19 minute read
ALBIN’S ANGLE
City economies based on sports Towns place huge investments in youth athletics, facilities
Nate Albin albinnat000@hsestudents.org
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12 2 2 3 M y parents have told me before that some of the most fun moments as a parent includes watching your kids do what they love. For many kids, a love of sports develops at a young age. I can safely say that the sports bug got me very early on. It is possible that Hamilton County cities may want kids to catch the sports bug a little too much. In .ishers alone, eight of the fi fteen parks include some sort of sports fi eld, ranging from basketball courts to baseball diamonds and everything in between. <o compare, only fi ve .ishers parks have bike racks, a simple amenity. These are just the parks oٻ cially run by the Fishers Parks & Recreation Department. Indy Premier, a soccer group primarily in Fishers and Noblesville, purchased 20 acres for Trinity Sports Park in Fishers. Zillow shows the estimated prices of vacant lots in Fishers. )fter fi nding the cheapest deal listed ($1.2 million for 11.54 acres) and setting the price per acre equal to 20 acres, the price for 20 acres is over $2 million. That price is before the 12 months of labor and added costs would be added in necessary to build the facilities. All of this was for 7 fi elds. This is not even the most expensive youth sports investment in Hamilton County. That title of most expensive would belong to Grand Park. The park contributes to a very large part of ?estfi eld¼s economy. Their project, in which they had to get a loan of $45 million dollars (and $85 million taxpayer dollars), has been the reason for the town to build hotels and restaurants everywhere. The 400-acre behemoth sits gracefully along two highways and features a giant warehouse with
2 fi elds and a restaurant inside, baseballsoftball diamonds, rectangular fi eld and all the room for the next American sporting hero to grow. But that is where the problem with all of this comes in. What if the next great American sports hero never comes? ESPN has written an entire series of articles all about the youth sports crisis in America. Citing reasons such as cost and excessive pressure as issues, the number of young athletes continues to dwindling. In 2008, the Sports & Fitness Industry Association reported that 45% of American kids ages to played some sport. Today, that number is down to 38% nationally. ESPN is so worried about losing athletes to report on in the future that their president, Jimmy Pitaro, launched the ,on¼t :etire, 3id campaign alongside sporting greats such as 3obe *ryant and Wayne Gretzky to encourage more participation in youth sports. *ut places like ?estfi eld are not sweating this. Right now, their economy, which is built off of the backs of children, is working great. Their debt from the project is getting paid off slowly but surely. <he +olts now hold preseason practices there, and they believe they are well on their way to the . billion proRected profi t in the fi rst years of operation. Sure, everything is going according to plan right now. But that will not be the story when participation in youth sports is below 30%. That revenue will go down. The billions projected will look like an optimistic dream. Maybe everyone will realize then that a baseball diamond costing millions functions exactly the same as an old sandlot.
Two youth players go after a layup at a practice on Sept. 30 at the auxiliary gym. Basketball is one of the many sports seeing a decline in popularity. Photo by Nate Albin.
Test causes more stress than help to high school students SAT should not be factor for college acceptance
Rebekah Shultz shultreb000@hsestudents.org
This past year, over 2.2 million students of the class of 2019 took the SAT. The test added stress and pressure to students during the school year.
From a survey in 2017 by The Guardian, the ;)< is causing more an`iousness than benefi ts. Eight out of 10 school leaders said that their students’ mental health issues rose during the preparation of this test. One student reportedly lost all their eyelashes because of stress.
The SAT should be optional for colleges because the SAT is not that important in the grand scheme of things. It deteriorates their mental health while they study for the test, as well as not factoring in students with low income. Director of undergraduate admission at Harvard University Marilyn McGrath told USAToday that, in general, the SAT is not that important and just helps determine a students grades. Executive director of admissions at CalTech Jarrid Whitney believes that test scores are not the main importance to get into college as well.
Ruthanne Madsen, vice president of enrollment management at Emerson University, says she has noticed no real correlation with students’ achievements to their SAT or ACT scores. Emerson is more focused on the impact the students make in the classroom.
The SAT also does not factoring in students with low income. College Board got statistics from two-thirds of the students taking the SAT off ering their family income. .rom this data, it shows that each test section, each time you move up the income category (going up $20,000 each time) the average SAT score goes up by 12 points.
The College Board announced an adversity index in May 2019 based on 15 factors, including race, income, crime rate, and more. This was quickly deserted after controversial feedback.
The adversity index would have been helpful for minorities from impoverished backgrounds and racial inequalities from the classroom.
David Coleman, chief executive of College Board believes that the company overstepped their boundaries on the adversity index and decided to just see the single score with no index. This was because of the backlash received saying it was unfair the index would inÆate the math and verbal score.
The college dropout rate is getting abnormally high with only 45% of students at university graduating at the first college they had attended. This percentage could go down if the SAT was not a factor to get into college. A student with a high SAT score an (1100 and above) with an okay GPA (2.67-3.0) has a 39% graduation rate compared to a student with a high GPA and lower SAT have a graduation rate at 62%.
From a research conducted by Matthew Chingos by the American Enterprise Institute, colleges look at SAT more than students’ grades that they showed persevered. Instead, colleges look more at the SAT which is just a good testing score.
The SAT should not determine if a student gets to go to college, and universities are realizing this as well. The list of test optional schools continue to grow like DePauw University, IUPUI, and even prestigious schools like the University of Chicago that has an 8% acceptance rate are now test optional. Being a test-optional school, means students do not need to submit a test score. These schools also acknowledge that test scores are not as important as other factors. <wo hundred seventyfive =; ?orld ranked colleges have made their applications test-optional and 900+ colleges total are testoptional recorded in 2017. These test-optional colleges can all be viewed on the FairTest center’s website. The SAT should be optional because overall, it should not have students having their eyelashes pulled out for a test not even being that important. This test causes more negatives than positives in the end.
Students study at the library at the University of Chicago, a college that is test-optional. Photo courtesty of Kristine Brown.
Active shooter drills, anti-shooter measures waste resources SaIet\ GULOOV SURYe LneIfi FLent
John Yun yunjoh000@hsestudents.org
For several years, numerous articles and videos have dominated the news, focusing on one issue: school shootings. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, school shootings have killed a total of 223 students, teachers and staff since +olumbine. Trying to prepare in case of other shootings, schools have implemented measures like active shooter drills in their systems to help train kids how to act in these situations. However, these measures are doing more harm than good, increasing anxiety of students, wasting school resources and potentially making the job easier for the shooter. )ccording to 8-? :esearch +enter, 7 of students believe that anxiety and depression are a major problem. Students are already worrying about academics, extracurriculars such as sports and personal problems that they may have. Increasing students’ anxiety by making them worry about school shootings would be neither benefi cial nor helpful for their academic success and mental health. Another thing to consider is the rarity of school shootings. There are 56.6 million students that are attending school in the fall of ! according to the 6ational +enter for -ducation Statistics, and only a total of 223 students, teachers and staff have died since the +olumbine shooting in !!!. ;o, the percentage of students that have died are less than .! in the past years. When the probability of dying from a school shooting is this low, there seems to be no point of placing such an emphasis on school shooting drills and the )4I+- training for active shooter response. These add stress onto the students, and they are not able to perform the best that they are able to. Rather than using the time and money to train students for something that is unlikely to happen, schools should focus on transferring those resources into eff orts that help mental health and give students an environment where they feel welcome and protected. According to are a major problem. Students are already worrying about academics, extracurriculars such as sports and personal problems that they may have. Increasing students’ anxiety by making them worry about school shootings
the Heritage Foundation, school shooters almost always show traits of anger, resentfulness and a desire for revenge because of their thought that they are being alienated at school. School shooters may not have serious mental health problems, but some mental illnesses can be seen in these shooters. Initiatives can help reduce these school shootings by making sure that their students are feeling content and happy rather than angry and unwanted. School should use their resources to improve the overall mental health of students, stopping these situations altogether. )ccording to <he +onversation, a nonprofi t media outlet that uses academic sources and content from researchers, ! of school shooters were former or current students at the school. So, whatever measures are implemented in the school system to prevent school shooter from being successful, the probability that the shooter will know about them is very high.
For example, at FHS, students are instructed to barricade the door, turn the lights off and remain Yuiet, hoping the school shooter will pass without trying to open the door. However, when a shooter is a former or current student, he or she will understand that there are students hiding inside the barricaded rooms and could open fi re. Indiana schools are reYuired by law to have these drills, but the law should either be changed or restricted with specifi c ways on carrying out these drills. ?ith loose drill laws, the severity of the eff ect of these active shooter drills can vary drastically. Some drills could be so realistic to the point where students are more anxious than they should be. )ccording to the 8-? :esearch +enter, 7 of students are either very worried or somewhat worried about a possible school shooting. Therefore, having active shooter drills not only mentally damages students but also ineff ectively utilizes the resources that the school has. The law needs to be changed to help create better, less an`ietyprovoking drills or to not reYuire these drills to provide a better learning environment. were former or current students at the school. So, whatever measures are implemented in the school system to prevent school shooter from being successful, the probability that the shooter will know about them is very high.
For example, at FHS, students are instructed to barricade the door, turn the lights off and remain Yuiet, hoping the school shooter will pass
Pirates, streaming and war Battle wages quietly among giants of entertainment
Benjamin Grantonic grantben000@hsestudents.org
The world of digital streaming is set to face some pretty big upsets in the next few months. The largest of these is the introduction of Disney Plus into the battleground of streaming services. So this poses the question a lot of folks will be asking in the next few months: 6etÆi` or ,isney 8lus'
Current situation
Streaming services have become commonplace in the past decade since the first contemporary streaming service with Amazon Unbox (now rebranded as Prime Video) in 2006.
In recent years the race to become the biggest streaming service has heated up, with everyone from Sony (with Playstation Vue) to DC (with DC Universe) creating their own services. The largest of these newcomers is Disney, with their new service Disney Plus, this is on top of Hulu and ESPN plus, which they also own. All of these competitors should be good for the consumer, but it really has only made things worse.
If all one wants to watch is “Seinfeld” and “Stranger Things, “ for awhile, one could watch both shows on 6etÆi`. <hen suddenly ¹;einfeld” is gone. One would wonder what happened to it. It turns out NBC took it back. Then, imagine if all the seasons of ¹;einfeld” were sold off to many different streaming services.
This wraps back into Disney+, which is a good example of this phenomenon. Currently, 6etÆi` has many of the new 5arvel and ,isney movies, but that is set to change with Disney Plus being released in a few months. This will remove these titles from 6etÆi`, which may lead to some leaving the service in favor of another option.
Not-so-legal alternative
This option is digital piracy, the act of illegally reproducing and sharing files via the Internet, including TV shows and movies. According to the
paper ¹8irates 5erchants )n ongoing struggle on the hightech seas,” digital piracy has its origins in the copying of software via cassette tapes and Æoppy discs of early +ommodore computers, and VCR’s of the late 70s and early 80s.
Digital piracy continues to grow in popularity. According to the University of Amsterdam’s Global Online Piracy Study from 2017, illegal streaming among the internet population jumped 3% from 24% in 2014 to 27% in 2017, illegal downloads went up 2% from 25% to 27%.
Another potential cause for people turning to piracy is the cost of these services. One could get both ,isney 8lus andor 6etÆi` or neither, with 6etÆi`¼s standard plan being .!! and ,isney 8lus being 7 a month a combined !.!! monthly). For most middle class Americans, this cost is almost negligible. But for the 11.8 % of Americans that are in poverty, according to the US Census Bureau, this cost may be too high, leading them to pirate content.
Pirating content, is both illegal and, depending on your source, quite dangerous. With malware and viruses being commonplace on most torrent sites.
With piracy out the window and streaming services costing hard earned money, their remains a third option, the local library. Libraries have been partnering with sites like Kanopy and Hoopla Digital to provide free movies and television to the American people, completely free. Hamilton East Public Library, members can get access to Hoopla Digital, with a library card. This option is really the best one. For one it is free, all one has to do is register for a library card. Second, it is legal, unlike the other free option of piracy. Finally, it helps support the local library, which is always a positive.
Disney owns both Disney Plus and )SPN Plus, as well as owning the maNority oJ ,ulu. MaOing them a TowerJul Jorce in the streaming marOet. DMWRe]4PYW moRtL )S424PYW moRtL ,YPY moRtL
NetJlix is currently the largest streaming service with a recorded 19 million users worldwide. They also have around 1200 original series. 2etJPM\ moRtL
%ma^on Prime is the second largest Jighter in the ring, with 100 million users. They are also more than Nust a streaming service, oJJering Jree %ma^on shiTTing and discounts on %ma^on Troducts. %ma^oR4rMme moRtL
MaNor Tirating websites, liOe Pirates &ay and )>T:, are Jull oJ T: and Movies, though they have the dangers oJ being loaded with viruses and also being illegal to use. 4Mrac] *reeFYtMPPeKaPaRHJYPPoJrMWOW
0MFrar] *ree[MtLaPMFrar]carH 0ibraries oJJer a variety oJ streaming services, Jrom ,ooTla to /anoTy. These lacO some oTtions, but also have ebooOs, audiobooOs, and comicbooOs.
Graphic by Ben Grantonic.
Hopeful high school
STAFF Editor-in-Chief: Ellie Albin Web/News Editor: John Yun Features Editor: Ben McHenry Arts & Culture Editor: Kristen Rummel Sports Editor: Nate Albin Assistant Web/News Editor: Ben Grantonic Social Media Editor/Unity Director: Rebekah Shultz
Reporters Maria Galosi, Mason Gushwa, Fletcher Haltom, Ben Hamilton, Carter Hanefeld, Andrew Haughey, Ben Rosen, Sydney Territo, Lily Thomas, Emma Tomlinson
Photographers Mya Ball, James Fortozo, Leen Mahmoud, Mia Morales, Nya Thornton
Principal Jason Urban
Adviser Kristine Brown
Associations IHSPA CSPA NSPA Quill and Scroll Printer: AIM Media
FHS handles tragic event beautifully, shows vulnerability
Writing this editorial was hard. For all of us.
We were all together in the hallway. On Sept. 18, we were supposed to talk about how to handle this situation, but the conversation that barely e`isted in the first place dwindled to none`istence. No one wanted to talk. Because, really - what do you say? ) handful of kids in the newspaper room had math teacher :yan ,uffy at some point in their high school career - some for one year, some for two - some for a couple weeks.
It was diٻcult to see the teary eyes of our sports editor as he processed the events of the day, the absence of our arts & culture editor, who went home early, and the silence from our web editor.
,eciding how to discuss suicide is diٻcult for seven editorial members who are between the ages of 15 and 17. By this age, we have barely encountered incidents involving suicide, unless it was fiction.
*ut this was not fiction. It was at our school. ;o, the Yuestion comes up again - what do you say? Or, in our case, what do we write?
We could just throw out the facts, such as the CDC reporting that suicide is the tenth most common cause of death in the U.S., and that more than 44,000 Americans die from taking their own life each year.
But, after days of research, talking, writing, editing, re-writing, editing again and, for one of us, crying over an editorial, this is what we have discovered: there is no right way to handle this issue. Giving you the facts helps, but it does not always give closure.
A book by behavioral scientist Rajeev Ramchand has a chapter entitled, “Suicide Prevention After a Suicide”. The chapter does exactly what it says in the title. It is full of well-intentioned guidelines: do not glorify the suicide, identify people who may be at a higher risk for suicide and more.
But, after reading all that, the whole process remained overwhelming. We realized that researching facts about suicide was not the only way to deal with our story at FHS. We, as a publication, cannot necessarily make you feel better with just the info mentioned in our article on suicide awareness (pages 4 and 5). We can tell you all the facts, like we said earlier. But, facts are not always hopeful. They speak for the moment, but not always for the future. We can only tell you what we know from our own experiences in the days following ,uffy¼s suicide. *ecause everyone else¼s research does not necessarily apply to our story at this school.
It is cheesy, but FHS runs on hope. The teachers did not just show support for their students, but they showed their vulnerability, too. Students did not just lose a teacher; teachers lost a former colleague.
Seeing teachers cry who do not usually cry reminded students of something we forget: teachers are human. They can be happy. They can be sad. And they can be pushed to the point of taking their own life.
Still, teachers and students alike remain hopeful that, one day, we can all feel okay. And, sometimes, okay is the best we can do.
A silver lining does remain in all of this: we all care about each other more than we care to admit. And, this event, while sad, proved that.
So, here is our message to FHS: keep being hopeful that better days are to come and that we will always be here for each other. Not all schools are like that. We love each other and we have teachers and students who let each other be vulnerable. Keep doing that, FHS.
The yellow ribbon represents suicide awareness. Graphic by Ellie Albin.
EDITORIAL POLICY !s the stuDent run neWsmAgAZine of &(3 4iger 4opics . the 2eD is DeDicAteD to proViDing the stAff stuDents AnD communitY of &(3 With A timeLY entertAining AnD fActuAL puBLicAtion once A month BY meAns of puBLic forum )n puBLishing ArticLes thAt stuDents enJoY reADing We Are furthering Both the eDucAtionAL eXperience AnD the eXpAnsion of &(3 cuLture 4he stAff WorKs to creAte A sense of unitY AnD AWAreness AnD to ALLoW the stuDents of &(3 to hAVe A Better insight to the WorLD ArounD them
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