December 2013

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The Booster Redux Pittsburg High School 1978 E. 4th Street Pittsburg, KS 66762 Vol. 97, Issue 5 www.boosterredux.com

Friday, Dec. 13, 2013

Loving life Rare combination of diseases consumes student’s entire life

rumors Page 4D and 5D

@AlliBaden and @MomoPlank

T

NEW DRIVERS ED. CLASS Available Page 2D

In-depth Effects of

By Alli Baden and Morgan Plank

he fear of never knowing if the next bite of food will send him rushing to the hospital always lingers in the back of junior Dakota Lloyd’s mind. One bite and the cycle of doctors, needles and tests begins again. But one thing never leaves: pain. Dakota’s world revolves around pain. No matter what he does, it is always there to remind him of the rare diseases he was diagnosed with. “Every single day, I wake up in pain. I eat in pain. I go to school in pain. I [come] home in pain. I sleep in pain,” Dakota said. “Just picture someone tearing my intestines apart with a spoon from the inside out.” Dakota has a combination of Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis (EG), Hypocitraturia (HC) and Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE). EG and EE are extremely rare. Dakota was told by his doctor that he is one of 197. Only 197 of 313.9 million Americans have been diagnosed with all three diseases. EG causes constant and severe stomach pain. HC prevents the absorption of nutrients which has

RULES OF THE ROAD

Sitting on a couch at home, junior Dakota Lloyd masks the intense and constant physical pain with a smile. Diagnosed with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis, Hypocitraturia and Eaosinophilic Esophagitis, Lloyd has battled the symptoms that associate with each disease since diagnosis in 2011. “Even with all he’s gone through, he still contantly has a smile on his face. That’s how I picture him,” friend and senior Parker Matthews said. PHOTO BY MIRANDA MOORE

resulted in stunting his growth. things took a turn for the worst. “I was in Via Christi for 17 days Dakota has a mild degree of EE, but those with more extreme cases and [the doctors] had no idea are not able to keep down food and what was wrong with me,” Dakota said. “I had typically vomit blood in my everything they urine and eat. Dakota has It almost killed they knew not to feed been given medme. They es... me three times... ication to help could not with everyday -DAKOTA LLOYD OYD YD bridge the pain. According gap between to him, they do the three disnot work. “I noticed that if I didn’t take eases, but they started checking for the medicine I felt better about everything.” It got to the point where the myself and I seemed to have less pain,” Dakota said. “So I quit tak- doctors had no answers so Dakota ing medicine about 10 months was referred to Children’s Mercy ago. Needless to say, I am healthier Hospital in Kansas City. “[In Kansas City] they realized than I have ever been in my life.” The doctors are uncertain if my eosinophil levels were high Dakota was born with the diseases and I had gallbladder failure. My or if it was from a virus, but he has liver was on its way to failing and suffered from stomach problems so were my kidneys,” Dakota said. his whole life. It was during the “It almost killed me three times winter of his freshman year when from the [organ] failures and sur-

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geries.” Watching her brother nearly die was agonizing for freshman Aspen Lloyd. “I felt really bad watching him go through that,” Aspen said. “When you see someone suffer, you do not want to watch them when you know there is nothing you can do about it.” Not even his doctors can control the effects that the diseases have on him. But because of EG, HC and EE, Dakota has been limited to what he can do. He has to monitor what he eats and more importantly to Dakota, he is not able to play basketball. Dakota was hospitalized for the majority of the basketball season his freshman year and had not returned to the court until this year where he tried once again to go out for the team. “I put so much effort into SEE LLOYD PAGE 2D

ONE OF THE GUYS OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES Page 8D

BY EMILY BADEN AND REECE BURNS @EmilyBaden, @reeceburns14

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rom a number of students getting homework every night to another part only assigned to it occasionally, a committee of teachers have been researching what method is best for the students at the high school. For junior Patrick Biggs, homework is a part of his daily routine, spending hours on homework every night. “[If I had the choice,] I would have less homework, because it would be more time to study over tests,” Biggs said. “I don’t think all the homework is benefitting me and preparing me for college because some of the stuff is just busy work and doesn’t really teach you much.” Vice Principal Rhonda White is only one of the three homework committee members at the school. According to White, the district has put together a three-

pronged committee to look at grading practices across the district. The three observed areas are Accelerated Reader (AR,) homework and report cards, which is primarily for elementary school. The larger committee was broken up into three groups. Each group had people from elementary, middle school and high school on it. White’s committee group looked at how AR played into students’ grades for english. As for homework, they surveyed all of the teachers in the district to see how they use homework. “Did they have a homework policy? Did they accept late homework? Did they grade the homework as part of their total grade for a subject?” White said. “These were the questions we were asking teachers to kind of get an idea of what is our practice with regard to AR and homework is district wide.”

White’s committee eventually found that generalizing all the different teachers’ take on homework would be difficult. “We had a lot of variety. With as many teachers there are in the district, that’s about as many approaches there are and philosophy they are on using homework,” White said. “We do believe that we came up with [similar] belief statements: that homework is an extension of the classroom.” Special education teacher Rhonda Bradshaw was also on the homework review committee. She expresses that the committee’s findings are still under review due to the differing teachers and teaching methods. “The issue is that the high school level has so many variables (different departments, teachers, and courses offered),” Bradshaw said. “There is no one

universal policy on what homework means or how it is assigned.” White does not believe that the district, or the high school, will adopt any form of a broad homework policy for the schools. “We are not going to have anything that says all high school teachers have to give homework

an hour a night,” White said. “There won’t be any type of system like that. It is just to make sure that we have a common belief of why we are issuing homework.”

PHOTO BY MIRANDA MOORE

UPCOMING

Varsity Wrestling @ Rodgers, Ark. Dec.

Breakfast With Santa @ 9 a.m. Dec.

EVENTS 14 14

2nd Annual HOliday Vesper’s Concert @ 6:30 p.m. Dec.

Girls and Boys BAsketball @ Parsons Dec.

16 18 17 and

Girls and boys BAsketball @ Independence Dec.

20


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December 2013 by Booster Redux - Issuu