NEWS SNIPPETS

Social Impact Bazaar

On Nov. 8, students went to Metzger Plaza during conference for the Social Impact Bazaar. Social impact entrepreneurs set up tables to sell baked goods, ceramics and origami to raise money for their businesses.

Spirit night

during which the juveniles are forced to stay isolated in their cells. They can be locked in confinement for 23 hours a day, exacerbating behavioral issues, trauma, and mental illnesses.

Although TJJD's website says "the juvenile correctional system emphasizes treatment and rehabilitation," Henneke said the current conditions do not achieve this goal. She also said the only people to blame for these harmful effects are the adults in charge of the system.

“There are increased concerns about the youth in these facilities, but they're not the ones running them,” Henneke said. “Seventy-six percent of the kids in TJJD have serious mental illness, serious mental illness that requires intensive inpatient medical treatment. Those are the kids we’re locking up for 23 hours a day.”

To address these issues, Henneke said Texas should invest in mental health facilities, diverting children who need counseling, rather than prison, from entering the system. She said these alternatives to incarceration would decrease the recidivism, or reoffending, rate.

Henneke also said Texas should reevaluate juveniles’ culpability and whether some of their crimes actually warrant jail time. Among these are sex-trafficked adolescents escaping their abusers and those who received racially-motivated sentences.

Henneke said Lone Star welcomes Hockaday students to get involved with the juvenile justice effort and join the organization, whether in local advocacy, persuading authorities or going to the Capitol to testify about policy proposals.

“It really is about harnessing the voices of youth,” she said.

New On Welch

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Letters of gratitude

Amid the season of gratitude and giving, Upper School students spent their form meetings writing thank you notes to faculty and staff who have positively impacted them. In their mailboxes, educators found multi-colored letters of appreciation from their students.

Self-care form meetings

Hockaday students were encouraged to participate in McDonald’s Week from Nov. 12 to 17 to benefit the Austin Street Shelter. They raised money by buying McDonald’s T-shirts and leaving campus to eat lunch at McDonald’s.

Fall play

The Hockaday Theater Company presented “Squirrel Girl Goes to College” in the LaCerte Family Black Box Theater on Nov. 16 and 17. The play was a Marvel Spotlight with wacky bad guys, female superheroes and comic book sets.

Vibrato bake trade

The Vibrato art and literary magazine staff offered treats like banana bread, hot chocolate, muffins and even gluten-free cookies in exchange for Upper School Students’ submissions of art, literature or photos for the magazine.