October Globe 2013

THE

Volume 85 October 2013

GLOBE

ISSUE #TWO

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Sexting Mock Trial SAINT LOUIS STYLE Sports Marion Freeman Review Art Museum Commentary 6th Grade Camp

Cover Upfront Features

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CONTENTS

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11 20

Contents 16

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influenced

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28 44

11 Centennial flower 14 The Legacy 16 The twin life 20 Sustainable thinking

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28 Fall sports preview 40 fantasy football 41 more than language 44 humans of clayton

THE

GLOBE NEWSMAGAZINE

Cover

photographer: olivia macdougal

editor-in-cheif

katherine ren

editors

abraham bluestone

photographers

sierra carrel

rachel bluestone

noah engel

neil docherty

senior managing editors

alexis schwartz

emma ehll-welply

parker schultz

alessandra silva

peter shumway

aishwarya yadama

rebecca stiffelman

christopher sleckman

shiori tomatsu

bebe engel

sophie allen

jolena pang

zack bayley

section editors

web editor distribution editor

addison leong

lemual lan

steven zou

business managers ben diamond richard simon jacques fehr

lauren indovino

phoebe yao

peter baugh

webmaster

ava hoffman

rebecca polinsky

jessica jancose

yossi katz

ryan fletcher

claire lisker

peter schimidt

jeffrey cheng

attiya charrington

sophie allen

gwyneth henke

copy editor

patrick butler

sierra hieronymus

jefffrey friedman

reporters

patrick butler

ennuri yi

linda kim

sophie barnes rebecca bloom lucy cohen akansha goel lawrence hu noah jacus jihyun kim bridget boeger gabby boeger camille respess kevin rosenthal zachary sorensen max steinbaum rebecca stiffelman micaela stoner ashleigh williams tara williams elise yang

mary mcguire

makenna martin monye pitt leah shaffer maddy vaughn

graphic artists

cherry tomatsu victoria yi stephanie langendorfer andrew erblich

photo editors

olivia macdougal noah engel

graphics editor

audrey palmer

adviser

erin castellano

EDITOR’S LETTER editorial. The whole school was looking

at me in my speedo. It was my sophomore year, and the swim team was performing at the homecoming pep rally. We were splattered with messy orange and blue paint, screaming our heads off and having the time of our lives.

Every fall, self conscious athletes dance and shout in Stuber Gym with the whole school watching. Most of the time, students would never dream of standing up in front of their entire school, but the pep rally is an exception.

It is my favorite day of the year.

I love the shouts, the joy and the feeling of community. The only problem is, it only happens once.

Winter and spring sports teams have no chance to have the spotlight in front of the whole school. They don’t get to hear the encouragement from their classmates and teachers or see a crazy amount of orange and blue.

Last season, the girls’ basketball team struggled with attendance. Home games would see very scattered crowds. Even at their district basketball game, there were not many Clayton fans. The team wanted their classmates to see them. They wanted to feel school spirit.

Members of the squad talked to the principal about adding a winter pep rally. They began planning a dance and floating ideas around to other teams. However, their highly anticipated pep rally never happened. Time ran out and there was not enough interest from school

leaders to make it happen.

I know education is important. Teachers do not want their class time taken away. But school is not only about education. Yes, it is the main reason we are here, but school is also here for us to have a community.

We should strive to be a community that supports one another. That takes pride in students’ accomplishments and interests beyond the school day. A pep rally for every season would send the message that we believe in greyhound pride throughout the school year, not just around homecoming.

I want my friends who play winter and spring sports to have the same opportunity that I have with my swim team. It disappoints me that the adults in our building are unwilling to make it happen.

Classes are just one piece of the puzzle of high school. For upperclassmen, their days with this community are coming to a close. I was given the chance to perform at the pep rally, and it is one of my favorite high school memories. It is wrong to deny others the same opportunity. 

Peter Baugh, Sports Editor

The Globe Newsmagazine exists to inform, entertain, persuade, and represent the student voice at CHS. All content decisions are made by the student editorial staff, and the Globe is an entirely self-funded publication. Not every story that our reporters write is published in the print newsmagazine. Visit www.chsglobe.com for additional stories and photos, and for more information about the Globe itself. We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement - for more information about advertising and subscriptions, please contact our office: Clayton High School Globe 1 Mark Twain Circle Clayton, MO 63105 (314) 854-6668 Fax: 854-6734 globe@claytonschools.net Professional Affiliations: Sponsors of School Publications . Missouri Interscholastic Press Association . National Scholastic Press Association . Columbia Scholastic Press Association

EDITOR’s LETTER

5

Diving in Senior Morris Mills swims freestyle at the Ladue Invitational. The Greyhounds took fifth place out of fifteen teams at the meet and were the top public school. Mills helped the team by scoring points both in the 200 yard freestyle and the 500 yard freestyle. The Greyhounds have an impressive swimming roster this year, including freshman Tiger Chen, junior Andrew Litteken and seniors Doren Lan, Auggie Mense and Noah Youkilis.

They are coached by Rob Laux, Katelyn Long and Hillary Wilson. ďƒź Photo by Beatrice Engel

September 2013, Ladue, MO

THE BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW WYDOWN

by ALEX BERNARD and ZACH SORENSON

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UPFRONT

Wydown Head Principal Mary Ann Goldberg sits poised in the office she’s only occupied a year, framed by a ceiling-high window filling the room with light. “It’s fabulous,” she smiles. “I hardly ever turn the lights on in my office.”

The windows, installed because of studies showing that natural light improves student achievement, are just one of the many features of the new school. Wydown Middle School, originally constructed in 1942, is currently undergoing a complete replacement of its facilities. Still in line with the completion date projected in 2010, the school will be finished by the end of 2013.

In addition to new windows, solar panels are to be installed on the roof of the new school to help cut electricity costs, and to help with the school’s environmental impact.

But besides the addition of the solar panels, one large project remains: the field.

The field will satisfy the need for an outdoor gym facility and a parking garage. The parking garage will be located underneath the field, an ambitious idea providing more space for parking, playing and learning. The field is to be finished sometime around January of 2014 according to Goldberg, although the field won’t be functional until the following school year in order for the “natural seeded sod” to take root and grow.

The new school was designed to be three things: practical, environmentally friendly and enticing.

The cafeteria, equipped with smaller square and circle tables, is easily rearranged for meetings, classes, and, of course, lunch.

“It’s just not a cafeteria all the time,” Goldberg said. “We wanted to have more flexibility.”

The computer “learning labs” in the hallways, plus the addi-

tion of exterior computerized window shades, also give Wydown a greater functionality than previously available.

The renovation of Wydown also gives the District a chance to save money and reduce their carbon footprint.

Thanks to a parent’s donation of solar panels, part of the energy Wydown runs on will be fueled by the sun. The tall windows will also allow teachers to rely on natural lighting for their classroom instead of electric lights. “We’re hoping that they will save money in the long run,” Goldberg said.

Unfortunately, the creation of the new school did not come without inconveniences. During the previous school year students had to walk around the outside of the school in order to reach the other half of the school which housed the arts program, which resulted in students like 8th grader Jack Hollocher being late to classes most days. In addition, the gym was torn down during the 2012 summer break so there were no proper gym facilities for the 2012-2013 school year.

However, the nearly finished school displays sleek technology and beautiful architecture. From the grand staircase leading into Main Street to the outdoor patio soon to be available for students during lunch, Wydown is more than just a school; it is an inspiration for all future middle schools.

In the end, Hollocher stated it perfectly. “I don’t miss anything about the old school,” he said.

With the three year, 39.4 million dollar project finally coming to an end, students and teachers are looking forward to starting their new chapter.

“The theme for this year is reconnecting,” Goldberg said.

“We are finding our new ‘normal’ here at Wydown. We’re just enjoying the fact that it’s here.” 

Photo: The new field under construction. (Zach Sorenson)

UPFRONT

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NEW

COAC

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A

fter accepting the leadership of the CHS Quiz Bowl team, Meg Flach had one thing to say, “Never play me in Trivial Pursuit. I will destroy you.”

At the end of each year, every club at CHS surrenders its most experienced participants to the process known as graduation.

Last graduation was no exception, and the Quiz Bowl “Grey Matter Hounds” in particular have a heavier burden this year: English teacher Adam Dunsker decided to retire from his position as Quiz Bowl coach.

Senior Carly Beard, who has been involved with Quiz Bowl since freshman year, played a large role in the reorganization of the club this year. Having had Dunsker as a coach for three years, Beard has mixed feelings about his decision to step down as coach.

“Finding out that Mr. Dunsker had retired from being Quiz Bowl coach was bittersweet,” Beard said. “On one hand, Mr. Dunsker was such a wonderful Quiz Bowl coach; from his never-ending wit to his mad question-reading skills to his “go-with-the-flow” attitude to his references to his college band, hanging out with Mr. Dunsker was a highlight of Quiz Bowl practices and tournaments. But, on the other hand, I understood that Mr. Dunsker was simply prioritizing his responsibilities and I only think more highly of him for doing so.”

The Quiz Bowl team, renowned for its speed, acted quickly to implement a coach selection process.

“NEVER PLAY ME in Trivial pursuit. I will destroy you” - Meg Flach quiz bowl coach

A Photo by Alessandra Silva

NEW FOR THE GREY MATTER HOUNDS MEG FLACH IS THE NEW QUIZ BOWL SPONSOR FOR THE 2013-2014 SCHOOL YEAR, REPLACING ENGLISH TEACHER ADAM DUNSKER

by JEFFREY CHENG

10

UPFRONT

“We employed the advice of veteran coach Mr. Dunsker and student activities director Mr. Nelke,” Beard said. “Working with Mr. Nelke, we tried to find a CHS teacher or staff member who would not only be willing to dedicate time to weekly practice and weekend tournaments, but who also had a genuine interest in knowledge and a great sense of humor.”

At the end of the process, Educational Technology Intern Meg Flach emerged as a clear choice for the new position.

Her past experience with knowledge-based competitions was one of many positive qualities she exhibited.

“Mr. Nelke approached me with the opportunity because since we’ve started playing three years ago, my team has consistently dominated the Junior Class Trivia Night here at CHS,” Flach said. “I think he wanted me to use my incredible trivia powers for good.”

Although Flach has never been a part of a Quiz Bowl team before, she has had experience as a reader at tournaments.

She is excited about coaching the team and particularly anticipates the team’s improvement over the coming year.

“I’m looking forward to watching students grow as competitors and teammates,” Flach said. “It’s not just about knowledge; it’s also about having a balanced team whose knowledge compliments each other. I’m excited to see those teams form and succeed.”

Flach is not the only one excited about the new year; the entire team looks forward to testing its academic capabilities.

“The team is hyped to begin a new chapter with Ms. Flach as our sponsor,” Beard said. “Whether an underclassman or an upperclassman, every student with quick recall and a competitive edge should come try out Quiz Bowl.” 

CENTENNIAL FLOWER

by Parker Schultz

T

his fall, Clayton is celebrating its centennial year. Part of the festivities includes a new sculpture that has been installed between the aquatic center and ice rink. The sculpture, “Molecular Bloom with Single Flower”, was created by renowned artist James Surls.

The sculpture is meant to represent the uniqueness of Clayton. According to an official release by the City of Clayton, “Molecular Bloom with Single Flower” says, “I am the single flower of all the ones on the planet. I am the one who is here and now and important.”

Surls says all of his art serves a greater message. During his visit to a CHS art class, Surls said, “Art is supposed to express your world to the world.”

Surls takes a hands-on approach to his art. To him, the physical aspect of creating art is very important.

“It’s all touched,” Surls said. “Every piece is touched, and felt, and rasped, and honed down. It’s personal, very personal.”

The process for selecting the sculpture was very involved. Several artists drafted ideas, and a committee comprised of the City of Clayton, its

NEW LIBRARY POLICY

by Steven Zou

Photo by Lauren Indovino

S

tepping into the library in the morning, trying to get some homework done, the first thing students hear is the loudness others chattering. Or at least, that is what they used to hear.

This year, librarian Lauren DeRigne has made some drastic changes to the library’s morning atmosphere.

Starting this school year, students are required to sign up at the circulation the day before if they want to use the library the next morning from 7:30 to 8am or email DeRigne before 10:30 pm at night for independent study only. Students will also be able to sign up to use the library in the morning for the entire week on the Friday before the week.

If students need to do some last minute printing or doing group study will have to wait until 8am before they can print.

DeRigne said that the change to the library’s policy is necessary because the atmosphere of the library has not been supporting an academic environment.

“It was more like the commons,” DeRigne said. “People were getting the idea that the library should be a place to lounge and socialize in the

Photo by Parker Schultz Parks and Recreation Department, the Clayton Board of Aldermen, the Clayton Century Foundation and Centene made the final selection.

“Molecular Bloom with Single Flower will be a welcoming gateway to the City of Clayton and to Shaw Park’s Brentwood Boulevard entrance,” Clayton Mayor Harold Sanger said in an official release. “We are very proud to have a major American artist of Surls’s stature creating a new landmark for our community and for everyone in the metropolitan area to enjoy.”

“Molecular Bloom with Singular Flower” was installed August 29, and a public dedication was held August 30. 

morning. If people really wanted to just hang out and talk, then the library should not be the place. The library should be the place for people who wanted to work.”Before the new rule was implemented, almost all the students in the library was talking with their friends rather than getting some work done.

“One morning I walked around and there was maybe eight kids working and everyone else was just talking and having a good time,” DeRigne said. “It was not fair to the people who actually wanted to come in here and get some work done in the morning.”

Not only are the students will have to follow the policy, but the faculty will also have to follow the same policy.

“I have had a few teachers ask if they can come in and print,” DeRigne said. “I told them they have that 15 minutes from 8 to 8:15 if they need to print.”

Now, as the policy is being taken in to effect, DeRigne comments on the quietness of the library.

“The 7:30 to 8am is so nice and quiet, and the kids who are here are the ones who really wanted to get some work done and have an academic atmosphere that fosters that,” DeRigne said.

DeRigne notes that the students are finding the new policy very helpful.

“I have heard a lot of students say that they really appreciate that time that they can come in here and not worry about disrespectful groups bothering them while they are working,” DeRigne said. “Even the kids who are once complaining are now signing up.”

Sophomore John Schultz was not so sure in the beginning of the year about the new policy, but he has seen the good of it.

“I wasn’t so keen on having the idea of my access to the library cut down on,” Schultz said. “But now I am liking it here because it is really quiet and there are not a lot of people here so I can get a lot of my work done.”

Junior Arjun Dharna, however, thinks that the new policy has made more work for him to be in the library the next day.

“I find it’s a bit tedious to email a teacher just to come to the library,” Dharna said. “It is not the first thing on my mind when I get home and have lots of homework to do.”

DeRigne hopes that this policy will be helpful for students and faculty alike, “I hope that it’s a positive thing and everybody uses it as a time to study and get work done on their own.” 

UPFRONT

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Delmar

DIVIDED Photo Editor Noah Engel investigates St. Louis’ greatest racial and economic division.

Story by Peter Schmidt.

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UPFRONT

St. Louis is a city divided. Rated the sixth most segregated city in America by a Business Insider examination, St. Louis is dramatically divided into areas of wealth and poverty and racial separation.

Despite the perpetual presence of the Clayton bubble, even this social issue hits our city of Clayton close to home; almost 7.2 miles west from Downtown St. Louis to Olivette, Delmar Boulevard represents this drastic socioeconomic border.

The contrast between the north and south sides is stark, both visually and statistically; million dollar mansions and crumbling brick houses are separated by a distance of two city blocks. The median household income north of Delmar is $18,000, compared to $50,000 on the Southern side. And, perhaps most significantly, Delmar represents a dramatic racial barrier. The southern side has a 73 percent white population while the northern side is 98 percent African American.

This racial division dates back nearly to the Civil War, when city officials created JeffVanderLou, a neighborhood north of Delmar, as a strictly African American residential area. Although laws have changed and the city has become more integrated, painful relics of this deliberate segregation remain.

Being a city on the Southern side of Delmar, Clayton is relatively protected from this social division. To many students, Delmar is primarily associated with the Loop, an eclectic 2.2 mile stretch of historic establishments like Fitz’ Rootbeer or Blueberry Hill.

But beyond the commercial glow of the Delmar Loop, a much more concerning landscape begins to unfold. Poverty and wealth, side by side but nevertheless separated.

Of course, that is not to suggest that the Delmar division is a matter of black and white: there are areas of cultural and beautiful value on both sides.

However, the socioeconomic contrast and cultural separation are far more defined than they should be.

In his photo essay, Globe Photo Editor Noah Engel set out to record this division. From the Washington University campus to an abandoned railway station, Engel conducts a visual comparison of this geographic dichotomy.

Engel’s result serves not to divide the two sides of Delmar. Rather, by showing the similarities as well as the differences, he hopes to depict a common facet of St. Louis suburban life--and perhaps present a reason to bring both sides closer together. 

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1) Shuttered windows at the Delmar Harvard School, 2) Ridgley Hall of Washington University, 3) Abandoned Delmar Railway Station, 4) Flynn Park School, 5) Sunshine Daycare Playground.

UPFRONT

12

the

legacy A first-hand

account of the

civil rights movement

and its role in america today

with donna rogers-beard Despite the searing heat of that July day, Soldier Field was crammed to capacity. An anxious crowd restlessly awaited the moment at which Martin Luther King, Jr. was to emerge on the field below to address the crowd of thousands above. Among the mass of people was a 21-year-old Donna RogersBeard.

“It was electrifying,” she recalled.

The year was 1966. This was also the year that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s protests began travelling northward, one of the stops being in Chicago, Illinois, the largest city in the midwest.

Rogers-Beard was only one in the herd of thousands of protestors lining the streets of Chicago that sizzling summer day.

She was participating in what would later be known as the March on Chicago (the Chicago Freedom Movement), one of the many protests that would enable the Civil Right Movement to gain both national attention and support.

But this was not Rogers-Beard’s first experience with the Civil Right Movement. Earlier in the 60s, Rogers-Beard joined protestors across the country in support of the student sit-ins protesting segregated lunch counters at Woolworth’s.

“During that time I was participating in demonstrations in support of the sit-ins … like the one at Woolworth’s, and I believe there was also one going on in Tennessee, at that time, and in Chicago. We were demonstrating outside, asking people to boycott Woolworth’s,” Rogers-Beard said. “And I was a senior in high school out there with my little picket sign ... We were protesting against Woolworth’s

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features

by max steinbaum

and any other counter that was segregated anywhere in the United States.”

About one month following the March on Chicago, on another summer day, nearly a quarter-million other people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. There they were addressed by Martin Luther King, Jr., who delivered the most iconic speech of the entire Civil Rights movement, and perhaps of the 20th century. Rogers-Beard lamented that she had missed the March on Washington, where Dr. King made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

In it, King spoke the words that would reverberate through history for the next 50 years and beyond. He declared, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

In the years since King’s speech, according to Rogers-Beard, King’s dream has not yet been recognized by the country as a whole. “[People think] it’s about, let’s be happy, and hold hands, and sing kum-ba-yah, and be friends, and as long as we say hello to each other, and smile, and play basketball, and sit in classes together, then we’re going to be fine. No,” she said defiantly. “There’s some harder realities that were born in the history of this country.”

Some of these harder realities, she believes, involve the stark contrast in wealth between white, hispanic and black Americans.

“It’s shocking,” she said. “The median net worth of households, all of the wealth that you have, what you can turn into cash tomorrow, for white America, in 2009, it was $113, 149,” she said.

For other groups, it was substantially lower, just over $6,000 for Hispanic Americans, and only about $5,500 for African-American families.

“Those are the issues we don’t talk about,” Rogers-Beard said. “[It’s] serious reality, and it’s an economic reality.”

Growing up in Chicago, Rogers-Beard doesn’t remember experiencing very much discrimination.

“I’ve been very, very fortunate, in this life,” she said. “One time, though, as a child, I was old enough to remember now the segregated train-cars, because I would go and visit my great-grandparents, in Tennessee. My mother would say we didn’t want to eat the food on that train … because it wasn’t good. So she would pack a very, very nice lunch instead.”

As a result of the Civil Rights movement, however, the quality of the food available to any individual on a train is no longer dependent upon the individual’s race. Unfortunately, the color of one’s skin still affects many aspects of individuals’ lives.

Although many of the forms of public segregation changed years ago, the accessibility of polling places to African-Americans might soon deteriorate due to a recent decision made by the Supreme Court of the United States.

This decision repealed certain aspects of the Voting Rights Act, the reasoning of the Supreme Court being that these parts were both outdated and therefore irrelevant. This may allow certain states to pass “voter-ID” laws, (requiring that people show some form of identification in order to reach the polls), in turn possibly making it more difficult for some African-Americans to reach them.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Rogers-Beard said. “I don’t understand why [the Supreme Court] would, in any way, open up the chances of people being discriminated against in their right to vote.”

Rogers-Beard believes that Martin Luther King, Jr. would react negatively to the Court’s decision. “I think [he] would condemn it. He would absolutely condemn it. This is something that was fought very, very hard for, and it’s turning back the clock. It makes no sense.”

For many still fighting for equality, they believe Martin Luther

Left: Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the March on Chicago (National Archives/ MCT). Right: Donna RogersBeard during the Civil Rights Movement. Photos from Donna Rogers-Beard.

King’s dream has not been accomplished by the country as a whole, and that the fight for civil rights is still an ongoing process. Rogers-Beard agrees.

“I think too often,” she said, “it’s deeply ingrained in our culture to define black folks by the worst and white people by the best, which is the definition of racism. And I think that’s still going on. We see it in hiring practices, we see it in police profiling and we see it in a whole lot of other stuff.”

In Clayton, however, she feels differently.

“Clayton immediately … desegregated its schools following the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, and ... I think we’ve absolutely been in the forefront with things like that. Clayton has a legacy to be proud of.”

The struggle for the social elevation of African-Americans is a battle that has been fought for hundreds of years. It’s a battle that is, unfortunately, ongoing. The dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. may not have been completely realized, but its achievement, like all social progression, will take time. “But we’re getting better,” Rogers-Beard said.

“We’re certainly much better than we used to be.” 

Features

15

THE TWIN LIFE

by Becca Polinksy

The Henke Twins

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Features

Photos of the Ryffel Brothers by Becca Polinsky.

Photos of the Henke Twins

by Alexis Schwartz.

The Ryffel Brothers

T

he fourth grade “Popularity Contest” finalist of Meramec Elementary School, Peter Ryffel, glanced into the cheering crowd with a smile. As he accepted his award, from the corner of his eye, he could see the solemn and forced applause from his twin brother.

Immediately after the ceremony, he approached his brother. He took his brother’s hand, assured him that he was just as well-liked and popular, and gave him a warm hug. This wouldn’t be the last time CHS juniors Peter and David Ryffel would overcome a challenge together and ultimately lift each other up.

The brothers, who have grown physically and emotionally side by side, participate in several of the same activities including soccer, tennis, band and excelling in incredibly tough courses.

“I think that the most difficult thing about being a twin is that we compare ourselves to each other,” Peter Ryffel said. “We don’t recognize that we have different strengths, and I frequently find myself frustrated when I work harder than David and he gets the same results as me.”

However, although their priorities and hobbies overlap, they also share different levels of commitment and interest in the things they do.

“This year I am co-president of politics club, while David only comes every once in awhile,” Peter Ryffel said.

The social aspect of having a twin of the same gender can also be challenging. Often times, people perceive twins as “one” or the same person. It is common to blend twins and assume that they will make similar decisions and act in the same way.

“I think that one of the main disadvantages of being a twin is that people always confuse us,” David Ryffel said. “When people don’t know who we are, I feel like we aren’t individuals. I get the idea that people think of us as ‘the twins,’ not as David and Peter.” The Ryffel brothers share a lot of the same

friends, while Peter is closer with some and David is closer with others.

An interesting comparison to the Ryffel brothers is Gwyne and Marina Henke, also juniors at Clayton High School. Gwyne and Marina are also successful musically, athletically and academically.

“As we develop our own interests I realize how ridiculous it is to constantly look at both of us as the same people,” Marina Henke said. “That’s a crucial part of being a twin. You have a person that is a mirror of you in many ways, but you have to be able to not see each other as duplicates.”

Aside from competitive energy, twins can find themselves dependent on the support of one another.

“I rely on Marina for a lot of things, especially when it comes to social events or experiences,” Gwyne Henke said. “One of the hardest things about being a twin is fighting to remind others and yourself that you are an independent individual.”

Without a doubt, the Henke sisters call each other best friends. Identical twins such as David and Peter utilize each other as backboards for academic and emotional support.

“I think that being a twin allows both David and myself to help each other when one of us has difficulty with a task,” Peter Ryffel said. “Being a twin is like having a friend that lives with you all the time.”

The Ryffel twins and the Henke twins have numerous differences, but overall, their unconditional support is always present in whatever task they choose to take on.

“Marina understands and believes in me completely, sometimes more than I do in myself,” Gwyne Henke said. “Having a twin means having a best friend with whom you never have to be anyone but yourself.” 

One of the hardest things about being a twin is fighting to remind others and yourself that you are an independent individual.

-Gwyne Henke

Features

17

MILITARY FAMILY

by Camille Respess & Kevin Rosenthal

Across the world, 900,000 children wake up each morning with at least one parent deployed in the military, according to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Jack Snodgrass, freshman at Clayton High School, has been among those adolescents.

Jack’s father, Staff Sergeant Scott Snodgrass, works on aircrafts and computer systems for the Army National Guard.

Scott went into the army for the second time when his son was in third grade.

“I remember that I was really proud,” Jack Snodgrass said. “I was excited that my dad would be part of something like that.”

Along with the excitement, however, came worry. In 2009, Scott Snodgrass was deployed to Kuwait for one year. This was very hard on the Snodgrass family, as well as the other hundreds of thousands of families across the United States who have an immediate family member actively deployed.

The U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center’s research states that 48 percent of spouses say they do not cope well with their loved one’s deployment.

“My stepmom would be all alone when he [Jack’s father] went to Kuwait,” Snodgrass said. “That was really troubling for her because she missed him a lot.”

The Snodgrass family also found it to be hard at times when Jack’s father was away.

“It was really saddening because we’d miss him alot,” Snod-

18

Features

grass said. “Other days we tried to forget. But when, especially when we needed him a lot it’d be sad to think that he wouldn’t be there. We would hope he’d make it back safe.”

Like any family member, Snodgrass was naturally concerned when his father was halfway across the globe in Kuwait.

“What if he would’ve died or something?” Snodgrass said.

“That would have majorly affected me.”

As stated by the NCTSN, over the last decade, more than 10,000 children have lost an immediate family member involved in the military. Although Snodgrass’s father survived Kuwait, he had a close encounter with dangerous situations.

“My dad told me a story that he was under fire by some people who lived there [Kuwait],’’ Snodgrass said. ‘’No one got hurt or anything, except for the people that were firing. When he told me that story, my heart stopped.”

After a year of deployment, Scott Snodgrass returned from Kuwait, and has since stayed in the US. Edan Critchfield, a psychologist for the U.S. Army, has a unique perspective because his profession involves understanding how humans react in their environments. When he was deployed, he was placed in a challenging environment and assisted the soldiers who struggled with being away from home, among many other things.

Critchfield discussed what it was like for him to return

“The toughest part was thinking that if he’d go to the Middle East again, the thought of him not coming home ... it would just devastate me.”

-Jack Snodgrass CHS Freshman to his wife after being stationed their parent(s) deployed and away in Baghdad, Iraq. “It’s definitely from home. an adjustment process when you As stated by the Comfort Crew, haven’t seen each other for a year, an organization that helps children so it takes a little while to get to cope with their parent(s) or loved know each other again,” Critchone’s absence, depression is seen field said. “She also took over a in about one in four children with lot of the roles as far as paying the loved ones in the armed forces. bills and taking care of all the famAccording to the Naval Health ily matters. So it took awhile for Research Center, 52 percent of milius to get our routine back.” tary recruits have at least one parThe Sloan Work and Fament who serves or has served in the ily Research Network’s investigaUnited States Military. tions show that 56.6 percent of Jack is hoping to follow in his active military members have a dad’s footsteps. Jack says he is spouse. For Critchfield, the deciplanning to become a naval pilot sion to leave his everyday life to through Reserve Officers’ Trainprotect the country was difficult. ing Corps (ROTC). Similarly, Jack’s “It was tough to leave my wife older brother is in the ROTC at Ole here in Texas and everything Miss. else that we had going here. She Through the eyes of a soldier, was left here to fend for herself,’’ although leaving home was saddenCritchfield said. ing, it was well worth it in the long In between deployments in run to Critchfield. “As far as makIraq, Critchfield was also staing sure that other people in the tioned in Houston, Texas and Fort world are safe, it’s a small price to Drum, New York. His wife, who pay for bigger and more important Critchfield had married two years things,” he said. before becoming an active memThrough the eyes of an adolesber of the military, would have to cent, having a family member in relocate with her husband whenthe military has been very difficult.

Photo by Olivia Macdougal ever he would move.

“The toughest part was thinking The Population Reference Bureau stated that military families move that if he’d go to the Middle East again, the thought of him not coming 2.4 more times on average than families not involved in the military. home ... it would just devastate me,” Jack Snodgrass said. But despite Although Jack said that he has not been affected negatively with his worries, Jack ultimately feels very proud of his dad. “I believe the his father being in the army, many children do struggle with having best part is having the ability to say that my dad is in the military.” 

Left photo: Jack Snodgrass and his father, Staff Sergeant Scott Snodgrass (Photo from Jack Snodgrass).

Features

19

sustainable

thinking

From top: the garden at MaplewoodRichmond Heights High School, pineapples growing in the basement of MaplewoodRichmond Heights (Marina Henke), plants growing in the CHS greenhouse, and solar panels on the roof of CHS (Erin Castellano).

20

FEATUREs

by

marina

henke

An indoor bee structure hangs off the wall of a busy hallway. Just a few floors below bluegill fish swim in a deep indigo tank, surrounded by a gravel bedded garden complete with budding pineapple.

This is not a university lab or environmental studies building; this is the Maplewood Richmond Heights School District.

Emerging as one of the most innovative districts in St. Louis, Maplewood Richmond Heights has made remarkable steps with integrating green education into their schools.

Pioneered by Linda Henke, former assistant superintendent of CHS, the District’s sustainable initiatives include not only environmentally friendly buildings, but also a unique set of sustainable education programs.

These programs are creating a lasting affect on the student body at Maplewood Richmond Heights.

Beth Rowland, the Director of Buildings and Grounds for the District said, “I feel there is a much higher awareness of our surroundings and an eagerness to be more responsible as we continue to grow.”

Across the street from the back entrance of the combined middle school and high school are two student-maintained gardens. Throughout the year, groups of students harvest produce for the school cafeteria and even package seeds to sell at local farmers’ markets.

Both the elementary school and early child-care center have chicken coops, which draw families from around the community to assist with their upkeep.

In the last few years, it seems as though sustainable building has transitioned from being sporadically used to being a common feature of many high schools. The Clayton School District has embodied this kind of green thinking during various construction projects in the past few years.

The most recent green additions to CHS are solar panels, which will be installed by fall of 2013.

Every building in the District will have solar panels, which will serve as a teaching tool as well as an energy source. Microgrid, the solar energy company Clayton is using, will install an interactive solar kiosk with each panel where students can access information on the production of the energy.

“I think the panels will be a great component that we can tie directly into our science curricu-

lum ... Once the panels are put into place, I’m excited to see what the potential might be,” Dr. Gutchewsky said.

The new panels represent the head of Clayton’s new energy movement.

“Solar panels are just one of the things we are doing green,” said Tim Wonish, the director of Facilities Services in the Clayton School District.

The 2012 addition to CHS has received LEED Silver certification, which included criteria of lighting systems, air conditioning, building waste, and recycling.

Further initiatives in sustainable education are coming from the 2012 greenhouse. The new plant science course, offered in the spring, hopes to partner with Monsanto and the Danforth Plant Science center.

Even through small actions, CHS has found success in the students involvement in sustainability, “If you look at some of the recycling containers at our school buildings they are filled with cardboard and plastics; it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Wonish said.

In 2009, Crossroads College Preparatory School, a middle school and high school located off of Delmar, became the first LEED certified school building in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Natural light floods science classrooms, and one step outside places students in a large rain garden, dense with native Missouri plants.

Microgrid has seen a drastic increase in the number of high schools become interested in solar energy. Other schools to recently receive solar panels include SLUH, the Rockwood School District, and Maplewood Richmond Heights.

Students are eager to embrace alternative sources of energy.

Marisa Lather, the Marketing Director for Microgrid, said, “Now more than ever, students are showing incredible interest in clean energy. When you combine hands-on education with bright, eager minds, it is a winning situation.”

Embracing sustainable building and teaching is no cookie cutter formula. Although additions such as solar panels will save schools money in the long term, investing in such technology is not necessarily cheap.

Whether students are allowed to learn under solar powered lights or simply learn about lessening their carbon footprint, sustainable thinking in high school is definitely moving in the right direction. 

INfluenced

Story by Aishwarya Yadama with Jessica Jancose and Peter Baugh. Photos by Olivia MacDougal and Parker Schultz.

sS

Saturday night: the party is at a house off Wydown Blvd.

The music is blasting. The stale-grain smell of beer hangs in the air. A Clayton freshman enters the scene, and her friends are there.

Seniors are pouring drinks; everyone is drinking.

As early as middle school, students make a choice: to drink or not to drink. A CHS survey, conducted through health classes, shows that in the spring of 2012, 47.4 percent of Clayton students had tried alcohol, a number greater than the Missouri average of 38.2 percent but well below the national average of 70.8 percent. By the time students enter high school, terrifying health class videos about the consequences of underage drinking lose their effect, and students move from juice boxes to red Solo cups.

The Student Perspective Many students were willing to open up about the prevalence of alcohol at Clayton High School, as long as their names were changed to protect their privacy. Altered names will be designated with an asterisk.

CHS sophomore Bill* had his first introduction to alcohol in 7th grade.

“The first time I drank alcohol was in a tree house,” he said. “I think it was kind of like an ‘in-the-moment’ thing. We had never really thought about it or talked about it before. I was with four or five other people and someone just brought out some cups and asked if we wanted vodka.”

Bill’s middle school drinking experience, though not unheard of, is uncommon for most students. CHS students who drink usually try their first beverage some time in high school. But 15-year-old kids can’t just walk into a store and buy liquor. In fact, lots of young drinkers do not go looking to get drunk. They are offered an opportunity, and—not knowing any better—they take it.

“I think maybe [we started drinking so early] because kids’ [in our grade] older siblings threw big parties and offered to get us alcohol,” Bill said.

It is quite common for upperclassmen to introduce younger students to alcohol. In many cases, upperclassmen are happy to supply incoming freshman with their first drink.

Kate*, a senior student, first tried alcohol with upperclassmen before her first CHS football game.

“We all went over to a senior’s house, and they over-

charged us for the alcohol that we drank before the game,” she said.

However, Kate says that she never felt the pressure of being forced to drink.

“I had heard of people having fun doing it, and I heard it was a big social thing,” Kate said. “I’ve never felt pressured to drink. It was my choice to start.”

Though this might be true in some cases, Mary*, a junior who began drinking when she entered her sophomore year, believes there is definitely social pressure to get drunk on the weekends.

“Nobody has fun at parties at Clayton when you’re not drinking,” she said. “It is hard to communicate with people that you’re not close friends with if you don’t have that extra boost to relax you. We all wanted to have fun.”

Bill also believes that there is an element of peer pressure when it comes to drinking at parties.

“You think, ‘everyone is doing it, so why don’t I?’ It’s not right upfront people pressuring you to do it,” Bill said.

“I think for the people who do choose to drink it’s like ‘I wanna look cool, I wanna fit in.’ But it’s not like people are actually pressuring each other.”

Choosing to drink is the first decision. After that, all other choices are made under the influence. Mary found that while she was drunk, her judgment was impaired, causing her to do something that she regretted.

“I got into a situation where I ended up hooking up with someone who I had no idea who they were or how I got there,” Mary said. “I felt pressured to go further than I would have if I had been sober. I also felt like physically unsafe in that situation. And I know that if I had been sober or even just less drunk, I would have been fine.”

Mary did not know how she got herself into that situation. But she is not the only one who has succumbed to the influences of alcohol. Mary has witnessed others make the same mistake that she regrets now.

“I know a lot of girls, in particular, that have been in that situation. And I know plenty of guys that have hooked up with people and have regretted it,” she said.

“But there’s a difference between feeling regret and feeling violated.”

Mary noted that, more often than not, students who do things they regret while under the influence make excuses by saying, “Well, I wouldn’t have done it if I was sober.”

Kate too has experienced a momentary lapse in judgment. Usually, Kate is intolerant of drinking and driving, but with the manipulation of alcohol in her system, she starts to question those beliefs.

“I’ll be in the situation where I’ll be slightly drunk,” she said, “and I tell myself that I am able to drive. I don’t drive drunk, but it’s very easy to convince yourself that it’s okay when you’re slightly tipsy.”

All three students made it clear that drinking and driving is not common practice at CHS. “All of my friends are pretty clear on not drinking if

cover story

“Choosing to drink is the first decision. After that, all other choices are made under the influence.�

you are going to drive,” Mary said. “I don’t have a lot of friends that don’t adhere to that.”

However, in the same 2012 health survey, an alarming 13 percent of CHS students reported riding with a drunk driver in the last 30 days.

The Other Side While the drinking culture at Clayton is prevalent, it often overshadows the silent majority of non-drinkers. Many students have good reasons for avoiding the drinking aspect of the social scene.

Senior Auggie Mense has been to plenty of parties and has never felt the need to drink.

“I’ve never personally experienced alcohol. I’ve never had a sip or anything,” Mense said. “Normally, my role when I go to a party is designated driving.”

Mense believes that there is a prevalence of a social drinking culture at CHS. He, however, does not participate in this culture. Over the years, he has come to accept the fact that his friends drink, and has found a secure place in the CHS social scene without drinking.

Mense has two conditions for when his friends

of ways that we can stop it, but there’s no way we can,” Oyster said. “I try to set a good example. So, for the freshmen … that they know that they don’t have to drink to have fun.”

The social scene changes dramatically upon entering the high school. Drugs, such as alcohol, change people physically and emotionally and can take a toll on relationships.

Ann*, a junior who does not drink, has been personally affected by her friends’ use of alcohol.

“In middle school, when none of this stuff was here, our friendship was solely based on just having fun together . . . but now it’s all about who does the weirdest thing whenever they’re drunk,” she said. “It’s hard for me to keep close friendships with them because I have such a different perception of fun. I don’t think that interfering with my judgment is going to make me have fun, and I think that’s where my opinion and my friends’ opinions differ.”

The Administrative Perspective Students may be unaware that CHS teachers and ad-

“I felt pressured to go further than I would have if I had been sober.” drink: “That it doesn’t endanger their lives … and that they don’t try to make me do it,” he said.

Junior Reeves Oyster is another student who has chosen not to drink, but knows plenty of people who do. She cannot relate to her classmates’ reasoning for getting drunk, especially those who are athletes.

“I don’t understand why people who have the opportunity to go to a D-I, D-II, even D-III schools, and have the opportunity to play their favorite sports in college, would even consider doing that stuff,” Oyster said.

Mense has noticed that ironically, some of the people who drink are actually some of Clayton’s most competitive students, both in sports and school.

“A lot of the people who drink are high achievers,” Mense said. “They’re in the top classes, they are our best athletes.”

Mary, being a student drinker and high achieving student, says her group of friends feels that it is okay to drink because they are also academically oriented and successful.

“I think that because it [Clayton] is so academic and we are such a great school, I think there is a certain aspect of ‘we work hard and we play hard,’” she said.

Still, Oyster and Mense have managed to escape the pressure of social drinking.

“I’ve struggled with this concept [of] trying to think

ministrators know what happens off school property.

“We know that it [drinking] happens at night, we know that it happens on the weekends,” CHS Principal Dr. Dan Gutchewsky said. “The drinking issue is more than a high school issue; it’s a community issue; it’s a national issue.”

Gutchewsky feels that he has a responsibility to help curb underage drinking. Though he can regulate student drinking on school property, what students do outside of school is harder to manage.

“We can’t suspend students for what they do on the weekends,” Gutchewsky said, “but athletics are treated differently under the law.”

The school can suspend students from athletic teams and extracurricular activities regulated by MSHSAA rules. If a student gets caught drinking on the weekend, they can be subjected to suspension from a sports team.

However, there are laws that pose a challenge to this rule.

“If the person is an adult in the eyes of the law, then the police [the Clayton Police Department] can share more information with us,” Gutchewsky said. “If they are juveniles, then there are different rules. For example, if a party gets busted and there are seniors and freshmen there, they can give us the names of the seniors, but legally, they can’t give us the names of the

freshmen.”

Health teacher Heath Kent tries to teach his students the long-term effects of drinking that many Clayton students ignore.

“I think one thing kids really don’t realize is, especially when it comes to your body and things like that, the decisions you make now are going to affect you down the road,” Kent said. “You may not pay for it this weekend, but in six, seven, eight, ten years you may suffer some consequences because of it.”

Much of the student-administration conflict on this issue has to do with the short-term effects of drinking alcohol. Some students do not see the harm in drinking on the weekends, so long as they maintain the high academic standard that CHS demands. Certain students, like Mary, feel that health class exaggerates the dangers of drinking. “[I] think that a criticism that a lot of kids have of Clayton is that we emphasize not drinking but we don’t emphasize safe drinking,” Mary said. “So kids get this impression that if you go to a party and drink at all you’re instantly going to die of alcohol poisoning.”

Kent and Gutchewsky, however, have reasons behind Clayton High School’s emphasis on drinking as a harmful behavior.

“I think that first and foremost, it’s illegal,” Gutchewsky said. “It puts the school in a tough spot if we start advocating for underage drinking. We have a moral, ethical and legal obligation to teach about the dangers of drinking.”

Psychology teacher David Aiello is well-versed in the effects of underage drinking. He understands the issue of drinking not just from a teacher perspective, but also from a social, medical and personal perspective; he is a Clayton parent.

“When it comes to television, when it comes to movies, when it comes to music videos, the idea is that using alcohol is part of fun,” Aiello said.

“From my understanding, Clayton High School has a well-earned and long-standing reputation as being a place where students work really, really hard and then they party really, really hard.”

As a parent, Aiello has to decide what message to send to his daughters, because some parents in Clayton are tolerant of underage drinking. In the face of this decision, Aiello stayed true to what he believes about the negative effects of alcohol.

“I want to send the same message over and over and over to my own children and to other kids: Drinking alcohol as a 14-year-old, as a 16-year-old, as an 18-yearold is illegal, unnecessary and dangerous to your health and to your developing brain.”

Kent, also a parent, has a similar outlook on underage drinking.

“I would have a hard time as a parent being okay with providing alcohol to other people, to other people’s kids, or even to be in a situation where they’re doing that in my house,” Kent said.

Ultimately, Gutchewsky believes that the CHS staff, the parents and the Clayton Police Department are all working towards a common goal.

“I think everyone has the same end goal that they want their kids to be safe, they want everybody else’s kids to be safe, and they don’t want someone to die of alcohol poisoning,” Gutchewsky said. “We have a common mindset in that regard. That’s where we need to start and work backwards.”

adolescents include “physical danger from being drunk, crashing cars, rape, coma/death from overdose of EtOH (alcohol), chronic liver damage, bleeding disorders and lost productivity.”

And these are just a few of listed side-effects.

With regard to teenage alcoholism, Diamond believes that younger kids are more susceptible to alcoholism. However, there are some specific, early indicator signs.

“Those who are ‘energized’ or euphoric from drinking are thought to be at higher risk for becoming alcoholics,” Diamond said, “Whereas those who tend to fall asleep are at lower risk.”

Either way, Diamond says, “The disease can strike people of all ages.”

The Medical Perspective Kent and Aiello understand the effects of alcohol also from a medical perspective. They teach the effects of regular alcohol abuse on the teenage body.

Kent is especially concerned when drinking once every weekend with friends turns into drinking alone on weeknights—a likely outcome for kids who start drinking early.

“It’s going to take a teenager one to two years to become an alcoholic, where an adult who starts drinking

The Conclusion From the numbers and personal testimonies, it’s clear that drinking has become an entrenched aspect of CHS culture. Students progressing through the high school will likely encounter drinking, whether they partake in it, or feel the secondhand effects through their friends and relationships.

Drinking means something different to each person.

To some students, it’s a stress release; an escape from rigorous academic pressures. To other students, drink-

“I think there is a certain aspect of ‘we work hard and we play hard’” is going to take five to ten years,” Kent said. “So, you’re much more at risk of developing a drinking problem earlier in your life, suffering those consequences.”

Aiello attributes the dangerous decisions made while drinking to the physiological nature of being an adolescent. He believes that with the amount of responsibility students are given, they are bound to make rash decisions.

“We put kids in a situation where they’re just physiologically not capable of making the smartest decisions,” Aiello said, “and then we act surprised when they don’t make the smartest decisions.”

Marc Diamond, Professor of Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis said that mild to moderate drinking usually has a minimal effect on the developed brain, but teenage brains are still developing. Although it is hard to determine what could happen in the long term, there is a plethora of short-term effects.

According to Diamond, some of the dangers for

ing is an unfortunate and unavoidable part of high school. Some parents fear underage drinking, and others allow it to happen. Regardless of how people view drinking, the Saturday night parties off of Wydown Blvd. don’t give any hint of stopping soon.

It would be a misnomer to call underage drinking “normal.” Teen drinking is illegal, and many students go through the District without ever touching a drop.

Drinking is, however, part of the real world, and for better or worse, that reality has worked its way down into the high school. Students at a young age are forced to make adult decisions, the consequences of which will be felt throughout the rest of their lives.

Would it help if those choices could be made later?

Yes, but sooner or later, students will find themselves in demanding situations. At every party, each person has the option to choose their own influence. The best CHS students can do is to make their own decisions, hopefully with some thought towards the future. 

Junior Gwyne Henke with the ball against Eureka High School. (Rebecca Stiffelman)

Field Hockey

2012 Record: 8-14 Players to watch: Grace Harrison, Maddie Mills, Zoe Marquis-Kelly Goals: To readjust after the departure of many seniors and to beat John Burroughs.

Football

2012 Record: 9-4 Players to watch: Mike Gant, Cailer Keaton, Tyler Melvin Goals: To overcome the loss of many graduates and advance farther into the state tournament.

(Alessandra Silva)

Boys’ Swimming

2012 Record: 14-4 Players to watch: Tiger Chen, Doren Lan, Auggie Mense Goals: To have multiple state qualifiers and win meets against high-caliber teams.

by peter baugh

Fall Sports Preview

Senior Auggie Mense swims butterfly. (Jolena Pang)

Girls’ Golf

2012 Record: 3-3 Players to watch: Molly Droege, Leslie Davis, Claire Waldman Goals: To improve their short game and game strategy skills, leading to a winning season.

Softball

2012 Record: 10-7 Players to watch: Raime Cohen, Izzy Greenblatt, Stephanie Langendoerfer Goals: To see young players develop and to have another winning season.

Girls’ Tennis

n)

2012 Record: 11-3 Players to watch: Connor Cassity, Cameron Freeman, Alyssa Fritz Goals: To beat Visitation Academy and get to the state tournament as a team.

Boys’ Soccer

2012 Record: 17-6 Players to watch: Zach Bayly, Danny Rothermich, Adam Rangwala Goals: To avenge last year’s loss in the district championship game and to compete for a state title.

Girls’ Cross Country

2012 Record: Two first place finishes, 11th at state Players to watch: Gabby Boeger, Lauren Indivino, Lily Niswonger Goals: To win a second straight district title and to place higher at the state competition.

Junior Zach Bayly steals the ball from Vianney at a home game (Beatrice Engel).

Volleyball

2012 Record: 13-14 Players to watch: Ryan Fletcher, Lindsey Peck, Hannah Stipanovich Goals: To have their basics down and perform at a higher, more competitive level.

Boys’ Cross Country 2012 Record: Three first place finishes, fifth at state Players to watch: Andy Hodapp, Parker Schultz, Ben Tamsky Goals: To see the young core of runners improve and to place at the state competition. 

SPORTS

g)

29

AT H L

PROF

ETE

ILE

Mike Gant celebrates after a Clayton win. (Alessandra Silva)

THE BIG MAN UP FRONT Junior Michael Gant Jr. leads the team on and off the field with his motivational and physical talents.

by Peter Baugh The whole weight room stopped to watch junior Mike Gant as he prepared to squat. It was max out day, where everyone on the football team tried to squat as many pounds as they could.

As the amount Gant lifted went higher and higher, more heads turned.

He ended up squatting 505 pounds, an almost unheard of amount for a high school junior.

“I don’t think I have ever seen a junior do that,” head coach Scott Weissman said. “I’ve seen seniors and some college people do it, but I’ve never seen a junior.”

As a starting offensive guard and defensive tackle, strength is one of Gant’s biggest assets.

“My strengths on the field, for my position, is I’m quick off the line, I have good hands and I am strong, so that helps me out a lot,” he said.

Gant has excelled on both sides of the ball, earning Second Team AllConference defensive, First Team All-Conference offensive and All-Dis-

30

SPORTS

trict offensive honors. Over the summer, he went to a National Underclassmen Combine where he was ranked the third best defensive lineman at the camp.

He also serves as a leader both on and off the field.

“Big Mike is always full of personality,” Max Villaire, Gant’s teammate, said. “He’s always there encouraging and just pushing everyone to be the best they can be.”

Weissman feels that Gant also leads by example.

“Michael leads by example; he’s trying to be a little more vocal but he’s more of a leader by what he does,” he said.

Gant was called up to play on the varsity team his freshman year after a few injuries, and was a starter his sophomore year, helping the team to a District Championship.

After his high school career, he is determined to play college football. Though there have been no serious offers or communications from schools, he has gotten some interest from a number of universities, including Missouri, Tulsa, Illinois and Minnesota.

Playing on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball can be grueling, and Gant feels that mental preparation is essential for his success.

“If I’m in a game and I’m tired, I can’t tell myself that I’m tired,” Gant said. “I have to beat the guy across from me every time and make sure that I am well prepared, more than he is.”

Through hard work and dedication, Gant has great potential at Clayton and beyond. Weissman is excited for Gant’s future.

“Obviously he is still learning, but the thing is getting and having the opportunity to play against some of the people that we play, I think he’s going to open some eyes,” Weissman said. “And along those lines, once they see him play and they get to know Mike, there is no limit for what he is going to be able to accomplish.” 

NEW TRAINER IN TOWN

A

by Grace Harrison

s the fall sports season commenced, the absence of previous athletic trainer John Young surprised many Clayton High School athletes. Instead, in what used to be John’s desk, sat a woman, Ashley Mettlach.

The youngest of four, Mettlach was born and raised in south St. Louis. She attended Truman State University and received her Bachelors in exercise science and athletic training. After college, Mettlach went to work with athletes from Missouri Baptist University and received her Masters in sports management there.

Mettlach grew up playing sports her whole life, mainly volleyball and soccer. However, her athletic career was threatened when she found out she had a sports-induced heart condition.

“Basically, the valves at the top of my heart are too big, and whenever I’m doing exercise activities, those vessels and venules at the top of my heart don’t close,” she said. “This allows all of the blood to pool at my extremities instead of allowing enough blood and oxygen to get to my brain, causing me to pass out very easily.”

This incident forced her to quit playing soccer.

Luckily, after being diagnosed, Mettlach learned to recognize the signs and symptoms of her condition so that she was able to stop herself before she passed out.

Mettlach’s condition helped her become more aware and knowledgeable of her body, which turned out to be one of the reasons she wanted to pursue the career of being an athletic trainer.

However, there were other motives as well.

“My family is a medically inclined family,” Mettlach said.

“We’re really interested in it. I love sports and I love helping people, so it kind of went hand in hand that I would do this.”

The most common injuries that Mettlach sees in athletes are sprained ankles and concussions.

“There’s not really a way that you can prevent any injury besides being strong and being healthy,” Mettlach said.

Although Mettlach does not mind helping out athletes, she does not want to see anyone seriously hurt. As far as concussions are concerned, Mettlach advises to always be aware and conscious of the signs and symptoms of concussions so that help can be given as soon as possible.

While Mettlach has plenty of athletes to care for at CHS, she has a different crowd to care for back home.

Mettlach has a 20-month-old son named Sheldon who is, “healthy, happy, and a ball full of energy.” And come this October, her husband

to be, Colby Johnson, will join the family.

So far, Mettlach has enjoyed working at Clayton. “It’s been crazy,” she said. “There’s lots and lots of kids here that need attention, but that’s okay. I enjoy what I do.” 

“There’S lots and lots of kids here that need attention, but that’s okay. I enjoy what i do.”

Trainer Ashley Mettlach assesses a CHS student’s knee injury after school. (Marilyn Gund) Sports

31

(Photos from Globe Archives)

Raising the bar Could The 2013-2014 School year be the best year In clayton athletics history?

by Peter Baugh and Gabby Boeger

Newcomers

Senior Hannah Stipanovich was flooded with memories as she returned to the CHS locker room. Stipanovich, who attended Westminster Christian Academy until this year, was instantly reminded of her heartbreaking loss to MICDS in last year’s basketball District Championship game, which was played at Clayton.

Stipanovich, who transferred to CHS before her senior year, plays volleyball and basketball. She will probably play soccer. She is determined to help Clayton win against strong athletic schools.

“This year, being on Clayton, there is nothing more that I want to do than beat MICDS and Westminster,” she said.

Along with Stipanovich and other transfers, the freshman class features a number of athletes who will contribute at the varsity level.

Freshman Tiger Chen, a state swimming hopeful, decided to swim with Clayton rather than John Burroughs School or CSP, his club team.

“I wanted to represent Clayton because it’s where I live, it’s where all my friends still are,” Chen said. “So that’s how I decided to come to Clayton and I wanted to swim here because I wanted to give it a chance.”

Chen, who is already one of the strongest swimmers on the team, has put both himself and relay teams within reach of a state cut.

Along with boys’ swimming, the girls’ basketball program also features a strong class of freshmen. Coach Heath Kent is excited about the talent that the newcomers will bring to the team.

“We’re excited with the incoming freshmen, we’ve known for a couple of years that it’s a very good group and, more importantly, a very deep group,” he said.

Kent has not announced which players will get varsity minutes, but he does feel that there could be anywhere from one to five freshmen playing with the varsity team in the 2013-2014 season.

With both a strong freshman class and a variety of transfers, Clayton will see new faces making large contributions at the varsity level in the upcoming season.

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Team Leaders

Junior Connor Cassity, who took second at state in doubles last season, is looking to make it to state again this year, not only individually, but also as a girls’ tennis team.

Before state, the team’s biggest challenge will be facing Villa Duchesne in districts. If Clayton wins districts, Cassity likes the team’s chances of placing at state.

“I think that, overall, we have a really deep team,” Cassity said. “All of the spots are very strong and our team is really focused on making it to state because we have a really good chance.”

In the spring, boys’ tennis also has a very positive outlook. Senior Mac Rechan is the defending state individual champion and his fellow senior, Joey Dulle, took second.

Clayton has never had a state champion tennis team, and, as a captain, Rechan is encouraging his teammates to work hard over the winter.

“I’m hoping that our guys will be working hard in the offseason and we can compete for districts,” he said.

Like girls’ tennis, the boys’ team will have a very good chance of placing at state if they win districts.

Senior cross country captain Lauren Indovino is excited about her team’s prospects for this year and feels her teammates have a bright future beyond 2013.

“I think this season is definitely going to be more successful than the past seasons I’ve been on the team. Each year the program has been getting more serious and has been growing,” Indovino said. “Due to our big team this year and having a lot of new freshmen and sophomores, I think the team has a lot of potential for the future years.”

Past/Potential

Cross country coach Kurtis Werner is coming off of one of his most successful seasons ever. In 2012, Werner’s boys’ squad finished fifth at state, while the girls’ finished in 11th. Both teams had runners within five spots of making the All-State team.

In 2013, Werner feels the team has potential to be even better than last year. He compares the team to the 1999 boys’ squad, which finished

third in state.

“The teams we have now, both on the girls’ and the boys’ side, both are very reminiscent of that,” he said. “I think the sky’s the limit with our teams, we’re going to do our best to stay healthy and hopefully by the end of the year we’re going to see both teams on the podium stand.”

The baseball team also has a formidable roster and are hopeful for the season. After making it to the State Sectionals last season, the team has a chance to place at state in the spring, a feat that they have not accomplished since 1982.

“I think that the presence of the upperclassmen we have this year is awesome and we have a lot of positive leaders, we’re going to have really good vibes going around the dugout, not to mention the talent that we have returning is excellent,” John Howard, a junior going into his third year on varsity, said.

Clayton has had 11 seasons with two teams finishing in the top four at

state, most recently during the 2010-2011 school year. In 2013, Clayton Athletics has potential to break their record and finish with more than two top four state finishes.

As Werner said, both cross country teams have potential to place at state. Last season, boys’ football was only one win away from a state semifinal appearance and is returning many starters. If boys’ and girls’ tennis and baseball have successful campaigns, it is possible that CHS could see more top four state finishes than ever before.

Athletic director Bob Bone is excited to see the seasons of the Clayton teams develop, and is thrilled with the returning talent.

“I think every year that you go into a season there is a lot of excitement over the prospects of the teams,” he said. “We had a lot of great juniors last year, underclassmen that are back, juniors for their senior years and then sophomores for their junior years. I think the outlook for the teams is outstanding.” 

GROWING NUMBERS

by Neil Docherty

Clayton senior Lily Niswonger is a varsity member of the growing cross country sqaud. (Noah Engel) It was 3 p.m. in the afternoon the Monday before school started, and the Clayton High School cross country team was gathering for its first official practice of the year. The upperclassmen watched the trickle of new faces appear anxious and excited for their first day of practice. As the crowd grew, the amazement was palpable. Never before had the team been this big.

The normal few cliques of people had multiplied into an uncountable number of groups. When the coaches gathered everyone up, it seemed as though a trove of people had gathered to watch some famous person, there was pushing and shoving just to get to the front.

60 kids. And so far not one has quit, which is almost unheard of in the realm of running.

As a result, the varsity selection process will be much more rigorous this year, motivating kids to really try to reach their full potential, who otherwise in the past might have been on varsity simply to fill a spot.

During the Big River Running Festival, which took place at Forest Park on September 14, there was a lot more competition, as well as choices, for

who could run varsity. The girls’ team scored second place for varsity in their division, and the boys’ team pulled through with a good race as well.

With the number of good runners this year, the team can now be more flexible as it attempts to reach its full potential.

With this new selection of runners among with the veteran runners, the team is projected to make it to state again, and perhaps even place in the top five.

Whether the team kaes it to state or not, the spirits and camaraderie are high, and the season looks to be a fun one for all runners.

This season, runners will be forced to try harder than ever before if they have any hopes of making the team. This not only helps the team, but also adds more internal competition which helps bond the team together in ways that otherwise is not possible.

Whatever the success or failures of the team, cross country will prove valuable for every runner, and will provide a fun and safe, as well as competitive environment, that will help the team grow and become stronger as a whole. 

Sports

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1D THIS IS US

by ASHLEIGH WILLIAMS

“Thanks to you, we’re number one in 37 countries,” says Niall Horan, one-fifth of the British-Irish boy band One Direction. The theater erupts in screams. “TURDY SEVEN,” one fan says rabidly, trying to imitate Horan’s Irish accent.

The film is a concert documentary like its predecessors, which include “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” and “Katy Perry: Part of Me.” Directed by Morgan Spurlock, CNN producer and director of the documentary “Supersize Me,” “This Is Us” dwells into a territory that is personal, yet general at the same time.

Premiering on August 30, 2013, many fans, (aka Directioners) lined up to watch the movie about their heroes. The movie is a mix of the boys’ personal lives as well as their musical lives.

“This is Us” switched back and forth from the boys’ lives before and after the “The X Factor UK,” where they were put together as a group by the judges - in what many fans call a

legendary decision. They were guided through the show by mentor Simon Cowell, and placed third.

The documentary touched many “Directioners” deeply and at times brought almost the whole theater to tears.

But if you are not a fan and are going to go watch the movie, here are a few tips. First, you should research the band a little before going; you don’t want to go into this totally clueless.

Next, listen to some of their songs. Since the documentary has some concert clips in it, you might as well know songs that will each take five minutes of the movie. Finally, be ready to maybe be bombarded by some of the more extreme fans. Most are nice, but many of them are so passionate that when Taylor Swift, exgirlfriend of Harry Styles, stars in a commercial before the film starts, they may yell and throw popcorn at the screen.

With these tips in hand, be ready to go to a movie that is quite enjoyable. You will mostly likely be in the company of a passionate audience that is 90 percent female and almost all younger than 18-years-old. 

Official movie poster/1D.com

ARCTIC MONKEYS

by NURI YI

Artic Monkeys official album cover.

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REVIEW

Arctic Monkeys burst onto the music scene in 2006 with “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not,” their refreshingly pointy and explosive debut album which became the fastest selling debut album in British history at that time. Since then, the indie rock band from Sheffield has soared to even greater heights, playing at the Summer Olympics in 2012 and headlining the Glastonbury Festival in 2007 and 2013.

Their new album, AM, debuted at No. 1 in the UK, as did their previous four studio albums, making music history. So far, it is the second best-selling album of the year, with 157,000 copies sold the first week, only behind Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories.” AM has been nominated for the Mercury Prize, which Arctic Monkeys won in 2006 for their debut album.

AM has a funkier, more streamlined sound than previous albums, and frontman Alex Turner cites Dr. Dre and R&B as influences. The band has certainly changed, but none of their changes are missteps: Arctic Monkeys’ sound has only become more sophisticated, and even the crooning falsettos

of Matt Helders and Nick O’Malley seem artful.

Frontman Alex Turner’s lyrics are still as sharp as ever, and while the subject material of AM has gone back to the street talk of “Whatever People Say I’m Not, That’s What I Am,” Turner still has the ability to make the vulgar seem poetic. Songs such as “I Wanna Be Yours” and “Knee Socks” showcase Turner’s hopelessly romantic side. For instance, on “Knee Socks,” Turner croons, “And I thought you might be mine / In a small world on an exceptionally rainy Tuesday night / In the right place and time,” with the casual air of one who has hundreds more such gems up his sleeve.

While Arctic Monkeys has certainly evolved from the group of cynical, defiant teenagers they were in 2006 to rock stars on top of the world, the band is still the same consistently great group.

Even so, AM has the sound of a transitioning album: nearly perfect, but with the expectation of something even better in the future. Arctic Monkeys is still growing, but no matter what they do or where they go, we can probably expect another No. 1 album. 

THE BUTLER

by KEVIN ROSENTHAL

With phenomenal acting and a gripping storyline, Lee Daniels’ “The Butler,” impresses. “The Butler,” based on a true story, follows the life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker). “The Butler” is a great representation of Civil Rights, and also how one ages through life.

After running away from the farm on which he grew up, Gaines breaks into a pastry store. Subsequently, the store owner actually hires Gaines to work for him, realizing his skill. He then nominates Gaines for a job at a hotel in Washington, D.C. There, Gaines meets his future wife Gloria. Together, they have two children. After working at the hotel for over ten years, Gaines gets promoted to work at the White House.

Gaines ultimately works at the White House for over 25 years, under seven different presidents.

As Gaines begins his new job at the White House, his eldest son, Louis, starts studying at Fisk University, where he joins a group of people fighting for civil rights.

The scene where Louis and his group participate in a sit-in at a local restaurant is a heart pounder. The white people who are dining at the establishment are incredibly harsh to the black diners, spitting on their faces and pouring hot coffee on them. While this scene, along with many others, is quite intense, these scenes ultimately enhance the movie. Many of the scenes in “The Butler” get you thinking; they are very thought-provoking.

Back in Washington D.C, when Gaines finds out about his son’s movement, he is enraged. Gaines and his son’s relationship is damaged to a point where they hardly speak for many decades. The acting in “The Butler” is excellent. Forest Whitaker gave an Academy Award-worthy performance as Gaines, and we get to see sides of him that are humble and calm, but we also see him become furious. The part of the movie I found most compelling was seeing how Gaines’s character varied throughout the film in emotions and age. As viewers, we are able to watch Gaines grow from a child to a very old man. Director Lee Daniels takes us through the entire process of aging, and we truly get to examine a multitude of events from the life of Cecil Gaines. Along with Forest Whitaker as Gaines, the rest of the ensemble cast was brilliant as well. Oprah Winfrey gave a spectacular performance as Gloria, the wife of Gaines.

If I had one piece of criticism, it would be the casting of the presidents. Many of the actors who played the presidents came far from accurately representing their character. I found this disappointing because there have been so many exceptional representations of our presidents in the past.

Overall, however, “The Butler” exceeded my expectations, and although the film is lengthy, it certainly holds the attention of the viewer, as there are so many intriguing pieces to the plot throughout the movie.

I completely recommend “The Butler,” and I would say it is one of the best films of the year thus far. 

A PRESIDENTIAL TIMELINE Eisenhower (1953-1961) KENNEDY (1961-1963) johnson (1963-1969) NIXON (1969-1974) FORD (1974-1977) CARTER (1977-1981) REAGAN (1981-1989)

Official movie poster/thebutlermovie.com REVIEW

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STAFF ED

The number of Clayton students in 9th-12th grade who binge drink has doubled in the past two years, according to the Clayton High School health survey created by the CHS Health and Physical Education Department.

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lthough some may feel differently about the above figure than others, all can agree upon the fact that something is motivating students not only to try alcohol but to down as many drinks as they possibly can without their expecting any negative consequences.

What are the roots of this rising problem?

Is it that the amount of stress experienced by students is slowly but surely increasing? Are the negative thoughts pertaining to self image becoming more frequent and hurtful? Is it that the amount of bullying (namely cyber bullying) is steadily rising?

Is it simply because people are naturally becoming more “wild” in nature?

Or is it a combination of more than one or all of these things?

No matter what the causes of this significant problem in today’s Clayton community, one group of events instantly comes to mind in terms

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COMMENTARY

of a gathering of drunk people – high school dances.

If a room is filled up with a variety of people who are asked what emotions they experience regarding binge drinking before school dances, there will be a broad spectrum of responses.

Some will respond with excitement, others with neutrality, a few with contempt, but the most notable emotion of them all is sympathy.

A bunch of people deciding to drink themselves sick may appear as one of the last sympathy-deserving groups in existence. So why sympathy?

Not necessarily sympathy for them, but sympathy for society – what have past generations, along with the authority Photo by Parker Schultz figures at present, done in order to make many minors of our day feel as though they need alcohol in order to enjoy themselves?

Emphasis is put on the word need because it is clear that high schoolers of many generations past have drunk to try to raise the excitement of their experiences; however, today the number of binge drinkers is increasing in a disturbingly rapid manner. It appears as though there is something set in stone in our society that is causing young people to resort to alcohol that for some reason appears to be the only solution to whatever this mystery hindrance may be.

At this point, the only reason the answer to the question of “What have we done?” matters is in terms of the solution to the foreboding changes in teenage habits at hand.

Whatever the cause, whatever the effect, whatever the arguments, and whatever the compromises, something needs to be done very quickly – every day, more and more teenagers are drinking and only expecting good things to come out of fulfilling this desire.

Not to mention, most of the teenagers who are drinking are drinking more alcohol than ever before. And if there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s the fact that research and a little bit of common sense tell us that at this young of an age, alcohol and the underdeveloped brain are far from compatible with each other.

That’s not to say that every single person of our community has to start a huge movement against the growing problem of underage binge drinking.

At the same time, a couple of high school students deciding not to drink before the next school dance could be surprisingly powerful in terms of us beginning to move in the right direction. 

PARTICIPATION INFLATION CLAYTON HIGH SCHOOL has SEEn A MAJOR GROWTH IN SPORTS PARTICIPATION. what are the benefits of the trend?

by Bridget Boeger

The CHS field hockey team faces off against Eureka High School. (Rebecca Stiffelman) This year, 60 students are participating in cross country at CHS. This is the largest the team has ever been. Across the board, involvement at CHS has increased steadily and will hopefully continue to rise.

Because with this increase in participation comes a greater school spirit.

So far this year, student support at home games has increased noticeably. This is conducive to a positive school environment in which students are fully supportive of each other.

Studies at Bowdoin College have proven that participation in sports is directly linked to higher self esteem in students as well as their peers.

This sense of higher self-esteem helps carry

individuals into their life with a better attitude and a greater sense of self-worth.

One of the factors explaining the high numbers of participation in sports at CHS is the nocut policy.

This principle allows anyone who wants to participate in sports to be able to do so. Bob Bone, the athletic director at CHS, places a strong emphasis on athletics in the life of the CHS student.

“Number one, we have almost a culture of participation not just in athletics, but in all of our activities, and I think the no-cut policy makes it a lot less stressful to go out for a team,” he said. “You don’t have to worry that your

name will be put on a list and you’ll be told not to come back after the first week of practice.”

Although some serious athletes may feel strongly that the no-cut policy is not the best way to form winning teams, it contributes to the uniquely high involvement of CHS students.

“Education you get at Clayton is not just what you learn in the classroom, but I think it’s the overall education of the whole person,” Bone said. “We think that you learn things through athletics that you can’t learn any place else so without that participation then educating the whole person is not quite complete.”

And I, and I think most that participate in CHS athletics, would agree with him. 

COMMENTARY

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WORLD PRO/CON POLICE OR NOT F

oreign policy in the United States has an intrinsic fascination with the red line. Former President George W. Bush drew it fervently in 2002, with his statement, “America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

Eleven years and about two trillion dollars later, Bush has likely come to regret his statement and foreign policy has not lost its ability to ruin a presidency.

The United States must stop being the immediate aggressor in foreign policy dilemmas, and find other solutions besides assuming the role of “world policeman.” This does not mean that the United States should assume a completely isolationist attitude, but our methods should emphasize less force and more diplomacy.

President Barack Obama inherited a method of foreign policy fraught with aggression and red lines, vowing to amend it.

Obama met his adversary, the inevitable red line, on August 21 when an apparent nerve gas attack occurred in Damascus, leaving about 1,300 dead.

At a moment when we left vocal allies in Egypt feeling betrayed by an American government that gives 1.2 billion dollars annually to a militaristic government founded in violent coups and bloodshed, the timing was absolutely terrible.

If we do not immediately retaliate in domestic conflicts

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commentary

Photo Credit: Andree Kaiser, MCT Campus

within countries such as Syria and Egypt, we are not sending a message that we condone the horrific actions that have occurred.

Instead, we are sending the message that we do not support the rebels associated with al Qaeda and other militaristic groups that would likely assume power after an intervention by the United States.

Most proponents, however, of the United States’ intervention in foreign disputes point to The First Gulf War as a decisive victory, and a resounding achievement for our country as the “world police.”

The facts of the aftermath suggest otherwise.

Of the estimated $61 billion that the Gulf War cost, $52 billion were contributed by Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The Overseas Development Institute conducted a study in March 1991 regarding the effect the war had on developing countries, and they reached two striking conclusions: At least 40 poor developing countries had been severely affected by the Gulf crisis to an extent akin to a widespread natural disaster and the distribution of developmental aid, unlike normal responses to emergencies, had been highly selective and not always directly related to need.

Furthermore, this relatively short intervention led to later conflicts with Iraq and Saddam Hussein that would lead to an ultimatum issued by President Bush on March 17, 2003. Now it is 2013, and we are still waiting for some sort of definitive resolution.

Finally, when we hear about terrorist groups across the Middle East conspiring to attack our nation, our first instinct is to ready our arms and invest American lives in forcefully obliterating the perpetrators and their sentiments.

However, has the United States ever decided to turn inward for a moment and examine what it is that makes us so widely abhorred and resented?

Of course, there are many people in the world that have irrational hatred toward the United States for reasons that would not be productive to address, but what if the rest have valid criticisms to which we are too proud to listen?

John F. Kennedy once said, “The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.”

This country’s foreign policy has become deluded with aspirations of omnipotence and alleviating our own consciences, when this same foreign policy will likely end up shaping the futures of developing countries around the world.

Call it naivety, but where foreign policy is concerned, there should always be a priority for listening, reformulating ideas and agreements, and listening yet again. This should be the foundation on which United States foreign policy is constructed.

Until then, the fate of the world’s social, political, and economic stability lies in that daunting red line. 

-Zach Bayly

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s I was waiting to talk to a teacher, I refreshed my news feed. Syria had chemically gassed its own people in the suburbs of Damascus.

Yet America’s intense emotional response seems to be an eerie déjà vu of the Unites States’ failed increased intervention in the Middle East after the horrific terror seen at 9/11. The United States’ failure in Afghanistan and in Iraq can be attributed to a lack of planning, as anger and confusion often drive policy that is not sufficiently pondered.

So this leaves the following question: should the United States continue to be the world police?

America cannot abandon this pursuit as extreme instances need America’s intervention.

First of all, America is an international policeman that must send messages to hopefully prevent even more tragic massacres in the future.

If America does not respond to the instance in Syria, we will be sending a weak international message that other tyrannical governments such as Iran can also utilize weapons that can dispose of entire cities in only minutes.

Chemical weapons make death too easy.

Sadly, Bashar al-Assad’s usage of chemical weapons may be due to America’s lack of response when Saddam Hussein killed thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988 with similar weaponry.

On a side note, America’s response to Syria has displayed how international policing can be purely over the negotiation table—not only militaristic.

Second of all, America must be an international policeman because we have seen how our lack of involvement nearly wiped out the entire European Jewish Heritage in World War II. On a smaller scale, in the 1990’s, tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croatian citizens were systematically raped and killed—solely due to their ethnicity and religious conviction. America eventually did identify and figure out how to eradicate this ethnic cleansing, which avoided even more serious consequences in the region.

In the country of Rwanda, the Tutsi population was ethnically cleansed by the majority Hutu people. Attempts by the Tutsi ethnicity to assimilate back into the nation that killed and raped their own family members has been a constant struggle. Rwanda serves as a microcosm that demonstrates how lack of intervention can often be even more detrimental in regards to the amount of lives lost. America can avoid elevated international tensions such as this if we educate the world community and seek justice—which could be economic or militaristic.

Third of all, America is an international policeman that must be use to broker alliances between different countries.

It would be phenomenal if Israel and various other Middle Eastern countries independently brokered peace treaties. Most often, countries need incentives, such as economic aid, in order to create more regional peace.

Since the signing of the Camp David Accords in the White House in 1978, the region has not had the equivalent of The Six Day War or the Yom Kippur War. Hence, the United States is a policeman that regulates and mediates peace between polarized nations to increase tranquility in the future.

Child refugee who was displaced because of the Syrian conflict.

Renowned diplomat Henry Kissinger talks on the importance of trusting international contacts through negotiation by remarking “We cannot always assure the future of our friends; we have a better chance of assuring our future if we remember who our friends are.”

It would be wonderful if forums such as the United Nations could actually stand true to its namesake—united. Yet, often, national differences and squabbles push only minimal worthwhile legislation through.

Therefore, America is often placed with the responsibility of shaping international policy towards controversial and polarizing issues.

Although America has the most expansive military in the world, it must meticulously consider every action it takes as an international policeman—as the goal is to avoid enmity—not increase it. On an individual basis, the United States’ best international response may sometimes ironically be no response at all.

At the same time, America does have the responsibility as a worldwide policeman, as our intervention can enable countries to conquer the seemingly impossible. End of story. 

-Peter Shumway

(John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/MCT)

Fantasy football: is it legal?

YOSSI KATZ DISCUSSES THE FANTASY FOOTBALL FAD THAT HAS SPREAD NATIONWIDE

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by Yossi Katz

very fall, millions of football fans around the world compensat e their lack of athletic skill by playing fantasy football as a result of their obsession with professional football. While its name conveys immersion in a computer-generated world, á la “World of Warcraft,” fantasy football is actually grounded in reality.

Fantasy-footballers pick actual NFL players to form their teams and depending on how these players fare in actual games, a fantasy team earns points; different fantasy teams in a league “play” each other, with the winner decided by point totals after a week of games.

Over the past decade, the game has exploded in popularity - in 2011, 27 million Americans had fantasy football teams, giving the industry a value of nearly $1 billion.

One might wonder how the money enters the equation, given that the post popular leagues are run through a few large websites like ESPN.com, Yahoo Sports, and NFL.com, none of which charge entrance fees.

So where does the $1 billion come from?

The vast majority of players do spend money on their leagues, but usually deal with the financial aspect in person, free of any online middle-

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men. The average league consists of a dozen or so friends each paying $10 or $20 into a pool, which is won at the end of the year by the owner of the best team.

Anyone familiar with gambling in the U.S. knows that betting on professional sporting events, like NFL games, is strictly regulated.

Additionally, it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to gamble, period.

So why do so many fantasy football players organize public leagues that flout the rules, and how do they get away with it? For example, CHS DECA is sponsoring three fantasy football leagues with entrance fees ranging from $10-$20. Surely this is illegal?

Not quite. It turns out that all online gambling is prohibited in the U.S., but according to the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, fantasy sports are legal because they have “an outcome that reflects the relative knowledge of the participants,” as opposed to luck.

This specific exemption from the law allows fantasy sports to flourish. 

Art by Stephanie Langendoerfer

Commentary

More Than Language REBECCA BLOOM Reflects upon HER immersion in the hebrew language and her overall EXPERIENCE AT A JEWISH SUMMER CAMP.

By Rebecca Bloom

T)

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Sophomore Rebecca Bloom (green) and her camp counselors (Rebecca Bloom).

spent seven weeks this summer speaking rak ivrit, only Hebrew, in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. This small town between Madison and Milwaukee may seem like a strange place to find a Hebrew immersion program, but along the shores of Lake Lac La Belle is a Reform Jewish summer camp that has been my home-away-from-home for seven years.

Though I do have an interest in the language of my heritage, learning Hebrew wasn’t the primary reason I applied to be in Chalutzim, the immersion program for rising sophomores at Camp Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute (OSRUI). This unit happened to be the next unit at the camp, and not attending would mean a summer away from many of my closest friends.

The experience turned out to be life-changing, and not just because my Hebrew competency improved dramatically. Living my life in Hebrew and with Israeli counselors helped me to develop a new appreciation for another culture, for diversity and for the smallness of our world.

Because I’d studied Hebrew daily during elementary school, the language gap did not overwhelm me as much as it did others (except for the time when I used a word I thought meant “friend” but actually meant “boyfriend”).

What took some getting used to, however, was living with counselors who had been raised in a different culture. Most of them were fresh out of the Israeli Defense Forces, or were at camp as part of their army service.

Perhaps that’s why they thought we would behave more like soldiers. For

example, the time we got busted for having candy in our cabin, they reprimanded us with, “In the army, the most important thing is trust.” When we pulled a prank on the counselors, they didn’t realize that we were just trying to make them laugh. We simply didn’t understand each other.

Fast forward seven weeks, and we had all learned not only to communicate better but also to appreciate each other more. Benjamin Beraha, a former Chalutzim counselor who now teaches in a Washington DC Hebrew Immersion Charter School, said, “If we want the next generation to really embrace equality between race, sexual orientation, what have you, language equality has to be there, too,” Baraha said. “In America, we look at somebody who doesn’t speak English, and it’s a barrier. We assume they are different. But we have to look at everybody as equals no matter what language they speak.”

Chalutzim was filled with memorable moments, but more importantly, it caused all of us campers to see from a new perspective. Over time, we grew to understand that more similarities unite us than differences that separate us. On the last night of camp, with tears flowing from everyone, the counselors said that though they came thinking they would be teachers, they learned just as much from us. We had become a family.

Beraha best articulated the transformation. “Once you learn another language, it makes you better at having an attitude that understands differences,” he says. “It’s not like studying math or just learning something.

It’s acquiring tolerance for differences and knowing that even if we are different, it’s going to be okay.” 

Commentary

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Photo of the author’s home (Gwyneth Henke).

THE OTHER SIDE OF DELMAR

by Gwyneth Henke

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grew up in a blue stucco house in University Heights. My neighborhood is within University City and rests just below the stone lions that mark the entrance into the Delmar Loop.

My parents chose between sending me to Delmar-Harvard, the University City public school a block away from my house which closed down two years ago for district restructuring, and New City School, a private elementary school on Waterman Avenue. My siblings and I ended up going to New City, which meant that we would drive from the intersection of Big Bend and Delmar down Delmar to Waterman every day for seven years.

On that drive, we experienced Delmar each day. We watched shops in the Loop open, go out of business. Further down the street, we passed Delmar High School, which is now closed.

Crossing the bridge over the River Des Peres, we would drive by the old railroad station, with its sweeping stone architecture and beautiful broken windows.

A few doors down, there’s a long brick building that I’ve watched go through various owners and purposes. On the side, someone paints a new mural every few months. One week a rainbow covers the crumbling mortar; the next, a blue and green tidal wave.

Sunshine Academy, a preschool, nestles itself between two buildings across the street. After school every day, we would watch children flood the playground. My sister and I made up stories for their kindergarten intrigue.

My brother’s high school, Crossroads College Preparatory School, is a few doors down from that park, and my elementary school sits a few blocks away.

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COMMENTARY

I drove that route for ten years, and my brother drove it for fifteen.

Together, we would watch the streets of Delmar grow and evolve, and we evolved with them. Delmar watched me turn from a 4-year-old preschooler to a 16-year-old junior in high school. It was there where I learned to read and where I learned to ride a bike in the parking lot of Delmar-Harvard Elementary School.

Growing up around Delmar not only gave me freedom, but it also taught me the meaning of the word community. I grew up in a neighborhood almost identical to those of Clayton or any other affluent American city, and I’m close to almost all of my neighbors.

University Heights, however, isn’t where my community ends. My home includes the dark red bricks of apartment blocks and the green of the trees that line Delmar’s divider. It is composed of crumbling houses and pristine yards, street art and music. It has withstood shootings and robberies, and it has provided homes for thousands of people.

While Delmar undeniably stands as a reminder of the extreme wealth gaps and segregation that St. Louis--as well as many cities across America--still struggle with, that is not what defines us.

The area around Delmar cannot be explained simply, because no community is simple. When we choose to label parts of our city as “rich” or “poor”, “struggling” or “thriving” and to place ourselves accordingly, we assume that human beings were not meant for static existences. We possess the strength as well as the capacity to embrace complexities around us and to find the beauty in what appears gilded with an ugly tint.

I grew up in a community that opened my eyes to its inherent loveliness, and I consider myself lucky that it not only revealed itself to me but welcomed me into it. 

THE POWER of PowerSchool

by Albert Wang

How did I do on that recent math test? Is my English paper graded already? Are any new assignments added? All of these important questions can only be answered in one place. Powerschool.

To most high school students, grades are the most important aspect of school. Grades and GPA play a huge role in determining colleges and the future of students. In fact, good grades are the only reason why many students spend hour after hour every day doing homework, studying for tests or typing up lab reports.

However, is there a line between caring about grades and obsessing over them?

With the online Powerschool, students have the ability to check grades whenever they want. Powerschool instantly updates grades whenever teachers record them, causing Powerschool to be the fastest way of finding out about new assignment or test grades.

Especially after taking a test or turning in a major assignment that I don’t feel too good about, I always want to know the grade of that test or assignment as soon as possible in order to stop thinking about it.

Sometimes, I am even tempted to check Powerschool every single hour of the day.

Unfortunately, as important as grades are, constantly checking them will accomplish nothing. The saying “what’s done is done” is absolutely true for school assignments. After a test or major project is turned in, no amount of checking Powerschool will ever change the grade of any assignment.

Senior Auggie Mense logs on to PowerSchool to check his grades (Erin Castellano).

The purpose of education is never simply to get good grades; education is meant primarily for students to learn. Powerschool does not show what students did wrong or what students can do better, and therefore students have no way of improving simply by using Powerschool.

So instead of obsessively checking grades that cannot be changed, students should try to focus more on doing well on future tests and assignments. Whenever I understand all of the questions on a test or turn in a project that I work really hard on, I feel much more confident and don’t feel stressed about my grade.

Powerschool is simply a very convenient resource for students and parents to use to stay up to date as well as to calculate GPA, but obsessing over Powerschool does nothing more than increase stress and decrease concentration. 

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

by Sierra Hieronymus

This year, the CHS library introduced a new policy. Students are not allowed into the library in the morning before 8 unless they sign up for slots a day in advance.

Why the sudden change? Last year, the library started becoming more of a social place, particularly in the morning. Students who actually went to the library to study or do homework before school became irritated, and the librarians seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with having to constantly ask kids to quiet down or to stop eating.

In short, this change has been made to provide a more calm and quiet environment for students who need to study in the morning.

As someone who has spent many mornings in the library the past few years, I can understand where the new policy is coming from. It can be annoying when you’re trying to do French homework and people are literally yelling at a table three feet away from you. Personally, I welcome the new change as it allows students to get actual homework done in the mornings. Even now, the minute the doors open a mob of loud students rushes into the library to socialize If you need to study in the morning, but aren’t signed up for the library, you can always find a table to study at. Plus, the library does open at 8 every morning in case students need to print something. In short,

Junior Ryan Fletcher searches for some books (Claire Lisker). the new library policy was a much needed change in terms of terms of helping to maintain the studious environment of CHS and allowing a quiet haven for students arriving early to school in the morning. 

COMMENTARY

43

THEIR STORY

HUMANS OF CLAYTON

CHRIS KLEIN if you could give a large group of peope one piece of advice, what would it be?

I’d tell them to excercise regularly, to have a good hobby, and if you’re retiring, figure out what you want to do with your volunteer time.

BRIANNA HARRIS what has been the happiest day of your life?

When I got to go to Jersery.

what did you do there?

what are your current hobbies?

Just a lot of stuff.

Getting an hour’s worth of excercise every day.

what do you want for your birthday?

More clothes for my American Girl doll.

which one do you have?

I don’t know. But she’s my color.

TANYA HAYDEN who’s had the greatest influence on your life?

My parents. They showed me how to get along with others and how to make a nice family of our own – to strive for that in life.

what’s your dream job?

I wanted to be a marine biologist. But that never played out.

if you could give a large group of people one piece of advice, what would it be?

You’re asking all the easy questions today.

44

Q&A

Every person has a story. Often times, all it takes to share an experience is a simple question. In this project, I set out to explore the different stories of Clayton. I was in search of the values, the personalities, the experiences, the stories of our community.

- katherine ren

photos by noah engel

LOUIS BENFORD ADAM ZOLL SUE HONG what’s one thing not many people know about you?

I’m not even sure if there is anything.

That’s a hard one. No, there isn’t anything.

what has been the happiest day of your life?

Can we come back to that one?

if you could relive a moment, which would it be?

who’s had the greatest influence on your life?

Can we come back to that one too?

My dad. He just always inspired me to be independent; to do my best.

when are you most content?

Oh! When I’m at the piano. Yes, that’s when I’m most content.

It’s relaxing and gives me time to think.

when are you most content?

After excercising.

if you could give a large group of people one piece of advice, what would it be?

Keep a positive attitude and take care of your body. The rest willl fall into place.

if you could redo a moment, which would it be?

I had a good life.

Q&A

45

THEIR STORY

WILLIE CARTER

GLENRIDGE MOM

if you could give a large group of people one piece of advice, what would it be?

if you could redo a moment, which would it be?

Stay focused and do the right thing.

Also, keep your mind focused on the man above who wakes you up everyday and breathes into your lungs. So stay focused and do the right thing.

what has been the happiest day of your life?

When I graduated high school. We went across the river in East St. Louis and partied at a club.

46

Q&A

I don’t lmow if I would want to go back in time and relive a moment. I don’t know if I would want to do that. I’m content with where I am.

TARONDA JOHNSON what’s your greatest fear?

I don’t have a fear. I used to be afraid of heights, but I conquered that last year going on a rollercoaster. I don’t have any fears.

when are you most content?

what’s your greatest fear?

When I reach my goal. I’m trying to get my CNA licence to become a nurse.

Death. Oh no, that’s a horrible thing to say. Maybe you won’t use the death part. Maybe a sink hole? That’s my greatest fear.

what has been the happiest day of your life?

The happiest moment of my life was when I graduated high school. It was a big accomplishment for me. Most people don’t walk across the stage, so I was happy I did.