DA February 2020

DEVILS'ADVOCATE - FEBRUARY 2020 -

ON LOCKDOWN p. 18 Not Affiliated p. 22 HINSDALE CENTR AL HIGH SCHOOL | VOLUME 94

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LETTER FROM THE

[EDITOR]

As February comes to a close, we’re finally approaching the final weeks of winter, (at least according to the groundhog). In the meantime, though most of Central’s body will continue to bundle up for the cold weather. One student in particular, however, has learned to embrace the winter season. In this month’s issue, “Plowing His Way to Success” profiles junior Christian Schloegel as he manages his student landscaping business with snowy forecasts. Back indoors, we also cover some of the challenges faced by student-athletes as they manage to share Central’s limited practice spaces without access to outside facilities.

There’s no doubt that technology has seen an increasingly prominent role in education, particularly over the past few years. As such, screens have come to influence many newfound aspects of student life. In “Non-Affiliated” our writers take a look into the role of social media in school extracurriculars. On a similar note, in “On Lockdown”, members of the school discuss Central’s relationship with censorship, both on and offline. Meanwhile, as we look forward to the first weeks of March, “TEDx” explores the upcoming event TEDxYouth@ Hinsdale and the student team that brought it to life.

As the nation gears up for the Democratic primaries, countless issues have re-emerged in their prominence. This month, our Battleground writers debate the federal funding of planned parenthood. Finally, in our column section, this month’s edition of Dished searches for the best donuts in the Chicagoland area and Unsolicited Advice gives some guidance on smart habits for walking in the halls.

We hope you enjoy this month’s issue of Devils’ Advocate!

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AROUND CAMPUS 05 DAILY DEVIL

PROFILES 06 WALKING THE WALK, TALKING THE TEDTALK 10 PlOWING HIS WAY TO SUCCESS

FEATURES 14 SQUEEZING FOR SPACE 18 ON LOCKDOWN 22 NOT AFFILIATED

PERSPECTIVES 27 28 29 30

UNSOLICITED ADVICE BATTLEGROUND DISHED EDITORIAL

BY THE NUMBERS 32 DATING DEVILS

TRENDS 34 MEET THE...

35 PUZZLE

MISSION STATMENT

Devils’ Advocate seeks to provide an open and diverse forum created by and for students from Hinsdale Central. The staff of Devils’ Advocate aims to bring news to the community of the school and surrounding area, by working with students, parents, and faculty, as well as reporting on events in a fair and balanced manner. The publication strives to inform, educate, and improve, the atmosphere and student body by sharing information and recognizing and ideas.

CONTACT

ADVISER, CHERISE LOPEZ CLOPEZ@HINSDALE86.ORG 630.570.8361

Cover photo by Sofija Buzelis TOC photo by Lainey Harvey

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THE DAILY DEVIL Singing their Hearts Out

The choir department fundraises through Valentine’s Day performances.

by Amy Dong

S

ince its introduction, Singing Valentines has become a tradition by the choir program. For $3 a performance, students can send a Singing Valentine to a student or staff member of their choice. The recipient receives a lollipop from the National Honors Society, and gets serenaded by members of the choir program during a class period of choice, which took place on Feb. 14.

The choir department enlists the help of National Honors Society to help manage the money during sign ups in lunch periods.

“I really love being a part of this tradition,” said Grace Deering, senior.

“It’s a lot of fun and definitely one of my favorite choir activities.”

The money raised from selling the Singing Valentines goes toward inner city music programs.

“The songs were really good and they all harmonize so well,” said Ivy Shen, freshman.

Many students seem to share these

sentiments, such as Ava Marginean, a sophomore who experienced the program last year.

“I think it’s cool and sweet. I know a lot of siblings that send each other them, and I think it’s fun for friends and couples as well,” Marginean said. “It was very fun to write and just think of ways to say that you appreciate the person. One of my friends received one from her sister last year, and I thought it was really cute, even though she was a little embarrassed. I think it meant a lot to her, because her sister sent it as a surprise.”

Isabella Xu, freshman, recounts her first experience with the program this year.

“I’d seen the concept in movies and shows, so when I saw that they were selling them at lunch, I was pretty excited.” Xu said. “I watched a few in my classes and they were very entertaining. The singers were actually really good and the notes were a good touch.”

Photo by Katie Buscher

A group of choir members perform during a French class on Valentine’s Day.

Hinsdale Goes Kind

Breaking Down the Walls aims to spread postivity during Kindness Week.

F

by Emily Cavero

rom Feb. 3 through Feb. 7, the Breaking Down the Walls club, sponsored by Ms. Christina Brodell, Spanish teacher, celebrated Kindness Week.

The hallways of Hinsdale Central were filled with uplifting songs and messages.

“It was fun hearing the upbeat music when you were walking in the halls. It gave good energy,” said Cody Jurgenson, freshman.

In addition to the lively music, post-it notes covered the hallway walls, each containing a positive word such as “love”, “motivation”, or “encouragement”, which were to be given to a friend, stranger, or faculty to give their day a cheerful boost.

“It was cool seeing the hallways with lots of color and good vibes. It lifted your mood when you were inside school since outside there is bad weather,” said Blake Edmonds, sophomore.

The goal of Kindness Week was to promote the spread of positive energy throughout the building. Each morning of Kindness Week,

students heard a member of Breaking Down the Walls, Junior Maria Rivera, state facts and quotes regarding kindness, positivity, and why it is important that people are not only kind to others, but also kind to ourselves.

“The goal of this week was to get students to be focused on being kind for one week, with the hope of it carrying onto the rest of their lives,” Rivera said. “We wanted to impact those who not only attend Central for school, but everyone who is present at Central such as teachers, custodians, and security.”

Kindness Week also wrote out self-love, motivational, and inspirational messages on the bathroom mirrors using bright markers and illustrations.

At the end of the week, students had the opportunity to sign the kindness pledge on the columns in the cafeteria.

This year the choir department will donate $700 to $800 to community schools of music.

Photo by Anna Pellegrino

Students had the opportunity to sign the kindness column in the cafeteria during Kindness Week, Feb. 3 through Feb. 7.

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Walking the Walk, Talking the TEDTalk

by John Olsen & Dalya Laban design by Loukas Bezanis

The TEDx team talks about the planning process, and the hardships of running a student-run organization, as it gears up for its March event.

A

t the Gaddis residence, an important meeting takes place, where laptops are open on a long, dining table with chairs surrounding its perimeter. James Gaddis, senior, and his friends are seated at the table as they plan their ideas for their new project. Gaddis and his team start typing swiftly, jotting down their ideas on a shared Google document. Gaddis asks his small group for any ideas about their new project theme. Attentively, Marcos Lopez, senior, blurts out his theme idea as his team grins, seeing eye to eye with the new theme of the upcoming TEDx event.

“We have a lot of different interpretations of the theme, which we’re definitely glad to have,” Gaddis said.

The focus of the event will be Lopez’s idea for the theme, which is “Hiding in Plain Sight.” This TEDx event will be hosted in the Central auditorium on March 7, will last from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and includes five speakers, a few TED videos, and an intermission.

TEDx is a program run by a variety of individuals and groups, that brings people together to share speeches and presentations on a wide range of topics.

However, this event is student-run, and is not affiliated with Central. Students organize this event by hosting speakers.

Whether it is an inspiring story, or just an advising presentation, the goal of this event is to connect and to reflect. In the name TEDx, the “X” stands for an independently

organized event, as opposed to a regular TED event, which the TED corporation hosts. TEDx events are also smaller, and focus more on local viewpoints.

A group of students, including Gaddis, has organized the March event. He credits his involvement in organizing this TEDx to a number of reasons, including the role that TED has played in his life.

“I have always been very interested in giving a TED talk myself. Throughout all my classes, we’ve always watched TED talks. I was very familiar with the organization,” Gaddis said. “I actually wanted to speak at [the 2018 event], but there weren’t any openings.”

The 2018 event was also run by a group of students, beholding

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the theme of “Defying Gravity.”

Although Gaddis couldn’t give a TED talk himself, he is able to provide a platform for those who can and want to speak, but the process behind creating that platform has not been easy, as it is both time-consuming and complex.

“The first step is filling out a license application with the TED Corporation, which can take several months and then you have to have your license certified and then you need to begin assembling speakers, book a venue, and get business sponsorships,” Gaddis said.

Apart from applying and getting certified by the TED Corporation, Gaddis had to abide by TED’s official 250 page manual and prepare himself and his team for the professional filming, which will go to the TED YouTube page with more than 20 million subscribers.

However, the process this year has been somewhat different than the previous event. Senior Alyssa Lee has worked on both the 2018 and 2020 events, and said that the process has been slightly easier the second time around.

Lee is not the only TEDx contributor, but there are nine other members chosen

by Gaddis, who are helping out with the event. These members include: Audrey

minds to many things,” Lee said.

Gaddis recognizes the importance of having someone with experience involved in putting together this event. “[Alyssa] was the one who [did] it two years ago, and she’s been a big help along the way,” Gaddis said.

The 2018 event was held at the community house, and had speakers from different states. This year’s event will be no different, welcoming five speakers from a wide range of backgrounds who will be speaking on a variety of topics. These speakers include: Joseph Choi, PhD, who invented a cloaking device while he was in college, Maanasa Raghavan, PhD, who is a professor of human population genetics at University of Chicago, Mark Toland, a mentalist and magician, and Rajesh Sankaran, PhD, who is the head of the artificial intelligence project at Argonne National Laboratory.

The fifth and final speaker is Kayleigh Excell, senior, who will be the only student speaker in this event. Excell has a hearing disability, and has been wearing hearing aids from a young age. She wasn’t always as open about speaking about her disability, and it often caused problems for her at school.

“In middle school, I was really selfconscious about [my disability],” Excell said. “I didn’t talk about it with anyone. I

“This year, we were able to cut costs a lot by moving it to the school and saving [money]. From learning from the things that went on last time, we can improve on them this time,” Lee said.

However, Gaddis said that there comes many challenges in organizing this event, whether it’s speakers stepping down from the event, or having a hard time establishing a place for the event. In fact, Gaddis and his team have reached out to more than 40 speakers; however, some have resigned.

“We were working with them and they said, oh, by the way, I can’t do it. That’s something you have to predict,” Gaddis said.

Another challenge the team faces is having to make sure that the speakers are committed to coming to the event, as well as drafting their speeches. Lee said that it is a process, having to check up on the speaker’s speeches and revising them.

Without the help of staff, Lee said that there comes some obstacles within working with her team members on a big event, especially one that will expect 100 people to attend.

“It’s always challenging to get a group of people to work together on one thing and having it come out smoothly,” Lee said.

Gaddis adds that another problem is planning out the location of the event.

Holding the event at Hinsdale’s Community House costs a lot of money, so Gaddis was able to convince the activities department at Central to rent the auditorium.

Normally, when there are clubs that use Central’s rooms for events, there is no need for them to pay for rent, because it is sponsored by a teacher; however, since TEDx is an outside organization not run by Central teachers, the team will be renting out the auditorium as an outside organization.

“We are paying [for the rented space].

We’re collecting money from ticket sales. We’ve recently started selling tickets on social media, and it also will come from our sponsors,” Lee said.

This is also another new change from the 2018 TEDx events, cutting off costs.

Cutting off costs lowers the prices of the tickets as well, where in 2018, it was $35, and now the prices have dropped to $25.

“I think learning from the things that went on last time, we can improve on them this time,” Lee said.

Excell said that she has encountered

“When you’re planning anything big, you can’t expect everything to go right. You have to accommodate people’s needs and you have to realize that sometimes things aren’t going to work out.”

James Gaddis

Carter, Julia Radu, Addie Li, Gabrielle Chang, and David Chu, along with Gaddis, Lee, and Lopez. Some team members have been reaching out with the speakers, working on the design of the event, and having enough people for the stage crew.

Lee is organizing the event, assembling a list of the speakers that are going to be present at the event, and how to run the event. She was the lead organizer for the TEDx event in 2018, and decided to help out Gaddis with the upcoming event.

“It feels really good to be able to put on an event like that. You help the community; it has opened people’s

didn’t really talk about it with my teachers.

If I missed something in class, I just made a note to ask my sister about it later.”

Excell has since opened up and has used opportunities like Forensics competitions and this TED talk to confront some of the stigma surrounding invisible disabilities. “[Part of my speech] will be a spin on the old phrase ‘Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover,’” Excell said. “Some people are judged based on whether their disability is showing or not. The Guardian did a poll and they found that 39% of the United Kingdom thinks that people who can walk shouldn’t have the parking permit for disabled drivers, even though they are legally disabled.”

Though the 2018 TEDx event went as planned, Lee says that there are some aspects her and her team plan to change.

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but more of a new life experience.

He says that obstacles are expected along the way of any business planning process, from the legal issues involved with raising money and tax returns to how to allocate the money.

“When you’re planning anything big, you can’t expect everything to go right. You have to accommodate people’s needs and you have to realize that sometimes things aren’t going to work out,” Gaddis said.

For Lee, she says that this process has taught her some future life skills and how to work as a team.

“I feel like there are a lot of skills involved here that could be important in later workplaces and organizing things,” Lee said.

Though the learning experience has taught the TEDx team members an array of life skills, Lee says that it serves another purpose.

“The purpose is to open peoples’ minds together, in different ways or to see new things they haven’t seen before. The theme Hiding in Plain Sight goes really well with that,” Lee said.

Even though the theme of the event

focuses on hiding, Excell is looking to be more open and recognizes the benefits that sharing out has.

“Thinking about my disability, being able to talk about it, makes me feel more comfortable about it. That’s definitely been a learning experience,” Excell said.

Lee and other members of the team look for their legacy to be continued, and said they hope that students will continue to organize and host these events in the future.

“We have thought about bringing in underclassmen under the team so that there is someone who maybe could carry this,” Lee said.

Overall, Gaddis and team members said they feel happy about organizing this event, hoping it would exceed their expectations.

“Coming up with an event that runs really smoothly, is a process, but it is worth it,” Gaddis said.

Photo provided by Youtube TEDXYouth@Hinsdale

multiple challenges throughout her preparations for the TED talk, including finding time to write her speech and hitting all of the deadlines.

However, she says that her experience with Forensics also gives her many strategies that can enhance her speech.

“I think I’m a lot better at not overusing hand gestures, hand gestures can amplify your point or they can be distracting,” Excell said.

In addition to the presentations, Excell has to present for eleven minutes. She has to deliver drafts to the organizers of the event, and then practice memorizing her speech.

“I [write down] a [down] draft, which is all my thoughts. I’m in the process of figuring out what I could actually use,” Excell said. “I’m in the process of paring it down, figuring out how to get more focused and then once I get a good draft, I’ll have to memorize it.”

As Gaddis’s team works hard to organize the event, Gaddis said that the planning-process has taught him more than managing business,

Chris Freiler, social studies teacher, speaks at the 2018 TEDXYouth event, which served as inspiration for James Gaddis in planning his 2020 event, Hiding in Plain Sight.

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Plowing His Way to Success

by Lainey Harvey design by Loukas Bezani Photo by Lainey Harvey

Christian Schloegel, junior, manages his local landscaping business as the winter season comes to an end.

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W

hen the forecast called for five inches of snow overnight, C+I Services was prepared.

Christian Schloegel texted his crew to get ready and head out at 2 a.m. to start the snow removal. Schloegel and some of his crew had to be at school in the next six hours, but that did not stop them from plowing and salting driveways and sidewalks on the local streets of Hinsdale.

C+I Services LLC is a landscaping and lawn care business started by Christian Schloegel, junior, at Hinsdale Central.

The company was introduced in 2013 and works primarily in Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale but travels to surrounding suburbs as well. They work year round and offer various services in spring, summer and fall, and snow services in the winter.

Schloegel’s interest in lawn care began when a family friend had a John Deere lawn tractor.

“It was fun to ride on, so I wanted to mow my own yard,” Schloegel said.

He decided to start a landscaping company when he was 10 years old.

Schloegel and his younger brother, Isaac, who was six years old at the time, purchased an $800 lawn mower and came up with the name C+I Services, standing for Christian and Isaac. They are a limited liability corporation, fully insured and have workers compensation for their laborers.

“I started just mowing my own lawn and then grew to a couple neighbors and then I just went from there, I just liked mowing, it was kind of fun,” Schloegel said.

According to Schloegel’s mother, Judy Schloegel, she was not surprised when he started his own business because ever since a young age, he wanted to participate in “meaningful, adult work.”

Isaac helped purchase their first machine, resulting in Isaac owning 10 percent of the company.

According to Schloegel, they made more than $1,000 in their first year of mowing.

“After the first year I could see that I was going to go down this path,” Schloegel said.

By Schloegel’s third year, he had gone from a push lawn mower to a $7,000 stand-on lawn mower. In his fourth year, he purchased a larger stand-on lawn mower which included a snowplow.

This encouraged Schloegel to offer snow removal services in the company. The company has been growing ever since then.

In 2019, C+I Services received more than $100,000 in gross sales

and their goal in 2020 is $250,000.

Schloegel said, every year since 2013, C+I Services has nearly doubled the amount of clients from the previous year.

With the increase in clients Schloegel has also added more service options.

In the spring, summer and fall, C+I Services provides lawn mowing, fertilization, mulch, cleanups and more. In the winter the company offers snow removal and salting. Schloegel said, this year, he hopes to offer hardscaping and aquascaping.

The C+I Services crew is made up of adults and students from the area.

According to Schloegel, he hires many high school students and college students attending College of DuPage but he has had workers who have been in their fifties.

“A lot of [the crew] are friends of people who already work for me, who want to work,” Schloegel said.

Sam Blankenburg, junior, worked for Schloegel during the summer. He worked on mulch and weeding. According to Blankenburg, he worked five to six hours a day and got paid $12 an hour.

“

is someone who has experience in landscaping, and someone who exemplifies the company values of safety, quality in the work, and communication.

Schloegel attends many conventions for C+I services. He said the conventions are mainly for networking with different landscaping companies.

Every October, Schloegel goes to the Green Industry Expo (GIE) in Louisville, Kentucky. Companies share new technology and machines for smaller businesses to promote.

“We’re able to network with other landscapers and we learn a lot from each other and then I get sponsorships a lot of times coming out of these companies,” Schloegel said.

Schloegel said one of the most important things in his business is marketing. Isaac mostly helps with marketing and worker oversight and according to Schloegel, Isaac is one of his most trusted members.

“I trust him to manage the crew even though he is 13 and most of the people are over 20, he is still a good leader and manages

My business has helped me develop really good time management skills.

Christian Schloegel “I thought it was a lot of fun, especially getting to work with other kids I knew,” Blankenburg said.

Marco Grande, junior, recently started working for C+I services and has been helping with snow removal. Grande contacted Schloegel at the beginning of the year because he saw many Instagram posts about C+I Services and became interested in being part of the crew.

Grande plans on working for C+I Services in the following seasons as well. “[Schloegel] is a good boss, he has flexible hours and the work is fun,” Grande said.

According to Schloegel, he pays his workers electronically, starting at $10 an hour, although some of his top guys receive up to $25 an hour.

“We pay our guys pretty high; I feel like if you pay your guys a good amount of money they’re willing to put in more effort,” Schloegel said.

According to Schloegel, a top guy

and he does the right job,” Schloegel said.

February is the busiest month in terms of marketing for C+I Services. They order 3,000 door hangers and many flyers to distribute in the upcoming spring season. “[Door hangers] are really effective…

We’ll see about a one percent return rate which is pretty good,” Schloegel said.

Schloegel’s truck, that he bought in 2018, also has a decal on the side promoting the company and one of his goals for this year is to wrap the side of his new enclosed trailer with his logo.

One of Schloegel’s newest pieces of equipment, an enclosed cab tractor, is part of a promotion from Steiner, a company that makes articulating frame commercial tractors.

Schloegel said it’s one of his favorite tools for the winter season.

“It’s a heated cab so I like sitting in my t-shirt or sweatshirt while everyone else is bundled up in jackets outside

“

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products and services on their property before he goes out into the community.

She gives him feedback on work and also practices different customer scenarios.

“He’s gotten an incredible amount of experience out of it that [he] wouldn’t get from a textbook in terms of what he’s learned and the life experiences he’s had,” Judy said.

Schloegel said his parents have been very supportive throughout the growth of the business.

“Having a business in your house is really stressful because guys are like there at three in the morning… It also creates a lot of messes with big piles of papers that wouldn’t be there if there was no business... I’m very thankful for them supporting me,” Schloegel said.

According to Schloegel, in the future, he has not decided where he is going to college but he is interested in studying entrepreneurship or finance.

“Ideally, I would go to a really good local college and keep running my business,” Schloegel said.

Schloegel said when he first started C+I Services in fifth grade, he did not expect his own company to grow as much as it has. He encourages kids to start businesses and get jobs. He said jobs give kids many real world experiences and life skills.

“Be unique and work hard, be patient and do a good job,” Schloegel said.

Christian Schloegel plows the sidewalks at the Community Presbyterian Church in Clarendon Hills.

Photo by Lainey Harvey

and it’s just so much less tiring on me and my guys who use it,” Schloegel said.

In the winter, C+I Services are hired by six commercial properties and about 60 households to plow and salt sidewalks and driveways.

According to Schloegel, when it snows, C+I Services goes out during the night to plow in order for the sidewalks and driveways to be clear by the time people wake up. He said that he contacts his crew as soon as he knows there is going to be a significant amount of snowfall, but sometimes the forecast is wrong.

“I’ll text someone saying we’re calling it off because we didn’t get enough snow so it’s difficult in the winter, but it’s more consistent in the spring, summer and fall,” Schloegel said.

According to Schloegel, one struggle that comes from working overnight is most of the crew has to go to school in the upcoming hours.

“My business has helped me develop really good time management skills, so if I even think there’s a chance for us to plow let’s say on a Thursday, I’m going to be studying for my tests that day, on Monday,” Schloegel said.

Grande, who has not had much experience with working all night on a school night said that he got used to the work hours quickly and he did not mind the late nights because the work is so fun.

In school, Schloegel took the class, Intro to Business his sophomore year. He said he already knew a lot about the class, considering he completed many of the class topics like filing taxes through his business. His favorite thing about the class though, was seeing the other students learn.

“It’s way more rewarding to see the other kids doing stuff that related to the real world that I had already done,” Schloegel said.

Schloegel learned how to run a company mostly from his parents. He said his dad helped him with commercial proposals, invoices and other high level business topics. His dad taught him how to file taxes and how to hire an attorney, accountant and bookkeepers. According to Schloegel there are many things his parents had to sign off on because he is still a minor.

“A lot of the [professional documents] have to be under their name until I’m 18… without them, [C+I Services] would just be a cash business, so it’s taken me to the next level to have my parents,” Schloegel said.

Judy said Schloegel tests a lot of his

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Squeezing For Space A look at the the growing issue of finding room to practice for the spring season.

by Hari Rao and Nate Bittner design by Nate Bittner

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photo by Hari Rao

ight after the bell sounds at the end of the day, members of the boys track team flow into the locker room, ready for another day of practice. After putting on their practice attire, the mass of boys convene into the senior cafe to hold their daily team meeting. The coach announces the overview for the day, and the boys are excited to train for their upcoming meet.

Groups break off, and each group heads to their respective practice area. Many of the boys arrive at the fieldhouse for their practice. But once they arrive, they find that the field house is filled with gymnasts flipping on big mats, cheerleaders practicing dance routines, and basketball players swarming the court, leaving only space of the few lanes around each sport to practice.

At this time, while many spring sports teams are beginning to practice for their upcoming seasons, the high school can become packed. Especially since many sports are not able to practice outside because the weather does not permit so.

This leads to teams needing to find space indoors to practice. While there are already facilities in Central available to be used as practice space, issues still arise and this leads to teams practicing in, as some say, unorthodox and potentially dangerous areas.

The field house is known to be the hub for many activities such as track and field, softball, lacrosse, gymnastics, basketball, baseball, and more for a total of 13 sports during the spring (many of which can include multiple teams). The large complex houses four courts and an indoor 200 meter track surrounding the courts. With all these teams and a only limited number of practice spaces, these areas begin to crowd.

“It’s tough to get a good work-out these days,” said Patrick Richards, girls track and field coach. “Everybody wants their own space and time and it’s especially difficult to get your team where it needs to be.”

Because the field house provides a practice area for multiple sports teams, the coaches of the sports have to work together to reserve times to practice.

Athletic Director Dan Jones, who has worked at Central since 2012, helps to ensure scheduling is a smooth process.

“I meet with the coaches before each season, and we go through the schedules of their practices,” Jones said. “I go through

and make sure we have space for everybody.”

Often times students will have to race just to get to spaces on the track, especially with more than 140 students on the boys track and field team.

“There is a competition for space in the fieldhouse, there’s only so much room and there’s only six lanes so everyones trying to use lanes one and two,” said Andrew Johnston, junior on boys track and field. “You have to fight for those lanes.”

The time slots to use the spaces are divided up into either an hour and a half or two hour portions. Each sport tries to alternate the days they use specific facilities, which, in theory, would prevent the spaces from becoming overly-packed and affecting workout routines. However, sports may still have to share practice spaces.

“Sometimes, for example, the girls [junior varsity] and freshman lacrosse teams may have to share the Tower,” Jones said. “I try to rotate sports so not everybody is always going at a time very early or late.”

The field house is the only facility inside the school that provides practice space for sports like track and field and lacrosse, especially during the winter.

“Coaches might have something going on [in the evening,] so the only time they could practice is right after school,” Jones said. “However, the field house could be filled because there might be a basketball game that takes precedent.”

If a sport has a game a certain day, there are “unwritten rules” that coaches try to accomodate for other sports if they need the field house for those occasions. If track were to have a meet on Friday, then Jones would try to give the field house to them on Thursday for practice there beforehand.

Since boys and girls track and field teams do have an indoor season, they typically need to do more practicing and less conditioning unlike many other sports at this time. Richards touched on how it is tough to find space around the school for his track and field athletes because they still have to train for the indoor season.

“It’s not like we’re running two or three meets to prepare for the outdoor season, we are expected to put a welltrained team out there [for the indoor season],” Richards said. “It’s tough to do it when your space is limited to practice.”

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space for running and throwing, this leaves them to use hallways around the school. Their activities range from silent stretching to hard sprinting down the World Languages and English hallways.

“It’s weird having to run through the hallways while there are teachers leaving,” Johnston said.

“You just have to run around them.”

While students may not mind having to squeeze down hallways, there may be traffic in the halls both before and after school with faculty or clubs around the building, causing an inconvenience or potential hazard. Jones says it is a huge safety concern.

“I coached track for many years, and we didn’t have a field house at my old high school, so we did practice in the

Daniel Daly, coach for track and field. “I’ve seen shotputs go outside spectator areas.”

Students competing at these meets have also taken notice of the lack of space.

According to Daly, often times spectators in sectioned off areas can get in the way of the athletes and may even hold up their events.

“It’s a mess,” Johnston said. “For high jump when we have a home meet, there’s nowhere for people who come to sit.”

Johnston went on to emphasize how this can easily disrupt many events like his own. With no where for fans to go, meets can become jam packed.

“They just walk around the inside of the track,” Johnston said. “When I’m trying to jump high there’s just people that walk across as I’m about to jump and

sacrifices with taking time out of doing homework to come back to school in the evening for practice, he tries to eliminate morning practices as much as he can in the favor of his athletes’ health.

“I’m a firm believer that kids need a proper amount of rest,” Richards said. “In training theory — if kids don’t recover, then they get hurt.”

The softball team does not always get to practice at the Diamond Edge Academy.

Sometimes they will find themselves having to share the space with the baseball team. Zust explained that on the days they don’t go to the academy, they are left practicing in the school, usually on the balcony of the main gym and sometimes in the field house. She sees sharing the main

“We have to be flexible and tell our girls they’re going to have to wake up at 4:45 in the morning because that’s just how it is.”

- Brittney Zust

hallways,” Jones said. “I had kids running in hallways, then someone [in a room] opens up a door and the kid runs into the door.”

Richards talked about how training in the hallways does not only pose a safety hazard, but it also could be harmful to the athletes themselves. He uses this as the reason for why girls track and field, unlike boys, do not typically practice in the hallways and instead turn to cross-training in the fitness center.

“It’s tough on their legs,” Richards said. “When we start training our kids, especially on these hard floors, they have a tendency to get hurt.”

Even as track practice areas have been jammed with traffic during the week, meets haven’t been an exception. On meet days, students have to deal with the normal traffic they might see on a regular practice day with the addition of spectators and judges walking around. Many areas also have to be sectioned off in order to make room for specific events.

“During meets we have to be mindful to create boundaries for spectators,” said 16 | Features

I’ll almost run into them, it’s a circus.”

While concerns with practice spaces have been a pressing issue on many track athletes, sports like baseball and softball have had their own complications. All 22 of the schools softball players must hold their team practices at Diamond Edge Academy, a facility outside of Hinsdale Central.

“We are continuing to grow our program, and one of our biggest struggles is when girls find out that we practice off-site for a chunk of the season,” said Brittany Zust, special education teacher and head softball coach.

Often times Zust will have to move her girls throughout the school just to find a place to practice without needing to travel.

“A lot of our times we practice are early in the morning, where most other sports go after school,” Zust said. “We have to be flexible and tell our girls they’re going to have to wake up at 4:45 in the morning because that’s just how it is.”

Even though Richards said he realizes that his athletes would have to make

gym’s balcony as a problem that can be frustrating to handle despite the effort that coaches and staff put into making it work.

“Every team is trying to find every inch of space in this building at 3 o’clock,” Zust said. “You may have boys volleyball in the main gym, in the corner the soccer team could be running laps around the balcony, you can’t even maneuver around people without getting in someone’s way.”

When asked if Zust had ever encountered issues in sharing the practice spaces, she responded that every coach tries to do the best for their own sport by working with other coaches. She described it as a challenge yet one that is manageable.

“We all have our own goals and own agendas for our programs, so sometimes it’s difficult to divide the space up evenly,” Zust said. “I’d love to say ‘hey I want to practice after school,’ but sometimes you have to be mindful that this sport may be using that place.”

When spring comes around later

photo by Hari Rao

during second semester, more teams are able to practice outdoors and thus space restrictions are removed.

However, there are still a few areas that some sports teams still have to share. “[Softball and baseball] have our own fields outside, that’s not really a problem,” Zust said. “I think that’s when you see other teams fighting for space, with Dickinson and Tower [the practice field].”

Richards highlighted that since the weather in the Midwest around early spring time produces unfavorable conditions, it could pose as an issue since many spring sports are starting their seasons soon. If it were to be raining or the conditions outside were unfavorable, Zust said that softball would have indoor practice.

Zust accounts that if this were the case, many players on the team may become annoyed because practicing indoors is a major inconvenience to the team since the players prefer to be practicing on grass.

“If we’re still [on the balcony] because it’s raining day-after-day in the middle of April, then it gets really old to be sitting in a tiny space where you can only do so much,” Zust said.

It’s been almost a year since Central’s referendum was passed that ensured new changes coming to many of the existing facilities, along with new ones.

For athletics, it was promised that upgrades and renovations would be added to many places where different athletic teams at Central practice and play.

In the fall and spring seasons, different teams and activities like softball, football and soccer make time for each other to share the space available. Plans from the referendum include new artificial turf and even a new grandstand and pressbox. Along with these changes, the tennis courts are expected to also receive an upgrade that would involve redoing the entire court from scratch.

Arguably the biggest changes are coming to the pool. After 62 years the facility will get a complete makeover, including a new location for diving which would allow the Central to host tournaments at its own school. However with all these changes to facilities, no changes are in store for the fieldhouse and gym.

“There should be somewhere for people to sit [in the field house] so they’re not walking around while the meets are happening and getting in the way of the athletes,” Johnston said.

However changes like this have been difficult to follow up on in the past.

The Boys track team splits up due to a lack of space for the whole team in the field house.

“We did have some extra space that was set to be created in the original referendum, but that was eliminated in the second one,” Jones said. “It’s still on the list of possible future needs.”

Zust said she believes that putting money gained from the referendum towards creating new spaces would not only benefit sports teams’ practices but also the hundreds of clubs offered at Central.

She mentioned that in previous years there was discussion whether another closed building should be added for hosting sports practices during the winter.

“Not only would that help every program, but it’s also going to have a long term effect where someone in the community could rent out that facility or [teams] could use that space and not have to spend money going somewhere else,” Zust said.

With years of experience Jones has recognized that Central has become a large school with many participating athletes. With so many areas constantly needing attention, it’s not always easy for everything to be taken care of.

“This school is old, overcrowded, and landlocked,” Jones said. “I remember hearing that [Central] needed $250 million worth of upgrades.”

Zust added that she would love to

see overall expansion that would allow more sports teams to be able to practice without conflicting with other practices.

“It would be nice to have our own spot guaranteed every day,” Zust said.

“You want to practice at your own school; that’s how you show school spirit.”

Despite all the difficulties with time and space, the goal still remains the same for coaches and athletes. Practice is important, but maintaining a safe environment is more important in the big picture.

“We have to make [the practice areas] as safe as possible and also try to get a work-out in,” Jones said.

The coaching staff said they face a difficult task in trying to find space at Central. Some ideas that a few spoke about involved using the facilities already at Central and the referendum to be able to open up more space. One example was adding a roof over the tennis courts and having it be a multi-purpose area.

“We could convert the old pool to another space, like a wrestling room, and the [current] wrestling room could’ve been a poms/cheerleader room which would open up more space in the field house,” Jones said. “We have to think outside the box.”

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On Lock In an attempt to keep the school secure, faculty members increase their surveillance on students.

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lizabeth Cunningham, junior, sits in Spanish class as her teacher gives out the online assignment to work on in class. Cunningham logs into her Chromebook and clicks on Canvas to find the links. A pop-up notification appears with a GoGuardian symbol, indicating that her teacher is monitoring their screens in real time. The teacher has full access to their screens and search history during the class period. The teacher can sift through the various tabs of a student’s Chromebook, from math homework to English essays. The occasional web game is also viewable, but easily the tab is closed from the teacher’s computer with no touch by the student. This is just one form of professional monitoring and censorship provided by Central staff to the students.

With the implementation of schoolprovided Chromebooks in 2018, faculty views of technology have also changed. As detailed in the official Central handbook, it is an expectation that the school’s related software complies with the District 86 Acceptable Use Policy, because the technology is property of the school.

This includes protecting the downloaded software such as GoGuardian, used for screen surveillance, and keeping blocked sites restricted from students.

Blocked sites can range anywhere from social media apps, music platforms, and video streaming sites that are deemed harmful or distracting for students.

There are varying opinions at Central regarding the increased censorship at school, both with technology and physical surveillance. Cameras have been added to monitor the halls, staff members have been hired to create a safer physical presence, and restrictions on Chromebooks have been installed. Some faculty members debate over what they believe students should be able to view in a school setting. Students also dispute over whether to respect the specific security measures or deem them to be an added disturbance during their day.

It is a common occurrence for students at Central, such as Cunningham, to have GoGuardian as the main application used to monitor chromebook activity and technology movements around the school. During a given class period, students most likely use their chromebooks to access educational sites, complete

assignments on Google Docs or One Note, and/or explore research databases provided by the library department.

Assistant principal Ryan Maita has been in charge of the technology implementation for the 2019-2020 school year. In response to the concerns over added technology security, he said that the overall response to Chromebook censorship has been positive from both students and parents in the community.

“It’s tough to argue [with] having an extra layer of security in place,” Maita said. “We want to implement every safety feature to ensure the security of both the students and staff members.”

A concern of those who believe the technology monitoring is extreme stems from the idea that some students feel their chromebooks are being watched 24/7.

However, the only time that administrators get GoGuardian notifications is when students search key terms indicating ideas of self harm or violence. In 2000, Congress passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) which makes it mandatory for high schools to address concerns of adolescents viewing obscene or harmful content. Central corroborates with that legislation in that students’ mental health is the main priority.

In a survey conducted by Devil’s Advocate, 98.4 percent of the 123 students surveyed have a class that uses GoGuardian.

It’s primarily used to limit distractions during class but some teachers have noted GoGuardian being helpful to track students’ progress in varying class assignments.

“Teachers can now look and see that a student is struggling that perhaps didn’t want to raise their hand and ask for help,” teaching librarian Myles Laffey said.

Some say that the ability to look at every students’ screen in class simultaneously has forced students to be held accountable for their work and to stay on task.

“I trust kids to do their research during class,” teaching librarian Kerrin Riley said.

“But, I like the old phrase 'trust but verify'."

And in some instances, GoGuardian is used more so as a teaching tool, rather than a security measure.

“I mainly use GoGuardian to monitor the pacing of the students or to see how their online assignment is going,” Spanish teacher Tanya Walery said. However, she also said that she uses GoGuardian every time the class is using their Chromebooks.

According to Riley, classwork involving technology can be risky in losing

students’ focus without any surveillance programs. She’s noted that English classes have seen a growth of attentiveness and it has shown in their work.

“I think when Chromebooks are used effectively they can certainly enhance teaching and learning,” Riley said. “It’s made our job a lot easier as [administrators].”

Some students agree with the teachers and are not bothered by receiving a notification from GoGuardian indicating they are being monitored.

“I don’t mind having GoGuardian,” sophomore Sami Raslan said. “[GoGuardian] keeps me accountable and I get more done when I know my teachers are watching me.”

On the other hand, other students find the system to be an unnecessary invasion of privacy. In the same Advocate survey, 56.9 percent of students claimed that GoGuardian did not make their work time any more productive.

In addition to GoGuardian, the school’s technology department has restricted the access to certain websites for students.

However, Maita said that teachers have the ability to request for sites to be unblocked if it’s beneficial to their class’ educational experience and a worthwhile activity.

“We have created the restrictions to be triggered by keywords that alert our team to a potential dangerous situation for the student,” Maita said. “Usually the keywords are related to self-harm or indicate an inappropriate activity [for a school setting].”

Both Maita and Laffey said that it is uncommon to be inconvenienced as a result of a restricted site because there is usually no educational value to that website. Administrators have the ability to input a password into the Chromebook and access any site they want in a few seconds.

“Sometimes when students are researching using the databases provided a specific website will be blocked,” Laffey said. “[When that happens], it is usually a mistake and we are able to bypass the restriction.”

However, from a student perspective, some said they feel that the blocked sites that get triggered by keywords are “excessive” and that blocked YouTube videos can be “frustrating [for students] when denied access,” according to students from the survey.

As a result of the feelings of discontent with blocked sites by some students, the IT department, administrators, and students have had to deal with the repercussions from tampering with and bypassing the

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blocked websites. Students have been caught “jailbreaking” their Chromebooks to download social media apps such as Instagram, games like Crossy Road, and music platforms including Spotify, that have been designated a distraction and therefore blocked from access.

“We have smart and resourceful students who work really hard to go around our restrictions,” Maita said.

“But we do realize [jailbreaking] is an issue and do our best to stay on top of it.”

Cunningham said that she along with some of her peers have resorted to using their personal laptops to complete research and access sites that would otherwise be off-limits to the student body.

“I’ve never taken my chromebook out of my backpack at home. It’s completely unnecessary,” Cunningham said.

For those that rely on their Chromebooks both at school and in their homes, they are left to accept and abide by the technology guidelines and restrictions implemented by the school.

“At the end of the day, [Chromebooks] are provided by the school and meant for educational purposes,” Walery said.

Along with censorship in technology, the security team at Central has also taken initiatives to keep tabs on students’ whereabouts in the school. During class periods, students are expected to have passes when walking in the hallways, and are subjected to security officers asking where they are headed.

“Each time I walk in the hallway or lunchroom I expect to see security officers scanning the areas,” Cunningham said.

Some students said they are uncomfortable with the added precautions and don’t completely understand how the security officers make the school safer. Security officer Kevin Simpson said that they have already found students off-task in different areas of the school.

“A lot of times kids that ask to leave class are ditching,” Simpson said. “Some kids don’t like to go to gym so they may be meeting their friends in the lunchroom or sitting doing homework in the library.”

With the growing suspicion of student activity outside of class, some teachers have become less lenient with handing out unlimited hall passes, or passes all together.

“Freshman year I wasn't allowed to go to the bathroom for the whole semester in one of my classes or else points would be taken off of my final grade,” Cunningham said.

We want to implement every safety feature to ensure the security of both the students and staff members.

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Ryan Maita

Administrators said they hope that students who genuinely need to leave the classroom are able to.

“I think that teachers want to limit the amount of time their students are out of class missing instruction,” Maita said. “But I hope that if a student needs to use the restroom, they’re allowed to.”

Another security change that occurred last year was with the removal of some bathroom doors in both male and female restrooms as a consequence of the global teenage vaping crisis.

“We try to prevent groups from loitering in the stalls and doing things they’re not supposed to,” Maita said. “The country is dealing with a vaping problem and a way our school is combating the issue is by removing a few of the doors that provide an enclosed, unsupervised space for students to engage in inappropriate behaviors.”

In addition to taking off the doors, Maita said that Central has invested in new forms of video surveillance. There are 159 new security cameras around the school being monitored by the staff to report suspicious activities. Simpson stated that the new security program and representatives are meant to protect students and not intimidate them.

“The basis for why we have the cameras is for safety and that’s both for exterior threats, students, and visitors trying to get in,” Simpson said.

With the increasing prevalence of vaping for teenagers, hallway passes and footage have been useful in searching for students suspected of misusing property.

“The footage is used for investigations in the Dean’s office as well as with the security team,” Simpson said.

Some students said that at times they forget that their movements and actions are being watched on cameras and when they notice it, it makes them uncomfortable.

“You don’t even realize that you’re being watched the entire day in every area of the school,” Cunningham said.

Although there are varying opinions regarding the convenience of security measures, Cunningham agrees that in the end, she hopes the school can be as safe as possible.

“Although it can be annoying, I respect what the [faculty] is trying to do to keep us secure as a school,” Cunningham said.

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ydney Thayer, co-president of Peer Leadership, works on a post to upload to the Peer Leadership Instagram account, a page dedicated to informing students regarding club events, meetings, and the peer leaders of the month.

She puts the finishing touches on the post, making sure to double-check that all of the information is accurate and appropriate for the club audience. Anticipating the post being viewed by students at Hinsdale Central, she is careful to make sure that everything looks right. Thayer posts information pertinent exclusively to the club and its members, but regardless, she includes the words “a student-run account not affiliated with Hinsdale Central” in order to avoid trouble with the administration.

In the past two years, a number of clubs, organizations, and activities at Central have started to include various iterations of the phrase “Not Affiliated With Hinsdale Central” in their Instagram account bios.

While the accounts deal almost exclusively with events and programs occurring at Central, that phrase has become necessary due to an increase in regulations on D86 social media usage and an augmented level of concern surrounding liability issues.

According to Dominick Maniscalco, Chief Human Resources Officer for D86, as of last year, all staff members are required to fill out a “Social Media Account Registration Form” should they wish to maintain a District 86 social media account. Instagram is not given as one of the options for permitted D86 social media, so no Instagram account can be officially affiliated with the school or D86.

Maniscalco explained that the decision was made because Instagram’s privacy regulations do not allow for the District to archive posts or messages that have been deleted. Maniscalco explained that this function allowed for the district to become liable in the event of an incident, so D86 chose to purposefully exclude Instagram, in addition to Snapchat, from the list of permitted social media platforms.

“There is a feature [on Instagram and Snapchat] that deletes all data within 10 seconds. Those were not forms of communication that we wanted to advocate for or have our staff engage [with],” Maniscalco said.

While the new social media regulations are specifically intended for staff, they also affect the ability of clubs to use social media.

The topic is not addressed in the Activities Code of Conduct, or the Student Activity

Guidelines section of the Student Handbook, however, according to Sally Phillip, Activities Director, for a club to have an official social media account, the club sponsor must have full ownership of the account.

Club leaders may also access and post as long as the sponsor can monitor activity.

If a club wishes to have a social media account or website officially linked to Central, the sponsor must submit the registration form with the log-in information and stated purpose of the account, and then wait for approval.

However, because staff are no longer permitted to have D86 Instagram accounts, clubs, too, cannot officially use Instagram.

Maniscalco said that while there has been a lot of pushback from students and staff regarding the restrictions on Instagram, it was a decision that needed to be made.

“Unfortunately, we could not support a social media forum that had the ability to raise data that we could not archive,” Maniscalco said. “We can’t take the chance if there is one issue that we cannot validate or provide evidence for; it was better to be safe than sorry.”

Thayer uses the @hcpeerleadership Instagram account in conjunction with the other board members to provide updates to club members and spread information about upcoming events. Despite not being able to have an official Instagram account for the club, Thayer explained that the board made the decision to keep the account unofficially because they had already built a following and didn’t want to transfer to a different platform.

In addition to Peer Leadership, many clubs — such as the Muslim Students Association, Christian Students Association — and athletic teams — such as boy’s golf, girl’s lacrosse, boy’s basketball, and boy’s baseball — all still have Instagram accounts which the students have decided to maintain without oversight from sponsors or coaches.

While there are a number of other social media platforms that clubs are permitted to use, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, Pinterest, and Hudl, many clubs have found student activity to be higher on Instagram.

“We thought Instagram was something more people use and a platform where we could build a better community.

Sharing the stuff our club does on Instagram makes it easier to find for leaders and freshmen, who can then see what Peer Leadership is all about,” Thayer said.

In addition to affecting how clubs advertise and spread news and updates to members, the new regulations have also impacted how the school’s executive board pushes out information to the student body.

Phillip previously used Instagram to promote different activities across the school, but after the regulations regarding Instagram were put in place, she abandoned the Instagram account and started using Twitter as an alternative.

While Phillip can no longer manage an official Instagram account, the executive board has chosen to continue using nonaffiliated Instagram accounts to promote school-wide activities. Alex Ovan, social chair, is in charge of the Instagram account Red Devil Nation (RDN), which he uses to post updates to the student body regarding different spirit events and ways to support fellow students. RDN is passed down each year to the newly elected social chairs as a way to keep the student body informed and engaged.

According to Ovan, students submit events and games that they would like to promote, and he posts the information on RDN. While the account has no official ties to Central, it has more than 2,000 followers, and according to Ovan plays a critical role in spreading information to the student body.

Ovan also mentioned that recently he has become even more careful about what he posts in case of potential liability issues, even with the explicit non-affiliation in the account’s bio.

“It’s a lot of over-thinking and thinking about the worst-case scenario,” Ovan said in regard to potential issues. “I have to

“The age of social media has created a forum in which students and staff communicate in a way that they never had before.”

Dominick Maniscalco

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think, is this something as a student body that we will have to take responsibility for?”

In addition to RDN, the executive board also manages the account @ hinsdaleseniors, which is geared specifically toward informing the Class of 2020 about senior-specific events and activities.

Among those activities is Senior Tag. While there are more than 80 clubs and 35 sports teams that are regulated by the Activities and Athletic Departments, and School Code of Conduct, second-semester seniors across the nation also participate in Tag, an activity that is coordinated and organized completely outside of school.

Almost 400 seniors at Central this year are participating in the competition, which assigns targets to students, who can be eliminated by water gun, Nerf gun, or washable marker. While the participants of the game are exclusively seniors at Central, because there is no staff oversight and the game is organized outside of school, the official rulebook of the game states that “Hinsdale Central High School is not affiliated with Senior Tag in any way.”

This year, class President and Vice President, Lauren Hughes and Nick Moawad, are organizing the game. Tag was started at Central in 2014 and, according to Hughes and Moawad, has been passed down from each grade’s president and vice president to the following years as a way to make senior year more fun.

By tradition, each year’s president and vice president pass down an email account with access to all of the resources necessary to organize the game to the following year’s president and vice president.

Among those resources is the rulebook, to which new changes are made each year.

“As time and culture have shifted, so have the rules of the game,” Hughes said regarding the changes.

Senior Tag is generally known around the nation as “Senior Assassins,” but according to Hughes and Moawad, the name was changed in 2018 to Tag after concerns arose surrounding the game’s association with violence in the context of recent mass shootings.

Because Tag has no direct affiliation to the school, Hughes and Moawad can choose to use the funds acquired from the game for any purpose they wish. Like previous years, however, they have chosen to contribute all excess money to senior prom.

“We have a choice as to where the money goes, and we choose to use it on prom,” Hughes said.

According to Phillip, each class board was previously responsible for fundraising for their own prom. Starting this year, post-referendum, Class Board no longer exists and so the duty to plan prom falls exclusively on the shoulders of the executive board. Hughes and Moawad explained that fundraising for prom is a large endeavor. “[Prom] felt sprung on us because like it has never been our responsibility, but I nonetheless think that we’ve done a good job with fundraising, especially as student council,” Hughes said.

According to Phillip, while the executive board holds a number of official prom fundraising events, they are free to fundraise in any manner they are able to.

“We find various projects throughout the year [to fund prom]. They can be in school or out of school,” Phillip said.

For that reason, even though Senior Tag is in no way affiliated with Central, the proceeds from the game are still able to subsidize the costs of prom.

In addition to from Tag proceeds and official school events, senior prom will also be funded this year, in part, by the anonymous owners of the Instagram account @barstoolhchs.

Barstool Hinsdale was created in September 2019 by two anonymous seniors who wished to bring the nationally-known Barstool to Central.

Like club Instagrams, RDN, and Senior Tag, Barstool Hinsdale also makes it explicitly clear that they, too, are not affiliated with the school. Their bio states “Not Directly Affiliated with HCHS”.

They explained that their account is meant to be an unofficial subsidiary of the national Barstool organization. The account was created originally with a focus on posting funny videos and publicizing the social aspect of Central student life, but according to the owners, has expanded to promote school spirit and events that various clubs and organizations are hosting.

“If [students] want their clubs or events to be promoted, they can just send us something. They can send us as many videos as they want. [Our] main focus [going forward] is to promote school spirit,” one of the owners said.

The owners of Barstool Hinsdale said

“I think they’ve had to catch up and progress with the time. We’re trying to keep kids safe, and our sponsors and staff safe as well.”

Sally Phillip that they will be creating and selling official merchandise very soon and plan to donate all proceeds to help cover the costs of prom. The owners have no obligation to donate the proceeds from their sales to prom since their account has no association to Central, however, they explained that they simply wish to help, and hope to raise more than $2,000.

Every student interviewed expressed that the reason they choose to continue using explicitly non-affiliated Instagram accounts for their clubs and programs, and to spread information to their audiences is because they find the platform to be the easiest to use.

“Everybody has Instagram [at Central],” one of the owners of Barstool said. “You can put something on your story, you can post, you can send someone a message, you can tag people. It’s very user-friendly.”

Phillip explained that she also found her D86 Instagram account to be helpful.

However, she said she understands why the new regulations were put in place.

“I think they’ve had to catch up and progress with the time. We’re trying to keep kids safe, and our sponsors and staff safe as well,” Phillip said.

That idea was corroborated by Maniscalco, who pointed toward a worldwide technological shift as the reason for new regulations.

“The age of social media has created a forum in which students and staff communicate in the way that they never had before,” Maniscalco said. “Now more than ever, social media has just increased the form in which people are communicating. We just want to get it right, and we just want to give students an opportunity to do what they love to do, but we also want to give staff the ability to communicate with students in a safe way.”

Features | 25

notaffiliated.indd 5

2/24/20 2:17 PM

Unsolicited Advice

by Hannah Ahdab and Katie Sharp

Everything you need to know about hallway etiquette.

Walking with Big Groups

1

2

Illustration by Katie Sharp

3

As you make your way through the hallway, dragging your feet from class to class, please be mindful of those who are actually trying to walk behind you. That Snapchat you’re responding to is important, sure, but it can wait. If you find it absolutely necessary to keep your leisurely pace, however, please ensure that your entourage is not spanning the entire width of the hallway, making it impossible for the walker on your heels to get around. And watch out, because if you and your friends happen to stop in the middle of the hallway at the wrong time on the wrong day, you may just set a particular walker off and step into some serious trouble. So please, watch your step in the hallways. And your pace.

When People Step on Your Shoes

We’ve all been there. You’re walking down the hallway and someone accidentally steps on the back of your shoe. They might say sorry, or they might not, but it’s OK, you slip that heel back on and you keep going. But it keeps happening, and by the third time, your shoe slips off your foot. The first misstep is reasonable, it’s easy to accidentally step on the lagging heel. However, please be extra cautious as you continue walking. The person in front of you would greatly appreciate it.

PDA in the Hallways

No matter how great things are going in your relationship, no one wants to see it as they’re rushing to first period. PDA happens far too often just out in the open. If you’re ever trying to figure out when PDA is appropriate during school hours, the answer is never. There is nothing that makes people more uncomfortable than seeing couples getting cozy in the stairwell when they are simply trying to get to class. As far as hallway etiquette goes, it might be best to keep your hands to yourself and keep a respectable distance from others when out in the hall. And just remember, if your fellow classmates can see it, so can your teachers, and no one wants that.

Perspectives| 27

unsolicated advice .indd 1

2/21/20 1:37 PM

BATTLEGROUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD

CONTEXT—Last August, Planned Parenthood pulled out of the Title X funding program, which distributes $260 million in grants for family planning and women’s health. This came after the Trump administration imposed a rule banning all funding recipients from referring women for abortions, limiting which staff members discuss abortions, and requiring all abortion-providing organizations to be separate from those that receive Title X funding. Some believe that this will curb women’s access to family planning services, while the Trump administration sees this as an important step in restricting abortions. Should Planned Parenthood receive federal funding?

Planned Parenthood has been a target of the Trump administration as a result of its abortion-providing services. The question is whether the federal government should support an organization that provides abortions. However, Planned Parenthood isn’t just an abortion provider, and losing funding could hurt its patients from accessing reproductive health care, such as cancer screenings and STD screenings. Due to the Hyde Amendment, federal grants already cannot fund abortions in all except the most narrow of circumstances. This new rule won’t reduce abortions—instead it will indirectly affect family planning organizations that may provide or refer women to abortions.Only 3% of the 10.6 million services provided by Planned Parenthoodwere abortions. This rule probably isn’t as direct as many think, and it’s catching up other services in its scope.

The other services Planned Parenthood provides are important.

Planned Parenthood serves 40% of Title X patients, and 80% of them have an annual income of $18,500 or less. These patients can’t afford the standard cost of the services, and given how many individuals Planned Parenthood serves, many might be out of options if Planned Parenthood becomes more expensive. In Utah, for instance, Planned Parenthood is the only Title X provider, and in Minnesota it serves 90% of Title X patients.

The organization announced in both of those states that it would have to start charging fees on previously free services in order to cover the lost funding. Are these services we really want to deprive women of? 42% of services at Planned Parenthood were STD testing. Another 34% were for contraceptives. Are we really going to force women to give up accessible healthcare and family planning over a service that makes up a tiny portion of what Planned Parenthood does?

If your position comes from deeply held moral or religious beliefs, I completely understand. But defunding Planned Parenthood is a symptom of the larger problem that the anti-abortion movement has. Say abortion was banned. Would it go away? No. Throughout the 60s and 70s, when abortion was a primarily illegal procedure. Up to 5,000 women die each year as a result of illegal abortions. There will always be women who want to end a pregnancy, and will potentially hurt themselves in doing so.

If you really want to eliminate abortions, you need to prevent them from being necessary, meaning no unwanted pregnancies. The traditional method is to tell women to remain abstinent, but let’s be honest, people having sex out of wedlock for as long as we have records to prove it, even in times where getting caught could ruin your life. That’s not going to change. So, instead, you fund Planned Parenthood because this is an organization that provides low-cost contraceptives and sex education to 1.5 million Americans each year.

Its practices arethe best way to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S. In the end, funding Planned Parenthood makes total sense for both sides of the issue. It gives poor women the opportunity to avoid the necessity of an abortion in the first place.

AVA SEVERTS 28 | Perspective

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Should we really be using tax-payer money to fund an organization that half of the country fundamentally disagrees with? If you have any regard for popular sovereignty, then the answer is no. Planned Parenthood is a polarizing, political corporation profiting off of abortions and taxpayer money.

The government funding Planned Parenthood is a betrayal of its constituents.

According to a Gallup poll issued in May of 2019, 49% of Americans identify as Pro-Life. Despite the Hyde Amendment preventing any direct funding to abortions, the federal government paid out a staggering $616 million to Planned DAVID GUST Parenthood. This allows Planned Parenthood to allocate more of their private investments towards abortions, and, in turn, the government indirectly funds these abortions. The government has no right to use hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars to support an organization committed to what half the population sees as murder.

I concede there is some good to Planned Parenthood. I understand that, beyond abortion, Planned Parenthood provides essential services such as STI testing, contraceptives, and cancer screenings. I also understand that abortions only account for 4% of the services provided. But abortion is still abortion. Planned Parenthood performed 345,672 abortions in 2018, around 10% of which were after the first trimester; this is utterly unacceptable for an organization funded by tax-payer dollars.

Furthermore, Planned Parenthood is a blatantly leftist organization.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a branch of Planned Parenthood, literally lobbies for “reproductive rights” and greater abortion access. That is like the government funding the National Rifle Association. The website offers calls to action such as “become a defender,” and even devotes a full page of the website to “tracking Trump.” Planned Parenthood endorsed Obama twice, and Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Cecille Richards, previous President of Planned Parenthood, even stated “Everything Planned Parenthood has believed in and fought for over the past 100 years is on the ballot,” regarding the 2016 election. That’s odd because I am positive that President Trump is not repealing cancer screenings and STI testing. Planned Parenthood is vehemently committed to protecting and expanding abortion rights, and therefore should not be funded by the federal government.

Planned Parenthood doesn’t even need the money. In 2018, they reported $2.2 billion in assets and $1.6 billion in annual revenue. According to the Washington Examiner, then CEO Cecille Richards raked in a whopping $744,833, with other HQ executives averaging $389,514. That’s quite the “non-profit.” Planned Parenthood is a corporation: they provide services, make money, and most definitely don’t need government handouts.

As Americans, we need to recognize this as an overextension of executive power. Forcing Americans to contribute to a cause they fundamentally disagree with is wrong, and the necessary services can and are provided by other organizations such as Obria, an organization committed to family planning without abortion. Pro-choice and prolife alike, it’s our duty to recognize that a politicized corporation such as Planned Parenthood must be defunded.

Illustrations by Audrey Carter

2/24/20 1:44 PM

DISHED

by Rima Rafiq

This Week's Dish

Photos by Rima Rafiq

Although Valentine’s Day has since passed, the love is still in the air this month. Businesses love to stay in the mood of this month by selling Valentine’s themed goods. One example of this is restaurants and bakeries that sell specialty flavors during this month. I decided to try a sweet treat and test out some of the donuts in the area.

Stan's Donuts

BB's Baby Donuts

Dunkin' Donuts

Cost of 1 donut: $2.79

Cost of 1 dozen donuts: $6.20

Cost of 1 donut: $2.20

Stans Donuts, located at 17W615 East Butterfield Road in Oakbrook Terrace, is a popular donut shop in the Chicagoland area that sells anything from eclairs to iced coffee. I ordered a vegan cinnamon sugar donut from Stans because I heard it was one of their best flavors despite not containing eggs or milk. When I took my first bite, I definitely understood the hype. Honestly, I expected it to be dry and tasteless because it didn’t have the ingredients that most donuts have, but it had the perfect level of crisp and sugar flavor. The first bite was soft and flavorful, and I would definitely order it again given the quality and thoughtful ingredients.

BB’s Baby Donuts, located at 4472 Lawn Ave. in Western Springs, is a cute local shop that sells donuts, but with a cool twist on them.

All of BB’s donuts are about golf-ball size, and they include many unique flavors and toppings. While the flavors ranged from s’mores to lemon cream o birthday cake, the donuts were nice and small so it was convenient to try out all of these unique flavors. I ordered a dozen mini donuts, and chose the flavors Cherry Pie and Vanilla Sprinkles. The cherry flavor was tarte and tasted extremely fresh. While the vanilla sprinkles flavor was simple, it had the perfect level of sweetness, and was one of the best donuts I’ve ever had.

Dunkin Donuts, a common fast food restaurant located at 150 East Ogden Ave. in Hinsdale, was selling special Valentine’s Day themed donuts. Naturally, I wanted to try them and see what flavors they had. I decided to try the Cupid’s Choice donut. As soon as I bit into the donut, I could taste the Bavarian creme and sweet strawberry icing. There was a festive mix of pink and white heart shaped sprinkles on top, which was a cute touch.

While I liked the donut, it was overly sugary for my taste. The sweetness element was a little excessive in terms of the creme, icing, and sprinkles, but it was definitely on theme with Valentine’s Day vibes.

The Verdict

I was really excited to try out donuts this month because I love dessert, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Honestly, there wasn’t a restaurant that stood out as specifically bad this month. I enjoyed everything I tried, but there was definitely a winner. BB’s Baby Donuts did the best job because their mini donuts allowed me to try their super interesting flavors. In addition, they didn’t have that artificial taste that chain restaurants have. Their donuts were a lot more fresh and higher quality than Stan’s and Dunkin’s. Overall, I’ll definitely be going back to BB’s Baby Donuts to try some more of their flavors.

Perspectives | 29 dished design outline.indd 1

2/24/20 1:41 PM

STAFF EDITORIAL LOVE IS IN THE AIR

Illustration by Audrey Carter

H

igh school is full of new experiences.

Your first pep rally, first Friday night football game, and possibly, your very first relationship. Dating in high school is common; stereotypes about it are equally so. These sentiments are commonly echoed by concerned family members and friends alike: college is inevitable, and so your relationship will probably end soon. You’re young and dumb and do not need a significant other added to the stress of growing up. It’s pointless.

So, what’s the point of dating in high school when it’s not going to last? The answer is simple: it teaches valuable life lessons.

Relationships force young adults into situations where they need to acquire certain skills. An article from the New York State website on Teen Dating Abuse Awareness and Prevention stated that the key foundations for a relationship include boundaries, communication, trust, and consent. These foundations can be difficult to create at any stage in life. However, dating experience makes it easier to figure out important relationship guidelines early on—and have more time to use them later. Furthermore, relationships often bring turmoil. When fights happen, couples need to resolve their differences by discussing their feelings in effective ways. If they fail to do so, the relationship will inevitably fall apart.

Beyond these lessons, relationships help young adults discover what they are looking for in a significant other and who they truly

30 | Perspectives Editorial.indd 1

are themselves. Dating experience at this age provides information about the types of habits, behaviors, and values one wants in a partner.

Discovering what is important to someone in their partner can also help avoid failed relationships later on in life. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “Healthy dating during the teenage years can be an important way to develop social skills, learn about other people, and grow emotionally. These relationships also can play a role in supporting youth’s ability to develop positive relationships in other areas including: in school, with employers, and with partners during adulthood.” It is possible to date at later stages of life. However, teenagers should not consider their relationships futile. In the end, these relationships will only contribute to the experience of finding a significant other in college or beyond.

Additionally, high school is better suited for experimentation, whether that be dying hair or getting a piercing or dating. It is an age where a lot of the decisions teenagers make can be temporary and not have an overwhelmingly harsh effect—trying to navigate the first relationship while in college completing a degree or at your first job is a lot more high stakes than it is when you are supported by family and friends around you in case something goes awry. Moreover, time management is an important life skill to develop. Relationships are often criticized as being a needless

distraction. Yet, caring for a significant other is a common adult responsibility. Learning how to manage this responsibility, along with other obligations, is vital for future success.

While dating can provide experience, it does necessitate a level of maturity that many teenagers do not always exhibit. When this maturity is not present, there are many risks involved like being distracted in school or getting heartbroken by the wrong person. However, one could argue that these experiences can first, teach maturity to those making poor decisions.

And second, mistakes are better made at a younger age rather than an older one. Clearly, there are times when unhealthy relationships can give rise to negative, lasting impacts. When that happens, someone in a teenager’s life should step in to guide them. This guidance will allow them to learn from negative situations.

Relationships are not a necessity for every teenager’s high school experience. However, it is important to realize that they can provide an experience that involves important skills and opportunities for self-discovery. These meaningful experiences can be helpful as teenagers grow older. While those dating should be mature enough to handle what they are taking on, high school is, in many ways, a lower risk time to have a first relationship than later on. Dating allows teenagers to learn and grow in unique ways before entering the real world.

This editorial is the consensus of the Devils’ Advocate editorial staff.

2/24/20 1:54 PM

Fall 2020

14.9%

They cause too much drama

7.8%

re They taless poin

50.4%

11.4%

Of students have been dating for over a year

they are a good learning experinece

27%

They are fun

What do you Think of highschool relationships?

6.8%

DATING D 72.1% SOMETIMES

21.1% YES

NO

32 | By The Numbers

Infographic Feb.indd 2

2/21/20 2:04 PM

77.4% 15.8% 7.8%

OF STUDENTS ARE SINGLE OF STUDENTS ARE taken

OF STUDENTS SAY IT’s COMPLICATED

G DEVILS based on 150 student responses

DO RELATIONSHIPS CAUSE A LOT OF DRAMA BETWEEN FRIENDS? Infographic Feb.indd 3

By The Numbers | 33

2/21/20 2:04 PM

MEET THE...

LIBRARY STAFF

Q1: What’s your favorite thing about working in the library?

Q2: What’s your favorite book right now?

Q3: If you wrote a book, what genre would it be?

Judith Jolicoeur

Q1: I really enjoy working with and helping the students. I like the fact that no two days are the same.

The space in the library is bright and open which helps me keep a positive frame of mind.

Q2: Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys Q3: Historical or realistic fiction

Karen Cartwright

Q1: I love the people and the kids are great. Every day is different, there’s always something going on.

Q2: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson Q3: Mystery thriller

Myles Laffey

Q1: Teaching in English classrooms.

Q2: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle Q3: Realistic fiction

34 | Trends MEEEET.indd 1

Kerrin Riley

Q1: When you can help a student find the information or find the book they are looking for.

Q2: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Q3: Realistic fiction

Photos by Sofija Buzelis

2/24/20 1:42 PM

Trends CROSSWORD

OVERHEARD AT CENTRAL Comical Quotes Heard In the Halls of Central

“

Universal Love

With Valentine’s Day having just passed, the world celebrated love in many different ways. However, each country has its own take on the holiday, and it’s not all just chocolate and flowers.

Test your Valentine’s Day knowledge with the crossword below!

How does food turn into meat?”

“It’s horrifying and I can’t look away.

1

“

Is Texas in South America?”

“I’m a hot mess and I’m not even hot.

Clues

”

”

Please check your email next month for an opportunity to submit what you’ve heard in the hallways.

Across 2. In this country, there is a special bus called the “Love Bus” that singles take in hopes of meeting someone.

5. In this country, Valentine’s Day celebrates friendships rather than romantic relationships.

6. People from this country honor the saint matchmaking by writing men’s names on pieces of paper, and later picking one to reveal their future husbands.

7. The people of this country typically exchange orchids on Valentine’s Day. 8. While men do most of the gift-giving in the U.S., the opposite is true on Valentine’s Day in this country.

Down 1. This country does not celebrate Valentine’s Day. Instead Día del Amor is celebrated on Sept. 21.

The day honors friendship and love among friends, families, companions, etc.

3. Valentine’s Day is officially banned in this country, and it is illegal to sell flowers and love themed cards in the days before Feb. 14.

4. Instead of roses, this country celebrates with snowdrop flowers.

Answers 1. Bolivia 2. Estonia 3.Saudi Arabia 4. Denmark 5. Finland 6. Brazil 7. peru 8. Japan crossword/overheard 32.indd 1

Trends | 35 2/24/20 2:13 PM

DEVILS’ ADVOCATE Hinsdale Central High School 55th and Grant Streets Hinsdale, IL 60521

The worst thing about censorship is

Untitled-1 4

.

2/24/20 2:47 PM