The Standard Vol. 5 Issue 3 by The Standard

S the standard blue valley southwest volume 5 | issue 3

CONTENTS 11 20

october 2014 vol. 5 | issue 3 overland park, ks

looking for love in all the right places

just do it

starbucks secret menu

psychology behind social media

more than a suit

why we create

banned books week

taking the field

swinging to success

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just the anxiety

creating consistency

14 06

fall vocal choir concert

freaky facts and spooky stats

CONTENTS 11 20

october 2014 vol. 5 | issue 3 overland park, ks

looking for love in all the right places

just do it

starbucks secret menu

psychology behind social media

more than a suit

why we create

banned books week

taking the field

swinging to success

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just the anxiety

creating consistency

14 06

fall vocal choir concert

freaky facts and spooky stats

editor’s note

HELLO

H Ey nLamLe isO m

OCD

HEL my n

ame

anxie

ADHD HELLO e is

my nam

Front cover: Senior Nikki McCurdy takes a swing at the ball on a par three, hoping to put it on the green. Cover photo by Lauren York. Graphic by Lexi Tarter.

my name is

bipolar

O L L E me is a

my n

a i x e anor HELLO my name is

depression

n this issue, I challenged myself as a reporter to take on a difficult, yet important, story. Mental illnesses were something I had heard of, but I never truly under-

stood. Personally, I have never been exposed to the realities of how detrimental a mental illness can be to a person. When someone thinks of mental illnesses, he or she thinks of the stereotypes that go with them — ‘neat freak, sad, anxious’ — and he or she often thinks a person with a diagnosis can just snap out of it. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. I had the privilege of interviewing two remarkable people who to the world seem to be happy, but behind the smiles lie a much deeper problem — they’re fighting a constant battle. Before I wrote It’s [not] Just the Anxiety, I met with the school counselor, Kristi Dixon, as well as the principal, Scott Roberts, so they could provide their advice and guidance to make sure this story was treated with the utmost respect. A lengthy conversation with Adam Goldstein, a lawyer from the Student Press Law Center, was held on the phone discussing the legal aspect; this story was cleared in all the ways mentioned. Parents of seniors Brooke Hancock and John McKinsey signed forms verifying that they were aware that this story will be in print as well as online. This story’s purpose is not only to make readers aware that mental illness is an issue within the halls of Southwest, but also to offer ways to seek help or cope with a diagnosis in an appropriate man-

|designeditor

ner by using the stories of these two students as guidance.

ONLINE

ignorace is never bliss Michael Magyar expresses his views on the lack of awareness of current events among todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s teenagers. | michaelmagyar writing coach

the power of medicine

dress code policy

Science teacher Chris Jenson spends his time after school working in the KU Urgent Care Facility.

Madison Leighty shares her opinion on the school dress code.

| brocputnam staff writer

| madisonleighty staff writer

To view these stories and more, visit bvswnews.com.

| thesouthweststandard editor-in-chief ananda bhatia managing editor margo johnson

design coaches lauren stone lexi tarter copy editor ellie augustine

web editor nicole becker

adviser heather lawrenz

writing coaches michael magyar nicole becker

photographers donna armstrong kate bowling

riley martin delaney oliver abby yi lauren york staff writers lillie hoffart blake gustafson madison leighty katie lucas broc putnam

4 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | ads

The Southwest Standard is published seven times a year for students, faculty and surrounding community of Blue Valley Southwest. It is an open forum for student expression. Therefore, the opinions expressed within this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration of Blue Valley Unified School District #229. Letters to the editor and reader responses are encouraged for publication. The Southwest Standard reserves the right to edit all submissions for both language and content and encourages letters to be no more than 350 words. All letters must be signed and names will be published.

Letters should be submitted to room 118 emailed to bvswnews@gmail.com or mailed: The Southwest Standard c/o Blue Valley Southwest High School 17600 Quivira Overland Park, KS 66085 The Southwest Standard also encourages guest photography.

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(in all the right places)

Looking for Love

students adopt and rescue pets Pets can come from anywhere, not just from a store or breeder. According to ASPCA.org, out of the 7.6 million pets that enter animal shelters, only 2.7 million are adopted each year. October is Adopt-a-PetMonth, and it helps give pets a second chance.

Swartz and S aydie

s freshman Helene Bechtel walks out onto her back porch, she sees a small brown blur racing across the yard. The blur quickly turns around and speeds in the other direction. ‘Elsie,’ she thinks. Elsie is an Italian greyhound-chihuahua mix whom Becthel and her family rescued. When Betchel was in second grade, she and her brother pleaded with their parents to get them a dog. Their parents refused, until one day their uncle called and said he had found a dog that needed a home. Their uncle was driving when he saw Elsie’s head pop out of a bush. He stopped and went back to pick her up. There were no houses in the area, so he put up signs to find her owners. He couldn’t find them, so he needed to find Elsie a new home. “He called us ... because she was so small that she wouldn’t have lasted [without a home],” Bechtel said. Becthel and her family believe Elsie came from an abusive home. When they got her, she had cuts and scrapes on her. Once when Becthel’s dad was swatting a fly with a newspa-

6 | oct. 2014 | southwest | bvswnews.com | feature

hen freshman Juliana Swartz walked into Wayside Waifs ‘just to look,’ the first thing that struck her was a pair of big brown eyes. Those eyes belonged to a skinny golden retriever sitting on a couch. The dog was malnourished and had chunks of fur missing. When Swartz went to sit by the dog, she saw ticks crawling off the retriever’s skin. Her dad was hesitant at first, but after more visits, the Swartz family brought Saydie home. “She wasn’t the prettiest dog, but she had the same eyes as our previous black lab, so we fell in love with her,” Swartz said. “We nourished her back to health, and now she’s part of our family. You could tell there was this spirit about her; animals have that.” Saydie was around seven when she was adopted. Swartz believes she was used previously for

per, Elsie was frightened and hid under the computer table for nearly a week. Becthel thinks some people have a misconception about dogs that have been rescued. “Some people think that they are dirty, they have rabies or there is something wrong with them [because] they are from a shelter,” Becthel said. “They’re not different; they’re just hurt.” Elsie has her own personality. She is very fast, due to her Italian greyhound side, and occasionally leaves offerings of rodents she has caught on the back porch. Becthel has taught her many tricks, except how to fetch and roll over. Elsie also has filled her job as the house guardian. When a neighbor jumped the fence to retrieve a ball, she cornered him in the playset until Becthel’s mom came outside. “She is really smart; she is also one of the dogs that tries to understand what you’re saying,” Becthel said. “She has an amazing little mind.”

a puppy mill and escaped. “We wanted to adopt an older dog because they don’t get adopted as much; they get kind of [ignored],” Swartz said. When Saydie was first brought home, she was so thin that many people worried she was sick. Swartz and her family worked on bringing her back to health. Now people are amazed at the transformation Saydie has gone through. Swartz values adopting from shelters. She wants to help dogs with a past. “Pet shop pets go within days,” Swartz said. “Shelter puppies have a past, and they are looking for a loving home. They don’t get adopted as much. By adopting at a shelter, it’s like saving a dog’s life.” Swartz thinks some people look down on dogs from shelters because their past is unknown, but she feels very lucky with Saydie. “She has a presence and a soul to her; she’s part of our family,” Swartz said.

Bechtel and Elsie

olleyball coach Rebecca Colson arrives home and is greeted by two excited balls of fur. Her two dogs, a terrier named Bo and an Australian shepherd named Kyluh, have waited all day for her arrival. Now they want to play. Colson got both of her dogs from a shelter when they were puppies. Bo had originally been found on the side of a road when she was five weeks old and brought into the shelter. Kyluh was part of a litter of eight puppies taken into custody after an arrest. When Colson first got Bo, the puppy weighed only five pounds and couldn’t walk. “She started walking a couple days after we got her because she was so small and so scared,”

ophomore Kate Wasmer has always had many pets at one time — a varierty of cats, dogs and guinea pigs. When a family friend found a cat wandering around the neighborhood, Wasmer’s family decided to take it in. Now they have a total of four pets, all rescues. The cat found wandering in the neighborhood was adopted when Wasmer was in second grade. His name is Patrick. She used to call him a ‘holstein cat’ because of his markings, which reminded her of a cow. Soon after, a collie-mix who had been hit by a car was brought into the vetrinary clinic where Wasmer’s dad worked. The dog, named Bear, was Wasmer’s eighth birthday gift, complete with a cast that read happy birthday. “Bear was not a very good dog, to be honest,” Wasmer said. “He would mess up the yard, so we decided to get him a friend, Harry, who ended up being even more ornery.” Harry, a jack russell terrier, was adopted from an animal

Colson said. “It is really hard for dogs to survive in shelters for long periods of time, especially puppies. They don’t get the attention or affection that they need.” Now Bo has learned many tricks. She can sit, shake, roll over and lay down. She can also distinguish Kyluh the difference between a ball, rope and toy. Colson recently decided to adopt her second dog, Kyluh. Colson is working on potty training Kyluh and is reminded how much work puppies are. “Don’t adopt or get a pet until you are ready financially and have

shelter. He was going to be put down unless someone adopted him. Bear and Harry have now calmed down. They are brought on family trips, including visits to the lake. The most recent edition is Mimi, a tabby cat. She was part of a litter of kittens brought into a vet that neighbored her mother’s own clinic. Deemed the friendliest of the bunch, Mimi was brought to the Wasmer house. “Mimi is my go-to, and she likes to be in my room a lot,” Wasmer said. “Sometimes it is kind of annoying, but other times I do not take it for granted.” Wasmer loves all of her pets, but has a special affinity for the cats. “When I am having a really bad day, I can turn to them and just pet them,” Wasmer said. “I guess I connect more with cats than dogs, but I love both of them.” Since the actual ages and birthdates of her pets are unknown, Wasmer and her family have made up special birthdays

and Colson

the time to do it,” Colson said. “Taking on more than one pet is a lot. You have to really be prepared to give the time and money.” Colson said she would never adopt from anywhere else but a

shelter. Her dogs may be a handful, but they are worth it. “Every day is an adventure with them,” Colson said.

Wasme

Patrick corresponding to each animal. For example, Harry’s birthday is Nov 9, which is the same as her brother’s, and Mimi has the same birthday as her grandma. Their pets tie the Wasmer family together. “They make our family happy,” Wasmer said. “My dad and brother have a connection with the dogs, and my mom and I have a connection with the cats. It works out perfectly.”

r and H arry

Mimi er. elaney Oliv

Photos by D

| lilliehoffart |7

JUST DO IT.

why students athletes play through injuries

“I have regrets about it, but now I’m at a stage where I know I couldn’t have done anything. I’m at the point where I just train to make up what [I] lost.”

Photo by Cassidy Winsor. Photo Illustration by Riley Martin.

| juniorisabellefinzen

wo years ago, junior Isabelle Finzen fell after swinging from the ceiling in her basement and broke both of her arms. He first thought was what would happen to her ability to swim. “I was really concerned with how I would make a comeback, or if I would be able to swim at all, or if the swim meet I was trying to get to was even in the cards anymore,” Finzen said. “[I was worried] after a stupid mistake like that, I’d ruin my entire future and setting up for colleges.” According to a 2013 study conducted by the NCAA, fewer than 10 percent of high school athletes will continue to play in college. Although some people argue that “it’s just high school,” it’s not uncommon for student athletes such as Finzen to find a strong enough motive to play through injuries. Finzen was used to waking up at 4:30 for practice, and returning again immediately after school. She saw her swim team more than her family. Swimming was “what she lived for.”

“After I broke my arms, I told [my mom] I was 100 percent fine and I could still swim through it,” she said. “During my swim practices, if a set gets really hard, I always am like, ‘if I hadn’t been so stupid freshman year, I probably would’ve been able to make these.’ I knew I had been training so hard for years, and how was I supposed to make that up in a few months? I always have regrets about it, but now I’m at a stage where I know I couldn’t have done anything. I’m at the point where I just train harder to make up what [I] lost.” Over the course of a year, Isabelle broke a bone on every limb, but she did everything in her power to keep practicing. When she had a broken ankle, Finzen would take off her ankle brace and do flip turns with one foot. After she broke her arms, she attempted twice to swim with plastic casts on both arms. “It looked like I was flailing and convulsing, and coach was like, ‘you’ve gotta get out,’” she said. “But I just couldn’t stay out of the water. It made me anxious and stressed that I couldn’t

get in.” Unfortunately, this is the a common mindset and a cause of many injuries. According to stopsportsinjuries.org, overuse injuries can happen when people “try to make up for lost time by pushing themselves to achieve the level of participation they were at before injury” when they begin playing again. They are also more likely to occur in athletes who play the same sport year-round, which is not recommended because it can be physically and mentally draining. Junior Tristan Eastham is a year-round distance runner. He won State in cross-country and was hoping to qualify for State in the mile and two-mile during track the following spring, but he suffered from a muscle detachment in his hip early on in the season. His doctor said he could run through it if he thought he could handle it, and his parents were supportive of the decision he wanted to make. He never missed a race during the regular season.

feature | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | oct. 2014 | 8

“It is a risk, but I feel like the reward outweighs the risk. I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t play.” | seniorcodydemoss

“I think that’s just my own expectations for myself to be at every race and give it everything I could, no matter what the circumstances.” | juniortristan eastham

Photos by Donna Armstrong and Erica Good. Photo Illustrations by Riley Martin.

“I think that’s just my own expectations for myself to be at every race and give it everything I could, no matter what the circumstances,” Eastham said. “The races just weren’t coming through because I was hurt, which was frustrating because it was like I couldn’t go any harder, but [I] should be.” However, at Regionals, the injury reached the point where his coach had to ask him to drop out of the two-mile, since he’d already qualified for State in the mile. “If there was any kind of outside pressure, it was more of me thinking other people thought that I should be doing that,” Eastham said. “I usually think that [I should be] trying to please other people when maybe I shouldn’t be.” Eastham says the boys on the team hold each other to the high expectation that they will work as hard as they can to their fullest ability, no matter what. “There’s no ‘ifs’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ — you’ve just got to show up and do it,” he said. “[If someone’s injured] we don’t really talk about it — usually it’s kind of more you know that person is hurt, so don’t bring it up, just kind of keep them going and make sure they stay focused and they’re not using it as an excuse.” Unfortunately, some injuries can have serious long-term consequences, especially for high school athletes. For example, medicalnewstoday.com stated in 2013 that adolescants are more vulnerable than adults or children to sport-related concussions.

Senior Cody DeMoss has had six concussions in his lifetime, including two from high school football and three from high school wrestling. In March of this year he had to visit the KU Hospital for one of them, and while he passed enough memory tests, his doctor advised him to not play anymore. “My mom does not want me to play sports, but my dad wants me to get a scholarship for football,” he said. “He knows the consequences of me getting a concussion, but he wants me to push through it, which I agree with. It’s my decision.” Although DeMoss is taking extra precautions to wear special headgear and avoid using the crown of his head when playing, he is still has a high risk potential. “Contemporary Pediatrics” recommends that after a concussion, it is important to refrain from “cognitive activities (including cell phone texting, television viewing, loud music and computer) and physical activity that may exacerbate symptoms,” but these are activities that occur on a daily basis for a teenager. Both adolescents, whose brains are still developing, and athletes who have had concussions before take longer to recover, and there is an increased risk for another concussion after the first one, according to the CDC. A single concussion affects a person’s working memory and the ability to focus and sustain attention, and the effects can last up to a year. DeMoss scored lower in some areas, such

as problem solving, that he hadn’t tested low in before. His friends say that he is more forgetful, and he feels like he is worse in math and has more trouble concentrating. He has a higher risk of getting dementia and alzheimer’s. If he gets a serious concussion, he could be left paralyzed, or the results could even be fatal. “It is a risk, but I feel like the reward outweighs the risk,” DeMoss said. “I really want to get a scholarship to play football, and my education would be paid for. It would just be a lot easier. [And] since I’ve played all the way through my high school career in both sports, I didn’t want to let my team down...I don’t want to let my school down or my community down.” The majority of Demoss’s friends don’t want him to take the risk of playing, but he said he can’t play football forever, so he wants to be able to remember playing his senior year. “I just love playing sports,” DeMoss said. “I’ve played them all my life, and I just feel like if I stop playing, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am if I was. I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t play.”

| anandabhatia Editor’s note: On Oct. 10, DeMoss suffered from his seventh concussion at the football game against Bishop Miege. DeMoss continued playing until halftime, but has since been told by his doctor that he can longer participate in high school sports.

] s k c u b r ] a u t n [S e M t e r [Sec

reviews of secret autumn favorites | ellieaugustine

umpkin pie frappucino. Caramel pumpkin macchiato. Over the years, coffee enthusiasts have created unlisted specialties that go far beyond the regular menu. Coined the “Starbucks secret menu” by dedicated baristas and customers, it has swept the nation with its endless plethora of flavor combinations. With just a few additions to regular items, customers can order whatever drink strikes their fancy.

[P]

Starbucks is named after the first mate in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”

Starbucks was founded on March 30, 1970.

The logo is inspired by the sea – featuring a twin-tailed siren from Greek mythology.

Starbucks began in Seattle.

There are more than 21,000 Starbucks stores in 65 different countries.

Graphics by Kate Bowling.

10 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | opinion

[Pumpkin Pie Frappuccino] Heavenly. The little green mermaid logo splashed on the cup is the only difference between this drink and real pumpkin pie. With its creamy consistency, the blended beverage can be scooped out of the cup with a spoon. Plus, it seems to be a favorite for the fall season.

[*] Creme based Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino [*] Add Cinnamon Dolce Syrup (one pump for a tall, two for grande, three for venti) [*] Add Cinnamon Dolce Sprinkles [*] Whipped cream blended in [*] Top with more whipped cream and Cinnamon Dolce Sprinkles

[Fall Mashup Frappuccino] A combination of all things fall, this frappucino is the epitome of the autumn season. In essence, it’s a pumpkin spice frappuccino that packs a punch. The toffee nut and toppings add to the delicious flavor and give the drink a little bit of everything.

[*] Vanilla Bean Frappuccino [*] Add pumpkin spice sauce (one pump tall and grande, two pumps venti) [*] Add toffee nut syrup (.5 pump tall, one grande, 1.5 venti) [*] Top with whip, caramel drizzle, [*] mocha syrup and sea salt

[Butterbeer Frappucino] For those who have always wondered what a butterbeer tastes like: this is it. The caramel and toffee nut syrups bring out the true buttery flavor. Avid Harry Potter fans will feel as if they are sitting next to a fire in the middle of the Three Broomsticks. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter couldn’t have done it any better.

[*] Ask for a Creme Frappuccino base. Don’t skimp on the fat by asking for skim or 2% milk as whole milk is required for the right consistency [*] Add three pumps of caramel syrup [*] Add three pumps of toffee nut syrup [*] Top with caramel drizzle

[*] Make sure to tell the barista what is in the drink, not just the name. Recipes taken from starbuckssecretmenu.net.

| 11

d n i h e B y g o l

o h c y s P

demographic of users vs non-users on social media

a i d e M l a i c o S

97%

on average negative posts promoted

1.29

18-30 year olds

12%

more positive posts

active participation on social media gave users a greater sense of connectedness 12 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | special sections

| abbyyi Information taken from the Huffington Post.

more than a suit

senior Grant Wernicke shares his experiences as the mascot

he stadium lights beam down onto the football field, illuminating the players clad in green jerseys and shoulder pads as they make another play. From the sidelines, the crowd roars and senior Grant Wernicke, Jr. makes the split-second decision, based on the crowd’s energy, to do a series of push ups along the edge of the track before jumping back up to his feet and running over to a group of children that stands clustered in front of the bleachers to give them high-fives. “[Being the mascot is] a cool feeling,” Wernicke said. “When you get people going, you feel like you’re doing something good for the team and that you’re actually helping.” All throughout his high school career, Wernicke has been a fan of the school — he went all out during spirit days and cheered

on his peers at every game he could attend. When Wernicke was a sophomore, a fellow student told him that his dedication would make him a memorable mascot, so he took his friend’s advice and went to consult the cheer coach about the position. Flash forward to 2014, and Wernicke takes pride in his occupation. From the sidelines he energizes the crowds at varsity football and basketball games. He also attends other school and community functions, such as spirit assemblies and the Stilwell parade, held every year during the Fourth of July. “I think that students with that level of spirit are the foundation of the school and of the Southwest culture,” Student Council sponsor Lynda LaPlant said. “We’re still young enough that we’re still making our traditions and culture, and Grant has been a big

part of that. It’s just so exciting to see kids really grab on and try to make the school a better, tighter-knit community.” From his first experience as the mascot, Wernicke knew that it was something that he wanted to pursue. By the time he reached junior year, he decided that he wanted to take the initiative to turn it into its own position, either within the cheer team or on StuCo. “When I started, it was really just a volunteer position,” Wernicke said. “Somebody went and got the costume for me every game, but after a few games I took it upon myself. I got some shirts for it, some clothes for it, and I was spending my own money out of my own pocket. But then, at the beginning of junior year, I wanted the mascot to become its own official position.”

feature | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | oct. 2014 | 13

14 |

With the assistance of LaPlant, Wernicke was eventually able to have the position of mascot added to the cheer team; however, he has a dual membership on StuCo because of the extensive number of events he must attend with that organization. He is now able to work with a budget of $200 a year to cover expenses for cleaning and repairing the suit, and he can receive a varsity letter in the activity. “He goes, just like the cheerleaders and the players, to all of the events, and in my opinion for what he does, he deserves a letter and to be recognized for the things that he’s doing,” Athletic Director Gary Howard said. “He brought that subject up, we talked about it, and I decided that he’s well deserving of it — just the same as a manager, cheerleader or anyone else.” Throughout his three years as the mascot, Wernicke has had the chance to experience a number of unique opportunities, including meeting professional mascots

from the Kansas City area. Despite this, he claims some of the most enjoyable aspects of being the mascot are the connections he makes with Southwest fans. “[The best part of being the mascot] is probably getting the notes from all the little kids saying, ‘I love you’ or, ‘You’re my best friend,’” Wernicke said. “Back in sophomore year, at the first game I got a note from this little girl that said, ‘I love you’ with a drawing of her and I holding hands, and I hung it up on my bulletin board — I still have it there — and thought, ‘This is what I want to do.’ That little girl brought me candy bars that whole game and tried to bring me food. I’m pretty sure this little girl visits me at least four times a quarter at the games and gives me high-fives screaming ‘Timmy, Timmy come over here!’ And every time, I run over to her and give her highfives and send her off, but she comes back five minutes later to do the same thing.”

At games, Wernicke’s positive interactions with fans have not gone unnoticed. Howard says that Wernicke’s energy and personality make people “drawn to him,” while simultaneously “[projecting] a positive image of the school,” indicating his standout qualities as the mascot. However, for Wernicke, one of the standout qualities that goes along with being the mascot is that he can have exclusive pride in what he does. “I love the fact that I can be in the position that I’m in as the mascot — I’m the only one,” Wernicke said. “I feel like I have my own thing here. I’m not a football player, I’m not a baseball player, but I’m the mascot.” By being the first person to step into this role, Wernicke has contributed to the tradition of school pride and spirit, providing an example for those who may follow in his footsteps after he graduates.

“I think that by establishing the mascot as a part of the Southwest tradition, he’s set a precedent that it’s important, and that it’s something that someone has to take care of,” LaPlant said. “So I think he’s set the expectation that being the mascot is a commitment, not just something that someone fills in when we need it.” As for Wernicke’s thoughts on the importance of being the mascot, he says that it “isn’t just some guy putting on the costume on Friday nights.” Because of his role, he had to attend events that he didn’t necessarily want to go to, suffer minor injuries due to angry fans of opposing teams and deal with the bulky suit on a weekly basis. Despite this, he continued to strive to improve his craft by consulting online sources and professionals all because of his love for the activity. “When I leave the school, I don’t want people to think I was just a guy who put on a costume,” Wernicke said. “I was the guy who made the mascot an official position, and I was the school’s first actual mascot. To me, it’s more than a suit.” | laurenstone

“

When I leave the school, I don’t want people to think I was just a guy who put on a costume. I was the guy who made the mascot an official position, and I was the school’s first actual mascot. To me, it’s more than a suit.” | seniorgrantwernicke

Photos by Delaney Oliver. | 15

“

The reason I make art is for other people. It provides those people with joy and smiles — [I love] the excitement that they get when you give them a piece of art.“ | teachershawnstelter

“

veryone has a reason for making art, whether it is for the joy of others, or simply to express emotions. Here’s a look into the kind of art three students and one teacher create and why they love what they do. | delaneyoliver

“

I was always drawing or painting or doing something. I have always just had a passion for it. It is more of a hobby for me — if I have nothing to do or if I’m bored, it is always a good way for me to get away from things.” | seniormalloryfahler

16 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | photo essay

Being creative is so fun — just coming up with things other people don’t come up with. I like to do abstract stuff, so when you take something regular and make it funky looking and abstract, and it shows lots of creativity. “ | sophomorelizputnam

“

I think it’s really good for everyone to have some sort of creativity in their life. Be doing something instead of just watching TV or being on the internet; you should be creating something with your free time. That’s why I do art.” | sophomorelaurensemple

| 17

Banned Books Week people celebrate the freedom of reading

student walks down the rows of books in the library to check out “The Hunger Games” but is unable to find it even after deliberately searching. After asking the librarian, the student is surprised to learn that the school does not carry the series due to it having “religious viewpoints” and “being unsuited for the age group”. “The Hunger Games,” although popular among youth, is one of the most banned books in the country. Banned Books Week recognizes this issue in its annual event that is dedicated to fighting back against censorship across libraries around the world and giving people, especially students, the right to read whatever they choose. Every year during this week, commu-

nities of students, teachers, librarians and book sellers come together to support the freedoms of free reading. A book can be banned from a certain library for one or many reasons, but most are banned due to themes in the book that are considered inappropriate. Most commonly, books are prohibited because they include sexually explicit content, offensive language, drug use, racism, violence, religious viewpoints, homosexuality or they are unsuited for the intended age group. Even though Banned Books Week is a large event commented on by popular authors publicly, such as Lois Lowry and John Green, and events are held in nearly every state, most people remain unaware how the banning pro-

18 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

cess works. While there is a list on the Banned Books website of the top ten most commonly prohibited books, there is not actually a list of books that cannot be present in school libraries. In the Blue Valley School District, if a community member discovers controversial content in a book, then the book can be challenged. The list of challenged books is different than the books that have actually been banned. After a challenge, a committee of administrators, students, teachers and parents is created to review the book. If the book is decreed inappropriate, then it becomes officially banned.

t .

, -

Quotes taken from goodreads.com.

“Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance.” -Laurie Halse Anderson

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”

“I hate it that Americans are taught to fear some books and some ideas as though they were diseases.” -Kurt Vonnegut

-Stephen Chbosky

“I think that, as librarians, we try to work on getting books that are best for our target audience,” librarian Lindsey Hogan said. “It’s a great process that if people feel like there’s a book that shouldn’t be in [the library], then they can have that discourse. So, we really like to be able to have that discourse, but for the most part it’s unlikely that something would be removed, especially at high school level. But at middle school, it kind of gets iffy.” Students, parents and teachers of the Southwest community choose to allow books in the library that have been banned in other schools in the district. The librarians cannot help but to stress the importance of the freedom of reading.

“We [as librarians] believe in the freedom to read, and I mean, our job is to protect the integrity of the library,” librarian Elizabeth Chopp said. “There are professionals who fight to keep all books available on the shelves for readers. Whether or not somebody chooses to read a book that somebody else deems appropriate, it is their choice. We’re not going to force them to read anything they aren’t comfortable with. And even like a classroom book, if a parent said or a student said, ‘I’m morally opposed to reading this book because of x, y and z,’ then an alternative would be found. So, most of the time it’s about choice; it’s never going to be shoved down your throat. It’s a good district

that we have things to protect our students right to check out whatever books they want.” Across the nation, some parents argue that there shouldn’t be as much freedom as there currently is for students book accessibility. “I think it would be pretty sad [if the country had a list of banned books that couldn’t be read],” Hogan said. “I think students have access to read about all different backgrounds and all different scenarios, and I think that different students relate to different things. It would be hard to create a list [of approved books] that appealed to all students.” | katielucas

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TAKING THE FIELD the varsity football team plays against Blue Valley High and Bishop Miege | donnaarmstrong

20 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | photo essay

The varsity football team storms the field with high excitement ready to fight for a victory against Blue Valley High. The Timberwolves entered the game with a 3-0 record, but ultimately fell to the Tigers.

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1 2

1. Sophomore Dane Pederson analyzes the play at hand during the game versus BV High. 2. The varsity football offensive prepares to make a first down against the BV High Tigers. 3. The Timberwolves are lined up to make their way down the field at the varsity pink-out game versus Bishop Miege. 4. Sophomore Justin Hill waits to go back on the field with the other members of the defense during the game against rivals BV high tigers.

22 |

swinging for success students compete during the third leg of EKL at Swope Memorial Golf Course

| laurenyork

3 3

1. Senior Jamie Rickert prepares to take a swing after going through her preshot routine. 2. Senior Nikki McCurdy stands at the top of the hill on hole 17, which overlooks downtown Kansas City. 3. After viewing her shot from multiple angles, McCurdy lines up her short par putt. 4. On a short par five, senior Vanessa Peterson uses her hybrid club to reach the green in two strokes and gives herself a chance to score eagle, which is two below par. “[This] was my favorite group I played with,” she said. “I’ll miss the girls I golfed with the most.”

4 4

photo essay | www.bvswnews.com | southwest | oct. 14 | 23

6. McCurdy takes a break as she watches her opponent drive the ball. “I’ll miss the people that I got to play with at all of the other schools,” she said. “It’s really sad knowing that I will probably never get to see all of the people that I have played with over the years anymore.” 7. After studying her putt, Peterson steps up to the ball and sinks it in the hole. 8. Rickert watches her ball sail onto the green from 150 yards out after hitting a drive in the middle of the fairway. 9. McCurdy marks her spot on the green right before she removes the ball and waits for her next turn. 10. Rickert puts the flag back after finishing the hole at Swope Memorial. Both Rickert and McCurdy qualified for State the next week. At the state tournament against over 90 other girls, Rickert placed fifth with a 78 and McCurdy tied for 10th with an 84.

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Ii t ’ s [ n o t ] t s n ot

anx

enior Brooke Hancock knows the misconceptions of mental illnesses all too well. “You’re not depressed; you’re just sad. Snap out of it; be happy. It doesn’t work like that,” Hancock said. “Nobody understands how I feel. If you don’t have depression, you don’t know how it feels; you can’t understand it. It’s not something where you can just flip a switch and it’ll be better. It’s constant; it’s always nagging. I really have to fight it. This is waking up in the morning and not having the energy to get out of bed. This is you don’t want to go out and live your life because it’s too hard; it’s not just feeling down. Seniors Brooke Hancock and John McKinsey are both fighting a battle with their mental illnesses. Hancock is diagnosed with severe forms of depression, anxiety and OCD. McKinsey is diagnosed with severe forms of depression, anxiety, OCD, night terrors and insomnia. Some symptoms aren’t easy to detect. They commonly get mistaken for simply feeling ‘sad’ or being a ‘neat freak’ or being ‘anxious.’ However, going unnoticed, these symptoms can lead to more significant problems that can potentially stay with a person for the rest of his or her life. If left untreated without the right medications, the diagnosis could get more severe. The root of the mental illness can be attributed to both genetics and traumatic events in a person’s life. “In retrospect I probably knew I had [my mental illnesses] before I got officially diagnosed, but it took it getting really bad to make it obvious to the people around me,” McKinsey said. “Since a young age, I’ve dealt with

problems at home, and it’s gotten better. But when I was in elementary school, I was bullied a lot, and I got yelled at by my parents all the time. I’m sure that, along with the genetics, was initially the root to my disorders. Then, freshman year, I got sick and missed three weeks of school, so I’m sure that contributed to the anxiety aspect.” Once a person is diagnosed with a mental illness, it’s important for him or her to cope to maintain a healthy life. Usually, therapy is a method that is recommended for people who have been diagnosed. There are many different types of therapists, but for some people, therapy doesn’t help. To Hancock, it seemed like a waste of time. Although therapy didn’t always work for McKinsey, he thought it was nice to talk to an adult rather than parents. “I got my first diagnosis when I was about ten,” Hancock said. “I didn’t know what it was, but my parents suspected something wasn’t right. After being shoved into therapy, I put it together that things weren’t normal. When my mom was diagnosed with cancer, they threw me into therapy and said, ‘Here, sit and play with board games and talk about life,’ but then they were like, ‘This therapist wasn’t enough. You’re still weird; you have to go to another one,’ so then I’d go to the next one. Then, it would be that it wasn’t the right kind of therapy for me, so then I had to go to cognitive therapy. I’ve had around five therapists, and I don’t stay with them for very long because for me, it doesn’t do anything. They would talk to me, and I’d just sit and occasionally nod. They basically told me I have issues, and I’d leave feeling either worse than I did before, or content with the fact that I just threw up word

26 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | opinion

vomit to make the session go faster.” According to the Teen Treatment Center, as many as 30 percent of teenagers experiment with illicit drugs and alcohol, often as a way to cope with difficult situations. But this solution, while it may work temporarily, can eventually complicate the situation and in turn, cause more pain. “Beginning of sophomore year I began using various substances to cope,” McKinsey said. “It was effective, but it got to an unhealthy level — to the point where I was smoking four times a day in my room, all by myself, because it felt wrong [not to]. I still smoke occasionally, because it doesn’t just go away. I also struggle[d] with self-harm, but now, instead of cutting, I use my rubber bands. Whenever I feel like I need to cut, I just snap my rubber bands. It’s temporary, but it works.” There are support groups set up locally in Johnson County. According to Johnson County Gov, counseling, peer support and young adult/transition services are offered and can be beneficial to young people struggling with a mental illness. “John and I have both struggled with selfharm in the past; we still do daily,” Hancock said. “It’s not an easy thing to pull yourself away from. But both of us have been to a place called Marillac where we both learned some skills by keeping your hands and your mind busy by keeping you secluded. Something as simple as taking a shower or going outside for a run. Anything to help you not hurt yourself.” Because of genetics, people are also predisposed to addiction. If a person has a family member who has struggled with an addiction, he or she may have the same genetic marker.

J u s t t h e ju st t h e

iety By knowing how vulnerable a person is, he or she can make different choices since they are more susceptible to addiction. When a person tries to treat one concern with another unhealthy coping strategy, things can start to pile up. “Talking is a really helpful way to cope,” counselor Kristi Dixon said. “Having the courage to ask for help when you need it is huge. Most kids are trying to be independent and do their own thing — they think they can handle it. But, after a while, they run out. They say everything they know how to say. It’s important to understand that [given the situation] it’s completely realistic and normal to be sad. The way that we handle sadness is huge. If you’re a writer, you write. If you’re an artist, you paint. If you’re an athlete, maybe you might work out. Or, maybe you do community service because you want to focus on somebody else and get out of your head for a while. There’s all sorts of ways to express your sadness and work through it, but it helps if you do it with someone else.” As a parent, having a child with a mental illness can be hard to accept. For both Hancock and McKinsey, they say their parents had a hard time understanding what they were going through. “My parents at first were in denial, which is pretty common,” Hancock said. “It took them having to hospitalize me for them to realize that this is real; this is a big deal; she’s not okay. I’ll be feeling sick at school, and I’ll send my mom a text saying how I don’t feel well, and she’ll say, ‘Oh no, it’s probably just anxiety — you’re fine.’ [My parents] don’t understand that there are differences

students share their struggles

between my anxiety and me just being tired or not feeling good and wanting to go home to take a nap.” According to Mental Health Works, for every one person self-medicating takes control of, there are eight or nine others behind the scenes — eight or nine people whose lives are thoroughly affected by living with another’s illness. The drugs, alcohol or self-inflicting weapon turns into something else, something much harder to recognize or accept. “My parents still think that I used to cut for attention,” McKinsey said. “I’ve been hospitalized twice. They think that I can just cheer up. They think that I’m doing everything for attention, and that really puts a strain on my family. It does get me a lot of attention, but I hate it. I don’t want that kind of attention from my family — I want the good kind of attention. My struggles with mental illnesses take my parents’ focus away from my sisters because there’s so much negative energy spent on me, and that makes it really tough. My family has a history of mental illnesses and suicide. The second time I got hospitalized, which was when things got really bad, my dad didn’t talk for a week. He didn’t say a word because he was terrified because [this also happened to] his dad and his brother, and now me. That was the worst thing for me — terrifying my dad.” Mental illness is a topic that is typically avoided, and as a reporter, making the decision to cover such a somber subject was a hard call to make. After hours upon hours of interviewing and researching, I still can not fathom what people dealing with mental illnesses go through daily. I can’t assimilate the daily

with mental illnesses struggle of not wanting to get up because of how intimidating the world seems, or having a mindset that is always in worse case scenario are situations they face first thing when they wake up; yet, they still manage to persevere through their day as if nothing is wrong. This is the kind of attitude that John and Brooke revealed to me and is what really motivated me to tell this story — to tell their story. However, mental illness is not only common at Southwest, but throughout society as a whole. It’s important to recognize the drastic increase in teens being diagnosed with mental illnesses. According to Teen Mental Health, one in five young people suffer from a mental illness. “When you have a mental illness, the little things are the big things and the big things are huge things,” Hancock said. “Everything is maximized. My mental illnesses shape who I am as a person. It also affects the way people look at me and the way people treat me. Mental illnesses deserve to be talked about way more than they are. It’s typically avoided because nobody wants to talk about it. To people with mental illnesses, that tells us that nobody cares about it. People who don’t have a mental illness don’t take it seriously because they don’t think it’s a real thing. It’s taking over a lot of lives. I see it in people I would never expect it in. That’s the thing — it can affect anyone.” For additional ways to cope, visit www. bvswnews.com.

| lexitarter

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creating consistency the district implements new guidelines in counting community service hours

Graphic by Abby Yi.

28 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | feature

student logs onto the free Presidential Volunteer Service Award website and enters a total of 250 hours of service completed. The certificate and pin for a gold award arrive in the mail, but the only amount of time that the student had spent toward that logged service was the ten minutes it had taken to submit the hours. There is no way to monitor that the student had actually volunteered for that many hours; the only sense of reliability is the honor system. The Presidential Community Service Award is a national award which honors the number of hours dedicated to service. The award honors citizens on bronze, silver and gold levels by the amount of community service they have logged. High school students benefit from achieving the Presidential Community Service Award as it is noted on college transcripts. The district created community service guidelines in order to verify that students who logged community service hours are actually spending their time to help the community. Without that, students would take advantage of the lack of enforcement to unjustly be awarded for something that they didn’t do. “The right community service should be about helping others and the intensive reward you gain from that experience,” activities director Todd Dain said. “Unfortunately, when community service is part of a college application, it becomes this element of competition, so what is created is a culture where students are performing community service hours for the wrong reasons.”

On Aug. 28, the district implemented a new set of guidelines that established what should count as community service to create consistency among the schools. Prior to the new guidelines, all five high schools in the district had differing policies causing unfair advantages in receiving community service acknowledgment between different schools. Parents brought it to the district administrators’ attention that students were being treated differently; thus, the five community service sponsors met together at the end of April to create a new set of rules. “I think that students will gain from the consistency piece,” Executive Director of School Administration Tony Lake said. “Whether you think it’s a good guideline or not, at least you know that everybody is being counted on with the same guidelines. If I do this, I’m going to get credit for it. Nobody is doing other things in other schools and getting credit for it and getting more hours than I would get. So that’s the benefit — the consistency piece.” With the new guidelines becoming more similar to the policies of other schools, Southwest students have noticed some drastic changes in the hours that count. The new guidelines no longer allow organizations like the theatre department and Student Council (StuCo) to count activities like building stagecraft or setting up for the annual homecoming dance for hours toward the Presidential Community Service Award. Senior Alex Ghekas, StuCo president, found that it was unjust to not count the events that student council puts on as community service. So, Ghekas decided to stand up for his

club and wrote a letter to the administration giving reason for it to be credited for community service. In his letter, Ghekas included points that “the students involved are making a large sacrifice to put on a dance that raises money for other school activities” and that “student council fills critical roles for the school that wouldn’t be filled without student council.” “I just think that the hours for clubs like student council should count — I have personal interest in it,” Ghekas said. “I also want to watch out for the people in the activity that I’m a leader for, and I think it’s my responsibility to get the hours to count that I think should count.” Other clubs, like Spanish National Honor Society (SNHS), rely heavily on students doing community service and have had difficulties bringing the new guidelines into concordance. In the new set of guidelines, if something is a required event for club members, then those members aren’t given community service hours for that event. For example, SNHS’s main event as a club is the annual cultural festival; however, club members are unable to get hours for volunteering for it. Likewise, SNHS has had to review some of its community service opportunities to ensure that they fit the guidelines. “I think that the intent is good because they’re trying to ensure we’re actually doing community service, but I think some of their nitpicky things makes it difficult for clubs to offer community service the way they have before,” SNHS vice president senior Andie Divelbiss said. Although the service normally done by SNHS or National Honor Society (NHS) might not count toward the Presidential Service Award anymore, hours can still count toward the membership requirements. SNHS and NHS are individual chapters and are able to set their own guidelines apart from the district because the recognition is not counted toward the Presidential Community Service Award. Currently all hours aren’t guaranteed to count toward the Presidential Community Service Award, but Principal Scott Roberts

still encourages students to submit all potential hours. Even if hours don’t count under the current district guidelines, changes may be made in the near future in which credit would be given for the submitted hours. District administrators assure that this is still a document under revision. The current guidelines were set only to create uniformity throughout the five schools, but now administrators hope to make sure that this is how the community as a whole wants to define community service. “The goal is that we have a document that everybody is comfortable with and that it truly meets what we, as a community, believe as to what community service is about and the purpose of it,” Lake said. “We really encourage our kids to get involved outside of the classroom and give back. We have lots of resources and things that we can provide and give and to build that within our school communities is pretty important.” The student activities committee, with student, parent and administrator input, will work toward necessary revisions in the guidelines to ensure that the whole district is in agreement of what community service entails. Nonetheless, students still recognize the personal benefits in doing community service, despite the reward of hours. “I think community service is providing assistance, in terms of time and/or labor, to someone that needs it,” Divelbiss said. “I do it to give back, and honestly, it makes me feel better than the people that I’m doing it for — like going on missions trips and participating in the blood drive has really made me appreciate what I have and that I have the ability to give back.” | nicolebecker

in the halls

what is your definition of community service?

“

Helping out the community without receiving an award for their actions.” | juniorkennady wallace

“

Doing something without pay for some who needs something.”

| teacherrobert putnam

“

Community service is helping the community in any way you can.” | freshmanjack miller | 29

B V Sv o c a l W

fall choir

c o n c e rt On Monday Oct. 6, the choir put on its first performance of the year. Director Sandra Buntin led the Choraliers, Chamber Singers, Chorale and Concert Choir in a variety of songs. | rileymartin

30 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | photo essay

1. The Chamber Choir performs “Whatever Lola Wants,” choreographed by junior Lauren Browning. 2. All choirs join together to sing the last song of the night, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” 3. Junior Katherine Ostrom lines up with her fellow Choraliers to sing “One Fine Day.” 4. The boys from each choir join together to sing “16 Tons.” 5. The Choraliers tilt their heads back after singing “Reflection.” 6. The Choraliers perform “Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” with choreography by sophomores Libbie Louis and Erin Thompson.

fall vocal choir concert | 31

Freaky Facts and

Spooky Stats

| katebowling

in the halls What is the worst Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?

“ “ “

It was fifth grade. I thought it was cool to be a cyclops, so I had a bald cap and I got this eye and I thought it was like really cool but it was really dumb.” | freshmanharrisonporter

Halloween Facts

1 2

Halloween is also known as All Hallows’ Eve and Samhain. Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween.

99 percent of 3 About pumpkins sold are used as jack-o’-laterns for Halloween.

600

Americans purchase nearly I was a witch in fourth grade, but [the costume] fell off during our parade, so I was like a naked witch.” | juniorshaynabyers

One year I wasn’t going to [dress up], but then I got talked into doing it, so I went as a dead construction worker. Basically, I just borrowed a bunch of stuff from my stepfather and then put some red makeup on and it was bad.”

Chcolate amounts to

percent of Halloween candy sales. Candy corn is one of the healthiest candies of the Halloween season. It contains roughly 28 grams of sugar and only 140 calories per heaping handful — and it’s fat free.

million pounds of candy a year for Halloween.

Candy and commerciaL Facts

| teacheraaronballew

The top chocolate candy that is handed out is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

is the candy 2 Halloween 3 Halloween second most sales average commercially successful holiday.

about 2 billion annually in the United States.

Samhainophobia is the Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween fear of Halloween Samhainophobia is the fear of Halloween

32 | oct. 2014 | southwest | www.bvswnews.com | graphic

THE POWER OF MEDICINE science teacher Chris Jenson shares his other job as a physition at KU Urgent care

s the bell rings, the students rush toward the door, ready to go home and get started on their homework. For most of them the day is over, but that is not the case for the teachers. They still have to grade papers, send emails and set up the lesson plan for the following day. One teacher isn’t heading to the pen and computer — he heads to the KU Urgent Care facility. His name is Chris Jenson. Jenson, a science teacher, has been working at the KU Urgent Care facility for the past seven years. He now acts as a local physician, where he helps people with fractures, sprains, burns, bites and other common injuries, but that wasn’t always the case. Before working at Urgent Care, Jenson was an Emergency Room (ER) doctor for nine years, but after a desire for more family time, he made the hard choice to drop the ER and stay with Urgent Care. “My wife is a doctor, too, and we wanted to get some more family time, and thankfully, Urgent Care allowed [us] to have a more regular schedule,”

Jenson said. The cases that Jenson sees now at Urgent Care are not nearly as serious as the ones that he used to see while working in the ER. If someone came into the Urgent Care center with a serious problem, Jenson would prepare them for transport to the local hospital. “We don’t typically see serious cases at Urgent Care,” Jenson said. “But sometimes we will have someone walk in and have no idea whats wrong with them, and turn out to have had a heart attack or a stroke.” Another reason Jenson decided to work at Urgent Care because the hours he works at the office are flexible to his schedule. At the ER, Dr. Jenson worked almost all day long and seven days a week. However, at the Urgent Care office he works at the office are flexible to his schedule. At the ER, Dr. Jenson worked almost all day long and seven days a week. However, at the Urgent Care office he works part time so that he can still enjoy teaching.

BROC PUT A PHOTO HERE IN THE BLACK BOX

(Up) Jenson sits down with one of his patients to discuss paperwork. (Right) Jenson keeps the patient informed on all aspects of his visit

“The main reason that I don’t work full time as a physician is that I love working with kids and med students — that’s something I couldn’t do as a full-time physician,” Jenson said. Just because Jenson no longer works in the ER doesn’t mean that he doesn’t deal with stressful situations. He has experienced people walk in with heart attacks, strokes and many other life or death situations that any ER doctor would see as well. “On a regular day, we don’t see the serious cases that we would see at a ER,” Jenson said.“It is a little more laid back and relaxed than working in an emergency room.” Although Jenson loves his job immensely, he finds himself lacking enough time in the week to get everything done. Without the stress of school, Jenson uses the summer to work more of a full-time schedule at the Urgent Care center. “I believe that it [working at Urgent Care] puts a stress on my free time,” Jenson said. “But I love taking care of patients, so I enjoy it anyway.” Some students have taken interest in Jenson’s work and shadowed him at the hospital. A shadower is a person who observes a person who is a professional in the field of business that the shadower want to go into. One of Jenson’s most memorable shadowers was alumnus Kate McCrossen. McCrossen is now a fresh-

man in college, and she’s training to become a nurse. “At Urgent Care, I was able to see a variety of things,” McCrossen said. “Mainly it was a flu, cold [or] cough center, so I saw plenty of those cases. By the time I finished shadowing, I was pretty good at identifying a sinus infection, bronchitis, and strep throat because I saw so many cases with him [Jenson] of people with those illnesses”

“

The best thing I learned from him [Jenson] was definitely how to treat patients”

| alumnuskatemccrossen

Many students find shadowing to be a great way to try and see if they would like to continue into that field of work. It also can teach many valuable lessons — lessons that students value as they go through college and into their future profession. “The best thing I learned from him [Jenson] as definitely how to treat patients,” McCrossen

said. “He taught me the right questions to ask patients and when to be serious versus when it is ok to laugh and joke around with the patient.” During the school year, Jenson enjoys telling stories to his students about situations he has encountered at Urgent Care. Usually the stories retain to the topic that they are learning about that day in class, but sometimes he tells them just to take up time in the last part of class. “His job definitely helps him during his teaching methods,” sophomore Jack Jennings said. “He manages to incorporate all of his experiences into the lessons that he teaches us, and [he] does it well.” Jenson enjoys his job so much because of the personal rewards that he gets from helping people. Some people would think that being a physician teaches one people skills or responsibility, but Jenson believes it gives him qualities that are essential for working in the modern world. These qualities motivate Jenson to keep coming back to work the job that he loves. “Being able to quickly solve someone’s problem is really gratifying to me,” Jenson said “If you can make them feel better or resolve an issue they had been having, it’s really satisfying. And it goes along with the theme that you should really only go into medicine if you want to help people.” | brocputnam

why we may need to rethink the dress code

buckle down

button-down shirt was the piece of clothing that did me in. It had a couple of buttons undone. I felt confident – I was wearing an outfit I liked and didn’t give it a second thought. However, it only took about half an hour for the ramifications of my clothing choice to take place. During a private conversation, a male teacher blatantly stared down my shirt for at least two minutes, despite the fact that I shifted positions and crossed my arms over my chest multiple times in an attempt to get him to stop. Ten minutes later, the other teacher in the room pulled me out in the hallway to inform me that my choice of shirt was “distracting to my peers” and that I needed to either button it up higher or go to the office. She did not mention the violation of my privacy and trust by her colleague, or the fact that I had received no abnormal attention from the other students. Instead, she fell back on the dress code – a rule that allowed

her to blame me for any negative attention coming my way. “In theory, the dress code is in place to keep this an environment conducive to learning,” teacher Maren McCrossen said. Obviously, school is a place of learning. The problem lies in assuming that the way someone dresses harbors students’ potential to be educated. In fact, pulling students out of class to lecture them about their choice of clothing disrupts the learning of the entire class. But the problem with the dress code is not that it doesn’t make sense. A dress code, especially one that blatantly targets young women much more than young men, plays into the patriarchal ideas that women’s bodies are inherently sexual and that any sexualization of these bodies is the fault of the women who own them. When teenage girls break dress code, they are told that they need to cover themselves up, be ashamed of their bodies. In a culture that already both shames

and sexualizes the bodies of women of all ages, this attitude is harmful and toxic. “[We should be having] more education on respecting the body, instead of teaching girls that their bodies are something they have to hide and cover up,” senior Lainey Schrag said. “Your body should not determine who you are and how you are treated. You should be able to wear what you want without unwanted attention.” This unwanted attention comes in many forms - lewd comments, prolonged staring and, in the worst case scenario, a physical attack upon a student. “Sometimes, you open yourself up to that, and when teenagers’ attention is distracted, sometimes they act on those distractions, and we want to avoid unsafe situations,” assistant principal Todd Dain said. It is, of course, imperative that students be protected from physical or emotional harm. But the way to protect them is not to

blame them for any harrassment that may come their way. Harassment, either emotional or sexual, is not the fault of the victim. “In a rape trial, they used to ask you, ‘Well, what were you wearing?’” Schrag said. “Because that could mean, ‘Well, you were dressed super provocatively; you should’ve expected something like that to happen to you.’ Or, if you were wearing a tank top and short shorts, ‘You shouldn’t be surprised that guys are giving you attention.’ I think that carries over and has the implication of teaching that if someone is dressed a certain way, it means they are a certain way, and they are expecting attention. It’s implied that if you’re a girl and you’re dressed more provocatively, you will get that kind of attention, regardless of if you want it or not.” The rhetoric of victim-blaming — of “she was asking for it,” — not only fails to protect victims but makes it more difficult for them to trust those who claim

to help them. I didn’t report the teacher who stared down my shirt because I knew what the reaction would be — “You broke dress code, so you should have expected this. It’s your fault for dressing that way.” This type of dialogue excuses perpetrators of harassment and does nothing to solve the problem. “The outfits I wear show how I feel - I’m comfortable in my body,” senior Madison Wright said. “I feel like it’s kind of degrading when I have to change because I’m disturbing to the ‘public eye.’ That’s hurtful to me.” School should be the last place that encourages girls to be ashamed of their bodies. However, policies like strict dress codes teach us that our bodies are not our own; they belong to the people around us, who are free to stare and harass at no cost to themselves. If students are truly to be protected, there needs to be a dialogue between students and staff about what a dress code entails, and if enough

is being done to ensure that our school is truly a place of learning. Above all, students need a safe space in which they can develop their identities and confidence safely, which cannot be done if they are constantly told to be ashamed of their bodies and cover themselves up. “Your body is yours - nobody else’s,” Schrag said. “Do what you want with it.”

| madisonleighty

Ignorance is Never Bliss too many Americans are unaware of happenings in the world | michaelmagyar

Staff Vote yes 15 no - 0 your vote Do you think teenagers are uninformed about world issues? Go online to bvswnews. com to cast your vote for this month’s editorial question. Read other student responses and comment on the editorial. Make your voice heard at www. bvswnews. com or mention us on twitter.

merica has always been a hotbed for debate on all things on the global scale. With political and military struggles abroad, the United States will always have a tie to these events somehow, and yet a large demographic of Americans seem to pay little attention to these topics. The youth of the U.S. has become extremely oblivious to the rest of the world. Today’s technology allows for us to be connected to the world 24/7. Our phones and computers allow us a gateway to the knowledge of the world around us. Our phones are virtually portable encyclopedias on steroids, and according to a study done by Reuters, over 70 percent of teenagers own smart phones. Yet very little have interest in knowing more about the world around them. The lack of current event-related knowledge by teens is concerning. Most of this is plainly due to teenagers simply not being interested in knowing this sort of information. “American teenagers and young people are ignorant of foreign affairs,” University of Texas Professor of Liberal Arts Zoltan Barany said. “This is partly so also because Americans more generally tend to be far more parochial and concerned less about the world at large than people who live in less powerful and influential countries. Virtually no one in the Arab world does not know what is the capital of the United States. But how many Americans know the capital of Jordan, or could place Bahrain on the map?” With the United States so entangled in the foreign affairs of other countries,

it would safe to assume that there is a sense of knowledge in this area. That, however, is not the case. American teenagers are completely in the dark and have no motivation for changing anytime soon. Our generation has been blessed with the opportunity to reap the benefits of technology with the purpose of adding knowledge to our ever-expanding minds. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good GIF or the ever-entertaining corgi in costume photo, but I can’t help but think we waste this blessing of internet access. However, lately, the trend is somewhat shifting. Topics such as turmoil in the middle east involving ISIS and the threat of Ebola coming to the US have teens concerned about their safety. That statement is indicative of the issue. Teenagers are only concerned about current events when they feel their safety is threatened. The mass media has sensationalized these issues, which seems to be the only way to get teens to pay attention. “Americans tend to know more about certain places when they perceive — owing to increased media coverage — that whatever is happening in those places have a direct impact on American lives,” Barany said. Knowledge of these issues allows for us to have a better understanding of what is going on in the world. “Being aware of what is going on is so important,” junior Brooke Egan said. “Knowledge is essential for us to be able to form our own opinions and make a change in things we don’t think are just or to be able to make a difference in the

future. Creating your own opinion is crucial to being able to be well-versed in today’s society. Having an opinion on hot-bed topics is empowering. “There’s nothing wrong with trying to educate yourself and making yourself more aware,” Egan said. “You would only be benefiting yourself and, potentially, society.” It’s not just the lack of knowledge of current events that’s hurting the American youth. Geography is Greek to U.S. students. A study done in 2006 by National Geographic showed that six in 10 Americans ages 18 to 24 were unable to place Iraq on a world map; this was during the heat of American intervention in the middle east. According to a study done by the Survey Sampling International Inc., during the conflicts in March involving the Ukraine and Russia, only 16 percent of Americans could place Ukraine on a map. The arrows can be pointed back at the inability to educate students on these topics at an early age. According to a federal test done by the Education Department in 2011, known as the Nation’s Report Card, only half of American fourth graders could correctly put the following in descending order according to size: North America, the US, California and Los Angeles. Our country’s youth is in danger of being left behind on the global stage. A lack of awareness on an international scale will have a crippling effect. A dramatic turnaround in ambition for global knowledge is necessary.

Percentage of Americans able to place Ukraine on a map

16%

84%

Figures from the Survey Sampling International Inc.