they have their own national dress and their own language that we had to speak in official places. We wanted to practice Nepali culture, so we got kicked out.” When Biswa was 16 years old, his family was offered entry to the U.S. by the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who had organized a system in which eight nations, the U.S. included, would offer resettlement to Bhutanese refugees living in the Nepali camps. “We didn’t have many other choices, so if [they were] taking us, then why not?” Biswa said. “In the beginning, [my parents] were really nervous because they do not speak English, but me and my brothers and sister were really excited because we could see the
opportunities that we were going to get here. And they sacrificed themselves for the future of their children.” After a six monthlong process of admission, Biswa and his family came to the U.S. with $45 and the clothes on their backs. Shortly after their arrival, Biswa and his family were relocated to Kansas City, Kansas, along with just three other Bhutanese refugee families. According to Biswa, it was hard for all of them to adjust in the beginning, especially for his parents. “It’s very hard for them. They’re still struggling,” Biswa said. However, with more than 2,500 Bhutanese-Americans now living in Kansas City, his parents feel increasingly comfortable and at home. “Now they have their own community, own culture, own people and own stores,” Biswa said. Biswa and his siblings also struggled with the transition, though they had learned to speak English at school in Nepal. Biswa’s first semester of 9th grade was especially difficult. “We have really good education in Nepal, so math and science classes were super easy for me,” Biswa said. “The English classes were harder,
“I know there are American dreams, but even if we don’t get our American dreams, we are still thankful.”
Purna Biswa, a Bhutanese Nepali refugee, came to the U.S. when he was 16 years old and has since become a pastor, author and college student. Photo courtesy of Purna Biswa but even harder were the friends and the culture I was trying to adopt.” Ultimately, Biswa accredits his success and adoption of American culture to his conversion to Christianity. According to Biswa, it was youth group activities such as retreats and games that immersed him in American culture and helped him to adapt. “When I came to the U.S. we were Hindu, and my first semester
“Me and my brothers and sister were really excited because we could see the opportunities that we were going to get here.”
was going really rough,” Biswa said. “We started going to church, and somehow I found a difference between high school friends and the friends at Sunday school. That kind of made me feel like, ‘This is where I want to be.’” Biswa’s transition was also made easier by his strong determination to succeed. Since his arrival in the U.S., he has taken advantage of every opportunity given to him. In 2013, Biswa and two of his friends had the opportunity to participate in a video contest sponsored by UMB Bank. Their entry, Inspired to Make a Difference, won first place, and they received a prize of $20,000, as well as having their video displayed in Times Square. “When I saw myself on that news building in Times Square, I was so thankful,” Biswa said. “It’s just amazing how God works; he picked me up from [that refugee camp] and put me on that screen.”
“As an immigrant here, we have to focus. We have to do a little bit more than other people do because of the language and the new culture here. But we have an opportunity; we work hard,” Biswa said. To Biswa, the American dream is a reality, though perhaps not in the traditional sense. “I know there are American dreams, but even if we don’t get our American dreams, we are still thankful,” Biswa said. “Because we got picked up from that place and [God] has placed us here, which is way better than what we asked for and prayed for. So we are very thankful.” At 23 years of age, Biswa has accomplished more than many of his American-born peers. He works as an assistant pastor at his church, Oasis. He is a published author, and his novel, Amadeus, the first ever collection of Nepali Christian rubaiyat [a traditional Persian verse form], is available on Goodreads. He is also an aspiring photographer, and he will graduate from the University of Kansas City Missouri in December with a degree in computer science. “When we are here, we are not just here; we are making a difference in this country.” Biswa said. “What we do here is for this country, and this is our country.” The North Star | 13
THE PATH TOWARD JUSTICE ADDRESSING LGBT DISCRIMINATION IN KANSAS
BY COREY MINKOFF
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paradigm shift is occurring in America. Public opinion regarding the LGBT community is more positive now than ever before in this nation’s history. With the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, it is now considered a fundamental right for any two individuals to marry, regardless of sex or gender. Almost 20 states have also adopted policies which prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. As this number continues to grow, it’s reasonable to wonder when or even if the remainder of the nation will adopt similar measures. Kansas is historically known for upholding a more socially conservative political agenda, but not all Kansans have adopted the same perspective on this issue. Mayor Mark Holland of Wyandotte County is particularly notable for his progressive view on gay rights within the state. “I have been a long time advocate
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both in my church, as a pastor, and in the community at large for LGBT rights,” Holland said. “I have been committed to that since early in my youth.” Holland believes that his position
“This is a piece of who people are, and we should celebrate that...” both as an elected official and as a leader within his church provides him with a special opportunity to incite change at the local level. “I really want to build a culture of inclusivity in our city and in our government,” Holland said. “One that is focused around celebrating differences.” Holland holds the belief that much of the intolerance the LGBT
community faces can be combatted through the power of discussion. By addressing the issues which matter most to them, individuals are actively participating in a movement focused on positive change. “We need to continue to walk down a path of raising awareness,” Holland said. “Relationships matter. This is a piece of who people are, and we should celebrate that because we love them.” One of the individuals who has certainly chosen to raise awareness is Christy Mallory. A senior fellow at the Williams Institute School of Law at University of California, Los Angeles, Mallory has dedicated her career to shedding light upon discrimination faced by the LGBT community. The Williams Institute produces research which is disseminated to judges, legislators, policymakers, the media and the public. Mallory contributed to a report released last year which focused on LGBT discrimination specifically within the state of Kansas.
According to this report (Employment Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Kansas), a majority of the Kansas populace believes that LGBT people face “a moderate amount to a large amount” of discrimination on a daily basis. According to this same research, a majority of Kansans also support the creation of LGBT workplace protections under state law. Time and again, however, the Kansas legislature has failed to address these concerns held by the public. In 2014, the state House of Representatives even went so far as introducing legislation which would have allowed for people
gives him a unique perspective regarding the debate surrounding gay rights. Regarding the legal debate concerning LGBT rights both in the state and the nation as a whole, Moriarty is hopeful for what the future holds in store. “It’s going to take a little time to be more acceptable within our society, but it’s not significantly different from other issues in the past that have taken time to adjust to,” Moriarty said. “At one time, we embraced slavery. There was a time when we didn’t allow women to vote. There was a time when we didn’t agree with interracial marriages. This is just another one of those anomalies that will be let
According to research compiled by the Williams Institute at UCLA, there are currently 55,000 members of the Kansas workforce who identify as LGBT. Of those 55,000, only 4% are protected by local ordinances which prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
motivated by religious opposition to refuse to provide services to LGBT individuals. Justice Kevin Moriarty holds his own beliefs as to why Kansas legislators continue to ignore the problem. “It’s just the makeup of our current legislature,” Moriarty said. “A legislature is supposed to reflect the values of its citizenry.” Representing Johnson County as Chief Judge of the tenth judicial district in the state, Moriarty made headlines last year with a decision which effectively made it illegal to refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples within the county. Moriarty’s decision allowed for Johnson County to become the first county in the state of Kansas to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Such a notable decision
go. Probably in no time we’ll be looking back and saying, ‘I can’t believe there was a law against same-sex people getting married.’” This faith held by Moriarty is shared in unison with Holland, who also believes that the driving force behind progress in any society is time. As a pastor, Holland often draws parallels in his sermons between the struggle for LGBT rights and the battles waged in the Civil Rights movement by individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His point is to shed light on the fact that even though “the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice,” justice cannot be fully realized without the hard work of passionate leaders. “Time doesn’t pass without people in leadership speaking up and making their voice heard to counter the discriminatory narrative,” Holland said. “If you have a voice, you have a responsibility to lift it up.”
Discrimination Experienced by LGBT Workers in Topeka, Kansas:*
* RODDRICK COLVIN, THE EXTENT OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION DISCRIMINATION IN TOPEKA, KS 2-3, http://www.thetaskforce.org/static_html/downloads/reports/reports/ TopekaDiscrimination.pdf (last visited June 30, 2015). Source provided by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute.
CC photo of Kansas City courtesy of Leprecub via Wikimedia commons
The North Star | 15
Not In # My Name
An exploration of Islamophobia and how it affects the BVN community By Caroline White and Amanda Mok
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ithin the Blue Valley School District, Blue Valley North has one of the lowest Muslim student populations. With political rhetoric putting a spotlight on Islamic Extremism, these students have grown increasingly uncomfortable in recent years. Around 2001, the term Islamophobia, meaning “a fear or prejudice against Islam or Muslims especially a political force,” according to Webster Dictionary, began to gain popularity, especially after the 9/11 attacks. Islamophobia is a source of prejudice against Muslims, stemming from fear. “I think the fact that the word Islamophobia exists is just sickening to even think about. We don’t have that word for any other [religion]. We don’t have fear of Jewish people, we don’t have fear of Christian people, then why should we have it for Islam?” sophomore Areej Fatima said. Islamophobia has unconsciously changed modern society and culture due to a lack of knowledge on Islam. This has led to a common trend of people being unintentionally offensive to Muslims. “No one tries to offend you. It’s just that not many people know what the actual teachings of Islam are, so people are accidentally offensive,” senior Minha Jutt said. Hate crimes against Muslims and mosques throughout the U.S. have tripled since the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernadino, Calif., according to a New York Times report. Since the attacks, Mosques in Kansas City have been vandalized, but no severe hate crimes have been witnessed. “It’s not as much of a problem here as it is in other places.
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I went on a debate trip to Iowa and I got a ton of strange looks there. No one actually said anything because I was with my teacher, but I got a ton of strange looks,” Jutt said. The headscarf that Jutt and Fatima wear, the hijab, is another target of prejudice that many female Muslims face. The hijab is a cloth wrapped around a female Muslim’s head in order to show religious faith or modesty. Because the hijab can directly identify a woman as Muslim, it is often easier for people who wear them to notice the reaction of people around them. “People try to stay away from you because you wear a hijab,” Fatima said. Due to this prejudice, some Muslim women are uncomfortable wearing their hijab in public, yet others feel that their identity is incomplete without it. “When I [first] put [the hijab] on, I was like, ‘I don’t know how I feel about this,’ and then after a while, I [realized] this is who I am. My hijab is literally my identity, and that’s how people should know me’,” Fatima said. Some Muslim students feel that they are viewed as Muslim rather than American, even though many of them have U.S. citizenship. “I don’t think [society] forces [Muslims] to choose. I think they’ve made that choice for you. Society views all people who are Muslim as not American,” Jutt said. Multiple GOP presidential candidates for the 2016 election have referred to recent terrorist attacks as “radical Islamic terrorism,” and Donald Trump specifically has called to ban Muslims from entering the country as a whole. Many Republican politicians have refuted Trump’s call to action, such as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. “I think a huge problem is that people, especially those in the GOP, forget that the U.S. is built upon immigrants. No one is actually from here other than the indigenous natives. Everyone came into this country at one point,” Jutt said. Many Muslims do not acknowledge terrorist organizations, like ISIS, as actual Muslim organizations because they do not obey the teachings of the Qu’ran. “In our Holy Book, the Qu’ran, it says that if you kill even one human being, you have killed all of humanity, so extremists groups are not even part of Islam because they have killed so many people. We don’t even consider them as Muslims,” Fatima said. To spread this condemnation of radicals, a group of
]
“As Muslims we’re standing up and saying ‘What you’re doing is wrong. Please don’t say this is Islamic. Don’t do it under my name.’”
CC image courtesy Unity for Peace via Flickr
British Muslims created the movement “#NotInMyName.” The message behind the movement is to disassociate the violence committed by groups such as ISIS with the Muslim religion. The Islamic Center of Johnson County has promoted the movement, using the hashtag as a banner on its website and distributing t-shirts with the hashtag to youth groups. “In Kansas City, we felt close to that response, so we adopted that same hashtag. We put it in front of our Islamic Center and did an event about it at our Mosque,” Dr. Moben Mirza, board member of the Islamic Center of Johnson County said. “As Muslims we’re standing up and saying ‘what you’re doing is wrong. Please don’t say this is Islamic. Don’t do it under my name.’” Kansas City is home to 12 mosques and Islamic centers, but there have been few hate crimes against Muslims in the area. The most recent hate crime against a Muslim in the Kansas City area was in 2013, in which a Muslim teenager was intentionally run over. “I think [Kansas City] is a better example of how America functions rather than where hate crimes are taking place. We have had a lot of positive responses in terms of emails
and phone calls we get from people. We get a lot more, ‘Hey, we love you, what can we do to help,’ than, ‘Get out of our community,’” Mirza said. On Feb. 7, upon visiting a mosque in the U.S. for the first time, President Obama talked about Muslim-American youth, saying that being a teenager is already hard and that they do not need anymore reasons to doubt their place in this country. “Kids need an excuse to make fun of each other or to find cliques, and that happens in this high school and it happens everywhere. It was happening even when I was in high school,” Mirza said. “Now it’s going to be more because there’s one more reason to hate somebody or say, ‘You can’t be my friend because you’re Muslim.’” There are a variety of ways to help end prejudice and misconceptions, but the first step is to spread knowledge about what the Muslim religion believes and supports. Students like Jutt and Fatima are more willing to start a dialogue. “When I first came to Kansas, there was awkwardness, but I’ve noticed that the more I talk about these things, the more understanding people are,” Jutt said. The North Star | 17
WHERE’S THE COLOR? Raji Prakash
Manuel Novas-Garcia
By Kusalwin Kularatne
How are teachers hired? What is the current diversity situation at BVN? In 2015, Blue Valley School District received more than 2,000 new faculty applicants, and as school records indicate, 5 percent of Blue Valley North faculty are people of color. “I could count the number of minority teachers with my hand,” senior Mehreen Usman said. “Obviously, unlike the students, I think there is a huge dichotomy among the staff.” Three-quarters of BVN students are white, and the other 25 percent identify as students of color according to the U.S News and World Report. Despite this three-to-one ratio within the student body, there is a twenty-to-one ratio in the teacher body. “The overwhelming majority [of faculty] is going to be Caucasian,” Principal David Stubblefield said. “Off the top of my head, I’d have to guess around 90 to 95 percent are [Caucasian].” 18 | Blue Valley North High School
“Teachers have to do an online application, and that usually gets screened by [Human Resources], and then sent to me,” Stubblefield said. “I start by looking at their online application and their resumes and decide if I want to bring them in for an interview.” Following Stubblefield’s decision, the next step in the process is interviewing the candidates. “That’s when I get to ask them questions pertaining to that specific task,” Stubblefield said. “Not only am I in that interview, but all of the administrators here at North, as well as the department chair.” After this, the board of interviewers decides whether or not the candidate will be accepted for the teaching position. “We work as a partnership on admissions, the entire admin team,” Assistant Principal Dr. Tyson Ostroski said. “I’ll sift through applications, and basically we’ll be looking at a lot of different things throughout the whole process as an administrative team.” During this process, each of the different administrators have their own individual frameworks of
evaluating the candidates. “Personally, the degree to which I consider race, gender, or religion in my teacher applications is zero,” Stubblefield said. “It’s all about whether they’re qualified. My number one concern about them is in the classroom with our students. They’ve got to be able to deliver quality education to our kids.” So why isn’t there a balance? “The location of our school has a huge part in teacher admissions,” Stubblefield said. “I think the school is a reflection of the community. If we were a school in New York or Los Angeles, the teachers would, without a doubt, reflect the demographics of that community.” Consequently, the U.S Census Bureau reports that 80.7 percent of the Johnson County area are white, and that the remaining 19.3 percent are people of color. “I feel like since the majority of people in Kansas are white, not a lot of people of color go for teaching jobs,” junior Irene Guo said. CC photos via Flickr
“Wichita is definitely a diverse district, and it’s becoming more so,” Stephanie Bird-Hutchison, a teaching specialist at the Wichita school district said. “Every continent except Antarctica is represented in Wichita schools.”
There might have been fewer than 15 minority students graduating from teacher programs in Kansas, so it would be very competitive for us to gain much ground in that.” As a result of Kansas’ population demographics, which the U.S. Could this be due to the lack Census Bureau reports that of of applicants of color? which 86.7 percent are white, and 14.3 percent are people of color, “Research shows that people who the percentage of minority teacher go into teaching careers most often applicants tends to be close to the return to their home community,” state’s percentage as well. Kreifels said. “It’s hard to attract “Different areas of the country, somebody living or graduating you’re going to have different from Texas, Los Angeles or New levels of diversity,” Dr. Ostroski York. A lot of our applicants are said. “Again, we don’t really know people that are familiar with the for sure, especially with people Overland Park area.” pursuing teaching as a career. But, As such, the state of Kansas does when we do do our hiring, we look not present many opportunities for diverse staff. We look to have for people of color who decide to diversity in lots of different areas in pursue a career in teaching. order to reach our diverse student “Statewide, only 15 percent of population.” teaching students are minorities,” Kreifels said. “You’re starting off with a very small sample.
5 in 100 of BVN’s teachers are people of color.
BUT,
25 in 100 of BVN’s students are people of color.
STUDENTS OF BVN
TEACHERS OF BVN
Due to the absence of colored faculty, the Blue Valley School District has made it a priority to increase the presence of diversity in its schools. “In the past five years I’ve hired probably a thousand teachers,” Blue Valley School District Director of Human Resources Dr. Bob Kreifels said. “One of our goals has been to increase diversity in our teacher leadership and have a greater representation of role models who will continue to influence our kids.” However, just two hours away, in the Wichita Public School system, 34 percent of students are Caucasian, and the remaining 66 percent are students of color. According to the Wichita Eagle, “this is because the district is very welcoming to new immigrants and refugees.” As a result, students in that district speak more than 88 languages collectively.
The North Star | 19
Why does diversity matter? “I like to see a diverse workplace in every workplace,” junior Jack Ross said. “Students should be open to having a diverse school. If that happens with teachers or students, [then] we become more comfortable.” Similarly, students agree that having teachers with a diverse background also helps them to empathize with each other. “I identify as a person of color, and I feel like we have different perspectives on social issues and class discussions,” junior Maggie Golshani said. “Sometimes, I won’t necessarily be able to see eye to eye with a white teacher.” Others also compare the state of minorities in Kansas to other areas of the country, and see what the differences are. “My old middle school in North Carolina was much more diverse,” Guo said. “I felt like it gave [us] a better learning environment.” Furthermore, research done by the Scientific American magazine, as well as many others, show that diverse learning environments foster more innovation, imagination, and creativity than homogeneous groups. “I think it’s more important today than the 80s and 90s, and it’s going to be important to us in the future,” Kreifels said. “I can tell you that as a department chair, our goal is to have exemplary teachers in the classroom for our kids, and that they will mirror our students as closely as possible.”
20 | Blue Valley North High School
“I have an accent, so people always ask me, ‘Where are you from?’” Manuel Novas-Garcia
“You have to be able to use your own ethnicity to support cultural learning in others.” Cynthia Younger
“If we were a school in New York...the teachers would reflect the [area].” David Stubblefield
An editorial by Nicole Dolan
t
CrazyS t u p i d Love here’s so much more to life than focusing on finding a potential boyfriend/girlfriend, or being sad over unrequited feelings of a crush. In my mind, dating made me feel like a grown up, as if I finally had control over my life and at the time it felt right; nevertheless, it didn’t fulfill my expectations. In high school, I look back and realize how unnecessarily dramatic my previous relationships were, which makes me question what difference it makes to date now as young people. This is the time in our lives to be spent discovering our individuality. When hoping someone will fall in love with us along the way, the process doesn’t need to be painful or empty. Are we really mature enough to date? We haven’t necessarily reached the peak of our maturity at this age. “College is an entirely different frontier from high school. You are on your own and your parents aren’t the only ones influencing you anymore. A crazy amount of maturity occurs within the first couple of years,” Assistant Band Director Joel Wagoner said. “It’s weird for an eighteen year old to date a fifteen year old in high school because the maturity level is
An exploration of the ups and downs of high school relationships.
still so low. It’s socially acceptable weigh on the mistakes made and for a thirty-five year old to date a experiences had. forty year old because at that point Each relationship is a learning in their lives they’ve been through experience because it helps people enough to come to terms with what realize what they want and don’t want in a partner. High school is a they want in a partner.” Although messy breakups seem time in which we discover who we inevitable, they ultimately help one are as individuals, and dating can help us do this. determine what’s best for his or her future relationships. Everyone There are ups and downs to the should experience a relationship in whole high school relationship high school in order to learn more thing, but stressing about being in about themselves. Dating is a mess them is just not worth it. The worst of passion, pain and perspective. thing a person can do is change for “[My wife and I] had times in our lives where being with each other 24/7 wasn’t an option, but it was okay,” someone else, and not recognize Wagoner said. “Life does that to who they really are. Live and be you sometimes. It’s a matter of happy. being able to work for what you There’s much more than just a want.” good looking guy or girl. Everyone Falling in love does have risks, and some people aren’t ready for deserves to be content with life; that perpetual high school break overthinking and being insecure up. Someone who goes through an makes it harder to truly obtain especially harsh breakup in high the happiness that’s desired. If school is undoubtedly more prone you’re in a toxic relationship, don’t waste your time. High school to be hesitant to put themselves out there again. However, it helps relationships should be fun and to know what to look for early on without heavy expectations. in life, to be able to look back and
“This is the time in our lives as young people to be spent discovering our individuality.”
The North Star | 21
An editorial by Caroline White
staying past the bell
T
Concerns about the foreign language department’s new speaking requirements
he first Tuesday back from winter break marked the beginning of a new semester, and for foreign language students at Blue Valley North, a new system for earning speaking points. Being in both AP Spanish 5 and French 3.5, this led to a harsh realization that I would be spending at least 30 minutes a week after school earning participation points. The new system works like this: everyday students start with five participation points (except block days in which case there are ten). Every time the student speaks English, they lose one of these five points. This is understandable, since constantly speaking the foreign language maximizes class effectiveness. In Madame Johnson’s classes, if students say a particularly complex sentence, they earn a plus, equal to an extra speaking point. About every other week the participation points are tallied; however, students may only earn the full points if they have stayed after school to speak. The number of speaking points received after school are determined by the number of minutes the students stay. Five minutes grants one point, ten minutes grants two points, and fifteen minutes three points. If a student is sick, let’s say for a whole week, he or she would have to spend a total of one hour and thirty minutes after school the next week to earn full participation. Students are certainly not fond of the new system. In fact, most I have spoken to hate it, and with good reason. In a school already known for its notorious AP classes and overwhelmed, tense students, the new system of speaking points is unnecessarily burdensome. Not to mention that student athletes are highly disadvantaged as speaking points seem to be exclusively for during and after school, not counting academic support. While earning them before school is theoretically possible, unlike after school, there is no set schedule, and one must also bring a friend to speak with. The scheduling before school is difficult, and students
A response from Madame Johnson:
often find themselves at school before first hour trying to gain speaking points, though sometimes, the teacher is not there. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly support the foreign language department at BVN, but the new system of participation points is simply unfair. Middle schools in Blue Valley no longer offer French, and as of this year, BVN no longer offers German. I believe it is safe to say that popularity of foreign language has steadily decreased in the Blue Valley district, and with the highly unpopular participation point system at North, I can only predict that this trend will continue. Students recommend classes to each other, and with most of them annoyed with the current system, it is unlikely they will suggest these classes to a peer, further reinforcing the unpopularity of foreign language courses. Perhaps the goal of the new system was to encourage students to go the extra mile and truly immerse themselves in the language. It certainly is not fair, however, that attending class every day should only allow students to receive a 90 percent on participation, unless attending class everyday and participating in class is no longer considered adequate. Perhaps the foreign language teachers don’t trust that their students are self-motivated enough to study the language outside of school, or instead they just want to ensure that students practice more. Regardless, a more effective way to do this would be to offer limited extra credit for speaking outside of class. As a senior dedicated to both Spanish and French studies, I truly care about foreign languages at BVN, but I certainly feel the need to say something about this abrupt shift in speaking point policy. If the current system carries into next year, I can only fear for the wellbeing of students at North and the fate of the foreign language department.
“We all dislike change but since most students are actually earning a better grade in participation than they were before and some of those have not come in for any extra points at all, I feel the system is worth keeping for the rest of the semester. As the Department Chair for World Language, I already have a plan to review the results of the semester with the rest of the team to see if we want to make any changes for next year. I very much appreciate your feedback, and I encourage students to speak with their individual teachers for concerns they have with their individual grades with regard to the new system.”
22 | Blue Valley North High School
Foreign language students are required to come after school to earn speaking credit.
Color illustration by Mark Hoffer via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The North Star | 23
The Rival By Sri Veerisetti and Sam Galapo
A
s BVN students walk into the DAC for the soccer game against BVNW, they immerse themselves in a white mob amidst white chalk floating in the air around them. Students go wild as they anticipate seeing their team defeat their rival school. People fiercely support their school, but not many people actually know how the rivalry started. Between 19861993 both Blue Valley North and Blue Valley Northwest opened their doors and welcomed new students to the community. The relative location and familiarity between the two schools and their students almost immediately sparked a competitive and intense rivalry that has existed for the last 23 years. “It’s a good and healthy rivalry— for the most part —it reminds me a little bit of the old Mizzou-KU college rivalry,” Jim McCrossen, BVNW journalism teacher said.
But how did the rivalry begin exactly? When BVNW first opened, some students from North transferred into Northwest hoping to get their hands on new textbooks, uniforms and athletic equipment. “The district let anyone who wanted to go, go. It didn’t matter where you lived. Certain people had to go, but if you wanted to go, you could,” Abby Cornelius, BVN alum and current school librarian said. As students and faculty decided whether to stay at BVN, or transfer to BVNW, resentment sparked and the rivalry formed. “If you stayed at North sometimes you were angry at your friends who had chosen to go to Northwest because it was like, ‘we had such a great thing here, if you leave that ruins it,’” McCrossen, who taught at BVN before transferring to BVNW in 1993, said. Many of the same reasons as to why the rivalry began, helped develop it into what it is today. Dan Lash, a member of the BVNW graduating class of 1998, attributes the rivalry’s
“... there were clouds of baby powder above our heads, and even when it started to rain, no one left.”
24 | Blue Valley North High School
growth over the years to the competitiveness of both schools and the camaraderie between the students and teachers. “We wanted to win even more because we knew the guys we were playing against,” Lash said. “We wanted to beat them just as bad as they wanted to beat us.” Today, the North-Northwest rivalry has developed into a shared hysteria between the two schools. Students and teachers at both schools enjoy and appreciate being part of the rivalry. “It’s just fun, to me that’s really exciting and that’s kind of what makes high school sports a lot of fun,” McCrossen said. For the most part, the rivalry is considered to be a friendly one, comprised of mostly light hearted jokes, pranks and arguments. “I sometimes call them trash for going to a school that is always losing to my school. It is all good natured teasing though. [The rivalry] is mostly just a point of contention for us to joke and talk about,” BVN sophomore Avanyish Toniappa said. However, when the rivalry intensifies, it can turn into a bit of a rollercoaster ride. There have been some high moments. “My freshman year, at the soccer
lry.
game against Northwest I had a lot of fun, and it was one of the first times that I felt like I was a part of the BVN family,” BVN junior Emerson Debasio said. Dan Lash played football for BVNW and remembers lining up on friday nights across from the BVN players that he had grown up with. But what Lash remembers most was a prank. “A buddy of mine, who got hurt early in the season and wasn’t able to play, jumped the fence the night before we played North and painted a big NW in the middle of the field our senior year,” Lash said. There have also been some lows. “Storming the court a few years ago, after we won the basketball game against BVNW, was bad because a few people were actually injured by the stampede,” Ryan Pope, junior at BVN, said. When students start to get hurt, physically or emotionally, both sides have agreed that is when the rivalry crosses the line.
“When it is not teasing anymore and it’s simply just hurtful, like the stereotyping video from a few years ago, that’s when it goes over the top and gets bad,” BVNW junior Carly Robinett said. Learning from these incidents, the two schools have been trying to work together to create a safer environment for everyone and help benefit the community at the same time. “Getting to work together collaboratively enhances our rivalry and helps develop more of a respect between our two schools, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to beat the other school, but I think you always have to maintain a mutual respect for one another,” BVN Principal David Stubblefield, and a former teacher at BVNW, said. An example of this collaboration would be the annual “Pink Out” football game, between BVN and BVNW, which raises funds to help fight breast cancer. “The pink out games promote bonding and brings the two schools together. It is a good community event for both schools because we are able to put aside our rivalry for a good cause,” Theresa Rudnick, BVN and former BVNW teacher, said. McCrossen believes that this renewed environment was evident
in the first basketball game between North and Northwest in the 2015-16 school year. “It was such a great game,” McCrossen said. “It was just fun to see everyone getting behind their team, and it really seemed to be more of everybody supporting their team, as opposed to rooting against their opponent.” BVN junior Rachel Rhyner has also enjoyed the more recent events of the rivalry with its newly repaired environment and atmosphere. “The last event that I attended was the ‘White Out’ [soccer] game, and the atmosphere their was great because everyone was excited and cheering,” Rhyner said. “Our student section was full of people covered in white paint and clothing, there were clouds of baby powder above our heads, and even when it started to rain, no one left.” The rivalry between BVN and BVNW remains a competitive one because of the continued growth of both schools academically, athletically and in sheer numbers. It also provides an added incentive for the schools when they compete against each other. “I doubt the rivalry will end anytime soon” BVNW Senior Nikhit Chimalakonda said. “Students are highly passionate about it and make sure younger students continue the rivalry as the years progress.”
(above): Standing Room Only. The BVN “Stable” is rockin’ before the annual “White Out” game. (right): A Sea of White and Black. BVN students pack the DAC before a soccer game. Photos by Adam Murray The North Star | 25
AP
By Maggie Russo and Sophia Clarke CC image via John Bogumil on Flickr
Millions of students take an AP Exam each year. But how many are actually getting the credit in college?
W
hen junior Julia Lytle first began considering which Advanced Placement Exams to sign up for, she knew she probably would not receive credit for most of her classes in college. Her situation is not uncommon. With an increasing number of colleges and universities refusing to accept AP credit, some students are beginning to wonder if it is even worth taking the test at all. “I’m taking AP tests this year to impress colleges and to be able to get a few college credits,” Lytle said. “I don’t expect to get very many college credits though, because the colleges that I’m looking at don't usually accept them.” Despite this apparent decline in college acceptances of AP credit, students continue to sign up for the exams, and the AP Program continues to grow. According to
26 | Blue Valley North High School
statistics released by College Board, student participation went up 6 percent in 2015, though the data shows signs that this growth is beginning to slow. Many still say that there is validity in the test’s evaluation of how well students know the course material. Additionally, many teachers believe the exams help to prepare students for college-level classes. “I think [the AP test] does [reflect the ability of a student], and I’m not just saying that because I can see the gamut of all the essays that I’ve graded,” Nancy Pence, AP Government teacher and AP Exam grader said. “[The tests are] very precise, they’re holistic, it builds.”
College Board also upholds the effectiveness of its exams. “A single exam question is likely to encompass multiple learning objectives from different content areas. This underscores the exam's focus on assessing students’ indepth critical analysis of [topics relevant to the class],” College Board said. Still, whether AP scores will translate into college credits or not is a concern for anyone taking an AP class. Many students question if the stress of an AP Exam is worth the struggle if there is no credit
“I think I’ve heard more students tell me recently their college won’t take this [credit] anyway.”
to be gained. Some feel that the learning they do in an AP class is more valuable than the test itself. Regardless, Lytle appreciates AP classes, even though she knows she will not receive credit for the course. “I would still take AP classes,” Lytle said, “These classes are challenging and present many opportunities to grow as a student. They are worth it for that reason. They are also very interesting.” Some students, however, are turning to concurrent college enrollment for a more guaranteed form of college credit. Collegiate partnerships with the school district allow students to receive college credit through the Johnson County Community College or Baker University for AP or higher level classes taken at BVN. This process essentially gives students a transcript that they can later transfer to the college they attend after high school. MelaDee Patterson, counselor and AP Coordinator at BVN, understands why some students choose concurrent enrollment over the AP Exam. “Some of our students know where they’re going to school and they know that those schools will take [concurrent credit],” Patterson said. “So at the end of second semester they have completed the coursework and just have [the credit] transferred over.” AP courses are designed to be equivalent to college courses. They are rigorous and require students to think on a higher level, much like college classes. “Some professors feel that they are the absolute best at teaching [their subject]. They’re wonderful;
2,483,452 students took an AP exam in 2015
I’ve had many many professors that were really exceptional and they were far more knowledgeable than I am,” Pence said. “But I’m teaching an entry-level 101 class. I think I do as well as some of the people that I had [in college].” College Board, the company behind the AP Exams, stands by
31% of BVN students will take an AP Exam in 2016
are lots of professors that think they would be more rigorous with their students than we would be in the high school setting,” Pence said. Additionally, colleges may be concerned about losing money to students who graduate in under four years after using AP credits to skip introductory courses. “When the recession hit, you see universities like, ‘Wait a minute, we’re losing our clientele in an earlier fashion,’ so they’re going to restrict that,” Pence said. However, despite the rising concern over colleges’ acceptance of AP credit, the AP Program continues to grow. Although College Board remains optimistic about the validity of the AP Program, the growing number of alternative options available for students to earn college credit represents a growing threat to the future of the organization. Nevertheless, it appears as though AP will continue to rule BVN for at least several more years, as the popularity of the exams remains ingrained within student culture.
“There’s a culture of AP here at our school, so I think that’s going to maintain throughout for a long period of time.” their assertion that AP courses are equivalent to college level classes. “Professors [who score AP essays] consistently attest to the overall quality of AP teachers' work and its comparability to the best outcomes of introductory college courses,” College Board said. Students in particular are beginning to question why universities refuse AP credit if the exams truly reflect a college-level competency. “Universities are pinched for money right now and I know there
The North Star | 27
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28 | Blue Valley North High School
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FINDING FAITH
events mark the two year anniversary of the JCC Shooting
“S
evenDays is changing our community by breaking down the walls of fear and negativity and then building bridges of kindness and positivity,” Ruth Bigus, Chief Press Advisor of SevenDays, said. On April 13, 2014, a man professing hate toward Jews murdered three people – Blue Valley High student Reat Underwood, his grandfather Dr. William Corporon and Teresa LaManno – at two Jewish centers in Overland Park, Kan. In an effort to commemorate the victims, members of the community created SevenDays: Make a Ripple, Change the World, a series of events that coincide with the anniversary of the shootings. It’s intent is to foster interfaith and interracial dialogues throughout a week of activities. In 2015, SevenDays hosted over 4,200 people at its events and engaged more than 15,000 students in 26 schools across Kansas City. “SevenDays is a community healing event. It was created for everyone in our community to heal from something that might be causing them angst, anguish or grief,” Mindy Corporon, Director of the Faith Always Wins Foundation, said. “It is an event to pull people out of their synagogues, out of their mosques, out of their churches and be able to worship every day of the week in each person’s own human way. That’s what we all have in common.” Corporon’s son and father were
30 | Blue Valley North High School
BY JAKE GOLDMAN killed in the Jewish Community engage in a diverse conversation. Campus parking lot. As the Faith, Love, & Walk is a unifying chairman of SevenDays, she, Ruth peace walk on the final day of the Bigus and the foundation’s youth event, “Onward,” which hosted board have been trying to involve 3,500 people in 2015. Lastly, Faith, more youth in the SevenDays Love & Song is a songwriting movement, recognizing competition the impact teenagers and concert for “THE SEVENDAYS could have on the young people EVENT HAD future of interfaith and commencing at ME MAKING A CONSCIOUS interracial relations. the end of the EFFORT EACH “I think it’s highly walk. DAY TO SPREAD important and critical “In 2015, our KINDNESS AND that we allow young focus was on the LOVE WHEREVER people to influence walk. We did a POSSIBLE. I WAS the movement of great job, having MORE AWARE OF SevenDays. Young more than 3,500 HOW I VIEWED people have the ability people,” Corporon THE WORLD and creativity to take said. “For 2016 AND THOSE a movement to new to be a success, AROUND ME, heights that couldn’t be I want more WHICH IN TURN MOTIVATED ME reached by traditional people to be at the TO EMBODY THE ways,” Bigus said. speaker series, [an VALUES OF THE Teenagers, alike, aspect of the Faith, ORGANIZATION.” believe that the Love, & Kindness movement can have a portion]. Now that profound impact on we have legs under themselves. us, I’m hoping that we can have at “Following such a tragedy, there least 200 people at each speaker is no better time for the youth series event.” to come to together and grow Notable speakers include Alon stronger with their community. The Goshen-Gottstein, an interfaithsense of security and togetherness focused rabbi from Jerusalem, created by SevenDays provided Sonia Warshawski, a Holocaust the hope for a future where hate survivor, Allan Katz, the retired does not exist,” North senior Lenna US Ambassador to Portugal and Nikravan said. Malcolm Graham, a member of SevenDays consists of three parts: the North Carolina Senate who lost Faith, Love, & Kindness, Faith, his sister in the 2015 Charleston Love, & Walk and Faith, Love & Church Shooting. Song. Faith, Love, & Kindness is Corporon and others seek to an organized week of themes and activate people from communities activities that encourage people to that weren’t involved in 2015.
In fact, Corporon has invited the mayors and people of San Bernardino, California, Ferguson, Missouri, Charleston, South Carolina, and Umpqua, Oregon – cities where recent hate crimes have rattled their own respective communities – to this year’s SevenDays. “Our event will always touch people who had a tragedy and overcame it with their faith. If we can find and speak to those people that are willing to talk about how faith helped them overcome, that is a key aspect of SevenDays and helping people heal,” Corporon said. Faith is a common theme throughout SevenDays; however, the event fosters building belief in humanity. Many current events stem from interfaith dissent, and SevenDays provides people with opportunity to find and build upon their own faith.
“SevenDays doesn’t have to be spiritual. Faith is about having faith in ourselves and humanity,” Corporon said. “Learning about other people’s faiths has made my faith even stronger. Listening to these speakers series will place you in a safe environment, where you can ask questions and feel comfortable with the dialogue.” For teenagers, finding one’s faith can be difficult. “SevenDays will help teenagers become a better version of themselves. It changes the way you think, act and communicate about your perspective on life,” Bigus said. “Our responsibility is to trust that belief, live through your experiences, and then faith will be found over time.” Despite planning SevenDays 2016, members of the Faith Always Wins Foundation are beginning to think more long-term, as they hope to eventually create a nationally
After the walk, thousands congregate to rejoice in song, a passion shared by the three victims killed one year earlier. After the performances, three candles lit in memory of the victims spread their light upon a sanctuary of people. Photo courtesy of Faith Always Wins
recognized movement in a number of communities. “I want SevenDays to be a year-round action, finding commonalities and doing acts of kindness,” Corporon said. “SevenDays could ripple throughout the entire year depending on the time of each city’s tragedy.” However, planning for SevenDays 2016 is in full swing, and all members of the community are encouraged to attend any event. “We need to understand that extreme things happen, but those actions do not speak for the entire faith or race. It’s okay to not understand but try to learn. Learn don’t fear,” Corporon said. “When we were walking, we stopped and looked at the sea of people that had come together [as one]. I believe that SevenDays is making a difference in a lot of people’s lives.”
More than 3,500 members of the community walk from the Jewish Community Center to the Church of the Resurrection – united in the same SevenDays t-shirt. Photo by Jake Goldman The North Star | 31
SEVENDAYS SPEAKER SERIES
Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Allan Katz
An interfaith-focused rabbi from Jerusalem
Retired U.S. Ambassador to Portugal
Sonia Warshawski and Regina Kort Holocaust survivor and daughter
Malcolm Graham South Carolina Senator who lost his sister in Charleston church shooting
For more information, visit GiveSevenDays.org
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Photos courtesy of GiveSevenDays.org