Issue 2

Page 1

pg.16 FFA attends State Fair

Eagle Angle

The

Nicole Welch

Allen High School Allen, Texas, 75002, Volume 29, Issue 2, November 1, 2011

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around her. “It was kind of like an escape,” she said. “You just let go of everything. You were just focused on the pain. Focused on the blood.The everything. You really didn’t focus on anything else.” Atencio said self-harm becomes a cycle of negative emotions over time. “There’s this sense of euphoria,” Atencio said. “They feel really good

It was just that feeling of, ‘I can control this, I can control this.’ It was a way of venting. -Jessica Helmholtz

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afterwards, but then that’s followed by guilt, whether it’s because they promised friends or other family members that they wouldn’t do it again.” When Helmholtz’s parents

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in and we weren’t getting along so that made me have a bad relationship with my dad,” she said. “All that pent up stress was a big thing for me. I guess it was every little thing just slowly built up.” Senior Jessica Helmholtz, one of Steffen’s friends, also dealt with selfinjury at this time. “[I cut because] of stress and that feeling of having control,” Helmholtz said. “It was just that feeling of, ‘I can control this, I can control this.’ It was a way of venting.” Support counselor Jennifer Atencio said that there are several reasons students consider self-harm and suicide. “[They] get overwhelmed,” Atencio said. “Whatever coping skills they’ve used in the past are no longer working, or the amount of stress that they’re dealing with has just gotten increasingly greater.” According to the CDC, 24.4 percent of people between the ages of 10 and 24 self-harm by cutting or piercing themselves. Steffen began cutting on her wrists but moved to her thighs, using any sharp object

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Wings of hope he is surrounded by white. There are white walls. A white door. A white bed. Everything is white except the blinking red light coming from the camera at the front of the room. It’s watching her every move. It’s watching to make sure she doesn’t do again. On Nov. 2, 2008, senior Alison Steffen’s girlfriend of one year moved away after her parents found out about their relationship. Two days later, Steffen was hospitalized after attempting suicide. Nearly 1,000,000 people attempt suicide every year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On Nov. 19, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) will internationally honor survivors of suicide. Steffen’s self-harm began in seventh grade after she started seeing friends around her doing the same thing. She said it started as a way to deal with the stress of her family life and dealing with the change from elementary school to middle school. “My stepfamily had just moved

Students explore their musical talents in a pg. 8 variety of groups.

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Tasha’s Law changes UIL rules because of excessive concussions in sports, Governor Rick Perry passed Tasha’s Law on June 17. The law requires students to learn about the risks and precautions of concussions, and sign a paper stating they understand what they are. The goal behind Tasha’s Law, which went into effect this school year, is to provide student athletes, coaches and parents with a more indepth understanding of concussions. The law is named after Natasha Helmick, who graduated from Allen last year, after she suffered multiple concussions related to soccer. Helmick advocated this act for future players. “[Helmick] in fact came to talk to our booster club in January last year,” girls soccer coach Kevin Albury said. “She talked about that she had gone through five or six really severe head injuries and she’s been told to never again play.” Sophomore Grace Sylvester had a brain damaging concussion in February of her freshman year that led her to miss four weeks of school. Sylvester said she has never done so poorly in school because of her inability to focus, read for long periods of time and memorize information. “Teachers are allowed to lighten their load a little bit,” boys soccer coach Bryan Hantak said. “Once [the athlete is] cleared by their doctor, then they can go back and catch up on some of their work that they missed. But [the concussion] definitely effects how they are in the classroom because they can’t concentrate.” Sylvester received her concussion during a normal soccer game. All she remembers is walking off the field in a daze. It was not until later that Sylvester was told that she sustained a kick to the face. “After I found out I had a concussion, we really didn’t take it seriously enough until [the symptoms] weren’t going away,” Sylvester said. “Then I had a solid week and a half in my room with the lights off. I couldn’t text, I couldn’t read, get on

Breanne McCallop

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pg. 13


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