Volume 80 Issue 5

DART THE

ST. TERESA’S ACADEMY KANSAS CITY MO VOULME 80 ISSUE 5

The Face Of the NFL

After breaking a 50 year streak by winning Super Bowl LIV, the Kansas City Chiefs faced enormous pressure to repeat their victory and defend their title as world champions — particularly their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Pg 16 Photos courtesy of Wikicommons and news tribune

2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

DEAR READER, Welcome to the first publication of 2021! While the transition back to school has been difficult for some, we hope that flipping through these pages can help you reconnect with your student body and community.

It has been almost a week since the Chiefs suffered a loss at Super Bowl LV. Despite this, the team has made a huge impact on the face of the NFL and has risen to national fame over the course of the year, in large part thanks to Patrick Mahomes. We looked into the pressure that was on Mahomes’ shoulders, due to being the extraordinary football player he is, in this issues’ centerspread. Die-hard fans from the STA community also gave some insights on how the Chiefs have shaped their lives — check out page 16 to read more.

Football as a whole is making strides in female representation. From the first Super Bowl female referee, to Sarah Fuller as a kicker for the Vanderbilt Commodores, Lauren Brackney explores the female

presence in male-dominated sports on page 24.

As per the month of February, love is in the air!

Or for some, it is rom-com season! If you need to know what romantic comedy is perfect for you and your gals to watch this Valentine’s Day, flip to Last Look to take a quiz and find out, made by Grace Ashley. The Valentine’s Day spirit also is present on DartNewsOnline, with a photo gallery by Sydney Waldron. Stay tuned for a bachelorette-esque video episode of “Stars in Paradise” uploaded this weekend.

Take a look into the Kansas City community’s best crepe shops with Caroline Hinkebein’s review on page 10. All across the city, shops and stores have switched to a more digitized commerce format due to COVID-19, which Sophia Rall explores the implications of on page 14. Kansas City has also been on the forefront of vaccine rollout, which Carmon Baker covers in News.

Get excited, the STA musical is coming up! Kyra Fieger sat down with director Shana Prentiss and a

few of the actors to talk about how the upcoming production of “Disenchanted” will stay COVID-19 safe while still being as fun as always. Turn to page 9 for more details!

Oh and by the way: if you noticed a disposable camera sitting in the foyer of Goppert over the past couple weeks, and you snapped a photo, be sure to check DartNewsOnline to see yourself featured in a gallery compiled by Carmon Baker!

Love,

DESIGNED BY SOPHIA RALL

04 06 08 09 10 12 14 16

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3

Kansas City’s Vaccine Rollout Star Spotlight: Ally Fox and Marin Smith

Bits & Pieces

16

STA Musical Reviews: Crepes in KC and “WandaVision” Virtual versus In-person: The Safest Way to School

12

Growth of Online Marketplaces “Run it Back”: The Journey to Super Bowl LV

A Letter to the Band Her’s Ya Like Jazz?

Galentine’s over Valentine’s Sarah Fuller and Females in Male Dominated Sports The Second Pandemic: Domestic Violence Quiz: Which romcom are you?

Expressions in Dance

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COVER DESIGNED BY SYDNEY WALDRON | DESIGN EDITOR

21 22 23 24 26 28 30

4 NEWS FEATURE

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

“Light at the end of the tunnel”: students receive vaccine Kansas and Missouri have begun vaccinating residents. Due to their jobs, some STA students have already been vaccinated.

Story by Carmon Baker | Web Editor Photos by Becca Speier | Photo Editor

T

hroughout the month of January, local counties have begun vaccinating residents. Missouri is currently in Phase 1 of their distribution plan, which includes healthcare workers, long-term care facility staff and residents, paramedics and more.

Although most students will not be vaccinated until later phases, a handful of students at STA have already received the vaccine due to their current employment.

Junior Audrey Flavin received the vaccine with her brother in the past month through Mission Chateau Senior Living — a retirement home in Kansas.

“I’m a food server, so they were like ‘We’re getting the vaccine — we’re vaccinating the residents,’” Flavin said. “And all the employees could get it if they wanted to.”

Overall, Flavin is not concerned about negative side effects of the vaccine and encourages others to be vaccinated when they have the opportunity to.

“I think everyone should get the vaccine if it’s available to them,” Flavin said.

“Because I know some people that I worked with were skeptical, skeptical about getting it, but I think everyone should get it if it’s available to them, and all the residents received a vaccine.”

STA parent and registered nurse Gail Balling has also received the COVID-19 vaccine through her work. She works at an outpatient hospital and an inpatient hospital, but received the vaccine through the outpatient hospital. In her experience, the process of getting vaccinated was very similar to getting an influenza vaccine.

“We’re all required to get the influenza vaccination, so kind of that process is similar,” Balling said. “You have to sign a

consent form. You have to say if you’ve ever had reactions to vaccines, if you’re allergic to different things, if you’re ill that day that you’re supposed to get [the vaccine]. Some of those things would rule you out of being able to receive it.”

Balling has received both doses of the vaccine. Her hospital established the order that workers would be vaccinated based on their interactions with COVID-19 patients.

“They did a triage system where people that were at highest risk would be offered the opportunity to be vaccinated first,” Balling said. “I don’t know of anywhere in town where it’s mandatory. It’s all still volunteer.”

When Balling received the vaccine, she first had to make an appointment time by email. After receiving the vaccine, Balling and other patients were required to wait at the facility for 15 minutes to ensure that they did not have a negative reaction.

“In terms of how they rolled it out to their employees, and how smooth a process that’s been has really impressed me,” Balling said. “I’ve been in healthcare over 20 years, so I feel like sometimes I’m hard to impress. There are things that don’t go smoothly [during the pandemic], but I feel like this part of it has gone really smoothly in terms of figuring out who should go first, getting people through really efficiently.”

Wyandotte Vaccination Center volunteer Shelby Carrothers has been volunteering with vaccine distribution for the last month. According to Carrothers, the center, located in Kansas is entering Phase 2 of the vaccination plan. This includes vaccinating the elderly general public and critical infrastructure workers, like teachers and postal workers.

Carrothers encourages others to volunteer if possible.

“There’s lots of volunteering opportunities,” Carrothers said. “The

centers in low resource areas can always use extra help.”

According to Fox4 News, Mayor Quinton Lucas has concerns about Kansas City’s availability and dosage distribution.

The main concern, however, is that the current logistics are allowing for waste of vaccinations. Jackson County currently asks all residents to fill out a survey, and then the participants will be contacted when officials are available.

“We use Moderna and Pfizer,” Carrothers said. “They both are deemed unusable hours after opening the vials. They cannot be stored overnight after the vial has been opened. At the end of the day, if there is leftover vaccine, they start allowing people from the next phase. At the end of one day, we had 30 doses left over. We called a list of older residents. Many couldn’t make it in time. We were grabbing people off the street. No doses are wasted.”

Carrothers has full trust in the vaccine and participated in a Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial last year. She encourages others to get vaccinated.

“Vaccines are one of the single greatest advancements in modern science,” Carrothers said. “When was the last time your friend was paralyzed due to polio? We are eradicating HPV and cervical cancer in women, with a vaccine. The anti-vax movement is a huge step in the wrong direction.”

Balling is hopeful that the vaccine will help end the pandemic. She is relieved to be vaccinated and hopes for the rest of her family to receive the vaccine in the near future.

“The day I got the first vaccine, I felt extremely hopeful,” Balling said. “Maybe there’s going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. It just was almost like a weight lifted off of you. It felt like we were finally making the correct steps forward in some way.” B

DESIGNED BY RACHEL ROBINSON

NATIONAL NEWS

5

NATIONAL NEWS UPDATES Complied by Lucy Doerflinger | News Editor

CALIFORNIA

California has just gone through one of its worst fire seasons. Now they are receiving heavy rainfall. As a result, California is experiencing devastating mudslides. At least 25 structures have been damaged and 8,000 residents evacuated. (NBC News)

GEORGIA

Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia state governor Democratic candidate has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Her and her organization Fair Fight Action were a big factor in increasing AfricanAmerican voter turnout in Georgia. (The Hill)

PENNSYLVANIA

Despite heavy storms and the COVID-19 pandemic, Punxsutawney Phil still came out on Groundhog Day. He saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter. This is the 106th time out of a 135 year tradition that he has seen his shadow. (USA Today)

VERMONT

During the presidential inauguration, a photo of Vermont lawmaker Bernie Sanders went viral. In the photos, he was wearing a pair of mittens made by teacher Jen Ellis. After people found out she made them, she received over 16,000 emails of requests for mittens. She has also made many donations to local LGBTQ organizations. (NBC News)

WEST VIRGINIA

According to early projections, the small, mostly rural state of West Virginia was tagged early on as a place that would struggle with the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. 85% of the state’s delivered doses have already been used.

Health officials believe this success is a result of reliance on smaller local drugstores instead of large chains. (NBC News)

NEW JERSEY

A powerful snowstorm hit New Jersey this weekend Jan. 30. Up to 22 inches of snow were received in some metro areas. This made driving conditions very dangerous and forced the closure of a mass COVID-19 vaccination effort taking place at MetLife stadium, as well as many testing facilities. (NBC News)

6 STAR SPOTLIGHT

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

ALLY FOX & MARIN

Senior Ally Fox poses as a pirate for a Cosplay video. Fox's most famous video has over seven million views.

Story by Katie Massman | Dart Sports Editor

W

hat is cosplay?

Marin Smith: Cosplay is choosing a character that you relate to, or just that you really like, and performing as them on Tik Tok, Instagram, or conventions.

What type of content do you create on Tik Tok? Ally Fox: I either create my cosplays or buy them, and then I just find sounds that I like on Tik Tok and lip sync to them.

Sometimes I try to be creative and create my own storylines with the characters. Or sometimes I just, you know, do silly videos to make people happy for a little bit.

Smith: Same thing for me. I also create my own characters with other people online, like we create our own storyline and post the videos on Tik Tok.

Photos courtsey of Ally Fox and Marin Smith

Do you also do plays/ musicals?

Fox: I’m in the musical, and I’m a theater major.

Smith: I’m not much of a singer, but I do plays sometimes.

Have you met other people through Tik Tok? Fox: I have met one person who I dated for a while — I’m not dating her anymore — but I met her in December over winter break, and we snowboarded together.

Smith: I have not met anyone in person, but I have met lots of people online.

Do you feel a responsibility to use your platform to work for change?

Fox:I know when I was younger, I promised myself that if I ever gained

a platform, I would use it to speak out about issues. So whenever there has been a controversy, or people have been like, spreading hate online, I take it upon myself to talk about it and say this isn’t okay.

Smith: With the movements and stuff, there have been days that were just for Jewish people, or trans people to post, or Black Lives Matter. I try to spread information about those issues and educate others.

When did you start making Cosplay videos?

Fox: I didn’t start cosplaying till probably maybe last year, really. I had gone through phases where I tried to do Tik Tok, but I kept deleting my first ones. And then finally, in November of last year, there was a tag I really wanted to be a part of. So that’s

7

DESIGNED BY BECCA SPEIER

SMITH

Sophomore Marin Smith dresses up as the character Jack Frost from “rise of the guardians” Jan. 1. Smith has a great interest in makeup and costumes.

when I started.

Smith: Kind of the same thing. It was like two years ago when I started and there was a tag that I really wanted to be a part of.

entire stories on my TikTok. So I’ve had to film that by myself, write the script, edit it and post it.

Smith: Yeah, there’s a lot of editing.

How long does each video take to make?

Fox: If it’s a story video, I try to take more time and use editing. But if it’s just a random video, it doesn’t take that long at all.

Smith: It depends on what the video really does. Some of them take maybe an hour and a half, but one of my more recent ones took about five hours to do just because I wanted the lighting to be perfect, but it really just depends on the character.

Do you ever hit a creative block where you can’t come up with new ideas?

Fox: All the time.

Smith: I’ll go through like periods of time, like a month over the summer, where I just didn’t know what to do. And then a week later, I’ll have like five different characters that I want to do right at that moment.

Do you make other videos besides acting?

Fox: I make other videos. Like Marin, I make original characters and with them I do have to do story videos. And I’ve done

Do you think people perceive cosplay a certain way?

Fox: Yeah. It’s interesting, because a lot of people tend to have a negative view toward it. I guess they feel like it’s lame or anything, but specifically for me, and I’m

sure for a lot of people, it’s a creative outlet.

And it’s a way I can express myself and I have a platform where people like what I do, so it really helps me in my self esteem. B

8 BITS AND PIECES

My life sucks LAUREN PETERS Not only was I unable to see my friends because of no school but also because of COVID. I think it was really hard to adjust to that sort of isolation and even harder to come back fully in person after such a long break.

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

My life rocks AUDREY WOOD My winter break rocked because I had time to myself and time to think about what I wanted to change in the new year for myself. I also was able to start creating better, healthier habits which is always good.

DESIGNED BY SYDNEY ALLEN

The show must go on Although COVID-19 has inflicted many changes into STA’s theater department, they have adapted to alls concerns.

They will continue on with this semester’s COVID-19 safe production of “Disenchanted” in person.

Story by Kyra Fieger | Social Media Team Photos by Ellie Buttell | Writer

E

xcitement buzzes around as actresses senior Olivia Collet and junior Molly Symmonds discuss how St. Teresas is preparing for their first in-person recording show of the season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the theater department has had to sacrifice in-person showings. Recently, there have been further alterations prohibiting the cast’s freedom, such as sanitizing and hiring a filming crew.

“We are proud to say that the theater will be holding a full cast, in person, showing of ‘Disenchanted (High School Edition)’ coming this spring,” theater teacher Shana Prentiss said.

The cast will be using a new version of the play that is focused on female empowerment and is modified to be appropriate for all viewers.

“It is a little more risky than our previous shows, but it sends a phenomenal message.

Honestly, women empowerment is just taken up a few notches higher than normal, which I love,” Olivia Collet said.

The musical will be a cabaret style showing, benefitting their smaller cast.

This means the show will be more casual and easier going, which won’t stress out the actors as much. The cast will be able to hold up microphones when they speak and won’t be using as many staged props.

“There is nothing easy about rehearsing a live production with COVID-19 restrictions, but we are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe,” Prentiss said.

During the auditioning process, along with daily rehearsals, the cast has been required to wear special, personalized masks made for singing so that the vocals of each actor can be heard across the auditorium. Although the show is to be considered in person, meaning they will

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

9

Dance teacher Andrea Skowronek, left, and Senior Lia Uhlenhuth practice a solo for the upcoming musical Feb. 1. While half of the crew works on vocals in the auditorium, a select few practice dances in the dance room.

be practicing together on stage, in order to watch the production, viewers will have to stream it virtually like the plays done in the fall.

“It will be pre-recorded and available for streaming March 3-6. This is different from the productions in the fall in that we can only run the show for four days, due to licensing. Think of it as a live performance, you are just watching it from home,” Prentiss said.

Viewers will have to buy a ticket in order to watch the show, but the ticket price will be at a lower cost of $5.00. All proceeds will be going to the Fine Arts For Future Program.

“We used to sell donuts in Goppert and M&A but we can’t do that anymore due to COVID-19” Collet said. “During the show though, all donations are welcome.”

To record the show, members of the cast will record their songs separately then edit the recordings together. While acting

and dancing, the cast will be lip syncing the songs in order to stay on point with the choreography.

“The show will be fully recorded and edited by a professional film company, so it should look great and be a fun experience for the cast,” Prentiss said.

Some changes can’t be fixed, as the crew is a smaller staff than usual. Since the show will be pre-recorded, there isn’t a huge need in the tech department.

“It kind of really sucks because normally the whole cast feels like one big family, and we still are, but there is less bonding and time spent together which really sucks,” Molly Symmonds said.

Although the cast is smaller this season, it has benefit the cast on the side of safety.

Less people means more efficient social distancing, and less risk.

“We have so many students who love to do tech for us, and I just haven’t had opportunities to get them involved in virtual productions,” Prentiss said. “We will have a very small crew for this show to run sound, lights and help with costumes but that is it.”

The video will be recorded on President’s Day and released March 3.

“I’m really excited for this show to come out because unlike previous productions, everyone on cast gets their own time to shine,” Symmonds said.

“Everyone has their own song, and I’m just happy we are able to do something with COVID-19 still happening.” B

Senior Olivia Collet looks down at her script during the rehearsals Feb. 1.

Rehearsals for the musical began just recently so the cast is still becoming familiar with their scripts.

10 REVIEWS

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Bonne Appetit!

The self-proclaimed crepe connoisseur reviews crepes around Kansas City.

Story by Caroline Hinkebein | Dart Sports Editor

I

want to start this review by saying that I am a self-proclaimed crepe connoisseur, so my expectations going into this were sky high. I’ve always loved crepes but never really ate them often until winter break when I became obsessed and would take my friends to get crepes with me constantly.

Aixois: Crepe Felix AAABB The first establishment I tried was Aixois, a French restaurant in Brookside.

I’ve always known it as a fancy french restaurant — the kind that gives you free bread before your meal — and that they proved to be. They offered a few different sweet and savory crepes to choose from, and I ended up choosing the crepe felix, a strawberry and chocolate crepe.

After munching down on my complimentary bread and butter, the crepe arrived. The presentation was very pretty however the taste did not live up to my high expectations. The strawberries were very fresh, and the chocolate was very smooth but personally I prefer the taste of classic Nutella better. The crepe was a bit difficult to cut, as the outside was a little stiff, and I would’ve appreciated had they been a little more generous with the whipped cream.

However, it was a good portion size and the strawberries and chocolate sauce complimented each other very nicely, and for that I give this crepe a 3/5 stars.

French Market: Classique AAAAA My next stop was French Market, a French restaurant and market in The Shops at Prairie Village. Here I got the Classique, a Nutella, marinated strawberry, and sliced banana crepe that made my mouth water. After I rushed to sit down at the last available table in the crowded (but socially distanced) restaurant, I decided to splurge on a vanilla latte to go with my crepe.

When the crepe arrived, the presentation was basic, but the flavor made up for it soon after. The strawberry, bananas and chocolate worked so well together, and that paired with the perfect mix of the crunchy and chewy crepe exterior is what pushed this one to the top for me. It was easy to eat, tasted really, really good and the coffee surprisingly complimented the crepe well.

It is a mix of these attributes that led me to rate this crepe a whole 5/5 stars.

Chez Elle: Paris AAAAB My last stop was Chez Elle, the destination closest to my house and my favorite crepe place for a long time. Chez Elle by far has the largest variety of crepes to choose from, with over 25 different crepes to pick from. There’s something for everyone.

But my favorite is the Paris: a Nutella and banana topped crepe with whipped cream. And let me tell you, they were very generous with the whipped cream.

The chewy outside and the fresh banana with the chocolate nutella work so well together and all along I thought this crepe would be my favorite of the bunch. However, as I thought back on the crepes that I had tried over the past three days, I had to be honest with myself and admit that although Chez Elle’s crepe was so close to perfect, perfect it was not. And for that I will have to rate it 4/5 stars.

After my crepes taste test I have come to four conclusions. One, if you’re looking for a decent crepe and free bread to come along with it, Aixois is the place for you. Two, if you’re looking for a place with a large variety of different types of crepes to try, then Chez Elle is most definitely the place for you. Third, my conclusion of this review is that French Market has the best crepes in town in my professional self-proclaimed crepe connoisseur opinion, and you will see me there eating crepes much more often. And lastly, I really could just eat crepes all day, every day and never get tired of it.

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DESIGNED BY CLAIRE SMITH

n o i t i d d a w ne e e s g r n e a v r i t n s U e l h e t rv a M e to th “WandaVision” is Marvel’s newest show featuring Scarlet Witch and Vision. After the first four episodes, I was left confused yet intrigued.

Story by Sophia Rall | Features Editor Graphic by Claire Smith | Editor-in-Chief

I

f I had to describe “WandaVision” in one word, it would be weird. The show is extremely strange, and I was often confused with what was going on.

However, the story still intrigued me.

As suggested by the title, it is about Wanda Maximoff, also known as Scarlet Witch, and Vision. In the first episode, they seem to be inside a 1950’s sitcom, complete with corny jokes and a live studio audience.

The storyline is that Vision and Wanda moved into a small, intimate town, and they must conceal their powers from their neighbors in order to appear as “normal” people. However, Wanda and Vision don’t seem to remember anything about their lives. In fact, it is unclear if the show is taking place before or after Avengers: Endgame, or even in an alternate universe.

The show progresses as a black and white style sitcom, until a strange event occurs: Wanda comes across a toy helicopter that appears in color. This was the first indication that there was something strange about Wanda’s world, and I was left confused yet intrigued. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I felt like more strange events would follow.

After the first two episodes, I was slightly bored with the show. It was very slow and the plot seemed surface-level. However, I was determined to know what was

SPOILERS

happening with Wanda and Vision! I had to stick with the show to learn why Wanda and Vision were in a strange small town, in a 1950’s sitcom.

The plot was not particularly interesting, but I was still highly impressed by the outfits, backgrounds and overall attention to detail in the show. My favorite detail was that the show was interrupted by fake commercials, which were 1950’s themed.

One such commercial was advertising Stark Industries toasters, which was a perfect reference to the rest of the Marvel universe.

The first episode ended with what looked like a modern television showing the “WandaVision” show, and it looked like someone was watching the monitor.

However, the weirdness did not end there — Wanda appears to be pregnant!

The third episode of the show was a welcome change from the 1950’s sitcom — the show was in-color and 1970’s theme.

I was totally impressed by the attention to detail in the show at this point.The 1970’s theme was a great change. Vision’s hair was grown out, and Wanda donned a multicolored flowy dress. Wanda and Vision’s home was also transformed — it had wood paneling and bright orange details.

Wanda miraculously has twin babies during this episode, even though the

episode only covers three days of her life.

Geraldine, one of Wanda’s friends, assists her throughout the episode. The episode ends with a shock: Geraldine is seemingly thrown into a different universe, and she is surrounded by police and military forces.

After finishing the third episode, I went down the rabbit hole of “WandaVision” fan theories. Since Vision died at the end of Avengers: Endgame (spoiler alert), is the show taking place in the past when Vision was alive? Did Wanda (Scarlet Witch) use her powers to create an alternate universe in which everyone is alive? Is the town a figment of Wanda’s imagination?

Episode 4 totally threw me for a loop.

It felt like a typical Marvel movie — filled with cool technology, action scenes and a good versus evil plot. It begins with a woman named Monica Lambeau, the same woman who was Geraldine in Wanda’s world. She was one of the people who disappeared when Thanos snapped his fingers, aka “the Blip.”

I won’t completely spoil the show, but I will say that Episode 4 answered a lot of my questions. It also completely hooked me on “WandaVision” — a complete 180 degree turn from my confusion and borement from the first three episodes. B

AAAAB

12 FEATURE

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Schooling Conundrum Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, schools are faced with a difficult conundrum. Do they send their kids to school every day, or is it safer to keep them at home?

Story by Caroline Hinkebein | Sports Editor Sophmore Stella Hughes fills out the daily health checkin form Jan. 28. All students must fill out the form each morning for attendance declaring if they will be on campus, absent, or learning virtually. photo by Lucy Doerflinger.

“

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hen the whole school is in person it is a little scary — just like walking through the halls and stuff,” senior Tess Jones said.

St. Teresa’s has followed a matrix system during the 2020-2021 school year to determine which of these options they will choose for their students — in person, virtual or a hybrid model of learning.

While the majority of the school followed this plan, certain students were on their own path, switching from virtual to in person throughout the semester and some with individually built hybrid plans. But because of the complicated nature of these individual plans, the rules surrounding them for the second semester of the 20202021 school year have changed.

At the beginning of the first semester, an email was sent out to parents with a section about immunocompromised students or students with any serious health issues asking them to contact nurse Angela Sweeney or principal for academic affairs Barb McCormick to talk about a learning plan. From there, administration composed individual virtual or hybrid learning plans for these students to accommodate their specific needs.

This semester, though, the administration decided there needed to be a change.

“Trying to create individual hybrid plans for all these different students and keep track of them and help teachers know when kids were on and off campus became a very overwhelming challenge,” McCormick said. “In order to keep attendance records straight, to ensure accountability for both teachers, students and parents, we felt the

best decision was to move back to going face to face so you can choose that or a virtual option.”

Before the start of the second semester, another email was sent to parents of students who had followed a virtual or hybrid plan during the first semester. This email was to let them know of the rule changes and ask them once again to choose.

Students had the choice to do either fully in person or fully virtual learning until spring break, and only then would they be allowed to reconsider, barring special circumstances.

The decision came down to a matter of over complicity.

“If you have a high number of students, which we had quite a few coming on different days of the week, who [were] filling out and making sure they did the COVID check-in form,” McCormick said.

“Were they getting to class? Did the teacher even check them in that day? Could we contact trace that room? There were a lot of logistics to make sure that the environment and the accountability was upheld to the standard that we expected of ourselves, and we just felt like we could not continue at that level.”

Sophomore Emma Bridges has been virtual since the beginning of the school year because her 77 year old at-risk grandma lives with her. But now with everyone in her family expected to be vaccinated by early February, Bridges wonders what she’s missing out on due to the changes.

“If I had the choice to, I would have gone back the second my grandmother got the vaccine, because my dad’s already been vaccinated, and my mom got her first round too, so then theoretically I was good to go

back,” Bridges said.

Bridges also expressed that she completely understands the reasoning behind the decisions made for the safety of everyone at STA. She still wishes she could return to in person school since for her it’s been almost a year since she’s gone to school in person.

“I miss in person school for sure,” Bridges said. “I was pretty upset when my mom told me I had to stay home through spring break just because I kind of missed that interaction because I can’t go anywhere either because of my grandma, so not having that, school was the interaction that I was going to be able to have a little bit so just that was kind of upsetting.”

Despite this, Bridges believes the initially negative situation has been turned into a positive experience.

“Overall I think it’s been a positive experience,” Bridges said. “I’ve definitely had to grow up over the course of this semester, just because it was a new thing being one of the only virtual students, there’s not very many that are full time virtual. So I feel like for me and the teachers it was kind of a learning experience on what worked best, and for me I had to kind of change my habits a lot to be successful.”

Jones was sent home because of contact tracing in August, and that experience was a contributing factor as to why she chose in person school this semester.

“When half the class is online, half the class is in person and the teacher’s in person, they really do focus on the in person people more than the online,” Jones said.

Math teacher Dave Mitchell agrees that teaching a mix of in person and virtual students has been difficult.

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DESIGNED BY CAROLINE HINKEBEIN

“I think I know, I don’t give the virtual students the attention they need, because my focus is really on the people that are in my classroom,” Mitchell said. “I know they’re there, but it’s just not the same.

They’re not getting the same experience as the in person people, for sure.”

Mitchell had an experience of many of his students being quarantined in August 2020 as well, and he says teaching during that time was difficult.

“Being new here and just not fully knowing how things should have worked even normally, I really struggled with that at the start, having people at home and people on campus and not knowing when people are going to be coming back on campus,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said that another challenge to manage from a teacher’s standpoint was having virtual students take tests from home.

“You just have to really trust that students are going to be as honest as you’d like them to be,” Mitchell said.

Both Bridges and Jones agreed that if it were up to them, they prefer a hybrid option of learning best. For Bridges, it was about balance.

“I think I would do hybrid, just because it’s a good balance of both in person and virtual,” Bridges said.

For Jones, the decision was about getting ready for college next year.

“I think that [hybrid] was my favorite way we did it just because for me going to college next year, I felt like I was a college student because I had to be on top of my own things,” Jones said. “I would only go to class on certain days which is how it is in college, so I was able to get a good feel of what college is gonna be like, and if my grades slip that’s on me because I should be able to do it.”

As of Feb. 5, Bridges was able to make the transition back to in person learning.

After expressing some struggles she was having with the material in one of her classes, Bridges was allowed to return back to school to ensure her success in that class.

Even amidst COVID-19 restrictions, McCormick believes STA still had a successful first semester.

“If there’s anything we need to learn it’s to be adaptable, flexible, compassionate, patient and understanding,” McCormick said. B A photo depicting sophomore Paloma Gordon’s virtual desk set-up Feb. 2. She has been virtual all semester and does school from her bedroom. photo courtesy of Paloma Gordon

Do you like in person or virtual school better?

Alternative Coverage by Caroline Hinkebein *out of 96 responses

67% In person

33% Virtual

14 FEATURE

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Shopping small, Brookside Toy and Science and The Corner Candleshop have adjusted to increasingly digitized marketplaces amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“

Story by Sophia Rall | Features Editor

I

think online shopping is terrible,” Brookside Toy and Science Owner Holly Pollard said. “But, it’s still necessary.”

Brookside Toy and Science launched its online store March 2020, as COVID-19 forced the temporary closure of many brickand-mortar stores. According to The New York Times, about 110,000 small businesses closed permanently between early March and early May 2020. Those that remained open had to adjust to state restrictions, such as limitations on customers allowed within the store or sanitizing requirements. Pollard expressed that it was difficult to recreate the experience of visiting the store in an online format.

“For my store, so much of what’s important is people coming in and talking to us and letting us help them find the right toy,” Pollard said. “It’s the experience. It’s like, we’re your friends, we’re here to help you make sure that that kid gets exactly the thing that’s going to just blow their socks off. Online, you’re just looking at merchandise — there’s no personality. It’s really difficult to make the online store pop the way that this store does.”

Brookside Toy and Science faces an unique challenge in selling products virtually: toys and games have a visual and tactile appeal that does not always translate to online formats. Pollard described the

ALternate coverage by mara callahan | Lifestyles editor

* poll out of 267 responses

situation as not ideal, but customers have worked around these challenges.

“Luckily, we have a very understanding and wonderful client base,” Pollard said.

“A lot of them have been in here, so they trust us and know that we tend to buy the higher quality stuff. I also think we stick to a lot of the same brands, so there’s brand recognition.”

The Corner Candleshop updated its website August 2020, when the store rebranded. Like Brookside Toy and Science, The Corner Candleshop experienced an increase in online sales since March.

“We have many repeat customers that are familiar with our candles and are not afraid to order online, or we try to put good descriptions online to describe the fragrances,” The Corner Candleshop owner Lori Woods said. “Our web business has continued to grow throughout the year, and we get new customers every day online.”

Although The Corner Candleshop has experienced success through its website, Woods acknowledged that there are differences between online shopping and visiting the brick-and-mortar store.

“Being in store is always best as you are able to sniff and see the product, but, like I mentioned, we try to do an excellent job relaying what the fragrance would smell like in our online descriptions,” Wood said.

Having online shops has opened up unique opportunities for both stores.

“Last year during Easter, we sold a lot of pre-bundled Easter baskets,” Pollard

15

DESIGNED BY SOPHIA RALL

shopping online said. “At that time, it was still early in the shutdown. Lots of people hadn’t been to a grocery store or CVS yet — they weren’t really ready to get out. So, we would prepack baskets and deliver them, and drop them on people’s doorsteps. They would pay online, and there was no contact at all. We did a lot of orders last year like that, and I plan for this year to be similar.”

An increase in online shopping during 2020 allowed for the growth of The Corner Candleshop’s clientele base. The store has shipped products to other states and even other countries. Woods describes online shopping as a convenience for customers.

“Sometimes, shopping from the comfort of your home is easier than getting in your car and driving there,” Woods said. “It allows for those that can’t get here during our store

hours to enjoy our products.”

Sophomore Alaina Durone frequently shops online, mainly for clothing, makeup and jewelry. From the consumer standpoint, she views online shopping as a convenient and safe alternative to shopping in-person.

However, she misses physically visiting stores.

“I really do enjoy the experience of going and shopping with my friends, trying stuff on and having a bunch of bags,” Durone said. “Now, all of my friends just hang out, watch a movie and online shop together.”

Freshman Sarah Schwaller also shops online for clothing and shoes, a habit she picked up in the last year. She describes online shopping as less overwhelming than shopping in large department stores, but she also misses being able to try on different

sizes of clothing in store. When she feels safe shopping in-person, she plans to utilize a mix of online and in-person shopping.

“I will of course get back into stores to try things on and have that available to me,” Schwaller said. “But, online shopping will still be a part of my life especially because there are some stores that simply aren’t available in Kansas City.”

Although COVID-19 has led to marketplaces becoming increasingly digitized, Pollard anticipates that customers will return to the store once able to.

“I do not expect our online sales to ever be anywhere near what they’ve been this year because of the pandemic,” Pollard. “I think once things are safe, and everybody can come back in, I think that’s where they will be shopping — in our store more.” B

Brookside Toy and Science’s website showcases it’s various types of products Feb. 1. The website allows for navigation between online checkout and product descriptions. photo courtesy of Brookside Toy and Science Website

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DESIGNED BY LAUREN BRACKNEY

the face of the NFL

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Story by Claire Smith and Rachel Robinson| Editor-in-Chiefs Photos by Ali Madden | Social Media Team Graphics by Lauren Brackney | Social Media Team

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Chiefs jersey at only 5 years old, Rixon has been surrounded by everything Chiefs. As the years have gone on, not only has Rixon grown but the team has as well.

“Growing up for my birthday, I would always ask for Chiefs tickets, that would be my one request — and most times, it would probably follow through,” Rixon said. “Growing up, when Alex Smith was our quarterback, I vividly remember the prices were so much cheaper. The team wasn’t what it is today, but Andy Reid was still thriving. I just vividly remember getting my first jersey when I was probably like, I don’t know, 5 — really young. And ever since then, I mean, I’ve just been a huge fan.”

Theology teacher Jennifer Greene has lived in Kansas City her entire life.

She grew up as a Chiefs fan, and from an early age, she loved watching games with her family.

“My earliest memories are watching football with my dad,” Greene said.

“And that’s how I learned — I mean, I’m not an expert on football, but anything I do know, I learned from my dad, so it’s fun. I have lots of good memories of that.”

Although her support of the Chiefs has been unwavering, Greene recalls

“I was shocked, and I was surprised,” Greene said, referring to the moment when she realized the Chiefs would be in the Super Bowl. “I was trying to prep myself for [a loss], you know, because as you probably know, being raised in Kansas City can be disappointing in the playoffs, and so there’s kind of a history there. But then, I was quite pleasantly surprised and it was very exciting. I’m really excited. It’s happening, but I don’t think it will ever be as magical as last year when they went and it happened.”

The ‘history’ that Greene is referring to regards the 50 year drought of never making it past the AFC championship pre-Super Bowl LIV. When the Chiefs made it to the AFC Championships in 2020 — and won — it was a monumental moment in Kansas City and NFL history.

“We actually went to the AFC Championship — that was my birthday gift,” Rixon said. “I was just like, ‘what is life’ — I felt like I was on cloud nine.

Then when we actually went to the Super Bowl and played San Fran, and we won, honestly like I’ve never felt that kind of joy. It was surreal. But then we went to the parade and it all finally kicked in, like how we won and how exciting it was for Kansas City in general.”

Patrick Mahomes

football player.

“The Chiefs have become something A fan before their national fame, that I never thought [they] would be Rixon has watched the team go from loss after loss to Super Bowl Champions. because of Mahomes,” Rixon said. “I She attributes this newfound success to think that he’s done a great job with fans. I think he’s done a great job, just in the players who have stepped up to the general. He’s providing the public with a challenge of becoming one of the most lot of positive energy.” successful teams in the NFL. Mahomes suffered an unspecified “We have a lot of great players this injury during a playoff game against season,” Rixon said. “[Clyde] Edwardsthe Buffalo Bills Jan. 17. Initially, he was Helaire is new. We’ve got Darrell thought to have a concussion but later Williams who stepped up — he’s a reports called the injury a “tweaked phenomenal running back … Travis Kelce is like the love of my life, I want to nerve.” Greene was worried for Mahomes at the time of the injury, but she trusts marry him. But we have a lot of players the people taking care of him. that have stepped up to the plate this “Oh, it was really scary,” Greene said. year. I think that we didn’t just take “You know, it was hard to see. And I that win last year; we didn’t take it for know that there was a lot of discussion granted, we came back this season.

We’re gonna do it again. We’re not going that week, then, you know, of people saying ‘Don’t put him in, like, don’t risk to just slack off this year.”

Patrick Mahomes has gained national his entire future for this game coming up this weekend if he hasn’t had time fame due to his astounding success as to heal.’ And I do worry about that. the Chiefs’ star quarterback. Before But then, you know, you just want to the starting lineup, Mahomes was the trust the people around him that they backup quarterback for Alex Smith — wouldn’t do that, that they wouldn’t put the Chiefs previous Q.B. According to him in danger.”

NBC Sports, Mahomes has a passer Coach Kelly Donohoe is the head rating “of 108.7, topping Deshaun football coach at Rockhurst High Watson‘s 104.5, Aaron Rodgers‘ 103.9, School. He served as the Blue Springs Russell Wilson‘s 101.7 and Drew Brees‘s 98.7,” and holds the post season record. High School head coach for the past 20 years — making this his first year In short: Mahomes is an extraordinary

at Rockhurst. He has experience maintaining a strong football program, as well as maintaining top-tier high school athletes. With that comes an emphasis on handling injuries properly.

“We tell our guys, especially the head injuries — that’s a real serious one — we tell them if you have any kind of head injury at all, you’ve got to, you’ve got to go see Paul,” Donohoe said.

“The problem that guys have with that sometimes is they’re they — and I’m not saying our guys do that, I’m talking about every kid that plays football in the country… I think most of the kids will try to play through injury if it’s not serious, you know, if it’s a strained hamstring or growing or they’re having a shoulder that bothers them. They’re going to try to play through that.”

Donohoe broke down what really occurred to Mahomes in the game against the Cleveland Browns, and why it was perceived as a concussion.

“The defensive lineman wrung his neck and squeezed him real tight,” Donohoe said. “What it did was actually that, the injury wasn’t a concussion, but his blood got cut off for a sec, which caused him to get woozy — it looks like a concussion. So even though it was listed as a concussion, he really wasn’t concussed. But having said that, the

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NFL and college football in high school football, they are really, really strict on the protocol for concussions.”

In a press conference Jan. 22, Mahomes was asked by reporter Karen Kornacki about his “attitude that nothing was going to let [him] miss the AFC championship game” and the “determination that [fans] know him so well for.” Mahomes declined to acknowledge possessing this mentality and affirmed his trust in his doctors and the NFL injury protocols.

“Yeah, I mean, you wanna be out there, but you have to go through the protocol and you have to do everything the right way,” Mahomes said. “You have to look at it long term as much as you look at it short term. What with going to the doctors, talking to all the doctors and going through the testing. We have the belief that there will be no lingering effects and that I’ll be able to go out there and be myself and be who I am every single week.”

Mahomes has gone from being the face of Kansas City to the face of the NFL. Donohoe notes his rise to popularity due to his down-to-earth demeanor.

“One thing that’s really, really cool about Mahomes that makes everybody love him so much, is he’s humble,”

Donohoe said. “I think that’s why Mahomes is so popular with the fans is because he comes across as real. He comes across as somebody that cares a lot about his teammates, as much as himself or more. And I think that’s what endears him to his teammates and our fans... Everything he says is always really positive.”

A different reporter from the press conference asked Mahomes Jan. 22 about how it felt to be coming up on the biggest game of the season against the Buffalo Bills.

“You just have to take it day by day,” Mahomes said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. You can only control what you can control and for me, that was coming in every single day with a positive attitude, trying to make myself better, prepare myself as if I was going to play and luckily enough, I haven’t had any symptoms, and I am able to play.”

Now that the Chiefs have established themselves as a winning team — and Mahomes as a winning Q.B. — there is an overflowing confidence in their ability for success.

“Three years ago, if you talked about us winning, like the AFC Championship, we all would have just started doing some kind of crazy worm dance down the hallway,” Donohoe said. “We won it last year, we won the Super Bowl. Then this year, we went into it, and it’s like we all expected to beat the Bills, and it’s a different feeling. There’s so much confidence that we have because of mostly Mahomes and Andy Reid.”

The immense amount of hype that

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RUN IT BACK RUN IT BACK SUPER BOWL LV R U N I T B A C K R U N I T B A C K Super Bowl LV was a devastating for the Chiefs. It is the first game R U N I T B A C K R U N I T B A C Kloss that Mahomes has lost by double digits.

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R U N I T B A C K R U N I T B A C K Greene tried to listen to the game R U N I T B A C K R U N I T B A C Kwhile driving back to Kansas City from Wichita in a snowstorm, but the R U N I T B A C K R U N I T B A C Kcombination of the icy roads and the disappointing score were N IisT anBimmense R U N ofI Tpressure B A C Kincreasingly A C K amount R Uthere overwhelming to her.

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performance on Feb. 7 to a variety of factors, from overall nervousness to mediocre offensive plays.

“Overall our team was not playing our game — I don’t know if that’s because of the incident that happened with Andy Reid’s son or if it was nervous energy,” Rixon said. “Mahomes needed to be a leader last night and get his team going but I did not see much of that. We will recover from this but our offense needs to start working on better communication. No matter if we win or lose, I will always be a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs.” b

K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K

20MAIN EDITORIAL

American Consumerism Creates Toxic Environments for Professional Football Players

ccording to NFL.com, there have been upwards of 200 incidents related to concussions every year in the league since 2012. However, these injuries can sometimes be put aside or ignored depending on how the team, coach and the player feel about the significance of the damage.

During the 2021 AFC Divisional Playoff Game, Kansas City quarterback Mahomes was taken out of the game and placed in concussion protocol; meaning it was unclear whether he would play in the AFC Championship or not. Mahomes was out for the rest of the game in order to recover, but he played the next game, which was only six days after his injury.

It ocasionally seems like the fans care more about winning the game than the players’ physical health, unless the injuries during the game affect their fantasy football team. In fantasy football, if a player gets hurt, people with that certain player on their team will end up losing points.

Many segments of football, including video games, reinforce harmful relationships. Games, such as “Madden,” allow people to unlock certain football players to use as their characters. In order to unlock these players, people have to have a certain amount of points.

Depending on how many points each player is worth, the professionals can start to feel dehumanized and that in order to be worth more points they need to beat another team or player.

Fans also contribute to unhealthy relationships in the NFL. Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs went up against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Superbowl LV. Brady has had a reputation in the league since the 2012 Superbowl, when he was accused of cheating; and it has never receded him. Fans of both the Chiefs and the Buccaneers have pitted these famous quarterbacks against each other.

Players are often unable to demonstrate their political and/ or religious beliefs due to the fans disagreeing with them. The NFL dealt with these issues when Colin Kaepernick kneeled and protested during the “National Anthem” in order to call attention to racial inequality and police brutality. Forbes wrote an article, confirming that the NFL was losing millions of TV viewers because of the Kaepernick-led protests. Because the league can’t risk losing the money generated by viewers, they don’t want to bring politics into football. According to CNBC, in order to protect themselves and

RIGHT ON TARGET

Senior Marisa Araujo

“The players have pressure to win all year and then the Super Bowl comes and America treats it like a holy day. Then when they lose everyone is so angry with them and the other team. The emotions that come from watching a game of football are usually really explosive.

I can’t imagine coming back to KC as a football player who lost the Super Bowl. I feel really bad for them because so many people are so disappointed just because of one game.”

the players, the National Football League now requires all players to stand and show respect for the flag or stay off the field during the “National Anthem.”

However, the NFL players are the best at what they do. Thousands of people play football, and only a small amount of players make it to the top, so this difficult lifestyle of being a product of consumerism is expected. Not many people can make it to the NFL, so they must’ve wanted to be there in order to prove themselves. The players might not even feel like they are in a toxic environment because of the millions of dollars they make each year.

According to the Kansas City Star, people who are Chiefs fans can look back at 2020 and see that they had at least one shining moment over the bleak year, which was their love for the team; the Chiefs have given Kansas City citizens a sense of pride and community.

However, the fans can take this sense of pride and twist it into something alarming. The fans can form the players into idols who are seen as superhuman.

Despite the fact these football players are the best of the best at what they do, they are still human beings and we need to start treating them like so. b

A

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

13/17 staffers agree

Sophomore Zoë Hoss

“We definitely do hold our players to a super high standard. I mean just look at Mahomes and the Chiefs’ loss in the Super Bowl. A lot of people expected him to play a perfect game (which is unrealistic) and expected him to bring home the Lombardi trophy. It adds to the pressure that the players already put on themselves and a lot of them end up in this really toxic perfectionist mindset where all they expect is the absolute best which once again is unrealistic.”

DESIGNED BY CLAIRE SMITH

My Ode to Her’s

PERSPECTIVES

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That band of Her’s; my happiest hello and saddest goodbye.

Story by Lauren Brackney | Social Media Team

I

found my first love when I was 14 and its name was “Marcel,” a song written by the band Her’s. Since then I have fallen into a healthy obsession with the band, composed of Stephen Fitzpatrick and Auden Laading.Their music had reached me like no other band had before, with their sweet lyrics about love and friendship to their more lonesome and sad lyrics that touched my heart.

My first encounter with Her’s was in fall 2018. I was watching a youtube video by Marla Catherine when she played a little snippet of a song from her phone. The song only played for a few seconds, but something about it just made me feel all tingly and excited. The way the lyrics flowed so smoothly into one another gave me goosebumps. I couldn’t make out what they were saying in the snip, but I could still feel how much emotion they put into the song. I kept replaying the scene over and over until I could make out a few words so I could look up the lyrics and find the name of the song — “Marcel” by Her’s.

This was my first time meeting Her’s and the first time that I saw the golden, red sun rays shining on the purple water of the cover. I was hooked. I had to hear more from them! I sought out more of their music, listening to their albums, “Invitation to Her’s” and “Songs of Her’s.” I tried to space out their music so that I wouldn’t spoil it all by listening to them so quickly.

Over the next year, “Marcel” was consistently my favorite song by the duo.

It had the fewest lyrics out of any song but something about it has always stuck with me. The title of the song also has the cutest backstory. Fitzpatrick and Laading were shopping at a vintage shop when they found an old wallet with an ID inside it, belonging to no other than a man named Marcel! They wanted to return the ID to him but he had already passed so instead they dedicated a song to him.

The first time I read that, I bawled. I

thought that that was the sweetest thing that I had ever heard, and it made me like the artists behind my favorite song so much more. I could tell that they were genuinely nice people who love vintage shopping, who would go out of their way to return an old 80’s ID card to a mustached Marcel. Every time I played “Marcel” from that moment out, I would tell whoever I was with the back story since it was too good not to share and every time it would make me tear up.

I had never had an emotional connection to a band before but somehow this amazing duo from Liverpool had made their way into my heart. With only two full released albums, I was able to sort through them and find exactly the right songs to play to match my mood. Whenever I was happy I would play “Harvey” or “Love on the Line.”

When I was sad I would play “You don’t know this guy” or “Cool with you.” Anytime that I shuffled my playlists and one of their songs would come on, it had the power to instantly change my mood.

By my 16th birthday I knew that I had to meet them. I was begging my mom to take me to England so we could go to one of their concerts. I couldn’t find any active concerts on their website, but I still wanted to go just on the off chance I would run into them in a vintage shop. My mom humored me by saying that we could go when I was older, as a graduation gift.That little bit of hope was enough for me. Unfortunately it didn’t last very long.

January 2020 I was trying to find information about concerts when I found the opposite. An article titled “UK band Her’s killed in head-on crash in Arizona,” destroyed me. I read the name of the article over and over trying to make sense of it.

It was impossible, they couldn’t be dead. I read the article still not believing it, they had to be talking about someone else! But no, there were more more articles, and all of them contained the same terrible fate.

I had never met the members of the

band and yet believe I went through all seven stages of grief. I was shocked to say the least. I was supposed to see them live, become best friends with them; I felt so guilty for not knowing. They had passed back in March but I wouldn’t find out until January of the next year. I felt fake, like I didn’t even know them and that I was wrong for saying that they were my favorite band yet I didn’t know the most significant thing about them.

I remember while I was driving, shortly after getting my license, one of their songs, “You don’t know this guy” started to play; my eyes started to water so heavily causing my vision to fade, and I had to pull over.

All of their sad songs that had made me tear up in the past hadn’t made me feel the way that I felt that moment. It was like listening to them for the first time, they were completely new songs to me. I wanted to take all of their pain away that they expressed in their songs. They deserved only to be happy and only the best the world had to offer.

I didn’t feel like myself for a long time, but I eventually started to accept what had happened. I felt like I owed them something since they had given me so much joy. I bought their albums on vinyl, it felt good knowing that I could financially show support to their families in what little way I could. It also felt good being able to have something physical to remember them by; proof of their talent that I could share for years to come.

From my experience with that band of Her’s, I could tell that they were dreamers who had so much love for the world that it poured into all of their songs. I can never express to them how much they mean to me and how they unknowingly have helped me through some of my most depressing, difficult moments. I cannot dedicate a song to them in the same way they dedicated the song to Marcel, so for now, this is my ode to Her’s. B

22 PERSPECTIVES

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Ya Like Jazz?

Jazz for me has never been just a genre, let alone elevator, background music. To me, to make a genre a lifestyle rather than simply a favorite, is the only way to ensure its survival.

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“

lue in Green” by Miles Davis will always remind me of my dad. The man likes jazz, but he loves Miles Davis. The music that filled the house while cooking dinner or lounging in the living room has been the crescendos of trumpeters like Chris Bottii and outstanding pianists such as Thelonious Monk. I grew into actively loving jazz about sophomore year of high school. When I began to dive into it on my own, a whole world opened up to me. A world that is far too underappreciated by the most teenagers.

Last winter, my family and I attended a jazz show at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, which has served as one of America’s epicenters of jazz since 1981.

When I was there, a 22 year old woman named Veronica Swift performed. She had the style of Ella Fitzgerald with the spunk of Gen Z — raunchy, young, and utterly cool. Swift serves as a figure of revival in young generations, acting as a wormhole through time reaching back and pulling jazz towards the present. But her and many artists attempting the time grab are grossly under appreciated.

Gen Z serves as a catalyst of what artists will be propelled into timeless fame and what artists will die out into “classics.”

While Veronica Swift may be on repeat on my dad’s Spotify, if her audience does not expand to Gen Z’s ears, then her music could be lost with the style of jazz that she utilizes.

Kansas City deserves to be more widely recognized by local teens for its rich jazz history. 18th and Vine serves as the center

Columns on the DNO:

Story by Claire Smith | Editor-in-Chief of the jazz district, lined with jazz clubs and a turquoise-colored statue of the great saxophonist, Charlie Parker. Parker was born and raised in KC before becoming one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

For a city that owes much of its historic development to the jazz movement, the knowledge of it dies with each passing generation.

There is one hole-in-the-wall place that stands as a shrine for jazz: Downbeat Coffee + Tea. A bit off the beaten path in the realm of KC coffee shops. It is one of the few places I have found that makes an effort to champion jazz outside of formalities, such as structured museums or typical jazz bars.

The shop is located on the top floor of a light blue house on 39th street, and immediately upon entering, black and white photos of great jazz musicians such as John Coltrane greet you. There is also a huge vintage stereo set that is consistently playing some type of jazz. It has other quirks such as featuring different KCbased artists on the walls of the shop or a grand piano sitting in the corner next to an old couch, but the construction of a jazz atmosphere is what keeps me coming back.

I highly recommend visiting yourself if you’re ever in the area.

I am constantly hearing the want for “new music recommendations” among my peers. I also recognize that there is a growing hunger to expand music taste horizons, especially with an expansive digital library at our fingertips. My recommendation to you now would be jazz of course — late 50s early 60s is my favorite era — but I also want to show you that you

An ode to the years of my youth

By Sydney Allen | Photo Editor

can implement any underappreciated genre of music into your lifestyle beyond just listening to it.

Understanding the depth of a genre past pressing play on Spotify is what keeps that genre alive. In a world where creating music is easier than ever — and anybody can become a SoundCloud rapper — making an effort to preserve dying genres is more important than ever.

One of my recommendations for understanding the depth of a genre is understanding the main figures behind the genre. I personally love reading up on explanations of the different styles per artist and how they contributed to the shift of a genre as a whole. Even just gaining a basic understanding of the specific time period you find yourself drawn to will make a huge difference. In that, understanding the historical context behind the genre is just as important as the features within it.

Jazz is the perfect example of a genre that in of itself has been left to die. The intricacies of model jazz — improvisation with chords — and speaking up about the oppressions of Black people — Billie Holiday with “Blood on the Leaves” — has been lost to using it as background music in an elevator. Today, a jazz song is seen as music you play at brunch to talk over.

So please do yourself a favor: listen to jazz, take it in as more than what it has become and live vicariously through your favorite genres because their rich histories deserve more than to gather dust on the shelf of music. B

Dear Soccer,

By Sophia Rall | Features Editor

DESIGNED BY CLAIRE SMITH

I’ll be sitting out this Valentine’s

23

I miss the good old days when Valentine’s Day was the day you had a party and got a lot of candy from your friends and classmates in elementary school. Now, there’s so much emphasis on having a partner for Valentine’s that the day is ruined for me.

Story by Lily Sage | Opinion Editor

A

s Joel from “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” once said “Valentine’s Day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.” I couldn’t tell you if I believe that companies such as Hallmark could be this greedy or if it was truly a holiday created in order to celebrate the ones we love. All I know is that I am over Valentine’s Day. I have a love-hate relationship with this lovey-dovey holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love watching iconic, cringey romantic-comedies such as “How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days” and “10 Things I Hate About You.” I also enjoy eating my feelings with all the chocolate and candy that my mom, who happens to be my valentine every year, got for me. But the one thing that I cannot stand about this holiday — you probably already know where I’m going with this — is how I have never been able to spend it with that special someone.

The negative outlook I have on this holiday stems from the same source. You guessed it! Society. I blame society for putting such a great emphasis on having a significant other for this holiday. I feel like I am constantly seeing advertisements that say “Dinner for 2” or jewlery stores that always have some sort of sale going on during the beginning of February; and let me tell you, I’m sick of it. Personally, it almost feels like I’m inept, or even flawed, because I’m not spending Valentine’s Day in a romantic partnership. Even if you say

you don’t need anybody on this holiday, it’s inevitable that you will get somewhat jealous of the other grand gestures that people are doing for their partners. I try to keep in mind that being by myself is totally normal and that I’m one of millions that will be spending the holiday solo, but I still feel a slight heartache.

I feel nostalgic thinking about how in elementary school, classes would end early and the whole grade would hold a party to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The part I miss the most is how every person would get a valentine; no one was ever left out and it always gave you a warm feeling knowing that you were an important part of someone else’s life. My favorite valentine that I ever received was last year from one of my best friends, and she gave me a giant card and teddy bear; which I have both in my room still to this day. Now I sit around moping about not going out and celebrating.

For the past couple of years, my friends and I have found some way to celebrate the less mainstream holiday, that is known as Galentine’s Day; this holiday is celebrated on Feb. 13, one day before Valentine’s Day. One of my favorite television characters, Leslie Knope from “Parks and Recreation,” defines Galentine’s Day as, “only the best day of the year.” This holiday is the perfect way to get my mind off of my relationship status because I am able to spend time with those who mean the most to me. This time together is priceless and one of my top priorities. The best part of Galentine’s Day

Why everyone needs to be cognizant of the Law of Attraction

By Katie Massman | Dart Sports Editor

is that it can be celebrated multiple times throughout the year.

Overall, I do enjoy Valentine’s Day, but I despise the stigma surrounding it, indicating that you must have a partner in order to celebrate the holiday correctly.

This year I will be spending the day solo, for the 18th time, but it’s ok because I will be making the most of it.

If you are solo as well, I have a few suggestions for you. First, make sure that you are spreading the love to everyone in your life, because by doing something special for a friend, you could make your day 10 times better. Second, definitely watch one of those cringey rom-coms I was talking about earlier; Parade.com has a list of the 25 Best Valentine’s Day Movies for Singles.

Third, stuff yourself with all the candy you want because you deserve it. And finally, there’s always next year.. B

24 SPORTS FEATURE

BREAKING the gender barrier

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Sarah Fuller’s recent score in a Power 5 football game has brought attention to women’s involvement in contact sports that are perceived as male-dominated.

V

anderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller made history Nov. 28, 2020 when she kicked a field goal and scored, making her the first female collegiate football player to score in a Power 5 football game. Since, she has inspired young female athletes to engage more in male-dominated sports and was invited to attend the Presidential Inauguration.

“I really think it’s cool, especially for younger girls who are growing up now and seeing what sport they want to go into, to see girls in sports that typically are played by men, when female teams don’t even exist,” senior Juliet Barnett said.

Barnett played on a co-ed rugby team when she was in seventh grade.

Many contact sports are dominated by male players which gives female athletes limited opportunities to play single sex contact sports. Barnett’s rugby team was co-ed with around five other girls on her team. She remembered that the environment playing for a coed team was different than playing for a typical all women’s team.

“I think it is different because obviously there’s boys, but I felt like there was a little bit of a competition, like you had to prove yourself for being a girl in this sport,” Barnett said. “For me that wasn’t that bad because it was more just for fun like to get together with friends kind of thing, rather than a fully competitive environment.”

Barnett no longer plays the sport but now hopes to get back into the game in college with encouragement from STA’s weightlifting and sports performance coach Amanda Hull. Hull plays for the Kansas City Jazz women’s rugby team and is striving toward playing for the

Story by Lauren Brackney | Social Media Team

Kansas City Force women’s football team.

“I like that [rugby] gives you the opportunity to see how far you can push yourself,” Hull said. “In the summer in Missouri, like at the Sevens Games, they’re kind of faster, so you have to sprint a lot more and there’s lots of people on the field so situations where you see how hard you can push yourself.”

Coaching gives Hull the opportunity to inspire STA students to succeed in any sport they choose. “[Strength and conditioning] is a male-dominated field too, especially at the collegiate level, having a woman in any aspect that is usually coached by a male or taught by male is really powerful, and so to have girls seeing that they can lift weights and they can play rugby and tackle people is really important,” Hull said.

Current Rockhurst football coach Kelly Donohoe has coached football for over 25 years. During all his years of coaching football, he has only coached male students with one exception.

“I did coach a girl in 1993 or [199]4 at Blue Springs South, but that wasn’t a very good experience,” Donohoe said.

“At the first or second practice she broke her arm really bad and it was a really tough thing to work through.”

After this experience, Donohoe became more aware of the safety of his players, especially women and small, male players.

check out the entire STORY on Dart News Online

“I think coaches are very worried about the safety of their players, and my experience with the girl that came out that one year and had a very bad broken arm, it makes me very worried because it is a very physical, sometimes very violent sport with really big, strong guys,” Donohoe said.

The physical aspect of many contact sports and more attention on male athletes has created a gender barrier that prevents many female athletes from playing the sport.

“I think it’s slowly getting broken down,” Hull said. “I think the more women that play contact sports and talk about it, the more those barriers are going to go away. And just having them be around women playing contact sports and having them realize that even though it’s women playing with women it’s still the same game.

They’re still playing hard.”B

Weight room Coach Amanda Hull plays rugby pre-COVID-19.

Hull has been playing rugby since she was in college. photo courtesy of Amanda Hull

DESIGNED BY CARMON BAKER

SPORTS UPDATES

What you missed in sports.....

25

National Sports News

Kansas City Chiefs prepare for Super Bowl

The Chiefs have made many adaptations this year in preparation for the 2021 Super Bowl due to COVID-19. There will be limited seating, with only 22,000 fans in the stands. Along with none of the regular Super Bowl festivities that take place a week prior. Such as partying the week before and practicing on the field the game will take place on. The Chiefs will actually be waiting to fly down to Tampa the day before and have been practicing at their home stadium so far. Information courtesy of ChiefsWire

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

College basketball goes on pause

Many Big Ten teams including Michigan have decided to take a two week break from playing in order to prevent spread amongst their student athletes. With worry about the unknown of how contagious COVID-19 is, many teams have paused all activity as of January in order to stay safe. Oregon too has recently ordered a cancelation during January for their games against USC and UCLA. Information courtesy of NCAA BB Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Detroit Lions trade quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams

The Lions recently assembled a new front office and staff, including their new head coach Dan Campbell. Right after this switch, quarterback Matthew Stafford requested an offseason trade. Stafford will be transferring to the Los Angeles Rams in return for two first-round picks, one third-round pick and a new quarterback. Information courtesy of Detroit News

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.

Athlete of the Issue

Coming up FEBRUARY

FEBRUARY

JV and Varsity basketball vs. Sion at STA.

Swim Varsity State at St. Peters Rec-Plex.

18

20

MARIE BRUCK MARCH

1

Spring Sports tryouts start.

Marie Bruck is a senior STAR on STA’s swim team. Bruck has been swimming since she was 10, and always knew she wanted to continue on the swim team in highschool. lthough COVID-19 has affected the meets by not allowing viewers, Bruck keeps a positive attitude. “With keeping a positive mindset you can accomplish your goals,” Bruck said. “Telling myself that I was gonna do that, then I would do it, because I would be more motivated.” Bruck is a positive influence throughout the swim team and encourages others to stay positive and work hard.

26 COMMUNITY

Domestic Violence Spike in Kansas CIty An over 20% domestic violence spike in Kansas City during COVID-19 lockdown has given shelters new and unique problems with helping the increased victims while following COVID-19 protocols.

Story and Graphics by Sydney Waldron | Design Editor

FERUARY 11, 20202

DESIGNED BY SYDNEY WALDRON

family or friends as a part of their abuse, so they don’t have people they can turn to,” Whitcomb said. “If that is the case, especially for someone who has children, to have a safe place to go is everything.”

Jess Harman, advocacy and education manager at Rose Brooks domestic violence shelter, also believes in the importance of having a place to go especially in lower income communities, “If someone in a higher socioeconomic class is experiencing domestic violence more than likely, but not always, they have the resources to be able to leave and get a

“I People seek power and control in many different ways and unfortunately abuse can be an unhealthy way of doing so Amanda Whitcomb

“

A

s Kansas City and the world faced the COVID-19 pandemic many faced the reality of being stuck at home due to lockdown orders. This caused an unexpected spike in domestic abuse in Kansas City.

According to a statement made by the Kansas City Police department, domestic violence rose 22% in 2020. Student counselor Amanda Whitcomb believes this is due to abusers having more access to their victims.

“I think that it is just simply because everyone is at home more often,” Whitcomb said. “With abusers at home they have more access to the people they are abusing, and this heightens the abuse.” b belives that lack of control can play an important part in domestic abuse.

“Abuse is about power and control,” Whitcomb said. “People seek power and control in many different ways and unfortunately abuse can be an unhealthy way of doing so.”

Whitcomb believes that this need for power and control is also a reason why over 85% of victim survivors are women. She also thinks that culture affects the way men view themselves and women.

“In our society men are conditioned to believe that they must be strong and they must be powerful, and men don’t show emotion, don’t cry, while women are the opposite,” Whitcomb said. “If there is a man who is raised to be strong and powerful and has a woman or someone in his life that challenges this power, abuse can very quickly come into the situation.”

Despite the horrors that victims often face, according to government statistics for domestic violence, it takes a victim survivor an average of seven tries before they finally leave their abusers. Whitcomb believes that this is out of fear.

“When their abuser feels that they are losing their power, that is when it can become the most dangerous,” Whitcomb said. “Oftentimes people in these situations can be threatened by the abuser saying, “if you go and get help I will kill you,” and that can be a very real threat and a very scary threat.”

With all the strength and courage that it takes to leave, Whitcomb believes that local shelters are an important place for people to have somewhere to go.

“It just gives people a place to go because oftentimes they have been isolated from

new place to live and fly somewhere new, or start over and not involve the police,” Harman said. “But if you don’t have money or resources, where do you go?”

Poverty as well as race play an important role in abuse. According to a study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black and Indiginous women domestic violence rates are 30 to 50% higher than what is experienced by white, non-Hispanic, Hispanic and Asian women.

Harman believes that this is due to white supremacist culture.

“I think that marginalized groups and races are oppressed,” Harman said,“I think that they have a limited freedom from violence, and what it means to be Black, Latin X, Asian, Indieginous or a person of color in a white supremacist culture is that you are you are unable to escape from a culture of violence that has become normalized.”

Along with history and culture Harman believes that the much higher statistics are because of the statistics gathered.

“These statistics are gathered from police

27

reports, and there’s a definite over policing of Black neighborhoods,” Harman said.

“I also think that people with financial means in middle to upper class socially economic neighborhoods, that there is less inclination to involve the police because of reputation and money” Rose Brooks through their many programs such as: clinical help, substance abuse help, employment and housing, and medical help works to help those with nowhere else to go to help get their life back on track and this is why Harman chose to work there.

“I chose to work at Rose Brooks because of the breadth and depth of their programs,” Harman said. “When someone comes into the shelter they are assigned an advocate, a clinician and a case manager.

This helps to alleviate the burden of trying to seek that out because people have it available to them day one.”

Harman also recognizes the changes that Rose brooks has had to make this past year due to COVID-19 and the spikes in domestic violence.

“Around the KCMO metro area there are six shelters, and everyone took a different approach, what we decided to do immediately was rehouse everyone,” Harman said. “We rehoused everyone in hotels, but we still provided them with the same programs they would have but just providing them with their own rooms.”

Harman feels that by doing this Rose brooks was able to prioritize the thing it values most—safety. She also recognises that this would not have been able to happen without the support of the community.

“Our first response was making sure that we were ensuring safety,” Harman said.

“What has happened over 2020 is that through the support of the community, we have received funding and donations to the extent that we have changed our shelter that we now can house people in their own individual rooms.”

Harman believes that community support is not only an important role in shelters but also an important role in stopping domestic violence as a whole.

“Abusers win by making victim survivors feel alone,” Harman said. “By having a supportive community that doesn’t blame survivor victims, but supports and protects them we can end the cycle of domestic violence.”

28 LAST LOOK

What

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

rom com

are you?

Compiled by Grace Ashley | Multimedia Editor

1. What city would you want to live in?

a) New York City

b) Los Angeles

c) Seattle

d) Portland

5. What genre of music do you like best?

a) Jazz

b) Pop

c) Punk

d) Indie

2. Pick a decade!

a) 1980s

b) 1990s

c) 2000s

d) 2010s

6. What is your ideal date? a) Dinner and a walk through the park

b) Shopping

c) Concert

d) Baking at home

3. What is the most romantic? a) A New Years kiss b) Catching the bouquet at a wedding, winning your significant other $200 c) Serenading your significant other in front of the entire school d) Sending love letters 4. Pick a color!

a) Grey

b) Yellow

c) Red

d) Pink 8. What is something you can’t live without?

a) Friends

b) Your wardrobe

c) Personal space

d) Family

7. What is your favorite season?

a) Fall

b) Summer

c) Spring

d) Winter 9. If you had to be an animal, which one would you be?

a) Cat

b) Pomeranian

c) Raccoon

d) Hamster 10. Pick an event to plan!

a) A cross-country road trip b) Your dad’s 50th birthday party

c) A school-wide protest

d) A ski-trip

DESIGNED BY GRACE ASHLEY If you answered mostly A’s...

You probably value being known by a person without having to fear their judgement or the possibility of broken trust. You like to take things slow, like the main character of this movie, and you likely cherish any relationship where you can just be yourself.

Going from hating each other to becoming best friends to finally falling in love, Harry and Sally’s story is one of the most unique and realistically funny tales the rom com genre has to offer.

They both move to New York City right after graduating from the University of Chicago, and somehow find each other again and again whenever they seem to need it most.

If you answered mostly C’s...

You definitely value independence and honesty in any kind of relationship, whether that’s romantic or platonic, and you’re not quick to forgive after someone wrongs you. You have your limits, and you’re not afraid to tell people they have crossed them, even though, like main character Kat, you’re really just a big softie beneath it all.

In this modern take of “The Taming of the Shrew,” Kat is asked out by school bad-boy Patrick, who was paid by another guy who wanted to date Kat’s sister Bianca. Of course, a total mess ensues as Kat and Patrick fall for each other and their secrets are discovered.

29

If you answered mostly B’s...

I’m totally buggin’! You’re probably the type of person that likes to help people, even if that kind spirit can backfire sometimes. You like to bring out the best in everyone, so you try your hardest to do just that! In the end, all you really want is to be seen by the people you love and for you to see them right back, which makes you a lot like the protagonist in this movie.

This 90s classic follows Cher, a rich California teen, as she tries to navigate friendships, school and falling for the one guy she thought she couldn’t stand.

If you answered mostly D’s...

You’re probably a bit of a sentimentalist. Your walls are likely covered in pictures of loved ones, or maybe tickets to shows and drawings, and you value family at your core. However, you tend to put other people first way too much and need to learn how to take care of yourself before you take care of others, making you a lot like this movie’s protagonist.

Lara Jean writes love letters to every single crush she ever has and keeps them in a special box where they will never see the light of day. But when her little sister finds the letters and sends them out, things get a little bit messy for her, seeing that one of the letters is addressed to her sister’s ex-boyfriend.

FEBRUARY 12, 2021

30 PHOTO ESSAY

Expressions in Dance

Over the summer of 2020, the studio I have been dancing at since I was three, Expressions in Dance, relocated to a new studio. With 2021 being my last year at the studio, I wanted to honor it.

Photos by Josie Fox | Opinion Editor

Owner of Expressions in Dance, Raven Cooper’s chair and beat stick resting at the head of the classroom Jan. 27. Cooper taps the stick on the floor to keep her students on beat with music for combinations and this one in particular was hand-painted by a former student.

Expressions in DAnce owner, Raven Cooper, photographed in 2011. Cooper founded the studio in 1991. Photo by scott thomas photography

Space markers for younger students at the new Expressions in Dance studio Jan. 27. Floor markers are helpful when teaching younger students positions and spacing in dance.

Ballet bars from the original Expressions in Dance studio are now mounted on the new studio’s walls Jan. 27. Uneven and disconnected bars have been a common theme of the studio since I started dancing at the age of three.

31

DESIGNED BY JOSIE FOX

THE DART/DNO STAFF 2020-2021 ADVISOR

Riley Cowing

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

COPY

WEB

Features Editor

Web Editor

Sophia Rall

Carmon Baker

Design Editors

Opinion Editors

Multimedia Editor

Sydney Waldron

Lily Sage, Josie Fox

Grace Ashley

Photo Editors

Lifestyles Editor

Breaking News Editor

Sydney Allen, Rebecca Speier

Mara Callahan

Lucy Doerflinger

Page Designers

Sports Editor

Social Media Editor

Claire Smith, Rachel Robinson

PRINT

Rebecca Speier, Claire Smith, Rachel Robinson, Sydney Waldron, Sophia Rall, Lauren Brackney, Carmon Baker, Sydney Allen, Grace Ashley, Josie Fox

Katie Massman, Caroline Hinkebein

Ali Madden

Staff Writers

Lauren Brackney, Ali Madden, Kyra Fieger

Ellie Buttell

Social Media Team

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ON THE DNO Check out online exclusive stories, galleries and more at www.dartnewsonline.com

Dart in the Quad by Grace Ashley

Valentine’s Vibes Gallery by Sydney Waldron

Student thoughts on local politicians by Josie Fox

An ode to the years of my youth by Sydney Allen

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