The Southerner Volume 66, Issue 1

HENRY W. GRADY HIGH SCHOOL, ATLANTA

VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 1

SEPT. 6, 2012

By Isabelle Taft uring her first week at Grady as a freshman more than three years ago, Alexis* walked into the courtyard after school and was literally swept off her feet by an older boy. The senior put her backpack in a tree and set her down on top of the hill, where two girls grabbed Alexis by her feet and dragged her down the hill toward the lower courtyard, leaving bloody scratches on her back.

At the beginning of her senior year, Alexis was finally ready to get even—by doing to freshmen what had been done to her. “[Getting dragged] was one of the reasons I wanted to drag, because ever since then, I’ve been like ‘revenge!’” Alexis said.

On the first and second days of school, Aug. 6 and 7, Alexis and her friends rounded up freshmen after school and herded them to Piedmont Park. There, the seniors kept alive the Grady tradition of “dragging” by pulling the freshmen down a hill in the park’s meadow. Seniors took the unprecedented step of using zip-ties to bind freshmen’s hands.

“Once we got over to Piedmont, the girls were like zip-tying [hands] and spraying silly string and then one person got dragged, and it just kind of got crazy, like three people getting dragged connected to each other,” senior Austen Denenny said.

Photo by Kate Marani, illustration by Lauren Ogg

DRAGGING: IT’S A GRADY RITE, BUT IS IT RIGHT? D

AND THEY ALL FALL DOWN: Despite administrative opposition, seniors carry out various hazing traditions to initiate freshmen each year.

The event prompted two parents and a woman who was jogging in the park and is not affiliated with Grady to contact administrators. In response, assistant principals Rodney Howard and David Propst called a senior meeting on the third day of

school. Howard said anyone caught dragging freshmen could be expelled and even face charges for assault, harassment or false imprisonment due to the use of zip-ties as a restraint.

“Yes, you will be sent to jail because you are of age,” Howard said

at the meeting. “If you get caught, seniors, I promise you, we will do whatever we can to remove you from Grady High School.”

After the meeting, seniors eschewed the dragging planned for the rest of the week, although freshmen

seemed to expect further hazing. “[Freshmen] were all sitting over there across the street on the hill waiting for us [on Friday afternoon],” Denneny said. “But there were like two prisoner transport vans, cops, Coach Howard. I’m not going to go over there. But the fact that all the kids were just lined up there shows that the parents make way too big a deal [out of dragging], and the whole administration.”

The administration’s crackdown has sparked debate and discussion about Grady’s most visible hazing tradition, a ritual that almost always takes place with the consent of the intended victims. To some, being dragged is a mark of acceptance. To others, it is a fate to be avoided. And to many at Grady, it’s largely irrelevant.

“Only white kids get dragged,” said Jessica*, a freshman who was not dragged.

English teacher Lisa Willoughby, who first came to Grady in the fall of 1983, said this was not always the case. During her first years as a teacher, dragging was more ubiquitous and visible, usually occurring during lunch on the hill extending from Charles Allen Drive down toward the practice field. At that time, Grady had about 500 students, most of whom had attended school together since the first grade. see HAZED, page 8

Birds of a feather flock together: city dwellers hatch urban farms become useful by bringing experienced and

By Grace Power inexperienced chicken owners together. large group of people gather in a Piccadilly PE After finding two farms through Craigmeeting room. Art teacher Dawn LO UTO slist with chickens for sale, Wadsworth Wadsworth, Grady art teacher, is among them. visited both of them to purchase her first Most all of them are familiar with each other; chickens. She chose four chickens between they meet every month in the same Southern the two farms to begin her journey of urban buffet. They are not there specifically for the chicken keeping. classic cafeteria cuisine but rather for the company The Dusenbury family, with two children at of their fellow chicken owners in the urban Atlanta Grady—Max, a junior, and Grace, a freshman— area. The group members convene regularly to decided to buy chickens discuss their flocks of poultry and to listen to FEATHERED FRIENDS: Atlantans in the spring of 2010, lectures by guest speakers. On one occasion the group even traveled to a farm. Wadsworth said as turn poultry into pets with when father Eric Dusenthe popularity of chickens has grown, these groups have backyard chicken coops. see POULTRY, page 16

7 a&e

Inman began constructing trailers over the summer in an effort to alleviate issues caused by overcrowding. A task force will work to determine a long-term solution.

13 lifestyle

Piedmont Park hosted the Summer Arts & Crafts Festival on Aug. 18 and 19.

Jeanie Maddox was awarded second place out of the 200 participating vendors.

CIENA LESHLEY

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LACK OF BUS STOPS SPURS STUDENT, PARENT PROTEST Parents and students rallied at APS headquarters on Aug. 13 to protest the enforcement of the policy that students who live within a certain radius of their school should not receive bus service (see related story, page 12).

15 thesoutherneronline.com

Scottie Bookman shares her struggles and accomplishments as a film student at UCLA after graduating from Grady in 2008.

Student editors of UGA’s The Red & Black returned to the newspaper on Aug. 21 after walking out as a result of controversial changes in policy.

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Sept. 6, 2012

Editorial Board

the Southerner

Rachel Citrin Sammi Dean Troy Kleber Diana Powers Alex Stearns-Bernhart Isabelle Taft

Symphony concert promotes diversity

For a school that prides itself on being diverse, it is about time we were recognized for it. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra invited Grady’s chorus to perform at its upcoming annual holiday concert instead of Cobb County high schools Lassiter and Walton, who sang at the concert for the last four years. Initially, ASO stated that its reason for choosing Grady was to add a diverse choir to its stage. Later, ASO President Stanley Romanstein said in a publicly released letter that its primary criterion was quality. Most likely, the symphony’s reasoning took into account both diversity and excellence, elements that encompass not only our choir, but also our entire school—and our city.

This is not solely a racial issue, although several critics are making it out to be. Rather, ASO’s decision highlights a more general, fundamental quality that our society should strive for: acceptance. An open environment, such as Grady, allows all people, regardless of gender, income, sexual orientation or ethnicity to be given an opportunity to succeed. And by accepting Grady, an indisputably more diversified community than Cobb County, ASO is stating publicly that diversity should be a valued quality in our society.

Certainly, we sympathize with Lassiter and Walton, who believe they were “disinvited” by ASO. But understand that the symphony is simply giving a different school an opportunity to shine under the spotlight; this decision is completely in line with the symphony’s desire for acceptance. Furthermore, ASO even extended the invitation to some students from the Cobb County high schools, so there is no validity to the claim that ASO denied any group participation.

ASO should be applauded for its decision, not criticized. The symphony has the right to make its decisions based on whatever factors it chooses, and when it comes to diversity, Grady is unmatched by Lassiter or Walton. ASO has given Grady an opportunity to show its audience that excellence flourishes when people of a variety of backgrounds gather together to perform in unison. p

Perfect pictures taken to unnecessary level As a seven-year veteran of teaching at Grady, I was surprised and excited to find out I would be teaching a couple of freshman English courses. It promises to be a great experience!

Part of the experience is Mario Herrera learning that English teachers are asked to share important school information with their students. This makes sense, as every student is required to take English.

One bit of information I have been asked to distribute is the school picture order form. As I looked over the form, I saw in the bottom right-hand corner that students can choose the “retouching level” of their photo.

Wait. Really?

I find this option to be wrong on so many levels.

There are so many students who already have selfesteem issues, and this option solidifies expectations that perhaps can’t and, more importantly, shouldn’t be showcased at school.

Encouraging students to change their appearance as a common option is disturbing. This type of action feeds in to so many social ills. Students can choose to look like what they are not, if the pictures on the order form are such an indication. They create a perfect persona.

If this is such a good idea, why not extend it? I mean, why not just have emoticons chosen by students?

Then we wouldn’t have to miss class time at all, and we can guess whether or not they really do look like

A celebration of life

On a warm evening in June, 200 people, many Grady alumni, parents and teachers among them, gathered in a Grant Park gazebo to remember a young man with a gift for making music and helping others do the same. Jay Jackson, who graduated from Grady in 2010, committed suicide on June 23. His death is a tragic reminder that people can wage silent, invisible struggles with their demons—until it is too late for those who love them to help. But the response of the Grady community proved how profoundly Jackson affected so many, and showed the strength and longevity of ties formed here.

Within a few days of his death, some of Jackson’s classmates were planning a celebration of his life. Word spread quickly on Facebook, and with only a few days’ notice, hundreds agreed to meet at Grant Park wearing Jackson’s favorite colors, red and white. The class of 2010 was especially well-represented.

Alumni who have been everywhere from downtown Atlanta to New York City to South Africa since graduating from Grady reunited for the first time in two years. Although their mood was somber, the joy of a homecoming tempered the deep sadness of losing a friend.

At the service, Jackson’s friends and teachers spoke of his overriding passion for music, his dedication to his craft, his love for collaborating with musicians of all types and his status at Grady as “king of the recording studio.” A group of his classmates paid homage to his musical talent by performing the class song he wrote, “Visions of Grady,” just as they did at graduation two years earlier. They also spoke of his kindness, his calm demeanor and his ability to inspire fellow musicians. Jackson transcended the boundaries of race, class and clique that all too often divide us, even at a school as open as Grady, and befriended people from all walks of life; the remarkable diversity of the crowd at his memorial service reflected Jackson’s ability to transcend all differences.

In life and in death, Jackson is proof that “individually we are different, together we are Grady.” Let’s stay true to the motto by keeping Jay Jackson alive in our memories, and emulating his passion, kindness and tolerance in our actions. p To read our account of Jay Jackson’s memorial service, please visit thesoutherneronline.com

a mushroom or Hello Kitty.

At a time when major fashion magazines are announcing they will do less and less retouching if their models so that they reflect “actual” people and when Rupert Murdoch and his conglomerate of media outlets are chastised and fined for too much of this practice, it seems antithetical to encourage the practice.

There are men and women who take “looking great” to dangerous extremes and as a result turn to drugs, participate in habits that lead to eating disorders and other —sometimes fatal— practices. I don’t think we should encourage this type of behavior here at Grady.

Yes, it can be argued that people will know the difference and that technology applications such as these are simply the way things are. That technology leads to the ability to make choices. I am stating unequivocally that this is a false choice as nothing positive comes from it.

The actual healthy option is to be OK with who and what we are. If we aren’t, we should make changes in healthy ways, not ways that deceive both audience and individual.

I hope in the future this option is no longer available to students and we can all just be who we are, naturally. I understand that our yearbook staff works diligently and gives their heart and soul to a publication that is often under-appreciated. The product they produce is something to be proud of and to treasure. If the pictures of students in a yearbook are golden, I hope that future yearbooks are not full of fool’s gold. p

uestion

What was your favorite movie this summer and why?

“

Avengers, because it has all of the classic superheroes, and it was just really energetic and exciting.”

Zoie Cushing, junior

“

The Watch, because it was very funny.”

Deranta Benton, freshman

Southerner Staff 2012-2013 Editor-in-Chief: Isabelle Taft Managing Editors: Sammi Dean, Troy Kleber Assinstant Managing Editor: Diana Powers Design Editors: Lauren Ogg, Gracie White News Editors: Olivia Kleinman, Olivia Veira Comment Editors: Rachel Citrin, Alex StearnsBernhart Double-truck Editor: Carson Shadwell Lifestyle Editors: Jolie Jones, Hunter Rust A+E Editors: Grace Power, Megan Prendergast

Sports Editors: Kate de Give, Joe Lavine Web Master: Simon McLane Office Manager: Gracie White Photo Editor: Ciena Leshley Cartoonist: Will Staples Staff: Emma Aberle-Grasse, Ryan Bolton, J.D. Capelouto, Zac Carter, Darriea Clark, Mary Condolora, Riley Erickson, Declan Farrisee, Zac Garrett, Deborah Harris, Orli Hendler, Archie Kinnane, Eli Mansbach, Ansley Marks, Rebecca

f the month

“

“

The Campaign, because it was hilarious and it had Zach Galifinakis in it.”

Henry White, senior

Battleship, because of the action.”

Dezera Carter, sophomore

An upbeat paper for a downtown school Martin, Caroline Morris, Quinn Mulholland, Axel Olson, Ben Searles, Ryan Switzer, Olivia Volkert, Josh Weinstock, Alex Wolfe Advisers: Kate Carter, Dave Winter The Southerner, a member of GSPA, SIPA, CSPA and NSPA, is a monthly student publication of: Henry W. Grady High School 929 Charles Allen Drive NE, Atlanta, GA 30309

To our readers, The Southerner welcomes submissions, which may be edited for grammar, inappropriate language and length. Please place submissions in Mr. Winter or Ms. Carter's box in the main office. Subscriptions are also available. For more information, please contact Mr. Winter, Ms. Carter or a member of the staff.

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Sept. 6, 2012

Mixed signals cause pedestrians pain The bell rang at 3:15 p.m. Like many other Grady students, I began my walk home by strolling down 10th Street and crossing Monroe. I patiently waited for the walk sign to illuminate, and then began to cross. Halfway across the street, I was greeted by the front bumper of a grey sedan. It wasn’t a hard collision, but I still slammed my hand on the Declan Farrisee hood instinctively.

I have had other close calls, but none in which I was actually hit. These incidents are due to the faulty design of this intersection. When the light turns green for drivers turning onto Monroe from 10th, the right-hand lane is given a green right-turn arrow.

At the same time, the walk signal is given to pedestrians crossing Monroe on both the left and right sides. Because of the walk sign, the pedestrians have the right to cross the road, but drivers, seeing the green turn arrow, think they have the right to turn. Drivers are supposed to stop to check for pedestrians prior to turning, even if they have the right-turn signal. Most drivers, however, think a green arrow means they can turn, so they don’t look for pedestrians as avidly as they would if it were a normal green light.

This failure to yield is a serious problem, and I have witnessed

many other pedestrians come close to being hit head-on by cars.

The Path Foundation, a nonprofit organization that creates miles of trails and parks in Atlanta, is planning to renovate this intersection and make it much more pedestrian friendly. The signals will be changed so there is a period of time in which pedestrians will be the only ones in the intersection. This should allow them to cross safely without any cars entering the intersection. The crosswalk is going to be widened, and the sidewalk near Park Tavern will be enlarged.

These modifications will allow more people to cross in the pedestrians’ designated time. The work should begin in late August and be completed in September.

Renovation cannot begin without permits. The City of Atlanta may make changes to the plans. My question is, what took them so long to get this done? This intersection has been a problem since before I was a freshman at Grady, in 2010. I am shocked that that the City of Atlanta hasn’t made any moves to fix this problem until now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this intersection has a lengthy list of accidents.

Hopefully these plans will be approved, and work can begin soon. The City of Atlanta needs to ensure that all of the dangerous flaws of this intersection are resolved. A new sidewalk and signal system will allow many people, including Grady students, to safely cross this busy intersection. p

Will Staples

Packing heat? Then stay off my street Most of us are huge fans of the ultraviolent, actionpacked shoot-emup type movies. I must admit, I enjoy watching the good guys and bad Ciena Leshley guys alike shooting from the car windows in car chases, shooting in the aisles at the grocery store and shooting on crowded sidewalks in the street. In the movies, the action is gripping and entertaining; in real life, it’s not quite as fun. Living in Atlanta can sometimes feel like I’m living in No Country for Old Men. I don’t even feel safe walking the 0.4 miles from my job to my home after dark anymore.

According to the Atlanta Police Department’s website, in my neighborhood of Inman Park, there have been 73 cases of robbery, burglary and theft since midJune, along with two cases of aggravated assault. Two men, one carrying a hand-

gun, robbed North Highland Pub before shooting into the air in a bustling parking lot in early August. In July, two waitresses were held up by a guy with a gun while they were walking out of Barcelona Wine Bar after their night shift.

My area isn’t the only neighborhood that has seen an alarming rise in the crime rate. Grant Park, Southeast Atlanta, and even the area surrounding Grady have experienced crime over the summer, and it’s no surprise that a lot of the crimes involve guns. The gun laws in Georgia say that to purchase a gun, you need neither a permit nor a clean record. To carry a gun, you need a license, and you can’t legally get one of those if you’re a felon.

But how many felons do you know who follow the law?

With all this crime and all these guns, you’d think the Georgia legislators would be pushing for more restricted gun laws that would curb the crime rate. Instead, members of our state legislature are pushing for a new, more lenient gun law:

House Bill 981. If House Bill 981 is passed, places that have always been considered “no-fly” zones for licensed people packing heat would be totally open for business. People with a license to carry would be allowed to carry their concealed weapons into bars, public schools, government buildings (including our capitol), college campuses, polling precincts and places of worship.

I just have one question: Why? Why would anyone need a gun at their side while they’re drinking some whiskey? This isn’t the wild wild west, and you’re not about to challenge the nearest gunslinger to a duel to save your honor or to rob the nearest carriage. Why would anyone need a gun in a public school? So teachers can really discipline the students? And why in the world would anyone need a gun in church? Is my grandmother’s worship that big of a threat to your safety? Why should we continue this chain of gun violence in our city? As all of our grandparents at one point told us, you can’t fight fire with fire. p

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ALEX Extraordinary river provides place for pleasant paddling

By Alex Stearns-Bernhart I sat in my canoe in an eddy at the top of Bull Sluice, a rapid on Section III of the Chattooga River.

I was a nervous about running this rapid because all I knew was that it was easily portageable, meaning I could carry my boat around the rapid if I didn’t feel comfortable paddling it.

With this uncertainty fresh in my mind, I got started. I peeled out of the eddy into the first wave train. I eddy-hopped my way down to the top of the big drop. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins like a raging river. I went for it. I gained speed and launched my boat over the edge into the pool below.

The Chattooga River is classified as wild and scenic by the U.S. Forest Service and has been so classified since 1974. You can see the wild and scenic features when you go there. Calling it scenic is an understatement; it’s stunning. It is such a rare and magnificent occurrence to look out on both sides of the river and see nothing but wilderness—no houses, no cars and no trashy RV parks littering the banks.

It’s not just something that you can see, but something you can feel. The river just gives off this aura I can’t put into words. I think this is largely due to the lack of wahoos covering the river with their inner tubes toting coolers of beer.

There are a few reasons for the bliss of the river other than the absence of drunken rednecks. One reason is that it is illegal to tube below the beginning of Section II. This keeps most of the floaters away.

The quarter-mile hike, however, keeps everyone else away. To reach any of the take-outs or put-ins, you must pick up your boat and carry it to or from the river. It’s a fairly grueling hike, perhaps the hardest I have ever done with my boat, but it is worth it.

The water is different than any other river I have ever been on. It is considered by many paddlers to have the best whitewater paddling in the Southeast because of the back-to-back rapids that one encounters as one goes down the river. As paddlers move down river, the rapids become more technical and intense.

Herein lies some of the hidden wonders of the Chattooga. There are three sections to paddle: Section II, III and IV. Each section has rapids with a different degree of difficulty. For example, Section III is made up of a lot of class II and class III rapids with a few class IV rapids thrown in for some variety. This classification system allows you to choose the degree of difficulty that you want to paddle that day.

This river is pure and clean; I would like to keep it that way. If we can keep it clean, everyone can continue to enjoy it, but more importantly, people who have not yet gotten the chance can still have a river to explore. For me, it is a peaceful place I can seek out when I need to forget about my everyday problems and just have a good time. I want everyone to have that chance, so please, if you do decide to go, keep it clean.

Only so much about the river can be put into words. Enough talking about it; go get out there and experience the Chattooga River for yourself. p

EXCLUSIVELY @ theSoutherneronline.com Olympics 2012 put the bad in badminton

College and Career Center saves the day for anxious upperclassmen

This year’s 2012 London Olympics displayed athletes of the highest quality from all around the world. Records were broken and upsets were plenty. Athletes like Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin and Oscar Pistorius are names that will be honored and ...

For students, junior and senior year of high school can be very stressful. The SAT, ACT, college essays, teacher recommendations, scholarships, the list goes on and on. Just thinking about it is horrifying, right? Luckyily, Grady is fortunate to have a wonderful resource...

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Senior looks down upon hazing rituals

Sept. 6, 2012

Freshman thrilled to undergo hazing

By Erin Ferris

By Rion Turner

When have you ever felt closer to someone after being physically and/or mentally harassed by them? Chances are, the answer is never. The process of being subject to public harassment and ridicule is called hazing.

Hazing is directed at someone trying to join a club, fraternity or a new institution, such as a school. We probably all know about the recent dragging scandal that occurred the first week of school: freshmen were zip-tied together and dragged down the hill at Piedmont Park hill. Dragging is unnecessary, unsafe and pointless.

Not only is there no point to dragging, but it is also dangerous for the freshman who are dragged. The freshmen victims dragged across a grassy hill could have hurt their backs on rocks that were carelessly overlooked, or injured their arms or hurt their legs as they were being pulled by them.

The risk of injury and mental trauma is not worth the dragging, and after the ordeal is over with, nothing has been achieved. There is no reward in hazing.

Dragging also gives the school a horrible reputation among parents who are thinking of sending their children to Grady. Why would a parent want their child attending a high school where freshmen are dragged by upperclassmen as a twisted form of initiation? Students should not have to be afraid to attend school.

This form of bullying can also get an individual in a fair amount of trouble with the school administrators, who punish the hazers by sending them to tribunal where getting expelled or suspended is an all-too-real possibility.

Beyond school punishments, hazers can also get in trouble with the local law enforcement. By law, dragging someone down a hill is considered assault. Furthermore, with the addition of zip-tying a person’s hands together before the dragging, the hazer could be accused of false imprisonment. This is a felony.

Think about it. All of these consequences because the hazer simply dragged someone down a hill? I’m not sure about you, but to me that doesn’t seem like it is worth it.

All in all, hazing is a useless and dangerous activity that no one should take part in. Hazing not only hurts the victims; it can seriously hurt the participating seniors who face punishment from the very institution they are supposedly representing when they haze. You could be expelled and/ or imprisoned for taking part in hazing.

These consequences outweigh the end results of hazing and therefore should not be practiced anywhere, let alone at Grady. As a senior, I completely renounce the practice of dragging freshmen as a form of initiation for freshmen and the amusement for upperclassmen.

It is personally embarrassing that some of my classmates would take the time to participate in the hazing of freshmen students. It is evident that the rewards are next to nothing compared to the large amount of trouble an individual could get into after being caught hazing, or assaulting, in the eyes of the law and their fellow students. p

e h T

Does a group of freshmen being dragged down a hill while chained together with zip ties seem harsh?

To many people, it may seem a cruel thing to do, but to others, such as myself, it is a fun and exciting experience. Some high schools have interesting traditions to spice up the year and make it a little more thrilling, and our school is one of them.

At Grady, hazing is one of our unique rituals.

The freshmen come with smiles on their faces until they see the seniors. The seniors come with fire in their eyes and payback in their hearts. That’s when we, the fresh meat, run.

The seniors have always had traditions set up so they can practically do anything to us as long as they are smart and don’t get caught doing it. The schemes they come up with can sound terrifying, especially if you have no siblings who have experienced hazing. Lucky for me, however, my older sisters explained the details to me and gave me some survival tips. Enduring the hazing traditions of the first week of school means acceptance.

The crazy things that seniors do are only fun and games. They can make you get down on your knees and propose to a random senior, take you by your hands and drag you down the Piedmont Park hills, cover you with silly string, demand that you fetch the soccer balls that fly over the fence and even place goofy name tags on you.

These things are simply traditions, and no one is actually meant to get hurt during these hazing activities; they are just for fun. I think being a part of these thrilling, secretive plans is an exciting experience.

Parents are not too fond of the seniors’ antics. I completely disagree; everyone needs to loosen up. Parents don’t understand high school life and the traditions that go along with being in high school. Times have changed since they were teenagers.

Parents need to stop worrying about their kids so much and let them live a little.

The freshmen know that when they are finally seniors, they will find ways to haze the new kids. It’s not like the upperclassmen are harassing us for no reason.

When they were freshmen, they too got picked on, had food thrown at them and were dragged down the hill.

They haze for revenge, and in the future, so will we. Our time is going to come, so just have fun with the teasing.

I look at it this way: if a senior comes up to you, jokes around and plays with you, then they really must like you. So just have a positive attitude and the weeks will pass more quickly.

Hazing is simply a tradition. You’re only fresh meat once in high school, so make sure you have an exhilarating story to tell. Seniors only get to have this experience once, and soon it will be our turn. In the end, it’s all fun and traditions. Just remember: GK, GK, we all we got. p

STUDENT

Stance

Is hazing freshmen a beneficial tradition or a dangerous act?

By sitting this election out, voters reject candidates 2012 will shrink dramatically.

It seems to me there are two possible reasons for the declining 18-to-29-year-old voter registration this year: the apathy among teenagers (or more accurately the lack thereof ) and the frustration among idealists. Some may say that young adults are too busy to care about the election. To be fair, high school and college students do have a lot on our minds this year; deciding what our future holds is obviously an important priority, which makes it easy to forget the immediate picture.

Young people have a role to play for our country’s future, and it’s time we own up to it. To all the apathetic teenagers out there, I am disappointed in your lack of political involvement, and I hope to strike a chord within your dismissive hearts.

In the last 50 years, young people have been key to

movements that have changed our world: ending the Vietnam war, slowing the nuclear arms race and, more recently, putting the first African-American in the Oval Office. To the frustrated idealists, I feel for you. Obama built his ‘08 campaign by appealing to young voters, and some of his promises have not been kept. However, we shouldn’t forget his major accomplishments. Healthcare reform, which has extended coverage for millions of Americans who previously were denied care, increased rights for LGBTQ Americans.

Choosing to stand aside instead of standing up won’t change a thing. If I were of age to vote, I would seize the opportunity to make a difference. I know everyone thinks that one person can’t change the world, but 2 million can and did! There’s no reason to lose hope, and if we unite ourselves, we can change even more. p Axel Olson

In the weeks before the class of 2012 headed off to college, I spoke with many of the students about voting in the presidential election this fall. I was dumbfounded to learn that of all the people going off to do great things, only half of them had even bothered to register to vote. There is a real possibility Emma Aberle-Grasse of low voter turnout among youth in this presidential election. But it’s not too late to change this.

A poll taken in July by the Pew Research Center states that Americans under 30 are significantly less interested in this election than they were in the 2008 election. According to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, 2 million more people from ages 18-24 voted in the 2008 election than in 2004, and the number of young adults voting in

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axel olson

Sept. 6, 2012

Which came first: chicken or the hate?

I don’t eat at Chik-fil-A anymore.

It’s not because I care that Dan Cathy and I have different opinions of the definition of “marriage,” and it’s Ryan Switzer sure not because the food isn’t delicious. I don’t eat Chik-fil-A anymore because the money I spend on a No. 1 with a lemonade adds to the pool of nearly $2 million donated annually to antigay hate groups.

One group receiving such funds is the Family Research Council, a lobbying firm listed as a hate group in 2010 by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The firm bills itself as a Christian organization promoting the “traditional” family unit.

Its president, Tony Perkins, explicitly stated his opinion concerning homosexuals in a speech in 2011 at the The Oak Initiative Summit: “They are intolerant. They are hateful. They are vile. They are spiteful pawns of the enemy.”

Tony Perkins and the Family Research

Council is a prime example of the bigotry test. It’s a term used when describing the struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of and hate that still exist in our country.

After Republican politicians Mike Huck- happiness for all people.

I am in no way discrediting the comabee and Rick Santorum organized National Chik-fil-A Appreciation Day in celebration mendable activities that Chik-fil-A supof the corporation’s contributions to hate ports. They give millions of dollars to groups, America’s bigoted came out in terminally ill children and have fantastic scholarships for droves to [Homosexuals] are intolerant. They their employees. show their support. are hateful. They are vile. They are But the truth of the matter is But the prespiteful pawns of evil.” that Chik-fil-A vious day,

Tony Perkins backs hate groups a different type of demPresident, Family Research Council whose intentions are to limit huonstration man rights and occurred.

In the style of the famous Civil Rights era the principles on which this country was 1960s “sit-ins,” gay couples around the founded. No such corporation will ever get my money. country held “kiss-ins.”

While a boneless breast of chicken seaEven though the Civil Rights Era seemingly ended almost 50 years ago, the fact soned to perfection, hand-breaded, presthat groups still work to deny Americans sure-cooked in 100 percent refined peatheir basic human rights proves that a social nut oil and served on a toasted, buttered bun with dill pickle chips (also available revolution is still needed.

The term “civil rights” is not restricted on a golden wheat bun) may not leave a to African-Americans. It’s not a term exclu- bad taste in your mouth, a corporation sively used when describing suffrage pro- surrounded by so much hate should. p

“

Traffic woes not a T-SPLOST cause Anyone who resides in Atlanta knows that traffic comes with the territory. We accept it as a natural occurrence, similar to the way people in Seattle accept rain.

Recently, a transportation referendum proposed by Georgia’s transportation department was summarily rejected by nine out of the 12 regions polled in Georgia.

Grace Power The Transportation special purpose localoption sales tax, also known as T-SPLOST, attempted to ameliorate the major problem that anyone who’s ever driven in Atlanta realizes and fears: that there is by far too much traffic in this region. This referendum’s goal was to invest in transportation systems around Georgia using revenues earned by implementing a 1 percent sales tax.

Unfortunately, this referendum failed, and Atlanta will still be left with an antiquated transportation system in desperate need of change. If this referendum had passed, Atlanta’s transportation infrastructure could have experienced a much-needed face lift that could have brought jobs and environmentally friendly opportunities for its citizens.

Atlanta is long overdue for an expansion of our transportation system. Georgia is ranked second to last in per capita transportation spending in the United States, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and while T-SPLOST would have been Georgia’s largest infrastructure expenditure in the history of Georgia, it would be a justified expense. For the capital of Georgia and one of the top 50 largest cities in America, Atlanta’s transportation situation is bleak. Although our rapid transport system MARTA is very popular for Atlanta residents, it’s only ranked eighth in the nation for average weekly ridership, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s Public Transportation Ridership Report. MARTA has only 48.1 miles of rail while the New York Subway, ranked first in the United

States, has 230 miles of track. Comparing maps of MARTA to maps of other railways in cities such as New York and Los Angeles is a sad sight. The sprawling constellations of rail lines in other cities wildly overshadow our sad “X” of trains. We need to expand our public transportation instead of letting it collapse into oblivion.

Expanding our public transportation would have been expensive, but it would have been money well spent. The money raised in taxes would have furthered two important causes, creating jobs and protecting the environment, on top of its main goal of enhancing the infrastructure. Construction firms would have received business when building the new roadways, public transport systems and other projects. This capital investment would have put more money into the pockets of construction workers, urban planners, civil engineers and more, thus boosting spending and improving our local economy. This kick start would have not only influenced the job market, but it also would have brought more public transportation to Atlanta. The expansion of transportation options would have made riding public transportation more convenient for many Atlantans, thus encouraging people to choose MARTA over driving their cars to get around the city. I know that I would ride MARTA if it was more expansive. The bus that goes from Grady to Candler Park was cancelled about two years ago, but I can think of many occasions where I would have been more than willing to pay $2.50 for a ride home. With more people riding trains and buses powered by natural gas to work, there would be fewer cars on the road.

This would decrease traffic and lessen the amount of harmful pollutants in our city.

The added $1.6 billion to Georgia’s transportation budget would have been a good investment in our state by improving infrastructure, creating jobs and helping our environment stay clean. I can only hope Atlanta gets another chance to drastically improve our city sooner rather than later. p

5

Moment of silence for Israeli victims an obvious choice I first heard the story of the Munich Massacre at my Jewish summer camp this year. My cabinmates and I were in charge of organizing a campwide Color War, a full day of sports competitions beEli Mansbach tween campers. Since the theme of our Color War was the Olympics, one of my friends suggested that we hold a moment of silence during the day for the Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games because the International Olympic Committee was not planning to. I was shocked to learn not only that murders had taken place, but also that the IOC refused to acknowledge this tragic incident.

On Sept. 4, 1972, a terrorist group called Black September kidnapped nine Israeli athletes from their lodging in the Olympic Village and shot two Israeli trainers. In the following days, hostage negotiations took place between Israel, the United States, Germany and Black September.

Eventually, the terrorists took the hostages to a small airfield outside Munich where two helicopters would take them to Cairo, Egypt. Unknown to the terrorists, the German police had laid a trap to recover the hostages, which began when a German sniper shot one of the terrorists from the roof of the surrounding buildings. The result was a gun battle that ended in the death of a German police officer, five of the terrorists and all nine Israeli hostages, who were killed by members of the terrorist group.

A memorial service was held the next day at the Olympic stadium and although many called for the suspension of the games, the president of IOC Avery Brundage said, “The games must go on.”

That was 40 years ago. Since the Munich Massacre, as it is known now, every four years at the Olympics, Ankie Spitzer, the widow of one of the murdered trainers, leads a petition effort meant to convince the IOC to hold a moment of silence in honor of the 11 Israelis who were killed. Hundreds of thousands of people sign it every year. Unfortunately, however, every time for the past 10 Olympics, the IOC has rejected the petition and refused to hold that moment of silence, though they have agreed to hold the usual private commemoration with the Israel Olympic Delegation. In an interview with ESPN, IOC President Jacques Rogge said, “We feel that the opening ceremony is an atmosphere that is not fit to remember such a tragic incident.”

This position is something I can’t grasp. How can the IOC not spend 10 seconds out of the 17 days of the Olympics for a moment of silence to honor the murdered Olympic athletes? The Olympics are supposed to be a time when countries come together in peace. Most athletes say their competitors are like family to them. When a family member dies, do you leave the memories of them behind and forget them?

No, you honor them and make sure they are remembered forever. By refusing to hold a moment of silence, the IOC is tarnishing the memory of those athletes, allowing their deaths to be forgotten.

At Grady, we try not to let local or national events go by without expressing our opinion on the matter. For example, last year when Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida, Grady students organized a “Hoodie Day” in his memory. In 2010, when the Westboro Baptist Church came to Atlanta to protest against gay rights, students organized a counterprotest.

News stations such as CNN and BBC held their own moment of silence this year during the Olympics, as did well-known political figures in New York City. In addition, famous figures such as Bob Costas and President Barack Obama signed petitions and pressured the IOC during the 2012 Olympics to hold a moment of silence. I urge all of Grady to sign petitions and take a stand in 2016. Help the widows and families of the athletes to convince the IOC to give the victims of the Munich Massacre the moment of silence that IOC has denied them for the past 40 years. p

news

the Southerner

6

Edmodo aims to educate, update classes

Junior, senior dues can be paid online For the first time, Grady is allowing students to pay their junior and senior dues online on the Grady website. Students also have the option of going online to fill out their Federal Eligibility Applications, the form that allows students to qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Debaters find success during tournaments

Sammi Dean

By Sammi Dean Math teacher Ebony AndersonJohnson is one of Grady’s pioneers for the use of Edmodo, an online classroom tool that can be used to post or turn in assignments and have discussions online. She was introduced to the tool during a gifted endorsement program for APS. Hoping to connect with students through technology, Anderson-Johnson brought the program to campus.

“I love technology more than I love math,” Anderson-Johnson said.

“I find that students like Facebook and Twitter, and social networking is the way to go. So the fact that we can incorporate that into the classroom, I thought would spark some interest and engagement in our students and increase achievement.”

The layout and appearance of Edmodo caters to the Facebook generation. Junior Allison Rapoport notes the similarities.

“It is definitely a copycat, which is good because we all know how to use Facebook, so we all know how to use Edmodo intuitively,” she said.

AP Calculus and AP Statistics teacher Andrew Nichols is one of several Grady faculty members who have adopted the use of Edmodo. “[It is better than a website] because it has the ability of having students actually join,” Nichols said. “If we have a paper to turn in or a proposal to turn in, [students] can turn in that proposal on Edmodo, and then I can actually respond to them.”

So far, students give Edmodo mixed reviews. Senior Sofia Sifnaos finds Edmodo’s many capabilities helpful, citing online worksheets and mobile notifications for new assignments as examples. Rapoport, who uses Edmodo for her literary maga-

News Briefs

Sept. 6, 2012

NEW MODO OF LEARNING: Debate coach Mario Herrera has his students use Edmodo to complete work in a Speech/ Forensics class. zine class and AP Calculus class, has flipped classroom allows students sibly and post things appropriately, a slightly different view. to work at their own pace, enabling then I don’t really foresee there being “I think right now nobody really more one-on-one time for students any big problems,” he said. uses it unless they need to check having trouble with problems.

Edmodo is not without scandal. homework,” she said. “So I do not Prendergast has reservations about An unknown student used Sifnaos’s think it is really useful right now.” this new method of learning. account to send the message ‘im Some teachers are using Edmo“I am scared that I’m not going to lame af’ to the page for her AP Endo more intensively. Freshman understand one thing in the video, vironmental Science class. Whether Chloe Prendergast’s Accelerated and then I won’t be able to under- incidents similar to Sifnaos’s will Math II class taught by Linda stand the rest of [the video] because plague the website and hinder its efBrasher is using the “flipped normally you’re able to ask questions fectiveness remains to be seen. classroom” teaching method, one halfway through [a lesson],” PrenAlthough it is early in the year, also used by Anderson-Johnson. dergast said.

Nichols predicts Edmodo will Students teach themselves the Nichols, who is using the flipped have a strong presence at Grady. material at home through record- classroom model in moderation, has “[Administrators] are making a big ed videos and lessons, then come not yet experienced any major prob- push, so it should be a large number into class to work on problems. lems with his usage of the site. of teachers once everyone gets set up Anderson-Johnson said using a “As long as students use it respon- and gets going,” he said. p

This summer Grady Jesters attended the National Forensics League and Catholic Forensics League tournaments. At CFLs, junior Qri Montague ranked in the top 64 in prose/poetry, and senior Isabelle Taft took third place in extemporaneous speaking. At NFLs, recent graduates Marius Jackson, Jahra Gholston and Quameeha Grandoit broke to quarter finals in interpretation events. Recent graduates Ben Dean and Holden Choi placed 13th in policy debate.

Taft placed seventh in international extemporaneous speaking.

Emory misreports years of stats, data Emory University’s president admitted to misrepresenting and inflating a decade’s worth of freshman class statistics. The school reported to the public and various ranking sources SAT and ACT data for admitted students rather than enrolled students. The college also overstated how many of its incoming students graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Attendance policies give students a rude awakening 40

Percentage of Students

Senior Sophie Maschinot encountered these new rules and procedures at the attendance office on Aug. 13 when she tried to pick up a pass to class.

Maschinot was in the counselor’s office that morning, and afterwards she went to the attendance office with a written note from her father to return to class. Maschinot handed in the written note signed by her father. Jurea Harris, the new attendance specialist, handed an unexcused pass back to her.

“Any other year, that pass would have been fine,” Maschinot said. “They need to be clearer on new procedures.”

Administrators have put the procedures in place in order to ameliorate attendance problems. Some students, however, argue that the procedures are not publicly known.

Propst deals with attendance every day and feels strongly that there are few excuses not to be present at school.

“How can you justify being late to school 10 to 20 times?” he said.

Propst said seniors have the worst attendance, but sophomores and juniors are not too far behind. Last year, 19 percent of sophomores and juniors were absent 10 to 15 days.

Maschinot believes that if good attendance is to be achieved, students must know the procedures of checking out.

The administration is issuing detentions if students arrive past 8:15 a.m. after three unexcused absences. Students claim to be unaware of this policy, but the policy has been in effect

Rebecca Martin and Isabelle Taft

By Rebecca Martin For many students last year, the 8:15 bell did not signal the beginning of their school day. On most days, upwards of 100 students casually entered the cafeteria around 8:30, joining a lengthy line outside the attendance office, Assistant Principal David Propst said.

According to records provided by Propst, during the 2010-2011 school year, 17 percent of students missed 16 or more days of school.

During the 2011-2012 school year, 19 percent of students missed 16 or more days of school. Propst is determined to improve the statistics this year.

Propst’s observation of last year’s poor attendance explain the administration’s crackdown on absences and tardies. He said attendance is crucial for students to gain knowledge, and that as the years have gone by, attendance at Grady has not improved.

The state mandates that if a student racks up 10 unexcused absences in a class for one semester, the teacher has the right to automatically fail that student in the course.

Also, if a student needs to check out, he or she must call a parent or guardian who must recall the student's date of birth and address. Propst said this rule has always been enforced, but students claim they have been unaware of it.

This year, an excused absence cannot be achieved by a simple note from a parent. Grady will only accept excused absences for reasons listed in APS attendance policy.

Absences at Grady per school year

35

16+days

30

10-15 days

25 20

5-9 days

15

0-4 days

10 5 0

08-09

09-10

10-11 School Year Data from Assistant Principal David Propst

in past years, Propst said.

Once a student exceeds five unexcused absences, a mandatory conference takes place, and the student receives in-school suspension. If a student’s attendance is continuously poor, the next step is an informal hearing.

The consequences escalate if no improvements take place.

“Students need to know how important attendance is,” Propst said.

Some believe new procedures may improve attendance, but senior Kate Taber thinks otherwise. On Aug. 16, Taber felt extremely ill while at school. During lunch, she went to

11-12

the attendance office to check herself out.

When she called her father he answered, but he did not show up as a parent or guardian in her student file. Taber came back in the middle of third period to reach her mom.

Her mom answered, and Taber was able to go home. Once at home, Taber pulled up Infinite Campus and saw that her absence was marked early dismissal, unexcused.

More rigorous enforcement of procedures is intended to improve attendance, but Taber believes the new rules only confuse students.

“If anything, it only makes [attendance] worse,” she said. p

news

Sept. 6, 2012

7

Troy Kleber

MOBILE MANIA: Construction workers complete final additions to the trailers as students transition between classes. The overcapacity issue at Inman Middle forced the entire seventh grade into the trailers this year.

Trailers and tribulations: Inman deals with overflow

By Troy Kleber As part of the APS redistricting effort, Superintendent Erroll Davis announced on April 10 the cluster of schools that would feed into Grady. Because Davis set Inman as the only middle school in the cluster, Inman’s population now exceeds its capacity.

“Continued uncertainty about how to manage growth effectively at the middle-school level continues to exist in this cluster,” Davis wrote in his final redistricting and closure recommendations. “Growth rates must be monitored and solutions defined, during the next two to three years.”

Instead of prescribing these solutions, Davis and APS board member Cecily Harsch-Kinnane gathered a group of representatives from the schools in Grady’s cluster and entrusted this Inman Capacity Task Force to propose longterm solutions to relieve the stress at Inman.

Harsch-Kinnane selected both a PTSA and a local-school-council member to represent each school on the task force. In addition, Davis appointed two community members of his own choosing to the group.

Carolyn Wood, a parent of former and current Grady students, was one of Davis’s appointees. She said that while the capacity

for Inman defined by APS is 875 students, Inman’s student population is currently more than 1,000. As a result, Inman constructed additional portable classrooms over the summer. Currently, the entire seventh grade attends classes in these trailers.

“What made [Inman] overcrowd[ed] was the redistricting,” Inman counselor Sharon Walz said. “They redrew the zone lines, so that meant we had to be able to accommodate more kids. [The trailers] have accomplished this. They’ve allowed us to accommodate more kids.”

Walz said these additional classrooms are only a temporary solution that will be utilized until APS implements a permanent solution.

Social studies teacher Mark Washington said he has few concerns about teaching in the trailers, although he admits to imperfections, such as the delay of getting the Promethean boards, projectors and lockers situated in the trailers. Furthermore, since the students travel outside while transitioning between classes, bad weather can cause issues, Walz said.

“It took time and patience to get everything we needed in the [classrooms],” Washington said. “As soon as my projector is mounted, I’m good.”

Although Davis expressed minor concerns in his redistricting report regarding the long-term effects of rezoning on Grady’s capacity, statistics reveal a more drastic outcome for Inman.

APS demographers project that if the Grady cluster remains as it is, Inman’s student population will continue to increase every year and by 2020 will be more than 50 percent over its capacity. The Inman Capacity Task Force, which began meeting on July 10, will continue to gather once every two weeks to propose long-term solutions to this problem.

“There will be a recommendation given to the superintendent at the end of October, and I doubt that there will be one idea given to him,” Wood said. “There’s just too many people at the table for there to be one idea that’s going to fit everyone’s need. I think there will probably be several ideas with pros and cons listed, and I think that’s what he’s looking for.”

During a task force meeting on Aug. 7, APS board member Harsch-Kinnane said the group is not meant to vote on a final decision for how to proceed, but rather they will provide input into a thoughtful recommendation to Superintendent Davis.

Wood said the task force is currently discussing several potential solutions. These include the

establishment of a separate academy for either sixth or eighth grade, the transformation of a school into one that can hold students from kindergarten to eighth grade, or the creation of an entirely new middle school.

Wood said parents have been involved while examining these options because they recognize the importance of their local public schools.

For example, when discussing the option of developing a new middle school, Wood said parents from different communities disagreed over where the school would be located and which elementary schools would feed into it. “[Discussions] have at times created some tensions between communities, but I think this task force has made a real good effort to try to come together, understand everyone’s perspective and see where we might find common ground,” Wood said.

In fact, Wood believes community involvement is a huge positive takeaway from the entire process.

“I really think it’s a great opportunity for us to be part of the process,” Wood said. “This is what people in the community have asked from Atlanta Public Schools. Let the parents be part of the process; be open, transparent. I think that’s what we’re seeing here.” p

Disparate dollar distribution disturbs Grady cluster responded by saying that portables might be at Grady for the next 10 years, but that enrollment would not exceed capacity enough for expansion to be necessary.

APS deputy superintendent of operations Larry Hoskins said the headcount at Grady as of Aug. 16 is 1,466 students— 191 students overcapacity.

Hoskins said enrollment at Grady as well as feeder schools will continue to be monitored before spending millions of dollars on renovations. He also confirmed that the portables will not be permanent.

“We have to watch to see if [the enrollment] will level out,” Hoskins said. “If it does, we’ll take the portables away; but if it’s not going to level out, then we will need to build a new wing [and remove the portables].”

Both Grady and Inman, however, did have renovations in the summer of 2004, which were funded by SPLOST II. According to the system’s capital construction program status report, the budget for Grady’s 2004 renovation of the Eighth Street building was $31 million and the budget for the construction of Grady Stadium (summer of 2010) was $9 million. Inman’s budget for renovations was $17.6 million.

“Grady received a renovation in 2004, so that was their time in the cycle to get a new renovation,” Hoskins said. “If we continue with an additional SPLOST V, then maybe it will be Grady’s turn to receive funding for renovation.”

According to the superintendent’s final redistricting and closure recommendations, $15 million will be invested for additions and renovations at Mary Lin Elementary and APS is “exploring an expansion” for Springdale Park Elementary.

Another issue Davis addressed is managing the high growth rate at Inman Middle. Under present projections, there will be no available building in the cluster large enough to contain two classes of Inman students after the 2016-2017 school year.

In addition, the Grady cluster will receive funding from SPLOST IV—a 1 cent sales tax beginning in July 2012

REDISTRICTING FUNDS

APS allocated funds from redistricting for renovations of different schools. Statistics are from the Superintendent’s Final Redistricting and Closure Recommendations Report (all funds are not included above).

Olivia Kleinman

By Olivia Kleinman Although Superintendent Erroll Davis’s plans for redistricting have been finalized and the new school year has commenced, problems are far from solved for the Grady cluster.

Local school council chairperson and Morningside Elementary School parent Margaret Brackett said Grady cluster parents spent countless hours providing feedback to the district throughout the system-wide redistricting process at meetings, in emails and surveys and through local school councils.

“The Grady cluster is the only cluster in the district that began and ended the system-wide redistricting process with middle-school and high-school overcapacity [and] with no relief in sight,” Brackett said.

At the March redistricting meeting, in a dialogue with Davis, district officials said student enrollment at Grady would decrease in 2012-2013 once out-of-zone students graduate out.

School board member Cecily Harsch-Kinnane said class sizes were increased by the magnet program, but since it is the magnet program’s last year and zones have been more clearly defined, there will not be overcapacity issues in the next 10 years.

“This is what everyone is thinking,” Harsch-Kinnane said. “Grady may experience a couple more years of overcrowding, … but it is projected that in a few years, the numbers will be manageable.”

Brackett said parents were told this same fact in spring 2010—that Grady’s enrollment would be close to its projected capacity (1,275 students) in 2010-2011—so additional funds would not be needed.

“I don’t think it’s true,” Brackett said. “I haven’t seen evidence from the district or school board with the reduction of students, and I haven’t seen the plan for what will be done if it doesn’t drop.”

Brackett said one parent asked the superintendent at the March meeting if the Grady portables will be removed in the next 10 years if enrollment is projected to decline. Superintendent Davis

with a projected termination date of July 2017—at the elementary-school level.

SPLOST IV designates $12.1 million for renovations at Mary Lin, $4 million for Springdale Park and $30 million allocated to “Midtown Middle.” School board member Harsch-Kinnane said “Midtown Middle” is just a placeholder for a solution to Inman’s overcrowding issue, which has yet to be decided.

“Overcrowding negatively impacts the educational experience of students, and it has been going on for a long time, which is partly why APS went through redistricting,” Brackett said. “Yet at the end of the whole process, the Grady cluster remains the only cluster not promised any funds for a middle school or high school expansion or renovation and are still overcrowded.” p

news

8

Sept. 6, 2012

By Rachel Citrin When UrbanCouture fashion director Vincent Martinez left Grady in May to pursue other opportunities in the fashion world, the department had to change its direction and leadership. For the first month of school, however, the senior designers have been without a teacher, with only a substitute offering support.

At the end of the second week of school, the designers met with Fran Sinkler, who they thought would be their new teacher.

Sinkler was teaching at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School and was waiting for APS to approve her switch to Grady, but received a transfer denial from the Human Resources Department.

“There are a couple of issues... it’s a personal issue,” the principal of Sinkler’s school, Margul Woolfolk said.

The Human Resources Department declined to comment on the matter of the missing teacher.

The hiring process starts at the school level, when school officials consider the available applicants for the job. Once the applicant list has been compiled, it has to be approved by the APS Human Resources Department.

John Brandhorst, art teacher, looked at other available teachers and found a match: Kottavei Williams. He interviewed her Sept. 5.

“She’s right on every level,” Brandhorst said. “We promoted her name to [APS Human Resources]. My assumption is that since I got the application and resume from Human Resources, she jumped through all their hoops.”

Williams has a degree in fashion design and has worked in the fashion industry.

Currently, the designers are setting up the fashion room and starting to prepare for their annual fashion show.

“Right now, we are organizing the room and trying to make it a functional space,” said Sophia Smith, a senior designer. “We are going to start to think about the collections too.”

Regardless of who lands the position of fashion teacher, there will be changes to the program.

“Change is inevitable,” Martinez said. “There is a new person teaching. Hopefully, the integrity of the program will stay intact and just the teaching methods will change.”

Overall, the senior designers agree the program will have the same focus; it is just without Martinez.

“The program is ours this year,” said Mckenzie Taylor, a senior designer. “It is the first year that we have the power to do what we want with it.”

One of the biggest challenges will be fundraising.

Grace Power

Senior designers plan to keep UC on top despite odds

WORK IT, GIRLS: Though they lack a permanent teacher, senior designers Sophia Smith and Mckenzie Taylor have begun planning their collections. “[John] Brandhorst said that we have funding from last year,” be able to manage the program successfully.

Taylor said. “But we still need fundraising so we can buy fabric “The current senior designers know the drill; they know what and to run the show. It depends on the teacher.” to do,” he said. “They have always had quite a bit of control in Brandhorst has encouraged and helped the designers while directing the show.” they have been without a teacher.

The designers are hoping to replicate Martinez’s connections “Mr. Brandhorst came and gave us words of inspira- and community ties. tion,” Taylor said.

“Mr. Martinez had lots of connections but we don’t have that Some of the designers felt their show has a lot to live up to. yet,” Rubio said. “So we have to do fundraising and try to get “UrbanCouture is so well known so we have to main- the school more involved.” tain its name and put on a good show,” said Madison RuMartinez has some words of advice for the senior designers. bio, senior designer.

“Stay focused, work hard and keep your eye on the Martinez, however, has confidence the senior designers will prize,” he said. p

HAZED and confused: freshmen survive tradition continued from front page “Dragging was very widespread,” Willoughby said. “Slowly but surely it became more of a white thing, that there weren’t very many African-Americans involved.”

Willoughby said dragging victims have always been popular and well-liked members of the freshman class.

“It was almost a status symbol to get dragged,” Willoughby said.

Seniors and freshmen who participate in dragging said they feel this is still the case.

“The people they haze are the ones who are going to end up tops, socially,” said Joshua*, a freshman who was dragged.

Peggy Barlett, a professor of anthropology at Emory University, said dragging at Grady follows the general pattern of initiation rituals in primitive societies. In the first stage of such rituals, initiates are separated from the broader group. Next, the ritual itself is performed.

Finally, initiates return to society with a new status. The process in which certain freshmen are drawn away from campus, then dragged, and finally allowed to complete the rest of the school year with a minimum of antagonism by seniors, fits this mold, Barlett said.

“The junior person, the initiate, is learning to accept humiliation, accept orders to do something they may not want to do, and to accept physical trauma to the body,” Barlett said.

“And likewise at the other end the seniors are being asked to learn something too. They’re being asked to learn to inflict some physical harm on people, to think up humiliations for people.

And maybe even to enjoy them.”

Barlett said the structure of an initiation ritual typically reflects the values of a society.

“Do what your bosses say, go along with the works to buckle down, a tradition is someauthorities in society, submit to the traditions,” thing that’s kind of impossible to stop in a Barlett said. “It feels to me like there are some school,” Muntzing said. echoes [in dragging] to those messages.”

By the fall of 2010, dragging took place exWilloughby said an incident in the mid- clusively in Piedmont Park. Last year, in addi2000s in which a student suffered severe tion to dragging, seniors covered freshmen with injuries while being dragged prompted the flour, eggs and syrup. Austen Denneny said he administration to take a strong stance against and his friends wanted to top that. dragging. Lily Muntzing was a freshman at “Since we were juniors, the guys especially Grady in 2005 and remembers seniors being have been waiting and preparing I guess, like arrested at school. saying we’re going to go so much harder than When Muntzing was a senior in the fall of the grades before us and just be a lot worse to 2008, she and her friends were warned by the the freshmen this year,” Denneny said. “And administration about the potential disciplinary we were, I think.” consequences of dragging, but decided to drag Alexis said senior girls held a planning meetfreshmen anyway to carry on the tradition. ing over the summer.

“No one reintended No matter how hard administra- to They ally cared about use the zip-ties tion works to buckle down, a the threat because to bind freshmen Grady has a lot of tradition is something that’s kind in one large group, empty threats gothen toss a pair of of impossible to stop in a school.” scissors into Pieding on,” Muntzing said. mont Park’s meadMuntzing said and force the Lily Muntzing ow a male freshman freshmen to move Grady class of 2009 as one to retrieve who was dragged injured his back, the scissors. Alexis prompting his mother to notify the school. said the arrival of senior boys at the park caused The administration created a list of the names the situation to escalate. of everyone involved; Muntzing and her friends “The boys came, and the boys started dragwere on the list. Because administrators had ging before we really got anything done,” Alexis not yet distributed student handbooks, which said. “What we didn’t think about was the zip explained the punishments for offenses such as ties were around their wrists. The objective was hazing, Muntzing and her friends were not se- not to cause harm, it was to humiliate them verely punished. and initiate them.”

Muntzing said she was not surprised dragFreshman Haley Hays estimated that on ging had continued despite students’ awareness Aug. 7, the second day of school, about 20 of the potential consequences. freshmen were zip-tied in pairs and dragged “No matter how hard administration two at a time down the hill. Seniors zip-tied

“

Hays to Rachel*, another freshman, at the wrists, and sprayed them with silly string.

Joshua said the dragging was no more severe than he expected, but the spiky grass in the park scratched his back and caused bleeding.

Assistant Principal Rodney Howard said phone calls from parents caused the administration to involve the Atlanta Police Department, which he said stationed plainclothes police officers in the park each afternoon after 3:15.

“Something that seems as simple as dragging someone down a hill could go wrong, someone could get dragged over a razor or needle,” Howard said.

Howard said he became particularly concerned about the potential of hazing to escalate when he read about the hazing-related death of Robert Champion, a drum major at Florida A&M University. Champion died on Nov. 19, 2011, after participating in one of the marching band’s hazing traditions, in which members walk from the front to the back of a bus as seated upperclassmen beat them with fists, kicks and drumsticks.

“Something that was seen as just a ritual turned very serious due to the fact that a young man lost his life,” Howard said.

Denneny said he understands concerns about the zip ties. But hazing, he said, should be a part of high school.

“It shouldn’t be a big deal to drag them or emotionally terrorize them while they’re still freshmen,” Denneny said.

Alexis said although seniors hadn’t dragged freshmen since the senior meeting, they had begun discussing ways to make up for lost time.

“No one wants to be the class that breaks the tradition,” Alexis said. p *Name has been changed at source’s request.

news

Sept. 6, 2012

9

Two volunteers + Saturday tutorials = Math Success student in need. Junior Cate Matthews, who participated in the program last year, became frustrated throughout her experience.

Although the program provided individualized learning, Matthews said she did not like spending so much time on the computerized math modules. She said the website did not suit her learning style and the Saturday sessions were too impersonal.

“Their big thing in making us do the modules was to makes us like math,” Matthews said. “But all the modules were doing was making me hate math.”

This year, Bhat and Raman not only look forward to a new batch of sophomores but also to expanding the program to other local high schools. Raman and Bhat are also in the process of gaining 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit organization so they can attract local organizations’ attention for funding and scholarships. At the end of last year, they were able to reward dedicated students with small prizes such as pizza coupons and larger prizes such as $100 to $200. More than anything, Bhat and Raman are hoping to get up to 30 to 40 students involved this year. They are also interested in enlisting more parent and teacher volunteers.

Despite being described by students as “amazingly dedicated,” “patient and understanding,” and having a “contagious” love of math, Bhat and Raman give all the credit for the program’s success to the students.

“We are working with a bright group of students who have a lot of potential, and we are excited to see them grow,” Raman said. “We set pretty high standards for our students to remain with the program because the program is a privilege for these students, and they seem to have met these standards.”

Admission to the course is based upon evaluation of an application, transcript, interview and diagnostic test. Students can submit applications to Brasher by Oct. 1.

Those who are interested in volunteering can email lbrasher@atlanta.k12.ga.us for more information. o

ISABelle taft

By Olivia Volkert Math enthusiasts Vindya Bhat, a doctoral student in math at Emory, and her husband Sridharan Raman, a financial analyst at Thompson Reuters, volunteer three hours every Saturday as apart of the Grady Math Success Program. Students enter the program as sophomore Math II students and then stay in it until they graduate.

After moving to Atlanta three years ago, Bhat and Raman wanted to get more involved in the community. They signed up with the Grady Math Boosters Club, a math advocacy parent support group, and began helping students prepare for the math End-of-Course Test. When they realized the four-hour tutoring session was not enough time for them to make a difference with the students, the couple decided to start their own program. They sought support from the Grady Math Boosters Club and their Grady math teacher liaison, Linda Brasher.

The Math Success Program targets highachieving students who generally succeed in subjects other than math, who are academically motivated enough to participate in the program voluntarily.

“The goal of the program is to get kids who struggle a little in math but who are basically pretty well-rounded students, and make it so that math isn’t what keeps them from succeeding in college or keeps them from choosing a career,” Brasher said.

The program works by building upon the students’ basic math skills. Bhat and Raman believe math is a cumulative process and oftentimes, students lag behind on the most basic skills. By bolstering these fundamental skills, Bhat and Raman help students better understand even higherlevel math concepts.

Unlike the typical tutoring and remediation programs offered at Grady, such as “Let’s Do It Again,” Math Success uses a problem-based learning style that requires the students to employ investigative thinking in real-life situations.

TUTORS TO THE RESCUE: Sri Raman explains concepts to students as they work through Khan Academy modules.

Bhat and Raman use the online program Khan Academy, which offers an online repository of thousands of videos, quizzes and lessons for most subjects. The success program usually assigns students two “modules,” or lesson plans based on what they are learning, per week. To make the program more engaging, Bhat and Raman look outside of the math problem itself. For instance, when learning about fractions, the students investigated the history of Egyptian fractions and even enjoyed an ethnic meal.

“I think that I have gotten better at thinking and doing the problems in my

head,” said junior Zoie Cushing, who started the program last year. “I think I’ve gotten better at going faster. It’s worth getting up early on a Saturday morning to do math for three hours because it increases your grade in math class.”

Not only do Bhat and Raman provide basic math skills tutoring, but they also mentor students on college applications, the SAT and their career paths. They even brought in an SAT tutor, who offered to meet with the students at a discounted rate.

Because Math Success was an educational pilot program, it couldn’t reach every

Administration wants movies gone with the wind avoid redundancy,” Sabb said. “If the administration believes [movies] are hindering instruction, [the guidelines] will be considered for an official policy.”

Many teachers support the initiative. Physics teacher Jeff Cramer strongly supports the use of a lecture and hands-on approach to instruction, rather than a videofocused approach.

“I’ve walked into many classrooms where movies are being shown just to fill space,” Cramer said. “They are often violent, with loud noises, and no follow-up questions or discussions.”

Math teacher Andrew Nichols is generally opposed to showing movies in his class.

“If I show a movie that is not relevant to the [class], that’s me falling down on the job,” Nichols said.

Some hope the guidelines are not enforced as an official policy.

“I think an arbitrary decision, ‘Don’t do this, do do that,’ is a bad approach,” Nichols said. “I just generally support teachers being able to make their own professional decisions.”

Herrera agreed with Nichols.

“Restricting educational possibilities works against the student and teacher,” Herrera said.

Students also have mixed opinions about the guidelines. Junior Tucker

Lancaster enjoys movies but finds they are abused as a teaching tool.

“When we watch CSI all the time in chemistry, I’m not sure how much I’m learning from that,” he said.

Some, like senior Lucy Bradley, enjoy movies during class as an opportunity to take a break.

“It’s really easy to check out during a movie,” Bradley said. “The teacher is not going to teach, so I don’t have to listen.”

Other students expressed distress over being shown irrelevant movies.

“We’ve all seen Remember the Titans 50 billion times,” senior Mona Adams said.

Junior Qri Montague finds she is often shown movies that are completely unrelated to class.

“We’ve watched Law and Order, IP Man in biology and Slumdog Millionaire in American government,” Montague said.

She does not, however, believe enforcing the guideline of only showing short clips is the right solution.

“If [the teacher] starts teaching after just a short clip, we’re still all going to be focused on the movie,” Montague said.

Lancaster agrees that the guidelines do not address the true source of the problem. “[Watching movies is] not an issue of length,” Lancaster said. “It’s an issue of relevancy.” o

How often do you watch movies in class?

5%

7%

Frequently Sometimes

36% 52 %

Rarely Never

How often are the movies relevant to the class?

7%

Frequently 16%

33%

Sometimes Rarely

44%

Never from a Southerner Survey of 153 students

Isabelle Taft And Josh WeinstoCk

By Carson Shadwell For many students, watching a movie in class is an activity much anticipated as a way to take a break from the typical classroom workload.

This year, however, administrators are increasingly encouraging guidelines to limit the amount of time students spend watching movies.

Instructional coach Brandi Sabb said teachers have been told not to show full-length movies. Instead, the teacher handbook states that teachers may show educationally relevant clips only if they enhance a lesson.

This rule, although not an official policy and therefore not strictly enforced, has been a part of the teacher handbook in the past. This guideline has become contentious this year.

Speech and communications teacher Mario Herrera believes the emphasis on guidelines is due to the administration’s perception that teachers abuse the ability to show movies.

“There are questionable movie choices made,” Herrera said. “It’s just like with [literature choices]. There has to be a curricular purpose.”

Sabb said she has encouraged teachers to avoid showing movies if the material has already been covered during instruction.

“Movies offer different perspectives on things that ought to be taught, but it’s important to

10

Fast-food franchise fuels national frustration

11

Recent Chick-fil-A executive statement ruffles feathers of gay rights advocates, causing community response

By Olivia Veira any Atlantans crave a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich on any given day, especially Sunday. They rush to the drive-thru hoping to sink their teeth into the chicken sandwich only to find that Chick-fil-A, as always, is closed on Sundays.

Chick-fil-A has incorporated elements of its founder’s religion into its business practices since its inception. The company keeps its stores closed on Sunday to allow employees to practice their religious beliefs.

On July 16, Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A’s president, expressed his opinion on gay marriage.

“We are very much supportive of the family, the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said to the Baptist Press, a Christian daily newspaper. “We are a family-owned business, a familyled business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Cathy’s statement has been viewed by many as an attack on gay marriage and has put the Atlanta-based fast food restaurant under pressure from proponents of gay marriage around the country.

M

KISS ‘N RUN

O

n July 31, Chick-fil-A released a statement on its website “in response to recent controversy” stating “the Chickfil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent owner/operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena. Our mission is simple: to

serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” On Aug. 3, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community protested Cathy’s original statement with a “Kiss Day” at Chick-fil-A. Across the country, members of the LGBTQ community stood with their significant others, snapping picture of themselves kissing in front of their local Chick-fil-A. Senior Rex Petersen, an openly gay student, supports the LGBTQ boycotts.

“We are a civil rights movement, no matter which way you paint it,” Petersen said. “We are fighting for our rights here. We are doing what is needed.”

In response to Kiss Day, Chick-fil-A reiterated its mission to “serve great food, provide genuine hospitality, and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Chickfil-A representatives declined to talk to The Southerner about the recent controversy.

BLEEDING THE BEAST

A

ccording to its website, Chick-fil-A’s corporate mission is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us [and] to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” When Grady alumnus Truett Cathy founded Chick-fil-A in 1946 in Hapeville, a suburb not far from Atlanta, he fully intended to incorporate his religious beliefs into his company. This ideology is reflected in several of the company’s practices, the most obvious being Chick-fil-A’s “closed-on-Sunday policy.”

Chick-fil-A’s website states that its policy attracts quality employees while showing customers their values.

According to the website statement, “Cathy believes that being closed on Sunday says two important things to people. One, that there must be something special about

the way Chick-fil-A people view their spiritual life and, two, that there must be something special about how Chick-fil-A feels about its people.”

Recently, however, Dan Cathy’s statements have prompted a closer examination of the Cathy family’s philanthropic efforts.

According to a Huffington Post article, titled “Chick-fil-A: 5 Reasons It Isn’t What You Think,” the restaurant chain has donated more than $5 million to anti-gay organizations. These organizations include a nonprofit run by the Cathy family, Winshape Foundation, as well as the Family Research Council, Exodus International and others.

These figures have disturbed members of the LGBTQ community and its supporters, many of whom have decided to stop eating at Chick-fil-A altogether.

Petersen rarely ate at Chick-fil-A prior to hearing of the Cathy Family’s donations to anti-gay organizations. He feels that their anti-gay sentiment is not “very 21st century” and is choosing never to eat at Chick-fil-A as a result.

“As a gay American, I am totally for the boycott of Chick-fil-A,” Petersen said. “I have been keeping up with it, and their values are not the values that I wish to support. They are supporting many groups that seek to kind of screw me over.”

Senior Sam Holder disagrees. He does not see anything wrong with continuing to eat Chick-fil-A. “If I want Chick-fil-A and it’s convenient, I don’t think I would not get it,” Holder said. “I don’t frequent Chick-fil-A enough that my $8 every two months makes that big of a difference.

We have bigger issues to be concerned about. Just listen to Ms. Ellis talk about the environment.”

“JUST ANOTHER BLIP ON THE RADAR”

C

hick-fil-A’s statement about gay marriage on July 16 may have shocked many of the company’s supporters who also support the LGBTQ community, but the company’s view on gay marriage has not been a secret.

Michael Shutt is assistant dean for campus life and director of the Office of LGBTQ Life at Emory University. He said the frenzy over Cathy’s statement will die down in time.

“It’s how our culture works,” Shutt said. “I think one, culturally we have a two-second memory. We’ll only get engaged if other people are fired up about something. Also I think it is the recent statement by Dan Cathy.”

Shutt said this is not the first time Chick-fil-A’s leaders have come up in the media due to their anti-gay stance.

“For us, it’s been about every six months that some-

thing has been said or someone has brought up Chick-fil-A as an issue, but this is just sort of another blip on the radar,” Shutt said. “I think because the national media has picked it up and because the former governor of Arkansas [Mike Huckabee] has decided to do some supporting of Chick-fil-A and asked people to support them, creating that ‘Chick-fil-A Day’ has just been adding fuel to that fire.”

A “RALLYING CRY”

A

lthough Shutt hopes Chick-fil-A’s recent controversy will create more politically conscious consumers who will put more effort into finding out about a company’s values before purchasing their products, he is realistic about the future.

“I really wish that it would, but looking at other times when companies have done things like this, we forget,” Shutt said.

He added that this is not the first time a company’s leaders have opened up about its anti-gay stance. When Exxon and Mobil, two gas and oil corporations, merged to form Exxon Mobil in 1999, they eliminated domestic partner benefits. In 2004, Cracker Barrel was criticized for disfavoring both gays and African-Americans.

“We have a very short-term memory problem,” Shutt said.

“The reality is that most of us put our blinders up; we find a cheap product, and we go with it. ” Shutt also stated that there are many companies that have human-rights violations besides discrimination against gays.

“For those that are really engaged with issues of justice, we know that there are lots of corporations that do horrible things,” Shutt said. “For people that are talking on their iPhones, including myself, we have to come to terms with the fact that Apple has human-rights violations related to the production of the phone that I’m talking on.”

Petersen is more optimistic. He believes the protests have caused the LGBTQ movement to gain publicity and will further the movement’s cause.

“This is a very good rallying cry I think for the gay community,” Petersen said. “This is for us to show that we are Americans, we have an opinion, and we are here.” p

Do you eat at Chick-fil-A? 2%

17%

Illustation by Ax

el Olso

n

10%

What does Grady think?

3% 22% NO

72%

YES

75% from a Southerner Survey of 313 students

NO, AND I AM NOT PLANNING TO YES, BUT I AM NOT PLANNING TO ANYMORE YES, AND I STILL WILL from a Southerner Survey of 313 students

Do you know about Chick-fil-A’s Do you agree with Dan Cathy’s [Chick-fil-A executive] statement executives’ stance on LGBTQ that homosexuality is immoral? marriage?

28%

71%

NO, BUT I WILL NOW

NOT SURE NO YES

Despite controversy, schools opt to ‘eat mor chikin’

By Axel Olson Despite the recent controversy concerning Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s statements against gay marriage, local schools such as The Paideia School and Woodward Academy continue to serve the southern fast food chain’s meals to their students.

Paul Bianchi, headmaster of Paideia, located in Druid Hills, confirmed the pre-K through 12th grade school will continue to offer Chick-fil-A foods this upcoming school year once a week, as an option in its bagged lunch program.

Bianchi explained the school has relationships with various other companies that have had controversies of their own in the past. Bianchi also said he has no problems with continuing the school’s support of Chick-fil-A, as Cathy’s views do not cause discrimination within the company’s process of hiring employees or serving their customers.

“We do not subject their opinions to a litmus test unless there is reason to believe that those opinions promote discrimination,” Bianchi said. “Also, it is not a surprise that a devout Baptist believes in traditional marriage.”

In addition, the headmaster noted Paideia serves Papa John’s Pizza despite the owner’s recently voiced opinions against President Obama’s health-care reforms. Although Bianchi himself and many students at Paideia support Obama’s reforms, they continue to serve the pizza because their relationship with the company is strictly business related, as it is with Chick-fil-A. This is not the first time a company’s actions have spawned controversy across the country and in the Grady community. In recent years it was brought to light that Nike was violating child-labor laws by hiring workers as young as 10 to work in its Bangladeshi and Pakistani factories.

The bulk of Nike investors and consumers remained loyal to the company, and Nike still sponsors some Grady football events.

Chick-fil-A has never been served as a meal option at Woodward, but certain after-school clubs such as the Fellowship of Christian Leaders offer free chicken sandwiches—paid for by the school—to members. Woodward junior Trent Sears accepts the food but disagrees with Cathy’s beliefs, admitting the only reason he still supports the company is because he enjoys the food so much.

Saint Pius X, a Catholic school on the edge of Atlanta, has few students who hold strong to traditional Christian beliefs about gay marriage, according to junior Daniel Griffin. Griffin explains that many of his religious classmates are employed by Chickfil-A, but the company’s food is not served at the school. “[Serving] it would only serve to polarize the student body between supporters and

protesters. I feel that that would be an injustice to the individual student,” Griffin said.

As a lifelong Catholic, Griffin is familiar with the origins of the beliefs supported by Cathy and other Christians.

“Unfortunately this homophobia does stem from traditional Christian views, and ancient biblical verses primarily from the book of Leviticus written by the ancient Jews,” Griffin said. “There are also extremely sexist verses within this book, but are ignored by the anti-gay supporters.”

Although no other schools have business ties with the company, The Paideia School will continue to serve Chick-fil-A meals this year. Bianchi believes that a school’s relationship with a company should be based on business only.

“Our relationship with the local vendor is not expected to change,” Bianchi said.

“Group think is group think, no matter who promotes it." p

10

Fast-food franchise fuels national frustration

11

Recent Chick-fil-A executive statement ruffles feathers of gay rights advocates, causing community response

By Olivia Veira any Atlantans crave a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich on any given day, especially Sunday. They rush to the drive-thru hoping to sink their teeth into the chicken sandwich only to find that Chick-fil-A, as always, is closed on Sundays.

Chick-fil-A has incorporated elements of its founder’s religion into its business practices since its inception. The company keeps its stores closed on Sunday to allow employees to practice their religious beliefs.

On July 16, Dan Cathy, Chick-fil-A’s president, expressed his opinion on gay marriage.

“We are very much supportive of the family, the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said to the Baptist Press, a Christian daily newspaper. “We are a family-owned business, a familyled business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.”

Cathy’s statement has been viewed by many as an attack on gay marriage and has put the Atlanta-based fast food restaurant under pressure from proponents of gay marriage around the country.

M

KISS ‘N RUN

O

n July 31, Chick-fil-A released a statement on its website “in response to recent controversy” stating “the Chickfil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent owner/operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena. Our mission is simple: to

serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” On Aug. 3, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community protested Cathy’s original statement with a “Kiss Day” at Chick-fil-A. Across the country, members of the LGBTQ community stood with their significant others, snapping picture of themselves kissing in front of their local Chick-fil-A. Senior Rex Petersen, an openly gay student, supports the LGBTQ boycotts.

“We are a civil rights movement, no matter which way you paint it,” Petersen said. “We are fighting for our rights here. We are doing what is needed.”

In response to Kiss Day, Chick-fil-A reiterated its mission to “serve great food, provide genuine hospitality, and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Chickfil-A representatives declined to talk to The Southerner about the recent controversy.

BLEEDING THE BEAST

A

ccording to its website, Chick-fil-A’s corporate mission is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us [and] to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” When Grady alumnus Truett Cathy founded Chick-fil-A in 1946 in Hapeville, a suburb not far from Atlanta, he fully intended to incorporate his religious beliefs into his company. This ideology is reflected in several of the company’s practices, the most obvious being Chick-fil-A’s “closed-on-Sunday policy.”

Chick-fil-A’s website states that its policy attracts quality employees while showing customers their values.

According to the website statement, “Cathy believes that being closed on Sunday says two important things to people. One, that there must be something special about

the way Chick-fil-A people view their spiritual life and, two, that there must be something special about how Chick-fil-A feels about its people.”

Recently, however, Dan Cathy’s statements have prompted a closer examination of the Cathy family’s philanthropic efforts.

According to a Huffington Post article, titled “Chick-fil-A: 5 Reasons It Isn’t What You Think,” the restaurant chain has donated more than $5 million to anti-gay organizations. These organizations include a nonprofit run by the Cathy family, Winshape Foundation, as well as the Family Research Council, Exodus International and others.

These figures have disturbed members of the LGBTQ community and its supporters, many of whom have decided to stop eating at Chick-fil-A altogether.

Petersen rarely ate at Chick-fil-A prior to hearing of the Cathy Family’s donations to anti-gay organizations. He feels that their anti-gay sentiment is not “very 21st century” and is choosing never to eat at Chick-fil-A as a result.

“As a gay American, I am totally for the boycott of Chick-fil-A,” Petersen said. “I have been keeping up with it, and their values are not the values that I wish to support. They are supporting many groups that seek to kind of screw me over.”

Senior Sam Holder disagrees. He does not see anything wrong with continuing to eat Chick-fil-A. “If I want Chick-fil-A and it’s convenient, I don’t think I would not get it,” Holder said. “I don’t frequent Chick-fil-A enough that my $8 every two months makes that big of a difference.

We have bigger issues to be concerned about. Just listen to Ms. Ellis talk about the environment.”

“JUST ANOTHER BLIP ON THE RADAR”

C

hick-fil-A’s statement about gay marriage on July 16 may have shocked many of the company’s supporters who also support the LGBTQ community, but the company’s view on gay marriage has not been a secret.

Michael Shutt is assistant dean for campus life and director of the Office of LGBTQ Life at Emory University. He said the frenzy over Cathy’s statement will die down in time.

“It’s how our culture works,” Shutt said. “I think one, culturally we have a two-second memory. We’ll only get engaged if other people are fired up about something. Also I think it is the recent statement by Dan Cathy.”

Shutt said this is not the first time Chick-fil-A’s leaders have come up in the media due to their anti-gay stance.

“For us, it’s been about every six months that some-

thing has been said or someone has brought up Chick-fil-A as an issue, but this is just sort of another blip on the radar,” Shutt said. “I think because the national media has picked it up and because the former governor of Arkansas [Mike Huckabee] has decided to do some supporting of Chick-fil-A and asked people to support them, creating that ‘Chick-fil-A Day’ has just been adding fuel to that fire.”

A “RALLYING CRY”

A

lthough Shutt hopes Chick-fil-A’s recent controversy will create more politically conscious consumers who will put more effort into finding out about a company’s values before purchasing their products, he is realistic about the future.

“I really wish that it would, but looking at other times when companies have done things like this, we forget,” Shutt said.

He added that this is not the first time a company’s leaders have opened up about its anti-gay stance. When Exxon and Mobil, two gas and oil corporations, merged to form Exxon Mobil in 1999, they eliminated domestic partner benefits. In 2004, Cracker Barrel was criticized for disfavoring both gays and African-Americans.

“We have a very short-term memory problem,” Shutt said.

“The reality is that most of us put our blinders up; we find a cheap product, and we go with it. ” Shutt also stated that there are many companies that have human-rights violations besides discrimination against gays.

“For those that are really engaged with issues of justice, we know that there are lots of corporations that do horrible things,” Shutt said. “For people that are talking on their iPhones, including myself, we have to come to terms with the fact that Apple has human-rights violations related to the production of the phone that I’m talking on.”

Petersen is more optimistic. He believes the protests have caused the LGBTQ movement to gain publicity and will further the movement’s cause.

“This is a very good rallying cry I think for the gay community,” Petersen said. “This is for us to show that we are Americans, we have an opinion, and we are here.” p

Do you eat at Chick-fil-A? 2%

17%

Illustation by Ax

el Olso

n

10%

What does Grady think?

3% 22% NO

72%

YES

75% from a Southerner Survey of 313 students

NO, AND I AM NOT PLANNING TO YES, BUT I AM NOT PLANNING TO ANYMORE YES, AND I STILL WILL from a Southerner Survey of 313 students

Do you know about Chick-fil-A’s Do you agree with Dan Cathy’s [Chick-fil-A executive] statement executives’ stance on LGBTQ that homosexuality is immoral? marriage?

28%

71%

NO, BUT I WILL NOW

NOT SURE NO YES

Despite controversy, schools opt to ‘eat mor chikin’

By Axel Olson Despite the recent controversy concerning Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s statements against gay marriage, local schools such as The Paideia School and Woodward Academy continue to serve the southern fast food chain’s meals to their students.

Paul Bianchi, headmaster of Paideia, located in Druid Hills, confirmed the pre-K through 12th grade school will continue to offer Chick-fil-A foods this upcoming school year once a week, as an option in its bagged lunch program.

Bianchi explained the school has relationships with various other companies that have had controversies of their own in the past. Bianchi also said he has no problems with continuing the school’s support of Chick-fil-A, as Cathy’s views do not cause discrimination within the company’s process of hiring employees or serving their customers.

“We do not subject their opinions to a litmus test unless there is reason to believe that those opinions promote discrimination,” Bianchi said. “Also, it is not a surprise that a devout Baptist believes in traditional marriage.”

In addition, the headmaster noted Paideia serves Papa John’s Pizza despite the owner’s recently voiced opinions against President Obama’s health-care reforms. Although Bianchi himself and many students at Paideia support Obama’s reforms, they continue to serve the pizza because their relationship with the company is strictly business related, as it is with Chick-fil-A. This is not the first time a company’s actions have spawned controversy across the country and in the Grady community. In recent years it was brought to light that Nike was violating child-labor laws by hiring workers as young as 10 to work in its Bangladeshi and Pakistani factories.

The bulk of Nike investors and consumers remained loyal to the company, and Nike still sponsors some Grady football events.

Chick-fil-A has never been served as a meal option at Woodward, but certain after-school clubs such as the Fellowship of Christian Leaders offer free chicken sandwiches—paid for by the school—to members. Woodward junior Trent Sears accepts the food but disagrees with Cathy’s beliefs, admitting the only reason he still supports the company is because he enjoys the food so much.

Saint Pius X, a Catholic school on the edge of Atlanta, has few students who hold strong to traditional Christian beliefs about gay marriage, according to junior Daniel Griffin. Griffin explains that many of his religious classmates are employed by Chickfil-A, but the company’s food is not served at the school. “[Serving] it would only serve to polarize the student body between supporters and

protesters. I feel that that would be an injustice to the individual student,” Griffin said.

As a lifelong Catholic, Griffin is familiar with the origins of the beliefs supported by Cathy and other Christians.

“Unfortunately this homophobia does stem from traditional Christian views, and ancient biblical verses primarily from the book of Leviticus written by the ancient Jews,” Griffin said. “There are also extremely sexist verses within this book, but are ignored by the anti-gay supporters.”

Although no other schools have business ties with the company, The Paideia School will continue to serve Chick-fil-A meals this year. Bianchi believes that a school’s relationship with a company should be based on business only.

“Our relationship with the local vendor is not expected to change,” Bianchi said.

“Group think is group think, no matter who promotes it." p

news

12

Sept. 6, 2012

Bussing woes create rocky road for students, parents

“BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, BUT NEVER LATE IS BETTER:” Parents and students rallied downtown on Aug. 13 against APS’s recent decision to cancel bus stops for students who live within the“walk zone”. Many students in the district were forced to walk long distances to get to school. where children would have to cross multiple lanes of traffic or face other threats—within the area. This is the first year, however, the rule has been strictly enforced.

Under this policy, all elementary school students living within a mile of their school and middle and high school students living within 1.5 miles of their school do not receive bus services. This angered some parents who didn’t want their children to walk by themselves on dangerous streets.

The dangers children would have to walk past and the lengths of their commutes to and from school encouraged parents to express their disapproval of the lack of buses.

They organized a rally outside the APS headquarters during a Board of Education meeting on Aug. 13, printed out a multitude of signs and showed up prepared to protest and speak out against the board.

“Where does this stop?” Lindsey Gould, a parent living within the walk zone, said during the board meeting. “Dogs, prostitutes, drug addicts; we can’t even walk down the sidewalk without someone going, ‘Hey, what’s up? Do

you need something?’ It’s not right.”

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation website 92 sexual offenders live in Bethune Elementary’s zip code alone. In the Pittsburgh community, there were three children raped within the past three years; the mother of one of these children, Chandra Gallashaw, was a vocal protestor at the rally.

“I’m here today to stand up for our children,” Atlanta resident Nathaniel Dyer said at the rally. He said he believes the board was responsible for these issues.

Dyer also took part in leading the rally by using a megaphone to tell passing cars of the parents’ plight, as well as guiding other parents in various chants, such as “The Bus Stops Here” and “Child Neglect From APS.” APS communications director Keith Bromery said he understands parents’ concerns but mentioned that APS only closed seven schools during redistricting last year because parents said they wanted schools to be close by, even if those nearby schools were under-enrolled.

“That is not a very efficient or cost-effective way of operating,” Bromery said.

photos by Ciena Leshley

By Alex Wolfe Freshman Noah Li’s biggest worry on his first day at Grady was not about his schedule or his outfit. Li’s main concern was how he would be getting to school because his bus never showed up. On the first day of school, only nine of the 15 buses scheduled to bring students to Grady arrived.

A few miles away, a similar situation was unfolding as elementary school students from Perkerson and Bethune waited at their stops for buses that never appeared.

Although these transportation issues appeared similar, in actuality they stemmed from two separate problems. Grady’s difficulties resulted from drastically changed bus routes and overscheduled bus drivers, while the elementary school children suffered from the enforcement of a walk zone policy where students living within a certain radius of their school were no longer allowed transportation.

As the days went on, the two issues escalated. At Bethune and Perkerson, students in some cases had to walk about two miles a day to and from their schools. At Grady, the majority of the buses continued to show up after school had started or not show up at all.

In both circumstances, parents were forced to drop everything and drive or walk with their children to school, and they began to inquire further into the situation.

“I wasn’t surprised after the first day,” said Kelly Bray, the father of a Grady student. “After the second day I was a little surprised. The third day I was just starting to get annoyed.”

The Grady buses’ tardiness was caused by the fact that the drivers first had to complete their routes at other schools. Bus driver Sabrina Smiley started her high school route at around 7:50 a.m. the first week of school because she had to drop off the children from her other route to E. Rivers Elementary.

“It’s chaos with all of these changes,” Smiley said.

The redistricting process last year changed bus routes, but administrators never received updated bus routing sheets. Assistant principals David Propst and Rodney Howard worked with the transportation offices to get updated routes and to help direct additional buses to pick up stranded children.

“This is something that is out of hand,” Howard said after the first week of school. “We have no control.”

Meanwhile, children living within the area known as the walk zone were also experiencing changes. The walk zone policy has always been in effect, but bus drivers have traditionally made courtesy stops and hazard stops—stops

He went on to describe an ultimatum people may soon face.

“We either close these schools and bus everybody or people walk to their close-by neighborhood schools and they don’t get buses,” Bromery said.

Only two days after hearing 28 people come up to the podium during the board meeting to plead for the reinstatement of their courtesy stops, the district decided to add about 50 more buses and 850 bus stops to existing bus routes—many within the walk zone. This will cost APS an additional $2.8 million, but Bromery said the district will be able to absorb this amount through redirecting some budgets and revenues.

While many will celebrate these new changes, others feel there are better ways to resolve these problems.

“The solution isn’t always to bus kids around these social and societal situations,” Bromery said. “Sometimes the more effective solution is to go in and solve these problems so that kids are safe walking to and from school.” p

Students dive deeper into aquarium-sponsored class

By Mary Condolora When scheduling forms for the opening school year were released last spring, students might have noticed oceanography swimming in the mix of science courses. This year, oceanography, a class sponsored by the Georgia Aquarium, is being offered as a fourth-year science credit.

The director of education at the Georgia Aquarium, Brian Davis, created the class with the goal of inspiring learning and teaching oceanography in APS. This goal was achieved when Davis met with Principal Vincent Murray to discuss implementing and supporting an oceanography class at Grady.

Korri Ellis, the teacher chosen to teach oceanography, has taught this subject before.

“I taught a marine-science camp at Catalina Island with different school groups,” Ellis said. “I have experience in marine-science education,” Ellis and Georgia Aquarium representatives met last spring to talk about the partnership between the oceanography class and the aquarium.

“We talked about them providing two field trips with behind-the-scenes experience, as well as outreach work in the school,” Ellis said. “They would also facilitate a guest speaker or activity here at the school.”

The representatives from the Georgia Aquarium’s education department declined to be interviewed because plans for the partnership with the Oceanography class have not been finalized.

Ellis’ oceanography class has enthralled students, including junior Charlie Menefee.

“Oceanography is a subject that I have not been exposed to in any other years of school,” he said. “I was not previously interested in the subject, but having the class has sparked my interest. Also, having two science classes in one year as most juniors do, is a good way to compare which type of science I like more.”

Menefee is looking forward to the affiliation between oceanography and the aquarium, but he is not sure what to expect.

“I think that the Georgia Aquarium affiliating with the oceanography program is great, but I do think many people have already gone to the aquarium,” Menefee said.

“Hopefully we can get to see things people have never seen there before.”

Junior Adrian D’Avanzo thinks the aquarium’s sponsorship with the class will enhance the curriculum.

“I think it would provide an enriching experience to the class,” D’Avanzo said. “It would provide a lot more depth

to the class than just doing worksheets daily.”

Like Menefee, D’Avanzo is looking forward to the aquarium partnership.

“I am looking forward to a lot of interactive activities such as going to the aquarium and interacting with animals,” D’Avanzo said. He hopes the class will learn about the dolphin exhibit at the aquarium.

One of the potential perks of having the Georgia Aquarium sponsor Grady’s oceanography class is students attaining aquarium passes that would last for the duration of the course. Ellis said these aquarium passes have not yet been finalized, but were discussed with aquarium representatives last spring.

Because this class is relatively new, oceanography is not yet popular at Grady.

“Our class started off at around 32 kids. Now it has dropped to less than 20,” D’Avanzo said. “Many kids have an overload of science classes and that is the problem. I am taking three right now.”

Despite the loss of some students, Ellis hopes the class’s affiliation with the Georgia Aquarium will make students more enthusiastic about taking the class.

“I really hope that popularity will increase,” Ellis said.

“This has never been done before.” p

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Festival draws craftspeople, crowd to Piedmont Park

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY The Summer Arts and Crafts Festival had some distinct qualities that set it apart from other Atlanta festivals, such as its unusually small size. This festival received less publicity than other Piedmont Park events and featured about 230 artists, drawing a crowd of 47,000 people over the weekend. The Dogwood festival only has a few more art booths but draws crowds of hundreds of thousands of people.

“This is not a gigantic festival,”

Dennis said. “People will get worn out if it’s too big.”

Dennis said attendees like this smaller festival because afterwards they don’t feel like they missed anything.

“It’s more relaxing,” said sophomore Billie Lavine, who attended the festival only to satisfy her curiosity. “There’s not as many people pushing you.”

PAINTING A DIFFERENT PICTURE Despite its lower attendance, the Piedmont Park Summer Arts and Crafts Festival was not lacking in diversity of art. It included everything from jewelry to organic honey to homemade African masks and infrared photography. After they applied, the artists at the festival were chosen to participate by a jury.

Kathy Walton, a vendor at the festival who participates in many of the foundation’s festivals, specializes in recyclable metal lawn decorations.

“All of my work is recycled, so it is green, and it is whimsical and fun,” Walton said.

Freshmen Jordan Schuster and Tessa Szalkowski were at the festival volunteering for 21st Century Leaders, sitting in for vendors who had to momentarily leave their booths. In between their shifts of booth-sitting, they were able to tour the grounds, and both said they enjoyed the variety of art at the festival.

“It’s really interesting to see all the artists from around the area,” Szalkowski said. “And [the vendors] are really nice. They’re really friendly.”

“One guy shot me with a marshmallow gun,” Schuster said.

Jasomat Patel traveled from Alachua, Fla., to Piedmont Park to sell carnivorous, bug-eating “pitcher plants” at the festival.

She said she looked on the festival website, and saw that the festival was in a park, which attracted her to come to Atlanta.

“I love the parks, so that was the first selling point,” Patel said.

PHOTOS BY J.D. Capelouto

By J.D. Capelouto Piedmont Park, known to many as the “crown jewel” of Atlanta, hosts many large events right across the street from Grady, such as the Dogwood Festival in April and Music Midtown in September. While many students attend these popular events, few know about some of the smallerscale festivals that also call Piedmont Park home. On Aug. 18 and 19, the Piedmont Park Summer Arts and Crafts Festival brought the community together to show off some of the best art from around the Southeast.

The festival, organized by the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, featured more than 200 artists, including painters, photographers, glass blowers, jewelers, sculptors and crafters. Festival director Patrick Dennis believes the festival brought a unique flair to Piedmont Park that was unlike most other festivals held in the popular space.

Dennis, who is an artist himself, said the festival prides itself in being “by artists, for artists.”

He wants the festival attendees to realize what the Atlanta art community has to offer, and hopes this festival’s extreme friendliness will appeal to customers.

“The profile for the event is one that is not snooty,” Dennis said.

“We’re not pretentious people, and it’s very pedestrian- and dog-friendly.

We’re very close to the artists that participate, and everything is handled with personal attention.”

ART IN THE PARK: On Aug. 18 and 19, Piedmont Park hosted the Summer Arts and Crafts festival, a small, dog-friendly event, which featured art ranging from recycled metal yard decorations (right) to exotic tropical carnivorous plants (bottom left).

DELICIOUS YET NUTRITIOUS Another aspect that differentiates this festival from traditional Atlanta festivals is its use of food trucks. Instead of funnel cakes and corn dogs, this festival offered a choice of exotic and creative cuisine, including Korean-Mexican fusion, wood-fired pizza, gourmet grilled cheese, traditional barbeque and specialty French fries.

“They have healthy alternatives to fast food,” Dennis said. “[Traditional festival food] is fun to eat, but the after-effects are not so good.”

PIEDMONT SHOWS ITS TRUE COLORS Each year, proceeds from the festival are donated to a different charity.

The festival has not designated a primary charity for this year yet, but it had donated some money before the event even started.

“We have already contributed some of the proceeds . . . to the Geor-

gia Foundation for Public Spaces, which provides scholarships to artists in need,” Dennis said.

A WIDE RANGE OF APPEAL The festival also included a street magician, multiple Ping-Pong tables, a kids’ play area and a dog adoption agency. In addition, the Grady drum line opened the festival on Saturday by marching around the entire festival, bringing an energetic atmosphere that lasted the whole weekend.

Special education teacher Brian Leahy came with his wife, Jenny Leahy, to the festival because they live across the street from the park.

“I like when they take household items and turn them into art,” Jenny Leahy said. “There was one guy who was making speakers out of suitcases.”

Brian Leahy said that compared to the Dogwood Festival, the Summer Arts and Crafts Festival was more consistent with its name.

“Unlike the Dogwood Festi-

val, we can bring our dog to this one,” he said.

This festival was a rain-or-shine event, and Dennis said the vendors had to bring plastic sheets to cover their tent if it rained. Fortunately, these sheets were put to minimal use.

After a light shower at around 11:45 on Saturday, the sun came out for the rest of the weekend.

A HANDSHAKE AND A SMILE Though the festival did not have quite as many attendees as some other Piedmont Park events, this year’s Summer Arts and Crafts Festival still attracted almost 50,000 people to Atlanta’s crown jewel, where they could enjoy their day, appreciate a large variety of art from around the Southeast and get some personal attention along the way.

“Piedmont Park’s personality is extremely broad and friendly,” Dennis said. “So this is a festival where you’re going to get a handshake and a smile every step you take.” p

Tavern brings Shakespearean fun to theatrical senior

By Sammi Dean I was somewhere between laughing and crySenior Lucy Bradley prepared for her big ing,” she said. “But it’s all good.” scene in The Tempest on the Shakespeare TavThe Shakespeare Intensive for Teens, or SIT, ern stage on July 30. While three of her cast- at The New American Shakespeare Tavern, mates feigned sleep she was to attempt to kill which Bradley has attended for two summers, one of them with her sword. But just before gave her experiences beyond this onstage emshe was to draw her sword from her belt, she barrassment. Lila Bradley, her mother, praised made an unfortunate discovery. the excellent teaching the program offers.

“When I realized, “[Lucy] got a lot shortly before I had of instruction from When I got offstage after to draw it, that my theater professionsword was stuck, I als in the working of the scene ended I was freaked out a little theaters,” said Bradsomewhere between laugh- ley, who stressed that bit,” Bradley said.

“But I thought surely ing and crying. But it’s all the staff is comprised I will be able to draw mostly of working digood.” my sword when the rectors and actors.

Lucy Bradley Director time comes.”

Kelly Criss thinks the proThe sword reSenior gram improves more mained stuck and Bradley had to play it off as if she was than acting skills.

“I believe (and hope) the students walk going to attempt to murder the king by away from SIT with a renewed or newly stomping on his neck.

“When I got offstage after the scene ended discovered self-confidence,” Criss said in

“

an email. “I’ve witnessed teenage students in this program (Lucy included) with a higher clarity of thought and character motivation/comprehension than some adult professionals I’ve worked with.”

Lucy Bradley also praised the focus of the program and how it markets Shakespeare to teenagers.

“Not that many people our age [teenagers] are able to recognize what is great about Shakespeare because in class it can seem so boring,” Bradley said. “Seeing a show and being in a show, however, can really show you how accessible Shakespeare plays are.”

Bradley’s appreciation for Shakespeare started at a young age when her elementary school, Mary Lin, performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream when she was in fifth grade.

“I bought half a dozen books about Shakespeare for little children, and she read all those books and just soaked them up,” Lila Bradley said. “She loved them.”

Noting that many of the recent Grady performances have been musicals, Lucy Bradley welcomed the opportunity to work almost exclusively on acting.

“It really helped me focus on what is important in acting for me and in general,” she said.

The commitment of nearly 40 hours a week paid off. Senior James Moy attended the play for the second consecutive year to support Bradley.

“I was really impressed,” Moy said. “I’m always really impressed at how well high school-age kids can put together a professional performance, and they did a really good job of it.”

Junior Zoie Cushing has also attended the show both years Bradley was involved and concurred with Moy. “I thought it was really good,” Cushing said. “I really liked how she like was able to do her character well and how she was able to perform...with an actual public audience. It was really funny.” p

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Sept. 6, 2012

By Ben Searles For now, there are no record deals or nationwide tours. For now, My Homework Ate My Dog practices in the basement of lead guitarist Skylar Brillante’s house in Candler Park. The basement is set up primarily as a place to hang out. The walls have no drywall and the only thing separating the rooms are wood beams between the ceiling and floor. The band has a “room” to itself, where amps of various colors are placed around the room and the floor is a jungle of cords.

The band truly represents a range of personalities and styles but ends up working almost seamlessly together. During practice there is hardly any messing around, and the band plays a vast range of numbers, from covering War Pigs by Black Sabbath or Scar Tissue by Red Hot Chili Peppers, to playing their original songs, which members of the band described as alternative with roots from grunge, pop and garage pop.

The band, consisting of four Grady freshmen and one Paideia freshman, was formed in the fifth grade while the members attended Mary Lin Elementary. During the early days, the band had two separate drummers—one for bass and symbols and another for snare. They soon switched to a conventional drummer, Ethan Gould, who joined the band when now-current bandmate Conor Downey, bassist, suggested it. Gould started playing drums when he was 6, taught

by Mark Cobb, the drummer for local band Yacht Rock.

The guitars that Brillante and Logan Mann play are essentially inverses of each other. Brillante plays a white Epiphone with black and gold detailing, while Mann’s Epiphone is black, with gold and white details.

Brillante began guitar lessons in the fourth grade. He and Mann write most of the music, save for the vocals, for the band. Some of Brillante’s favorite bands, All Time Low, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Grouplove, can be clearly recognized in the original pieces.

Brillante is very active during practice, often jumping up and down to the beat of the song or spreading his legs into a split position as a guitar solo progresses. Between songs he plays guitar licks high up on the neck and cracks jokes to pass the time. His wears neon-colored shirts and very skinny jeans, and

courtesy of my homework ate my dog

Band of ninth-graders offers fresh sound, clever name

IT’S A HOMEWORK EAT DOG WORLD:The Grady band performs at gigs around Atlanta.The group, consisting of guitarist Skylar Brillante (top left), drummer Ethan Gould (top middle), guitarist Logan Mann (top right), vocalist Max Calderon, and bassist Conor Downy, was formed four years ago when the members attended Mary Lin. sports streaks of blonde throughout his naturally dark brown hair.

Mann sticks to a less flashy, yet equally “hip” wardrobe. Mann can also play keyboard and sing, so he is a versatile asset to the band. He started his musical career with trumpet in the school band but switched to guitar in the fifth grade.

Vocalist Max Calderon, the Paideia student, jumps around as he sings. To keep focused, he stares at the audio levels on the amp for his mic. He started singing as a 6 years old, crooning along to The Ramone’s “Blitzkrieg Bop.” He feels that he is now experienced to sing for even 45- or 60-minute gigs. He and the band’s bassist, Conor Downy, write the lyrics for the band’s songs.

Downy started playing bass in fourth grade for school and took lessons on the

side. Later, he stopped taking lessons and experienced something of a musical epiphany.

Before he could only play simple songs, but now he can listen to almost any song and figure out the bass line within minutes. Downy is less energetic during practice, as he plays his Stratocaster-style black bass.

The band plays almost exclusively local festivals, including the LEAF festival in Asheville, N.C., the Inman Park Festival, the Candler Park Fall Festival, The Virginia-Highland Summer Festival, the Art-B-Q Festival in Avondale and the Front Page News Mardi Gras Festival.

They are also playing at The Skateraid Skateboard and Arts Festival, a pediatric cancer benefit event, on Sept. 30. “[My Homework Ate My Dog is] my favorite pop-punk band, with deep lyrics and an amazing live performance,” said freshman

Sam Wilson, an avid fan of the band. Wilson has known the band since its formation in 2009. He goes to watch the band perform whenever they have a gig, which is typically once to twice a month depending on the local schedule of festivals.

Mann described the band’s success as a snowball effect, with gigs leading to more gigs. The band struggled to sustain regular practice over the past summer because members were often out of town. But despite this inconsistency, the band-mates agree that they are in pretty good shape, scheduling frequent gigs and hoping to have a complete album by the end of the year.

For now, My Homework Ate My Dog still carries its own gear, and still hasn’t been to the studio. But maybe someday soon, the band will have moved on to something more. p

Sitting comfortably on white cushioned benches, I lean back and try to absorb all the positive energy in Midtown Plaza’s newest restaurant.

Kiri, a Korean and Japanese rice bar, strives to accomplish a minimalist theme, and I confirm that they have achieved it.

As soon as I walk through the Darriea Clark doors of the restaurant, I immediately relax. The white walls and spacious real estate of chairs and tables give off a good vibe.

When I arrive, Joan Lee, one of the servers at Kiri, welcomes me with a friendly smile. She earnestly suggests refilling my water bottle while I wait for my friend to accompany me.

While sitting down, I note the contemporary design: along the walls are frames containing imitation grass. Each one appears to be a window to a plush green lawn. The halogen art and the Korean pop music in the background put me in a trance when suddenly a Maroon 5 song jolts me back to America.

My friend finally arrives, and we are so hungry after school that we decide to eat immediately. This is my third time coming to Kiri, so I already know the highlight of the menu, and suggest that we both order the bibimbap—a Korean meal that literally means “mixed rice.” The best part about this dish is that you choose which ingredients you want to go in a bowl.

My absolute favorite choices are shrimp and brown rice with mushrooms, carrots, onions, cucumbers, bell peppers, broccoli and Korean hot pepper sauce. Does that seem like a lot? Well, the great thing about the bibimbap is that you can pick as many veggies as you want, as Kiri offers an extensive list of fresh veg-

Darriea Clark

Bibimbap, miso soup captivate the Midtown Plaza

STYLE & GRACE: A Korean and Japanese rice bar opened in Midtown Plaza this summer. Its sleek design and helpful staff welcome customers. gies. Whatever you do, however, do not forget to ask for your bibimbap to be served in a dolsot, which is a hot stone bowl.

After checking off our little menu slips to indicate which ingredients we want, our server promptly brings us a hot, complimentary bowl of miso soup, a Korean specialty with scallions, tofu and seaweed. By the time we were sipping the last of the miso soup, the waitress brings out our bibimbap, and an instant smile forms on my face after the first bite. The combination of ingredients and spice kick my taste buds into overdrive. The taste is just too good to be true. My friend and I happily eat the delicious bibimbap while listening to smooth Korean music, talking about trivial teenage girl topics and occasionally getting checked on by a waitress.

The service at Kiri is impeccable. Everyone is so warm and

friendly. Lee answers any and all questions that I have had about Kiri. She even tells me that “Kiri” means “together” in Korean— something I was dying to know. Kiri’s employees do not judge you at all if you have questions about the menu or if you ask about a certain dish.

Enjoying the large bowl of bibimbap with my friend, I imagine that this calming restaurant will last for a long time. It is the perfect place for me to come after a long day of school, before sporting events at Grady or simply to meet up with my friends.

It only takes a few minutes for me to get here if I am walking and an even shorter time if I am on my moped. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone—Grady students, faculty and staff, parents, local neighbors, everyone. I am definitely looking forward to my next dining experience at Kiri. p

Sept. 6, 2012

lifestyle

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By Gracie White Want to find a present-day version of Henry David Thoreau? Look no further than the halls of Grady. Located approximately six miles north of Highlands, N.C., the one-and-ahalf story cabin, Junior Tucker Lancaster’s “Walden Pond,” is equipped with a wrap-around porch, wavy clapboard siding and doors, windows and a roof made of reclaimed tin.

The cabin is built on a piece of land owned by Lancaster’s great aunt’s daughter who lives in Louisiana. Despite distance in lineage and geography, Lancaster said when the husband, Chip Sloane, offered him the opportunity to use the land a few years ago, he quickly agreed.

The construction of the cabin was not a one-summer project.

Instead, the process spanned three years of planning and preparation starting with clearing a portion of the wooded part of the property in the summer of 2010. The next summer, he began building the cabin. By the end of July, he laid the foundation: including the first and second floors, the framing of the walls and the groundwork for the future porch.

Lancaster said some materials were a pain to transport; specifically, the 14 by 16 boards, the plywood and the doors gave him the most grief when he started construction.

Along with the size and weight of these supplies, the actual haulage of them proved to be more difficult than he had originally planned.

“It was a long trip since I was transporting most of the materials from Atlanta in a small truck, plus driving on the winding roads in the mountains made the whole process pretty difficult,” Lancaster said.

“But the hardest part was when we reached the point where we no longer had road access to the cabin and had to carry all the materials about 200 yards by hand to the site.”

Though he thoroughly enjoyed the entire process, Lancaster said

the past few months have been the most gratifying.

“This summer, we got to add all the finishing touches and were able to see everything come together,” Lancaster said. “After all the work we put into it, it was just really neat to see the final and finished product.”

Lancaster said the hardest part of construction was roofing, which took him several tries.

“The angles were all so difficult to work with, and I ended up guessing and checking with a lot of calculations,” Lancaster said. “It took more than a few tries to get the roof situated properly, but finally it all fell into place.”

The cabin itself does not have a bathroom, kitchen or indoor plumbing; however, Lancaster has provided viable alternatives. He was able to create a makeshift private outhouse because Sloane built a water system before Lancaster started developing the land. By tapping into a nearby stream and cistern with a series of pumps and a water heater, Lancaster built a shower and wash station.

“Tucker is a remarkable and extremely resourceful young man who has a knack for problem solving,” said Chris Paddock, a Grady parent who helped with construction. “He’s one of those people where if you drop him off in the middle of Alaska with a box of matches and hunting knife, he’d do just fine, and you definitely can’t say that about just anyone.”

Several times throughout the summer, Lancaster travelled up to the cabin and worked on it alone.

He spent about a month total between separate trips by himself in the mountains, an experience he embraced and enjoyed.

“Most people ask me if I was scared to be in the woods alone at night, but it doesn’t really bother me,” Lancaster said. “I don’t psyche myself out; I’m comfortable in the woods. Once I had a scheduled daily routine for working on the cabin, there wasn’t

COURTESY OF TATE LANCASTER

Tucked away in the woods: junior constructs log cabin

much time to do anything but eat, sleep and build, let alone worry.”

His mother, Erica Lancaster, wasn’t quite as carefree about the whole idea.

“Even though he took the Wilderness First Responder course, I still worried about him,” she said. “I’m the reason he got the personal locater beacon — it’s similar to LifeAlert — because I was scared that with all the spotty cell service and utter isolation, he would hurt himself and not be able to find help.”

With the help of his family and a few family friends, Lancaster was able

INTO THE WOODS: Junior Tucker Lancaster finishes up windows (top) as one of the last steps to completing construction of a cabin located in North Carolina.

Lancaster spent three summers in the mountains to accomplish his goal of building a cabin (above) from scratch. Although the cabin is rustic, it includes amenities such as an outhouse and a door equipped with glass panes (left). to construct the cabin on a relatively low budget. The bulk of the materials he used were reclaimed and therefore obtained at little to no cost.

“Our neighbor, Mike White, works in construction, so we had access to a lot of material, like lumber, windows and doors that were going to be scrapped but instead went to us,” said Jim Lancaster, Tucker’s father. “It wasn’t expensive, an aspect lots of people find surprising.”

Though he had never taken on a project this complex before, Tucker Lancaster was no rookie and did the majority of the work by himself.

“As I gained more experience and skill, I started to really like construction, so when this opportunity presented itself, I took it.” he said.

“I spent a couple summers doing something I love and now I, my friends and my family can enjoy it for a lifetime.”

The Sloane and Lancaster families plan to keep the cabin in the family, always available for a free, impromptu trip to the mountains.

“The fact that he built it is incredible,” Erica Lancaster said. “It’s not some shack. It’s a house that’s charming and has character.” p

Grady alumnus finds future in film at dream school “There were a lot of overachievers, but I didn’t think of

By Diana Powers When you first meet 22-year old Scottie Bookman, you see myself this way,” Bookman said. “I mostly participated in her blonde hair, her California girl personality and her enthu- them because they gave me something to do after school, siasm for the film industry. What you don’t see is the girl who and I ended up having tons of fun and meeting wondercreated an award-winning thesis production and was accepted ful people.”

Bookman said her relationships with her English teachers into a prestigious film program at UCLA following her graduahelped her discover her passion for writing. She had always tion from Grady in 2008.

Her mother, Julie Bookman, said the first impression Scottie contemplated a future in film writing.

Lee Pope, who taught Bookman while she attended GraBookman gives people is one of the toughest things she had to overcome after she graduated from Grady and moved to the dy, remembers her well.

“I could put her up to anything and UCLA campus.

Don’t forget you have that she’d get it done,” Pope said. “She was “When people first meet her, they the definition of the Yiddish word don’t always take her seriously,” Julie ability to change things.” ‘chutzpah,’ which is to have the quality Bookman said. “She’s had to prove to of audacity, or just being ballsy.” people that she’s intellectual and seriScottie Bookman Her mother feels Bookman was ous; she’s got drive and ambition that allowed her to prove herself to imporClass of 2008 lucky to have such an enriching experitant people.” ence during her years at Grady.

Bookman has adopted a tough resolve about realizing her “She was able to gain confidence and intellect from the full potential in all she does. She lives by the idea that she’s too activities she participated in,” Julie Bookman said. young not to be busy all of the time.

Scottie Bookman feels there was another experience that “When faced with a tough decision, always take on more helped her figure out who she was as an individual during than you think you can handle,” Scottie Bookman said. “ If you high school. are not happy with school, or what you are studying, or doing, “Waiting tables on the weekends at Stone Soup Kitchen change it. Don’t forget you have that ability to change things.” in Cabbagetown definitely had an impact on my character,” Bookman said her activities at Grady came to define her. Bookman said. “Anyone interested in studying the humanities She joined the mock trial team as a sophomore, served as should be a waitress at some point. It’s a valuable lesson in that comment editor of The Southerner as a senior and ran on the you are talking to and serving strangers, with the only thing in varsity cross-country team. common is that they’re hungry and you have food.”

“

Bookman comes from a movie-loving family. Her grandfather directed five film biographies and her brother is the coowner of Grizzly Adams Productions.

“Her parents definitely gave her a vision and artistic flair,” Pope said. “They taught her the importance of education.”

Since she was 9 years old, Bookman dreamed of attending UCLA, the alma mater of her maternal grandparents. She considers her biggest accomplishment to be acceptance into a competitive two-year film program at UCLA, which selects 15 students from the film department at the school and 15 international students.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted in a career, just what I was interested in,” Bookman said. “But I love the movie industry, and filmmaking especially, which I didn’t really admit to myself until I was accepted into this program.”

As Bookman’s graduation from UCLA approached, she completed a thesis production of a coming-of-age film shot through the eyes of two young boys.

Bookman’s thesis film won the undergraduate award for visual effects, and as a UCLA film student this year, she was also awarded the Alan S. Jacobson Memorial Award for artistic merit and the Edie Gross Manet scholarship for professional promise, artistic merit, passion and excellence in the field of film production.

Bookman graduated from UCLA in May with a major in film production. She is now working 10-hour days as a receptionist at Smuggler, a film, TV, commercial and music video production company representing a roster of awardwinning directors. p

lifestyle

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Sept. 6, 2012

Across the pond: Brit comes here, Knight goes there talk to without awkwardness. Meier, however, encountered some interesting discussions. Walking into what he referred to as a canteen, he felt unwelcome and made his way out into the courtyard where he was greeted by some rowdy folks.

Snacking on his crisps and ham rolls, Meier endured an endless game of 20 questions, most of which he could not answer. The term saved by the bell never rang truer.

“The first few people I spoke to I didn’t try to adapt to their culture which is of a happy clappy nature,” Meier said. “I resumed my normal self, perhaps a little more cynical than they are.”

With 90 minutes left in his school day, Meier made his way to forensics.

He entered the class with enthusiasm, interested to learn about the science behind CSI. Instead he learned the other meaning of forensics.

“I expected a more practical as in R TE UN

St RU

Amoakuh thought uniforms would make it easier to get ready for school, she was faced with the predicament of deciding how short she could wear her skirt.

In the end she decided to alter the length, n o t wanting to make a bad first impression.

After the grandma look was chosen, the Cheerios were eaten and the gummy Calcium vitamins were taken, it was time to take the taxi to school.

Amoakuh began her school day in the Magna Carta Hall meeting the senior class and school presidents.

Three weeks earlier, halfway around the world, Meier began his day in the hallway waiting to meet with a counselor and receive a schedule. After an hour and a half of sitting, Meier received a temporary schedule placing him in U.S. history. Just a couple minutes felt like a couple hours when extensively reviewing the course sylla-

H

By Hunter Rust It was the morning of Aug. 6, and at 7 a.m., James Meier was not in his brightest mood. In his tired state he took a shower, making sure to wash extra well, with soap, conditioner, the works, to be fresh and clean for his first day at an American school.

Decked out in his maroon dressing gown, Meier schlepped downstairs to a bowl of Coco Pops—the British version of Cocoa Krispies—with extra semi-skimmed milk. After drinking the leftover milk from the cereal, Meier changed into his first-day outfit, being sure to avoid skinny clothing. His mum gave him a lift to school, and as he entered the canteen, the only thing he could think was “school doesn’t start this early in bloody England.”

Three and a half weeks later, former Grady student Konadu Amoakuh’s alarm clock went off bright and early at 6 a.m. in Berkshire, England. Pressing the snooze button for half an hour, Amoakuh struggled to start her day. After taking a shower, brushing her teeth and washing her face, she threw on some light clothes, straightened her hair, put on makeup, all in preparation for the school pictures later that day. Amoakuh strutted into the next room to assist her little sister with her first-day-of-school preparations and soon began her own.

The dilemma with the skirt was the highlight of the morning. Though

bus. Speaking his first words, Meier explained that his first name wasn’t Mark; Meier felt the weight of every eye in the classroom.

On the first day at a new school, where to sit at lunch is usually an uncertainty. Luckily Amoakuh met some classmates a few days before at a school picnic, so she sat right in the middle of the cafeteria at a circular table with people she was able to

hands-on kind of learning,” Meier said. “I was deceived and trapped into another book/worksheet orientated learning style.”

Instead of listening to tedious outlines, Amoakuh was listening to tedious disciplinary actions that would take place if she accumulated too many tardies. Crowded into a small gym, Amoakuh sat alongside her fellow classmates learning the newly instated point system.

Then she noticed that the student body was divided into cliques: some separated by nationality, others by whether they commute or board at the school. She identified the troublemakers by how often they were reprimanded. She couldn’t help but wonder, where will I fit in?

It was a question for both emigrants to ask, although they couldn’t yet find an answer. Amoakuh arrived at the bus area and scouted out her little sister; Meier similarly met up with his younger sister after school. Amoakuh and her sister took the school taxi home; Meier and his sister hitched a ride from a friend. At home, Amoakuh changed into comfy clothes and napped until dinnertime. Meier took his shoes off, poured a glass of milk, ate some bland cookies and watched Family Guy. The first day at a new school in a new country is an experience to remember, to survive and, hopefully, to build upon. p

POULTRY domesticated STUDY BREAK: C R O S S W O R D as productive food source SAT VOCAB This Month’s Theme:

continued from front page bury researched them online and the youngest sibling James, who is in the seventh grade at Inman, picked out the types he wanted to buy.

Two years ago, junior Tucker Lancaster took buying chickens into his own hands.

“My parents always try to stand behind whatever crazy idea I have,” Lancaster said.

Lancaster feeds the chickens, and collects their eggs, and his parents assume those duties only when he is busy or out of town.

For the Dusenburys, caring for chickens requires the labor of many family members. James checks for eggs while Max feeds the chickens.

They both helped Eric transform an old play fort in the backyard into a chicken coop.

Lancaster, who also built an enclosure that holds his 25 chickens, agreed that caring for them is a lot of work. He organized a neighborhood co-op to fund his project. Seven neighborhood families pay $150 each at the beginning of each year in order to receive fresh eggs at their doorstep throughout the year. This money pays for the chicken’s food and the construction of their coop.

Wadsworth owns 10 chickens, whose eggs she keeps, shares and sells to neighbors, who regularly buy them.

“They like to know where the eggs come from, how the chickens were treated and what they ate,” Wadsworth said. “People see the value of fresh foods.”

Wadsworth keeps her chickens in an enclosure at night, but lets them roam the yard with her other pets during the day. Wadsworth lives with five cats, four birds and a dog.

“I have an extensive family,” Wadsworth said. “[My pets] know who is part of the family and who’s not.”

Wadsworth said all of her animals get along.

This is not true, however, of all households with chickens. Andy Dean, the father of two Grady students, senior Sammi Dean and sophomore Emily Dean, owns one chicken, the sole survivor of a flock of four following animal attacks.

“One I think the dog killed, the other was killed by a fox,” Andy Dean said. “I heard a racket outside one night and when I looked out there, I saw a fox with the chickens.”

Chickens, being natural prey to many animals, can easily be put in harm’s way by dogs, hawks and owls, which attack chickens if given the chance. Most chicken owners put their chickens in coops at night to avoid this issue.

“Hawks are definitely an issue,” Lancaster said. “A lot of people lose chickens to [them].”

Wadsworth’s pets get along with the chickens, but she worries that hawks and owls living around her house could potentially harm her chickens. Because of this fear, Wadsworth always puts her chickens inside their coop at night.

Chickens live an average of five to 10 years, but they begin to lay fewer eggs as they get older and sometimes they stop laying eggs completely. At this point, some chicken owners decide to keeps their chickens simply Across: as pets, while others have no use for chickens 5. adj. wise 10. n. one who overindulges in food and drink who do not lay eggs.

“After this third year, I’m pretty much going 11. n. a person who lives for pleasure to kill all of them [who stop producing eggs],” 13. adj. lively; full of uplifted spirit; vivacious 15. adj. using only words the words that are needed Lancaster said. to make the point; very concise Both Wadsworth and the Deans plan to 16. v. to reprimand or scold sharply keep their chickens simply as pets once the 20. adj. done or made in a secret, stealthy way laying stops.

“It’s been a blast to have them,” said Andy Down: Dean, whose chickens frequently waited for 1. adj. eager to fight; belligerent him by the back door in the mornings and fol- 2. n. excess; abundance lowed him around the yard in a pack. “Every- 3. v. to lessen pain or discomfort one should do it. It’s fun, and it’s easy.” p Answers online on thesoutherneronline.com

4. adj. extremely poisonous; deadly; full of spiteful hatred 6. adj. lacking respect; scornful 7. v. to praise highly; laud 8. adj. too forward or bold; overstepping proper bounds 9. v. to walk around in a proud, showy manner 12. adj. sociable, outgoing 14. adj. having little or no energy 17. adj. unoriginal and stale due to overuse 18. adj. indifferent; showing no caring, interest, or concern; lacking emotion 19. adj. strongly opinionated; rigid; dictatorial

sports

Sept. 6, 2012

17

By Lauren Ogg Four years ago five freshmen tried out and made the girls varsity soccer team. Since they were only freshmen, they were not expected to improve the team dramatically, but they proved everyone wrong.

The same scenario is taking place this year with a new “fab five” consisting of freshmen outside-midfielder Sophie Durham, centerforward Erin Ferris, center-midfielder Grace Dusenberry, center-defender Brett Pollock and center-midfielder Carson Fleming.

Senior captain Abby Orlansky said the team has had difficulty recovering after losing two captains and three other stars to graduation. She is counting on the new members to step up to the occasion.

“We look for somebody who is dedicated and who can be the brave new freshman player that everyone is shocked by and stands out,” Orlansky said.

Over the summer, captains arranged for practices twice a week. These practices were designed to keep the players active and allow the new members to show their skills.

They also let the team to get a sense of its strengths and weaknesses before the actual season begins.

“If the freshmen can come in and play with heart and intensity, we’ll be fine,” head coach Rodney Thomas said. “They will have to get used to the physicality of the game in high school. The freshmen are going to be playing against 17-18-year-olds when they might be 14 years old.”

Ferris understands the hurdles and is enthused to join the team.

“I’m very eager to start a new fresh and challenging league,” Ferris said. “It’s going to be so different from Inman because Inman was like rec soccer. All the teams we played against were not very good, and there was no competition for us Inmaners.”

courtesy of the inman yearbook

Freshman ‘fab five’ follows footsteps on fútbol field

PULL YOUR SOCKS UP:Five players from the Inman team are expected to make major contributions for Grady this year.The players posed for the Inman yearbook last season.

Ferris has been playing soccer for 11 years and hopes to continue her career at Grady. Her sister, Emily Ferris, was on the varsity team last year will return this year. The friendly sibling rivalry motivates Erin to impress her big sister.

This sibling rivalry, combined with pressures from other players, pushes her to work hard.

“Definitely the fact that [returning members] think they might be better than us just because they are older [motivates me],” Ferris said. “I want to prove them wrong.”

Similar to Ferris, Pollock is trying out for the varsity team and feels the same pressures and motivations about joining the team.

“I love trying to prove myself,” Pollock said. “[Older players] think when the freshmen join we won’t be able to catch up, but I think after some hard work we will be able to play alongside them.”

Thomas is impressed with the new players so far.

“Several [of the returning players] will have to step up because their positions are in jeopardy,” Thomas said. “There will be no qualms about starting freshmen. The best players will start, and they all know they will have to battle for their spots.”

When assessing the situation, Orlansky

described a déjà vu feeling.

“This mirrors our freshman year,” Orlansky said. “There was a core group of five of us. We were kind of scared at first, but we completely transformed the team.”

Orlansky said Thomas was so impressed by the group of five when they were freshmen girls because no one expected them to be that good. She felt that it was the team’s best season and constantly finds herself referring to “how we wish this season was like freshman year.”

“This is my last season and I’m expecting it to be the best,” Orlansky said. p

Seven women and one girl lined up in their respective lanes for the 800-meter freestyle Olympic final at the Aquatics Centre on Aug. 3.

Rebecca Adlington, the hometown favorite who set a world record with a time of 8:14.10 in the event four years ago, was in lane four. To her Joe Lavine left in lane three was 15-year-old Katie Ledecky from Bethesda, Md., the youngest of the 529 Americans at the Olympics.

The race began, and Ledecky built a body-length lead after the first 200 meters. The commentators thought she had started too fast, but as 400 meters to go became 200 meters and then 100, Ledecky’s only competitor was the computer-generated yellow world-record line. The crowd’s excitable roar grew into an uncontrollable frenzy. Ledecky took her final strokes, her arms swiftly spinning at her shoulders and smacking the water like a crocodile’s expanded jaw attacking the surface. She finished at 8:14.63, breaking the American record and missing the world record by half a second. A look of utter disbelief combined with pure joy spread across her face as she gasped for breath. Rebecca Adlington finished third, touching the wall more than five seconds after Ledecky. She hugged Ledecky, shook her head, and said one word that captured the moment.

“Amazing.”

Now, let’s step back a moment to put this achievement in perspective. Just a year ago, Ledecky was starting her freshman year in high school, a shy, new student at a new school.

Picture her at Grady, searching halls to find her way to classes, dodging fruit in the courtyard, and maybe sliding backwards down a certain Piedmont Park hill, her wrists in the hands of a gleeful upperclassman. Ledecky doesn’t even have her learner’s permit yet (what a loser!).

But there is one trait that she does have, one overly quoted, tiresomely mentioned and excessively celebrated: a coach’s pet work ethic that drove her to wake up at 3:45 a.m. twice a week, that urged her to keep going back to the pool every day after school, and that in the end carried her up the tall stone steps, past the dragons and into the gold-medal kingdom.

Ledecky’s hard work is what got her there, what allowed

Rebecca Martin

From Ledecky to Laquita, Olympics motivate youth

her to overcome her lack of experience and win a gold medal at such a young age. She is just one of the many Olympic examples of the potential in all of us. The cliché is common and old, but when I see Ledecky’s face after that race and how overcome she is with happiness after accomplishing her goal, I am not too shy to repeat it, or too cynical to believe it: with hard work, anything is possible, and her success should motivate all of us to commit fully to the pursuit of our goals.

There are countless other inspirational stories in the Olympics, many coming from athletes who have overcome hardships. Some of them, admittedly, I can hardly begin to understand or appreciate, because like many of you, I am lucky to have the life I have, and my life has never approached the hardships that many others out there have experienced, or are experiencing.

Take Lopez Lomong, for instance. Sorry Ledecky, but he makes your journey to London look like a cakewalk.

For Lomong, an Olympic distance runner, it was not so much about a journey to the Olympics as much as it was a journey away from death. At the age of 6, a group of soldiers kidnapped Lomong from his home in Kimotong, Sudan, and separated him from his parents. For two long weeks he was a prisoner, along with about 78 other Sudanese children. The soldiers fed the kids a mixture of grain and sand that would have killed anyone who ate too much of it. One night, Lomong was rescued by friends from his village, and they ran for three days and three nights until they reached a refugee camp in Kenya, where he would spend the next 10 years of his life. The rations in the camp were scarce, so Lomong and his friends would run 18 miles a day just to escape thinking of their hunger.

In 2000, when Lomong was 15, he and his friends walked

five miles and knocked on a stranger’s door to watch the Olympics. He saw Michael Johnson win the 400-meter race and was struck by Johnson’s emotion as the American flag was raised and the national anthem played. A year later, as part of a program by the United States to resettle the “Lost Boys of Sudan,” he came to the United States to live and attend high school in Tully, N.Y. Lomong became a citizen of the United States in 2007, qualified for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and was chosen to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. This year he qualified again, placing 10th in the 5,000-meter final in London. Lomong hopes his story inspires other kids.

“Hopefully one kid out there maybe anywhere in the world saw me and saw my story, [and thinks] ‘that Lopez kid who was just in the refugee camp now is in America representing his country, and anything is possible,’” Lomong said in a video posted on his website.

The list of inspirational athletes in the 2012 Olympic Games goes on and on, from South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, “the fastest man on no legs,” to Matt Stutzman, an archer born without arms. I love how they remind us how lucky we are while at the same time showing us how we can overcome the struggles of our lives, accomplish our goals and feel the same sense of accomplishment so evident on Ledecky’s face.

Thankfully, all of us don’t have to make it to the Olympics to achieve our goals. In fact, the Grady Special Olympics did just the trick for three students. I sat down with Samuel Alexander, Laquita Smith and DeAndre Ford, who told me about their experience. Alexander ran track in his Olympics, and when I asked him how he liked it, a look of pride spread across his face.

“I have a lot of ribbons [at home], red, white and maybe like three blue ones,” he said.

Ford competes in the long jumping and throwing events, and when I asked him about winning ribbons, he smiled and laughed, sporting his own Ledecky look.

“It felt very good,” he said, with an emphasis on the “very”.

Smith competes in the running and throwing events, and when I asked her about it, she put on her Ledecky face, smiling wide, and said she felt happy.

We all have a Ledecky look inside of us somewhere; it just takes a little work and belief to bring it out. p

sports

18

Sept. 6, 2012

By Orli Hendler “What’s that smell? ATL!” The Georgia Frisbee team cheered after scoring a point at a national ultimate Frisbee tournament.

Earlier in the summer, the team was quickly pulled together to compete in Blaine, Minn. at the Youth Club Championship on Aug. 1112. While most teams had played together for years, the Georgia team had only managed two practices.

The team, which included five Grady students, was made up of some of the youngest players there; although the tournament was limited to players who had not been to college, most teams had several 19-year-old players. The Georgia team had none. Three weeks before the tournament, one of their players dropped out and they had to make a last-minute addition.

Since this was not a school event, the team members and their families had to organize everything. Grady junior Sebastian Di Francesco played a key role in getting a team together for the tournament. He said they tried to form a team for the tournament last year, but couldn’t because the team did not register on time. To make things more challenging, the coach who spearheaded the organization last year moved to Great Britain, so he was unable to help this year.

“I knew I had to do something,” Di Francesco said. “So I called 14 people who agreed to go.”

Those 14 students included Grady juniors Michael Dillard, Fritz Meinert, Riley Erickson and Josh Weinstock.

Di Francesco also set up a Facebook page to help recruit players.

The name of the page, Dirty Dogs, was later used as the team’s name in the tournament.

“All the guys brought a lot of tal-

Anita summers

Despite record, Dirty Dogs have pawsitive experience

INSERT CHARIOTS OF FIRE MUSIC HERE: At the Youth Club Championship in Blaine, Minn., junior Riley Erickson leads his teammates, juniors Michael Dillard, Josh Weinstock, Sebastian Di Francesco, Fritz Meinert and Grayson High graduate Gino Mattace, downfield. ent and ability to the field already,” said Hobart Yeager, the head coach of the Georgia team. “For our team, it was more about bringing all that talent together.”

Once the players were selected, the team then had to complete several procedural steps before it could compete in the tournament.

“At the very beginning all I thought I was doing was filling out applications and sending them in,” said Anita Summers, Erickson’s mother.

Summers was in charge of all the paperwork and organizing. In addition, she compiled the team’s USA

Ultimate membership numbers, roster, jersey artwork and chaperones’ background checks.

“It kind of went from something I was not really interested in, or just kind of trying to help out, to something I really enjoyed and loved doing,” Summers said.

Her responsibilities continued during the weekend of the tournament. Summers traveled with the team to Minnesota, where she helped organize transportation and food for the players.

With logistics under control, the team was able to have a fun experience in Minnesota.

“We were by far the most attractive team there, so we had a definite advantage,” Dillard said.

Dillard’s focus on appearance might have been a coping mechanism. Meinert said the team did not place well in the tournament, winning only two of their six games.

Coach Yeager elaborated on their play in the tournament.

“We took a lot of chances,” Yeager said. “We scored the first point of the tournament, and they did a great job of being confident in themselves, even in the face of adversity.”

The players’ confidence was apparent when they reminisced about

the tournament.

“It was fun because we were playing a bunch of harder teams that we didn’t do so well against, but I guess we did do well for the amount of time that we practiced,” Meinert said.

All the players hope to participate in YCC again next year, though there are some things they would change. They all agreed they needed to practice more as a team before the tournament.

“We didn’t do much, and that’s why we didn’t do so great,” said Meinert, who later added, “It was kind of dumb that we only had two practices, but I guess that’s also on us because we could have organized practices on our own.”

Di Francesco said that while his team only had two practices, some teams practiced every week of the summer. Yeager said although they did not necessarily need more practices, the players would have benefitted from more practice together.

“The best thing that I’ve come up with, just in discussion with the other coaches and players and alumni, is that we should take them to a tournament before we do YCC,” Yeager said. “YCC needs to be the end of a tournament schedule during the summer.”

One of the most exciting things the team discovered in Minnesota was the fields.

“The fields actually had springs under the grass, so when you jumped really hard on it, you could actually feel them,” Dillard said.

The team’s poor record did not damper the exceptional experience they had at the tournament.

“We got to play against a lot of really good players and teams,” Di Francesco said. “We got to see a higher level of ultimate. It was a really good learning experience.” p

By Kate de Give Imagine hundreds of foam balls spread around a gym floor, with elementary-school kids running around throwing them at each other, shrieking with joy. Two kids run with long sticks, sort of like lightsabers, freeing kids from being frozen if they’d been hit by a ball.

If you went to Mary Lin Elementary, chances are you were taught physical education by Stephanie Bennett-Walker, and if you were taught by Bennett-Walker, you played the famous game, “Star Wars.” For many Mary Lin students, that is their favorite activity in P.E. “P.E. is my second favorite class after art,” said Lily Whitehead, a first-grader at Mary Lin. “I like the running and skipping and jumping and playing Star Wars.”

Whitehead expressed enthusiasm for P.E. that probably seems strange to high school students who long ago lost their enthusiasm for P.E. class. What high schoolers do not lose, however, are the memories of their elementary P.E. teachers. Something that might surprise students is that their former P.E. teachers remember them as well.

Morningside Elementary School’s current P.E. teacher, Cheryl Carter, remembers many students, including juniors Peter Mastin and Emma Kasper and senior Sam Burney.

“They were great leaders, people the other kids looked up to,” Carter said. “They’re the type of kids you’d want on your team.”

Carter said that when students show athletic

ability, she likes to introduce them to playing various sports outside of school. Carter said one of the best athletes she ever taught was Micah Abernathy. Abernathy is a sophomore at Greater Atlanta Christian School and a member of the track and football teams. He has been nationally ranked for seven years on his summer track team.

Bennett-Walker remembered Grady senior and cross-country runner Isabelle Taft. Taft has been a varsity runner all four years of high school. Her four varsity letters came as something of a surprise to her grade-school teacher.

“I never knew she was that athletic,” said Bennett-Walker, who still teachers P.E. at Mary Lin. “Isabelle Taft was always asking ‘Can I go get a book?’”

But Bennett-Walker did see Taft’s drive and determination, qualities that make it easy for her to believe Taft has become a great athlete.

Bennett-Walker said she tries to engage people like Taft and girls especially in P.E. because they might not experience or enjoy sports very much otherwise.

“I try to encourage girls to do sports because scholarships can be really helpful to them when they’re going to college,” Bennett-Walker said.

Students said that Bronwen Karatassos, a former P.E. teacher at Centennial Place Elementary School, also took care to encourage girls.

“Coach K. really helped me like sports,” senior Niquisha Ruff said. “We always did

courtesy of stephanie bennett-walker

Gym teachers remember when teenagers were tots

WAY BACK WHEN: Mary Lin Elementary P.E. coach Stephanie Bennett-Walker stands next to current Grady seniors Arielle Conway, Tylah Herndon and David Carlock in a P.E. class. “She always pushed us to do our best,” Conway said. activities that helped me build my strength and one time we rolled around with lightsabers in running.” to the Star Wars theme song for ours.”

Ruff is now a member of the Grady track Bennett-Walker laughed when reminded of team. She credits Karatassos for helping those dance routines. her get there.

“Yeah, we don’t do too many of those anySome students do not remember their P.E. more,” she said. “But I still let them play ‘Octeachers for rigorous athletic training, but rath- topus’ and ‘Star Wars.’” er, for the good times and kid-friendly games Memories of Karatassos, Carter and Bennettthey taught them.

Walker really stick with Grady students, and “I loved the game ‘Star Wars’ that Ms. Ben- years from now, these women will still be shapnett-Walker used to let us play,” said sopho- ing kids’ lives. Whitehead is not the only child more Ike Hammond, a Mary Lin graduate. who 10 years from now will still be able to say “She also made us make up a dance every year, her favorite game in P.E. was Star Wars. p

sports

Sept. 6, 2012

19

By Jolie Jones It was difficult to replace the legend Coach Douglas Slade, who worked at Grady for more than three decades. After Slade’s retirement, however, a panel of students, teachers and administrators reviewed the potential candidates last June and chose Kathleen Washington to be the new athletic director. She had big shoes to fill but has learned how to work under pressure since she has been playing a so-called “man's” role for 16 years.

Before coming to Grady, Washington worked as the athletic director at Therrell High School for six years. Previously she was the athletic director for 10 years at North Atlanta.

“As a female role model in athletics, I feel that it is extremely important that I hold myself to high standards,” Washington said. “Maintaining integrity, tenacity and establishing positive relationships are qualities that I must continue to enhance in order to be successful.”

The duties of an athletic director include ensuring that all students are certified to participate in sports in accordance with GHSA rules, hiring and evaluating coaches, coordinating with the Grady Booster Club, and communicating with other APS coaches and athletic directors. The athletic director also orders all the necessary equipment for each sport.

Along with this immense list of responsibilities, Washington is also one of the two health teachers and will be replacing Coach Joretta Kelly to coach one of her favorite sports: girls basketball.

Senior Ectasee Crane, a four-year varsity basketball player, is excited to work with Washington, although it was hard to see Coach Kelly go. “[Coach Kelly] was very sad [to leave], and we were sad because she’d been our coach since we came to Grady,” Crane said. “I think [Washington]’s cool and nice from what I’ve seen. She’s passionate about winning.”

Crane and Washington share the hope that Washington will take the girls basketball team to state this spring.

Byron Barnes, Grady's new math instruction coach, worked with Washington at Therrell. He has known Washington for five years now and said he knows exactly what sort of expectations she has for her athletes. “[Washington] has very high expectations for students on

KATE DEGIVE

New athletic director steps in, hopes to fill tall shoes

REMEMBERING THE OLD DAYS: New athletic director Kathleen Washington shows support for one of her favorite sports, girls softball, on Aug. 30. the court and in the classroom,” Barnes said. “She is nice but first person to ever do this.” no nonsense; she expects the full package in an athlete.”

Washington doesn't just play a strong female role in her Barnes claims Washington came to Grady for the chance job, but also in the upbringing of her kids. Being a single of a better opportunity. mother of two, she was delighted when her son, Chaz Glass, “Grady is a different environment [than Therrell],” got a degree in physical education from Middle Tennessee Barnes said. “Because it's a larger school, she’s the director State University. of more competitive programs; there’s a larger spectrum of Washington’s goals for the Grady sports teams are to see all athletic offerings.” the sports playing at state level and to foster good sportsmanAlbert Thomas, coach of the girls basketball team at North ship in all her players.

Atlanta, worked with Washington and has nothing but posiThomas is confident that Coach Washington will make tive things to say of her. the adjustment from Therrell to Grady. However, he believes “[Washington] is a very dedicated and caring person,” she may face one drawback.

Thomas said. “She provided equipment when it was need“I think she’ll be a little upset when we beat [Grady],” ed if the parents couldn’t provide it themselves. She was the Thomas said jokingly. p

RYAN BOLTON

By Ryan Bolton After celebrating its most successful season in 17 years, the Grady basketball team was left with a serious hole to fill: its coach, Douglas Slade, was retiring from the job he had loved so much for more than 30 years, and it was unknown who would replace him. After a long period of uncertainty, a panel of administrators, coaches and athletes selected Brian Weeden to fill the position.

Weeden, a native of Alabama, is no stranger to the sport of basketball. He played the sport throughout all of his earliest school years.

He worked his way up to the collegiate level, playing as a guard at Miles College, before transferring to Alabama State University. After college, he decided he wanted to stay involved with the sport.

“I decided to try something new, simply because I love sports,” Weeden said. “They mean that much to me.”

Weeden received a coaching job at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Ala., shortly after applying, but there was a catch: not only would he be a basketball coach, he would also be a quarterback and safety coach for the Enterprise football team.

“As much as I love football, I’m more of a basketball guy,” he said.

When Weeden was involved in the basketball season, his team was much more successful than the football team. As a coach for the Enterprise basketball team, he led the Wildcats to an outstanding 24-7 record, taking them all the way to the regional champi-

Ryan Bolton

Basketball coach’s passion is a slam dunk for players

A NEW BEGINNING: After the retirement of coach Douglas Slade, the Grady basketball team is hoping to restart by selecting Brian Weeden as the new coach for the team. onship game in the playoffs. Af- game, and he has the potential to go ter the defeat, he decided it was above and beyond the call of duty to time to change things up again. be the best he can be.”

Assistant principal Rodney Weeden chose Grady out of all the Howard formed a student-athlete options available to him. panel, which, along with Grady “It might take some getting used to administrators and coaching staff, here in the city, but I would choose interviewed several candidates for Grady High over many schools the open basketball coach position. because it is such a great school,” As the interviews came to a close, Weeden said. “It keeps students busy Weeden’s impressive basketball academically, and it’s good to see that background, coaching career and the administration is behind the stuquick improvements to the team at dents and teachers 100 percent.”

Enterprise stood out, allowing him So far, Weeden has received a to become the newest addition to very warm welcome, especially the athletic department. from many members of the varsity “It was somewhat difficult because basketball team. we got a late start [on the search],” “I really didn’t know that much Howard said. “But it became clear about him,” senior starting center that [Weeden] was different from Brandon Watkins said. “But I’m the other applicants. He was well getting to know him more. He truprepared, very knowledgeable of the ly knows what he is talking about

when it comes to basketball.”

As a coach, Weeden has high expectations for this year and the years to come.

“My intention is to build the basketball program here at Grady, and nothing less than a state championship is desired,” he said. “We must prepare to win every game. As far as my students go, I want them to be student-athletes by excelling in and out of the classroom, and I want to help them grow up to be ready for their futures. I just want them to be successful in everything they do.”

Weeden said he is a “defensiveminded” and “old school” coach.

“You could say that I’m tough on my players,” Weeden said. “But I don’t consider myself strict. However, there are rules that apply and should be followed.

As the basketball team prepares for another successful year, it has many expectations for the new coach.

“Hopefully, he can get us into more tournaments to give us more exposure to prove that we can compete with the top teams in the state,” Watkins said. “Maybe we could even get some new goals or utilities to work with.”

Grady will likely still face many rival teams this season, such as Decatur, North Clayton and Washington. But as Grady moves from class AAA to class AAAA, bigger and better teams pose a new threat for the Knights.

“We’re ready for the challenge,” Watkins said. “We play many teams that we have played before, and our team is very solid this year.”

Weeden said he knows what he

has to do to overcome this challenge posed by tougher opponents.

“We just have to work hard,” he said. “Hard work is absolutely necessary for success.”

Outside of school and coaching, Weeden enjoys a “simple” life, filled with activities such as working out, fishing and enjoying fraternity brotherhood as a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. As he plans for the future, he knows he must fill the role of a Grady icon.

“Nobody can replace [Coach Slade],” Weeden said. “All I can do is teach my athletes life lessons and work towards leading Grady to a long-desired state championship.”

As the days of seeing Coach Slade on the sidelines come to a close, Weeden introduces the team to a new beginning.

“It will still take some getting used to being without Coach Slade,” Watkins said. “[Slade] was like a father figure for us, but we have to work with what we have. As long as [Weeden] works with us and shows us that he cares, we all can work towards building a relationship with him and give him our all.”

As Grady continues to move forward, Howard is extremely confident in the new coach.

“He’s young, and he seems to have that winning demeanor that a coach must have,” Howard said.

“You can’t replace a coach like [Slade], and everybody has to be themselves. What Weeden must do is establish his own home here, and he can be the one that takes us over the hump to win that long-desired state championship.” p

the Sports section thesoutherneronline.com

HENRY W. GRADY HIGH SCHOOL, ATLANTA

Sept. 6, 2012

VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 1

DOING A FIVE-STEP DROP WITH QB KIVON TAYLOR

Ever drop back to make a pass but miss your target? We asked the expert, senior varsity quarterback Kivon Taylor to explain the technique that is required to dominate the backyard: the five-step drop.

2

1

THE FIRST STEP: “If it’s a five-step drop, you want your first three steps to be big to get away from the linemen and the pressure. On the first couple of steps, use your front leg to push off to get the depth. The last two are the quick two where you want to get your feet set. Then the power transfers, and you use your back leg to get power into the throw. Make sure your hips are open during the drop. That’ll get you the biggest step, like an extra half a yard.”

THE CROSSOVER: “With the crossover, it helps you

get more depth and get back further than you would just shuffling. Keep the ball as close as you can to your chest. It’s called keeping it on the shelf. Keep a high grip and squeeze the ball so the lineman won’t knock it loose.”

THE THROW:

4

3

“Make

sure you keep the ball up

READY TO FIRE: “When I hit my second quick step, that’s when I’m ready to fire. All my power comes from the leg up. Most people think it’s your arm, but it’s the leg up.”

THE FOLLOW THROUGH:

5

“Fire your hips and

high. You don’t want it

shoulder and get your

below your torso. Keep

right shoulder on the

the ball by your ear and

target as you follow

have a high release.

through. When you

Make sure the nose

throw, your whole body

of the ball is pointed.

should be facing the target

With the nose being

to be the most accurate.

pointed, the ball won’t

When you flick your

drop before it gets to

wrist, that’s what makes

the target. If the nose is

the ball spiral. Make

pointed down, the ball

sure you put your right

is going to go down.”

thumb in your pocket.”

Grady Sports Score Central: August

Football

Softball

Volleyball

Water Polo

See complete coverage of games on thesoutherneronline.com and on The Southerner Facebook page.